5. A Fatal Grace - Louise Penny

Chief Insp. Armand Gamache #2
listened to Audio (unabridged 10:31) borrowed from TPPL
read by Ralph Cosham
2006 Minotaur Books
311 pgs. (Hardcover) 417 pgs. (Kindle)
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 1/8/2018
Goodreads rating:  4.11 - 49,781 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting:  Christmastime, Three Pines, Quebec (just outside Montreal)

First line/s:  "Had CC dePoitiers known she was going to be murdered she might have bought her husband, Richard, a Christmas gift.  She might have even gone to her daughter's end of term pageant at Miss Edward's School of Girls, or "girths" as CC liked to tease her expansive daughter.   Had CC dePoitiers had known the end was near she might have been at work instead of in the cheapest room the Ritz in Montreal had to offer.  But the only end she knew was near belonged to a man named Saul."

A quote to ponder:  "So much more comforting to see bad in others, gives us all sorts of excuses for our own bad behavior."

My comments:  Winter in Quebec, a cold, snowy, blizzardy time from just before Christmas until New Years.  I wan't really enamored with the first of the series.  But okay, I'll admit it, there's something special about this guy, this chief inspector.  Or is it Three Pines itself?  The idyllic setting, the quirky characters, the way that almost every piece in the thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle fit together.  And Ralph Cosham, the wonderful reader of this audiobook, who speaks the many French words in a way that I an almost understand them all!  It was definitely more of a "cozy" than the gritty murder mysteries I've always preferred, but it was so much more than a cozy mystery.  Of course I will now read more.  Louise Penny has put many questions into her readers' minds that still need to be answered.
ADDENDUM:  There were so many places that I chuckled during the story, lots and lots of subtle humor.  And every time that Ruth Zardo was in the scene, I loved it.  I want to know more about her.  And I really love her poetry!

Goodreads synopsis:  Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.
No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death. 
          When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Québec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he's dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder—or brilliant enough to succeed?
          With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.

20. Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass

read on my Kindle
2007 Little Brown Young Readers
251 pgs.
Contemporary YA told in VERSE form
Finished 2/26/18
Goodreads rating:  3.79 - 5250 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:Contemporary America

First line/s:
"For fifty cents and a Gobstopper
I lifted my shirt for the neighborhood boys.
My older brother Matt caught us
and chased the boys with a wiffle bat.
Word got around, and at nine years old
I became the girl
other girls' moms
didn't want them to play with."

My comments:  Told in verse format, I guess you would call this a partial modern-day "Christmas Carol", since Tessa is only visited by the ghost of her past.  It's really cute and insightful, and sad, too.  Not SAD sad, just enough to feel badly for the little girl Tess was growing up.  And her future is yet to be written!

Goodreads synopsis: When 16-year-old Tessa suffers a shocking accident in gym class, she finds herself in heaven (or what she thinks is heaven), which happens to bear a striking resemblance to her hometown mall. In the tradition of It's a Wonderful Life and The Christmas Carol, Tessa starts reliving her life up until that moment. She sees some things she'd rather forget, learns some things about herself she'd rather not know, and ultimately must find the answer to one burning question--if only she knew what the question was. 
          Written in sharp, witty verse, Wendy Mass crafts an extraordinary tale of a spunky heroine who hasn't always made the right choices, but needs to discover what makes life worth living.

19. Unwind by Neal Shusterman

listened to on Audible
read by Luke Daniels - bravo!
2007 Simon & Schuster
335 pgs.
YA Dystopia
Finished 2/21/2018
Goodreads rating: 4.18-160,781
My rating:  5

First line/s:  " 'There are places you can go,' Ariana tells him, 'and a guy as smart as you has a decent chance of surviving to eighteen.'"

My comments:  I have a friend who loves everything Neal Shusterman, and since I've had this sitting on my Audible for quite a while, I decided to start this instead of Scythe, which I don't have.  Wow. This is an amazing story. A dystopian America, a place where parents of kids between the ages of 13 and 18 can "rid" themselves of unwanted offspring by sending them away to be unwound. And what is unwinding? It is harvesting every single part of the living body to be used as replacements in other humans. WHOA!!!!
           So much to think about and digest. Thoroughly written, interesting personalities to get to know. Narrated by Luke Daniels, who read the story brilliantly. Neal Shusterman is amazing, I can't wait to read more of his work!

