Southern Spirit Hunters
Beyond The Spirits => Hobbies => Topic started by: duh on Jan 28, 2013, 10:58:25 AM
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Thanks Jenn, I appreciate your looking into it for me.
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Thanks, Dianna. I couldn't remember. She's a good writer and I've enjoyed all her works.
Tammy, Silent Girl is a good one by Tess Gerritson, Ice Cold is hit and miss. It is good over all, but has odd parts to it. Body Double is good, and will make slogging through The Surgeon worth it (barely). I did enjoy Body Double. The Bone Garden is probably her best work. That is the one that got me started reading her. The apprentice is ok. A lot of it is borrowed from the Surgeon, but it doesn't have the ick factor of the surgeon. At least I didn't think so. parts of it were good. there are others i haven't read or don't remember.
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along with the surgeon I checked out the apprentice and the sinner. I think I maybe returning them and trying the ones you liked.
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the apprentice was ok. not terrific, but ok. read body double before you read the apprentice, it will make more sense. at least it did to me, i don't know if they are in that order or not though.
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but the bone garden is best.
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Today I came home with an Amanda Quick that I hadn't read yet. I'm determined to get through the Surgeon before I start it otherwise I'll never finish it.
Thanks for the heads up about the order. That different than how they were written so I would have had them out of order for what reads best.
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Are these are murder mysteries? Is the Surgeon just bloody and gruesome or is it the writing?
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yes they are murder mysteries, and the surgeon is sadistic. that's the best word for it. they get the bad guy, but it is very intense while they are getting him.
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I'm going to two book clubs now. In one we just finished The Light Between Oceans - pretty good. And last night I met with the other too discuss The Master Butcher's Signing Club - really good. The best thing about my new club is that we meet at upscale restaurants in Charlotte. I found out that I've forgotten what great tasting food tastes like. Until last night I thought the trout at Cracker Barrel was good.
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sheri, the trout at cracker barrel is good. but upscale restaurants can be good too.
i am almost done with sue grafton's "kinsey and me". i thought it would be more like her other books, but it is actually a collection of short stories and i am enjoying it. in between sections (there are 3) it has brief chapters on how she started writing and how she developed kinsey.
when i finish that, i'm going to try janet evonavich's wicked business.
i also just finished "darkly dreaming dexter" that the tv series is based on. at least i think i read somewhere (before i read the book) that there is a tv series by that name inspired by the book. it is was interesting, and had a unique spin on crime in society.
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I just finished Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio for my fancy book club. One of the women had already read it and LOVED it. Yuck. It reminds me of a romance novel which I do not like at all. I hope the food will be good at the next meeting to make up for this book.
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i'm not a fan of straight romance either sheri. i love julie garwood's mysteries, which have a romance side to them (although they have a couple of graphic sex scenes so if you are offended, don't read her), but i hate her romance books. just can't get into them. go figure!
i did read janet evanovich's wicked business, that was good. and i will find the rest of the books in that series (diesel & lizzy). i'm not so thrilled with her stephanie plum books. they are ok, just not as good as the others.
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graphic sex I like. It's the romance I can't stand.
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then you would like about half of julie garwood's work. she does romances and mysteries. i didn't like the romances. but mysteries are well written, and the sex is incidental, but she's pretty graphic with it. usually only one or two passages though.
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i just finished the fisherman's shoes. it was a good book, although, from what i heard, the movie was better. the book just kind of finished leaving a few things hanging. but i did like the central character.
now i am reading "i'd like to apologize to every teacher i ever had" by tony danza. i definitely recommend it. it is non-fiction, but well written, and i'm over half way through it and just started it this morning. it is a good read.
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i finished "thinking in pictures" by temple gardin. a very good read. it's non-fiction, but not quite auto-biographical either. i think y'all would like it.
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i finished "thinking in pictures" by temple gardin. a very good read. it's non-fiction, but not quite auto-biographical either. i think y'all would like it.
not temple gardin, but temple grandin. sorry about that.
