Not so Hot-Cha-Cha

HOT STUFF by Janet Evanovich and Leanne Banks(St. Martin's Paperbacks, c2007, ISBN 0-312-94146-3) was definitely not my favorite Evanovich book and I think fans of Janet's PLUM books will be disappointed with this. (To be fair, I've never read Leanne Banks so I can't give an honest opinion to her writing, but I've read plenty of JE's books!) To me, it was a formulaic read, one that I've read before only with different main characters, different cops and different dogs, yet the same. The only saving grace for me on this book was that it was set in Boston, MA which I called home for several years.

In this book you have Cate Madigan (aspiring teacher/by night bartender) Kellen McBride Kostner (ex-cop and PI) and Beast (Bull Mastiff, havoc-creating pooch). The girl is running from the bad guys, the ex-cop is trying to watch after her and solve the crime at the same time and the dog is just getting in the way. Throw in a couple of support characters, some adorable and some annoying and you have this book.

The 1st sentence:

Cate Madigan had mentally stripped the guy across the table from her, and he'd come up short in every possible way.

I will always rave about the Stephanie Plum books because she is just my FAVORITE, but I may have to step back and quit reading these just-add-water books because they're not really doing anything for me.

Rash

RASH by Pete Hautman (Simon & Schuster, c2006, ISBN 0-689-86801-4) was one of my most current reads and a fulfillment of my "MUST READ YOUNG ADULT FICTION" thingie that I've got going on.

In this book, in the United Safer States of America of the late twenty-first century, there is an obsession with safety and even "minor anti-social impulses" are criminal.

Bo Marsten is sentenced to work in a prison camp making pizzas for McDonald's after giving a rash to some schoolmates and fighting with a peer over a girl. It is here that he is recruited to play football, an illegal sport but one in which Bo is quite skilled. While in the Canadian tundra, at this camp surrounded by polar bears, Bo also begins to question the society in which he's been raised and finds that sometimes breaking the rules is necessary, especially living in a time where safety is more important than freedom.

The book begins:

Gramps, who was born in 1990, once told me that when he was my age the only way to wind up in prison in the USSA (back when it had only one S) was to steal something, kill somebody, or use illegal drugs.

I enjoyed this book and have added Hautman's book GODLESS to my to-be-read list. It's kind of a sports book with a football angle, a futuristic fantasy with the time thing and it smacks of HOLES by Louis Sachar (a book I read when it first came out!), whether intentional or not.

A Wicked Snow

A WICKED SNOW by Gregg Olsen (Pinnacle Books, c2007, ISBN 978-0-7394-8068-7) was my latest read.

From Publisher's Weekly: Hannah Griffin has spent most of her life trying to forget the notorious Christmas Eve house fire that claimed her family and turned up almost two dozen other bodies buried in their yard; though the case remained unsolved, Hannah's mother became, posthumously, the de facto prime suspect. Twenty years later, Hannah's a happily married mother of one, a crime scene investigator for Santa Louisa, Calif., and a lifetime away from her traumatic Oregon childhood—until a series of mysterious events indicates that her mother may still be alive. Hannah reopens the case, as well as old wounds, after enlisting the help of FBI Special Agent Jeff Bauer, the still-haunted chief officer from the original investigation. Thanks to Olsen's true-crime work, the case's particulars—both grisly and mundane—all carry genuine weight, though his characters can be cloying: Hannah's neuroses occasionally seem more dingbat than damaged, and Agent Bauer's tough-but-tender act is a familiar one. That said, Olsen's flashback narrative shines with lurid, carefully distributed details, and if it ultimately overshadows the present-day plot, his bizarre, many-layered mystery will keep fans of crime fiction hooked.

The first sentence:

The girl remembered the snow and the evil that came with it.

This book is written in 3rd person, jumps back and forth between the past and present. I would have written probably almost a carbon copy of the Publisher's Weekly review as my thoughts were quite similar. One thing I did love is that when I looked up the town in Oregon, Rock Point, I found this. Very cool!

