Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt and much, much more

Open and Shut
Copyright 2002
Warner Books
Fiction - 292 pages

My childhood is filled with great memories, in fact, great ones are the only memories I have. I talked to a shrink about it, and we pretty much agreed that unpleasant things must have happened when I was growing up, but that I had just repressed them. I asked him how long I could go on repressing them, and he said maybe forever. That worked for me, so I left therapy before I could blow it and get in touch with my true feelings.

Before I start chattering about this book, I have to tell you that SuziQ at Blogging My Books reviewed Open and Shut, here. It was her wonderful review that piqued my interest. I told her it sounded like the kind of legal thriller I love to read, the kind with a sense of humor. Suzi assured me that I would enjoy it as it also lacked blood and guts. I trust Suzi and the book was readily available through Paperback Swap, so I ordered a copy. And, I did absolutely love it. This is the quote that really grabbed me, in Suzi's review:

The only sports Nicole tolerates are sports cars, and occasionally sports shirts. It was a problem in our marriage. One time I planted myself on the couch and watched football for so long that she came over and watered me. Tara licked it off my face and I didn't miss a single play.

That quote was, I thought, reminiscent of Harlan Coben (who is quoted on the cover - Suzi mentioned that) and I love a good legal mystery with a sense of humor. Lisa Scottoline's early novels are also favorites of mine.

Open and Shut is the story of an irreverent, wise-cracking lawyer asked to defend a man who has long since been convicted of murder and sentenced to death. His retrial is based on a minor technicality and the case should be open and shut as there was an eyewitness and plenty of incriminating evidence. Willie Miller appears to be guilty as sin. However, as lawyer Andy Carpenter begins to prepare Willie's defense, it becomes obvious that the circumstances surrounding the murder were not what they seemed.

There's a lot more to the story than just a murder mystery and a legal defense process. Andy has a lot going on in his life: loss, danger, unearthing of a family secret, the reappearance of the wife who left him (at a most inconvenient time). The story is perfectly paced, gripping, funny and surprising. Rosenfelt even handled se* scenes just the way I like:

"I had forgotten about you," she says.
"What?"
"You never shut up."
With that, she prepares to shut me up, except for an occasional moan. She does a really good job of it, but hell, somebody had to.
I have a great night's sleep, which carries right through the usually effective wake-up call planted in my brain.

Perfect. Se* is, in my humble opinion, seldom integral to plot and a waste of time. It's obvious that there was a coupling, but just a few sentences were enough to portray the encounter and skim right past, back to the meat of the story. I appreciated both the lack of graphic se* and the absence of grisly detail about the murder. There's obviously some necessary description, but it was not nightmare-inducing. I enjoyed every minute of reading Open and Shut. In fact, I'm still paying for my inability to put the book down until finishing. The rest of his books will be added to my wish list.

5/5 - gripping, funny, often surprising

Yesterday was a whopper. I should be back to regular posting, now that the husband has been safely shipped off to Italy. He had one heck of a long day with a delay that caused him to miss his international flight by 15 minutes, hours and hours on standby, a storm that temporarily diverted incoming flights, etc. Last I heard, the spouse had arrived and located one of his two bags. He's probably lucky that part of his luggage showed up. And, maybe I should count my blessings that I didn't manage to accompany him.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . or, anyway, back in Jackson . . . the kiddo and I managed to hear a raptor expert who spoke at the Natural Science Museum. Here he is with a small red-tail hawk:


We also dropped by Borders, where we happened across an incredible sale - a wide variety of remaindered books were marked down to $3.99 and $5.99. I was particularly excited to find a copy of The Birth House by Ami McKay, which has been positively reviewed all over the bloggy world. You can imagine my excitement when I got to the cash register and the books marked $3.99 rang up $1.99, while those labeled $5.99 came up $2.99. I got The Birth House for $2.99!!! And, a lot of other books. I am going to be in so much trouble when the spouse returns. I'd better start reading faster.

After Borders and the Natural Science Museum, we headed to the north side of town to stop for reinforcement (food) and then over to Barnes & Noble.

Here's where things got embarrassing. I wandered around Barnes & Noble for about 20 minutes, mostly waiting for the youngster (certified book nut - must spend time in bookstores or he will crumble). I wandered over to the recommended reads because Book Nook Les mentioned her excitement over the choice of The Book Thief as a monthly selection and I love the book so much that I wanted to see it in a prominent place. I was floating along, looking at the recommended reads and then turned around to see that friends from my former writing group (which I'm about to rejoin) were sitting at a table, having a book signing. They'd been betting on how long it would take me to notice them for . . . well, ages. Of course, it was terrific to see them and I ran out to the car to grab the camera. Here they are:

Left to right: Delores Fossen, Melanie Atkins and Rickey Mallory, who also writes as Mallory Kane. I don't really know Delores, but she's written for Harlequin's former Flip Side line and I think she's now writing for Harlequin Intrigue (romantic suspense). Melanie writes romantic crime and paranormal and Rickey has published a large number of Harlequin Intrigue books and one of my all-time favorite sci-fi/time travel stories. I'll post links to their websites in my sidebar, later on. I nabbed a copy of Melanie's book Truth or Dare. Her books can be pretty intense and I was fortunate that she just happened to have a scary-but-not-gruesome paranormal book on hand for the signing. Fun!!

I was totally zonked, last night, but my new little poppet traveled with us to Jackson (where her drawstrings fell off - guess I'll have to find her a new traveling bag) and I posed her in various spots at the Natural Science Museum. Since I'm having such a grand time dragging my tiny toy around and posing her, I decided to give her a blog of her own with SuziQ's The Adventures of Pirate Bendy as my inspiration. You can follow Poppet's adventures at Poppet's Magnificent Traveling Adventures. I've posted 7 photos and will add more, soon, as well as a link in my sidebar.

