Sick this week -- hence the meds & cough drops -- but still reading! :)

The Fire -- "When Katherine Neville's The Eight appeared in 1988, it marked something new: a thriller combining history and fiction in parallel narratives that told the story of a potentially world-changing secret. One strand explored mysterious connections among real historical figures, while another followed present-day adventurers unraveling clues from the past on a perilous quest for hidden treasure -- awfully Da Vinci Code one might say, except that The Eight predated Dan Brown's novel by 15 years. Now Neville returns with The Fire, a much-anticipated sequel, but the question isn't just how she expands on that first novel, but how well she works within what has become a tried-and-true formula. In structure and elements, the new novel has much in common with The Eight: one story set in the 1820s, another in the 1990s, with characters in each period playing a high-stakes game related to a chess set that once belonged to Charlemagne. At the end of the first novel, the players learned that the board and pieces contained the formula for the elixir of life; here it's discovered that the board may hold more abstract information about natural order and balance -- the Big Picture, it's called at one point, the Original Instructions at others. Whatever it is, it seems worth killing for. Many characters from The Eight reappear, but the focus now is on Xie, a 12-year-old chess prodigy who has lost a pivotal game due to Amaurosis Scacchistica, or chess blindness -- "the failure to spot a truly obvious danger." En route to a rematch that could make her the youngest grandmaster ever, she and her father encounter even greater dangers: evidence that one of those long-buried pieces may have been unearthed, a discovery that leads to her father's murder. Ten years later, Xie, now forbidden by her mother to play chess, is summoned to Colorado for her mother's birthday party, but her mother seems to have vanished, leaving behind a series of clues, among them a chessboard laid out with Xie's last game. Soon other guests arrive, including both the opponent to whom Xie lost that game and a group of neighbors with surprising ties to the world of chess. There are eight people in all, of course. The Game is afoot once more." -- from www.amazon.com

I was really looking forward to reading this book after I finished "The Eight". I liked this book but I liked "The Eight" better. There were parts of "The Fire" that dragged on a little and at times it was very hard to keep track of the character's motivations. But I would recommend this book and "The Eight", especially to those who liked "The Da Vinci Code" or Steve Berry's books.

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The Alexander Cipher -- "Apparently everybody hates Daniel Knox, an American archaeologist turned dive instructor who is currently living in Egypt. There’s the nasty Hassan, his rich Egyptian boss, whom Daniel beat up in order to keep him from raping a young woman, and Hassan’s even nastier head of security, Nessim. There’s Gaille Bonnard, the Egyptologist who blames Daniel for the death of her father, and Nicolas Dragoumis, the wealthy industrialist whose own father seems oddly determined to ruin Daniel. Further complicating Daniel’s life is, of all people, Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king who proves that being dead for 2,300 years doesn’t mean you still can’t wreak havoc in people’s lives. After Alexander’s death, in 323 BCE, his body was brought to Egypt in a massive golden funeral carriage; Alexander’s power-hungry general, Ptolemy, stole Alexander’s body for his own purposes, and the funeral carriage vanished. Daniel thinks he knows where the carriage is, but that pales in comparison to a new discovery: artifacts that might point the way to the long-lost body of Alexander himself. All Daniel, a lifelong Alexander scholar, needs to do is keep clear of all the people who are out to get him long enough to solve the mystery." -- from www.amazon.com

I really liked this book. It was pretty fast paced and there were some interesting twists in it. All in all, a good story.

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The Destruction of Atlantis -- "All human cultures, fom classical and biblical to naive North and South American, share the myth of an ancient deluge that often coincides with a rain of fire from the heavens. Now, in The Destruction of Atlantis, author Frank Joseph links this worldwide cultural phenomenon to the story of the lost civilization of Atlantis, which in a single day and night disappeared into the sea in a violent cataclysm" -- from the back cover of the book

This book is what I originally thought Shirley Andrews' "Lemuria and Atlantis..." would be like. Frank Joseph is far more objective and far less past lives/crystal worshipping/channeling than Andrews. I'm enjoying the book so far.

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And still working my way through Bernard Cornwell's "The Winter King" and Shirley Andrews' "Lemuria & Atlantis..." (I don't care what she says, logic is NOT an obstacle to original thought or spirtual experience...I think she needs to cut down on the hallucinogenic mushrooms!)

The Winter King -- Started: Apr. 21, 2009 Finished: May 19, 2009

Lemuria & Atlantis -- Started: Apr. 23, 2009 Finished: May 20, 2009

The Fire -- Started: May 1, 2009 Finished: May 3, 2009

The Alexander Cipher -- Started: May 3, 2009 Finished: May 5, 2009

The Destruction of Atlantis -- Started: May 8, 2009 Finished: June 16, 2009

25 Book Challenge 2009 Books #24, #25, #27, #28 & #29

The Hypnotist -- "Haunted by his inability to stop the murder of a beautiful young painter twenty years ago, Lucian Glass keeps his demons at bay through his fascinating work with the FBI's Art Crime Team. Investigating a crazed collector who's begun destroying prized masterworks, Glass is thrust into a bizarre hostage negotiation that takes him undercover at the Phoenix Foundation—dedicated to the science of past-life study. There, to maintain his cover, he submits to the treatment of a hypnotist.

Under hypnosis, Glass travels from ancient Greece to nineteenth-century Persia, while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie capital of the world. These journeys will change his very understanding of reality, lead him to question his own sanity and land him at the center of perhaps the most audacious art heist in history: a fifteen-hundred-year-old sculpture the nation of Iran will do anything to recover" -- from www.amazon.com

The Book Of Lost Fragrances -- "Jac L’Etoile is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind when her brother, coheir to their father’s storied French perfumery, makes an earthshattering discovery in the family archives, and then suddenly goes missing— leaving a dead body in his wake. In Paris to investigate his disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend of the House of L’Etoile. If there is an ancient perfume developed in Cleopatra’s time that holds the power to unlock memories of past lives, possessing it is not only worth living for . . . it’s worth killing for, too.

Fusing history, passion and suspense in an intoxicating web that moves from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris, this marvelous, spellbinding novel comes to life as richly as our most wildly imagined dreams" -- from www.amazon.com

The Memorist -- "As a child, Meer Logan was haunted by bizarre memories and faint strains of elusive music. Now a strange letter beckons her to Vienna, promising to unlock the mysteries of her past. With each step, she comes closer to remembering connections between a clandestine reincarnationist society, Beethoven's lost flute and journalist David Yalom.

David knows loss firsthand—terrorism took his entire family. Now, beneath a concert hall in Vienna, he plots a violent wake-up call to illustrate the world's need for true security" -- from www.amazon.com

All three novels were very much like the first in the series "The Reincarnationist", except the author pulled back on the some of the flashbacks in these later books. The focus slowly shifted from the character's past lives to the deadly search for the so-called "memory tools". Most of the characters were fairly well developed with the exception of Jac L'Etoile in "The Book of Lost Fragrances" -- she came off as an annoying self-centered brat, far more prone to temper tantrums than to paying attention to what was going on around her. All in all, these were decent novels.

The Hypnotist -- Started: July 5, 2013 Finished: July 8, 2013

The Book Of Lost Fragrances -- Started: July 8, 2013 Finished: July 11, 2013

The Memorist -- Started: July 11, 2013 Finished: July 13, 2013

25 Book Challenge 2013 Books #51, #52 & #53

Juliet -- "American Julie Jacobs travels to Siena in search of her Italian heritage--and possibly an inheritance--only to discover she is descended from 14th-century Giulietta Tomei, whose love for Romeo defied their feuding families and inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Julie's hunt leads her to the families' descendants, still living in Siena, still feuding, and still struggling under the curse of the friar who wished a plague on both their houses. Julie's unraveling of the past is assisted by a Felliniesque contessa and the contessa's handsome nephew, and complicated by mobsters, police, and a mysterious motorcyclist. To understand what happened centuries ago, in the previous generation, and all around her, Julie relies on relics: a painting, a journal, a dagger, a ring." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a very good book...there were a few times when I thought it took a little long to get to the point and I could have done without one of the characters (she was annoying and extraneous), but otherwise I enjoyed it very much.

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Sacred Bones -- "When an ancient stone burial box known as an ossuary is stolen from a secret crypt beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, readers will immediately intuit that the bones contained in the box are those of Jesus Christ, even though it takes quite a bit longer for the characters to admit as much. American geneticist Charlotte Hennesey is summoned to the Vatican along with Dr. Giovanni Bersei, an anthropologist, to study the ossuary. Back in Jerusalem, Arabs, Jews and Christians bicker, protest, fight and scheme against one another both within and outside the Temple Mount. A ruthlessly efficient Vatican hit man, Salvatore Conte, hovers over the action." -- from www.amazon.com

Sacred Blood -- "Jesus Christ's mortal remains turned up in a secret crypt below Jerusalem's Temple Mount in Byrnes's 2007 debut, The Sacred Bones. Now DNA extracted from those remains cures geneticist Charlotte Hennessy of cancer...Assassins track Hennessy to Phoenix, Ariz., where they kill her boss and significant other, Evan Aldrich. Hennessy and her ally, Fr. Patrick Donovan, struggle to survive as they attempt to foil the schemes of a motley assortment of villains in search of the now missing Jesus relics, notably American-born Rabbi Aaron Cohen. Another duo, Israeli archeologist Amit Mizrachi and his romantic interest, Egyptologist Julie LeRoux, also attract Cohen's unwelcome attention." -- from www.amazon.com

I liked both these books...the first one a little better than the second one. The main character was a little lacking in depth and I thought he could have drawn the plot out a little better but these were worth the read.

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Ghost Orchid -- "Nestled deep in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains lies the Bosco estate, a nineteenth-century mansion that was once the home of lumber magnate Milo Latham and his wife, Aurora. A rambling property nearly buried under the ruins of once--opulent statuary gardens and mazes, Bosco now serves as an exclusive creative retreat, where artists and writers live and work under almost oppressive seclusion. Inspired by a timeworn pamphlet describing the scandalous events that took place there in 1893, first-time novelist Ellis Brooks comes to Bosco to write about the tragedies that befell the Latham family and the role Corinth Blackwell, a spiritual medium, played in the family's downfall. When Ellis uncovers the family's secrets, she and her fellow writers find themselves imperiled by the house's sinister history." -- from www.amazon.com

I really liked this book and for once, I thought she hit it right on the head when it came to the ending. In the rest of her books, the ending always seemed a little flat but this time, I liked the way things turned out and thought it was a very appropriate finish to the story.

Juliet -- Started: Aug. 28, 2010 Finished: Sept. 2, 2010

The Sacred Bones -- Started: Sept. 1, 2010 Finished: Sept. 2, 2010

The Sacred Blood -- Started: Sept. 6, 2010 Finished: Sept. 12, 2010

The Ghost Orchid -- Started: Sept. 12, 2010 Finished: Sept. 21, 2010

25 Book Challenge 2010 Books #63, #64, #65 & #66

Dragongirl -- "Young Fiona, rider of the gold queen dragon Talenth, has returned from spending three years in the past, where she helped sick and injured dragons and riders to heal in order to return to the present to fight Thread.The specter of sickness looms over the Weyrs of Pern, felling fire-lizards and threatening their dragon cousins, Pern's sole defense against the deadly phenomenon that is Thread. Fiona, the young rider of queen dragon Talenth, is about to assume the duties of a Weyrwoman when word spreads that dragons have begun succumbing to the new contagion. As more dragons sicken and die, Weyrleader B'Nik and queen rider Lorana comb Fort Weyr's archives in a desperate search for clues from the past that may hold the solution to the plague. But could the past itself prove the pathway to salvation for Pern's imperiled dragons? Guided by a mysterious ally from a wholly unexpected place, and trusting in the dragon gift for transcending time, Fiona will join a risky expedition with far-reaching consequences for both Pern's future and her personal destiny." -- from www.borders.com

This was a pretty decent read...story moved well, liked the characters...looking forward to the next book...hoping the next one will solve a mystery left hanging at the end of this one!

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Always Looking Up -- "Michael writes about the hard-won perspective that helped him see challenges as opportunities. Instead of building walls around himself, he developed a personal policy of engagement and discovery: an emotional, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual outlook that has served him throughout his struggle with Parkinson's disease. Michael's exit from a very demanding, very public arena offered him the time and the inspiration to open up new doors leading to unexpected places. One door even led him to the center of his own family, the greatest destination of all.

Always Looking Up is a memoir of Michael's past decade, told through the critical themes of his life: work, politics, faith, and family." -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

This was an interesting book...I liked getting his perspective on all the high/low points of his life since the diagnosis and his leaving "Spin City" and it was definitely never a mopey, self-pitying story like so many memoirs are -- something I don't care for...looking forward to reading his other two books.

