Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

First sentence:

"The sheriff didn't want me there."

Description:

"Harper Connelly has what you might call a strange job: she finds dead people. The way Harper sees it, she's providing a service to the dead while bringing some closure to the living-but she's used to most people treating her like a blood-sucking leech. Traveling with her stepbrother Tolliver as her manager and sometime-bodyguard, she's become an expert at getting in, getting paid, and getting out fast. Because for the living it's always urgent-even if the dead can wait forever. "

My thoughts:

I liked the main characters Harper and her step-brother Tolliver. I especially liked how her ability to sense the dead was explained and how it often posed problems for her clients as they didn't always liked the answers she gave them. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Grave Surprise.

Date read: 7/28/2007
Book #: 67
Rating: 3* = good
Series: Harper Connelly, #1
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0425205681
ISBN-13: 9780425205686
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Year: 2005
# of Pages: 320
Binding: Paperback
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The Sign of the Book by John Dunning

First sentence:

"Two years had passed and I knew Erin well."

Description:

"Assessing a book's value is Denver cop-turned-bookseller Cliff Janeway's expertise. But even a pro like Janeway could be supremely challenged by certain signed first editions. When is an autograph authentic? How can forgeries appear to be so convincingly real? The same questions apply, it seems, to a murder investigation in tiny Paradise, Colorado. Janeway agrees to help his lover, attorney Erin D'Angelo, determine if Erin's estranged childhood friend killed her husband -- or was her confession designed to protect her troubled young son? Then Janeway discovers the dead man's books: an impressive collection that may house some real gems. But it's not their financial worth that draws Janeway deeper into the case of deadly small-town secrets -- it's the hunger for peeling back layers of deception to reveal the genuine sign of the book. And in a case of cold-blooded murder, truth is a priceless commodity."

My thoughts:

Enjoyable mystery centered in Colorado during the wintertime. Janeway calls upon his skills as a former police officer (keeping himself alert during stakeouts) and as a expert bookseller (assessing the worth of rare books). There are some nice twists and a few red herrings to throw Janeway and the reader off the trail, but all is resolved at the end.

Date read: 7/26/2007
Book #: 66
Rating: 3* = good
Series: Cliff Janeway, #4
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0743482476
ISBN-13: 9780743482479
Publisher: Pocket
Year: 2006
# of Pages: 544
Binding: Paperback
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Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore

First sentence:

"The Breeze blew into San Junipero in the shotgun seat of Billy Winston's Pinto wagon."

Description:

"In Christopher Moore's ingenious debut novel, we meet one of the most memorably mismatched pairs in the annals of literature. The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and "roads" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor façade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose."

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this introduction to the sometime wacky citizens of Pine Cove and their encounters with Catch the demon. Moore's description of the attempts to attract tourists (and the resentment of the same) was especially funny to me. I also liked the interactions of the characters such as between Travis and Catch and between Augustus Brine and the djinn Gian Hen Gian.

Date read: 7/22/2007
Book #: 65
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0060735422
ISBN-13: 9780060735425
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Year: 2004
# of Pages: 256
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Summer Reading Challenge

I finally signed up for the Summer Reading Challenge Round 2! Here are the books I intend to read:

Sorcerers of Majipoor by Robert Silverberg -- finished 6/21/07
Sweet Thames by Matthew Kneale -- finished 6/26/07
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro -- finished 7/2/07
Godforsaken Sea: Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters by Derek Lundy -- finished 7/4/07
Aphrodite by Russell Andrews -- finished 7/6/07
The Cloud Sketcher by Richard Rayner -- finished 7/16/07
Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff -- finished 7/18/07
Five Days in Summer by Kate Pepper -- finished 7/20/07

Five Days in Summer by Kate Pepper

First sentence:

"Emily stepped back onto wet sand and looked out over Juniper Pond."

Description:

"Before the long drive home from vacation, Emily Parker made a quick run to the grocery store...and disappeared. But as her husband and a retired FBI profiler scour the Cape for her, Emily's thoughts are not on her own safety. Kept helpless in a madman's lair, she watches him prepare a five-day countdown that will bring him to his real victim-her seven-year-old son..."

