Category: Books-Fiction

The Stranger- Harlan Coben Thrills Us Again!!

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The Stranger – Harlan Coben Book 27 of 2015

 

In 2001, Harlan Coben‘s first stand alone thriller Tell No One was released. I read the paperback version in November of 2002, it was terrific and since then I haven’t missed one of his thrillers! There are few authors, who can take an ordinary person, and turn their world upside-down like Harlan Coben. He does just that in his latest thriller The Stranger.

Adam Price is living the American dream in his wife’s hometown of Cedarfield, NJ (While locales in Coben’s books are typically real, Cedarfield is a fictional town!). . He is a successful attorney with a beautiful wife,Corrine a school teacher. They have two great boys, Ryan and Thomas, who both play lacrosse, while mom serves as the treasurer of the local lacrosse organization. But on the night of the draft and the selection of the traveling team, Adam’s life starts to spiral out of control, when a Stranger approaches him and reveals a startling secret. Two years earlier Corrine had faked a pregnancy! The Stranger tells him “You know you didn’t have to stay with her” Adam eventually confronts Corrine who suddenly leaves her husband and kids telling Adam not to search for her, she needs time to sort everything out! Yeah, like that’s going to happen!! Soon Adam is on a quest to find his wife and put the pieces of his shattered life back together again!!

Adam has all sorts of questions to answer. How did the Stranger know about the pregnancy and why did he tell Adam? And why did Corrine fake the pregnancy in the first place?? And most of all where the hell did she go?? Why did she leave  him, but most importantly how could she leave her boys!!

Harlan Coben’s descriptions of life in the burbs, especially how it is among those whose children compete on traveling soccer or lacrosse teams is spot on. And while there is a certain sameness to his books, a fairly simple incident thrust someone into a life changing situation, he still makes each book exciting and interesting, No one twists and turns his way through a book like Harlan Coben and in The Stranger he certainly does that! Here’s what some others have to say about The Stranger.

 ‘With clever use of technology, convincing characters and a strong emotional heart, you’re effortlessly swept along to a tense and dramatic conclusion. Smart stuff from a classy operator.’ — Deirdre O’Brien SUNDAY MIRROR

‘The master of the twisty psychological thriller is back with another awesomely gripping mystery.’ — Boyd Tonkin HEAT

‘The twists come satisfyingly thick and fast as the plots merge before the tangled web of evens unravels into an enjoyable and somewhat surprising conclusion.’ SUNDAY EXPRESS

So check out The Stranger or any other book by Harlan Coben! You won’t be disappointed!!

Links for Further Explorations of the Works of Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben’s Website
Wikipedia:Harlan Coben
Goodreads
Amazon
Review at NJ.com

P.S. I particularly enjoyed the cameo appearance of an unnamed participant in Adam’s basketball game!!

Mid – June Reading Challenges Update!

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Well we’ve just past the middle of June, so it’s time to check how I’m doing on my Reading Challenges.So far this month I have finished three books. I was only planning on reading one of them this month!

June 2015 Reads
28 Dark Intelligence – Neal Asher Science Fiction Library
27 The Stranger – Harlan Coben Cloak & Dagger Library
26 The Martian – Andy Weir Science Fiction Ebook

 

The books that I was reading at the end of May and planning to finish in June are listed on the table below. As you can see only Dark Intelligence is the only one that I was reading!!  I found Harlan Coben’s latest The Stranger  at the library when I was picking up a book for my daughter and couldn’t pass it up, I figured correctly that it would be a fast read!. The Martian is an ebook that I had requested from the library a long time ago, that became unexpectedly available!! So after finishing the above books, I have to get back into the other four books that I am still reading and see if I can finish them before the end of the month!! I will be posting my reviews of Dark Intelligence and The Stranger shortly! They were both great reads!

