Michael Connelly - City of Bones

116. City of Bones by Michael Connelly (2002)
The Harry Bosch Series Book 8
Length: 393 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 23 December 2013
Finished: 25 December 2013
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 20 July 2012
Why do I have it? I like contemporary mysteries and Michael Connelly is a new author for me.

On New Year's Day, Detective Harry Bosch receives a phone call that a dog has found a bone - a bone that the dog's owner, a doctor, is convinced is human. During the subsequent investigation, that discovery leads Harry to a shallow grave in the Hollywood Hills, evidence of a murder committed more than twenty years earlier. It's a cold case, but it stirs up the detective's deeply buried memories of his own childhood as an orphan in the city. Especially when the bones are identified to be those of a child - a twelve-year-old boy.

Harry can not let this case go. He's absolutely determined that the child will not be forgotten. Unearthing hidden stories, Harry eventually discovers the child's true identity and begins to slowly reconstruct the boy's fractured life. 

At the same time, a burgeoning love affair with a female rookie cop begins to blossom for Harry - until a devastatingly botched mission leaves him in more trouble than ever before in his turbulent career. As the investigation races toward its unexpected conclusion, Harry is left on the brink of an unimaginable decision...

I thought that reading this book was quite intriguing. In my opinion, the writing was very clear and easy to follow. This actually was the first book by Michael Connelly that I've ever read, and the eighth book in this particular series. 

Despite that, the mystery wasn't too difficult for me to understand. Although I will say that, at least for me, the ending was slightly anticlimactic - leaving me with a couple of unanswered questions. Overall though, City of Bones by Michael Connelly earned a definite A! and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

A! - (90-95%)
  
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Thomas H. Cook - Evidence of Blood

115. Evidence of Blood by Thomas H. Cook (1991)
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 17 December 2013
Finished: 22 December 2013
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 15 December 2000
Why do I have it? I like contemporary mysteries and Thomas H. Cook is a new author for me.

True crime writer Jackson Kinley is coming home to Sequoyah, Georgia to grieve for an old friend. Jackson's boyhood friend, Ray Tindall, was the sheriff of Sequoyah at the time of his sudden death. Now with his passing, Jackson has returned and subsequently finds himself being drawn into an investigation of the town's most enduring legend: a thirty-seven-year-old unsolved murder.

In the summer of 1954, sixteen-year-old Ellie Dinker disappeared on a winding mountain road, leaving behind a bloody green dress swaying in the breeze. Charles Overton was sentenced to die for the murder of young Ellie, even though her body was never found. But the prosecution had all the ammunition it needed: that blood-stained dress and a jury out for vengeance...

Sheriff Tindall's death has left many questions: Why had he suddenly reopened the Overton case...and then, without explanation, shut it down? What was he looking for? And what did he find that he couldn't bear to reveal?

Determined to discover the truth of that long-ago mystery, Jackson Kinley embarks on a chilling odyssey that will send him hurtling back into the lost, terrifying canyons of his own buried childhood...as he unearths evidence of an unspeakable crime - and the shocking blood secret somebody killed to keep.

I may have several books by this author on my bookshelf already, although to my knowledge Evidence of Blood is the first one that I've actually read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book - overall, it was well-written and compelling - although I did find the story a little slow to get into in the beginning. The plot also was slightly more convoluted than I was expecting; it took me some time to work out and to fully understand the solution to the mystery.

However, that could be just be my personal experience while reading this book. Occasionally, I find that using 'armchair detection' doesn't come easily to me! Anyway, I give this book a definite A! and am looking forward to reading more from Thomas H. Cook in the future.

A! - (90-95%)
   
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Maryann McFadden - The Richest Season

114. The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden (2008)
Length: 326 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 14 December 2013
Finished: 16 December 2013
Where did it come from? From Bookmooch
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 14 December 2013
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and have read and enjoyed So Happy Together by the same author in the past.

Sometimes you have to leave your life behind in order to finally find yourself. So it is for Joanna Harrison: perfect wife and mother of twenty-five years. Joanna finds herself at a crossroads in her life - after more than a dozen moves over the span of a twenty-five year marriage, she is lonely, bored, and tired of playing the role of a corporate wife.