My thoughts:

It's a good suspenseful thriller that doesn't let you go from the first page to the last. I liked seeing the story from different characters points of view - the retired FBI agent, the frantic husband, the kidnapped wife, the kids, etc.

Date read: 7/20/207
Book #: 64
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0451411404
ISBN-13: 9780451411402
Publisher: Onyx
Year: 2004
# of Pages: 320
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Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

First sentence:

"Private eyes come in all shapes and sizes, and none of them look like television stars."

Description:

"John Taylor is not a private detective per se, but he has a knack for finding lost things. That's why he's been hired to descend into the Nightside, an otherworldly realm in the center of London where fantasy and reality share renting space and the sun never shines.

For John Taylor, there's no place like home..."

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this gritty mix of mystery, horror, and fantasy set in a hidden world close to our own. There were times when I could anticipate what would happen, and other times when I was totally surprised. I look forward to the next book in the Nightside series, Agents of Light and Darkness.

Date read: 7/18/2007
Book #: 63
Rating: 3* = good
Series: Nightside, #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0441010652
ISBN-13: 9780441010653
Publisher: Ace Books
Year: 2003
# of Pages: 230
Binding: Paperback
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Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff

First sentence:

"Mr. Sunshine first enters the city near dusk of a spring day in 1866, after heavy showers have turned its dirt roads and streets to mud soup."

Description:

"Fool on the Hill is a magical storytelling tour de force that since its original publication has become an underground classic. It is the story of S. T. George, a young writer-in-residence at Cornell University, who is looking for love and dragons to slay. Momentous forces and a cast of extraordinary characters gather around him--including dogs and cats who speak, Shakespearean sprites who dress in Armani, and two mysterious women. Soon George is caught up in an epic struggle of life and death, good and evil, magic and love. Fantastic as the epic quests of J. R. R. Tolkien and contemporary as the zany entertainment of Tom Robbins, Fool on the Hill is certain to be reread, laughed over, and remembered for a very long time."

My thoughts:

This was a sometimes strange, but always magical book about storytelling and how it feels to discover that you're part of someone else's story. My favorite characters included George, Aurora, Luther the dog, Blackjack the cat, and the sprites Puck and Zephyr.


Date read: 7/17/2007
Book #: 62
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0802135358
ISBN-13: 9780802135353
Publisher: Grove Press
Year: 1998
# of Pages: 400
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Cloud Sketcher by Richard Rayner

First sentence:

"It began with news of an elevator, in 1901 an instrument unknown, unheard of, undreamed of in the tiny Finnish village where Esko grew up, as close to the Arctic Circle as to the capital Helsinki."

Description:

"In a tiny village in Finland, Esko Vaananen is at the brink of despair -- he loves a woman he can never have. Suddenly, in the magical light of the aurora borealis, he has a vision of an impossibly tall building rising gracefully from the frozen lake and disappearing into the clouds above him. This pilvenpiirtaja -- "cloud sketcher" or skyscraper -- sparks a lifelong quest for beauty in Esko. He will pursue and protect these two passions -- his vision and his love -- no matter how great the cost, for the rest of his life. It is a journey that leads him into the Bolshevik revolution and the Jazz Age nightclubs of New York City and to strike a Faustian bargain with a ruthless gangster -- all in the pursuit of artistic perfection and impossible, unattainable love."

My thoughts:

This was a great book of historical fiction set in Finland in the early 1900s and New York City during the jazz age of the 1920s. Reading it, I could almost hear the music playing and the men working on the steel girders of the growing skyscrapers. The characters also came to life with their hopes and fears.

Date read: 7/16/2007
Book #: 61
Rating: 4
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 0060956135
ISBN-13: 9780060956134
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Year: 2002
# of Pages: 432
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett

First sentence:

"'Killing customers just isn't good for business.'"

Description:

"Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police returns in his riveting and smokily atmospheric new thriller.

