Author: ekkarn

Need a Laugh Grab A Christopher Moore Book!

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So there are several authors who make me laugh out load as I read. One of them is Janet Evanovich, others include Terry Prachett, Douglas Adams and Christopher Moore

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Checking back on my Goodreads Bookshelf, I see that the first Moore book I read was Coyote Blue which I read in 1994. Then I kinda forgot about him and didn’t get around to reading Practical Demonkeeping until 2002 since then I’ve read about half of the books he’s written.(Note to self go back and read more Christopher Moore)

I haven’t read more because I usually am busy with mysteries, but when I need a good laugh I turn to Christopher Moore!  My favorite is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal which is hysterical! A Dirty Job where Charlie Asher inherits a new job as DEATH comes in second, but it’s a close second!

Here’s a quote about A Dirty Job:

“To keep a straight face while reading this book, one would have to be dead already and in the final stages of rigor mortis.” Rocky Mountain News

Here’s some quotes from the back of Bite Me

“Everything I’ve come to expect from Christopher  Moore. It’s wildly funny, it’s touching, it’s unexpected. I think his imagination grew up next to Area 51 ” Charlaine Harris author ofr the Sookie Stackhouse novels

” Few things get the blood moving like a Christopher Moore tale about vampires.. Moore makes this trip a joy, filled with absurd characters who allow people in the dark laugh and see the light” Plain Dealer Cleveland.

So if you need a good laugh and enjoy as the Denver Post says ” the joke a minute comedy of The Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, and the old screwball comedies of the 30’s and 40s with a touch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer then You Suck and Bite Me are books you’ll love along with all of Moore’s other work! So check him out!

Christopher Moore Books Read

TitleYear PublishedDate Read
Noir20182022/10/27
Secondhand Souls (Grim Reaper, #2)20152015/11/09
Island of the Sequined Love Nun19972015/04/20
Bite Me (A Love Story, #3)20102010/06/15
You Suck (A Love Story, #2)20072007/03/23
A Dirty Job (Grim Reaper, #1)20062006/03/04
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal20022005/08/25
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (Pine Cove, #2)19992002/02/26
Coyote Blue19931994/05/20
Practical Demonkeeping (Pine Cove, #1)19921994/05/10

Christopher Moore – Humor Plus+

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So there are several authors who make me laugh out load as I read. One of them is Janet Evanovich, others include Terry Prachett, Douglas Adams and the author whose new book Bite Me: A Love Story I just checked out of the library tonight Christopher Moore. Checking back on my Goodreads Bookshelf, I see that the first Moore book I read was Coyote Blue which I read in 1994. Then I kinda forgot about him and didn’t get around to reading Practical Demonkeeping until 2002 since then I’ve read about half of the books he’s written.(Note to self go back and read more Christopher Moore) I haven’t read more because I usually am busy with mysteries, but when I need a good laugh I turn to Christopher Moore!  My favorite is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal which is hysterical! A Dirty Job where Charlie Asher inherits a new job as DEATH comes in second, but it’s a close second!

Here’s a quote about A Dirty Job:

“To keep a straight face while reading this book, one would have to be dead already and in the final stages of rigor mortis.” Rocky Mountain News

Here’s some quotes from the back of Bite Me

“Everything I’ve come to expect from Christopher  Moore. It’s wildly funny, it’s touching, it’s unexpected. I think his imagination grew up next to Area 51 ” Charlaine Harris author ofr the Sookie Stackhouse novels

” Few things get the blood moving like a Christopher Moore tale about vampires.. Moore makes this trip a joy, filled with absurd characters who allow people in the dark laugh and see the light” Plain Dealer Cleveland.

So if you need a good laugh and enjoy as the Denver Post says ” the joke a minute comedy of The Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, and the old screwball comedies of the 30’s and 40s with a touch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer then You Suck and Bite Me are books you’ll love along with all of Moore’s other work! So check him out! I can’t wait to sink my teeth into Bite Me. (Yes that was bad!)

Jericho’s Fall – Stephen Carter

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📚 Journal Flashback: Jericho’s Fall by Stephen L. Carter

So… have you ever read a book where the pages flew by, you really wanted to find out what happens, and then you get to the end—which isn’t satisfying at all—and you think:

Did I actually like this book?

