Hit 'n' Run Book Reviews

Thanks for the well-wishes, y'all. I'm feeling much more gruntled today, even if I never DID manage to get a B4B entry done. Speaking of books, as I was listing some titles in my "Books I've Read" notebook and putting them on the shelves yesterday afternoon (I'm being Sooooo good about that since my Book Purge of '06...really!), it occurred to me that it's been a while since I've told y'all what I'm reading and how I liked them. So here's a quick run down (in reverse order) of the last half-dozen books I've read, for those who are interested: Master of Wolves (Angela Knight) - Good of the type, the type being romantic suspense with a paranormal twist. It has some extremely explicit sex scenes - you can take that as a recommendation or a warning, according to your personal preferences. [grin] I give it a B, verging on B+. Tomb of the Golden Bird (Elizabeth Peters) - Disappointing. I adore Eliz. Peters and the Amelia Peabody mysteries (of which this is one), but I found this one slow going and muddled and could never quite figure out why I should even care about the mystery aspect, such as it was. I kind of wish Ms. Peters would either wind up the Amelia stories and move on to something else, or jump ahead to the next generation of the family. Best I can figure the math (and anyone who knows me well knows how scary THAT phrase is!), Nefret's and Ramses' twins should be in their early- to mid-twenties at about the time of WWII and I could see some interesting story possibilities there. But for this story, I give it a rather sad D+ and that's being generous. All Night Long (Jayne Ann Krentz) - Pretty good, although one thing the heroine did toward the end verged on TSTL*, in my opinion. I always find that irritating. And for some reason during several parts of this story, I kept feeling like I was reading a Mary Higgins Clark book. Weird. But not bad for a romantic suspense story (non-paranormal type this time). B-. Grave Sight(Charlaine Harris) - The start of a new series by the same author who writes the Sookie Stackhouse books. This one features a heroine with a paranormal gift of sorts, but rather than a world full of paranormal stuff (like the Sookie stories), this takes place in a "normal" world and the heroine's odd gift (she can sense the location of dead bodies and then can "see" what happened in the last few seconds of the person's life) is the legacy of surviving a lightning strike when she was younger. It seemed to me to be a bit darker than the Sookie stories. I liked it and will want to read the next one in the series. B+. The Rock Orchard (Paula Wall) - General Southern fiction. I loved it! I'm not sure how I'd describe the story...a bunch of people learning about themselves and each other, perhaps. But it sucked me in and never let go. Probably my favorite book I've read so far this year. A! Something Rising [Light and Swift] (Haven Kimmel) - General fiction. I honestly don't know what to say about this one. I found it very uneven - parts of it I loved and thought were lyrical and magical. Parts of it I found so draggy that I had trouble sticking with it. I've put it on my keeper shelf for now because I want to try again after a little time has passed and see what my reaction is to a re-read. For now I give it a C-, but that is subject to change. *TSTL = Too Stupid To Live (for those who may not have run across that particular acronym before) Also, although this has nothing to do with books, I just have to mention that I watched the first half of "The Ten Commandments" (new version, not the Heston thing) on ABC last night and what the hell is UP with the way Dougray Scott (aka Moses) stands and walks?? Sheesh! He moves like an 80-year old man with severe hemorrhoids. I kept wanting to tell him to Stand up Straight! And Get your hair out of your eyes! And smile...Smile! You could be a nice-looking man if you'd stand up straight and smile. So, um...when the hell did I turn into my grandmother?? Here's another pear tree pic: "Pear Blossom 2"