Books

Average customer rating:

Great!
Odd Is The Greatest!
Brother Odd
Another Great Read!
Brother Odd

Brother Odd (Odd Thomas Novels)
Dean Koontz
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Forever Odd
The Husband
Odd Thomas
Lisey's Story: A Novel
The Good Guy

ASIN: 0553804804
Release Date: 2006-11-28

Book Description

Loop me in, odd one. The words, spoken in the deep of night by a sleeping child, chill
the young man watching over her. For this was a favorite phrase of Stormy Llewellyn,
his lost love, and Stormy is dead, gone forever from this world. In the haunted halls of
the isolated monastery where he had sought peace, Odd Thomas is stalking spirits of an infinitely darker nature

Through two New York Times bestselling novels Odd Thomas has established himself as one of the most beloved and unique fictional heroes of our time. Now, wielding all the power and magic of a master storyteller at the pinnacle of his craft, Dean Koontz follows Odd into a singular new world where he hopes to make a fresh beginning—but where he will meet an adversary as old and inexorable as time itself.

St. Bartholomew’s Abbey sits in majestic solitude amid the wild peaks of California’s high Sierra, a haven for children otherwise abandoned, and a sanctuary for those seeking insight. Odd Thomas has come here to learn to live fully again, and among the eccentric monks, their other guests, and the nuns and young students of the attached convent school, he has begun to find his way. The silent spirits of the dead who visited him in his earlier life are mercifully absent, save for the bell-ringing Brother Constantine and Odd’s steady companion, the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

But trouble has a way of finding Odd Thomas, and it slinks back onto his path in the form of the sinister bodachs he has met previously, the black shades who herald death and disaster, and who come late one December night to hover above the abbey’s most precious charges. For Odd is about to face an enemy who eclipses any he has yet encountered, as he embarks on a journey of mystery, wonder, and sheer suspense that surpasses all that has come before.

Customer Reviews:

Great!.......2007-06-27

Once again Koontz (and Baker) is able to excite my brain to actually see the creatures, smell the smells (never before had encountered an author who could do that as well as Koontz) and feel the emotions of the characters. Being confined to one basic location for the backdrop, the reader gets to be a part of this combination of highly complex to most simple of characters and watch them work together, figure each other out, fight the evil. Can't wait for the next Odd Thomas book and to see how he interacts with his newest "sidekick" ;-).

Odd Is The Greatest!.......2007-06-12

READ THIS! If you like suspense, and if you like great characters that you can't help but fall in love with, read about Odd. He's not your typical 20Something, he's a hard-working, sensitive fry cook/crime fighter with a seriously sad childhood. He's lost his soul-mate (in the book Odd Thomas) but continues to use his talents and "gifts" to help other people.

Brother Odd.......2007-06-09

It is always enjoyable to read the latest adventures of Odd Thomas. Each book is different in its own way. Each story gripping.

This book is different from the others in that it does not deal too much with the supernatural. The enemy in this book can be seen by everyone in the story, not just Odd. I found this to be a new take on Odd's life. This allowed others to see the strange and unusual that he regularly sees.

After reading the story, I realized not much had actually happened, but I was entertained throughout the story. The story only spans a day or two and looking back you realize this is more of a diary than a story. There was only a couple of instances that we were introduced to a subplot that never materialized. The story telling is gripping and makes the reader want to keep on reading. I found myself up way too late at times trying to read the next chapter to see what was going to happen to Odd.

I gave it 4 stars. Nothing beats the original Odd Thomas novel, but this is a great installment in the Odd chronicles. I am led to believe that we will see more of Odd in a 4th installment. I will definitely be picking that up, too!

Another Great Read!.......2007-06-05

Dean Koontz keeps writing fresh new ideas all the time! This was a great book and it made the reader want to keep reading, and wishing for more...

Brother Odd.......2007-05-24

I read this book before the first two and it kept me rivited to my seat through out the whole book. Wonderfully writen, kept you on your seat wondering what would happen next.I'm now half way through the first book have also purchased the second, and all three of the books are worth your time to read.Murder By Order

Average customer rating:

Great stuff!
review of the narrator
Harry Bosch at the top of his form
Page turner with info you do not want to know
Good plot

Echo Park (Harry Bosch)
Michael Connelly
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
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The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town

ASIN: 0316734950
Release Date: 2006-10-09

Book Description

In 1993 Marie Gesto disappeared after walking out of a supermarket. Harry Bosch worked the case but couldn't crack it, and the twenty-two-year-old was never found. Now, more than a decade later, with the Gesto file still on his desk, Bosch gets a call from the District Attorney. A man accused of two heinous murders is willing to come clean about several others, including the killing of Marie Gesto. Taking the confession of the man he has sought-and hated-for thirteen years is bad enough. Discovering that he missed a clue back in 1993 that could have stopped nine other murders may just be the straw that breaks Harry Bosch.

Customer Reviews:

Great stuff!.......2007-06-24

Poor Harry Bosch, he can't even buy a break! Good book though, unless you don't have a pulse you should enjoy it a lot. Give it a whirl...

review of the narrator.......2007-06-14

This book was well read. I like all the Connelly audiobooks. But this one was exeptional.

Harry Bosch at the top of his form.......2007-06-09

This has plenty of action and red herrings to keep you intrigued from beginning to end. Harry Bosch is his usual obsessive self, worrying over an unsolved case from years earlier as he tries to weave some moldering strands of evidence into a nice, tight net. As he sets out on what appears to be a straight line toward the villain of the piece, the road suddenly takes a turn, and then another, so that the readers' interest never flags.

