The Memorist by M. J. Rose

From the cover: The Dreads are back. As a child, Meer Logan was haunted by memories of another time and place always accompanied by the faint strains of elusive music. Now the dreads are back. The past has reached out again in the form of a strange letter that sets her on a search to unlock the mystery of who she once was. With the help of her father – a Kabbalist, known as the Jewish Indiana Jones – Meer attempts to learn the meaning behind her hauntingly vivid memories. What they discover could reveal a frighteningly powerful secret hidden for generations by one of the greatest composers of all time. With each step she comes closer to remembering the connections between a clandestine reincarnationist society, a lost flute linked to Ludwig van Beethoven and David Yalom, a journalist who understands all too well how the past affects the future. David knows loss firsthand – terrorism is a reality that cost him his family. He's seen every solution promised by security experts around the world – and he's seen every solution fail. Now in a concert hall in Vienna, he plans to force the word to understand the cost of those failures in a single violent act. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

My thoughts: The Memorist is a complected story with its combination of past and present, history, mystery and suspense. At times I found it tedious. The number or characters to keep track of, plus who they were in the past (this near the end of the book) was challenging for me. Even so, I enjoyed this book. The story hooked me just enough to keep me going. I don't believe in reincarnation, personally so it read like sci-fi for me. I liked the way Rose gives readers little glimpses into Meer's past lives to share those stories and bring more meaning to the present. The sub-plot add suspense to the overall story.

Visit the author's site here.

A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

From the book jacket: This is how wars are fought now by children, hopped up on drugs, and wielding AK-47s. In the more than fifty violent conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But it is rare to find a first-person account from someone who endured this hell and survived. In" A Long Way Gone Beah," now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story in his own words: how, at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he' d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

My thoughts: This was not an "enjoyable" book to read. It wasn't meant to be. I was left with a feeling similar to the one I had after reading Elie Wiesel's Night. A sense of depressed wonder at what humans can do to other humans. I thought it would be filled with descriptions of gore. Even though it tells some horrific things, the book is much more than that. It tells of his life before the war, how he ran from it and how he was caught up in it, and finally how he was saved. I read other's reviews and found many that said there were a lot of inaccuracies in this book. I haven't researched it, but feel if even a fraction is true, if he spent only a few months in the army as a child soldier instead of two years, that is still a few month too many for a child to be used like that. This will hang heavy on my heart.

Go here to watch a video of an interview of the author on Nightline.
Go here for links to more info about the author & his cause.

The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson

Translated from the swedish by Reg Keeland


Book Jacket: It's about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden ... and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder." "It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance ... and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age - and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it - who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism - and an unexpected connection between themselves. It's a novel about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.

My Thoughts: This was not an edge of your seat thriller for me (except near the end) but it was a compelling read. I liked this book. The characters were likable (or hate-able as the case may be) each with their own flaws. The heroine was very different, asocial but sympathetic. I enjoyed the setting, Sweden, and the social comment I found here. It could have been a thinner faster read if those things had not been written in or had been edited out, but then the feel of reading about another country would have been lost. I found some of the relationships strange, especially the open relationship of two of the main characters. The main mystery was wrapped up well before the end of the book. The rest, closing a corporate mystery that began at the beginning of the book, was a little anticlimatic but rewarding for the characters sake. I did not love the very end, but assume it will be resolved in the next book. I will be reading the sequels.

Here is a trailer for the book.

Just Another Judgement Day by Simon R. Green

Product description : There's a new sheriff in town, and he's got the Nightside's rich and powerful quaking in their boots. He's The Walking Man, and it's his mission to exorcise sinners - with extreme prejudice. Problem is, the Nightside was built on sin and corruption, and The Walking Man makes no distinction between evildoers and those simply indulging themselves. He'll leave the place a wasteland unless someone stops him, and P.I. John Taylor has been handed the job. No known magic or science can affect The Walking Man, and if John can't discover his weakness, he'll be facing the very Wrath of God.

