TBR Challenge - 2008!

It's time once again to post my list for the annual TBR Challenge! I selected 12 books for the challenge plus 12 alternates/extra credits.



Here they are (in no particular order) :

1. Nicci French. The Red Room -- finished 1/12/2008
2. Isaac Asimov. The Naked Sun -- finished 1/19/2008
3. Lee Child. Killing Floor -- finished 4/13/2008
4. Lionel Shriver. We Need to Talk About Kevin -- finished 5/24/2008 (substitute for Winner of the National Book Award)
5. Jessie Prichard Hunter. Blood Music -- finished 7/4/2008
6. S.M. Stirling. Conquistador -- finished 7/19/2008
   
7. Joy Adamson. Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds -- finished 7/26/2008
   
8. Arthur Herzog. The Swarm -- finished 8/3/2008
9. John Nance. Pandora's Clock -- finished 8/27/2008
   
10. Michael Palmer. Natural Causes -- finished 9/4/2008
11. Stephen Spruill. Lords of Light -- finished 9/10/2008
    
12. Karin Slaughter. A Faint Cold Fear -- finished 10/31/2008
    

Alternates/Extra Credits:

1. James Lowder. Knight of the Black Rose
2. Iris Johansen. Final Target
3. David Wise. The Children's Game
4. David G. Hartwell, ed. Year's Best Fantasy
5. Whitley Streiber. The Forbidden Zone
6. Robert Tine. Desperate Measures
7. Iain Banks. Excession
8. Eoin Colfer. The Wish List
9. Ana Castillo. Peel My Love Like an Onion
10. Douglas Clegg. Dark of the Eye
11. Ann Rule. The Stranger Beside Me

A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

First sentence:

"Sara Linton stared at the entrance to the Dairy Queen, watching her very pregnant sister walk out with a cup of chocolate-covered ice cream in each hand."

Description:

"An apparent student suicide has brought medical examiner Sara Linton to the local college campus, along with her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver. But a horribly mutilated corpse yields up few answers. And a suspicious rash of subsequent "suicides" suggests that a different kind of terror is stalking the youth of Heartsdale, Georgia -- a nightmare that is coming to prey on Sara Linton's loved ones.

A small town is being transformed into a killing ground. And the key to a sadistic murderer's motive and identity may be held in the unsteady hands of a campus security guard -- a former police detective driven from the force by the hellish memories that will never leave her. Lena Adams survived the unthinkable and paid a devastating price. Now the survival of future victims may depend on her. . .when she can barely protect herself." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This book was an intense thriller in the Sara Linton/Grant County series, focusing mostly on Lena Adams and her struggle to identify the killer while dealing with her own personal issues. I liked the character interactions and the plot moved along well.

Date read: 10/31/2008
Book #: 78
Series: Sara Linton, #3
Challenges: Fall into Reading Challenge 2008, TBR Challenge 2008
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0060534052
ISBN-13: 9780060534059
Publisher: HarperTorch
Year: 2003
# of Pages: 422
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Lords of Light by Steven Spruill

First sentence:

"I have done all I can to make sure no one but me will ever read this diary."

Description:

"At twenty-five, Dr. Jenn Hrulska is a promising resident in neurology. Her beauty and warmth draw people to her, and yet she chooses to be alone - for her white doctor's coat hides a vampire's body. Jenn is a hemophage: she must feed on blood, or she will die. She has managed to defy her genetic compulsion to kill and a millennium of lonely life stretches ahead of her.

Then a charismatic young doctor named Michael Avalon steps into her life. Helpless to resist her powerful and growing feelings for him, Jenn tries to convince herself she could survive when, inevitably, she loses him. But when Michael reveals an astonishing truth about himself, he gives Jenn the greatest hope of her life, and draws her into a war between two families - the rulers of darkness and the lords of light - which threatens the extinction of her kind . . ." - from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book featuring hemophages (vampires) and angels. I especially liked the interactions between the angel Michael and the hemophage Jenn and between the angel Uziel and the hemophage Chemosh.

Date read: 9/10/2008
Book #:
Challenge: TBR Challenge 2008
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Dark Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0340708123
ISBN-13: 978-340708125
Publisher: New English Library
# of pages: 308
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Natural Causes by Michael Palmer

First sentence:

"Connie Hidalgo's contractions had been little more than twinges for the first two hours of the drive; but as she and her financé passed the New London exits on I-95, the tightening with her began to intensify."

Description:

"Dr. Sarah Baldwin races to a Boston hospital with a young woman whose normal labor has suddenly become a matter of life and death. As she struggles to save both mother and baby, she doesn't know that two other women have already died under horrifying identical circumstances. And so begins Sarah's own nightmare, as she learns that the prenatal herbal vitamins she prescribed are the only thing these three women have in common.