Her children are grown and gone, her husband is more married to his job than he is to her, and now they're about to pack up once more. Joanna just can't take any more. Panicked at the thought of having to start all over again, she commits the first irresponsible act of her life. She runs away to Pawleys Island, South Carolina, a place she has been to just once.

She finds a job as a live-in companion to Grace Finelli, a widow who has come to the island to fulfill a girlhood dream. Together the two women embark on the most difficult journey of their lives: Joanna struggling for independence, roots, and a future of her own, while her family tugs at her from afar; and Grace, choosing to live the remainder of her life for herself alone, knowing she may never see her children again.

Entwined is Paul Harrison's story as he loses his wife, his job, and in effect, everything that defines him as a man. He takes off on his own journey out west, searching for the answers to all that has gone wrong in his life. One thing remains constant: he wants his wife back. Joanna, however, is moving further away from her old life as she joins a group dedicated to rescuing endangered loggerhead turtles, led by a charismatic fisherman unlike anyone she's ever met.

This is Ms. McFadden's debut novel - a stunning story of three very different people, each changing their lives at a time when such transformations are usually long over. In my opinion, this book was delightful. I found myself quickly engrossed in the lives and various predicaments of the characters, rooting for them all to come through their own difficulties relatively unscathed. I give this book an A+! and look forward to reading Ms. McFadden's next book sometime in the future.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

I'm in the Midst of a Weeklong Puzzle Blitz...or Should I Say a Puzzle Binge!

Hello everyone! I hope that you're all just fine this morning - I certainly am! :) Anyway, I wanted to give you an update on my week, since I haven't posted a book review in just over a week or so. Since Friday, December 6th - or maybe Saturday, December 7th - I've been doing puzzles! :) Mainly jigsaw puzzles - although I'm alternating between jigsaws, sudoku, and crosswords as well.

I've done three of the jigsaw puzzles that we bought from the Library Book Sale that Mareena and I went to on November 21st. The rest were already part of my collection, and have been for years. I'm currently about a third of the way through doing my sixth jigsaw puzzle. The majority of the puzzles have been 1000 pieces - although a couple may have been 500 pieces - I'm not sure.

I'm not actually reading anything at the moment, although I do have two books waiting for me in the wings - Deadly Grace by Taylor Smith, and Dracula in Love by Karen Essex. I may start reading Dracula in Love by Karen Essex next, once the puzzle phase passes. That is one of Mareena's books, but she has let me borrow it to read.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Maryann McFadden - So Happy Together

113. So Happy Together by Maryann McFadden (2009)
Length: 381 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 2 December 2013
Finished: 4 December 2013
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 20 April 2013
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and Maryann McFadden is a new author for me.

Claire Noble is a single mother and a respected history teacher, who has also been caring for her aging parents. Everyone may need a dream, but Claire gave up on hers a long time ago. But her dreams apparently never gave up on her - and now, Claire finally has a chance to experience something that she has always wanted. 

She has fallen in love with Rick Saunders, who is offering her both security and the opportunity to travel. Before their planned fall wedding, Claire will be leaving to spend the summer on Cape Cod, where the fabled light has been luring artists for a century; for the chance of a lifetime to study with one of the most noted photographers in the country. 

But just as Claire is about to step forward into her new life, the previous one begins to change dramatically. Her estranged daughter suddenly shows up with a backpack full of problems. Claire's father reveals a fifty-year-old secret that threatens to unravel their family. Her mother confides that at seventy-eight years old, she's still waiting for the love of her life. And a chance encounter with an environmental writer results in an intriguing new relationship, threatening Claire's certainty that she's found the man with whom she hopes to spend the rest of her life. 

In the midst of all this turbulence, Claire begins to question everything she thought she wanted. And surprisingly, so do her mother and her daughter. Set in the lush, rolling hills of northern New Jersey and the romantic, windswept dunes of Cape Cod, So Happy Together by Maryann McFadden is the story of three generations of women who find their lives, and dreams, suddenly transformed in ways they never would have imagined. However, ultimately, it is the heartbreaking and joyful journey of one woman who comes to realize that, when you're a mother, and a daughter, you are never truly free.