Currently Reading at the End of May Challenge From
Dark Intelligence – Neal Asher Science Fiction Library
Wages of Rebellion –Chris Hedges Nonfiction Library
 How to Read the Solar System Nonfiction Library
Who Buries the Dead – C.S. Harris Cloak & Dagger Library
The Matarese Countdown – Robert Ludlum Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile

 

The table below shows where I stand on my reading challenges. Ideally, at the end of this month I would be above 50% on all my challenges and I’m pretty close to that. Right now I am above 50% on two of the challenges and the overall total of books I planned to read! Considering that I am at 29 books at the middle of June and only read 34 all of 2014, I guess I’m not doing too badly!! I am really enjoying the Science Fiction Challenge and will be reading more books in that genre as 2015 continues!! Neal Asher and James C Corey here I come!! Oh my, I just bought Prador Moon the first of the Neal Asher Polity Books!! That does not bode well for completion of maybe one of the books I am currently reading!! Oh well! Too many books, too little time!!

From TBR Pile Buy/Library Total Goal %complete
2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 0 4 4 11 36%
2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 6 10 16 23 70%
2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 1 1 2 5 40%
2015 Science Fiction/Fantasy Challenge 2 4 6 12 50%
No Reading Challenge 0 1 1 0 100%
Totals 9 19 29 51 57%
2015 TBR Pile reading challenge 9 25 36%

Reading Challenges End of May Update

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Six Books Finished for My Reading Challenges 

So as we come to the end of May it’s time to check in and see how I’m doing on my various Reading Challenges. May was another great reading month. I finished six books that go towards my Reading Challenges and one that doesn’t. The one that doesn’t fall into any of the Reading Challenges is a free Kindle ebook that I read Payback and a Bottle of Merlot – Bria Marche. Hey it was free and worth every penny of it! Cough! Cough! So here are the books and the Reading Challenges that the book falls into…..

May 2015 Reads
26 Bowl of Heaven – Benford & Niven Science Fiction Library
25 Payback and a Bottle of Merlot None Ebook
24 Watching You – Michael Robotham Cloak & Dagger Library
23 Brimstone _Preston & Child Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile
22 Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell Cloak & Dagger Library
21 Dance of Death – Preston & Child Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile
20 What Then Must We Do-Gar Alperowitz Nonfiction Library

 

So after five months I am at almost 50% of the total books that I plan to read for the year! Go Me!  It seems that I need to read more Nonfiction, Science Fiction books to try to catch up with my Cloak & Dagger reads! And maybe I need to read more from my TBR pile!

 

From TBR Pile Buy/Library Total Goal %complete
2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 0 4 4 11 36%
2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 6 9 15 23 65%
2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 1 1 2 5 40%
2015 Science Fiction/Fantasy Challenge 2 2 4 12 33%
Totals 9 16 25 51 49%
2015 TBR Pile Challlenge 9 25 36%

 

Actually it looks like I’m doing that with the books that I am currently reading! There’s one science fiction book, two nonfiction books and a Historical Fiction book,but only one is from my TBR pile!. So far I am enjoying all the books that I’m reading this month!

I am enjoying the Neal Asher book Dark Intelligence a lot more than Bowl of Heaven and I don’t know how long it’s been since I read a Robert Ludlum book. Like David Morrell, Ludlum was a staple of my reading in the 80s. The Matarese Countdown is a sequel to The Matarese Circle, which I read way back in the 80s and I certainly only have vague memories of it. So far it’s vintage Ludlum and really good!  Who Buries The Dead is book #10 in the Sebastian St. Cyr series and was released in 2015. And even though, the only other book in the series that I’ve read is book 2, I am still enjoying this one. But I certainly want to go back and see what happened prior to this book! I have many questions like how did Sebastian meet Hero his wife and what happened to the love of his life from When Gods Die??

As for the two nonfiction books I plan to read. I am still moving slowly along with How to Read the Solar System and have just begun the Chris Hedges book, I am not sure how much  am going to like it, because it’s not really what I expected!

Anyone have any comments on any of the books I’m reading or have finished?? I’d be glad to hear what you think!!

