CHALLENGE: Thriller & Suspense Challenge 2010

So Book Chick City will be hosting the 2010 Thriller & Suspense Challenge this year. I signed up for the 2008/2009 challenge but not the 2009 one because I was still working on the previous one. So I was glad to see that someone took this one over for J. Kaye. Thriller/Suspense is one of my very favorite genre of books. It’s probably what a good 90% of my books are. So this one will be a good challenge for me. The rules are simple: Read 12 books between January 1st and December 31st, 2010. No lists are required and crossovers with other challenges are okay. There are many different sub-genres within the realm of Thriller/Suspense books. You will choose your books from that list, but don’t worry it’s easy to fit books into the categories. . There is a list of the sub-genres which can be found here. I will be keeping my list here:

CHALLENGE: RYOB 2010

I am looking forward to doing this challenge again! I’m not going to meet my 2009 goals, but that’s okay. I relied too much on the library this year because I wanted to read more than a few new releases (and I refuse to buy hardbacks). It’s silly, I have what seems like a gazillion books on my shelves and I browse the library like I have no books at home. So, once again I’m going to be setting a goal of 50 books: 25 of those have to be on my shelves prior to 2010. I would prefer to have all of them on my shelves before 2010, but I like to leave myself a little leeway for new books to get read You can click on the button above to go to the post about the challenge. The rules are simple: You set a goal of how many books off of your shelves that you want to read and you choose as you go. However, re-reads cannot count.  I will be keeping up with my list on this page.

CHALLENGE: Celebrate the Author 2010

So I have signed up for the Celebrate the Author Challenge hosted by Becky the past two years. Of course I couldn’t resist signing up once again. I know I stated that I wanted to be a little less restrictive in my challenges this year, but I just had to make an exception for this one! It’s been one of my favorite challenges, and it’s always easy to do as long as you pay attention to what month you’re in, lol! You can click on the image above to take you to Becky’s page regarding sign-ups. The rules are simple: you choose 12 books (no lists required) and you essentially “celebrate” the author’s birthday. Take Harlan Coben, for example. His birthday is in January, so you would read a Harlan Coben book in January to fulfill January’s requirement. You choose one author for each month and read what you want. Pretty much any type of book goes. I will be keeping my list here.

January:
February:
March:
April:
May:
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:

CHALLENGE: 2010 100+ Reading Challenge

So, J. Kaye might be cutting back in 2010 but thankfully she is still hosting this challenge! I was not signed up in 2008, but almost made 100 coming in at 97 I believe. In 2009, I haven’t done quite as well, only currently sitting at 61. But I’m going to try again in 2010. You can click on the button above to go to the sign-up page on J. Kaye’s blog. The rules are really simple: read 100 books between January 1st and December 31st, 2010. There are no necessary lists beforehand and crossovers with other challenges are allowed. Pretty much any kind of book and/or format of book can count. I will be keeping my list here:

REVIEW: Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris

Grave Secret
by Charlaine Harris

Copyright: 2009
Pages: 306
Rating:4/5
Read: Nov. 17-24, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; 2010 Countdown Challenge;  2009 Celebrate the Author Challenge
Yearly Count: 61

First Line: “All right,” said the straw-haired woman in the denim jacket. “Do your thing.”

Harper Connelly has traveled to Texas with her stepbrother Tolliver to do a job. They like to travel to Texas, it allows this to see their little sisters. But what they learn while in Texas is worse than they could have ever imagined anything. First they learn that Tolliver’s father is out of prison and is trying to re-establish family connections. After they finish the job that brought them to Texas, Tolliver is shot. But the police think that Tolliver was not the intended target, that Harper was. While Tolliver is recovering in the hospital, Harper is trying to figure out what is going on. She has a feeling that there is a connection between their last job and Tolliver being shot, but she can’t possibly figure out what it is. And the fact that Tolliver’s father is back in the mix only makes matters worse for her. However, what she will ultimately find out will turn her world upside down. Harper finally finds out what happened to her sister so many years ago, but what the truth reveals is something far more disturbing than anyone ever thought possible.

