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You are browsing the archives of 2009 July.

American Wife
By Curtis Sittenfeld
Completed July 30, 2009
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld is, according to the author, 15 percent based on the life of former First Lady Laura Bush. I feel obligated to express that I am not a fan of George W. Bush’s presidency, and the quiet, submissive nature of the First Lady also bothered [...]

Standing above the rug, he began to pray, but his thoughts continually turned to Nouf. For the sake of modesty, he tried not to imagine her face or her body, but the more he thought about her, the more vivid she became. In his mind she was walking through the desert, leaning into the wind, [...]

a mercy by Toni Morrison
Pages: 167
First Published: Nov. 11, 2008 (Paperback - Aug. 11 2009)
Genre: historical fiction, literary fiction
Rating: 2.5/5
First sentence:
Don’t be afraid.
Reason for Reading: I am in the process of reading all the author’s books. This is her latest as of July 2009.
Comments: The time is 1680, the place is colonial America. This is [...]

Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo
Kate Burkholder, book 1
Pages: 321
First Published: Jun. 23, 2009
Genre: thriller, mystery
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
She hadn’t believed in monsters since she was six years old, back when her mom would check the closet and look beneath her bed at night.
Reason for Reading: I’m always looking for new (or new to me) thriller [...]

The Lindbergh Child by Rick Geary
A Treasury of XXth Century Murder, Book 1
Pages: un-numbered
Ages: 14+
First Published: Aug, 2008
Genre: graphic novel, non-fiction, true crime
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Saturday, May 21, 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh becomes the hero of the age with his courageous solo flight across the Atlantic.
Reason for Reading: Next in the series, but actually I should [...]

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, 463 pages
published in ‘09
I looked up the meaning of Gothic literature at wikipedia, and would have to agree that this book is a classic Gothic novel. All the main characteristics are here: terror, mystery, ghosts, haunted houses, castles, decay, and madness. Waters has taken the time period, the 1940s [...]

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, 435 pages
Kinsella is getting better and better. I enjoyed her Shopaholic series, but Becky could be a little ridiculous, amusing but silly. I’ve enjoyed her stand alones even more - Undomestic Goddess, Remember Me? and now Twenties Girl may be the best of them.
This is a ghost story of sorts, [...]

Relentless by Dean Koontz
Pages: 356
First Published: Jun. 9, ‘09
Genre: thriller
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
This is a thing I’ve learned: Even with a gun to my head, I am capable of being convulsed with laughter.
Reason for Reading: Dean Koontz has a new book out!
Comments: Cullen Greenwich is a best selling author who is living a wonderful life and [...]

It’s hard for anyone to know where allusion ends and reality begins, let a lone a small child. - from Between Here and April, page 25 -
Elizabeth Burns, a journalist who has given up traveling the world to cover war stories in order to be there for her two children, begins suffering blackouts one [...]

The Dragons of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams & Deborah Beale
Illustrated by Greg Swearingen
Ordinary Farm, Book 1
Pages: 412
Ages: 10+
First Published: May 25,’09
Genre: children, fantasy
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Colin tested the parlor door.
Reason for Reading: When I heard Tad Williams had a book out for juveniles, I was so going to be reading it.
Comments: Tyler and Lucinda are [...]

The main thing isn’t about dying or how old you are when you die, it’s what you are doing the moment you die. In Taniguchi the heroes die while climbing Mount Everest. Since I haven’t the slightest chance of taking a stab at K2 or the Grandes Jorasses before June sixteenth, my own personal Everest [...]

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
Pages: 325
First Published: Jun. 02 ‘09
Genre: magical realism
Rating: 3.5/5
First sentence:
Once a year there was a knock at the door.
Reason for Reading: I’ve become a big fan of magical realism over the last year or so and Alice Hoffman was an author on my list, so I figured why not start [...]

Die For You by Lisa Unger
Pages: 352
First Published: Jun. 02 ‘09
Genre: thriller, international intrigue
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
A light snow falls, slowly coating the deep-red rooftops of Prague.
Reason for Reading: Well, we all know by now I love a good thriller and a missing person case is always a good read. The plot intrigued me and I [...]

It was Kabutri’s question that triggered Deeti’s vision: her eyes suddenly conjured up a picture of an immense ship with two tall masts. Suspended from the masts were great sails of a dazzling shade of white. The prow of the ship tapered into a figurehead with a long bill, like a stork or a [...]

Tom Pawlik
417 pages
Connor Hayden had a heart attack two months ago. His heart stopped beating and during that time he had a near-death experience. He spent time in a place called Interworld which is a place that is a passage between this life and the next. During his time in Interworld he encountered other people: [...]

Far North by Marcel Theroux
Pages: 314
First Published: Jun. 15 ‘09
Genre: post apocalyptic fiction
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Every day I buckle on my guns and go out to patrol this dingy city.
Reason for Reading: As soon as I saw the words dystopian and post apocalyptic associated with the plot I was there. Those are favourite genres of mine.
Comments: [...]

Roadside Crosses by Jeffery Deaver
Kathryn Dance, #2
Pages: 399
First Published: Jun. 9 ‘09
Genre: mystery, thriller, suspense
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Out of place. The California Highway Patrol trooper, young with bristly yellow hair beneath his crisp hat, squinted through the windshield of his Crown Victoria Police Interceptor as he cruised south along Highway 1 in Monterey Dunes to the [...]

The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner
Pages: 373
First Published: Jun. 16 ‘09
Genre: mystery, thriller
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
I’ve always wondered what people felt in the final hours of their lives.
Reason for Reading: I enjoyed my first Lisa Gardner book, last year’s Say Goodbye, so much I wanted to keep reading her.
Comments: Jason and Sandra Jones seem to have the [...]

Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert
Foreward by Patty Duke
Pages: 367
First Published: June ‘09
Genre: memoir, non-fiction
Rating: 3/5
First sentence:
My mother was nearly a month past her husband’s funeral when she turned her attention back to my desire to write a memoir.
Reason for Reading: I enjoy reading actor’s memoirs from my childhood back to the days of the silver [...]

Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon
Pages: 422
First Published: June ‘09
Genre: psychological thriller
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
“Dismantlement Equals Freedom”
Reason for Reading: The write-up had me drooling to read this thriller .
Comments: Four artist friends from college formed a group called the “Compassionate Dismantlers” whose manifesto was “To understand the nature of a thing, it must be taken apart”. They spend [...]