Okay, I've been on vacation the last ten days so I've been reading a lot but not posting. So let me try to get caught up here!
"The Pact" by Jodi Picoult was not very good. At least, not as good as some of her others have been. Two high school sweethearts, Chris and Emily, who have literally grown up together as best friends, are found one night with a gun and Emily dead. Chris claims it was a suicide pact, but after Emily shot herself he couldn't go through with it and fainted and the cops showed up before he could kill himself. The detective on the scene convinces the D.A. that Chris actually murdered Emily and they arrest him and charge him and there is a big, emotional trial, very typical of Picoult's books. I didn't like the outcome I think mostly because I didn't like the Emily character. She just didn't seem believable, so I felt no sympathy for her and didn't understand why Chris cared about her so much.
"Warm Bodies" by Isaac Marion was a zombie book with a twist. It wasn't bad, actually. "R" (that's all he remembers of his former name) wants something more out of life than just wandering around eating brains and grunting. During a raid he ends up killing and eating Julie's boyfriend Perry, and his memories of her make R decide to rescue Julie from his zombie friends. R slowly becomes more and more human throughout the course of the book, as do some of his friends. It was an interesting take on the genre.
Janet Evanovich brings Stephanie Plum back in "Smokin' Seventeen" and boy it was hot! Lots of awesome Ranger action yummy yummy! Stephanie's mother tries to get her to date an old high school classmate who is recently divorced and back in town. Dave is nice and good looking and loves to cook, and since things obviously aren't going anywhere with Morelli or Ranger what could it hurt to date Dave? Stephanie resists, and it turns out for good reason. Meanwhile, dead bodies keep turning up in the lot where Vincent Plum's bail bonds office used to be and where they are trying to rebuild. Apparently number 18 is coming out in November, which means we don't have to wait until next June! Awesome, I'll take that.
Margaret Robison was introduced to the world in a most unflattering way in her two son's memoirs, Augusten Burrough's "Running with Scissors" and John Elder Robison's "Look Me In the Eye", so she sets out to tell her side of the story in "The Long Journey Home". I didn't care for it, mostly because I think I have so little patience with the mentally ill. I know it's a terrible thing to say, and working with the general public in a library the way I do I come across a lot of people who have problems and need help. I don't know, she just didn't come across as truthful and I didn't get the pain and sadness she claims she feels about her son's childhoods. It was just "woe is me" tripe.
"Not Dead and Not for Sale" by Scott Weiland was worse, though, a total waste of time. Like Betty White's book from a few weeks ago, it left me feeling cheated, like he didn't even try to tell a story and it only took me an hour and a half to read. It was just basic, dull generalities without details. I've got his ex-wife's book on hold, so we'll see how her's holds up.
"Here We Go Again" by Betty White was the bio I was looking for. This one was great. Betty was charming and classy and very funny in this story about how she and television have grown up together. At one point she was on TV for over 25 hours a week! Can you even imagine? The book was also full of lovely photos which really added to her story. Much better!
"Keeping Faith" by Jodi Picoult was better than "The Pact". Mariah comes home one day and finds her husband in bed with another woman. After their divorce is finalized their seven year old daughter, Faith, starts talking to her imaginary friend. No big deal, until Faith starts referring to Bible verses she's never heard before (her parents aren't religious) and Mariah discovers her imaginary friend's name is God. Faith then starts performing miracles, like bringing her dead grandmother back to life and healing a baby with AIDS. The media and the Catholic and Jewish churches are all out to discredit Faith, and all Mariah wants is for her little girl to be left alone when her ex, Colin, decides to sue her for custody. There was a lot going on in this book, but it wasn't nearly as torturous as some of her others. I enjoyed it.
Deb Caletti's "Honey, Baby, Sweetheart" was another good one. I really do love her books, how authentic and believable her characters are. In this one Ruby falls for bad boy Travis who turns out to be much too bad, a thief, and Ruby realizes she needs to get away from him for good but it's hard when you care about someone. Her mother Ann is going through a similar situation. Ann takes her to a book club that she moderates (Ann is a librarian whoo hoo!) full of seniors who call themselves the Casserole Queens. Both Ruby and Ann start to heal with the help of these fun loving older folks, and although it sounds hokey it really wasn't.
"Black Sheep" by Georgette Heyer was short but very sharp. I so love her witty repartee between the two main characters in this one. Abby's niece and ward, Fanny, who is 17, has fallen in love with a fortune hunter named Stacy Caverleigh. Abby is trying to convince her niece that he is only after the money she will inherit in 8 years without turning Fanny against her. Meanwhile, Stacy's black sheep of the family uncle, Miles, returns from a 20 year exile in India and he and Abby fall for each other. Wonderful dialogue and a happy ending. More please! :)
And finally, finally (whew!) Sara Shepard's first in the series "Pretty Little Liars". At first the book annoyed me because these 16 year old kids were buying and consuming alcohol in public with no problems, and that struck me as utterly false. After awhile though it didn't seem to matter as much and I got into it and must admit, now I'm hooked and want to know what happens next. In junior high five wealthy, stuck up girls who are friends share a terrible secret which is only hinted at in this book. When one of the girls, Alison, mysteriously disappears never to be found the other four girls drift apart. Three years later they're all receiving strange text messages and emails from someone signing off as "A", who knows secrets they only shared with Alison. The book ends when Alison's body is dug up in her old backyard, but the four girls are still getting the cryptic, vaguely threatening messages.
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