|
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 1,114
Top Banana
|
OP
Top Banana
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 1,114 |
1. Bad Monkey, by Carl Hiaasen
Andrew Yancy--late of the Miami Police, soon-to-be-late of the Key West Police--has a human arm in his freezer. There's a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, his commander might relieve him of Health Inspector duties, aka Roach Patrol. But first Yancy will negotiate an ever-surprising course of events--from the Keys to Miami to a Bahamian out island--with a crew of equally ever-surprising characters, including: the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; an avariciously idiotic real estate developer; a voodoo witch whose lovers are blinded-unto-death by her particularly peculiar charms; Yancy's new love, a kinky medical examiner; and the eponymous Bad Monkey, who earns his place among Hiaasen's greatest characters with hilariously wicked aplomb.
This book was entertaining, though not as laugh-out-loud funny as some of Hiaasen's earlier books. Andrew Yancy is a character with promise, though -- he's obnoxious (in a likable way). The descriptions of Health Inspector duties may put you off restaurants, though.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#1 Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion. Aelin Galathynius’s journey from slave to king’s assassin to the queen of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts across her world. . A satisfying conclusion to a well written series.
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 438
Beat Reporter
|
Beat Reporter
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 438 |
#1 Soul of the dragon by Kyle Higgins
the most legendary power ranger ever, Doctor Tommy Oliver, is called out of retirement when his son JJ gets missing. He needs to power up one more time to save his son.
* once a Lois and Clark fan, always a Lois and Clark fan *
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 741 Likes: 2
Columnist
|
Columnist
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 741 Likes: 2 |
#1 Anne of Green Gables by Lucy M. Montgomery #2 Anne of Avonlea by Lucy M. Montgomery
A bachelor brother and spinster sister living on Prince Edward Island try to adopt a boy to help on their farm but get a girl, Anne, by mistake.
My wife recommended Anne of Green Gables and I was very pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I am not the target audience but the story is a good mix of plot, humor and vivid "poetical" descriptions of the island that kept it interesting and made me get the next book. (Though to be honest, her descriptions of the landscape would have made this a hard read if I didn't live in a place equally beautiful.)
Shallowford
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 438
Beat Reporter
|
Beat Reporter
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 438 |
#2 Black Dragon, perfect match story by Jason David Frank, auteurs: Tiffany Kai and Stephen Angelos.
Matt is a 14-year-old boy with autism who want to learn martial arts, he is bullied by his stepfather, who owns a Dojo and doesn't want to learn him the arts, and his stepbrother. Until he finds a fighting master in the school's janitor, who had an alcohol problem, together they learn the pad of trust and learn from each other. I really enjoyed the book.
* once a Lois and Clark fan, always a Lois and Clark fan *
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 1,114
Top Banana
|
OP
Top Banana
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 1,114 |
2. Strip Tease, by Carl Hiaasen
Murder, politics, and G-strings collide in this caper from the bestselling author of Tourist Season. Hilarity and chaos break out in a strip joint when a bachelor party gets out of hand, making the drunken guest of honor a threat to "big money" and "big government."
This book was funny, with Hiaasen's classic weird, "only-in-Florida" characters. Much better than the Demi Moore movie based on the book.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
|
|
|
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 492
Beat Reporter
|
Beat Reporter
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 492 |
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer by Sydney Padua
A mix of alternate universe (Babbage actually finished the engine) and together they fight crime. A musing graphic novel and a large set of references for the research the author did so she would be accurate. Wonderful diagrams of how the analytical engine would have worked.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#2 The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.
By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. Good book.
Last edited by scifiJoan; 01/24/19 03:35 PM.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#3 Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
Sequel to Beartown. A good read. Not as completely as engaging as the first book, but still enjoyable.
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 1,114
Top Banana
|
OP
Top Banana
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 1,114 |
3. Cross Justice, by James Patterson
For Alex Cross, the toughest cases hit close to home -- and in this deadly thrill ride, he's trying to solve the most personal mystery of his life. When his cousin is accused of a heinous crime, Alex Cross returns to his North Carolina hometown for the first time in over three decades. As he tries to prove his cousin's innocence in a town where everyone seems to be on the take, Cross unearths a family secret that forces him to question everything he's ever known. Chasing a ghost he believed was long dead, Cross gets pulled into a case that has local cops scratching their heads and needing his help: a grisly string of socialite murders. Now he's hot on the trail of both a brutal killer, and the truth about his own past -- and the answers he finds might be fatal.
This is actually the first Alex Cross book I've read, although there are several available in the library I run. The characters are well fleshed out, and the story keeps you reading. I think I will try more of the books from this series.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#4 The Whip by Karen Kondazian
Inspired by the true story of a woman, Charlotte "Charley" Parkhurst who lived most of her extraordinary life as a man in the old west.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#5 The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”
It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. Interesting YA supernatural thriller. My daughter loved it and got me to try it out. Very entertaining. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#6 Waiting for Eden by Elliot AckermanEden Malcom lies in a bed, unable to move or to speak, imprisoned in his own mind. His wife Mary spends every day on the sofa in his hospital room. He has never even met their young daughter. And he will never again see the friend and fellow soldier who didn't make it back home--and who narrates the novel. Looking at other people's reviews of this book, I just didn't get it. It claimed to be about the quality of life. And to me it just seemed obvious that this poor man had none of this left. It seemed cruel to keep him alive.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#7 The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefwater #2 in the Raven Cycle Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after… Although this book is told from the POV of one of the characters that I don't like as well, there are some interesting developments.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#8 In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson he time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. This book was saved by the fact that it was based on actual people. Otherwise, it seemed to dwell on minor details and was a bit dull.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#9 Improvement by Joan Silber
The novel starts out about Reyna and her unconventional aunt. We get to know them then suddenly we're following other characters. These characters were so flawed there was a lot of room for "improvement". I didn't see any over the course of the story.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#10 Lily Blue, Blue Lily by Maggie Stiefvater Third in The Raven Cycle series. Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.
The trick with found things, though, is how easily they can be lost. This writer does a nice job of focusing on a different character's POV for each installment of the series.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#11 All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung icole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From early childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parents had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hopes of giving her a better life; that forever feeling slightly out of place was simply her fate as a transracial adoptee. But as she grew up—facing prejudice her adoptive family couldn’t see, finding her identity as an Asian American and a writer, becoming ever more curious about where she came from—she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth.
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#12 The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
Final chapter of the The Raven Cycle
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1
Merriwether
|
Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,724 Likes: 1 |
#13 News of the World by Paulette Jiles In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.
|
|
|
|