Page turner with info you do not want to know.......2007-06-05

Thirteen years after the disappearance of Marie Gesto the case is still haunting Harry Bosch. Then one day he gets a call that a serial killer known as The Bag Man wants to confess the murder of Marie. The murderer knows all the right details, can even lead them to the body, but Harry is still not convinced that Raynard Waits is the killer. The complicating factor is the assistant DA in charge: Rick O'Shea is running for DA and can certainly use a lot of positive media attention. Harry suspects that O'Shea has made a deal with Waits' attorney and the matter gets even more complicated when Waits escapes, leaving 2 officers dead and one wounded. Together with an old profiling friend from the FBI, Rachel Walling, Bosch tries to find the true identity of Waits and his whereabouts. Eventually he finds the guy in his foxhole, but the conspiracy is completely different from what Bosch originally envisaged.

A true page turner. I read the nearly 400 pages in less than 24 hours: before getting up, during my lunch break and any other moment I could find. However, the end of the book provides information on Harry Bosch which is not only unexpected but also not what you want to know about the (anti-)hero of the Bosch series. This left a bit of a bitter aftertaste.

Good plot.......2007-05-26

Albeit the book's end is the typical fairy tale when the bad guy ends bad the book is a good thriller. As many Bosch's novels you'll never know who is the bad guy until the very end of the book. And that makes the book thrilling. There are some "mistakes" in the book but at the end of it you'll see that they weren't "mistakes" they were part of the scam.

Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2 (Sword of Truth, Book 10)

Average customer rating:

A glowing review
Getting Back On Track
Chainfire
Great Service from Amazon.......hated the book.
Waiting for the next one!

Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2 (Sword of Truth, Book 10)
Terry Goodkind
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Armageddon's Children (The Genesis of Shannara, Book 1)

ASIN: 0765305240
Release Date: 2006-07-18

Amazon.com

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Watch author Terry Goodkind discuss how his own morality and sense of good and evil shape the chararacters and action in his epic ten volume Sword of Truth series.

'Phantom' video Clip featuring Terry Goodkind

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Book Description

On the day she awoke remembering nothing but her name, Kahlan Amnell became the most dangerous woman alive. For everyone else, that was the day that the world began to end. As her husband, Richard, desperately searches for his beloved, whom only he remembers, he knows that if she doesnt soon discover who she really is, she will unwittingly become the instrument that will unleash annihilation. But Kahlan learns that if she ever were to unlock the truth of her lost identity, then evil itself would finally possess her, body, and soul. If she is to survive in a murky world of deception and betrayal, where life is not only cheap but fleeting, Kahlan must find out why she is such a central figure in the war-torn world swirling around her. What she uncovers are secrets darker than she could ever have imagined.

Customer Reviews:

A glowing review.......2007-06-27

Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2
by Terry Goodkind is the tenth book in the sword of truth series and
the second book in the sub-trilogy chainfire, following the trials of
the last war wizard as he tries to rescue a magical land from religious
extremeism. A very good read with lots of twists and turns, this latest
book keeps with the series by putting an epic struggle between good
and evil in an exciting and fun romp through a fantastical realm.

Getting Back On Track.......2007-06-14

Reading this series has been like riding a rollercoaster. The series started well then gradually slowed and hit rock bottom with Naked Empire. Goodkind started getting things back on track with Chainfire, but very slowly. Phantom is definitely better than Chainfire IMO, but still not up to the speed of the first books of the series. There were certainly plenty of plot twists, new characters, long forgotten characters, etc., in this book to keep it interesting. Hopefully Goodkind has not created so many loose ends that he can't clean them all up in the last book.

There was less political preaching in this one, and we didn't have to suffer too much of Goodkind's philosophical views that have filled other books in the series. However, he has completely beaten the evil Imperial Order to death with this book. How many times does Goodkind have to describe the evil deeds of the Order? Certainly, anyone that has read even one book in the series knows they are a pretty bad bunch. Why do we have to have Jebra, Shota, Richard, and Nicci fill page after page with more descriptions of their evil deeds? Enough already! I guess Goodkind felt that he had been leaving out the men and concentrating on the rape and torture of the women only in previous books. [...].

One thing that Goodkind does with this book is make magic appear to be uncontrollable, unpredictable, and easily abused. Now I'm starting to wonder whether maybe the Imperial Order's desire to wipe out magic is such a bad idea.

The last book has a lot of cleaning up to do. It may be 1000 plus pages.

Chainfire.......2007-06-12

Goodkind at his best. The Sword of Truth is probably the most complete and rounded series ever written. It ranks up there with Raymond Feist's Riftwar Saga and Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. No joke.

Great Service from Amazon.......hated the book. .......2007-06-09

Terry Goodkind has exhausted this storyline. How many times do the main characters have to suffer unspeakable agony and be separated to make a point. No spoilers but it would have been nice to have some plot resolution this time.

Waiting for the next one!.......2007-04-21

Read the whole series-so many times the books are wearing out. Great writing, very realistic. Terry Goodkind makes you believe you're right there with Richard and Kahlan.

