Saturday, August 04, 2007

Fiction

Mysteries

Innocence by David Hosp. Boston attorney Scott Finn takes on convicted El Salvadoran Vicente Salazar. Salazar wants a new trial after being convicted fifteen years ago for shooting an undercover cop. Finn uncovers a trail of corruption from Central America to Boston.

Water's Lovely by Ruth Rendell. More of a suspense novel than a mystery, really. Nine years after her sister Heather found their stepfather drowned in the bath, Ismay and Heather live in the same house with their mother and aunt. When Heather has her first serious relationship Ismay's repressed memories of that drowning start to return.

Night Ferry by Michael Robotham. Robotham wrote Lost about an amnesiac London police detective - it was pretty good. In Night Ferry Ali Barba is on leave from injuries sustained during her police work. Ali gets an invitation from high school friend Cate to attend their reunion. Cate and her husband are run over and killed shortly after Cate's strange plea to Ali for help. Ali investigates and finds that obviously pregnant Cate was faking it, and that Cate may have been pregnant before and her infant taken.

Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith. Curious philosopher Isabel Dalhousie investigates a possible art forgery.

Fiction

Blaze by Richard Bachman (Stephen King). Since King wrote this under his pseudonym we did not have it automatically delivered to us upon publication. Well, here it is. Late but intact. Especially late since King wrote the novel in 1973 then found it and revised it a bit.

Justice Denied by J.A. Jance. I know Jance is really popular for several mystery/detective series. But, I heard her speak at a "liberrian" program at Burton Barr and she really annoyed me. This is one of her J.P. Beaumont books set in Seattle.

Thursday Next: first among sequels by Jasper Fforde. I've never read Fforde's novels. They are supposed to be humorous.

Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell. Both novels in teh same volume. They are certainly not new but we did not have a copy of Animal Farm so I bought this.

What Matters Most by Luanne Rice. The cover has a picture of a lady wearing a straw hat and sitting on some oceanside rocks. Figure it out yourself.

My Summer of Southern Discomfort by Stephanie Gayle. Well reviewed chicklit. Big-time New York City lawyer Natalie heads to southern Georgia after a disastrous romance. Bored with her new job prosecuting small town crooks she has a new suitor with a nervous tic and a new capital case causing her heartburn.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

More Marvelous Media

CDs

Time on Earth by Crowded House. Yeah! Hot Dog! Neil Finn gets the band back together and they put out a new album. If you like this take a look at Crowded House's back catalog (we have a video collection on DVD), Neil's solo albums, and Tim Finn's solo albums (we have two).

Release the Stars by Rufus Wainwright. That Rufus is - as we say in the Saylor household - "kinda weird". Maybe it's because he is Canadian. Oh well, he has a good singing voice and puts together some neat-o albums. Here is a review. We have his sister Martha's album too; it's pretty good.

At My Age by Nick Lowe. The aging pub/punk/pop rocker's latest. You remember him don't you? There is Cruel to be Kind and So It Goes and I Knew the Bride.

DVD

Norbit starring Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, and Eddie Griffin. Norbit (Murphy) wants to pursue childhood love Kate but is pursued himself by Rasputia (Murphy in drag).

Audio Book

Spare Change by Robert B. Parker. Boston private eye Sunny Randall's retired policeman father Phil gets a message from the serial killer he chased thirty years ago he calls for Sunny's help.

New Inspirational Fiction, Some NonFiction and a Couple CDs

Fiction

Ghosts of Mary Prairie by Lisa Polisar. Fifteen year old Grady is following his friend Mikey's rules for Intitiation into Manhood by sleeping overnight on the baseball diamond of their small Oklahoma town. Everything is fine until he hears the violent screams of a girl being brutally beaten. Grady learns that he saw the ghost of Mary Prairie who was beaten to death years before and Grady spends his life to find the truth of her story.

Songs of Innocence by Richard Aleas. A new paperback crime novel by Hard Case Crime. Detective John Blake investigates the suicide of a college student with a double life.

Inspirational Fiction

Sunrise by Karen Kingsbury. The first novel of Kingsbury's new Sunrise Series.

Jacob's List by Stephanie Grace Whitson. College student Jacob has a list of things to do before he settles down. Jacob's parents have only stayed together for him, but after seeing his list the need to guide and help him brings them back together.

Revealed and Remembered by Tamera Alexander. Boooks Two and Three of the Fountain Creek Chronicles.

NonFiction

Reclaiming Youth at Risk by Larry K Brendtro.

Beader's Color Mixing Directory: 200 failsafe color schemes for beautiful beadwork by Sandra Wallace.

CDs

Icky Thump by The White Stripes.

Now That's What I Call Music! 24 by various artists. I don't think that I have heard any of these songs.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Four Books

Non-Fiction

Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. Maybe you heard about this. Four Navy SEALs are hiking in Afghanistan when they are spotted by the Taliban. After running and fighting for several hours only one sailor survives. For four days Luttrell fought off the enemy and crawled seven miles before a local village hid him from the Taliban.

Fiction

Critical by Robin Cook. Another medical drama/thriller.

Beyond Reach by Karin Slaughter. Georgia Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver and his wife, Doctor Sara Linton, help out Detective Lena Adams with a murder investigation.

Burnt House by Faye Kellerman. "Decker and Lazarus are back!" is on the cover. LAPD Lieutenant investigates a commuter plane crash in Los Angeles with a missing stewardess and four extra bodies. Faye Kellerman wears less make-up than her husband Jonathan; that dude lays it on thick.

New DVDs

Making of Milwaukee. Three DVD version of the 5 hour production from Milwaukee Public Television. "Story of Milwaukee from the earliest days of Native Americans, through the tumult of the 1960s, to the city of the early 21st century."

Reno 911!: Miami the movie starring [the cast from the television show] Deputies from the Wahoe County Sheriff's Office visit Miami for the American Police Convention. Absent from the convention's hotel during a bio-terror attack, Lt. Dangle and the other deputies are the only law enforcement officers out of quarantine and in charge of public safety.

So Close starring [Chinese actresses you never heard of]. A Hong Kong action movie with female assassins. Recommended by the prolific Bill Crider.

Hard Boiled starring Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung and directed by John Woo. Just released on DVD Hard Boiled helped put Hong Kong action pictures into the mainstream. An undercover cop teams with another cop against a Hong Kong crime lord culminating in a massive shootout at a hospital.

Because I Said So starring Mandy Moore and Diane Keaton. A mother-daughter comedy between a controlling mom and her youngest daughter.