Free yourself

In THE LIBERATION OF GABRIEL KING by K.L. Going (GP Putnam's Sons, c2005, ISBN 0-399-23991-X) Gabriel King and his best friend, Frita Wilson, are living their lives after graduating 4th Grade from Hollowell Elementary.

Both of them have things they are scared of, like spiders and rollerskating on the yellow line of the highway, and Frita thinks this summer is the time for liberation. However, with it being the summer of 1976 and the KKK looming large in Georgia, Frita, the only black girl in Gabriel's class, may have some real fears to face.

It starts out:

My best friend, Frita Wilson, once told me that some people were born chicken.

I really enjoy K.L.'s books for young adults. The characters pop real for me, whether they are the fat, unliked 17-year-olds or the scaredy-pants 4th graders. Her next book, SAINT IGGY, is scheduled to be released in September 2006.

Hell is for children

My most recent read was THE TENTH CIRCLE by Jodi Picoult (Atria Books, c2006, ISBN 0-7434-9670-1), my favorite read so far this year!

The family Stone, including 14-year-old Trixie, father Daniel and mother Laura, are each fighting their own versions of Hell throughout the story, set in corresponding Bethel, Maine and Bethel, Alaska.

First sentence:

This is how it feels when you realize your child is missing: The pit of your stomach freezes fast, while your legs go to jelly.

I've had many library patrons ask me why this has been my favorite read this year and I've not been able to nail down a specific answer. Could it be the graphic novel that is written within the novel? Is it the theme of Dante's Inferno, a story I've never read but always desired to? Could it be the engrossing plot? Or maybe it was just reading about the K300, the Alaskan dog race featured, because I'm a sucker for Iditarod and other dog stories.

I'm almost finished with ISOLATION WARD by Joshua Spanogle and up next is 18 SECONDSby George Shuman.(Play the game at the website!)

Then I have to go back and get caught up on the two Jodi Picoult books I haven't read yet: VANISHING ACTS and SECOND GLANCE.

So many books...I'm off to sneak a chapter at my desk!

The bone remembers

CARVED IN BONE by Jefferson Bass (William Morrow, c2006, 0-06-075981-X) is my most recent read and my first finished book of this month.
First things first:

I picked up the hunting knife with my left hand and tested its heft, then shifted it to my right hand to compare.

The main character is Dr. Bill Brockton, a forensic anthropologist, instructor at the University of Tennesee and the keeper of the Body Farm.

The author, Jefferson Bass is actually two people: Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson, co-authors of the non-fiction book DEATH'S ACRE: INSIDE THE BODY FARM. While I didn't find the writing challenging, I did find the character's engaging and well developed. By the time I finished the book, I felt like I knew each and every one of them personally which doesn't happen all too often in books. And most of them I liked.
The most intriguing aspect of the book for me was the idea of children's fingerprints. In the book, Arthur Bohanan, a police officer both in the book and real life, is working the disappearance of a missing child. Although they had witnesses to the child being in a car and placing her with the suspect, the find no evidence of her fingerprints in the vehicle. Interestingly, scientific studies have shown that a child who has not yet reached puberty age has water-based fingerprints which will evaporate as compared to someone having reaching the age of puberty with oil-based fingerprints. This is something I hope to learn more about since my SO is in law enforcement, he was unfamiliar with the idea and I think this information will be beneficial if not crucial.

Next up, THE TENTH CIRCLE by Jodi Picoult and ISOLATION WARD by Joshua Spanogle.

Pair of docks

For whatever reason, I've been on a medical thriller kick and I don't know why. I hope it isn't some internal warning bell that is ringing subconsciously because after the books I've been reading and/or buying of late, I'm not sure that a hospital is where I want to be!

In PARADOX by Echo Heron (Ivy Books, c1998, ISBN 0-8041-1459-5), a patient with amnesia has Adele Monsarrat, RN feeling a little on edge. This is the third book in this series. The other books are PULSE, PANIC and FATAL DIAGNOSIS.

It starts out:

The three-year-old sucked her thumb and stared out the car window.

Set in San Francisco, these medical thrillers are among my favorites. Adele is a fun character, atypical from the stereotypical nurse and I love her dog, Nelson, a veggie-eatin', Mickey Mouse rug-adoring, gas-passin' lovable creature!

Prey on me

THE PREY by Allison Brennan (Ballantine Books, c2006, ISBN 0-345-48023-6) is the exciting debut book of a new trilogy by this author including THE HUNT and THE KILL (both still on my to-be-read pile at home. Those will be posted soon.)