Currently Reading Challenge From Page Total %complete
Dark Intelligence – Neal Asher Science Fiction Library 94 402 23%
Wages of Rebellion -Chris Hedges Nonfiction Library 26 226 12%
How to Read the Solar System-Nortth&Abel Nonfiction Library 132 304 43%
Who Buries the Dead – C.S. Harris Historical Fiction Library 70 334 21%
The Matarese Countdown – Robert Ludlum Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile 152 566 27%

Bowl of Heaven-Gregory Benford & Larry Niven

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Bowl of Heaven – Gregory Benford and Larry Niven – (Book 25 of 2015)

 

It took me almost two months to finish Bowl of Heaven the collaborative effort from two of Science Fiction’s best authors Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. The reason is that while I was reading Bowl of Heaven I started several really good books, those boos caught and kept my attention, causing Bowl of Heaven to be continually put aside. The book never really hooked me, I didn’t really care about the main characters and it seemed that most of the story was just,, well quite simply, boring. But by the time I got to page 300 I thought I might as well finish the damn thing.The book is the first of two books the second is titled Shipstar and the question I face now is do I want to go on and read the second book in hopes that it is better than the first one??

Bowl of Heaven

From:gregorybenford.com

The story follows the flight from Earth of the Sunseeker which is on a mission to a planetary system named Glory that is potentially an earth like system. On their way, they encounter a Big Damn Object (BDO)a bowl like structure that has captured a sun and uses that sun to power the bowl. Around the rim of the bowl there are lands that are earth like, with oceans, and continents but on the size of planets. The crew of the Sunseeker decide to investigate the world and sends a shuttle down to the surface. First they have to cut their way into the world, only the wall of the bowl, self repairs leaving part of the landing crew trapped inside the bowl. The remaining members of the crew are then captured by the Bird-like Astronomer Folk. Over the remainder of the book the first crew is on the run trying to avoid being captured or killed. They are led by the crew’s biologist Cliff Kammash. The second crew is led by the love of Cliff’s life Beth Marble also a biologist. Her crew is kept for a while by the Astronomers and analyzed by Memer and Attendant Astute Astronomer. Eventually they too escape and are on the run from the Astronomers!

The first problem that I had with the book was believing that the two crews could survive,outwit and outrun the makers and pilots of this BDO! The second was that I really didn’t care whether the crews got away or not because I didn’t like any of the characters! Throughout most of the book the crew members are either running, eating, sleeping or thinking about sex! It was either boring or annoying, particularly when Cliff slept with a team member Irma, so much for worrying or being faithful to the love of his life, Beth!

I also had a problem wrapping my head around the Astronomer Folk – birdlike creatures who both talk and express themselves through their plummage! I has problems seeing them piloting spacecrafts even though they were described as having finger like claws I just couldn’t picture them, plus I didn’t feel anything for them either bad or good!

Bottomline: I give Bowl of Heaven a 2 out iof 5 rating. I did make it through the book and somehow I am actually contemplating reading the second book! I think it’s just so I can see if I really did waste my time with book one! Hopefully the second book is much better and this book was mostly setting the stage for a terrific conclusion! My worst fear though is that Shipstar is as boring and lackluster as Bowl of Heaven and I have wasted double the time!! Maybe what I do is start Shipstar and if it’s not noticeably better in the first 50 pages walk away from it!! Anybody have any thoughts on either book??

Watching You -Michael Robotham

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Watching You – Michael Robotham (Joseph O’Loughlin #7)

 The Story

As Watching You begins, Marnie Logan has problems her husband Daniel has been missing for a year and times are tough. Her missing husband  Daniel left a pile of gambling debts behind and Patrick Hennessey a mobster wants to collect. So Marnie is forced to take a job at with an escort service to help settle her debt and pay her bills. One night she meets and saves a businessman from committing suicide. She collects no money from the distressed John. Her pimp beats her! The next morning his body is fished out of the river. He has been stabbed and killed by a kitchen knife!

