27 posts tagged “reading”
Wow...where have I been? Just been lazy...heh.
I've finished two books since the last update. I've read Dark of the Moon by John Sanford and Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz.
This was a pretty good spin off from the Lucas Davenport series. It features a detective that is part of Lucas' group, Virgil Flowers. This character if a lot like Lucas in that they seem to always get the ladies, etc...heh. It was a pretty good mystery...kept me guessing.
I'ver read a lot of Dean Koontz novels and this one didn't disappoint. This is the first in the Odd series. I read somewhere...I think on his web site...that this series will be about seven books. Odd Thomas has a special gift? power? curse? wherein he can see dead people. They can't talk but they visit him and he helps them with whatever it seems to be they need. I'll definitely be reading the rest of the books in this series so far.
I was finally able to re-check out two books from the library that I didn't finish reading the first time around. I have finished reading I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and am now reading Flesh and Bones by Jefferson Bass.
I really liked I Am Legend. I have also since seen the movie version with Will Smith. The ending of the movie differs from the book but I guess it was okay. I definitely enjoyed the book more. It was interesting how the story takes place in the mid-70s so there weren't things like cell phones or the Internet. And the twist at the end of the story makes more sense than the movie in reference to the title "I Am Legend."
The book also had some short stories included in it. I was surprised to read a short story called "Prey" only to realize that this story was the basis for a movie I saw on TV when I was a little kid that freaked me the way out!!! I think next to The Exorcist, this "Prey" movie was second on my list of movies I will never, ever, NEVER watch again EVER. Just reading the story brought back the visions of terror I had when I saw this movie as a kid. Hm...I think the movie was called Trilogy of Terror actually...and the "Prey" movie was one of the three parts of terror. I think the actress was Karen Black...dunno why I even remember all this but, yeah, that movie freakin' freaked me out. It was about this woman who buys a little African doll that has a chain around it to hold in the "soul of a warrior". Well, the chain falls off and the little doll comes alive!! And being a warrior or hunter, it goes after the lady!!! The special effects back then, late 70's/early 80's (?), weren't that great, but that little doll skittered around crazily and made scary screaming noises. I watched it while peeking out from behind the sofa with my hands around my ears...hahahaha. FREAKY.
I got lazy and didn't feel like updating...that's my excuse for not updating in such a long time...heh. But it's true! I was LAZY. Hm...what was the last book I was reading? Hm...I think it was Helpless by Barbara Gowdry. I didn't really enjoy reading the book. I mean, it was about a guy who kidnaps a little girl because he "loves" her. It made me cringe because I kept expecting to read about molest-y stuff but it never really happens. The story actually has a happy ending for the little girl. The story started out slow too and I didn't really get interested until the kidnapping happens. The only problem I had with the story was with the little girl...she seemed a bit too precocious...but that's just me I guess.
After that, I read Cracked by Dr. Drew Pinsky. He's the doctor that does Loveline (the radio show and the show when it was on MTV or whatever). The book is about his job helping addicts through the hospital that he works at. I thought it was interesting what he says about addiction and how he helps people get through it. Some recover, some don't.
Now, I'm going through some cook books. One is Tyler Florence's Tyler's Ultimate and Bittersweet by Alice Medrich. One, I like Tyler Florence and his Ultimate cooking show on Food Network. Two, I like chocolate. I found a chocolate tart recipe online that was based on a recipe by Alice Medrich and it was easy and very tasty, so I thought I'd check out the cook book that it came from.
Bento Box in the Heartland by Linda Furiya was a pretty good read. She describes some childhood incidents dealing with race and culture that sounded familiar to me even though I grew up in an area that had a large Asian population. There were some emotional parts where even I teared up when reading. (Yes...I'm not entirely dead inside.) Oh yeah, the food...it says on the cover "a food memoir"...I've been craving Japanese food after reading the book. There are some recipes included in the book after some chapters...I definitely will try to make some homemade gyoza according to the Furiya recipe!
I'm now reading Helpless by Barbara Gowdy. The story is about a man's (pedophile?) obsession with a young girl and what happens when he kidnaps her.
