June ~ 2010

61. When I Was Puerto Rican...Esmeralda Santiago

Very interesting memoir. When I have time, I think I will try and read the other two books in the trilogy.

Quote:
Esmeralda Santiago's story begins in rural Puerto Rico, where her childhood was full of both tenderness and domestic strife, tropical sounds and sights as well as poverty. Growing up, she learned the proper way to eat a guava, the sound of tree frogs in the mango groves at night, the taste of the delectable sausage called morcilla, and the formula for ushering a dead baby's soul to heaven. As she enters school we see the clash, both hilarious and fierce, of Puerto Rican and Yankee culture. When her mother, Mami, a force of nature, takes off to New York with her seven, soon to be eleven children, Esmeralda, the oldest, must learn new rules, a new language, and eventually take on a new identity. In this first volume of her much-praised, bestselling trilogy, Santiago brilliantly recreates the idyllic landscape and tumultuous family life of her earliest years and her tremendous journey from the barrio to Brooklyn, from translating for her mother at the welfare office to high honors at Harvard.


62. Upstairs Girls: Prostitution in the American West...Michael Rutter

This was a great book. The author told a little about the history of prostitution in the West and then added a few profiles on famous prostitutes like Big Nose Kate, Madame Ah Toy, and Mary Ellen Pleasant. Although the writing was a bit cliched at times, all-in-all it was an interesting introductory book. I would love to find a book that goes into more detail.

Quote:
Prostitutes make up one of the most engaging chapters in the story of the American West. Upstairs Girls opens a window on the lives of these women for hire - why they turned to prostitution, who they worked for, and what their lives were like.


63. Bullet...Laurell K.Hamilton

I can't copy a summary from my iPhone, but this is the newest Anita Blake book. It was good. Still more sex and no mystery, but I feel like we are finally leading up to something. Without putting out a spoiler, let's just say I was really happy with Richard and Asher in this one.

Now just to wait over a year for the next one (or more...I read that she might go to only writing one book a year!)


64. Eaters of the Dead...Michael Crichton

As always, a good book from Michael Crichton. I forgot how much I like his books.

Quote:
The year is A.D. 922. A refined Arab courtier, representative of the powerful Caliph of Baghdad, encounters a party of Viking warriors who are journeying to the barbaric North. He is appalled by their Viking customs—the wanton sexuality of their pale, angular women, their disregard for cleanliness . . . their cold-blooded human sacrifices. But it is not until they reach the depths of the Northland that the courtier learns the horrifying and inescapable truth: He has been enlisted by these savage, inscrutable warriors to help combat a terror that plagues them—a monstrosity that emerges under cover of night to slaughter the Vikings and devour their flesh.


65. Dead Wrong...Mariah Stewart

This was also a good one. There was much more going on than what this summary says. I've already downloaded the next three books in this series and can't wait to find out what happens next.

Quote:
It was inescapably chilling, as if the murderer was methodically working his way down a page torn from the phone book. The three victims brutally killed in their own homes had one thing in common: they were all listed as M. Douglas. The fact that Mara Douglas is next on the list has her jumping at shadows, until FBI agent Aidan Shields shows up to make sure she doesn’t become the fourth victim.

The summaries don't say it, but the first three books (Dead Wrong, Dead Certain, and Dead Even) are really about three criminals who play a game by telling each other three people they would want to die and then they would switch lists. It was supposed to be just talk until one of them decides to make the game real. The last book (Dead End) doesn't have anything to do with that, but it has the same characters and wraps up a couple of loose ends from the other books.


66. Dead Certain...Mariah Stewart

Quote:
With her stalker captured, antiques dealer Amanda Crosby can finally sleep at night. Having worked hard to put the nightmare behind her, Amanda has vowed to never be a victim again. But when her business partner, Derek England, is found with a bullet through the back of his head just hours after she left an incriminating message on his voice mail, Amanda finds herself in danger of becoming a victim of another sort.

All the evidence points to Amanda as Derek’s killer, and Chief of Police Sean Mercer is building the case against her. But when another of her colleagues is found brutally murdered, it’s obvious that someone other than Amanda is behind the killings. Suddenly Amanda is a target once again, as a diabolical killer circles ever closer—and the only thing that stands between her and becoming the third and final victim is the man who had tried to put her behind bars.


67. Dead Even...Mariah Stewart

Quote:
FBI Special Agent Miranda Cahill has always played by the rules: always maintain a respectful professionalism, and never mix business with pleasure. Except when it comes to fellow agent Will Fletcher. Their on-again, off-again relationship has left painful scars even he has never seen.
Now, a series of murders has the two agents racing to outwit a killer before he can strike again. Miranda and Will know that lives depend on identifying intended victims and tracking them down before the killer does. But as they begin to unravel this homicidal agenda, it becomes clear that Miranda may be the last and final target in a twisted game. With the clock ticking, time is running out on a killer who is determined to cross Miranda’s name off his hit list . . . permanently.


68. Dead End...Mariah Stewart

Quote:
Avon County, Pennsylvania, detective Evan Crosby is called in to investigate when several schoolgirls from well-to-do families are found murdered in the same manner. Then other girls are found dead, seemingly killed in the same way, but the new victims are Hispanic and unidentified. With the help of his girlfriend, FBI profiler Annie McCall, Crosby determines there are two killers and elects to concentrate on the case of the unclaimed girls. Crosby's romantic relationship with Annie is complicated by memories of her fiance, FBI agent Dylan Shields, who died during an FBI operation--his death unsolved. Evan, hoping to provide closure for Annie by reinvestigating Dylan's killing, makes discoveries that bear on the current cases. Evan and Annie make sympathetic leads, and Stewart effectively frames the fast-paced story with details of police investigation and profiling techniques.


69. Birthmarked...Caragh O'Brien

I really hope she writes a sequel. I can't wait to see what happens next! Great book!

Quote:
In a dystopian world of the future, apprentice midwife Gaia, who has served the Enclave faithfully along with her parents, is thrust suddenly into a crisis. She delivers her first baby independently of her midwife mother and takes it to the Enclave inside the Wall as the first of her monthly quota of three newborns. Then her parents are arrested and she learns that they will soon be executed. Gaia springs into action and smuggles herself into the Enclave to rescue them. What follows is an exciting, almost breakneck adventure, as Gaia tries to discover what information the Enclave wants from her and her mother and tries to save both of them from prison. Along the way there is a mildly romantic turn to the story as Gaia develops a friendship and attraction to one of the soldiers, a man with a mysterious past. This world is one in which a small society, composed of an elite inside the Wall and a subservient class outside, is completely cut off from knowledge of anyone or anything outside of its borders. The rulers are authoritarian and mysterious and resemble a monarchy rather than the strictly ideological communitarian system in Lois Lowry's The Giver (Houghton, 1993). The cliff-hanger ending sets up the action for a sequel.


70. Dead Until Dark
71. Living Dead in Dallas
72. Club Dead
73. Dead to the World
74. Dead as a Doornail
75. Definitely Dead
76. All Together Dead
77. From Dead to Worse...All by Charlaine Harris
78. Dead in the Family...Charlaine Harris
79. Touch of Dead...Charlaine Harris

I thought I'd finally check out the Sookie Stackhouse books. Cute, but I like Laurell K. Hamilton's earlier works better.