Gabby's bookshelf: 2012 en-US Fri, 28 Jul 2023 03:16:43 -0700 60 Gabby's bookshelf: 2012 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Savages (Savages #2) 8008928
When they refuse to back down, the cartel escalates its threat, kidnapping Ophelia, the boys' playmate and confidante. O's abduction sets off a dizzying array of ingenious negotiations and gripping plot twists that will captivate readers eager to learn the costs of freedom and the price of one amazing high.]]> 302 Don Winslow 1439183368 Gabby 0 2012, fiction 3.84 2010 Savages (Savages #2)
author: Don Winslow
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves: 2012, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Gabby 3 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/03/16
shelves: 2012, fiction, sci-fi, ya, series, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin]]> 10684227 Ěý
After three years of research, bestselling journalist Joe McGinniss presents his already controversial and much anticipated investigative chronicle of Sarah Palin as an individual, politician, and cultural phenomenon.
Ěý
In his critically acclaimed book about Alaska, Going to Extremes , the fledgling state itself was Joe McGinniss’s subject. Although he didn’t hesitate to reveal the many flaws and contradictions behind its “last frontier� image, McGinniss fell in love with the land and its people. More than three decades later, he returned to Alaska in search of its most famous resident, Sarah Palin.

On Election Day 2008, McGinniss began his on-the-ground reporting that culminated, famously, in his moving next door to Sarah Palin in spring 2010.ĚýTHE ROGUEĚýis the eagerly awaited result of his research and a startling study of the illusion and reality of Sarah Palin—and a probing look at the Alaska and the America that produced her. Sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, always provocative and illuminating, THE ROGUEĚýanswers the questions “Who is she, really?,â€� “How did she happen?,â€� and “Will she ever go away?â€�

In all of his books, McGinniss has scrutinized the mysterious space between image and reality—how that space is created, negotiated, and/or manipulated. Now, with The Rogue, McGinniss combines his deep appreciation of the place Sarah Palin comes from with his uncanny ability to penetrate the façades of people in public life. The result is an extraordinary double narrative that alternately traces Palin’s curious rise to political prominence and worldwide celebrity status and recounts the author’s day-to-day experiences as he uncovers the messy reality beneath the glossy Palin myth.

Readers will findĚýTHE ROGUEĚýat once bitingly insightful, hilarious, and profoundly ominous in what it reveals—not just about the dark underpinnings of a potential presidential nominee but also in regard to the huge numbers of Americans who passionately support her.]]> 321 Joe McGinniss 0307718921 Gabby 1
One more thing. GR ought to give the option of zero with their stars. That's what this mess of a document really deserves.]]> 3.49 2011 The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin
author: Joe McGinniss
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2011
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2014/01/04
shelves: 2012, history, non-fiction, political-non-fiction, godawful
review:
I used to have some respect for Joe MGinniss based on some of his earlier books. After reading this trash, I question why I ever believed a word he previously wrote. He obviously knows nothing about objectivity, but he's got mud slinging and unverified source material down to a science. For me, this subject is NOT about whether or not we like Sarah Palin nor what she says and does. Instead it's about Joe McGinniss out to further demean and humiliate someone to whom the press has given unprecedented hatred. What IS it about Sarah Palin that seems to threaten men so much? Her treatment from women isn't a whole lot better, but I haven't seen this much vitriolic name-calling and malicious oratory directed at someone since Roseanne Barr declared herself a Domestic Goddess. I mean, c'mon... he rents a house next door to Sarah Palin, and then acts all surprised that she doesn't drop in to see him with some homemade cookies and all the time in the world to answer his obnoxious questions? Puhleeeeeeze. When did Joe MGinniss lose all sense of reality? While Joe may want to paint a portrait of some crazed lunatic locking herself away from her friendly, neighborhood snoop hellbent on writing an unflattering tell-all about her, I saw a woman who has learned all about wolves in sheeps' clothing and decides for the sake of her whole family to ignore the hate mongrel living beside her. It seems that Joe came a little late to the Let's-Lynch-Sarah Party, because the general public wasn't exactly bowled over by his book. That's a good thing because the only purpose it might serve is kindling for a fireplace in Alaska. Maybe Joe could heat some water for a nice cup of tea.

One more thing. GR ought to give the option of zero with their stars. That's what this mess of a document really deserves.
]]> Coraline 17061
In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.

The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.

Only it's different.

