Terri's (tymfos') cozy, comfy reading den, thread 4

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in Mackinaw City, Michigan.

Hi! I'm Terri. Welcome to my new thread!



This is the fourth installment of my 2013 Cozy, Comfy Reading Den.

This is my primary challenge for the 2013 year. Everything I read will wind up listed in this challenge.




I read a wide variety of things. I tend to read a lot of mysteries, but I like other kinds of fiction and a lot of non-fiction. I have a weakness for disaster books, and I enjoy reading a lot of history.

Oh, and a word about my rating system? I don't have one. It's always a seat-of-the-pants, gut-reaction kind of thing when I try to decide how many stars a particular book will get. I freely admit how arbitrary this is.

I welcome all comments (except spam) and enjoy having visitors post here. So come on into my cozy reading den, pull up a chair and and let's chat about books and whatever else is on our minds!

THE BOOKS: First Quarter


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Books finished in JANUARY
1. Whack-A-Mole by Christ Grabenstein (E-BOOK, Fiction)
2. The Bourbon Street Ripper by Leo King (E-BOOK, Fiction)
3. The Man Called Cash by Steve Turner (AUDIO)
4. Last Man Out by Melissa Fay Greene
5. Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman (ER book)
6. Family Skeletons by Rett MacPherson
7. A Haunted Love Story: The Ghosts of the Allen House by Mark Spencer (E-book)
8. The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell (AUDIO)


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Books finished in FEBRUARY
9. The Sandburg Connection by Mark deCastrique (E-BOOK)
10. Toms River by Dan Fagin (LT ER Book)
11. Thunder Bay by William Kent Krueger


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Books finished in MARCH
12. Midnight by Dean Koontz (AUDIO)
13. Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane
14. December's Thorn: A Fever Devilin Novel by Phillip DePoy
15. Still Life with Murder by P.B. Ryan (E-book)
16. A Veiled Antiquity by Rett MacPherson
17. Haunting at Hensley Hall by Merabeth James (E-BOOK)
18. Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly by Jennifer Fleischner
19. Time for God by Jacques Philippe
20. Killer Show: The Station Nightclub fire by John Barylick (LT ER book)
21. The White Lioness by Henning Mankell (AUDIO)
22. Dangerous Undertaking by Mark de Castrique (e-book)
23. You Can't Lose 'em All: The Year the Phillies finally won the World Series by Frank Fitzpatrick (non-fiction, from TBR shelf)
24. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch (AUDIO)
25. Red Knife by William Kent Krueger (Fiction, ILL)
26. Let the Devil Sleep by John Verdon (e-book from library)

Abandoned (at least for now):
The Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln by Kate Clifford Larson (AUDIO)

THE BOOKS: Second Quarter


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Books finished in APRIL
27. Hail to the Chef by Julie Hyzy
28. American Lightning by Howard Blum (AUDIO NON-FICTION)
29. The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife by Connie Scovill Small (non-fiction)
30. Come Thirsty by Max Lucado (e-book from library)
31. Deadly Night by Heather Graham (AUDIO) from library
32. Death on Demand by Carolyn G. Hart
33. A Dedicated Man by Peter Robinson (AUDIO from library)
34. Faithful Place by Tana French (e-book from library)
35. Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard (mix of e-book and audio book)
36. Psalms: The Sunrise of Hope by Bob Saffrin (devotional -- e-book)
37. The Merlot Murders by Ellen Crosby (AUDIO)
38. Black Seconds by Karin Fossum (Mystery Fiction)
39. The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers by Amy Hollingsworth


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Books finished in MAY
40. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
41. The Gauguin Connection by Estelle Ryan (E-BOOK)
42. A Place of Execution by Val McDermid (AUDIO)
43. Heaven's Keep by William Kent Krueger (mystery/fiction)
44. The Blood Detective by Dan Waddell (AUDIO)
45. Grave Undertaking by Mark de Castrique (e-book)
46. Autism & Asperger's Syndrome in Layman's Terms by Raymond Le Blanc (e-book)
47. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
48. The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill
49. The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson (AUDIO)
50. Site Unseen by Dana Cameron (e-book)
51. Death Without Company by Craig Johnson (AUDIO)

ABANDONED:
Setup on Front Street by Mike Dennis (just plain awful)
Rebecca by Daphne du Marier (AUDIO) (not in mood for re-read)
Are You There Alone: the Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates by Suzanne O'Malley (not in mood for subject matter)


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Books finished in JUNE
52. Hell Hole by Chris Grabenstein (mystery fiction)
53. The Deepest Water by Kate Wilhelm (AUDIO fiction)
54. Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler (E-BOOK fiction)
55. Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson (AUDIO)
56. Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran (E-Book)
57. Death in the Baltic by Cathryn Prince (ER book, non-fiction)
58. A Cape May Diamond by Larry Enright (E-book)
59. Haunted Jersey Shore by Charles A. Stansfield Jr.
60. Another Man's Moccasins by Craig Johnson (AUDIO)
61. Vermillion Drift by William Kent Krueger (AUDIO/HARD COPY)

. . . AND STARTING THE THIRD QUARTER


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Books finished in JULY
62. River of Darkness by Rennie Airth (e-book)
63. Northwest Angle by William Kent Krueger
64. The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell (AUDIO)
65. Mind Scrambler by Chris Grabenstein (E-book)

Currently Reading:
Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes by Dwight Boyer (non-fiction)
The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson (AUDIO)
Harbor by John Ajvide Lindqvist (fiction) (Stupid touchstone won't come up for right book. It was available as alternate when I entered it on my other 2 challenge thread, but won't come up on this one. Ridiculous!!!)

THE OTHER CHALLENGES:

I'm also participating in the 13 in 13 Category Challenge:



http://www.librarything.com/topic/142659

and in the ROOTS (Read Our Own Tomes) Challenge (for clearing off those TBR shelves):



http://www.librarything.com/topic/145564

THE SERIES I'M READING


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I'm lost in a maze of series . . .

RACING TO READ MY SERIES!

A. CHECKERED FLAG: Series that I'm actually caught up/finished with those which have been published!!!
Dave Gurney series by John Verdon. (have read all three)
Elm Haven series by Dan Simmons (read both)
Fever Devilin series by Philip DePoy. (have read all seven)
Flap Tucker series by Philip DePoy (have read all 5)
Kenzie/Gennaro series by Dennis Lehane. (have read all six)
Mallory series by Carol O'Connell (have read all ten already published -- ER of 11th not-yet-published installment is on the way, though!)
Rev. Claire Ferguson series by Julia Spencer Fleming (have read all seven -- #8 due out in Novemer )
Three Pines/Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. (have read all eight -- #9 due out in August)

B1. WHITE FLAG LAP -- ONE TO GO!: Favorite Series that I am very actively reading, only one left to read that has been published
Sam Blackman series by Mark deCastrique. Next up: A Murder in Passing, #4 of 4
Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French. Next: Broken Harbor, #4 of 4 (at county library, waiting list)
Shetland Quartet by Ann Cleeves. Next up: Dead Water #5 of 5 (just released, not readily available)
Cork O'Connor series by William Kent Krueger. Next: Trickster's Point #12 of 12 (#13 due out 8/21)

B2 GREEN FLAG: Favorite Series that I am very actively reading -- not as far along
Buryin' Barry mysteries by Mark deCastrique. Next up: Foolish Undertaking, #3 of 5 (owned)
Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke. Next: Jolie Blon's Bounce, #12 of 19 (#20 due out 7/16) (local library)
Inspector Sejir series by Karin Fossum (English Publication Order). Next: The Water's Edge, #6 of 9 (local library)
John Ceepak series by Chris Grabenstein. Next: Rolling Thunder, #6 of 9
John Madden series by Rennie Airth. Next up: The Blood-Dimmed Tide, #2 of 3
Torie O'Shea series by Rett MacPherson. Next up: A Comedy of Heirs, #3 of 11 (owned)
Walt Longmire series by Craig Johnson. Next up: The Dark Horse, #5 of 12 (in OneClick) CURRENTLY READING

C START YOUR ENGINES: New series that I'm currently reading first book:

D. YELLOW FLAG: Other series to continue, but I've slowed down for now:
Alexandra Cooper series by Linda Fairstein. Next:Hell Gate, #12 of 15 (library)
Alex Cross series by James Patterson. Next:Alex Cross' Trial, #15 of 21 (library)
Aurora Teagarden mysteries by Charlaine Harris. Next: A Bone to Pick, #2 of 8 (owned)
Benjamin January by Barbara Hambly. Next: Sold Down the River, #4 of 12 (owned)
Blindness by Jose Saramago. Next: Seeing, #2 of 2
Blood Detective/Nigel Barnes series by Dan Waddell. Next up: Blood Atonement, #2 of 2 (CLP download)
Bryant & May by Christopher Fowler. Next: The Water Room, #2 of 10 (CLP/FLP download)
Charles Lenox series by Charles Finch. Next: The September Society, #2 of 6 (CLP/FLP Download)
Claire DeWitt by Sara Gran. Next Up: Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway, #2 of 2
Commissario Brunetti series by Donna Leon. Next: Death in a Strange Country, #2 of 21 (at library; I own #3)
Crumley mysteries by Ray Bradbury. Next: Graveyard for Lunatics, #2 of 3 (owned)
David Ash series by James Herbert. Next: Ghosts of Sleath, #2 of 3 (at library)
Death on Demand series by Carolyn Hart. Next up: Design for Murder, #2 of 23 (owned)
Dr. Siri series by Colin Cotterill. Next up: Anarchy and Old Dogs, #4 of 8 (owned)
Eden Moore series by Cherie Priest. Next: Wings to the Kingdom, #2 of 3 (I own #2 & 3)
Emily Locke series by Rachel Brady. Next: Dead Lift, #2 of 2 (CLP download)
Emma Fielding series by Dana Cameron. Next: Grave Consequences, #2 of 6 (download FLP)
Genevieve Lenard mysteries by Estelle Ryan: The Dante Connection #2 OF 2 (owned e-book)
Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo. Next: The Redeemer (FLP download)
Ian Rutledge series by Charles Todd. Next: Wings of Fire, #2 of 15 (library)
Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson. Next up: A Necessary End, #3 of 21
Inspector Erlendur (UK publication order) by Arnaldur Indrudason. Next: Silence of the Grave, #2 of 9 (county Library)
Joe Pickett mysteries by C.J. Box. Open Season Next up: Savage Run, #2 of 13 (owned)
Kate Burkholder by Linda Castillo. Next: Breaking Silence, #3 of 5 Gone Missing, #4 of 5 (CLP download)
Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell. Next: Sidetracked, #5 of 10
Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. Next: Pardonable Lies, #3 of 10 (borrowed)
Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews. Next: No Nest for the Wicket, #7 of 16 (county library)
Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman. Next: A Crown of Lights, #3 of 11 The Cure of Souls, #4 of 11 (owned)
Mistress of the Art of Death, by Ariana Franklin. Next: The Serpent's Tale, #2 of 4 (owned)
Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mysteries by Merabeth James. I'm skipping #2, the vampire one. Next up: A Haunting at Storm House (owned, e-book)
Samantha Kincade series by Alafair Burke. Next: Close Case, #3 of 3
Simon Serralier series by Susan Hill. First up: The Pure in Heart, #2 of 6 (owned)
Temperence Brennan series by Kathy Reichs. Next: 206 Bones #12 of 15
White House Chef series by Julie Hyzy. Next: Eggsecutive Orders, #3 of 6
Wine Country Mysteries by Ellen Crosby: Chardonnay Charade, #2 of 6 (download FLP)

E. Series I started reading out-of-order over the years as I came upon volumes; I'd like to fill in what I missed:
Ballad novels by Sharyn McCrumb
D.D. Warren series by Lisa Gardner.
Elizabeth MacPherson series by Sharyn McCrumb
Faith Fairchild mysteries by Katherine Hall Page (I own some unread)
Harmony series by Philip Gulley (first in County Library)
Kate Shugak series by Dana Stabenow (I now own first book in that series)
Michael Kelley series by Michael Harvey (read 2nd; own 1st)
Mickey Rawlings series by Tron Soos
Penn Dutch Inn mysteries by Tamar Myers (I own some unread; library has some I've not read)
Richard Christie series by Kathleen George (read 4th of 4 from library) next to read: #1 Taken (at county library)
Skip Langdon series by Julie Smith
Tess Monaghan series by Laura Lippman (own & library)