This is the fourth (and, sadly) the last in the Harper Connelly series. Although Ms. Harris left a small opening for another book in this series, she has mentioned in numerous places on her website that she is finished with Harper. And honestly, I can see where it would be hard to go anywhere else with this series. Although a lot of people might have been turned off by the relationship between Harper and Tolliver, I didn’t find it all that problematic. In fact I can see where it can be quite common – however, I would have thought that the attraction would have happened when they were teenagers. However, having Harper and Tolliver together practically 24/7 on the road made it kind of inevitable also. I personally liked Harper’s character. I thought that the gift that Harris thought up for her was quite interesting, and her descriptions of how she did her work were interesting. However, I have a rather large complaint about this book – there was very little action in regards to what Harper does as a living. She came in and did her “thing” within the first chapter and that was that. The rest of the book was mainly about Tolliver recovering and Harper trying to figure out what was going on with the help of Manfred. I rated this book a 4/5 simply because I felt it was a little rushed in places. It was like Ms. Harris was trying her hardest to wrap this series up as quickly as possible. There were also more than a few grammar/spelling errors (which I have noticed is a common thing in Ms. Harris’ books). Overall I thought that this was a pretty decent way to end this series, and that although I am sad to see the end of this series, I am also glad to have a conclusion.

Mailbox Monday, Nov. 23, 2009

Mailbox Monday

Wednesday, Nov. 18
Gideon by Russell Andrews

Gideon. An identity shrouded in mystery – the anonymous source who holds the key to an explosive secret. In a clandestine meeting, writer Carl Granville is hired to take the pages of an old diary, articles, letters, documents in which all proper names and locations have been blacked out – and turn them into compelling fiction. He will be paid a quarter of a million dollars. But he can never tell a soul. As he is fed information and his work progresses, Granville begins to realize that Gideon’s book is more than just a potential bestseller. It is a revelation of chilling evil and a decades-long cover-up by someone with far-reaching power. He starts to have second thoughts. How will his book be used? Whose lives will be shattered? What is the truth behind the story – and who is the true storyteller? Then someone close to Granville is bludgeoned to death. Another is savagely murdered. His apartment is ransacked, his computer destroyed, all his records stolen. Suspicion falls on Granville. He tries to explain the shadowy assignment. No one believes him. He has no proof, no alibis…

I received this one today as part of a three book swap from PBS (goodness, I am addicted to the boxer feature!). This one sounds like a good book – we’ll see

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family – mother, father, older brother – had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she’ll learn the devastating truth. …. Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn’t over. A strange car in the neighborhood, untraceable phone calls, ominous “gifts” – someone has returned to her hometown to finish what was started twenty-five years ago. And no one’s innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time Cynthia discovers the killer’s shocking identity, it will again be too late … even for goodbye.

Received this one in the PBS swap; I have had my eye on this author for quite some time and am looking forward to giving this book a go!

The Lost Constitution by William Martin

Rare-book expert Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline Carrington, are back for another treasure hunt through time. They have learned of an early, annotated draft of the U.S. Constitution, stolen and smuggled out of Philadelphia. The draft’s marginal notes spell out, in shocking detail, the Foundders’ unequivocal intentions – the unmistakable meaning of the Bill of Rights. Peddled and purloined, trafficked and concealed for more than two centures, the lost Constitution – if found – could forever change America’s history … and its future. Congress is fighting tooth and claw over the eternally contentious Bill of Rights, spurring a frenzied search for the missing document, which each side believes it can use to bolster its arguments. Peter and Evangeline must get to the document first, because they know that if the wrong people find it, they will burn it, stripping the nation of its constitutional moorings. The search takes Peter and Evangeline into the rich history of America. Past and present play off one another as the quest for the draft heats up until it boils over and the truth is finally revealed.

This is the last in the PBS swap. And this one looks REALLY good to me! I’m looking forward to getting to this one rather soon!

Mailbox Monday, Nov. 16, 2009

Mailbox Monday

Tuesday, Nov. 10
Die Trying by Lee Child

Jack Reacher is an innocent bystander – in the wrong place at the wrong time – when a woman is kidnapped. Now, he’s at the mercy of a group of men demanding an impossible ransom, for this mysterious woman is worth far more than Reacher ever suspected. And though she doesn’t ask for his help, he’s going to give it to her … Because ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a hero. He’s used to saving lives. But this time he’s going to take a few before he’s through….

Ordered this one from FrugalReader. Have been wanting to try this series for a while. This is the second in the series. Hopefully it’s a new series that I can enjoy.

 

Killing Floor by Lee Child

Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter, just passing through. He is in Margrave, Georgia, for less than a half hour when four policemen arrive, shotguns in hand, to arrest him for murder. All Jack knows is he didn’t kill anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time …

Ordered this one from FrugalReader as well. This is the first in the series. Am really hoping this one is as good as I hope it will be

 

The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination: New Revelatios on the Conspiracy and Cover-Up by Philip H. Melanson, Ph.D.

This breakthrough book provides the basis for a major new effort to re-open the flawed investigation of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination. Melanson’s investigation has unvoered startling new evidence of a murder conspiracy – despite the fact that the supposed lone gunman, Sirhan Sirhan, was caught “red-handed.” … The numerous glaring and unanswered questions in this case, coupled with the simplistic official solution, caused this investigative researcher to question whether there was additional unexamined evidence. … With masterful research and exceptional courage, this book challenges the official history of a national tragedy. At last, we have a solid case for a re-investigation of the RFK assassination.

Ordered this one from PBS. I was a history major, and the 1960s is a favorite era of mine to study. I am especially interested in assassinations, though. (Lincoln, JFK, MLK, RFK….) So I was excited to see this book was available. I have never read anything that has dealt primarily with the RFK assassination, and I am looking forward to learning more about it.

REVIEW: The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson and Martin Dugard

The Murder of King Tut
by James Patterson & Martin Dugard

Copyright: 2009
Pages: 332
Rating: 5/5
Read: Nov. 13-15, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; 2010 Countdown Challenge
Yearly Count: 60

First Line: It was New Year’s Eve as a somber, good-looking explorer named Howard Carter, speaking fluent Arabic, gave the order to begin digging.

King Tut, the Boy King. Less than a decade after becoming Pharaoh of Egypt, the boy dies mysteriously. In the years following his demise, his name is essentially wiped from the history books. Even today, the death of King Tut remains somewhat of a mystery. Howard Carter’s life mission was to uncover a virgin tomb; he wanted King Tut’s tomb the most. He began his search in 1907. It would take many, many years before he finally found Tut and the world would finally begin to understand the Boy King. In this book, James Patterson teams up with Martin Dugard to really look through all the evidence and put Tut’s life and death in a spotlight like never before – true crime and history collides in this book as Patterson unravels the mystery surrounding the Boy King.

Being a history major, I love anything history pretty much. But here recently my husband, mom, and dad, all went up to Indianapolis to see the King Tut exhibit. It really reignited my interest in Egyptian history. I was unfortunately never able to take a course in college on Egypt, but I knew some things from different museum trips and whatnot. But this book was really interesting to me. It read like a novel, which will make history interesting to a lot more people. (It also has the name James Patterson on it – which I have come to the conclusion sells a book like nothing else.) It’s really an easy read. And yet it’s historical. A lot of people don’t read historical books because they might feel bogged down or whatever the reason – however, if you are one of those people, please pick up this book!! You will not be bogged down at all. It reads like all of Patterson’s other works – like a novel. If you have any interest whatsoever in Egypt, this is an interesting book. However, I do want to add, that I’m not completely sold on Patterson’s conclusion – that it was a conspiracy of the three people closest to him. I’m not saying that it isn’t true, it very well may be, but without knowing more information regarding the mystery surrounding Tut’s death I’m not sure if this is right. Who knows if Tut was even really murdered?! However, if he was, there was almost certainly some sort of conspiracy, and it definitely revolved around the desire to have the power that Tut had as Pharaoh. But one of the three people that Patterson names, I’m not completely sold on being a part of the conspiracy. I think that there could possibly be other explanations for that person’s actions. But that’s just my opinion … I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good murder mystery, because that’s what this book is all about!

REVIEW: The Eleventh Victim by Nancy Grace

The Eleventh Victim
by Nancy Grace

Copyright: 2009
Pages: 353
Rating: 4/5
Read: Nov. 6 – 13, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; 2009 Celebrate the Author Challenge; 2010 Countdown Challenge
Yearly Count: 59

First Line: A little something. What was it? Something … Some detail was wrong.

Young Hailey Dean’s life is turned upside down when her fiance Will, is murdered weeks before their wedding. She deals with it the only way she can think of: she becomes an attorney. And a darned good attorney at that. Working as a prosecutor in Atlanta, Hailey racks up a 100% win rate in court. She is unstoppable. Until she meets Clint Cruise. She manages to get the jury to convict the serial murderer, but it will be her last case. She has finally reached her limit. She leaves Atlanta and the court system behind. She finds herself in New York City working as a psychiatrist. She thinks everything is going great for her – until not one, but two of her patients turn up murdered. And who is the police’s prime suspect? Hailey herself. She manages to get herself out of jail, but she knows that the police are watching her every move. But when she finds out that Cruise has been released from prison on a technicality – her whole world is going to be chaotic because she knows he is the one who is framing her for the murder of her patients.

