4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Nonfiction, Read in 2008, U-V-W

Mistaken Identity by the Van Ryn & Cerak Families

Tara
Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope
by Don & Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen & Whitney Cerak

Copyright: 2008
Pages: 261
Rating: 4/5
Read: May 11-14, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – Bio/Autobio Category

First Line: Colleen Cerak woke up with a start to the sound of the phone ringing.

April 26, 2006. A date that the community of Taylor University will never forget. Returning from a banquet, a university bus carrying students and staff were hit by a truck. The accident scene was terribly violent and chaotic. Five people died. One survived. Laura Van Ryn’s family couldn’t believe that their little girl survived the terrible accident. Whitney Cerak’s family struggled to cope with the loss of their loved one. As Laura began the grueling healing process, her family was there to witness every moment. For five weeks after the accident she was showing amazing progress and the Van Ryn family thought that they were well on their way to returning to normalcy. Then it happened.
“Okay, Laura, I would like for you to write your name for me, the occupational therapist said. … W-H-I-T-N-E-Y…” (pg. 165-167)
The Van Ryn’s simply could not believe it. Had they been caring for Whitney Cerak for the past five weeks under the impression that it was their precious Laura?! Had the Cerak family actually buried their baby girl thinking it was Whitney?! Slowly, they began to remember strange things that “Laura” had recently been saying. Getting names wrong, not recognizing people. Just little things here and there. But it all made sense: “Laura” was actually Whitney!
Once the dental records did indeed confirm the fact that the girl who survived the horrific accident was actually Whitney Cerak, the Cerak family was contacted with amazing news.

“We have reason to believe that the girl identified as Laura Van Ryn is, in fact, your daughter Whitney Cerak.” (pg. 3)

Colleen Cerak could not believe her ears. Could they really have buried a girl other than Whitney? Could they have buried Laura instead?! No one in the family had the strength to view the body before burial … then Colleen began to think, five weeks!?!? How had five weeks gone by without the truth being obvious?! When the Cerak’s were reunited with their daughter, Whitney, everything was perfect.
But then, the Cerak’s wondered, how are the Van Ryn family coping?! They were the ones who, five weeks ago, felt amazingly blessed that their daughter survived a horrific accident in which she should have died. Now they were feeling the despair and heartbreak that the Cerak family had been experiencing for the past five weeks. And to make it worse, the Van Ryn’s were caring for a girl that they believed to be their daughter when in fact it was a stranger to them. How is something like that even possible?!
This book tells their story. It is heartbreaking. It is uplifting. It is amazing. I enjoyed it. Although I am not particularly religious, I understood that their story had to be told from that aspect since both of the families faith is a huge part of their life as well as this story. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It’s a must read.
4.5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, Read in 2008, S

The Inferno Collection by Jacqueline Seewald

Tara
The Inferno Collection
by Jacqueline Seewald
Copyright: 2007
Pages: 255
Rating: 4.5/5
Read: May 10, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: “May I help you?” Kim Reynolds said the words automatically to the next person who approached the information services desk as she replaced the World Almanac under the ready reference counter.

University reference librarian Kim Reynolds is intrigued when her good friend Lorette Campbell approaches her asking if she’s ever heard of the university having an “Inferno Collection.” But before Kim can figure out the answer to her question, Lorette turns up dead. With the police assuming suicide, Kim sets out to prove them wrong by retracing Lorette’s steps before her death, only to find herself in harm’s way.
Oh my goodness! This book was amazing. I picked it up on a whim at the library today and started it at 2 and didn’t put it down until 6 when I finished it! It was wonderful!! I was practically hooked from the first page. It’s a really great book that I highly recommend. Loved it!!
3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, P, Read in 2008

The Midnight Club by James Patterson

Tara
The Midnight Club
by James Patterson
Copyright: 198
Pages: 349
Rating: 3/5
Read: April 28-May 4, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: The night that John Stefanovitch was shot couldn’t have been colder, or the stars more dazzling in high winter skies.

