• (1/30) Something to Kill For by Susan Holtzer.
  
  One of the earlier installments in the Anneke Haagen mystery series. This one has Anneke all swept up in the garage-sale-antiques world. When one of the professional dealers she knows is murdered for something valuable she'd found at a sale one morning -- a "Big Score" as the dealers call it -- Anneke finds herself acting as a consultant on the case for the town's new homicide detective, Karl Genesko. Yep, THAT Karl Genesko (Anneke's future husband). There were a surprising number of spelling errors in this book (dutifully corrected in pencil by a previous reader), but despite that (more the fault of the publisher than the author anyway, right?), this was really fun. I was left guessing about both who the murderer was and what the "big score" consisted of until the very end. Love it when that happens!
  [MYSTERY]

  (1/29) Hidden Evidence by David Owen.
  

  Interesting book full of all kinds of information on various forensic techniques used to solve murders over the last 100 or so years. In addition to sections that describe how certain types of evidence is examined (like, fiber evidence, fingerprints, DNA, ballistics, etc.), there are about 40 little vignettes detailing actual crimes and describing the evidence and forensic techniques that ended up putting the criminals away. Lots of pictures, some of them pretty graphic, but many of them very interesting looks at old stuff from crimes that are famous, like a letter from Jack the Ripper and the ransom note from the Lindbergh kidnapping. All in all, a fascinating book, if you're interested in forensics and true crime.
  [NON-FICTION]

  (1/28) Perish Twice by Robert B. Parker.
  

  This is the second in the Sunny Randall series, which is Parker's newest line of PI novels. To me, it's pretty much a Spenser novel with the sexes reversed -- Sunny is very like Spense in many ways, not the least of which is her intelligence, which exposes itself regularly in Spenser-esque witty commentary. And the series is even set in Boston, so the same people pop up from time to time (police chief Frank, king of the pimps Tony Marcus, etc.). I'm eagerly awaiting what ought to be obvious -- a Spenser/Sunny cross-over novel -- but in the meantime, I'm just happy to have another Parker novel to sink my teeth into. This one is about a famous women's lib activist who hires Sunny to protect her from a stalker. But when the woman's secretary is murdered, Sunny starts to investigate rather than simply protect, revealing the fact that the woman not only knew her stalker, but knew him in, shall we say, a very biblical way. What the heck? In the meantime, Sunny's sister is stalking her own husband after he leaves her for another woman, and Sunny's best friend Julie is in the process of leaving HER husband, though she thankfully is stalking nothing. Unless you count the multiple bottles of bourbon she starts going through. This series, like the Spenser one, is just plain fun. I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a nice book to curl up with on a Saturday afternoon.
  [MYSTERY]

  (1/22) Baby ER by Edward Humes.
  

  This is a truly amazing non-fiction book about the doctors, nurses, and babies at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at a Long Beach, CA hospital. It not only goes into great detail about the medical miracles performed in the NICU on a daily basis (babies who ten years ago would've been designated "miscarriages" after their premature births are not saved by some incredible new technologies and procedures), but it also follows the NICU stays of about seven infants -- their ups and downs and what it's all like for their parents. Both heart-breaking and awe-inspiring, the stories will just blow you away. Humes is a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter and his writing here is evidence of the talent that got him the award -- he has an incredible knack for analogies and can describe the technical intricacies as effectively as the emotional ones. Instead of scaring me, as I thought this book likely would (I have both a niece and a nephew on the way), it actually completely reassured me. These doctors, and most especially their nurses, really made me feel like even if the most unimaginably horrible thing were to happen, a baby these days has a real shot at making it. I read this book in gulps -- it reads like a terrific novel. A fascinating book on many levels. Highly, highly recommended!
  [NON-FICTION]

  (1/19) Undone by Michael Kimball.
  