A Crazy Little Thing Called Death: A Blackbird Sisters Mystery

Average customer rating:

Always entertaining
Fun
A Crazy Little Thing Called Death
A good read.
Unbelievably Bad

A Crazy Little Thing Called Death: A Blackbird Sisters Mystery
Nancy Martin
Manufacturer: NAL Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum Novels)

ASIN: 0451220412

Book Description

Impoverished Philadelphia heiress Nora Blackbird has agreed to wed Mick Abruzzo, son of New Jersey's most notorious mobster, leaving the city's bluebloods in shock. Then Nora and her sisters get some ominous news-Sweet Penny Devine, ex-Hollywood starlet and daughter of the Philadelphia Devines, has mysteriously disappeared. Even stranger, her family wants her declared dead pronto. Could someone have plotted her final act? Now it's up to the Blackbird sisters to snoop among the snooty-until they uncover the truth.

Customer Reviews:

Always entertaining.......2007-06-27

Great writer, great story. The relationships are so interesting, always dynamic and intertwined. Love this author's point of view. The mystery was a good one too.

Fun.......2007-06-11

All of Nancy Martin's books are fun, fast and easy reads. They are entertaining, will make you laugh, and great summer books for relaxing. It is enjoyable to try to figure out Who Done It. Great characters.
Enjoy!

A Crazy Little Thing Called Death.......2007-06-08

Love all of Nancy Martin books and this one was great

A good read........2007-05-07

I enjoyed this one almost as much as the others. The mystery part is excellent. The love angle is getting tiring. I hope she moves on from that one way or the other soon.

Unbelievably Bad.......2007-03-29

Nora is not only arrogant in this book but also stupid. Not only does she think she is better than Michael, but she keeps letting Ben Bloom use her over and over again. No one except Emma supports her in her relationship with Michael. If my best friend did not support me in my decisions, she would not be my best friend. What is it five books now and you can't seem to get them married? I will not be reading anymore of her books!

Average customer rating:

An Okay Read - Hope next book is better.
There's a baby!!
Good, Simple, and thoroughly predictable....
I love this series
Pretty good mystery

Born in Death
J.D. Robb
Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0399153470
Release Date: 2006-11-07

Book Description

Eve Dallas has a grisly double homicide to solve when two young lovers-both employees of the same prestigious accounting firm-are brutally killed on the same night. It doesn't leave Eve a lot of leftover time to put together a baby shower for her buddy Mavis, but that's supposedly what friends are for.

Now Mavis needs another favor. Tandy Willowby, one of the moms-to-be in Mavis's birthing class, didn't show up for the shower. A recent emigrant from London, Tandy has few friends in New York, and no family-and she was really looking forward to the party. And when Eve enters Tandy's apartment and finds a gift for Mavis's shower wrapped and ready on the table-and a packed bag for the hospital still on the floor next to it-tingling runs up and down her spine.

Normally, such a case would be turned over to Missing Persons. But Mavis wants no one else on the job but Eve-and Eve can't say no. She'll have to track Tandy down while simultaneously unearthing the deals and double-crosses hidden in the files of some of the city's richest and most secretive citizens, in a race against this particularly vicious killer. Luckily, her multimillionaire husband Roarke's expertise comes in handy with the number crunching. But as he mines the crucial data that will break the case wide open, Eve faces an all too real danger in the world of flesh and blood.

Customer Reviews:

An Okay Read - Hope next book is better........2007-06-25

I have always enjoyed J.D.Robb's mysteries, but I was a bit disappointed in this novel.
I did enjoy Mavis and the birth of her child. I thought the scene had a humorous touch which was refreshing. I thought the plot for the most part was weak. Some parts held my attention, but overall I thought it could have been developed better. I'll probably buy Nora's next novel "Innocent in Death" with a view towards it being a better than "Born in Death". I hope so.

There's a baby!!.......2007-06-14

Yes, Mavis finally has a baby at the end of the book. But before Eve gets to help with that she has a set of murders to solve, and a missing pregnant woman to find. To make her life more interesting, she also has to cope with baby shopping and a...shower. Definitely not Eve's scene. But somehow Lt. Dallas comes through on all counts!

Robb Rocks!

Good, Simple, and thoroughly predictable...........2007-06-11

To quote directly fom this book, It could accurately be described as "a little bit of fluff." But fun and entertaining fluff none the less. This series has been a welcome treat to me over the years. Once again our heroine, Eve Dallas, is thrust into the breach of a complex and violent homocide. The book goes in directions that most long time readers will find comfortingly familiar. No real surprises along the way but it was nice to see Mavis finally deliver her baby into the world. It'll be interesting to see how the story line continues to where Roarke and Eve stumble into parenthood.

JD Robb (Nora) has perfected her formula into a very enjoyable series that I look forward to reading long into the future. It's not Pulitzer or award winning literature but it is darn good...Enjoy!

I love this series.......2007-06-07

I know when I pick up a new book in this series that I am going to enjoy reading the book. What else can you want from a series?

I don't think I've reviewed any of the earlier books, but I've just finished reading this one, and wanted to share how I felt. This is one of those series where you care about the back story and the major continuing characters as much as you care about the mystery. This book moves that back story along. You discover a lot about all of the continuing characters and their strengths and weaknesses. That is part of the charm of the series.

You also have a very interesting mystery to deal with. Or rather a pair of mysteries that could not be solved if what looked like two different mysteries were not being worked by the same person.

You are going to enjoy this.

Pretty good mystery .......2007-05-30

This as all the books in the series was enjoyable if I forget the "futuristic" element which is quite silly. The renaming of current things like cell for "pocket link" as an example doesn't show much imagination. Moreover, the fashions seem more today than tomorrow! Even though the merging of the 2 cases in the novel is a "little" unbelievable, it is a pretty good mystery story and the relationships between the diverse characters is fun.