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Obernewtyn -- "In a world struggling back from the brink of apocalypse, life is harsh. And for Elspeth Gordie, it is also dangerous. That's because Elspeth has a secret: she is a Misfit, born with mysterious mental abilities that she must keep hidden under threat of death. And her worries only multiply when she is exiled to the mountain compound known as Obernewtyn, where—for all her talents—Elspeth may finally and truly be out of her depth. Then she learns she’s not the only one concealing secrets at Obernewtyn." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a decent read...not spectacular but good enough for me to check the rest of the series out from the library. It was billed as being similar to Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Darkover" series and I can see a little resemblance...I'm looking forward to seeing how the story evolves in the rest of the books.

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Dreamer of Dune -- "Everyone knows Frank Herbert's Dune. This amazing and complex epic, combining politics, religion, human evolution, and ecology, has captured the imagination of generations of readers. One of the most popular science fiction novels ever written, it has become a worldwide phenomenon, winning awards, selling millions of copies around the world. In the prophetic year of 1984, "Dune" was made into a motion picture directed by David Lynch, and it has recently been produced as a three-part miniseries on the Sci-Fi Channel. Though he is best remembered for "Dune," Frank Herbert was the author of more than twenty books at the time of his tragic death in 1986, including such classic novels as "The Green Brain, The Santaroga Barrier, The White Plague" and "Dosadi Experiment."

Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's eldest son, tells the provocative story of his father's extraordinary life in this honest and loving chronicle. He has also brought to light all the events in Herbert's life that would find their way into speculative fiction's greatest epic.

From his early years in Tacoma, Washington, and his education at the University of Washington, Seattle, and in the Navy, through the years of trying his hand as a TV cameraman, radio commentator, reporter, and editor of several West Coast newspaper, to the difficult years of poverty while struggling to become a published writer, Herbert worked long and hard before finding success after the publication of "Dune" in 1965. Brian Herbert writes about these years with a truthful intensity that brings every facet of his father's brilliant, and sometimes troubled, genius to full light.

Insightful and provocative, containing family photos neverpublished anywhere, this absorbing biography offers Brian Herbert' unique personal perspective on one of the most enigmatic and creative talents of our time." -- from www.borders.com

This book took me awhile but it was well worth the read...I never knew all the twists and turns Frank Herbert's life took and how many of those things influenced his work -- especially in the Dune novels. I think I better understand some of the choices he and his son made in their writings now that I know more about the Herbert's family life.

Dragongirl -- Started: Dec. 31, 2010 Finished: Jan. 8, 2011

Always Looking Up -- Started: Jan. 3, 2011 Finished: Jan. 4, 2011

Obernewtyn -- Started: Jan. 8, 2011 Finished: Jan. 8, 2011

Dreamer of Dune -- Started: Jan. 8, 2011 Finished: Jan. 15, 2011

25 Book Challenge 2011 Books #1, #2, #3 & #4

Royal Panoply -- "From medieval conqueror to Renaissance autocrat to Victorian Empress to modern melodrama, Royal Panoply is the story of some of the most fascinating people in world history...Carolly Erickson focuses on each monarch’s entire life---from the puny, socially awkward Charles I, to the choleric, violent William the Conqueror, to the well-meaning, deeply affectionate Queen Anne, who was so heavy she had to be carried to her coronation. Royal Panoply recaptures the event-filled, often dangerous, always engaging lives of England’s kings and queens, set against the backdrop of a thousand years of Britain’s past" -- from www.amazon.com

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. The stories of each monarch were well-researched and detailed without being long-winded and boring. But then it came to the Tudor monarchs, and it all went downhill. I don't know why but the author seems to have a love and devotion for Henry VII and Henry VIII that defies all logic. She portrays them as beloved kings and heroes of the people, often overlooking their many grisly acts and highlighting the few good things the two of them achieved. She barely acknowledges the many murders they committed and/or authorized...a great many of the victims were family members. She glosses over their rampant paranoia and tyranny in favor of viewing them as much loved by the people -- despite the fact that they both spent a fair portion of their time on the thrones fighting against rebels who despised them and wanted them off the throne. The rest of the book was spent belittling each of the remaining monarchs in turn, including Elizabeth I -- one of the most beloved monarchs whom she claims was a foul-mouthed idiot barely capable of ruling anything. A disappointing second half to this book.

Red Leather Diary -- "For more than half a century, the red leather diary languished inside a steamer trunk. Rescued from a Dumpster on Manhattan's Upper West Side, it found its way to Lily Koppel, a young writer, who opened its tarnished brass lock and journeyed into an enthralling past. The diary painted a breathtaking portrait of a bygone New York—of glamorous nights at El Morocco and elegant teas at Schrafft's during the 1920s and '30s—and of the headstrong, endearing teenager who filled its pages with her hopes, heartaches, and vivid recollections. Intrigued, Koppel followed her only clue, a frontispiece inscription, to its now ninety-year-old owner, Florence Wolfson, and was enchanted as Florence, reunited with her diary, rediscovered a lost younger self burning with artistic fervor" -- from www.amazon.com

An interesting story about life in 1930's New York City. Florence seemed a bit spoiled and selfish, but her upbringing by two rather cold and unfeeling parents makes me think that her selfishness and snobbery were more coping mechanisms that anything else. A very unique book.

Royal Panoply: Brief Lives Of The English Monarchs -- Started: Aug. 4, 2013 Finished: Aug. 7, 2013

The Red Leather Diary -- Started: Aug. 4, 2013 Finished: Aug. 8, 2013

25 Book Challenge 2013 Books #67 & #68

Russian Winter -- "When she decides to auction her remarkable jewelry collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, believes she has finally drawn a curtain on her past. Instead, the former ballerina finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed the course of her life half a century ago.

It was in Russia that she discovered the magic of the theater; that she fell in love with the poet Viktor Elsin; that she and her dearest companions—Gersh, a brilliant composer, and the exquisite Vera, Nina’s closest friend—became victims of Stalinist aggression. And it was in Russia that a terrible discovery incited a deadly act of betrayal—and an ingenious escape that led Nina to the West and eventually to Boston.

Nina has kept her secrets for half a lifetime. But two people will not let the past rest: Drew Brooks, an inquisitive young associate at a Boston auction house, and Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian who believes that a unique set of jewels may hold the key to his own ambiguous past. Together these unlikely partners begin to unravel a mystery surrounding a love letter, a poem, and a necklace of unknown provenance, setting in motion a series of revelations that will have life-altering consequences for them all." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a wonderful book that I enjoyed very much...the mystery was well played out, the plot didn't drag, the characters were believable...if you spot this at your local library or bookstore, pick it up.

Russian Winter -- Started: Mar. 21, 2011 Finished: Mar. 25, 2011

25 Book Challenge 2011 Book #28

Gentlemen of Space -- "Magnolia Court is not the most magical place in Florida, but to Georgie Finch, his suburban development is the center of the universe...Georgie tells us the story of how his neighborhood and his family change in 1976 when his father, Jerry, wins a contest to become the first civilian man on the moon. Once Jerry is shot into space, Magnolia Court turns into the worst sort of American media circus, and Georgie finds himself navigating through starstruck admirers and their card tables, Winnebagos, cookouts, and telescopes. When Jerry goes missing, the camp turns into a vigil, punctuated by potluck suppers and banners. Eventually the astronauts return to Earth without Jerry and descend on Magnolia Court -- in their spacesuits -- to pay their respects. All the while Georgie gets phone call from his father in space, but no one believes him." (taken from the back cover of the book)

OMG, this book is atrocious. I'm sure where to start...the story is supposed to be a flashback to Georgie's youth but the narrator's point of view is never the same from scene to scene -- one moment, Georgie is an adult reflecting back on his youthful self and the next, he's a clueless child. The story skips back and forth from before Jerry leaves to after and then back again without warning. The character's motivations are never really explained so you have no idea why anyone is doing anything and his character development sucks...big time. The author is so taken by the idea of turning everything into a metaphor for the flaws of humanity that he almost completely ignores the plot line -- I'm sorry, but I'm not quite sure how peanut butter stuck on a knife is a metaphor for loss of control over one's life. Stay away from this book...I'm completely serious, stay FAR away from this book!!

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Sword of Avalon -- "As traitors burn the village of Azan to the ground, the Lady of Avalon, heavy with child, flees with her cousin's young son, heir to the sacred kings descended from Atlantis. Fearing for Mikantor's safety, Anderle leaves the babe to be raised in secret, then gives birth to her own daughter and returns to Avalon. Suspecting that the lost heir is still alive, the traitors who killed his parents seek to eliminate the threat of the boy's power. Anderle strives to keep him safe, encouraged by visions of Mikantor clutching the yet-unforged magical sword of Avalon -- visions that promise that he will one day become king and save the land..." (taken from the front flap of the book)

This book is pretty good so far...I'm liking it but I can definitely see where elements of the story were taken from Mists of Avalon, The Forest House and Lady of Avalon...all in all, a good addition to the Avalon books.

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What the Dickens -- "In the midst of a Katrina-like disaster, 10-year-old Dinah and her siblings, teenager Zeke and toddler Rebecca Ruth, find themselves cut off from society, with only their distant cousin for company. To distract the siblings from their predicament, Gage begins to tell them the story of the skibbereen, the creatures generally known as tooth fairies. His story focuses on What-the-Dickens, an orphaned skibberee whose adventures bring him into contact with a house cat, a bird, a tiger, and a variety of humans, including Gage himself. What-the-Dickens meets Pepper, who takes him back to her colony, where he learns about his people's history and comes to understand their role in bringing wishes to humans." -- from www.amazon.com

I've only just started this book but so far, I like what I've read. I liked the three other Gregory Maguire books I've read this year and I don't forsee disliking this one at all.

Gentlemen of Space -- Started: Dec. 3, 2009 Finished: Dec. 11, 2009

Sword of Avalon -- Started: Dec. 8, 2009 Finished: Dec. 15, 2009

What the Dickens -- Started: Dec. 7, 2009 Finished: Dec. 22, 2009

25 Book Challenge 2009 Books #65, #66 & #67

Fifty Shades -- "When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires" -- from www.amazon.com

Oh, what to say about this book...where do I start...let's see...I have read books that are badly written. I have read books with extremely stupid characters in them. I have read books with chauvenistic, domineering male characters you wish you could impale with a red hot poker in them. I have even read books with highly sexual -- and sexually disturbing -- content that makes you want to shower just to get the feel of it off of you. But never...ever...have I seen all these things put together in one of the worst literary moments in history since Danielle Steele first put pen to paper. Yes, it's mommy-porn and that, in itself, implies a relatively low standard of literary achievement. However, this book doesn't even come close to the lowest standard you can imagine -- Fifty Shades of Grey makes Everybody Poops look like high class Nobel prize-winning prose.

Anastasia -- Ana for short -- is our dear lovely protagonist and a 22 year old virgin (gasp!). She is highly intelligent, well-educated and phyiscally beautiful. She has also apparently been living in a self-imposed mental nunnery that has kept her from hearing/reading/thinking about sex let alone experiencing any sort of sexual contact whatsoever. The average 10 year old knows more about sex than this woman. And as the uber-naive Ana -- about to graduate from college -- emerges from her ultra-sheltered academic cocoon she meets the man of every over-sexed deluded middle-aged housewife's dreams -- one Grey...Christian Grey, that is...27 year old billionaire S&M obsessed eye candy (let the drooling begin).

From their first meeting, Ana attempts to deny the obvious fact that her inner sexpot is chomping at the bit -- ready to tackle Christian and ride him like a jockey on a thouroughbred in the Kentucky Derby. Meanwhile, Mr. Grey is intrigued by the enigma (or anachronism) that is the virginal Miss Ana and happily picturing what tortuous delights he can introduce into her previously uneventful life.

Ana eventually submits to her own lustful wantings -- as well as christian's Hannibal Lecter-like sexual proclivities. The cherry is popped, the deed is done, birth control is arranged and (as soon as the contract is signed) sweet, naive Ana becomes Submissive-of-the-Year...thus the games begin.

Swept into a life of designer clothes, fast cars, spankings, whippings, beatings and every other page orgasms, Ana offers up what little self-esteem she has for christian to shred into bits all the while citing his Domination/Submission handbook to support his reasoning for such blatant emotional abuse. He controls her diet, wardrobe, choice of doctor, her daily schedule and even

attempts to manipulate her job interviews to suit his own needs. Not only does our protagonist accept this behavior, she welcomes...she encourages...hell, she outright excuses it on his behalf. Apparently, Christian is such a damaged soul after having been ripped from his loving drug-addicted birth mother's arms and forced to endure a horrible life of love, affection, wealth and privilege in the home of his evil, horribly wonderful adopted family (cue violins and eye-rolling). He is, in his own words, "fifty shades of fucked up" (so that's where the title comes from!!).