In my opinion, this was quite a book. The plot and story were very believable, and the family dynamics were just the type that I enjoy reading about. This was actually the first book that I've ever read by Maryann McFadden, and it was a book that Mareena chose for me when we went to our local library's perpetual book sale back in April of this year. I think that Mareena chose wisely - I give this book an A+! and will definitely put Ms. McFadden's two other books - The Richest Season and The Book Lover - on my Wish List.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Joe Hill - Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel

112. Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel by Joe Hill (2007)
Length: 376 pages
Genre: Horror
Started: 29 November 2013
Finished: 1 December 2013
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 20 April 2013
Why do I have it? I like horror and Joe Hill is a new author for me.

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: from Disney sketches drawn by John Wayne Gacy, to a hangman's noose used at the turn of the nineteenth century in England - and everything in between. As an aging death-metal rock god, his varied taste for the unnatural is widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses can possibly rival his latest discovery - an item for sale on the Internet - something so terribly strange, Jude can't help but reach for his wallet.

"I will 'sell' my stepfather's ghost to the highest bidder..." begins the email, and right from that line Jude is intrigued. For a thousand dollars, he will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn't afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts - of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the band-mates he betrayed. So, what's one more?

But what UPS delivers to his doorstep in a black heart-shaped box is completely unexpected. This is no imaginary or metaphysical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It's the real thing.

Suddenly the suit's previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door...seated in Jude's restored vintage Mustang...standing outside his window...staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting - with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand. And, Judas Coyne is about to learn that sooner or later the dead catch up...

Joe Hill is actually Stephen King's son - something that I didn't realize until Mareena told me when I bought this book back in April. Anyway, although Joe Hill has written many short story collections, I believe that this is his debut novel - and what a debut it is! 

I absolutely loved this book. I found the story to be fast-paced and action-packed, not letting up for an instant. Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel by Joe Hill was compulsively readable for me, and I finished it at a gulp. I give this book an A+! Definitely a winner in a family of winners, and I'm putting Joe Hill's other books - 20th Century Ghosts, Horns and NOS4A2 - on my Wish List.

A+! - (96-100%)
       
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Reading Wrap-up For November at Moonshine and Rosefire

Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Rosefire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog. I originally posted my reviews over at my daughter's blog, Emeraldfire's Bookmark but am now in the process of transferring them all over to my own blog. My daughter makes blogging look like so much fun that I thought that I would try it out for myself! :)

Anyway, I started out November with 811 unread books lying around the house and ended the month with 801 books unread. All the books that I acquired this month came from Amazon, lent to me by Mareena, from Netgalley, lent to me by friends, and a Library Book Sale that we went to on the 21st.

Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Changes to the TBR pile

Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- Cemetery Girl by David Bell
- Falling Angels by Barbara Gowdy
- The Strange Ones by Warren Smith
- Miami, It's Murder by Edna Buchanan
- The Right Hand of Evil by John Saul
- Upstairs, Downstairs III: The Years of Change by Mollie Hardwick
- Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
- Every Last One: A Novel by Anna Quindlen
- Heat by Arthur Herzog
- Green Calder Grass by Janet Dailey

