REVIEW: Circle of Five

Title: Circle of Five
Author: Dolores Stewart Riccio
ISBN: 0758203004
Protagonist: herbalist and Wiccan Cassandra Shipton
Setting: present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts
Series: #1
Rating: B

First Line: The truck driver, a big ruddy-faced man with a cheerful demeanor, was whistling a tune from Gypsy as he applied a mask of clown makeup.

Perhaps I'm too well-versed in serial killers, but that first line immediately made me think of John Wayne Gacey. Perhaps that's what I was meant to think. Cassandra Shipton's children have all flown the nest, she's divorced her alcoholic bum of a husband, she's changed her name, and she's moved into her grandmother's cottage on the shore of Cape Cod. She's built up a successful herbal business, and she's found four true friends. They are all practicing Wiccans who keep their beliefs very low-key due to the opinion and behavior of their neighbors. Cassandra sees a stranger at the meat counter of the local supermarket and has a vision which tells her that this man is a killer of young boys. She tells her circle of friends, and they decide to look into it because they can't go to the police with a "vision". No matter how many protection spells they cast, they are such complete bunglers as detectives that it doesn't take the killer clown more than a nano-second to know what they're doing. Are they going to live long enough to put Bozo behind bars?

A few things in this book didn't work for me, chiefly the romance between Cassandra and Joe. It was probably meant to be mystical and spiritual, but it left me feeling that the main character had lost her marbles. Although I like Riccio's characterization, I couldn't be a member of this coven because--although each is wacky in her own way--there were too many instances of their claws showing when they dealt with each other. The serial killer was meant to be creepy, and even though my heartbeat did rachet up a time or two, I mostly found him bland.

Although it sounds as though I didn't like the book, I did--with reservations. I'll read the next book in the series because I did find the characters likeable, their lifestyle interesting and Riccio's writing to flow well. I want to see where the author takes these characters she's created.

REVIEW: Napoleon's Pyramids

Title: Napoleon's Pyramids
Author: William Dietrich
ISBN: 9780060848330
Protagonist: Ethan Gage
Setting: Paris, France and Egypt in 1798
Series: #1
Rating: D

First Line: It was luck at cards that started the trouble, and enlistment in mad invasion that seemed the way out of it.

Once apprenticed to Benjamin Franklin, American Ethan Gage finds himself at loose ends in Paris, occasionally paying his rent from his winnings at cards. It's a card game that's his undoing. Winning an old, curious-looking Egyptian medallion in a game, Gage suddenly finds himself hip-deep in trouble. The police think he's the likely suspect in a murder, and Gage manages to escape their clutches by joining Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Is Gage going to be able to live long enough to find out what the medallion means?

I like Egyptology, I like games of chance, I like puzzles, and I like reading about Nelson blowing the French out of the water in the Battle of the Nile. Although all these things are in Napoleon's Pyramids, I didn't like the book. It took me forever to read the thing. For a thriller, I found it very cumbersome and slow going. Even though an editor's heavy hand with a red pencil would have tightened things up and made it move faster, I still would have had problems with it. Lots of historical detail with twentieth-century dialogue. Repetitive sentence structure. A romantic angle that just didn't work. The entire book felt like it wanted to be a screenplay for a film that's a cross between Indiana Jones, The Mummy and National Treasure.

I think I would've preferred watching the movies.

Friday Fill-Ins #87

1. When I'm sick I'm a Greta Garbo clone: "I vant to be left alone!"
   
2. When I take a walk, I think about...depends on what sort of walk it is. If it's from Point A to Point B, I'm thinking about what I need to do when I get to Point B. When I'm out walking for the heck of it, I'm thinking about as little as possible. If I'm out hiking, I'm thinking about keeping the Jeep's location in mind and keeping alert because I always have my camera in hand to photograph anything that strikes my fancy--most of which is wildlife and moves FAST.
   
3. Money can't buy happiness but it can help build a great personal library!
   
4. Cotton makes me drag out the iron and leather makes me stick to it this time of year.
   
5. The strangest person/character I've had lewd thoughts about was Batman.
   
6. My favorite color these days is blue because I've always been a sky watcher.
7. I'm not going to answer this one until I have something new to say!
   

Booking Through Thursday--Tell Me a Story!

If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No … it’s because you want to know what happens next?

Or, um, is it just me?

No, it's not "just you"! Although I often describe myself as a character-driven reader, those characters in the books I read certainly wouldn't be worth much if nothing ever happened to them, would they? I have to admit that one reason why I've never seen the movie My Dinner With Andre is that I heard it was about two men having dinner in a restaurant and doing nothing but talking. To this day it doesn't sound like a film I want to waste my time on. Why? Because it sounds as if nothing ever happens to them! Characters, to me, are the most important part of a book, but they need something to strive for, something to escape, something to make them grow and develop and seem real. If there's no plot...no story...no what happens next...then even the most exquisitely drawn characters in the world may as well sit in a restaurant and stare at each other across the table.

REVIEW: The World Without Us

I was reminded of one of the best books I read last year when I saw that The World Without Us has just been released in paperback. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend that you do so. Here's the review of the hardcover edition I wrote last year:

Title: The World Without Us
Author: Alan Weisman
ISBN:0312347294
Protagonist: the human race
Setting: the planet Earth
Speculative Fiction laced with tons of fascinating science
Rating: A+

First Line: One June morning in 2004, Ana María Santi sat against a post beneath a large palm-thatched canopy, frowning as she watched a gathering of her people in Mazáraka, their hamlet on the Río Conambu, an Ecuadoran tributary of the upper Amazon.

After reading one of his articles, a woman asked Alan Weisman what would happen if every single human being vanished from the face of the earth all at the same time. After much research, his answer became The World Without Us. While people in internet book groups I belong to were posting their annual Tops and Bottoms reads of 2007 before the year officially ended, I resisted. I knew I was in the midst of something very special. I was right. The World Without Us became one of my top three reads of the year.