As their love (cue whip cracking sound effect) affair continues, Anastasia repeatedly informs Christian of her enthusiasm for her role of submissive while, simultaneously, begging him for a more dominant role in their relationship -- leading this reader to believe that despite her high I.Q. and good education, Ana is too stupid to utilize a dictionary and look up what "submissive"

actually means. Her stupidity is not entirely her fault though. Ana asks several others for help. From her slutty roommate who, one minute, advises her to stay away from Christian and in the next, tells her to indulge her fantasies with him...to Ana's serial monogamist mother who practically shoves her daughter into Mr. Grey's arms with a gleeful giggle.

Ana eventually grows tired of being used and abused for Christian's sociopathic amusement. In her one intelligent move (yes, she has one of those...but only ONE), she leaves him...forlornly clutching his braided leather whip and mopping up tears with his blood-red satin sheets (go ahead, cry for Christian...you know you want to).

Throughout the book, I waited for that overhyped sexually excited feeling that all those vibrator-lovin' stay-at-home mommies online told me I should getting. I waited...50 pages passed and no feeling...100 pages passed...then 150...and still no paperback induced orgasm...but then I got a tickle in the back of my throat. A cough, you ask? No, not a cough, but a guffaw. Yes indeed, this book was truly hilarious in it's own literary inept way.

From the moment the housekeeper asked if the metal balls -- that at one time occupied Ana's vaginal canal -- should be washed between uses...to when Ana (finally...it took her a lOOOOONg time) realized that Christian's large purchases from the hardware store were not so much for home improvement than they were for sexual self-help, this book was was tickling my funny bone far more than my g-spot.

Anyway, to sum it all up, here's what you need to know about Fifty Shades of (Fucked Up) Grey:

1) Ana is the dumbest creature ever to appear on God's literary green earth.

2)Christian -- smoldering abusive Christian -- is more a candidate for medication and a straight-jacket than a second date.

3) If a highly reclusive, superhot billionaire shows up and wants you to sign a booty-call-with-handcuffs kind of contract, use whatever brain power you have and DON'T DO IT! It ain't worth it and you're better off with a battery-powered-boyfriend anyway (they don't talk back when you try to pick your own gynecologist).

4) They make chains and cuffs you put on a track attached to the ceiling so you can move them around the room...you know?? so you can humiliate your submissive anywhere in the room and not just chained to the wall!! (how handy is that??)

5) Last but not least, if you're thinking of reading this book, stop! Take a deep breath, go to amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com and read the 1 star reviews...you'll get all the plot points you need to know and the reviews are better written and just as funny -- if not more -- than the book itself.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I feel like I need to take a shower.

Fifty Shades Of Grey -- Started: Oct. 4, 2012 Finished: Oct. 9, 2012

25 Book Challenge 2012 Book #64

"NASA is building a probe to be splashed down in the Kraken Mare, the largest sea on Saturn’s great moon, Titan. It is one of the most promising habitats for extraterrestrial life in the solar system, but the surface is unpredictable and dangerous, requiring the probe to contain artificial intelligence software. To this end, Melissa Shepherd, a brilliant programmer, has developed "Dorothy," a powerful, self-modifying AI whose true potential is both revolutionary and terrifying. When miscalculations lead to a catastrophe during testing, Dorothy flees into the internet.

Former CIA agent Wyman Ford is tapped to track down the rogue AI. As Ford and Shepherd search for Dorothy, they realize that her horrific experiences in the wasteland of the Internet have changed her in ways they can barely imagine. And they’re not the only ones looking for the wayward software: the AI is also being pursued by a pair of Wall Street traders, who want to capture her code and turn her into a high-speed trading bot.

Traumatized, angry, and relentlessly hunted, Dorothy has an extraordinary revelation—and devises a plan. As the pursuit of Dorothy converges on a deserted house on the coast of Northern California, Ford must face the ultimate question: is rescuing Dorothy the right thing? Is the AI bent on saving the world… or on wiping out the cancer that is humankind?"

Another good thriller from Douglas Preston. A really amazing premise that played out very well.

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"The daughter of a Venetian musician, Aemilia Bassano came of age in Queen Elizabeth’s royal court. The Queen’s favorite, she develops a love of poetry and learning, maturing into a young woman known not only for her beauty but also her sharp mind and quick tongue. Aemilia becomes the mistress of Lord Hunsdon, but her position is precarious. Then she crosses paths with an impetuous playwright named William Shakespeare and begins an impassioned but ill-fated affair. A decade later, the Queen is dead, and Aemilia Bassano is now Aemilia Lanyer, fallen from favor and married to a fool. Like the rest of London, she fears the plague. And when her young son Henry takes ill, Aemilia resolves to do anything to save him, even if it means seeking help from her estranged lover, Will—or worse, making a pact with the Devil himself."

A well written novel about a woman that I had previously not known very much about. Some of the characters (i.e. Shakespeare) felt a little shallow but otherwise it was an enjoyable read.

Mistress Of Mourning -- "London, 1501. In a time of political unrest, Varina Westcott, a young widow and candle maker for court and church, agrees to perform a clandestine service for Queen Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII--carve wax figures of four dead children, two of her offspring lost in infancy and her two brothers, the Princes of the Tower, whose mysterious disappearance years ago has never been solved. Having lost a child herself, Varina feels a sympathetic bond with the queen. And as she works under the watchful eye of handsome Nicholas Sutton, an ambitious assistant to the royals, she develops feelings of quite a different nature...

Then news comes from Wales of the unexpected death of newly married Prince Arthur, the queen’s eldest child and heir to the throne. Deeply grieving, Elizabeth suspects that Arthur did not die of a sudden illness, as reported, but was actually murdered by her husband’s enemies. This time her task for Varina and Nicholas is of vital importance--travel into the Welsh wilderness to investigate the prince’s death. But as the couple unearths one unsettling clue after another, they begin to fear that the conspiracy they’re confronting is far more ambitious and treacherous than even the queen imagined. And it aims to utterly destroy the Tudor dynasty" -- from www.amazon.com

A decent book...a little shallow and the climactic conflict in the story was resolved a little too easily for my taste. Not horrible, but not great.

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Golem And The Jinni -- "Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life to by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic and dies at sea on the voyage from Poland. Chava is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York harbor in 1899.

Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert, trapped in an old copper flask, and released in New York City, though still not entirely free.

Ahmad and Chava become unlikely friends and soul mates with a mystical connection...Helene Wecker's debut novel The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of Yiddish and Middle Eastern literature, historical fiction and magical fable, into a wondrously inventive and unforgettable tale" -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a wonderful book. An amazing premise, well written and the plot was interesting and entirely readable. I loved the awkwardness of both the golem and jinni as they tried -- sometimes desperately, other times half-heartedly -- to fit into the very human world of 19th century New York City. It was funny, sad and occasionally, frightening. Definitely recommend this book.

Mistress Of Mourning -- Started: May 15, 2013 Finished: May 19, 2013

The Golem And The Jinni -- Started: May 18, 2013 Finished: May 22, 2013

25 Book Challenge 2013 Books #34 & #35

"In 1660, the Restoration of Stuart Monarchy in England returns Frances Stuart and her family to favor. Frances discards threadbare gowns and goes to gilded Fontainebleau Palace, where she soon catches the Sun King’s eye. But Frances is no ordinary court beauty—she has Stuart secrets to keep and her family to protect. King Louis XIV turns vengeful when she rejects his offer to become his Official Mistress. He sends her to England with orders to seduce King Charles II and help him form an alliance with England. The Queen Mother likewise orders Frances to become her son's mistress, in the interest of luring him away from the Protestant mistress he currently keeps.

Armed in pearls and silk, Frances maneuvers the political turbulence of Whitehall Palace, but still can’t afford to stir a scandal, determined to keep her family from shame. Her tactic to inspire King Charles to greatness captivates him and the two embark on a tenuous relationship. Frances survives the Great Fire, the Great Plague, and the debauchery of the Restoration Court, yet loses her heart to the very king she must control. A startling discovery will leave her with no other choice but to break his heart, while the fate of England hangs in the balance."

Interesting book...a little more "bodice-ripper" than I normally like but a good read.

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"Oxford lecturer Diana Morgan is an expert on Greek mythology. Her obsession with the Amazons started in childhood when her eccentric grandmother claimed to be one herself—before vanishing without a trace. Diana’s colleagues shake their heads at her Amazon fixation. But then a mysterious, well-financed foundation makes Diana an offer she cannot refuse. Traveling to North Africa, Diana teams up with Nick Barran, an enigmatic Middle Eastern guide, and begins deciphering an unusual inscription on the wall of a recently unearthed temple. There she discovers the name of the first Amazon queen, Myrina, who crossed the Mediterranean in a heroic attempt to liberate her kidnapped sisters from Greek pirates, only to become embroiled in the most famous conflict of the ancient world—the Trojan War. Taking their cue from the inscription, Diana and Nick set out to find the fabled treasure that Myrina and her Amazon sisters salvaged from the embattled city of Troy so long ago. Diana doesn’t know the nature of the treasure, but she does know that someone is shadowing her, and that Nick has a sinister agenda of his own. With danger lurking at every turn, and unsure of whom to trust, Diana finds herself on a daring and dangerous quest for truth that will forever change her world. Sweeping from England to North Africa to Greece and the ruins of ancient Troy, and navigating between present and past, The Lost Sisterhood is a breathtaking, passionate adventure of two women on parallel journeys, separated by time, who must fight to keep the lives and legacy of the Amazons from being lost forever"

Another wonderful book from Anne Fortier. The plot was so well done and the characters so realistic -- even in the least realistic settings. Excellent read.

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" Florence, Italy—1533 : An orphan named René le Florentin is plucked from poverty to become Catherine de Medici’s perfumer. Traveling with the young duchessina from Italy to France, René brings with him a cache of secret documents from the monastery where he was trained: recipes for exotic fragrances and potent medicines—and a formula for an alchemic process said to have the potential to reanimate the dead. In France, René becomes not only the greatest perfumer in the country but the most dangerous, creating deadly poisons for his Queen to use against her rivals. But while mixing herbs and essences under the light of flickering candles, Rene doesn’t begin to imagine the tragic and personal consequences for which his lethal potions will be responsible. Paris, France—The Present: A renowned mythologist, Jac L’Etoile, is trying to recover from personal heartache by throwing herself into her work, learns of the 16th century perfumer who may have been working on an elixir that would unlock the secret to immortality. She becomes obsessed with René le Florentin’s work—particularly when she discovers the dying breathes he had collected during his lifetime. Jac’s efforts put her in the path of her estranged lover, Griffin North, a linguist who has already begun translating René le Florentin’s mysterious formula. Together they confront an eccentric heiress in possession of a world-class art collection. A woman who has her own dark purpose for the elixir… a purpose for which she believes the ends will justify her deadly means. This mesmerizing gothic tale of passion and obsession crisscrosses time, zigzagging from the violent days of Catherine de Medici’s court to twenty-first century France. Fiery and lush, set against deep, wild forests and dimly lit chateaus, The Collector of Dying Breaths illuminates the true path to immortality: the legacies we leave behind."

A good book with interesting characters and plot...although the main character is getting a bit annoying as she lives eternally in the land of denial no matter what seems to happen to her.

"Picking up her story in the late ’60s at age 21, Cathy Gildiner whisks the reader through five years and three countries, beginning when she is a poetry student at Oxford. Her education extended beyond the classroom to London’s swinging Carnaby Street, the mountains of Wales, and a posh country estate. After Oxford, Cathy returns to Cleveland, Ohio, which was still reeling from the Hough Ghetto Riots. Not one to shy away from a challenge, she teaches at a high school where police escort teachers through the parking lot, trying to engage apathetic students and tussling with the education authorities. In 1970, Cathy moves to Canada. While studying literature at the University of Toronto, she rooms with members of the FLQ (Quebec separatists) and then with one of the biggest drug dealers in Canada. Along the way, she falls in love with the man who eventually became her husband and embarks on a new career in psychology. Coming Ashore brings readers back to a fascinating era populated by lively characters, but most memorable of all is the singular Cathy McClure."

Like her other two memoirs, this book was funny, interesting, crazy and occasionally frustrating, but definitely worth the read. Very much enjoyed.

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"A long-buried family secret resurfaces when one of Aloysius Pendergast's most implacable enemies shows up on his doorstep as a murdered corpse. The mystery has all the hallmarks of the perfect murder, save for an enigmatic clue: a piece of turquoise lodged in the stomach of the deceased. The gem leads Pendergast to an abandoned mine on the shore of California's desolate Salton Sea, which in turn propels him on a journey of discovery deep into his family's sinister past. But Pendergast learns there is more at work than a ghastly episode of family history: he is soon stalked by a subtle killer bent on vengeance over an ancient transgression. In short order, Pendergast is caught in a wickedly clever plot, which will leave him stricken in mind and body...and may well end with his death."