At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

Critically acclaimed and award-winning author Neil Gaiman will delight readers with his first novel for all ages.]]> 176 Neil Gaiman 0061139378 Gabby 1 4.13 2002 Coraline
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at: 2012/08/26
date added: 2013/08/26
shelves: 2012, fiction, godawful, weird, ya
review:
I don't hate many books, but without a doubt I loathed everything about this one. I like to enjoy my reading experiences even though they may seem slow or dull to others, or my thing just isn't their thing. But THIS monstrosity failed the able-to-read test on every one of my levels. A synopsis of the story has already been given, so there's no need for me to expound further on meaningless details of plot or writing ability. A reading group to which I belong is reading this book as a selection for August. I won't be participating even though it might be kind of fun to verbally destroy this book. That, however won't help any of the poor souls who did agree to read and join in conversation with the group. This author came highly recommended to me. I have no idea why since I never found either the plot nor the writing noteworthy. I think this was supposed to be the kind of book I'd receive some kind of symbolic message from. I didn't. I threw it out when I finished it just like I would any other piece of useless garbage.
]]> The Ninth Life of Louis Drax 118812 227 Liz Jensen 1582344574 Gabby 3 2012, fiction, suspense 3.56 2004 The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
author: Liz Jensen
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/06/05
shelves: 2012, fiction, suspense
review:
When I finished reading this novel, I decided that I would have to read it again before I could comment on it. It was not quite what I expected, it was disturbing, and there were times (just a few) when I almost gave up on it. The disturbing part was what kept me going. Louis Drax is by no means a typical child, and his life is anything but normal. There have been a few times in my life when I have questioned the right of some people to reproduce. This was one of those times. Some people just should NOT be parents. At some point soon, I'll be revisiting Louis to see what a second reading gives me.
]]> Tripwire (Jack Reacher, #3) 220970 432 Lee Child 0515128635 Gabby 3 4.08 1999 Tripwire (Jack Reacher, #3)
author: Lee Child
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/06/05
shelves: 2012, crime, mystery, series, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Without Fail (Jack Reacher, #6)]]> 21745
Skilled, cautious, and anonymous, Jack Reacher is perfect for the job: to assassinate the vice president of the United States. Theoretically, of course. A female Secret Service agent wants Reacher to find the holes in her system, and fast - because a covert group already has the vice president in their sights. They've planned well. There's just one thing they didn't plan on: Reacher.]]> 14 Lee Child 1590860624 Gabby 4 4.15 2002 Without Fail (Jack Reacher, #6)
author: Lee Child
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/06/05
shelves: fiction, crime, mystery, 2012, series
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Veiled One (Inspector Wexford, #14)]]> 361611

Chief Inspector Wexford, injured in a car bombing, must rely on Detective Mike Burden to catch a killer in what appears to be a murder without motive
Ěý
Chief Inspector Wexford couldn’t know that the bundle of rags in the parking garage concealed a body. He’d just been doing a bit of light shopping, after all, not looking for dead housewives. Wexford won’t be on the case for long; a car bomb sends him to the hospital, and Inspector Mike Burden must match wits with a would-be murderer. But just how close to the edge of madness must Burden go to catch a killer?
Ěý
With rich characterization Rendell plumbs the depths of human character, revealing the secrets that lie hidden in the most ordinary lives.
]]> 320 Ruth Rendell 0345359941 Gabby 4 3.81 1988 The Veiled One (Inspector Wexford, #14)
author: Ruth Rendell
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/06/05
shelves: crime, 2012, fiction, mystery, series
review:
In my opinion, very, very few writers do this genre better than Ruth Rendell. Every now and then, someone will compare another author to her, but, in my view, those comparisons have been dead wrong every time. I'm not a huge fan of Inspector Wexford. He used to be far too arrogant for my taste, but over the years as I read more of him, he grew on me. I'm almost up to "like". In this mystery he is not the main investigator on the case, and it's interesting to see how the case moves forward without his full time participation. The story concerns the murder of a middle-aged housewife found in a parking garage. No one seems to know why she was killed much less IF she was even killed in that garage. Ruth Rendell mixes up her magic immediately by tossing in details of psychological motives and nasty little secrets. That's another thing I like about her so much. I've always enjoyed her insights into why people do what they do. This one certainly delivered in that department.
]]> <![CDATA[Eyes of a Child (Christopher Paget, #3)]]> 787903
Paget has motive--it's his son accused of abusing Elena, his political plans for the future put at risk by the dead man's accusations, and his alibi that is dangerously threadbare.

And the shocking revelations that threaten to explode in the courtroom may remain hidden forever...by Chris Paget's refusal to testify on his own behalf...by Elena's tangled loyalties...and by dark secrets that some desperately wish to keep silent....]]> 576 Richard North Patterson 0345386132 Gabby 4 3.98 1995 Eyes of a Child (Christopher Paget, #3)
author: Richard North Patterson
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/06/05
shelves: 2012, fiction, second-reads, mystery
review:
Richard North Patterson is one of my favorite authors. This was the first book I read by him years ago, and I wanted to reread it because I liked it so much the first time. I love big books, long stories, mysteries, and courtroom drama. Patterson delivers all of that in one package/novel every time I've read him.
]]> Point of No Return 279416 559 John P. Marquand 0897331745 Gabby 4 fiction, 2012 4.04 1949 Point of No Return
author: John P. Marquand
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/05/26
shelves: fiction, 2012
review:

]]> The Senator's Wife 1306127 Once again Sue Miller takes us deep into the private lives of women with this mesmerizing portrait of two marriages exposed in all their shame and imperfection, and in their obdurate, unyielding love. The author of the iconic The Good Mother and the best-selling While I Was Gone brings her marvelous gifts to a powerful story of two unconventional women who unexpectedly change each other’s lives.

Meri is newly married, pregnant, and standing on the cusp of her life as a wife and mother, recognizing with some terror the gap between reality and expectation. Delia Naughton—wife of the two-term liberal senator Tom Naughton—is Meri’s new neighbor in the adjacent New England town house. Delia’s husband’s chronic infidelity has been an open secret in Washington circles, but despite the complexity of their relationship, the bond between them remains strong. What keeps people together, even in the midst of profound betrayal? How can a journey imperiled by, and sometimes indistinguishable from, compromise and disappointment culminate in healing and grace? Delia and Meri find themselves leading strangely parallel lives, both reckoning with the contours and mysteries of marriage, one refined and abraded by years of complicated intimacy, the other barely begun.