This isn’t the first time that something bad has happened to Marnie and revenge has been taken on the perpetrator! Is Marnie making these people pay or is it someone else? Maybe someone who has been watching over Marnie and her children. Maybe it’s the man who has recently helped her daughter Zoe or her son’s secret friend?? As Joe and Victor Ruiz try to unravel the mystery the situation only gets more cloudy, until the explosive ending!!

The Press for Watching You…

“Robotham slowly, expertly begins tightening the screws…Revelations increase rather than release tension until the last page…It will be a long time before memories of this one retreat back into the shadows.”——Booklist (starred review)

“Full of surprises. Well written and slightly creepy, it will keep readers intrigued to the final page.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“[A] commanding book with an ending that’s sure to give even the most jaded reader a shock”—Publishers Weekly

 

My Take on Watching You

Rating : 4.5 out of 5 

 

Joe O’Loughlin, for me, is one of the most interesting characters in the mystery and thriller genre.Joe’e life is anything but perfect he suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and it is a constant battle for Joe to keep his body doing what he wants. And Joe;s dedication to his patients and their troubles has torn his family apart.

In Watching You Joe is faced with a challenging client in Marnie Logan a seemingly loving mother with a missing husband trying to get her life together. Only problem is that Marnie does experience unexplained “blackouts” sometimes losing substantial periods of time! Could Marnie have anything to do with her pimp’s murder? Joe doesn’t think so but the detective assigned to the case and former detective and Joe’s friend Victor Ruiz are not so sure, and neither is the reader!!

I have read all the books in the series and they are all great especially the series opener Suspect and Book #3 Shatter.. The characters and the story lines are always well above average! So Check out Watching You which I think stands on its own and then go back and read the other books! You won’t be disappointed!!

 

 

May Reading Update…..

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May Another Good Reading Month – Five books finished with a week to go!

 

At he end of April my projected reads for May were projected to be…..::

What Then Shall We Do?
Dance of Death
Bowl of Heaven
A Delicate Truth
The Technologist

As I moved into May, I finished reading What Then Shall We Do? and Dance of Death. At that point, I went to the library and then changed the books. I added: How to Read the Solar System,and The Smoke at Dawn by Jeff Sahaara from the library. Then I added Preston & Child’s Brimstone (the book prior to Dance of Death) and The Devil’s Punchbowl from Greg Isles both from my TBR pile. Additionally, I continued reading Bowl of Heaven from Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. A few days later, Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell, which I requested from the library became available. I zipped through that book and then did the same thing with Brimstone!!

Several days ago, I was looking through the books on my Kindle and I saw Watching You the latest release from Michael Robotham which I had bought a while back and then forgot about, so I started reading it at night before bed. Yesterday I really got caught up in the book and finished it!!

So in total, I have read five books so far in May. The books are shown on the following table.

May 2015 Reads
24 Watching You – Michael Robotham Cloak & Dagger Library
23 Brimstone _Preston & Child Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile
22 Inspector of the Dead Cloak & Dagger Library
21 Dance of Death – Preston & Child Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile
20 What Then Must We Do-Gar Alperowitz Nonfiction Library

 

So as we approach the end of May, I am still reading Bowl of Heaven, and How to Read the Solar System. In addition I started two other books. My current reading  list looks like this…..

Currently Reading Challenge From Page Total %complete
Bowl of Heaven – Benford and Niven Science Fiction Library 300 412 73%
How to Read the Solar System-North&Abel Nonfiction Library 130 304 43%
Who Buries the Dead – C.S. Harris Cloak & Dagger Library 52 334 16%
The Matarese Countdown – Robert Ludlum Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile 64 566 11%

 

I will update my status on the various reading challenges at the end of May and I will finalize my projected reads for June at the time, also.Oh, I will also be writing about Watching You soon!

 

Brimstone – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

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Brimstone – Preston & Child – Pendergrast and D’Agosta chase down the Devil?