Another good Pendergast novel in the series. Starts out with a bang, drags a teensy bit in the middle but smooths out in the end. A must read for Preston&Child fans.

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"In a starkly divided America, a Republican president seeks reelection in the afterglow of a controversial war. He is bankrolled by millionaires, with every step of his career orchestrated by a political mastermind. While terrorists plot the assassination of world leaders, a lonely, disturbed revolutionary stalks the President. . . . It all happened. One hundred years ago. It all comes to life in The Temple of Music . A vivid, gripping historical novel, The Temple of Music re-creates the larger-than-life characters and tempestuous events that rocked America at the turn of the century. It tells the tales of murder and romance, of robber barons, immigrants, yellow journalists, and anarchists, all centering around one of the most fascinating and mysterious events in American history: the assassination of President William McKinley. Sweeping in scope, The Temple of Music is a rare literary achievement that intertwines history and fiction into an indelible tapestry of America in the Gilded Age."

Beyond boring...I thought the book would never end. Instead of reading this book, try Lauren Belfer's novel "City of Light" -- it covers the same time period with better writing and a great deal more panache and literary style.

Phantom of Manhattan -- "The author of The Day of the Jackal (1971) and Icon (1996) steals more then a page from Gaston Leroux and Andrew Lloyd Webber to bring Erik, the Phantom of the Paris Opera, to America bearing his memories of Christine. Forsyth opens his continuation in 1906 with Antoinette Girya former Paris Opera ballerina who became mistress of the corps de ballet, now 58 and dying of cancertelling the familiar story of Christine de Chagny, the Phantom's beloved, currently the greatest diva in Europe. Giry first saw 16-year-old Erik as a cruelly deformed sideshow freak, with one side of his face looking like molten candle wax and maggots writhing in wounds caused by his chains. Later she freed Erik and nursed him, letting him wander the seven floors under the opera house. Having learned carpentry from his brutal father, who had sold him to the circus, Erik filched what he needed and built his own quarters, then taught himself all the works in the opera's enormous library. He fell in love with Christine, coached her singing, and abducted her once she became a star. When the police and pregnant Christine's beau Vicomte de Chagny saved her, Erik fled. Antoinette found him and, in Forsyth's point of departure from Gaston Leroux, put him on a freighter bound for New York. At this point Erik takes up the story. Starting as a fish-gutter, he becomes as wealthy as Croesus. At first he wants a screened and curtained box at the new Metropolitan Opera, but instead he joins Oscar Hammerstein as a secret partner in opening a house of his own. His eye is on the renowned soprano Nellie Melba. Just as his plans are ripening, however, Christine comes to Manhattan to sing at the Mets inaugural opera. Will she and the Phantom sing together again? Will he see his son at last?" -- from www.amazon.com

I was expecting a lot more out of this book than it gave me. It was an okay read and since I had been wanting to read it for awhile, I was glad when I did but it's definitely not something I would pick up again. There was really none of the mystery and horror that came with the original phantom story. Things were rather flat and the ending wound things up far too quickly and easily. Not a good sequel to the original novel or the musical...looking for a better phantom story, then read Gaston Leroux's novel or Susan Kay's novel "Phantom".

The Phantom of Manhattan -- Started: Mar. 11, 2011 Finished: Mar. 13, 2011

25 Book Challenge 2011 Book #24

Lightning Thief -- "Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves." -- from www.amazon.com

I saw the movie of this first and then my sister-in-law was nice enough to get me the book. Both the book and the movie were really good even though it was very obvious what they changed when they made the book into the movie. I enjoyed the book alot and I'm looking forward to reading the second book in the series -- it's in my 'to read' pile right now :)

The Lightning Thief -- Started: Feb. 19, 2010 Finished: Feb. 21, 2010

25 Book Challenge 2010 Book #16

Tam Lin -- "This...new entry in the Fairy Tale series, featuring children's classics refashioned for adult audiences, adapts the eponymous Scottish ballad to a Midwestern university setting. In the early '70s, scholarly Janet Carter enters Blackstock College as an English major. She and roommates Christina and Molly fall in with an attractive, often eccentric group of classics students who circle around Professor Medeous, a spectacular, enigmatic redheaded woman. The girls pair off with young male classicists, Janet beginning an affair with Nicholas Tooley, whose vast familiarity with Shakespeare and often distant approach to intimacy disturb her. When the liaison ends, she takes up with the young man formerly attached to Christina. The ghost of a pregnant student who committed suicide, mysterious late-night horseback forays led by Professor Medeous and the appearance in a list of Shakespeare's actors of the names of three of the Classics Department scholars urge Janet on a dangerous quest to save her lover." -- from www.amazon.com

I really enjoyed this book...it's part of the same fairy tale series as Jane Yolen's "Briar Rose" (that I read before) and I think Pamela Dean managed to strike the same balance between the fairy tale mystique and the modern day setting as Yolen did.

Tam Lin -- Started: Oct. 27, 2010 Finished: Oct. 30, 2010

25 Book Challenge 2010 Book #78

Are you above average? Of course you are!

Those age 14 and older can sign up for the Above Average Reader challenge on Beanstack (lesterlibrary.beanstack.com/reader365). Read 13 books to earn this very sturdy tote. If you log 52 books in 2022, get a custom patch to attach which will identify you as a SUPERIOR reader.

And don't forget our winter reading challenges for ALL ages continuing through April 30; read and earn prizes! Lester Public Library, Two Rivers, Wisconsin

The Painted Girls -- "1878 Paris. Following their father’s sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where for a scant seventeen francs a week, she will be trained to enter the famous ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir.

Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modeling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. There she meets a wealthy male patron of the ballet, but might the assistance he offers come with strings attached? Meanwhile Antoinette, derailed by her love for the dangerous Émile Abadie, must choose between honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde." -- from www.amazon.com

I have to admit, I was disappointed in this book. I loved her first novel "The Day The Falls Stood Still" but I could hardly wait to finish this one and give it back to the library. I didn't expect it to be a cheery novel, but it was depressing beyond belief. The plot dragged along for most of the book and didn't pick up pace until the last third or so. I thought the ending was okay but absolutely not a book I will read again.

The Painted Girls -- Started: Feb. 10, 2013 Finished: Feb. 18, 2013

25 Book Challenge 2013 Book #14

Isolde -- "At a time of encroaching Christianity, medieval Ireland is one of the last strongholds of goddess worship. Isolde, princess of Erin, is caught in a tangle of intrigue and love when her mother, the queen, sends her greatest knight to Cornwall to challenge King Mark for rule of his land. Tristan, the nephew and champion of King Mark, kills the queen's knight in single combat but is mortally wounded himself by a poisoned dagger. Only Isolde, known throughout Ireland for her powers of healing, has the ability to save his life. During his convalescence, the two fall desperately in love. And so begins one of the best known tragic love stories of the centuries." -- from www.amazon.com

This is the first Rosalind Miles book I've read...I've actually been eyeing it on the shelf at the bookstore and finally decided to get it :) It's very good so far but I wish I had read her Arthur/Guenevere novels first because there are some things referred to in "Isolde" from those books and I feel like I would enjoy the book better if I had some of that backstory.

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The Laughter of Dead Kings -- "Peters resurrects series heroine/art historian Vicky Bliss, last seen in 1984. Vicky, introduced in 1973, is still in her early thirties and still connected to her lover, Sir John Smythe, a former art thief whom Vicky suspects may not be entirely reformed. There’s quite a disconnect in reading what is supposed to be a contemporary adventure. Characters speak in an elaborate, archaic, torturously witty fashion. Vicky, even as a first-person narrator, is not the main force in her own life but is dragged about the globe by Sir John...The plot revolves around recovering the body of King Tut, stolen from its tomb by some Brits. Bliss, through her current connection as assistant curator of Munich’s National Museum, follows Sir John through various exotic locales in search of Tut." -- from www.amazon.com

This book is ok so far...I haven't read ANY of Elizabeth Peters' books before let alone any of the Vicky Bliss books. The main character of Vicky Bliss is rather annoying at times -- whiny, bratty & awfully clueless for someone with a pretty high-class museum job. I like some of the other characters better -- and actually cheer for them when they tell Vicky to shut up...lol

Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle -- Started: Sept. 15, 2009 Finished: October 2, 2009

The Laughter of Dead Kings -- Started: Sept. 20, 2009 Finished: Oct. 4, 2009

25 Book Challenge 2009 Books #48 & #49

Snow in August -- "In Brooklyn in 1947, Michael Devlin, an 11-year-old Irish kid who spends his days reading Captain Marvel and anticipating the arrival of Jackie Robinson, makes the

acquaintance of a recently emigrated Orthodox rabbi. In exchange for lessons in English and baseball, Rabbi Hirsch teaches him Yiddish and tells him of Jewish life in old Prague and of the

mysteries of the Kabbalah. Anti-Semitism soon rears its head in the form of a gang of young Irish toughs out to rule the neighborhood. As the gang escalates its violence, it seems that only being as miraculously powerful as Captain Marvel or a golem could stop them." -- from www.amazon.com

I've had this book for awhile and finally got around to reading it.Pete Hamill is a very good writer and I enjoyed this book, especiallythe back story of the golem.

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Throne of Fire -- "In this exciting second installment of the three-book series, Carter and Sadie, offspring of the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane, embark on a worldwide search for

the Book of Ra, but the House of Life and the gods of chaos are determined to stop them." -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

I had to glance back at the first book in this series (The Red Pyramid) to refresh my memory on some of the characters and plots. Once I jogged my memory, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one in the series.

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Lucy -- "When anthropologist Jenny Lowe brings Lucy, the teenage daughter of a murdered colleague, back home with her to Chicago from the Congo in Gonzales's glib biological thriller, Jenny puts the girl's behavioral quirks down to unfamiliarity with the world outside the jungle. But when Lucy shows uncommon strength, agility, and sensitivities typical of animals, Jenny is shocked to realize that Lucy is a "humanzee": half human, half bonobo. Lucy soon becomes a magnet for the controversy that has colored debates between creationists and evolutionists for decades, as well as an object of interest to a clandestine military think tank." -- from

www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a very interesting book. It brings up a lot of questions about scientific research, genetic engineering and the ethics of both. It was well-written and a moving story.

Snow in August -- Started: Nov. 2, 2011 Finished: Nov. 6, 2011

The Throne of Fire -- Started: Nov. 24, 2011 Finished: Nov. 27, 2011

Lucy -- Started: Dec. 19, 2011 Finished: Dec. 19, 2011

25 Book challenge 2011 Books #82, #83 & #84

The House I Loved -- "Paris, France: 1860s. Hundreds of houses are being razed, whole neighborhoods reduced to ashes. By order of Emperor Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann has set into motion a series of large-scale renovations that will permanently alter the face of old Paris, molding it into a “modern city.” The reforms will erase generations of history—and in the midst of the tumult, one woman will take a stand.

Rose Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home until the very end. As others flee, she stakes her claim in the basement of the old house on rue Childebert, ignoring the sounds of change that come closer and closer each day. Attempting to overcome the loneliness of her daily life, she begins to write letters to Armand, her beloved late husband. And as she delves into the ritual of remembering, Rose is forced to come to terms with a secret that has been buried deep in her heart for thirty years." -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

This was an okay book but honestly, it felt like a lot was missing from the story. Half developed character relationships, sketchily written characters and a plot twist I saw coming a mile away didn't help matters.

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Skeletons At The Feast -- "In the waning months of World War II, a small group of people begin the longest journey of their lives.

At the center is eighteen-year-old Anna, the daughter of Prussian aristocrats, and her first love, a twenty-year-old Scottish prisoner of war named Callum. With his boyish good looks and his dedication to her family, he has captured Anna’s heart. But he is the enemy, and their love must remain a closely guarded secret. Only Manfred, a twenty-six-year-old Wehrmacht corporal, knows the truth. And Manfred, who is not what he seems to be, is reluctantly taken with Anna, just as she finds herself drawn uncomfortably to him.

As these unlikely allies work their way west, their flight will test both Anna’s and Callum’s love, as well as their friendship with Manfred–and will forever bind the young trio together." -- from www.amazon.com

Another okay book...the story was slow to start and it had barely gotten up steam when Bohjalian wound it up with a rather choppy and unsatisfying ending. Not one of his best works.

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Rooftops of Tehran -- "In a middle-class neighborhood of Iran's sprawling capital city, 17-year-old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, joking around one minute and asking burning questions about life the next. He also hides a secret love for his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man. But the bliss of Pasha and Zari's stolen time together is shattered when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah's secret police. The violent consequences awaken him to the reality of living under a powerful despot, and lead Zari to make a shocking choice..." -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a beautiful book...moving, well-written and amazingly detailed...a wonderful, if tragic, story.