Here are all the things for which Sue Miller has always been beloved—the complexity of experience precisely rendered, the richness of character and emotion, the superb economy of style—fused with an utterly engrossing story that has a great deal to say to women, and men, of all ages.

]]> 306 Sue Miller 0307264203 Gabby 4 2012, fiction 3.28 2008 The Senator's Wife
author: Sue Miller
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/05/26
shelves: 2012, fiction
review:
For me this book was about the expectations women bring to marriage and to friendships. Delia is married to a philandering husband. She knows this about him, but she prefers not to acknowledge it. So long as she does that, she can keep up the illusion of a close family unit with a husband she both loves and will help in furthering his political career. Meri, who moves next door to Delia, is a mess. Because she has no clear idea of what being a wife and mother demands of her, she begins to look to Delia as her standard of what wife and mother should be. What Meri doesn't count on is what happens when we get far too involved in the lives of other people, especially when the other woman's husband apparently has the morals and sensitivity of an alley cat. I'd recommend this book to people who enjoy reading about complicated relationships and discuss the repercussions of exposing oneself to people who seem likable but can merely be covering up a willingness to betray those they seem closest to.
]]> <![CDATA[Screwed!: How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off and Plundering Our Economy-and How Our Leaders Help Them Do It]]> 13426120 368 Dick Morris 0062196693 Gabby 5
I am a staunch conservative, so it stands to reason that I would agree with many of Morris' predictions about where the US is heading under the current (non)leadership. However, I don't think that detracts from the straightforward information Morris presents in an effort to get people to sit up and take notice to where our current path has taken our country. It's a recipe for disaster if we want to preserve life in this country as we know it. If now isn't the time to take control of the reins and become more involved in the decisions we are constitutionally guaranteed to make, then when is?

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more aware of what institutions are doing to control our way of life. The World Bank is just one example of where we should be paying more attention. The UN s another -- that place is a cesspool of corruption and stupidity, and we should in no way support anything they want.

This book should have been mandatory reading for anyone planning to vote in the 2012 US elections, but it's too late for that now. It is NOT too late, however, to become better informed for the future. This book will help in that endeavor.]]> 3.69 2012 Screwed!: How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off and Plundering Our Economy-and How Our Leaders Help Them Do It
author: Dick Morris
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/05/06
shelves: 2012, political-non-fiction, non-fiction
review:
As a pollster, Dick Morris has to be the most wrong forecaster of how the population thinks. As a writer or political commentary, he's above average in being able to explain complicated entities that usually make people's eyes glaze over. I attribute much of that to his wife's participation in their book efforts. Since Morris tends to go meandering off in left field (pun intended) about the right vs the left vs the centrists vs the Obamarx sheep, he must have someone on standby to rein him in. That person must be McGann.

I am a staunch conservative, so it stands to reason that I would agree with many of Morris' predictions about where the US is heading under the current (non)leadership. However, I don't think that detracts from the straightforward information Morris presents in an effort to get people to sit up and take notice to where our current path has taken our country. It's a recipe for disaster if we want to preserve life in this country as we know it. If now isn't the time to take control of the reins and become more involved in the decisions we are constitutionally guaranteed to make, then when is?

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more aware of what institutions are doing to control our way of life. The World Bank is just one example of where we should be paying more attention. The UN s another -- that place is a cesspool of corruption and stupidity, and we should in no way support anything they want.

This book should have been mandatory reading for anyone planning to vote in the 2012 US elections, but it's too late for that now. It is NOT too late, however, to become better informed for the future. This book will help in that endeavor.
]]> Gone Girl 8442457 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 399 Gillian Flynn Gabby 3 Gone Girl was not only overhyped, but it was also a ripoff of the other book. I read it again lately to participate in the Nothing But Reading Challenges Group read. I was surprised how much of the book I'd forgotten, so in many ways, it was like reading it for the first time.

While I did like Gone Girl better the second time around, I still think it was overhyped, and the ending was too contrived for my taste. For me, Nick, the husband of the piece, was too all over the place alternating between victim and full fledged jerk, while Amy, the wife, was bordering on schizophrenic most of the time. It's very difficult to be more specific in explaining these opinions without giving too much of the story away, so I'll just let my opinion go at that.

This book is a good read insofar as keeping the reader guessing what's going on, unless, like me, you've got an idea from the beginning where it's all leading. If your experience is the latter, then you may end up feeling taken in by entirely too much hype.]]> 3.93 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2013/04/29
date added: 2013/04/29
shelves: 2013, 2012, fiction, reading-challenges, second-reads
review:
I first read this book shortly after it was published, and I didn't like it. Coincidentally I had read another book which had a very similar storyline right before I got this one, and I felt that Gone Girl was not only overhyped, but it was also a ripoff of the other book. I read it again lately to participate in the Nothing But Reading Challenges Group read. I was surprised how much of the book I'd forgotten, so in many ways, it was like reading it for the first time.