Weisman takes us to various places around the globe in search of the answer to this question: New York City, which would quickly topple once humans were no longer around to operate the pumps that keep water out of the subway system; Chernobyl, where wildlife quickly returned after the meltdown; to sections of New England that have had two centuries to recover from farming; to the vast ancient underground cities of Turkey; the petrochemical plants of Texas; North America before any humans stepped foot on it; and to a place that I don't care to drive by--the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant outside of Phoenix, Arizona. In each place he stops, Weisman talks to the experts in an effort to find out what has happened, what will happen, and what will probably happen due to the actions (or non-action) of humans.

The journey is spellbinding, equal parts amazement, joy, sorrow and dread. Weisman has done what few authors can--make me change the way I think and the way I see this beautiful planet that we all share.

From his acknowledgements: "All of us humans have myriad other species to thank. Without them, we couldn't exist. It's that simple, and we can't afford to ignore them, any more than I can afford to neglect my precious wife--nor the sweet mother Earth that births and holds us all. Without us, Earth will abide and endure; without her, however, we could not even be."

REVIEW: On Strike for Christmas

Title: On Strike for Christmas
Author: Sheila Roberts
ISBN: 9780312370220
Protagonists: members of the Stitch 'n' Bitch knitting group
Setting: present-day, town of Holly
Standalone Fiction
Rating: B+

First Line: Glen Fredericks slapped the back of his last departing Thanksgiving dinner guest.

Glen Fredericks is one of those hail-fellow-well-met types who thinks he's contributing to holiday preparations by inviting tons of people, putting the extra leaf in the dining room table, and sitting in front of the television to watch the game while his wife Laura runs herself silly trying to get everything done. Joy Robertson is almost the polar opposite of her husband Bob ("Bob Humbug") during the holidays. Christmas season spent with all her family and friends makes her light up like Rockefeller Plaza. Bob would rather spend the holidays alone with his wife on a remote beach and hates spending any time with Joy's extended family and large circle of friends. When Laura and Joy attend the next meeting of their Stitch 'n' Bitch knitting group and mention their holiday hassles, it strikes a chord with almost all the other members. They decide to boycott Christmas. They are going to do exactly what their husbands do every Christmas season, and if their husbands want to celebrate Christmas...well, they'd better get off their duffs and get to work! The local newspaper gets wind of the story, and it's not long before they're all celebrities.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I liked the premise but thought it might be too "chick lit-ty" for me. Granted, the storyline is going to resonate with a lot of women; it did with me although not as something I live with today. I love Christmas and put up tons of decorations every year. My husband, Denis, does all the outside decorations--something that was never done before because I don't do ladders--and he also does anything else that I ask of him. (I know exactly where I want things, so he knows it's best to stay out of the way until I require help.) I enjoyed reading of the husbands' attempts to circumnavigate the rules of the strike, their abysmal failures, and their successes. More than a few scenes tugged at my heartstrings without going overboard.

If you're not like me and prefer to read some holiday fiction closer to the actual holiday, On Strike for Christmas would be a very good choice.

REVIEW: The Killings at Badger's Drift

Title: The Killings at Badger's Drift
Author: Caroline Graham
ISBN: 038070563X
Protagonist: Chief Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy
Setting: Badger's Drift, a village in the south of England, late 1980s
Series: #1
Rating: A

First Line: She had been walking in the woods just before teatime when she saw them.

Octogenarian Miss Lucy Bellringer insists that her friend, Miss Emily Simpson, was murdered. Until Chief Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy show up in the picture postcard little village, Miss Bellringer couldn't find anyone to pay attention to her. Inspector Barnaby does. He listens to what she has to say, whilst Sergeant Troy tries not to be caught rolling his eyes, and realizes that Miss Bellringer's observations have truth and sense in them. Ordering an autopsy, it's discovered that Miss Simpson was murdered by drinking hemlock-laden wine, and Barnaby soon finds himself with more suspects in that tiny village than a dog has fleas.

I first came to this series via the excellent BBC-TV series "Midsomer Murders" starring John Nettles. Fortunately I left enough time between watching the episode and reading the book for my memory to do an almost total clean erase. As enjoyable and faithful to the book as the television episode was (typical BBC production), I much prefer the book--not that that should surprise anyone! The background of Barnaby in particular gave him such depth and nuance that, as I read the series, he should rapidly climb to the top of my list of favorite UK coppers. The path Barnaby has taken throughout his career, his wife and daughter, his love of gardening, his dry wit--all of these things combine to make him a very special character. In amongst all the seriousness were slipped small laugh-out-loud moments that provided a welcome change in tone and kept me from concentrating on the identity of the murderer.

All in all, an excellent start to a new-to-me series. I'm looking forward to many more investigations with Chief Inspector Barnaby.

Friday Fill-Ins #86

1. Dancing to the beat of fast music while doing housework makes me get that obnoxious stuff done quicker.
2. The last time I went grocery shopping I nearly forgot the ice again.
3. When I drive I provide a running commentary on the idiots sharing my road. (Good thing I'm almost always solo, eh? Although I have had a few reactions from bystanders when my windows are rolled down!)
4. I saw six javalinas standing in the middle of the trail the last time we were up in the White Mountains.
5. Give me my pool in the summer or my daybed in front of the fireplace in winter, give me a pile of books and a never-ending drink of my choice, give me solitude, and I'm good to go!
6. Next week I'm looking forward to being able to sleep again...please!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading a good book in the pool, tomorrow my plans include work and reading a good book in the pool, and Sunday I want to get home from work and read a good book in the pool! (Until it cools off too much for the pool, I'm going to be a broken record, folks. I work every weekend, and my husband works 15-hour shifts every weekend. Leave me to my own devices and I read!)
   

Booking Through Thursday--I Grew Up in Heaven

Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.) So … What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you? Do you have you any funny/odd memories of the library?