Best kid news of the week: Youngster was inducted into Beta Club for making the A/B honor roll - very nice thing for college applications. And, while waiting for him at poolside, the pool manager - who taught the Red Cross Lifesaving Course kiddo recently finished - told me she was disappointed that, at 15, he's not old enough to hire. She said my son was her best student, great at "absolutely everything". Cool. And, it's always nice to know that your child has both an employable skill and the ability to restart someone's heart.

Coming up: A sticky sign-up post for a Rises the Night drawing. I was so tired, last night, that I actually can't remember what I read before falling asleep. I'll have to look around and see if I dropped any books on the floor. Sometimes when I'm tired, I make my family giggle.

Did I tell you my lily bloomed the day after I posted a photo of the buds for Wahoo Wednesday? Here it is:

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas!!!

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Capt. Ted W. Lawson

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo - 50th anniversary printing (2002)
Pocket Star Books
Nonfiction (Military memoir)
274 pages

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is the memoir of a U.S. Army pilot who took part in the "Doolittle Raid," a secret mission to attack the heart of Japan and boost the morale of U.S. residents after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor and a string of Allied defeats in the Pacific. There's an excellent article about the mission at Wikipedia, which I highly recommend, as well as a brief article about the author, Capt. Ted Lawson. In general, the mission involved the bombing of key military targets in five different Japanese cities and the army planes, heavily modified, were launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. Captain Lawson was among those who bombed known targets in Tokyo and describes the months of planning, training, memorizing of maps and photos, work on the planes and time spent on the aircraft carrier.

The mission itself was quite brief, as the title indicates, and a success from a strictly military standpoint. But, the escape of each plane to China was a difficult one, and the plan to launch within a specific distance of Japan was thwarted when the Hornet was spotted nearly 200 miles before the carrier had reached the pilots' intended launch site.

Lawson describes the entire story of the mission, beginning with how and why he ended up flying an army bomber (the Ruptured Duck) and volunteering for a dangerous mission so secret that even the pilots didn't know where they were headed until they reached the aircraft carrier. The story is gripping and harrowing. I flipped through it in the store and read a bit of a spoiler about Lawson's injuries, but if you look at any website with his name in it you'll find the information is readily available and it doesn't spoil the reading in any way.

I think I may have heard reference to the raid, but it's not a story I had any working knowledge about. Lawson's writing is what I would call direct - not written with the flair of Audie Murphy's To Hell and Back, which I reviewed here, certainly more simplistic, but with plenty of impact. I enjoyed it and, as always, found it amazing reading about the horrors experienced during a time of war. I did think that Lawson's story was told with a whiny tone, by comparison with Murphy's, but it's still well worth reading and a very good, definitely gripping account.

4/5

I'll be back soon

My husband is in town only briefly, then he'll be taking off for Italy (without me, yes), tomorrow. Since he's only home for the day, we're scrambling to accomplish a long list of tasks that simply cannot wait until his return. I've finished another book, Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt and loved it - couldn't put it down, in fact, and I have a bit of a reading hangover. As soon as I have a few minutes, I'll write up reviews of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Open and Shut. I'll return as soon as possible, tonight if I can and Sunday at the latest. Thanks for visiting me!!!

Update: Just taking a few minutes off and I've gotten my lovely Poppet (thanks to Chris). I took her on a tour. She nearly got sniffed to death.

Back later!

Wahoo! Wednesday

Yesterday was a terrific day full of natural beauty. Today, the hawks have been taunting me (just as they get almost close enough to snap, they swoop away - meanies). That's okay. I think yesterday's wonders were great enough to have a lasting after-effect.

This week's list of things I think are worth saying "Wahoo!" about:

1. My newest little pile of books (in the front).

Top to bottom:
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell
Plane Insanity by Elliott Hester
Photography by Tom Ang
Gah, too tired to type that title - the Audubon Insect Guide (I hate looking at bugs, but it's informative and our only bookstore didn't have a butterfly guide)
The Next Century by David Halberstam
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
Ticket to Tomorrow by Carol Cox
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Frangipani by Celestine Vaite
. . . The Secret Lives of People in Love just happened to be sitting there; it's not new (but I loved it).

They're totally out of order. Several came from Paperback Swap, one from the library sale (the Halberstam), and I bought the photography book a while back but forgot to mention it. Ticket to Tomorrow is a book I won at Callapidder Days in one of Katrina's wonderful drawings. In case you're wondering, I plunked the books in front of another pile so you could have fun squinting at more books in the background, although you can click on the photo to see a larger image.

2. Remember me?
I grew and grew and now this is what I look like. I'm about to bloom:


3. On the fence and looking for love (a green anole lizard):


5. Pretties. I'm thankful for pretties.

6. I still haven't killed my orchid!!! Can you believe it? Over a month and I have two last buds about to bloom. Now, I just have to locate my orchid book so I can find out what you do to keep them alive when they're not blooming.

Happy Wednesday from Bookfool!

Foreign Fruit by Jojo Moyes and other jazz

Foreign Fruit
Coronet
Fiction
483 pages (Chunkster!)

'Henry, you're being deliberately obtuse. I'm sure Guy's family are perfectly fine. I just think . . . his upbringing sounds . . . a little unusual, that's all.'

'Susan, he's a fine young man. He has no tics, no obvious deformities, his father is extremely wealthy, and he wants to take our troublesome young flibbertigibbet off our hands. As far as I'm concerned he could have been brought up playing the bongo drums and eating human heads.'