While I did like Gone Girl better the second time around, I still think it was overhyped, and the ending was too contrived for my taste. For me, Nick, the husband of the piece, was too all over the place alternating between victim and full fledged jerk, while Amy, the wife, was bordering on schizophrenic most of the time. It's very difficult to be more specific in explaining these opinions without giving too much of the story away, so I'll just let my opinion go at that.

This book is a good read insofar as keeping the reader guessing what's going on, unless, like me, you've got an idea from the beginning where it's all leading. If your experience is the latter, then you may end up feeling taken in by entirely too much hype.
]]> The Help 4667024
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.


Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here]]> 464 Kathryn Stockett 0399155341 Gabby 1 4.46 2009 The Help
author: Kathryn Stockett
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2009
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2013/04/10
shelves: 2012, fiction, history, godawful
review:
After reading Sparro's review which covered everything I could have said about this novel, I'm a little intimidated about including my own thoughts. However, I don't think it has been stressed nearly enough just how insulting this book is to people of any color. I read an article after this book was released by a black woman who objected to a white person assuming she could adequately describe what essentially, according to the author anyway, was an experience owned exclusively by African-Americans. She was very territorial about the slavery issue and the Civil Rights movement. I didn't agree with her since I happen to believe that anyone with two functioning eyes and even a semi-literate brain could write something about those issues. Whether such an individual could be taken seriously or not depends entirely upon the reader. So, I'm not going to debate the ability or lack thereof for a white person to write cognitively about what has been acknowledged as a Black experience. What I do think, though, and what I want to voice is how offensive it is to me to have the Civil Rights movement reduced to a scatological joke. I mean, REALLY? That's funny? Apparently those who consider this book a light beach read want me to understand that I really shouldn't take this all that seriously. Those who see the book from a more elitist view want me to see all the research and compassion that went into the writing of it. Frankly, I think both groups are more full of shit than any fictional food source. For me this book was simply offensive on every level I could think of, and there's no need to expound further upon all of them. For me this is not a subject at which to poke fun or to get all dress-up-over-your- head defensive about. I would recommend this book to no one. And the movie? That's even worse.
]]> Flashback 9432902
The United States is near total collapse. But 87% of the population doesn't they're addicted to flashback, a drug that allows its users to re-experience the best moments of their lives. After ex-detective Nick Bottom's wife died in a car accident, he went under the flash to be with her; he's lost his job, his teenage son, and his livelihood as a result.

Nick may be a lost soul but he's still a good cop, so he is hired to investigate the murder of a top governmental advisor's son. This flashback-addict becomes the one man who may be able to change the course of an entire nation turning away from the future to live in the past.]]> 554 Dan Simmons 0316006963 Gabby 3 fantasy-horror, 2012, fiction 3.26 2011 Flashback
author: Dan Simmons
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/03/12
shelves: fantasy-horror, 2012, fiction
review:
Not bad, but not really good either. I never connected with any of the characters, so I found this book a slow read. If comparisons are to be made with Stephen King, then I have to say that many of his books (but not all) I found impossible to put down, no matter what the length. I did not find this to be the case with Simmons. The mystery, such as it was, wasn't nearly strong enough or well written enough to keep me engaged. This was the first novel by this author I've read. I will try him again in the future; I just won't be in much of a hurry to do it.
]]> The Five 10189558
The narrative that follows is a riveting account of violence, terror, and pursuit set against a credible, immensely detailed rock and roll backdrop. It is also a moving meditation on loyalty and friendship, on the nature and importance of families—those we are born into and those we create for ourselves—and on the redemptive power of the creative spirit. Written with wit, elegance, and passionate conviction, The Five lays claim to new imaginative territory, and reaffirms McCammon’s position as one of the finest, most unpredictable storytellers of our time.]]> 518 Robert McCammon 1596063416 Gabby 3 fiction, 2012 3.70 2011 The Five
author: Robert McCammon
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/02/15
shelves: fiction, 2012
review:
I don't think this is one of McCammon's best efforts. Usually I cannot put his books down. I pushed myself to finish it simply because McCammon wrote it, and I thought it had to get better. It didn't.
]]> Wife 22 12737118
Maybe it was those extra five pounds I’d gained.ĚýMaybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her.ĚýMaybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.
Ěý
But when the anonymous online study called “Marriage in the 21st Century� showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasn’t long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101).
Ěý
And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.
Ěý
7. Sometimes I tell him he’s snoring when he’s not snoring so he’ll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.
61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this man’s children.
67. To not want what you don’t have. What you can’t have. What you shouldn’t have.
32. That if we weren’t careful, it was possible to forget one another.
Ěý
Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctor’s appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.
Ěý
But these days, I’m also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I’ll have to make a decision—one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I’m too busy answering questions.
Ěý
As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.]]> 380 Melanie Gideon 034552795X Gabby 0 2012, wish-list, to-read 3.50 2008 Wife 22
author: Melanie Gideon
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/15
shelves: 2012, wish-list, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 13496
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.]]> 835 George R.R. Martin 0553588486 Gabby 4 fiction, 2012, series 4.44 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/02/01
shelves: fiction, 2012, series
review:
When I saw that HBO was planning to make a tv show of Martin's series, even though I usually don't read this genre, I thought, based on all the good reviews, I'd try it. What a pleasant surprise! There are a lot of names to keep straight, but that wasn't too difficult. The storytelling was outstanding. While the men were busy doing what men usually do, the women were fascinating. The tangled relationships were interesting and surprising. I particularly liked the character portrayed by Peter Dinklage in the tv show. Never underestimate the power or craftiness of a little person! No matter how crass or how unacceptable his behavior could be, he always remained, for me, a sympathetic character. At some point I will probably read Book 2 of this saga. It will be fun to lose myself again in these characters if only to see what new treachery they force on each other.
]]> <![CDATA[Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff]]> 9754472
Our system of justice rests on a simple that witnesses will raise their hands and tell the truth. In Tangled Webs , James B. Stewart reveals in vivid detail the consequences of the perjury epidemic that has swept our country, undermining the very foundation of our courts.

