Goodreads blurb: The dark is rising . . . Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the drugs bust of his career. Then his prize suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody. Furious, Quill pursues the investigation, co-opting intelligence analyst Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton. But nothing about Toshack’s murder is normal. Toshack had struck a bargain with a vindictive entity, whose occult powers kept Toshack one step ahead of the law – until his luck ran out. Now, the team must find a ‘suspect’ who can bend space and time and alter memory itself. And they will kill again. As the group starts to see London’s sinister magic for themselves, they have two choices: panic or use their new abilities. Then they must hunt a terrifying supernatural force the only way they know how: using police methods, equipment and tactics. But they must all learn the rules of this new game – and quickly. More than their lives will depend on it.

I love urban fantasy, and I love police procedurals, and I loved this combination of the two genres. I should say urban fantasy bordering on horror, because there was some pretty horrific stuff in this book: buckets of blood, child sacrifice, etc. I’m squeamish, but it wasn’t too much for me.

Cornell is a writer for Dr. Who, which I am sure I would probably love, if I would just make time to watch it. He imbues this book with a feeling of menace; the city of London becomes a vile presence pressing down on our intrepid detective team. Each of them comes with their own history and baggage, and the gift of the sight magnifies their own dark memories.

The team is headed up by Quill, who will discover that pursuing the woman behind the darkness over London has cost him more than he can imagine. Lisa Ross, intelligence analyst, has a personal stake in the case, and must come to terms with her family history in order to help with the investigation. Costain is running from his time as a slightly shady undercover cop, and is convinced that he’s headed for hell if he doesn’t make things right. And Sefton is out to prove that he’s more than the boy who was picked on while riding the school bus.

The idea of a hidden world lurking just outside our sight isn’t new, but Cornell gives it a particularly London flavor, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The villain they are pursuing is truly terrifying, the setting is brilliantly rendered, and the story had one twist that had me gasping out loud. While this story stands alone, the epilogue definitely indicates that Cornell is hoping to make this a series. If so, I look forward to reading the next one.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2013. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fantasy, paranormal fiction, supernatural fiction, urban fantasy

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It’s finale time for most regular season TV series, and all of my favorite shows are ending for the summer. One more episode each of NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy, Castle, and Elementary – and a couple more Grimm episodes, I think. Person of Interest, The Mentalist, and Blue Bloods have already signed off for the summer. I’m hoping there will be some good summer series to give us something to watch on hot evenings.

Speaking of hot, we’ve been enjoying an early week of summer weather – highs in the high 80s all week long. Kevin had an unexpected day off on Thursday, so I called an audible and gave the boys the day off from homeschooling to go fishing with their dad.

I had a great week of reading, finishing A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash, London Falling by Paul Cornell, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, and The Pact by Jodi Picoult. I gave up on Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen on audio, as it wasn’t doing anything for me.

I posted Things I hate in book covers and some mini-reviews: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, A Dublin Student Doctor by Patrick Taylor, and Hate List by Jennifer Brown.

Currently, I am enjoying the audio of Level 2 by Lenore Applehans, and have loaded The Turncoat by Donna Thorland onto my MP3 player to start next. In print, I am reading The Last Camellia by Sarah Jio, The Original 1982 by Lori Carson, and The Office of Mercy by Ariel Djanikian. Those are the books I will spend my afternoon with. This evening we will have movie night; this week’s pick: Jack Reacher.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and Mother’s Day!

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~ Photographs of obviously modern people on the covers of historical fiction. I don’t care how well you costume someone; a model from the 21st century very rarely looks as if she could be an Edwardian milkmaid.

~ Pictures of women’s feet dangling in water. It’s been way overdone.

~ Nothing but stark text. I want something more than just words on a cover. If the text is somehow creative or demonstrates something about the book, that’s different.

~ Couples about to kiss.

~ When a style of cover changes partway through the series. If I own a series, I want the covers to match. Sometimes the change is for the better, but it still makes me mad.

What about you? What are your book cover pet peeves?

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Goodreads blurb: Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s role in an absurd world.