Still to be organized:
F. Non-fiction series/collections/trilogies/sets, etc, to be read in order:
The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote (Have read 2 of 3)

I'm reading and looking at so many series, I had to break the list up. Here are the
Series I'm thinking of starting

A. Series to start; own (or was loaned) at least one book in series
Agent Smoky Barrett series by Cody McFadyen. First up: Shadow Man, #1 of 5 (owned)
Body Farm series by Jefferson Bass. First up: Carved in Bone, #1 of 7+ (FLP download -- own #2 e-book)
Booktown mysteries by Lorna Barrett. First up: Murder is Binding, #1 of 6 (owned)
Bruno series by Martin Walker. First up: Bruno, Chief of Police, #1 of 5 (borrowed)
Coffeehouse mysteries by Cleo Coyle. First up: On What Grounds, #1 of 11 (owned)
Det. Ellie Hatcher series by Alafair Burke. First up: Dead Connection, #1 of 4 (owned)
Emmanuel Cooper series by Malla Nunn. First up: A Beautiful Place to Die, #1 of3 (owned)
Hackberry Holland by James Lee Burke. First up: Lay Down my Sword and Shield, #1 of 3 (owned)
Hannah Swenson series by Joanne Fluke. First up: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, #1 of 15 (owned)
Home Repair is Homicide series by Sarah Graves. First up: Dead Cat Bounce, #1 of 16
Inspector Alan Grant series by Josephine Tey. First up: The Man in the Queue, #1 of 6 (owned)
Inspector Matt Minogue Mysteries by John Brady. First up: A Stone of the Heart, #1 of 10 (owned)
Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson. First up: Case Histories, #1 of 4 (owned)
John Cardinal series by Giles Blunt. First up: Forty Words for Sorrow, #1 of 6 (owned)
Lacey Flint series by S. J. Bolton. First up: Now you See Me, #1 of 2 (owned)
Lady Julia Grey series by Deanna Raybourn. First up: Silent in the Grave, #1 of 5 (borrowed)
Lake Champlain mysteries by William Kritlow. First up: Crimson Snow, #1 of 3 (owned)
Laszlo Kreizler series by Caleb Carr. First up: The Alienist, #1 of 2 (owned)
Loon Lake fishing mysteries, by Victoria Houston. First up: Dead Angler, #1 of 13 (owned)
Madeline Dare series by Cornelia Read. First Up: Field of Darkness, #1 of 3 (owned)
Mark Tartaglia series by Elena Forbes. First up: Die With Me, #1 of 3 (owned)
Missing Pieces mysteries by Joyce & Jim Laverne. First up: A Timely Vision, #1 of 4 (owned)
Quirke series by Benjamin Black. First up: Christine Falls, #1 of 5 (owned)
Rebecka Martinsson series by Asa Larsson. First up: Sun Storm, #1 of 4 (CLP library download; own 4th book in series)
Rosa Thorn series by Vena Cork. First up: Thorn, #1 of 3 (owned)
Sister Agnes series by Alison Joseph. First up: Sacred Hearts, #1 of 9 (own)
Tony Boudreaux Mysteries by Kent Conwell. First up: Galveston (no touchstone), #1 of ? (own 6th in series)
Underhill/Maiden series by Will Kingdom. The Cold Calling

B. Series I'm eager to start; none owned, but at least first book available at library:
Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd. First up: A Duty to the Dead, #1 of 4 (library)
Cemetery of Forgotton Books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The Shadow of the Wind, #1 of 3 (FLP downloads)
Deborah Knott series by Margaret Maron. First up: Bootlegger's Daughter, #1 of 18 (library)
DS Alex Morrow by Denise Mina. First up: Still Midnight
Guido Guerrieri series by Gianrico Carfiglio. Involuntary Witness, #1 of 4 (CLP download)
Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly. First up: The Black Echo, #1 of 18 (library, library downhload)
Homer Kelley series by Jane Langton. First up: The Transcendental Murder, #1 of 18 (FLP download)
Inspector Silva series by Leighton Gage. First up: Blood of the Wicked, #1 of 4 (CLP download)
Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. First up: Killing Floor
Jack Sawyer series by Stephen King. First up: The Talisman (library, downloads)
Kathryn Dance series by Jeffery Deaver. First up: The Sleeping Doll
Lynley/Havers series by Elizabeth George. First up: A Great Deliverance (library paperback)
Matthew Shardlake series by C.J. Samson. First up: Dissolution, #1 of 5 (FLP download)
Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson. First up: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, #1 of 3
Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz. First up: Odd Thomas, #1 of 6 + novellas
Rizolli/Isles by Tess Gerritsen. First up: The Surgeon
Shakespeare Secret series by Jennifer Lee Carrell. First up: Interred With Their Bones
Steve Vail series by Noah Boyd. First up: The Bricklayer, #1 of 2
Strange & Quinn series by George Pelicanos. First up: Right as Rain
Tea Shop mysteries by Laura Childs. First up: Death by Darjeeling
The Sparrow series by Mary Doria Russell. First up: The Sparrow
Thora Gudmundsdottier series by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. First up: Last Rituals
Tradd Street series by Karen White. First up: The House on Tradd Street, #1 of 3
Trilogy of Fog by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The Prince of Mist, #1 of 3 (CLP download)
Women's Murder Club by James Patterson. First up: First to Die

G. Series to start where first book is at county library
Alex McNight series by Steve Hamilton. First up: A Cold Day in Paradise
Anna Travis series by Lynda LaPlante. First up: Above Suspicion, #1 of 7
Barker & Llewellyn series by Will Thomas. First up: Some Danger Involved, #1 of 5 (county library)
Bibliophile Mystery by Kate Carlisle. First up: Homicide in Hard Cover
Cackleberry Club by Laura Childs. First up: Eggs in purgatory
Duncan Kincade series by Deborah Crombie. First up: A Share in Death
Evelyn James series by Elizabeth Becca. First up: Trace Evidence
Gregor Demarkian mystery by Jane Haddam. First up: Not a Creature was Stirring
Harrison Investigation series by Heather Graham. First up: Haunted (county library)
Inspector Rebus series by Ian Rankin. First up: Knots & Crosses, #1 of 17
Jack Daniels series by Joe Konrath. First up: Whiskey Sour
Jason Kolarich series by David Ellis. First up: The Hidden Man
Jemima Shore series by Antonia Fraser. First up: Quiet as a Nun
Joona Linna sereis by Lars Kepler. First up: The Hypnotist, #1 (only one in English so far)
LA Quartet by James Elroy. First up: The Black Dahlia
Leaphorn series by Tony Hillerman. First up: The Blessing Way
Lincoln Ryme series by Jeffery Deaver. First up: The Bone Collector
Nobody Nowhere series by Donna Williams. First up: Nobody Nowhere
Nora Gavin series by Erin Hart. First up: Haunted Ground
Ray Dudgeon series by Sean Chercover. First up: Big City, Bad Blood
Sister Agatha mysteries by Aimee Thurlo. First up: Bad Faith
Virgil Tibbs series by John Ball. First up: In the Heat of the Night, #1 of 7

C. Recommended series, not readily available:
Antique Print Mysteries by Lea Wait. Shadows at the Fair
Books by the Bay Mysteries by Ellery Adams. First up: A Killer Plot
Chief Inspecter Adamsburg by Fred Vargas. The Chalk Circle Man
Donut Shop mysteries by Jessica Beck. Glazed Murder
Emily Tempest series by Adrian Hyland. Moonlight downs
Inspector Challis by Hal Disher. The Dragon Man
Jack Frost by R.D. Wingfield. Frost at Christmas
Jack Taylor series by Ken Bruen. The Guards
Joe Faraday series by Graham Hurley. Turnstone
Joe Plantagenet by Kate Ellis. Seeking the Dead
Kyle Murchison Booth by Sarah Monette The Bone Key
Logan McRae by Stuart MacBride. Cold Granite
Matthew Bartholomew series by Susanna Gregory. A Plague on Both Your Houses
Max Tudor by G.M. Malliet. Wicked Autumn
Mike Bowditch by Paul Doiron. The Poacher's Son
Nathan Active series by Stan Jones. White sky, Black ice
Novel Ideas series by Lucy Arlington. Buried in a Book
Sam Turner mysteries by John F. Baker. Poet in the Gutter
Sigrid Harald by Margaret Maron. One Coffee With
Tom Thorne series by Mark Billingham. Sleepyhead


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THE POSTING FORMAT:

Title:
Author:
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Series:
Date finished:
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?:
Category for 13 in 13 challenge:
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious):
Alternate category
My Rating:
Notes:

COVERS OF BOOKS CURRENTLY READING:

NON-FICTIONFICTION E-BOOK FICTION AUDIO BOOK FICTION

THE STATS: for as long as I can keep them adding up properly

total books READ 2013: 65

ROOT books -- off my (real or virtual) TBR shelf: 34
("SuperROOTS" (pre-2013 hard copy or ER): 17

Paper books: 26 1/2
E-books: 20 1/2
Audio books: 18

Fiction: 48
Non-Fiction: 17

male author: 42
female author: 23
male/female team author: 0

US authors: 51
authors from other countries: 13
NO IDEA: 1

living author (as far as I know): 64
deceased author: 1

Wow! You've got a ton of books on the fire. You've got to let me know what you think of the Kate Wilhelm. I've meant to read her, but something about her puts me off. And I still mean to read her. Maybe I've just tried the wrong book.

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Welcome Katie, first visitor, and all visitors to my new thread!

Katie, I still don't have a real verdict on the Wilhelm. I kind of like it, and I imagine it's very well done; but it's not one I feel compelled to listen to every chance I get, like some of the audios I've listened to.

Hi Terri. My copy of Death in the Baltic came in via ILL so I may start that one soon.

Nice new thread.

Hi Terri!
Nice new thread - I always love the beginnings of your threads :-)

Faulkner - shudder! Just don't understand him. I have to re-read Light in August for a course I'm taking. Maybe I'll like it better this time around???

Just popping in to say Hello!

Happy new thread! *glitter*

Happy New Thread, Terri! My mind boggles at your organization, but GOOD for you!
(Off to see why I don't know Kate Wilhelm......)

Great new thread, Terri. You do have a lot of books on the go right now, I find two books at a time works best for me, sometimes three, but any more that that and I would have a hard time keeping them all straight!

Terri- Congrats on the new thread! Hope you are having a great weekend and got some prime time reading in.

**waves**

Love your opening picture! Where is it taken?

Visitors! :) Thank you to everyone with compliments and other assorted kind words!

12 Linda, I've been slow reading Death in the Baltic, through no fault of the book. It's just been a hectic time and I've been more in the mood for fiction. BTW, your Blackhawks are looking good!

13 Cee, I don't understand Faulkner either. I muddled through Light in August last August (for a month-name theme read), not terribly en"light"ened by it. I probably shouldn't be listing The Sound and the Fury as "currently reading." More like "currently stalled and not eager to pick up again."

14 Hello back at you, Terri! *waves*

15 Hi, Esquiress! Thanks!

16 Only my thread is organized, Peggy. My house is a mess.

17 Judy, I've gotten to where I almost feel that I need to have the following going to maximize reading time and meet various goals:

a) An AUDIO book (I'm hooked on these for times of exercise, housework, and solo car travel)
b) A paper book of fiction of some kind
c) A paper book of non-fiction of some kind
(I need the genuine paper books for tradition's sake!)
d) A faith-based read (for use in my devotional time)
e) An E-BOOK (to read on my iPhone when stuck somewhere waiting, and to read when poor lighting precludes reading a regular book (such as in bed when hubby is trying to sleep).

The trick is to make them all sufficiently different enough so that I don't get them confused -- my fiction book and my e-book and my audio may all be fiction, even all mysteries, but must be in very different settings and styles. And the format alone may help me keep them straight -- with memory tied to sight or hearing, electronic or "real" page-turning. Right now, I need to pick a new devotional read, but I have an extra fiction started with The Sound and the Fury; as I told Cee, I'm stuck on that one and may just give up.

