The Breathtaker by Alice Blanchard

Die Trying by Lee Child

I find that I like reading technical details about things like handguns. I skimmed over some of that stuff but hey, if a question ever arises about whether I should choose a Glock 17 over a Baretta, I'll have my answer. I thought the name looked familiar and I looked through my own books and I actually own the book Killing Time, which I am reading now. I also have Echo Burning from the library and checking out Amazon.com I find that there are 8 books total that feature Jack Reacher.

To read them in order they would be:

Killing Floor
Die Trying
Tripwire
Running Blind
Echo Burning
Without Fail
Persuader
The Enemy

Keeping Watch by Laurie R. King

Finding the review here jogged my memory. It was a great book, I especially liked it because of the Vietnam connections with the character.

The Dark House by John Sedgewick

Sort of interesting hobby, a very voyeuristic hobby, of the main character is why I picked this book up. Our main character, Rollins, likes to follow people in their cars. He wonders about their real life as he notes their characteristics and driving habits. He thinks he's very covert about what he's doing but he ends up finding out that isn't the case. A long dead murder, family betrayal and death. Lots of unexpected turns. It was all right.

Third Victim, The Survivor's Club and The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner

I'm really enjoying each book. Very gripping, easy to finish but with lots of good forensic/criminology details. And excellent character developement. If you're looking for some good authors of crime thrillers, add Lisa Gardner to your list.

Check out Ms. Gardner's website.

Cujo by Stephen King

I had managed to never read this book before now.

The Face by Dean Koontz

A bit disappointing. I keep finding myself saying that about his books. I'm getting leary in even wanting to check out his stuff anymore, they are such fluff, no good solid characters, wasted words in trying to describe things that just aren't that important to the story.

The Taking by Dean Koontz

The Bottoms by Joe R. Landsdale

Great character voice for Harry. Enough detail to raise the hairs on the back of your neck when you're reading but not over the top gory. Which, just from reading the reviews on amazon.com, this is not how he normally writes. It's good though and I'd recommend it if you like mystery/thriller stuff. Set in east Texas.

The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill

I finally finished this last night. It took me a few weeks to finish because of the math class I'm taking right now. It was a good book and an interesting story.

I feel like I'm missing a punchline on it though. I mean, there is little/no explanation about how things came to be in the story and I like knowing those types of details. I mean, how the hell does a Minotaur end up being a part of the society? How does it become accepted for half-men/half-bulls to walk around and work in restaurants?

Maybe that is supposed to be part of the charm of the book. That it dives in and just goes like it's an every day thing. The characters are some of the most 3D and interesting that I've read about in a book in a long time. This definitely gets an A+ for character development. I liked it.

Camouflage by Joe Haldeman

Something different, that's what I figured on when I picked up this Science Fiction book written by Joe Haldeman. That's what I got, too.

Something a little different with a good beat and a good ending. It's not a thick book and it didn't take forever to get through which is key right now because of my crappy attention span. I loved the character development. If you're looking for some good sci fi that doesn't make you memorize a new world and 50 billion new people and participants, this is for you.

Bitter Earth by Brenda McFadden

Which is the continuation of Sugar Lacey's story by Brenda McFadden

Dreaming The Eagle is the first in a book of 3 about the live of Boudica, The Warrior Queen.

It spans the lifetime of Breaca, the Celtic Queen.

House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

I have seen this book listed on many people's "Favorite Books" lists and finally decided to check it out myself. It's a very short novel and it's written with short chapters, some chapters are only a paragraph or two in length. Described as "vignettes" by some. I find it very interesting that she wrote this book in order to fulfill the teaching fellowship of some sort...it's mentioned in the notes at the beginning of the book. I'll have to look them up when I get home. Here's some author information on Sandra Cisneros.

The book was not what I expected (I expected a fiction novel) but it's larger than what you can see. She gives you these little pieces of stories but there is so much more going on underneath the words than what's immediately apparent. It's like an iceberg.

Edited later to add: The inside reads: "The volume is made possible through a publication grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency. The volume is a product of the work Ms. Cisneros completed as a National Endowment for the Arts Felllow.