Average customer rating:

Poetry, food, and culture
Disappointing
More case and less political atmosphere
Don't read this writer for the mystery alone!
Poorly drawn characters; no discernible plot

A Loyal Character Dancer
Qiu Xiaolong
Manufacturer: Soho Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1569473412

Book Description

Praise for Qiu Xiaolong:

"A sequel [to Death of a Red Heroine] that in many ways is even more impressive. . . . [Qiu] has moved from the poetic, exotic milieu of his first book (although plenty of elements remain) into a tougher, wider, probably more commercial and modern version of China as seen by America."-Chicago Tribune

"Another wonderful novel featuring Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Bureau . . . [for] Sinophiles like myself, who fantasize about taking an insider's tour of Shanghai."-Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air

"The travelogue aspects of the novel don't overwhelm it's critical intelligence. As in all hard-boiled [mysteries], the murder and mayhem provide a cover story for a larger investigation of social mysteries."-Chicago Sun-Times

Inspector Chen's mentor in the Shanghai Police Bureau has assigned him to escort U.S. Marshal Catherine Rohn. Her mission is to bring Wen, the wife of a witness in an important criminal trial, to the United States. Inspector Rohn is already en route when Chen learns that Wen has unaccountably vanished from her village in Fujian. Or is this just what he is supposed to believe? Chen resents his role; he would rather investigate the triad killing in Shanghai's beauteous Bund Park. But his boss insists that saving face with Inspector Rohn has priority. So Chen Cao, the ambitious son of a father who imbued him with Confucian precepts, must tread warily as he tries once again to be a good cop, a good man, and also a loyal Party member.

Qiu Xiaolong, a prize-winning poet and critic in China, now teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

Customer Reviews:

Poetry, food, and culture.......2006-12-21

The book contains all the ingredients that make a mystery good -- a puzzling crime, dialogs between characters whose implications are left for the reader to extract, and a plausible conclusion. However it was not for these elements alone that I enjoyed the book. In fact I had picked up the volume after hearing a review for it on NPR (National Public Radio). It was reported in that review that the book depicted the going-on in current China, in particular Shanghai very well. I found the statement to be well grounded.

The fabrics of the city are of course delivered through the book's protagonist, chief inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai police bureau. He is an intelligent 30-ish man of integrity who enjoys poetry and food. Because of his interest in poetry, readers are exposed to fragments of Chinese poetry throughout (for every 5 pages or so appears a fragment). His predilection towards food brings readers to the nooks and corners of Shanghai for gourmet Chinese food and specialties. The process of solving the case reveals snapshots of the society -- how guanxi (loosely translated as relationships or connections) dominates every aspect in life, how no one is ever free from politics (Chen Cao often times withholds information even from his own boss for political considerations), how rapid economic growth is accompanied by the growth of the triads, how Mao's cultural revolution is still affecting peoples' lives, etc. Cultural differences between US and China is also highlighted through the character US Marshal Catherine Rohn, who is Chen's US counterpart in solving the illegal immigration case and serves as his love interest in this episode (another cultural aspect -- Chen gets monitored by Internal Security for his interest in Catherine).

Except for the slight slackening of pace towards the end I enjoyed the novel very much. This was my first episode in Inspector Chen series. Immediately after finishing this book I placed an order for an older episode featuring Chen.

Disappointing.......2006-06-06

I'd heard good things about Qiu's first book, Death of a Red Heroine, but was only able to get my hands on his second book, ALCD. I picked it up eagerly, not because I like mystery fiction generally, but I am interested in the political and cultural environment of China. I was surprised to find the book a bit dull. I liked the detailed descriptions about life in china, but I found the characters not particularly interesting and the story kind of pedestrian. Moreover, I found the attraction between Chen and Rohn very grating, but that's prob because I hate romantic stuff in non-romance books. Seemed very hollywood to me. In fact, wouldn't be at all surprised if the book was made into a movie. Anyway, I would still recommend reading the book because it does paint a very interesting portrait of life in china and it's always a good thing to support authors there. If you are interested in reading more chinese authors, check out Mo Yan. Cheers.

More case and less political atmosphere .......2005-05-28

Having thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, Death of a Red Heroine, I jumped right into reading the sequel. This second visit with Chief Inspector Chen and his loyal deputy Yu is fun and the case even more interesting than that in the Red Heroine as it involves gangs and illegal immigration from China to the United States. But what I really liked in Red Heroine was the interesting group of characters, the descriptions of life and political atmosphere of 1990 Shanghai. Nothing in Character Dancer add to the first book in this area as it is not fresh and the group of characters are given minor rolls. New twist is that Inspector Chen must work with a United States Marshal, a woman named Catherine Rohn. This I suspect was a plot devise to give some dialog to the management of U.S. / China relations. The problem here is that the Rohn character is so underwritten she becomes more of wooden prop to hold up the narrative. And lastly, I am not a big fan of mysteries that end which several pages of the brilliant inspector explaining all that happened and perhaps why. All that said if you liked the character of Inspector Chen and a book more aimed at the case than the character I think you will get some entertainment value. I do plan to read the next book in the series and hope it returns to the roots of Red Heroine.