 

Preston & Child’s FBI Agent Pendergrast investigates those curious cases, so when Brimstone opens with art critic Jeremy Grove found burnt to a crisp in a locked and barricaded room in the attic of his mansion in the Hamptons, you knew Pendergrast would be there soon. Grove is found burnt to death from the inside out, amid the smell of brimstone. And next to him is the devil’s hoof print burnt into the floor! Soon the question arises: Had Grove really made a Faustian pack with the devil and he came to collect???

In the hours before his death, Grove called three names. One of those names turns up dead in the same manner as Grove, with the devil’s likeness burnt into his NYC apartment. Then the case really gets exciting!
Soon Pendergrast is out to determine the earthly cause for these murders, before the killer can collect the souls of the last two names on the list! Aiding Pendergrast in his quest, and he is going to need all the help he can get, are Vincent D’Agosta and Laura Hayward ,who have helped Pendergrast on past cases..(Relic and Reliquary) Vincent is now a Sargent in the Southampton police department, while Laura is a Captain in the NYPD.

The quest will take Pendergrast and D’Agosta from the mansions of Southampton, to the townhouses of New York and ultimately to the city of Florence, Italy and the Italian countryside,where four young men may have made that pact with the devil!! While Laura faces a preacher and a newspaper man. And they have NYC residents believing that the end of days are here!

Oh No! – I Read Books Out of Order

Brimstone book five in the Agent Pendergrast I series and the first book to feature Pendergrast’s brother Diogenes. I read this book after I reading Dance of Death, Book 6 in the series. I mistakenly thought that Dance of Death was the first book of three that featured Diogenes.
Anyway,I would recommend that Brimstone be read before reading Death of Dance and The Book of the Dead. As Brimstone does provide background for the various relationships in the books!

Bottom Line: Brimstone was another terrific read from Preston & Child. Easily four plus stars out of 5. Once again I enjoyed all of the wonderful characters especially Pendergast. I think is one of the most interesting and unique characters in the genre. The storyline kept the pages flying by, the suspense mounting, and the authors provided an ending that would have left me starting Dance of Death immediately had I not screwed up!! As it is I can’t wait to start  The Book of the Dead!!

Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell

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Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell and 1855 London Perfect Together!

 

David Morrell - Author of the Inspector of the Dead

David Morrell has been a top mystery and thriller author since his debut novel First Blood released in 1971, introduced the world to John Rambo!

I have enjoyed Morrell’s books since 1984’s release The Brotherhood of the Rose. All total Morrell has written twenty-eight novels, and his work has been translated into twenty-six languages

While I have enjoyed Morrell’s books through the years, I never thought that any of them were as good as The Brotherhood of the Rose or the novels that followed The Fraternity of the Stone and The League of Night and Fog, that is until 2013 and the release of Murder As A Fine Art.

Murder As a Fine Art was a wonderful historical murder mystery set in 1850s London featuring Thomas De Quincey, known as The Opium-Eater and author of an essay titled “On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts”   and his daughter Emily.

In March of 2015 the second book in the series Inspector of the Dead was released and this week it became the 24th book I’ve read in 2015 and one of my favorites of the year!

The Story

The beginning of Inspector of the Dead finds De Quincey and his daughter still in London following the events of Murder as a Fine Art. While attending church on a Sunday morning they are present when the body of Lady Cosgrove is discovered with her throat slashed! In her hand is a note with the name Young London on it.

Soon after her husband and her family’s servants are found murdered in their home with a note that held the name Edward Oxford.Both names were associated with past attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria!

Soon other members of the aristocracy are murdered in very public places cards with names of past men who have tried to kill the queen! As De Quincey and Scotland Yard detectives gather clues to help solve the crimes it appears that the ultimate target of the killer may be the Queen!!

Bottom Line:

Inspector of the Dead is definitely a 4 to 5 star book for me. The pages just flew by and I literally couldn’t put the book down. Morrell has done a terrific job of creating incredible characters in De Quincey and his daughter Emily, as well as the rest of the cast.