Goodreads synopsis: Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.
          The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

42. Heartstopper - Joy Fielding

listened to audio cd on the way to Maine (and during some of my cross-country jaunt)
2007 Atria Publishing
387 pgs.
Adult mystery
Finished 6/26/2015
Goodreads rating: 3.68
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Florida - a small town in Alligator Alley

My comments:  There were many things to like about this book and a few things to passionately dislike.  So which one should I talk about?  There are three major points-of-view in this story:  a high school English teacher, the chief of police, and the writings/braggings of the antagonist.  The setting, a small town in alligator alley in Florida, worked well. I don't like coming across teachers in books that are not good role models to the profession.  I'm appalled at the things that Sandy Crosbie allows her student to get away with - particularly being hugely mean to each other.  She wants her cheating husband back (he's a worm) even though he flaunts his new floozy right in front of her.  I have no respect for her at all, except, perhaps, in some of her parenting.  And then we have the chief of police.  What a piece of work he is!  It all come together, though, and even though I had a pretty good idea who the antagonist was, the mystery kept me enthralled for much of my cross-country journey.

Goodreads synopsis:  From the "New York Times" and internationally bestselling author of "Mad River Road" comes a spine-tingling thriller about a picturesque Florida town -- and the killer determined to prey on its teenage girls.Welcome to Torrance, Florida. Population: 4,160. As Sheriff John Weber would attest, the deadliest predators to date in his tiny hamlet were the alligators lurking in the nearby swamps. But that was before someone abducted and murdered a runaway teenage girl...and before the disappearance of popular and pretty Liana Martin. The pattern is chilling to Sandy Crosbie, the town's new high school English teacher. With a marriage on the rocks, thanks to her husband's online affairs, and a beautiful teenage daughter to protect, Sandy wishes she'd never come to the seemingly quiet town with shocking depths of scandal, sex, and brutality roiling beneath its surface. And as Sheriff Weber digs up more questions than answers in a dead-end investigation, one truth emerges: the prettiest ones are being targeted, the heartstoppers. And this killer intends to give them their due....
     Alternating between the chilling journal entries of a cold-blooded murderer and the sizzling scandals of small-town life, "Heartstopper" is Joy Fielding's most exciting novel of suspense yet.

DNF - Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

listened to audio on AUDIBLE (It's still in my cloud - what a waste of money for me!)
Kate Daniels #1
2007, Ace
280 pgs.- I listened to the equivalent of about 60 of them
"Urban Fantasy"
Ended 5/8/15
Goodreads rating:
My rating: I didn't enjoy it at all
Setting: Magical Atlanta, a short time in the future:

My comments:  I'm not going to rate this one, since I only got through about 60 pages.  It came highly recommended, but this genre (whatever it's called) just isn't my cup of tea.  There's too many books waiting for me to spend time reading something I don't enjoy.  It's probably a wonderful book, just not for me.

Goodreads synopsis:  Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up paranormal problems. Atlanta has two factions struggling for power. Masters of the Dead are necromancers who control vampires. The Pack are a paramilitary clan of shapechangers. When Kate's guardian is killed, she is caught between.

78. The Devil's Hour - J. Carson Black

#3 Laura Cardinal, Tucson Police

Read on my iPhone

2007, Breakaway Media

287 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 12/26//2014

Goodreads rating:  3.72

My rating:    4 - Loved it

Contemporary Tucson, AZ

1st sentence/s:  "Steve Lawson was on his way back to the cabin when he met the little girl.  It was a beautiful morning, the kind Steve loved.  As he hiked, his eye automatically cataloged the glittery trail of schist mixed in with the dirt along the dry creek bed, the granitic boulders flecked with biotite flakes and garnet.  But this morning, he wasn't thinking about the geological events that had shaped these mountains.  He was preoccupied with the message someone had left on his cell phone.  He wondered if the message had anything to do with the break-ins."