That's a long answer to a rather short comment, but this is an issue I'm trying to sort out in my own mind. Am I missing key details that may be "clues" in my mysteries because I'm not reading them straight through without other books intruding?

18 Hi, Mark! I don't think a whole lot of reading done this weekend, except in audio format. The next week and a half promise to be even crazier!

19 *waves* back at Lori! :)

20 Thanks, Cindy! That's the the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in Mackinaw City, Michigan. That's pretty much at the foot of the bridge that leads from the lower part of Michigan to the Upper Peninsula. (I should go back and caption the photo!)

Stopping by to check out your shiny new thread, Teri and to wave "Hello"! Love the system you have for reading multiple books at the same time.

Terri - Love the lighthouse photo at the top. Very picturesque.

The Sound and the Fury one of Faulkner's most baffling reads IMO. Good luck with it.

Congratulations on your latest thread.

24 Hello, Lori! My system is more or less working for me. Of course, there are always complications -- bad timing on a library hold that comes available being a prime example. Right now I only have six days left on my current e-book, Full Dark House. Since I'd waited for it and likely wouldn't be able to renew it, I wanted to give it priority over the other e-book I already had checked out, which had no waiting list. However, the hold came available while I was reading another British mystery in paper form, The Various Haunts of Men, and I feared confusion if I started that e-book then. So I waited (probably needlessly, as they really aren't similar at all), and now feel rushed to finish it. Thank heavens I had that long bus ride on Friday to get through a chunk of it!

26 Hi, Paul! Thanks for the compliment & congratulations. I think "baffling" is a good description for the experience of reading The Sound and the Fury. I "get" what he's trying to do and how he's trying to do it, but it's just so hard figuring out what's really going on and when. I found an article with some "tips" for reading it that might help if I sat down and concentrated on using them. My brain is just not ready to work that hard right now.

I am off work today because of construction at the library involving jackhammers in the basement (which has the acoustic properties of an echo chamber, I may add). Somehow, our director (wisely, I think) felt that the noise level would be intolerable for workers and patrons alike, so a 2-day closing was ordered.

I'd like to spend the day catching up on everyone's threads, but need to tend to some cataloging, as I almost ordered yet another book I already have which I didn't have cataloged. I'm also getting the house ready for a visit from in-laws.

Happy Monday! It started out as a rainy introspective day and now the sun is shining brightly on the wet grass, leaving tiny rainbows of joy.

I hope your day is a good one.

Happy Monday to you, too, Linda dear! Our sunshine arrived a little later, but it is here now.

I actually took a few minutes to read and finish this book:

75 Challenge Book #52
Title: Hell Hole
Author: Chris Grabenstein
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2008
Series: John Ceepak
Date finished: 6/3/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 and/or ER? Source?: Yes, No, Better World Books purchase this year.
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Surfside Six
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious): Shore setting
Alternate category any mystery category
My Rating: 3.7 stars
Notes:

I like this series about ex-Army MP John Ceepak of the Seaside Heights police department, as narrated by his young patrol partner Danny Boyle. I especially enjoy the New Jersey Shore setting. Grabenstein really captures the flavor of coastal tourist communities in the Garden State.

Danny and Officer Samantha Starkey respond to a late night noise complaint arising from a group of partying soldiers fresh from a tour of duty in Iraq. They wind up escorting one of the soldiers to ID the body of one of their company members, who purportedly committed suicide in the men's room at a Garden State Parkway rest area. Or was it really suicide? If not, who is responsible?

Overall, this was a good outing in the series, but I'm not sure I liked how it turned out -- or, rather, what the answer turned out to be.

Lovely new thread Terri. I struggled through The Sound and The Fury in college and don't mind saying I didn't understand much of it. I doubt I will read that one again but I have A Light in August on my shelf which I hope to read sometime soon.

Hi Terri

What a weird weather day. I took a vacation day to clean and get things in order around the house. It was also time for Lilly's check up and up date on shots.

First it rained, then the sun came out, then it rained, then the sun came out.

I've added Hell Hole to the tbr pile. Like you, I will like the setting of the Jersey shore.

Terri, what is going on with the Penguins?

Morning Terri! All caught up here. I also like to read multiple books at the same time, so your system makes total sense to me! I have just started this year to try to have one non-fiction read going with my other reads in order to increase my reading in that genre, and it works for me like that because I don't like to just read non-fiction. On Faulkner....I should try him again....someday. As I lay Dying left a bad taste in my mouth, but I have a few others on the shelf and would like to give him another chance. Not for Summer, though, he is too heavy for summer, I am thinking. LOL!

Forgot to mention that I love the thread topper - what a great photo! Happy Tuesday to you!

30 Hi, Bonnie! Light in August was not a book that I'd call a favorite, but it was a lot easier to understand what was going in it on compared to The Sound and the Fury.

31 What a weird weather day.
Linda, our weather's been weird and unpredictable, too. But I'll take our weird weather any day over the tornadoes of Oklahoma and the fire-stoking winds of California! Those poor people.

As for the Jersey Shore mystery series, I'd strongly suggest starting with the first book, Tilt a Whirl. I loved that one, and it does a good job of introducing the characters and setting.

32 Terri, what is going on with the Penguins?
Linda, that's the Pittsburgh sports question of the hour. Last night was my bowling league night, and I was upset to miss watching the Pens game on TV -- but when I saw the score, I was glad I didn't see it.

33 Happy Tuesday to you, too, Mamie! So you didn't like As I Lay Dying . . . I thought I had that one on the shelf . . . but don't see it listed in "My Library." Maybe just as well!

75 Challenge Book #53
Title: The Deepest Water (AUDIO)
Author: Kate Wilhelm
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Series: n/a
Date finished: 6/4/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 and/or ER? Source?: No, No, Library Download via Overdrive
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Murder She Wrote
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious): Victim was a novelist; his unpublished manuscript plays important role in story
Alternate category any mystery category
My Rating: 3.6
Notes:

One of the LT reviewers commented that this "mystery" book didn't utilize any traditional mystery conventions, or something to that effect. But it actually utilized one that always drives me crazy: a main character with "foolish syndrome." This is the "heroine" who doesn't have sense enough to talk to the cops when it's obvious she should, but places herself at risk by continuing to go it alone. I suppose it's one way to build suspense, but it annoys me greatly.

An author is killed at his remote lakeside cabin. His daughter is the central character in the resulting drama. Who killed her father, and why -- and how did the killer get to the unusually inaccessible spot? The victim tended to use real people and situations as models in his novels -- not always in flattering ways. Was he killed for something in his new, unpublished manuscript -- part of which appears to be missing? His daughter's wondering evolves into active investigating, and that's when "foolish syndrome" kicks in.

I suppose this book was well done. It had a rather cool tone, emphasized by the almost clinical-sounding narration of the audio to which I listened, which I didn't particularly like. I would consider this a literary mystery; it's not a cozy. There's a lot of emphasis on feelings and relationships rather than the actual murder and its solution; symbolism abounds. It does get a bit suspenseful near the end.

It looks like another nice day today. Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day. I spent the afternoon doing yard work, and my son and I took a walk after dinner.

Between those times outside, I did some book re-arranging. I found some bookends not in use (shelves too full to require them) and made a row of books on TOP of several of my book cases where I'd previously had knick-knacks. Since those spots are harder to reach, I chose to put novels up there that I've already read.

Now I've eliminated the piles of books in the corner and double-deep shelving. There's just a few odd paperbacks perched on top of books on the shelves.

But my Thingaversary books have been shipped, and will arrive any day. . .

Well, taking a second look, I haven't totally eliminated the piles of books in the corner . . . but my TBR shelf is in pretty good shape . . . until the Thingaversary books come . . .

I can relate. I thought I had eliminated the piles on the floor problem. After getting most of my new books shelved I tackled the dreaded fiction section (the other books tend to stay in their places a lot better - maybe because I don't read them as much). I put the books on the shelves in my walk in closet. Who knew that the shelves would develop a slight bend under the stacks? Maybe clothes or whatever you are supposed to put up there doesn't weigh as much? So anyway, now I have two stacks of books back on the floor.

I think it depends on the builder of the home. There are boxes of books and stacks of magazines on some of the closet shelves of my parents' house in Mississippi. They were well-constructed shelves though. I am positive that the wimpy shelves in my house wouldn't be able to handle them.

Terri, did you spot the auto racing ER book? It actually sounds interesting but I'm trying not to ask for one unless I really want it.

Stopping in to wish you a lovely weekend, Terri. Hope it is full of fabulous!

41 Hi, Mamie! Great weekend to you, too!

40 Linda, I only asked for one ER -- the new Mallory novel by Carol O'Connell. One of my favorite series!

39 & 38 Lori & Familyhistorian, even some shelves marketed as bookshelves can't take a full load of books. I have several cheaper bookshelves that are bending under the weight. When I look closer, the instructions even give a weight limit that would barely hold a shelf full of paperbacks. Lots of people seem to buy bookshelves for few books and mostly knick-knacks.

Yikes! I got a call from my mother-in-law this morning before I went to work. They are coming tonight instead of tomorrow. I love them dearly, but . . . She's got a bee in her bonnet because the housekeeping at the hotel where she's been staying while visiting my brother-in-law didn't make up her bed yesterday. That's happened to me before, and I never thought it was a big deal, as long as the room was made up clean when I first arrived.

The house isn't ready and I don't feel well. And I was SO looking forward to another quiet night alone until hubby & son come back late tomorrow afternoon from the assembly they're attending out-of-town. Plus, I'd saved the vacuuming and mopping for when they weren't around to mess things up after I cleaned. So I've done an after-work rush cleaning job to try and not look like a total housekeeping slob.

Well, it all worked out in the end. I got the most essential cleaning done in time, and had a pleasant evening with my in-laws and they went to bed early. They went out of their way to express appreciation to me for letting them come early, and for other things I've apparently done right in their eyes. It's actually nice to have them around; as much as I enjoyed my time alone, I didn't sleep well last night alone in the house.

Hubbby and son come home tomorrow.

I'm woefully far behind on the threads but, beyond responding to any messages here on my own thread, I think I'm not going to get much LT done this weekend. Not only do I have company, but I also have a very good library e-book I need to finish this weekend.

Good for your in-laws to let you know that they appreciate you! Sounds like an honest compliment to me. I know you'll be glad to have your two men home.
Congratulations on your book organizing!
I'll be glad when you get back to *Various Haunts* - I'm a real Susan Hill convert.

Somehow I missed your new thread and suddenly I'm 45 posts behind! I'm all caught up now. I love the photo at the top of the thread. Maybe I'll get there one of these days. Have a great weekend and hope you get your e-book finished before it expires!

How on earth did this happen. I am so far behind! I have skimmed pretty well... and determined that I can not absolutely have to read your recent reads. Highly unusual... because you are always sending me in search of new books..

I guess being so stuck on Sookie is helping me avoid new TBR adds?
I am impressed by your trip to PGH on the bus. I keep hearing how beautiful that park is, but I HATE baseball.. and crowds. I guess I will just stick to photos. :P Glad you had fun though.

eta I would love to go to the ARTS festival this week. I'm trying to figure out how to manage that...

45 Hi, Peggy! I finished Various Haunts of Men on the last thread, before I let myself start Full Dark House. I loved it! I'll try to link to the post:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/152195#4112185
I've enjoyed everything I've read by Susan Hill

46 Hi, Carrie! Thanks for the compliment about the photo. It's a favorite of mine! I just finished Full Dark House -- on the last day of the library loan!

47 Kath, I think I'm even farther behind on your thread, and just about everyone else's.

My Thingaversary order from Better World Books arrived yesterday. . . or was it Friday? I'll be back maybe later to post the latest book I've finished. It was kind of different, it was good.

75 Challenge Book #54
Title: Full Dark House (AUDIO)
Author: Christopher Fowler
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Series: Bryant & May, #1
Date finished: 6/9/13
Off the Shelf? (pre-2013 or ER?) Source?: No, No, public library download
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Masterpiece Mystery
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious): British
Alternate category
My Rating: 3.6 stars
Notes:

This was an odd little mystery that I enjoyed -- two mysteries in one, actually. John May is investigating the bombing of the Peculiar Crimes Unit's headquarters. The case takes him back to the first case he investigated with his partner Bryant, who was lost in the blast. Thus it moves between modern-day and WW II London during the Blitz, when the Unit was dealing with a series of deaths in a theater.

