What to Read? … What to Read?

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“”My dear Peabody,” said Emerson, “pray correct me if I am mistaken; but I sense a diminution of that restless ardor for living that is so noted a characteristic of yours, particularly upon occasions such as this. Since that happy day that saw us united, never a cloud has dimmed the beaming orb of matrimonial bliss; and that remarkable circumstance derives, I am certain, from the perfect communion that marks our union. Confide, I implore, in the fortunate man whose designated role is to support and shelter you, and whose greatest happiness is to share your own.””

O.K. mystery fans this one is for you; mark December 9, 2008 on your calendar. Especially if you are an Amelia Peabody fan. Elizabeth Peters is releasing Lion in the Valley and I am extremely excited about this.

The 1895-96 season promises to be an exceptional one for Amelia Peabody, her dashing Egyptologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, and their precocious (some might say rambunctious) eight-year-old son, Ramses. The long-denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor has finally been granted, and the much-coveted burial chamber of the Black Pyramid is now theirs for the exploring.

Before the young family exchanges the relative comfort of Cairo for the more rudimentary quarters near the excavation site, they engage a young Englishman, Donald Fraser, as a tutor and companion for Ramses, and Amelia takes a wayward young woman, Enid Debenham, under her protective wing.

But there is danger and deception in the wind that blows across the hot Egyptian sands. A brazen kidnapping attempt, a gruesome murder, and an expedition subsequently cursed by misfortune and death—all serve to alert Amelia to the likely presence of her arch nemesis, the “Master Criminal,” notorious looter of the living and the dead. But it is far more than ill-gotten riches that motivate the man known as Sethos. The evil genius has a score to settle with the meddling lady archaeologist who has sworn to deliver him to justice . . . and he’s got her dead-on in his sights.

Peters has given us an exception plot time after time, her character Amelia Peabody is one to be followed. I am hoping that Peters doesn’t disappoint on this one. It’s time to run out and find more books.

Happy Reading

Sarah

Thank you Amazon for the picture

“Like faces in a dream, Maureen recognized, among the strewn backpacks and spilled note cards, kids she knew: Josh, Valeen, Kristin, Kyle. She had to get to Velvet — grab her and pull her to safety. But, as if in a dream, she couldn’t make her feet move. Velvet was all the way across the room, and Mo was too afraid. Make this be a horrible dream, she thought. Make this not be happening.”

Christmas is just around the corner and like everyone else out there I have a few hard to buy for friends. Why not pick up a copy of The Hour I First Believed written by Wally Lamb.

When forty-seven-year-old high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his younger wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, Caelum returns home to Three Rivers, Connecticut, to be with his aunt who has just had a stroke. But Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed, as two vengeful students go on a carefully premeditated, murderous rampage. Miraculously she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. Caelum and Maureen flee Colorado and return to an illusion of safety at the Quirk family farm in Three Rivers. But the effects of chaos are not so easily put right, and further tragedy ensues.

While Maureen fights to regain her sanity, Caelum discovers a cache of old diaries, letters, and newspaper clippings in an upstairs bedroom of his family’s house. The colorful and intriguing story they recount spans five generations of Quirk family ancestors, from the Civil War era to Caelum’s own troubled childhood. Piece by piece, Caelum reconstructs the lives of the women and men whose legacy he bears. Unimaginable secrets emerge; long-buried fear, anger, guilt, and grief rise to the surface.

As Caelum grapples with unexpected and confounding revelations from the past, he also struggles to fashion a future out of the ashes of tragedy. His personal quest for meaning and faith becomes a mythic journey that is at the same time quintessentially contemporary—and American.

Lamb is a gifted storyteller and by creating a variety of voices and a host of characters that are deep enough to evoke all of humanity; he brings his stories to life. I feel that we are given more than a page turner and the wait for this book was well worth it. This is one author who should be on everyone’s wish list.

Happy Reading

Sarah

Thank you Amazon for the picture

“You would think being a real live faerie princess would make your life fairy-tale-like, but fairy tales only end well. While the story is going on, horrible things happen. Remember Rapunzel? Her prince got his eyes scratched out by the witch, which blinded him. At the end of the story, Rapunzel’s tears magically restored his sight, but that was at the end of the story. Cinderella was little better than a slave. Snow White was actually nearly killed four different times by the evil queen. All anyone remembers is the poisoned apple, but don’t forget the huntsman, or the enchanted girdle and the poisoned comb. Pick any fairy tale that’s based on older stories, and the heroine of the piece has a miserable, dangerous, nightmarish time of it.”

Book 7 of the Merry Gentry series recently came out, Swallowing Darkness is written by the popular Laurell K. Hamilton. Now this is the way to spend a cold wet afternoon.

I am Meredith, princess of faerie, wielder of the hands of Flesh and Blood, and at long last, I am with child–twins, fathered by my royal guard. Though my uncle; Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, claims that he is the true father since he abducted me from my home, betrayed, and defiled me. And now he has branded my guards as a threat to my unborn children.

