Who wants tetnus?

J.A. Konrath has penned the third novel in the Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels series, RUSTY NAIL (Hyperion, c2006, ISBN 1-4013-0088-X) and it was a fun read.

Jack Daniels in a lieutenant with the police department in Chicago, Illinois and has had some tough years dealing with a psychotic named "The Gingerbread Man." This time around, Jack receives some snuff films that look like the work of the Gingerbread Man but she knows it couldn't be him. No, this time it's even worse.

Jack's partner, Herb Benedict is here along with her ex-partner and thorn-in-the-side Harry McGlade. Harry is getting married to Holly Frakes, a bombshell who is good with a gun and totally misunderstood.

Although there were some highly improbable moments, quite a bit of graphic (and some may say gratuitous, but not me!) violence and I figured out who the bad guy was right away, it's Konrath's killer humor that will always have me coming back for another round of Jack!

It starts:

The sound begins.

Out of sight

Okay. So, I loved this book!

NO END IN SIGHT: MY LIFE AS AN IDITAROD RACER by Rachael Scdoris and Rick Steber (St. Martin's Press, c2006, ISBN 0-312-35273-5) blew me away and I'll tell you why in a minute.

First things first. The book starts:

I am a sled dog racer.

Phew! Now that I got that taken care of, I can tell you about Rachael. She was diagnosed with congenital achromatopsia at a young age which caused her legal blindness. But let me tell you, this girl didn't let that get her down. She got up and went. Whereever she could. Her big thing was she wanted to race sled dogs. Her father raised them, she helped with the young pups and she wanted to race them. And her father finally let her. At the age of 11, her father hooked up a sled to two sled dogs and allowed her to run a one-mile course. The rest is history.

This book follows her trials both on and off the racing circuit. A lot of it focuses on her blindness and the politics she had to contend with regarding her blindness. And although being blind is not WHO Rachael is, but a facet of her overall makeup, the adversity she faced was hard to comprehend at times. Mind you, these are prejudices she faced just in this decade.

Rachael's goal was to run the Iditarod. Did she make it? You'll have to read more.

*****Click here if you have to know! After reading the book, I did!

Superheroes

In Norma Howe's THE ADVENTURES OF BLUE AVENGER (Harper Tempest, c1999, ISBN 0-06-447225-6), David Schumacher is living his life in Oakland, California. On his 16th birthday, he changes his name to Blue Avenger and things begin to happen that impact his life, like his association with Omaha Nebraska Brown, the girl in school that he likes and the results to his quest for a perfect, weepless merigue for his lemon meringue pie.

According to her website, this is the first book in a trilogy. I may search out the remaining books when I have some free time but they aren't on my 'must read now!' list.

The book begins:

Scientists say that in human males, a single seminal emission contains something in the neighborhood of 300 million spermatazoa.

An interesting first sentence for a book geared toward the tweenagers...although definitely a hook!

A hidden gem

Yahoo!

I finally found a YA book/series that I am excited about.

Sunday, I read AMONG THE HIDDEN by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Aladdin Paperbacks, c1998, ISBN 0-689-82475-0) and was so into it I was disappointed that I had not checked out the rest of the series to read over my days off. This was the YA book I was looking for...the one that sparked the same kind of passion that I read in reviews, mentioned a couple of posts back.

In this book, the first in a sequence, Luke Garner is a shadow child or third born in a world where it is illegal to have more than two children. His family lives on a farm and Luke had always had a certain amount of freedom until the woods around his property are taken down to make room for housing for 'the barons', richest of the rich. Now his family is in constant worry that the population police will find him out which could result in his death.
In the book he meets Jen Talbot, another shadow child belonging to one of the Baron families and they become friends. Her passion is a protest that she is waging against the President, fighting for the right that allows third children to exist. Along the way, Luke learns many things about his government, family, friendship and himself.

I absolutely adored this book and I look forward to reading the rest in the series. I was surprised because, again, this has some futuristic, science fiction-type overtones and I DON'T LIKE SCIENCE FICTION!

Is it possible my reading tastes are changing?
Do your reading tastes change along with your tastebuds?

It starts:

He saw the first tree shudder and fall, far off in the distance.

Rookie Club

The ROOKIE CLUB (New American Library, c2006, ISBN 978-0-7394-6829-6) is the newest book by Danielle Girard.

It starts out:

Emily Osbourne stepped out of the darkened sex crimes department and closed the door behind her.

Set in San Francisco, the Rookie Club is a group founded 15 years prior by a group of rookie women police officers struggling to gain the respect of their male counterparts on the department. The main character, Jamie Vail, was one of those founding members. Now, female officers are being brutally attacked and raped and Jamie, who is an inspector for the Sex Crimes division, is working the cases.

The book was a quick read for me and the only thing that I didn't like was the mounting number of characters in the book. They just continued to be introduced and by the time I was to page 250, I was having to go back to refresh my mind on who was who. There were also several "main" characters because there were several different storylines to keep track of. This little picadillo of mine, however, will not keep me from reading Girard's future books.