A farang–a foreigner–has been murdered, his body horribly mutilated, at the Bangkok brothel co-owned by Sonchai’s mother and his boss. The dead man was a CIA agent. To make matters worse, the apparent culprit is sweet-natured Chanya, the brothel’s top earner and a woman whom the devoutly Buddhist sleuth has loved for several lifetimes.

How can Sonchai solve this crime without sending Chanya to prison? How can he engage in a cover-up without endangering his karma? And how will he ever get to the bottom of a case whose interested parties include American spooks, Muslim fundamentalists, and gangsters from three countries?

As addictive as opium, as hot as Sriracha chili sauce, and bursting with surprises, Bangkok Tattoo will leave its mark on you."

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this second book in the Sonchai Jitpleecheep series. What's the mystery? Well, there are several and Sonchai's descriptions engaged me and made me want to learn more about his life as a Thai policeman, a devout Buddhist, and a sardonic observer of American life. I look forward to reading the next book, Bangkok Haunts.

Date read: 7/15/2007
Book #: 60
Rating: 3* = good
Series: Sonchai Jitpleecheep #2
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 1400032911
ISBN-13: 9781400032914
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2006
# of Pages: 320
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Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry

First sentence:

"The Iditarod Trail out of Skwentna, Alaska, ran easy and leve, bending its way northwest for miles through snow-covered muskeg."

Description:

"The winner of Alaska's world-famous Iditarod -- a grueling, eleven-hundred-mile dog sled race across a frigid Arctic wilderness---takes home a $250,000 purse.

But this year, the prize is survival.

Only the toughest and the most able come to compete in this annual torturous test of endurance, skill, and courage. Now, suddenly and inexplicably, the top Iditarod contestants are dying one by one in bizarre and gruesome ways. Jessie Arnold, Alaska's premier female "musher," fears she may be the next intended victim, but nothing is going to prevent her from aggressively pursuing the glory and the rewards that victory brings.

Dedicated State Trooper Alex Jensen is determined to track down the murderer before more innocent blood stains the pristine Alaskan snow. But Jensen's hunt is leading him into the frozen heart of the perilous wild that Jessie Arnold knows so well -- a merciless place far from any vestige of civilization, where nature can kill as fast as a bullet...and only the Arctic night can hear your final screams."

My thoughts:

Good mystery set in Alaska. I especially appreciated the map at the beginning of the book as I frequently referred to it. I also liked learning about the history of the Iditarod trail and about the mining villages. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Termination Dust.

Date read: 7/6/2007
Book #: 59
Rating: 3* = good
Series: Alex Jensen #1
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0380717581
ISBN-13: 9780380717583
Publisher: Avon
Year: 1993
# of Pages: 320
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Aphrodite by Russell Andrews

First sentence:

"The breeze floated in off the bay, bringing in the faint odor of brine and fish and gasoline fumes."

Description:

"Bestselling author Russell Andrews returns with a new thriller about a small-town cop who must get to the bottom of one of the greatest conspiracies of our time. A man with a past, Justin Westwood has retreated from reality by taking a menial post with a small-town Long Island police department, drowning his troubles in mindless traffic duty and lots of booze. But his dormant professionalism is awakened when a young woman journalist is found brutally murdered. She recently got into trouble for quoting erroneous facts in the obituary of a man who had been living in the local retirement home, but that's not the sort of mistake that bring a duo of professional hit men to your door-or the FBI to town. As Justin attempts to unravel the puzzle, he finds that everyone-the cops, the FBI, and one of the strangest professional killer teams ever seen-seems to be one step ahead of him, disposing of witnesses and setting him up for the fall. But this is just the kind of reality check Justin's needed, and he'll stop at nothing to get to the bottom of this madness-and maybe save himself in the process."

My thoughts:

This was a riveting biomedical thriller which kept me guessing for most of the book. I liked the characters Justin and Deena and was glad when they were finally able to outsmart their enemies. The one problem I had with the book was that many of the antagonists were two-dimensional.

Date read: 7/6/2007
Book #: 58
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0446614963
ISBN-13: 9780446614962
Publisher: Warner Vision
Year: 2005
# of Pages: 464
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Godforsaken Sea: Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters by Derek Lundy

First sentence:

"Until Christmas Day 1996, the race had been a typically robust version of previous Vendee Globe and BOC races."