What everyone is saying about this book is absolutely true. It is full of awesome-ness, and I couldn’t stop listening to it until I finished. It takes a blazingly brilliant audiobook to make me want to just sit and listen, instead of multi-tasking, and this is one of those books – I sat on the couch and just soaked it in. I loved the story, I loved the characters, and I loved the inventive way the story was told – in e-mails, faxes, and letters. And the narrator, Kathleen Wilhoite, who I have loved in TV series such as Gilmore Girls (Luke’s sister) and ER (Susan’s sister), has found her true calling – she should simply read aloud all day, every day.

Title: A Dublin Student Doctor
Author: Patrick Taylor
Genre: Historical fiction, Irish ficiton
Publisher: Forge Books
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, edged the long-bonnetted Rover out of the car park.

Goodreads blurb:
In the 1930s, fresh from a stint in the Royal Navy Reserve, and against the wishes of his disapproving father, Fingal O’Reilly goes to Dublin to study medicine. Fingal and his fellow aspiring doctors face the arduous demands of Trinity College and Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital. The hours are long and the cases challenging, but Fingal manages to find time to box and play rugby—and to romance a fetching, gray-eyed nurse named Kitty O’Hallorhan.

Dublin is a city of slums and tenements, where brutal poverty breeds diseases that the limited medical knowledge of the time is often ill-equipped to handle. His teachers warn Fingal not to become too attached to his patients, but can he truly harden himself to the suffering he sees all around him—or can he find a way to care for his patients without breaking his heart?

The Irish country series is one of my favorite comfort series. Usually, the stories are set in the 60s, and involve older Dr. O’Reilly and his young partner, Dr. Laverty. Once in a while, though, Taylor veers from the timeline and gives us some history. I am so glad he did, because I loved getting to know more about what shaped Dr. O’Reilly as a young man: the relationship with his father, his early struggles as a medical student, and his early romance with Kitty. It was also fascinating to realize how far the world has come in medical advances since the 1930s. This book ends before Dr. O’Reilly is called up to serve in World War II; I hope Mr. Taylor has plans for continuing O’Reilly’s earlier adventures.

Title: Hate List
Author: Jennifer Brown
Genre: YA Contemporary fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: The scene in the Garvin High School cafeteria, known as the Commons, is being described as “grim” by investigators who are working to identify the victims of a shooting spree that erupted Friday morning.

Goodreads blurb: Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

It has been a long time since I have read a book in a day, just gulping it down in chapter-sized chunks, but that’s what I did with Hate List. I read about half of it while sitting in a Barnes & Noble, and then finished it when I got home in the afternoon. It is disturbing, yet hopeful, and should be read by all parents, teachers, and high school students. I will definitely be on the lookout for more of Jennifer Brown’s work.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2013. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, YA fiction

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Today I did a bit of reading, but mostly I slept the morning away, trying to rid myself of a migraine. I doubt I’ll have much time to read this evening, but if I do, I will be choosing from A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash; London Falling by Paul Cornell; Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner; and The Pact by Jodi Picoult. On audio, I am listening to Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen and Level 2 by Lenore Applehans.

Before I close to go make popcorn for our movie night, I must share some sad news. Our nephew, Shawn, who was severely burned while rescuing his children from a house fire on December 5th, passed away on Friday. Kevin and I didn’t know him very well, but are very sad for his mom and sister. Thank you to all of you who have been keeping him in your prayers.

Books completed in April:

~ Time and Again by Jack Finney – 3 stars – my review
~ Sophia’s War: A Tale of the Revolution by Avi (audiobook) – 5 stars – my review
~ Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley by M.C. Beaton – 4 stars – my review
~ Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson – 4 stars – my review
~ Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult – 4 stars
~ The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – 3 stars – my review
~ The Twelve by Justin Cronin (audiobook) – 4 stars
~ Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage by M.C. Beaton – 4 stars
~ Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (audiobook) – 5 stars – my review
~ Pirate King by Laurie R. King – 4 stars

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~ Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, reviewed by Kathy at Bermudaonion

~ The Last Telegram by Liz Trenow, reviewed by Anna at Diary of an Eccentric

Blogging Events:

~ Audiobook Week is coming the week of June 17th! I can’t wait – this is my favorite blogging event of the year.

