SECOND SUNRISE - David and Aimee Thurlo

Another fine evening of reading accomplished. Isn't it grand when nothing the crew wants to watch is interesting and you have a good book to read? I know I think so.
I began SECOND SUNRISE yesterday afternoon when I woke from my after mid shift sleep. I quickly read the first two chapters and made it my purse book to hopefully finish on shift last night. And I just now read the last page of this super vampire book. Very fast moving, page-turner deluxe.
Lee Nez is a police officer in New Mexico during WW II. He discovers an in process theft of a secret weapon, does his duty to stop the theft, is shot and turned into a vampire by the thieves' leader. Fast forward to present day, the lead vampire did not expire as Officer Nez thought and has possibly returned to retrieve the plutonium cache.
There is definitely more to this story, but you will have to read it to get the rest.

4 coffeebean rating!

SERVANT: THE AWAKENING - L. L. Foster

Another good reading night! I finished SERVANT: THE AWAKENING this morning.....early early morning.... I love mids when nothing is going on and I can read and pay attention to what is going on (or nothing is going on) at the same time.
It was time for a paranormal thriller and this one fit the bill nicely. Gabrielle (Gaby) Cody has a calling from God to rid the earth of demons. Demons that look like humans, but only she can see that they are not. She feels the pull and complies. She works alone and has done all of her life. Now she has people intruding. One is the man who owns the rundown building in which she lives, the other is a police detective. A very attractive, strong police detective. Most times this would have had me setting this aside for something else, but the characters were believable (as believable as demon hunters and the people in their lives can be). Gaby is tough to keep people from getting to close. These two men find their way in.
I am very glad that this is a series as I am looking forward to seeing what the next paranormal adventure will be.
Four beans rating!

FINDING YOUR MOJO - Stephanie Bond

FINDING YOUR MOJO is a good, if a teensy bit heavy on co-ink-e-dink. However, I do know that life can be (and often is) heavy on co-ink-e-dink, so I let it slide. I like the characters and the magic that is Mojo, small town Louisiana. Very cool follow up to the first in the series, IN DEEP VOODOO, which introduced us to Gloria, the main character in FINDING...
Gloria is a lawyer moving to Mojo from New Orleans once the hectic pace starts to play havoc with the Meniere's Disease ( vertigo) she suffers. She begins her practice, meets a long lost love from her days before being placed in witness protection program. Said long lost love is the new sheriff in town. From New Jersey to Mojo, Louisiana....see?? Co-ink-e-dinks out the wahzoo! Well, okay, one co-ink-e-dink.
Even with all that, a very fun book to read and mine is not for trade. It's autographed by the author to me for sponsoring her in a book related event she ran a gazillion miles for. Maybe not a gazillion, but it would have felt that way to me if I'd run.

Four Coffee Beans

THE BLACK ECHO - Michael Connelly (five bean rating)

THE BLACK ECHO is a very good beginning to a very good police suspense series. Harry Bosch is a loner for the most part, with a sense of justice that the LAPD doesn't admire for the most part.

Harry is called to the scene of a heroin OD found in some pipes used for runoff in the hills of LA. He finds that he knows the victim from his Vietnam days and the man is considered a murder victim.

The book moves forward at the pace of an investigation. No shortcuts, no ah-ha moments from nowhere. Very enjoyable and highly recommendable.

I give it 5 beans.

Nectar of the Gods....Coffee.....

I am trying to ease up on my coffee intake and really only have it on the weekends. The acidity, I guess, is playing havoc with my innards, so the doc ordered me to ease up. Now it's tea during the week and coffee on weekends only. Another reason to love my Saturdays and Sundays.

The gods bless the goatherder following his frisky goats and wondering what those beans were that caused his charges to be even more upbeat. He tried some...."HEY, that's a pretty nice little buzz, I can watch those goats 24/7 now!" Wonder who it was who decided to put them in water for an infusion. Then the blessed brain who GROUND THEM UP and put them in water!

I am high maintenance when it comes to my coffee. Can't drink the office coffee. Nope it's got to be either homebrewed in my beloved best Christmas present ever CuisineArt all-in-one bean grinder/coffee maker. OR it comes from one of my favorite little coffee joints in our neighborhood. The foo-fooier, the bettererererer (and preferably some kind of chocolate in the mix). Oh, and a book!

18 SECONDS - George D Shuman, BOT in the car

Listened to this up and down story the last few days for my commute. The story is a wee bit roller-coastery and sort of meanders in points of view, but it is a good story and especially so because it's narrated by George Guidall, one of my favorites.