It was good enough that I'd likely try another in the series, but not so good that I'd rush right out looking for it.

My latest ER book, The Widows of Braxton County, arrived today

Hi Terri, I'm glad everything worked out with your in-laws. I can understand your trepidation though. I had great in-laws but that situation would have thrown me.

Hi, Bonnie! Yes, everything was better than fine. They are wonderful people -- loving and generous. I don't know why I get so nervous about the house when they come -- they totally accept however it is.

Sunday was my son's Confirmation. All went well. It was a happy day.

Yesterday hubby and my FIL went out used car hunting. So now my husband's ten-year-old, well-worn, 100,000-mile-plus Buick Century is replaced by a much newer, shinier Chevy Impala. (Yay! He's joined me in the Chevy camp!)

Now I'm off to help with the Summer Lunch Program -- and get my first ride in the new car on my way there!

Someday we hope to get to the Great Lakes and see all those lighthouses. We're planning a trip to Quebec in summer 2014, and may continue from there to tour the area. Would love to end up in Chicago to meet up with everybody.

You are always so busy, how on earth do you find time to read?

#54....Lots of audios....today I'm listening to one of the P.L. Gaus Amish Country mysteries while I sort out my closet into "goodwill" "offer to more substantial relatives" "trash" and "think about it" piles. I'm never going to go back to plumpo clothes so I need to get them out of my basket.

Also need to acknowledge that the kind of clothes I wore in my executive job in DC 10 years ago are now a) out of style, and b) never were in style here in the relaxed backwoods of Maine...so into the "let someone else wear them" bag.

Took a second to check emails, and order hubster a new MP3 - his died and he's as lost as I am without one.

Back to sorting and ear-reading.

53 Hi, Tina! Working the Great Lakes area into your Quebec trip makes sense. And I met with Linda (lindapanzo) in Chicago during my Great Lakes trip last summer. Happy planning!

54 Seems to me that a lot of folks here are awful busy to be reading, Kath -- you among them! I am, like Tina, doing more and more audios.

55 Tina, the problem when I sort things is that 90% lands in the "think about it" pile.

lindapanzo is always up for a visit with any out-of-towner LTers. Schedule permitting.

Apparently, I did not do so well with the upcoming ALA visitors. I "saved" the wrong date.

Argghh - the dreaded "think about it" pile. Why? Why? Why?

LOL, Peggy!

I did not do so well with the upcoming ALA visitors. I "saved" the wrong date.

Linda, I'm starting to have trouble keeping my days straight. And the more I go with electronic planning, the more I mess up, too. Old-fashioned calendars still work the best for me. . . .

75 Challenge Book #55
Title: Kindness Goes Unpunished (AUDIO)
Author: Craig Johnson
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Series: Walt Longmire #3
Date finished: 6/12/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 and/or ER? Source?: No, No, Library Download via OneClick
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: still thinking
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious):
Alternate category
My Rating: 3.9 stars
Notes:

My new favorite Western lawman and his Cheyenne Nation friend Henry (along with Dog, too) motor into my old favorite major US city -- Philadelphia, where "no kindness goes unpunished." Henry's there for an exhibition featuring the "Mennonite Photos" he found and organized -- photos taken by Mennonite missionaries documenting the history of the Reservation. Walt's there to visit his daughter Katie and meet the young man she's dating. But it all goes horribly wrong when Katie winds up in a coma in the ICU. Was it an accident? Walt and Henry are plunged into an adventure as the body count grows.

I'm doing a slow burn. I bought a Nook book, planning to read it with my Nook app. It downloads OK to my iPhone Nook app. But Nook for PC will not recognize the purchase, even after I do a sync with "my Nook library." I do a lot of reading with my phone, but sometimes I just want the ease of reading on a bigger screen.

After much poking around in the app, I found the update function and tried it, thinking that perhaps my version is obsolete. But there are no updates available.

I even tried logging in with several different browsers, thinking that might make a difference. When I try to download, it tries to send the book into my Sony Reader for PC program. I tried changing the defaults, but it didn't give me any options to change it. The computer acts as though the Nook program doesn't exist, though I can open it and read books I bought and downloaded last year.

I never have these problems when I buy Kindle books. Amazon's technology works just fine with both their PC app and their iPhone app.

I wanted to support B&N by purchasing some e-books from them, because I appreciate that they have a "bricks and mortar" presence in the marketplace. But it seems their technology is just plain inferior to Amazon's, and not worth the aggravation. And that makes me sad.

I've never had a problem lik that with Nook books. It seems so strange.

Well, I e-mailed their support. We'll see if they have an answer.

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/The-NOOK-Blog/bg-p/Unbound/label-name/Fre...

nook book free today

Not only is their technology inferior to Amazon, but so is B&N's customer service. Hard to be enthusiastic about them, at least for me. I have had several issues.. always with dead tree books ordered online, so far. I find that I rarely use nook any more, tend to stick with kindle..

Kath, B&N e-mailed me back, and it seems my Nook for PC app is obsolete. I need to download something called . . . NookStudy? It's the app for textbooks, but they say it works for all B&N e-books.

I've LOST my mp3 player! Actually, it's also a WMA audio player, which is the bigger loss, because audios downloaded in WMA format don't play on my iPhone. (I understand there's a conversion process possible, but I haven't tried that.)

I was getting ready to go to the gym, and had my keys & player & headphones in my hand, and stopped to get the mail . . . the school mailed me a notice that my son's body mass index is in the normal range but, oh by the way, summary of school screenings showed he FAILED his vision exam during the school year and nobody told me . . . so I was running around trying to find out when it was, and check with the doctor's office as to when was his last eye exam (exactly a year ago) and trying to schedule an appointment. Then I headed for the car with my keys and headphones and (I thought) the mp3 player. But when I got to the gym, I had the headphones but not the player. Figured I'd set it down on the table and only picked up the headphones. No. I've looked in the car, the garage, the route between the car & garage, and everywhere I can think of in the house. I even backed the car out of its space and looked to make sure it hadn't wound up under the tires when I parked the car . . . no luck. It seems to have vanished.

NOT a good day. I'm sorry, Terri.
I hope that the player turns up, and more importantly, that you can get your son in to see the eye doc soon. It's so frustrating to be the one who falls through the cracks.

Oh, Peggy, he'll get in to see the eye doc; I'm on it! I was surprised when he didn't need new glasses on his last eye exam; I'd say he's due for a new prescription. But maybe if I'd known sooner . . . well, he might have done better in school if he could actually SEE the board, huh?

Good grief! Glad that not good day is over! Hope things are sorted soon....AND that you find your player. That is not a good thing to lose :(

Still can't find the player, Kath. I've looked in all the logical spots. Hubby says that I'll surely find it in an "illogical" spot. Since I was upset about the eye exam issue, I was acting without thinking. Therefore, I probably put it somewhere totally illogical that it normally never would be. He suggested that I look in the freezer.

(I'd already looked there . . .)

Sorry to learn your mp3 player has gone AWOL! Here is hoping you are able to locate it. I had a good chuckle at your husband's suggestion to check the freezer... I remember tearing the house apart one time to help search for my mom's missing wallet. Guess where we found it...... in the freezer! She had been putting away groceries while talking on the phone and the wallet went into the freezer with all of the frozen foods. ;-)

Pockets? Trash? grrr. I agree. I bet you find it, too. Sometimes the car hides things very effectively.. drive up a steep hill! Look around and drive down and look :) Use a flashlight. They are magic when it comes to finding lost items.

Morning Terri! I agree Walt Longmire rules! I am halfway through the cable series too! Have you read The Keeper of Lost Causes? I just finished the 2nd book in that series and it has quickly become one of my favorites. If you haven't read it, do so, you will love it.

Lori, it's amazing what can land in the freezer under the right (or, rather, wrong) circumstances.

Kath, I checked relevant pockets. Must look closer at trash. I like the hill idea -- we have some of those around here.

I'm going to ILL order in a paper copy of the book I was listening to. Maybe the player will turn up then?

Mark, I have Keeper of lost causes on my list to read.

I'm going to ILL order in a paper copy of the book I was listening to. Maybe the player will turn up then?

Excellent idea! My guess is that you'll find the player as soon as your ILL arrives.

ILL's give me the headache. Mostly because I have nothing between them and me but 14 sheets of indecipherable paper. And, no one else who wants to tackle them .

75 I'd like to think so, Carrie!

76 ILL's give me the headache. Mostly because I have nothing between them and me but 14 sheets of indecipherable paper.
Huh? Sounds like your ILL procedure is a lot more complex than ours. Must compare notes sometime, Kath.

I am so far behind on threads . . . so very far behind . . .

Am trying to finish an Early Reviewer book, Death in the Baltic, that I'm not in the mood for . . . non-fiction, and I've been having a harder time than usual getting into non-fiction these days.

My current e-book is . . . well . . . kind of odd, but I kind of like it. Claire deWitt and the City of the Dead. It's a mystery set in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Your interesting note about non-fiction really struck a chord. I have several NF books I thought I'd be wanting to read, but every time I start one of them, I find myself dozing off, and going to find a good mystery or fiction instead. I'm sure that at some point my brain will switch back on to soaking up factual writing, but for now, I'm going with the summer doldrums flow (even if the weather isn't cooperating) and sticking with something good.

Terri - I can identify with your comments in #78. I have spent several hours over the weekend (largely alphabetically through the threadbook) catching up with all my pals and starred threads. Well I am at "T" already so it behoves me to say Hi!

You do not need to tell me about being behind on threads!

*waving* at Terri

Terri, It has been a while since I felt like reading anything dark or heavy. I have read some NF during that time. I am not about to force myself to read something that doesn't draw me in. I know it's different with ER's and other "must reads" so I do sympathise with that. I have tried to be careful to choose light, and maybe even fluffy with those... just in case. Lately, I want to read for pleasure and relaxation. If I am drawn to a NF book ( and there are one or two at work ) I will read them. When the mood is right.

And yes! I would love to compare notes. I have to go for training on doing ILL's. It is probably much easier than I think, but they are rare for us, and the 14 pages are the manuel .. so armed with that and the notes I stumble through and count on the benevolence of the person in our system to whom we send them to be mailed. Good thing she is amiable! lol. Someone wanted 40+ year old fiction that we didn't have in our system. I just told her no can do..... since one thing I have been told is if it is older than 12-13 yrs it can be refused? Also, I didn't see them out there to request, but that might just have been me? I then introduced her to a new author or two and she was just as happy.

I find myself dozing off, and going to find a good mystery or fiction instead.
LOL! Tina, my experience exactly these days.

HI, Paul! I'm impressed that you got through the threadbook to the "t"s in one afternoon.

*waving* back at Stasia!

Kath, I help the ILL person at our library (one of many hats she wears!) and it has become a favorite part of my work. (I even fill in for her now when she's on vacation.) So I hope you give it a chance, do your training and see what happens. You may get introduced to some interesting books . . . (just what we need, right?)

Hi Terri, your cautious enthusiasm for your current read of Claire deWitt and the City of the Dead made me chuckle. I well remember reading and puzzling over that book, but ultimately giving it my stamp of approval.

Same here, Terri. Couldn't describe it better than Judy just did, but I ended with thumbs up on Claire deWitt and the City of the Dead, too.

Terri> I think summers are meant for recreational reading. I tend to read more lightweight stuff then. I also tend to be in the mood for what I call my "beach reads" -- books by Dorothea Benton Frank, Anne Rivers Siddons, Mary Alice Monroe, etc. They are also comfort reads for me.

Well, I have no choice but to give it a chance.. lol. I suspect I will be fine with it.. but as I say it happens rarely so it's hard to practice! I realized today how easy it really is to add books, new books .. not attached books. It had me a bit nervous until I was able to sit and actually get more than partway in and deal with a patron or call etc. Cathy won't do it, so when thing calmed down a bit today, I had at it. Once I got through the first one.. it was easy enough. I did call the woman who trained me from the main office and asked her to have a look at what I put in.. She didn't call back or email so? I think it must have been fine . Maybe. lol

84 "Cautious enthusiasm." Yeah, that sums it up, Judy. I think I like it, but am not sure where it's headed . . . she's kinda weird, and I don't approve of all her actions, but I like her.

