Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-Ins #60

Tara

This is my first time doing this, but it looks like fun!!!

1. Exploring is the best thing about traveling.
2. I love a good cup of hot chocolate when I’m cold.
3. I often use ink pens when balancing my check book, even though I know I shouldn’t.
4. I’m reading From a Buick 8 right now; I am not too sure I’m going to like it.
5. Politics is something I dislike talking about.
6. When I visited Paris I most looked forward to seeing the Eiffel Tower.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to watching House with Nathan, tomorrow my plans include going to the SIU-Nevada game and Sunday, I want to skip David’s birthday dinner!
Booking Through Thursday

BTT – Format

Tara

All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why?
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This is a really good question. I had my answer all typed up once and then realized that I was contradicting myself! So I’m going to try this one more time. I was going to say that I would prefer hardcover books. However, as I was typing it out and explaining the reasoning behind my answer, I realized that I was really leaning more towards paperbacks. So I’m in a quandary here. I want to answer hardcover and paperback both! So there’s my answer: I would have both. I couldn’t choose between one or the other. Each has it’s advantages in my opinion. On the side of the paperback, they’re smaller, lighter and easier to carry around. But to defend the hardcover, I feel that they open better for me and lay in a more comfortable way (at least for me they seem to). I always struggle with brand new paperbacks; I can never get them to open far enough and have yet to manage to break the spine without tearing all the pages out! However I can also put one in my purse and read during my free time throughout the day (not really an option with a hardcover unless I was carrying around one of those gigantic purses that seem to be in style nowadays).

So I’ve probably ruined the whole point of this question, choosing one over the other. But in my perfect library, I would have both. However, I must add that I would want to have all of the books that I wanted for my personal collection (those that I would be keeping forever) in hardcover whereas the books that came and went through my shelves would be paperbacks.

5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, I, Read in 2008

Blood Memory by Greg Iles

Tara
Blood Memory
by Greg Iles
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 764
Rating: 5/5
Read: Feb. 17-21, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – 500+ pages category

First Line: When does murder begin?

Forensic expert Cat Ferry is suspended from an FBI taskforce when she begins experiencing panic attacks at the crime scenes of a string of brutal murders in New Orleans. Digging into her psyche for answers as to why she is having problems leads her back to her hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. There she is confronted with bloody footprints in her childhood bedroom. This discovery only brings back the memories of her father’s unsolved murder when she was eight years old. She wants to find out what memories she has suppressed over the years, but what she finds out in the end might damage her even more.
Oh my gosh … I absolutely *LOVE* Greg Iles! This was another great book! This was such a fast paced book that I could barely tell that it was so big. The story line was great and tragic at the same time. Like most of his other books, this one definitely has adult content. But seriously, for those of you out there reading this who have *not* read any of his books, just try one, they’re great!
5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, Read in 2008, S

See Jane Die by Erica Spindler

Tara
See Jane Die
by Erica Spindler

Copyright: 2005
Pages: 474
Rating: 5/5
Read: Feb. 14-15, 2008
Challenge: Celebrate the Author; Triple Eight Challenge – From my TBR Shelf Category; What’s in a Name (First Name category)

First Line: Heart thundering with exertion, fifteen-year-old Jane Killian treaded water.

Jane Killian was nearly killed as a teenager. After years of numerous reconstructive surgeries, she is finally at a place in her life where she has everything to live for. She has a great husband, a budding career as an artist, and is in the early weeks of pregnancy. All of that is shattered, though, when her husband Ian is arrested for murder. Shortly thereafter, she begins to receive threatening notes that indicates that the man that tried to kill her as a teenager has found her to finish the job. She sets out to find out the truth, with the help of her sister, Dallas Police Detective Stacy Killian. However, when they learn the truth, it will rock both of their lives.

This book was amazing! I am never disappointed by Erica Spindler. It never fails, you think you’ve got it figured out and, BAM! she hits you with a curveball out of left field! I absolutely love it! I definitely recommend this book to anyone!

Booking Through Thursday

BTT – After the Honeymoon

Tara

Here’s something for Valentine’s Day:
Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?
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I am slowly falling out of love with Stephen King. When I was in high school, I read a ton of his earlier works. Carrie, Firestarter, It, Insomnia, Rose Madder, Desperation, Misery, Pet Sematary, The Shining, the list goes on and on of what I read in high school. I just absolutely loved all of his books and read them like crazy! I could hardly wait to get my hands on the next one I could find. That being said, last year I read Lisey’s Story. I hated it. Plain and simple. Could not stand it. And all I could think of the whole time was … could he possibly get any stranger? And what’s so ironic about that question is that that is what really drew me to him in the first place. I liked his books because they were so unlike anything else I ever read. But with Lisey’s Story I just have no explanation with what happened. I still am not sure what the point of that book was supposed to be. It was just terrible for me. I would like to say that I am looking forward to his latest, Duma Key. But I’m simply not. I’ve read the blurb on the back of the book the last two times that I was in the bookstore, but I simply cannot make myself pick it up because I don’t want to spend the money on the hardcover version and then end up absolutely hating it. BUT … I’m not quite ready to throw in the towel yet. What I’m probably going to do is go back and read some of his older ones again, the ones that I loved so much in high school, and see if my opinion of those have changed as well. But I’m almost on the brink of giving up on his newer books.
4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, Read in 2008, U-V-W

White Crosses by Larry Watson

Tara
White Crosses
by Larry Watson
Copyright: 1997
Pages: 371
Rating: 4/5
Read: Feb. 12-14, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: When Sheriff Jack Nevelsen got the call from the dispatcher about the accident out on Highway 284 — single car, two fatalities — his first thought was, kids.