The premise is supremely intriguing. One of the main characters is blind and has the amazing psychic ability of reading the last 18 seconds of a person's memory after the person dies. It's helped archeologists find treasure and cops to find killers.

And there is one last serial killer, Sykes, to catch and he is truly awful. He and his girlfriend kidnapped women in the 70's and were never caught. He went to prison for killing a busload of teens after running them off the road while he was running from the cops and under the influence of drugs. The girlfriend was never caught. Sykes is later 'rehabilitated' and released after finding out he has terminal cancer. He is back on the kill prowl.

The book sort of slowly builds up and then it's like the author realizes he has a quota of only a certain number of pages and he quickly brings the threads together in a knot. I kind of guessed how it would end and it slightly irritated me. It seemed that the author might have taken some shortcuts.

I will likely read more from the author. He writes a suspenseful police thriller, just needs a teensy bit of smoothing out. Don't want to say polish, that's what James Patterson does after a team writes the book and he puts the 'star polish' on it. Blech.

Shhh.....be vehwy vehwy quiet.....we are hunting wehwahtees

Something one doesn't find often in the wild......a man reading instructions.....

Bring Your Kid To Work Day....

Lady K doesn't quite meet the age requirement for my company's Bring Your Child to Work Day, so this is as good as I can get it.....maybe next year....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEESTER!!!

Today is my baby sister's 45th birthday. HaPpY BirTHdaY to you, Sheri! In honor of today, I am posting a pic of her favorite book when we were kids, HARRIET THE SPY - Louise Fitzhugh. I have absolutely no idea how many times I read it, but I know she read it WAY MORE!

I LOVE YOU SEESTER!!!

Celebrating Earth Day

Planting our own garden for the second year in a row. Used our compost (that's the bin in the corner you see behind me tilling), Lady K is planting corn. We also planted green beans, sweet peas and green onions.

Good Review and a Nifty Give-away

http://thewrittenword.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/comfort-food-and-a-giveaway

Stephanie gives fab review of COMFORT FOOD, soon-to-be-released book by Kate Jacobs of FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB renown.
The giveaway part is a tote....think of the books you could carry in it...go to the link and check it out.

Sunday is Linen Exchange Day......

How do three people, one of whom is HRH Lady K and only 5 years old, make for so many towels and sheets? sigh.......best get started......

MISS JULIA STRIKES BACK - Ann B Ross

MISS JULIA STRIKES BACK is just SO GOOD! I love her smarts, spunk, assertiveness....I want to be like Miss Julia when I grow up.

In this book, Miss Julia is robbed of her engagement and wedding ring. She sees that no one is going to do anything to her satisfaction in getting her precious jewelry returned to her, so she and Lloyd go south to West Palm, Florida to retrieve everything. She enlists the aid of Mr Pickens PI friend, Mr Tuttle. He is a man of liquid lunches tastes, much to Miss Julia's distaste, but she needs his help. They do not exactly get along, but they work together to get the job done.

This is a wonderful series, warm and very funny.

RUEFUL DEATH - Susan Wittig Albert

MISTLETOE MAN is still my favorite of the China Bayles series, but RUEFUL DEATH is a very close second! WOW, very quick and wonderful read.

China gets to leave Pecan Springs and take a little after Christmas break. She decides to go on a retreat with her friend Maggie to St Theresa's Monastery for two weeks, but ends of discovering that she has been invited for a completely different reason. The Abbess wants China to find out who is behind the poison pen letters and the suspected arson. And then there is the possibility of murder. There are a few interconnected subplots throughout and totally make sense. I especially liked the way China is involved in the mystery because she was requested, not because everywhere she goes there's a murder to solve. No Murder, She Wrote-itis here.

Spring In Colorado....

More flowers from bulbs are showing their colors thanks to the warm days we've been having. It started snowing this afternoon......the plants may be a teensy bit confused, but they'll have to toughen up...they're in Colorado now!

YARN HARLOT: THE SECRET LIFE OF A KNITTER - Stephanie Pearl - McPhee

From B&N: Over 50 million people in America knit. The average knitter spends between $500 and $1,700 a year on yarn, patterns, needles, and books. No longer just a fad or a hobby, knitting has advanced to a lifestyle.

Lessen the numbers on how many do so, this very funny warm book could easily be titled THE BOOK HARLOT, I swear upon my oath as a standing member of BA (Bookaholics Anonymous....Hi, my name is Vickie and I am a bookaholic...HI VICKIE)

The wonderful thing about this book is it's theoretically for knitters, or Knitters as Stephanie names it, but it's for anyone who can identify with any obsession they might have. I love Stephanie's long suffering family, the husband who finds her yarn stash in the sleeve of his jacket, the daughters who don't want to learn to knit much to the extreme amazement of their mother.