Mrs. Holden hadn't known whether to laugh or be appalled. It was so hard to gauge Henry's sense of humour sometimes.

On the Wednesday, however, Ellie's run of unusually amenable behaviour came to an abrupt end. She woke at a quarter to five and refused to be put back to sleep so that by nine Daisy was cross-eyed with exhaustion, and at a loss as to how to keep her fractious infant happy. It rained, dark, load-bearing clouds scudded across the sky, leaving them confined to the house, the shrubs outside bowing under the weight of the wind. Below them, the sea churned, murky grey and restless, a forbidding vista designed to quell any romantic illusions about the British coastline.

*Warning: I'm going to gush about this book. I just am. You have been warned.*

Foreign Fruit is a tale of two loves, fifty years apart. Set mostly in a coastal English town called Merham (with small bits in London), the story begins in the 1950s. Merham is a small village where everyone knows everyone else's business and all are expected to know their place. Lottie Swift is a former evacuee who has grown up with the Holden family, returning to live with them after her mother showed little interest in keeping her when WWII ended. She and Celia Holden are best friends - Lottie a subdued young lady who helps out around the house and watches the younger children, Celia a wilder, more carefree girl.

On the edge of a cliff in Merham sits a sprawling Art Deco house called Arcadia, which has been uninhabited for many years. When a group of bohemians move in, the local citizens are suspicious of their behavior. But, Lottie and Celia are drawn to the house and its mysterious blend of inhabitants. Their arrival in Merham stirs up the sleepy town and leads to a series of events that will not be forgotten.

Fast-forward to present day London, where Daisy Parsons is left to fend for herself when her boyfriend, Daniel, decides he can't cope with the unexpected stress of parenting and disappears. Worn out and fast depleting her funds, Daisy is forced to make some major changes in her life and heads to Merham to take on the task of decorating Arcadia, which has been sold to a club owner and is in need of major renovation. As Daisy adjusts to her new life as a single parent, her path crosses that of a feisty elderly Merham resident and their lives become intertwined in unexpected ways.

The cover blurb on this book is extremely vague and as I read Foreign Fruit it became apparent why there was little detail. There's a deliberate intermingling of the two stories set 50 years apart; and, to say much at all would potentially give away some of the surprises. So, let me say this . . . I usually dislike saga-oriented books. I loved this book. Often, the characters tire me when a book is long and detailed. I thought every detail was necessary or fitting and didn't want to say "goodbye" to the characters in Foreign Fruit. As I closed the book, I thought, "This is the first time I think I've ever been able to look at a cover and rattle off the names of the people pictured. Lottie, Celia, Adeline, Frances, Daisy and Camille." Six women shown only as skirts and shoes - and every one made such an impression on me that they're still with me several days after I closed the book. And, yet, everything was beautifully and perfectly wrapped up so that I didn't feel like the story needed to go on any further.

The writing itself is not what I would call brilliant, but stunning craftsmanship is worthless without a great story and the story totally swept me away. See, I told you I was going to gush. I don't even remember if there was any graphic se*. Weird! If there was, even that must not have gone on beyond what I considered necessary. There was one portion that jarred me. When the first section ends and the reader is thrown 50 years into the future, it's somewhat abrupt. There was suddenly a whole new set of characters to adjust to; it took me a while before I began to untangle things and enjoy myself as the author spilled the past into the present. When she did, I smiled and sometimes caught my breath . . . twice, my eyes filled with tears. The story flowed quickly and certainly did not feel like a long read.

My only other complaint - and that for which I must deduct half a point - is that the author used one event as an obvious device and then dropped it: in this case, a severe arm injury that was described as extraordinarily painful (requiring stitches and painkillers). And yet, somehow, the character, Daisy, was immediately able to haul her baby around with her arm in a sling without any complaint or explanation as to how she coped. Very irritating and the only time I felt that I, as a reader, was yanked from the flow.

4.5/5 - sometimes sweet, occasionally funny, and moving women's fiction

Just finished: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Capt. Ted W. Lawson (WWII memoir) and it was gripping. I'll try to get to that review, tomorrow, but . . .

I've got so much to do. Ever feel totally overwhelmed by all the things to be done around your home, all the tasks people expect you to do and trying to balance the necessary, boring adult crap with the creative endeavors that are tugging at you? Well, honestly, I ditched a lot of that necessary stuff, today. I can't get out of picking up my child from school and hauling him to his two swim practices but I can delay moving the laundry to the dryer and vacuuming the floor. And, honestly, I just had to because . . .

Brown apparently makes excellent camouflage. While I was outdoors - specifically, hauling the trash cans in from the curb because it was garbage day - I discovered that the wildlife was ignoring me. I've been trying to make myself invisible for weeks and, suddenly, a lizard was displaying in front of me, a brown thrasher (which I've recently learned to identify - my guide says they're related to mockingbirds but more "retiring and secretive") was chirping loudly in the brush beside our driveway and neither was disturbed by my presence in the slightest. I'm guessing it's because I was wearing neck-to-ankles brown. I ran to get the camera and snapped away. The lighting was perfect. It should have been Wahoo Tuesday. Still, I worked hard to get this photo:

Loading that photo onto the computer was like opening a Christmas present. The brown thrasher chirp is almost a bark and this fellow's little beak moved so lightning-fast that it took quite a number of frames before I managed to capture him with his mouth open. Isn't he beautiful?

I think I'll take a photo of my latest acquisitions, tomorrow, rather than list them. I've gotten a pretty little pile of used books from Paperback Swap, this week, and I splurged on an insect-identification guide, today.

