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Monday, December 5, 2011

32 - 35 Twilight series

Well, this is my 4th annual reading trip through the Twilight series. I just love them! Can't help it. I LOVE a good love story with angst and action. They are imperfect people or supernatural creatures but they love each other.
I have never read any other series this many times. I am a romantic at heart! Lucky for me I am married to the most romantic man I know who treats me like a queen. He says he is on team Jacob, but he is really team Edward. He always has my best interest at heart, he is always unselfish towards me, and he loves just being with me.
I am the luckiest - most blessed wife ever!

31. Thursday Next

Next in the Thursday Next series. This takes place 14 years after the last book. Her kids are teenagers. She thinks that she has 3 kids (but she only  has 2.  Aornis gave her a mind worm as a cruel joke that makes her think she has a 3rd kid) Her family humors her!
This book is all about making sure that time travel is invented so that the people that have been time traveling for 50 years can continue and the time continium (sp) will not roll up and end the world. Very funny & witty as all these books are.

30. Salem's Lot

I wouldn't have normally read this book, but I was buying some books on Alibris for Harrison's birthday and I needed to spend a few more dollars to get 20% off or something like that. Although I generally like some of his stuff, if it is not too scary.
So I think this book cost me $.99 cents. And I can say it was pretty good. Of course not for Megan, Brittany, or Jared (scaredy cats!). It was about a 5 on the scary scale. Very good vintage King. Oh yeah, it is all about vampires. NOT the good kind. You know what I mean...

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

29. The Siege

This book is a 7 out of 10. Pretty good but not absolutley riveting.
I copied the following from the Amazon ad where I got the picture...

From the first page on, readers need to be buckled in for a nonstop ride full of terror and pathos. As a lovely weekend approaches on the Yale campus it appears that a number of students—including the sons of both the Secretary of the Army and newest Supreme Court justice—may have gone missing. Kidnapping? Terrorism? The authorities aren’t sure. But the high-profile disappearances draw the attention of the CIA and the FBI’s vaunted Hostage Rescue Team. Attention quickly focuses on the fortress-like tomb of one of Yale’s secret societies. Suspended Boulder police detective Sam Purdy soon finds himself in New Haven, where he is quickly snared by an unlikely pair of Feds: FBI agent Christopher Poe and CIA analyst Deirdre Drake. Sam, Poe, and Dee join together, desperately trying to solve the riddle of what is going on inside the windowless stone tomb on the edge of campus. The clock is pounding in their ears. The unknown enemy is playing by no known rules . . . is making no demands . . . is refusing to communicate with the hostage negotiator . . . is somehow anticipating every FBI move . . . is completely unconcerned about getting away . . . And . . . is sending students, one by one, out of the building’s front door to die.



Wednesday, November 2, 2011

28. The Oracle of Stamboul

This book started out great. Very intriguing. Good story. Can't wait to find out what  happens.
Back of book reads:
There are signs that Elenora Cohen is destined for an unusual life. It will be in the heart of the Ottoman Empire in 1877 that Elenora will encounter her true destiny as intrigue swirls around her.

Sounds good doesn't it? Well things are going great until the last few pages. That is when the author decides to NOT finish the story. Elenora is 9 year old when she runs away, never to be heard from again. EVER.
The last few lines of the book:
Whether she fulfilled Mrs. Damakan's prophecy or escaped it, whether she was indeed, the one who would set the world right again on it's axis, the answers to these questions we will never know for certain. And so it should be. For the stones in the river of history look different depending on where you stand.
REALLY! ???????????? Why even write the book???
Hated the ending of course.
Don't read!

Monday, October 24, 2011

27 1/16. The Canterbury Tales

So why 27 1/16 ??

Geoffrey Chaucer (play /ˈɔːsər/; c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among his many works, which include The Book of the Duchess, the House of Fame, the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde, he is best loved today for The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.