  Pretty good mystery about a man and his gorgeous wife who come up with a scheme to get rich by faking the man's death. They decide the way to do it is to have Bobby fake a heart attack, then have their mortician friend do the burial stuff. Bobby will then be buried during the funeral and as soon as it gets dark, his wife Noel will come dig him out. Only things don't end up going quite as Bobby planned. And, in the meantime, Bobby's best friend Sal is getting kind of roped into the problem as well. At the backbone of the whole thing is a massive series of betrayals that effect each one of them on some level. The mystery is: how they hell are they going to get out of this? It took me a chapter or two to get into this book and I won't say it was "great," but I did enjoy it. If I had to recommend a Kimball mystery, though, I'd say go with "Mouth to Mouth" instead.
  [MYSTERY]

  (1/17) Blackbird by Jennifer Lauer.
  

  Wonderful and incredibly sad memoir about Lauer's childhood. The narrator is herself starting at age 6 and blissfully unaware of the fact her beautiful and loving mother, who has been sick for as long as Jenny can remember, is actually on her death bed. When her mother finally dies, Jenny's life is suddenly a roller coaster of loss, loneliness, and a sorrow so intense it radiates off the page. She is bounced from place to place as her father remarries and then throws himself into work and rarely sees her anymore. Jenny's stepmother is a nasty woman who eventually dumps Jenny off at a commune to fend for herself (at age 11!).

  But even though her life is full of more tragedy and hardship than one person could possibly bear, Jenny's will to live and memory of her mother and father keeps her strong. This book made me cry almost as often as it made Jenny cry, both because of the horrible things this incredibly smart and amazing girl went through, and because her ability to hang in there was one of the most inspiring things I've encountered in a long time.

  The bookflap says Lauer is working on a sequel and I can't wait to read it. I was devastated when this book ended. Jenny is still only 11 and I need to know what happens to her. Does somebody save her from all this? Is she okay?

  Plot and character aside, the writing here is just incredible. Lauer's narrator is both a child and an adult and Lauer's writing, particularly the way she patterns the thought processes inside the young narrater's head, really captures this. I loved this book. Highly HIGHLY recommended!
  [NON-FICTION]

  (1/15) Speaking in Tongues by Jeffrey Deaver.
  

  I'm a big fan of Deaver's "Lincoln Rhyme" novels, about a quadriplegic forensics expert, and I've read some of his other suspense novels and been equally impressed. So, I was excited to see he had a new book out this year. Unfortunately, something happened to Jeffrey Deaver. Suddenly, the guy who was able to torture me with twists and turns and scary situations just totally and completely fell flat. This novel is about a teenager, Megan Collier, who starts seeing a psychologist after she nearly kills herself by getting drunk and climbing a water tower. The shrink seems to really understand her and even flirts with her a little, which makes her feel really great. So, you can imagine her surprise when the next thing she knows, the guy is knocking her out and holding her hostage while he attempts to carry out a wicked revenge plan against the rest of her family. The premise sounds pretty good, right? But the delivery is awful. There are far too many convenient situations, which dulls the suspense. And the characters don't have any depth whatsoever, which is a striking contrast with the characters in Deaver's previous works. Lincoln Rhyme is as real to me as, well, Denzel Washington! But not a single character in this book was drawn realistically. This book was a total disappointment. Skip it and read "The Bone Collector" again instead.
  [MYSTERY]

  (1/11) Shopgirl by Steve Martin.
  

  Some of you might be surprised to find out that Steve Martin is actually a fiction writer in addition to being one of the funniest comedians ever (don't believe me? check out his Boyfriend write-up). But, if you think about it, while Steve is known by many as "the wild and crazy guy," a great many of his comedies are filled with extremely serious and often tender scenes. And Steve's always believable when he does them, too. However, as much as I love Steve Martin and respect him as a writer (contrary to what else you might think, this book wasn't just published because its author is famous -- it stands on its own), I can't say now that "Shopgirl" is a great book. I enjoyed it and I'm even recommending it to you guys, but I thought the writing was pretty weak in places. It's got a third-person narration that, for some reason, seems even more distant from the subjects being written about (i.e. the shopgirl Mirabelle and her sorta boyfriend) than the usual third person narration seems. The style was choppy, which isn't necessarily bad and even worked quite well in a few places, but there were just some turns of phrase or even whole sections that just didn't carry it off well. Instead of having a kind of "quirky" feel (I don't know how else to describe it), it came off as flat instead.