I've officially reached my Chunkster Challenge goal to read 4 books in 6 months. At least, I think that's what my goal was. But, I'm going to continue. The most important book on that list is still Great Expectations. I'm determined to read a Dickens before the end of June.

I suppose I should move that load of wet laundry, now. Hope everyone else had a terrific Tuesday!

A Spoonful of Humor by Henry L. Lefevre and a load of the usual babble

A Spoonful of Humor
BookSurge Publishing
Nonfiction
83 pages

"Never venture outside in your skivvies, and never go anywhere without a good book." That's what my mother told me and mother knew best.
--From "Waiting"

"People have bosses," said Gramps. "Chickens have a 'pecking order'. Bosses and pecking orders are the same thing."
--From "Who's Boss?"

Before I launch into the review, I've got to share a little bit of background. A few years ago, I sporadically attended two writing groups that met about an hour's drive from us - only occasionally, because my car was aging and it had become unreliable enough that I didn't feel comfortable leaving town if my husband was traveling. And, he traveled constantly. Even if I did make it to Jackson, as soon as the meeting was over I'd have to turn around and drive the 55 miles back home immediately in order to ensure that I was back in plenty of time to sit in line and wait for my child to exit his school. It was such a nuisance that I didn't attend very often.

When a wonderful old raconteur by the name of Tex asked me if I'd be willing to read over his memoirs at one of those meetings, I said I would love to. But, thanks to the car problems and mothering obligations, I didn't return to the writers' group for several months. By the time I returned, Tex had had a heart attack and died. I will never see his memoirs.

Henry Lefevre is an octogenarian, just like Tex. He's the friend of a friend and asked if I'd be willing to read his book. The story of Tex is the real reason I immediately said, "Yes! I'd love to!" Henry couldn't possibly know that, nor the fact that I have a fondness for older men. They've seen a lot and they tend to have a fantastic way of looking at life, with humor and levity. I love that. I just love that.

A Spoonful of Humor definitely has that laid-back point of view I adore. It's a slightly hodge-podge collection, sometimes tongue-in-cheek and other times reflective. The first essay, for example, tells about one of the author's experiences during the early months of World War II, when the biggest problem faced by GIs stationed in Florida was black panthers roaming the swamps. "Black Panther Crisis" describes his experience on guard duty, as he and the other guards frightened off the local critters, endangering their own hides every bit as much as they threatened the wildlife, possibly more. Anyone who reads my blog regularly probably already can guess why that one was a favorite. (Hint: love of memoirs, WWII, wildlife).

In other essays, Henry talks about the hazards of traveling with a bad back, the trouble with Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), the generation gap, and life as a latch-key kid in the 1930s (among other topics). My absolute, hands-down favorite is "Dumb Ants", the story of how Henry and his brother John got into even bigger trouble at home after being grounded for exploring a nearby canyon their father had declared off-limits. It is absolutely hilarious. Having raised two boys, I was certainly counting my blessings when I reached the end of "Dumb Ants".

Bibliophiles will find themselves nodding along to Henry's thoughts as they read "Waiting", an essay about the joy of reading books to fill time spent waiting in line or sitting in doctors' or lawyers' offices.

At 83 pages, I should have whipped through A Spoonful of Humor in no time. Anyone want to hazard a guess why it took me closer to 10 days to read? You'll love this. I couldn't find the Post-it notes or the book darts. There were so many cute one-liners that I wanted to mark, I just couldn't bear to go on reading until I'd located one or the other.

4/5 - Sarcastic, witty, and fun

Coming up next: A review of Foreign Fruit by Jojo Moyes, another book that required a decent supply of sticky, removable pieces of paper.

Currently reading: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Capt. Ted Lawson (love those war memoirs!) and The Next Century by David Halberstam (very interesting). I've also just begun Pressed Pennies by Steven Manchester. Hopefully, I'll find the time to put those books in my sidebar soon, but I've been away from the computer because . . .

Oh, no! We decided to replace some of the ugly old particle-board shelves we've had for an eternity. You know, the kind you get when you're young and broke? We bought a narrow cabinet and moved the shelves, only to discover that a portion of the wall the spouse patched up after fixing a broken pipe apparently still had a minor water leak. The wallboard was heavily molded. Come to think of it, maybe that explains the frequency of my migraines; according to my allergist, I'm allergic to "every kind of mold God makes." That wall just happened to be perpendicular to my computer table, so I had to dodge chunks of plaster to get to the computer until I finally got everything swept up, about an hour ago. And, now I have a big hole in the wall. But, that's better than a big splodge of moldy wall-board.

You don't need to know this, but my legs keep going numb when I sit at the computer for any length of time (usually about 30 minutes is enough). I think I need to ditch the dining-room chair and get something a wee bit softer.

Recent screw-up: I dropped by the library sale corner.

Cool find: Inside one of the books I told myself I was definitely not going to buy (even at a quarter each) because I wasn't going to even go near that library sale corner . . . riiiight . . . a recipe for PB & J Muffins. You just never know what you'll find in a used book.

And, another cool thing: Sorry Andi. I'm supposed to contact author Simon Van Booy to interview him for Estella's Revenge, but I had a migraine for several days and put it off. I'm a blithering idiot when my head hurts. Since I found that recipe card, I've been occasionally flipping through other used books as I moved them, this afternoon. Inside one was a card with exactly one word on it, in handwriting that looked very much like my dearly departed grandmother's: "Simon". That's all. Just "Simon". What a bizarre and spooky little reminder. By the way, you should definitely look at Simon's website to see if he'll be touring in your area. And, if you do get a chance to see him, please take your camera. I'm hoping he'll wear that totally hoopty suit.