85 Joe, you and Judy are making me feel better about the book and my reaction to it.

86 Lori, I think you're right. I just can't wrap my brain around the real heavy, serious stuff this kind of year.

87 Well, good luck with your training, Kath. We used to have a lot of patrons ask for ILLs so we got lots of practice -- it has died out to a trickle of requests, perhaps because people have e-readers and are falling for the instant gratification of downloads. What we do have lots of are requests from other libraries for our books. We send out way more than we request.

Kath, I can't help thinking that this Claire deWitt and the City of the Dead would be right up your alley. It's a shame the 99 cent Kindle deal ended already.

Today is my day off, and I put loads of stuff on my "to do" list for today. And I don't feel like doing any of them. Yesterday I was running steady mostly from morning through to when I got home at 11 p.m. after late grocery shopping. We're supposed to have storms with heavy downpours, and I don't feel like getting caught out in the rain. So far I've read a little, done some laundry, and caught up (or at least skimmed) some LT threads. I typed complaint letter -- good project for my curmudgeonly mood. But my son is getting antsy, and I think we'd both be better off if we got out of the house for a while.

Let me here offer my thanks to Tina and Lori for affirming the reality of, shall we say, "summer reading brain." With the exception of the ER, Death in the Baltic, that I need to finish, I'm going to go with the flow this summer and just read what I feel like reading.

I am now officially removing The Sound and the Fury from current reading status. That just confirms what I've been (not) doing since April. I just can't wrap my brain around it.

Today turned out OK. I eventually got quite a few of the "to do" list things done.

Supper is in the oven -- a favorite, Maple Dijon glazed Pork Roast -- and I'm going to read a bit this evening.
http://www.vtliving.com/recipes/meals/porkroast.shtml#.UcDZOvmTiSo

I've given up on finding my little audio player, at least any time soon. I've ordered Vermilion Drift via ILL. I've downloaded an audio from OneClick which will play on my iPhone. For that, I'm going with the next Walt Longmire book, Another Man's Moccasins.

Hooray for working through "to do." I didn't manage that, but I'm going to remove my Iris Murdoch bio from my current status thanks to your good example. Golly, I feel better already! Otherwise, my summer reading brain has so far kept me more in non-fiction than fiction. Weird, eh? I guess that's retirement. I need to check out the Walt Longmires and I'm already thinking hard about Keeper of Lost Causes. Many thanks!
And we'll hope that the mojo of not looking for the audio player makes it suddenly appear.

OK, just got a call from the Lifetouch representative regarding our planned new church directory. Once again we've run afoul of their requirements, and the project is in danger of being cancelled. First, there was the issue of whether we'd meet their "minimum number of families photographed" requirement. Now that we've signed up the magic 35 families, we're in trouble because we haven't entered the photograph appointment times into their online database, and that's A REQUIREMENT. I lost it, and told the man they seemed to have too many "requirements" and I never planned to deal with their company again.

Church directories are always a pain, but it just seems that this one has been MUCH more work for the congregation than I ever remember with other companies.

ETA to tone down rant after I calmed down

Terri

Publishing companies are tricky. Finding the right representative makes all the difference in the world.

I'm sorry to hear of your problems with Lifetouch. We use them for our yearbook. Can I help in any way? I have a wonderful contact and I'd bet my bottom dollar he would help you.

Please let me know. I'm happy to help if I can.

Thanks for the offer, Linda. My hubby just got home, and is on the phone with our Lifetouch rep (the one I told off) now. He just got back from counseling a bereaved family, he hasn't had supper yet (as of 9:40 p.m.), and I meet him at the door with this mess. Thank heavens his visit with the family went well, so he's handling this pretty well.

Our public schools use Lifetouch for their school portraits. My son's photos are almost always just plain awful. So I don't have real positive vibes about Lifetouch to begin with.

Hubby says the reason the appointments weren't in the database as REQUIRED, by the way, is that the database wouldn't accept them when he tried to enter them!

ETA when slightly calmer

YIKES! I deal with a representative who is one of the most professional people I know.

Previously family owned, DaVor Studios then was purchased by HerffJones and now LifeTouch. They are located in Bensalem, PA

Again, if you would like, I can have this person connect with you, if only for you to have a listening ear and someone to express your frustration to.

Mark Huff is an excellent listener.

Thanks, Linda. If we can't get this sorted out, I may take you up on that.

Again, I'm happy to help. I have great confidence in Mark. I think he might be able to help you.

Anyway, I dealt with my stress in tried-and-true ways this evening: food and shopping. I abandoned my diet -- only temporarily, and not too thoroughly (a little ice cream, a few maple-glazed carrots). Then I went online and bought a train DVD that was just released that I knew my son would want. Also, the iTunes store is having a sale of 69 cent singles, and I bought and downloaded three.

*singing* Under the Boardwalk . . . or maybe Purple Rain, purple rain . . . fits tonight better.

I guess I fit the stereotype of the Woman who binges to deal with stress . . .

. . . Uh, oh. Better World Books is having another 24-hour, 40 percent off sale . . .

Hubby is still not down for dinner . . . to say it is "well done" is an understatement.

98 Thanks again, Linda!

Better World Books? Oh, no, another addiction for me.....I hit the bookcloseouts.com site twice this week.

Drat that Will is retired and home during the day when the packages arrive.....

Well, it looks like the directory thing is pretty well sorted out. Hubby admits he should have called Lifetouch when he had the problem entering the data. (I still think the whole process is a pain.)

And hubby is actually in a good mood. He had a very good visit with the family this evening.

I'm listening to Ray Charles sing America the Beautiful, and starting to calm down.

Yi Yi Yi - I was your first visit, but you've gotten 100 messages since I last visited!!! I've been away too long. Your assessment of Wilhelm is about what mine was - well written, want to like it, but not too excited by it.

As for Sound and the Fury, I've read it twice. The second time, I wondered why I had given it a second time. You're right to take it off your summer reading list. If you never get back to it, it wasn't meant to be. I'm not sorry I read it, and gave it the second read but I didn't enjoy it as much as I do many other "great" works of literature, let alone not so acclaimed books.

Hi Terri, we used to use Lifetouch for school photos too but the photos were not very well done and parents were complaining so much that several years before I retired we switched to another company.

103 Hi, Katie! Don't worry, I'm so far behind, I've missed entire threads of some folks.

Your assessment of Wilhelm is about what mine was - well written, want to like it, but not too excited by it.

That's it! -- succinctly stated, Katie.

104 Hi, Bonnie! Yes, my son just finished his sophomore year, and there were only a couple of years where the school photo was of a quality that I wanted to display or give to folks -- and, remember, he repeated Kindergarten, so that's 2 years out of 12 years total already. I can't swear that it was Lifetouch all the way back to Kindergarten, but they're the only company I remember doing the photos.

I understand that a local photographer takes graduation photos. Maybe those will be better. Two more years!

Hi Terri- I read Claire deWitt awhile back and liked Gran's off-beat style. I would read her again. I wonder if there is another Claire book coming out?

Hi, Mark!

I wonder if there is another Claire book coming out?

Yes, one was released Tuesday (which is probably why the first one was on sale when I bought it). Claire deWitt and the Bohemian Highway.

ETA to add And it's got a starred review -- highly recommended -- from Library Journal!

Our church is just starting to set up appointments with Lifetouch. Now I'm nervous. But it's not in my hands and we are a very large church. We'll see how it goes.

Oh dear. Our church used Lifetouch for the last directory, and it arrived a full year late. The pictures were pretty good though.

108 Morphy, I imagine a larger church can deal with the hassles better than our small rural ministry. Part of the problem is that there's a fair amount of computer work involved, like the online database thing. The folks who have time to donate to coordinating the directory generally aren't the folks with a lot of computer experience, and a lot of our folks are still limited to dial-up internet, which is next to useless nowadays for most websites. Hubby (the pastor) wound up entering the data (he finally got it to work, with some suggestions from our Lifetouch rep last evening) because we live in town and have broadband.

Good luck to your church with the directory!

109 A full year late, Peggy? Ack! And they sure don't want US missing any deadlines . . . glad the photos were good, though. Worth the wait?

Oh, I'm sorry to hear of all these problems with photo companies. I've supervised/advised college publications for 29 years. The publishing industry as a whole is in a great deal of trouble.

Linda, I imagine a lot of it is the impact of technology, and the fact that different people are in different places with it. That's just my thought. It's a big transition time.

75 Challenge Book #56
Title: Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead
Author: Sara Gran
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2011
Series: Claire deWitt
Date finished: 6/19/13
Off the Shelf? Pre 2013 owned and/or ER? Source?: Yes, No, Kindle Store
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Bourbon Street Beat
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious): set in New Orleans
Alternate category
My Rating: 3.8 stars
Notes:

A year after Hurricane Katrina, Claire DeWitt, Private Investigator, is hired to find out what happened to a missing Assistant District Attorney who disappeared at the time of the catastrophic flooding. Was he "just" another victim of the storm? Or was there foul play? The missing man's nephew wants to know.

It took me a while to settle into this one. I was fascinated by the Post-Katrina New Orleans setting. But Claire is not your typical PI. I can't say I approved of all her actions (especially driving while stoned). And some of the way she dealt with the case was a bit implausible. But, in the end, I enjoyed the book and would like to read the next one. It was an interesting change of pace.

Terri.. I requested Claire deWitt and the City of the Dead from another library. Is this a series? You have already gotten me hooked on a series ( Fever Devilin ) and I do mean hooked! Anyway, City of the Dead should show up today, so I will run down to get it. ( surprise day off)

I'm glad to hear that your directory woes are finally coming to an end...

Kath, it's a series. The good news (for the bulging TBR pile) is that there are only two in the series so far, and the second one only came out this week, so it will be easy to catch up with this one!

The library patron who got me hooked on the Fever Devilin series was in yesterday to check out the latest installment. (I remember that fateful encounter vividly -- he returned The Drifter's Wheel and just said, "if you want to read something really different . . . you have to kinda think, but it's really different, and good . . ." and he caught me at a time when I was, indeed, looking for something different to read.) Anyway, I told him I remembered him recommending that one, and as a result I was hooked and the library had the whole series, and I had DePoy's whole other series in my home library, too.

See what he started? ;)

Last night, wanted to start a new e-book. I have a medical appointment today, and the e-books are handy for the waiting room. I almost started A Cape May Diamond, which I have for my Kindle app. But then I logged into the Carnegie Library collection and checked out River of Darkness. I read a chapter in bed -- I think it will be good, but not sure if it's what I want to read now. So this morning I got an e-mail from Amazon asking me to rate A Cape May Diamond (along with another e-book I haven't read yet). Of course, I'm not ready to rate it; but it made me decide to read a chapter or two and see if it was more what my reading mood required. I think it might be.

I still need to finish my ER book, and now I have a second ER book, too. Neither is what I'd want to read in the waiting room at the medical center, though.

I thought we'd never get our last church directory. I think LifeTouch did it, but I'd have to go look to be sure. It definitely took more than a year from the time we expected to receive it.

Lori, church directories have always been a nuisance to deal with, but it seems that the whole process is getting worse these days.

Well, I showed up for my medical appointment today well-armed with reading material, so naturally I had no waiting whatsoever. I went straight from patient registration to filling out forms in the waiting room to getting my blood pressure checked (normal, yeah!) and answering questions for the nurse, to the exam room.

Of course, the nurse wanted to know all my meds & supplements She was frustrated that she couldn't find my particular calcium supplement in her database. Why does it matter which one, as long as they know I'm taking one, and it covers the daily requirement??

I started listening to the fourth Walt Longmire mystery, Another Man's Moccasins (from OneClick via my iPhone), today while doing my workout. Interesting that this one deals heavily with memories of Walt's time in Vietnam. A Cape May Diamond, which I started on e-book today, is about a Vietnam War draft dodger. Interesting juxtaposition.