  The story is sad -- Mirabelle is a beautiful clerk at Neiman's who has no real friends and also possesses quite possibly the worst self-esteem ever. When she finally meets a man who seems truly interested in her, she fails to recognize the fact that his interest isn't actually in HER so much as it is in the mystery of women as a whole. What she sees as love, he sees as research, and, consequently, she ends up hurt.

  But despite the flat writing, this book still has a lot of redeeming qualities. The characters have almost a comical lack of purpose, -- she sells ladies' gloves, for example, despite the fact she has a master's degree in art -- and I'm sure that was intentional. It definitely reminds me of a lot of people the shopgirl's age (I'm NOT about to throw out any "generation x" comparisons, though), and, thus, is interesting social commentary at the very least. And Martin occasionally said something that really impressed me. A description here and there, an analogy, an observation. If anything, this is an interesting look at the man behind the funny -- Steve Martin himself. You can't have tragicomedy without tragedy, and you also can't write about what you don't know. Put two and two together and you gotta wonder what Steve's life is truly like on the inside. Anyway, I do recommend this book -- it's short and has enough good parts to make it worth your time. But don't expect it to sound like the Steve Martin you know and love. You'll be very disappointed.
  [FICTION]

  (1/8) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
  

  When I was in high school, everybody I knew was reading "The Great Gatsby" for their English class. I, on the other hand, was in Advanced Placement English, so we were taking on examples of literature that were vastly more complex. Like "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (I loved that class). It wasn't until I hit college that I finally got assigned TGG, and once I got started, I wanted to kick myself for not having the brains to have picked it up sooner. TGG is a portrait of the Jazz Age, full of the time's obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the hope for a new beginning. But, even better, it's a love story between a man whose life is more a cautionary tale about the American Dream than anything else (Gatsby) and the woman he's been enamored with ever since he first laid eyes on her (Daisy). The writing is just incredible and the story itself is one I've never forgotten. I highly recommend this novel, the one I feel is Fitzgerald's best by far, but if you're not into reading, you can sneak out of your obligation by checking out the A&E movie version next weekend. Looks like it might be pretty good and since A&E is also the source of the greatest version of "Pride and Prejudice" ever, not to mention the Horatio Hornblower series, it doesn't seem like much of a gamble.
  [FICTION]

  (1/3) A Fool and His Honey by Charlaine Harris.
  

  Another in the Aurora Teagarden mystery series, which I've read a few of in the last year and really enjoyed. This one, however, seemed kind of off to me. Part of it was because I think I'm starting to get the personalities of my female mystery heroines mixed up (maybe I was expecting Anneke Haagan?). But part also had to do with the writing itself. In this one, Roe's husband's niece drops by with an infant son nobody in the family knew was even on the way. Before Roe and Martin have a chance to find out why the niece (Regina) has come by, they come home from a dinner-date to find Regina's husband dead on the steps outside the garage, the baby underneath the guest bed (alive), and Regina missing. Overall, I enjoyed the novel. It was a good mystery plot and I do like all the regular characters in this series. But Harris really harps heavily (HHH!) on the baby stuff -- Roe is unable to have children and always wanted them and when she gets the opportunity to take care of Regina's infant, she exudes the proper combination of joy and fear. But almost every single time something baby-related comes up (like, the baby is crying and someone suggests getting him a pacifier), Roe thinks to herself, "Oh of course. My friend Lizanne told me about pacifiers." (e.g.). Maybe once it would've been believable, but it started to feel like Harris knows a LOT about babies and was afraid to let Roe know anything at all (for the sake of realism -- she's not a mother, so how would she know about pacifiers?). But, fer cryin' out loud, everybody on the planet knows what a pacifier is and that if a baby is crying, it's probably either hungry or uncomfortable. It felt extremely forced, and was, therefore, very irritating. Don't let this keep you away from it, though. The plot was fun. Semi-recommended -- don't make this your first Aurora Teagarden mystery.
  [MYSTERY]

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