I imagine these books will be as popular in my library as the series by Mariah Stewart.

In this book, Rowan Smith, a former FBI agent turned author is being terrorized by someone who has taken the fictional deaths from her books and implemented them in real life, one by one. Set in Malibu, this is a fast-paced romantic suspense book that left me breathless.

The first sentence didn't, but I kept reading anyways.

He studied her from afar.

Dead as a doornail

In this fifth installment of the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris, DEAD AS A DOORNAIL (Ace Books, c2005, ISBN 0-441-01279-5), someone is out to kill the Werewolves and other shifters...and succeeding.
The gang is all here including Sookie and her brother Jason, Vampires Bill Compton and Eric Northman, her boss Sam Merlotte, her Were friend Alcide and a bunch of others.

These books have really grown on me and I look forward to each new one that comes out.

The first sentence:

I knew my brother would turn into a panther before he did.

With a first sentence like that, how can you resist?!?

EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT: Dan Brown cleared of copyright infringement charges with regards to THE DA VINCI CODE. Bring on the movie!

Nekkid in death

This was my foray into JD Robb's world with Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Rourke in her IN DEATH series. NAKED IN DEATH(Berkley, c1995, ISBN 0-425-14829-7) is set in New York City in the year 2058. I am not a fan of science fiction books or fantasy so I avoided these books although they were touted as mysteries. After reading glowing reviews consistently I thought I'd pick up the first one. Only twenty-two books to go! This book contained politics, prostitution(legal!), blackmail and murder. What more can you ask for?
Oh yes. You can ask for the first sentence:

She woke in the dark.

Look for more on the Eve Dallas/Rourke books here as I will surely be reading the rest of the series.

Who let the dog out?

This morning before work I finished ANYONE BUT YOU (HQN, c1996, ISBN 0-373-77146-0), a quick and delightful read by Jennifer Crusie.

The book presents Nina Askew, a just-turned forty-year-old recently divorce and trying to decide if she can love and be loved with her forty-year-old self. Living downstairs from her is Alex Moore, a sexy, just-turning-thirty ER doctor with a family dynamic of drunk career doctors with tons of money, zero love.

And then there's Fred. Fred is the heart of the story. He's one of the most adorable matchmakers I've ever read in a book and for me, the book wouldn't have made it if not for Fred.

I've written about Crusie before because I think she writes great character-driven stuff and she has my vote for some of the best first sentences.

This book's first sentence was okay, but not my favorite:

The last thing Nina Askew needed was Fred.

Next up, JD Robb's NAKED IN DEATH...

Man Camp

This morning, before coming to the library, I finished reading MAN CAMP by Adrienne Brodeur(Random House, c2005, ISBN 1-4000-6214-4), a light and humorous story about men and how women must learn to live with them.

Lucy Stone and Martha McKenna are two thirty-somethings living in New York. Lucy is a biologist with a strong grasp on the animal species, all those except for her boyfriend; Martha is an acress and a woman tired of bad dates who starts a business called FirstDate, teaching men what not to do on first dates and what they can do to improve their situation to move on to their second. When things are looking hopeless for the population of all men around them, they half-jokingly create Man Camp, a place to leave the lattes behind and learn about manly things like jumper cables and handguns. They turn to Lucy's oldest college friend Cooper Tuckington who owns a dairy farm in West Virginia where they accompany several of Martha's recruits to learn how to be "real men" and find out some things about themselves in the process.

The first sentence:

As usual, Lucy Stone is waiting for Martha.

This was an enjoyable albeit fast read at only 212 pages, although I had some difficulties at times as it was written in third person, present tense which didn't have the same flow for me as third person, past tense does.

Being the fat kid

My latest read over the weekend was FAT KID RULES THE WORLD by KL Going(GP Putnam's Sons, c2003, ISBN 0-399-23990-1)set in the lower East side of Manhattan, starring Troy Billings and Curt MacCrae.
Troy is a seventeen-year-old fat kid (topping in at almost 300 lbs.) and is contemplating suicide when he first meets Curt, a sometimes-homeless boy taking up space in the subway stations at times. The two form an unlikely bond when Curt asks Troy to be the drummer to his guitarist in a rock band called Rage/Tectonic which gives Troy a new look on life.
The first sentence:

I'm a sweating fat kid standing on the edge of the subway platform staring at the tracks.

Although a book written for a teen audience, I really enjoyed this book in a "people aren't perfect, everybody has flaws" sort of way. I look foward to reading more of her work.