When NYPD Detective John Stefanovitch is shot and paralyzed one cold night, he thinks his life couldn’t get worse. But it can. That same night, his wife is shot and killed in their apartment. Who is behind this?! A man known as The Grave Dancer, The Midnight Club and what they call “street law.” And Stefanovitch will stop at nothing to catch this crazed psychopath.
I’m going to be honest here …. this has to be the most disappointing James Patterson book that I have read to date. I was completely uninterested in it. I usually read his books in 2 days tops, but this one just kept dragging on. I didn’t like it much at all. I felt it hard to follow and am still unsure as to what really was supposed to be going on in the book. I just wasn’t impressed by this book whatsoever. I wouldn’t recommend this one at all.
Reading Schedule

2008 Reading Schedule

Tara

By May 31

  • Carla Neggers, The Widow(Eponymous)
  • Robin Cook, Marker (Celebrate the Author)

By June 30

  • M.C. Beaton, The Deadly Game (Celebrate the Author)

By July 1

  • Nora Roberts, Blood Brothers (Title Master)
  • James Patterson, Mary Mary (Title Master)
  • M.C. Beaton, The Deadly Dance (Title Master)
  • Kathy Reichs, Deadly Decisions (Title Master)

By July 31

  • Michael Connelly, The Black Echo (Celebrate the Author)

By August 31

  • Nelson DeMille, Night Fall (Celebrate the Author; Triple 8)

By September 30

  • Stephen King, The Shining (Celebrate the Author; 1% Well-Read)

By October 31

  • Ann Rule (Celebrate the Author)

By November 30

  • J.F. Freedman, The Disappearance (Initials Challenge)
  • M.C. Beaton, The Deadly Dance (Initials Challenge)
  • J.A. Jance, Name Withheld (Initials Challenge)
  • P.J. Parrish, Thicker than Water (Series Season 2; Initials Challenge; Triple 8)
  • P.J. Parrish, Island of Bones (Series Season 2)
  • J.D. Robb, Glory in Death (Initials Challenge)
  • Alex Kava, The Soul Catcher (Series Season 2)
  • Alex Kava, A Necessary Evil (Series Season 2)
  • P.J. Parrish, A Killing Rain (Series Season 2)
  • P.J. Parrish, Unquiet Grave (Series Season 2)
  • P.J. Parrish, A Thousand Bones (Series Season 2)
  • Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (Celebrate the Author; 1% Well-Read)

By December 31

  • David Lifton, Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (Back to History)
  • Edward Steers, Jr., Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Back to History)
  • Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (Back to History; Triple 8)
  • Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (Back to History; Triple 8)
  • Don & Susie Van Ryn, Newell, Colleen & Whitney Cerak, Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope (Triple 8)
  • Anne Robins, A Perfect Stranger (Historical Fiction) (Back to History)
  • Charles Pellegrino, Her Name, Titanic (Back to History)
  • Eleanor Herman, Sex with the Queen: Nine Hundred Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics (Back to History)
  • John Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger (Back to History)
  • Mary Higgins Clark (Celebrate the Author)
  • Matt Dalton, Presumed Guilty: What the Jury Never Knew About Laci Peterson’s Murder and Why Scott Peterson Should Not Be on Death Row(Triple 8)
  • Anne Bird, Blood Brother: 33 Reasons My Brother Scott Peterson is Guilty(Triple 8)
  • Stephen Singular, Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer (Triple 8)
  • Max Allan Collins, American Gangster (Triple 8)
  • The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Triple 8)
  • Peter Harry Brown & Patte B. Barham, Marilyn: The Last Take (Triple 8)
  • Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story (Triple 8)
  • Michael Connelly, The Black Echo(Triple 8)
  • Jeffery Deaver, The Bone Collector (Triple 8)
  • Stephen King, Four Past Midnight (Triple 8)
  • Greg Iles, Turning Angel (Triple 8)
  • Dean Koontz, Strangers (Triple 8)

By Feb. 28, 2009

  • Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (1% Well-Read)
  • Ian McEwan, Atonement (1% Well-Read)
  • Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace (1% Well-Read)
  • James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia (1% Well-Read)
  • Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1% Well-Read)
  • Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein (1% Well-Read)
Monthly Wrap Up

April 2008 Wrap-Up

Tara
April 2008 Wrap-Up
Here’s my end of the month wrap up:
  1. Sue Grafton, A is for Alibi –> This one was just okay for me; I had a lot of trouble concentrating on this one. I thought that it was hard to get everything in 215 short pages. I will definitely be continuing this series, but overall I think this could have been a better opening novel, 3/5
  2. James Patterson, 3rd Degree –> This book was amazing!! I absolutely loved it! This one is, by far, the best in the series!! I can’t say enough good things about it, 4/5
  3. James Patterson, 4th of July –> This one was not as good as the third one in the series. Perhaps I thought that because I read them back to back when I shouldn’t have. But it was still enjoyable, just not as good as the third one, 4/5
  4. Ann Rule, A Rose for Her Grave & Other True Cases, Crime Files Vol. 1 –> Personally, I prefer her full length true crime books to this. I found it hard to get everything into twenty pages in the shorter cases featured in this book, 3/5
  5. John Connolly, Dark Hollow –> I didn’t care much for this book at all. I found myself struggling to concentrate and not interested in reading this one much at all. It was just okay for me, I could have skipped it and never missed anything, 3/5