I finally finished Entering Hades by John Leake. I don't know why it took me such a long time to get through the book. I think it just didn't really interest me that much. There were a lot of chapters and it was a bit choppy...going back in forth in time and listed lots of dates and names of people to try to keep track of. It was weird and scary that so many people were willing to believe in the innocence of the killer...allowing him to be released from prison...letting him go on to kill more women. He was like a mix between Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.
The next book on my reading list is I am Legend by Richard Matheson. It's the book that the movie is based on. And did you know there was an earlier movie made based on this book called Omega Man or something like that? I think it starred Charleton Heston...heh. Anyway...I wanted to read the book first before seeing the movie...yeah, yeah, I'm one of those people who wait for movies to come out on DVD. Going to movie theaters just doesn't appeal to me or Mr. Chickpea anymore. Yeah, we're oldie McOldsters. Speaking of which...Mr. Chickpea just had a birthday. I think he's going to have a mid-life crisis soon...heh.
Tess Gerritsen's The Bone Garden was a pretty good mystery. It seemed a little corny with the love story part of it (both in the present and in the past), but I found the medical history part of it interesting and informative. I totally didn't guess who the West End Reaper was but it was believable who it was when revealed. As for who the baby-daddy was, it didn't seem that believable to me but it made sense.
The book I'm reading next is Entering Hades by John Leake. It's the story of a real serial killer who had killed here in Southern California and in Austria. I read a lot of stuff, fiction and non-fiction, pertaining to serial killers...only because the behavioral and psychological parts fascinate me. I don't think I could make it as an investigator in the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit though...I wouldn't be able to stomach bloody crime scenes or dead bodies...ech.
The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos wasn't really what I thought it was going to be...which I thought was about a serial killer. Well, it sort of was, but the case of the Night Gardener was more like a footnote. So I was somewhat disappointed with that aspect, but the book was still good. There was a lot of focus on the characters and I thought each character was developed fully and believably. I don't think I'll be reading other books by this author who was a writer on the show, The Wire.
The next book on my list is The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen. I think this is a standalone mystery and it's set in the 1830s.
Well, I finished Sea Change and even the next Robert B. Parker book, High Profile over the last week. I think I'm finally caught up on the Jesse Stone series. These last two books interwove?...interweaved?...um...there was a crossover from the Sunny Randall series where Sunny is seeing Jesse. But the two of them are still hooked on their exes so they break up at the end even though they are perfect for each other. I like Sunny's ex way more than Jesse's ex. Jesse's ex keeps sleeping around on him even though she supposedly loves him! Aaargh! Stupid woman. Oh, besides the relationship stuff, Jesse solved a couple of murder cases too...heh.
So now I'm on to the next book which is The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos. I don't remember how this book got on my reading list...I must have read a review somewhere and thought it would be a good book to read...since the story involves a serial killer...my favorite type of mystery story!
So I finished up Death in Paradise by Robert B. Parker. It seemed like the murder in the story was secondary to the character development of Police Chief Jesse Stone. It focused a lot more on his "therapy" to deal with his drinking than on the "whodunit." It was anticlimatic at the end when the killer confessed...you don't know why the murder happened.
The next book I'm reading is the next in the Jesse Stone series, Stone Cold. Hm...I can't seem to find a picture of the book. Oh well.
I gotta catch up on the book postings! I've already finished another book after finishing up The Sleeping Doll by Jeffery Deaver. That book was a pretty good roller coaster ride, which is the kind of roller coaster I like. There were some twists and turns and was pretty thrilling over all. The only thing I didn't like, and don't really like in any story, is when one of the good guys...kinda turns out to be bad in the end. Oh well.
I started on Spare Change by Robert B. Parker the next day and didn't expect to finish it so quickly. This is the current book in the Sunny Randall, P.I., series. This time she gets called in to help her father as a consultant on an old serial killer case that was never solved. I like how this series intertwines psychotherapy with the ongoing cases. You learn about Sunny Randall as she learns about herself.
The next book on my reading list is another Robert B. Parker book, Death in Paradise. This is from the series featuring Jesse Stone, the police chief of Paradise. I suspect I'll get through this one pretty quickly too!