Soon Sarah is fighting to save her career, her reputation -- her life. For she's certain there must be some unknown factor linking these women, and as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that someone will do anything -- even murder -- to keep a devastating secret." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was an intense medical thriller with lots of twists and turns. Just when I thought I knew what caused the problems, Palmer deftly took the story in a new direction.

Date read: 9/4/2008
Book #: 63
Challenges: TBR Challenge 2008; Naming Conventions Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0553568760
ISBN-13: 978055356876?
Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 1994
# of Pages: 465
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Pandora's Clock by John J. Nance

First sentence:

"Professor Ernest Helms had returned to the starting point of the snowy forest trail just in time."

Description:

"The biowarfare people call the bug a Level 4 pathogen. That means no cure. No hope. No survivors.

Now it's loose on Quantum Flight 66. One passenger is already dead. The experts say in 48 hours the rest may follow.

James Holland, former U.S. fighter pilot, now flying this commercial Boeing 747, isn't ready to die. They say he can't land his plane. They say he's a threat to the whole world. They're ready to blast him out of the sky.

Captain Holland may be on a collision course with doom -- but they're going to have to catch him first. He's determined to take whatever risks he must to outfly them. Outsmart them. And beat...

Pandora's Clock -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was an exciting thriller set on board an airplane, in Washington, DC and in the Middle East. While some of the characters started as clichéd, they gradually became more three-dimensional as the medical and political crisis grew.

Date read: 8/27/2008
Book #: 58
Challenge: TBR Challenge 2008
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0312960344
ISBN-13: 9780312960346
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Year: 1995
# of Pages: 430
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds by Joy Adamson

First sentence:

"For many years my home has been in the Northern Frontier Province of Kenya, that vast stretch of semiarid thornbush, covering some hundred and twenty thousand square miles, which extends from Mount Kenya to the Abyssinian border."

Description:

"There have been many tales of animals' return to the wild, but since its first publication in 1960, when the New York Times hailed it as a 'fascinating and remarkable book,' one stands alone as the most original and perhaps best-loved animal story. Born Free is a classic which traces the extraordinary development of the lion cub Elsa in transition between two radically different worlds." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I remember I saw the movie years ago, but I had never read the full story of Elsa and her human family Joy and George Adamson until now. I liked reading about Elsa's curiosity and how even as she gradually left the Adamson's care, she never lost the bond she had with them.

Date read: 7/26/2008
Book #: 50
Challenges: What an Animal! Challenge, TBR Challenge 2008, Non-Fiction Five Challenge 2008
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 039474635X
ISBN-13: 9780394746357
Publisher: Pantheon
Year: 1987
# of Pages: 220
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Conquistador by S.M. Stirling

First sentence:

"John Rolfe had rented the house for seventy-five a month, which sounded extortionate but was something close to reasonable, given the way costs had gone crazy in the Bay Area since Pearl Harbor."

Description:

"If you could re-create civilization, what would you do differently?

Oakland California, 1946. Ex-soldier John Rolfe, newly back from the Pacific is about to make a fabulous discovery. It happens with a flip of his shortwave radio switch, a thunder crack of sound, and a blinding light. He blinks his eyes to discover a portal to an alternate world where Europeans have never set foot on the land he knows as America. Able to return at will to the modern world, Rolfe summons the only people with whom he is willing to share his discovery: his war buddies. And tells them to bring their families...

What mistakes would you repeat?

Los Angeles, twenty-first century. Fish and Game warden Tom Christiansen is involved in the bust of a smuggling operation. What he turns up is something he never anticipated: a photo of authentic Aztec priests decked out in Grateful Dead T-shirts, and a live condor from a gene pool that doesn't correspond to any known in captivity or the wild. These finds soon lead to a woman named Adrienne Rolfe--and a secret that's been hidden for sixty years.

As danger brews on both sides, two realities are threatened, and so too are the live of everyone who crosses the boundary between them...." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This book was an interesting look at an alternate Earth, particularly western America. I liked the interactions between characters Tom, Adrienne and Tully and the ways Tom and Tully noticed the differences between New Virginia and First Side (current Earth).

Date read: 7/19/2008
Book #: 46
Challenges: TBR Challenge 2008, Initials Reading Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF/Alternate History

ISBN-10: 0451459083
ISBN-13: 9780451459084
Publisher: Roc
Year: 2003
# of Pages: 440
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing Page

Blood Music by Jessie Prichard Hunter

First sentence:

"The air was very still."

Description:

"New York City is caught in the cold grip of a brutal serial killer. The victims are all young, blond women, savagely raped and murdered.

While ravaging his victims, the killer's mind whirls with symphonic images and raging desires--rarely giving thought to his loving wife and child.