In addition Morrell’s writing vividly creates a London in a turbulent time. The Crimean War was not going well. and the government has collapsed leaving the country without a Prime Minister! In my mind Morrell has also made a brutal murderer a sympathetic character and while you can not forgive the killer for what they did, you can understand how they were driven to it! So Check It Out!

About David Morrell

sdaVID mORRELL

Links

Author’s Website
Facebook
x
Goodreads
Amazon

David Morrell is the critically author of First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created. He holds a Ph. D. in American literature from Penn State and was a professor in the English department at the University of Iowa. His numerous New York Times bestsellers include the classic spy novel, The Brotherhood of the Rose(the basis for the only television mini-series to be broadcast after a Super Bowl). An Edgar and Anthony finalist, a Nero and Macavity winner, Morrell is a recipient of three Bram Stoker awards from the Horror Writers Association and the prestigious Thriller Master award from the International Thriller Writers organization. His writing book, The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing, discusses what he has learned in his more than four decades as an author. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexic

 

David Morrell: The Brotherhood of the Rose and more

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David Morrell

David Morrell – The Mortalist, Frank Balenger, and   Thomas De Quincey series

So back in the 1980s (Ok think about that Edward the 1980s were 35 years ago! Ouch! When you were 14 in 1965 would you have thought about anything that happened in 1930 as anything but ancient history? Nope!) I read a lot of thrillers from the likes of Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler, Bill Granger (November Man), Richard Hoyt and others. And right up there with the best of them were books from David Morrell. Morrell’s 1972 debut novel was First Blood was adapted into Sylvester Stallone’s movie Rambo.

My three favorite books from David Morrell were The Brotherhood of the Rose, The Fraternity of the Stone and The League of Night and Fog. The sad thing is that aside from the fact that I remember that I really liked the books, I remember little bit about them. I rarely read books a second time but thinking about how much I liked the books starts me thinking may I should read at least The Brotherhood of the Rose again! I do remember that The Brotherhood of the Rose was made into TV a mini-series that I thought starred Richard Chamberlain. In looking it up on IMDb I see that it started Peter Strauss, Robert Mitchum and Connie Sellecca. Richard Chamberlain starred as Jason Bourne in a TV Mini-series based on Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity. I never watched either of the series!

About The Brotherhood of the Rose from Goodreads:

They were orphans, Chris and Saul–raised in a Philadelphia school for boys, bonded by friendship, and devoted to a mysterious man called Eliot. He visited them and brought them candy. He treated them like sons. He trained them to be assassins. Now he is trying desperately to have them killed.

Spanning the globe and full of heart-stopping action, The Brotherhood of the Rose is an astonishing novel of fierce loyalty and violent betrayal, of murders planned and coolly executed, of revenge bitterly, urgently desired. More

Through the years I’ve read several more books by David Morrell and I enjoyed them all but none have even been as good as the three books from above. That is until 2013’s Murder as a Fine Art set in 1850s London Morrell wrote a terrific book using The Opium Eater Thomas De Quincey and his daughter Emily as the lead characters! Read More Here.  The conclusion of that book left me and many other readers clamoring for more! In March Morrell released The Inspector of the Dead making me and others very happy campers!  In this installment De Quincey and Emily are still in London and end up in the midst of a killing spree targeting the aristocrats of London. Cards left by the murderers reference members of Young England that have attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria. Could the queen be the ultimate target?  I just picked up the book on Friday, couldn’t put it down and have already finished it!! The review of the book will be forthcoming. In the meantime here is a list of the other books that I have read from the pen of David Morrell……Check him out!!

