A new stack of books!

Here is the next lineup. Dead Watch by John Sandford. I always read his Prey series and his Virgil Flowers books are super sexy. I don't care too much about his other series but I found this standalone book from 2006 that I somehow missed so I am giving it a try now. It has a political setting which isn't one of my favorites but the writing is familiar Sandford so that makes it worth my time.

Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz. This one I found just browsing the library New shelf. It sounds interesting. From the Harper Collins website:

An astonishing tale of grief and anger, memory and survival, Displaced Persons marks the arrival of a supremely gifted new literary talent, Ghita Schwarz. Schwarz’s powerful story of a group of Holocaust survivors—“displaced persons”—struggling to remake their lives and cope with the stigma of their pasts in the wake of the monumental Nazi horror is beautiful, tragic, moving, and unforgettable, chronicling the lives of ordinary people who have suffered under extraordinary circumstances.

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley was recommended by a good friend of mine. It is a nice long book so I am waiting to have a big block of time to dig into it. Maybe Thanksgiving weekend? King Arthur's story from the perspective of  female characters. 


The next two books are older titles I  found on a seach on Novelist as readalikes for other books I have enjoyed. Hopefully they will be awesome! The first one sounds delicously twisted!!! YAY

The Dark Lantern by Gerri Brightwell. 

Editorial Review - Publishers Weekly vol. 254 iss. 50 p. 29 (c) 12/17/2007

Brightwell’s debut, an uncanny thriller, brings late Victorian London to vivid life. Devon-born housemaid Jane Wilbred has snared her new post with the Bentley family with a letter of reference she forged, omitting any mention of the possibly pertinent fact that her late mother was a notorious murderer. That, however, is trifling compared to the shady games being played both upstairs and downstairs at 32 Cursitor Road while the family matriarch lingers on her deathbed, especially the struggle between mysterious beauty Mina Bentley, wife of younger son Robert, and the wan stranger who claims to be the widow of older brother Henry (drowned recently while sailing home after years in India). Meanwhile, Robert is focused on a battle closer to his heart: winning official recognition for anthropometry, the science of identifying criminals by body measurements. Far from being an arcane digression, Robert’s passion eventually figures into the intricate and surprising plot. The action will keep the reader as intrigued as a parlor maid eavesdropping outside her mistress’s boudoir. 

and finally....

The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld.  

"A spellbinding thriller featuring Sigmund Freud and the search for a diabolical killer in turn of the century New York." This book has mixed reviews so we'll just see about that!

 

Finally got to this one...

I wrote a few weeks ago about having Faiuthful Place by Tana French on my table. I saved it  until I could get through some others and it was well worth the wait. I am still reading it but couldn't wait any longer to say Tana French ROCKS! This book is a mystery and the Irish family at the center is so far beyond dysfunctional that you just have to read about them. I hope she writes another quickly as I really don't want to leave them.

Yay!!!! I just finished a great book. :-)

I couldn't resist posting all of these different covers I found for this book. LOL. Anyway, this book is the second in the Sevenwaters series by Juliet Marillier. I was surprised that it took place so many years after the first book, Daughter of the Forest. I was a little disappointed by that fact at first, but soon came to love this story just as much or maybe even a bit more! Liadan, the heroine is just as strong and endearing a character as her mother Sorcha.

Amazon.com Review

Second of the Sevenwaters trilogy of novels about the last days of heroic Ireland, Son of the Shadows takes up the story of the children of Sorcha, who saved her enchanted brothers, and Hugh, the Briton she married. Sorcha's daughter Liadan is a gifted seer and healer who thinks, in spite of her visions, that she knows what the future has in store for her--caring for her dying mother and then an alliance marriage to Eamonn. A chance meeting on the road carries her off to care for a dying man--one of the mercenaries of the sinister Painted Man, Eamonn's archenemy and a killer for hire. Liadan discovers that she cannot choose whom she loves and that she and the Painted Man are as bound up in destiny as her mother and father were before her.

I can hardly wait for the third book. I have it on hold at my library. Hurry, hurry please!

Books on my side table

I have four books sitting here today. I started reading How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway this morning. This debut novel is very engaging. I think it will be a quick read.

The next in line is Faithful Place by Tana French. I read In the Woods a few years back and I remember it being very suspenseful with great characters so I am happy to have this new book to try.

I also picked up The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry. I enjoyed her previous work, The Lace Reader so this seems to be another promising read!

4th on the list has been sitting here awhile. It's Moment of Truth  an older novel by Lisa Scottoline. One of my fall back authors! I haven't had to crack it open yet but it is here for moral support!

Days 21 & 22

Still hanging in there! I sort of made a mistake in one area but I think that is not too bad considering all the changes. I ordered some chocolate almond milk thinking I would have it later after the restrictions were off but one morning I totally spaced off and made a smoothie with it. Chocolate is a no no!! Oops.
Today I cooked some rice pasta with chicken and made a sauce for it with rice milk and rice flour. It turned out pretty good. The pasta was quite good. I was happily surprised. In my regular life this dish would have definitely had some butter and a ton of cheese on it.

EDIT- I actually wrote this post for my other blog and then today when I went to post again, I thought where is that post? LOL. I'll leave it for now but in case you want to know what I am talking about, the other blog is
http://thedetoxificationofme.blogspot.com/

Yes, I have been reading but

Nothing I would recommend until now. I love Sara Gruen. My favorite book is Water For Elephants. I cried so much during that book. Despite a bomb going off early on, this book seems much more lighthearted. She  has written other titles such as Riding Lessons and Flying Changes which are also great! I am reading her newest book. Ape House. It is a thin book so I have to pace myself so it won't end too soon.