Don't read this writer for the mystery alone!.......2005-01-06

Once again Qiu Xiaolong offers a fantastic mystery. What amazed me in his first novel was the cultural depth, so to speak, the feeling I had at the end of the novel that I had learned more about modern China than I would have, had I watched a documentary or assisted a one-semester course at the local university. I had the same sensation this time, even though some of the minor details were already known. Inspector Chen is a very believable character caught like so many of us between a profession [police officer] and an avocation [poet] which at first appear mutually exclusive. The true revelation comes when we discover how his knowledge of poetry helps him in his investigations. This characteristic of his, the love of poetry, also makes Chen - at least to my eyes -- more Chinese, for crafty, more sensitive than many men and certainly than most detectives, reminescent only of Inspector Morse, in his beloved Cambridge.

I agree with the previous reviewer than some of the more literary passages, tangential subjects, and cultural observations appear to have been shaved off in this second book, probably through the hands of some know-it-all editor who believes that a thick book with plenty of literary allusions might bore or be too much of a challenge to the ninth-grade level reading he imagines his readers to possess.

But in the end, the cuts, if there were some, did not take away from the overall charm of the book, of Inspector Chen and of China.

I intend to read his next book and I strongly recommend the reading of this one; both for the mystery as well as for the information on a changing China.

Poorly drawn characters; no discernible plot.......2004-10-03

I found Qiu's first book, Death of a Red Heroine, fascinating and complex. This book meandered through what was basically a non-plot. The American police woman was so poorly drawn she could have said anything at anytime and it wouldn't have made a difference. Often she served simply as a question-asking device so that the reader could be given information about Chinese culture. And the clothes she wore... Yikes! No female American police officer would wear a white dress and high heels to interview suspects. Duh!

Also, I didn't see how the poetry Chen writes and recites was relevant to the plot in anyway, nor could I get a true reading on his personality.

Finally, the writing was amateurish in terms of plot and character development. I don't plan to read Qiu again, unless a new book receives really fabulous reviews.

Average customer rating:

Wonderful Book
Great Book
Eric does it again.
STORY A LITTLE SHORT
Dickey at it again...

Chasing Destiny
Eric Jerome Dickey
Manufacturer: Dutton Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 052594950X

Book Description

Eight-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey's new novel is filled with intrigue, speed, and sex appeal. And an unforgettable female narrator rides her sexy yellow motorcycle right through it all.

Billie (aka "Ducati") is known as much for her extraordinary beauty as for the sexy yellow motorcycle she rides through the mean streets of Los Angeles. Tough, talented, and self-assured, Billie's used to doing things her way—but that was before love threw an oil slick in the road and spun her life into chaos.

Billie's first problem is simple: she's pregnant.

Her second problem is that her lover, Keith, is still married.

Keith has some "things" to deal with, and the people in his life are dark and duplicitous enough to take matters into their own hands, determined to keep Billie from having her baby. Billie suddenly finds herself confronted, attacked, run off highways, threatened and shadowed. Keith still has ties to his manipulative wife, Carmen, and he adores his fifteen-year-old daughter Destiny. Will he do the right thing by his new family, or stand by his old one?

Soon all eyes shift as everyone finds themselves desperately chasing Destiny, a troubled and deceptive girl dancing on the edge of womanhood. When the rubber meets the road, everyone's fighting dirty for what they want...and they're all willing to destroy their enemy or go down in flames to get it.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Book.......2007-06-13

This book is at the top of the list for my favorite books. It has interesting characters, storyline, and makes you want more. This book takes you on an eventful journey with a family that covers all emotions. There are some really HOT scenes and a few that are really chilling and hard to read. After all of the EJD books I have read, I am always surprised how he can intermingle romance, drama, and suspense so effectively. You will fall in love with the characters and won't be able to put this one down. Happy reading!!

Great Book.......2007-06-08

I have read a little over half of Chasing Destiny and this book is by far my favorite of EJD books. I am really enjoying the way that the story unfolds and the way the characters have this "six degrees" type of thing going on. I have also enjoyed the dialogue, especially between Billie and Keith. It's not choppy and really flows and makes sense throughout the story. I can't wait to see what happens at the end just like I couldn't wait to comment of the book!

Eric does it again........2007-05-23

Eric continues to evolve as a writer. I really enjoyed this book and he continues evolve as a writer.

STORY A LITTLE SHORT.......2007-05-15

I UNDERSTOOD WHERE HE WAS TRYING TO GO WITH THE STORY HE JUST NEVER REALLY GOT THERE TO ME. IT WAS OKAY BUT I WAS A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED

Dickey at it again..........2007-04-14

If you have been cheating yourself and never purchased a Dickey book....What on earth are you waiting on. This man is good at what he does. This is a good read!!

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1)

Average customer rating:

The Golden Compass
A promising beginning
Best Book Ever
his darkest materials
Silver Compass(oops wrong title)

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1)
Philip Pullman
Manufacturer: Yearling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0440418321
Release Date: 2001-05-22

Amazon.com

Some books improve with age--the age of the reader, that is. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman's heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own--nor is her world. For one thing, people there each have a personal dæmon, the manifestation of their soul in animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science, theology, and magic are closely allied:

As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had dæmons just as humans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them.

Not that Lyra spends much time worrying about it; what she likes best is "clambering over the College roofs with Roger the kitchen boy who was her particular friend, to spit plum stones on the heads of passing Scholars or to hoot like owls outside a window where a tutorial was going on, or racing through the narrow streets, or stealing apples from the market, or waging war." But Lyra's carefree existence changes forever when she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, first prevent an assassination attempt against her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, and then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust. Soon she and Pan are swept up in a dangerous game involving disappearing children, a beautiful woman with a golden monkey dæmon, a trip to the far north, and a set of allies ranging from "gyptians" to witches to an armor-clad polar bear.

In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiece that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardened realist. Best of all, the author doesn't speak down to his audience, nor does he pull his punches; there is genuine terror in this book, and heartbreak, betrayal, and loss. There is also love, loyalty, and an abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelms it. This is one of those rare novels that one wishes would never end. Fortunately, its sequel, The Subtle Knife, will help put off that inevitability for a while longer. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

Download Description

Pullman introduces readers to a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, of Redwall, wherein lives a half-wild, half-civilized girl named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars of Jordan College is about the shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors.

Customer Reviews:

The Golden Compass.......2007-06-25

The best of Young Adult literaure transcends the label itself; it defies labeling by standing on its own terms. That confidence is clearly apparent in THE GOLDEN COMPASS, a novel that should not be pigeon-holed into any grouping that would make most adults skip over it without a second thought about it. Within the first 100 pages alone, author Philip Pullman has created a realistic fantasy world which includes glorious descriptions of fascinating characters making unexpected choices that develop into a wholly satisfying fantasy adventure that just happens to be about an eleven-year-old and the worlds around her.

Questions have arisen about the theological bent of the trilogy and of the author in particular. While each reader brings to each piece of writing his or her own set of standards, preferences, and judgments, I believe that the suggestion of an atheistic tint to the character shadings of THE GOLDEN COMPASS are practically irrelevent -- though, "to each his own." The story stands on its own merits of gorgeous writing, brilliant pacing, and a thoughtful overtone that makes this more of an adult fantasy adventure told through the eyes of a young girl. Of all YA fantasy I've read, this stands out as being most suitable for adults.

I believe that most middle school-aged children will pass over any of the details of adult character motivation (including discussion of religion) in favor of more action, as they are generously rewarded throughout the novel. Those adults who choose to emphasize the religious aspect and demean the novel as promoting atheism, should consider a couple points that I have yet to see mentioned in any review that really play toward a positive religious statement: thinking at a metaphoric level, the outcome of Iofur and Iorek's last confrontation should be considered -- who wins and why -- and the value of having a soul may be the key; "freewill" comes into the discussion late in the novel and should be thought about without over analysis; and the message about "people of religion" is different from the message about people who live morally (think Lyra, not Mrs. Coulter). In other words, religion is not a person or a building, but an idea.

I recommend this novel, and for parents who wonder whether to allow their children to read this, the answer is easy: read it with them, and discuss it and their thoughts (and yours) about it. Shooing young minds away from learning about those who may think differently is far more dangerous than practically anything -- and, strangely enough, is perhaps the real theme of this brilliantly written book.

A promising beginning.......2007-06-05

While waiting for the latest of each successive Harry Potters, I struggle to find something engrossing the keep me occupied in the meantime. I stumbled upon this series and felt I had discovered something special. This book starts the series off with a bang. My heart raced and I *needed* to keep reading. The first books is very strong but has some seriously disturbing elements that make it seem less than appropriate for young children. However, the characters are extremely believable and it does an excellent job of showing how the world exists in shades of gray rather than the black and white good versus evil struggles of the Potter books.

Best Book Ever.......2007-06-01

I love this book. If I had to pick one book to be my favorite, it would be The Golden Compass.

his darkest materials.......2007-05-17

Imagine having your own Daemon. A daemon it is part of you with out being with you but at the same time it can't leave you till you leave it in the world of the dead for quite a few days sometimes it can be weeks. Also it can change into any creature, some of them you may never know there names. The only down side to it is that soon as you turn of age it settles or stops changing and when it settles it settles with your future.

This book is not just a book but it is a trilogy where you can't stop turning the pages. Though through the book there are several sad stories that will rock your boat but as you may know that that is it's just figure of speech. Any way these books are the best books I've ever read because you keep waiting on the climax but then you realize that either it's never going to come or you have done passed it up. This also makes you want to read more. My mom literarily had to make me put it down to eat.

Though I would recommend this book for people from 6th grade through 9th grade anybody could read it and still have the same emotions

Maybe even more. The unfortunate thing about this book is that smaller kids will not be able to read it for the few gruesome scenes plus the large vocabulary.

I could connect this book to several people in my life. Such as will's dad and mine because they tell you the words they need to with out beating around the bush if his father hadn't then will would not know what to do plus he would see his father die with out even knowing it was his father

In the end this is a very good book the best I have ever read because it is very serious but you still enjoy the adventures at the same time.

Silver Compass(oops wrong title).......2007-04-19

Great book for all young readers everywhere. From Lyra's adventures to armored polar bears to walking into a new world. A great anventurous story about a young girl, in a world so much like outs, yet so much different.In a world where she knows everywhere, but doesn't know anywhere. A great book for recommending!
=)P3-R4ìîï

Average customer rating:

A page turner with heart. And soul.
A trick and a blessing
Englander's Great First Novel
Incredible Human story
Gripping and beautifully written

The Ministry of Special Cases
Nathan Englander
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375404937
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Book Description

The long-awaited novel from Nathan Englander, author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. Englander’s wondrous and much-heralded collection of stories won the 2000 Pen/Malamud Award and was translated into more than a dozen languages.