Description:

"Godforsaken Sea is the hair-raising account of the world's most demanding and dangerous sailing race: around the world, one sailor, one boat, no stops, no assistance.

This is the story of the 1996-1997 Vendee Globe, a grueling four-month circumnavigation of the globe in the most dangerous of all waters, the Southern Ocean. Through the eyes and experiences of the fourteen men and two women who began the race, author Derek Lundy harnesses the hurricane-force winds, the six-story waves, the icebergs, Dan the deafening noise in an effort to expose the spirit of the men and women who push themselves to the outer limits of human endeavor - even if it means never returning home.

You'll meet the gallant Brit who spends days beating back against the worst seas to save a fellow racer; the Frenchman who bothers to salvage only a bottle of champagne from his broken and sinking boat; the sailor who comes to love the albatross that trails her for months, naming it Bernard; the veteran who calmly keeps smoking his cigarette as his boat capsizes; and the Canadian who, hours before he disappears forever, dispatches this message:

If you drag things out too long here, you're sure to come to grief.

With the literary touch of Conrad and Saint-Exupery, Derek Lundy elevates a compelling story into an eloquent meditation on danger and an appreciation of danger seeks who embody the best and most eccentric aspects of our human condition"

My thoughts:

Great book! It's amazing how even in this age of communication, sailors can still find a remote part of the world to sail in. I've done some amateur sailing when I was younger, so I understood many of the references, but I would not be able to face the 50-60 foot waves, the constant wind, and the threat of icebergs!

Date read: 7/4/2007
Book #: 57
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 1565122291
ISBN-13: 9781565122291
Publisher: Algonquin Books Of Chapel Hill
Year: 1998
# of Pages: 312
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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

First sentence:

"My name is Kathy H."

Description:

"In one of the most acclaimed and strange novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, "Never Let Me Go" hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, "Never Let Me Go" is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life."

My thoughts:

Interesting book. I sometimes wondered at first how much Kathy, Ruth and Tommy knew about their futures, but when it became clear how much they knew, I then wondered why they accepted it. Definitely a book to make one think.

Date read: 7/2/2007
Book #: 56
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0571224121
ISBN-13: 9780571224128
Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd
Year: 2005
# of Pages: 263
Binding: Trade paperback
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Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris

First sentence:

"My situation was as surreal as one of those slo-mo nightmares Hollywood uses to pad B movies."

Description:

"Even in a sleepy Arkansas town, the holidays can be murder.

Lily Bard is going home for the holidays. More comfortable in baggy sweats than bridesmaid's frills, Lily isn't thrilled about attending her estranged sister's wedding. She has moved to Shakespeare, Arkansas, to start a new life, cleaning houses for a living, trying to forget the violence that once nearly destroyed her. Now she's heading back to home and hearth--just in time for murder.

The town's doctor and nurse have been bludgeoned to death at the office. And Lily's detective boyfriend suddenly shows up at her parents' door. Jack Leeds is investigating an eight-year-old kidnapping and the trail leads straight to Lily's hometown. It just might have something to do with the murders...and her sister's widowed fiancé. With only three days before the wedding, Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister commits...marriage!"

My thoughts:

Good mystery. I liked seeing Lily interact with her family and using her cleaning skills to gather information for her boyfriend Jack. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Shakespeare's Trollop.

Date read: 6/29/2007
Book #: 55
Rating: 3* = good
Series: Lily Bard #3
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0440234999
ISBN-13: 9780440234999
Publisher: Dell
Year: 2005
# of Pages: 242
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Survey Ship by Marion Zimmer Bradley

First sentence:

"How do you make a spaceman?"

Description:

"Six of Earth's finest young people, perfect in mind and body, have been trained from the cradle for one task--to brave the infinite dangers of space, to find new homes for Man. But once alone in the pitiless universe, they are bertrayed by their ship and plagued by space hazards; their voyage becomes a grim test of sruvival. To survive they must tame their wild talents. To survive, they must turn their training into skill, with no margin for error. To survive, they must conquer their fears, longings and nightmares. They must become a team. They must learn how to love.