With many prosecutors, investigators, and participants speaking for the first time, Tangled Webs goes behind the scene of the trials of media and homemaking entrepreneur Martha Stewart; top White House political adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby; home-run king Barry Bonds; and Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff.

The saga of Martha Stewart's conviction captured the nation, but until now no one has answered the most basic Why would Stewart risk prison, put her entire empire in jeopardy, and lie repeatedly to government investigators to save a few hundred thousand dollars in stock gains? Moreover, how exactly was the notoriously meticulous Stewart brought down?

Drawing on the accounts of then-deputy attorney general James Comey and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, Stewart sheds new light on the Libby investigation, making clear how far into the White House the Valerie Plame CIA scandal extended, and why Libby took the fall.

In San Francisco, Giants home-run king Barry Bonds faces trial due to his testimony before a grand jury investigating the use of illegal steroids in sports. Bonds was warned explicitly that the only crime he faced was perjury. Stewart unlocks the story behind the mounting evidence that he nonetheless lied under oath.

Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme is infamous, but less well known is how he eluded detection for so long in the face of repeated investigations. Of the four he is the only one who has admitted to lying.

The perjury outbreak is symptomatic of a broader breakdown of ethics in American life. It isn't just the judicial system that relies on an honor Academia, business, medicine, and government all depend on it. Tangled Webs explores the age-old tensions between greed and justice, self-interest and public interest, loyalty and duty. At a time when Americans seem hungry for moral leadership and clarity, Tangled Webs reaffirms the importance of truth.]]> 473 James B. Stewart 1594202699 Gabby 4 2012, non-fiction Fascinating. 3.68 2011 Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff
author: James B. Stewart
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/01/27
shelves: 2012, non-fiction
review:
Fascinating.
]]> Summer People 675905
Beth invites Marcus, the son of Arch's final and most challenging client, to spend the summer with her and her teenage twins Winnie and Garrett, who have mixed reactions to sharing their special summer place with this stranger. Always a place of peace before, Nantucket becomes the scene of roiling emotions and turbulent passions as Marcus, Winnie, and Garrett learn about loss, first love, and betrayal. And when they stumble upon a shocking secret from Beth's past, they must keep it from destroying the family they've been trying so hard to heal.]]> 352 Elin Hilderbrand 0312997191 Gabby 3 chick-lit, 2012, fiction A good beach read. 3.85 2003 Summer People
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/01/27
shelves: chick-lit, 2012, fiction
review:
A good beach read.
]]> <![CDATA[Little Face (Spilling CID, #1)]]> 410412
An insightful exploration of the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her child, "Little Face" is a riveting read.]]> 357 Sophie Hannah 0340840323 Gabby 3 fiction, 2012, mystery 3.44 2006 Little Face (Spilling CID, #1)
author: Sophie Hannah
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/01/27
shelves: fiction, 2012, mystery
review:
Interesting premise, but I don't like messy endings, and this one was a bit of all-over-the-place.
]]> Fingersmith 45162
One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naĂŻve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and madeĚýto live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.

With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.]]> 548 Sarah Waters Gabby 3 3.99 2002 Fingersmith
author: Sarah Waters
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/01/27
shelves: chick-lit, fiction, historical-novel, mystery, 2012
review:
There is no way to sum up this plot without going far beyond the boundaries of the dreaded "spoilers". It's a good book with surprises, twists, and a convoluted storyline that got kind of messy in parts. One of the things I liked most about it was the picture it portrayed of the time in which it was written as it pertained to how women were expected to live.
]]> Young Wives 970220 608 Olivia Goldsmith 0006510531 Gabby 3 2012, fiction, chick-lit 3.46 2000 Young Wives
author: Olivia Goldsmith
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/01/27
shelves: 2012, fiction, chick-lit
review:
I read this because normally I like Goldsmith's books. I think she was good at what she did. This book, however, was not one of her best. Rather long and predictable.
]]> The Pack (The Pack, #1) 9663437
Things take a turn when he meets a tight-knit trio of dads at the playground. They are different from other men Simon has met, stronger and more confident, more at ease with the darker side of life- and soon Simon is lured into their mix. But after a guys' night out gets frighteningly out of hand, Simon feels himself sliding into a new nightmarish reality.