My favorite is the chapter Parents and Knitters: The Top Ten Ways Why Being a Parent Is Like Being a Knitter. #3 is great: Both knitting and parenting are more pleasant if you have the occasional glass of wine, but go right down the drain if you start up with a lot of tequila or shooters.

I highly recommend this very funny and fast moving book.

TALL, DARK & DEAD - Tate Hallaway

TALL,DARK & DEAD comes across as a chick-lit book if one were a judge-a-book-by-its-cover type. I am more of a pick-a-book-by-its-title type a catchy title will almost always grab my attention.Especially when TALL,DARK & DEAD is followed by the catch line....Nobody's Perfect....

Garnet has moved to Madison Wisconsin after finding a group of witch hunters are on her trail. A vampire walks into her magic shop looking for ingredients. But no, he can't be a vampire, he's walking around in daylight. Garnet is intrigued. As is Lilith, the goddess witch Garnet channeled and keeps inside her after the death of her coven at the hands of the witch hunters.

This is a good story, a sort of in between light and grim paranormal. Garnet is my favorite. She is tough, but still vulnerable at times. Sebastian makes for an intriguing vampire. I'd like to see more of Garnet's friend, Izzy, who takes pretty much all she witnesses in her stride. William is a confused sweet soul and deserves more book time.

THE GHOST AND THE DEAD MAN'S LIBRARY - Alice Kimberly

This well written cozy by Alice Kimberly, aka Cleo Coyle of the Coffeehouse Mystery series are the pen names for Alice Alfonsi, who writes with her husband, Marc Cerasini, was a joy to read. It's the third in the Haunted Bookshop series. There isn't much in the way of character development or growth, except Penelope Thorton-McClure is standing up for herself more, especially with the help of her invisible friend, Jack Shephard, P.I., the Ghost in the series. She is learning to no longer take any McCrappe from bullies of all sorts. She has a great set of oddball friends who have helped in the past with solving mysteries. This story revolves around a set of books of Edgar Allen Poe stories, the set is supposed to have a code leading to a treasure. This, of course, leads to...duhn-duhn-duhn..... murder.

If you let yourself go with the flow and don't get wrapped around the axle that Pen can talk to Jack in her cranium, even take him with her outside the shop so long as she has a buffalo nickel he used to carry, and even goes on capers with him in her dreams, then you will definitely enjoy this series.

THE BONE GARDEN - Tess Gerritsen, BOCD

This is an amazing story told by an amazing author. The book starts a little slowly and the reader or listener has to get used to the back and forth in time from present day to the mid-1800's, but the story is worth it.

Present day Julia is starting over as an ex-wife, remodeling a 100 plus year old house in burbs of Boston. She finds a skull in her garden and this starts the flashbacks to the story in 1830 of Rose Connelly trying to keep alive from the hands of the Reaper, a serial killer who seems to be targeting people from the hospital where her sister has just given birth.

There are historical figures as well as fictional and the blend is done quite seamlessly. The reader has a view in medical studies in that era, the progress of the medical miracles and the sheer ignorance of supposedly intelligent men who could not figure out that washing hands and using clean instruments and towels would help prevent the spread of disease and death. The high mortality rate that would provide bodies for study by the medical students, except that it was against the law. We meet 'resurrectionists', the grim diggers of graves to provide bodies for the medical schools. Makes the reader shudder and lean forward to see what is going to happen next.

FANGS FOR THE MEMORIES - Kathy Love

Alrighty then, first book for April finished last night. Made myself stay awake just a little longer since I only had a few more pages to go. Decent enough story, not great, but readable. I may look for the rest of the series. One of those, when all else fails, throw in another sex scene. The story was good, vampire (Rhys) loses his memory, finds his soulmate (Jane), soulmate helps him remember he is no longer a viscount living in back in the day England. He's really avampire living above the Goth nightclub he and his brother, Sebastian, (also a vampire) own in New York City.

Rhys saves Jane from out of town from a just let out of prison, non-rehabilited rapist, then saves her again from Rhys's evil brother,Christian (also a vampire), loses his memory, takes girl home, Jane hired to help Rhys stay out of the sun, eat only the 'protein drinks'. And she does not know he's a vampire until the end of the book.

Rhys gets his memory back after a time, feels bad, wants to protect Jane, sends Jane away...or tries to.

Like I posted, it's a good story and I may look for the rest of the series. Looks like each one revolves around a brother, all vampires looking for luh-huv.