The hazards of being married to an engineer: While taking a break from cleaning up the mold disaster, hubby and I sat on the couch and chatted. He stood up, I screamed. The reason? The spouse had a mechanical pencil in the pocket of his shorts and as he rose, the tip dragged across my kneecap. After a minute of watching my knee bleed, I sent the husband off to fetch my first aid kit and he promised to try real hard not to keep pencils in his pockets. We both know that's not going to happen, but it's really sweet of him to try.

And, another thing . . . It's apparently not Mother's Day. But, my husband thought it was, so I got a nice little box of chocolates and the movie Music and Lyrics (wahoo!) a week early. At first, I was somewhat horrified because if today was Mother's Day, that meant I messed up. All right! One more week to get that gift into Mom's mailbox. Thank you to God and husbands who don't bother to read the calendar.

The legs are numb, now, so I've got to go.

Smiles from Bookfool

Rises the Night by Colleen Gleason

Rises the Night (Book 2 of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles)
Signet paperback
Fiction
Release date: June 5, 2007
334 pages

He walked over and picked up Kritanu's matching machete. "Learning to fence, are you?"

"The skill is called ankathari, and it is much more lethal than a Frenchman's pretty fencing pirouettes and parries. Notice the inflexibility and width of the blade. Our weapons are much more serious than those slender, bendable ones you use."

"Oho! So you wish to challenge me to a duel, do you? I am pleased to accept." He swung the sword, whistling it through the air, then put it aside as he stripped off his coat and cravat. [Victoria] tried not to notice as he unsnagged the two buttons of his collar and rolled up his sleeves, showing skin tanned the color of toffee.

I was quite surprised when I read The Rest Falls Away, the first of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles by our delightful fellow blogger, Colleen Gleason. Vampires? I'm so not into vampires. Romance is okay and I love action, but se* and gore are turn-offs. And, yet, when I saw the book at my local bookstore I bought it with barely a second thought because Colleen is really nice. I support nice authors. The Rest Falls Away was not what I expected at all - not a book full of ugliness and neck-biting evil. Instead it was a tremendously fun blend of action, romance, adventure and Colleen's own unique take on vampires, set in Regency England. I particularly loved the historical setting, the characters and the action.

Having enjoyed the first book so much, reading the second was a no-brainer. So, it was a thrill to receive an advanced reader copy of Rises the Night.

In Rises the Night, heroine Victoria returns. In the year since Victoria became a Venator - a powerful vampire slayer - she has learned some hard lessons and experienced tremendous loss. Now, her grief still present, it is time to put her skills back to use and resume her place in society. Her return to social life, however, leads her to an unexpected discovery. A secret organization is coming to power in Italy and the son of vampire leader Lilith is planning to activate a dangerous artifact that will enable him to unleash horror of an unfathomable magnitude.

Determined to prevent tragedy, Victoria travels to Italy and goes undercover to unravel the secrets of the Tutela and it's fearsome vampire leader. Will Victoria be able to stop the evil Nedas in time? And what, pray tell, has become of her fellow Venator, Maximillian - who disappeared after their battle with Lillith - and that handsome man of dubious integrity, Sebastian Vioget?

Oh, questions, questions. If you're worried that the second book won't be as fun as the first, forget it. No problem. Rises the Night is loaded with exciting action scenes and tense, hold-your-breath moments. Colleen has a tremendous skill for blending adventure with subtle romance, fun dialogue and historical detail. The book is absolutely gripping and I have to admit that I particularly love the way Sebastian's character continues to come into question. He's so freaking slick! I adore the characters.

There are a couple of se* scenes which I skimmed, as always, along with a few gory, violent scenes (which you have to expect with vampires). Otherwise, loads of fun.

4.5/5 - Excellent reading, fun and adventurous with fantastic characterization

I've mentioned that I'll be giving away a copy of Rises the Night. Booklogged is currently having a drawing for a copy and her drawing will be held on May 15. I'm going to hold mine later to stagger things a bit (May 25) but it will be the same deal - whoever wins will receive a copy directly from the author so that she can inscribe the book. I'll put up a sticky sign-up post in a few days. I completely agree with Booklogged about the categorization of Rises the Night. It really is more heavily action-adventure/paranormal than romance and the cover is beautiful but I truly hope it doesn't turn off those who avoid romance.

Coming up next: A review of A Spoonful of Humor by Henry L. Lefevre

I have been loving the response to my recent "What do you think?" question, so I'm definitely going to throw in a question when it comes to mind - maybe make it a regular feature. Thanks to all who responded!

More later . . .

Winners!

Thanks to a whopper of a storm, last night, and a typo . . . at least I keep things interesting . . . I have just now pulled three numbers out of a hat. The winners of the Chunkster Check-in drawing are:

1. Kris of Not Enough Books
2. Raidergirl3 of An Adventure in Reading
3. MissyJoon of Persian Purls and Yarnovers

Congratulations! I'll contact each of you through your own blogs and then, as soon as I get my stove cleaned off, I'll whip up those bookmarks. My husband has been home most of the week; I have to unbury the stove when he's in town. 'Nuff said.

Just finished A Spoonful of Humor, last night, which means I'll be writing up two book reviews in between loads of laundry, today. I was going to do laundry yesterday, but a storm was on its way and I am, unfortunately, a human barometer (back of hand to forehead, large sigh, "I was suffering darlings").

Thanks to all who checked in and shared their progress on the Chunkster Challenge!

Chunkster Check-In!

Sticky post! Page down for newer posts!

I mentioned last weekend that I've changed my mind about having a check-in time before the end of the Chunkster Challenge, since it seems that some of the links are now dead and I'd hate to leave anyone out of the final drawing. I'll try to visit everyone I can, this week, because I don't expect everyone to pop in here. Please feel free to mention check-in wherever you see the little chunkster button, in case I miss anyone.