Young, blond Zelly Wyche has a new baby, a dependable electrician husband, and a bright future. She, too, is petrified by the madness and unthinkable tragedy of the murders. While the serial killer's solve survivor and a victim's brother mount a desperate vigilante hunt for the 'Symphony Slasher,' a chill runs up Zelly's spine. She is beginning to wonder if the killer could be closer than she thinks.

But no. Impossible. She has to be dead wrong...." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This book was a compelling thriller that kept my attention throughout. I liked getting different character's voices such as the killer, the police and one of the victims.

Date read: 7/4/2008
Book #: 43
Challenge: TBR Challenge 2008
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0804110840
ISBN-13: 9780804110846
Publisher: Ivy Books
Year: 1993
# of pages: 326
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

First sentence:

"Dear Franklin,

I'm unsure why one trifling incident this afternoon has moved me to write to you."

Description:

"In this gripping novel of motherhood gone awry, Lionel Shriver approaches the tragedy of a high-school massacre from the point of view of the killer's mother. In letters written to the boy's father, mother Eva probes the upbringing of this more-than-difficult child and reveals herself to have been the reluctant mother of an unsavory son. As the schisms in her family unfold, we draw closer to an unexpected climax that holds breathtaking surprises and its own hard-won redemption. In Eva, Shriver has created a narrator who is touching, sad, funny, and reflective."

My thoughts:

This was a powerfully moving book about the ambiguousness of family relationships. At times, I wished to hear Kevin's point of view, but Eva's honest and searing account held my interest throughout.

Date read: 5/24/2008
Book #: 31
Challenges: Book Awards Challenge, TBR Challenge 2008, Book-a-Month Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 006072448X
ISBN-13: 9780060724481
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Year: 2004
# of Pages: 400
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing Page

Killing Floor by Lee Child

First sentence:

"I was arrested in Eno's diner."

Description:

"Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter, just passing through. He is in Margrave, Georgia, for less than a half hour when four policemen arrive, shotguns in hand to arrest him for murder.

All Jack knows is he didn't kill anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time. . ." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a good mystery featuring Jack Reacher who finds himself in the middle of an ongoing plot that threatens a small town. I liked how Jack and his new friends figure out the mystery and eventually outwit the criminals and I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Die Trying.

Date read: 4/13/2008
Book #: 22
Series: Jack Reacher #1
Challenges: Book Awards Reading Challenge, TBR Challenge 2008, Spring Reading Thing Challenge, To Be Continued Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0515123447
ISBN-13: 9780515123449
Publisher: Jove
Year: 1997
# of Pages: 407
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov

First sentence:

"Stubbornly Elijah Baley fought panic."

Description:

"Solaria was a beautiful planet, but a sparsely settled one, The Solarians had so isolated themselves that direct contact with others was almost unbearable, and all interpersonal dealings were conducted by solid-seeming trimensional projections.

Now there had been a murder. The victim had been so neurotic that even the presence of his wife was barely endurable, But someone had been close enough to beat him to death while he was attended by his robots. Naturally, the robots couldn't have done it-the first law of robotics would not let them harm a human being. No weapon had been found.

It seemed a paradox. So the authorities sent for Lije Baley, who was delighted to find that his old partner, the human-seeming robot R. Daneel Olivaw, would join him. The partnership was back in business - a strange business, indeed."

My thoughts:

This book was a good mix of science fiction and mystery. There was a theme of overcoming fears throughout the book, whether it was Lije's fear of the outdoors or the Solarian's fear of personal presence. I look forward to reading the first book in the series, The Caves of Steel.

Date read: 1/19/2008
Book #: 4
Series: R. Daneel Olivaw, #2
Challenges: Celebrate the Author Challenge, Winter Reading Challenge, TBR Challenge 2008
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0345313909
ISBN-13: 9780345313904
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 1983
# of Pages: 208
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page

The Red Room by Nicci French

First sentence:

"Beware of beautiful days."

Description:

"Kit Quinn is a young woman who inhabits dangerous worlds: crime scenes, interrogation scenes, hospitals for the criminally insane. Horribly wounded in a brutal attack, she must return to the site of her worst fears. She is asked by the police to advise them on a simple murder inquiry. A young runaway has been found killed by a London canal and the chief suspect is the man who wounded her.

But it isn't a simple case. Kit refuses to accept appearances, against opposition from the police and her own fears; she finds other crimes, other victims. Her obsessive search for the truth draws her into an underworld of abandoned and exploited young people, and puts her at terrible risk."

My thoughts:

This was an interesting mystery. I liked how the clues were revealed bit by bit as Kit tried to discover the truth about the canal killings.

Date read: 1/12/2008
Book #: 3
Challenges: What's in a Name Challenge, Winter Reading Challenge, TBR Challenge 2008
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

Publisher: BCA
Year: 2001
# of Pages: 340
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing Page