Monday, December 31, 2007

2nds Challenge


New month, new challenge! For this challenge, hosted by Joy, the goal is to read a second book by a new-found author. Between October and December 2007, I will read the following books:

Darkspell by Katharine Kerr

First sentence:

"Back in the eleventh century, when the far-flung kingdom of Deverry lay sparse and tentative across the lands men claimed in the king's name, Eldidd province was one of the most sparsely settled areas of all."

Description:

"On the long roads of Deverry ride two mercenaries whose fates like hidden deep in that of their own land. But Lord Rhodry, exiled from the dragon court of Aberwyn, has yet to discover his true parentage, and his swordmaster-lover, Jill, has barely glimpsed her awesome powers. Meanwhile, the ancient sorcerer Nevyn, held back by his vows from boldly intervening in their lives, can only watch and wait as Rhodry and Jill move ever closer to danger. For as the two struggle to recover the Great Stone, the mystic jewel that guides the conscience of the kingship of Deverry, malevolent dark masters are weaving terrifying spells against them--and displacing messengers of death.

Katharine Kerr has extensively rewritten Darkspell, incorporating major changes in the text, making this her definitive edition. Here the epic saga that began with the Daggerspell continues--a tale of might and magic, lust and glory, dark danger and poignant desires that echo from Deverry's sapphire waters to its secret mountain caverns. It's a spellbinding story destined to please fantasy lovers everywhere."

My thoughts:

This was a good fantasy with magic, battles and an old herbman named Nevyn who watches as the souls of those he loved are reincarnated again and again. I liked both storylines - one featuring Gweniver, Dannyn and Ricyn and the other, Jill, Rhodry and Cullyn. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, The Bristling Wood.

Date read: 12/31/2007
Book #: 116
Challenge: 2nds Challenge
Series: Deverry, #2
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0553568884
ISBN-13: 9780553568882
Publisher: Spectra
Year: 1994
# of Pages: 406
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Design for Murder by Carolyn G. Hart

First sentence:

"The typist nodded."

Description:

"When mystery bookstore owner Annie Laurance is invited to stage a Mystery Night for the annual antebellum house tour of the Historical Preservation Society of Chastain, South Carolina, she instead finds herself the leading lady in a flesh-and-blood drama. The play's the thing wherein the curtain falls on mean-spirited grande dame Corinne Webster. While jeweled fingers point, accusing Annie of murder, the perpetrator lurks within the genteel cast of Murder-Most-Make-Believe...and the murder weapon is one of the props.

In the tight-laced society of Chastain, Annie is guilty until proven innocent. With her fiance, Max Darling, Annie pieces together evidence to clear her name- until her chief witness is murdered. Now it will take all her sleuthing skills to discover the evil in the heart of Chastain's Beautiful People."

My thoughts:

This was a good mystery featuring bookstore owner Annie Laurence and her fiance Max Darling. There were lots of suspects and clues which Annie and Max had to sift through to find the killer. I liked the references to other mystery authors and stories sprinkled throughout the book.

Date read: 12/31/2007
Book #: 115
Challenge: 2nds Challenge
Series: Death on Demand, #2
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0553265628
ISBN-13: 9780553265620
Publisher: Crimeline
Year: 1988
# of Pages: 311
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Sunday, December 30, 2007

TBR Challenge - 2007

I just joined MizB's TBR Challenge for 2007. The rules are to pick 12 books which have been collecting dust on the shelf for at least six months and read them during the year.



Here are my 12 books (in no particular order):

  1. Jim Crace. Arcadia -- finished 1/10/2007
  2. Ed McBain. The Mugger -- finished 2/7/2007
  3. Jane Smiley. A Thousand Acres -- finished 3/21/2007
  4. Ken Follett. Jackdaws -- finished 4/14/2007
  5. Jack Dann, ed. Future War -- finished 5/21/2007 [substitute for The Other]
  6. Robert Silverberg. Sorcerers of Majipoor -- finished 6/21/2007
  7. Derek Lundy. Godforsaken Sea: Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters -- finished 7/4/2007
  8. Dean Koontz. Sole Survivor -- finished 8/12/2007
  9. Lisa Gardner. The Next Accident -- finished 8/29/2007
  10. Louis L'Amour. The Haunted Mesa -- finished 11/13/2007
  11. Roger Zelazny. The Courts of Chaos -- finished 12/26/2007 [substitute for Knight of the Black Rose]
  12. Ken Follett. The Man from St. Petersburg -- finished 12/29/2007

The Man from St. Petersburg by Ken Follett

First sentence:

"It was a slow Sunday afternoon, the kind Walden loved."