I will leave this post up for a week and on Thursday, May 4, will draw three names. Each winner will get one of my homemade bookmarks (I often use my own photos to make bookmarks, but I'm capricious and what I make will be based on my whims). You do not need to have completed the challenge (or even started on it, for that matter) - it doesn't end until June 30 - just check in if you're one of the participants and let me know you're still out there by leaving a comment at this post. Thanks!

Wahoo! Wednesday

We're heading into the final weeks of the kiddo's school year and they're loading us down with activities - concert, fund raisers, banquets . . . you name it. Posts will probably continue to be short and possibly become a bit sporadic, although I will try not to skimp on the reviews. Writing a review is like purging, for me, a chance to spill thoughts. Anyone else feel that way?

That's my youngest son smiling in the red shirt, above . The band concert was terrific and I was immensely grateful, once again, for his willingness to tidy up the hair for a school event.

I'm almost finished with Rises the Night and, honestly, had trouble putting it down to zip over to the pool and drop off son for Lifesaving class. Way to go, Colleen! It's every bit as gripping as the first book. Review forthcoming, probably tomorrow.

This week's things that make me want to say "Wahoo!":

1. Emergency back-up internet options - Last night, as youngest son was preparing for his band concert, I realized that I had completely forgotten how to tie a Windsor knot. My father taught me how to tie a tie in a simple Windsor knot when I was a young tyke but we've somehow managed not to teach the youngster (who is what I would refer to as a Very Casual Fellow). I did a quick search and found this:

How to tie a tie website

Wahoo for that! We had to practice a bit, but eventually got the tie to look decent and then - just to be sure - my delightful son ran across the street and asked his friend's dad if we'd done a decent job. Kiddo's friend's father gave him a thumbs-up. So, we're also grateful for . . .

2. Nice neighbors - You really do have to appreciate the kind ones, don't you?

3. Wahoo for clean, drinkable water! - I haven't got the foggiest idea how I ended up thinking about this, but I think clean water that comes right into one's house at the turn of a tap is something we often don't even think about in the United States and that we should be very, very grateful for. I've thought about it occasionally since moving to Mississippi, twenty years ago. We never experienced broken pipes and "boil water notices" back home, probably because Oklahoma is quite young, as developed areas go. During the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, when people from outside our city were driving here and literally stripping the store shelves of bottled water and food items (wow, was that ever unexpected), we were actually just fine and dandy because I've learned to keep a ready supply of bottled water for emergencies. And, in fact, I had a strong feeling that Katrina was going to be the worst hurricane we had ever seen. I made my husband cancel a business trip and call to warn some of his associates not to travel down here. So, I'm also really grateful for . . .

4. That weird thing we call the "sixth sense". - Sometimes it freaks me out a little, like the time my husband kissed me "goodbye" at 4:00 in the morning and I had an immediate mental flash of twisted metal and people walking around with flashlights (the initial image turned out to be the front page photo in our newspaper, that night). Because of that little moment of intuition, I stopped my husband and wouldn't let him leave the house for nearly 45 minutes. Had he left, he might very well have been involved in one of two horrific accidents that occurred at approximately 4:15 a.m. Both accidents took place near the on-ramp we use to access the interstate. What are the chances of two deadly accidents taking place within minutes of each other within a quarter mile? Probably very small. To have an earth-shaking mental warning like that image that flashed into my head is just such a huge gift. I don't have premonitions like that very often, but I'm very thankful for them. I think they're truly a gift from a higher power and that sometimes they're totally useless but at times a brief moment of intuition may save a life.

5. Socks. Seriously. More than half the year it's too hot down here to wear them. But, when it's cold outside my little feet turn into ice cubes. Wahoo for socks!

I've been thinking about occasionally posting a "What do you think?" question because I'm like the human equivalent of a feline, with a burning curiosity and always, always silly questions running through my mind. Here's what I was thinking about, today:

My husband and I are coming up on our 25th anniversary (I'm way too young for that, honest), which merely goes to show you that the spouse is a middle-aged guy. I think by this point in his life, he ought to be able to do simple things like remove the change from his pants pockets before putting them in the hamper, rinse and stack dishes, and remember where the paper clips are located rather than rely upon his wife to do the sorting and thinking about trivial things for him. I'm not, by any means, referring to a man with limited mental capacity - he has three university degrees. His opinion: "I'm not like you. You can't expect me to remember the little piddly details like you do." After asking me 25 times where the paper clips are kept, I seriously think he ought to be able to remember. I say it's much like the fact that I'm not good with names, but during the time I was involved in direct sales I learned how to make myself connect names with faces. I actually got pretty good at it. So, my thought is that you can make yourself do or recall something if you really desire to.

Then again, Einstein refused to remember things like phone numbers because he didn't want to waste his neurons storing useless information.

What do you think? Should a grown man of reasonable intelligence be expected to do some basic things rather than rely upon his wife to do them for him? Or is it perfectly acceptable for him to expect the wife to remember and claim incompetence?

Latest book news: Not a single book has walked into my house in at least 4 days. And, I'm planning to stop looking in the library sale corner until I've made a serious dent in the piles. I would not be willing to lay odds on my success, but I'm going to give it a try.

Lousy photo, great moment:

This is a terrible photo of a squirrel invading our bird feeder, to which I've added a little soft focus to try to improve the looks of the subject. Somebody needs to wash her windows. Ahem.

Hope your Wednesday was full of wahoos. There are still a little more than two remaining hours of Wednesday in my corner of the world. I think I'll spend at least one of them with a good book.