The House I Loved -- Started: Mar. 22, 2013 Finished: Mar. 23, 2013

Skeletons At The Feast -- Started: Mar. 23, 2013 Finished: Apr. 3, 2013

Rooftops Of Tehran -- Started: Apr. 3, 2013 Finished: Apr. 5, 2013

25 Book Challenge 2013 Books #21, #22 & #23

Hunters -- "At the end of Chapterhouse: Dune, Frank Herbert's final novel, a ship carrying the ghola of Duncan Idaho, Sheeana (a young woman who can control sandworms), and a crew of various refugees escapes into the uncharted galaxy, fleeing from the monstrous Honored Matres, dark counterparts to the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. The nearly invincible Honored Matres have swarmed into the known universe, driven from their home by a terrifying, mysterious Enemy...To strengthen their forces, the fugitives have used genetic technology from Scytale, the Tleilaxu Master, to revive key figures from Dune's past, including Paul Muad-Dib and his beloved Chani, Lady Jessica, Stilgar, Thufir Hawat, and even Dr. Wellington Yueh. Each of these characters will use their special talents to meet the challenges thrown at them." (taken from the front flap of the book)

Sandworms -- "...battles and plagues have nearly destroyed humans and their planets. Sheanna revives the ghola cloning project to pit genius against numbers. Almost all the saga principals have been re-created—Paul, Jessica, Letos I and II, Chani, Stilgar, even Wellington Yueh...and are hiding on the no-ship. The eleventh ghola of Duncan Idaho keeps an eye on things. Naturally, such a crew generates intrigue, dissension, and many actions unintentionally at cross-purposes. Some of the re-creations learn from the past, some don't. Meanwhile, Omnius and Erasmus, leaders of the thinking machines, search for the no-ship; failing to find it, they finish the destruction of any planet capable of supporting human life." -- from www.amazon.com

Paul -- "Paul Muad'Dib and his army of Fremen desert warriors have succeeded in their overthrow of the Emperor Shaddam IV, but holding onto a universe of fractious planets proves a challenge even for a man revered by his followers as a god. Set in the years following the late Frank Herbert's classic Dune and its sequel, Dune Messiah, the latest joint effort by Herbert's son Brian and noted sf author Anderson fills in the missing years of empire building and looks into the formative years of Paul's childhood as well as the histories of those closest to him." -- from www.amazon.com

I admit to being one of the few who like both Frank Herbert's style (in the original novels) as well as the simpler and more straightforward style of his son and Kevin Anderson (in the prequels & sequels). A lot of people seemed to take it as a personal affront that Anderson & Brian Herbert chose not even to attempt to mimic his dad's style and instead, took Frank Herbert's notes and ideas and told them in their own voices. From what I've read about Brian Herbert's relationship with his father, I really doubt that Frank Herbert would have been offended by the choice made so who am I to get all worked up about it. That being said, I liked where the story went in the two sequels (Hunters & Sandworms) with the exception of a few points here and there. I'm only about halfway through Paul of Dune right now, but I like it so far. The worst fault of these books has been how close they get to "George Lucas syndrome" -- a.k.a. filling in the gaps a little too much, taking away some of the mystery and filling it in with sometimes silly and nonsensical junk (think Star Wars prequels & Jar Jar Binks and you've got the idea).

Hunters of Dune -- Started: Mar. 19, 2010 Finished: Mar. 22, 2010

Sandworms of Dune -- Started: Mar. 22, 2010 Finished: Mar. 25, 2010

Paul of Dune -- Started: Mar. 25, 2010 Finished: Apr. 26, 2010

25 Book Challenge 2010 Books #25, #26 & #27

Leonardo's Swans -- "Italian sisters Isabella and Beatrice d'Este. Isabella, the elder, more accomplished sister, is engaged to handsome Francesco Gonzaga, a minor aristocrat, while Beatrice is intended for the future duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, who's powerful, unscrupulous and already in possession of a pregnant mistress. It seems, at first, that Isabella will enjoy domesticity with Francesco, while unhappy Beatrice is useful to her husband only as a vehicle for breeding sons—a situation further complicated by Ludovico's infatuation with the more beautiful Isabella. While Isabella encourages her brother-in-law's overtures, she's actually desperate to sit for his resident artist, Leonardo da Vinci...the rulers of France scheme to invade Italy, Francesco schemes against Ludovico, and Ludovico schemes against everyone." -- from www.amazon.com

I'm about 100 pages into this and it's a little dry and boring so far. I keep waiting and waiting for the story to move along but it just keeps plodding along. I really enjoyed her novel "Stealing Athena" but this book just doesn't measure up so far.

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Swan Thieves -- "The troubled and troubling figure around which the novel expands is Robert Oliver, a charismatic and hugely talented contemporary American painter in his early 40s with a style reminiscent of the impressionists. Tall and powerfully built, with the near-mythic "great wingspan" of an archangel or a Greek god, Robert suffers from the all-too-human miseries of artistic obsession. He has recently been arrested for trying to attack a painting called "Leda" in the 19th-century collection at the National Gallery of Art, and lands in a psychiatric facility called Goldengrove in Rockville. There he's assigned to a doctor named Andrew Marlow, himself a painter who, until now, has regarded his demanding psychiatric practice as merely his day job. After a brief interview with Marlow, Robert refuses to speak for the 11 months he remains at Goldengrove, expressing himself only by compulsively sketching and painting the same mysterious figure: a beautiful young woman in period Victorian clothing. Baffled and fascinated, Marlow embarks on a not-entirely professional quest to understand the origins of Robert's fixation, traveling to North Carolina, New York and as far as France and Mexico to interview the people who might shed light on the painter's silent mania." -- from www.amazon.com

I really loved this book, almost as much as I loved her first book "The Historian". I couldn't put it down as eager as I was to find out what was going to happen. It's wonderfully written and I definitely recommend it!

Leonardo's Swans -- Started: Jan. 31, 2010 Finished: Feb. 12, 2010

Swan Thieves -- Started: Feb. 1, 2010 Finished: Feb. 4, 2010

25 Book Challenge 2010 Books #11 & #12

Secret Keeper -- "During a summer party at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is happily dreaming of the future. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and watches as her mother speaks to him. Before the afternoon is over, Laurel will witness a shocking crime. A crime that challenges everything she knows about her family and especially her mother, Dorothy—her vivacious, loving, nearly perfect mother.

Now, fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress living in London. The family is gathering at Greenacres farm for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday. Realizing that this may be her last chance, Laurel searches for answers to the questions that still haunt her from that long-ago day, answers that can only be found in Dorothy’s past.

Dorothy’s story takes the reader from pre–WWII England through the blitz, to the ’60s and beyond. It is the secret history of three strangers from vastly different worlds—Dorothy, Vivien, and Jimmy—who meet by chance in wartime London and whose lives are forever entwined" -- from www.amazon.com

A great book...intriguing at every turn. She held the final twist in the story until almost the end

of the novel, but it was well worth the wait.

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Forever Queen -- "Saxon England, 1002. Not only is Æthelred a failure as King, but his young bride, Emma of Normandy, soon discovers he is even worse as a husband. When the Danish Vikings, led by Swein Forkbeard and his son, Cnut, cause a maelstrom of chaos, Emma, as Queen, must take control if the Kingdom-and her crown-are to be salvaged. Smarter than history remembers, and stronger than the foreign invaders who threaten England's shores, Emma risks everything on a gamble that could either fulfill her ambitions and dreams or destroy her completely" -- from www.amazon.com

An interesting book so far about a time period in British history that I don't really know very

much about but am interested in learning more.

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Last Boleyn -- "Although her sister, Anne, the queen; her brother, George, executed alongside Anne; and her father, Thomas, are most remembered by history, Mary was the Boleyn who set into motion the chain of events that brought about the family s meteoric rise to power, as well as the one who managed to escape their equally remarkable fall. Sent away to France at an extraordinarily young age, Mary is quickly plunged into the dangerous world of court politics, where everything is beautiful but deceptive, and everyone she meets is watching and quietly manipulating the events and people around them. As she grows into a woman, Mary must navigate both the dangerous waters ruled by two kings and the powerful will of her own family in order to find a place for herself and the love she so deeply desires" -- from www.amazon.com

Same subject matter as 'The Other Boleyn Girl' but far less melodramatic...this book was less of a bodice-ripper than Philippa Gregory's book and more of a solid historical fiction novel...I liked it a great deal.

The Secret Keeper -- Started: Dec. 6, 2012 Finished: Dec. 7, 2012

The Forever Queen -- Started: Dec. 8, 2012 Finished: Dec. 31, 2012

The Last Boleyn -- Started: Dec. 10, 2012 Finished: Dec. 31, 2012

25 Book Challenge 2012 Books #76, #77 & #78

White Princess -- "When Henry Tudor picks up the crown of England from the mud of Bosworth field, he knows he must marry the princess of the enemy house—Elizabeth of York—to unify a country divided by war for nearly two decades.

But his bride is still in love with his slain enemy, Richard III—and her mother and half of England dream of a missing heir, sent into the unknown by the White Queen. While the new monarchy can win power, it cannot win hearts in an England that plots for the triumphant return of the House of York.

Henry’s greatest fear is that somewhere a prince is waiting to invade and reclaim the throne. When a young man who would be king leads his army and invades England, Elizabeth has to choose between the new husband she is coming to love and the boy who claims to be her beloved lost brother: the rose of York come home at last." -- from www.amazon.com

Really good historical fiction...well researched and interesting.

Sacred Hearts -- "The year is 1570, and a new novice has just been forced into the Italian convent of Santa Caterina. Ripped by her family from the man she loves, sixteen-year-old Serafina is sharp and defiant. Her first night inside the walls is spent in an incandescent rage so violent that the dispensary mistress, Suora Zuana, is dispatched to the girl’s cell to sedate her. Thus begins a complex relationship of trust and betrayal. As Serafina rails against her incarceration, disorder and rebellion mount inside the convent, while beyond its walls, the dictates of the Counter-Reformation begin to impose a regime of oppression that threatens what little freedom the nuns have enjoyed." -- from www.amazon.com

A decent novel...the first I've read of hers. An interesting story but a little boring. The sole setting of the convent made the story a little claustrophobic and the build-up to the climax seemed endless.

The White Princess -- Started: Aug. 1, 2013 Finished: Aug. 4, 2013

Sacred Hearts -- Started: Aug. 1, 2013 Finished: Aug. 4, 2013

25 Book Challenge 2013 Books #63 & #64

House of the Wind -- "San Francisco, 2007. Madeline Moretti is grieving her fiancÉ’s death. Nothing brings her joy anymore, and Maddie’s grandmother, a fiery Italian, sends her to Tuscany to heal. Here, Maddie is immersed in the mystery of a ruined villa. Destroyed centuries ago in a legendary storm on the Eve of St. Agnes, it has been known ever since as the Casa al Vento—the House of the Wind.

Tuscany, 1347. Mia hasn’t spoken since her mother’s death and lives in silence with her beloved aunt. One dark night, a couple seeks refuge in their villa. Used to welcoming passing pilgrims, Mia is entranced by the young bride’s radiance and compassion but is mystified by her reluctance to reveal even her name. Where has she come from, and why must her presence be a secret?

As each searches for a way to step into her future, both Mia and Maddie will be haunted by the myth of the young woman who walked unscathed from the ruins of the House of the Wind" -- from www.amazon.com

This was a very good book...I loved the setting and the evolution of the dual plotlines.

However, the ending was a little bit of a letdown...I think the story could have

used a slightly better and more put together conclusion.

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Witch Hill -- "Sara Latimer's last relative has died. Heartbroken and feeling totally alone, Sara moves to the family home she had just inherited, Witch Hill, only to find that she is shunned by most of her neighbors.

Finally Matthew Hay, one of her only allies, explains that Sara's aunt was a powerful, evil witch and that the townspeople fear that Sara is following in her footsteps. Matthew and his ladylove, Tabitha, are also witches, and they too believe that Sara has her aunt's powers-and that she is ready to be possessed by her aunt's waiting spirit.

Sara crumbles under the steady onslaught of Matthew and Tabitha's evil. For a time, her love for Brian Standish keeps her sane, but at last Sara is lost in a maelstrom of dark power and sex magick.

As a Champion of Light, Colin MacLaren cannot allow Sara to be destroyed by Matthew Hay. Even at the risk of his own soul, he will save Sara." -- from www.amazon.com

Pretty much the same type of book as Dark Satanic. Underdeveloped characters and

a frankly silly plot that stretched even my willing suspension of disbelief.

