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Monday, May 14, 2012
Title: The Professor
Author: Charlotte Bronte
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 378 (HB-Large Print)
Length of time to read: 6 days
Synopsis:
This story of William Crimsworth, who goes to Brussels to seek his fortune, falls in love with Frances, a schoolteacher and lace-maker, and is himself pursued by Mademoiselle Reuter, has often been dismissed as merely a draft of Villette. Yet Charlotte Bronte always stubbornly defended the novel, suggesting a certain lack of depth on the part of the publishers. Portraying a self-made man and his relationships in an individualistic society that worships property and propriety, this peculiarly ambiguous and disturbing love story reveals Charlotte Bronte as a social critic of insight and power.
Recommended By:
Love Bronte and this was on my 100 books to read list.
Review:
I liked it. Not as much as Jane Eyre, but I think it would be hard to love it THAT much…I am a little obsessed with Jane Eyre It was well written (Of course, It’s Charlotte Bronte!!) and the characters interesting. It was a little slow, but I think I am just used to authors not nearly as good as her who rush you through the story. If you are a fan of classic novels, check this one out!
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Title: Loves Music, Loves to Dance
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 304 (PB)
Length of time to read: 4 hours
Synopsis:
New York's trendy magazines are a source of peril when a killer enacts a bizarre dance of death, using the personal ads to lure his victims...
After college, best friends Erin Kelley and Darcy Scott move to the city to pursue exciting careers; Erin is a promising jewelry designer, Darcy finds success as a decorator. On a lark, Darcy persuades Erin to help their TV producer friend research the kinds of people who place personal ads. It seems like innocent fun...until Erin disappears.
Erin's body is found on an abandoned Manhattan pier -- on one foot is her own shoe, on the other, a high-heeled dancing slipper. Soon after, startling communiqués from the killer reveal that Erin is not the first victim of this "dancing shoe murderer." And, if the killer has his way, she won't be his last. Next on his death list is Darcy.
Recommended By:
An old favorite.
Review:
This is one that I loved when I was a teenager, and I still enjoyed it even knowing how it ends. I remember the feelings I had the first time I read the book…I loved it and did a book report for school on it J MHC is one of the reasons I wanted to be a writer.
Title: Christ the Lord-Out of Egypt
Author: Anne Rice
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 321 (HB)
Length of time to read: 3 days
Synopsis:
With the Holy Land in turmoil, seven-year-old Jesus and his family leave Egypt for the dangerous road home to Jerusalem. As they travel, the boy tries to unlock the secret of his birth and comprehend his terrifying power to work miracles. Anne Rice's dazzling, kaleidoscopic novel, based on the gospels and the most respected New Testament scholarship, summons up the voice, the presence, and the words of Jesus, allowing him to tell his own story as he struggles to grasp the holy purpose of his life.
Recommended By:
The book is on my 100 book to read list.
Review:
I didn’t care for it. It was somewhat boring. As I have said in the recent past, I don’t think she is a great writer, but is a good storyteller usually. This time, she failed me. I might pick up the next book in the series, but I am in no hurry to do so. I just didn’t find the story that interesting…
Title: Dragonspell (Dragon Keeper #1)
Author: Donita K. Paul
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 339 (Softcover)
Length of time to read: 3 days
Synopsis:
One Dragon Egg Holds the Key to the Future.
Once a slave, Kale is given the unexpected opportunity to become a servant to Paladin. Yet this young girl has much to learn about the difference between slavery and service.
A Desperate Search Begins…
A small band of Paladin’s servants rescue Kale from danger but turn her from her destination: The Hall, where she was to be trained. Feeling afraid and unprepared, Kale embarks on a perilous quest to find the meech dragon egg stolen by the foul Wizard Risto. First, she and her comrades must find Wizard Fenworth. But their journey is threatened when a key member of the party is captured, leaving the remaining companions to find Fenworth, attempt an impossible rescue, and recover the egg whose true value they have not begun to suspect…
Recommended By:
A nurse my husband works with.
Review:
It wasn’t the most original of subjects-it was like a lot of other fantasies with Dragons I have read-but it still pulled me in. I liked that the main character is a girl and I loved the minor dragons! I plan to read the next book in the series and hope I enjoy it as well.
Title: One True Thing
Author: Anna Quindlen
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 289 (HB)
Length of time to read: 2 days
Synopsis:
A mother. A daughter. A shattering choice
Recommended By:
I have read a few of her other books and usually enjoy hem.