I really need to finish my ER, Death in the Baltic. It seemed like a good idea at the time I requested it, and it seems well-done, but I'm just not getting into it really well. I think it's more a case of my summer brain than the book's overall quality.

Tomorrow and Saturday -- and Sunday too, come to think of it -- are going to be long days. So I'm going to mostly chill the rest of today and this evening. Cook supper (baked cod), maybe do some laundry and such, but no major projects. Right now, I'm going to make myself a nice cup of coffee and sit down with a book -- maybe finish that ER book, so I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

Terri, I checked Death in the Baltic out from the library. I started it and, well, I guess that serious nonfiction is not good summertime reading for me, so I returned it.

Disasters and war/military are my two laggard categories. Just not in the mood for it.

On the other hand, I'm reading a breezy history of the term "OK" which is light enough, though nonfiction, that I'm enjoying it. OK

Domino effect ..... I can only hope that happens when I recommend books :)

Had lunch with 3 other library folks today. I found myself wishing you could have been there too :)

Thanks, Kath! It would have been nice . . . today was crazy hectic at our library today.

The saga of the church directory continues. The church was properly readied, and the first family scheduled showed up for their photo appointments, which had been duly entered in the directory company's bleeping online database. NO PHOTOGRAPHER. The first appointment was for 12:15, and the guy showed up at 12:30 planning on the first appointment being at 2 p.m. Apparently there was a failure of communication between the company's main office and the photographer. The original schedule called for starting at 2, but that was changed weeks ago. Worse, the first folks scheduled included a young man who has to catch a plane to Florida later today, so it's not like they had a lot of time to wait around.

GRRRRRR!!!!!!

My ILL of Vermillion Drift arrived at the library today. I'm almost done with my ER book.

75 Challenge Book #57
Title: Death in the Baltic
Author:Cathryn J. Prince
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2013
Series: n/a
Date finished: 6/21/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?: Yes, Yes (ER), LT ER program
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Emergency!
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious): disaster
Alternate category
My Rating: 3.5 stars
Notes:

"What hurt me about it the most was everybody would talk about the Titanic," Inge Bendrich Roedecker said, remembering her mother's experience. "My mother said, 'I was on a boat that sank.' And people snickered. I feel the ridicule in the room to this day."

What was the worst maritime disaster ever? The Titanic? How about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff? Ever heard of it? 1,502 died when Titanic sank. An estimated 9,400 died in the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff.

Why is this dreadful disaster so unknown to most people? Blame it on war, blame it on politics. Blame it on the fact that the ship was evacuating Germans in the face of the Red Army's advance. Most of the survivors wound up in places where talk of the disaster was not welcome -- sometimes their silence was officially demanded. And then there was the fact that people around them were so totally clueless:

. . . Ellen had a brief moment when she considered sharing her story with her coworkers. She started to tell them about what happened to her family. One of her colleagues interrupted her. "'Oh the war. That was hard, we had to use margarine,'" Ellen remembered the woman saying. Ellen's mouth clamped shut, never to speak of it again with her colleagues.

The reality is that, while there were German military personnel on the ship when it sank, the vast majority of the victims were civilians, mostly women and children. Many of them were less than enthusiastic about the Third Reich. Some were even there because they'd been forcibly relocated to East Prussia from the Baltic states under the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between the Germans and Russians before Russia joined the Allies. Most of them wound up in far-flung places where people understood nothing of what they'd been through.

Author Prince has done her research. At times, I found myself having difficulty following the narrative regarding the background of the people on the ship. For that I may partially blame my lack of knowledge of that aspect of the war and the unfamiliar names of people and places. Indeed, many of the cities in the book have had their names changed -- the author includes a list of them in the Appendix. I did find some of the writing rather awkward and information could have been better organized.

The disaster itself is recounted in a relatively non-dramatic manner and is recounted mostly in one chapter; the rest of the book is information leading up to the sinking, and the aftermath. Given the magnitude of the disaster, I might have expected more focus there.

The book really shines when Prince lets the survivors tell their experiences in their own words.

This is a story that needed to be told, and Prince has told it reasonably well, though it's not a perfect book. But it's not a long book -- just about 200 pages, plus notes and index -- so not too much time to invest.

After that book, I decided on something a bit lighter, so I'm opting for a bit of spooky regional folklore from my old stomping grounds: Haunted Jersey Shore.

I'm reading an e-book that has a major flaw, IMO, but I'm still reading because I want to know what happens, so I guess it's not a total loss.

Why would someone write a book and have a character narrate it who isn't in 80 percent of the scenes? She pops in and out in first person narration, but multiple chapters go by where she's not present, except to occasionally pop in and say, "this was when he decided to help me," or such comments. It's not like it's any kind of clearly defined multiple narrators/POVs -- I could accept that. The narrator just pops in and out with her first-person references, but then is describing in detail scenes involving other people she can only know about second-hand, Why not just have a strictly third-person narration, or have the main character who is in all the scenes narrate the thing?

75 Challenge Book #58
Title: A Cape May Diamond
Author: Larry Enright
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Series:
Date finished: 6/25/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?:Yes (virtual), No, Kindle Store
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Surfside Six
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious):Set in shore town
Alternate category
My Rating:not sure yet
Notes:

As I said in my above post, the issue of the narrator bugged me throughout this book. At the end, I think maybe I "got" why the author did it that way, but I think it was a distraction rather than a helpful device.

The setting drew me to this book: Enright captured the aura of 1975 Cape May, New Jersey pretty well. That was in the time-frame when the Jersey shore was part of my stomping grounds. The story itself was OK . . . actually, I got rather drawn into it. Some of the dialog felt a bit clunky and awkward, but some of the descriptive passages were quite compelling. The character of Jill the detective didn't quite seem real to me. I think Annie Mae was intended to be an enigma for the reader. Tom was a pretty well-developed character. Some characters bordered on caricatures, especially some of the "bad guys."

I'm not sure how plausible the conspiracy in the book would be, but I'm sure there was plenty of crooked stuff going down at the shore as the push was on for casino gambling in Atlantic City.

ETA to add: the more I think about it, the more the narrator thing has grown on me and given me food for thought, given something that comes up at the end of the book. But I can't explain without a massive spoiler. The problem is, if you read it back that way, something else doesn't make sense. I think there's a deliberate ambiguity to leave the reader wondering exactly who was really telling the story and what really happened in some regards.

I think I'll skip the Jersey book. That was a strange voice from which the book was written.

Terri- Good review of Death in the Baltic. Sadly, I had never heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff. I bet LindaP has! LOL. Thanks for the info on the new Claire Dewitt book. Very nice.

Lori, the more I think about it, the more the narrator thing has grown on me and given me food for thought, given something that comes up at the end of the book. But I can't explain without a massive spoiler. The problem is, if you read it back that way, something else doesn't make sense. I think there's a deliberate ambiguity to leave the reader wondering exactly who was really telling the story and what really happened in some regards.

Thanks, Mark! The WG may be the biggest disaster most people haven't heard of. And you're welcome for the Claire info.

Sometimes it is the books we aren't immediately in love with that end up satisfying us in the moment. I am trying to read The White Mare which I am loving, but so much chaos makes it hard...

Hi Terri, you've got to wonder how Lifetouch stays in business, don't you?

Death in the Baltic sounds good. I might have to WL that one. I actually knew that was the worst maritime disaster from a book I read last year---Inferno: the World at War by Max Hastings which was a 5 star read for me.

130 True, Kath!

I've gone back to the library e-book I put aside to read the Cape May book, and now I'm enjoying it immensely. River of Darkness is a good mystery set in 1921 England; it just needed a different mood from me.

131 Bonnie, at least our photos turned out pretty well. The photographer seemed to know what he was doing. Also, we were short one family due to their rules of what consitutes a "household" but the rep agreed that a 42-year-old woman living at same address with parents shouldn't be treated the same as a teen living with parents and he's willing to count her separately as far as crediting our number of families. So we're getting the number of activity pages that a 35-household church qualifies for. So it sounds like it's all going to work out. I just won't hold my breath for the directory to arrive when scheduled.

Ack! My current e-book (which I'm enjoying immensely) is the first of a series . . . I'm drowning in series . . .

>>#133

Had to laugh at that! I've just discovered that the ILL I collected yesterday is the first in a series, too! And yes, drowning not waving...

Yes, Liz, we do manage to get swamped with series here, don't we? :)

The previous e-book also seems to be part of a series, but looks like a later installment -- and I have no real desire to read the earlier installments.

Think I'll pass on A Cape May Diamond but Claire deWitt and the City of the Dead sounds interesting, although I'm a little afraid from your comments. It sounds like it might be a protag as stupid as the one in Black Irish. No?

Katie, she's really not stupid. I mean, driving under the influence is stupid and dangerous (and, IMHO, I think she uses too many drugs in general), but she's otherwise a pretty smart cookie. As I recall, she only gets herself into one or two jams where I think, "she should have seen this coming and been more careful." That's well below average for mystery book protagonists, females especially. (Authors always have women doing things where they clearly should have known better -- often so a man can rescue them, ugh! None of that here.) She is tough, offbeat, quirky and different from any private eye I can recall in literature. There is one major coincidence, and a few minor ones, but if you can buy into a worldview where things happen that can't quite be explained (and I do), it makes sense.

The phrase "Zen and the art of detection" sort of comes to mind to describe Claire. (Not to be confused with Ray Bradbury's Zen and the Art of Writing, one of my all-time favorite books on the art of writing fiction.)

75 Challenge Book #59
Title: Haunted Jersey Shore: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Garden State Coast
Author: Charles A. Stansfield Jr.
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2006
Series:
Date finished: 6/27/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?: Yes, No, Better World Books (used)
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Twilight Zone
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious):
Alternate category Surfside Six
My Rating: 3.8 stars
Notes:

Don't let the cheesy cover scare you away. This little book of spirited folklore is one of the better volumes I've read in this genre. The accounts are short, but engagingly told with a good-sized helping of local history and a dash of humor -- and none of the editorial failings of many such books. It's not so much a spooky read as it is a sojourn through Coastal New Jersey history and its alleged paranormal remainders. I really enjoyed this one.

Well, today I fell flat on my face on the sidewalk outside the library. I'm OK except for a bloody nose and scraped knees, but my glasses are ruined.

Fortunately, I hadn't filled my new glasses prescription yet. Sometimes procrastination pays off big time. :)

Oh no!!! I hope your only excuse was carrying too many books and not seeing an obstacle and that there was no medical issue. So sorry about your nose and knees, but at least you didn't ruin new glasses.

No medical issue, Tina -- though I've made the library aware of a sidewalk issue they are going to have addressed pronto. (No, I'm not going to sue them -- I figure I ought to watch where I'm going -- but others may not be so understanding.) The sidewalk really isn't that bad, but I hit it in just the wrong spot, with the wrong part of my foot . . .

Oh No! So sorry to hear this. As a person who falls too frequently, I can say I know how it feels and it affects your whole body. Take an ibuprofen before bed and another in the morning. Trust me on this one. Tomorrow more things will hurt.

Oh dear. I hope you are feeling better.

I did that a few years ago outside our library. I caught an uneven sidewalk and fell. I really do empathize with you.

Thanks Kath, Esquiress, and Lori! Kath, I think I'll take that advice.

I finished my audio book with just hours left on the library loan. Those 10-day loan periods generally don't work well for me on audios.

75 Challenge Book #60
Title: Another Man's Moccasins (AUDIO)
Author: Craig Johnson
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Series: Walt Longmire #4
Date finished: 6/28/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?: No, No, Library download from OneClick
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Winds of War
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious): Lots of Vietnam War related content
Alternate category
My Rating: 4 stars
Notes:

I continue to enjoy this series, and this installment stretches into some new territory.

When the body of a dead Vietnamese woman is discovered near Powder Junction, Walt's memory drifts back to his experience in Vietnam. This book gives us two mysteries in one, as we follow the investigation into the modern-day woman's murder, and also Walt's investigation into drug dealing as a Marine investigator in 1968.

This is another solid entry in the continuing adventures of Walt Longmire, and another sterling audio narration by George Guidall.