My comments:  When I read the first two books in the series, I loved tracing the story in, around, and through the Tucson I know and love.  I've hunted for years for more in the series, to no avail, until I stumbled across a reference to the series here on Goodreads.  Apparently there ARE more in the series, but they're in ebook form.  Fine with me!  I flew through this installment, and loved it.  The story was well told (although I wish there had been a few more surprises), but the descriptions of many places where action took place (up on Mt. Lemmon and out on the Pinal Highway going towards Florence, particularly) were so right on -- I really love this!  Laura Cardinal is smart but not as savvy as she should be, despite some of the training she still reviews from her now-dead mentor, Frank Entwhistle.  Ah well, without goof-ups there'd really be no story, right?

Goodreads book summary:  “J. Carson Black's THE DEVIL'S HOUR is a superior mystery novel in all respects. Fine prose, terrific suspense, believable characters, and one of the most unexpected and satisfying conclusions I've read in a long time. Highly recommended." — John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author of DAMAGE 
     Laura Cardinal: Packs a SIG Sauer P226 9mm. Investigates homicides in small towns that have limited resources. Brings justice to murder victims—and to their killers. Laura’s job description: Criminal Investigator with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. But maybe it should just say “Troubleshooter.” 
     In 1997, the disappearance of three young girls rocked the city of Tucson, Arizona. Eleven years later, one of those girls, Micaela Brashear, comes home—alive. 
     Laura Cardinal worked homicide for Arizona DPS, but now she's been moved to the Open-Unsolved Unit. With a new job and a new partner who questions her every move, Laura pieces together Micaela's fragmented memories in the hope she will learn the whereabouts of the other two children. 
     When a man walking his dog finds the bones of a child in a shallow grave on the mountain above town, it becomes clear to Laura that Micaela was the lucky one. 
     But the killer isn't through yet, and after the fiery death of someone close to Laura, she realizes she faces an implacable enemy.

71. Generation Loss - Elizabeth Hand

#1 Cassandra Neary series

Read on my iPhone through Kindle

2007 Small Beer Press

265 pgs.

Adult .... Mystery/CRF

Finished Thanksgiving, 2014

Goodreads rating: 3.79

My rating:    3 (Liked It)

Setting:  Fictional Burnt Harbor, Maine (Downeast) and its outer islands

1st sentence/s:  "There's always a moment where everything changes.  A great photographer -- someone like Diane Arbus, or me during that fraction of a second when I was great -- she sees that moment coming, and presses the shutter release an instant before the change hits. If you don't see it coming, if you blink or you're drunk or just looking the other way -- well, everything changes anyway, it's not like things would have been different."

My comments:  There were parts of this book that were hard from me to imagine....because there are a lot of references to photography and processing film, that sort of thing. The setting, in downeast Maine in winter, I can imagine.  It's dreary, poor, bleak.  The protagonist, Cassandra Neary, is one of the most unlikable characters I've come across.  But that makes her incredibly interesting, actually.  I'm guessing she's around 40, friendless, a kleptomaniac, hardly eats, survives on Jim Beam and speed. A real downer.  This was quite a story, somewhat of a mystery, but more of a contemporary realistic fiction that skirts the edge of a really dark, somewhat bizarre (though real, unfortunately) world. (And I will go on to read another, because I liked it more than I didn't....)

Goodreads book summary:  Cass Neary made her name in the 1970s as a photographer embedded in the burgeoning punk movement in New York City. Her pictures of the musicians and hangers on, the infamous, the damned, and the dead, got her into art galleries and a book deal. But thirty years later she is adrift, on her way down, and almost out. Then an old acquaintance sends her on a mercy gig to interview a famously reclusive photographer who lives on an island in Maine. When she arrives Downeast, Cass stumbles across a decades-old mystery that is still claiming victims, and into one final shot at redemption.

48. Songs For a Teenage Nomad - Kim Culbertson

2007 Source Books
245 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 8-2-2014
Goodreads rating: 3.80
My rating:  3/Liked it
TPPL
Contemporary San Andreas, CA

1st sentence/s:  "My dad named me Calle after a cat he had in ollege that ran away.  He really loved that cat.  I always thought that was funny since he was the one who ran away from me...and my mom."

My comments: This was a quick, interesting read.  There is one female protagonist and a number of minor characters - and the characters seem quite well developed.  The three major "players" in the book are all troubled kids whose jumbled up thoughts and "troubles" come directly from effed up parents. The ending was a bit too convenient, but I'm not complaining.

