Friday, December 28, 2012
Cemetery John
I read everything I can get my hands on about the Lindbergh kidnapping. "Cemetery John" by Robert E. Zorn is a new one that has an interesting take on the crime. Zorn's father, Eugene, grew up in the Bronx, and as a child he knew a man named John Knoll, who he believed he saw conspiring with Bruno Richard Hauptmann one day. Eugene passed away, but his son was determined to continue his father's search for the truth. He researched Knoll, and discusses his theory on how he and his brother and Hauptmann worked together to kidnap Charles Lindbergh Jr. In the beginning, everyone thought the crime was the work of a gang, and only after the authorities arrested Hauptmann did they decide it was a one man operation. Zorn makes a lot of good points, like how John Condon (Jafsie) first identified the man who took the ransom money in the cemetery as having an odd growth near his left thumb. Hauptmann had no such mark, but Knoll did. While I'd like to believe Hauptmann was innocent, Zorn makes a strong case for him at least having a part in the crime. I still think the ladder coming from a piece of wood from Hauptmann's attic is ridiculous, though.
Family Fang
"Family Fang" by Kevin Wilson was pretty interesting. Annie and Buster, known as Children A and B, have been part of their parents' performance art since they were born. As adults, they are less inclined to want to have anything to do with their parents' unique way of creating art out of chaos, until Caleb and Camille go missing and are presumed dead. Annie and Buster know their parents must have set it up, planning on making some grand reentry into the world, and they try to think like them and figure out what to do next in order to force their parents to reveal themselves. It was definitely different.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Notorious Nineteen; The Casual Vacancy
Janet Evanovich's latest Stephanie Plum book, "Notorious Nineteen", was pretty good. Ranger hires Stephanie to be a bodyguard for the fiancee of a friends of his from when he was in the war in Afghanistan. It looks like one of the guys in their group faked his own death and is bent of revenge, coming after Ranger and his friend. Meanwhile, Steph is also trying to catch a skip and ends up in a nasty body harvesting ring.
I must admit, I had mixed feelings about J.K. Rowling's latest, "The Casual Vacancy". I read some reviews that said it was good, some said it was bad, some were in between. I felt that it was in between. I admit, I was probably harder on her because she *is* J.K. freakin' Rowling after all. If it had been published anonymously, I might have enjoyed it more. The main problem I had was the sheer number of characters she introduced. I spent at least 2/3 of the book wondering who these people were because I couldn't keep them straight. The plot was interesting, about what happens in a small village when one of the council members die and his seat is up for election. Everyone in town seemed to have an agenda they wanted to push. Mostly, this book made me want to reread Harry Potter.
I must admit, I had mixed feelings about J.K. Rowling's latest, "The Casual Vacancy". I read some reviews that said it was good, some said it was bad, some were in between. I felt that it was in between. I admit, I was probably harder on her because she *is* J.K. freakin' Rowling after all. If it had been published anonymously, I might have enjoyed it more. The main problem I had was the sheer number of characters she introduced. I spent at least 2/3 of the book wondering who these people were because I couldn't keep them straight. The plot was interesting, about what happens in a small village when one of the council members die and his seat is up for election. Everyone in town seemed to have an agenda they wanted to push. Mostly, this book made me want to reread Harry Potter.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Killing Kennedy; Rasputin; Thomas Becket; A Dangerous Inheritance; Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone; The ABCs of Gold Investing
"Killing Kennedy" by Bill O'Reilly was pretty good. Not a whole lot of new information, even for me (I don't read a lot about the Kennedy assassination, for all my true crime loving tendencies, this one never really appealed to me, but when I went to Dallas several years ago I did visit the Texas Book Depository and the JFK museum there). It was a quick read that definitely wasn't boring.
"Rasputin" by Joseph T. Fuhrmann was a very interesting account of the Mad Monk of Russia that tried to dispel myths built up around him, and I think he did an excellent job of doing that. He explained how his influence over Tsar Nicholas II ultimately helped lead to the downfall of the aristocracy. Russia has always fascinated me, I hope to be able to read more about it in the future.
"Thomas Becket" by John Guy was sort of disappointing. I enjoy reading about Becket, and his relationship with King Henry II, but this one couldn't hold my attention.
"A Dangerous Inheritance" by Alison Weir follows the dual stories of Katherine Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of King Richard III, and a hundred years later, Katherine Grey, sister to doomed Queen Jane and cousin to Elizabeth I. Both died young, and in Grey's case rather tragically (not one of Elizabeth's shining moments, the way she treated poor Katherine). I enjoyed it, even if I don't agree with Weir that Richard murdered his nephews in the Tower.
"Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone" by Stefan Kiesbye was a disturbing and very creepy fictional book about a village in Germany where everyone is really horrendous to each other. A group of boys murder their friend by convincing him to dive into a frozen lake, another girl blames her friend for a mistake she made, causing her friend a much needed scholarship, etc. It was pretty good, but damn, these people are cold-hearted.
And finally, "The ABCs of Gold Investing" by Michael J. Kosares. I read so many books for fun, I thought it would be a good idea if I started educating myself about important things, like investing, real estate, and finance, so I'm making an effort to read more of those sort of books. This was a good introductory guide to investing in precious metals that wasn't too far over my head.
"Rasputin" by Joseph T. Fuhrmann was a very interesting account of the Mad Monk of Russia that tried to dispel myths built up around him, and I think he did an excellent job of doing that. He explained how his influence over Tsar Nicholas II ultimately helped lead to the downfall of the aristocracy. Russia has always fascinated me, I hope to be able to read more about it in the future.
"Thomas Becket" by John Guy was sort of disappointing. I enjoy reading about Becket, and his relationship with King Henry II, but this one couldn't hold my attention.
"A Dangerous Inheritance" by Alison Weir follows the dual stories of Katherine Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of King Richard III, and a hundred years later, Katherine Grey, sister to doomed Queen Jane and cousin to Elizabeth I. Both died young, and in Grey's case rather tragically (not one of Elizabeth's shining moments, the way she treated poor Katherine). I enjoyed it, even if I don't agree with Weir that Richard murdered his nephews in the Tower.
"Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone" by Stefan Kiesbye was a disturbing and very creepy fictional book about a village in Germany where everyone is really horrendous to each other. A group of boys murder their friend by convincing him to dive into a frozen lake, another girl blames her friend for a mistake she made, causing her friend a much needed scholarship, etc. It was pretty good, but damn, these people are cold-hearted.
And finally, "The ABCs of Gold Investing" by Michael J. Kosares. I read so many books for fun, I thought it would be a good idea if I started educating myself about important things, like investing, real estate, and finance, so I'm making an effort to read more of those sort of books. This was a good introductory guide to investing in precious metals that wasn't too far over my head.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The Twelve; Little Women and Werewolves; Can't Quit You, Baby; Tilt; Hard Eight; The Prophet; To the Nines; The Walking Dead: the Road to Woodbury; Total Recall; Trixie Belden and the Mystery Off Glen Road; Trixie Belden and the Gatehouse Mystery
"The Twelve" by Justin Cronin is the second in the Passage trilogy. When I read "The Passage", I didn't realize there would be two more books, which is why I was disappointed with the open ended finish. Of course now I realize why he did it that way and it makes sense. I'd like to go back and reread the first one, but I'm way too swamped right now. I liked "The Twelve" a lot, even if I didn't understand what was going on a lot of the time. That's an all too common occurrence lately, I'm afraid. I think I have too much I want to read and as a result I don't pay very good attention to what I'm currently reading.
"Little Women and Werewolves" by Louisa May Alcott and Porter Grand was a fun mashup. I've never been a big fan of "Little Women", but with the addition of werewolves it was fun and playful. I enjoyed it.
"Can't Quit You, Baby" by Ellen Douglas was a great Southern fiction tale examining the complex friendship between a white woman and her black maid in Mississippi in the 1960s. Douglas passed away recently, and when I found out she was influenced by William Faulkner I wanted to read something of hers. I enjoyed this one a lot and can't wait to read more by her.
"Tilt" by Ellen Hopkins is the teenager's side of her adult book "Triangles". Mikayla gets pregnant by her boyfriend Dylan and doesn't want to have an abortion but Dylan doesn't want her to keep it and breaks up with her right when she needs him most. Shane's new boyfriend is HIV positive and his little sister is dying. Harley finds herself being manipulated by Lucas, who rapes her while she's passed out drunk one night. Lots of heavy stuff, told in Hopkin's unique style. Even though I knew what was going to happen after reading the adult's POV, it was still interesting to see it from a different angle.
"Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich is a reread, one of my favorites, where Stephanie and Ranger hook up for the first time. Wowza!
"The Prophet" by Michael Koryta was excellent. Twenty years earlier, Adam Austin skipped giving his younger sister Marie a ride home from school so he could go out with his girlfriend. Marie never made it home, and her body was discovered days later, raped and murdered. Adam lives with the guilt and blames himself, and as a result is estranged from his younger brother, Kent. Kent is the town's high school football coach, and the team is undefeated and going on the the state championships when one of his star players suffers a terrible tragedy when his girlfriend is murdered after going to Adam for advice on how to find her dad. Adam feels the guilt of this murder, too, since he sent the girl to the address where she was killed. Now the killer is after Kent and his family, and Adam isn't going to let anyone else get hurt.