My thoughts: The Walking Man, God's Wrath, has come to the Nightside to take care of sinners and take out The Authorities. John faces him with cunning and help from friends and enemies alike. This story was a lot more gruesome than any of the others, except possibly the one about the Lilith War. The sins detailed, especially at the beginning, a lot more awful. John and Suzie’s relationship develops some as Suzie begins to heal from her abused youth. We find out that Walker, the Nightside’s caretaker, is facing something that will have great implications in series’ future.

It was a quick, enjoyable read. I always look forward to the next Nightside book. This alternate existence and the characters in it are always surprising, inventive, one of a kind,and a bit of a horror.

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

JACKET NOTES: When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol-seared into the chest of a murdered physicist-he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati... the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has now surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy-the Catholic Church.Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces they have hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair... a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.An explosive international thriller, ANGELS & DEMONS careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.

My Thoughts:This was a fast paced book, lots of action, some of it unbelievable. Jumping out of a helicopter 3 miles in the air and living to talk about it (and basically walking away from it) was pretty hard to ignore. However, I read to be entertained and I was. Many people have read this book and left reviews of it and seemed to either love or hate it. I was searching for what other Christians had to say but couldn't find many. I did find this blog with a list of errors in the book.

No Nest for the Wicket by Donna Andrews

From the front flap: EXtreme croquet is the current rage in Caerphilly, where Meg and her fiance have bought a house. While this society game can get quite warm, it hasn't reached the stage of actual homicide, at least not until Meg finds the body of a dead woman down a small cliff. Her head has been bashed in, perhaps by a croquet mallet. Meg is drawn into the mystery.

In the meantime, the old house needs many improvements and and swarms with an entire family of working men. Meg's father is the overseer but is easily distracted since he has a tendency to become wrapped up in his current animal charges. This time it's ducks.

My Thoughts: As you may have noticed, I enjoy Cozy mysteries and funny stories. Donna Andrew's Meg Langslow series is one of my favorites in this genre. I didn't find this one as funny as some of the others but still got some good chuckles. I enjoyed the premise of this, murder during an eXtreme croquet match. This was a fun read, so go for it. The first book I read in this series, Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, will stand out in my memory as the funniest.

Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith

Product Description:In the latest installment of the universally beloved, bestselling series, Mma Ramotswe discovers the biggest miracles in life are often the smallest.Under the endless skies of Botswana, there is always something Mma Ramotswe can do to help someone and here she finds herself assisting a woman looking for her family. The problem is the woman doesn't know her real name or whether any of her family members are still alive. Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi is the recipient of a beautiful new bed that causes more than a few sleepless nights. And, at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni has come under the influence of a doctor promising a miracle cure for his daughter's medical condition, which Mma Ramotswe finds hard to accept. Nonetheless, Precious Ramotswe handles these things in her usual compassionate and good-natured way, while always finding time for a cup of red bush tea.

My Thoughts: I read this last year and now I have listened to it. I have found that I enjoy reading then listening to the stories in this series. The reader, Lisette Lecat is the ideal reader for this series. According to what I have read she is a native of South Africa which borders Botswana and shares Setswana language roots. I love hearing her give a voice to one of my favorite literary characters, Mma Ramotswe. This is a sweet, gentle series, calming and easy to read. I'm always sorry when the story is over.

Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez

From the back: Welcome to Gil’s All Night Diner, where zombie attacks are a regular occurrence and you never know what might be lurking in the freezer. . . .Duke and Earl are just passing through Rockwood county in their pick-up truck when they stop at the diner for a quick bite to eat. They aren’t planning to stick around--until Loretta, the eatery’s owner, offers them one hundred dollars to take care of her zombie problem. Given that Duke is a werewolf and Earl’s a vampire, this looks right up their alley.But the shambling dead are just the tip of a particularly spiky iceberg. Seems someone’s out to drive Loretta from the diner, and more than willing to raise a little hell on earth if that’s what it takes. Before Duke and Earl get to the bottom of the diner’s troubles, they’ll run into such otherworldly complications as undead cattle, an amorous ghost, a jail bait sorceress, and the terrifying occult power of pig Latin.And maybe--just maybe--the End of the World, too.