The House Of The Wind -- Started: Oct. 11, 2012 Finished: Oct. 18, 2012

Witch Hill -- Started: Oct. 18, 2012 Finished: Oct. 30, 2012

25 Book Challenge 2012 Books #67 & #68

"Spanning a thousand years, and following the shifting fortunes of two families though the ages, this is the epic saga of Rome, the city and its people. Weaving history, legend, and new archaeological discoveries into a spellbinding narrative, critically acclaimed novelist Steven Saylor gives new life to the drama of the city’s first thousand years — from the founding of the city by the ill-fated twins Romulus and Remus, through Rome’s astonishing ascent to become the capitol of the most powerful empire in history. Roma recounts the tragedy of the hero-traitor Coriolanus, the capture of the city by the Gauls, the invasion of Hannibal, the bitter political struggles of the patricians and plebeians, and the ultimate death of Rome’s republic with the triumph, and assassination, of Julius Caesar. Witnessing this history, and sometimes playing key roles, are the descendents of two of Rome’s first families, the Potitius and Pinarius clans: One is the confidant of Romulus. One is born a slave and tempts a Vestal virgin to break her vows. One becomes a mass murderer. And one becomes the heir of Julius Caesar. Linking the generations is a mysterious talisman as ancient as the city itself."

A really interesting concept and very well-executed. Most novels of ancient Rome have really focused on the lives of the emperors, so this was a refreshing take on an old subject.

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"This is the first title in an epic series following the life of Odysseus - adventure, passion and battle in ancient Greece. A man becomes a hero...As a young boy in Ithaca, Odysseus listens in wonder to his grandfather Autolykos, a man feared by many across the land as a ruthless fighter. He learns of his heritage and a lifelong passion is sparked: to become an adventurer and warrior. In Mycenae, he meets King Eurystheus and learns the terrible story of Hercules - the man with god-like strength who slaughtered his family and punished by the King to undertake impossible tasks to earn absolution. But is Eurystheus the man he says he is? When a child comes to Odysseus in the middle of the night, with another, very disturbing, version of what happened that fateful night, Odysseus embarks on the first of his extraordinary quests...So begins the epic story of Odysseus, the first of two volumes: an adventure of love, war, courage and heroism, weaving from a small rocky island in Greece, to the mighty fall of Troy."

I thought at first that this book was going to be a bit of a Homeric bodice-ripper, but I was happy to discover a lovely well-written novel about the early life of Odysseus. Can't wait for the next book in the series.

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"As the middle daughter of the High King, Andi isn't the warrior (that's older sister Ursula) or the beautiful one (younger sister Amelia has that sewn up), but she does have a distinct tie to her mother's people, the Tala, that might change the balance of power in the realm. No one in the Twelve Kingdoms speaks of the dead queen or the Tala, so when Andi, while out riding, meets the mysterious Rayfe, she is stunned to find out that he is king of the Tala and that she is destined to be his queen."

A nice YA fantasy novel...very similar to books I've read by Carol Goodman/Juliet Dark and Juliet Marillier.

Out of Oz -- "Once peaceful and prosperous, the spectacular Land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look who’s knocking at the door. It’s none other than Dorothy. Yes. That Dorothy.

Yet amidst all this chaos, Elphaba’s granddaughter, the tiny green baby born at the close of Son of a Witch, has come of age. Now it is up to Rain to take up her broom—and her legacy—in an Oz wracked by war." -- from www.amazon.com

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did the others in the series. The first hundred or so pages were rather boring. After that, the story picked up a little but it still wasn't all that interesting.

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Hundred Secret Senses -- "In 1962, five-year-old Olivia meets the half-sister she never knew existed, eighteen-year-old Kwan from China, who sees ghosts with her "yin eyes." Decades later, Olivia describes her complicated relationship with her sister and her failing marriage, as Kwan reveals her story, sweeping the reader into the splendor and violence of mid-nineteenth century China." -- from www.amazon.com

I really enjoyed this book...there hasn't been an Amy Tan book that I haven't liked :)

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Jesus Dynasty -- "In The Jesus Dynasty, biblical scholar James Tabor brings us closer than ever to the historical Jesus. He explains the crucial relationship between Jesus, a royal descendant of David, and his relative John the Baptizer, a priestly descendant of Aaron and Jesus' teacher. When John was killed, several of his followers -- including Jesus' four brothers -- joined with Jesus, who continued John's mission, preaching the same apocalyptic message. After Jesus confronted the Roman authorities in Jerusalem and was crucified, his brother James succeeded him as the leader of the Jesus dynasty." -- from www.amazon.com

This was an interesting read, although I thought there would be more about the actual archeological digs than there was. It was a lot more history than archeology.

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Songs of Love & Death -- "IN this star-studded cross-genre anthology, seventeen of the greatest modern authors of fantasy, science fiction, and romance explore the borderlands of their genres with brand-new tales of ill-fated love. From zombie-infested woods in a postapocalyptic America to faery-haunted rural fields in eighteenth- century England, from the kingdoms of high fantasy to the alien world of a galaxy-spanning empire, these are stories of lovers who must struggle against the forces of magic and fate." -- from www.amazon.com

I picked this up, not sure if I would like it or not, and ended up loving it. Some of the stories were better than others, but they were all worth reading.

Out of Oz -- Started: Jan. 5, 2012 Finished: Feb. 25, 2012

Hundred Secret Senses -- Started: Jan. 7, 2012 Finished: Jan. 8, 2012

Jesus Dynasty -- Started: Jan. 10, 2012 Finished: Jan. 27, 2012

Songs of Love & Death -- Started: Jan. 26, 2012 Finished: Jan. 29, 2012

25 Book Challenge Books #2, #3, #4 & #5

The Light Bearer -- "Spanning the years between A.D. 52-shortly before Nero's accession-and Nerva's accession in 96, the novel invokes tribal warfare, two tyrants, Domitian's terror, gladiatorial spectacles, blood vengeance, imperial intrigues and a mythic love. At the center is Auriane, the daughter of a Chattian chieftain fated to lead her tribe against Rome but also to disgrace it by murdering her father. On the other side of the Alps is Marcus Julianus, a philosophically disposed nobleman trying to salvage justice under the despotic Nero and Domitian. Marcus is haunted by his late father's vague records of a German warrior maid and the two finally meet when Auriane is captured in Domitian's Chattian campaign." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a very good book...I really liked the historical details and although, at times, I was impatient for Gillespie to get the story moving, there wasn't really any part of the book that I didn't care for.

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Lost Books -- "...begins with Odysseus, having spent several years after his battles in the Trojan War struggling to find his way home, finally getting to the shoreline of his island kingdom of Ithaca. Instead of finding his wife patiently waiting for his return, he discovers that Penelope has married a fat old man she knew to be impersonating Odysseus. The author follows this humorous twist with a series of Calvino-esque, interlocking short stories and vignettes—some shorter than a page—that sculpt and explode Homer's original plot." -- from www.amazon.com

This was an interesting book...not necessarily something that I would go back to and read again, but a very inventive idea and some of the stories were really funny, others not so much. It was one of those books I would recommend checking out from the library instead of/before you buy it.

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Red Knight -- "As wicked forces come to a head at Bloor's Academy, Charlie and his friends must use all their magic and all their might to fight the evil and save Charlie's parents...Charlie must discover the fate of his family, the evil intentions of the Bloors, what has become of Septimus Bloor's will, and, most important, the destiny of the Red King's heirs." -- from www.amazon.com

I loved the 'Charlie Bone' books but I was a little disappointed in this book. I thought that -- after all the twists and turns in books 1-7 -- the plot wound up too fast. Things worked out a little too well for everyone and it had one of those very shiny, smiley happily-ever-after endings which I don't think really fit the tone of the rest of the series.

The Light Bearer -- Started: Apr. 15, 2010 Finished: May 5, 2010

Lost Books of the Odyssey -- Started: Apr. 23, 2010 Finished: Apr. 24, 2010

Charlie Bone and the Red Knight -- Started: May 1, 2010 Finished: May 3, 2010

25 Book Challenge 2010 Books #32, #33 & #34

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High School, to launch the expansion of the Reading Challenge, a scheme to encourage literacy and a love of reading in young people.

The First Minister’s Reading Challenge will now be piloted up to S3 in six schools across Scotland.

Research shows reading for pleasure drops off as young people reach secondary school and the expansion of the scheme is designed to ensure young adults continue to enjoy reading long after they have left primary school.

"The Lost Symbol begins with an ancient ritual, a shadowy enclave, and of course, a secret. Readers know they are in Dan Brown territory when, by the end of the first chapter, a secret within a secret is revealed...Again, brilliant Harvard professor Robert Langdon finds himself in a predicament that requires his vast knowledge of symbology and superior problem-solving skills to save the day. The setting, unlike other Robert Langdon novels, is stateside, and in Brown's hands Washington D.C. is as fascinating as Paris or Vatican City (note to the D.C. tourism board: get your "Lost Symbol" tour in order). And, as with other Dan Brown books, the pace is relentless, the revelations many, and there is an endless parade of intriguing factoids that will make you feel like you are spending the afternoon with Robert Langdon and the guys from Mythbusters." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a pretty good book...I have to admit, I didn't see the big twist coming until it was right there in front of me and that fact alone made this one worth reading. Nothing will match up to the Da Vinci Code for shock value, contraversy, self-indulgent thrills, etc. but I think the Lost Symbol is definitely worth a read.

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Cleopatra's Daughter -- "Moran's latest foray into the world of classical history (after The Heretic Queen) centers upon the children of Marc Antony and Cleopatra . After the death of their parents, twins Alexander and Selene and younger brother Ptolemy are in a dangerous position, left to the mercy of their father's greatest rival, Octavian Caesar. However, Caesar does not kill them as expected, but takes the trio to Rome to be paraded as part of his triumphant return and to demonstrate his solidified power. As the twins adapt to life in Rome in the inner circle of Caesar's family, they grow into adulthood ensconced in a web of secrecy, intrigue and constant danger." -- from www.amazon.com

This looked interesting on the shelf so I thought I would try it...it had a glowing quote from Margaret George (one of my favorite authors) on the front and since she wrote "The Memoirs of Cleopatra", I thought her recommendation was pretty solid :) It's very good so far and I'm looking forward to reading Michelle Moran's other novels.

Cleopatra's Daughter -- Started: Oct. 2, 2009 Finished: Oct. 8, 2009

The Lost Symbol -- Started: Oct. 2, 2009 Finished: Oct. 4, 2009

25 Book Challenge 2009 Books #50 & #51

Maid of the White Hands -- "Isolde's day has come. In Ireland, her mother, the Queen, lies dying. The throne of the Emerald Isle, one of the last strongholds of the goddess, awaits her. But while Ireland is her destiny, Isolde is already Queen of Cornwall, trapped in a loveless marriage to its mean-spirited King Mark. Her true love is his nephew, Tristan of Lyonesse, who has never married, remaining faithful only to Isolde.

Across the sea in France, a young princess who shares Isolde's name enters the story. King Hoel named his daughtor in honor of Isolde of Ireland, and young Isolde of France has always been determined to outdo her beautiful namesake. She is a physician, too, and is called "Blanche Mains," for her white hands and healing touch. Blanche is of an age to be married, and she has chosen her husband—Tristan of Lyonesse. Her father objects, but fate favors Blanche. King Mark has become suspicious of his wife and nephew, and when Tristan is wounded in battle, he sees a chance to separate them for good.

Mark sends Tristan to France to be healed by Blanche, who makes the most of the opportunity. Tristan's letters to Isolde are intercepted, and he is told that she has given him up. Near death from his wounds, Tristan sends one last, desparate letter to Isolde by a trusted servant. He is dying, he tells her, and asks for one final sign of their love. If she can forgive him for betraying her, she must come to France in a ship set with white sails. If the ship's sails are black, however, he will know that she no longer loves him. Isolde immediately leaves for France, but when Blanche sees the white-sailed ship from the castle window, she pulls the curtains and tells Tristan that the sails are black. To her horror, he turns his face to the wall and dies.

There ends the traditional medieval story of Tristan and Isolde—with betrayal, death, and grief. But the original Irish lengend ends differently, and so does this book..." -- from www.amazon.com

Lady of the Sea -- "Ireland's fiery-haired Queen Isolde longs to end her loveless marriage to Mark, King of Cornwall, whom she wed only to save her beloved homeland from war. Isolde's true soul mate is Mark's noble nephew, Tristan of Lyonesse. (For readers rusty on Arthurian legend, the pair's romantic fate was sealed with a potion.) When Isolde learns that the Western Isle will soon be under siege by the savage Picts—so named for their colorful face and body tattoos—she sails home to confront their charismatic leader, King Darath, who plans to take the comely queen as his bride. Meanwhile, Tristan is torn between his love for Isolde and duty to cowardly King Mark, who, without offspring of his own, must name a successor to the Cornwall throne." -- from www.amazon.com

These were enjoyable books...a little frustrating at times when I desperately wanted Tristan and Isolde together and the story kept splitting them apart. Also, the villians of the story were generally all the same which made scenes with them very boring.

