March ~ 2010

29. Lover Revealed...JR Ward
30. Lover Enshrined...JR Ward
31. Lover Unbound...JR Ward
32. Lover Avenged...JR Ward
33. Father Mine...JR Ward

Finished up the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It was fairly good. I'll probably keep reading when new ones come out.


34. Diary of a Wimpy Kid...Jeff Kinney

My older son, Turtle, is loving this series and I promised I would read them. It's cute. The kind of dry, sarcastic humor my son likes.

35. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules...Jeff Kinney
36. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw...Jeff Kinney
37. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days...Jeff Kinney

I finished the rest of the series for Turtle. At least now I'll be one up on him when he tries to copy stuff out of the books.


38. The Mummy...Max Allan Collins
39. The Mummy Returns...Max Allan Collins
40. The Scorpion King...Max Allan Collins
41. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor...Max Allan Collins

These books were written based on the screenplays, so they were fairly accurate to the movies. The writing was blah, though. It was like he had to use every cliche in the book. I doubt I will read anymore of his books.


42. Nation...Terry Pratchett

Quote:
Worlds are destroyed and cultures collide when a tsunami hits islands in a vast ocean much like the Pacific. Mau, a boy on his way back home from his initiation period and ready for the ritual that will make him a man, is the only one of his people, the Nation, to survive. Ermintrude, a girl from somewhere like Britain in a time like the 19th century, is on her way to meet her father, the governor of the Mothering Sunday islands. She is the sole survivor of her ship (or so she thinks), which is wrecked on Mau's island. She reinvents herself as Daphne, and uses her wits and practical sense to help the straggling refugees from nearby islands who start arriving. When raiders land on the island, they are led by a mutineer from the wrecked ship, and Mau must use all of his ingenuity to outsmart him. Then, just as readers are settling in to thinking that all will be well in the new world that Daphne and Mau are helping to build, Pratchett turns the story on its head. The main characters are engaging and interesting, and are the perfect medium for the author's sly humor.

I liked this book. I thought it was going to be more sci-fi-like, but it was set in a parallel world that is almost the same as ours.


43. The Lightning Thief...Rick Riordan
44. The Sea of Monsters...Rick Riordan
45. The Titan's Curse...Rick Riordan
46. The Battle of the Labyrinth...Rick Riordan

I can't believe I waited so long to read this series! I'm still waiting to get the last book, but I had to go ahead and read the first four. I can't wait until his new series starts in May.


47. The Compound...S.A. Bodeen

Quote:
Eli, the 15-year-old son of a billionaire techno-preneur, has spent the last six years with his family in the massive underground shelter his father has built, knowing that nuclear war has destroyed the world he knows—and killed his grandmother and his twin brother, who couldn't reach the compound in time. With nine years to go before the air outside will be safe to breathe again, the food supply shows signs of running out, but Eli's father has a solution—provided they jettison all morals and ethics. Repulsed and already suspicious, Eli begins investigating his father's claims, and sets up a family death match against a man who grows increasingly irrational and sinister but no less powerful. As far-fetched as the premise may be, Bodeen keeps Eli's actions true to life and uses clues planted fairly and in plain sight. The audience will feel the pressure closing in on them as they, like the characters, race through hairpin turns in the plot toward a breathless climax.

This was a great YA novel. I kind of figured out the twist before the end, but I still enjoyed it.



48. Altar of Eden...James Rollins

Quote:
Following the fall of Baghdad, two Iraqi boys stumble upon armed men looting the city zoo. The floodgates have been opened for the smuggling of hundreds of exotic birds, mammals, and reptiles to Western nations, but this crime hides a deeper secret. Amid a hail of bullets, a concealed underground weapons lab is ransacked—and something even more horrific is set free.
Seven years later, Louisiana state veterinarian Lorna Polk stumbles upon a fishing trawler shipwrecked on a barrier island. The crew is missing or dead, but the boat holds a frightening cargo: a caged group of exotic animals, clearly part of a black market smuggling ring.
Yet, something is wrong with these beasts, disturbing deformities that make no sense: a parrot with no feathers, a pair of Capuchin monkeys conjoined at the hip, a jaguar cub with the dentition of a saber-toothed tiger. They also all share one uncanny trait—a disturbingly heightened intelligence.
To uncover the truth about the origin of this strange cargo and the terrorist threat it poses, Lorna must team up with a man who shares a dark and bloody past with her and is now an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, Jack Menard.
Together, the two must hunt for a beast that escaped the shipwreck while uncovering a mystery tied to fractal science and genetic engineering, all to expose a horrifying secret that traces back to humankind's earliest roots.
But can Lorna stop what is about to be born upon the altar of Eden before it threatens not only the world but also the very foundation of what it means to be human?

I love James Rollins! He reminds me of Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston in that they write books that have situations in them that just border on reality. Things that are just far enough out there that they might actually happen.