ETA to add: I guess I had only minutes -- not hours -- left on the library loan on this one. Though it showed "expires in 1 day" when I logged into OneClick to finish listening to the last chapter-and-a-half, when I logged back into OneClick after supper, to look for another audio, it showed me with NO titles checked out!

75 Challenge Book #61
Title: Vermilion Drift
Author: William Kent Krueger
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2010
Series: Cork O'Connor #10
Date finished: 6/28/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?: No, No, Library
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: still deciding
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious):
Alternate category
My Rating: 4.2
Notes:

This was yet another stellar installment in the Cork O'Connor series. Cork is hired for protection of an old mine being considered as a disposal site for radioactive waste. But he stumbles on bodies from a 40-year-old mystery -- and a fresh corpse -- in an unmapped tunnel. This is a mystery that touches on events of his youth, and raises questions about his father that Cork is reluctant, yet driven, to face.

I've started my latest ER book, The Widows of Braxton County. I'm only a few chapters in. I'm not sure why I requested this one . . . not sure if I'll like it, but I'll give it a chance; it's too early to tell. Did anyone else here snare this one?

ETA to add I don't see any familiar names listed among those who have it; and there's absolutely no agreement about its merit, based on the stars awarded. They range from a 2 to a 5, and there seems to be one of each that's been awarded. I'm not going to read any reviews that may be posted -- trying to stay objective and make up my own mind. So far, not thrilled, though.

Hello Terri! I'm all caught up here. You just finished the Longmire that I have waiting for me, so good to know that the series holds up. And you are reminding me that I NEED to get to that Krueger series. Hope your weekend is full of fabulous!

Thanks, Mamie! Wishing you a great weekend, too!

My son and I visited the nearest shopping mall today. I ordered new glasses, bought a new desk chair that will actually give me some back support, and picked up a few groceries.

I'm starting the 4th book in the Kurt Wallander series on audio. I listened while doing some chores around the house today.

Also did a little more reading. Braxton County book is showing some promise now . . .

Sorry to hear about your fall, Terri. I've been known to fall from time to time, clumsily, so I know how that feels. Usually, for me, it's ice or not seeing a step down. Hope you're not sore or anything like that, on top of it.

Thanks, Linda. I'm just scraped up, mostly. A little achy, but I came through surprisingly well. The main issues are 1) the broken glasses (my "spare" pair is an old prescription that works fine for distance/driving, but is terrible for reading; and 2) the sore nose makes it almost impossible to tolerate the mask on the CPAP machine I have to use for my sleep apnea.

Another bag of books followed me home from the library book sale . . .

Vermillion Drift sounds like a splendid name for a racehorse as well as an obvious humdinger of a book. Sorry to hear about your tumble and the disaster this wrought upon your spectacles and beak. Were you craning your neck to look at books in the library sale?
Trust you have a grounded and tumble free Sunday Terri.

Sorry to hear that I was right about the achy part. Hope it passes soon :( and poor nose!

I don't go to our library sales, not in BF or here. I fear them ... We are having a book "yard sale" on August 17th to celebrate the town's birthday. Mighty scary stuff, all those cheap books.

Take care !

It's a good thing I don't live closer to Kathleen. I'm afraid a book "yard sale" would be too hard for me to avoid, and I definitely don't need to acquire any more for the moment.

Hi, Paul! You're right -- Vermillion Drift would make a heck of a name for a racehorse. And my Sunday was well-grounded.

Hi, Kath. I'm doing OK now, just waiting for the new glasses to come in.

Me, too, Lori! I am definitely "over-booked" at the moment. I really need to stop acquiring . . .

I spent the evening watching the History Channel 2 (H2) Civil War programming. This week marks the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

I really do not like my current ER book. If I didn't have to review it, I'd Pearl Rule it. It makes me kinda want to smack some sense into the protagonist . . . and just want to smack all the other characters . . . not my typical reaction to even annoying books . . . and it's dampening my general enthusiasm for reading. I keep telling myself that the faster I read it, the sooner I can move on to another novel I'll like better . . . (sigh)

OK, when I start throwing a book across the room, it's time to quit. This is the review I posted for The Widows of Braxton County:

I'm trying to read this, but I just can't stand it. It's the first ER book I've gotten that I just could not bear to finish. The protagonist is a wimpy, whiny woman with no backbone, and I really can't say I care one bit what happens to her.

It looks like you have plenty of company in thinking that this one is a stinker. I am probably the only one on the site that felt that way about Remains of the Day. I was so fed up with the obsessed Stevens I couldn't stand it. Talk about being a slow learner. Gah!

Terri> Great review of your ER book! I've read a few books that are just like that.

Kath, the weird thing is that now I've looked at the other reviews and several people who only gave it 2 or 2 1/2 stars wrote reviews that don't fit the rating they gave. If I didn't see the stars they assigned, I'd think they were maybe 3 or 3 1/2 star reviews. Huh?

Thanks, Lori. I'm feeling guilty and feeling like I should read on and see if maybe the woman in the book develops a spine. Maybe I'm not being fair? It still might get better? I've only read about 1/3 of the book, and the one thing other reviewers seem to agree on is that it's a quick read (perhaps, if you don't waste too much time throwing the book and running to pick it back up . . . ;-)

One thing I can give a positive review to is my new desk chair. It supports my back very nicely. I can sit for quite a while, and get up from the chair without pain.

I added this to my review:

OK, to be fair, maybe it's less a matter of the quality of the book as it is of my reaction to the protagonist and her incredibly poor judgment. But it would be nice if the author did something in her writing to make me understand and empathize with the character. At least in the opening third of the book, everyone in the book is such a shallow stereotype, it's hard to muster any interest in what will follow for these people.

So what do you fellow 75ers think of the LT changes? I'm still undecided, and find it not so easy to navigate as I have in the past.

In my 40+ ER books, I've had two that I just couldn't finish. Lots of people like Ian Sansom apparently, I do not. The other one was nonfiction. About cars, I think.

I'll probably get used to the new design eventually but, for now, I don't know where anything is. There's a glare and I couldn't find talk. Now that I've added talk to my dashboard, it's extra narrow or something and I can hardly see any threads.

I'm reserving judgment til I see it on my pc at home and look at it better on my iPhone.

I like it. The comments thread shows that it is stil a work in progress so there may be some small changes yet to come. If I could change anything here, it would be the background color. White is too hard on my eyes.. and it's everywhere.

:P

>161 tymfos: The new design looks much better on my iPad Mini than it does on my laptop. I have a small screen on my laptop and everything looks scrunched. I feel like the static bar at the top of the screen is taking up too much space and I don't have enough room to view page content. Oddly, the design looks spacious on the iPad Mini. I think it probably has something to do with the screen's length/width ratio on each device.

I'm sorry about the fall, Terri. I have a black dread of falling again that's always in the back of my mind. I try to be very, very careful because of my galloping osteoporosis.
Brookmeyer! I had forgotten how much I enjoy him. It's time to pick him up again.
ER ARCs - I'm about even on, but I've been able to finish all of them so far. Hmmm. I need to see whether anybody else has received the one I was promised in May.
New design. Hmmm. Are there still hot reviews? That's the first thing I missed. The chocolate is growing on me.

I have an ER book from last November that I think I can give up on as I still haven't received it LOL. I don't think you have to finish it Terri, as long as your review has at least 25 words. So stop feeling guilty.

I'm sorry about your fall. One of the reasons I decided it was time to retire was because I fell four times during my last year. Once it was down a staircase and I thought I had broken every bone in my body. Nothing actually turned out to be broken but I was in incredible pain for days afterward.

I'm gradually getting used to the new look. There's a link to revert back to the old, but it's just the bit at the top of the page that's the old style.

Linda, I'm gradually figuring out where things are and how to get to them.

Kath, I agree. A lot of white, which may account for the glare of which Linda spoke.

Carrie, the proportions are OK on my laptop, but I have a wide screen. I haven't tried it on my phone yet. I see they supposedly have a mobile site now . . . must explore that.

Peggy, I always worry about falling 1) on the ice and 2) on the steep hill I traverse when I walk to work. Neither was a factor in this fall. And, yes, the new design has hot reviews, but you have to look for them. On the side of the home page, there's a link for "Reviews." Click and the hot ones are there.

Bonnie has a hot review at the moment! Congrats, Bonnie! A fall down stairs sounds especially awful. I'm glad you didn't break any bones. I'm fine -- just scraped up and bruised in a few places.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The plumber is finally coming to fix the toilet and the guy from Overhead Door is coming to fix the garage door.

So what will break next ? . . .

The day is starting off well! The plumber fixed the toilet, done in plenty of time for me to head off to work on time, and there was no charge -- the manufacturer honored the warranty. I had been worried about that, as the unit was purchased by the contractor long before it was installed -- thus somewhat over a year before it broke.

Garage door fixer comes this afternoon. Hubby's able to be here for that.

Hi Terri, I see that you have recently finished reading about two of my favorite guys - Cork O'Connor and Walt Longmire! I've been watching the Longmire TV series but definitely need to get back to both those fellows one of these days.

I think the new LT set up will definitely grow on me as I slowly become used to it. I like the fact that you can set up your homepage pretty much the way you want it. My only complaint for now is that I miss the link back to my profile page that used to be at the top of every page. Now I have to click on Home and then from there go to my Profile page.

I miss the link back to my profile page that used to be at the top of every page. Now I have to click on Home and then from there go to my Profile page.

Judy, you can still get to your profile from any page. Just click on your user name at the upper right-hand corner of the page, and it will take you directly to your profile.

Cork and Walt are great characters! I have found, though, that it's not good to try to read about them at the same time. Due to a hold coming available, I found myself with a Longmire audio while reading an O'Connor ILL. I started getting slightly muddled what was in which book.

Knowing you love mysteries, I bet you'd enjoy the book I just finished, River of Darkness, review to be posted shortly.

75 Challenge Book #62
Title: River of Darkness (E-book)
Author: Rennie Airth
Copyright/Year of original publication: 1999
Series: John Madden #1
Date finished: 7/4/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?: No, No, Library download
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Winds of War
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious): Set shortly after WWI, that war overshadows the book
Alternate category Masterpiece Mystery
My Rating: 4.2 stars
Notes:

This was a superb book to start off my July reading! I usually try to reserve my e-books for certain situations where they come in handy, but toward the end I just had to keep reading this one whenever possible.

It is 1921, and a family has been found slaughtered in an English manor house. Inspector Madden of Scotland Yard is on the case. Madden is a war-scarred fellow deemed odd by some at the Yard. He has a strong feeling that this is not simply a robbery gone bad, as some of the brass have speculated.

This book gives a look at both the aftermath of war and the slow progress of new crime-fighting approaches and techniques. Forensics are still in their infancy, and the idea of consulting a psychologist to try and understand a killer's motives seems downright radical.

The book starts off looking like a police procedural, but it's so much more. It turns into a thriller, as we see the killer planning his next strike, while the police race to find the culprit.

This is first in a series -- uh, oh, another series to follow! -- but there are only 3 books in the series, published over a period of about a decade, so this doesn't add too much to my Ever-Expanding List.

Well, I've been put in my place! I had a comment about the mobile site that I didn't know where to post, and I put it in the wrong group.

From now on, I'll confine my comments to here on the 75 group and my two other familiar challenge groups, where it's relatively safe.

Hi Terri, thanks for the info re getting to my profile page, so simple yet I probably never would have thought of clicking on my name!

I have indeed read River of Darkness and loved it. I have also read the next one, The Blood Dimmed Tide and although I didn't like it quite as much as the first, it was still very good. I haven't yet read the third, The Dead of Winter which I feel slightly guilty over as it's been on my wishlist for years!

>173 tymfos:. Yep. It's a jungle out there in other threads. I venture out now and then, but always wear a suit of cyber armor

174 You're welcome, Judy!
I see our county library has the next book, but not the third.

175 Well, Kath, to be totally honest, I do venture out to a few other groups without much trouble -- the Disaster Books group comes to mind. But when it comes to the more technical side of LT, I always seem to run afoul of protocol. I guess I should just try the "contact" link at the bottom -- probably there's some place to send suggestions that can go straight to staff. (Then if I send it to the wrong place, maybe I'll only get one or two upset with me.)