Sheriff Jack Nevelson is called out on a fatal accident. However, what he finds is that the two in the car had no business being together at all. He finds Leo Bauer, the principal of the elementary school and June Moss, a recent high school graduate. What were these two doing heading out of town together? Nevelson has to make a decision … does he try and figure out what was going on with these two, or does he try and save Leo’s reputation by concocting a story that seems to adequately explain what these two were doing together?
I loved this book! I picked it up and could barely put it down. I felt that the choices that the Sheriff made were wrong, but I still understood what he was doing at the same time. Sometimes I felt like the author took a few liberties in regards to the language and writing style – he could have made it more readable in places, but overall it was well written. I highly recommend this book!!
5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, Read in 2008, S

Accident by Danielle Steel

Tara
Accident
by Danielle Steel
Copyright: 1994
Pages: 439
Rating: 5/5
Read: Feb. 8-11, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read
First Line: It was one of those perfect, deliciously warm Saturday afternoons in April, when the air on your cheek feels like silk, and you want to stay outdoors forever.

Page Clarke’s life is seemingly perfect. She has a loving husband, a beautiful 15-year-old daughter, and a great seven-year-old son. However, one little white lie from their daughter Allyson will cause their lives to come crashing down around them. She tells her mother she’s going out with her best friend Chloe and her father. Instead, they both lie to their parents and meet up to go on a secret date with some older boys from school. Their date seems to go perfectly, with everybody getting along great. However, halfway home, their young lives are shattered by a head-on collision. What Page faces at the hospital is frightening, Allyson may never recover. And to make matters worse, her marriage begins to fall apart at the same time. It’s all Page can do to keep her sanity when her family needs her the most.
I loved this book! It was such a great read! It really surprised me that I enjoyed this book. I have always been so adament about hating romance books and yet I thoroughly enjoyed this one a lot! I’m glad I picked this one up, it’s definitely a good read!
3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, H, Read in 2008, SERIES

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

Tara
Hannibal Rising
by Thomas Harris
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 368
Rating: 3/5
Read: Feb. 7-8, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – From my TBR Shelf Category

First Line: The door to Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s memory palace is in the darkness at the center of his mind and it has a latch that can be found by touch alone.

In the fourth installment of the Hannibal Lecter series, we learn about where Dr. Lecter’s evil comes from. We learn about the mysterious sister Mischa’s demise as well as various transgressions of his youth. Harris really strives to provide insight about what caused Dr. Lecter to become the man that we know him as – a monster.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I had myself pumped up for a lot more than what I got out of this book. We learn about what happened to Hannibal and his family in his early years. And the book continues to chronicle his downward spiral until his eighteenth year. Then there was nothing else. It would definitely be interesting to see if Harris writes a fifth book telling about what happened between the time he was eighteen and the time he
4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Fiction, Read in 2008

Class Reunions are Murder by Taffy Cannon

Tara
Class Reunions are Murder
by Taffy Cannon

Copyright: 1996
Pages: 290
Rating: 4/5
Read: Feb. 6-7, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: There were probably, Nan thought as she walked into the Spring Hill Inn, a thousand more odious ways to spend an August Saturday night.

L.A. Attorney Nan Robinson returns to her hometown of Spring Hill, Illinois for her twentieth high school reunion. She is surprised to see the Class Tramp Brenda Blaine waltz in. Although she is surprised by Brenda even showing up, she is completely unprepared when Brenda is murdered just outside the reunion. Instincts set in and Nan can’t help but want to solve the murder herself. What she finds out will be the surprise of a lifetime and some things that a lot of surprising people want to keep hidden forever.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a quick and easy read. It was a great break from what I consider the heavier books that I’ve been reading lately. I usually don’t like books like this, but sometimes it’s nice to have a little change in pace. Besides, I thouroughly found myself enjoying this one. And I was very shocked with the ending! Very good book!!

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday

Tara

Okay, even I can’t read ALL the time, so I’m guessing that you folks might voluntarily shut the covers from time to time as well… What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

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This is my first week doing the BTT! Here goes nothing: Other than reading, what do I do to pass my time? Hmm …

  1. I spend a lot (way too much, in fact) of time on the internet messing around with my blog here as well as on paperbackswap.
  2. I also belong to numerous Yahoo groups and get thousands of recipes in my email, so I love to go through those and see what new ones I can try.
  3. I also enjoy cooking. I like to experiment on my husband! Trust me, he appreciates it! Haha!
  4. Watching TV and movies. The only reality show I can stomach is American Idol. I generally prefer dramas over comedies.
  5. Spending some time with my husband. Between our work schedules time together is treasured. Unfortunately it’s not going to be getting any better, as he’s going to start a new job next week and will be commuting an hour each way until we can get moved and settled. And then I’ll be the one commuting an hour each way because I’m not leaving my job. So we really don’t see much of each other through the week, and any time we get together is very important to us.
  6. I like to organize my books. I know it sounds weird, but I like to alphabatize them every once in a while. I like to make lists; I am totally a Type A personality!
  7. I also like to play video games occasionally. I love my Wii! I also like to play Guitar Hero. I don’t play very often, though. I get sick of it really easily.
  8. And finally, I love to do word puzzles. I like to buy those big huge Puzzler’s Giant Books put out by PennyPress. Sometimes I even order backorders from them when I see a good deal!