That’s exactly how I felt about Book #20 of 2010: Jericho’s Fall by Stephen L. Carter.

The story centers on Jericho Ainsley—former CIA Director, Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor… basically Mr. Deep State Everything—who’s dying of cancer in his Colorado mountain fortress. Everyone is out to kill him before he reveals his secrets.

Enter Rebecca “Beck” DeForde, his former lover and the reason for his downfall 15 years earlier when she was a 19-year-old student and he was her professor. Now she’s back in his life, trying to uncover his secrets before it’s too late.

—

📰 From The Washington Post Review:

“Thus begins Stephen L. Carter’s Jericho’s Fall, an odd but readable mixture of spy thriller, literary novel and haunted-house mystery. In an author’s note, Carter declares that the book’s ‘only purpose is entertainment,’ and he provides plenty of that. When the book fails, it is because the author, who is a professor of law at Yale, tries too hard to entertain us. Even for a novel about a Machiavellian, possibly mad, ex-CIA director, this novel contains an alarming number of unsolved, probably unsolvable mysteries.”

—

🤔 My Take

Did I like the book? I guess… I liked Beck. The story moved along well. But like the review said, there were just too many unsolved mysteries by the end.

I originally gave it a 3 out of 5—but looking back, it might really be a 2.

From what I’ve read, Carter’s other books are better, so maybe I’ll give him another shot someday.

Book 19 – The Bone Thief

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So today was not a big music day more a sports day. Go Roy Halladay and Flyers. But I did finish book no. 19 for 2010 The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass. The Bone Thief is the fifth book in the Body Farm series by the writing team of Dr. Bill Bass founder of the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee and Jon Jefferson. The series  follows the activities of Dr. Bill Brockton and his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady and others in exploits surrounding the Body Farm.

This book opens with the exhumation of a body involved in a paternity suit. The request for exhumation was made by attorney Burton “Grease” DeVriess who has been on the bad and good side of Bill Brockton in other books! Anyway when the body is exhumed both arms have been surgically removed!  Soon Bill is thrust into the world of black marketing of body parts. The FBI soon asks Bill to help in an undercover sting operation to bring down the dealers!

The plot of the novel also includes a storylines from the last novel Bones of Betrayal as Dr. Brockton deals with repercussions from his relationship with Isabella the librarian! Eddie Garcia the medical examiner who lost his hands after handling radioactive material in the last book is also dealing with that  terrible l tragedy and researching ways to get hands back either through total hand transplants or mechanical hands!

I don’t know if I liked the overall plot in this book as much as the others but still the characters of Bill Brockton and Miranda as well as all the others more than make up for it and while the book did not deal as much with the forensic details from the Body Farm the information presented about the black market for body parts and the development of artificial bones was interesting. Overall it was a very satisfying read and I look forward to the next Body Farm adventure!

Book 18 – Nothing Sacred – Lewis Black

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So Book 18 is Lewis Black’s book Nothing Sacred. Even though it’s a short book it’s taken me a while to get through, mainly because I only read it while I’m waiting for the computer in the back room to either boot up or load a webpage something that may take a long time and I need a laugh, and Lewis Black makes me laugh! Whenever I see him on TV either on The Daily Show or his own Comedy Specials, he makes me laugh. I could hear the same stories over and over and I’ll still laugh. Whether he’s talking about halftime at the Super Bowl with Britney Spears and Aerosmith or a Starbucks across from a Starbucks I’m laughing, And while some of the stories in this book I’ve heard before the book I’m still laughing out load. In very short chapters he tells his life story (which makes it convenient to read while you’re waiting for a computer) from his early years, through college and the start of his stand-up career!  So now I have to go find his next book Me of Little Faith because while the computer is working ok now I know it won’t last and I’ll need some good laughs!

Favorite Series – The Body Farm Books

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So I am currently reading The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass. This is the fifth book in The Body Farm series and I have enjoyed everyone of them. Let’s play the if then game. If you like Kathy Reich’s books and the TV show Bones, then you will like the Body Farm Books. The Body Farm is the Forensics Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee where they study decomposition of the human body. The Body Farm was founded in 1970  by one-half of the writing team Jefferson Bass, Dr. Bill Bass. What others say about the Body Farm and the novels:

“Nearly everything known about the science of human decomposition comes from one place—forensic anthropologist William Bass’ Body Farm.”
— CNN.com

There is a patch of ground in Tennessee dedicated to the science of death, where human remains lie exposed to be studied for their secrets. The real-life scientist who founded the “Body Farm” has broken cold cases and revolutionized forensics . . . and now he spins an astonishing tale inspired by his own experiences.

