Saturday, February 10, 2007

The Mugger by Ed McBain

Description:

"A mugger who specializes in female victims is providing a lot of work for Detective Hal Willis of the 87th Precinct. After each of his crimes, the mugger bows low and announces, "Clifford thanks you, madam," before running off. At the same time, Patrolman Bert Kling is asked to speak to a troubled teenaged girl. Soon the girl is dead, apparently the latest victim of the mugger."

My thoughts:

This was a good police procedural - the second in the 87th Precinct Series. I liked the characters and the plot.

Date finished: 2/7/2007
Book No.: 13
Challenge: TBR Challenge 2007
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0446601438
ISBN-13: 978-0446601436
Publisher: Warner Books
Year: 1996 (reprint)
No. of pages: 178
Binding: Paperback

Abra Cadaver by James Tucker

Description:

"When a body turns up in the Allegheny River, it's rushed to the Pittsburgh cororner's office for an autopsy. But something's wrong - the person died of natural causes and has aready been embalmed. So how did the corpse end up in the river?

A year later, Dr. Jack Merlin, a dedicated young surgeon, makes another shocking discovery. The body currently being dissected in the gross anatomy lab at Pittsburgh University Medical Center is his roomate, who went missing months earlier. No foul play had been suspected. But now....

As an amateur magician, Dr. Merlin knows a little bit about disappearing acts. This one is a killer. He'll have to use all his skills - in medicine and magic - to find the truth. And stay alive..."

My thoughts:

This is the second book I've read recently which was set in Pittsburgh! I enjoyed the mix of medicine, murder and magic, though some of the characters were a bit two-dimensional at times. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Hocus Corpus.

Date finished: 2/6/2007
Book No.: 12
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0451195914
ISBN-13: 978-0451195913
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1999
No. of pages: 394
Binding: Hardcover

Friday, February 9, 2007

Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks

Description:

Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and bestselling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals–also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings chronicles his love affair with science and the magnificently odd and sometimes harrowing childhood in which that love affair unfolded.

In Uncle Tungsten we meet Sacks’ extraordinary family, from his surgeon mother (who introduces the fourteen-year-old Oliver to the art of human dissection) and his father, a family doctor who imbues in his son an early enthusiasm for housecalls, to his “Uncle Tungsten,” whose factory produces tungsten-filament lightbulbs. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his chemical heroes–in his own home laboratory. Uncle Tungsten is a crystalline view of a brilliant young mind springing to life, a story of growing up which is by turns elegiac, comic, and wistful, full of the electrifying joy of discovery.

My thoughts:

This is a very detailed look at the history of chemistry, scientific thinking, photography, and other topics. Sacks' enthusiasm is evident throughout, and I'm amazed that he was willing to take risks in his quest to learn about each element. Some of the passages were very long, but there were many anecdotes to keep my interest.

Date finished: 2/5/2007
Book No.: 11
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Memoir

ISBN-10: 0330390287
ISBN-13: 978-0330390286
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2002
No. of pages: 250
Binding: Paperback

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Tinker by Wen Spencer

Description:

"Inventor, girl genius Tinker lives in a near-future Pittsburgh which now exists mostly in the land of the elves. She runs her salvage business, pays her taxes, and tries to keep the local ambient level of magic down with gadgets of her own design. When a pack of wargs chase an Elven noble into her scrap yard, life as she knows it takes a serious detour. Tinker finds herself taking on the Elven court, the NSA, the Elven Interdimensional Agency, technology smugglers and a college-minded Xenobiologist as she tries to stay focused on what's really important - her first date. Armed with an intelligence the size of a planet, steel-toed boots, and a junkyard dog attitude, Tinker is ready to kick butt to get her first kiss."

My thoughts:

A few years ago I visited Pittsburgh for a conference. I could still picture the city as I read this great mix of science fiction and fantasy. I look forward to reading the sequel, Wolf Who Rules.

