Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Agnes Crandall is having a tough day. She just accidentally killed a man trying to kidnap her bloodhound Rhett by whacking his head with her non-stick skillet. She's a chef, a food columnist and a cookbook author and apparently the object of a hit. Did I mention she had lousy luck with me. That is lousy, until the hitman showed up.



This bright and charming romance has just what you want in escapist literature: humor, romance, hot sex, great characters, and an involved plot. While wild and crazy, it all works together and meshes creating an atmosphere of nuttiness that is compulsively readable. You won't want to put it down or even eat (although the food descriptions, especially of the pecan sour cream pancakes, will have your mouth watering).



I highly recommend this fun and hearty romance.


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Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! The fourth book is here and I couldn't wait one day for it to be delivered to my library and even though I shouldn't have spent the money, I bought it!!!!



Oh...it is sooooooooo good. I might just read it again to make me happy again for a few hours. Briggs has created a cast of characters that make my heart ache with their interactions and interplay. They are flawed but caring. They make mistakes, but grow and learn. This series just keeps getting better and better. Werewolves, vampires, the Fay. You name it and it gets thrown in to the mix. But in a way that fits, that works and makes sense.



Mercy is on the bad side of Marsilia and leaves town to help out a friend and get out of target range. Unfortunately, she lands in the fire...but are you really surprized? More vampires and definitely more Adam!



I am going to reread the whole series because it is just that good. And as a librarian with stacks and stacks of books to read, I really don't reread books, ever! If you like a good story, real characters and a strong plot this book has it all.


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The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
This book was a recommendation for our book club and I have to say it is one of the only books for that group that I think is poorly written. What I was told I would be reading is a funny book about a clash between the health teacher at a school and the local fundamentalist Christian group. I was expecting a collision of ideas, morality, education, parents v. teachers, community standards. What I got was something else completely.



It started off with the health teacher and it seemed to be progressing into something interesting in spite of characters that seemed a bit wooden and more of a caricature (the two gay guys). Then it split off into a story about the soccer coach who is a former rock and roller and former drug addict who is now born again and is trying to be a good Chrisian promise keeper. What was disturbing was the not so subtle contempt that Perrotta has for Christians. On page 82 he describes how the pastor is trying to set him up with one of his young parishoners and says "Unlike most of the single women who worshipped at the Tabernacle, she was young and reasonably cute..." Man. It's little digs like that that tell you he has a huge ax to grind. I have no love lost between me and promise keepers and as a librarian I am fully for banned books and the freedom to read. However, I feel like Perrotta had an opportunity to really portray a community and evoke some controversy and debate and intellectual discussion and he took the easy way out. The easy and slimy way.



The book made me feel dirty. The characters were gross, behaved badly and made decisions that overall were disgusting. Ultimately it had nothing to do with the original story. It lost its focus and its moral high ground and nothing can redeem it. I don't recommend this to anyone.


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Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls by Matt Ruff

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have to be honoest and say that this book deals with multiple personality disorders and it is beautifully written. It is realistically written and the pain that the two main characters have to go through, the traumatic events that lead to the splitting of their souls is so wrenching and affecting that I couldn't finish the book. I just couldn't take it. But I will remember this book for a long time. It was recommended by a very good friend (an AP English teacher) who usually reads chick lit and has a very different genre that she gravitates towards. I had recommended Bad Monkeys (another of Ruff's books) and she enjoyed it. Her husband, who does read and enjoy the same books as I do (urband fantasy, sci-fi), loved this book as well. She was sure if she and her husband both loved it, that I would as well.



I do think it is a gorgeous book. But I have gotten to that stage, where I can't go through some painful stories. If you can handle it though, I highly recommend giving this book a try.


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Running Hot by Jayne Ann Krentz

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Krentz is usually a good bet for a fun, escapist read that blends humor and romance. This entry into her paranormal series (the Arcane Society) does that, but it is a bit flat. The book seems very thin, the characters sketched out in just enough detail. In fact, the whole book seems just enough....just enough detail, just enough plot, just enough romance. The chapters seem too short and abrupt and the paranormal aspect of the book seems a bit silly. I love her victorian romances and they seem to have a bit more heft and depth. If you have a free couple of hours and just want a bit of fluff, this is the book for you.


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The Ghost in Love: A Novel by Jonathan Carroll

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love this book. It started when I read the recommendation for the book from one of Nancy Pearl's columns where she quoted from page 171 "A man, a dog, and two understandably disgruntled women were walking down a sidewalk. One woman was a ghost, the man should have been dead, the dog was the reincarnation of the should-have-been-dead's girlfriend, and the last, the tall woman, was an innocent bystander who had the bad fortune of loving two of the others." HOw can you not fall in love with a book where the writing is so lovely and quirky and the story so strange and compelling?



It starts off with a bang and and it just keeps the pace at full throttle. It is a bit of a fantasy novel, love story, dog story, philosophical musing. It is a bit of all of those things and yet the whole is much more. It is an entrancing read. Enjoyable down to the last drop. So much so, that you slow down as you approach the end of the book, hoping that perhaps you can make this one last just a bit longer.



And I do look at my dog differently. After all, dogs can see ghosts and ghosts can speak dog. But then I always knew that. Didn't you? Read the book.


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Child of a Dead God by Barb Hendee

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Child of a Dead God is the sixth book in The Noble Dead series by Barb and J.C. Hendee. This fantasy series that follows Magiere (a Dhampir, who is a cross breed of several different races) and Leesil (her lover who is a half breed elf, Chap (one of the majay-hi in a wolf-like body, although I see him as more of a big fuzzy siberean husky sort) and Wynn, a mage, finds the group with elf protectors trying to get south in order to recover an artifact that EVERYONE wants.



Of course the oily vampire bad guy Welstiel is still around and Chane too. There is much Tolkienesque traveling, walking, hiking, traveling by foot, on horse, in boat, traveling, traveling, traveling, hardship, hardship. Please! I put the book down several times just to get to something more exciting. I kept picking it back up because I genuinely like these characters.



The problem with the book seems to be that there isn't a focus on developing the relationship any more. They seem stuck and static. The descriptions and dialogues don't move us to a greater understanding of their motivation. So it was sad to read this book in a way because while it marked a major end for some characters, it didn't mark an end of the series and I think it should have. They should have built more time coming up with steamy scenes between Leesil and Magiere or tender scenes or loving scenes....anything! We needed more depth and feeling for these characters if we are going to follow them on to more exploits. For me, this was a good end to the series, even if that is wasn't the authors intended.


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Hooked on Murder: A Crochet Mystery by Betty Hechtman

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
If you want a perfectly lovely, cozy murder mystery on the level of a MacMillan and Wife TV episode, then Hooked on Murder is your cup of tea. Molly is a 40-something widow who is working in a bookstore running the events schedule. She is also the one who set up the Tarzana Hookers crochet club to begin meeting in the bookstore. So when the fouding Tarzana Hooker ends up dead, found by Molly, and Molly becomes the main suspect, of course she is going to learn how to crochet and become an amateur sleuth.



It is a pleasant read, lots of red herrings, but there is a little something missing for me: depth. As a crocheter, I did laugh at the knitters who slammed crochet and got their wrists slapped. That all rang true, but I wanted to know more about the characters. Why were Dinah and Molly friends? Why won't Molly commit? There were sparks with her and Barry, but not like Morelli and Stephanie (The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovitch). The lawyer at the end seems to provide an intriguing chance at a love triangle, but Molly seems too sad and confused to really carry it off. Perhaps giving her only a year after her husband's death was not enough time. There need to be more emotional connections, more small, graphic details and not just descriptions of what people are wearing. Adele is annoying, but in a two-dimensional way. She has a moment with Molly when it really seems we are about to see into her in a more detailed way, but Hechtman takes the easy road by having Adele go back to her usual self at the end of the conversation. When Dinah is in the yarn store and finds herself with a bag of yarn she just bought and doesn't understand why, it is easy for the author to have Adele say that all crocheters find them selves buying yarn all the time. But it didn't really describe that sense of longing for the yarn, so the touch and texture and being drawn to that particular shade and knowing that somewhere there is a pattern out there that you will use to create the perfect gift or the perfect scarf or the perfect, whatever. That sense of yarn addiction was missing. And if it is a crochet murder mystery, the yarn addiction is going to need to get more pronounced.



There is a lot to like about this series, and if you want just a cozy mystery, this will do just fine.