In the Body Farm books the fictional Bill Bass – Bill Brockton and his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady have been faced with a variety of cases to solve two of which involved women that Brockton had relationships with! With a great cast of characters which include Brockton and Miranda along with defense attorney Burton  “Grease” DeVreiss, Medical Examiner Eddie Garcia, fingerprint guru Art Bohanan and other’s  coupled with unmatched forensic detail (who knows more about the body farm’s work than the founder!) this series has become a real favorite of mine!

I just started The Bone Thief and the story opens when Brockton and Miranda are called to exhume a body to get DNA for a paternity test. When they open the coffin they find that both of the arms have been surgically removed and the story sets off from there!!

This is a series that in my opinion should be read from the beginning because each case has added to the development of Dr. Bill Brockton’s character and well they’re just all good reads!! So check them out!

1. Carved in Bone

2. Flesh and Bone

3. The Devil’s Bones

4. Bones of Betrayal

Revisiting a Favorite Series – The Body Farm Books

  By ,

So I am currently reading The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass. This is the fifth book in The Body Farm series and I have enjoyed everyone of them.

Let’s play the if then game. If you like Kathy Reich’s books and the TV show Bones, then you will like the Body Farm Books. The Body Farm is the Forensics Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee where they study decomposition of the human body. The Body Farm was founded in 1970  by one-half of the writing team Jefferson Bass, Dr. Bill Bass. What others say about the Body Farm and the novels:

“Nearly everything known about the science of human decomposition comes from one place—forensic anthropologist William Bass’ Body Farm.”
— CNN.com

There is a patch of ground in Tennessee dedicated to the science of death, where human remains lie exposed to be studied for their secrets. The real-life scientist who founded the “Body Farm” has broken cold cases and revolutionized forensics . . . and now he spins an astonishing tale inspired by his own experiences.

In the Body Farm books the fictional Bill Bass – Bill Brockton and his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady have been faced with a variety of cases to solve two of which involved women that Brockton had relationships with! With a great cast of characters which include Brockton and Miranda along with defense attorney Burton  “Grease” DeVreiss, Medical Examiner Eddie Garcia, fingerprint guru Art Bohanan and other’s  coupled with unmatched forensic detail (who knows more about the body farm’s work than the founder!) this series has become a real favorite of mine!

I just started The Bone Thief and the story opens when Brockton and Miranda are called to exhume a body to get DNA for a paternity test. When they open the coffin they find that both of the arms have been surgically removed and the story sets off from there!!

This is a series that in my opinion should be read from the beginning because each case has added to the development of Dr. Bill Brockton’s character and well they’re just all good reads!! So check them out!

Post Update: Here is the Complete Body Farm Series

1. Carved in Bone

2. Flesh and Bone

3. The Devil’s Bones

4. Bones of Betrayal

The

Book 17 – The Narrows – Michael Connelly

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Ok so the last book I read Nowhere to Run by C.J.Box was the 10th book in the Joe Pickett series and now book number 17 The Narrows by Michael Connelly also the 10th book in the series featuring  Harry Bosch only difference is that I have read all the books in the Pickett series and this is my first Harry Bosch book! I had started The Concrete Blonde book # 3 years ago and for one reason or another couldn’t get into it so I never tried to read another Connelly book (the series is now up to 14). What was I thinking! I enjoyed this book, liked both the writing style and Bosch’s character and will certainly read more, having picked up several last week at the library book sale.

The book starts with Harry Bosch, asked by the widow of his former friend Terry McCaleb to investigate what she feels is the murder of her husband. McCaleb’s heart medicine (he had had a heart transplant -the storyline of the book and movie Blood Work)  had been switch with shark cartilage pills leading to a heart attack.

