Guilty Pleasure


This was a typical James Patterson.  Dead bodies, corruption, and Alex Cross in the middle of all of it.  Set in Washington DC with a serial killer on the loose and of course drama at the Cross household.
 A good thriller as always.

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

"A" Author

I really wanted to like this book, but the entire time I was reading it I just kept thinking that there were so many other books I would rather be reading!  I never connected to any of the characters and the story itself dragged.  I drove through the mundane simply to say I finished the book.  In the attempt to find something worthwhile, I've posted a couple quotes from the book.

QUOTE #1:  "I have given him victory...She felt it a momentous thing.  By raising her hand, or not raising it, she could alter the course of events of affairs in the world of which she knew nothing." (as most voters today, eh?)

QUOTE #2: "Sometimes I look back and I am shocked.  Every day of my life I have prepared for success, worked for it, waited for it, and you don't notice how the days pass until nearly a lifetime has finished.  Then it hits you - the thing you have been waiting for has already gone by.  And it was going  in the other direction.  It's like I've been waiting on the wrong side of the road for bus that was already full."

QUOTE #3: "'...there are two kinds of love.  The kind that starts off big and slowly wears away, that seems you can never use it up and then one day is finished.  And the kind that you don't notice at first, but which adds a little bit to itself every day, like an oyster makes a pearl, grain by grain, a jewel from the sand...All the little irritations...Who would think they could add up to anything?'"

Mercy by Jodi Picoult

Guilty Pleasure

A love story, but in the hands of Jodi - not a typical love story.  Though, this one was a bit more bawdy than Jodi usually is (not Fifty Shades of Grey, but maybe Five Shades?).  Like most Jodi stories, you never want to say too much and give anything away.  The characters are real and likable (or not so likable) and the emotions are complex.  Enough said.

Quote #1:  "You know it's never fifty-fifty in a marriage.  It's always seventy-thirty, or sixty-forty.  Someone falls in love first.  Someone puts someone else up on a pedestal.  Someone works very hard to keep things rolling smoothly; someone else sails along for the ride"

Quote #2:  "She had read another statistic that said women use twice as many words in the course of a day as men do, and she wondered if this was because women were garrulous by nature  or because it took twice as long to make men understand what was being said."

Vacation Read

A sweet read!!  Josie is a 27 year old adult who lives with her domineering mother trying to atone for her less than sweet behavior as a child.  Throughout the story she meets interesting characters like Chloe who has books magically appear when they think she needs them.  My books have often chosen me; has that ever happened to you?

Vacation Read

Kate's daughter's death is ruled a suicide, but is it really??  Kate is a very busy single mom and is doing the best she can, but with today's technology can parents really protect their children from all of the dangers out there.  Heartbreaking to think that what happened to Amelia could be possible.  Kudos to today's parents that face the immense challenges of the 21st Century.

Vacation Read

Troy Chance sees what she thinks is a small child being thrown from a passing ferry.  She makes a snap decision to dive in and save the child. What I thought was going to be a relay race of a suspenseful book ended up being more of a leisurely back stroke.  Still an okay book, and I am looking forward to the sequel which is getting splashing reviews!

The Anatomist's Wife by Anna Lee Huber

Vacation Read

I really enjoyed this book!!  It was a good combination of mystery and romance that was suspenseful without gore and romantic without swooning. A bit of a game of clue with all the suspects confined to an old Scottish castle!  Toss in a bit of historical facts about medical cadavers, jigsaw puzzles and oil painting and I learned something all the while I was being entertained.  Looking forward to the next one in the series, due out this September!!

Quote:  "We all must deal with our shadows the best we can. No one can conquer them for us."

The White Road by John Connolly

Vacation Read

Fourth in the Charlie Parker series that we read simultaneously while on vacation.  Gruesome as Connolly always is (which doesn't prevent us from reading on), the forces of good and evil continue to battle.  Though the reader never knows until the bitter end which of these forces will win!  Laced with historical facts about South Carolina and racism, Connolly delivered on wrapping up a complex plot and surprising us again with the depth of his writing.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Vacation Read

How much of ourselves do we put into the things we create?  Do we leave emotional DNA within objects that others could tap into?  Would you want to see, taste or feel those emotions of others or of your unconscious self?  I enjoyed this quirky read (though I struggled with the brother, Joseph) and found that it gives the reader something to think about in the topical agenda of "where does our food come from", and in a deeper question of how we feel and how we may be sharing those feelings with others, even when we are unaware of doing so.

Series

What a good descriptive writer Laurie King is!!!.  I felt like I was actually in the moors of England helping Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes track down the culprit who murdered some poor hapless guy.  The book dragged a little in some places, but overall it was a good mystery.   I enjoy Laurie King's sense of humor that she has given Mary Russell.   So I say good-bye to Mary and Sherlock  until the next time.  

Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman

Vacation Read

The premise of this book and the promise of a new thriller (a "heart-stopping debut") was more hype than what I actually found between the pages.  The humor? - not quite funny, the suspense? - occasionally had me wondering what would happen next, but certainly not on the edge of my seat.  The plot was neatly wrapped up, but it felt more like it was written to be seen on the big screen than in a reader's mind.  I was never able to connect to the main character and my heart didn't stop once.

Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier

20th Century Publication

I wasn't sure I would like this book, but found myself pleasantly entertained by it.  It's not the nail biting suspense of Harlan Coben or Gillian Flynn, but I can certainly see why Alfred Hitchcock adapted it.  It's the type of suspense that makes you jump every time a floor board squeaks even when nothing is happening in the story; just the idea that something MAY happen!

So much of what duMaurier writes in this 1938 Modern Classic is still accurate to today's time.

Quote:  "Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind."