Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult

Guilty Pleasure

Luke is a family man but lives for 2 years with wild wolves. He then has a hard time relating to his human family upon his return.
After his return, he is in a car crash and put on life support and the family must come together to make tough decisions. Ethics, morals, and personal feelings all play a part in their decisions.  As usual, a good thought-provoking novel by Jodi!!

 (This I read  Feb. 2014.  Trying to catch up with my reviews)

Anatomy of Deception - Lawrence Goldstone

Historical Fiction 

A medical thriller in 1889 Philadelphia. A young doctor, Ephraim Carroll is learning about death and autopsies. When the body of a young woman come in the surgery theater, question arise in young Ephraim's mind. He travels to many seedy parts of the city trying to find out about the woman.  The book has many interested historical facts about early medicine and the things doctors did back then. A good suspense story with some twists and turns.

(I read this Jan. 2014.  Late again)

To Fetch a Thief - Spencer Quinn

Series     

Chet to the rescue again to save Peanut the Elephant! As it turned out, he also had to save his owner, Bernie!!! Another cute adventure with this adorable super dog.  Any book with an elephant in it, is an awesome story.  This one even mentions the real elephant habitat in Tennessee!!!!

(I read this Dec., 2013.  Very late with my review)

Alex by Pierre Lemaitre

Vacation

I can't say too much without giving the plot away in this book.  It has a definite "icky" factor, and while it is a bit suspenseful, it's more about waiting for the "aha" moment than it is sitting on the edge of your seat.  It is well-written and I hadn't figured it out prior to the author revealing the plot twist.  And if it didn't like rats before, definitely don't like em now!!

Mortal Arts by Anna Lee Huber

Vacation

I thoroughly enjoy Huber's Lady Darby series.  The slowness of the time period of which it takes place, the flirtatious banter between the lead characters Gage and Lady Darby, and the strengthen of the single Lady Darby and of course the mysteries that they solve.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

20th Century

I have wanted to read Hemingway for quite awhile and finally got around to it with For Whom the Bell Tolls.  It is not what I expected but I did enjoy it, even if it was slow moving at times.  It was rather gruesome in parts when Hemingway described the killing of the Fascists through a flogging line and some of the bull-fighting. (I've never understood bull fighting and why it continues today).  Found it humorous that Hemingway did not write cuss words but used the term "obscenity" instead.

Quotes: "Where the obscenity have you been?"

" 'You are a very hard woman' he told her. 'No ... but so simple I am very complicated' "

The Reapers by John Connolly

Vacation

This is our annual vacation read that we read together, passing the book back and forth after consuming a certain number of pages.  Not sure how, but we missed the two (2) previous Charlie Parker series books!!  Guess this means we must go on two more vacations right now!
This was not one of our favorites as there were few scenes with Charlie and a lot of flashbacks by Louis which dragged on and led to some confusion (but had we read the two books before this maybe we would have been less confused!!).  But in all of Connolly's books so far, we appreciate the demented sense of humor he brings forth in his characters!