I Am Legend

Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. A novella, I guess, rather than a novel, but a very powerful vampire story, first published in 1954.

I didn't see the movie, but I found myself completely enthralled with the book. Richard Neville has survived the plague that either killed or turned every other human being into vampires. He manages to survive the loss of his wife and child and his solitary existence, but frequently wonders if it is worth it. Each night his house is attacked by vampires; each day he leaves (if it is sunny) to kill sleeping vampires and get supplies. Not much to look forward to, eh?

This is an excellent vampire story, a modern re-creation and re-telling of vampire legends, and a moving story of a man isolated and often despairing.

Fiction. Supernatural/Vampire. 1954/1995. 170 pages.

Live Bait

Tracy, P.J. Live Bait. The Monkeewrench gang are at it again. I read the first in this series when it first came out. Now I have several novels to catch up on.

Someone is killing the elderly. Who, coincidentally, are all Jews who have survived the camps. Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth are on the case, but frequently disagree. Grace Macbride and Magozzi are making some romantic progress (continued from previous novel) and Grace and the Monkeewrench eccentrics are useful in solving the murders.

A good read and a series that I do want to catch up on because I like the characters. Not just Malgozzi and Rolseth, but the other detectives and the chief!

Fiction. Mystery. 2004. 340 pages.

The Crystal Skull

Scott, Manda. The Crystal Skull. A mystery that involves history, myth, and prophecy. When newly-weds Stella and Kit discover the crystal skull, history and prophecy collide. Kit is severely injured in a fall and the blue heart-stone begins to form a connection with Stella, giving warnings when danger threatens.

The story alternates between modern day Cambridge, Kit and Stella -- and the 16th century and Cedric Owens, whose connections with John Dee and Nostradamus help him discover more about himself and the heart-stone, the crystal skull.

Much of the premise of the book is based on the Mayan Calendar, the date 2012, and predictions of the end of the world. Google 2012 and you will discover quite a few links discussing and refuting the importance of the date.

The movie 2012 with John Cusack, Amanda Peet, and Danny Glover is also based on the "end of the world" scenario. I haven't seen it, just found it when Googling the date. Evidently Apocalypto (didn't see this either) is also concerned with the Mayan Calendar. This USA Today article also addresses the subject. And another book on the subject -- The Crystal Skulls by Chris Morton.

Silly me. I had no idea the world was going to end in 2012 (better get busy) and was totally unaware of all the hoopla connected to the date. I am so out-of-it! There is even an online game!

Fiction. Mystery. 2008. 365 pages.

Donating Books with First Book

I'm getting caught up on reviews--only have 4 to go!

Here is what I'm doing for BAFB week--

I've donated $25 to First Book, a nonprofit program that donates books to children from low-income families. Made my donation in memory of my mother, Jo Eleanor McDowell, who was responsible for my love of reading. You can read more about this program here.

Yesterday was a great mail day. Received the following from Danielle of Sourcebooks:

My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes
Mansfield Park Revisited by Joan Aiken
and
The Ladies of Longbourn (The Pemberly Chronicles - another one based on Jane Austen's characters.

Thanks, Danielle!

Dark Celebration

Feehan, Christine. Dark Celebration. Feehan has written a number of Carpathian novels about different Carpathian families, but I have not read any others. Carpathians are evidently a form of vampire, but the good kind. You know, lots of powers and sensuality, but not that nasty, evil-vampire-type.

This book is a reunion of sorts and thus unites many families that have books to themselves. As a result, for a new reader, it involves Prince Mikhail visiting all of the other families to provide an introduction. Gets monotonous, even when you like the characters.

All of the Carpathians introduced have charming aspects, all couples are deeply in love, all have powers such as mind reading, shape-shifting, etc. Oh, and are highly sexually active, but only with their lifemates. Definitely not promiscuous because they are all deeply in love. Fortunate, but still too much of that kind of thing. As usual, I prefer the action to the romance/sex.

The evil characters are the real vampires and one or two mages. All kinds of other complications are also in play.