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i finished "mercy" by julie garwood, and i would say that it is one of her best to date. i love how she takes different locations, and makes it feel like you can actually picture the place. like i said about the sex, some of it is fairly graphic, but not obscene, and incidental to the story line.
i finished "crossing over" by john edward. i really enjoyed it but i can't tell you exactly what i liked about it. i guess that it was well written, and in my opinion, explained who/what he is/does better than the tv show did. i don't know if the show is still on, i haven't looked for it ever, just stumbled on it a time or two. but if you read the book, it makes the show seem less "hokey".
now i am reading "we bought a zoo". i got it because folks were telling me how good the movie is, and i'm not much of a movie person. so today at work, i was comparing notes with rayne (my boss) and it turns out that the movie and the book are almost (not quite) like 2 different stories about similar people, but not the same people. that was odd to me.
anyway, that's my reading update from the weekend.
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I think I'll try Mercy. Sounds interesting.
I just finished The Know It All about a man who read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. It was ok but I won't read it again. It's for one of my book clubs.
My other club is reading Major Pettigrews Last Stand. I checked it out on my Kindle but haven't started it.
I checked out Doc Martin series 2 and 4 and watched them all this weekend. I've got series 5 on hold. I wish I could find Death in Paradise with Ben Miller and The Cafe. The UK puts out more interesting shows I think.
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we carry a lot of british shows at our library. and there is almost always a wait list for them.
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I haven't figured out how to get the dvd to play well with the box so I haven't really looked at what we have.
I've been trying to read but just can't get into it lately.
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Jen, does your library carry The Cafe or Death in Paradise? I can't even find them in a Redbox.
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sheri, i will look when i go to work tomorrow.
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well, i started this last night and closed the page before i even posted, so i'll try again.
most of the fiction i read is suspense/mystery. i really like julie garwood's mystery/suspense novels, even if they are sort of predictable (the girl always gets the man or the other way around) but i like how she does her plots. there are enough twists and turns to keep you going. just don't try to read her romances. ick. she does usually have one or two graphic sex scenes per book, but they fit the story line and aren't there just because "sex sells".
iris johansen is good, i've read a couple of hers, i have a favorite but can't remember the name right now.
palindrome by stuart woods.
for laughs, anything by joan hess. i love all her books, and hope she continues to write for a very long time. they are all "mysteries" but they are laugh out loud type giggles. very clean as well. no language to speak of.
margaret daley does some nice romantic suspense/mysteries, but her actual romances aren't as bad as julie garwood's. a little sappy, but not bad.
for cooking mysteries, joanna fluke's "hannah swensen" series, and diane mott davidson's "goldie bear catering" series are great. and have good recipes in them.
anything by laura childs is going to be good, but those are easy, light reading. they also have recipes in them, or scrap booking tips, or...
for more intense mysteries, "jefferson bass" who is actually a pair of men right a good series called the "body farm", carol o'connell's "mallory" series is very good. odd but good. i don't believe they have any sex or language. and definitely no romance. tess gerritsen's rizollie & isles series is ok, but some of it is a bit intense for me.
for "modern classics" john macdonald's travis mcgee series (mysteries) and dick francis are good. they are pre-cell phone, but not in the era of agatha christie/sherlock holmes. i quit reading them because i was able to imagine all too well the things they described, and wasn't sleeping well. and a more recent, heart thumping, i had to quit reading author is patricia cornwell. i can't read her either, she keeps me awake at night. but she's good.
there is a couple of quilting series that i'll have to look up the name of the authors on. they come with a quilt pattern and i really like them. easy reads, but not too easy. they are engaging but not heart thumping. again, mysteries.
if you like reading regional mystery/police/court procedures, margaret maron's deborah knott series is good. and funny. it is set in north carolina.
for the non-fiction that i've read and enjoyed lately, temple grandin's "thinking in pictures", tony danza's "i'd like to apologize to every teacher i've ever had", and "we bought a zoo" by ben mee were all good. i wasn't as impressed by the fisherman's shoes, mostly because it left the end hanging. if you watched the movie "we bought a zoo" i warn you, the book is nothing like the movie. it is almost as if there were 2 different stories, with similar plots.
for kids' books, the two i've enjoyed most lately are "i'd like to eat a child" (no clue on the author) about a baby crocodile who decides he won't eat "real food" because he thinks that he is old enough to eat a child. the child tickles his belly and tosses him back in the river. but it is a cute story and jackson loved it. the other one i like was "the kissing hand". i didn't get around to reading that to the kids, but i liked it.
oh, and a non-fiction that i really enjoyed was "tim and casper go to church". no matter where you stand on religion, it is a good read and very eye opening.