Maid of the White Hands -- Started: Apr. 10, 2011 Finished: Apr. 17, 2011

Lady of the Sea -- Started: Apr. 20, 2011 Finished: Apr. 30, 2011

25 Book Challenge 2011 Books #33 & #34

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was in Irvine today to take part in ReimagiNation, hosted by the Edinburgh Book Festival.

"Return to the world of the Bloody Sun Over fifty years ago, master story-teller Marion Zimmer Bradley introduced readers to a compelling new world. Darkover, a distant planet circling a red sun, was home to telepaths and rebels, lovers and rivals, nonhuman races both friendly and deadly, ancient traditions and even more ancient feuds, and psychic gifts of unimaginable power, channeled through starstone gems and capable of changing not only individual lives, but the entire world. Generations of fans have fallen in love with Darkover, and many of them have gone on to notable literary careers of their own. Now editors Deborah J. Ross and Elisabeth Waters have gathered together luminaries of fantasy in this star-studded anthology of original stories that illuminate Darkover's rich history and culture. From the Ages of Chaos to re-contact with the Terrans, from the Dry Towns to the back streets of Thendara to the horse pastures of Armida, these tales offer action, courage, and humor, set in the wondrous world that is Darkover. This volume contains stories by Robin Wayne Bailey, Rachel Manjia Brown, Barb Caffrey, Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald, Rosemary Edghill and Rebecca Fox, Leslie Fish, Gabrielle Harbowy, Steven Harper, Shariann Lewitt, Vera Nazarian, Diana L. Paxson, Janni Lee Simner, Kari Sperring, Judith Tarr, Ann Sharp and Elisabeth Waters."

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"The first new Darkover anthology in almost two decades, this volume focuses on the music of Darkover: stories with musical elements; the songs in the books; and the filk songs inspired by them, from "The Horsetamer's Daughter" by Leslie Fish to eight songs by Cynthia McQuillin. Original stories included are by India Edghill, Leslie Fish, Raul S. Reyes, Michael Spence, and Elisabeth Waters. There are also reprints of stories by Mercedes Lackey and Vera Nazarian."

Like all the other Darkover anthologies, some good stories that really seem to fit the vibe of the Darkover series and other stories that would have been better relegated to the recycle bin.

More young people will be able to get involved in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge as it expands to include secondary schools, libraries and community groups.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made the announcement at Riverside Primary School in Stirling – the winner of the School and Community Partnership Reading Journey award for its participation in the challenge.

Dangerous Inheritance -- "When her older sister, Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days’ Queen, is executed in 1554 for unlawfully accepting the English crown, Lady Katherine Grey’s world falls apart. Barely recovered from this tragic loss she risks all for love, only to incur the wrath of her formidable cousin Queen Elizabeth I, who sees Katherine as a rival for her insecure throne.

Interlaced with Katherine’s story is that of her distant kinswoman Kate Plantagenet, the bastard daughter of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king. In 1483, Kate travels to London for Richard’s coronation, and her world changes forever.

Kate loves her father, but before long she hears terrible rumors about him that threaten all she holds dear. Like Katherine Grey, she falls in love with a man who is forbidden to her. Then Kate embarks on what will become a perilous quest, covertly seeking the truth about what befell her cousins the Princes in the Tower, who may have been victims of Richard III’s lust for power. But time is not on Kate’s side, or on Katherine’s.

Katherine finds herself a prisoner in the Tower of London, the sinister fortress that overshadowed the lives of so many royal figures, including the boy princes. Will Elizabeth demand the full penalty for treason? And what secrets will Katherine find hidden within the Tower walls?" -- from www.amazon.com

A pretty decent historical novel. I did have some trouble -- at times -- keeping the two Katherines straight. I was also a tad disappointed when the "mystery" of the novel fell flat at the end.

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Sisterland -- "From an early age, Kate and her identical twin sister, Violet, knew that they were unlike everyone else. Kate and Vi were born with peculiar “senses”—innate psychic abilities concerning future events and other people’s secrets. Though Vi embraced her visions, Kate did her best to hide them.

Now, years later, their different paths have led them both back to their hometown of St. Louis. Vi has pursued an eccentric career as a psychic medium, while Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. But when a minor earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the normal life Kate has always wished for begins to shift. After Vi goes on television to share a premonition that another, more devastating earthquake will soon hit the St. Louis area, Kate is mortified. Equally troubling, however, is her fear that Vi may be right. As the date of the predicted earthquake quickly approaches, Kate is forced to reconcile her fraught relationship with her sister and to face truths about herself she’s long tried to deny." -- from www.amazon.com

A good read and I enjoyed the story. However, they were several idiotic characters I really just wanted to slap silly throughout the course of the story.

A Dangerous Inheritance -- Started: Sep. 11, 2013 Finished: Sep. 20, 2013

Sisterland -- Started: Sep. 15, 2013 Finished: Sep. 19, 2013

25 Book Challenge 2013 Books #81 & #82

Sometimes my books just speak to me, you know...and today, they're telling me to wake up and get reading! :)

I started "Vanish With The Rose" today. The story is about a woman who arrives at a supposedly haunted house masquerading as a landscape designer. In reality, she's there trying to solve a family mystery. I'm about halfway through right now and it's an okay read but the plot isn't quite moving very well.

"Death Match" is a mystery/thriller about when things start to go very bad at a hi-tech matchmaking company. I've just started this -- I'm only a few pages in -- but I really like Lincoln Child's books so I don't anticipate disliking this one.

And then there's "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe...despite his obsession with adjectives, adverbs & incredibly sarcastic run-on sentences, I am determined to finish this book! He will NOT get the best of this reader!! lol

The Right Stuff -- Started: Jan. 21, 2009 Finished: Feb. 14, 2009

Vanish With The Rose -- Started: Feb. 7, 2009 Finished: Feb. 8, 2009

Death Match -- Started: Feb. 7, 2009 Finished: Feb. 10, 2009

25 Book Challenge 2009 Books #6, #8 & #9

One For The Money -- "The gutsy heroine introduced here is Stephanie Plum of Trenton, N.J., a recently laid-off lingerie buyer who has no job, no car and no furniture. She does have a hamster, a deranged grandmother, two caring parents and several pairs of biking shorts and sports bras. Finding work with her cousin Vinnie, she becomes a bond hunter and scrounges money enough to buy a gun, a Chevy Nova and some Mace. Her first assignment is to locate a cop accused of murder. Joe Morelli grew up in Stephanie's neighborhood. Possessed of legendary charm, he relieved Stephanie of her virginity when she was 16 (she later ran over him with a car). In her search, Stephanie catches her prey, loses him and grills a psychotic prizefighter, the employer of the man Morelli shot. She steals Morelli's car and then installs an alarm so he can't steal it back. Resourceful and tough, Stephanie has less difficulty finding her man than deciding what she wants to do with him once she's got him." -- from www.amazon.com

I'd never read any Janet Evanovich books before, but my mother is a big fan so when my sister-in-law picked this book up, I read it too. It was interesting, fun and a pretty decent murder-thriller.

One For The Money -- Started: Mar. 20, 2012 Finished: Mar. 20, 2012

25 Book Challenge 2012 Book #23

Daughters of Rome -- "A.D. 69. The Roman Empire is up for the taking. The Year of Four Emperors will change everything-especially the lives of two sisters with a very personal stake in the outcome. Elegant and ambitious, Cornelia embodies the essence of the perfect Roman wife. She lives to one day see her loyal husband as Emperor. Her sister Marcella is more aloof, content to witness history rather than make it. But when a bloody coup turns their world upside-down, both women must maneuver carefully just to stay alive. As Cornelia tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered dreams, Marcella discovers a hidden talent for influencing the most powerful men in Rome. In the end, though, there can only be one Emperor...and one Empress." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a very good book...it's a prequel to her last novel, "Mistress of Rome" and I think it was as interesting if not more than that book.

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Mask of Troy -- "Greece, 1876. Renowned archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann unearths the tomb of legendary King Agamemnon and makes a mind-blowing discovery. Determined to keep it secret until the time is right, he dies before it can be revealed to the world.

Germany, 1945. The liberation of a concentration camp reveals clues to the lost antiquities stolen by the Nazis. But the operation is covered up after a horrific secret surfaces.

Northern Aegean, present day. Jack Howard, head of the International Maritime University, and his team discover the wreckage of the legendary Greek fleet from the Trojan War, sending shockwaves around the world. But the biggest surprise is yet to come, for Jack is on the trail not only of Agamemnon, but of Schliemann’s true discovery—and a mystery so explosive that it leads to the kidnapping of Jack’s daughter and a confrontation with a new and evil foe." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a good book, not quite as good as some of his others but decent and enjoyable.

Daughters of Rome -- Started: June 1, 2011 Finished: June 5, 2011

The Mask of Troy -- Started: June 5, 2011 Finished: June 9, 2011

25 Book Challenge 2011 Books #48 & #50

The Dovekeepers -- "Nearly 2,000 years ago, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path.

The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets—about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love." -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

I loved this novel, couldn't put it down...I think this is Alice Hoffman's best book yet.

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What We Talk...Anne Frank -- "The title story, inspired by Raymond Carver’s masterpiece, is a provocative portrait of two marriages in which the Holocaust is played out as a devastating parlor game. In the outlandishly dark “Camp Sundown” vigilante justice is undertaken by a group of geriatric campers in a bucolic summer enclave. “Free Fruit for Young Widows” is a small, sharp study in evil, lovingly told by a father to a son. “Sister Hills” chronicles the history of Israel’s settlements from the eve of the Yom Kippur War through the present, a political fable constructed around the tale of two mothers who strike a terrible bargain to save a child. Marking a return to two of Englander’s classic themes, “Peep Show” and “How We Avenged the Blums” wrestle with sexual longing and ingenuity in the face of adversity and peril. And “Everything I Know About My Family on My Mother’s Side” is suffused with an intimacy and tenderness that break new ground for a writer who seems constantly to be expanding the parameters of what he can achieve in the short form." -- from www.amazon.com

A nice collection of short stories...I liked most of them although "Peep Show" and "The Reader" didn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the stories and it was hard to tell why they were included.

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Stones of Ravenglass -- "Timoken, a magician king, has found a new home in a castle in Britain. But when an evil steward takes control of the castle, he imprisons Timoken and wreaks havoc on surrounding villages. With the help of Gabar, the talking camel, Timoken escapes and embarks on a quest to find and rescue his friends, and build himself a kingdom to call home for good." -- from www.amazon.com

A fun story, good read...pretty much need to read at least the first book in this series to understand what's going on.

The Dovekeepers -- Started: June 19, 2012 Finished: June 23, 2012

What We Talk About -- Started: June 21, 2012 Finished: June 24, 2012

Stones of Ravenglass -- Started: June 25, 2012 Finished: June 25, 2012

25 Book Challenge 2012 Books #41, #42 & $43

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder -- "At first, Calla Lily Ponder appears to be just like any other young woman growing up in the small town of La Luna, La., where life is simple and Calla Lily is supported by a loving, tightly knit family and a colorful cast of locals. But after a series of hometown heartbreaks, Calla Lily sets out for New Orleans to attend a prestigious beauty academy with dreams of one day opening her own salon. Calla Lily soon learns that while the Big Easy offers a fresh start, adventures and exhilarating new friends, it also presents its own set of tragedies and setbacks." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a very good book. I enjoyed it a lot and actually went through it in one day...lol. It wasn't quite as good as "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" but it was definitely better than her last book, "Ya-Ya's in Bloom".

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The Loch -- "Something hungry is in the loch . . and it's not the gentle Nessie of Scottish lore! Marine biologist Zach Wallace, fresh from a near drowning in the Sargasso Sea during an expedition in search of the elusive giant squid, returns to his Scottish birthplace when his estranged father is accused of murder. Unfortunately for Zach's father, Angus, his entire defense hinges on his claim that "something" in Loch Ness killed his business partner when he fell into the water after Angus punched him. But the trial soon becomes a media circus when more people go missing and half-eaten body parts are discovered along the shore. Zach must contend with rival scientists, interfering thrill seekers, and even a rogue remnant of the Knights Templar in his search for what is really lurking in Loch Ness." -- from www.amazon.com

I'm about 200 or so pages into this book so far and it's really very good. I'm caught up in the mystery and the only quibble I have is with the phoentic spelling when the Scottish characters speak...i.e. "Ye're no' on the rag, are ye, Lassie...Och! Ye set yersel' up." It gets a little hard on the eyes occasionally. Otherwise, I really like this one so far.

Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder -- Started: July 25, 2009 Finished: July 25, 2009

The Loch -- Started: July 25, 2009 Finished: July 28, 2009

25 Book Challenge 2009 Books #38 & #39

"Maureen Paschal thought she might rest and work on her book after discovering the gospel written by Mary Magdalene that revealed Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married (in McGowan's novel 'The Expected One'). The truth of their story rocked the world and made Maureen a target of those who did not like her discovery and a heroine to those who did.

