The Bookaholic

I’ve gone and registered another batch of books at Bookcrossing today, and will release them either later tonight or sometime tomorrow. No pictures because there are just too many of them, but I’ve included the Amazon Associate links. Delightfully, they all actually had links on Amazon, unlike some of the seriously ancient books I’ve been known to register and release.

I’d recommend them all with varying degrees of enthusiasm, with the exception of Secret Honor by W.E.B. Griffin. That was painfully difficult to get through. The two books on parenting teens weren’t especially helpful for me, but they might be for someone else.

All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists by Terry Gross

And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer by Ann Rule

Basketball for Dummies by Richard “Digger” Phelps with John Walters and Tim Bourret

Blow the House Down by Robert Baer

Cat Vs. Cat: Keeping Peace When You Have More Than One Cat by Pam Johnson-Bennett

Cleopatra 7.2 by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Fog Facts : Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin (Nation Books) by Larry Beinhart

Following Foo: (the electronic adventures of The Chestnut Man) by B. D. Wong

Fugitive from the Cubicle Police by Scott Adams

The Funny Thing Is… by Ellen Degeneres

Going Postal: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett

Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About by Kevin Trudeau

No Remorse by Bob Stewart

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz

Parenting Your Out-of-Control Teenager: 7 Steps to Reestablish Authority and Reclaim Love by Scott P. Sells, PhD

The Rose of the World (Fool’s Gold, Book 3) by Jude Fisher

Secret Honor (Honor Bound) by W. E. B. Griffin

The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss by Arthur Agatston, MD

Stop Negotiating With Your Teen: Strategies for Parenting Your Angry, Manipulative, Moody, or Depressed Adolescent by Janet Sasson Edgette, PsyD, MPH

The Truth (with jokes) by Al Franken

An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Gad Beck

The Waterfall Diet: Lose up to 14 Pounds in 7 Days by Controlling Fluid Retention by Linda Lazarides

What Color Is Your Personality?: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green… by Carol Ritberger, PhD

When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? by George Carlin

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Wow, what a ride! This takes place before Baldacci’s other book, Hour Game, and tells the tale of how Sean and Michelle meet. And Baldacci’s habit of calling male characters by their last name and female characters by their first name still annoys the heck out of me. However, it’s not going to keep me from reading his books… because they’re damn good!

Amazon Associate link:
Split Second
 
 
 

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Dang, I just love long weekends. I get a lot of reading done. (And, for the record, I even got a few chores done this weekend.)

Again, we’ve got a great mystery here. But I did have a few problems with it. One, way too much gratuitous sex. I’ve got nothing again sex, but it hardly ever advances the plot. And it Woods’ case, it kind of gets in the way. The second problem is that the lovely, sexy woman with whom Stone (our hero) has sex suddenly turns into a crazy shrew. Again, not necessary nor does it do much for the plot (besides annoy me).

Other that that, however, it was a pretty good read… though this isn’t Woods’ best.

Amazon Associate link:
Two Dollar Bill

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It somehow seems appropriate after reading a couple of Bishop Blackie books to move next to a murder mystery that contemplates the nature of good and evil. The premise is that there is an ancient evil, described in texts that predate the Christian era, and continues to prey upon humanity to this day.

Detective Jane Rizzoli, however, is a skeptic. Oh, the fact that evil exists is a given. She is, after all, a member of the Boston police department. But that this evil is the descendant of the union between angels and humans? She’s not buying it.

The members of the Mephisto Club, however, are buying it. They’re a group that’s taken the task upon themselves to fight said evil. You might say they’re demon hunters. It’s a great mystery, but personally… as far as demon hunters go, I’m going to stick with the likes of Buffy Summers, Anita Blake and Rachel Morgan.

Amazon Associate link:
The Mephisto Club

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Bishop Ryan is back in Chicago, this time in the west side neighborhood of Austin. My cousins grew up across the city line in Oak Park, not far from there. My grandparents lived for many years just a little north of the neighborhood. And as an added bonus, Greeley even mentioned my old neighborhood, Ravenswood, in passing.

As a murder mystery, it moved along quickly enough to make me not want to put the book down, though it does seem Blackie arrives at his solutions not always through deductive reasoning but a bit of the second sight. But that’s to be expected among the Irish… even if said Irishman is a Catholic bishop.

Amazon Associate link:
The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood

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Like all of Greeley’s books that I’ve read, this one is a quick, easy and delightful read. Rather than being set in Chicago, this one takes place in Paris. This, of course, necessitates a lot of French being spoken. I’m sure French is a delightful language, but I really dislike trying to read it because I can’t hear it in my head. I’m sure that’s because I opted to take Spanish and German in school.

As a “recovering Catholic,” one of the most astounding things about Greeley’s books is that Father Blackie’s brand of Catholicism makes me want to take some classes on the subject. And now that I’m working for a Catholic college, it’s quite likely that I will.

Amazon Associate link:
The Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St. Germain

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Ah, the 1950s. In a small midwestern town in Iowa. Hmmm.

The music was good back then, wasn’t it?

Sam McCain’s on the trail of killers yet again. If I lived in a town that small with that many getting killed, I’d move to Chicago. But Gorman tells a great story, and you do tend to get caught up in the bustle of the town.

And like everyone in Black River Falls, I gotta wonder why the doofus doesn’t just marry the nice Mary Travers.

Amazon Association link:
Save The Last Dance For Me

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The second horseman of the apocalypse is war. Or, in this case, a guy named Edwin. Seriously.

I’m not sure about this one. Yes, it’s well-written. Yes, the characters are interesting and engaging and, heck, even likable. And it is fiction, so there doesn’t need to be that ring of truth to it. But there’s just something… silly… about it that takes the enjoyment factor down a notch. Maybe it’s just that I can hear fear-mongers seriously saying, “Oh, yes. That could happen.”

Amazon Associate link:
The Second Horseman
 
 

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This is another one by Kyle Mills. He certain has a way with characters! He creates “bad guys” that are incredibly likable. And some of the guys who are supposed to be “the good guys” are actually quite creepy. Off to read the next one, The Second Horseman, before getting to Gorman’s third in the Sam McCain series.

Amazon Associate link:
Fade
 
 
 

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This is the second of Ed Gorman’s books set in a small Iowa town in the late 50s. Both this one and the first in the series, The Day the Music Died, were fun murder mysteries with likable (and at times eccentric) characters. The third in the series, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, is backed up behind the two Kyle Mills books I just received from BooksFree.

Amazon Associate links:
The Day the Music Died
Wake Up Little Susie
 

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