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next series that i am really enjoying is frederick ramsay's "ike schwartz". the first is artscape and the most recent is scone island. you don't have to read them in order, but it does help. i read scone island first because it came across my desk first and it sounded interesting. i've been happy with artscape and the next one that i'm reading now.
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THanks so much!! I'm putting the list into my phone as we speak. I really need some good reading this summer. I like Iris J. as well. I have no idea what I've read by her - but I'm thinking it was a light lavender purply colored book.
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the one i read was about a submarine. it was really cool. now i have to figure out what the name of it was. i forgot, nora roberts - the search is good. it's another "non-romance" that has a good plot and suspense line. i liked it because part of the feature of it is search and rescue dogs.
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the book is silent thunder by iris johansen. i love that book.
my current series is by frederick ramsay and the series title is "ike schwartz". he's former cia, who is a sheriff in a small town/county in virginia. the first in the series is artscape. i've read 4 of them so far and loving them, but the 3rd, impulse, is a little slower than the others i've read.
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I checked out series 5 of the Doc Martin DVDs. I love this stuff.
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Our library just started it's summer reading program so thank you for the iris johnsen suggestion. I'll look her up.
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the name of the iris johansen book is "silent thunder". i LOVED it enough to keep the paperback floating around. i might even re-read it.
the frederick ramsay that i thought was "slow" was not an ike schwartz. it was different, but ended very well, it actually had 3 subplots going at the same time and the end was not what i was expecting except for one part. it wasn't a "feel good" ending, but it did end well, if that makes sense. i don't like those endings where everyone and everything is just hunky dory after being through the wringer. i want them to have real life endings that aren't always neatly tied up with a bow.
i did finish the 3rd ike schwartz book as well, it was really good, and i was just slightly disappointed that i had it figured out (the how) about half way through. but the why took me to the end, so it worked.
i will start the next ike schwartz tomorrow.
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I will try that book, Jen but I have to say that I read The Killing Game by Iris and had the whole plot figured out within the first 30 pages. I like to be in suspense for a while longer than that!!
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i think you will like silent thunder better. it is different, and the ending was not what i expected. although parts were predictable, they were well written. good suspense.
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On my list!
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Just got back from my book club in downtown Charlotte. I love going downtown Charlotte except for all the one way streets and parking issues but there were lots of people and all the lights and going ons. It was nice. We parked at the Dunhill Hotel which is where the Rolling Stones stayed. We didn't like the book but we had fun.
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having fun is good sheri. what did you read?
i finished "dead ever after" by charlaine harris. it is the final book in the sookie stackhouse series, which is what the tv series "true blood" is based on. it was a good read, but talk about predictable ending. only one thing in the whole but was not what i was expecting. i'm glad i read it though. i don't know what i will read tomorrow. i have a selection to choose from.
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We read The Know It All about a man who read the entire encyclopedia Britannica. Nexr times is Nine Parts of Desire. Charo, Beth and I read it a long time ago at our Monroe book club but we don't mind reading it again.
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the local book club is reading the secret life of bees. if you liked the nine parts of desire enough to re-read it, maybe i'll check it out.
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I didn't much like the Secret Life of Bees. Nine parts is supposedly true.
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I've found David Baldacci's Sean King and Michelle Maxwell series of six books and although I started in the middle I'm now reading book 1. I'm liking them.
