Friday, December 17, 2010

Crocodiles Eating Vampires

Fiction

Crocodile's Last Embrace by Suzanne Arruda. I'll bet Crider already ordered this one. Jade returns to Kenya. Jade's nemesis escapes prison and recent murders seem related to a gold mine. I think Arruda still lives in Kansas. If I am feeling ambitious during next summer's vacation maybe I'll try and interview her. Oops, no I will not, she lives in Pittsburgh and that is 180 miles away.

Speaking of Crider and Kansas, I am hoping to check-out his westerns from the Salina Public Library during vacation.

DVD

Eclipse starring [current heart throbs]. Teenage girl makes out with a vampire and a werewolf. I think. I have not read these novels and I have no idea what really happens outside of a bunch of angst and that one guy taking his shirt off.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Fiction and Some YA Thrown In

Fiction

Driven to Ink by Karen E. Olson. Mystery series set Las Vegas tattoo shop featuring tattooist Brett Kavanaugh. Brett loans her car to a couple friends and they return the car with a Dean martin impersonator in the trunk. The impersonator is dead of course.

This series has done well here. So well that someone STOLE the second book in the series.

Book on CD

Worth Dying For by Lee Child. 11 CDs at 14 hours. Jack Reacher gets into trouble. Again. Jack Reacher solves the trouble. Again.

Young Adult

Mindblind by Jennifer Roy. Novel about a teen with Asperbergers.

Wish by Joseph Monninger. Redheaded teen girl holding her nose underwater. Girl travels with her terminally ill brother on a Make-A-Wish foundation trip.

Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan. Some sort of magicians or demons or vampires or something.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Comic book version of the novel.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Outdoor Ice Rink in Commons Park

Outdoor Ice Rink in Commons Park

The rink had it's first layer of water sprayed on this morning.


Commons Park, Outdoor Ice Rink, 15 Dec 2010

The ice surface is still bumpy and uneven. There is no zamboni machine.

Commons Park, Outdoor Ice Rink, 15 Dec 2010

Coffee and Cake Update

Cake

Carolyn made more cake.

Some sort of cake

Coffee

No creamer in the coffee I made. I went to the bakery this morning and that coffee did have creamer.

Coffee, no creamer

Music on CD

Essential Simon and Garfunkel by Simon and Garfunkel. Two CDs of singers singing songs of silence.

Large Print

Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell. Murder mystery.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Mysteries With New and Old Authors

New Authors (to Lake Mills)

The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson. Lily comes home to deal with her sister's suicide. The dead girl is not her sister but a identity thief and Lily's sister is missing. This novel has gotten a fair amount of online attention by various authors.

Double Exposure by Michael Lister. Lister was at Murder and Mayhem in Muskego and spoke earnestly about his love of Florida. His speaking convinced me to try one out. This one has Remington James returning home to North Florida and taking over the family business. Rem also returns to photography and discovers a crime through his time lapse photography from the local woods.

Body and the Blood by Michael Lister. Prison chaplain John Jordan witnesses a bizarre murder at work. He investigates.

The Insane Train by Sheldon Russell. "A Hook Runyon Mystery". Oh yeah, this sounded like a real good one. Hook Runyon, a railroad company "yard dog", is assigned to escort a train full of mental patients cross country in the late 1940's. A murder on the train has the aggressive Hook on the search for the killer.

Old Authors

Innocent Monster by Reed Farrel Coleman. Another Moe Prager mystery.

On The Line by S.J. Rozan.

Labrynth by Kat Richardson. This had a great review in either Library Journal or Booklist.

Stack of Fiction

Fiction

Collusion by Stuart Neville. With a name like that this guy has to be English. Let me check...Nope, I was wrong. He is Irish. But, he is Northern Irish and I'll judge by the name he is orange.
Neville wrote Ghosts of Belfast which proved popular here in Lake Mills. I have yet to read Ghosts but want to.

The Network by Jason Elliot. British spy assigned to destroy Stinger missiles in Afghanistan in pre-9/11.

Dangerous to Know by Tasha Alexander. Alexander is a nice lady. Her other novels have been doing well here since I started buying them. Lady Emily continues her mid-1800s adventures with a murder mystery in London that may be linked to Jack the Ripper.

Ape House by Sara Gruen. Gruen is popular with the book club crowd.

Fatal Error by F. Paul Wilson. I sat next to Wilson during lunch at Murder and Mayhem in Muskego this fall. He is a good dude. Fatal is part of his Repairman Jack series. Wilson mentioned that a couple of his books have never gone out of print. One of those is The Keep (at least that is what I remember.). Wilson was of the correct opinion that the movie version of The Keep stunk.

The Skin Map by Stephen Lawhead. "A Bright Empires" novel. The plot description on the flyleaf is way too confusing to summarize here.

Power Down by Ben Coes. Former commando is out to get the terrorists who bombed the oil platform he managed and killed part of his crew.

Dead Or Alive by Tom Clancy. Latest Jack Ryan and Jack Ryan, Jr. novel.

Demon's Parchment by Jeri Westerson. "A Medieval Noir". I bought the last book in this series because of the Medieval Noir tagline. That book circ'ed well so I bought this one.

Snow Day by Billy Coffey. Literary type novel.

Dang it. Too Much Creamer in my Coffee

Coffee

Too Much Creamer


NonFiction

How to Read a Person Like a Book: observing body language to know what people are thinking by Gerard I. Nierenberg, et al. We have some other body language books that have checked out real well. So, I bought this.

200 Tips for De-Cluttering: room by room, including outdoor spaces, and eco tips by Daniela Santos Quartino. Popular topic. Maybe the author addresses excessive book hoarding of old paperbacks.

Monday, December 13, 2010

A Stack of Donated CDs and A Complaint About the Weather Forecast

Complaint About the Weather Forecast

-40° With Wind says The Weather Reports. Baloney. I bundled up expecting a wicked cold morning walk to work. Nope. It's only about -2° with the wind.

Stack of Donated CDs

As Time Goes by by Rod Stewart. Rock singer gets old and sings old songs.

Live 1964 by Bob Dylan. Two disc set of Dyland singing songs in concert before he went electric.

Best of James Taylor by James Taylor. Singer sings songs before he goes bald.

Greatest Hits, Volume 2 by James Taylor. Bald singer sings songs.

Surprise by Paul Simon. Short guy sings songs.

You're the One by Paul Simon. Princess Leia's ex-husband sings songs.

Paul Simon's Concert in the Park by Paul Simon. 1991 concert by song singer.

Celtic Woman by [Irish chicks]. Irish gals sing songs. Our previous copy was STOLEN!

Monty Python's Spamalot by Broadway Cast. Funny Songs sung by mildly funny actors.

Time Out by Dave Brubeck. No singing.

A Windham Hill Christmas II by [various]. Songs by herald angels.

A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. Siren song of heroin.