Date Finished:  5/16/2007
Pages:  269
Category:  Fiction
Rated:  A
Cover:  Quality Paperback
From:  bookcrossing rabck
Reason for Reading:  desire

I've heard many good things about this book and they were all true.  It was a great read.  I can't wait to read the others in the series!

Date Finished: 5/5/2007
Pages:  241
Category: Fiction
Rated: A
Cover: Hardback
From: library
Reason for Reading: desire

I went to the library to check out The Song is You (I think) and I got this one by mistake.  I can't wait to read The Song is You.  I love LOVE the style of the book.  I had a lot of fun reading it, and I could not put it down.  I tried.  I simply couldn't do it.

Date Finished: 4/14/2007
Pages:  281
Category: chick lit
Rated: A
Cover: Paperback
From: gift from momma
Reason for Reading:  desire

I think this has been my favorite one yet (of the non-numbered ones).  Evanovich's writing always makes me wish I were the characters in the book.  After reading this book, I'm totally in love with Kellen and Beast...even Pugg!  Non-stop laughter.  I now have a horrible desire to run out and get myself a cute little mastiff!  I've never read anything by Leanne Banks, but after reading this, I would like to try some of hers.

Date Finished: 4/13/2007
Pages:  325
Category: Fiction
Rated: A
Cover: Paperback
From: library
Reason for Reading:  desire

Absolutely hysterical.  But I think I'm going OT here *snicker*  I have become obsessed with epistolary novels.  They are so much fun.  This one had many moments where I found myself actually laughing out loud.  I'm not a SAHM and still enjoyed it.  What cracked me up the most perhaps would be every time the moderator had a fight with her sister, that would become the TOTW!  *giggle*  Anyone who has ever belonged to some email group needs to read this.  It is too funny.

Date Finished: 4/10/2007
Pages:  240
Category: Fiction / YA
Rated: B
Cover: Paperback
From: library
Reason for Reading:  desire

ttfn, is just as cute as ttyl.  I was able to relate to this one much more though.  I, too, was forced to move during my junior year of high school.  It sucked.  I'm still bitter.  At least Angela was able to move back to her "home."  Our library doesn't have l8r, g8r but I do want to finish the series.

Date Finished: 4/8/2007
Pages:  209
Category: Fiction / YA
Rated: B
Cover: Paperback
From: library
Reason for Reading:  desire

Very cute.  At least I thought so.  Adult reviews I've read seem to think this book will be the downfall of society.  I say whatevs to them.  I wasn't expecting anything when I got this book other than a book written in IM conversation.  I liked the style and the format.  It was fun and interesting.  Is it destined to be a classic?  I don't think so.  But taken in context for what it is, it is cute.  I'm glad I read it.

Date Finished: 4/8/2007
Pages:  455
Category: Fiction
Rated: B
Cover: Hardback
From: Jamie
Reason for Reading:  desire

Perhaps I'm hard-hearted, but to me, this book just did not live up to the hype.  This was my first Picoult book and I just don't see what the deal is.  It was a good book, yes, but not one that has me thinking about my life and wondering.  I can barely remember character names at this point.  Many have claimed this is her best yet.  I hope not.  I won't let this stop me from reading her other books...but I hope they are better.

That being said, I do appreciate how she wrote the book from varying view points.  And it was a good story line.  It just didn't really move me or motivate me much.  The ending didn't thrill me either.  It was too clean and too perfect for what was a very imperfect town.

Date Finished: 4/3/2007
Pages:  576
Category: Fiction / Trash
Rated: B
Cover: Paperback
From: my house
Reason for Reading:  desire

Filled with sex, betrayal, money, and glamour, Lethal Seduction is a great, quick read and delights my brain with word candy.  I liked Lethal Seduction MUCH better than Hollywood Wives The New Generation.  The ending in this one didn't just stop.  Well, it kind of did, but not in the middle of a thought.  The ending made sense this time.  It also left the door wide open for the next installment. 

The characters were created in such a way that I actually liked most of them.  There were some that I really loved to hate, and in a book, that is such a joy.  
 

Date Finished: 3/27/2007
Pages:  519
Category: Fiction
Rated: C
Cover: Hardback
From: library
Reason for Reading:  the need for smut

This was my first foray into Jackie Collins and I quite enjoyed myself...until the ending.  What the hell kind of ending is this?  Granted, I don't expect any author to just continue writing the same book for the rest of my life, but I do expect them to end the book and not just STOP WRITING.  Yes, there was an epilogue to tie things up nicely (and I'm not opposed to leaving things open), however, she just stopped writing.  I was highly irritated!  The grade is low simply because of the ending.