I enjoyed this book. It was slightly formulaic and predictable. However, I thought that overall the storyline was pretty good. Knowing Nancy Grace from watching her show over the years, I’m sure she has lots of great ideas for fiction books based on all of her experience. I know she put some of herself into Hailey Dean, which made Hailey’s character that much more likable. I thought that for Grace’s first stab at fiction, she did really good. She had some well developed characters and I love how she had kind of two, almost three, storylines going on at the same time and yet they weren’t confusing to me the reader as to what was going on. I enjoyed this book and hope that I see more of Nancy Grace’s fiction books in the future.

Mailbox Monday, Nov. 8, 2009

Mailbox Monday

Monday, Nov. 2
The President’s Assassin by Brian Haig

It’s a mass execution: six people shot and killed in a Virginia mansion, one of them the White House Chief of Staff. But that isn’t the reason Sean Drummond is called in. Newly enlisted in a CIA cell called the Office of Special Projects, the Army lawyer knows the bodies are just a warning. Because the killer left a note. Now the hunt begins for the ultimate hitman: brilliant, coldhearted, with an insider’s knowledge of D.C. If Drummond fails, the world will never be the same – and someone will collect the $100 million bounty on the President’s head.

I received this one as one of a three-book box swap on PBS. I thought this one looked really interesting!

Exposed by Alex Kava

Veteran FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell and Assistant Director Cunningham believed the threat targeted Quantico. It targeted them. A deadly virus – virtually undetectable until it causes death from a million internal cuts. The victims appear random, but Maggie wonders if vengeance isn’t the guiding hand. An aficianado of contemprory killers, using bits and pieces from their crimes – the Beltway Sniper’s phrases, the Unabomber’s clues, the Antrhax Killer’s delivery. Maggie knows dangerous minds, but she must tackle this new opponent from within a biosafety isolation ward – while waiting to see if death is already multiplying inside her body. She just fears her last case might end with the most intelligent killer she’se ver faced escalating from murder … to epidemic.

I love the Maggie O’Dell books!! This is the second book in the PBS swap (and the one I really wanted). I hope that this book is as good as the last one I read in the series.

Haven by John R. Maxim

Elizabeth Stride has come to Hilton Head Island to escape her past as “the Black Angel” – a ruthless assassin – and to escape Martin Kessler, a fellow operative who owned a piece of her soul. But just as she’s begun to rebuild her shattered life, Kessler reappears, toppling Elizabeth’s protective wall of anonymity. A teenage girl is about to be abducted from an exclusive nearby tennis club – a girl who uniwttingly holds the key to a horrific planned act of terrorism. By joining forces in a daring rescue of the girl, Elizabeth and Martin will be forced to put their fates in each other’s hands one more time – and decide once and for all if they are to live together or apart. In doing so, they will be drawn into a secret war of fanaticism, gree, and doomsday technology. And there will be no haven.

This was the third of the three book swap from PBS. It sounds interesting, new author for me. So we’ll see how it is

Wednesday, Nov. 4
A Simple Act of Murder: November 22, 1963 by Mark Fuhrman

A Simple Act of Murder is the investigation that this case should have had from the beginning. America’s most famous detective, Mark Fuhrman – who has cracked some of the best-known and must puzzling crimes in American history – cuts through the myths and misfortunes to focus on the hard evidence. He examines the ballistics and medical records, scrutinizes photographs from the crime scene and the famous Zapruder film, and weighs the testimony of hundreds of witnesses. Filled with vivid photos, informative diagrams, and original drawings by Fuhrman himself that show the evidence in a new light and make complex forensic evidence clear and easily understood, this book is the visual record of the JFK assassination. In this gripping and highly personal account, Fuhrman unveils a major clue that had been ignored for forty years – a breakthrough that will change the debate over the assassination. Overturning accepted notios about the way the murder occurred, A Simple Act of Murder answers many questions that have plagued the American people ever since that fateful day in Dallas.

Saturday, Nov. 7
Patriot Games by Tom Clancy

From England to Ireland to America, an explosive wave of violence sweeps a CIA analyst and his family into the deadliest game of our time: international terrorism. An ultra-left-wing faction of the IRA has targeted the CIA man for his act of salvation in an assassination attempt. And now he must pay … with his life.

Got this one from PBS. I’ve never read a Tom Clancy book (but I enjoyed the movies based on his books, lol), but have a few others of his on my shelves.