Meanwhile, FBI agent Rachael Walling receives a call that she has dreaded for eight years! Eight years earlier she had been involved in the chase to track done a serial killer known as The Poet, who turned out to be her former mentor at the FBI Robert Backus. The Poet is back and operating in the Las Vegas area. Harry’s investigation into McCaleb’s death quickly puts him on to the trail of The Poet and soon Bosch and Walling must join forces to catch Backus!

Like I said I enjoyed this book and the final pages flew by and I am certainly going to read more Bosch novels. I have a lot of catching up to do!!

My bookshelf at Goodreads.com now holds 796 books – 4 more to 800!! Next up the new Body Farm book by Jefferson Bass The Bone Thief another favorite series featuring Bill Brockton and the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee and while I root for Bill Brockton, this Florida Gator can’t root for the Volunteers!

The Narrows – Michael Connelly

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Ok so the last book I read Nowhere to Run by C.J.Box was the 10th book in the Joe Pickett series and now book number 17 The Narrows by Michael Connelly also the 10th book in the series featuring  Harry Bosch only difference is that I have read all the books in the Pickett series and this is my first Harry Bosch book! I had started The Concrete Blonde book # 3 years ago and for one reason or another couldn’t get into it so I never tried to read another Connelly book (the series is now up to 14). What was I thinking! I enjoyed this book, liked both the writing style and Bosch’s character and will certainly read more, having picked up several last week at the library book sale.

The book starts with Harry Bosch, asked by the widow of his former friend Terry McCaleb to investigate what she feels is the murder of her husband. McCaleb’s heart medicine (he had had a heart transplant -the storyline of the book and movie Blood Work)  had been switch with shark cartilage pills leading to a heart attack.

Meanwhile, FBI agent Rachael Walling receives a call that she has dreaded for eight years! Eight years earlier she had been involved in the chase to track done a serial killer known as The Poet, who turned out to be her former mentor at the FBI Robert Backus. The Poet is back and operating in the Las Vegas area. Harry’s investigation into McCaleb’s death quickly puts him on to the trail of The Poet and soon Bosch and Walling must join forces to catch Backus!

Like I said I enjoyed this book and the final pages flew by and I am certainly going to read more Bosch novels. I have a lot of catching up to do!!

My bookshelf at Goodreads.com now holds 796 books – 4 more to 800!! Next up the new Body Farm book by Jefferson Bass The Bone Thief another favorite series featuring Bill Brockton and the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee and while I root for Bill Brockton, this Florida Gator can’t root for the Volunteers!

Library Book Sale Treasures!

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Well my Mount To Be Read pile just grew this morning! On my way home from seeing my mother at the home, I was going to drop off some library books. I was surprised to see that the Used Book Sale that I thought was a few weeks away was actually today! So here’s what my ten bucks got me (actually $9.50 but I told them to keep the change! Big of me huh!)

Paperbacks

Storm Front – Jim Butcher – The first book in the Dresden File series. I’ve started this book several times only to find something else to read and then having to take the book back to the library unread!

The Traveler – John Twelve Hawks – I looked at this book a while ago at Borders when I was looking for Sci-fi books to read it looked interesting but I bought something else! (Old Man’s War I think which was very good!)

The Coil – Gayler Lynds – one of those authors whose name I always see and just haven’t read yet!

Blood Work – Michael Connelly – Since I’m currently reading The Narrows and enjoying it. I thought it would be good to read about some events that happened in this book that are referenced in The Narrows

The Codex – Douglas Preston – I’ve read a few of the books Preston has writen with Lincoln Child and enjoyed them and this one looks good!

Hardbacks

Don’t Look Twice – Andrew Gross – I read and enjoyed his book The Blue Zone so I am looking forward to this one!

Winter House – Carol O’Connell – a Mallory novel which is a favorite series, and the next book after Dead Famous which is already on my Mount to Be Read. Maybe knowing I have this book will motivate me to read Dead Famous!

Hell’s Bay – James W. Hall – A Thorn novel having read Red Sky at Night . I look forward to another visit to Thorn’s South Florida world!

DVD

A.M. & P.M. Yoga conditioning for weight loss – Giam – always looking for yoga videos to add new routines !

All in All a great visit to the Book Sale. Tomorrow is a half price sale so I may go back and see if a couple books that I was looking at but didn’t pick up are still there!!