From its unforgettable opening scene in the darkness of a forgotten cemetery in Buenos Aires, The Ministry of Special Cases casts a powerful spell. In the heart of Argentina’s Dirty War, Kaddish Poznan struggles with a son who won’t accept him; strives for a wife who forever saves him; and spends his nights protecting the good name of a community that denies his existence--and denies a checkered history that only Kaddish holds dear. When the nightmare of the disappeared children brings the Poznan family to its knees, they are thrust into the unyielding corridors of the Ministry of Special Cases, the refuge of last resort.

Nathan Englander’s first novel is a timeless story of fathers and sons. In a world turned upside down, where the past and the future, the nature of truth itself, all take shape according to a corrupt government’s whims, one man--one spectacularly hopeless man--fights to overcome his history and his name, and, if for only once in his life, to put things right. Here again are all the marvelous qualities for which Englander’s first book was immediately beloved: his exuberant wit and invention, his cosmic sense of the absurd, his genius for balancing joyfulness and despair. Through the devastation of a single family, Englander captures, indelibly, the grief of a nation. The Ministry of Special Cases, like Englander’s stories before it, is a celebration of our humanity, in all its weakness, and--despite that--hope.

Customer Reviews:

A page turner with heart. And soul........2007-06-28

What is a parent's worst fear? We have heard about the horrors of Argentine mothers in the 1970's marching with their missing children's photos. Photos of their children taken from them for no other reason than they were students. This wonderful book brings this shameful history to life through the very flawed and human family at its center. If you don't weep at the final scene between father and son, you are made of stone.

A trick and a blessing.......2007-06-27

I picked up Ministry of Special Cases at 10 p.m., figuring I would plow through 20 pages before falling asleep. Captivated by its peculiar melancholy and its ability to maintain a precise balance between optimism and resignation, I didn't stop turning pages until I got to the last one.

If you choose books for their clever and detailed plots, Ministry will disappoint you. But if you revel in complex characters and writing that transports you to a particular time and place, then Ministry will suck you in and keep you mesmerized.

The book works on many levels. For starters, it evokes the horrors of Argentina in the post-Peron period. But it goes far beyond historical fiction, interweaving themes of love--among family members, co-workers, and even strangers-- with topics ranging from class differences to Jewish alienation to loss and futility. At its core, it's a novel about the absurdity of existence. Englander manages to squeeze an epic into a few hundred pages, with a style that is unembellished yet poignant.

My only quibble with the book is that Pato, the family son, functions mostly as a literary device, exemplified by the opening graveyard scene in which he is serving as a counterbalancing weight for Kaddish's gravestone defacement. That image recurs throughout the book, as Pato mirrors and reacts to his parents but does not emerge as a fully realized character himself. We feel his parents' anguish when he is disappeared, but we don't miss him as a person.

But such flaws are minor, and do nothing to diminish the lyricism and the humor, which manages to stay on the sober side of slapstick. Any author who can spin phrases like "the seam where the seedy underground was sewn to the seat of power" and "if everyone believes the same lie, isn't it, maybe, the truth?" is worth your time.

Ministry of Special Cases will crawl into your head and haunt your dreams--if you can sleep after you finish it.

Englander's Great First Novel.......2007-06-15

Oh man, is this a great book. You can read elsewhere to hear a synopsis of the plot, so I will simply state that the book concerns a family of Argentine Jews--the Poznans; Kaddish, Lillian and their son Pato--who also happen to be outsiders during the years of terrible political upheaval in the 1970s when thousands of innocents were disappeared.

In my estimation, the issue at the core of this novel is the nature of truth. Treading through territory previously explored by Julio Cortazar in his excellent story 'Blow-Up', Englander raises the problem of the necessity for information to be shared and agreement be reached in order for knowledge to exist. It is through this particular epistemological quandary that Englander is able to illuminate the insidious genius of the Argentine military junta's program of disappearances. By altering the historical record and using fear tactics to ensure the denial of witnesses the government was able to absolve themselves from their numberless crimes. How can you charge the abduction of an individual who cannot be shown to have ever existed? These notions of altering the present by erasing the past are elaborated further through the character of Kaddish and the 'respectable' Jews who hire him to chip away their parents' names from their headstones in the cemetary of the now defunct Benevolent Self--the congregation of gangsters, prostitutes and other low-lifes. And I almost forgot about the nose jobs! Kaddish arranges nose jobs for the whole family in payment for his services. Not only does this serve to 'erase' the family's link with their Jewish forebears, but it also removes their missing son's image from his mother's face.

The Ministry of Special Cases is also a story about families. The truth that Englander has created through this mother, father and son is astounding. The mythic struggle between a father and his son and the no less mythic love of a Jewish mother are all there and all ring wholly true. It is ultimately the family's refusal to accept the government's revised version of events that will keep their son alive, if only in their own minds.

This is one of the most beautiful, lyrical and heart-breaking books I have read this year. Englander's language is transcendent and his ear for a specific South American Jewish manner of speech is pitch perfect. You will not be disappointed.

Incredible Human story.......2007-06-10

Very unique story with unforgettable characters. Excellent writing and very enjoyable book.

Gripping and beautifully written.......2007-06-06

This book blew me away: It was intense, historical, funny and deep. Once you start reading, just try putting it down. I know I couldn't. I just wish Mr. Englander had more novels in bookstores. I'm eagerly awaiting the next one.