As he experiences disturbing changes in his body and his perceptions, he starts to suspect that when the guys welcomed him to their "pack," they were talking about much more than male bonding. And as he falls prey to his basest instincts, Simon must accept that werewolves exist if he is to turn the tides of his fortune...]]> 352 Jason Starr 0441020089 Gabby 3 3.32 2005 The Pack (The Pack, #1)
author: Jason Starr
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/01/27
shelves: fiction, sci-fi, 2012, series, werewolves
review:
This is another of those books I read because it sounded like an interesting premise, and it did manage to hold my interest most of the time. The thing is that I just didn't buy it. It seems to me that all the men in the story had to be pretty stupid to fall for the werewolf spin. Apparently this is the first book in a series. I won't be reading the rest. I also have no intention of seeing the movie should there be one. Too much gratuitous violence.
]]> Uglies (Uglies, #1) 24770
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world—and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever....]]> 425 Scott Westerfeld 0689865384 Gabby 3 2012, ya, fiction 3.85 2005 Uglies (Uglies, #1)
author: Scott Westerfeld
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/01/27
shelves: 2012, ya, fiction
review:

]]> Ravens 6101999
When Shaw McBride and Romeo Zderko pull up at a convenience store off I-95 in Georgia, their only thought is to fix a leaky tire and be on their way again to Florida-away from their dull Ohio tech-support jobs. But this happens to be the store from which a 318,000,000 million dollar Jackpot ticket has just been sold -- and when a pretty clerk accidentally reveals to Shaw the identity of the winning family, he hatches a ferociously audacious He and Romeo will squeeze the family for half their prize.

That night, he visits the Boatwright home and takes the family hostage, while Romeo patrols the streets nearby, prepared to murder the Boatwrights' loved ones at any sign of resistance. At first, the family offers none. But Shaw's plot depends on maintaining constant fear-merciless, unfaltering terror-and soon, under the pressure, everyone's sanity begins to unravel . . .

At once frightening, comic, and suspenseful, RAVENS is a wholly original and utterly compelling novel from one of our most talented writers.]]> 336 George Dawes Green 0446538965 Gabby 3 2012, fiction 3.01 2008 Ravens
author: George Dawes Green
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.01
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/01/27
shelves: 2012, fiction
review:

]]> Matterhorn 6411016
Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever.

Written over the course of thirty years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, Matterhorn is a visceral and spellbinding novel about what it is like to be a young man at war. It is an unforgettable novel that transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful and universal story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice: a parable not only of the war in Vietnam but of all war, and a testament to the redemptive power of literature.

A graduate of Yale University and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Karl Marlantes served as a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals. This is his first novel. He lives in rural Washington State.]]> 663 Karl Marlantes 0979528534 Gabby 5 4.23 2010 Matterhorn
author: Karl Marlantes
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/01/26
shelves: historical-novel, war, fave-books, 2012
review:
One of the best books I have ever read. I plan to retread it, which I seldom do; generally after I've read a book I donate it somewhere. This one I want to experience a second time because it's so well written and such a forthright definition of war as well as the relationships that develop as a result of it. I've never been in armed combat nor had to defend myself and my fellow soldiers against an army of people who want nothing more than to destroy me, but this book manages to give an idea of what that might be like. It's terrifying.
]]> <![CDATA[Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation]]> 6665900
For an entire year, otherwise clear-thinking members of the most affluent, over-educated, information-drenched generation in American history fell prey to the most expensive, hi-tech, laser-focused marketing assault in presidential campaign history.

Twitter messages were machine-gunned to cell phones at mach speed.

Facebook and MySpace groups spread across the Internet like digital fire.

YouTube videos featuring celebrities ricocheted across the globe and into college students� in-boxes with devastating regularity.

All the while, the mega-money-raising engine whirred like a slot machine stuck on jackpot.

The an unthinking mass of young voters marched forward to elect the most radical and untested president in U.S. history.

Recognized as one of the country’s top young conservative activists by Human Events, Jason Mattera created an internet sensation with ambush video interviews that exposed clueless young liberals and cunning Democratic officials. Now he reveals the jaw-dropping lengths Barack Obama and his allies in Hollywood, Washington, and Academia went to in order to transform a legion of iPod-listening, MTV-watching followers into a winning coalition that threatens to become a long-lasting political realignment.

Obama Zombies uncovers the true, behind-the-scenes story of the methods and tactics the Obama campaign unleashed on youth culture. Through personal interviews and meticulous original research, Mattera explains why conservatism’s future rests upon jolting the young masses from their slumber, yanking out their earphones, and sparking a countercultural conservative battle against the rise of the ignorant Left.