Review:
It was a good book, sad, but an easy book to read. Not too sappy, which is good…but t still tugged at my heart strings a bit. I thought it was a well told story, it felt authentic and not manipulative like so many about this subject.
Title: Pampered to Death
Author: Laura Levine
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 279 (HB)
Length of time to read: 1 ½ hours
Synopsis:
Jaine Austen is looking forward to an indulgent spa getaway--until she learns it's more about deprivation than relaxation. Between miniscule meals and a deadly brush with fame, surviving this vacation will be no piece of cake.
Recommended By:
Was checking for Biographies about Jane Austen and this was recommended.
Review:
This is the 10th in the series (I think), but the first one I read. I wasn’t confused and didn’t feel out of the loop, so that’s a plus. It was an ok read, but I didn’t get hooked and I don’t plan to read any more of the series. The main character is a little bland, but I did enjoy her parents…they made me laugh.
Title: Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 535 (PB)
Length of time to read: 4 days
Synopsis:
Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary dynasties are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and heir of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the "spice" mélange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The story explores the complex and multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the forces of the empire confront each other for control of Arrakis and its "spice".
Recommended By:
My friend Coyla
Review:
It took me a few days to get into the book, but once I got 1/3 of the way through the book I was pretty hooked. It was well written, but at times I had a little trouble keeping all the characters straight. It was good read though and I plan to start the next book soon.
Title: Twisted (Pretty Little Liars #9)
Author: Sara Shepard
Genre: YA Fiction
Pages: 307 (HB)
Length of time to read: 3 hours
Synopsis:
It’s been a year since the torturous notes from A stopped and the mystery of Alison DiLaurentis’s disappearance was finally put to rest. Now seniors in high school, Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily are older, but they’re not any wiser. The Pretty Little Liars have more secrets than ever - twisted secrets that could destroy the perfect lives they’ve worked so hard to rebuild.
Aria’s jealous of her boyfriend’s new exchange student. Spencer’s getting a little too cozy with her soon-to-be-stepbrother. Hanna’s one scandalous photo away from ruining her dad’s Senate campaign. And Emily will do anything to get a swim scholarship.
Worst of all: Last spring break in Jamaica, they did something unforgivable. The girls are desperate to forget that fateful night, but they should know better than anyone that all secrets wash ashore … eventually
Recommended By:
Been reading the series for a year or so.
Review:
Only one book to go…thank goodness. The story is getting more and more farfetched and I don’t really care anymore. I just found out there is going to be an 11th book. I plan to stop at 10 unless there is a very good reason to read the 11th book.
Title: A Stranger is Watching
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 256 (HB)
Length of time to read: 3 days
Synopsis:
Ronald Thompson knows he never killed Nina Peterson... yet in two days the state of Connecticut will take his life, having found him guilty via due process of law. But Thompson's death will not stop the pain and anger of Nina's husband, Steve. Thompson's death will not still the fears of Nina’s six-year-old son, Neil, witness to his mother's brutal slaying. Not even the love and friendship of Sharon Martin, a journalist who is slowly becoming a part of their world, will ever erase their bitter memories. Only time, perhaps, will heal their wounds. But in the shadows a stranger waits, a cunning psychopath who has killed before, who has unfinished business at the Peterson home...
Recommended By:
A re-read…
Review:
It was a good book, I think this is my fourth time reading it and it was just as good as the first three times he story is well written and fast paced, and the characters are relatable.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Title: The Wolf Gift
Author: Anne Rice
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 402 (HB)
Length of time to read: 4 days
Synopsis:
The time is the present.
The place, the rugged coast of northern California. A bluff high above the Pacific. A grand mansion full of beauty and tantalizing history set against a towering redwood forest.
A young reporter on assignment from the San Francisco Observer. . . an older woman, welcoming him into her magnificent, historic family home that he has been sent to write about and that she must sell with some urgency . . . A chance encounter between two unlikely people . . . an idyllic night—shattered by horrific unimaginable violence. . .The young man inexplicably attacked—bitten—by a beast he cannot see in the rural darkness . . . A violent episode that sets in motion a terrifying yet seductive transformation as the young man, caught between ecstasy and horror, between embracing who he is evolving into and fearing who—what—he will become, soon experiences the thrill of the wolf gift.