My Thoughts: The cover first induced me to pick this book up. The campy '50 horror movie poster look was too good to be ignored. I read above the title: Now Serving Armageddon with a side of fries..... It made me laugh so I went to the back and was persuaded to buy it. It was silly and gruesome in turn and fun to read. Duke and Earl, the werewolf and vampire heroes, rednecks that they were, seemed like regular people. Or regular redneck people. For example, Earl the vampire had a bad comb over. He didn't know it was bad because being a vampire he couldn't see it in a mirror. Duke the werewolf kindly didn't say anything about it. These unlikely heroes are determined to do the right thing. The right thing is to prevent Tammy ( Mistress Lilith, Queen of the Night) and her loyal but dumb boyfriend, Chad, from ending the world. I just loved brave little ghost dog. It has been said by Publishers Weekly that Douglas Adams fans will love it. As a Douglas Adams fan I can't really compare the comedic elements. Martinez humor is a lot more heavy handed and direct but no less funny. I greatly enjoyed it and will read more of his books.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

From the back: A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who involuntarily travels through time, and claire Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Claire's passionate affair endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.

My thoughts: This was different than I expected. I thought it would be more sci-fi but I found a deeper story of love, devotion, and friendship. I have mixed feelings on this book. On one hand I loved it, the romance, love and dedication Henry and Claire share is wonderful to read about. I enjoyed not only getting to know them but getting to know their friends and family. I think the author handled Henry's trips back and forth in time well.
However SPOILER ALERT I couldn't bear to think of Claire waiting and waiting all those years to see Henry one more time after his death. The end, so sad, brought the whole book down for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I read it, but I was left....sad.

Visit Audrey Niffenegger's site.

Junie B., First Grader: Boss of Lunch by Barbara Park

ABOUT THIS BOOK
Something very wonderful is happening to Junie B. Jones. And it’s called—hurray, hurray!—she’s getting to be a professional lunch lady! And that means hanging out with Mrs. Gutzman in the cafeteria. And standing behind the counter. And even wearing a real actual hair net! Who knows? Pretty soon she could be the boss of the whole entire lunch operation!

My thoughts: I love Junie B. Jones, I love reading these books to my class of second graders and they love to hear them. Junie B. (never just Junie) is charming, funny and irrepressible. She is also a hand full at school and at home. I suggest you read some of these books to your kids. If your kids are grown up, read them to yourself, you won't be sorry. Boss of Lunch will probably rank up there with my favorites in the Junie B. series.

children's literature, childrens book

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Plot Summary: By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. . . They even built humans. Emigres to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in. Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results.

My thoughts: I've read some widely varied reviews of this book from those who LOVED it to those who DID NOT love it. I was interested in reading it because I have heard of it for years and because it was the basis for the movie Blade Runner. While the movie was a lot more suspenseful (it did not follow the book very closely) I truly enjoyed reading this. It was originally published in 1968 so at times seemed a little out of date but it is classic Sci-Fi and will endure. It was thought provoking, a deep book with timeless themes but still easy and interesting to read.

Dead Over Heels by Charlaine Harris

From the back: Part-time librarian Aurora “Roe” Teagarden never liked Detective Sergeant Jack Burns, but she also never wanted to see him dead— especially not dropped from a plane right into her own backyard. But when other strange things happen around her, ranging from peculiar (her irascible cat turns up wearing a pink ribbon) to violent (her assistant at the library is attacked) to potentially deadly (her former lover is stabbed), she must decipher the personal message in the madness before it’s too late.

My thoughts: I've read MANY Charlaine Harris books and enjoyed them all. I haven't up to this point, though, read any of her Aurora Teagarden books. How sad. I really enjoyed this light read and liked Roe. The Southern setting and sensibilities are also fun to read. I just wish I had started from the beginning! So the next Aurora, for me, will be the first one.