Book to movie news:

~ James Franco has adapted William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying for film – I can’t think of a book which I’d want to see less on screen than this one. Shudder.

Other bookish links:

~ Remember my review of my friend Ron Miles’ book, 3500: An Autistic Boy’s Ten-Year Romance With Snow White? You can get the Kindle edition free for the next couple days.

~ Goodreads Infographic: What Shakespeare Play Should I Read?

~ Mental Floss: 20 Words We Owe to William Shakespeare

~ Epic Reads: 20 Amazing Opening Lines in YA

~ Huffington Post: The Bookstore That Changed My Life

~ 20 Brilliant Bookshelves for Modern Bookworms

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2013. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobook week, audiobooks, book to film, bookshelves, bookstores, shakespeare, TBR list, YA fiction

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Goodreads blurb: Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her widowed father, Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiance, and her own search-and-rescue bloodhound, which she uses to find missing persons. But as Delia plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can’t recall. And then a policeman knocks on her door, revealing a secret that changes the world as she knows it.” In shock and confusion, Delia must sift through the truth – even when it jeopardizes her life and the lives of those she loves. What happens when you learn you are not who you thought you were? When the people you’ve loved and trusted suddenly change before your eyes? When getting your deepest wish means giving up what you’ve always taken for granted? Vanishing Acts explores how life – as we know it – might not turn out the way we imagined; how doing the right thing could mean doing the wrong thing; how the memory we thought had vanished could return as a threat.

This is exactly the type of book I enjoy from Picoult: strong characters, a modern issue, and the exploration of human character. This was a quick read for me – I couldn’t wait to find out how it would end, how Delia’s relationship with her father would evolve, and whether or not she would end up with the right guy. After being unimpressed with a couple of her books, I had almost given up on her work, but now I’m looking forward to reading more Picoult.

Title: The Twelve
Author: Justin Cronin
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Scott Brick
Audiobook length: 26 hours and 26 minutes

Goodreads blurb:
At the end of The Passage, the great viral plague had left a small group of survivors clinging to life amidst a world transformed into a nightmare. In the second volume of this epic trilogy, this same group of survivors, led by the mysterious, charismatic Amy, go on the attack, leading an insurrection against the virals: the first offensives of the Second Viral War.

To do this, they must infiltrate a dozen hives, each presided over by one of the original Twelve. Their secret weapon: Alicia, transformed at the end of book one into a half human, half viral—but whose side, in the end, is she really on?

The Twelve didn’t wow me as much as The Passage, and it got off to a slow start, but it is still very worth reading this second installment in the series. Once it reaches the halfway mark, things pick up considerably, and the ending is amazing. I only hope we don’t have to wait three more years for the final book in the series. Also, if you enjoy audio, this series is read by Scott Brick, whose voice is like the perfect combination of chocolate and red wine. I love listening to him.

Title: Pirate King
Author: Laurie R. King
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Bantam Books
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: “Honestly, Holmes! Pirates?”

Goodreads blurb: In England’s young silent-film industry, the megalomaniacal Randolph Fflytte is king. Nevertheless, at the request of Scotland Yard, Mary Russell is dispatched to investigate rumors of criminal activities that swirl around Fflytte’s popular movie studio. So Russell is traveling undercover to Portugal, along with the film crew that is gearing up to shoot a cinematic extravaganza, Pirate King. Based on Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, the project will either set the standard for moviemaking for a generation . . . or sink a boatload of careers.

Nothing seems amiss until the enormous company starts rehearsals in Lisbon, where the thirteen blond-haired, blue-eyed actresses whom Mary is bemusedly chaperoning meet the swarm of real buccaneers Fflytte has recruited to provide authenticity. But when the crew embarks for Morocco and the actual filming, Russell feels a building storm of trouble: a derelict boat, a film crew with secrets, ominous currents between the pirates, decks awash with budding romance—and now the pirates are ignoring Fflytte and answering only to their dangerous outlaw leader. Plus, there’s a spy on board. Where can Sherlock Holmes be? As movie make-believe becomes true terror, Russell and Holmes themselves may experience a final fadeout.