As he resists the paradoxical pleasure and enthrallment of his wolfen savagery and delights in the power and (surprising) capacity for good, he is caught up in a strange and dangerous rescue and is desperately hunted as “the Man Wolf,” by authorities, the media and scientists (evidence of DNA threaten to reveal his dual existence). . . As a new and profound love enfolds him, questions emerge that propel him deeper into his mysterious new world: questions of why and how he has been given this gift; of its true nature and the curious but satisfying pull towards goodness; of the profound realization that there are others like him who may be watching—guardian creatures who have existed throughout time and may possess ancient secrets and alchemical knowledge and throughout it all, the search for salvation for a soul tormented by a new realm of temptations, and the fraught, exhilarating journey, still to come, of being and becoming, fully, both wolf and man.
Recommended By:
Saw Anne Rice on Craig Ferguson promoting the book and it looked good.
Review:
I liked the book. It was reminiscent of The Interview with a Vampire…which was nice for me since I loved the first few books of the Vampire Chronicles. There were a few things I didn’t like about the book, one is a storyline and I do not wish to spoil the book for anyone so I will not share it and the other is…she still is not a great writer. However, she is a good storyteller, and I liked the book enough to hope for a sequel to read soon.
Title: A Mount Vernon Love Story
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 288 (pb)
Length of time to read: 1 day
Synopsis:
The role of leader came naturally to George Washington, the man revered as "the father of his Country." But when it came to the social aspects of life in the mid-18th century, he was both awkward and insecure. It was only through the love of a woman that he found the happiness that gave real meaning to his life.
In matters of the heart, Washington initially stumbles when he falls in love with Sally Wilcox, his best friend's young bride. But Sally is understanding, and sets out to teach George the art of social graces. When he finds himself attracted to Martha Custis -- a young widow with two children -- he summons the courage to ask her to marry him.
As depicted by Clark, their marriage was not without conflict. Their love was strong, and it endured long months of separation and the many dangers that Washington's role as leader of the Army entailed. At the end of his long career, when he and Martha return to Mount Vernon, the fire of their love burns just as brightly as when he took her there as his new bride.
Recommended By:
This was a book I had on my shelves for a few years.
Review:
It was a good read, I have had the book for a few years, but never got around to reading it. I enjoyed my time spent with this novel.
Title: Hide and Seek
Author: James Patterson
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 302 (HB)
Length of time to read: 1 day
Synopsis:
Patterson tells this story through two points of view: there's the the first-person voice of Maggie Bradford, who kills her abusive husband in the novel's flashback prologue and has now become a world-famous singer-songwriter ("I love your music, Maggie," Barbra Streisand tells her); and there's a third-person narration that is often filtered through the eyes of Will Shepherd, the celebrated soccer star who romances Maggie after her interim lover, an older tycoon, dies of a heart attack. The devastatingly handsome Will likes to hurt women ("there was a distinctly good part in him, but also a bad part"), however, and sometimes even to kill them. Will seems to want Maggie to save him from himself. Using his beauty and charm on her and her children, he wins her hand in marriage.
That union sets up a major-league deja vu, two murder trials that aren't quite riveting and a final Big Twist that will only surprise those fresh to the thriller genre. Still, Will's descent into cartoonishness, and various loose threads, will probably not bother readers swept along by this lightweight pop fiction.
Recommended By:
This was a re-read.
Review:
It was a good quick and easy read. I enjoyed it, it was not as intense as I remembered, but was still enjoyable.
Title: The Salamander Spell (Prequel to The Frog Princess)
Author: E.D. Baker
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Pages: 248 (HB)
Length of time to read: 1 day
Synopsis:
In this prequel to the Tales of the Frog Princess, Grassina is a young princess-in-training. But as the younger sister to Princess Chartreuse, Grassina is not expected to do much beyond behave herself. When a terrible spell stops her mother from being the good Green Witch, and the Kingdom of Greater Greensward seems to teeter on the brink of terror, Grassina sets off on an errand in the swamp and comes back with some surprises for everyone, including skills that only Chartreuse is supposed to have. Soon it is clear that Grassina has begun to find her own way to the magic she thinks she'll never have, and luckily for Greater Greensward, the audaciousness--and the ability--to save the kingdom itself.
Recommended By:
Read the series this was a prequel to.
Review:
I didn’t like this book as much as the others I have read written by this author. I didn’t connect to the characters or the story as much. It lacked something for me…it didn’t seem to have the depth of the Frog Princess Series. I was a quick and easy read though.
