Oh my gawd...

So, while I was catching up on my bloglines tonight, I was directed to a site and I found this and laughed my a** off!

Every now and then, you just gotta laugh and this website may just be my future cure for what ails me.

Madness Reaction Time

For those who are not into graphic, gratuitous violence, this site is not for you.


WARNING: VERY ADDICTIVE


For those who don't mind it, check this one out too. This site has been online for as long as I can remember...

The secret hour

I think I have found a new favorite young adult author.

Over the weekend I finished THE SECRET HOUR by Scott Westerfeld (Eos, c2004, ISBN 0-06-051953-3) and suddenly wished I didn't have a towering stack of books to read so that I could have continued on with the series.


It begins:

The halls of Bixby High School were always hideously bright on the first day of school.

Set in Bixby, Oklahoma, this first book in the Midnighters series is about a group of teenagers (Jessica Day, Rex, Dess, Melissa and Jonathan) that have special abilities. At midnight, a hidden hour appears and everything stands still, except for them and ancient creatures that live in the hidden hour. When it becomes clear that the darklings (creatures living during the midnight hour) are out to destroy Jessica, the newcomer, the group band together to figure it all out.


I loved this book! And most surprisingly, it was labeled as Science Fiction which I avoid like the plague. My daddy would be so proud.

I had purchased one of Westerfeld's other series for my library which started flying off the shelves so I looked for additional reading and came across these older books. I am looking forward to reading the second book in this series as well as getting started on his UGLIES, PRETTIES and SPECIALS books. But then looking at his website, I notice that there are a whole lot more.

Let me clear off some shelf room for this great author!

Blind Spot

BLIND SPOT by Terri Persons (Doubleday, c2007, ISBN 0-385-51869-7) screamed, "THIS IS YOUR KIND OF BOOK!" at me when it came across my desk at the library.

And it was...kinda.

Set in St. Paul, Minnesota, Bernadette Saint Clare has been transferred to the St. Paul office with the FBI from Louisiana. As an agent, she uses her 'gift' of being able to see violent crime through the eyes of the criminal to help with the solve rate. Before she is even settled in to her condo and office, Bernadette is handed a case where the dead are bound and extremities removed. I thought the story was very fast-moving and I thoroughly enjoyed the premise of the tale.

The first sentence:

Humidity rolling off the Mississippi River simmered with the smell of fried garlic and onions and shrimp and sausage, the air thick enough to stab with a knife.

So, what was it that made it only a so-so read for me?


What I didn't like was the dialogue. It kept yanking me out of the story. It was kinda like the author couldn't decide if she was writing a book or a play. I have never seen dialogue written this way in a book before and it was very distracting.

Let me give you an example (from the book):

"Whatever you want," said the blond. He patted his partner on the shoulder, and the two of them turned around and thumped back down the hall.


Garcia: "You think Sherlock's sister is involved."


"Up to her significant eyeballs."

Now, the : used in dialogue is very heavy in the beginning and middle and less pronounced toward the end but, as I said, it would just bring me to a stand still in my reading. Every other speaker was using a : instead of a said, or exclaimed or asked with the normal , followed by the "".

It was a very obvious difference to most books that I read (and as a librarian, I read a lot of books!) and it just wasn't for me. Has anyone else seen or used this type of writing in dialogue? What did you think?

But that's just me...you might not be bothered by it. And besides, murderers and psychics make for a great combination.

Immortal

A couple of days ago I finished IMMORTAL IN DEATH (Berkley, c1996, ISBN 0-425-15378-9) by J.D. Robb.

This book is the third in a series of it looks like 28 or 29 books thus far, and boy, do I have a lot of reading to do because I have a copy of every book in the series up to about number 25. I don't have the latest one published in February of 2007 and 28 and 29 are still to come in November of this year, according to her website.

The book starts out:

Getting married was murder.

The book is set in the near future of 2058 in New York, NY. Leiutenant Eve Dallas works for the New York PD and is in the process of planning her wedding to Roarke when she has to arrest her best friend, Mavis Freestone, for the murder of a top fashion model.

Crap rolls downhill and it looks like Eve will never get married because the deaths just keep piling up and Eve works overtime to solve each and every one.
We are also introduced in this book to Officer Delia Peabody (apparently we meet her in GLORY IN DEATH -- but I don't remember her), a cop that Eve takes under her wing. I don't know if Peabody is in future books (I do know now because of that darn Wickipedia but I'm not telling so as not to ruin it for somebody else), but I hope so because I liked the way her and Eve worked together.

These books rarely make me go, "WOW! That was a great book!" However, I enjoy the series and the characters are comfortable. I like the way they interact with one another, I like the inner strength that Eve possesses and my dad is always harping that I don't read enough science fiction and although these are labeled as romantic suspense, and J.D. Robb is a pseudonym for this author, these are probably as close to science fiction as I am going to read AND enjoy, if you don't count all of the vampire books I love.

See you next time...

May Day

In my latest read, MAY DAY by Jess Lourey, life in Battle Lake, MN is not what Mira James, librarian, expected.

Running away from life and a no-good boyfriend, Mira moves to Battle Lake to housesit for a friend. She takes a job as assistant librarian and part-time newspaper reporter and falls in love, until she finds the guy dead in the stacks at her library.


