Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker

From the book: "When Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch arrive in Appaloosa, they find a small, dusty town suffering at the hands of renegade rancher Randall Bragg, a man who has so little regard for the law that he has taken supplies, horses, and women for his own and left the city marshal and one of his deputies for dead. Cole and Hitch, itinerant lawmen, are used to cleaning up after opportunistic thieves, but in Bragg they find an unusually wily adversary - one who raises the stakes by playing not with the rules, but with emotions.
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult (June 7, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399152776
ISBN-13: 978-0399152771

My thoughts: I haven't read a western in YEARS. This was quite a re-introduction to the genre.The story line was familiar: a bad rancher and his hired help terrorizes the helpless town folk who then hire outside help to clean up the town. In this case they hire Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. I liked these two characters, they were unique. They were hired as lawmen, but Cole made the laws and they walked a line between the law and simply being hired guns. Everett was a kind of mystery to me. He was an educated man and a West Point man as was his father but how he ended up leading this kind of life . It tells at the beginning how he gets hooked up with Cole, but why stay on? I didn't like the character of Allie, Cole's girlfriend, but I don't think Parker meant for anyone to like her. She is what she is and everyone knows it. This was a quick, easy read that kept me interested through out. The ending was a surprise, which I liked. I'm off to the library today to get the sequel, Resolution.

Challenges:
100+Reading Challenge
Support Your Library Challenge

western, Colorado

Eternity In Death by J.D. Robb

Product Description: When club-hopping bad girl Tiara Kent is found dead in her plush Manhattan apartment, the killing has all the earmarks of a vampire attack. The ever-practical Lieutenant Eve Dallas has to deal with superstitious cops carrying garlic and stakes, as well as the ever-hysterical press. None of the wealthy young victim’s friends seem to know much about the Dark Prince she has been secretly seeing. The chase to stop him before he kills again will lead Eve and her team into areas of the city that not even the most intrepid cop wants to visit, and into the very heart of darkness.

My Thoughts: I finished listening to this today and really enjoyed it. It is the first of the In Death series I've read. I will be visiting the library and intend to begin this series at the beginning. The reviews of the other books in this series call them futuristic. There was a touch, pocket links instead of cell phones, New Los Angeles, but not much else. I liked the way the story flowed and the way the characters interacted. This was short so I didn't get to know them very well so I'm looking forward to that. The end was good and left me wondering..... You will wonder too.

I checked this out of the library in the form of a Playaway device. I had to provide the battery and earphones but it was a cool little thing. Have you ever heard of this? I hadn't until this book.

Challenges:

100+ Reading Challenge

Support Your Local Library Challenge

Audiobook challenge

thriller, police, vampire, futuristic, urban fantasy (a little)

A Breed Apart by Pierre Davis

Book Description: Lt. Elliot Elliot, aka E Squared. A botched drug raid yanks him off the street and into a cubicle at the Pearson Institute of Health Sciences, where he's reduced to hunting down stolen laptops. Then the ultimate insult: track down an escaped lab animal, a seventy-five-pound black Labrador retriever. But the dog turns out to be an extraordinary creature at the heart of an international collision between science, money, lust, and life itself. And as Elliot struggles to understand what's going on, the dog must wage its own desperate battle for survival . Elliot encounters a trophy wife from his own past, a professional killer with a medieval bent, a comatose surgeon with a checkered history, and a billionaire locked in a frantic struggle to stay alive--all connected to a dog that guards a secret far deadlier than anyone can imagine.

Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Dell (May 19, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0440245087
ISBN-13: 978-0440245087

My Thoughts: This was the first book to be read from my Kindle, so it will always have a soft spot just for that. This is a medical thriller meets hard working detective book meets ruthless contract killer. Since I like to read these kinds of books this was great. What grabbed me and made me want to read it in the first place was the dog. I am a sucker for a dog and this one was wonderful, smart, brave and did I mention smart? Much of the story deals with stem cell research and I have my on personal opinions about that. I mention this so you will know in case that will effect your desire to read it. I found it to be a compulsive read that was hard to put down.