Murder with reservations

Nearly a month ago, Elaine Viets, author, contributor to this site (that's Elaine on the far right!) and member of Dorothy-L (which is how I know her) suffered from a stroke and had to have emergency brain surgery.

Now on the mend, Elaine is having to deal with the fact that her newest book, MURDER WITH RESERVATIONS (NAL, c2007, ISBN 0-451-22111-7) came out May 1, 2007 and she is unable to tour and promote her book.

That's where several other authors, bloggers, readers, friends and I come in. We are all doing Elaine's promotions for her so that she can focus on getting well.


If you find yourself at the bookstore looking for something to read, go check out Elaine's DEAD END JOB mysteries and look for this book along with the rest of the series. If you are a library user, request that Elaine's books be purchased for the library.

Here is a list of events being held for Elaine as she recuperates and a really good deal: buy 2 of Elaine's books and the Mystery Lover's Bookshop will ship one to the library of your choice for free.

Now, if only I could tell you about Elaine's experience with a hotel buffet...I'll leave that for her to do.

GET WELL SOON, ELAINE!

And don't forget...buy Elaine's books. Thank you.

This public service announcement brought to you by a voracious reader and a big fan of Elaine Viets'.

No Disrespect

Today, a patron returned the book NO DISRESPECT by Sister Souljah (Times Books, c1994, ISBN 0-8129-2483-5) and although it's not a book that I've read, I do like its first sentence:

In the projects, somebody can call your mother a one-legged whore who does nasty tricks for men for five dollars and she will still be the most important and influential person in your childhood.

I have her book, THE COLDEST WINTER EVER on my TBR shelf at home...

Bang Your Head

Well, in between reading books, I also try to keep current with my many magazines as well, and this is a new magazine to which I've recently subsribed and just luuuuvvve!

For a trivia junkie, this is THE magazine to get. There is enough diverse information in each issue to keep me reading for days.
My husband was watching TV tonight and there was a commercial for the upcoming
SNL and apparently Scarlett Johansson is hosting with musical guest, Bjork. He rolled over and looked at me and said, "What's a Beeyork?"

Of course, I deadpanned at him and said, "She's a singer, honey," and his response was, "How do you know that?"

Well, it's because I read my books. And magazines. And newspapers. And cereal boxes.
Honestly, I read whatever is within reach of my grubby li'l' hands and I've been that way my entire life. That's probably why it takes me so long to read books and post the first sentences on here. Because I'm reading EVERYTHING ELSE!

On a different note, I was very excited to see that they are coming to our local My Waterloo Days Festival. As a child of the '80's, I find this totally rad!

And on yet another note, how cool is this?

This is my husband Jeff and I in August, the day of our wedding. I think I'm going to print some of these out and give them to him for our anniversary. Isn't the first year's anniversary, paper?

And, if you think it's too cool for school, you can make your own personalized currency.

And this is here, just because I think this website should be in everyone's favorites somewhere. This is another way I stay current with today's youth. If I hear 'em say it, I look it up. In my line of business, it's great to throw the kids that come in for a loop using THEIR slanguage.

What the dead know

Laura Lippman's latest, WHAT THE DEAD KNOW (William Morrow, c2007, ISBN 978-0-06-112885-1) is a wonderful read. I'm not familiar with her series, but I would recommend each and every one of her stand-alones, this one included.

Now into its third week on the New York Times Best Sellers List, set mainly in Baltimore, MD, (Ah, I love Maryland!) it starts with a car accident and a woman involved claiming to be Heather Bethany, one of the Bethany sisters who disappeared thirty years previously from a local shopping mall.

The book then starts to flip back and forth in time, which is okay, to tell the story of the Bethany girls, how their disappearance came to affect the family unit and to let the reader in on little subtle clues leading up to the kapow! finale.

Also involved in the story are the Bethany girls' parents, Dave and Miriam as well as investigating police officers Kevin Infante and Nancy Porter and Chett Willoughby, the officer who was responsible for the case back when it first happened.

The story begins:

Her stomach clutched at the sight of the water tower hovering above the still, bare trees, a spaceship come to earth.

There is a reason her book has made it to the NYT bestseller's list and that reason is because it is just darn good!

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!