Bearing an heir has placed me halfway to my aunt’s throne, that much closer to my reign over the Unseelie Court–and well ahead of her son, my cousin Cel, in this race. Now I must stay alive to see my children born and claim my place as queen.

But not all in faerie are pleased with the news, and conspirators from every court in the realm plot against me and mine. They seek to strip my guards, my lovers, from me by poisoned word or cold steel. But I still have supporters, and even friends, among the goblins and the sluagh, who will stand by me.

I am Meredith Nic Essus, and those who would defy and destroy me are destined to pay a terrible price–for I am truly my father’s daughter. To protect what is mine, I will sacrifice anything–even if it means waging a great battle against my darkest enemies and making the most momentous decision ever made as princess of faerie.

Hamilton has a way of creating a vivid world that she immerses her characters in. She however couldn’t seem to pull this one off, although she has kept to her vivid writing it wasn’t quite up to her caliber. I was excited when I saw book 7 on the shelf, I eagerly picked it up seeing as how book 6 left us with a cliff hanger. If you haven’t read this series I will say this; the first part of this fantasy adventure is good, the second half not so much. It’s almost like there was no effort put into this. However, you may find you enjoyed it. If you did that is super if you didn’t on to the next adventure.

Happy Reading

Sarah

Thank you Amazon for the picture

“Sometimes, you get a girl to like you, then she ditches you.

Life is hard, move on!”

How to Talk to Girls? Now I don’t know about you but I had to stop and watch. There I am standing in my living room laughing; I was glued to the TV. This book was written by Alec Greven, Alec is only 9 years old. At the age of 9 we were still lumped in as a group and if you wanted to talk to someone you just opened your mouth and let the words flow. This will be released November 25, 2008.

Are you smart enough to take over a girl’s heart?

Leave it to a nine-year-old to get down to the basics about how to win victory with a girl. How to talk to girls is for boys of all ages—from eight to eighty—and the girls they like. So read Are you smart enough to take over a girl’s heart?

O.K. seriously this is a very cute book, does it work? I think if you have a boy who is shy then yes it might. However isn’t it still group dating when you are 9 years old? If you want a good laugh then try this book. I will give Alec credit; this was a good first try. If he keeps it up maybe in a few years we will be lining up to buy his hot new fiction release.

Happy Reading

Sarah

Thank you Amazon for the picture

I just wanted to let you know that the giveaway has no winners; maybe next time right?

Ok guess what I did? Come on guess! I started my Christmas list, top of my list is Scarpetta written by Patricia Cornwell and it will be released on December 2, 2008, just in time for it to be bought and put in my Christmas stocking. This is her 16^th book in the Kay Scarpetta series.

 Leaving behind her private forensic pathology practice in Charleston, South Carolina, Kay Scarpetta accepts an assignment in New York City, where the NYPD has asked her to examine an injured man on Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric prison ward. The handcuffed and chained patient, Oscar Bane, has specifically asked for her, and when she literally has her gloved hands on him, he begins to talk—and the story he has to tell turns out to be one of the most bizarre she has ever heard.

The injuries, he says, were sustained in the course of a murder . . . that he did not commit. Is Bane a criminally insane stalker who has fixed on Scarpetta? Or is his paranoid tale true, and it is he who is being spied on, followed and stalked by the actual killer? The one thing Scarpetta knows for certain is that a woman has been tortured and murdered—and more violent deaths will follow. Gradually, an inexplicable and horrifying truth emerges: Whoever is committing the crimes knows where his prey is at all times. Is it a person, a government? And what is the connection between the victims?

In the days that follow, Scarpetta; her forensic psychologist husband, Benton Wesley; and her niece, Lucy, who has recently formed her own forensic computer investigation firm in New York, will undertake a harrowing chase through cyberspace and the all-too-real streets of the city—an odyssey that will take them at once to places they never knew, and much, much too close to home.

Will this be as good as her other books? I hope so.  I wonder if this will be a best seller or even win Cornwell another award. Well only time will tell. I will be sitting on my hands waiting for this one. I must remember not to go snooping around looking for early Christmas gifts. It does ruin the surprise. Now off with you, go get yourself a new book while we are waiting.

Happy Reading

Sarah

Thank you Amazon for the picture

“Emma, lean as any stark, white birch outside one of the many windows of the vacation house, shook off her blue jacket. She was wearing the matching skirt and a white blouse. Lawyer clothes. Hair in a bun. Lawyer hair. Stockings but shoeless.”

On November 11, 2008 in the U.S. and Canada The Bodies Left Behind written by Jeffery Deaver will be released and if you are not in those areas then you will have to wait until January 2009. Looks like I will be making room on my bookshelf.

When a night-time call to 911 from a secluded Wisconsin vacation house is cut short, off duty deputy Brynn McKenzie leaves her husband and son at the dinner table and drives up to Lake Mondac to investigate. Was it a misdial or an aborted crime report?

