Initials Reading Challenge

Initials Reading Challenge

Hosted by Becky
When: April 1 - November 30, 2008
What: Read 5-8 books by authors who published under their initials. Examples include T.H. White, J.K. Rowling, etc.


My list:

R.D. Wingfield. Night Frost -- finished 6/28/2008
S.M. Stirling. Conquistador -- finished 7/19/2008
A.A. Attansio. Wyvern -- finished 8/29/2008
C.J. Cherryh. Rider at the Gate -- finished 9/9/2008
C.J. Westwick. Emerald Enigma -- finished 10/19/2008
K.J. Bishop. The Etched City -- finished 11/20/2008

The Etched City by K.J. Bishop

First sentence:

"There were no milestones in the Copper Country."

Description:

"'Have you seen a split cranium, growing flowers like a window box? I saw that, a mere hour ago...'

Fleeing the ghosts of their past, a healer and a killer escape from the ruined Copper Country to the city of Ashamoil. But as they salvage new lives from the debris of the old, they will discover that the ghosts of the past are also the ghosts of the future.

In the Etched City, art will infect life, dream and waking fuse, and splendid and frightening miracles will bloom." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a good depiction of a world in which the fantastical becomes real. I liked the interactions between the characters, especially Gwynn and the Rev.

Date read: 11/20/2008
Book #: 80
Challenges: Fall into Reading Challenge 2008, Initials Reading Challenge, Naming Convention Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Dark Fantasy

ISBN-10: 1405041609
ISBN-13: 978194951607
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2003
# of pages: 332
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing page

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont

First sentence:

"'You think life can't be like the pulps?' Walter Gibson asked the other man."

Description:

"Ravaged by the devastation of the Great Depression, America turned to the pulp novels for relief, for hope, for heroes.

And the pulps delivered in spades.

The science fiction story, the hard-boiled detective, and the superhero were all born on these cheap yellow pages, found behind blood-drenched covers dripping with sex and violence. Return now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, enter at your own risk into the dark and dank lair known as the White Horse Tavern, and meet Walter Gibson, the mind behind The Shadow, and Lester Dent, creator of Doc Savage, as they challenge one another to discover what is real and what is pulp.

For Gibson, writing a new novel about The Shadow every month is a way to evade his own dark past. For his rival, Dent, creating Doc Savage is an attempt to bring the light of better days to desperate millions. In their lives and loves they are different from one another as the the heroes they've created. But now the hideous murder of the fringe pulp writer H.P. Lovecraft -- victim of a mysterious death that literally makes the skin crawl -- will set these two men on a collision course with each other, and face to face with a terrifying and very real evil that could have sprung from the pages of their own pulps.

From the palaces and battlefields of warlord-plagued China to the seedy water fronts of Providence, Rhode Island; from frozen seas and cursed islands to the labyrinthine tunnels and secret temples of New York's Chinatown, Dent and Gibson will find themselves in a dangerous race to stop a madmen destined to create a new empire of pure evil. Together with the young pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard, a mysterious stranger, and a sexy psychic with a chicken, they will finally step out from behind their creations to take part in a heroic journey far greater than any story they have imagined. Their quest will force Gibson to look beyond the shadows and discover the true evil that lurks in the hearts of men, while Dent will learn that the nature of a true hero is not found in a fictional superman, but in the faith of the woman who challenges death itself to love him.

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril is a swashbuckling, breathtaking romantic epic of magic and love, marriage and fatherhood, ambition and loss, and writers who never forget their deadlines even when facing the end of the world. In its pages is a tale that deftly weaves the lives of its real-life characters into a lie of outrageous proportions that just may tell the truth, but is always thrillingly, unapologetically pulp." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

While the plot sometimes got confusing, I enjoyed this thriller featuring the creators of The Shadow and Doc Savage. I especially liked the interactions between Gibson, Dent and Hubbard.

Date read: 11/11/2008
Book #: 79
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0743287851
ISBN-13: 9780743287852
Publisher: Simon & Shuster
Year: 2006
# of Pages: 367
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing Page

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

Short Story Reading Challenge

Short Story Reading Challenge

When: January 1 - December 31, 2008
What: Read short stories. There are different options described on the blog linked above.






My list: Option 3 - read 5 short story collections

Harlan Ellison. Paingod and Other Delusions -- finished 1/29/2008
Powers of Detection: Stories of Mystery and Fantasy -- finished 2/21/2008
Robin McKinley. A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories -- finished 4/20/2008
Harry Turtledove, et al. Worlds That Weren't -- finished 6/6/2008
Murder in Baker Street: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes -- finished 10/30/2008

Murder in Baker Street: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes edited by Martin H. Greenberg, et al.

First sentence:

"It was raining."

Description:

"Eleven times over, the stories written especially for this premier volume by some of the finest talents at work in crime fiction today -- Anne Perry, Loren D. Estleman, Gillian Linscott, Edward D. Hoch, Peter Tremayne, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Jon L. Breen, Bill Crider, Howard Engel, Carolyn Wheat, and L. B. Greenwood -- celebrate the keen mind, ratiocinative methods, personal eccentricities, and singular manners that epitomize the most admired fictional sleuth of all time: Sherlock Holmes.

More than a century has passed since Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes to the reading public, but no literary detective has yet to match the Great Detective in popularity and to command the esteem of such legions of fans -- not least among them the mystery writers who pay tribute to him in this collection. Ingeniously contrived and shrewdly executed, their tales revisit the comfortable clutter of the rooms at 221B Baker Street where Holmes in an old silk dressing gown, his gaze piercing and his fingers stained with chemicals or ink, again peruses a telling trifle or perhaps takes up his violin.

Again, too, the inscrutable Holmes and his redoubtable companion, Dr. Watson, display at their peerless best the science and arts of detection -- whether they are investigating a crime in the wilds of Africa or uncovering villainy in the heart of London, whether it's the case of the bloodless sock or borderline dandelions, a remarkable worm or a vampire's mark" -- from the inside flap

Contents:
• Introduction • Daniel Stashower
• The Man from Capetown • Stuart M. Kaminsky
• The Case of the Borderland Dandelions • Howard Engel
• The Siren of Sennen Cove • Peter Tremayne
• The Case of the Bloodless Sock • Anne Perry
• The Case of the Anonymous Author • Edward D. Hoch
• The Case of the Vampire’s Mark • Bill Crider
• The Hansom for Mr. Holmes • Gillian Linscott
• The Adventure of the Arabian Knight • Loren D. Estelman
• The Adventure of the Cheshire Cheese • Jon L. Breen
• Darkest Gold • L. B. Greenwood
• The Remarkable Worm • Carolyn Wheat
• Sidelights on Sherlock Holmes • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• 100 Years of Sherlock Holmes • Lloyd Rose
• And Now, a Word from Arthur Conan Doyle • Jon L. Lellenberg

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this collection of short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, especially the ones "The Siren of Sennen Cove" and "A Hansom for Mr. Holmes". I also liked the essay "100 Years of Sherlock Holmes" which looked at how the Holmes character has been portrayed over the years on stage and film.

Date read: 10/30/2008
Book #: 76
Challenges: Short Story Challenge, Fall into Reading Challenge 2008
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0786708980
ISBN-13: 9780786708987
Publisher: Carrol & Graf
Year: 2001
# of Pages: 273
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page