Body Work by Fiona Brand

First sentence:

"Throat tight with panic, ten-year-old Etienne Dexter launched himself off the veranda, bare feet thudding on sun-hot dirt, kicking up dust as he ran."

Description:

"Someone wants her dead and she can't remember why...

As a child, Jane Gale witnessed her mother's murder and was nearly killed in trying to escape. Left for dead, she has suffered complete memory loss, unable to recall who she was before the "accident" or the events that caused her mother's death. Twenty-five years later, Jane has a new life and a blossoming career as a novelist -- until the killer picks up her book and discovers that the only eyewitness to his secrets has survived. And told.

Oblivious to the fact that she has attracted the murderer back into her life, Jane has no idea where the inspiration for her bestseller came from. But she has a photograph that leads her back to Louisiana, to a place she knows but can't remember -- and to a stranger she wants to trust. Because somehow he is a link to her past . . . and her only chance of staying alive." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this thriller. I liked how Jane gradually learned that the book she wrote was based on forgotten memories and how she learned to face her enemy.

Date read: 11/15/2010
Book #: 51
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0778322890
ISBN-13: 9780778322894
Publisher: Mira
# of pages: 377
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing page

Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg

First sentence:

On July 5, 1996, my daughter was struck mad.

Description:

"Hurry Down Sunshine tells the story of the extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, Michael Greenberg's daughter was struck mad. It began with Sally's sudden visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places , in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city's most sweltering months. 'I feel like I'm traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to,' Sally says in a burst of lucidity while hurtling away toward some place her father could not dream of or imagine. Hurry Down Sunshine is the chronicle of that journey, and its effect on Sally and those closest to her--her mother and stepmother, her brother and grandmother, and, not least of all, the author himself." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This was an interesting book about how mental illness affects a family. I liked how Sally's parents struggled to understand what's happening.

Date read: 11/14/2010
Book #: 50
Rating: 3*/5
Genre: Memoir

ISBN-10: 1590511913
ISBN-13: 9781590511916
Publisher: Other Press
Year: 2oo8
# of pages: 233
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page

TBR Challenge 2010!

It's time for me to post my list of books for the TBR Challenge 0f 2010! I selected 12 books for the challenge plus 12 alternates/extra credits.

Here they are (in no particular order):

• Damien Broderick. Matilda at the Speed of Light -- finished 1/6/2010 (substitute for The Knight of the Black Rose)
  
• Thomas Tryon. The Other -- finished 1/23/2010
• Iris Johansen. Final Target -- finished 1/26/2010
• Jincy Willett. Winner of the National Book Award -- finished 3/2/2010
• Ana Castillo. Peel My Love Like an Onion -- finished 4/14/2010
• David Wise. The Children's Game -- finished 4/27/2010
  
• Whitley Streiber. The Forbidden Zone -- finished 5/3/2010
  
• Eoin Colfer. The Wish List -- finished 5/5/2010 (substitute for All Tomorrow's Parties)
  
• Terry Brooks. The Sword of Shannara -- finished 5/22/2010
• Lorenza Caracaterra. Sleepers -- finished 6/5/2010 (substitute for Chosen Prey)
  
• David G. Hartwell. Year's Best Fantasy -- finished 6/30/2010
• Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Reliquary -- finished 7/21/2010 (substitute for The Dimension Riders)
  

Alternates/Extra Credit:

• Iain Banks. Excession -- read 11/7/2010
• Robert Tine. Desperate Measures
• Frederick Forsyth. Icon
• Douglas Clegg. Dark of the Eye
• Carl Hiassen. Native Tongue
• Michael Bishop. Unicorn Mountain
  
• John Ramsey Miller. Upside Down
• Michael Reaves. The Shattered World

Excession by Iain Banks

First sentence:

"A little more than one hundred days into the fortieth year of her confinement, Dajeil Gelian was visited in her lonely tower overlooking the sea by an avatar of the great ship that was her home."

Description:

"Diplomat Byr Genar-Hofoen has been selected by the Culture to undertake a delicate and dangerous mission. The Department of Special Circumstances--the Culture's espionage and dirty tricks section--has sent him off to investigate a 2,500-year-old mystery: the sudden disappearance of a star fifty times older than the universe itself. But in seeking the secret of the lost son, Byr risks losing himself. There is only one way to break the silence of millennia: steal the soul of the long-dead starship captain who first encountered the star, and convince her to be reborn. And in accepting this mission, Byr will be swept into a vast conspiracy that could lead the universe into an age of peace. . .or to the brink of annihilation." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this book, but I think I would have liked it more if I had read the earlier books in the series first. I found myself wondering what was going on and who the characters were, and it wasn't until I was halfway through when I realized that it was part of a series. I look forward to reading the earlier books starting with Consider Phlebas.

Date read: 11/7/2010
Book #: 49
Series: The Culture, #5
Challenges: Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge, TBR Challenge 2010
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0553575376
ISBN-13: 9780553575378
Publisher: Bantam Spectra
Year: 1996
# of pages: 499
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing page