Mister Monday by Garth Nix

First sentence:

"They had tried to destroyed the Will, but that proved beyond their power."

Description:

"Arthur Penhaligon is not supposed to be a hero. He is supposed to die. But then he meets sinister Mister Monday and everything changes.

SEVEN DAYS. SEVEN KEYS. ONE MYSTERIOUS BOOK. ONE STRANGE HOUSE FILLED WITH SECRETS.

Dare Arthur enter and accept the fate that awaits him within? -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this first book of the Keys to the Kingdom series. Iliked how Arthur learned to believe in himself and how he interacted with Suzy and the Will. I look forward to reading the next book, Grim Tuesday.

Date read: 12/23/2010
Book #: 53
Series: Keys to the Kingdom, #1
Challenges: Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge; A-Z Challenge 2010
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0007175019
ISBN-13: 9780007175017
Publisher: Collins
Year: 2003
# of pages: 425
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl

First sentence:

"It was not easy to live, being young, being so completely alone."

Description:

Robinette Broadhead, made rich by the Gateway mission that had cost him the woman he loved, joined in bankrolling an expedition to the Food Factory a Heechee spaceship found beyond the obit of Pluto and designed to graze the cometary cloud and transform the basic elements of the universe into untold quantities of food.

Broadhead thought his motives were simple enough, a gamble on a breakthrough that could end famine forever and would make him the wealthiest man in history. But his understanding, tough-minded wife knew something else drove her husband, a vision of his lost love: poised forever at the 'event horizon' of a black hole. . .where Robin had abandoned her.

Every scrap of Heechee lore that could be brought back and interpreted increased the chance that he would someday, somehow be able to reach and perhaps even rescue his beloved Gelle-Klara Moynlin.

After three and a half years, messages came back from the expedition that electrified the wold: the Food Factory was still working. . .they found a human aboard. . .they had discoveed the key to the use of a whole new level of technology. . .

And, it appeared they had found the Heechee!

My thoughts:

I liked this science fiction book about discovery and relationships. I noticed that although there were spaceships and colonization of other worlds, the communication problems resembled pre-telegraph days.

Date read: 12/20/2010
Book #: 52
Series: The Heechee Saga, #2
Challenge: Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0345275357
ISBN-13: 9780345275356
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 1980
# of pages: 309
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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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
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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
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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
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Cane River by Lalilta Tademy

First sentence:

"On the morning of her ninth birthday, the day after Madame Francoise Derbanne slapped her, Suzette peed on the rosebushes."

Description:

"Ladita Tademy had always been intensely interested in her family's stories, especially ones about her great-grandmother Emily, a formidable figure who died with her life's savings hidden in her mattress. Probing deeper for her family's roots, Tademy soon found herself swept up in an obsessive two-year odyssey--and leaving her corporate career for the little Louisiana farming community of...Cane River. It was here, on a medium-sized Creole plantation owned by a family named Derbanne, that author Lalita Tademy found her family's roots--and the stories of four astonishing women whose lives began in slavery, who weathered the Civil War, and who grappled with the contradictions of emancipation through the turbulent early years of the twentieth century. Through it all, they fought to unite their family and forge success on their own terms.

Here amid small farmhouses and a tightly knit community of French-speaking slaves, free people of color, and whites, Tademy's great-great-great-great-grandmother Elisabeth would bear both a proud heritage and the yoke of slavery. Her youngest daughter, Suzette, would be the first to discover the promise--and heartbreak--of freedom. Suzette's strong-willed daughter Philomene would use determination born of tragedy to reunite her family and gain unheard of economic independence. And Emily, Philomene's spirited daughter, would fight to secure her children's just due and preserve their future against dangerous odds.

In a novel that combines painstaking historical reconstruction with unforgettable storytelling, Lalita Tademy presents an all too rarely seen part of American history, complete with a provocative portrayal of the complex, unspoken bonds between slaves and slave owners.Most of all, she gives us the saga of real, flesh-and-blood women, making hard choices in the face of unimaginable loss, securing their identity and independence in order to face any obstacle, and inspiring all the generations to come.' -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I liked this book about Tademy's ancestors and their struggles in the 19th and early 20th century. I especially liked the way she inserted images of newspaper accounts, slave auction lists, and census records. I would read these documents just after reading the fictional account and would connect the names to the characters, making them more "alive." I look forward to reading the sequel, Red River.

Date read: 10/25/2010
Book #: 48
Challenge: What's in a Name? 3 Challenge
Series: Tademy Family Chronicles, #1
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 0446530522
ISBN-13: 978044653952?
Publisher: Warner Books
Year: 2001
# of pages: 416
Binding: Hardcover
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Psi Hunt by Michael Kurland

First sentence:

"The Plaza DiLauria Complex, the World's largest hotel and convention center, was stuffed from the eighth subcellar to the rotating observation platform this Power Day weekend."

Description:

"Astral Emprise sold metaphysics, mysticism, paranormal phenomena, astrology lessons--and anything else that Believers were willing to spend a dollar on.

Not the kind of operation the U.S. Navy was used to dealing with.

Until the People's Republic of China decided that it could blow up half the United States with five telepathic kids who spent their days watching grade-B war movies in an L.A. theater.

And Lieutenant Junior Grade Robert Burrows was assigned to call their bluff. . ." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a good mix of science fiction and adventure. I liked how Burrows and Friendly bluffed their way into the enemy's headquarters.

Date read: 9/1/2010
Book #: 47
Challenge: Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0425046648
ISBN-13: 9780425046647
Publisher: Berkley
Year: 1980
# of pages:
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes

First sentence:

"On Saturday, October 22, 1977, University Police Chief John Kleberg placed the area of Ohio State University's medical school under heavy police security."

Description:

"Billy Milligan came be anyone he wants to be. . .except himself.

Out of control of his own actions, Billy Milligan was a man tormented by twenty-four distinct personalities battling or supremacy over his body.--a battle which culminated in late 1977 when heawoke in jail, arrested for the kidnap and rape of three women. In a landmark trial, Billy was acquitted of his crimes by reason of insanity caused by multiple personality--the first such court decision in history--bringing to public light the most remarkable and harrowing case of multiple personality ever recorded.

Twenty-four people live inside Billy Milligan.

Philip, a petty criminal, Kevin, who dealt drugs and masterminded a drug store robbery; April, whose only ambition was to kill Billy's stepfather; Adalana, the shy, lonely, affection-starved lesbian who 'used' Billy's body in the rapes which led to his arrest; David, the eight-year-old 'keeper of the pain'; and all the others, including men, women, several children, both boys and girls, and the Teacher, the only one who can put them all together. You will meet each in this often shocking true story. And you will be drawn deeply into the mind of this tortured young man and his splintered, terrifying world." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was an interesting book about someone who learned that he was rarely in charge of his actions. One scene that stuck in my mind was when "Phillip" decided to go to New York and "David" came forward and couldn't carry the weight of the duffel bag.

Date read: 8/30/2010
Book #: 46
Challenge: Celebrate the Author 2010
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 0553225855
ISBN-13: 9780553225853
Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 1981
# of pages: 426
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn't Change the World by Paul Collins

First sentence:

"The life of John Banvard is the most perfect crystallization of loss imaginable."

Description:

"In Banvard's Folly, Paul Collins celebrates what he calls the 'forgotten ephemera of genius.' Here are thirteen unforgettable portraits of men and women who might have claimed their share of renown but who, whether from ill timing, skullduggery, monomania, the tinge of madness, or plain bad luck--or perhaps some combination of them all--leapt straight from life into thankless obscurity. Among their number are scientists, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and adventurers, from across the centuries and around the world. They hold in common the silenced aftermath of failure, the name that rings no bells--until now." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This is a fascinating book about people and their tenuous claim to fame. I liked learning about the musical language "Solresol," promoted by Jean Francois Sudre and the use of blue glass to heal as promoted by A.J. Pleasanton.

Date read: 8/25/2010
Book #: 45
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 0312300336
ISBN-13: 9780312300333
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2001
# of pages: 283
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

First sentence:

"I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I'm old, and you said, I don't think you're old."

Description:

"In 1956, near the end of Reverend John Ames life, he begins a letter to his young son, and account of himself and his forbears. Ames is the son of an Iowa preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition. He 'preached men into the Civil War,' then, at age fifty, became a chaplain inthe Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his on about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and the settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the Union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.

This is also the tale of another remarkable vision--not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's sold during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.

Gilead is the long-hoped for second novel by one of our finest writers, a hymn of praise and lamentation to the God-haunted existence that Reverend Ames loves passionately, and from which he will soon part. ' -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I found this book emotionally moving and thought-provoking. I liked how John reflected on his relationship with his father and his father's relationship with his father.

Date read: 8/9/2010
Book #: 44
Series: Gilead, #1
Challenge: Take Another Chance Challenge
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 037415382
ISBN-13: 9780374153892
Publisher: Farrar, Strous and Giroux
Year: 2004
# of pages: 247
Binding: Hardcover
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Here be Demons by Esther Friesner

First sentence:

"It's your move," said Atamar."

Description:

"The road to hell is paved with bad intentions. . .

But intentions alone are not enough. Hell hates a failure, and the archdemon Atamar has just not been pulling his weight in the competitive world of bad deeds, rotten behavior, and corruption of mortal souls. So he and his team of junior demons have been put on probation--thrown out of the comforts of Hell into the realm of the living. They won't be allowed back until they've collected a fat bonus of innocent souls, fully corrupted and ready to drag down to the Devil himself.

Unfortunately, Atamar has landed in the desert, miles from the nearest known sin--until a team of American archeology students arrives for a summer dig. And when the gleeful demons descend to do their worst, they discover that their idea of bad deeds is sadly out of date--at least when the youth of America is involved!" -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this humorous fantasy about demons and people. I look forward to reading the next book, Demon Blues.

Date read: 8/9/2010
Book #: 43
Challenge: Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge
Series: Demons, #1
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0441327974
ISBN-13: 9780441327943
Publisher: Ace
Year: 1988
# of pages: 233
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Black Company by Glen Cook

First sentence:

"There were prodigies and portents enough."

Description:

"Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hardbitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead.

Until the prophecy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more.

There must be a way for the Black Company to find her. . ." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this first book of the Black Company series. I especially liked how the members learned about the White Rose and the powers of the Circle of Eighteen. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Shadows Linger.

Date read: 7/21/2010
Book #: 42
Challenges: Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge
Series: Chronicles of the Black Company, #1
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0812533704
ISBN-13: 9780812533705
Publisher: TOR
Year: 1984
# of pages: 319
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

First sentence:

"Snow tested his regulator, checked both air valves, ran his hand along the slick neoprene of the suit."

Description:

"Hidden deep beneath Manhattan lies a warren of tunnels, sewers, and galleries, mostly forgotten by those who walk the streets above. There lies the ultimate secret of the Museum Beast. When two grotesquely deformed skeletons are found deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid the investigation. Margo must once again team up with police lieutenant D'Agosta and FBI agent Pendergast, as well as the brilliant Dr. Frock, to try and solve the puzzle. The trail soon leads deep underground, where they will face the awakening of a slumbering nightmare." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this sequel to Relic with its mix of horror and mystery. I especially liked how different events all intersected in interesting ways.

Date read: 7/21/2010
Book #: 41
Series: Pendergast, #2
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Horror

ISBN-10: 0812542835
ISBN-13: 9780812542837
Publisher: TOR Books
Year: 1998
# of pages: 457
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Year's Best Fantasy edited by David G. Hartwell

First sentence:

"I am sunning myself on the west terrace when Gilyan comes."

Description:

"Tales as deep as legend and as new as dawn.

Acclaimed editor David G. Hartwell has gathered a harvest of shimmering beauty and powerful writing in this inaugural volume of the very best fantasy from the last year. Established masters rub elbows with rising stars in this outstanding collection of short stories rich with imagined land and finely etched, unforgettable characters. Travel to distant realms--and around the block--with stories by:

Terry Goodkind
Nicola Griffith
Nalo Hopkinson
George R.R. Martin
Robert Schekley
Michael Swanwick." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this collection of short stories. Some of my favorite stories were George R.R. Martin's "Path of the Dragon" which gave some insight into Daenarys Targaryen and Sherwood Smith's "Mom and Dad on the Home Front," which illustrated what parents go through when the children have otherworldly adventures.