That being said, I did enjoy the book.  There were all kinds of people in it, action, and adventure.  I can truly see why she is called a "raunchy moralist."  Although I didn't really find it very "raunchy."  There was hardly any substance, but that is just exactly why I wanted to read it!  I just can't get over the ending *sigh*

Date Finished: 2/20/2007
Pages:  304
Category: Fiction
Rated: A
Cover: Hardback
From: my collection
Reason for Reading:  want

"...looking Crockett-and-Tubbs cool..."

I love Millenia's style and this one was a roller coaster of emotions throughout the book.  I loved the desperation of the characters.  In this book, as opposed to The Great Pretender, the characters were likable.  I wanted to help them.  I wanted them to help themselves.  They became so real to me.  Twists and turns, I never knew what to expect next.  Although I did have the betrayal figured out in the beginning, there were enough twists to have me doubting myself.  Upon the realization I was correct though, it was still a horrible shock to the system.  I liked The Great Pretender, but I REALLY liked The Great Betrayal.

Date Finished: 2/6/2007
Performed by:  C. J. Critt 
Hours:  8
Category: audio book, fiction
Rated: C
From: Library
Reason for Listening:  I like Janet Evanovich

"The Nascar fear and the monkey fear might be redundant."

Sadly, this one did not work well for an audio book for me...either that or I had too much going on to pay enough attention.  I need to read the book to really find out what went on.  I do, however, know there was quite a bit of comedy as I found myself chuckling quite often.  I just don't remember it.

Date Finished: 1/24/2007
Pages:  282
Category: Fiction
Rated: C
Cover: Quality Paperback
From: bookcrossing bookring
Reason for Reading: bookcrossing bookring

I found this book quite interesting. In the beginning though, I felt as though Ishiguro just kept dragging and dragging things on and I wondered if it was going to be worth finishing. Towards the middle, I noticed I just had to know what was going on, even though there really wasn't anything going on. The ending was a little flat I thought.

I've heard many wonderful things about Ishiguro, but based on this novel alone, I wouldn't care to read anything else by him. The concept was very interesting though.

Date Finished: 1/18/2007
Pages: 180
Category: Fiction
Rated: C
Cover: Quality Paperback
From: bookcrossing bookring
Reason for Reading: bookcrossing bookring

This book was an ok book.  Nothing really to write home about as it just didn't thrill me.  It pretty much just told about the daily life of the villagers over a three year period. On the front cover of the book it reads, "A thrilling tale of murder and retribution set on the wild seacoast of medieval Japan."  It is kind of comical actually to see the difference between thrilling tales of murder and retribution of the western world compared to the eastern world.

My take
Hysterical as always.  There were too many unanswered questions in this one though.  Was Sandy really Santa?  Who or what REALLY was Diesel?  This one just seemed to be rushed, but there were many many moments when I had to laugh out loud.  Stephanie Plum is just hysterical.

From the Publisher

It's five days before Christmas and things are not looking merry for Fugitive Apprehension Agent Stephanie Plum. She hasn't got a tree. She hasn't bought any presents. The malls are jam-packed with staggering shoppers. There's not a twinkle light anywhere to be seen in her apartment-and there's a strange man in her kitchen.

Sure, this has happened to Stephanie Plum before. But this guy is different. He's mysterious, sexy-and has his own agenda. His name is Diesel, and he's on a mission. The question is, what does he want with her? Can he help her find a little old toy maker who has skipped out on his bail right before Christmas? Can he survive the Plum family holiday dinner? Can he get Stephanie a tree that doesn't look like it was grown next to a nuclear power plant? These questions and more are keeping Stephanie awake at night. Not to mention the fact that she needs to find a bunch of nasty elves, her sister Valerie has a Christmas "surprise" for the Plums, her niece Mary Alice doesn't believe in Santa anymore, and Grandma Mazur has a new stud muffin. So bring out the plastic reindeer, strap on your jingle bells, and get ready to celebrate the holidays-Jersey style.

My take
Thank god I'm not part of this family.  I enjoyed the story, but found the character development to be lacking and the ending just basically sucked.

From the Publisher

It couldn't happen to a family like the Greys. Surely, Dan and Sally's troubled five-year-old daughter could not have been molested as the doctor claimed. She was too well guarded for anything like that to happen. But she was destroying their home and their lives. Meanwhile, the family business was tottering, threatened by dissent from within. The pressure was on to sell family land to foreign investors, a move that divided the Greys and threatened Grey's Foods and the small upstate New York city it fed. Oliver Grey, the handsome silver-haired patriarch, bowed out, leaving the business to his sons, Ian and Clive, and Dan, the orphaned nephew he reared as his own. Ian was ready to sell to the highest bidder to buy off his mistress and save the marriage he couldn't afford to lose. Clive, the brilliant misfit, gave his life to the business until he, too, met a woman. Amanda, Dan's estranged sister, had the knowledge, the power, and the motive to destroy them all: an unspeakable secret that would link her to a little girl and a silver carousel.