I grew up in a small farm town in central Illinois (population 1800). My mother was a single mom back when that was a very strange thing to be. She raised me on a widow's pension and a variety of part-time jobs. Her primary job was librarian in that village. My mother was a bookaholic, and she gave birth to one. I grew up in that library, so that's what I mean when I say I grew up in heaven. To this day when I'm trying to remember a certain book, my mind's eye roves the shelves of that little library, which had a greater circulation than the county seat of Shelbyville (population over 5000)--all due to my mother, of course! I was Mom's chief cook and bottle washer from the get-go. I was responsible for keeping the large children's section at the back neat and tidy, and as soon as I knew my alphabet, I started shelving returned books. I did my homework at the big wooden table back in the children's section, and I certainly read a lot of books back there. When I was twelve, I started helping patrons choose books to read. The older ladies in town all seemed to read light romances. They'd call and tell Mom to have me choose anywhere from 8 to 12 books for them, and they'd be in to pick them up. They always told me that I chose the best books for them when all I was doing was checking the cards to see if their library card number was on them.

I have many memories of that library. Of the huge jacks in the basement that were holding the floor up. Of one of my classmates trying to sneak a racy novel in with the stack of books she was checking out, in hopes that Mom and I wouldn't notice what she was up to. Of the old guy who'd check out books and use a black marker to cross out any words he considered swear words--only to write a table of the words and their page numbers inside the back cover. Of all the people in town who would come in for gossip, laughter and the latest books. Of Mom's motto for the children's section: "Keep it to a dull roar back there, kids!" Of having book shipments come in and being the first to open the big cardboard boxes of wonders...of being the first person in town to touch each and every new book...of being allowed to choose the ones I wanted to be the first to read.

You've got me all nostalgic now!

REVIEW: The Mysterious Receding Seas

Title: The Mysterious Receding Seas
Author: Richard Guy
ISBN: 9781413439915
Non-Fiction
Rating: A+ for Idea, F for Execution

First Line: This is a book about levels, all sorts of levels.

Structural engineer Richard Guy is a man on a mission. While most of the people on the planet believe the Earth is static, Guy believes the world is actually expanding, and as a result the seas are receding. When I read a blurb about this book in an issue of Shelf Awareness, I was immediately intrigued. The publisher was giving away free copies, so I asked for one.

We're taught in school that the size of the Earth never changes. That plate tectonics are pushing the continents further and further apart. When it was discovered that the Atlantic Ocean was becoming larger, scientists didn't seem to care. They assumed that the Pacific was shrinking and balancing it all out. Then they found out that the Pacific was growing larger, too. How did they explain that? Well...there are subduction zones underneath the areas where two plates meet. One plate slides under the other, is melted and recycled. But is it really true that the Earth never changes size? Guy doesn't think so. He believes passionately in Earth Expansion. The Earth isn't static, it is growing. As a result of ever-increasing land masses, the seas are receding. Why else would Sindbad the Sailor set sail from Baghdad when today Baghdad is 350 miles from the sea? Why else would Plymouth Rock be over 30 feet above the high tide line when it's supposed to mark the spot where the Pilgrims first stepped foot in the New World? Guy compares ancient maps to new, and what he says makes a lot of sense. I've never been 100% behind global warming. I think a lot of what's going on is due to the natural forces of the planet. However, I don't think we should continue on our present path. Why be in a hurry to drive nails in our own coffin? (Granted, this is all going to take thousands of years, but we should keep future generations in mind.) Yes, Guy does make a lot of sense. Unfortunately, reading The Mysterious Receding Seas was one of the most excruciatingly painful reading experiences I've had in years.

This book isn't going to make his case, and I'll give a few reasons why. Shoddy editing is at the top of the list. (I'm not going to list page numbers with most of the following examples, but I could.) There are instances of parentheses being used when quotation marks are needed. Page 36 is really page 37, and vice versa. The average paragraph length is seven pages. There are several instances of plural nouns with singular verbs, and on one page, Guy states that the New Madrid earthquake which made the Mississippi River run backwards occurred in 1911-1912 with no loss of life. (It occurred in 1811-1812.) In a book of this type, you would also expect a bibliography or an appendix in the back so you would be guided further in reading on the subject. Nothing. These are far from being the only errors or omissions, and they all could've been taken care of with proper editing.

Another reason why this book isn't going to further his cause is this: Richard Guy is not a writer. His tone often sounds desperate, as if he believes he has to pound each of his points into his reader's head. Anyone who's educated enough to find this subject fascinating (as I do) does not need such a heavy hand. One of my English professors would've told Guy that, in this book, he used a scatter gun when he really needed a rifle. In each chapter, he makes his point and then repeats it all over again in the last couple of pages. Not only that, but he repeats himself again in succeeding chapters. As I said, this book was painful to read. The only reason why I finished it was because I believe he has a very valid, interesting point to make. I'm just afraid he did himself more harm than good.

REVIEW: How Arizona Sold Its Sunshine

Title: How Arizona Sold Its Sunshine, Historical Hotels of Arizona
Author: Victoria Clark
ISBN: 0974507407
Arizona History
Rating: B+

First Line: I was a student at Rogers Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona in the 1950s.

Clark sets out to describe landmark Arizona hotels from their rather dubious beginnings in the 1880s to their swanky evolution in 1900 and beyond. From greasy beans, poor health standards and questionable clientele to air-conditioned, landscaped dens of luxury for the sick, the politicians, the movie stars and the wealthy. In the beginning, hotels were merely waystations, a place to take a short breather before hopping on the stagecoach and being shaken and jolted to the next destination. At the turn of the twentieth century, things were beginning to change. Billions of dollars were being taken out of Arizona mines. There had to be suitable places for the mine owners and investors to stay. By the 1920s, Arizona was a state, and Americans had the travel bug. Politicians wouldn't put up with bed bugs and bad food, and our mild winters, abundant sunshine, clear air and breathtaking scenery were tremendous draws for Americans who wanted to board trains and see the country.

Clark takes us on a journey to 65 Arizona hotels, from the Cameron Trading Post in the north all the way to the Gadsden Hotel in the south on the Mexican border. Each is clearly marked as to whether or not they are still in existence. Photos and history are given for each, and it's easy to see the evolution of the hotel business in the state.

I had no idea that I'd seen so many of the hotels included in this book. I've actually stayed in three of them. It was quite an education to read the their histories. For instance, shortly after I moved to Phoenix, the headlines screamed about Castle Hot Springs burning down to the ground. The very first day that Denis and I began our offroad explorations years later, we took a trail that led right past the former resort. I had no idea that Castle Hot Springs was where John F. Kennedy recuperated from the wounds he suffered when PT-109 was sunk.