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Kissing in Manhattan by David Schickler

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
At first, I was unsure whether I would like this book as I tend to enjoy novels more than short stories. But this book is a bit of odd duck. It is a collection of short stories, but they all intertwine; characters from one story show up in the next and they are tied together by the Preemption Apartment building where the main characters live.



You get a real Sex in the City feel for the first story, but there is a character mentioned, James Branch, who is dining alone and repeating the name of his entree outloud to himself. Something about that one small mention made James stand out for me and so when he popped up again in a charming magical realism story about a pair of opal earrings, I was hooked. James, for me, is the overriding reason to read the book. He is kind and compassionate, although at the end his compassion is a bit hard to comprehend. He is the one you root for, one of those very sweet men that you know if they will just come out of their shell a bit, and if some woman would just give them a moment of their time, magic would happen, love would happen.



Some of the stories stand on their own, and others definitely need to lean on their fellow chapters. Regardless, this is a lovely and well-written book that is a delight to read. And while the negative comments of some of my book club members were that the women are weak and the men are too demanding, I think James Branch silences those quibbles. James and the woman he ends up with (name not given so as not to spoil the book) redeem that dark quality in other stories and bring it all to a hopeful end.


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The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Enchantress of Florence is a crazy book. Rushdie has a big brain is not averse to letting you know it by throwing all sorts of bits of trivia and taking you on intellectual historical and philosophical rants that eventually turn back to the main storyline. There is a 1001 Nights feel to this book as it is a collection of stories, not in the sense of short stories, but because the man in the coat of multicolored leather lozenges is a male Scheherazade telling stories to Emperor Akbar. The Mogor dell'Amore has a tremendously powerful story to tell. One that will win him everything. Yet Akbar himself is a powerful enchantor. My favorite character is the splendid wife he dreams into being from the force of his desire. She becomes real, the other wives hate her and the whole city knows that she is his true love. So I was bit disappointed at the ending and what ultimately happens to her.



Rushdie is a brilliant writer and like Bill Clinton, who will take an oratorical rant on a tangent for 40 mintues and then tie it all up and bring it back to his orginal main point, Rusdie does get back to the main point, Akbar and Mogor dell'Amore and Qara Koz. My only quibble is that sometimes it seems that Rusdie is so in love with the sound of a sentence or the idea of something crazy that he forces it into the book whether or not it makes sense. Portions of the book are like sensational sound bites, that would be amazing little shorts on youtube or in a quick sidebar in the New Yorker, but seem forced in the grand sweep of the book.



In spite of that, the book is a grand story. It is also a pleasant read and a perfect read before bedtime. Because there is always a new character or story taking place and it is easy to read a few chapters before bed and not have to worry about losing your place. The language is beautiful and grand and takes you off to the enchanted land.


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Beanies Are Art

I was browsing around in Ravelry and happened on some amazing freeform crocheters who have done some incredible designs. One in particular, Renate Kirkpatrick, is doing some incredible things including a fabulous Dahlia (free pattern at her blog), that could go on a beanie....when I was browsing through some of her projects, I noticed that she had a snood and some beanies for the Alice Springs Beanie Festival, the official website is here. What a cool festival to attend. Not only do you get to see some fabulous artists and their work, but you can get a hat to rival Aretha Franklin's! In fact, the official website has a book of beanies and some free patterns to download. Since beanies are the world's happiest hats, I think we should all consider crocheting up some happy beanies! Or at least take a look at some world class hats and smile.

Books on Your Phone!

Wow! I just can't believe it. I saw a tweet from Just One More Book about Google coming out with a mobile phone app that allows you to read public domain books on your phone. The Google booksearch blog calls it 1.5 million books in your pocket. I just grabbed The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells and started reading. Totally wicked cool.

However, there is another alternative and that is the Stanza app for your Iphone. Anthony Ha over at Venture Beat says that Amazon should be worried about this app as it may seriously affect Kindle sales. Personally, I have told my husband to buy me a Kindle (when it first came out), sent it back after more study. Then in Oct., a friend got one and raved about it, so again, I asked for it for Christmas 2008. But when I learned that the Kindle 2.0 is coming out (apparently Feb. 9, 2009 according to Venture Beat), I told him to cancel the order.

I love my Iphone. I really, really do. And I just downloaded Stanza and have the google book reader on my safari page....so why pay for a Kindle?