"To the Nines" by Janet Evanovich is another reread, where Steph has to go to Vegas to look for a skip and gets caught up in a brutal game where the other players kill each other off until only one is left.
"The Walking Dead: the Road to Woodbury" by Robert Kirkman is the sequel to "Rise of the Governor". I wasn't crazy about this one. It starts out with a group of survivors and stays with them until about 2/3 of the way through the book, when they find themselves in Woodbury. The Governor is just rising into power, and Lilly wants to get out of Woodbury as fast as she can. She feels the place and the Governor are evil, but her escape attempt is thwarted and even makes Brian Blake more powerful than he was before.
"Total Recall" by Arnold Schwarzenegger was a candid account of his rise to fame as a bodybuilder and movie star who became governor of California. I've always liked him as an actor and thought he did a fairly decent job most of the time as the Governor. The book was a bit shocking in places, at least to me, when he used language and told jokes that were off color. I wasn't expecting that, but at least he didn't try to hide who he really is. That came across loud and clear.
And finally, two Trixie Belden rereads by Julie Campbell, two of my favorites, #5 "The Mystery Off Glen Road" and #3 "The Gatehouse Mystery". "Glen Road" makes me laugh myself silly every time I reread it, it's so funny. I love those Bob Whites of the Glen. "Gatehouse" is where Trixie and Honey find a diamond in the old gatehouse on the Wheeler's property and it turns out the new chauffeur, Dick, is a pickpocket looking to steal the diamond back. I wish there were more than 39 books in the series. I've been reading some great fanfiction online, and it's amazing how good some it is. These writers have really got the personalities and writing styles down. Great fun. Maybe I'll try and reread some of the books I haven't read a million times :)
"Little Women and Werewolves" by Louisa May Alcott and Porter Grand was a fun mashup. I've never been a big fan of "Little Women", but with the addition of werewolves it was fun and playful. I enjoyed it.
"Can't Quit You, Baby" by Ellen Douglas was a great Southern fiction tale examining the complex friendship between a white woman and her black maid in Mississippi in the 1960s. Douglas passed away recently, and when I found out she was influenced by William Faulkner I wanted to read something of hers. I enjoyed this one a lot and can't wait to read more by her.
"Tilt" by Ellen Hopkins is the teenager's side of her adult book "Triangles". Mikayla gets pregnant by her boyfriend Dylan and doesn't want to have an abortion but Dylan doesn't want her to keep it and breaks up with her right when she needs him most. Shane's new boyfriend is HIV positive and his little sister is dying. Harley finds herself being manipulated by Lucas, who rapes her while she's passed out drunk one night. Lots of heavy stuff, told in Hopkin's unique style. Even though I knew what was going to happen after reading the adult's POV, it was still interesting to see it from a different angle.
"Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich is a reread, one of my favorites, where Stephanie and Ranger hook up for the first time. Wowza!
"The Prophet" by Michael Koryta was excellent. Twenty years earlier, Adam Austin skipped giving his younger sister Marie a ride home from school so he could go out with his girlfriend. Marie never made it home, and her body was discovered days later, raped and murdered. Adam lives with the guilt and blames himself, and as a result is estranged from his younger brother, Kent. Kent is the town's high school football coach, and the team is undefeated and going on the the state championships when one of his star players suffers a terrible tragedy when his girlfriend is murdered after going to Adam for advice on how to find her dad. Adam feels the guilt of this murder, too, since he sent the girl to the address where she was killed. Now the killer is after Kent and his family, and Adam isn't going to let anyone else get hurt.
"To the Nines" by Janet Evanovich is another reread, where Steph has to go to Vegas to look for a skip and gets caught up in a brutal game where the other players kill each other off until only one is left.
"The Walking Dead: the Road to Woodbury" by Robert Kirkman is the sequel to "Rise of the Governor". I wasn't crazy about this one. It starts out with a group of survivors and stays with them until about 2/3 of the way through the book, when they find themselves in Woodbury. The Governor is just rising into power, and Lilly wants to get out of Woodbury as fast as she can. She feels the place and the Governor are evil, but her escape attempt is thwarted and even makes Brian Blake more powerful than he was before.
"Total Recall" by Arnold Schwarzenegger was a candid account of his rise to fame as a bodybuilder and movie star who became governor of California. I've always liked him as an actor and thought he did a fairly decent job most of the time as the Governor. The book was a bit shocking in places, at least to me, when he used language and told jokes that were off color. I wasn't expecting that, but at least he didn't try to hide who he really is. That came across loud and clear.