The lesson from 2008 is crystal When true conservatives run away, Obama zombies come out to play.]]> 288 Jason Mattera 1439172072 Gabby 4 3.46 2010 Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation
author: Jason Mattera
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/01/25
shelves: non-fiction, political-non-fiction, 2012
review:
As one who was NOT taken in by all the slobbering hype over BO either from the liberal media or the Hollywood mentally challenged who really have no idea what they're talking about, I enjoyed this book for the straightforward way in which the hype balloon was burst. I happen to believe if the media and Hollywood wealthy who have more money than brains and represent everything BO says he's against attack another political candidate and belittle his brave service to his country, they ought to at least seriously question their own candidate who hangs out with flaming racist preachers and domestic terrorists. But that's just me. I happen to be offended by racists no matter what color they come in, and I don't make allowances for terrorists whether they be foreign or domestic. If that's what separates me from people like BO and those who support him, and if it's what makes me enjoy reading books like this well written one, then I believe I'm on the right path.
]]> <![CDATA[Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Gabby 2 4.10 2010 Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2013/01/25
shelves: fiction, sci-fi, 2012, ya, series
review:
I was a fan of the first book, the second installment not so much, and I thought the third book was simply a waste of my time. Too much hype, very short on delivery.
]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Gabby 2 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2013/01/25
shelves: 2012, fiction, sci-fi, ya, series
review:
In my opinion this sequel did not live up to the standards of the first book.
]]> Caine's Pestilence: A Novel 11099279
When John Caine, an obscure midlevel banker from Detroit, accepts the opportunity of a lifetime to manage the backroom business functions of an important National Institutes of Health research lab in Bethesda, he believes his ship has finally come in. But his quirky penchant for illicit tinkering results in the creation and accidental release of a powerful new virus with effects no one could have imagined. Only he holds the answer to how it can be stopped, and he's not telling. Caine finds himself confronted with a desperate White House and an onslaught of rage from all quarters of the world's bureaucracies.

Fast paced, provocative, and offbeat, this cautionary story is thick with political satire and intrigue. It occurs in a world of government turned upside down, where Nancy Pelosi is president of a dysfunctional United States under her ultraliberal regime, while George Bush is a convicted felon and Rush Limbaugh a fugitive. Caine's Pestilence brings together present and former U.S. presidents, would-be assassins, two Supreme Court chief justices, familiar national media political commentators, and the infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay, all in a story readers will find engaging and controversial.]]> 444 John Bascom 098318920X Gabby 5 3.62 2010 Caine's Pestilence: A Novel
author: John Bascom
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/01/20
shelves: fiction, political-non-fiction, 2012, fave-books, satire
review:
I loved this book! Nancy Pelosi as president? G W Bush imprisoned for war crimes? The hopelessly politically correct doublespeak? I haven't laughed this hard at a political novel since Tricky Dicky and Good As Gold. My guess is that each person who reads this novel will interpret it in his/her own way. All I know is that I'm keeping this one to enjoy again.
]]> Under the Dome 6320534
When food, electricity and water run short, the normal rules of society are changed. A new and more sinister social order develops, Dale Barbara, a young Iraq veteran, teams up with a handful of intrepid citizens to fight against the corruption that is sweeping through the town and to try to discover the source of the Dome before it is too late...]]> 1074 Stephen King 1439148503 Gabby 4 2012 3.92 2009 Under the Dome
author: Stephen King
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2012/12/27
date added: 2013/01/10
shelves: 2012
review:

]]> Hollywood Hypocrites 13260238
THE BOOK YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ WILL PISS YOU OFF.

Are you sick of self-important celebrities preaching against “global warming,� yet flying private planes to their countless homes? Fed up with lectures about charity and philanthropy from miserly rockers who will do anything for a tax break? Disgusted by leftist stars decrying the evils of the Second Amendment as their personal bodyguards pack more heat than a Chuck Norris kick to the face?

The same Hollywood loons who got Barack Hussein Obama elected in 2008 will do so again in 2012. That is, unless we muzzle them. Four years ago, Republicans sat back like wimps and let Obama’s celebrity-fueled cool machine steamroll them into electoral smithereens. This time, we must do the steamrolling.

New York Times bestselling author of Obama Zombies and gonzo journalist Jason Mattera takes the first stand with Hollywood Hypocrites , as he slays the Left’s sacred celebrity cows and teaches Obama’s Tinseltown foot soldiers their most important lesson No longer can they attempt to deny Americans the very liberties they use to catapult themselves to prosperity and stardom. In his trademark eye-opening, no-holds-barred, and hilarious style, Mattera puts scores of A-list celebrities, including Sting, Madonna, Bono, Al Gore, Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, Cameron Diaz, Bruce Springsteen, and many, many more under the microscope to analyze whether they live by the same environmental, health, anti-violence, civil rights, and other policy prescriptions they seek to inflict on Americans. What he uncovers will shock you.

Hollywood’s megaphone is powerful, and the mainstream media’s love affair with the president will roar back with a vengeance when their guy is against the wall. Anyone who thinks Barack Obama’s abysmal first term will be enough to demoralize the Liberal Left Coast from flexing its mediated political muscle is a fool.

It’s time to recognize the marketing and fund-raising power the Hollywood Progressives wield. It’s time to dig into the data and set the record straight. It’s time to turn the media spotlight back on the image makers and prevent the Hollywood elite from hoodwinking American voters once again.]]> 272 Jason Mattera 1451625618 Gabby 5 2012, non-fiction 3.66 2012 Hollywood Hypocrites
author: Jason Mattera
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/12/27
date added: 2012/12/27
shelves: 2012, non-fiction
review:

]]> Please Look After Mom 8574333 Please Look After Mom is a stunning, deeply moving story of a family's search for their missing mother - and their discovery of the desires, heartaches and secrets they never realized she harbored within.

When sixty-nine year old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, and vanishes, their children are consumed with loud recriminations, and are awash in sorrow and guilt. As they argue over the "Missing" flyers they are posting throughout the city - how large of a reward to offer, the best way to phrase the text - they realize that none of them have a recent photograph of Mom. Soon a larger question emerges: do they really know the woman they called Mom?