Or they die."

My thoughts:

It was a good book, though short. I felt that I just started to get to know the characters and saw how they worked together, and then the book was over before their adventure really began.

Date finished: 6/28/2007
Book #: 54
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0441791007
Publisher: Ace Books
Year: 1980
# of Pages: 231
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

First sentence:

"Don't call me a fairy."

Description:

"Inspired by the W.B. Yeats poem that tempts a child from home to the waters and the wild, The Stolen Child is a modern fairy tale narrated by the child Henry Day and his double.

On a summer night, Henry Day runs away from home and hides in a hollow tree. There he is taken by the changelings—an unaging tribe of wild children who live in darkness and in secret. They spirit him away, name him Aniday, and make him one of their own. Stuck forever as a child, Aniday grows in spirit, struggling to remember the life and family he left behind. He also seeks to understand and fit in this shadow land, as modern life encroaches upon both myth and nature.

In his place, the changelings leave a double, a boy who steals Henry’s life in the world. This new Henry Day must adjust to a modern culture while hiding his true identity from the Day family. But he can’t hide his extraordinary talent for the piano (a skill the true Henry never displayed), and his dazzling performances prompt his father to suspect that the son he has raised is an imposter. As he ages the new Henry Day becomes haunted by vague but persistent memories of life in another time and place, of a German piano teacher and his prodigy. Of a time when he, too, had been a stolen child. Both Henry and Aniday obsessively search for who they once were before they changed places in the world.

The Stolen Child is a classic tale of leaving childhood and the search for identity. With just the right mix of fantasy and realism, Keith Donohue has created a bedtime story for adults and a literary fable of remarkable depth and strange delights. "

My thoughts:

Great book! I enjoyed immersing myself in the lives of both Henry and Gustav and how they come to terms with their different/similar lives.

Date read: 6/28/2007
Book #: 52
Rating: 4* = great
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0385516169
ISBN-13: 978-0385516167
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Year: 2006
# of pages: 336
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris

First sentence:

"I grumbled to myself as I slid out of my Skylark, Marshall's keys clinking in my hand."

Description:

"When Lily stumbles upon the well-built corpse of a local body builder-his neck broken by a barbell-the town's underlying racial tension begins to boil over. The white victim was somehow connected to two unsolved murders of black residents of Shakespeare-and a dogged policeman is determined to stop the killing. But it is Lily herself who may have to decide whether to stay and fight for justice, or run away one more time."

My thoughts:

This was a good mystery with lots of twists - leaving both me and Lily guessing until the end. I liked how she helped others and asked for help when she needed it.

Date read: 6/26/2007
Book #: 52
Rating: 3* = good
Series: Lily Bard #2
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0425213102
ISBN-13: 9780425213100
Publisher: Berkeley
Year: 2006
# of pages: 224
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Sweet Thames by Matthew Kneale

Description:

London in the summer of 1849. With a deadly cholera epidemic threatening, young engineer Joshua Jeavons is convinced it is his mission to save the capital and reform its festering sewers. Meanwhile in his dometsic life he is troubled by the baffling coldness shown towards him by his beautiful bride, Isobella. As he struggles to win her round, he works feverishly on a revolutionary drainage plan. This is his dream, his dazzling vision of the future: a London free of effluent. Then a sudden and mystifying disappearance throws his whole life upside-down. He is forced to embark on a harrowing search, which plucks him from his respectable life and throws him into a London previously unknown to him. A netherworld of slum-dwellers, pickpockets and scavengers of the sewers. He will find it is this very world that holds unexpected answers to the mysteries that surround him.

My thoughts:

A bit slow at times, but a gripping story of an ambitious engineer who has to put aside his prejudices to learn how to solve the cholera epidemic and to understand his wife.


Date read: 6/26/2007
Book #: 51
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 0140296638
ISBN-13: 9780140296631
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Year: 2001
# of pages: 320
Binding: Trade Paperback
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