What are you reading?

[Jestak]

I'm currently reading The Hot Rock, by Donald Westlake. Westlake was one of the busiest authors of the last century, publishing over 100 books in a career of nearly 50 years. This is his first book featuring a career thief named John Dortmunder, and tells of his lengthy efforts to get his hands on a valuable emerald (the "rock" of the title). I watched a movie adaptation of this book a few weeks ago; the book is quite good and the movie version was pretty faithful to the source. I'll be checking out more of Westlake's books.

[BlueStarEgo]

I've finished reading Succubus Dreams and Succubus Heat which is number 3 and 4 in the Georgina Kincaid series by Richelle Mead. I've started number 5: Succubus Shadows.

I've finished reading Thorn Queen and Iron Crowned both also by Richelle Mead. It's number 2 and 3 in her Dark Swan series. I can't wait until the 4th book is released. I believe it's be released in 2012.

I've also begun reading Burned; number 7 in The House of Night series by PC & Kristen Cast.

[Jestak]

Current reading:

1) Boundary Waters, by William Kent Krueger. This is the second in Krueger's rural Minnesota series about Cork O'Connor. In this one, Cork is asked to help find a country music star who has disappeared in the wilderness area known as the Boundary Waters. But he soon finds that there are layers and layers of deception and scheming surrounding the missing woman, and he has a hard time knowing who he can trust. This one started just a bit slowly but has picked up nicely.

2) Egypt on the Brink, by Tarek Osman. This is an excellent book on modern Egypt--from Nasser's time down to the present--by an Egyptian journalist. It came out last year; given the upheaval of the past few months in Egypt, the title has proven to be serendipitous.

[The Real Alice Cullen]

Hi again!

I’m just popping in to remind you all that tomorrow is the BIG BIRTHDAY BASH! Please come and celebrate Edward’s 110th Birthday with us!

We are all SO excited to share our gifts with Edward and see what you’ve come up with!

You can come on and post your birthday wishes on one thread, and your gifts on another.

Remember, this year, you can post your gifts as images (make sure you link to the image, not the whole site) that will show up in the thread!

Also, you can post birthday cards / banners for Edward. Isn’t that wonderful!

If you want to post a picture of a gift, you need to do the following:
1. Make sure the image is smaller than 640 by 480
2. Post the link INSIDE the img coding you get when you push the img button. It should look like this [img]THELINKHERE[/img]. Again, link to the image only.
3. You need to preview your post first, to make sure it works right.
4. If the image is too big, just post the direct link for others to open.

To post your banner or card:
1. Just make your card / banner and make sure it is smaller than 640 across by 480 tall
2. Post it to an image hosting site (like DeviantArt or Photoshop) and then get the IMG link.
3. Paste the IMG link directly into your post, and voila! One super special birthday gift!

AND to make it a little more fun, Esme and I are judging your entries, so do your best!

[pennybug84]

Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want. - Obert Skye

[Jestak]

I've just finished Broken, by Karin Slaughter, which continues with the merger of her Grant County and GBI series. Dr. Sara Linton returns to her rural home in Grant County, and no sooner than she arrives than she is pulled into the investigations of two suspicious deaths. As the second death was a criminal suspect who committed suicide in police custody, Will Trent of the GBI is soon on the scene to look into matters. In addition to another of Slaughter's complex but believable plots, we get an escalation of the unresolved sexual tension between Will and Sara that began in the previous novel, Undone. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

[Jestak]

Yesterday I finished The Surgeon, by Tess Gerritsen. These days, this book is being packaged with pictures of TV's "Rizzoli and Isles" on the cover, but while it's the debut novel for Jane Rizzoli, Maura Isles isn't in this book. Gerritsen, an MD, has pitched her tent in the "medical thriller" area of mystery/thriller territory. This one is a pretty good yarn--a conventional, creepy-serial-killer story, but well-executed.

Now I've moved on to Lisa Gardner's The Neighbor. This is a sort-of sequel to her Hide and Alone, but Boston PD detective D.D. Warren has become the central character. As I've noted before, Gardner's thrillers often focus on families with darkness in their pasts, and once again that's what she gives the reader here. A young Boston family is put through the wringer when the husband comes home to find his wife apparently abducted, and his 4-year-old daughter becoming distraught. So far, there have been hints of both cyber-crimes and sexual abuse, and this is only about one-quarter of the way in. Gardner is becoming one of my favorites.

[funkidiva]

Angel by L. A. Weatherly. It would seem that this is the first in a possible trilogy or series and has only recently been released in the UK. It is a good story about angels and the fact that not all angels are good. There is an assasin called Alex who has to destroy these bad angels, that is until he meets Willow who is a half-angel and he cannot kill her as he falls in love with her. Very romantic at times and also some serious notes to it and action too. Good all-rounder and will look forward to the second installment out later this year.

[Jestak]

Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child, is yet another in the durable Jack Reacher series. Reacher wanders into a pair of small towns on the High Plains of Colorado. In Hope, people are reasonably friendly, but in nearby Despair they really don't like strangers. When they run Reacher out of town on a dubious vagrancy charge, they soon learn what a bad mistake they've made, as Reacher decides to hang around and get to the bottom of things. Naturally, there's a pretty sinister bottom to be gotten to. Child has done a nice job keeping the quality high in this series.

[pennybug84]

Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra - Obert Skye