Here are some statistics in regards to my reading:

  • Books Read: 5
  • Pages Read: 1,987
  • New Authors: 0
  • Fiction: 4
  • Non-Fiction: 1
  • Read for Challenges: 3

READING CHALLENGES 2008

1% Well-Read Challenge

Tara

1% Well-Read Challenge
Rules:
*Read 10 books in 10 months from the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
*May change your list and may cross-post with other challenges
*Runs May 1, 2008 – February 28, 2009
  1. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
  2. Ian McEwan, Atonement
  3. Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
  4. Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
  5. Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace
  6. James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia
  8. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
  9. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-Ins #69

Tara


1. When I fell in love I knew he was “the one”!
2. It’s wonderful when the flowers bloom and it heats up outside!
3. Oh no! The internet connection is down, I will frantically run around trying to fix it before I realize that I can’t at the moment and will then delve into a book.
4. House is the craziest tv show ever. (But I love it!)
5. Cheese and macaroni make a great meal!
6. I don’t really care about having a garden.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to finishing up all the packing, tomorrow my plans include moving to Paducah and Sunday, I want to relax, but I know I will be back in Herrin cleaning up our apartment to finish moving out!

3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Charlie Parker, Fiction, Read in 2008, SERIES

Dark Hollow by John Connolly

Tara
Dark Hollow
by John Connolly
Copyright: 2000
Pages: 504
Rating: 3/5
Read: April 18-22, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: I dream dark dreams.
Charlie Parker returns to the house his grandfather raised him in. But he cannot escape the feeling that something is not quite right when a good friend of his and her baby are brutally murdered. He sets out to find out who was behind the murder. But he’s still reeling from the murder of his own wife and daughter the year before. His emotions will undoubtedly get the better of him from time to time in the chase for the madman.
I’m going to be honest. I was not really impressed by this book. Maybe it was because I was trying to read it when I was trying to get everything situated for our big move to Kentucky. Whatever the reasoning, I just didn’t care for it. I had trouble concentrating and it took me way too long to finish it. I had read The Killing Kind last year and loved it, but this one was definitely a disappointment for me.
Challenge Wrap-Up

Finished Challenge – What’s in a Name Challenge

Tara

I finished my second challenge! Woo! I just finished the What’s in a Name Challenge hosted by Annie. This one seemed to be difficult for me. I think I changed every single selection that I had made at the beginning of the year. LOL! Oh well. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, though.

As laid out by the rules, the participants were to read 6 books with different words in the titles. Color, Animal, First Name, Place, Weather Event, and Plant were the words that had to be in the titles.

For this challenge I read:

  1. Mary Higgins Clark, Two Little Girls in Blue
  2. Tom Coffey, The Serpent Club
  3. Erica Spindler, See Jane Die
  4. Mark Fuhrman, Murder in Greenwich
  5. Iris Johansen, Firestorm
  6. Ann Rule, A Rose for her Grave

I believe that the Johansen and Rule books are the only ones that were on my original list. The others I exchanged for some reason or another. LOL. Not quite sure why!! Oh well! I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. I was able to overlap three of these books with other challenges.

Favorite: See Jane Die (Spindler)
Least Favorite: The Serpent Club (Coffey)

Overall, great challenge Annie!!

3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Nonfiction, R, Read in 2008

A Rose for Her Grave by Ann Rule

Tara
A Rose for Her Grave and Other True Cases: Ann Rule’s Crime Files: Vol. 1
Ann Rule
Copyright: 1993
Pages: 513
Rating: 3/5
Read: April 13-17, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – True Crime category; What’s in a Name – Plant category

First Line: Janis Miranda was a little bit of a thing.

Ann Rule’s Crime Files opens up with the story of Randy Roth. Roth was a man who courted, married, killed, and collected insurance on the women he victimized. The way that he appealed to women was amazing! And the way that he demeaned strong, independent women was even more shocking. But that story only takes up the first two-thirds of the book. The rest of the book is spent focusing in on four other true crime cases that Rule covered in the Pacific Northwest. Although Rule is my absolute favorite true crime author, I was disappointed by this one. I think that she does a much better job when she is focused on just one case. The four mini-cases really weren’t long enough for her to do them justice. This book was just okay for me. [With this book, I also finish the What’s in a Name Challenge. I will be posting a challenge wrap-up shortly.