The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated by the pilgrims seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators, perhaps as a result of the incomplete state of the work. Chaucer drew on real life for his cast of pilgrims: the innkeeper shares the name of a contemporary keeper of an inn in Southwark, and real-life identities for the Wife of Bath, the Merchant, the Man of Law and the Student have been suggested. The many jobs that Chaucer held in medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administrator—probably exposed him to many of the types of people he depicted in the Tales. He was able to shape their speech and satirise their manners in what was to become popular literature among people of the same types.

that's why. As boring as the above information is, that is how boring the book is!!! I only got through 1 and 1/2 of the tales. So I guess I read about 1/16 of the book. And this was an audio book, so I was only able to LISTEN to 1 and 1/2 tales. I can't imagine reading it.

27. The Peach Keeper (A Megan book if there ever was)

I told Megan that I read a book that she would like. When I told her the name, she said that she loves this author.
Anyway, this is a story about a society for women that dates back 75 years. Today it is just a fluffy group but you come to find out that it was started to really help friends in trouble. The mystery I will leave you to discover is why a peaches and a dashing, charming, magical & dangerous?? stranger play such a strong role in this book.
Girls, you will love this book!

26. Buried Secrets

Good book of suspense. But don't read it if you are claustrophobic.
A shady billionare's daughter gets kidnapped for many many complicated reasons. His friend, private eye, Nick Heller, is on the job to find her.
Long story short, the kidnapper buries the girl in a coffin 10 feet underground with a hose for air and a camera on her to show her dad via computer. Of course, she is freaking out!!
But Nick finds her at the last minute and all ends well pretty much.

25. Now you See Her

Okay book. 50 year old Marcy Taggert's husband just left her for his young tennis pro at the club. And her bi-polar daughter, Devon, drowned in a canoeing accident (or did she?).  So Marcy goes to Ireland on what was supposed to be her 30th wedding anniversary trip. While there she thinks she sees Devon. So she hunts all over, meets two men, sleeps with one of them, and looks for her daughter with the other one.
Spoiler - the 2nd man turns out to be a creep who kidnaps a baby with a woman who looks like the lost Devon. They want money of course. They get caught, thank goodness. And it turns out that Devon really did kill herself because she didn 't want to live such an unhappy life as an out of control bi-polar sufferer.
Oh, by the way, Marcy's mother committed suicide when Marcy was 13.
You can probably skip this one!

24. I Still Dream about You

Nice story by the same author who wrote Fried Green Tomatoes. Maggie Fortenberry, former Miss Alabama, now 60 years old, single and childless, and realtor, is planning her suicide. Life just doesn't seem like it is going anywhere. And she just wants to disappear without causing anyone any discomfort. But life steps in and takes a turn or two.

23. Lipstick in Afghanistan

Wouldn't have read this if it weren't in RD. And I still didn't love it because I don't like reading about wars and the stupid taliban. Thank the Lord that we weren't born in Afghanistan!!!

22. Promise Me

Good book with the similar feel of Time Travelers Wife.

1st 2 paragraphs of book

Locked away in jewelry boxes, hidden in my closet, are two necklaces. They are gifts from 2 different men. Both of these necklaces are beautiful, both of them valuable, and I wear neither of them, but for entirely 2 different reasons - one because of a promise broken, the other because of a promise kept.

As you read my story, there is something I want you to understand. That in spite of all the pain - past, present, and that is still to come - I wouldn't have done anything differently. Nor would I trade the time I had with him for anything - except for what, in the end, I traded it for.

Enough said! Who wouldn't want to read this book?


Wednesday, October 5, 2011

21. The Fifth Dial

This was my last audio book and was pretty good except that I did NOT like the narrator. Ugh! But anyway, the story was pretty good. Terrifying because it is about being kidnapped and having one of your organs taken for the illegal organ donor market. A private investigator and a medical student finally get to the bottom of it through many twists and turns.
I may never travel alone!!!