Not much news from the Boonies, today

We're going to have to skedaddle to get ready for kiddo's Spring Band Concert, shortly, so just a quick post to share a few little tidbits. In honor of the band event, the teenager has just combed his hair! I just love it when he does that.

I'm still reading slowly, but hope to finish up Rises the Night (#2 in the Gardella Vampire series) and A Spoonful of Humor (tongue-in-cheek essays by an octogenarian - very fun), in the next couple of days. Reviews will follow as soon as possible, after I finish, and I'll be giving away a copy of Rises the Night later on, to coincide with the release. More on books when I finish one. Foreign Fruit, my other current read, is a chunkster! Yippee!

The laundry mountain was out of hand after My Weekend as a Total Slug (sounds like a great story title, doesn't it?), so I was in desperate need of preoccupation. Meaning, I needed to watch a video or I never would have managed to sit still long enough to fold everything. Since I enjoyed Firefly so much that I rank it the #1 Best Series that Was Canceled Without a Decent Chance, I think it's worth watching repeatedly. So, back to watching Firefly from the beginning. Naturally, this meant I had to also stop periodically to take photos off the TV screen. Guess what happens when you forget to change your shutter setting and overexpose a photo off the television? This bit of utter coolness is the result:

Funky, eh? Kind of looks like an Andy Warhol painting.

Off to get ready for the concert! Happy reading!

Linky dinks and a recap

Just a few things worth mentioning:

The latest issue of Estella's Revenge is all ready and very spiffy-looking. You can read my review of The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy, here. Congrats to Andi and Heather on another terrific issue!

I can't remember if I've mentioned Daily Lit, a site where you can sign up to receive daily excerpts of various works by email. Last night, I got so caught up in the reading of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself that I kept sending for excerpts until I'd read 15 of them. And, then the 16th didn't show up because of an email snafu, so I took a bath. While it's a little uncomfortable reading off a computer screen for long, it's a nice option.

Here's a recap of what I read in April:

The Moon on a Stick - Valerie-Anne Baglietto
In the Cut - Susannah Moore (not recommended)
20th-Century Ghosts - Joe Hill
The Sex Lives of Cannibals - J. Maarten Troost
Start Late, Finish Rich - David Bach (not recommended, although certain portions are useful)
Don't Kiss Them Goodbye - Allison DuBois
Earthly Joys - Philippa Gregory
The Secret Lives of People in Love - Simon Van Booy
The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke

Most were very enjoyable reads. I have recently added a link to my 2007 reads in my sidebar and plan to eventually update the page to include books read in 2005 and 2006 and, hopefully, add a bit more information. At this point, it's just a list that includes title, author and number of pages.

The animal life avoided me, today, apart from a lizard. Darn. It was a really cute lizard, though. Here's a closeup of his cute little reptile face:

I love that shade of green. There is another lizard hanging out with this fellow in or around our herb garden (a light brown one) and I'm guessing they're a couple. Awwww, how sweet.

Happy Monday!

Five Favorite Restaurants and other jazz

I've been tagged by the lovely Nat of In Spring it is the Dawn for a Restaurant Meme, so I'll write up my meme answers before sinking into chatter mode.

The rules:

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the state and country you’re in.

Nicole Tan (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
bookfool (Mississippi, USA)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.

3. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.

I can tell you, to begin with, that there aren't any places at all, locally, that excite me like . . . say, like a good book. So, I'll go with our area, as a whole, and throw in one restaurant I like in Vicksburg (but which doesn't make me jump up and down, oh well).

My five favorite restaurants:


1. Taylor Grocery in Taylor, Mississippi - Even after 20 years in Mississippi, catfish still turned me off till recently. Something about the idea of catfish being "bottom-feeders", possibly. But, Taylor Grocery (Taylor is near Oxford, home of the University of Misssissippi and Faulkner's Rowan Oak) reformed me, forever. The food was so melt-in-your-mouth good, the catfish so perfectly crispy and tender at the same time . . . seriously, I could imagine myself as Meg Ryan in the diner scene of When Harry Met Sally, but the ecstasy would be real instead of fake and over food instead of a guy. It's that good.

While writing this post, I've realized that atmosphere and service are absolutely critical or I'll ditch a restaurant, no matter how terrific the food. Taylor Grocery has excellent service, a down-home country atmosphere and even live music. It's worth a cross-country drive. But, I only have to drive about 3 1/2 hours to get there.


2. Madre in Oxford, Mississippi (no website available) - Bear in mind that we're still discussing places that require a three-hour drive from my home (close enough). Madre is a Mexican restaurant situated on Oxford's lovely town square. If you order guacamole they bring a little rolling cart with a drawer of ingredients from which you can choose, so your guacamole is specialized with just the right amount of various spices. Cool. At right is my a photo of my husband's meal from our last visit to Oxford: fish tacos. Excellent. I stole a bite, of course

3. Bottletree Bakery in Oxford, Mississippi (no website) - Of course, the baked goods are to die for, but the surprising food at Bottletree is the soup. No matter what kind of homemade soup they whip up (and I promise you, Bottletree is not a can-opening type of place), it is just flat amazing. Unfortunately, you have to get there at just the right time to get soup. Too early and they haven't finished cooking. Too late and it's gone. Well, of course. I used to think I hated soup. Not if it's from Bottletree. The interior is very quirky and artistic, another thing I tend to love in a favorite restaurant.