This is definitely not the book to begin this series--too many families are there for the reunion. I believe Dark Prince is the first one.

Fiction. Supernatural/Vampire. 2006. 301 pages + addendum information and some delicious recipes.

Mesmerized

Lynds, Gayle. Mesmerized. A fast-paced espionage thriller with the kicker of a bad ticker. Hot-shot attorney Beth Convey has a heart transplant and finds herself craving strange foods, having weird dreams in Russian, and developing an unusual awareness of her surroundings.

Jeff Hammond, former FBI agent, current journalist with a Washington newspaper is on the trail of three Russian defectors he helped debrief.

A defector with a plan for terrorism, a mole in the FBI, murder and mayhem, cellular memory.

O.K. Not Ludlum.

Fiction. Spy Thriller. 2001. 451 pages.

O' Artful Death

Taylor, Sarah Stewart. O' Artful Death. This is a debut novel introducing art historian Sweeney St. George, whose specialty includes funeral art and all of the symbolism that accompanies various time periods in history.

Sweeney is a college professor who finds photographs of an unusual and beautiful gravestone on her desk (left by her best friend Tony to entice her to spend Christmas vacation with him at his aunt and uncle's home). The monument is a sculpture of a beautiful young girl who died in the late 1800's, but it does not fit the norm for the time and place, and Sweeney recognizes Pre-Raphealite influences.

Unable to resist investigating, Sweeney does join Tony, and they go to Byzantium (New England) for the holidays. The mystery deepens as Sweeney discovers the rumor that the girl was murdered, the sculptor unidentified, a descendant is murdered, and strange burglaries are occurring in the small town of Byzantium.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and liked Sweeney. Will be looking for more in the series--there are at least 3 more.

Fiction. Mystery. 2003. 277 pages.

To Use, To Review, To Read

I'm using the hand made journal I received from Iliana to keep track of my yoga, meditation, and other goals. Just the right size! It took a while before I could bring myself to write in it, but now it feels like second nature.

Books to review:
Mesmerized by Gale Lynds
O' Artful Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor (for Carl's RIP challenge)
Dark Celebration by Christine Feehan ( RIP challenge)
The Crystal Skull by Manda Scott (RIP challenge)
Live Bait by P.J. Tracy
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
The Mindful Woman by Sue Patton Thoelle

Need to bring my stats up to date but think I've read 106 books this year. Right now I'm not sewing, so I've been reading more. I usually do one or the other with abandon. This summer, I got lots of quilting and sewing done (and less reading), but have not made anything since the end of August.

Looking forward to:

The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam
Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (another one for the RIP challenge)

Have been adding new titles to my list as I visit other blogs. Just in case...

Wild Life

Gloss, Molly. Wild Life. I had never herd of Molly Gloss until I received a copy of Wild Life from a dear friend with the highest recommendation. She had read and loved Gloss' previous novels, but considers this one the best.

Within a few pages, I had fallen in love with the voice of Charlotte Bridger Drummond through her diary entries beginning in 1905 - crisp, wry, arrogant, funny. A single mother of five boys who makes her living by writing "women's adventure stories," Charlotte lets us know her commitment to writing, even as she admits to writing "lowbrow" fiction. She lives in an Oregon backwater, but has also had the benefit of having lived with her feminist aunt in New York in her teens. Charlotte is a product of a number of disparate influences.

When the daughter of her housekeeper disappears, Charlotte determines to help in the search. Here is the first of many strange twists that make this novel seem like more than one book. Both content and style begin to change as this serious note is introduced, and Charlotte resolves to head into the wilderness and toward the remote logging camps in search of the little girl.

Gloss addresses many themes in this novel, all set against the huge frontier backdrop of the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900's. She covers social, cultural, anthropological, environmental, and historical topics from the microcosmic point of view; the novel twists and turns and re-makes itself throughout, as Charlotte's experiences twist and turn and she finds herself re-made, altered.

It is a strange, highly original novel. An odd, difficult to categorize novel - historical fiction? speculative fiction? psychological? Charlotte's favorite authors included Jules Verne, Poe, and Mary Shelley...

Molly Gloss takes the reader on an adventure and presents a number of ideas to consider, but leaves the explanations open.

Fiction. 2000. 255 pages.

The Blackstone Key

Melikan, Rose. The Blackstone Key. A "cozy" Gothic novel--most of the Gothic elements are present, but somehow without the usual Gothic ambiance. Gothic-light.

The hero is somewhat isolated; the heroine innocent and curious; the villain, while not entirely evil, has suffered a fall from grace; there is the traditional mansion in disrepair; an underground passage; lots of shadows, and plenty of secrets.

Yet the traditional feeling of horror, the sense of evil, gloom, and dread are much modified to a more traditional romantic feel.

It was a fun, quick read, and while I wouldn't call it a parody of the Gothic novel, it fits more into the idea of historical mystery with Gothic inclinations.

Fiction. Historical mystery. 2008. 435 pages

Exit Lines

Hill, Reginald. Exit Lines. This is the 8th of the Dalziel & Pascoe mysteries and continues to develop Hill's characters and his style. I still need to pick up numbers 3-7, but by this book, the close if sometimes testy, relationship between Dalziel and Pascoe is well established.

Three old men die on a cold November night. One was hit by a car in which Andy Dalziel was a passenger. Or was Andy driving? He had certainly been drinking. Peter Pascoe is involved in the case of the elderly man who was murdered in his bath tub, but his concerns and his doubts about the case involving Dalziel keep him in turmoil.

One element of this novel is the treatment of the elderly, and Hill examines it in all three of the murder cases, as well as in the situation involving Ellie Pascoe's father who is showing signs of dementia.

Hill has left the flaws of A Clubbable Woman far behind by this 8th novel in the series. In fact, he had left solved some of the major problems by the second novel in the series.

Fiction. Mystery. 1984. (recently republished with much better cover than the one I have) 255 pages.

Written in Blood

Lowe, Sheila. Written in Blood. The author contacted me about this one, "A forensic handwriting mystery." I've written about my interest in graphology and handwriting analysis on both of my blogs (here is one post that covers 2 different books on the subject), so I was glad to have this one offered.

Sheila Lowe is a handwriting expert with 35 years experience and has testified in forensic cases herself. Written in Blood is her second Poison Pen novel featuring Claudia Rose, a handwriting expert with much the same experience as the author.

Claudia is called upon by a young widow to verify the signature on her husband's contested will. After determining the signature to be genuine (interesting details about the analysis) and testifying in court, Claudia develops a friendship with the young widow who is the headmistress of an exclusive girl's school. On hearing about a troubled and suicidal student at the school, Claudia volunteers to help the troubled young woman with graphotherapy, and unexpected complications arise.

I loved the all the stuff about forensic handwriting analysis and found Claudia an interesting and likable character. Some brief sex scenes with the boyfriend could have been omitted -- they weren't terribly graphic, neither were they necessary.

Overall, it was a good mystery with an appealing protagonist--suspenseful and involving. Again, the forensic handwriting element is a huge draw, and Lowe uses it skillfully.

The handwriting element gives a different touch to the typical mystery and offers some interesting insight into the different reasons for wanting writing analyzed.

Fiction. Mystery/Suspense. 2008. 306 pages.

Calling Home

McMahan, Janna. Calling Home. This was an ARC, and I hope to hear more from this author as she has the rare ability to bring a setting to life.

Set in rural Kentucky during the late 1970's, the novel examines the lives of the various members of the Lemmon family after the father abandons them and moves in with another woman. Virginia, the mother, and Shannon, the daughter, dominate the book, but the other characters are deftly drawn.

Decisions are made and secrets revealed, and for everything there is a consequence. Virginia is trapped by circumstances and culture, but Shannon hopes to move beyond those proscriptions and into a world with fewer restrictions on women.

For the most part, this book felt real. Difficult situations dealt with by imperfect people to the best of their ability. Are the decisions right or wrong? For whom? And isn't that always the case?

Fiction. 2008. 307 pages.