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i haven't read david baldacci but he is very popular. kind of like stuart woods. i've read one of his "palindrome" which i enjoyed very much and the ending was not what i expected. i will read more of his when i'm ready to start a new series. thanks for the heads up on the david baldacci.
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Your welcome, I haven't tried stuart woods yet. Maybe when I'm done with my current reading list I'll try some of his.
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I ran out of shelf space in the livingroom for books so I bought two book shelves for the craftroom. One is for craft stuff and the other is for books. I'm taking all of the first editions and putting them together in the craftroom. That tells you I won't be reading those copies because I would never be able to find them. Ah well.
I got my two latest purchases from Amazon.com, they are Erica Wilson "Crewel Embroidery," and Sheila Paine "Embroidered Textiles." They are both on my list of probably too expensive to get from paperbackswap.com. So I'm happy to have them. I really don't have that many more books on my I Want List so I'm really excited about that.
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duh, I can't understand how to do things, like embroidery, or knitting, or much of anything for that matter from reading a book. Someone has got to actually show me. It amazes that people can.
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sheri, i'd say that's funny, but i do best with pictures. then with someone showing me. then with videos. but i hate videos. so that is always my last, last, last resort.
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I do best with drawings. For some reason pictures are harder for me to see. That sounds funny even to me. Craftbooks are usually just reminders or inspiration books for me. I've embroidered since I was very small so the only thing I need a reminder on is the left handed french knot. Those things kill me.
Did I mention that I sold a second book on Amazon? I think i did. I need to check that today. My check should be in the bank sometime in the next 5 days.
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How book crazy am I? Well I haven't even shelved the 5 stacks of books I bought at the auction and so what did I do yesterday? Bought another 5 books, but how could I resist?
I got: The Canterbury Tales - Illustrated Prologue, Donna M. Lightbody Introducing Needlepoint, Rug Making Techniques and Design, Light in Shadow by Jayne Ann Krentz, and Practical Problem Solver a Reader's Digest book.
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In all do respect I got the rug making book for Harriet.
I can't believe I'm reading the Canterbury Tales aloud. It's all Lilian Jackson Braun's fault. She motivates me to do incredible things. And I'm really wanting a cat. Not one like koko probably one more like big foot. I think it's hilarious that her main character took an instant dislike to a kitten. It's just funny.
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Think she'll motivate you to move to Pickax?
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Hopefully I'm done moving unless I go to a senior care facility.
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I've got my fingers crossed. I am at the top of the list for 5 books on paperbackswap.com and I have book credits for all of them incase they come in. Or for when they come in. That can work either way. If they come in before christmas I'll wrap them in chrismas paper and put them under the tree. They are the perfect size for my 3.5 ft tree.
I bought 4 extra credits and two of them are already on the way and 2 more are awaiting mailing. I'm going to do the same thing with them. Even though I know what they are I still like to have something to unwrap on christmas morning. Crazy huh?
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I've been doing some tabulating. Of books that I know I want to buy I have 18 that are available that i can't afford right now and 54 that aren't available at the moment. 5 of which I have the credits for so if they become available I'll be able to get them immediately. I'm excited that it's such a small number. That a total of 49. Of course you and I both know that if I manage to get all of those I'll find something else that I just have to have. Isn't that the way?
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I'm a little bit miffed right now. Tonight is my downtown book club and I bought the book from Amazon and when I finished it I loaned it to another club member to read. She's had my book for a good month and now she's decided not to go tonight and I don't have my book to take. I'll not loan her another book.
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If she 'just decided' to not go and it wasn't due to sickness or some other fairly good reason, I think I would have asked her to make a point of returning the book before you had to go.
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i'm with barb. but if it was illness or other emergency, then i'd be more forgiving...
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Hum, I never took the book to the book club. Probably one of a hundred things that I did wrong when I was attending. I was really suprised by the people who showed up with extensive notes. And then had nothing interesting to say. Sorry, I shouldn't have said that it was catty.
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I have just picked up a regency romance by Mary Balogh called More than a Mistress. It is good although I pass the juicy scenes by.