Today, I pulled Northwest Angle, the 11th Cork O'Connor book, from my shelf. It begins with a storm, a derecho that sweeps across the lake where Cork and his family vacationing. According to the Author's Note at the front of the book, it was inspired by the derecho that formed on July 4, 1999 and devastated Northen Minnesota before moving on into Ontario and through Upstate NY and beyond.

I remember that storm! I wasn't present when it hit anywhere, but about a month later we drove through an area of Upstate NY that had been torn apart by it. Utility crews were still working to clear up the mess in the power lines. My familiarity with the storm, plus the coincidence of the date (July 4) made me decide it was time to read the book. Plus, I'd like to catch up by reading this and the next book in the series before the new book comes out in August.

They've hidden a few things that I'm having trouble finding. I finally found the ER books, but I miss it being on the side of the home screen. I don't really like the redesign that much yet. I'm not used to it, and I don't really have time to do a lot of poking around at the moment.

Lori, you found the ER books? Where? I think I saw them somewhere in my explorations, but I'm not sure where.

ETA to add OK, I found them going through the Early Reviewer Group page. Is there any other way?

Terri, you can get to Early Reviewers from a link in the left column of the home page. It's under "Discover Books". There is an option to add the module to your home page but it's not working at the moment.

Thanks, Carrie!

Today was one of those days with spotty showers and thundershowers alternating with -- and sometimes coexisting with -- bright sunshine. We went out to eat, and coming home saw lovely rainbows at various times.

I got my new glasses today. They are great for reading and general maneuvering through life (driving, walking) but I'm having trouble getting used to them for computer work.

Encouragement for patience in getting the new glasses to work right!

Thanks, Peggy!

Tomorrow my son and I will start a cross-state trip. We have tickets for the IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway on Sunday. We're making part of the drive tomorrow, as far as State College where we have friends. It's a good jumping off point to pick up I-80 Sunday morning to drive to the race track. We're having to leave hubby behind for this trip, as he can't get away.

Upon our return, my son heads straight to camp for the week. He's actually getting there late because of the race. (We bought the tickets before the camp schedule was announced. There's only one week of Senior High Cabin Camp.)

New glasses can be a PIA. Especially these days.... you don't always get well made glasses. I always buy a second pair.. just for reading glasses. The last time they made them into distance insted. The trifocal, especially the reading area on one pair I have is off. Discouraging. Thing like that used to be better. I never had problems until about 18 years ago. What is it? IMO it has something to with computers doing work that people used to do.. like a refractor that basically runs itself. Leaving trained people out of the equation is one thing, then having people who aren't invested in their job.. is another. It might surrise you to know how little training is needed for some of those jobs. #BeenThere

Hope it sorts out :)

Have fun on your trip!

Yes. It adds it to the bottom of the main column of your home page, but you can move it up on the page. I'm not very happy about it. I liked it where it used to be.

Wishing you safe travels, Terri! All caught up here, and as usual you hit me with a book bullet - adding River of Darkness to the giant WL. Thanks for that!

Have a safe trip and enjoy the Indy-Car race, Terri!

184 Kath, when I was younger, we had a wonderful optician that we bought all our glasses from. For many years, he was associated with the ophthalmologist who did my eye surgery, fitting glasses for patients in a little cubicle off the waiting room . When the ophthalmologist retired, he started his own independent optician's office, and we took the prescriptions from our new eye doctor to him. He personally took whatever measurements and such were needed. He was very skilled, and every pair of glasses we got (including my Mom's trifocals) were always perfect. Not so these days. At least these glasses are much better than the ones I got at Wal-Mart last time. They were so bad that I returned them, got my money back, and went elsewhere. There was just a little patch of prescription, and the surrounding glass was just clear glass!

185 Lori, I'm not thrilled with the re-do, either, but I'm starting to get used to it. We all seem to value different things that got moved.

186, 187 Thanks, Mamie and Lori! The traffic was horrible after the race -- race traffic plus end-of-4th-of-July-weekend traffic -- but we came through unscathed. I think they had a bigger crowd than they expected. My son and I wanted event t-shirts, and they were already sold out a couple hours before the race and taking orders to print up more and ship them to people.

75 Challenge Book #63
Title: Northwest Angle
Author: William Kent Krueger
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2011
Series: Cork O'Connor #11
Date finished: 7/9/13, 1:20 a.m.
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?: Yes, Yes, purchased new at Ollies
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: still deciding
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious):
Alternate category
My Rating: 4.2 stars
Notes:

OK, it was another night reading into the wee hours of the morning to finish one of Cork O'Connor's adventures. This time, the book starts off with a terrible storm - a derecho with hurricane-force straight-line winds -- which strikes the vacationing O'Connor clan on their houseboat vacation. Cork and Jenny, off on a side trip in a small dinghy, are tossed about and land on a tiny island where Jenny finds a dead woman -- killed not by the storm, but by a bullet. She also find a baby hidden snugly in a basket -- a Moses-like infant survivor of danger -- very much alive. Still later, Jenny and Cork are threatened by a man with a gun.

Things get even more complicated from there. We're eventually introduced to residents of the Northwest Angle of Minnesota. As I understand, it's the northernmost point in the Lower 48 states, a small area largely cut off from the rest of Minnesota and the US, accessible only by boat or via Canada. Folks there are used to fending for themselves. We also encounter smugglers and a sinister religious cult arming themselves for Armageddon.

One thing I like about Krueger is that he's willing and able to explore the various facets of religion and spirituality with an eye to both the good and the dangers of various traditions. For instance, Rose's Roman Catholic faith helps to sustain her through difficult times and guides her in actions which are honorable and loving. But the Seven Trumpets cult reads the same Bible, but focuses only on aspects of conflict -- somehow they missed the many passages which define love as an essential quality for Christians. Without love, they're actually worse than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor. 13:1) -- they're rather unpleasant, and may be downright dangerous.

There is emotional conflict, too, as Jenny bonds with the baby she's found and is caring for, but is unlikely to be able to keep.

This was a suspenseful book, and kept me turning pages. I have one more (#12) left to read in this series before the next one (#13) is released in August.

Interesting! Early on, the horror book I've started, Harbor by John Ajvide Lindqvist, talks about magic and the art of misdirection. My current mystery e-book, Mind Scrambler by Chris Grabenstein, involves a magician and delves into the art of misdirection and how magic tricks are staged. Funny how books sometimes have those kinds of little connections, without any planning when choosing them.

Can anyone explain why I can get the touchstone for Lindqvist's book Harbor to come up as an option on my other threads, but it's nowhere in sight when I post on this thread? I realize there are alternate spellings (the European edition is spelled "Harbour" and the American edition I have is "Harbor,") but it works with either spelling on my other threads, and won't work with either spelling on this thread when I try.

Wow....I've got some catching up to do on Cork O'Connor, but that gives me a big warm fuzzy to know there are still several left to read. I really enjoy this series and your review makes me want to dive right back in.

Hi Terri,
Sorry to be so very, very behind... I'm not as good as I used to be and summer is always a challenge for me. Way too busy.
Anyway - a big congrats on giving up on Faulkner's book. The only one I ever read and liked by him was As I Lay Dying. I don't know what that says about me. I just don't see what all the hoopla is about his writing?????

Sorry about your fall, Terri. It sounds like it hurt - scrapes and all. Hope it is cleared up now. Dang gravity!
" I have a black dread of falling again that's always in the back of my mind." Exactly my own state of mind now, Peggy.
The problem is, you never mean to fall. It's always/usually? unexpected. And when I broke my shoulder (which took months to repair, lots of pain, and lingering effects due to weather changes) it just doesn't seem fair. I wasn't fooling around :(
Wow, Bonnie... you took a nasty spill! I was much easier to convince re retirement ;-)

New format for LT:
I never like to be surprised with change. However, it's not the end of the world and I will adapt. I will find the important things eventually.
Still can't find some of my kitchen items without much frustration after our re-do.

Plodding along in my reading right now. Need winter!

191 Tina, I really love that series! According to Krueger's web page, Tamarack County is due to be released on August 21.

192 Hi, Cee! No apologies needed for being behind, as I'm not keeping up well at all on LT. I've recovered from my fall with nowhere near the pain you (or Bonnie) experienced from your fall.

With my son at camp, this was a good week for audio book listening. I finished an Inspector Wallander mystery, and I've started another Walt Longmire.

75 Challenge Book #64
Title: The Man Who Smiled (AUDIO)
Author: Henning Mankell
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Series: Kurt Wallander #4
Date finished: 7/11/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?: No, No, library download
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Dragnet
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious): Police procedural
Alternate category
My Rating: 3.6 stars
Notes:

On medical leave, contemplating whether to return to the police force, Kurt Wallander is approached by an old friend whose law-partner father has died in a car "accident" which he believes is no accident. Shortly thereafter, the friend is murdered. Further mayhem follows after Wallander reconsiders his decision to resign.

This was a pretty good read, and it managed to tackle some heavy issues while presenting a pretty good mystery. Wallander was true to form. I'm getting annoyed at the dumb things he does, making the same kinds of mistakes in every book. But then, aren't people that way? We have our personality traits that guide our actions for better or worse, and so often we never learn. The audio narration captured the brooding Inspector perfectly.

You are surging ahead in 3 of my favorite series, the William Krueger one, the Henning Mankell one and the Craig Johnson one. With all the reading I do you would think I would get to one of these guys, but I don't see it happening until later on this year! :(

Glad you've recovered, Terri. When I fell a year ago (spring of 2012), I was so sore I couldn't sleep in my own bed for a week so recovery took quite some time.

Judy, I've made catching up on those series (at least the Krueger and the Johnson) a priority. I'm just really enjoying them. Usually, there comes a point where I "max out" if I read too much of one series in a short span of time -- I did that with James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux, who I love but overdosed on last year -- but these guys stay fresh for me. I really love the narrator on the Longmire series audios -- his voice has become something of an "old friend's" voice to me. Of course, I'm missing out on some more diverse reading in the process. One thing about being ahead of you -- I can assure you that there are good reads ahead in those series!

Linda, I was really lucky when I fell that I wasn't hurt more badly. It was an abrupt, hard fall on concrete, but I seem to have fallen really flat so that the impact was spread evenly over my body -- perhaps that's why only my big ol' nose got the worst of it!

I fall, or twist my ankle all the time. I am still exploring Sookie-land through DVDs and slowly reading The Dawn Stag. Nothing else much going on here.. Thank goodness!!

Sometimes no news is good news, Kath!

My son came home from camp last evening. He had a great time, and wants to go back again next year. But he said he was ready to come home.

I am doing lots of laundry today.

Do you switch to "summer Hours" at work?

Kath, our library hours are the same year-round; my hours normally change a little, as some time is added due to extra help needed for the Summer Reading Program. They are changing more this summer, as one worker had surgery and another has had several trips to the Emergency Room, and been out a great deal.

75 Challenge Book #65
Title: Mind Scrambler (e-book)
Author: Chris Grabenstein
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2009
Series: John Ceepak #5
Date finished: 7/14/13
Off the Shelf? Pre-2013 owned and/or ER? Source?: No, No, library download
Category for 13 in 13 challenge: Surfside Six
How does it fit the category? (if not obvious): set in Atlantic City
Alternate category
My Rating: 3.5
Notes:

This was the fifth installment in the John Ceepak series set at the Jersey Shore. This time Ceepak and our young narrator Danny Boyle are in Atlantic City on administrative leave to take a deposition related to charges against Ceepak's no-good father. Danny encounters his old flame Katie, who is working as a nanny for a magician who is performing at one of the casinos. Katie, seeming upset, indicates she needs to talk to Danny about something -- but is killed before she can tell him what's wrong.

This may be the most bizarre one yet of this series. I'm still trying to decide what I think of it. Deception was a big theme -- stage magic is, after all, the art of misdirection. Even offstage, people were misdirecting all over the place, and nothing was quite what it seemed.

In the end, it was dealing with some pretty heavy stuff. I'm not sure what to say without major spoilers. Again, Grabenstein captures the flavor of the Jersey Shore -- this time in Atlantic City with its contrast of glittery casinos and urban squalor. There were also some tantalizing tidbits about how professional illusionists operate.

OK, I've started a new thread for the rest of the summer:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/156677