Title: Odd Thomas
Author: Dean Koontz
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 446 (PB)
Length of time to read: 3 days
Synopsis:
“The dead don't talk. I don't know why.” But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn. Maybe he has a gift, maybe it’s a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries
to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd’s otherworldly tips to Pico Mundo's sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it's different.
A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world's worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Odd’s deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar for August 15.
Today is August 14.
In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares—and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere.
Recommended By:
A friend (David Bostic) recommended it after I asked him for a rec. of a Koontz book
Review:
I was very happy with the book, it was very interesting. I was saddened by the ending but would like to read the next book in the series so I know what happens with the story. It was an engaging read.
Title: Other Voices, Other Rooms
Author: Truman Capote
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 194 (HB)
Length of time to read: 2 days
Synopsis:
Published when Truman Capote was only twenty-three years old, Other Voices, Other Rooms is a literary touchstone of the mid-twentieth century. In this semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel, thirteen-year-old Joel Knox, after losing his mother, is sent from New Orleans to live with the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at Skully’s Landing, the decaying mansion in rural Alabama, his father is nowhere to be found. Instead, Joel meets his morose stepmother, Amy, eccentric cousin Randolph, and a defiant little girl named Idabel, who soon offers Joel the love and approval he seeks.
Fueled by a world-weariness that belied Capote’s tender age, this novel tempers its themes of waylaid hopes and lost innocence with an appreciation for small pleasures and the colorful language of its time and place.
This new edition, featuring an enlightening Introduction by John Berendt, offers readers a fresh look at Capote’s emerging brilliance as a writer of protean power and effortless grace.
Recommended By:
I enjoy his work.
Review:
I had a really hard time with this one. I couldn’t connect with the story. A rare miss for me, I usually enjoy his writing.
Title: I Still Dream about You
Author: Fannie Flagg
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 315 (HB)
Length of time to read: 1 day
Synopsis:
The beloved Fannie Flagg is back and at her irresistible and hilarious best in I Still Dream About You, a comic mystery romp through the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, past, present, and future.
Meet Maggie Fortenberry, a still beautiful former Miss Alabama. To others, Maggie’s life seems practically perfect—she’s lovely, charming, and a successful real estate agent at Red Mountain Realty. Still, Maggie can’t help but wonder how she wound up in her present condition. She had been on her hopeful way to becoming Miss America and realizing her childhood dream of someday living in one of the elegant old homes on top of Red Mountain, with the adoring husband and the 2.5 children, but then something unexpected happened and changed everything.
Maggie graduated at the top of her class at charm school, can fold a napkin in more than forty-eight different ways, and can enter and exit a car gracefully, but all the finesse in the world cannot help her now. Since the legendary real estate dynamo Hazel Whisenknott, beloved founder of Red Mountain Realty, died five years ago, business has gone from bad to worse—and the future isn’t looking much better. But just when things seem completely hopeless, Maggie suddenly comes up with the perfect plan to solve it all.
As Maggie prepares to put her plan into action, we meet the cast of high-spirited characters around her. To Brenda Peoples, Maggie’s best friend and real estate partner, Maggie’s life seems easy as pie. Slender Maggie doesn’t have to worry about her figure, or about her Weight Watchers sponsor catching her at the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. And Ethel Clipp, Red Mountain’s ancient and grumpy office manager with the bright purple hair, thinks the world of Maggie but has absolutely nothing nice to say about their rival Babs “The Beast of Birmingham” Bingington, the unscrupulous estate agent who hates Maggie and is determined to put her out of business.
Maggie has heartbreaking secrets in her past, but through a strange turn of events, she soon discovers, quite by accident, that everybody, it seems—dead or alive—has at least one little secret.
Recommended By:
Loved Fried Green Tomatoes and have planned to read more of her books for years.
Review:
It was a lovely read. I liked I quite a bit. The characters were engaging and the story was well written…definitely going to check out another one of her books!
Title: Wonder Girl
Author: Alexa Martin
Genre: YA Fiction
Pages: 285 (HB)
Length of time to read: 2 days
Synopsis:
After being turned away from her new school's gifted and talented program, Charlotte, a Washington State high school senior, begins to lose her self-confidence when she befriends a charismatic and brilliant student who offers her popularity at the cost of her self-esteem.
Recommended By:
The title caught my attention.