Challenges:

100+ Reading Challenge

RYOB Challenge

About the author.

medical thriller, detective, stem cell research, dog

Teaser Tuesdays

MizB of Should Be Reading hosts this cool weekly event. Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share (2) “teaser” sentences from that page. Share the title & author of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. Please avoid spoilers!

This teaser is from Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck:

Out of his great heart he drew a compelling oratory, a passionate

plea for those little children who had no beans. And so telling was

his speech that the fire in his heart ignited the hearts of his friends.

What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading this week? is a weekly event at J. Kaye's Book Blog to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week.

Last week I finished:
57. Divine Justice by David Baldacci review here
58. The Help by Kathryn Stockett review here
59. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald review here

On my plate this week:
A Breed Apart by by Pierre Davis (the first book to read on my new Kindle)
Thriller-I'm reading it for the dog character. Not enough of it (the dog) in the story yet even though the story is all around it.
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck (Library - Audio in car)
This book is cracking me up. I love the voice of the reader.
Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker (library)
recommended by a friend along with Resolution
Thanks for the Memories: A Novel by Cecelia Ahern (audio in my iPod)
I read a review about this and got it.

Last time I made a list of the books I intended to read it didn't happen. maybe I won't be sidetracked from this list!

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Synopsis: The mysterious Jay Gatsby embodies the American notion that it is possible to redefine oneself and persuade the world to accept that definition. Gatsby's youthful neighbor, Nick Carraway, fascinated with the display of enormous wealth in which Gatsby revels, finds himself swept up in the lavish lifestyle of Long Island society during the Jazz Age. Considered Fitzgerald's best work, The Great Gatsby is a mystical, timeless story of integrity and cruelty, vision and despair.
Annotation
The timeless story of Jay Gatsby and his love for Daisy Buchanan is widely acknowledged to be the closest thing to the Great American Novel ever written.

Publisher: Caedmon; Unabridged edition (October 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060098910
ISBN-13: 978-0060098919

My thoughts: This book, a story taking place in the '20s written in the 20s was remarkable to me. The characters, mostly shallow personalities, came to life. The writing was beautiful, the descriptions painted in word. I liked that the story was told with little outside information to clutter it. I enjoyed "reading" it for the prose although I don't usually like reading such tragic stories. In the end I felt sad for Gatsby. Even though he gained his wealth through criminal activities he showed loyalty and love which lacked in the object of his devotion, Daisy. Guess I'll have to watch the movie again. I listened to this on my iPod.

SparkNotes for The Great Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby website.
Read it online here.

Challenges:
100+ Reading Challenge
5x4 Reading challenge
RYOB Challenge

classic, romance, tragedy, wealth, greed, American Dream

I Won!

Check it out! LadyTink at Up Close and Personal With LadyTink had this great contest and I won the Grand Prize: 4 books by Tate Hallaway. The are from Hallaway's Garnet Lacy (Dead...) series and sounded like they would be fun reads. I can't wait to get them and start in. Thank you so much LadyTink! what a cool giveaway.

Just last week I I got another book in the mail that I had won. I won Blond Ambition from Yvette at True Crime Book Reviews. I'm looking forward to reading it as well. Thank you, Yvette!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

From the Book: Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1 edition (February 10, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399155341
ISBN-13: 978-0399155345

My Thoughts: This is my first book for the Southern Reading Challenge. It was a wonderful start. This compelling story is told by the three main characters in alternate chapters. The characters were well rounded out, I enjoyed getting to know them. The story was not only about race relations during the '60s Civil Rights Movement. It is also about relationships among women and other issues important to women: physical abuse, family, education and more. These women are very real. The snootiness of the more affluent women extended not only to the Help but to anyone they don't deem acceptable. I hated to see it end. I feel readers who didn't grow up during this time period should read it to gain perspective of life today. Hopefully there will be a sequel, I would love to see where Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minnie go.

