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.

Seriously, where has this year gone?! It’s like I woke up and it’s November already. I’ve been watching new challenge information come through on my Google Reader as well as through the ANovelChallenge Yahoo group. I can’t believe that its here already. 2008 was my first year doing challenges, and I went a little crazy with them. It got to the point where I was having to choose my books in order to fit certain requirements just to finish challenges. In 2009 I backed off somewhat and managed to sign up only for the challenges that I knew I would have no problem fulfilling (although I’m not going to make 100 books read for the 100+ Reading Challenge that J. Kaye hosts).

So I’ve been thinking about how I want to address 2010. I know that a lot of different bloggers out there have been posting about needing to make some changes in regards to challenges and their reading. I have been considering this a lot lately as well and feel that I need to do some things differently too. I have been receiving some emails about getting more books to review. I have been very selective from the beginning as to what books to even accept for review. So luckily, I only have a backlog of three right now. (And two of them I have had forever and they need to get read, now!) So I don’t feel as if I need to change anything in regards to review books, but it’s really the challenges that are going to need to change. A few months back I kind of “gave up” on my challenges. Not necessarily gave up, but just kind of let myself relax in regards to them so that I could read what I wanted to! Now there’s a shocker in the book blogosphere! So when I begin to think about the 2010 reading challenges that are starting to pop up everywhere, I realize that I’m probably only going to be interested in a select few.

I don’t think that you will see me signing up for a lot of challenges in 2010. And what you do see me sign up for, I think, will be pretty open challenges. By this I mean that I’m not going to be signing up for challenges like the “What’s in a Name” challenge where you have to choose books based on certain criteria (I’m STILL having trouble coming up with a book whose title has a building in it!). You will probably see me gravitating a little more towards challenges that are rather open ended and are more geared towards getting these books off of my shelves. I have an amazing amount of books that I have on my TBR MOUNTAIN! Here in the last few weeks I have been going through my books and really weeding them out. I posted probably 25 books on PBS and Frugal Reader that were from my TBR pile but that just weren’t that interesting to me. And trust me: Life is too short to read bad books! So I will probably want to sign up for challenges more like the 100+ Reading Challenge as well as ones like the Random Reading Challenge and the Read Your Own Books Challenge. Now, the question becomes, will these challenges be hosted again? I really don’t know yet, I haven’t done enough research. I’m pretty sure J. Kaye is hosting 100+ again. And the Random challenge runs into 2010. The RYOB challenge, I could do that one on my own (although it’s not as easy to do I find, lol).

But there are also other things that I am wanting to do with my reading. First of all, I was a history major in college. And I have noticed that since I graduated college in 2007, I really haven’t done much reading in terms of historical books. At first I was simply burned out on history, but now I want to get into history a little bit more. I would like to start reading about the Presidents for one. I have seen perpetual challenges out there where you read a book on every President. That’s something I would like to get into. I also enjoy true crime, I’ve let that fall by the wayside as well. There are just numerous directions that I can go in terms of my reading. But I think that the main thing that I want to get back into (and this is a theme that I have seen on a lot of other blogs as well) the actual spontaneity of reading! I want to just be able to go upstairs and choose a book and not have to worry if it’s going to fulfill a challenge requirement because I need to finish such-and-such challenge before such-and-such date. I want to get back into reading for fun. I have noticed myself slumping something awful this year. Maybe it was because 2008 was such a prolific year for me, maybe it was because of the challenges and their requirements, maybe it was because we bought a house and got a dog. I really don’t know. I probably will never know. But the fact of the matter is that I need to get back into enjoying reading and enjoying what I’m reading.

Another thing that I have been incredibly guilty of this year is suffering through books that I simply hate. Just yesterday I put down a book that I was 43 pages into because I hadn’t paid a bit of attention to it because I simply did not like where it was going. I didn’t want to take half of the month of November to get through that book, which is exactly what I would have done. So I did what I always said I would not do: I put it down. I gave up. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort. If a book doesn’t grab me in at least the first 20 chapters, it probably won’t ever grab me. Why waste my time reading it? Why have to write a mediocre review at best? Why have to suffer through it when I have what seems like a gazillion other books up on my shelves?

2010, for me, is really going to be a year that I get back into reading. I’m going to read what I want, when I want to. I’m going to read what interests me. I’m going to read what entertains me. I’m going to read what spooks me out a little bit. And I’m going to enjoy every bit of it. Will I miss the structure of book challenges? Probably. Will it kill me? Not really; they’ll still be around in 2011 (I hope!). This is just something that I need to do for myself because I really want to get back into the spontaneity and enjoyment of reading.