19. The Well of Lost Plots & 20. Something Rotten

Both of these books are in the "Thursday Next" series. I loved them. In the Well of Lost Plots, Thursday's husband has been eradicated and she needs a place to escape for a while. So she goes to the "well". This is where unpublished books wait to be published or erased. They are mostly poorly written books. So the characters of these books are really funny.
In Something Rotten, Thursday is seriously fighting Yurrick Kaine. He is a fictional character who has escaped into the real world. And he is trying to become dictator of the world with the help of an invention called the ovinator (which when turned on - makes everyone think that what you say makes perfect sense). She also gets called upon the help lead the Swindon Mallets to victory in the Super Hoop. What, you didn't know that croquet is the hottest national sport? Well with the help of a group of reengineered neanderthals, this may just happen. By the way, if the Mellets don't win, there is a good chance that Kaine will become the dictator and the world will soon be in World War 3. No pressure!
Very good series!!!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Orson Scott Card joke (thank you Megan)

Nighttime Stories

18. The Bodies Left Behind

Very good book by a very good author. I think I have read all of his books. His most famous character is Lincoln Rhyme. Lincoln is a quadriplegic crime scene expert and solver of murders. Sounds weird but is so good. Rhyme books are not for the weak of stomachs.
Anyway the main character of this book is Brynne McKenzie. She is a cop who goes on a routine call and ends up on the run for her life. Very good and suspenseful with lots of twists and turns. My kind of book!!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

17. RD - Never Look Away

RD will mean Readers Digest book. This was a very good book. A really good mystery thriller. The husband goes to an amusement park and while there his wife disappears. The police end up thinking that he killed her after lots of circumstantial evidence. But there is a real twist. I would read this author again.

13 - 16ish - Readers Digest Nonfiction

What is 13 - 16ish?? Well, I get Readers Digest fiction and nonfiction books. They arrive about every 3 months or so. So my lastest nonfiction series was not very good. Or else they were just not subjects that I was into at the time. The first one is a memoir about Christopher Plummer - you know Captain VonTrap of Sound of Music fame. I gave it a good try. I got to about page 150 before I gave up. I wanted it to be really great because I love the Sound of Music. But he is just a weird actor after all.
The other 3 books in the series are not even worth mentioning, sadly.
And I never got more than 75 pages into any of them.
This is so rare because I usually love these books.
Better luck next time.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

12. Ender in Exile

Well, I thought this was the LAST Ender book, but I was wrong. Apparently there is a book of 4 short stories called First Meetings. So I need to get that. And I looked on Card's website and there is a new book coming out Shadows in Flight about Bean and his kids. (coming 11/2011).
Anyway, Ender in Exile actually takes place right after Ender's Game, but you read it last. Don't ask why, you just do.
Another great book and I still love Ender.
HARRISON - finish your book!!

10. & 11. The Law of Nines & Terminal Freeze

Both of these books were audio books that I listened to in the past 3 weeks while driving. I HATED The Law of Nines. It was soooo poorly written. And this author has written many books. Hopefully this was the worst one. But I will never read another one. You know when you read a book and they repeat things over and over in case you forgot what you read in the last chapter. Well, this was the case here. I fast forwarded a lot!
Terminal Freeze was better but NOT great. My library is very hit and miss with audio books. They do not have the best selection.
The one I am listening to now though is awesome. More details when I finish.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

8 - 9. The Eyre Affair & Lost in a Good Book

Okay I am LOVING this series. I just bought all of the others. The main character, Thursday Next, is an agent for Jurisfiction. (the police force inside books!) She gets to go on great adventures inside of books and gets to interact with classic characters. These books are very well written and are witty to the max. Highly recommend!!
Love the review on the back of the book:
His novels have satire, fantasy, literary criticism, thrills, whodunits, games, puzzles, jokes, and tilt-a-whirl...

Sunday, August 14, 2011

1 - 7. Ender's Game and all the Ender/Bean books

Okay, so my son, Harrison, got me into these books and I love them. What an amazing character - Ender! Bean is a great character too, but you just love Ender more.
These books are set way in the future when Earthlings are exploring the universe. I could definitely reread this series in the future.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

First Blog

This is my first blog. I have never wanted to blog. I am a busy lady and spend a lot of time on the computer with my job. I read 3 blogs: Harrison's, Megan's, and Brittany's. These are my very talented children who are great writers. So funny and creative.
I am not a great writer. I am a great reader though. I love it, love it, love it.
So I want to keep a record of all of the books that I listen to while driving around Charlotte. I now can't stand to drive without a book on CD. And a record of all the books I read each year.