Wild Women's Weekend

Title: Wild Women's Weekend
Author: Lynne Kaufman
ISBN: 0778320545
Publisher: Mira
First Published: June 2004
Pages: 265


Mystery


Four women friends (Ann, Maria, Sabrina and Deb call themselves "The Coven") get together for their annual weekend get away. They head out Ann's beach house which is on the California coast. The women have named the cabin - Nirvana. The first night they decided to kick it up a notch and head over to a local bar - The Last Roundup. They drink and dance the night away. At they bar, they meet a drifter named Hughie and he asks them for a ride. They hesitate at first, but then they think 4-to-1 and they give him a lift.

Instead of dropping him off when they get to the campground, they feel bad that he will be sleeping in the rain and take him back to the beach house. They have more to drink and are having a good time - then their weekend of fun turns bad. The next morning they find their guest dead. The quartet decides to bury the drifter so that they would not have to deal with the police. They paniced.

The women do not talk about that night again...until Ann finds out that they will be doing construction work by mile marker 13 - where they buried the drifter. That's where the story takes off on a wild ride.

1. The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl
2. Danse Macabre - Laurell K. Hamilton
3. The Double Bind - Chris Bohjalian
4. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
5. A Killer Stitch - Maggie Sefton
6. Mistreal's Kiss - Laurell K. Hamilton
7. Rain Village - Carolyon Turgeon
8. Black Moon Rising - Damien Ashton
9. The Demon Awakes - R.A. Salvatore **up next
10. Disobedience - Naomi Alderman
11. Ophelia - Lisa Klein
12. Voodoo Season - Jewell Parker Rhodes
13. Wild Women's Weekend - Lynne Kaufman

Added:
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee **added after list was created

Danse Macabre

Title: Danse Macabre
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
ISBN: 0425207978
Publisher: Penguin Group
First Published: June 2006
Pages: 496

Paranormal


I actually finished this book last weekend, but haven't had time to post about it. So here it is.

The book opens up with Anita's worst fear of being pregnant and in Anita's world there are many men to choose from as to who is the father. Anita is several weeks late, but is her usually way thinks that if she doesn't confirm the possibility it might not be. This pregnancy comes at bad timing, as always. Jean-Claude has invited Masters Vampires from other cities in order to come to some sort of agreement for artistic vampires to travels between cities to do shows without having to worry about "crossing boarders" so to speak. The pregnancy fear is present through most of the book, but that initial idea of traveling artists seems to die at the close of chapter 1. From then on out it's all about other Master offering their people to be Anita's new pomme de sang and people trying to find out just how powerful Jean-Claude and his people are.

Anita's ardeur begins to takes on a life of its own and seems to be seeking out powerful lovers to satisfy it. We also learn that Anita now has a third strange of lycanthropy in her blood. Aside from leopard and wolf, we now find out she has lion and one other unidentifiable strand in her bloodstream. Then she has a very bad incident where she is almost drained dead and Lilly (wererat doc) had to give her blood to survive but wouldn't say which type of blood she gave. I'm predicting that in the next book Anita will be able to call rats as well. Hamilton plants the seed that Anita might just possible be a panwere (able to carry several different strands of lyconthropy).

Anita has another power burst and through it all those connected to her gain powers as well. Asher now has an animal to call. Seems like powers are gained with each new book now, but these powers are never fully developed in the story and just sort of there. It's almost too much power to even be believable if you have followed this series from the first book.

I enjoy this series very much, but I have mixed reviews about this book. This series seems to be heading more toward the erotica and less mystery/horror. The whole series seems to have shifted. I miss the old Anita who use to kick some real ass! We never read anything about her previous life anymore. There are no more cases for her solve. She seems to have been swallowed up into Jean-Claude's world. Everything seems to be about protecting the Master of the City. Hamilton's characters are developing powers so quickly that I don't see how she can keep this series going for much longer. Anita herself is extremely powerful for a human that it seems to be bordering along the line of convenience.

1. The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl
2. Danse Macabre - Laurell K. Hamilton
3. The Double Bind - Chris Bohjalian
4. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
5. A Killer Stitch - Maggie Sefton
6. Mistreal's Kiss - Laurell K. Hamilton
7. Rain Village - Carolyon Turgeon
8. Black Moon Rising - Damien Ashton
9. The Demon Awakes - R.A. Salvatore
10. Disobedience - Naomi Alderman
11. Ophelia - Lisa Klein
12. Voodoo Season - Jewell Parker Rhodes
13. Wild Women's Weekend - Lynne Kaufman **up next

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee **added after list was created

SRC - Update

So, I have joined the Summer Reading Challenge. I think the real challenge will be for me to stick to my books on the list! I have already deviated by picking up Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting, but at least I am reading right? I mean the main goal is to read.

Anyhoo, I have finished three books that were on my original list.