I have read a lot of not so great reviews on this book but I intend to enjoy it anyway. I find it fascinating that the author came up with the idea after a visit to The Great Ape Trust where she was able to communicate with the resident apes via sign language. That must have been an amazing experience! If you want to start off with a Sara Gruen book, I recommend going with Water For Elephants and see if you get hooked!

Almost Perfect Day Off

Pickings have been slim lately for books that I want to read. Right now I have James Patterson's The Postcard Killers. Like most Patterson books, in my opinion, it lacks depth. Maybe when you write a book every few months that is what happens. I actually use to enjoy his Alex Cross series but he lost me somewhere. Now I find his books ok for fillers in between better books. They are quick mysteries with short chapters to keep you turning the pages. He does a lot of collaberations with other authors and this is one. It is written with Liza Marklund who is a Scandinavian author. I imagine she contributed local details if nothing more. This book is set in Sweden. The inside jacket calls it the "scariest vacation thriller ever written". Maybe I just haven't gotten to that part yet? I'm on p.223.

Life of Pi

I loved this book. It was really interesting and thought provoking. I loved all the info about animals and zoo life most of all. It makes me want to go and work for my friend Connie in her zoo. Of course the survival story is incredible! I definitely recommend giving this book a try. I don't like to tell too much of the story so you just have to trust my opinion or not! Here is a little something to jumpstart your curiosity though:
After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

A book on my want to read list is in my hands!

So at our library we have a staff recommends shelf where we have a display for our patrons. Staff keeps it filled with our favorites. I was suppose to be filling it up when I noticed a book that I have had on my WeRead want to read shelf for a long time but keep forgetting to pick up. So thanks to whatever staff member put it up there I have Life of Pi sitting on my table. I will finish up Rough Justice first but it is pretty lame except for a line here or there that catches me off guard.

No time for reading today

but it was a great, happy day! Kim got her new power wheelchair and she wanted to hang out with me all day and talk about how cool it is and how jealous everyone must be! We have been waiting since April for this chair since her old one tanked and she is so happy to have her freedom back.

Myles needed some time today too. He is busy writing but worried now that he has too much material. Too much! Can you imagine? He had me come and give him an opinion on a section he is working on and then LIKE 80% OF THE TIME, does the opposite of what I suggested. Good for him though. That is exactly why I can't write a novel. I would constantly second guess myself.

I am still waiting for a few holds to come in to the library so it will be another Scottoline novel for me. Running From the Law was pretty good. Quick and easy! The heroine Rita was a great laywer who depends on outrageous bluffs to make her case.  This time I'll go with Rough Justice and pray for my new Jeffrey Deaver novel to show up soon.

I hate when that happens

finished up Daughter of the Forest today. Now I have to wait for the second book to come in. I brought home a book that a patron had highly recommended. So I dug into it and tried and tried to see what made her love it but no such luck. I really hate it when I have to close a book without finishing it. So now I have a couple of Lisa Scottoline novels as a back up plan! I just started reading her books recently and find them to be a quick filler in between favorites. They are courtroom thrillers with a sense of humor and strong heroines. So tonight I will start with Running From the Law.

And now for my first book

I am reading a book recommended by my friend at The Ivory Tower Library. It is a fantasy novel. I use to read a lot of fantasy years ago but then I got hooked on mystery so it is rare that I go back and try something different. I am so happy that I am reading Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. It takes me back to those days when I really loved this genre and now I realized that I have missed it. YAY! That gives me a whole new array of books to dive into. Happy happy happy!
Since I tried to tell my son about this book and got rolling eyeballs back at me while I described swans and starwort shirts, I'll spare you that and give you this professional description:
Juliet Marillier's intensely romantic first novel Daughter of the Forest takes the reader to an Ireland on the edge where history and fairy tale meet. Sorcha, seventh child of a seventh son, finds herself caught up in the manipulations of a wicked and sorcerous stepmother, the whims of faerie and the purely human evil of a fanatical British lord. Acts of kindness have the most terrible of consequences and people's strongest virtues are used against them. First volume of a trilogy, Daughter of the Forest is a stunning debut that takes one of the most moving of fairy stories and renders it in vivid painful detail--rarely have the day-to-day consequences of magic's demands been made so directly unpleasant. Sorcha is a figure of fortitude to stand with the great heroines of contemporary fantasy; she does what she has to and takes the consequences at every turn. The author creates a cast of worthy allies and enemies for Sorcha as she travels from a remote Irish fortress to the depths of a forest in a Britain caught between its Celtic and European identities. --Roz Kaveney 

What is this blog about?

So Sylvia Browne told me to write. No really, she did! The famous psychic Sylvia Browne. My sister and I saw her in Vegas and we each got to ask one question. My question was what I should focus on over the next five years. I was trying to get a lot of bang for my buck with that question and her answer was to write. hmmm...
I would LOVE to write a novel. I have even started on a couple. But the truth is that I am much more of a reader than a writer. I love to lose myself in a mystery or suspense and maybe the occasional romance. My son is a writer. Seeing the dedication he has to sit and write for hours every day and how hard the editing process is makes me realize that I am not that kind of a writer!
So I thought maybe I would write about reading and this blog is my place to do that.