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):

• Keri Arthur. Full Moon Rising -- finished 10/5/2007
  
• Khaled Hosseini. A Thousand Splendid Suns -- finished 10/11/2007
  
• Kage Baker. Mother Aegypt and Other Stories -- finished 10/13/2007
  
• Mary Brown. Dragonne's Eg -- finished 10/24/2007
  
• Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Riptide -- finished 10/28/2007
  
• Louis L'Amour. The Haunted Mesa -- finished 11/13/2007
  
• Robert A. Heinlein. The Puppet Masters -- finished 12/1/2007
  
• China Mieville. Perdido Street Station
  -- finished 12/20/2007
  

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

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

Book to Movie Challenge

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

• Patrick Suskind. Perfume -- finished 9/9/2007
  
• Robert A. Heinlein. The Puppet Masters -- finished 12/1/2007
  
• Katherine Paterson. Bridge to Terabithia -- finished 12/2/2007
  
• John Irving. The Hotel New Hampshire -- finished 12/2/2007

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

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

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