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier

I finished this book very quickly and while I don't think I can ever get used to using "plow" as a euphemism for "have sex", it was a very enjoyable read.

Ms. Chevalier tells a good story though and her characters are very full and believable.

The Lady and the Unicorn are tapestries and this book tells the "story" behind the tapestries and how they came to be.

I watched the DVD of "The Girl With the Pearl Earring" on Sunday and was quite taken with it. Enough so that I went out and picked up the book to read as well as her "Lady" book.

The Valley of Light : A Novel by Terry Kay

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Light of Falling Stars by J. Robert Lennon

The aftermath of a plane crash. Life's toll on everyone. Very weary and dark but with moments that make you understand why people keep on pushing through and living this life stuff.

Nature, Science, Animals

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

It's been an interesting read but I haven't loved it as much as I'd have liked. I'm almost finished with it.

Code Green: Money-Driven Hospitals and the Dismantling of Nursing

It makes me start rethinking career choices I'm getting ready to make. Coupled with volunteering and seeing the bullshit first hand that the nurses have to deal with....I'm a bit concerned.

The Bipolar Child by Demitri Papolos, M.D., and Janice Papolos

On Being Bipolar and Having A Bipolar Child

After a manic episode by my 15 year old son, in that he was arrested and luckily, not charged with stealing and riding around in a family member's car, he was placed in a mental facility overnight because he had become a danger to himself (he had a gun with him in the car and claims he was thinking about killing himself) and others, we found out that he is Bipolar. My family life has never been that stable so I am very familiar with many dysfunctional disorders: manic-depressives, alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic violence, depression.

The Bipolar label was a new one for me. I had heard of it but had no idea what it entailed, how it was treated, what the symptoms were and what were we supposed to do now. Our son's counselor recommended that we read, The Bipolar Child by Demitri Papolos, M.D., and Janice Papolos. I'm glad that we took her suggestion. It bills itself as "The Definitive and Reassuring Guide to Childhood's Most Misunderstood Disorder." That's a pretty tall description but one that is true. It is definitive and it is reassuring but reassuring in a way that isn't a pat on the hand and "there, there, it'll be all right" kind. It's reassuring in telling you that yes, this is one of the craziest things you'll ever have to deal with and yes, it's going to seem like the end of the world BUT. There is hope. There are things you can do, ways you can prepare and the best way is to educate yourself and pay attention to the signs that your kid sends out. KNOW THINE ENEMY.

Recommendation: If your child or you have received a previous diagnosis of ADHD or manic-depressive or just depression, make sure you have your Doctor rule out Bipolar disorder BEFORE passing along the tag of ADHD. I went into a lot of detail why here in a journal entry and have given some pertinent quotes out of the book.

This book is a light in the dark.

Biographies, Autobiographies & Commentary

Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles

I think Beth mentioned that she picked this book up and I am a fan of military/war/personal memoirs and picked it up.

Back about 8 years ago, I was around a bunch of Marine's all the time. A member of a family with some cousins stationed nearby at Lejune. They introduced me to a lot of things, some being zip lining across the yard, strung between two trees and also drop rappelling out of the top of a big ass sycamore tree, I have THAT on videotape as proof.

What Swofford writes, the actions and how they (being Marine's) are, it brings back a lot of memories.

Jeff, Pearl, Little Jimmy, Tommy.... a few others. That was a good year, a year I came out of a shit marriage with Nathan and found a lot of myself under all the crap. I'm not sure but I think at least Jeff was old enough to have been in Desert Storm and I remember someone talking about it but my memory also has bad gaps in it....I don't know.

Back to the book: The part that sticks in my head so far is about when Swofford writes about getting that iron on decal and what it meant to him and how his Mother reacted. I can still hear Jeff and Eden joking back and forth and all the guys saying shit like, Semper Fi Motherfucker!

That was a crazy time.

Blindsided : Lifting a Life Above Illness: A Reluctant Memoir

I just finished the memoir of Richard Cohen, who has MS.

Miscellaneous

The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea

Undocumented Entrants

Living in North Carolina for the past 12 years makes me very familiar with the illegal immigrants and migrant worker's situations.

I've worked with some, gone to school with others and know of so many in the schools my kids attend.

Sometimes, I am very sad about their situations, just trying to work and make a dollar like the rest of us and other times they make me so mad. I can see all sides of all arguments made against them being here and for them being here.

It's very confusing and conflicting. There are many things they bring that I am against. Like fighting roosters. I think it one of the most sickening things and I drive by so many houses that have 20-30 cages in their yards. Little tiny cages that these poor birds are stuffed in when not fighting and frankly, that pisses me off.

But they are some of the hardest working people I've ever seen. Working in the hottest heat, picking up sweet potato after sweet potato. Picking cucumbers by the acres, picking and planting tobacco. Back breaking labor, day after day after day. You NEVER see white boys out in the fields. They are the guys sitting up in the air conditioned tractor cabs.

But.

Never before I read The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, did I really, REALLY think of what it took for them to get here, out of their homelands to the UUEE. Never did I truly understand the prices they have paid in money and risk.

My husband has worked with more illegals than I have for extended periods of time due to the nature of his job. Since I'm no longer in the same type of profession and am now working at an English speaking newspaper, owned privately by a native North Carolinian family, I don't have as much exposure on a day to day basis and feel very removed from it all.

The Devil's Highway tells a haunting story of exactly what prices were paid, in lives and horrifying experiences, of 26 Mexican men that tried to cross over into the United States.

The author, Luis Alberto Urrea, writes the story of Yuma 14, the story of Wellton 26, in gut wrenching details. I dare you to read the passages where he gives a graphic description of what dying of hyperthermia does to a human body, without grimacing and being damn grateful for every swallow of water and cold cola readily available to you.

I dare you to read this book ifyou think you are such a badass that you can make it through the desert without any problems.

Mr. Urrea gives an account of such humanity that I will never be able to look at any migrant worker without understanding just what he/she may have had to endure to get here to our precious United States.

I admire work that can show such compassion as that of Rita Vargas and the other people working toward more humane borders. That is a life well lived. An example for all of us.

