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Death of a Stranger
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Death of a Stranger
by Anne Perry
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Archive for June 2011

Tango in the Sun Set

You don’t see as much of Tango, simply because sometimes he’s too quick to be photographed. But he does love to sunbathe and this captures him too well.

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Defend and Betray by Anne Perry, William Monk Series

Defend and Betray by Anne Perry – #3 in the William Monk Series

In an earlier post I told you I would be testing the waters of Anne Perry and her mammoth Victorian Mystery series. Well out of the two series I have to say I think the William Monk series has a bit more depth and bite than the Pitt series. I will say however, that the first half of each one I have read has been a bit dry (the case in both series),  but about halfway through they start heating up, by the time I was 3/4th’s the way through I was to the point where I couldn’t put them down.

So far out of all three I have to vote Defend and Betray as my favorite. The story opens with the murder of General Thaddeus Carlyon, his wife Alexandra quickly admits to the crime but won’t give anyone the real reason for her actions. She awaits trial maintaining her reason was jealousy over a possible affair.  For the time period we are talking about I felt the revealed reason to the crime was pretty shocking and the way it all comes out is definitely nail biting. Also in this book more and more of Monk’s elusive past comes to light which is very exciting. The relationship with he and Hester really haven’t heated up too much by this point but you can see it coming, namely in his reaction to realizing she’s interested in Rathborn a local barrister (our version of a courtroom attorney) that has assisted in each of their mysteries.

I found a dealer on Half.com that has loads of Anne Perry books, so I went ahead and ordered the rest of this series ($36 well spent, love cheap books). So we’ll see how far I get.

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A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Last night my book club met to discuss our latest and greatest, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. And unlike our last meeting, the opinions on this one were mixed. Overall I think even if you don’t love it you will find it interesting. That’s the phrase that kept popping up, it was “interesting”.

We were pretty split on whether we felt it was a true Pulitzer Prize winner, I myself don’t get it. Which is precisely why I don’t pick books based on awards. Rather like some of the movies that get picked for Emmy’s – and I’m thinking wait did you all see the same movie I did because the movie I saw didn’t deserve my $10 much less an industry award (Black Swan).

Anyway, I was a bit conflicted on my feelings on this book as well. Each chapter is a different character, one member created a flow chart to keep up with all the different characters. We were all envious of her chart. I really liked it at first, but about 50 pages from the end I felt my engine stalling. It was just too disconnected for me, some characters were never to be seen again and others popped up so much later in the book that I couldn’t remember who they were or what their back story was or what their future story was since this is the back story.

Occasionally the author would throw in a future glimpse of a character’s life which I really liked, as in “she would later go on to join a cult where they only ate raw eggs“. But she didn’t do this throughout the book, only a few times in the beginning, it was like she forgot she was doing this and left the idea behind.

Overall it was a short read, and an easy read but a bit hard to follow. I’m glad we picked it for book club as it was a fun one to discuss since no one could say they 100% followed each characters story with success. Had you been a fly on the wall you would have heard a lot of “are you sure that was Rob?” “No that wasn’t Drew that was Benny” “That wasn’t Lou’s daughter that was Lulu, I swear” “Wait, I thought her dad died…no he was the movie star, La Doll just told LuLu he was dead”.

Fun Stuff!

Next month we’re reading, The Book Thief which has been on my shelf for over two years. Really looking forward to that one.

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Dear Gym, It’s Not You It’s Me

No really.

And as I wrote my gym today I realized I have been avoiding this for a month, it’s like an awkward break up.

You knew it was coming, I was distant, not spending time with you like I used to. When I got there my heart didn’t seem into it. You heard a rumor I was hiking more often and talking to people about rowing classes, you even heard a rumor I was planning on going back to Spin and Pilates, in fact I’m pretty sure you saw that Pilates instructor’s number in my bag when I saw you last.

Really, you’re great. You shouldn’t let this stop you from being the best gym you can be. It’s just time for me to move on, shake things up in a bit.

So for now I have to say good bye, maybe we can be friends. I won’t say anything bad about you, in fact we can keep all the same friends as we had before, no problem. And hey, it could be worse, I could be leaving you just cause I don’t care anymore about working out!

Good luck to you, I’m off for an after work hike.

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The Birth House by Ami McKay

The Birth House by Ami McKay

I am a member of an awesome book club where we typically always pick great books. I missed a week so I missed the discussion around why this book was picked. I looked it up and read the synopsis and thought, really? Why in the world did they want to read this, it doesn’t sound good at all. The book received rave reviews which made me a bit curious. Needless to say I couldn’t get too excited over it and it failed to make my must read list.

Flash forward a couple of weeks to book club. It was the first time I ever remember ALL 15 women loving a book. And the discussion around it went from hysterical commentary on home remedy birth control and birthing to thought proviking discussions on women’s rights. So I grabbed the book from one of the ladies determined to read it and see what it was all about.

I loved it! Absolutely loved it! It’s about a girl (Dora Rare) who is the only female in a family of 6 boys. She’s training with the local mid wife to be a mid wife herself. Now we’re talking Nova Scotia 1916, and area that wouldn’t receive electricity in homes till the mid 40′s. For the most part this is an old shipping and farming community where at home births are the norm. In comes Dr. Thomas determined to bring modern birthing centers to the area. Quickly lines are drawn and conflict arises. But the bigger story here are the relationships between Dora and Miss B, her teacher, and the community of Nova Scotia. Dora, like most girls, dreams of love, family and happiness. But through the traditional routes she’ll find only disappointment and hurt.

The Birth House is a quick read simply because it’s a story that is easy to follow and a narrative style that is similar to a story teller. It’s highly enjoyable in my opinion and rich in character development.

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