The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party

Aaaaahhhhh, it feels so good to travel to Botswana, again! I've missed Mma Remotswe, Mr. JLB Matakoni, Mma Mikutsi, and all the rest of the characters in this series.

I've actually had this book for a while, now, but had to be in the right mood to read it.  And, last week was it.

In this edition, Mma Remotswe has to solve the mystery of who is cutting the legs off a man's cattle, Mma Mekutsi is preparing for her wedding to Phuti Radiphuti, and Charlie, the mechanic apprentice, must deal with the birth of twin sons.

As always, the writing is sweet and the comments about life are simple and make so much sense.

Private #1 Suspect

Another predictable read from James Patterson.  Jack Morgan owns Private, an investigative business.  After a trip he comes home to find his ex-girlfriend dead in his bed.  He's arrested for her murder and must spend the rest of the book trying to prove his innocence. 

There are a couple other plotlines running through, too, but none are very memorable. 

It's a good thing I decided to write about this book right away or I'd have forgotten about it entirely.

Somebody shoot me if I buy another James Patterson book, please!

Catching Up

Holy cow, I've been neglecting this blog!  My granddaughter ended up staying with us for almost a month and I didn't have much time to read with her around...except for her books.  We've been going through the Junie B. Jones series and read about ten of them.  Love that Junie B.!  Sometimes I get to laughing so hard, I can't read.

But she's gone, now, and I read a book in two days after she left.  But, first, Kill Alex Cross.  As is usual with a James Patterson book, this was a quick read.  I read it about a month and a half ago so don't remember it very well; his books tend to all blur!  I do remember that Alex must solve the disappearance of the President's two children.  There was another part to the plot that put Alex's family in danger, too.  Very typical but I do love his family.

I read good reviews about this book so downloaded it but, for some reason, I'm having a hard time finishing it.  Margo is left parent less and takes off on the river to find her mother.  She's a survivor and does what she has to do to make it through the winters which includes sleeping with whomever will protect her. 

It's beautifully written but I can't seem to feel too sorry for Margo.  I'm pretty sure I'll finish it just to find out what happens to her, though...one of these days!

I saw that this book is being made into a movie so thought I'd read it first.  It's a series of letters written by Kevin's mom to her divorced husband a couple years after Kevin murders several kids in his high school.  I love epistolary novels and, being a high school English teacher for 30 years, I also love stories about teenagers.

But, OMG!, Kevin's mom is so long winded!  It's a very tedious read and I might get through it some day.

I get emails from Amazon almost every day offering their best books and this one was touted as the best for January so I downloaded it....and devoured it!

Hazel and Augustus are teenagers who meet at a cancer support group.  Hazel has thyroid cancer with lung complications.  It is terminal but she is buying some time with a new drug.  Gus had his leg amputated and is doing really well.  They are both quirky and fall in love even though they know they are only going to get hurt.

This is a wonderfully-written book.  I gulped it!  Both main characters are likable and, yes, I blubbered at the end.

So, now, I'm not sure what to read.  I've got another James Patterson, Private #1 Suspect, and will probably go on to that one even though I'm getting pretty darn bored with his books. 

I miss my Kylie girl and our nightly Junie B. Jones visits!

11/22/63

You know how I can tell a book was good?  When I have to wait a few days after finishing it to begin a new one.  I finished this one Saturday night and couldn't even think about starting something new until Monday evening.

This is vintage Stephen King.  This is why I fell in love with his writing forty years ago.  This is falling into a book and letting it consume me.  This is talking about it to anyone who will listen.

I was in the ninth grade when Kennedy was shot so I remember it well.  This book took me right back to that era because King captures the culture so well. 

Jake Epping is an English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine.  Al Templeton owns a diner built over an abandoned chemical plant.  In his back room is a portal to September 9, 1958.  Al tried staying in the past long enough to prevent Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating President Kennedy but he developed cancer and couldn't stay.  Now, he begs Jake to go through the portal to do it for him.

Besides the time travel aspect, there isn't much science fiction or scary, gory scenes.  This is just a good, old-fashioned story written by an expert craftsman.  It's a long book but I wanted it to be longer. 

Of course, we know going into it that Jake will not be successful.  So, it's fun to imagine how King will end the book.  And the ending is masterful! 

These Things Hidden and Daughter of Smoke and Bone

It feels so good to be reading, again!

These Things Hidden was a real page turner.  I gulped it in just a couple days.  Alison is twenty-two and has just been released from jail for murdering her newborn five years earlier.  Her parents and younger sister want nothing to do with her.

Her younger sister Brynn is trying to make a life for herself away from her hometown but can't get past the horrible events that happened the night her sister gave birth.

Now, Alison must try to find a way to go on with her life and make amends with her family.

This is a chick book, to be sure, but I liked it.

If any of you participate in Sunday Scribblings, you'll recognize the name Laini Taylor as one of the original authors of that meme.  That's where I first found her.  I checked out her blog just as she was getting ready to give birth to her adorable daughter Clementine Pie and keep going back to see pictures of her as she grows up.

Laini writes a genre (YA fantasy) I don't normally go for but I thought I'd give her book a try since it was getting rave reviews.  I'm so glad I did.  She's a wonderful writer!

Karou is a blue-haired teenager living in Prague going to art school. But she isn't like most normal teenagers; she was raised by devils and must occasionally leave her regular world to collect teeth for Brimstone, her "father."

Then she meets Akiva, an angel, and her enemy.  They are drawn to one another even though Akiva is still in mourning for his lost love Madrigal.

The age-old enemies-faling-in-love theme is given a new twist in this novel.  But, even more than the compelling scenario is the writing.  Ahhh, the writing!  It is so beautiful! Not a page goes by where there isn't a wonderful description to please my poetic heart.

And, now, I'm on to Stephen King's latest 11/22/63.  More fantasy!  Hmmm...what's going on with me?

The Litigators

Yay!  I finished a book!

I had pre-ordered this one and was thrilled when it became available for download.  I started reading it right away and finished it a couple days later.  It helped that we were flying to Florida for the winter.  I love all the reading time I get when on an airplane.

David Zinc is fed up with the grunt work of being a lawyer in a huge law firm and one day he up and quits.  He stumbles upon a flailing "boutique" firm with only two lawyers and joins them.  Their first case is a class action suit against a giant pharmaceutical company. 

The characters are well drawn and likable and the concept is believable.  I enjoyed it.  But, what this book has, that most of his others don't, is humor.  At one point I had tears rolling down my cheeks! 

I needed a good book like this to get me back into reading mode!

A Reading Slump

I don't know what's wrong with me but I just haven't felt like reading lately.

This is a first for me.

One of the reasons could be because I'm not that invested in the novel I'm reading.  The Art of Fielding is a beautifully written book but, for some reason, I can't get into the characters.  I'm about half way through and hate to give up on it but...

Another reason could be because I'm watching The Secret Life of the American Teenager.  Every night I get in bed and, instead of reading like normally, I stream an episode or two of this addicting show on my iPad.

And then there is the iPad, itself.  I love it!  And am always fiddling with it instead of reading.  I mean, there are just so many apps to explore and play with.

I wish there were more hours in the day.  Too bad I don't have two or three brains so I could do everything I want!