And finally, two Trixie Belden rereads by Julie Campbell, two of my favorites, #5 "The Mystery Off Glen Road" and #3 "The Gatehouse Mystery". "Glen Road" makes me laugh myself silly every time I reread it, it's so funny. I love those Bob Whites of the Glen. "Gatehouse" is where Trixie and Honey find a diamond in the old gatehouse on the Wheeler's property and it turns out the new chauffeur, Dick, is a pickpocket looking to steal the diamond back. I wish there were more than 39 books in the series. I've been reading some great fanfiction online, and it's amazing how good some it is. These writers have really got the personalities and writing styles down. Great fun. Maybe I'll try and reread some of the books I haven't read a million times :)
Friday, November 9, 2012
Castle Rogue; Unwind; Insurgent
"Castle Rogue" by Carole Nelson Douglas picks up where "Chapel Noir" left off. Luckily, Nell is alive! She and Godfrey are being held in a remote castle in Transylvania by Irene's worst enemy, Tatyana, a Russian spy known as Sable. Douglas has a very interesting Ripper suspect, and in the end Nell and Godfrey, who have been joined by Bram Stoker, are rescued by Irene, Pink, and Sherlock Holmes. It was great fun, I really enjoyed having Nell's dry wit back.
"Unwind" by Neal Shusterman was...interesting. I can't say that I really liked it. Set in the future, abortion is illegal but parents can choose to "unwind" their teenagers anytime from 13-17. Unwinding is a process of harvesting them for their parts, so technically they're still alive, but in a different form. Connor discovers his parents are going to have him unwound, so he runs away and ends up with a ward from the state who is also being unwound due to budget cuts, Risa, and Lev, a boy who is actually being tithed (since his parents have 10 kids, 1/10 belongs to the state, so Lev is the tithe). They end up being shuttled through an underground escape network and end up in the desert at an airplane graveyard run by a former Navy Admiral, who helps hide the kids until they turn 18 and can go out on their own. It was an interesting premise, but I just didn't get into it.
"Insurgent" by Veronica Roth is the sequel to "Divergent". It was very good, and the ending nicely set up the third book. Tris and Tobias are working hard to thwart the leader of the Erudite, who is using mind control to make killers out of the other factions. Amity refuses to get involved, and they bounce around in different factions, finally breaking into the Erudite headquarters to take her out.
"Unwind" by Neal Shusterman was...interesting. I can't say that I really liked it. Set in the future, abortion is illegal but parents can choose to "unwind" their teenagers anytime from 13-17. Unwinding is a process of harvesting them for their parts, so technically they're still alive, but in a different form. Connor discovers his parents are going to have him unwound, so he runs away and ends up with a ward from the state who is also being unwound due to budget cuts, Risa, and Lev, a boy who is actually being tithed (since his parents have 10 kids, 1/10 belongs to the state, so Lev is the tithe). They end up being shuttled through an underground escape network and end up in the desert at an airplane graveyard run by a former Navy Admiral, who helps hide the kids until they turn 18 and can go out on their own. It was an interesting premise, but I just didn't get into it.
"Insurgent" by Veronica Roth is the sequel to "Divergent". It was very good, and the ending nicely set up the third book. Tris and Tobias are working hard to thwart the leader of the Erudite, who is using mind control to make killers out of the other factions. Amity refuses to get involved, and they bounce around in different factions, finally breaking into the Erudite headquarters to take her out.
Friday, November 2, 2012
What You See in the Dark; Pretty Dead
"What You See in the Dark" by Manuel Munoz is about Bakersfield, California in the early 1960s. A young Mexican girl is dating the most handsome white guy in town, and it causes quite the stir. A famous movie star and her director come to town to scout out local motels for inspiration for the movie they're filming. The particular movie (which involves a shower scene) ties into what happens with the girl and her boyfriend. It was interesting and a quick read.
"Pretty Dead" by Francesca Lia Block was an even quicker read. Her books are kind of hit and miss for me: some I like, others not so much. This one was pretty good. Charlotte is a vampire, a beautiful 17 year old girl who befriends Emily. When Emily commits suicide, her boyfriend, Jared, turns to Charlotte and asks her to make him a vampire, too, so he won't feel the pain anymore. It ended up having a neat little twist at the end.
"Pretty Dead" by Francesca Lia Block was an even quicker read. Her books are kind of hit and miss for me: some I like, others not so much. This one was pretty good. Charlotte is a vampire, a beautiful 17 year old girl who befriends Emily. When Emily commits suicide, her boyfriend, Jared, turns to Charlotte and asks her to make him a vampire, too, so he won't feel the pain anymore. It ended up having a neat little twist at the end.
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