Goodreads book summary:  What is the soundtrack of your life?         
          After living in twelve places in eight years, Calle Smith finds herself in Andreas Bay, California, at the start of ninth grade. Another new home, another new school...Calle knows better than to put down roots. Her song journal keeps her moving to her own soundtrack, bouncing through a world best kept at a distance.          
          Yet before she knows it, friends creep in-as does an unlikely boy with a secret. Calle is torn over what may be her first chance at love. With all that she's hiding and all that she wants, can she find something lasting beyond music? And will she ever discover why she and her mother have been running in the first place?

21. Dead Heat - Dick Francis & Felix Francis

(This looks like the first book in the "collaboration" between father and son)

read by Martin Jarvis
9 cds (10.5 hours)

2007, Penguin Audio

352 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 4/8/2014

Goodreads Rating: 3.78

My Rating: 2.5 It was okay and went very quickly

PBS

Setting: Contemporary Newcastle/Cambridge and London, England

My comments:   2.5 - It was definitely okay, one of my three problems with it - and the biggest - was the reader.  I think the protagonist, Max, was supposed to be a young man, not yet thirty.  However, the reader made him sound a great deal older, and sort of stuffy.  I think if I could have "felt" that Max was under 30 I would have enjoyed the book more.  I really enjoyed the beginning and all the nitty-gritties of running a restaurant.  The mystery was compelling, but the reasons behind the hi-jinx were not plausible.  And the fast-and-furious loved story between Max and Caroline made both of them look desperate.  I found it really hard to believe.  Oh well.  On to the next!

Goodreads Review: Max Moreton is a rising culinary star and his Newmarket restaurant, The Hay Net, has brought acclaim. But two disasters fall. Food poisoning fells banquet attendees, and a bomb explodes the private boxes at a race, killing guests and employees.

51. City of Bones - Cassandra Clare

#1 The Mortal Instruments series

2007 Margaret K. McElderry Books

485 pgs.(plus a couple of book beginnings)

YA Fantasy/Paranormal

Finished 11/13/13

Goodreads Rating: 4.13

My Rating: (4.5) Loved it, I've got to admit.....

THA Library

NYC

1^st sentence/s: " 'You've got to be kidding me,' the bouncer said, folding his arms across his massive chest. He stared down at the boy in the red zip-up jacket and shook his shaved head.  'You can't bring that thing in here.' "

My comments:  I read this book after seeing the movie, and greatly enjoyed it. I loved comparing movie to book and finding a lot of differences.  It's interesting to see the direction that Clare decided to take with the main characters, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's going to happen in the next segment in the series.

Goodreads Review:  When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know... 

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end

34. Off Season - Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Sequel to Dairy Queen

read by Natalie Moore (brilliantly!

2007, Listening Library

5 unabridged cds

277 pgs.

Finished 8/28/30

YA CRF

Goodreads Rating:

My Rating:

Awesome (5) 

TPPL

Setting: Contemporary Red Bend, Wisconsin

My comments:  This is the sequel to Dairy Queen, a book I finished very recently and loved.  I couldn't wait to read this one.  Same spectacular writing, same wonderful reading (Natalie Moore was just terrific). same intricate character development, same subtle, clever humor.  And such voice!  The story is a little sadder...I guess I should probably say bittersweet.... but quite remarkable.  I love the way Murdock digs into her characters and makes them feel so real.  As much as a "happy ending" is (always)anticipated, Murdock keeps it believable. Things don't always turn out the way you'd really like them to.  I love D.J. Schwenk! What a great girl!

Goodreads Review:  Life is looking up for D.J. Schwenk. She’s in eleventh grade, finally. After a rocky summer, she’s reconnecting in a big way with her best friend, Amber. She’s got kind of a thing going with Brian Nelson, who’s cute and popular and smart but seems to like her anyway. And then there’s the fact she’s starting for the Red Bend High School football team—the first girl linebacker in northern Wisconsin, probably. Which just shows you can’t predict the future. As autumn progresses, D.J. struggles to understand Amber, Schwenk Farm, her relationship with Brian, and most of all her family. As a whole herd of trouble comes her way, she discovers she’s a lot stronger than she—or anyone—ever thought.