Date finished: 1/31/2007
Book No.: 10
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0743498712
ISBN-13: 978-0743498715
Publisher: Baen
Year: 2004
No. of pages: 448
Binding: Paperback

By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz

Description:

"Dylan O’Connor is a gifted young artist just trying to do the right thing in life. He’s on his way to an arts festival in Santa Fe when he stops to get a room for himself and his twenty-year-old autistic brother, Shep. But in a nightmarish instant, Dylan is attacked by a mysterious “doctor,” injected with a strange substance, and told that he is now a carrier of something that will either kill him...or transform his life in the most remarkable way. Then he is told that he must flee—before the doctor’s enemies hunt him down for the secret circulating through his body. No one can help him, the doctor says, not even the police.

Stunned, disbelieving, Dylan is turned loose to run for his life...and straight into an adventure that will turn the next twenty-four hours into an odyssey of terror, mystery—and wondrous discovery. It is a journey that begins when Dylan and Shep’s path intersects with that of Jillian Jackson. Before that evening Jilly was a beautiful comedian whose biggest worry was whether she would ever find a decent man. Now she too is a carrier. And even as Dylan tries to convince her that they’ll be safer sticking together, cold-eyed men in a threatening pack of black Suburbans approach, only seconds before Jilly’s classic Coupe DeVille explodes into thin air.

Now the three are on the run together, but with no idea whom they’re running from—or why. Meanwhile Shep has begun exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior. And whatever it is that’s coursing through their bodies seems to have plunged them into one waking nightmare after another. Seized by sinister premonitions, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to crime scenes—just minutes before the crimes take place.

What this unfathomable power is, how they can use it to stop the evil erupting all around them, and why they have been chosen are only parts of a puzzle that reaches back into the tragic past and the dark secrets they all share: secrets of madness, pain, and untimely death. Perhaps the answer lies in the eerie, enigmatic messages that Shep, with precious time running out, begins to repeat, about an entity who does his work 'by the light of the moon.'"

My thoughts:

I liked this book, especially how the characters Dylan, Shep and Jilly interact with each other and how they learn how to handle their new abilities.

Date finished: 1/30/2007
Book No.: 9
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0553582763
ISBN-13: 978-0553582765
Publisher: Bantam
Year: 2003
No. of pages: 496
Binding: Paperback

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Description:

"In this literary tour de force, novelist Arthur Golden enters a remote and shimmeringly exotic world. For the protagonist of this peerlessly observant first novel is Sayuri, one of Japan's most celebrated geisha, a woman who is both performer and courtesan, slave and goddess.

We follow Sayuri from her childhood in an impoverished fishing village, where in 1929, she is sold to a representative of a geisha house, who is drawn by the child's unusual blue-grey eyes. From there she is taken to Gion, the pleasure district of Kyoto. She is nine years old. In the years that follow, as she works to pay back the price of her purchase, Sayuri will be schooled in music and dance, learn to apply the geisha's elaborate makeup, wear elaborate kimono, and care for a coiffure so fragile that it requires a special pillow. She will also acquire a magnanimous tutor and a venomous rival. Surviving the intrigues of her trade and the upheavals of war, the resourceful Sayuri is a romantic heroine on the order of Jane Eyre and Scarlett O'Hara. And Memoirs of a Geisha is a triumphant work - suspenseful, and utterly persuasive."

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book about Sayuri's life in Japan during World War II as she learns to become a geisha. I especially liked her relationships with her mentor Mameha, the scarred businessman Nobu, and her friend, the Chairman.

Date finished: 1/23/2007
Book No.: 8
Rating: 4* = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 1400096898
ISBN-13: 978-1400096893
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2005
No. of pages: 512
Binding: Paperback

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

Description:

"Harry Dresden--Wizard
Lost items found. Paranormal investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things--and most of them don't play too well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a--well, whatever.

There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get... interesting.

Magic. It can get a guy killed. "

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this gritty book about a wizard trying to solve murders without getting in trouble with the Council. I especially liked the way he battles the demon, the giant scorpions and the black mage - often without extra help from props.

Date finished: 1/22/2007
Book No.: 7
Rating: 4* = great
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0451457811
ISBN-13: 978-0451457813
Publisher: Roc
Year: 2000
No. of pages: 336
Binding: Paperback