The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl.
I picked up this book because I really liked his first book The Dante Club and because I love Poe. I wasn't as impressed with this book as I was his first. The book is based on my mysteries surrounding Poe's death. The setting of the book was mainly Baltimore, but there was an extended period in France. It's set back in the 1840-1850 as if it took place literally days after Poe passed. It was a bit dry in places. I find it somewhat hard to believe this was the same author at The Dante Club *highly recommend reading if you like mystery*

Black Moon Rising by Damien Ashton.
If you like werewolf books, this is a must read! Terrifying! One of the best modern day horrors comparable to horror classics. The action in the book was intense and the descriptions are amazing. Damien is not an author for the timid, that is for sure!

The story takes place in a quiet little college town in northern California, Sherridan Heights. A string of brutal killings commence and the local PD can't seem to follow the strange clues. They thought they were dealing with a wild animal that went rogue killing. In the midst of all these brutal murders, four college friends go off for a weekend in the woods. These weekend escape quickly turns nightmarish and one of them brings home something dark and vicious growing inside - unbeknown iced to him. And to say anything more would be to give the story away. If you enjoy reading horror, read this book!

Rain Villiage by Carolyon Turgeon.
Finished this book this morning over my latte. I really enjoyed this book. My sister gave it to me as a Christmas gift and it was signed by the author.

A great coming of age tale. Tessa Riley is a tiny 12 year who's unsure of herself due to being mocked by her family and those in her town. Because of her size her family thinks she is useless to help in any way. Her mother is also embarrassed by her size and wants her to hang and stretch herself in the hopes of stretching to a normal size. Tessa feels all alone in the world. Then one day Tessa meets Mary Finn, the town librarian - sexy and alluring. Mary befriends Tessa. Mary teaches Tessa how to read, tells Tessa all about her home, Rain Village, and teaches her how to flying with the trapeze. Tessa soon becomes enthralled with the idea of the circus and that there could possibly something for her outside of her abusive father and bible thumping mother.
Then one day, when Tessa was 16, Mary committed suicide and Tessa felt all alone again. Till the Velasquez Circus comes around and Tessa takes off. Tessa finds acceptance, happiness and love when she joins the Velasquez Circus, but Mary's death leave a hole in her soul. Then one day a mysterious man comes to the circus looking for her and any information that she has on Mary, who turns out is the man's aunt. Tessa finds herself drawn to this man through the connection to Mary and soon they are heading to Ran Village where Tessa hopes to find answers once and for all about Mary, but ends up really finding herself.

1. The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl
2. Danse Macabre - Laurell K. Hamilton **up next
3. The Double Bind - Chris Bohjalian
4. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
5. A Killer Stitch - Maggie Sefton
6. Mistreal's Kiss - Laurell K. Hamilton
7. Rain Village - Carolyon Turgeon
8. Black Moon Rising - Damien Ashton
9. The Demon Awakes - R.A. Salvatore
10. Disobedience - Naomi Alderman
11. Ophelia - Lisa Klein
12. Voodoo Season - Jewell Parker Rhodes
13. Wild Women's Weekend - Lynne Kaufman

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee **newly added and almost finished!

Summer Reading Challenge

I decided to participate in the Summer Reading Challenge. It officially started June 1st and goes through August 1st. This soooooo reminds me of my childhood days of the Summer Reading programs at the public library. Of course back then it was all about reading as many books as you could over the summer. The summer reading program that my state currently does is so different.

Anyhoo, during the school year I am mostly reading children's book or Young Adult Literature, so over the summer is when I try to catch up on all the great adult literature that I have purchased during the year, but never found time to read.

Since I have a slew of books in my personal library *three and a half bookcases filled that is* I perused my shelves this morning and grabbed books that I have been dying to read and ones that caught my eye. Since I am a librarian, I attend several conferences a year and at these conferences are book vendors that freely give out uncorrected proofs of new books as well and fully published books. It really is in their best interest to do this. I mean think about it, a confernece full of librarians (public, private, college and education) are the main audience at these conference. The annual conference for the American Library Association alone had over 26,000 attendies. This group is probably publishers biggest purchasers.

Here is the list I have composed for myself.

The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl **
Danse Macabre - Laurell K. Hamilton
The Double Bind - Chris Bohjalian
Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
A Killer Stitch - Maggie Sefton
Mistreal's Kiss - Laurell K. Hamilton
Rain Villiage - Carolyon Turgeon **
Black Moon Rising - Damien Ashton **
The Demon Awakes - R.A. Salvatore
Disobedience - Naomi Alderman
Ophelia - Lisa Klein
Voodoo Season - Jewell Parker Rhodes
Wild Women's Weekend - Lynne Kaufman

** denotes currently reading

Turns out the folks didn't come in yesterday either. Apparently my father got sick! He had 102 fever with the flu. My sister and I teased him that maybe retirement doesn't agree with him. He should go back to work so that the germs know they can't infest him *laugh* He didn't agree with out line of thinking... go figure! Happy Father's Day Dad! *not like he'll be reading this or anthing* So now they weill be driving down tomorrow to make it in time for my niece's graduation from elementary school. My sister told me last night that she (my niece) wants to go to The Melting Pot for her dinner celebration. YUMMY!