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! Not too bad though, I suppose:))
- The Mummifier's Daughter: A Novel in Ancient Egypt by Nathaniel Burns
- Morehouse Farm Critter Knits: 20 Easy Patterns and Designs for Animal Scarves, Hats and Mittens by Margrit Lohrer
- The Angry Woman Suite by Lee Fulbright
- Hidden Lives by Douglas Adamson
- A Light in Dark Places by Jennifer Graves and Emily Clawson
- The Descent: Book 3 of the Taker Trilogy by Alma Katsu 
- True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murders by Dina Di Mambro
- Who Knew? The Best of Volumes 1 and 2 by Bruce Lubin and Jeanne Bossolina Lubin
- Who Knew? Volume 3 by Bruce Lubin and Jeanne Bossolina Lubin
- The Meaning of Children by Beverly Akerman
- Cedar Hollow by Tracey Smith
- The Woman in the Photograph by Mani Feniger
- Once More From the Top by Nan Reinhardt
- 204 Rosewood Lane by Debbie Macomber
- The Affair: A Novel by Alicia Clifford
- All the Colors of Darkness by Peter Robinson
- Alma Rose by Edith Forbes
- The Amateur Marriage: A Novel by Anne Tyler
- Another City, Not my Own: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir by Dominick Dunne
- Are You Afraid of the Dark? by Sidney Sheldon
- At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks
- Barefoot in the Sun by Roxanne St. Claire
- Best Friends by Martha Moody
- A Bigamist's Daughter by Alice McDermott
- The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
- Burnt Mountain: A Novel by Anne Rivers Siddons
- Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino
- Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
- Daughters of Britannia: The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives by Katie Hickman
- The Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor by Donald Spoto
- The Doomsday Conspiracy by Sidney Sheldon
- Evenfall by Liz Michalski
- Family Pictures by Sue Miller
- Fergie Confidential: The Real Story by Chris Hutchins and Peter Thompson
- Fire on Ice: The Exclusive Inside Story of Tonya Harding by J. E. Vader and Abby Haight
- For a Few Demons More by Kim Harrison
- Friends in High Places by Donna Leon
- Genie: A Scientific Tragedy by Russ Rymer
- Headhunters by Jo Nesbo
- Heartwood: A Novel by Belva Plain
- The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
- Little Bee by Chris Cleave
- A Matter of Justice by Charles Todd
- The Memory Collector by Meg Gardiner
- The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
- My Name is Mary Sutter: A Novel by Robin Oliveira
- My Sergei: A Love Story by Ekaterina Gordeeva and E. M. Swift
- Neighborhood Watch by Cammie McGovern
- Nightwoods by Charles Frazier
- Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
- Nobody Believes Me by Molly Katz
- The Office of Desire by Martha Moody
- Once in a Blue Moon by Eileen Goudge
- The Other Side of the Rainbow: Behind the Scenes on the Judy Garland Television Series by Mel Torme
- Pearl by Mary Gordon
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
- A Ride Into Morning: The Story of Tempe Wick by Ann Rinaldi
- The Rope Walk by Carrie Brown
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- Shooting at Loons by Margaret Maron
- Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
- Sister by Rosamund Lupton
- Still Alice by Lisa Genova
- The Summer we Fell Apart by Robin Antalek
- Sweetgrass by Mary Alice Monroe
- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
- To Trust a Stranger by Karen Robards
- The Touch by Colleen McCullough
- True Evil: A Novel by Greg Iles
- Truth and Consequence by Angela Britnell
- Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber
- What Matters Most: A Novel by Luanne Rice
- White Doves at Morning by James Lee Burke
- White Widow by Jim Lehrer
- The World Below by Sue Miller
- The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr
- Pride and Honour: The Battle For Saxony by Nathaniel Burns
- Four Letters of Love: The Profundity of Love by Vivek Sharma
- The Ultimate Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set by Taylor Lee, J. Thorn, Cathy Perkins, Nolan Radke, Richter Watkins, Thomas Morrisey and David Weisman
- So What! Stories or Whatever! by G. J. Griffiths
- Siren on the Square by Augustine Tagaste
- Memory Scents: A Psychological Thriller by Gayle Eileen Curtis
- The Turtle Boy by Kealan Patrick Burke
- A First-Name Basis by Patricia Traxler
- Even More Ketchup than Salsa: The Final Dollop by Joe Cawley
- Roaring Mountain: A True Story by Shirley Gray
- The Bracelet: A Novel of Life, Sorrow, and Love by C. A. Deslauries
- Broken Wing by Anna Klay
- Quail Crossings by Jennifer McMurrain
- That Kind of Girl by Christy Ogilvie
- Therapy For Ghosts by Eric Praschan
- Chasing the Demons by Eamon Moroney
- Edgewise by Jan Stites

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))  
- The Doctor's Wife by Brian Moore
- Falling Angels by Barbara Gowdy
- The Strange Ones by Warren Smith
- Moths: A Novel by Rosalind Ashe
- The Hanging Tree: A Novella by Michael Phillip Cash
- The People From the Sea by Velda Johnston
- Summer House: A Novel by Nancy Thayer
- Inventing Memory: A Novel of Mothers and Daughters by Erica Jong
- Expensive People by Joyce Carol Oates
- Echoes by Maeve Binchy
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
- Cemetery Girl by David Bell

Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 10
Pages Read: 3,205
Grade Range: A+! to B+!

So, there you go! The reading month that was November. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight