7 Months In

We're wrapping up July, and that means it's time for me to update my book list.

You see, I have an Excel file that has all the books I've read in the last 3 years. Broken down and catalogued in my own special way, it includes a yearly list of what I've read. From there, each year is broken down by month.

As it's almost midnight, signaling the change from July to August, I thought I'd add up all the numbers for the month (especially since I just finished a book).

I read 19 books this month. That puts me at a grand total of 121 so far this year.

It's the third longest list, the first coming in April (Spring Break, 21) and the second in March (No clue, 20).

So there you go.

Where The River Ends

There are certain books that I know I'm going to need to clear a couple hours out of my day, sit down, and just read. I can't pick it up and put it down, I can't read for an hour, then have to go to work. It'll drive me crazy, wanting to know what happened.

I have to admit, I've worked that into my schedule for Breaking Dawn. But on Friday, when the copy of Where the River Ends by Charles Martin came in, I knew I couldn't start it right then. After all, I was in the middle of The Killing Dance and had just picked up Faithful. And I had a lot to do and a party to attend. So I couldn't start reading it, not until at least today.

So I did. When I woke up this morning, it's what I read.

It takes place in Georgia and Florida, right along the border, on a river mostly. Doss is an artist, and Abbie is a debutante. Not a couple that you'd ever expect to get together, but they fall in love after he saves her. They spend the first ten years of the marriage happy. She's decorating, he's painting.

Then they find that Abbie has breast cancer, and it all spirals out of control from there. As time goes on, and they fight an unwinnable battle, the despair becomes apparent.

But as a last wish, Abbie wants Doss to take her back down the river, back to where they had their honeymoon. It's a harrowing tale, with stalkers, national news coverage, and they go through 3 boats, finally finishing the journey on a log. But they make it.

It's told with a back-and-forth style, one chapter in the present (the trip down the river), and the next chronicling their lives up to that point.

Martin writes with his usual depth, making me wish that I not only could go to this part of Georgia, but that men like Doss actually existed somewhere.

While I saw some of the same threads working through this novel that I've seen in others (the nickname Band-Aid, for instance, or the dying wife), it was still amazing.

It touches you in a place that is impossible to see, and just as impossible not to feel. It takes a lot to read, going through pages on the history of the river, or some ambiguous church, but the real story, the human story, makes it worthwhile.

Somethings are worth waiting for, and Martin's stories are ones I've always found worthwhile.

It takes about a year to get it out in paperback, so I'm going to have to keep requesting it. Sigh...

Oh. Right.

Stripped

I'm trying to read Stripped by Brian Freeman.

The key word here is trying.

I'm 70 pages in, and I just don't care. I should...I really should. It's about 3 cops, two who are in love and working different cases (Serena and Stride), and Stride's partner, Amanda the transvestite.

Serena is working the hit-and-run of a kid, while Stride and Amanda are working the murder of a tabloid celebrity.

The plot is interesting...by the writing just doesn't grab me. I don't care about Stride's homesickness for Missouri, I don't care about Serena's hidden deep dark secret, even Amanda makes a bad tranny. I don't care about the celebrity or the kid. I don't even care that it takes place in Vegas. All that means is that the people in the story have excuses to screw around and act like morons.

It seems good...I just can't get through it.

Chasing Fireflies

Charles Martin, the author of the book Chasing Fireflies is one of those writers I adore. His books are poignant, sad, and redemptive. The characters are real, the deal with real problems and don't always find the easiest solutions.

In Chasing Fireflies a man, Chase, lives with his foster family, but is haunted by two things. The first is who his father is, and why he gave him up. The second is why his Uncle Willee (the man who is the male half of his foster "parents") took the blame for a number of crimes that he never committed.

Chase is a reporter, and when a young mute boy is found by a railroad track, he takes that time to tell the world about what it's like to be an orphan, through Sketch's eyes.

When his best friend / "cousin" comes home from LA, Chase's world unravels as he slowly learns more about Willee then he ever thought he could know.

I love this book. From Tommye to Sketch to Chase, the characters are so believable that I want to move to swamp-land Georgia just to meet them. If anyone is wondering where my Southern obsession comes from, this author's books don't hurt it at all.

The revelations and the pure human emotion that comes through make you laugh, cry, and gasp, but finally leave a smile on your face.

And you really want to see Chase walk into that meeting wearing his jeans, a t-shirt, and flip-flops.

What You See

Do you have a character you can just see? One person that you read, and you can see them, hear them, watch them do whatever it is the author is having them do?

I'm not that kind of person. I think in words. There are very few characters I can give you an adequate physical description of, mostly because I'm not paying that much attention. The superlatives they use may stick out, only because of their ridiculousness, but I often don't have a clue.

For the longest time, I thought that Anita Blake (written by Laurell K. Hamilton) was a blond with straight hair, and I couldn't figure out why she had to look up to everyone (she's short. Like, 5'2 short, not 5'6 almost average short).

I have almost no mental image of Edward Cullen. Pale, I've got that much. Eyes that change color. But hair? Muscle tone? Not a clue. Bella either. She's shorter than Edward, and pale, but not as pale. That's all I've got. Rosalie is blond...I have no idea about Alice or Esme or any of the other Cullen males.

The only character I can for sure tell you about is Eve Dallas, and Roarke (from Nora Robert's In Death series). Eve is medium height with brown hair and brown eyes. Not too pale, and she has a dent in her chin. Roarke is tall, blue eyes, nice mouth, and black hair.

But then again, I've read all of those books multiple times. So it makes sense that I can remember them.

I'm more likely to be able to tell you about the details of the book then the details of the character. Just a quirk, I guess.

But it makes me wonder...do other people really see images when they read? You read a battle scene, or a love scene, or a scene where they're staring at a body, and do they really see the images in their head? Because I see the word, the sentences, the paragraphs, the pages, but I don't see the images.

What You Hear

So, I've read all of the Odd Thomas novels by Dean Koontz. Well, all except the latest, which I'm having trouble getting through.

I was on Bookgasm, and when the latest came out they read it and blogged about it.

The article wasn't that nice, saying that all the Odd Thomas novels are pretty much the same (which I don't believe), and just the scenery changes.

Sure, Odd goes from Pico Mundo to the monastery to where ever the current book is, but they're not all the same.

But I pick this one up, and it seems...trite. Elvis moved on, now Frank Sinatra is haunting Odd. He goes into town to visit a woman, and he winds up running from the bad guys.

It's not that it's the same. It's that the quirky things that made up the first book, and even most of the second book, are no longer just quirky things. Now, they're the heart and soul of the book.

In the first, it was Odd's love for Stormy. He was writing the book because otherwise, he'd die of despair.

Now I don't know why Odd is supposed to be writing. It's cathartic, maybe?

The Miracle Strip

Oh, the play on words here is amazing. I just finished The Miracle Strip by Nancy Bartholomew.

Let me just say, I picked it up because I found it on one of those similar authors lists. If you like ___________ (Janet Evanovich, in this case), you might also like _________ (Nancy Bartholomew).

The Miracle Strip stars a stripper in Panama City names Sierra Lavotini. She is working at her club when the bartender's dog goes missing. After that, the dead bodies keep piling up.

The major recommendation that seems to go with this book is the dialogue. Everyone who reviewed it has said that the dialogue is spot on. Well, I'll give you that it sounds like the stereotypical stripper who barely graduated high school, but Sierra seems like she should be smarter than that.

The grammar isn't right, and at some points just seems like that for the fix. Not because that's how Sierra talks.

The mystery is good, though the interest in the cop is a little odd, and the flashbacks that Sierra has is written...well, it's just kind of weird.

Not exactly laugh out loud funny, but it does have it's entertaining moments.

Like the cowboy who's really...

Well, I'll just let you read the book to figure it out.

From Dead to Worse

I just finished the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel, From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris.

It's a Southern Vampire mystery. The books are interesting. Sookie Stackhouse is a barmaid in rural Louisiana who is also a telepath. In this world, vampires are out in public, and Sookie discovers that she can't hear their thoughts.

This one is well into the series, and you really need to read all the other books before you can read this one. You'd just miss too much without knowing the back story.

It was okay, but it seemed like she reached the end somewhere in the middle of the story. It had all the things that make these books sparkle. Emotional trauma? Check. Big bad fight scene? Check. Family and friend drama? Check check check.

None of it tied together all that well, and Sookie seems to be turning into an Anita Blake, which makes me a little sad. Sookie was always so refreshing.

But, it's worth reading, if only to finally see Bob turned back into a human and for Erik to get all his memories back.

Eclipse

In case you don't read my other blog, I really like the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.

Twilight is my favorite (so far...), with Eclipse as a close second and New Moon lagging behind in third.

So I just re-read Eclipse and really enjoyed it. I mean, it's a little trite and the dialogue is a little unbelievable sometimes, but still.

The love in the story is just...amazing. And the devotion?

It seems a little crazy, but I really like them.

A Bit of a Letdown

I was reading High Noon by Nora Roberts again. Let's not talk about how many times that makes.

Anyway, there's something I noticed.

After a certain level of popularity, authors seem to forget about their readers. Just getting the next book out seems more important than the actual story.

Nora Roberts can be like that. So can Janet Evanovich.

High Noon was good. It was quick, and more than in the summer-read kind of way. There was just a lot, shoved into not enough space.

Sorry guys. I liked it just fine, but it didn't rock my world.

3 snowflakes, ladies and gentlemen.

It's Been A While

Before you start singing the song, let me explain.

The last post was a link off of my other blog, The Sardonic Girl. I was posting about this emo blog I have, and tricked everyone into visiting this one. So much for that.

So, I'm here to review books again. Here's the problem. I re-read books. A lot. So it's not like I'm reading something new every time I read a book.

But this time I did, and it was really...poignant.

I read The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell. Iris Lockhart is living her life, and dating a married man when she finds out that her great aunt is being released from a near by asylum. The catch? She never knew she had a great aunt.

The book is sad. It goes back and forth between Esme, Iris, and Kitty (Esme's sister). Esme bounces back and forth between her memories growing up, real time with Iris, and some in the asylum. Iris is confused by the new addition in her life, and is trying to face her childhood sweetheart (and ex-step-brother) Alex. Kitty now has Alzheimer's.

Iris is very easy to follow (once you figure out that she's the one talking), Esme is a little harder because of the bouncing, and Kitty is almost impossible because of the disease.

But the way the story unfolds...it's amazing. Well written, a twist that's almost impossible to see coming until it's revealed, and a sadness so deep it almost radiates from the book.