Told by the alternating voices of Mom's daughter, son, her husband and, in the shattering conclusion, by Mom herself, the novel pieces together, Rashomon-style, a life that appears ordinary but is anything but.

This is a mystery of one mother that reveals itself to be the mystery of all our mothers: about her triumphs and disappointments and about who she is on her own terms, separate from who she is to her family. If you have ever been a daughter, a son, a husband or a mother, Please Look After Mom is a revelation - one that will bring tears to your eyes.]]> 237 Kyung-Sook Shin 0307593916 Gabby 4 2012 3.89 2008 Please Look After Mom
author: Kyung-Sook Shin
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2012/03/01
date added: 2012/04/23
shelves: 2012
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Broken Prey (Lucas Davenport, #16)]]> 37300
The second body is found three weeks later in a farmhouse six miles south. Same condition, same display—except this time it is a man. Nothing to link the two victims, nothing to indicate that the killings end here.

“This guy…� Lucas says. He took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. “This guy is going to bust our chops.”�

And soon he's going to do far worse than that…]]> 481 John Sandford 0425204308 Gabby 3 2012, series 4.14 2005 Broken Prey (Lucas Davenport, #16)
author: John Sandford
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2012/04/01
date added: 2012/04/23
shelves: 2012, series
review:

]]> The Passage (The Passage, #1) 6690798 THIRTY-TWO MINUTES FOR ONE WORLD TO DIE, ANOTHER TO BE BORN.

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. Wolgast is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors, but for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—toward the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterly prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.]]> 784 Justin Cronin 0345504968 Gabby 4 2012, series 4.04 2010 The Passage (The Passage, #1)
author: Justin Cronin
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2012/03/01
date added: 2012/04/23
shelves: 2012, series
review:
This book is just about everything I don't like in a novel: sci-fi, vampire/zombie type creatures, and first in a series I have serious doubts I will want to continue reading. But the hype for this novel was pretty strong, so I took a chance. To my surprise, I liked it. I haven't changed my mind about sci-fi or the vision of the future any author of this genre illustrates for me. I also doubt that I will read any of the rest of this trilogy as it is published. Yet with all those negatives, I still really liked this story as farfetched as I thought it was. That is to the author's credit. I cannot imagine living in the world Justin Cronin describes, but reading about all the struggles and hardships was a fascinating adventure. Maybe I will read the next in this series after all...
]]> <![CDATA[Running Blind (Jack Reacher, #4)]]> 455925 512 Lee Child 0515130974 Gabby 4 2012, series Running Blind is certainly a case in point.]]> 4.09 2000 Running Blind (Jack Reacher, #4)
author: Lee Child
name: Gabby
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2012/04/22
date added: 2012/04/23
shelves: 2012, series
review:
I like Lee Child's books because I like his style of writing, and because I like his Jack Reacher character. I was very surprised when I figured out who-done-it very close to the beginning of the book. That usually isn't my experience, so I'm wondering if the solution was as obvious to anyone else who read this book, or if this was simply a fluke in my reading experience. However, just because I knew early on what the solution was doesn't mean I didn't thoroughly enjoy the story with all the various twists and turns. The Jack Reacher series is one of the best in the thriller/suspense genre in my view. What I think makes it so entertaining and interesting is that while Jack Reacher is as close to a superhero as it's possible to be, he's still human enough to get a few surprises he didn't anticipate or plan for. The ending to Running Blind is certainly a case in point.
]]> Act of Rage 2682641 356 Joseph Hayes 0312032714 Gabby 3 2012 3.33 1989 Act of Rage
author: Joseph Hayes
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/04/23
shelves: 2012
review:

]]> Angelica 256397 The Egyptologist and Prague comes an even more accomplished and entirely surprising new novel. Angelica is a spellbinding Victorian ghost story, an intriguing literary and psychological puzzle, and a meditation on marriage, childhood, memory, and fear.

The novel opens in London, in the 1880s, with the Barton household on the brink of collapse. Mother, father, and daughter provoke one another, consciously and unconsciously, and a horrifying crisis is triggered. As the family's tragedy is told several times from different perspectives, events are recast and sympathies shift.

In the dark of night, a chilling sexual spectre is making its way through the house, hovering over the sleeping girl and terrorizing her fragile mother. Are these visions real, or is there something more sinister, and more human, to fear? A spiritualist is summoned to cleanse the place of its terrors, but with her arrival the complexities of motive and desire only multiply. The mother's failing health and the father's many secrets fuel the growing conflicts, while the daughter flirts dangerously with truth and fantasy.

While Angelica is reminiscent of such classic horror tales as The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House, it is also a thoroughly modern exploration of identity, reality, and love. Set at the dawn of psychoanalysis and the peak of spiritualism's acceptance, Angelica is also an evocative historical novel that explores the timeless human hunger for certainty.

BONUS: This edition contains excerpts from Arthur Phillips's The Tragedy of Arthur, The Song Is You, Prague, and The Egyptologist.]]> 352 Arthur Phillips 1400062519 Gabby 4 2012 3.08 2007 Angelica
author: Arthur Phillips
name: Gabby
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2012/04/23
date added: 2012/04/23
shelves: 2012
review:

]]>