The book was well written and well researched. The only complaint I found with it was that I wanted more. I could conclude with more tidbits from reading How Arizona Sold Its Sunshine. Instead I'll close with a photograph I took when Denis and I stopped in Cochise on our honeymoon travels. The Cochise Hotel is still open for business--but you always have to call ahead for a reservation!

Paperback Swap Update

Some of you probably read my post about joining Paperback Swap and the feeding frenzy I found myself in within two days. You might even be wondering how it's going now that things have calmed down.

Quite well, I'm happy to report. I've listed a total of 179 books on Paperback Swap. 99 are left, which means I've mailed out 80 books. Of course, being the rabid bookaholic that I am, I've also been requesting books, and have received 25. That still means that I have 55 fewer books on the shelves than I did two weeks ago. Not bad, eh?

Yesterday I walked into my library to do an initial scout of books with which I'd be willing to part. Yes, you heard me. I have a room that's a dedicated library. When I went looking for a house to buy, that was one of the three criteria I had: fireplace, swimming pool, and a room suitable for wall-to-wall bookshelves, a comfy chair and a lamp. I got all three, but I have thirteen more bookcases in the rest of the house. (I have photos of them further down on the left sidebar of this blog. I know how insatiably curious bookaholics are about each other's books.)

I have all my books neatly lined up at the precise edge of each shelf. Looks better that way, and less visible dust. (My grandmother's the one in the family who caught the dust before it had a chance to land.) It also allows me to see at a glance if anyone's been at my books because book browsers in this house never put them back the same way. (Yes, I'm sneaky.) As I went through the contents of three large bookcases, I pulled out each book I want to list on Paperback Swap so that it was over the edge of the shelf about an inch. Large sections of only three bookcases are now hanging off the edge of a cliff. I thought that might disturb me. Books have always been my favorite item of interior decoration. They've always been my friends. But once I made the decision to pare down my library, my mindset completely changed. Now I feel good about sending these books out so that others may enjoy them as much as I have. Books really aren't meant to hibernate on shelves. They're meant to be touched, opened, read, thought over and enjoyed. If books are really my friends, I need to treat them as such.

If I do manage to release at least half of my library into the wild, I'm going to have empty bookcases. It could be that all my books will be housed in the larger bookcases in the living room. What? An empty library? How in the world would I repurpose the room?

An exercise room?

I think I'll go lie down and take a nap....

Reading Questionnaire

One of my favorite book news sources is Shelf Awareness. I've been subscribed to it for about a month now, and I noticed that bi-weekly they ask an author questions about his/her reading. I've thought about bringing those questions here to my blog--after all, why should authors be the only ones to have fun?--but I noticed that it's already been done by Patti and Lesa. She who hesitates gets to follow! Hopefully, y'all will join with us. Please leave a comment with a link to your responses!

On your nightstand now:
I always feel rather strange when a question like this comes up. Normally I read one book at a time, and the only book I keep on the nightstand is the one I am currently reading. At this point in time it's How Arizona Sold Its Sunshine by Victoria Clark.

Book you've "faked" reading:
I honestly can't remember faking this. I either read the book, or I don't. I guess I've always been apprehensive that, if I lie, someone's going to throw a pop quiz at me!

Book you've bought for the cover:
Here's another one that I can't remember doing. I remember buying books and thinking that the cover was striking, but I can't remember buying the book solely for the cover. An example of buying a book and thinking the cover was striking would be Poised Between Heartbeats: The Art of Steve Hanks.

Favorite book when you were a child:
Wonderful--something I can answer without reservation! I can remember being absolutely crazy about Thorton Burgess when I was five. I would say that my favorite of his books was The Adventures of Mr. Mocker.

Book that changed your life:
Long before Oprah snagged it for her book club, the book that grabbed me by the short hairs was John Steinbeck's East of Eden. It was one of those moments when I read the perfect book for that particular period of my life. I could probably read that book tomorrow, turn the last page and think, "Okay. Well, that was a nice book."

Favorite line from a book:
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. (The Go-Between, L.P. Hartley)

Top five favorite authors:
This list will probably change at midnight; it's the blessing of always finding new and wonderful authors to read! At this moment in time: Deborah Crombie, Nathaniel Philbrick, Craig Johnson, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (her historicals, not her mysteries) and F. Scott Fitzgerald. How's that for a mixed bag?

Books you recommend as regeneration when people say, "I'm bored by almost all contemporary American writers":
I have trouble with people who always seem to be saying that they're bored. The last time I remember being bored was when I was thirteen, and that was due to a hormonal tidal wave more than anything else! If I had to jumpstart someone, I'd more than likely choose something like Craig Johnson's The Cold Dish, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, or Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time.

Book you can't believe that everyone has not read and loved:
T.H. White's The Once and Future King.

Book you are an "evangelist" for:
Craig Johnson's The Cold Dish. I've fallen in love with his Walt Longmire mystery series!

Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Marguerite Henry's King of the Wind. After I gobbled up all of Thorton Burgess' books, I started devouring all of Walter Farley's and Marguerite Henry's. Yes, I still love horses!

REVIEW: Pretties

Title: Pretties
Author: Scott Westerfeld
ISBN: 9780689865398
Protagonist: Tally Youngblood
Setting: a rather scary Utopia sometime in the future
Series: #2
Rating: A-

First Line: Getting dressed was always the hardest part of the afternoon.

This second book in Westerfeld's trilogy takes up where Uglies left off. Tally has been forcibly taken from the band of New Smokies with which she was living. (New Smokies are free-thinking people who live outside the "Pretty Utopia" and its rules.) She's had her operation, as every 16-year-old does, and now she's what she always wanted to be: Pretty. From her rooms in New Pretty Town, Tally lives for nothing but parties, booze, clothes and the latest surge (cosmetic enhancements to a person's appearance). She's forgotten all about the New Smokies and the promise she made them, but the New Smokies haven't forgotten her. During one of the nightly parties she attends, they deliver a coded message to Tally that reminds her of everything she's promised to do.

If you read Pretties out of sequence, you're going to be lost. These Young Adult novels are not standalones. Westerfeld's vision of the world as it may be and the interactions of his characters are riveting. The first third of this book bogged down a bit for me, but I had warning from a friend and expected it. Why did it bog down? Because Tally had been turned into a vain, airhead Pretty, and reading pages of Valley Girl speak was soporific. Once she got her message from the New Smokies, she snapped out of it, I perked right up, and the pages turned with increasing speed.

I like to read others' views on the directions in which this world is heading. Some of them are very credible...and frightening. Personally, J.K. Rowling not only produced a wonderful series of books with Harry Potter, she re-opened the world of Young Adult fiction to me--a world that I left behind years ago. There are some wonderful books in this genre, and I count Westerfeld's among them.

LibraryThing and Real Life

Today's question courtesy of The Boston Bibliophile: LT and RL (real life)- do you have friends in real life that you met through LibraryThing? Have you attended any LT meet-ups in your area? Would you be open to attending meet-ups or is LT strictly an online thing for you?

I don't have any real life friends that I've met through LibraryThing yet. Although I tend to be rather shy about meeting new people, I have meet several online friends in real life and even met my husband online. (That makes it sound as if I'm not really shy, doesn't it?) Meeting online people involves the same thing as meeting "real life" people: a hearty dose of common sense. I do have friends (both real life and online) that have joined me at LibraryThing. We live thousands of miles apart, and I think one of the reasons why we joined was the chance to have a good nose through each other's bookshelves. We knew that the chance of doing it in real life was virtually nil. There haven't been any LibraryThing meet-ups in my area as far as I know, although I would certainly be open to the idea.

Book Bloggers Appreciation Week

Book blogging can certainly be a labor of love, and almost as addictive as reading the books themselves. Amy has a brilliant idea: the first ever Book Bloggers Appreciation Week. You can read the full details here. Send Amy an email and sign up. Post a comment on her blog. Don't forget to put the button on your blog and spread the word!

The Kamasutra of Reading

I have to admit that I snagged this from a friend. Hopefully you'll think it's funny, too! Thankfully you can click on it to make it larger--that print's rather small.

REVIEW: Dreaming of the Bones

Title: Dreaming of the Bones
Author: Deborah Crombie
ISBN: 9780061150401
Protagonist(s): Scotland Yard Inspector Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James
Setting: present-day Grantchester and Cambridge, England
Series: #5
Rating: A+

First Line: The post slid through the letter box, cascading onto the tile floor of the entry hall with a sound like the wind rustling through bamboo.

Duncan Kincaid's wife walked out on him over ten years ago, so it's a total shock when she gets in touch with him. Now a Cambridge University professor, Victoria McClellan has remarried and has a young son, Kit. She's also deeply involved in writing the biography of Lydia Brooke, a poet who committed suicide five years before. The more she researches Brooke's life, the more convinced she is that the poet did not commit suicide, and this is the main reason why she's gotten in touch with Duncan. Is there any way he can check into this and find information to prove that she's right? Her reappearance has long-lasting repercussions that will resonate long after the time frame of this book.

I can see why Dreaming of the Bones was nominated for several awards. Crombie is a master juggler in this fifth book in the series. Not only do the lives of the main characters, Kincaid and James, continue to intertwine and grow, she brings in a completely new cast of characters and brings each of them to life as well: Duncan's ex-wife Victoria; Victoria's young son Kit; Lydia's friends Darcy, Nathan, Daphne and Adam; Lydia's ex-husband Morgan; Darcy's mother Dame Marjory Lester. Not only is the cast of characters large, so are the various threads of the plot. As interesting as each character was, I was also fascinated with how skillfully Crombie wove all those plot threads together into a page-turning tapestry. How is the relationship between Kincaid and James going to weather his ex-wife's request? Is Victoria correct in believing that Brooke was murdered? How do each of Brooke's friends figure into this? Is Brooke's life interesting enough for a full-scale biography? Will this biography further Victoria's career at Cambridge?

All of these characters, all of these plot lines, are delineated and woven together in a mesmerizing book. All I could say when I'd finished the last page was, "Wow...." Never underestimate the power of bookaholics and the Internet. I'd been studiously ignoring this series for years, but after reading a friend's glowing reviews time after time, I finally decided to try one. Thank you for being persistent, friend. Sometimes I'm too stubborn for words!

Friday Fill-Ins #85

1. The last meal I had at a restaurant was at the Olive Garden after a movie a couple of months ago.

2. Being in a crowd is something I intensely dislike.

3. The full moon mesmerizes me.

4. Toadchoker is one of my favorite local expressions. (It may not be local to Phoenix, but it's local where I grew up in central Illinois. The monsoon is bringing us some rain right now which is why it popped into my head.)

5. Sometimes it's best to keep your mouth shut and walk away.

6. Mamma Mia! is the best movie I've seen so far this year!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to reading a good book in the pool, tomorrow my plans include surviving another day at work then reading a good book in the pool and Sunday, I want to come home from work, jump in the pool and read!

REVIEW: White Nights

Title: White Nights
Author: Ann Cleeves
Protagonist: Detective Jimmy Perez
Setting, present-day Shetland Islands, off the northern coast of Scotland
Series: #2
Rating: A

First Line:The passengers streamed ashore from the cruise ship.

One of the best things about being a member of Library Thing's Early Reviewers Program is the chance to get free books, and get them ahead of the public. White Nights was just such a book for me. I was excited because I'd enjoyed the first in the series, Raven Black. This second volume in the Shetland Island Quartet exceeded my expectations.

It's mid-summer in the Shetland Islands, a time when it never gets dark. Islanders joke about their "white nights", saying that it makes people act crazy. There may just be some truth to those attempts at humor. Detective Jimmy Perez has a new love in his life, and when he and Fran attend Fran's first art exhibit at the Herring House, an Englishman makes an emotional scene that quickly puts an end to the gathering. When the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter in a crofter's outbuilding, it doesn't take long for Perez to discover that he's got a murder--not suicide--on his hands. But no one seems to know whom the Englishman is, and when Perez calls in the police from Inverness, he and Taylor join hands once again in solving a case.