   This hilarious, heartbreaking and triumphant sequel to the critically acclaimed Dairy Queen takes D.J. and all the Schwenks from Labor Day to a Thanksgiving football game that you will never forget.

23. The Night Ferry - Michael Robotham

audio read by Clare Corbett
2007 Recorded Books
11 unabridged cds (12.25 hrs.)

384 pgs.

Finished on the road 

Genre: Murder Mystery

Goodreads Rating: 3.75

My Rating: Very, very good (4.5)

Acquired through PBS

Setting: London, England and Amsterdam

Goodreads Review:  "Alisha Barba's dreams of being a detective were shattered when a murder suspect broke her back across a brick wall. Now on her feet again, with her police career in limbo, she receives a message from an old school friend, Cate Beaumont, who is eight months pregnant and in trouble.On the night they arrange to meet, Cate is mown down by a car that kills her husband instantly. As paramedics fight to save her life they discover there is no baby. Her pregnancy is an elaborate lie, a cruel deception.  Why? What happened? As Alisha sets out to answer these questions she is drawn deeper and deeper into a dangerous quest that will take her from the East End of London to Amsterdam's red light district and into a murky underworld of sex trafficking, slavery and exploitation."

My comments on Goodreads: Very, very good - I'll give it five stars - it kept me interested and guessing for over 2000 miles on the road 'cross country.  I particularly enjoyed the lilting, British-accented reader, her performance added realism to an already interesting story.  I enjoyed the British and Dutch settings as well. Great read.  (I really loved the last line - "The end of one story is merely the beginning of the next.")

63. The Mercedes Coffin - Faye Kellerman

Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus #17

audio read by George Guidall

9 cds, Harper Audio

Pages: 384

Ages: Adult

Finished: 12/21/2012

Publishing Info: 2007, William Morrow & Co.

Genre: Murder Mystery (Police Procedural)

Goodreads' rating: 3.50

My rating:  3/5

Acquired: PBS Audio

Setting: Contemporary LA

GoodReads' Summary/Review:  Fifteen years ago, Dr Ben Little, a very popular school VP, was murdered execution style and found in the trunk of his Mercedes. The crime was never solved. One of the students whose life he touched is now a very wealthy woman. When she reads a current article in the newspaper about another man found dead in the trunk of his Mercedes, she believes the two crimes are somehow related. She offers a million dollars to the LAPD to take another look at the cold case.

Reflections:  This book seemed to be a lot of sitting, talking, rehashing the case. It was a good story, but seemed to repeat itself, lending to the feeling it should have been shorter than it actually was. I listened to it...George Guidall is a great reader and did a wonderful job. There were a lot of people that were being discussed and referred to and it got a little confusing. Passed the time, though. Not great, but not bad....

POETRY - Holiday Stew – Jenny Whitehead

A Kid’s Portion of Holiday and Seasonal Poems

Illustrated by the author

2007, Henry Holt & Co.

64 pgs.

HC $17.95

I love the poems and I love the illustrations, so I’m rating 5 stars!

Endpapers:  RED

Title Page:  Hand-lettered and illustrated with pictures similar to the rest of the book…funny and clever!

Illustrations: colorful, busy, everywhere, almost-journally, just the kind of illustrations of love and wish I could do…Drawn with black pen lines and colored with gouache.

The book is divided into four sections – by season, and just about every holiday you could ever imagine is covered.  Cleverly. And there are more than just “holiday” poems…there are birthday, breaking the turkey wishbone, spring cleaning, mother Earth, Arbor Day, friendship day…you get it!

    

If I Could Paint a Springtime Day

If I could paint a springtime day,

I’d dip my brush in rain,

And splatter pink the popcorn trees

That bloom along the lane.

I’d mix a shade of purple

Chilled from one last winter snow,

To decorate the crocuses;

Brave soldiers in a row.

And when the sun peeks out,

I’d catch some yellow in my hand,

And finger-paint forsythia

To wake the dreary land.

And then I’d borrow emerald green

From seedlings breaking through,

And paint a thousand blades of grass

To hold the summer’s dew.

Last, I’d tint the tulips

Gently waking in their bed,

And welcome home the robin ---

Painted breast, a splendid red.

April Fool’s Day 

A trick by a friend,

a prank by a brother

pales dearly compared

to one planned by your mother.

