Thursday, June 18, 2009

Catching up on Books

I am still working on my book resolution. okay, not so much the reading of Dean Koontz, but more the reading of Stuart Woods.

I picked up Chiefs: A Novel (25th Anniversary Edition) at the library*, and I was right. It is a fabulous book. Definitely one I would recommend. I also picked up Shoot Him If He Runs (Stone Barrington) at the library. This is one of the novels by Stuart Woods that I have been tempted to buy, but didn't want to in case is wasn't up to par. While it was no where near the level of Chiefs, it was definitely better than Hot Mahogany. I still need to read Loitering with Intent and Mounting Fears to be caught up with all his new novels, plus Hothouse Orchid will be out in September. (For those who may be counting, that's FOUR novels released in one year.**)


Three books that I did not pick up at the library are the novels by Marshall Karp. I won a signed copy of Karp's third novel Flipping Out from Beth, which meant I really needed to read the first two books so that . . . well I'm just a bit nuts that way, so I purchased The Rabbit Factory and Bloodthirsty from Amazon, which only made sense, because if they were as good as Chris reported they were, then I really was going to want them in my collection and the library didn't have them, I checked. So The Rabbit Factory was excellent - funny, well plotted, great characters. And even though there are reportedly over 200 uses of the F-word, you don't really notice so much because the book is over 600 pages. Bloodthirsty was also a good read, but I was left a little unimpressed with Flipping Out. As the story wrapped up I felt a bit lost as to how Lomax and Biggs had figured it all out. The story also felt a bit flat, with out the great details and humor that had made The Rabbit Factory so enjoyable. Karp is working on a fourth installment which I cannot wait to read.


I also recently read The Mephisto Club (Jane Rizzoli, Book 6) by Tess Gerritsen. I am really enjoying her books. (And not really feeling the need to read them in order, I'm a little late to the party for that.) This one was intriguing with good characters and a very unexpected twist. I will definitely keep Tess on my reading list.

And lastly, my most recent read (just finished it this afternoon), Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter. I won this book over at It's Not All Mary Poppins a few weeks ago. This is a story of a single-by-choice mom who is trying to figure out how to have everything she wants and be the mother her daughter wants her to be without losing herself. I enjoyed this story but felt like the end was a bit rushed. I will be adding Jane Porter to my list for the library.



*As an aside, I'm doing somewhat better about going to the library for books rather than buying everything I want to read. I did buy The Navigator (The Numa Files) by Clive Cussler at the store because it was on the bargain table and really $7 for a hardback book that I'll be able to read at least twice before I remember I'll remember half of the plot.

** For those who may think I'm just picking on Stuart Woods, yes, I know that Clive Cussler has has four books being released this year, but 1) he has co-authors and 2) the quality has not deteriorated as drastically.

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