Description:

"His name was Feliks. He came to London to commit a murder that would change history. A master manipulator, he had many weapons at his command, but against him were ranged the whole of the English police, a brilliant and powerful lord, and the young Winston Churchill himself. These odds would have stopped any man in the world-except the man from St. Petersburg..."

My thoughts:

This book was a good mix of historical fiction and thriller set in the months leading up to World War I. Though the characters at times seemed two-dimensional, the relationships and events made them come alive now and again.

Date read: 12/29/2007
Book #: 114
Challenge: TBR Challenge 2007
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0451163516
ISBN-13: 9780451163516
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1983
# of Pages: 342
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Saturday, December 29, 2007

The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny

First sentence:

"Amber: high and bright atop Kolvir in the middle of the day."

Description:

"A universe of many universes united by magical threads, Amber faces final destruction from the world beyond the Shadow world.

The cosmic Pattern that sustains the world of Amber lies in shreds' reality itself is on the verge of disintegration; and Corwin, heroic madman, uncrowned prince of the perfect realm, must face shapeshifting assassins, an alluring woman, and the multi-dimensional terrors of Shadow in his pulse-racing quest to save the kingdom.

Here at last is the crowning finale to the incredible Amber saga, an action-charged adventure that plunges from realm to realm to unlock the mysteries of a breathtakingly imagined world."

My thoughts:

Although it's been a while since I read the Chronicles of Amber, I enjoyed Corwin's adventure as he discovered courage within himself to create a new pattern and to help his family fend off the forces of Chaos.

Date read: 12/26/2007
Book #: 113
Series: Chronicles of Amber, #5
Challenge: TBR Challenge 2007
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0380471752
ISBN-13: 9780380471751
Publisher: Avon
Year: 1979
# of Pages: 142
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Blame it on the Rain: How the Weather Has Changed History by Laura Lee

First sentence:

"For years Russia has been home to a secret weapon, more powerful than the nuclear warheads that made it a world superpower."

Description:

"An amazing, enlightening, and endlessly entertaining look at how weather has shaped our world.

Throughout history, great leaders have fallen, the outcomes of mighty battles have been determined, and the tides of earth-shattering events have been turned by a powerful, inscrutable force of nature: the weather. In Blame It on the Rain, author Laura Lee explores the amazing and sometimes bizarre ways in which weather has influenced our history and helped to bring about sweeping cultural change. She also delights us with a plethora of fascinating weather-related facts (Did you know that more Britons die of sunburn every year than Australians?), while offering readers a hilarious overview of humankind's many absurd attempts to control the elements.

  • If a weather-produced blight hadn't severely damaged French vineyards, there might never have been a California wine industry. . . .

  • What weather phenomenon was responsible for the sound of the Stradivarius?

  • If there had been a late autumn in Russia, Hitler could have won World War II. . . .

  • Did weather play a part in Truman's victory over Dewey?

Eye-opening, edifying, and totally unexpected, Blame It on the Rain is a fascinating appreciation of the destiny-altering vagaries of mother nature—and it's even more fun than watching the Weather Channel!"

My thoughts:

This was an interesting book of historic weather events around the world. The parts that will stay with me include the chapters about various invasions of Russia, the desert battle of Hattin during the Crusades, and how an El Nino contributed to Robert Falcon Scott's demise in Antarctica.

Date read: 12/24/2007
Book #: 112
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Nonfiction - Science/History

ISBN-10: 0060839821
ISBN-13: 9780060839826
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Year: 2006
# of Pages: 297
Binding: Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Monday, December 24, 2007

Psycho Shop by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny

First sentence:

"I was looking around desperately when my boss, Jerry Egan, poked his head into my office and in his soft Virginia voice asked, 'May I come in, Alf?'"


Description:

"The Black Place of the Soul-Changer was doing business in Rome six centuries before Christ. It will probably be there on the last day of the cosmos. You might call it a pawnshop, but its sign has three gold infinity symbols instead of the usual balls, and its Latin motto, Res Ullus, translates as "anything." This is the Psychoshop, where you can dump any unwanted aspect of your spirit as long as you exchange it for something else — arcane knowledge, a change of luck, or a sixth sense. Just remember: All sales are final.