My take
This book just didn't hold my attention for very long.  Parts of it would and then it wouldn't.  It took me forever to read because of it.  Overall, it was an enjoyable story.  I loved Vida Winter's story, but couldn't stand the story of the narrator.  The reason I kept reading was to get to the end of Vida's story.  I felt the ending to be completely contrived and didn't feel there was a point to it.  The end just kind of annoyed me.

From the Publisher

A compelling emotional mystery in the timeless vein of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, about family secrets and the magic of books and storytelling.

Margaret Lea works in her father's antiquarian bookshop where her fascination for the biographies of the long-dead has led her to write them herself. She gets a letter from one of the most famous authors of the day, the mysterious Vida Winter, whose popularity as a writer has been in no way diminished by her reclusiveness. Until now, Vida has toyed with journalists who interview her, creating outlandish life histories for herself - all of them invention. Now she is old and ailing, and at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to Margaret is a summons.

Somewhat anxiously, the equally reclusive Margaret travels to Yorkshire to meet her subject - and Vida starts to recount her tale. It is one of gothic strangeness featuring the March family; the fascinating, devious and wilful Isabelle and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline.

Margaret is captivated by the power of Vida's storytelling. But as a biographer she deals in fact not fiction, and she doesn't entirely trust Vida's account. She goes to check up on the family, visiting their old home and piecing together their story in her own way. What she discovers on her journey to the truth is for Margaret a chilling and transforming experience.

Excerpt from The Thirteenth Tale:

I've nothing against people who love truth. Apart from the fact that they make dull companions. Just so long as they don't start on about storytelling and honesty, the way some of them do. Naturally that annoys me. But so long as they leaveme alone, I won't hurt them.

My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succour, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? When the lightning strikes shadows on the bedroom wall and the rain taps at the window with its long fingernails? No. When fear and cold make a statue of you in your bed, don't expect hard-boned and fleshless truth to come running to your aid. What you need are
the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie.

My take
This is an extremely touching book about two friends, laotong, and the many struggles they have.  It was slow at the beginning, but then I was unable to put it down.  It makes me feel extremely grateful I have the wonderful friends that I have today.

From the Publisher

Lily is haunted by memories-of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.

In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). Some girls were paired with laotongs, "old sames," in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become "old sames" at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.

My take
I thought this book was extremely cute.  A boy's love of giving to others created magic in his life as well as the lives of others.  The journey taken in the book was quick and fun.  Santa's weight issues and his sensitivity to them are hysterical!  I want very much to believe the story is true.  I'm not a person that enjoys the holiday season very much, but reading this book has helped me.  Santa, if you read this, thank you.

Barnes and Noble
For seven centuries, Mr. Claus toiled in his toy workshop, never succumbing to unceasing publisher requests for a potboiler celebrity autobiography. Steadfastly refusing offers from ghostwriters and co-opted Santa's helpers, he pressed on with his selfless holiday mission. Eventually, though, silver-haired Saint Nick realized that his story of ceaseless generosity might itself be a good deed, an inspiration to others. The Autobiography of Santa Claus confirms our best thoughts about a well-traveled fellow who continues to resist low-carb diets. 

My take
Absolutly mental.  I loved hating all the characters.  A very quick and fun soap opera read.  Affairs, money, secret lives, death and destruction...what more could a person ask for?

From the Publisher

Do you really know the person you love? What warning signs are you willing to ignore? What can you forgive? In her smashing debut novel, Millenia Black puts a daring new spin on modern family drama by exploring its secrets and lies-as the perfect man comes undone by the consequences of a double life.

Let a new battle of the sexes begin.

My take on the book
A cute little story about two boys sent away for "re-education."  They find a clandestine stash of books from Four-Eyes which they steal and their love of reading blossoms.  Very enjoyable, quick read.

From the Publisher

In 1971 Mao's campaign against the intellectuals is at its height. Our narrator and his best friend, Luo, distinctly unintellectual but guilty of being the sons of doctors, have been sent to a remote mountain village to be 're-educated'. The kind of education that takes place among the peasants of Phoenix Mountain involves carting buckets of excrement up and down preciptous, foggy paths, but the two seventeen-year-olds have a violin and their sense of humour to keep them going. Further distraction is provided by the attractive daughter of the local tailor, possessor of a particularly fine pair of feet.

Their true re-education starts, however, when they discover a comrade's hidden stash of classics of great nineteenth-century Western literature - Balzac, Dickens, Dumas, Tolstoy and others, in Chinese translation. They need all their ingenuity to get their hands on the forbidden books, but when they do their lives are turned upside down. And not only their lives; after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, the Little Seamstress will never be the same again.