Date read: 6/30/2010
Book #: 40
Challenges: TBR Challenge 2010, Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 038081840X
ISBN-13: 9780380818402
Publisher: EOS
Year: 2001
# of pages: 490
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Trammet

First sentence:

"I was born on 31 January 1979 -- a Wednesday."

Description:

"Daniel sees numbers as shapes, colours and textures and can perform extraordinary maths in his head. He can also learn to speak a language fluently from scratch in a week. He has Savant Syndrome, an extremely rare form of Asperger's that gives him almost unimaginable mental powers, much like the Rain Man portrayed by Dustin Hoffman. But he is virtually unique amongst people who have severe autistic disorders in being able to live a fully independent life." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a very interesting book about Savant Syndrome, synesthesia and autism. I liked Tammet's accounts of learning Icelandic and memorizing the number pi up to over 22,500 digits.

Date read: 6/22/2010
Book #: 39
Challenge: A - Z Challenge 2010
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10: 0340899751
ISBN-13: 9780340899755
Publisher: Hodder
Year: 2006
# of pages: 284
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Total Recall by Sara Paretsky

First sentence:

"The cold that winter ate into our bones."

Description:

"For private eye V. I. Warshawski, the journey begins with a national conference in downtown Chicago, where angry protesters are calling for the recovery of Holocaust assets. There, a slight man steps forward to tell an astonishing story of a childhood shattered by the Holocaust. . .a story that has devastating consequences for V.I.'s friend and mentor, Lotty Herschel.

Lotty was just nine when she emigrated from Austria to England, one of a group of children saved from the Nazi terror just before the war. Now, stunningly, it seems someone from that long-lost past may have returned. With the help from a recovered-memory therapist, Paul Radbuka has unearthed his true idenity. But is he who he claims to be? Or an imposter who has usurped someone else's history. . .a history Lotty has tried to forget for over fifty years? Desperate to help her friend, V.I. digs into Radbuka's past. And as the darkness gathers around Lotty, V.I. struggles to decide whose memories of a terrible war she can trust, and moves closer to a chilling realization of the truth--a truth that almost destroys her oldest friend." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a good mystery with the past of the Holocaust affecting the events in the present. I liked how V.I. gradually learned about Lotty's past.


Date read: 6/9/2010
Book #: 38
Series: V.I. Warshawski, #10
Challenge: A-Z Challenge 2010
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10: 0440224713
ISBN-13: 9780440224716
Publisher: Dell
Year: 2001
# of pages: 524
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra

First sentence:

"I sat across the table from the man who had battered and tortured and brutalized me nearly thirty years ago."

Description:

"This is the true story of four young boys. Four lifelong friends. Intelligent, fun-loving, wise beyond their years, they are inseparable. Their potential is unlimited, but they are content to live within the closed world of New York City's Hell's Kitchen. And to play as many pranks as they can on the denizens of the street. They never get caught. And they know they never will.

Until one disastrous summer afternoon.

On that day, what begins as a harmless scheme goes horrible wrong. And the four find themselves facing a year's imprisonment in the Wilkinson Home for Boys. The oldest of them is fifteen, the youngest twelve. What happens to them over the course of that year--brutal beatings, unimaginable humiliation--will change their lives forever.

Years later, one has become a lawyer. One a reporter. And two have grown up to be murderers, professional hit men. For all of them, the pain and fear of Wilkinson still rages within. Only one thing can erase it.

Revenge.

To exact it, they will twist the legal system. Commandeer the courtroom for their agenda. Use the wiles they observed on the streets, the violence they learned at Wilkinson.

If they get caught this time, they only have one thing left to lose: their lives.

Sleepers is the extraordinary true story of four men who take the law into their own hands. Brilliantly written, it is a searing portrait of a system gone awry and of the people--some innocent, some not so innocent--who must suffer the consequences. At the heart of Sleepers is a sensational murder trial that ultimately gives devastating, yet exhilarating, proof of street justice and truly defines the meaning of loyalty and love between friends. Told with great humor and compassion, even at its most harrowing, Sleepers is an unforgettable reading experience. It will leave you breathless." -- from Amazon.com

My thoughts:

This was a very intense account of brutality and courage. Not everyone made the right decisions, but all faced hardships straight on.