Thank you Mr. Urrea for an incredible book.

~~~~~~~~

Check out Luis Alberto Urrea's personal web site, he even has a weblog.

I also found another review of this book with tons of excellent links and commentary at Sensory Overload.

Internal Bleeding : The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes by Robert Wachter (Author), Kaveh Shojania (Author)

Code Green: Money-Driven Hospitals and the Dismantling of Nursingby Dana Beth Weinberg, Suzanne Gordon (Foreword)

From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public
by Bernice Buresh, Suzanne Gordon, Mary Ellen Jeans (Afterword), Patricia Benner

SKELETONS ON THE ZAHARA by Dean King is a spectacular odyssey through the extremes.

Kate Martinelli stories by Laurie R. King

A Grave Talent
To Play the Fool
With Child
Night Work

The House on Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros

The above came from reading the reviews here by Deb English (scroll towards the middle).

I've also got some requests out to my library and am waiting on The Blindness and The Cave both by Jose Saramago.

Also, An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison

Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw

From Publishers Weekly
Set during an uneasy, second-century alliance between the marauding, scalp-taking Slavic Samartians and the Roman empire, Bradshaw's fifth historical novel (after Horses of Heaven) is a vivid, atmospheric work that follows the Samartian prince Ariantes and his cavalry troops to Britain, where they are to serve under Roman command. When Ariantes discovers that some of the Samartians plan to support a Druidical uprising against the provincial government by the British queen Bodica, he forms an alliance with the newly emergent Christian sect in order to foil the plot?while saving his life and the lives of his loyal troops. Fluidly written, well researched and luxuriant with colorful authentic detail, this fact-based chronicle of a proud tribe of legendary horsemen and their gradual assimilation by the empire will engage readers with an interest in the history either of Rome or of its most exotic outposts.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

I'm reading a series of books that focus on Bodica (Dreaming The Eagle by Manda Scott, Dreaming The Red Bull), and this book seems to focus on the opposite side of the story, for the Romans.

I find that I am never a fan of the big guy and always prefer to read from the point of view of the little guys. Especially, when it centers on a woman. I also am very sympathetic to those being "pushed" out of their own homelands.

Fucking conquerors, just can't share.

Check this link out later. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/16201/ref=br_dp__3/102-1816631-6554527

From A Common Reader

Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason by Jessica Warner

Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean

On August 5th, 1949, fifteen smokejumpers stepped out of an aircraft above a forest fire in Montana; only three lived to tell what happened next. An unforgettable tragedy, by the author of A River Runs Through It.

The Cheese and the Worms
Carlo Ginzburg

All was chaos, that is, earth, air, water, and fire were mixed together; and out of that bulk a mass formed — just as cheese is made out of milk — and worms appeared in it, and these were the angels.

Trial records of the Inquisition show that in 1599 Domenico Scandella, a miller known as Menocchio, advanced an unorthodox theory (excerpted above) of the origin of the universe. That the world arose out of putrefaction was a seriously heretical idea of course (in 1601 Menocchio was burned at the stake), but also one which suggests “an astonishing convergence between the ideas of an unknown miller of the Friuli and those of the most refined and informed intellectual groups of his day.” Carlo Ginzburg ingeniously reconstructs the surprisingly complex intellectual world of an unusual 16th-century peasant.

Down the Great Unknown
John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery & Tragedy through the Grand Canyon by Edward Dolnick

“Unexplored.” As recently as 1869, that's how maps described an immense portion of the American Southwest. It was “an area as large as any state in the Union, as large as any country in Europe,” and it finally began to yield its secrets thanks to a ragtag expedition led by the one-armed John Wesley Powell. “His plan,” writes Edward Dolnick, “such as it was, took audacity to the brink of lunacy.” In Dolnick's telling, Powell's “journey of discovery and tragedy through the Grand Canyon” makes for a stunning American adventure story. With 16 pages of illustrations.

The Light That Failed by Rudyard Kipling

One of Kipling's early novels, this is the story of a journalist haunted by his wartime past and the injury that robs him of everything he holds dear.

Nature in the Eye of the Beholder by David Quammen

I'm not really the hang-gliding, rock-climbing, river-rafting type, so I've never felt inclined to pick up a copy of Outside magazine. I've only recently discovered that by not doing so I've been depriving myself of some very fine writing on the subjects of natural history, travel, and adventure — including the monthly column which David Quammen contributed for fifteen years. This selection of twenty-five of Quammen's pieces (each about ten pages long) drove home what I've been missing: whether his subject is a snake farm in Texas or the legacy of the trilobites, Quammen is informative, thoughtful, and often laugh-out-loud funny.

Blurbs from A Common Reader.

Coyote Cowgirl by Kim Antieau

Review by SF here.

Links To Check Out

North Coast Cafe

I like this site: North Coast Cafe. He reads interesting books and has good commentary in his blog.

The View from the Foothills

New Authors To Try Out

Manda Scott
Her series:

Dreaming the Eagle
Dreaming the Bull

Recommended in the TUS Mystery Lovers thread.

Elizabeth Sims

Her Lillian Byrd series: Holy Hell and Damn Straight.

Mo Hayder

Birdman, The Treatment and her new one due out, Tokyo.

Found by recommendation at Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind.

booklog by uncapitalized

Paired Readings: She describes this as, "I use the term to mean two good novels or stories which are interesting explorations of different variations on a major element (plot, theme, or structure). I tend to find them rather than look for them: I put down one novel, think it over for a while, and realize, "Hey, that reminds me of...". "

I love that idea. Very interesting concept.

From reading notes:

This site has excellent book reviews:.

Books I want to read just from the reviews:

Elephantoms by Lyall Watson

The Trouble With Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predicament by Robert M. Sapolsky

The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead

A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

The Ice Beneath You by Christian Bauman

Emporium: stories by Adam Johnson

\from Virtual Marginalia

Books I want to read because of reviews at Virtual Marginalia:

Spirits of the Ordinary: A Tale of Casas Grandes by Kathleen Alcala

She also did a review of the book (The Bottoms) by Joe Lansdale that I have sitting at my house waiting for me to read. I almost returned it to the library, unread, but decided to give it a go.

From a review at BookGirl's nightstand:

Virgin Territory: Stories from the Road to Womanhood by CATHY ALTER

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