Just a few more...

I have only 4 books left to review, but by the time I get them done, I will probably have finished the one in progress.

The fact that the two Webber books combined were around 1700 pages is probably the only reason I believe I can catch up. Ordinarily, that many pages would be at least 4 or 5 books.

When I get behind with reviewing, there seems to be no way to avoid falling further behind.

You don't just stop reading, do you?

You don't say, "I won't read another book until I catch up on reviews." You just read another book, and then another, and the list of reviews gets longer.

Hi Ho!

At All Costs

Weber, David. At All Costs. An Honor Harrington novel, but not my favorite. In fact, my least favorite in this series of 11 books.

I don't mind the fact that Weber's books are long, but if he had discarded the entire section on the love triangle and the babies, I would have been much happier. Hamish, Earl of White Haven and wife Emily are two of the least developed characters in a cast of thousands (give or take a few and throughout the entire series). Honor's relationship with Hamish has seemed pretty thin from the beginning, but recent developments are not of interest to me.

I went back to see my review of War of Honor , the book previous to this one, and found that I didn't comment on the Honor/Hamish/Emily situation, but remember that I wasn't much impressed with it. I liked the Shadow of Saganami which is connected to the series, but doesn't feature Honor Harrington, I enjoyed In Fury Born (not connected to the H.H. novels),and I like his new series Off Armageddon Reef and By Schism Rent Asunder, but my fondness for the Honorverse is fading, as the last two novels in this series have been a bit disappointing.

I have no intention of abandoning Weber, but maybe this particular series has played itself out. Will I read the next one? Of course.

Fiction. Science Fiction/Space Opera.

The Intention Experiment

McTaggert, Lynne. The Intention Experiment. I started this nonfiction book quite a while back and wrote a bit about it here. Finally got through all the quantum physics stuff (whew!), which although interesting, was hard going-- and into accounts of various fascinating experiments. Initially, the brain-strain bogged me down, and I put the book aside, but on returning to it, I was completely immersed.

Offering a scientific look at the power of human consciousness, Lynne McTaggert presents scientific studies conducted by leading researchers at imminent universities and research facilities to show the effects of intention; she examines the way the scientific community approaches the mind over matter debate.

Hmmm. How to describe the idea of "intention" - it the age-old practice of prayer and new-age interest in thought/action, it is quantum physics, shaman and healer, laboratory studies, qi gong, meditation, alternative medicine, spiritual healing, placebo effect, brain frequencies, complex magnetic fields, and quantifiable scientific data. Fact or Fantasy?

How can an individual's intention to harm a plant produce a quantifiable scientific effect?

How can meditating Tibetan Buddhist monks in a drafty Himalayan monastery in the middle of winter be covered with sheets drenched in ice water and then generate enough heat to cause steam to rise from the sheets?

How can remote intention effect the PH of water?

How can prayer/healing intention effect cardiac or cancer patients?

How can remote intention effect the growth of algae in a laboratory?

The experiments and studies on plants, inanimate objects, eggs, mice, and humans are definitely involving and intriguing.

The "how" is not yet fully explained, but evidently both the "what" and the "how" are under vigorous academic and scientific study. I guess the "why" is obvious.

McTaggert interviewed scientists in various fields, medical doctors, clairvoyants, practitioners of meditation, and healers, looking at both scientific experiments and studies of people who appear to have unusual talents. She investigated studies by leading institutions and interviewed participants. Her bibliography is extensive and impressive including studies from journals such as Physics World, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, International Journal of Psychophysiology, American Heart Journal, American Journal of Psychiatry, and other well-known and respected medical and scientific journals and studies - as well as journals on parapsychology and alternative medicines.

I found the book engrossing (after the hard science and quantum mechanics) and suppose it goes back to not only do we use only a fraction of the power of the brain, we aren't even aware of some the power we do use.

Nonfiction. Popular Science (mostly lay terms, explanations). 222 pages + 50 pages of Notes and Bibliographic material.