She’s plotted all year

while she scraped, scoured, and scrubbed

your grass stains, your grease stains,

your grimy-ringed tub.

She may try to set

your alarm clock ahead,

so you’re washed and dressed

while the world’s still in bed.

Or lovingly make

your ham sandwich for school

with paper, not cheese,

that reads “April Fools!”

But lucky for us

on this one single day,

a trick on your mother

is also okay.

So, no one will blame you---

it won’t be your fault.

The sugar-bowl sugar’s not sugar---

it’s SALT!

It’s Labor Day

A holiday for hard work?

Yes, grown-ups, you deserve it!

But thank you very kindly

For letting kids observe it.

Our school year’s just beginning,

All summer we’ve slept late.

The only job we worked at

Was playing three months straight!

So, to make it fair for  you,

We’ll work on Labor Day,

Our job?  To let you sleep in,

And then make sure you play!

Send Up Some Gratitude

In a time when we all want

A little more-more-more,

Stop and think-think-think

Of all you’re thankful for.

Your mom, your dad---

Can you think of any others?

It’s okay if you say

Your sisters or your brothers.

Good friends, good health,

Good luck, good food---

For the good in your life,

Send up some gratitude.

For a roof where you live,

For your dog, fish, or bird,

Make your thank-thank-thank-you

On Thanksgiving Day be heard!

Winter in the South (by a kid from the North)

How do you make a snowman

When there isn’t any snow?

How do you have a snowball fight

When it melts before you throw?

How do you make snow angels

With green grass on the ground?

You can’t You’re far too busy eating

Ice cream all year round!

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Red lai see for the children,

Red banners for the walls,

Happy red is everywhere

When Chinese New Year calls.

Gold oranges for giving,

Peach blossoms to bring luck,

White shark fins for special soup,

Pink sweet sauce for the duck.

Hot yellow lions dancing,

Warm yellow lantern light,

Pink-yellow-red-green dragons

Who snarl but never bite!

Brown sticky cake and dumplings,

One great big black bass fish,

A Gung Hay Fat Choy! greeting;

To all---our New Year wish!

36. Skylight Confessions - Alice Hoffman

Audio read by Mare Winningham
6 unabridged cds (7.5 hrs.)
rating:  interesting story, holds attention, depressing and clever
272 pgs.
2007 Hachette Audio
Alice Hoffman's 19th novel

Setting:  Contemporary small-town Connecticut with bits of NYC
OSS:  Arlyn (Arly) Singer, at 17, enters a more-or-less loveless marriage with John Moody thinking he's her destiny.....dying a few short years later after both partners have dabbled in infidelity, leaving a disturbed son, Sam, and baby daughter, Blanca.

The story begins with Arly, switching to Blanca and then to the governess that raises Sam, Blana, and John & his new wife's child.  Secrets are uncovered, ghosts are watched, lives unfold through the years.  It's sad, filled with heartache, and pretty much a downer to listen to, although I was quite mesmerized (beautiful reading by Mare Winningham) by the writing.

Kami and the Yaks – Andrea Stenn Stryer

Illustrated by Bert Dodson

Bay Otter Press, Palo Alto, 2007

HC $16.95

Rating:  4

48 pages

Endpapers:  brick red

Large Book

Title Page:  Double page, left is illustrations of houses on the mountainside, right is solid navy with mustard and white font

Illustrations:  Really beautiful.  No white, pages that have only font use beige fond on dark navy.  Pictures are loarge and give the reader a wonderful feel for the setting.

Setting:  High in the Himalayas of Nepal in  small village of sherpas, contemporary .

OSS:  Kami helps his father find their four missing yaks as a huge storm – thunder, lightning, hail – approaches.

1^st sentence/s:  “High in a land where winds blow sonw clouds off tall mountain peaks, Kami stepped out into the early morning dark.  He sniffed the moistness.

Thoughts:  It is not revealed that Kami is deaf until the end of the fourth page, which firmly establishes that his disability is a part of his persona, not the definer.  He I, simply, a little boy that wants to help his father as well as find the four yaks he knows so well.

Since I have a friend who, just recently, made it to base camp at Mt. Everest, it made the story super-extra special.  It is a fit introduction into my examination of Nepal, Tibet, and the Himalayan region of Asia.