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...although I pass the juicy scenes by.
i do a lot of skipping the juicy parts too tammy. i really like julie garwood, but she always has a few of those scenes that i just flip the pages until they are gone.
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I'll have to see if my library has her.
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My friend wasn't sick or having an emergency. She just decided not to go so I won't be loaning her books anymore. If I own the book I take it if I can remember it but I don't keep one from the library just to take. We do have a few members who will keep a book out, overdue, so they can bring it to look up certain pages. We have a few people who make notes and usually it's a certain quote they didn't understand and we all put in our two cents worth. I think it's interesting to get others input. Sometimes I feel like I've read a totally different book.
Both my clubs are reading The Burgess Boys. I've finished it and didn't like any of the characters. I'll like hearing what others think.
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the local book club (i'm not part of it) just finished sarah's key. i can't remember what they are on now, but i'll find out on friday, if they haven't changed it already.
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I liked Sarah's Key.
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I just read come the spring by garwood. Very well written. Now I have to run to my meeting. Happy holidays.
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I'm reading Julie Garwood so far i've only read one that i couldn't finish. I'll go back to it later.
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tammy, i'm glad you are enjoying the julie garwood. another writer i've just found but have been enjoying is dee henderson. she's a christian writer but her books are not sappy. i've enjoyed them enough to order the series through the library. (o'malley series). I think there are 8 or 10 in the series.
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Just finished The Snow Child. I won't say I didn't like it but I can't say I did like it either.
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I'm sorry you didn't love your last book best. I'm glad you were able to finish it.
I'm reading Sweet Talk and just howling at some of the repartee. It is just fantastic! I so love witty dialog. It does seem like a rehash of the other witness protection story but that's ok.
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i will have to check that out tammy. i like good procedurals with witty dialog. laughing out loud is good for the soul!
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I'll find that one too Tammy. I love a book that makes me laugh out loud. My club is reading a Surrey State of Affairs for next month.
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I hope you both enjoy it. That's an interesting title. Let me know if you like it. I'm re-reading the crystal singer set of books. I'm on the last one right now. Then it is on to the Nero Wolfe series. I've never read it although I loved the tv series. So I'm looking forward to them.
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I'm on the 4th book that I could get for the nero wolfe series. I'm loving it. Some of the slang will require me looking it up. Good thing I have my unabridged 60's dictionary.
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i'm glad you are enjoying it. i read the first book in a new series and have decided i don't want to continue it. i would like to know how the series ends, but they set it up for the main character to have a long term nemesis and i'm not all about that. it is supposed to be "light" reading (the series is) and i'm not finding it light enough. the name of the book was "town in a strawberry swirl"
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I am reading the Left Behind series by Lahae and Jenkins. Very interesting to me... :grinnnn:
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dianna, you would not believe how long the waiting list is still for those. not as bad as hunger games or game of thrones but close. i think the only one worse than those 3 are the fifty shades series.
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My club is reading The Good Lord Bird. So far I like it. It's about time I like a book club book.
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i'll have to check into it at work tomorrow.
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All I'm doing at this point is renewing books that I can't get too.
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Can you renew yours online? I do that all the time.
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Can you renew yours online? I do that all the time.
me too. but we have a 2 renewal limit for each item.
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I'm on my second renewal. And sense I'm at the library to use the internet I just have the librarian renew it.
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I'm finishing up If Death Ever Slept by Rex Stout. I've just had the librarian order the next two Nero Wolfe books that we have in our local system. Hopefully I will do better with them than I have some of them. I really liked the black mountain. Back story can be good or bad in this case it was good.
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For no particular reason I joined the Agatha Christie Book Lovers group on Goodreads. I'm going to read all her books. I loved them growing up. And talk about coincidences, when I went to my Monroe book club tonight, Evelyn, who is 98 years old, pipes up and says she's decided to read all Agatha Christie's books. She doesn't even have a computer so I know she didn't see it on Goodreads. Stranger things have happened. So the entire book club decided to read Agatha Christie for the book next month. We're reading Murder on the Orient Express.
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I grew up with Agatha books. Loved them.