Pharmakon

Wittenborn, Dirk. Pharmakon. This ARC examines drug research and drug use, the American Dream transformed, ego and arrogance, and family dysfunction.

It is one of those novels with a particularly impressive first line: "I was born because a man came to kill my father."

The first paragraph draws you in and the first half of the book is quite interesting. Research psychologist William Friedrich has many good qualities, but is, overall, a damaged individual who perpetuates some of his own childhood misery. His ambition leads him on a destructive path that he never intended when he develops a new drug that attempts to relieve suffering, to increase happiness. Good characterization and tension in this portion of the novel.

The last half of the book, however, deals with the children and is less interesting. Much less so. While it is sad to see the effect of events and parental personalities on the children, they were strangely unappealing and unsympathetic.

The Greek word pharmakon means both poison and cure. An apt description of the pharmaceutical industry.

Fiction. 2008. 403 pages.

In Fury Born by David Weber

Weber, David. In Fury Born. Captain Alicia DeVries resigns from the Imperial Cadre because of a political decision to cover up a betrayal that cost the lives of all but 9 of Charlie Company, Third Battalion. She joins her family on the developing planet Mathison, and several years later, returns home to find her family dead or dying, massacred by space pirates. 

 With her Cadre training and enhancements, Alicia manages to kill all the pirates who have attacked their remote home, but in the process receives fatal wounds. And yet...

 When rescuers find her, they are amazed and bewildered and not a little frightened. Alicia becomes a medical mystery and a very dangerous patient. What she actually is would be even more unbelievable to her doctors -- because one of the Furies from early mythology has taken residence within Alicia and will help her take revenge on the murderers of her family and her planet -- for of the forty-one thousand inhabitants of Mathison, there were only 306 survivors. 

 The Fury Tisiphone has made sure that Alicia will live and be able to take her revenge; the two of them eventually are able to escape and steal an AI starship... And then there were three. I liked it. Another fast-paced novel with lots of action by David Weber, there are a few flaws and the book is long, but it was interesting and exciting. 

 Fiction. Science Fiction/Space Opera. 2006. 828 pages.

A Clubbable Woman

Hill, Reginald. A Clubbable Woman. This is the first in the Dalziel & Pascoe series and the characters are pretty rudimentary. Dalziel is simply crude in this first novel in the series (published in 1970), and Pascoe is almost cardboard. Not a bad mystery, I suppose, but mostly interesting to see the first novel in which Fat Andy Dalziel (pronounced [diːˈɛl]) and Peter Pascoe appear. Hill had a better grasp on them within a year when he published An Advancement of Learning (# 2 in the series; reviewed a few weeks ago, here and here).

I was unable to find copies of #'s 3-7 -Ruling Passion, An April Shroud, A Pinch of Snuff, A Killing Kindness, and Deadheads (1973-1983) - when I ordered from Alibris, but was able to get Exit Lines (1984), and will look for the #'s 3-7 in the series, maybe at Amazon.com.

I've read 9 of the last 10 of Hill's Dalziel & Pascoe novels and find it great fun to see the evolution from the early to the late novels. A nearly 40 year span!

Fiction. Mystery/crime. 1970. 255 pages.

The Blood of Caesar

Bell, Albert A. The Blood of Caesar. Set in ancient Rome, this mystery has Pliny the Younger and Tacitus investigating the missing memoir of Nero's mother, the death of a Jewish slave, and the possibility of a previously unknown descendant of Nero who might provide a rallying point for those who would challenge Emperor Domitian.

An interesting look at Rome and some of its well-known figures and some of its social and political intricacies, but the characters just didn't come off the page for me. Does include a chronological timeline and a list of terms and people at the back.

My favorite Roman mysteries are those of Lindsey Davis and the irrepressible Marcus Didius Falco. Lindsey Davis and Stephen Saylor (Gordianus the Finder) are perhaps the most familiar authors who use ancient Rome, but there are quite a few others as I discovered at The Detctive and the Toga. Here is a list of recently published Ancient Roman Mysteries.

Fiction. Historical mystery. 2008. 252 pages.