The Shetland Islands once again is a perfect setting for a mystery. The climate, the terrain, the close-knit inhabitants all join in giving the feeling of falling off the edge of the world. City dwellers may think there are no secrets in tiny villages, but those of us who have lived in such an environment know differently. In a village, your entire life can be an open book, but if you have a secret and are willing to keep it, no one else will know.

Along with her setting, Cleeves' pacing and plot are first rate. The story pulls the reader in, and although tiny clues are scattered throughout the pages, the ending still comes as a surprise. To me, the author's skill in characterization is where she really shines. The play of opposites, Perez and Taylor, in solving the crime; the egocentric grande dame, Bella Sinclair; Kenny Thomson, the crofter so in love with his wife...they all become laser-sharp in the focus of the reader's mind. The play of Perez & Taylor is brilliantly clear in this passage:

Perez considered. Taylor waited. He wanted to shout, It's a simple question, man. How long does it take to come up with an answer? He could feel the tension of waiting constricting his breathing.

"No," Perez said at last. "I never really was." And that was good enough for Taylor. Perez might irritate the shit out of him, but he was the best judge of character Taylor knew. He watched men like David Attenborough watched animals.

In many ways I enjoyed White Nights even more than Raven Black, but I know that it's a personal reaction. So much of the narrative in Raven Black centered around making fun of one of the inhabitants that it reminded me more of my grade school days than I was comfortable with. Don't let my personal reaction put you off. These two entries in Ann Cleeves' Shetland Island Quartet should not be missed.

Booking Through Thursday--On Your Mark, Get Set....GO!

You, um, may have noticed that the Olympics are going on right now, so that’s the genesis of this week’s question, in two parts:

First:

• Do you or have you ever read books about the Olympics? About sports in general?
• Fictional ones? Or non-fiction? Or both?

And, Second:

• Do you consider yourself a sports fan?
• Because, of course, if you’re a rabid fan and read about sports constantly, there’s a logic there; if you hate sports and never read anything sports-related, that, too … but you don’t have to love sports to enjoy a good sports story.
• (Or a good sports movie, for that matter. Feel free to expand this into a discussion about “Friday Night Lights” or “The Natural” or whatever…)

During my misspent youth, I loved to play volleyball and basketball. I also loved to watch horse racing and remember fondly the times I went to the Illinois State Fair and watched harness racing in the afternoon and the horse show in the evening. A man from my small farm town was one of the farriers for the Budweiser Clydesdales. (I know, not a sport, but it's horse-related!) I can still tell you where I was when Secretariat won the Belmont, and the Triple Crown, in 1973. When I got a bit older and blew out both knees playing basketball, I became more of an armchair sports fan. I still watched horse racing, but I added figure skating to the mix. When Torvill and Dean came to Phoenix, I had a front row seat. Until I moved away, I'd spend several Sunday afternoons laying on the grass and listening to Cubs games on the radio with my grandfather. When I got a computer, something had to give because there weren't enough hours in the day to do everything. I seldom watch sports anymore, except for Phoenix Suns basketball. As for the Olympics, I stopped watching them when they started allowing pros to participate. That really went against my grain.

As for reading about sports, I have to say that I've never read any books about the Olympics. They've just never interested me. The only sports books I do read are about horse racing, both fiction and non-fiction. Lauren Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit is a marvelous book, and for once I can say the movie is just as good. (That's a rare occurrence!) I also enjoy a good sports movie like Seabiscuit or Chariots of Fire, and there's one coming out soon called The Express that sounds good.

REVIEW: Flesh & Blood

Title: Flesh & Blood
Author: John Harvey
Protagonist: retired police detective, Frank Elder
Setting: present-day Yorkshire, England
Series: #1
Rating: A

First Line: Soft and insinuating, the cat brushed against his face, and Elder, still three-quarters asleep, used his arm to push it away.

After his marriage fell apart, Frank Elder retired from the police force and moved to way down south to Cornwall. But he's reminded of a 14-year-old cold case when a murderer is released on parole. Elder had always thought that the parolee and his partner had killed Susan Blacklock, but he had never been able to prove it. Perhaps he can get more information from the parolee now that he's stewed in prison for a few years. With that hopeful thought in mind, Elder heads back north. Almost immediately, a young girl goes missing there; a young girl who's eerily similar to those disappeared ones all those years ago. Now Elder has even more incentive to speed up his investigation.

This is my first John Harvey novel, and it won't be my last. His pace is deliberate, even slow at times, but the story is so rich that it should move slowly in order to ratchet up the suspense. Harvey's characterization is rich and complex, and his subtle inclusion of telling details adds so much to the setting and the people who inhabit it. I look forward to many more outings with Frank Elder.

Warning: Novels Might Turn Out to Be Habit-forming

"Bookish people drolly claim to be addicted. I think, in some cases, this is literally true. . . . I suppose this makes me a small-time pusher, holding a couple of capsules of a novel compound, looking for vulnerable readers for whom it might turn out to be habit-forming. There's enough of them. When I walk into a bookshop--one of the big ones, a vast dispensary stacked with complex uppers and downers--I can't help thinking, my God, what army of junkies is all this feeding?"--Henrietta Rose-Innes

The Book Is a Reflection of Its Owner

"The book is warm. The book is handy. The book is handsome to the eye. The book occupies the shelf of the owner and is a reflection of him or her or, actually, me. The book is always there, to be reached for, to be thumbed and, too often I admit, to wonder about: Why did I buy this? My bookcase is full of mysteries. . . . I asked a bookseller in New York to recommend a brilliant but unheralded book, and he went through his shelves and picked out several, none of which I had ever heard of. Her Privates We was one of them. The Hemingway blurb sold me. No digital anything can do that."--Columnist Richard Cohen

Tuesday Thingers: Book Buying Habits

Today's question: Favorite bookstores. What's your favorite bookstore? Is it an online store or a bricks-and-mortar store? How often do you go book shopping? Is your favorite bookstore (or bookstores) listed as a favorite in LT? Do you attend events at local bookstores? Do you use LT to find events?