Now Mira, turned amateur sleuth, must try to solve the mystery of her lover's death, the weird things going on in town and the strange locals before she gets herself in deep.

It begins:

Tuesday marked my tenth official day alone at the library, but the heady draw of being my own boss had worn off.

This book was recommended to me because I am a big fan of Janet Evanovich, and while I did not find this book as funny as Evanovich's, it did have some good one-liners which will most likely have me reading the rest of the series. I have never been a lover of cozy mysteries (which this is) but the librarian aspect suckered me in despite of it.

I will also take into consideration that it is the first in a series and even with Evanovich and Hughes' FULL series I didn't like the first book but loved the rest, so...


See you next time.

Shattered Mirror

SHATTERED MIRROR by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (Dell Laurel Leaf, c2001, ISBN 0-440-22940-5) is a young adult book by a very talented author and the thing that amazed me about this was learning that Amelia published her first book at the age of 13, and this book was published when she was either 16 or 17-years-old. It doesn't hurt that the book is about vampires, which I love to read about, but the age thing just blows my mind! I've read books within the teen fiction genre by adults twice and three times her age that couldn't stand up to this; maybe the age makes the difference. I will definitely be looking up more; her books are AR books in our area and I think they will definitely appeal to many of my tween readers at the library.

The first sentence:

Sarah Vida shivered.

The story begins with Sarah Vida, a witch and vampire hunter, who moves to a new school in Acton, Massachusetts and befriends two vampire classmates. Continuing her friendship goes against all of the laws of her family and all of the beliefs she had been raised to hold, however there is something about both Nissa and Christopher Ravena that she finds very appealing until she learns that their brother, Christopher's twin, is Nikolas, one of the most hunted vampires in history.

Hide

HIDE by Lisa Gardner (Bantam Books, c2007, ISBN 978-0-553-80432-4) was a great read. Set in Boston, Massachusetts, this is the second book featuring Detective Bobby Dodge with the Massachusetts State Police and Sergeant (after a promotion) DD Warren with the BPD, a follow-up to ALONE.

The first sentence (which I really like):

My father explained it to me the first time when I was seven years old: The world is a system.

In this book, Annabelle Granger has been on the run her entire life, never really knowing why. Now, living in Boston under one of her numerous identities, a mass grave has been unearthed on the grounds of a closed mental hospital and six dead bodies of children are found, one with a necklace with Annabelle's name on it. The hunt for a serial killer is on with DD Warren in charge, Bobby in the lead and Annabelle, the key.

I enjoy Gardner's book, have read every book she's written during her career and will continue to read and recommend her, especially to my patrons who enjoy Mary Higgins Clark and Erica Spindler.

Who not to Cross

CROSS by James Patterson (Little, Brown & Co., c2006, ISBN 978-0-316-15979-1) has thankfully been written.

I know many of my library patrons were waiting for this book so they could find out what happened to Maria, Alex Cross' wife.


Set mainly in Washington DC, this book features Alex Cross and his children, his Nana Mama and Michael Sullivan, the butcher of Sligo. Alex has retired from the FBI and set up private practice when his longtime friend, John Sampson calls upon him to help with a case of serial rapes in the Georgetown area where women are brutalized and threatened with horrifying photos. When the past collides with the present and Alex has a lead on his wife's killer, will he see justice served?


First sentence:

Thompson: I'm Dr. Thompson with the Berkshire Medical Center. How many shots did you hear?

This is a typical Patterson book. I like his books for a break from some of the other stuff I read. I hear many people discuss the pros and cons of his books and my take is this: I think he usually has good storylines and his chapters are quick, lightning-quick and this is why I read every book he writes.

I have a hard time putting a book down in the middle of a chapter; it's a wierd quirk of mine. So, after reading tens of books that have 20-30-40 page chapters, I adore a book that has 1.5 page chapters and this is my biggest draw to his books.

If I could find more authors who did this, I would probably read all of their books as well. It gives me a chance to rest my brain and I can read 60 pages quickly because I find myself FLYING through the chapters.

Primal Instict

Sorry for the lack of posting lately...I've been sick. But that doesn't mean I haven't been reading. It just means I haven't had the energy to get my posts completed.


Now, however, I'm feeling better and ready to post again.

The book: PRIMAL INSTICT by Robert Walker (Diamond Book, c1994, ISBN 0-7865-0055-7) had a special appeal to me because it was set in Hawaii and this is my dream vacation.


This book is the third in the Jessica Coran series and I think I like the writing style better and better with each one. It's either that, or I'm becoming immune to Walker's use of multiple ellipses...

The first sentence:

He does a bad Elvis imitation, crooning aloud the words for "Don't Be Cruel" as it's pounding from his car - radio speaker on Hawaii's hottest rock station, KBHT - "Hot Hawaii!"

In this book, Jessica is on vacation in Hawaii when the Trade Winds Killer as he is called strikes again and she is asked specifically to help by the local law. The bad guy is a creepy one with very sadistic tendencies - these books are not for the squeamish - but they are great for those who are immune as I am to blood, guts and gore.

This book was also filled with facinating information about the Hawaiian culture, local customs, folklore, alphabet and the Hana Highway, which I'd never heard of but found spectacular with its 56 one-lane bridges and 617 curves & turns.