It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Over the past two weeks, (because Charter sucks and went out just as I sat down to watch Game of Thrones and then blog last week), I've Posted [...]
Kathryn Dance is an investigator working for the California Bureau of Investigation. Her specialty is kinesics, a fancy word for body language. She's one of the top in her field, so when new evidence emerges in a cold case suggesting that imprisoned cult leader and murderer Daniel Pell may have one more homicide to his name, she's called in to interrogate. But Pell escapes and she's left leading a manhunt, trying to catch the "Son of Manson," as he was called, before he can either kill again or persuade someone else to kill for him. Let's get the cliche out of the way first: I couldn't put it down. My eyes felt like sandpaper and I had a headache, but I just had to find out what happened next. The action just kept coming. The plot was full of surprises for me, right up until practically the last page. The book was well-written and seemed to be well-researched. Kathryn was a great female protagonist, strong, quirky, funny, likeable, but not too perfect. The other characters were maybe not quite so well-drawn, but I still liked them or hated them. There were two things keeping me from giving this five stars. First, the ending dragged out too long for me. I always use the comparision, "You know, it's like that movie 'Speed.'" The story was over for me but more surprises kept popping up. I get frustrated when that happens. The big thing that kept this from being a five star book was the constant explanation of kinesics. There's a pretty extensive explanation of what Kathryn looks for when she's interrogating in the first chapter of the book. I'm a smart girl--assume I got it. Instead, we get quite a bit of repetition like how "I swear" inevitably signals that someone…
Eleanor Vance is kind of the main character in The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. While I can't really bring myself to recommend the book, Eleanor is a fascinating character. Eleanor is a fairly young woman (I want to say she's 30-ish) who's never had the opportunity to be young. Her mother was peevishly ill for years yet ruled Eleanor with an iron fist. Whatever Mrs. Vance wanted, she was going to get. If it literally drove her daughter crazy, all the better. Now that her mother has passed away, Eleanor is living with her sister and her young family. The sister is just as bad as the mother. I don't know how Eleanor turned out to be so passive when she lived with two shrews, but I guess it was easier for her to submit than to fight. Anyway, the sister treats Eleanor like unpaid help. When Eleanor asks to borrow the car, which she helped pay for, the sister pitches an ungodly fit. Yet somehow mousy little Eleanor digs up the courage to do what she wants for a change. She defies her sister and takes the car off to Hill House. Julie Harris as Eleanor Eleanor has been invited to haunted Hill House by a psychic researcher. I don't remember the details exactly, but Eleanor has been the center of some poltergeist activity in the past. The researcher has invited people like her to the house to see if they can prompt it to show them what it's capable of. At Hill House, Eleanor is more truly free to be herself. She's been such a lonely, meek soul for so long that it takes her just a little while to loosen up, but she does it. She becomes fast friends with the other people in…
Please welcome Dr. Richard Mabry, author of the medical suspense novel, Lethal Remedy! SATURDAYS IN THE SOUTH Saturdays in the south—wow, that phrase conjures up a delightful picture: sleeping late, enjoying a leisurely breakfast, reading or catching a movie. For some people, maybe that’s accurate. For others, Saturday means shuttling kids to soccer games, attacking a bunch of “honey-do” chores, and in general trying to whittle down a list of things that need to be accomplished—but probably won’t. There’s a special group for which Saturdays are just another day (even in the south), as are Sundays and holidays. High on this list are health care workers, a profession I was privileged to practice for many years. It’s a demanding life, but an important one. That’s why the dedication of one of my novels of medical suspense reads this way: This book is dedicated to that special group of health care workers who perform their healing labors as a true ministry. It was an honor to work alongside you for over four decades. Is there anything unique about medical practice in the south? There once was, although it’s becoming less true with the passage of time. When I completed my specialty training and contemplated the location for my medical practice, I was told by an elder statesman of the profession to confine my choices to the south. When I asked why, his answer was succinct, but I found it to be good advice: “The further north you go, the faster the dance.” So I chose to practice in a suburban community in Texas, and wasn’t disappointed. I watched my sons play baseball and swim, saw all the speech events in which my daughter participated. It took some doing, but I managed not to dance so fast that I missed these important…
Miguel is working in his dad's comic book/record store one afternoon when a girl he doesn't know wonders in. Lainey is beautiful, with a sense of humor, intelligence, an Australian accent, red-gold hair, and a matching dog--excuse me, dingo. The two hit it off immediately, but weird things start to happen--and it all seems to center around the dingo. I love, love, love Charles de Lint's books. I'm just starting to wish that he would get away from writing young adult books. They're probably a good introduction to this wonderful author for young fantasy fans, but I know de Lint can write stuff that is so much better. There's not really anything technically wrong with this. If I were a 14-year-old girl, I would probably adore it. But I'm not 14 anymore (thank goodness!) and I'm really missing the Charles de Lint characters I fell in love with a long time ago. If you're a fan of Charles de Lint, go ahead and read this. You might even want to buy it for any young fans of fantasy you know. But please don't start with this one if you're an adult wanting to see what Charles de Lint is all about. Start with Someplace to be Flying or The Onion Girl instead. Reviewed August 17, 2008 Find author Charles de Lint on his website, Twitter, and Facebook. Buy Dingo at Malaprop’s | Better World Books Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote on GoodReads. Thanks to Angieville and her Retro Friday Reviews for the inspiration and encouragement!I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if…
Some of you may have noticed that Character Connection has all but disappeared recently. It was just starting to feel like a chore, and I felt like I was saying the same things over and over. So I took an unannounced break. I'm going to try Enbrethiliel's suggestion and start posting monthly rather than weekly. I do love reading your posts, but I can't write my own every single week. Any of you who want to join in can link up anytime throughout the month and as often as you'd like. Just because I'm feeling low on inspiration doesn't mean that you are, right? I'll put up my post with Mr. Linky on the first Thursday of every month. I'll keep an updated link on my sidebar. What do you think? Do you have any other suggestions? I hope you'll join me! Who do ya love? Or love to hate? You know you've got a lot to say about some larger-than-life characters, and this is the place to say it. Write a straightforward post. Draw a picture. Vlog, write poetry, write fiction, cast the role, be as creative as you want! Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader the first Thursday of every month.I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.