Silent Witness
by Richard North Patterson

Copyright: 1996
Pages: 500
Rating: 4.5/5
Read: Oct. 29 – Nov. 6, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; RYOB 2009
Yearly Count: 58

First Line: Gina Belfante murdered her husband at one-fifteen on a Tuesday morning.

Attorney Tony Lord left his hometown shortly after graduating from high school and never looked back. He left the memory of his murdered girlfriend behind. But when he returns, nearly thirty years later, it’s to defend his high school best friend of the charge of murder. Sam Robb, married father of two, was the last person to see sixteen-year-old Marcie Calder alive. And when forensic evidence reveals that she was carrying his child, he quickly goes from witness to suspect. Tony returns back to town to help his former best friend. But he has no idea what he is getting into and what the consequences of defending his friend of Marcie’s murder could be in the end.

This one was a good read in my opinion. It took me a little longer to read than it should have because I’ve been really busy lately. But overall it’s a really good read. There are some sluggish parts, and the way that Patterson utilizes the flashback style of writing could be a little confusing in parts. However, I found that the ending to be very good. Patterson really brought things back together full circle and had his characters have to face some really tough issues. I really recommend this book.

The Double Eagle
by James Twining

Copyright: 2005
Pages: 399
Rating: 4/5
Read: Oct. 22-25, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; Countdown Challenge 2010; RYOB 2009
Yearly Count: 57

First Line: They were late.

Someone has managed to steal five Double Eagles from Fort Knox. These five $20 gold coins were some of the few still in existence. President Roosevelt ordered them destroyed during the Great Depression, and they are worth millions. When one of them turns up in the stomach of a murdered priest in France, FBI agent Jennifer Browne is put on the case. Browne knows that she needs to close this case in order to save her stalled career. Following all the clues leads her directly to art thief Tom Kirk. Kirk wants out of the game, and Browne can promise him a clean break, if he cooperates with her and helps her recover these coincs. This unlikly pair sets out on a breakneck race around the world and right into a surprising conspiracy of greed, power, and death.

I have had my eye on this book for a few years now. One of my co-workers’ wives recommended this book to me at a company Christmas party back in 2006 or 2007. It sounded interesting, but not something that was high on my priority list. But I kept coming back to it on my PBS reminder list and finally used the credit for it. And I can only say that I am disappointed I waited so long to meet James Twining’s work! I was totally taken pretty much from the first page. I was intrigued and couldn’t get through the pages quickly enough to figure out what was really going on. And when I got to the end, there was definitely a nice twist to the ending that surprised me. I really enjoyed all the descriptions about how Tom Kirk carried off his heists. This is a wonderful book I am definitely looking foward to getting around to the rest of the books in this series, and I doubt that I wait another two years to read the second book. I highly recommend this book.

Wait Until Twilight
by Sang Pak

Copyright: 2009
Pages: 229
Rating: 3/5
Read: Oct. 19-21, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; Countdown Challenge 2010
Yearly Count: 56

First Line: The sun sits flat against the blue sky like someone pressed it on there with a giant thumb.

Sixteen-year-old Samuel is looking for the perfect subject for his video project for school. He has heard rumors about these supposed alien triplets in town. With his interest picqued, he heads out to their house to find out what the real story behind the triplets is. Immediately upon seeing these deformed babies, he is physically ill. However, an intense obsession with them begins soon after.

I was contacted directly by the author in regards to receiving a review copy of this book. I was intrigued after reading a brief excerpt, I thought it sounded really interesting. However, I was kind of confused about the book at about the halfway mark. It’s not a bad book at all; in fact Sang Pak has released a wonderfully written debut novel. It was just that the overall story was a little weird in my opinion. But I’d definitely recommend others to read this book.

The Murder of Laci Peterson
by Cliff Linedecker

Copyright: 2003
Pages: 222
Rating: 3.5/5
Read: Oct. 13-19, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge ; RYOB 2009; Countdown Challenge 2010
Yearly Count: 55

First Line: Homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant women in America.

I followed this case like nothing I had ever followed before or since. I was just absolutely obsessed with it. And yeah, I thought Peterson was guilty from pretty much day one. I don’t want to go into a lot of details of the case itself because anyone who was alive in America and paying the slightest bit of attention in 2002 after the disappearance of Laci to the end of 2005 that culminated with the guilty verdict and death sentence of Scott knows at least the basic facts of this case. All in all, I was like a lot of the American people, I fell in love with the young woman with the deep dimples who was excited to be having a baby boy in a few months. And I was outraged that her husband could possibly be responsible for killing her. To read the first line of this book that I quoted up above is absolutely sickening. Pregnancy is supposed to be the happiest time in a woman’s life. It’s really a miracle, a blessing. Having never been pregnant myself, I cannot imagine what it would feel like to carry a baby inside me. But I also cannot imagine the pain and hurt and betrayal that would accomany being murdered by your spouse either. But to know that you and your baby both were being murdered: unthinkable. There really isn’t nothing new in this book that anyone who paid attention to this case as it was unfolding wouldn’t already know. It was published before Scott Peterson went on trial for the murders of his wife and unborn son, so there is a huge chunk of the case not even covered in it. But I suppose if you want a pretty good description of the facts of the case, this would be a good choice. I have also read Laci by Michael Fleeman (last year I believe). I’m not sure which one would be the better choice, because the facts are the facts pretty much in this case. But if you’re a true crime fan, this is definitely a book and case that will prove to be interesting.