Brynn stumbles onto a scene of true horror and narrowly escapes from two professional criminals. She and a terrified visitor to the weekend house, Michelle, flee into the woods in a race for their lives. As different as night and day, and stripped of modern-day resources, Brynn, a tough deputy with a difficult past, and Michelle, a pampered city girl, must overcome their natural reluctance to trust each other and learn to use their wits and courage to survive the relentless pursuit. The deputy’s disappearance spurs both her troubled son and her new husband into action; while the incident sets in motion Brynn’s loyal fellow deputies and elements from Milwaukee’s underside. These various forces race along inexorably toward the novel’s gritty and stunning conclusion.

Will Deaver keep up with the twisting plots, great characters and it’s three in the morning I’m still up reading? I’m hoping so. Now while I’m off making room for my soon to be new book, you should be heading to the library or bookstore.

Happy Reading

Sarah

Thank you Amazon for the picture

“Deke shook his head. “Never did. Never would. Not R. J.’s style. He’d tell you the same as I am, though—Jim Pickering’s not a very nice man. I’d steer clear of him. If he invites you in for a drink or even just a cup of coffee with him and his new ‘niece,’ I’d say no. And if he were to ask you to go cruising with him, I would definitely say no.””

Alright I just wanted to remind you that you have one week remaining for The Gate House giveaway. I will be posting the winners on November 11, 2008.

Now for all you Stephen King fans out there mark November 11, 2008 on your calendar he is releasing his collection of short stories called Just After Sunset.

Stephen King — who has written more than fifty books, dozens of number one New York Times bestsellers, and many unforgettable movies — delivers an astonishing collection of short stories, his first since Everything’s Eventual six years ago. As guest editor of the bestselling Best American Short Stories 2007, King spent over a year reading hundreds of stories. His renewed passion for the form is evident on every page of Just After Sunset. The stories in this collection have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, Esquire, and other publications.

Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love? A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well. Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating — and then terrifying — journey. Set on a remote key in Florida, “The Gingerbread Girl” is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable — and resourceful — as Audrey Hepburn’s character in Wait Until Dark. In “Ayana,” a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any moment. In one of the longer stories here, “N.,” which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient’s irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside…or keep the world from falling victim to it.

Just After Sunset — call it dusk, call it twilight, it’s a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you.

As I have said in previous post I am not a big fan of Stephen King in any way shape or form. However I am willing to go out and get this new release. You never know until you try, maybe there will be one that strikes my fancy. Will it strike yours? Let me know.

Happy Reading

Sarah

Thank you Amazon for the picture

Oh! I can’t wait; November is a good month for new releases; such as November 11, 2008 we can expect to see Snake Dreams written by James D. Doss.

With his Southwestern series, bestselling author James D. Doss and his dryly humorous, no-nonsense Native American sleuth, Charlie Moon, have brought law and what’s going to have to pass for order to Charlie’s Columbine Ranch and the nearby Ute reservation.

Now the seven-foot rancher and part-time tribal investigator wants to carve out a little more space for himself alongside FBI Special Agent Lila Mae McTeague. That’s right: Charlie has it in his head that he’s going to get hitched. That is, unless Charlie’s irascible aunt, her sixteen-year-old niece, and their visions of a dead woman—her throat slit from ear to ear—have anything to say about it.

With a bit of romance and full measure of murder, Snake Dreams, the thirteenth in James D. Doss’s widely loved Charlie Moon series, is a haunting tale best told under a full moon and beside a crackling fire.

I have always enjoyed the Charlie Moon series, the plots are interesting, it’s not the typical the butler did it kind of mystery and the characters are believable as well. I know I will not be disappointed with this new release.

Happy Reading

Sarah

Thank you Amazon for the picture

Hi everyone, I just wanted to tell you that I am hosting a giveaway for The Gate House written by Nelson Demille.  I have 3 lovely copies to giveaway and one of them could be yours. All you have to do is follow these simple steps. I will be picking 3 winners on November 11, 2008.

1.      Mention the giveaway on your blog

2.      Leave me a comment and link to your blog

Do not worry; if you do not have a blog; just leave me a comment telling me why you should be one of the winners. Check back November 11, 2008 to see if you are one of the 3 winners.

Happy Reading

Sarah

Thank you Amazon for the picture

“Stryker honestly felt sorry for the creature who had to be in absolute agony. There was something about him that seemed familiar and yet he couldn’t place it. “How long have they held you here?””

Doesn’t it seem like you are always waiting for something? Well this is no different, but our wait isn’t too long only until November 4, 2008 when One Silent Night written by Sherrilyn Kenyon is released.

While the world carries on unawares, Stryker, who leads an army of demons and vampires, is plotting an all out onslaught against his enemies–which, unfortunately for us, includes the entire human race. To avenge his sister, Stryker prepares to annihilate the Dark-Hunters. But things go awry when his oldest enemy returns. Enter his ex-wife. Zephyra. Just when he thought nothing could stop him, he’s now embroiled in a centuries old war with a shrew who gives new meaning to pain and a shrew who is the only woman he’s ever really loved.

This is the next installment of her Dark Hunter’s novel. Will it flow with the rest of her series? Will it be a best seller? Only time will tell and speaking of time, I must run, I have a book to finish reading. Don’t forget November 4, 2008.

Happy Reading

Sarah