I didn’t realize how much I was missing Russell and Holmes until I picked up Pirate King, and then I wondered why I had waited so long. One of the best things about the series is that each one is very different, while anchored and held together by the relationship between the two main characters. This installment is one of the lightest of the series, with a lot of humor and heart. Now that I’ve finished it, I’m torn between the desire to dive right into the next book, Garment of Shadows, or to hold off since I have no idea when another one will be released.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2013. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, historical mysteries, horror, laurie r. king, mysteries, sherlock holmes, speculative fiction

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Just a reminder to all of you reading along with me: this month’s selection is Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose – posts to go up the last day of the month. Happy reading!

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: read-alongs

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Goodreads blurb: The novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of sharecroppers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in financial and agricultural industries. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they were trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California. Along with thousands of other “Okies”, they sought jobs, land, dignity and a future. When preparing to write the novel, Steinbeck wrote: “I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects].” The book won Steinbeck a large following among the working class, perhaps due to the book’s sympathy to the workers’ movement and its accessible prose style.

First, I have to say that we did a really good job of picking some amazingly depressing books for our challenge this year. Bleak House, As I Lay Dying (which James Franco has made into a movie?!?!), and now this wallow in the misery of the Dust Bowl that is The Grapes of Wrath. Again, I found myself feeling less than crazy about the book we were reading. There were some good points, though, so I’ll start there.

~ I like historical fiction that brings a human face to a historical event, and this book did that. I learned a lot about what the Dust Bowl did to share-croppers and how the great migration into California didn’t solve things a bit. It also helped to explain the need for unions and labor rights at this point in history.

~ I liked the character of Mrs. Joad. She was a hard woman, made even harder by circumstances, but she was very determined to do whatever it took to ensure the survival of her family.

~ Steinbeck knows how to write character and setting – I felt I knew the people and saw the world through their eyes as I read.

Now, for the things I didn’t like.

~ The alternating chapters. I understand that Steinbeck was using the chapters that didn’t refer to the Joads as a way to demonstrate what was going on in the country at the time, but I think their story did a good enough job showing that without all the exposition. He had a whole chapter on a tortoise crossing a road just to indicate how dry things were! Those chapters that weren’t about the Joads made the book drag for me.

~ The hopelessness. This book went from bleak to bleaker, from dark and depressing to even more dark and depressing, without a ray of hope! I felt completely mired in hopelessness when I closed the last page.

~ The ending. Or should I say the “non-ending?” He left things in a very weird place, and I guess we are left to assume that things only get worse for the Joads until they all die of starvation. What was your take on that strange ending?

If you write your own post on The Grapes of Wrath, please add the link to the Mr. Linky. If not, please chime in on the discussion in the comments section.

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I am in the middle of some really, really good books right now. In print, I started May’s “I’ve Always Meant to Read That Book” Challenge selection, and I am pleased to say that I am LOVING it. Angle of Repose is a beautifully written, complex family saga that spans generations. Wallace Stegner’s writing reminds me of Wendell Berry, though I supposed with their respective ages, it is actually the other way around. (Speaking of the challenge read-alongs, I need to write up my post for The Grapes of Wrath, which I liked a whole lot less.)

I’m also reading London Falling by Paul Cornell. Apparently, he is a writer on Dr. Who, and even though I’ve never actually watched that show, I’m sure I would love it, so I agreed to be on his tour. I’m not sorry. London Falling is a dark urban fantasy slash cop thriller, and it’s totally engrossing.

My third print selection is A Dublin Student Doctor by Patrick Taylor. It is a prequel of sorts to his Irish Country Doctor series, and it is highly enjoyable. I’m especially fascinated to read all the details of medicine and surgery in the 1920s.

I just started my fourth print selection: A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash, but I am pretty sure from the reviews I’ve read that I’m going to love it.

The book I’m currently enjoying the most, though, is the one I’m listening to on audio: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. Sandy was right – this book is freaking amazing!

What are you reading on this last Sunday of April?

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2013. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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