David Morrell Books I’ve Read
Title My Rating Average Rating* Original Publication Year Date Read
Inspector of the Dead 4 05/10/15
Murder as a Fine Art 5 3.84 2013 2013/07/23
The Shimmer 4 3.31 2009 2009/08/08
Scavenger 4 3.56 2007 2007/07/01
Creepers 4 3.59 2005 2005/09/01
Assumed Identity 3 3.77 1993 1994/05/12
The Covenant of the Flame 4 3.92 1991 1991/05/18
The Fifth Profession 4 3.94 1969 1990/06/02
The League of Night and Fog 4 4.06 1987 1987/01/01
The Fraternity Of The Stone 4 4.14 1985 1986
The Brotherhood Of The Rose 4 4.13 1983 1985

* Goodreads – rating is out of 5

Reading Challenge Update and Reads May 2015

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May Reading Challenge Update

April 2015 was a great reading month for me as I finished seven books!! Woo! Hoo! May has not gotten off to a bad start either I have already finished two books. What Then Must We Do? by Gar Alperovitz and Dance of Death from the dynamic duo of Preston & Child

What Then Must We Do? is treatise on what we need to do in the future to try to fix our broken economic system. It delves into what we can do to democratize the ownership of wealth in our nation to strengthen our communities and our nation!! It is book 4 on a goal of 11 in my nonfiction reading challenge and book number 20 for 2015! Review

Dance of Death from the writing team of Preston & Child is the sixth book in the Pendergrast series and the second to feature Pendergrast’s evil brother Diogenes. After finishing the book I shook my head and thought why has it been on m TBR pile for so long!! The book s number 12 on a goal of 23 in my 2015 Clock & Dagger Reading Challenge and number 8 of 25 in my TBR Pile Challenge!! Review

Proposed May Reading Challenge Books

So that’s where I am currently. The following are the books that I plan to read in May of 2015. The operative word is plan. Four out of the five books are in excess of 400 pages, so I can see the possibility of a couple slipping into my June reads!! Which is what happened already to Larry Niven and Gregory Benford‘s Bowl of Heaven. It’s not that I don’t like it, but the action moves along fairly slowly and other books like Endangered from C.J. Box and Dance of Death hooked me and I couldn’t put them down!! So along with Bowl of Heaven I plan to read….

BrimstoneBrimstone

Book 5 of the Pendergrast Series and Book 1 of Diogenes

2015 Cloak & Dagger and TBR Pile Challenges

I should have read this one before Dance of Death – My bad!!

2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge Book How to Read the Solar System

How to Read the Solar System

Chris North and Paul Abel

Hosts of the Sky at Night

“This fascinating read supported by the latest research will engage and enchant. Recommended for anyone with an interest in astronomy and fans of the show Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson.” (Library Journal)

2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge -The Smoke at Dawn

The Smoke at Dawn

Jeff Shaara

2015 Historical Fiction Challenge

“Civil War history fiends will be riveted.”—Parade

Let’s Hope!

Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge - The Devils Punchbowl

The Devil’s Punchbowl

Greg Isles

2015 Cloak & Dagger and TBR :Pile Challenges

“A knockout thriller that’s just the right degree of chilly to combat the dog days of summer… Iles’ knack for perfectly integrating character and plot could serve as a master’s class for other authors.” — The Dallas Morning News

I read and loved the first two Penn Cage Novels and with two more beyond this one, I think it’s time to catch up on the series.

Now those are the five planned reads, but that can always change when my ADD brain starts to wander. In fact it may already change because the new David Morrell book Inspector of the Dead, which I requested from my library,just came in! Oh My!!

 

Reading Challenge From TBR Pile Buy/Library Total Goal %complete
2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 0 4 4 11 36%
2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 5 7 12 23 52%
2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 1 1 2 5 40%
2015 Science Fiction/Fantasy Challenge 2 1 3 12 25%
Totals 8 13 21 51 41%
2015 TBR Pile Challlenge 8 25 32%
Currently Reading Challenge From Page Total %complete
Bowl of Heaven – Benford and Niven Science Fiction Library 182 412 44%
Brimstone _Preston & Child Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile 96 497 19%
How to Read the Solar System-Nortth&Abel Nonfiction Library 86 304 28%
The Smoke at Dawn – Jeff Shaara Historical Fiction Library 5 495 1%
The Devil’s Punchbowl- Greg Iles Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile 38 577 7%