Review:
I liked the book ok. I can see why it would be a good read for teenage girls, but it lacked something for me. It tried to have a depth it just didn’t have…I don’t know if I would read another book written by her.
Title: Private: #1 Suspect (Jack Morgan #2)
Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 494 (HB Lrg Print)
Length of time to read: 1 day
Synopsis:
Since former Marine helicopter pilot Jack Morgan started Private, it has become one of the world's most powerful investigation firms, sought out by the rich and famous to discretely handle their most sensitive problems. Private's investigators are the smartest, the fastest, and the most technologically advanced in the world--and they always uncover the truth.
When a former lover is found murdered in Jack's bed, he is instantly the number one suspect. While the police are investigating Jack, the mob strong-arms him into recovering $30 million in stolen pharmaceuticals, and the beautiful manager of a luxury hotel chain persuades him to quietly investigate a spree of murders occurring on their properties. Fighting for his life on both sides of the law, Jack realizes that he may not be able to save himself this time.
Recommended By:
I read most of his books…
Review:
I liked this one quite a bit. I seem to like the books he writes with Paetro, the characters are usually pretty good and so is the plot. This is the second in a series and I liked it as well as the previous book. I was invested in the story and cared about the outcome for the characters.
Title: Remember Me
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 306 (HB)
Length of time to read: 3 Hours
Synopsis:
A Mother's Love...Haunted By Ghosts Of Terrors Past...
Menley Nichols as never stopped blaming herself for the accidental death of her two-year old son, a tragedy that strained her marriage and her sanity. When she and her husband Adam, a high-profile attorney, are blessed with a beautiful new baby daughter, they dedicate themselves to rebuilding their lives together---unaware that someone in their midst has a very different agenda for them.
Yearning to return to his Cape Cod roots for a late summer respite, Adam moves his family into Remember House, an 18th-century sea captain's house as legendary as it is picturesque. But the Nichols are immediately drawn into a dark and threatening web of events that disrupt the seemingly peaceful seaside town. As mysterious incidents amass into a cloud of menace, Menley must soon confront the shadows of the past...and the mounting fear for her beloved daughter's life...
Recommended By:
I have always enjoyed her books.
Review:
This is a book I have re read a few times now. I knew the outcome but still enjoyed the book. I like her writing style and I loved her when I was a teenager…and still enjoy her today J It was a quick read and it made me long to read another book written by the great Mary Higgins Clark!!!!
Title: How to Buy a Love of Reading
Author: Tanya Egan Gibson
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 389 (HB)
Length of time to read: 1 day
Synopsis:
To Carley Wells, words are the enemy. Her tutor's innumerable SAT flashcards. Her personal trainer's "fifty-seven pounds overweight" assessment. And the endless reading assignments from her English teacher, Mr. Nagel. When Nagel reports to her parents that she has answered "What is your favorite book" with "Never met one I liked," they decide to fix what he calls her "intellectual impoverishment." They will commission a book to be written just for her-one she'll have to love-that will impress her teacher and the whole town of Fox Glen with their family's devotion to the arts. They will be patrons- the Medicis of Long Island. They will buy their daughter The Love Of Reading.
Impossible though it is for Carley to imagine loving books, she is in love with a young bibliophile who cares about them more than anything. Anything, that is, but a good bottle of scotch. Hunter Cay, Carley's best friend and Fox Glen's resident golden boy, is becoming a stranger to her lately as he drowns himself in F. Scott Fitzgerald, booze, and Vicodin.
When the Wellses move writer Bree McEnroy-author of a failed meta-novel about Odysseus' failed journey home through the Internet-into their mansion to write Carley's book, Carley's sole interest in the project is to distract Hunter from drinking and give them something to share. But as Hunter's behavior becomes erratic and dangerous, she finds herself increasingly drawn into the fictional world Bree has created, and begins to understand for the first time the power of stories-those we read, those we want to believe in, and most of all, those we tell ourselves about ourselves. Stories powerful enough to destroy a person. Or save her.
Recommended By:
It was in a display at the library and caught my eye.
Review:
I really liked the book, there were a lot of references to The Great Gatsby (A book I thought was overrated…) and I could definitely see the parallels between the two stories and enjoyed it even though I didn’t really like The Great Gatsby. It took me a little while to become invested in the character’s lives, however, once I did I was very invested. I was saddened and amused by this book. I hope to read more of her work in the future.
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