28. The Burnt House - Faye Kellerman

audio read by George Guidall
11 unabridged cds (13 hours)
2007, Harper Collins
464 pgs.
Rating:  4 Really liked it

LA Homicide Detective Peter Decker investigates the disappearance of a woman when a small commuter plane traveling from LA to San Jose crashes into a house in a in a fiery explosion.  Roseanne Dresden is missing, and although she was a flight attendant and her husband says she was on this flight, she was not working and her body cannot be found.  This opens up all sorts of questions and leads investigators to another disappearance from many years before.  The story was gripping and interesting, and although I wasn't crazy about the previous Faye Kellerman that I read, I will now search out and try some other Peter Decker mysteries.

My, Oh My - A Butterfly! - Tish Rabe

All About Butterflies
Illustrated by Aristides Ruiz & Joe Mathieu
The Cat in the Hat Learning Library, Random House, 2007
HC $8.00
45 pgs.

I'm the Cat in the Hat
if you look in the sky,
you might see a butterfly
fluttering by.

This book takes a child through the stages that create a butterfly, from egg to caterpillar, growing and losing and eating its skin; to hanging and becoming a chrysalis and emerging as a butterfly. It shows the differences between a butterfly chrysalis and a moth cocoon. It teaches about color and camouflage and then starts telling about different species - ending with 10 pages describing the habits of the monarch butterfly.

A fascinating book for young kids!

The book ends with a glossary (antennae, chrysalis, cocoon, foe, nectar, nutritious, oyamel, proboscis, protein) and a list of other books for kids about butterflies.

16. HeartSick - Chelsea Cain

#1 Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell
Audio read by Carolyn McCormick
Audio Renaissance, 2007
7 unabridged cds
10.5 hrs.
336 pages
Rating: 5

This was quite an unusual story. Archie Sheridan is a savvy Portland, Oregon police detective who spent ten years heading up the task force looking for the Beauty Killer. But then, she caught him. Gretchen Lowell is gorgeous. She is also psychopathic. She mutilates her victims while they are awake and feeling. She is loving to them.....and kills them slowly. She does the same to Archie Sheridan. She feeds him all sorts of drugs, including hallucinogens. She breaks ribs with nails and a hammer. She removes his spleen. She carves up his chest with an Exacto knife. And then she poisons him by having him drink drain cleaner. All this without anesthesia.

Gretchen has always killed her victims, numbering 200. However, she spares Archie and allows herself to be caught and jailed. Now, two years later, Archie, totally addicted to various pain killers in large quantities, goes back to work heading another task force, to find a new serial killer that's killing 15 year-old schoolgirls.

The story weaves in and around Archie's current investigations, his memories of the time he was abused by Gretchen, his Sunday visits with Gretchen in prison, and the thoughts and life of Susan Ward, the mid-twenties journalist who has been assigned to profile Archie for the Portland Herald. Pink-haired, frisky, smart, and flawed by her father's death when she was 14, she is a character that pulls us in and makes us like her whether we want to or not.

And what a story this is. It was absolutely mesmerising. I can't wait to find out what's in store for the next installment. It looks like Chelsea Cain has just published her fourth about Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell. I hope they all include Susan, too.

Next books in the series: Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, and Night Season, which was just published four days ago.

13. No Time for Goodbye - Linwood Barclay

an adult "thriller"
Bantam Books, 2007
pap $7.99
470 pgs.
Rating: 3.5 (it was good, but I figured out what happened in the first third of the book)

Cynthia Bigge wakes up one morning when she's 14 and both her parents and her brother are gone. No trace. No cars. No clues. A total and complete unknown.

Cynthia is raised by her mother's sister, Tess. And 25 years later she's married to a great guy, Terry Archer, who she met in college. The story is told by him, in the first person, and takes place now. A TV special has been made about the disappearance and then weird things start happening. Break-ins where nothing is stolen, but her father's hat is left on the kitchen table. Phone calls and emails with mysterious messages. And still so many unanswered questions. So a private detective is hired. And the story slowly unfolds. It's a pretty decent story, and the husband/protagonist is a pretty decent guy. An English teacher, so of course he is...

And yes, I'd read another by this author. I want to see if all his writing is as predictable as this one seemed to me. Even so, I did enjoy it....