I do most of my book shopping online, especially since I joined Paperback Swap last week. I've mailed out over fifty books, and have gotten about 10 so far, with more coming. Before I made the PBS plunge, most of the online books I purchased were from Alibris and Book Depository. Many of the books I enjoy are by UK authors, and Book Depository is an excellent resource--free worldwide shipping, and I usually have my book(s) within a week and in pristine condition!

I've gotten so turned off on brick-and-mortar book shops because there are so few independents, and when I walk into most chains, I can't find the books I want to read. (I didn't think I was that weird when it came to reading! LOL) The one brick-and-mortar exception that I make is the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale. It's one of the top independent mystery book shops in the US, and I have to ration my visits there because I usually need a forklift and a bank loan in order to leave. It's a marvelous place, crammed full of gems and has one of the most knowledgeable and friendly staffs that I've ever run across.

As far as how often I shop...I try to ration the Poisoned Pen to two visits per year. It doesn't sound like much, but I usually walk out of there with at least twenty books. I would imagine that, with PBS, my book buying is going to be cut way down, and that's something I need to do, since my husband and I need to put more money away for our next trip to the UK.

The last time I looked, the Poisoned Pen wasn't listed as a favorite in LT, and I seldom attend events because they're usually held on days that I work. Events at the Poisoned Pen are well attended and usually in a rather small venue. Since I don't do well in crowds, I tend to avoid that sort of thing.

REVIEW: Kindness Goes Unpunished

Title: Kindness Goes Unpunished
Author: Craig Johnson
Protagonist: Sheriff Walt Longmire
Setting: present-day Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Series: #3
Rating: A

First Line: I didn't wear my gun.

Walt is on a trip to Philadelphia to visit his lawyer daughter, Cady, but the evening he arrives, Cady is critically injured and rushed to the hospital. She's in a coma, and Walt sets aside helping his friend, Henry Standing Bear, with an art exhibit to try to find who did this to her. Just when he's about to close in on Cady's fiance as the culprit, the young man is killed, and now Walt really wants to get to the bottom of this mess.

Although it was rather strange to see Walt out of his beloved Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, it was good to see how he behaved in strange territory. Walt kept his cowboy hat on his head, but (mostly) played nice with the Philadelphians. He's no fool. Walt knew he had to get along with the local police so the crime could be solved. What was, and continues to be, so very good about this series isn't just the plot, but all the complex interactions of the characters. We get to see Walt as a daddy whose little girl might die, and we get to see how the cavalry gallops in to help him. It's almost impossible for me to believe that these characters aren't real--that's how good Johnson is. I've read many mysteries of the lone-wolf-as-savior variety and liked them. However, I think that a book of this type showing a man and his friends and family and how they all love, respect and support each other would be more difficult to write, and ultimately more satisfying to read. Perhaps it's the latent John Donne in me. No man is an island.... Walt Longmire is no island, and we readers are much the richer for it.

REVIEW: Into the Forest

Title: Into the Forest
Author: Jean Hegland
Protagonist: 17-year-old Nell
Setting: northern California redwood forest, sometime in the near future
Standalone
Rating: A+

First Line: It's strange, writing these first words, like leaning down into the musty stillness of a well and seeing my face peer up from the water--so small and from such an unfamiliar angle I'm startled to realize the reflection is my own.

18-year-old Eva wants to be a dancer, and she has talent. 17-year-old Nell wants to be accepted into Harvard. But while they're being homeschooled in a house 32 miles from the nearest town and four miles from the nearest neighbor, things begin to happen. The electricity goes out. Mail stops being delivered. There are vague rumors of looting and violence that have completely broken down civil order. Lots of people get sick and die, and finally there's no more gas for trips to and from town. Eva and Nell's world shrinks even further when their remaining parent dies. The months pass, and the supplies of food in the house dwindle alarmingly. Told to stay out of the forest since they were both very small, Eva and Nell look at the food supply and realize that bears and wild pigs pose less danger than humans. Slowly they make their way into the forest, learning to rely on each other, and the bounty of the forest, to sustain them.

Hegland's writing is very lyrical, and the honesty of her narrator, Nell, is crucial to the story. The only problem I had with this book is a personal one. There would've been no way that I could've been kept out of a redwood forest, no matter what my parents said. To have lived their entire lives in that place and not know about the wildlife and plants boggles my mind. But as I said, I may be the odd one out in this case.

I loved this book, and parts of it will stay with me for a very long time.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. You know you're old when when you begin one too many conversations with "I remember when...."
2. My heart is divided between Ben & Jerry's Cinnamon Buns and Ben & Jerry's Berried Treasure.
3. A minion is what I need RIGHT NOW!
4. I have felt the Homeowner's High, I have known the depths of Homeowner's Despair.
5. Gah, won't these people stop rattling my windows with their (c)rap music?
6. Tell someone you cherish that you love them as soon as you can!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a little "Murder in Suburbia" on the telly followed by John Harvey's Flesh & Blood, tomorrow my plans include reading out in the pool after work, and Sunday, I want to read out in the pool after work. (A photo of my summer reading spot is a couple of posts down!
   

Booking Through Thursday--Other Worlds

Are there any particular worlds in books where you’d like to live? Or where you certainly would NOT want to live? What about authors? If you were a character, who would you trust to write your life?

I'm one of those rather boring readers who like to keep at least one foot in the recognizable world. You know...a world where trees look and behave like trees, dogs look and behave like dogs, and humans look and behave like humans. Yes, I have branched off into the world of elves, wizards and giants, but dragons are about as other-worldly as I want to go. Besides, those elves and wizards and giants still look human, I just have to take care not to get zapped, spelled or stomped.

I like to read books set in medieval England. Would I want to live there? Uh...NO! I like my computer, daily showers, books, and other creature comforts. I like to read post-apocalyptic fiction. Would I want to live in a world like that? Uh...NO! I like to read mysteries, but I wouldn't really want to live in that sort of world because I'm just the sort of character who'd stick her nose in the wrong place while searching for clues and wind up getting that pug nose of hers blown off. So...I'd be content to continue living in this present-day, flawed world and just take short hops in a time machine. I'm a coward, aren't I?