Date read: 6/5/2010
Book #: 37
Challenges: TBR Challenge 2010, Celebrate the Author Challenge 2010
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre; Memoir

ISBN-10: 0345404114
ISBN-13: 98034504114
Publisher: Ballantine
Year: 1995
# of pages: 370
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Elsewhere by Will Shetterly

First sentence:

"I knew I was in the Nevernever when I saw a wild elf through the train window."

Description:

"All MESSED UP and NOWHERE to go?

Bordertown lies halfway between the world of humans and the realm of Faerie. Here, elf and human gangs clash by night, magic works better than technology, and runaways like Ron show up with dreams of changing themselves into someone new. Ron's come searching for something he thought he's lost, but instead he finds all sorts of other things - a makeshift family of punk castaways; a friend in half-elf biker Mooner; and maybe true love in Mooner's beautiful - and dangerous - sister, Wiseguy.

Getting to Bordertown took Ron a bit of luck and magic. Surviving there will be another story altogether." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this urban fantasy set in the NeverNever. I especially liked the interactions between Ron and the people he meets.

Date read: 5/29/2010
Book #: 36
Series: Borderland, #5
Challenge: Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10: 0152052097
ISBN-13: 9780152052096
Publisher: Harcourt
Year:
# of pages:
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs

First sentence:

"Babies die."

Description:

"Temperance Brennan, like her creator Kathy Reichs, is a brilliant, sexy forensic anthropologist called on to solve the toughest cases. But for Tempe, the discovery of a young girl's skeleton in Acadia, Canada, is more than just another assignment. Evangeline, Tempe's childhood best friend, was also from Acadia. Named for the character in the Longfellow poem, Evangeline was the most exotic person in Tempe's eight-year-old world. When Evangeline disappeared, Tempe was warned not to search for her, that the girl was 'dangerous.'

Thirty years later, flooded with memories, Tempe cannot help wondering if this skelton could be the friend she lost so many years ago. And what is the meaning of the strange skeletal lesions found on the bones of the young girl?

Meanwhile, Tempe's beau, Ryan, investigates a series of cold cases. Three girls dead. Four missing. Could the New Brunswick skeleton be part of the pattern? As Tempe draws on the latest advances of forensic anthropology to penetrate the past, Ryan hunts down a serial predator." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This was both a good mystery and a good insight into Tempe's childhood. I liked how she persisted in finding her lost friend and solving the mysteries of the cold cases. I look forward to reading the next book, Devil Bones.

Date read: 5/26/2010
Book #: 35
Series: Tempe Brennan, #10
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0743294378
ISBN-13: 9780743294379
Publisher: Scribner
Year: 2007
# of pages: 310
Binding: Hardcover
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The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

First sentence:

'The sun was already sinking into the deep green of the hills to the west of the valley, the read and gray-pink of its shadows touching the corners of the land, when Flick Ohmsford began his descent."

Description:

"Long ago, the wars of ancient Evil had ruined the world and forced mankind to compete with many other races--gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, and elves. But in peaceful Shady Vale, half-elfin Shea Olmsford knew little of such troubles.

Then came the giant, forbidding Allanon, possessed of strange Druidic powers, to reveal that the supposedly dead Warlock Lord was plotting to destroy the world. The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness was the Sword of Shannara, which could only be used by a true heir of shannara. On Shea, last of the blood line, rested the hope of all races.

Soon a Skull Bearer, dread minion of evil, flew into the Vale, seeking to destroy Shea. To save the Vale, Shea flees, drawing the Skull Bearer after him.

Thus begins the seemingly hopeless quest of a simple man against the greatest power of evil the world has ever known." - from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this epic fantasy. I especially liked the way Shea, Flick, Hendel, Balinor and others face trials in their quest to find the Sword of Shannara.

Date read: 5/22/2010
Book #: 34
Series: Shannara Trilogy, #1
Challenges: Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge, TBR Challenge 2010, 1st in a Series Challenge

ISBN-10: 0345314255
ISBN-13: 9780345314253
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 1977
# of Pages: 726
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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