I admit it. I am crazy for Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I just finished Finger Lickin' Fifteen and I went through it like a hot knife through butter. I don't want to give any spoilers but Lula and Grandma Mazur are a match and gasoline,Stephanie and Ranger well...I don't know how she does it 'cause I sure couldn't, and well the 'Burg is the 'Burg!

I got hooked on these stories because I grew up in that area and "know" these people. Now I really know these people. Janet's books are hysterical and are a true delight for me. I just wish she could write as quickly as I can read!

Finger Lickin' Fifteen isn't the only book on my night table right now. I have also read 3 of the Monica Ferris Needlework mysteries: Embroidered Truths, Sins and Needles and I am almost finished with Thai Die. I have an Emilie Richards book waiting (Touching Stars)as well as The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters by Lorriane Lopez. The last time I went to the library I picked up a couple of books by authors I was not familiar with and that was one of them.

That's it for now, I want to get back to reading! Caio

I am reading Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. I am so engrossed in this book I am getting up early just to read. I am fighting to read at work and when I am home, all I want to do is get back into it.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

I knew absolutely nothing about this terrible happening and have as a family historian, I am so engrossed in the lives of these people and their interconnection that I find myslef thinking about them even when I am not reading!

The Vél’ d’hiv’ Round-up involved 13 000 victims from Paris and its suburbs. Over slightly more than two days, the Round-up involved nearly a third of the 42,000 Jews deported to Polish death camps in 1942. The statistics for this terrible year account for over half of the total 76,000 Jewish deportations from France. The roundup accounted for more than a quarter of the Jews sent from France to Auschwitz in 1942, of whom only 811 came home at the end of the war.

I am no stranger to history. I have studied the Holocaust. I thought that man's inhumanity could no longer shock me. Reading this book, fictional or not, I stand corrected. Definately a must read, Definately a book to own.

French Children of the Holocaust

Excuse me now I have to go find out what is happening in my book!

I have just been gobbling up books this past week. I made a run to the library to return some (just two) over due books and hit what i consider the mother load of new reads. I tried to not grab but several found their way into my bag and I have now finished them. The first was Rosina Lippi's The Pajama Girls for Lambert Square. This is the first of Rosina's books that I have read other than her Wilderness Series. (I intend to remedy that situation ASAP!) This was a lovely story with well formed, interesting characters that I loved. Especially the idea of living in pajamas... I could do that. It doesn't hurt that it takes place in South Carolina where I am determined to retire to someday. You cannot beat this as a lovely warm romance. I highly recommend it and will be out to look for more of Rosina's books.

The second book I gobbled up was Dorothea Benton Frank's Bulls Island Another South Carolina story this one on my beloved coast. Frank once again delivers a wonderful, cultured strong woman centered novel. I have yet to read a book of hers I didn't love. This one was as intriguing and captivating as all the rest and again, I highly recommend it. I cannot wait for Return to Sullivan's Island at the end of this month!

Last but certainly not least was Kate Jacob's Comfort Food. Even though it was not set in South Carolina, it was wonderful all the same. Comfort Food was the first of her books that I have read and I will be looking for The Friday Night Knitting Club. As a "cook" myself (Italian mother's love to feed folks!) I can relate to so many of the characters in this book. The relationships are so well formed and so interesting I was sorry to see the book end.

It is rare, for me at least, to find and read three wonderful books in a row, I am giving this lot all 4 stars and wish Pam was here to share them with.

I have three books that I have finished this week. The first is by Jennifer Chiaverrini. The Lost Quilter is another edition in the Elm Creek Quilter's series and it did not disappoint. Once again we visit the evils of slavery and how quilts help lead the way on the Underground Railroad but this time we got a look primarily from the view of one slave. These books are like candy once you start you cannot put it down. Definitely a keeper and I think this is a series that I do need to purchase for my collection.

The next was another book in the China Bayles series by Susan Wittig Albert. Wormwood lacked the input of China's usual cast of characters but found a place close to my heart anyway. This book takes place in a fictional Shaker community in Northern Kentucky (!). The Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill is one of my absolute favorite places to visit in Kentucky and I have been there many times. The fictional village of Mt. Zion is very much like that and took care to depict the Shaker community very much as it was in the 1800's. I read it straight through and loved every minute. I just wish Ms. Albert could write as quickly as I can read! I cannot wait for the next one.

The last book was an audio book. The 37th Hour by Jodi Compton. Out of the three books, this is the only one I would not recommend. While I chose this because because it is a mystery/thiller with a woman as the main character I was very disappointed in the way the story was handled. There were so many sub-themes and flash backs that I found myself going back to re-listen several times to see just what I had missed that kept me from understanding what I was listening to. The ending was awful. I suspected that there would be a sequel (which I have since found out is true, there is) but I won't be reading it. I won't go into the themes since I don't want to give away any spoilers but I would only read this if there is nothing else at hand.

Fans of Da Vinci Code knockoffs will welcome Byrnes' first novel. When an ancient stone burial box known as an ossuary is stolen from a secret crypt beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, readers will immediately intuit that the bones contained in the box are those of Jesus Christ, even though it takes quite a bit longer for the characters to admit as much. American geneticist Charlotte Hennesey is summoned to the Vatican along with Dr. Giovanni Bersei, an anthropologist, to study the ossuary. Back in Jerusalem, Arabs, Jews and Christians bicker, protest, fight and scheme against one another both within and outside the Temple Mount. A ruthlessly efficient Vatican hit man, Salvatore Conte, hovers over the action. Venal cardinals, contemptuous Israelis, Knights Templar and evil popes round out a familiar cast. Byrnes puts a more contemporary spin on his material than most authors of religious thrillers.

I spent part of my misspent day finishing The Scared Bones by Michael Byrnes. I also have the sequel The Sacred Blood here. I enjoyed the plot and characters much more that the aforementioned Book of Lies. I am looking forward to the sequel but I think I may pick up something a bit lighter first. I like that Byrnes included all sides of the religious war going on in the Middle East and showed respect for each groups thoughts. While I absolutely realize that this is a book of fiction I also know there are many people in this world that are attempting to save their own ideology by undermining someone else's. Truthfulness has become a subjective virtue and I hate to think the opposite of that being practiced by religious leaders but...well, I am just not that naive.

I don't know guys, I kind of liked this one because I listened to it rather than reading it and it was kind of fun but...I think if I had been reading it, I may never have finished. I cannot for the life of me understand how someone could tie the world's first murder (Cain and Abel) to the birth of Superman. I liked that there was a lot of research done on both of those aspects of the story but I felt it turned the solemnity of the bible story into gruel for comic book readers. Yes I got the parallels but I have to say, it didn't do much for me. I read one review that suggested the Meltzer "got so excited (about his themes) he forgot to write a book that made sense." LOL What could have been a great historical mystery got lost.

I will give it three stars for the effort but sorry, no recommended status.

Bestseller Meltzer (The Book of Fate) deserves credit for an audacious conceit—wedding the biblical fratricide of Abel by his brother Cain with the unsolved 1932 homicide of the father of Jerry Siegel, the creator of iconic comic book hero Superman—but the results are less than convincing. A highly tenuous link between the two murders revolves around the mysterious weapon Cain (the world's greatest villain) used to kill his brother. One of numerous theories is that the weapon was a divine book containing the secrets of immortality. After coming to the aid of a shooting victim, Calvin Harper, a homeless volunteer working in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., soon finds himself hopelessly caught up in a life-and-death quest for the ancient artifact that includes the obligatory secret societies, Nazi conspiracies, enigmatic villains and cryptographic riddles à la The Da Vinci Code.

from Publisher's Weekly

Set against a backdrop of Oval Office corruption, bestseller Meltzer's overblown thriller opens with a frantic assassination attempt on President Leland Manning, who manages to elude the gunfire. Manning's deputy chief of staff, Ron Boyle, is killed, and his top aide, the cocky, ambitious Wes Holloway, is left facially disfigured. Eight years later, his motivation and confidence drained by his handicap, Holloway still toils away for the out-of-office Manning, fetching refreshments and handling the daily social calendar. On a goodwill junket to Malaysia, however, Holloway spots Boyle, surgically altered, but unmistakably the same man who was supposed to be dead and gone. From this turning point, Meltzer (The Zero Game) follows Holloway step by excruciatingly slow step as he tries to find out what really happened eight years earlier.

I have to say I loved this book. I did not read any of the reviews before hand (I rarely do) and I have to say I was really shocked at the reviews on Amazon. To be truthful, I did expect something a little more along the lines of The Davinci Code or National Treasure but I was not disappointed in what I got. I enjoyed the book immensely. I found myself listening even at lunch. I did do the audio version of this book and maybe that made a difference. It was funny to find myself hoping that someone would make a particular decision and getting exciteed when they did. While I probably wouldn't give this book 5 stars I would probably rate it at least a 4. It sure brought up some frightening thoughts on just how easily the government has been corrupted.

Book of Lies is next in my aduio queue.

Here are a couple of review options other than Amazon.
The Book Reporter
Who Dunnit?