Pop Goes the Weasel
by James Patterson

Copyright: 1999
Pages: 461
Rating: 5/5
Read: Oct. 14-18, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge ; RYOB 2009
Yearly Count: 54

First Line: Geoffrey Shafer, dashingly outfitted in a single-breasted blue blazer, white shirt, striped tie, and narrow gray trousers from H. Huntsman & Sons, walked out of his town house at seven-thirty in the morning and climbed into a black Jaguar XJ12.

Alex Cross is back! In this installment of the Cross series, Alex is up against a guy that no one is looking for. Jane Does are being murdered in the Southeast. No one seems to care. No one seems to see a connection. Except for Alex Cross. He cares. He sees a connection with these Jane Does. He spends his off-duty time investigating these murders. But his supervisor pulls him off the case. There are more important cases in his opinion than a case that really doesn’t exist within the department. But when Alex’s fiancee is kidnapped, Alex doesn’t know what to do. As time goes on, he moves on. He dives right back into his work on the Jane Doe murder cases. He dubs the killer “The Weasel”. But when he finally catches up to the Weasel he gets the shock of a lifetime – the Weasel has diplomatic immunity. But instead of invoking his immunity, he waives it in order to try and beat Alex Cross. This puts Alex up against his most interesting character yet.

I just love this series! It is so much better than his Women’s Murder Club books are. This one was a really good installment though. It was full of twists and turns and I loved the character that Patterson created in Shafer aka The Weasel. I personally thought that he was a creepier villain than Gary Sonjei was. As a reader, I really felt Alex’s pain when his fiancee went missing. I really feel a connection with Cross’s character, and I just love his Nana’s character!! I look forward to getting around to the next one in this series to see how Alex’s relationship with Christine continues to develop. I highly recommend this series to anyone, and I felt like this was another strong book in the series.

A Bone to Pick
by Charlaine Harris

Copyright: 1995
Pages: 262
Rating: 4/5
Read: Oct. 10-13, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge ; RYOB 2009;
Yearly Count: 53

First Line: In less than a year, I went to three weddings and one funeral.

Roe Teagarden has had an interesting year. After her crime discussion group disbanded, it seems like life has been a roller coaster – with her personal life on a permanent downfall. But her life will be turned upside down when she is told that she has inherited everything that Jane Engle owned. Jane was a member of the abovementioned discussion group but it wasn’t like she was Roe’s best friend. So why would Jane leave her everything? Roe is unsure but she is impressed by the inheritance. But when she finds a skull in Jane’s window seat she is completely baffled. Knowing Jane, Roe is positive that she had not killed somebody, but why on earth would Jane Engle have a skull in her house? She finally realizes that Jane would have wanted Roe to figure out the puzzle that Jane left behind. But Roe begins to suspect that one of her new seemingly ordinary neighbors is a cold-blooded murderer.

I recently read the first in this series, Real Murders and was not very impressed overall. This one was a lot better. But my one main complaint is that halfway through the book it’s like the mystery part of the book was thrown out. On the positive side there was a lot of character development in this installment, but the actual murder mystery part of this book was kind of sporadic. Overall it’s a good story and it was a quick and enjoyable read, but I felt like there could have been a lot more to the actually mystery part of this book.

Mailbox Monday

Monday, Oct. 5
Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan by Ali Eteraz

Children of Dust is a searing memoir revealing the truth about militant Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan and the culture shock of moving to the U.S. Astonishingly honest, darkly comic, and beautifully told, Children of Dust is an extraordinary adventure that reveals the diversity of Islamic beliefs, the vastness of the Pakistani diaspora, and the very human search for home.

I received this book to review from FSB Associates. I usually don’t read books like this but for some reason the description of this book really drew me in and intrigued me. So I’ll give it a shot and see how it goes!