In this genuinely mind-boggling novel, two of the most unfettered talents in speculative fiction envision a commercial establishment that attracts customers from Edgar Allan Poe to a sorcerer intent on fabricating the Beast of Revelations. Brimming with wit and imaginative bravado, scandalously sexy, and fabulously strange, Psychoshop is the first-ever collaboration between two winners of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grandmaster Award."

My thoughts:

Quirky and a bit funny at times, this book reminded me of Twilight Zone episodes "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium" and "The Mind of Simon Foster." I liked the interactions between Glory, Alf, Adam and the patrons - especially the one whose vocal inflections inspired Beethoven to compose his fifth symphony.

Date read: 12/23/2007
Book #: 111
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0679767827
ISBN-13: 9780679767824
Publisher: Vintage Books
Year: 1998
# of Pages: 207
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Saturday, December 22, 2007

The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley

First sentence:

"A cold wind was whipping the torches into fiery tails."

Description:

"She was Eilan, the daughter of a Druidic warleader and gifted with visions. In a land struggling to survive both Roman conquerors and her own people's enemies, surely fate had marked her to become a priestess of the Forest House. But first Eilan had chosen a different, forbidden path - to love Gaius, a soldier of mixed blood among the legions sent to subdue her country. And so, she must hide a terrible secret when she is anointed as the new High Priestess. With mighty enemies poised to usurp the wealth of magic the Forest House sheltered, Eilan could only trust in the power of the great Goddess to find her destiny amidst the treacherous labyrinth in which fate had placed her."

My thoughts:

This book was a good mix of historical fiction and fantasy. I liked learning about the effects of Roman occupation in the British Isles and how local leaders either fought or tried to maintain some tentative peace. Gaius and Eilan's forbidden romance made a good backdrop to the Roman/Briton tensions at the time. I look forward to reading the first book in the series, The Mists of Avalon.

Date read: 12/20/2007
Book #: 110
Series: Avalon, #2
Challenge: 2nds Challenge
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Historical Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0451454243
ISBN-13: 9780451454249
Publisher: Roc Trade
Year: 1995
# of Pages: 417
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Unread Authors Challenge

I decided to participate in the Unread Authors Challenge which runs from September 2007 to February 2008. The challenge is to read six (or more!) books by authors I haven't read before.

Here's my list:

Fall Into Reading Challenge

Time for another seasonal challenge! Fall into Reading Challenge, created by Callapidder Days, runs from September 23rd to December 21st. The goal? Read or finish any number of books that you choose. So...here's my list (in no particular order):

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

First sentence:

"Veldt to scrub to fields to farms to these first tumbling houses that rise from the earth."

Description:

"Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none -- not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory.

Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger.

While Isaac's experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger -- and more consuming -- by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon -- and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes..."

My thoughts:

I have to admit I was nervous about approaching this book again. I had started reading it years ago, but didn't get far. This time, I kept going, and I'm glad I did. Perdido Street Station is a intensely descriptive book filled with so much detail about New Crobuzon and its inhabitants. Woven throughout is the story of Isaac and his quest to help Yagharek fly and what that quest ultimately leads to. It'll be a while before the images of this book leave me and I look forward to reading the next book in the series, The Scar.

Date read: 12/20/2007
Book #: 109
Challenges: Unread Authors Challenge; Fall into Reading Challenge; Book Awards Challenge
Series: New Crobuzon, #1
Awards: Arthur C. Clark Award (2001); British Fantasy Society (2001)
Rating: 4* = great
Genre: Urban Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0345459407
ISBN-13: 9780345459404
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 2003
# of Pages: 623
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs

First sentence:

"Never fails."

Description:

"Following the tremendous success of Cross Bones, Kathy Reichs explores another high-profile topic in Break No Bones -- a case that lands forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan in the middle of a gruesome international scheme.

Summoned to South Carolina to fill in for a negligent colleague, Tempe is stuck teaching a lackluster archaeology field school in the ruins of a Native American burial ground on the Charleston shore. But when Tempe stumbles upon a fresh skeleton among the ancient bones, her old friend Emma Rousseau, the local coroner, persuades her to stay on and help with the investigation. When Emma reveals a disturbing secret, it becomes more important than ever for Tempe to help her friend close the case.