4. Keifer's in Jackson, Mississippi - Again, I can't find a website, but I see that Keifer's is described as "Greek-American food with a Southern bent". Oh, my. Is that a weird description, or what? Maybe it's the greasy cottage fries that lend it the "Southern bent" bit. Definitely not the place I go for healthy food, as we dip our cottage fries in some kind of heavy cheese sauce that makes me drool just thinking about it. Keifer's typically has excellent service and they have the advantage of a choice between seating inside (the interior has a lot of Greek memorabilia and some old travel posters - kind of cute) or outside on one of two decks. We almost always sit outside.

5. Billy's Italian Villa in Vicksburg, Missisippi- I was going to write about a local hotel restaurant with a French chef and then I started the entry and realized . . . oh, my gosh . . . it could never be a favorite because the atmosphere is cold-shoulder, crappy-service supremo. Okay, so ditch that and let's go with one that has tremendous service. Billy actually lives just down the block from us and the restaurant is a little thing tucked into the corner beside the office of our outlet mall. Before Billy's arrived, many other little establishment's came and went in that mall corner, usually with awful food and sassy service. Billy runs it with family and a few other hires. The food is consistent and probably very, very bad for the hips but absolutely delicious. And, the service is tremendous. The atmosphere is bland but there's so little we like locally (especially with reasonable service) that we always enjoy going there.

I just recently began taking photos of food and interiors of restaurants, so there aren't any photos to go with #'s 4 and 5, sorry. Now for the tagging:

Tag! You're it! Okay, yes, I'm being lazy because I'm a little under the weather and don't feel like doing a lot of blog-hopping, this weekend.

Bookwise:

Still having a little trouble concentrating to read, so I'm halfway into three books. I'm enjoying all three. It's fun revisiting Victoria the vampire slayer in Rises the Night by Colleen Gleason, I love JoJo Moyes' writing and am thoroughly hooked by Foreign Fruit, and Hank has some fascinating little tidbits of life experience to share in A Spoonful of Humor. So, while I'm not doing a great job of concentrating, I'm reading some very good books.

Just walked in: Pressed Pennies by Steven Manchester, a book to review for Estella's Revenge. It looks great and I see he's written about his war experiences in Desert Storm, also. Uh-oh. You know how much I love those war memoirs.

Due to the fact that I've slept off most of the weekend, I've hardly taken any photos at all. That is a strange feeling, I must say. I think I also forgot to mention that the newspaper published a second one of my photos, so they've printed 2 out of the 3 that I sent them for consideration. Last week's was a photo of wisteria dangling over bricks, which some of you may remember from one of my Wahoo! Wednesday posts (not the same one, but I took several). Unfortunately, I didn't bother to correct the misspelling of my name because I figured they wouldn't print any more. Oopsy.

My camera is occasionally doing something terribly hinky. Here are two photos which the camera claims were taken at the same shutter speed and aperture, but obviously something went very wrong on the first exposure:

This has happened several times, now, but in the other cases I simply got a black frame - totally black. Hmm. The only other photos I've taken, this weekend, were a few that I took of the husband mowing the yard. I wanted to practice panning a little, as I haven't done that in a very long time. Here's my favorite practice shot:

In case anyone is wondering, I didn't touch up the color. Our yard really is that green. Mississippi is a very colorful place.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! I'm off to stick my nose in a book.

Cheers from Bookfool

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Thursday Thoughts

No thirteen for me, today. Instead, just an anecdote and some other chatter.

I completely forgot to mention yesterday's best moment! I rushed to move a tipsy planter and some other items I thought were likely to be damaged if an approaching storm produced the seventy mile-per-hour winds predicted. As I stepped inside, our black cat, Spooky, ran out the door. "Oh, no you don't!" I said, and swooped her up to keep her out of the imminent downpour. I opened the back door, once again, and Sunshine ran out. So, without putting Spooky down, I ran and snatched up the other cat. I had a black cat under my left arm, an orange cat in my right and the black cat was hissing at the orange but we made it inside and two minutes later the sky cracked open and let loose a deluge. Spooky jumped up on the windowsill and I said, "See! See! That's why I brought you back inside!" She gave me the blinky look of contentment. More than likely, the cat already had forgotten she wanted to go outside just minutes before, but who knows.

Still reading verrrrry slowly. It will probably be a few days before I post a book review.

Just arrived from Paperback Swap:
A House in Corfu by Emma Tennant
Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

Just FYI:
Some of my books are also going out the door.

Kind of comforting knowing:
The youngest is taking lifesaving. You know, just in case one of us someday clutches his or her chest and collapses or starts to drown. Again, you never know.

I am migraine-free, today!
Thought you'd like to know and thanks to those who posted well wishes!!

Wahoo! Wednesday

It's a little harder to do a Wahoo! Wednesday post when it's raining and you have a migraine; so, I'm going to just think positive and use the rain as a jumping-off point.

Things (and people) I feel like saying Wahoo! about, today:

1. Rain. Oh, how hard was that? No, seriously, rain gives me a day off from watering the plants. It usually gives me a day off from swim runs (apparently, not so with lifesaving). And, a rainy day is a fantastic excuse to curl up and read, of course!

2. I am so, so thankful for modern medicine - particularly painkillers, right now. I went many years without any kind of relief for excruciating migraines and while medication doesn't always work, it often does. Modern medicine has also kept my mother alive for 17 years; she was declared completely cured of one cancer and is in remission from a second. That's pretty freaking amazing, if you ask me.

3. Wahoo for the crazy dog, above, who made us laugh, yesterday.

4. My two kids - I'm grateful that they are proving themselves to be decent, hard-working, well-adjusted people. And, they both love to read! I feel so privileged to be a mother to my boys.





There were several other things I wanted to say and poof!, they are gone from my brain. I have no idea what they were. So, I'll just make this another short post.

Happy Wednesday!