I recommend her to people looking for read-alikes for Mary Higgins Clark but I do not recommend this book to readers who shy from books containing graphic acts of violence against women.

Sharp as a tack

Janet Evanovich's newest book, 12 SHARP (St. Martin's Press, c2006, ISBN 978-01-312-34948-6) starts out innocently enough:

When I was twelve years old I accidently substituted salt for sugar in a cake recipe.

In this, the twelth installment of the Stephanie Plum series, havoc is happening everywhere in the Burg (just a stone's throw from Trenton, New Jersey).

Someone is posing as Ranger and wants to fill his shoes. His daughter has been kidnapped and the hunt is on. Stephanie is still battling her heart and loins over the two men in her life and things aren't looking good but they sure are feeling good. Lulu joins a band with Sally Sweet and it's chaos. Stiva's funeral home was bought by two unsuspecting individuals who have no idea what they're in for and grandma, as usual is up to no good. Joyce Bernhardt is back and a new guy, Melvin Pickles, the perv, is introduced.

Ahh, to have Stephanie's life. This was your typical Evanovich romp and now I've got to wait another year for 13.

It just isn't fair!

For those of you who read the series, out of curiosity are you a 'Ranger Babe' or 'Morelli Girl'?

Undead...again

In the fourth book of Mary Janice Davidson's undead series, UNDEAD AND UNRETURNABLE (Berkley, c2005, ISBN 0-425-21081-2) 'tis the season for madness and mayhem.

Betsy Taylor and Eric Sinclair, both undead, are planning their wedding and Betsy is trying not to go crazy while dealing with her role as Queen of the vampires, her stepsister Laura (daughter of the Devil), and a gnat of ghost who needs help stopping her murderer, the Driveway Killer.

It starts with a clip from a newspaper:

From the Saint Paul Pioneer Press

December 15, 2005

Third woman found slain.

These books are simplistic, campy and oh, so much fun. Set in the Twin Cities, they are much lighter than say, the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton.

I'm currently reading Janet Evanovich's latest, 12 SHARP, which, unlike the last three books I've read, starts out with a complete sentence. Novel idea!

Out of this world

MJ Rose's newest book THE VENUS FIX (Mira Books, c2006, ISBN 0-778-32317-X) is the third book in the Dr. Morgan Snow Butterfield Institute series. Set in New York City, Dr. Snow is once again treating patients, this time those who are addicted to Internet Webcam porn. When the women being watched start dying online it's only a matter a time before it comes full circle to Morgan and her patients. Once again, Noah Jordain is the cop doing the investigating and he's trying to get even closer personally to Morgan - a physician bound by a law who can't tell him a thing. Even if it endangers her life.

For starters, the beginning of a letter from the killer:

Dearest,

After all these months, I'm willing to succeed.

This was my favorite thus far, although I've enjoyed all of her Morgan Snow books. I confess I've yet to read any of her others. Morgan is such a 'real' character for me and I enjoy the relationships that she has in the books whether they be with Noah, Nina or her daughter, Dulcie. Truthfully, I never imagined I'd enjoy a series with a main character as a sex therapist because I don't like romance stories which involve a lot of sex and reading about sex bores me, so I thought there'd be a lot of that to contend with but nope...not the case at all and MJ Rose has become one of my "must-read" authors over the years and not because she signs and sends me the books before they are published, although I truly appreciate it. This book comes out tomorrow. Look for it at a bookseller near you. Also, check this out!

Don't you dare read this...oh, okay

In the book for young adults DON'T YOU DARE READ THIS, MRS. DUNPHREY by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Simon Pulse, c1996, ISBN 0-689-87102-3) Tish Bonner, a 16-year-old student is experiencing...life. And Tish's life sucks! When Tish is assigned to write in a journal in Mrs. Dunphrey's class. The teacher has promised that any entries they mark as DO NOT READ will be honored with that and when Tish's life goes downhill her journal becomes her closest confidante.

The entire book is written in journal form starting with:

August 28

All right, Mrs. Dunphrey, you said we had to do these journals, but if we wanted to write something personal and private we could mark an entry, "Do not read."

This has probably been my most favorite YA read to date. I'm still having a hard time finding that 'perfect' young adult book and I truly feel that it's because I started reading novels at such a young age (Stephen King, age 9). I read about others who just LOVE YA books.

What am I missing?

Am I trying too hard?

Shelf Life

The book SHELF LIFE: STORIES BY THE BOOK (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c 2003, ISBN 0-689-84180-9) is a book edited by Gary Paulsen and contains short stories, each of which has the lives of young people in different circumstances changed by their encounters with books.

My favorite of the ten stories was FOLLOW THE WATER by Jennifer L. Holm which surprised me as it's set on Mars and you know me and science fiction/fantasy...

The first sentence:

I'm floating in water.

I have yet to find a young adult book that really grabs hold of me and won't let go. I think that this is probably why I was such a mature reader as a child (I did read all of the Trixie Belden mysteries but I read my first Stephen King novel at age nine and never looked back!)

I'm reading THE VENUS FIX by MJ Rose right now but next I'm going to attempt a couple of Margaret Peterson Haddix's books.