The author's website.
The Help in the NY Times and in Entertainment Weekly.

Challenges:
Southern Reanding Challenge
100+ Reading Challenge
RYOB Challenge

Civil Rights, domestic help, southern literature

Tuesday Teaser

MizB of Should Be Reading hosts this cool weekly event.

Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share (2) “teaser” sentences from that page. Share the title & author of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. Please avoid spoilers!

Teaser from The Great Gatsby:

"I married him because I thought he was a gentleman," she said finally. "I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe."

Divine Justice by David Baldacci

From the CD box: Known by his alias, "Oliver Stone," John Carr is the most wanted man in America. With two pulls of the trigger, the men who destroyed Stone's life and kept him in the shadows were finally silenced. But his freedom comes at a steep price: The assassinations he carried out prompt the highest levels of the U.S. government to unleash a massive manhunt. Behind the scenes, master spy Macklin Hayes is playing a very personal game of cat and mouse. He, more than anyone, wants Stone dead. With their friend and unofficial leader in hiding, the members of the Camel Club risk everything to save him. Now, as the hunters close in, Stone's flight from the demons of his past will take him from the power corridors of Washington, D.C., to the small, isolated coal-mining town of Divine, Virginia-and into a world every bit as lethal as the one he left behind.

My Thoughts: This was a CD set that I won from J Kaye and I sure did enjoy it. This is the first one of Baldacci's books I've "read" and will be sure to listen to or read more. I feel like I should have saved this one and read the earlier ones, but that's the way it goes. This stood by itself nicely enough. This was an edge of your seat thriller with likable characters (and hate-able ones as well.) There were a couple of very sad parts that hurt my heart. My favorite part was that it had a VERY satisfactory ending!


Visit the author's site here.

Challenges:
100+ Reading Challenge
Audiobok Challenge
RYOB Challenge

thriller, political thriller suspense, mystery, assassin

Challenges Finished So Far This Year

I've had a good reading year so far. With less than half the year gone I've read 56 books and finished these challenges:

The Audiobook Challenge (view list) Finished! :)

Suspense & Thriller 2009 Challenge (view list) Finished! :)

Support Your Local Library Challenge 2009 (view list) Finished :)

Chunkster Challenge (view list) Finished! :)

What's In a name Challenge (view list) Finished :)


The Daniel DeFoe Mini-Challenge (view list) Finished :)

The Mystery of Grace by Charles De Lint

About the book: Three years after his last major adult novel, Charles de Lint returns with a new tale of magic, loss, and redemption, his first book set in the Southwest. Centered on a remarkable female protagonist and entirely self-contained, this is a modern contemporary fantasy as invented band pioneered by de Lint himself. Altagracia—her friends call her Grace—has a tattoo of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia on her shoulder; she's got a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg; and she has grease worked so deep into her hands that'll never wash out.
Grace works at Sanchez Motor Works, customizing hot rods. A few blocks around her small apartment building is all her world—from the grocery store where she buys beans, tamales and cigarettes to the library, the little record shop, and the Solona Music Hall. Which is where she meets John Burns, just two weeks too late.
Grace and John fall for one another, and that would be wonderful, except that they're both haunted by unfinished business. Before their relationship can be resolved, they're both going to have to learn things they don't know about the world of the living and the world beyond. About why it's necessary to let some things go.

My Thoughts: This is the first one of De Lint's books I've read and I liked it. I found the story and the characters intriguing. It was different from most of the UF that I read in that it wasn't a thriller at all. It was about the afterlife, a seemingly doomed love story, all revolving around the power of faith. There was just a touch of spice, nothing too hot, and had very little violence. The end of the story was a little too open ended for me, though. I like to know what happened. I will read more of De Lint's books

Challenges:
100+ Reading Challenge
Support Your Local Library Challenge

urban fantasy, contempory fantasy, fantasy, ghosts, afterlife, witch, magic