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i read all the agatha books, a long time ago (25 years? give or take) and loved that she had such a firm handle on human nature. i can't remember the name of the books, but there were 2 that had scenes that stuck with me (i should really try to find them, i do work in a library :rolleyes1: )
the first was a poriot, the last one in fact, where he kills the "killer" and creates a locked room mystery "implying" that the killer shot himself, but that was impossible because poriot shot the man in the center of the forehead. something you can't actually do. then poriot "kills" himself with a heart attack because he does not put his heart medicine where he can reach it, letting God take his justice. i can't remember the sidekick's name, but he figured heavily in it.
the other one was also a poriot, but that one was where he observes that people tend to do things they find comforting when stressed, rather than to do things that stress them farther (such as picking what to eat). he finds a killer by the fact that the victim's nephew tried to pass himself off as his uncle but went to a restaurant and ordered something the uncle was known to hate.
agatha was just a very good student of life... much like miss marple.
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I finished Murder on the Orient Express and it was so fun. Even though I knew the ending it was fun. Agatha did have a good handle on human nature. Justice for all. Now to start Crooked House and I just ordered Three Blind Mice.
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My club just finished The Rosie Project and This Dark Road to Mercy. Like them both. Rosie is so funny and I knew all the places mentioned in Dark Road. Our next book is Byrd. No idea.
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i'll have to look into all 3 of those. i've been reading romances lately. not sure why, i guess because they are easy reads? although i did read the new one by either irene hannon or dee henderson (they write a lot alike) the name is taken. that was a good book.
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sheri, get your book club to read the afterlife of billy fingers. it is really good. i don't normally do biographies, but once in a while, one will cross my desk that is really good. or looks good. i read one about scientology (anti) and it was only ok. this one is good. i'm about 3/4 done with it. i had to put a hold on it to get it, and i'm glad i did.
i still haven't checked on the three you just mentioned, but i need to. the romances are getting old... although, they do pass the time.
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Thanks for the suggestion Jen. I'll have to check billy out. We just finished Still Alice and I liked it. It was good for discussing.
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PS Byrd was pretty good too. Most of the group really liked it but I liked it but without the "really". I would recommend it but will never read it again.
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i put the last three on my "list for investigation" but haven't actually looked at them yet. right now i am finishing a couple different series. in a couple different genres. nothing to recomment per se, just stuff i'm enjoying. when someone sees me with a book and askes, if it is something that is ok, but not recommendable to a cross section, i usually say "just a generic book".
i will look into still alice as well.
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Last month we read Wild which I like. Didn't see the movie. One lady didn't like it at all. How can you not like a non fiction book? It is what it is. This month we read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. I've read this before and liked it both times.
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sheri, i've read some non fiction that was well written and some that just did not do it for me. i haven't read wild yet though. my current comment is on an author not a particular book. colleen coble is a good author. well respected. i read one of her books and liked it. i've hated every single thing i've tried to read of hers since. everything. inspirational, romance, suspense, all of it. i don't even remember what i read that i liked. she has a series that sounded really good, i couldn't get past the first 2 chapters (and that is longer than i usually give a book) on the first 2. i'm taking them back and quitting. isn't that awful?
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Just finished All the Light We Can Not See. Really good. Hated for it to end. i tried to start The Woman's Room but it has 2 long forwards and a preface and for some reason that has ticked me.
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I don't read the forwards and the prefaces. I read prologues, epilogues, and the story. but the rest, no thank you.
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The Woman's Room continues to get good reviews - has mostly all through the years - but I can't make myself read one more page.
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Sheri, life is too short to read books you don't enjoy.
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Took it back to the library. :)
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I picked up the lost symbol again. Unfortunately I'd already read it. I can never remember titles.
If I have to plow through a book I'll seldom finish it.
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Sometimes I'll plow through one to be able to discuss it at book club but I couldn't force myself this time.
I can remember titles but not authors. People at the book club will want to read a book because "remember we read ........ by her and it was so good". Nope I never remember that we've already read one by her because authors names don't stick in my head for some reason.