The body count begins to climb. An unidentified man is found hanging from a tree deep in the woods. Another corpse shows up in a barrel. There are mysterious nicks on bones in several bodies, and signs of strangulation. Tempe follows the trail to a free street clinic with a belligerent staff, a suspicious doctor, and a donor who is a charismatic televangelist. Clues abound in the most unlikely places as Tempe uses her unique knowledge and skills to build her case, even as the local sheriff remains dubious and her own life is threatened.

Tempe's love life is also complicated. Ryan, her current flame, has come down to visit her from Montreal, and Pete, her former husband, is investigating the disappearance of a local woman -- and he and Tempe are staying in the same borrowed beach house. Ryan and Pete compete for her attentions, and Tempe finds herself more distracted by her feelings for both men than she expected."

My thoughts:

This was a good forensic mystery set in Charleston, South Carolina. I liked how Tempe eventually solved the murders by following the smallest detail no matter where it led.

Date read: 12/15/2007
Book #: 108
Series: Tempe Brennan, #9
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0743453034
ISBN-13: 9780743453035
Publisher: Pocket
Year: 2007
# of Pages: 439
Binding: Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Monday, December 10, 2007

Book to Movie Challenge

For this challenge, hosted by SMS Book Reviews, I will read four books that were made into movies:

Update - December 10, 2007:

Well, while I read all the books, I didn't finish the challenge in time. I enjoyed doing the challenge, and will someday watch the movies that are based on these books.

The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

First sentence:

"The summer my father bought the bear, none of us was born--we weren't even conceived: not Frank, the oldest; not Franny, the loudest; not me, the next; and not the youngest of us, Lilly and Egg."

Description:

"'The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life lived by human beings, and the second was that human beings could survive a life led in hotels.'

So says John Berry, son of a hapless dreamer, brother to a cadre of eccentric siblings, and chronicler of the lives lived, the loves experienced, the deaths met, and the myriad strange and wonderful times encountered by the family Berry. Hoteliers, pet-bear owners, friends of Freud (the animal trainer and vaudevillian, that is), and playthings of mad fate, they "dream on" in a funny, sad, outrageous, and moving novel by the remarkable author of A Son of the Circus and A Prayer for Owen Meany."

My thoughts:

Like other Irving books I've read, this one was both funny and sad as well as quirky at times. The story kept me engaged as I wanted to find out what happens next to Franny, John, Frank, Lilly, Egg, etc.

Date read: 12/2/2007
Book #: 107
Rating: 4* = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 034540047X
ISBN-13: 9780345400475
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Year: 1995
# of Pages: 419
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Friday, December 7, 2007

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

First sentence:

"Ba-room, ba-room, ba-room, baripity, baripity, baripity, baripty--Good."

Description:

"'We need a place,' she said, 'just for us. It would be so secret that we would never tell anyone in the whole world about it.' She lowered her voice almost to a whisper. 'It might be a whole secret country, and you and I would be the rulers of it.'

It was Leslie's idea to create Terabithia, their secret kingdom in the woods where she and Jess reigned as queen and king. There no enemy -- not their teacher, 'Monster Mouth' Meyers, their bullying schoolmates, Jess's four sisters, or even Jess's own fears and Leslie's imaginary foes -- could defeat them. Jess's friendship with Leslie and the worlds of imagination and learning that she opens up to him change him forever and enable him to cope with the unexpected tragedy that touches them all."

My thoughts:

This was a beautifully written book on friendship, imagination, and courage as both Jess and Leslie learn to take risks. I felt I got to know the characters well in a short amount of time.

Date read: 12/2/2007
Book #: 106
Rating: 4* = great
Genre: Children's Literature

ISBN-10: 0590132008
ISBN-13: 978-0590132008
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 1995
# of Pages: 128
Binding: Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein

First sentence:

"Were they truly intelligent?"

Description:

"Earth was being invaded by aliens and the top security agencies were helpless: the aliens were controlling the mind of every person they encountered. So it was up to Sam Cavanaugh, secret agent for a powerful and deadly spy network, to find a way to stop them--which meant he had to be invaded himself!"

My thoughts:

This was a good story featuring alien invasion mixed with espionage. I liked the characters Sam, Mary and the Old Man.

Date read: 12/1/2007
Book #: 105
Chalenges: Book to Movie Challenge, Fall into Reading Challenge
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0345330145
ISBN-13: 9780345330147
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 1986
# of Pages: 347
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page