The Last Pope by Luis Miguel Rocha

Vatican City, 1978: On September 29, the world awakens to news of the shocking, sudden death of Pope John Paul I, elected only thirty-three days earlier. The Vatican’s official response: His Holiness died of unknown causes, “possibly associated with a heart attack.” The pope’s body is embalmed within twenty-four hours, preventing any possibility of an autopsy. London, 2006: Journalist Sarah Monteiro returns from vacation to find a mysterious envelope stuffed in her mailbox. Inside is a list of unfamiliar names and a coded message. At first, Sarah is merely puzzled by the strange delivery. But when a masked intruder breaks into her home, she knows that the list has put her in danger. Drawn into a vortex of hidden identity and double crosses, Sarah soon learns that the contents of the envelope hold th ekey to unveiling corruption beyond anythign she has ever investigated – a plot that implicates not only unscrupulous mercenaries and crooked politicians but also princes of the Church, and perhaps even her own family. Indeed, the appearance of the envelope brings to light a number of long-unanswered questions: What really happened during the brief reign of John Paul I? Whose plans were cut short that fatal night in September 1978? And who might have benefited from the pope’s sudden demise?

I received this one from my wish list on PBS. It sounds SOOOO good and I’m really looking forward to this one!!

Tuesday, Oct. 6
Iced by Carol Higgins Clark

P.I. Regan Reilly has high hopes for her Aspen vacation – such as meeting an unmarried man! But a mystery soon has the chic detective snooping rather than skiin. Million-dollar paintings have been disappearaing, and an old friend of Regan’s – a folksy ex-con named Eben Bean – has vanished too. Everyone except Regan believes Eben has gone bad … again. Her hunt to find him points to the families who founded this once frontier town, including a wild and wooly seventy-something lady harboring a shocking secret. Now as new snow blankets Aspen, Regan may be learning a new winter sport – trying to catch a killer while running for her life.

I’ve read the first two in this series and when I was offered a box on PBS and found this one on her shelf, I was happy to pick it up and get back to this series!

Twanged by Carol Higgins Clark

Sleuth Regan Reilly is hired as a bodyguard for singer Brigid O’Neill, a rising country star who has been receiving threatening “love notes.” Brigid also possesses a “magical” Irish fiddle said to be cursed – whoever takes it out of Ireland will have an accident or face death. Still, Brigid brings it to the Hamptons for a Fourth of July concert and Regan joins her. Chappy Tinka, heir to a thumbtack fortune, and his ditzy wife, Bettina, are their hosts at “Chappy’s Compound,” where a party guest is soon found floating facedown in the pool. Is the curse of the fiddle real? Is there a murderer in the house? As the concert nears, the menace grows, and Regan must discover the truth before some country tunes turn into a funeral march.

This was the second book that I picked for the box from PBS and the fourth in this series.

Thursday, Oct. 8
The Vanished Man by Jeffery Deaver

Forensic expert Lincoln Rhyme and his protegee Amelia Sachs are called in to work the high-profile investigation of a killer who seemingly disappeared into thin air just as the police closed in. As the homicidal illusionist baits them with grisly murders that grow more diabolical with each victim, Rhyme and Sachs must go behind the smoke and mirrors to prevent a horrific act of vengeance that could become the greatest vanishing act of all …

I have read the first book in this series and am looking forward to continuing on with it and found this one on another PBS’ers shelf for a box.

The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen

It is a boiling hot summer in Boston. Adding to the city’s woes is a series of shocking crimes in which wealthy men are made to watch while their wives are brutalized – a sadistic demand that ends in death. The pattern suggests one man: serial killer Warren Hoyt, recently put behind bars. Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires. At least that’s what Detective Jane Rizzoli thinks. Forced to reconfront the killer who scarred her – literally and figuratively – she is determined to finally end Hoyt’s awful influence. But this time around, the vendetta is more vicious than she ever would have imagined.

I recently read The Surgeon and found this one for the abovementioned box because I’m looking forward to continuing with this series.

Shiver by Lisa Jackson

A serial killer is turning the Big Easy into his personal playground. The victims are killed in pairs – no connection, no apparent motive, no real clues. It’s a very sick game, and it’s only just begun. Abby Chastain left New Orleans long ago and for good reason. Now she’s back where she feels watched, as if the devil himself is scraping a fingernail along her spine. It doesn’t help that Detective Reuben Montoya is convinced she’s somehow the key to unlocking these horrible crimes – a mystery that has something to do with Our Lady of Virtues Mental Hospital, a decaying old asylum where unspeakable crimes were once committed, and a human predator may still wait. As more bodies are found in gruesome, staged scenarios, Montoya and Abby are in a desperate race to stop a killer whose terrifying crimes are bringing them even nearer to a shocking revelation. For the past is never completely gone. Its sins must be avenged. And a twisted psychopath is getting close enough to make them … Shiver.

This was the third and final book that I chose for the PBS box. I really enjoy Lisa Jackson’s books and am always on the lookout for more of her books and was pleased to see this one available to try out.