As for being a character and trusting one certain author to "get it right", I'd choose Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire mystery series. I love the way he portrays all his characters. Supposedly "simple folk", they're anything but when Johnson gets through with them. They're filled with humor, insight...they're real. Johnson's gift of nuance is incredible. Yup. He could write me in as a character any day.

My Summer Reading Spot

These are photos of my backyard in summer here in Phoenix. There are spots to read if you don't want to stay wet, and there's my favorite spot to read in summer: under the "short" umbrella by the pool, in the shade and close to the waterfall. Sheer bliss! (You can click on each photo to see it full size.)

How about taking a photo of your own favorite summertime spot to read and sharing it with us?

Feeding Frenzy!

Almost two years ago, I came to the conclusion that I had hundreds of books that I really didn't need. (That's hundreds out of my 3500+.) Last year, I sold DVDs and collectibles on eBay: DVDs that I knew Denis and I weren't going to watch again, and several collectibles that I inherited from my mother. I have enough of a collecting bug of my own; I don't need to keep things I have no interest in, regardless of who gave them to me. Memories of loved ones mean much more to me than the things on which they spent their money. I was very successful with what I sold on eBay, so I began toying with the idea of opening a store there and selling my books. I sold a few books as a test, and I learned much. I would have to sell them for peanuts--so few peanuts that I would barely be able to cover listing fees and the like. Okay, there went one idea down the tubes. But I still had a lot of books I could get rid of, and the only question was how.

I'd heard about Paperback Swap and Book Mooch, so I began investigating them last month. I decided to go with Paperback Swap. I joined Monday afternoon and listed twenty books. The next day I had three to send out, which I did after a friend and I went to see "Mamma Mia!" Tuesday night I listed several more books. This morning, I got up, threw the makings of beef and noodles in the crockpot, started a loaf of Sally Lunn bread in the bread machine and came back down to this end of the house fully intending to just glance at my email and go back to bed. Ha!

There were seven requests for books that I'd listed. I printed the postage, got the books ready to go out, and told myself, "I'll check my email and go lay down and read." Ha! There were five more requests for my books waiting. It kept going on and on and on like that all morning.

I told myself, "I'm going to get books ready until noon. Then I'm going to take what's ready to the post office and call it a day." Then I had another thought: "I can't leave the house until the UPS guy shows up with the monitor Denis ordered for me. Crap!" (I now have a monitor so huge that I feel as if I have an aircraft carrier sitting on my desk.) So...since I had to wait for UPS, I listed several more books and continued to check requests. They never stopped! I had no idea bookaholics could resemble sharks in a feeding frenzy!

UPS showed up at 12:15, and I was still printing postage and getting books ready to send off. I finally called it quits at 2 PM and managed to find a laundry basket big enough in which to stuff all thirty-eight packages. I lugged the basket out to the car, huffed it into the post office, and sent them all on their merry way. Then I went out to my reading spot in the pool with a good book and a cold drink.

I'm exhausted, and I just checked: there are ten more requests waiting for me! I have been segregating the books I want to get rid of for the past few months, and Denis was beginning to complain. Normally I refuse to have piles of books anywhere in the house; they're all on shelves. He's much happier now that they're starting to find their way out of the house, and so am I. I'm also looking forward to the ones I've requested to be sent to me. It may very well get to the point where I have empty shelves where I can keep my PBS listed books separate from the rest and off the floor.

How many of you belong to Paperback Swap? Would you care to share your IDs with me so I can look you up? Mine is "cathyskye".

Now...I'm going to stumble off to bed, read a few pages, and sleep the sleep of the survivor! LOL

Tuesday Thingers--To Meme or Not to Meme

Today's question is only marginally about LibraryThing but I thought it might be a fun question anyway. It's more about blogging. Everyone who participates in Tuesday Thingers has a blog- some have a book blog, some have several, some have blogs that are more personal, etc.- and we've all chosen to participate in this particular way of networking to build traffic, get to know each other, etc. So my question is: what other weekly memes or round robins do you participate in? Is this the only one? Why Tuesday Thingers and not some other weekly Tuesday meme? Or do you do more than one?

I'm relatively new to blogging, so I'm still trying to figure out what's a comfortable fit for me. I learned about memes from Library Thing, and Tuesday Thingers was the very first one I decided to try. From there I've branched out to Booking Through Thursday and Friday Fill-Ins. Right now, three memes feel right for me. I may try out more, only time will tell. I am enjoying myself with these three. A lot of my enjoyment has to do with the fact that for seven years, I was the Question Master in a Usenet news group. Every Monday, I had to post a set of six questions for everyone. It generated tons of discussions, laughs, commiserations, and a few disagreements. But after almost three thousand questions, I called it quits. My brain was fried. So it's wonderful for me to be able to sit down and have the questions already supplied for me!

Real World

I was really impressed with Natsuo Kirino's Out, so much so that it was one of my Top Ten reads a couple of years ago. Kirino's characterization was marvelous, and her sense of time and place made me feel as if I really were in Japan as I turned the pages. As a result, I was very pleased this morning to read that her latest novel Real World is available in the US. Here's a blurb about Real World:

In a crowded residential suburb on the outskirts of Tokyo, four teenage girls indifferently wade their way through a hot, smoggy summer and endless “cram school” sessions meant to ensure entry into good colleges. There’s Toshi, the dependable one; Terauchi, the great student; Yuzan, the sad one, grieving over the death of her mother—and trying to hide her sexual orientation from her friends; and Kirarin, the sweet one, whose late nights and reckless behavior remain a secret from those around her. When Toshi’s next-door neighbor is found brutally murdered, the girls suspect the killer is the neighbor’s son, a high school boy they nickname Worm. But when he flees, taking Toshi’s bike and cell phone with him, the four girls get caught up in a tempest of dangers—dangers they never could have even imagined—that rises from within them as well as from the world around them.

To me, this definitely sounds like another winner, and I know I have a visit to Japan in store for me!