Then Maureen receives a strange package containing what looks like an ancient letter written in Latin and signed with a symbol. She discovers that its author is an extraordinary woman whom history has overlooked -- or covered up -- Countess Matilda of Tuscany, and in the letter Matilda demands the return of her "most precious books and documents." Maureen soon finds herself in a race across Italy and France, where hidden dangers await her and her lover, Bérenger, as they begin to realize that they are on the trail of another explosive discovery: the Book of Love, the Gospel written in Jesus' own hand.

As Maureen learns more about Matilda, an eleventhcentury warrior countess who was secretly married to a pope, she begins to see the eerie connections between herself and Matilda, connections she must trace to their source if she is to stop the wrong people from finding the Book of Love and hiding it forever.

Weaving together Matilda's little-known true story and Maureen's thrilling search, The Book of Love follows two amazing heroines as their stories intertwine through time.

Maureen is immersed in the mysteries of the labyrinth, the beautiful poetry of the Song of Songs, the world's greatest art and architecture, and Matilda's amazing legacy...until a potentially fatal encounter reveals the Book of Love to Maureen -- and to the reader." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a pretty decent book although I liked her first novel in the series -- "The Expected One" -- better. There was great deal of focus on the life of Matilda and not a great many connections back to the story of Maureen Paschal. McGowan's writing is good especially if you can learn to deal with her 'Oh My God!' moments -- i.e. OMG!! You mean this famous artist was a member of the bloodline?!?!? OMG!! Such-and-such in the Vatican is connected to the bloodline?!?!? All in all, a good book...I'd say 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Re: my picture -- unfortunately, my plan to build a labyrinth out of pennies was foiled by a shortage of said pennies as well as my complete lack of architectural & construction skills...oh well, it's the thought that counts...right??

The Book of Love -- Started: Mar. 15, 2009 Finished: Mar. 19, 2009

25 Book Challenge 2009 Book #16

Dragon's Fire -- "Pellar, a mute Apprentice Harper; Halla, a homeless girl; and Cristov, a miner's son, learn invaluable life lessons as the planet Pern prepares for the return of the deadly Red Star and its annihilating "Thread," which can only be destroyed by firestone-fueled dragonfire. But mining firestone is dangerous work, often carried out by children of disenfranchised criminals called the Shunned. Accompanied by his new fire-lizard Chitter, Pellar joins Masterharper Zist in a search for Moran, a missing Journeyman Harper who's involved with the Shunned. Pellar finds his fate intertwined with Halla, but his tangle with Tenim, a ruthless thief, almost keeps them apart. Their friend Cristov learns about the Shunned firsthand after a terrible mine explosion. Fortunately, events lead to dragon-riding wish fulfillment and a remarkable discovery." -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

Dragonheart -- "The specter of sickness looms over the Weyrs of Pern, felling fire-lizards and threatening their dragon cousins, Pern’s sole defense against the deadly phenomenon that is Thread. Fiona, the young rider of queen dragon Talenth, is about to assume the duties of a Weyrwoman when word spreads that dragons have begun succumbing to the new contagion. As more dragons sicken and die, Weyrleader B’Nik and queen rider Lorana comb Fort Weyr’s archives in a desperate search for clues from the past that may hold the solution to the plague. But could the past itself prove the pathway to salvation for Pern’s imperiled dragons? Guided by a mysterious ally from a wholly unexpected place, and trusting in the dragon gift for transcending time, Fiona will join a risky expedition with far-reaching consequences for both Pern’s future and her personal destiny." -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

Dragonsblood -- "Never in the dramatic history of Pern has there been a more dire emergency than that which faces the young dragonrider Lorana. A mysterious fatal illness is striking dragons. The epidemic is spreading like wildfire . . . and the next deadly cycle of Threadfall is only days away. Somehow, Lorana must find a cure before the dragons - including her own beloved Arith - succumb to the sickness, leaving Pern undefended.

The lyrics of an all-but-forgotten song seem to point toward an answer, an answer from nearly five hundred years in the past, when Kitti Ping and her daughter Wind Blossom bred the first dragons from their smaller cousins, the fire-lizards. No doubt the first Pern colonists possessed the advanced technology to find the cure Lorana seeks, but over the centuries, that knowledge has been lost. Or has it?

For in the distant past, an aged Wind Blossom worries that the germs that affect the fire-lizards may one day turn against larger prey - and unleash a plague that will destroy the dragons, Pern's only defenders against Thread. But as her people struggle to survive, Wind Blossom has neither the time nor the resources to expend on a future that may never arrive - until suddenly she uncovers evidence that her worst fears will come true.

Now two brave women, separated by hundreds of years but joined by bonds transcending time, will become unknowing allies in a desperate race against sickness and Threadfall, with nothing less than the survival of all life on Pern at stake." -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

These were all pretty good books with Dragonsblood being the best of these three...I just started reading "Pern" books again recently after a few years of not really being interested in where the stories had started to go and I was pleasantly surprised at how decent an author Todd McCaffrey is (even with his obsession with plagues). There were a few boring sections in each book where I got frustrated waiting for the story to progress but eventually -- after a few chapters -- the plot would move along. If you've read some of the "Pern" books before, I would say go ahead and read these...but if you're looking for a good spot to start the series, I would go with some of the earlier novels first.

Dragon's Fire -- Started: Oct. 19, 2010 Finished: Oct. 20, 2010

Dragonheart -- Started: Oct. 20, 2010 Finished: Oct. 23, 2010

Dragonsblood -- Started: Oct. 23, 2010 Finished: Oct. 27, 2010

25 Book Challenge 2010 Books #73, #74 & #75

"Billionaire Palmer Lloyd is accustomed to getting what he wants--and what he wants for his new museum is the largest meteorite on earth. Unfortunately for Lloyd, it's buried on an inhospitable Chilean island just north of the Ice Limit in the most brutal, unforgiving seas in the world.

Fortunately for Lloyd, he knows people--people like Eli Glinn, the hyper-focused president of Effective Engineering Solutions, Inc.; Glinn's nonconformist, genius of a mathematician, Rachel Amira; and the uncannily able construction engineer, Manuel Garza. Lloyd's also tapped the brilliant but disgraced meteorite hunter, Sam McFarlane, and the exceptional supertanker captain, Sally Britton, whose career was unshipped by intemperance and a reef. Of course, such a team has a hefty price tag:

Lloyd's broad features narrowed. "And that is... "

"One hundred and fifty million dollars. Including chartering the transport vessel. FOB the Lloyd Museum."

Lloyd's face went pale. "My God. One hundred and fifty million... " His chin sank onto his hands. "For a ten-thousand-ton rock. That's... "

"Seven dollars and fifty cents a pound," said Glinn.

EES's plan is to obtain mining rights to the island, secure the allegiance of various Chilean functionaries via blinding sums of money, disguise a state-of- the-art supertanker as a decrepit ore rig, mine the rock, slip it into the ship, and zip back to New York to thunderous notoriety. Unforeseen, however, are a rogue Chilean naval captain, seas to make Sebastian Junger boot, and a blood-red meteorite of undetermined pedigree and a habit of discharging billions of volts of electricity for no apparent reason." -- from www.amazon.com

This was a pretty decent read and I have to admit I was taken by complete surprise when it came to the explanation of why the meteorite was acting the way it was. The cliffhanger ending was a little frustrating but now I've heard that Preston and Child are considering writing a sequel. I'd recommend this or any of their other books if you like mystery/thrillers.

The Ice Limit -- Started: Mar. 20, 2009 Finished: Mar. 26, 2009

25 Book Challenge 2009 Book #17

Dead End Gene Pool -- "The great-great-great-great granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt takes a look at the decline of her wealthy blue-blooded family in this irreverent and wickedly funny memoir

For generations the Burdens were one of the wealthiest families in New York, thanks to the inherited fortune of Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt. By 1955, the year of Wendy's birth, the Burdens had become a clan of overfunded, quirky and brainy, steadfastly chauvinistic, and ultimately doomed blue bloods on the verge of financial and moral decline-and were rarely seen not holding a drink.

When her father commits suicide when Wendy is six, she and her brother are told nothing about it and are shuffled off to school as if it were any other day. Subsequently, Wendy becomes obsessed with the macabre, modeling herself after Wednesday Addams of the Addams family, and decides she wants to be a mortician when she grows up. Just days after the funeral, her mother jets off to southern climes in search of the perfect tan, and for the next three years, Wendy and her two brothers are raised mostly by a chain-smoking Scottish nanny and the long suffering household staff at their grandparent's Fifth Avenue apartment. If you think Eloise wreaked havoc at The Plaza you should see what Wendy and her brothers do in "Burdenland"-a world where her grandfather is the president of the Museum of Modern Art; the walls are decorated with originals of Klee, Kline, Mondrian, and Miro; and Rockefellers are regular dinner guests.

The spoiled life of the uber-rich that they live with their grandparents is in dark contrast to the life they live with their mother, a brilliant Radcliffe grad and Daughter of the American Revolution, who deals with having two men's suicides on her conscience by becoming skinnier, tanner, blonder, and more steeped in bitter alcoholism with every passing year." -- from www.barnesandnoble.com

This book was alternately hilarious and disturbing. Hilarious when the author got herself into strange situations simply because she didn't understand the social mores of the situation. Disturbing as you really see the toll that inbred wealth and unchecked addictions can take on a family dynamic.

Dead End Gene Pool -- Started: May 27, 2011 Finished: May 29, 2011

25 Book Challenge 2011 Book #45

"After travel writer Lea Sutter barely survives a merciless hurricane on a tiny island off the South Carolina coast, she impulsively brings two orphaned twin boys home with her to Long Island. Samuel and Daniel seem amiable and intensely grateful at first, but no one in Lea’s family anticipates the twins’ true evil nature—or predicts that within a few weeks’ time her husband, a controversial child psychologist, will be implicated in two brutal murders."

A nice thriller...with a cool premise and a twist at the end that I didn't see coming.

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"In 1702, fourteen years after she helped oust her father from his throne and deprived her newborn half-brother of his birthright, Queen Anne inherited the crowns of England and Scotland. Childless, despite seventeen pregnancies that had either ended in failure or produced heartrendingly short-lived offspring, in some respects she was a pitiable figure. But against all expectation she proved Britain's most successful Stuart ruler.

Her reign was marked by many triumphs, including union with Scotland and glorious victories in war against France. Yet while her great general, the Duke of Marlborough, was performing feats of military genius, Anne's relationship with his outspoken wife Sarah was becoming ever more rancorous. Political differences partly explained why the Queen's earlier adoration for Sarah transformed to loathing, but the final rupture was precipitated by Sarah's startling claim that it was the Queen's lesbian infatuation with another lady-in-waiting, Abigail Masham, that had destroyed their friendship.

Having lost the will to continue an expensive war that the Marlboroughs and their political allies favoured, the Queen embarked upon a peace process that some condemned as a betrayal of the national interest. And, as it became clear that Anne did not have long to live, the nation became polarised by fears that she intended to bequeath her crown to her Catholic half brother, rather than the German Protestant cousin whom Parliament had designated her heir."

A rather dry read but, like many non-fiction books about this era, chock full of information.

More young people will be able to get involved in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge as it expands to include secondary schools, libraries and community groups.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made the announcement at Riverside Primary School in Stirling – the winner of the School and Community Partnership Reading Journey award for its participation in the challenge.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was in Irvine today to take part in ReimagiNation, hosted by the Edinburgh Book Festival.

The Red Tent -- "...re-creates the life of Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, from her birth and happy childhood in Mesopotamia through her years in Canaan and death in Egypt. When Dinah reaches puberty and enters the Red Tent (the place women visit to give birth or have their monthly periods), her mother and Jacob's three other wives initiate her into the religious and sexual practices of the tribe...describes Dinah's doomed relationship with Shalem, son of a ruler of Shechem, and his brutal death at the hands of her brothers. Following the events in Canaan, a pregnant Dinah travels to Egypt, where she becomes a noted midwife." -- from www.amazon.com

I really enjoyed this book...the story was interesting and well-paced...all in all, a great book.

The Red Tent -- Started: Feb. 2, 2012 Finished: Feb. 3, 2012

25 Book Challenge Book #6

More young people will be able to get involved in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge as it expands to include secondary schools, libraries and community groups.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made the announcement at Riverside Primary School in Stirling – the winner of the School and Community Partnership Reading Journey award for its participation in the challenge.

Kids and teens: read books to earn a series of fun prizes! The Winter Reading Challenge runs through April 30. Register here: lesterlibrary.beanstack.com/reader365 Lester Public Library, Two Rivers, Wisconsin