Average customer rating:

What???
Don't read the blurb
"This above all, to refuse to be a victim."
"A divorce is like an amputation, you survive but there's less of you."
LET'S TRY SOMETHING POETIC

Surfacing
Margaret Atwood
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0385491050
Release Date: 1998-03-16

Book Description

Part detective novel, part psychological thriller, Surfacing is the story of a talented woman artist who goes in search of her missing father on a remote island in northern Quebec. Setting out with her lover and another young couple, she soon finds herself captivated by the isolated setting, where a marriage begins to fall apart, violence and death lurk just beneath the surface, and sex becomes a catalyst for conflict and dangerous choices. Surfacing is a work permeated with an aura of suspense, complex with layered meanings, and written in brilliant, diamond-sharp prose. Here is a rich mine of ideas from an extraordinary writer about contemporary life and nature, families and marriage, and about women fragmented...and becoming whole.

Customer Reviews:

What???.......2007-01-27

If this was a mystery, where was any kind of suspense? This was about coming to terms with an unwanted abortion. Was she ever married? Does anyone care? She started unravelling from page 172 onward; why then? I felt this book was a waste of precious reading time.

Don't read the blurb.......2006-07-14

This book is the example of how you can't get a picture of the book after reading the blurb. It says "part detective novel". Well, I doubt that the writer of the blurb had ever read or seen a detective story. Yes, the main character is looking for her father who has recently disappeared but she is looking for him more in her memories than starting a real investigation. Stranger even is the expression "psychological thriller". There are absolutely no thriller elements in the story, at least I was not convinced that the main character thought meant certain things seriously which could be interpreted by a shallow mind as the devices of the genre. The main character of the novel is the type of person who has a large and magnificent theatrical stage in herself, where reality and fantasy can meet and can be acted out in full. She lives more in her head than in the physical world. After a painful marriage she does not want to tie herself down with another man. She is afraid of getting emotionally involved and getting deeply hurt again. The novel ends with a question: what will her final decision be? Is she going to accept this far from perfect man? Can she hope to feel good in his strangely mangled and verbally desolate but at the same time intensely passionate world?

"This above all, to refuse to be a victim.".......2005-08-31

After reading Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" I was captivated by her unique metaphorical prose and eager to read another of her works. "Surfacing" definitely did not disappoint me, with its dark logic and interesting situations. It is not by any means a pretty novel, but there is much truth to be found in it, which I think makes for a great read.

The protagonist, a nameless artist, embarks on a journey to her Canadian wilderness home in hopes of finding her missing father. Her boyfriend and another couple accompany her. As the group becomes accustomed to life in the wild, truths are uncovered and tensions develop between the characters that eventually lead up to a shocking climax. The protagonist, in an altered state of sanity, makes a desperate attempt to reconnect with her true self and in the process discovers the answers to all her questions regarding her father.

Throughout the novel the Canadian wilderness is portrayed in such a way that instills in the reader a great respect for all its power. Atwood, being a Canadian native herself, describes it beautifully. "Surfacing" is one of her earlier novels and a great prequel for the ones to follow.

I would definitely recommend this novel. The complex labyrinth of symbolism provides great food for thought. It is very emotionally impacting and leaves the reader pondering their own sense of self.

"A divorce is like an amputation, you survive but there's less of you." .......2005-07-31

One of Margaret Atwood's earlier novels, "Surfacing" tells the story of a young artist who sets out to investigate the disappearance of her father. Accompanied by her lover and another young couple, she journeys to an outlying Canadian island in search of answers. As the group adjusts to life in the rustic cabin that was once the narrator's childhood home, plenty of sexual tension begins to erupt. The narrator contemplates the fate of her relationship with Joe, who wants more from her than she is willing and able to give. Anna and David's seemingly perfect marriage begins to unravel as the truth about their relationship becomes shockingly clear.

The strain among these four people coupled with the unanswered questions about the narrator's missing father creates a lingering sense of foreboding. "Surfacing" is symbolic and slightly obscure, and it will leave the reader contemplating elements of feminism, nationalism, and general paranoia. I found it a bit difficult to connect with the characters since they're so distant (we don't even find out the narrator's name), but the story is interesting and there is plenty of absorbing subtext to keep the reader engaged.

I didn't enjoy "Surfacing" as much as some of Atwood's other books, but it's a very compelling story...I definitely recommend it.

LET'S TRY SOMETHING POETIC.......2005-05-29

The female narrator of Surfacing by Margaret Atwood is a woman with emotional scars that she has never faced, a victim of a previous marriage whose goal is to keep herself from love as long as she can. Taking leave of her job as a commercial artist, she travels to a remote Canadian island to search for her father, who has turned up missing from his solitary cabin. Going along with her is her boyfriend Joe, a man who loves her without receiving anything in return except her body. Also along for the adventure is Anna, her best friend, if you can call someone a best friend whom you've only known for 2 months. Anna's oversexed boyfriend, David, joins the party. What the narrator will find will have less to do with her father than the old standby cliched "return to nature" theme that has already been done to death.

By the time I reached the overblown and hopelessly poetic, I mean pathetic, third part of this novel, I could sum up my feelings as "UGH!" While the first two parts are interesting and work doubletime as a mystery and self-exploration of the main character, it really started to fall apart in the last third when it turned into a poetic nature girl ramble right out of Wordsworth or Shelley, and the author came up sorely lacking. I began to wonder if I was reading Altered States.

Something that was amusing was the constant undertheme of American bashing which surprised me because this novel was originally published in 1972. Americans represent everything that the narrator hates about the world, especially rampant consumerism and anti-environmentalism. You would think that Atwood could see beyond such crass stereotypes. Surfacing was quite good until the writer forced its narrative into a prose poem whose language is at complete odds with the characterization that had been established through its first 2/3's.

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