Twins Marion and Shiva Stone are orphaned when their mother, a nun, dies in childbirth and their father denies them. They are blessed to be taken in and raised by an Indian woman who loves them with every fiber of her being. Cutting for Stone primarily follows Marion as he grows up in Ethiopia and then immigrates to the US. That's a pretty weak synopsis, but it's hard to capture this book in just a few sentences. It started off just a little slow, which is why I'm only giving it 4.5 stars. I could see the potential for a fantastic story so I kept reading, but the entire first part--131 pages--is technically only one day with a lot of flashbacks and back story thrown in. I started to feel like, at this rate, the twins might be a week old by the time I finished this 658 page book. But then it picked up and I never looked back. In fact, I sat down to read for just a few minutes while I was eating dinner one night and I finished the last 150 pages of the book. I just could not put it down. I was fully invested in what happened with Marion by then, and that's about the point where I really and truly started to worry for him. I liked reading about Addis Ababa and Ethiopia. I hate to admit it, but before reading this, I couldn't have even told you which country Addis Ababa was located in. I would have taken a guess at somewhere in the Middle East and been completely wrong. And who knew that it's at an elevation of about 8000 feet and it's cool and misty? That doesn't fit my "We Are the World" image of Africa. As soon as I…
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. It's been a few weeks since I took part in Sheila's meme, but they've been a slow few weeks around here anyway. I can't quite bring myself to get on my computer when our weather is this gorgeous! So, over the past week, I've Posted:Absolutely nothing! Oops. Read:Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs Currently Reading:Naked Came the Leaf Peeper by Brian Lee Knopp et al. Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: And Other Adventures on the Way Back Home by Bailey White Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, read by Khristine Hvam Up Next:I grabbed Forever by Maggie Stiefvater at the library yesterday, so I'll be starting that tomorrow. My gym schedule has been a little off this month, but hopefully I'll get back into my routine this week and start When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde while I'm on the elliptical machine. What are you reading this week? I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.
Rachel Sorenson has just escaped an abusive marriage, but she's still not free of her ex-husband. Frank comes along every few nights, talks his way past the security guard at her apartment building, and goes upstairs to beat on her door and demand that she take him back. Police say they just don't have the manpower to guard her around the clock, so she's dealing with this largely on her own. Little does she know that someone is watching her. Harry Landon is a photographer obsessed with Beauty. Not subjective beauty in its many forms, but perfect, unblemished, divine Beauty. He thinks he's found his goddess in Rachel. He watches her through his telescope at all hours of the day and night. He takes pictures of her. He knows that the goddess resides within Rachel, and when he cuts her, Beauty will burst forth in a blaze of light. This is one of Charles de Lint's pseudonym books--the books he wrote openly as Samuel Key as a signal that this book is darker than his normal fare. I didn't care for From a Whisper to a Scream, so I've never been too interested in picking this one up. I finally gave in and read it in my attempt to read the Newford books in order. I was pleasantly surprised for the most part. This was a straight-up thriller that was rocketing along and ratcheting up the tension. It seems a little unlikely that one woman would have two stalkers at the same time, but once you let go of that, this was a genuine page-turner. Frank is a textbook study of the abusive husband. Harry is terrifying in his convoluted, violent logic. Events just keep snowballing until the tension is almost unbearable. And then. Oh, and then. It fell apart…
Stephen King sits down to share his thoughts on the writing process. No matter what you think of his books personally, you have to admit that he's a master at drawing in legions of fans. He prefaces his work with an explanation of what prompted him to write it. He was talking with author Amy Tan when he asked her what one question she wishes somebody actually would ask her at an author Q-and-A. "Amy paused, thinking it over very carefully, and then said: 'No one ever asks about the language.'....But Amy was right: nobody ever asks about the language. They ask the DeLillos and the Updikes and the Styrons, but they don't ask popular novelists. Yet many of us proles also care about the language, in our humble way, and care passionately about the art and craft of telling stories on paper. What follows is an attempt to put down, briefly and simply, how I came to the craft, what I know about it now, and how it's done. It's about the day job; it's about the language." Divided into three main sections, King actually covers a lot of ground in this short book. The first section is a mini-memoir of his life and the events that influenced his writing. The second part is the mechanics, and the third is about his life-changing accident (which happened in the middle of writing this book). I enjoyed the section about his life. I would never claim to be King's "Number One Fan," but I do enjoy reading his work. I can't say that I know anything about his life. He was run over about 10 years ago, Joe Hill is his son, and Tabitha King is his wife. That's about it. Oh, and that he was pretty strung out on drugs…