Thursday, June 30, 2011

CHOSEN by Chandra Hoffman **

Outside my 'like' meter. Something about adoptions, case worker Chloe, divorces, couples and their stupid pregnancy problems. One of the birth fathers, an ex felon steals the baby of (coincidently) another couple Chole knows. She gathers money for this felon and his creepy girlfriend so both can escape the kidnapping charges and they both get off because she's too much of a bimbo to actually call the police.

I thought a lot of the people in the story were weak, somewhat alike personality-wise and hard to separate because of their similarities. They just weren't distinctive enough or different and mostly I really didn't GAS about them or their stupid baby problems.

Slow mover and you really should be a people loving person to care about any of the couple's stories at all.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

CHASING FIRE by Nora Roberts ****

Good library find, big book takes time to get thru. Lots about fire and people who fly out to the woods to fight them, throw in a romance and a couple murders and you're somewhat inspired to turn pages. I'm not saying it's a thrilling murder mystery or steamy romance, but it's not a bad read, goes sort of on the slow side. Has a lot of characters but they have distinctive names and personalities so it's not hard to remember them.

The lead character Rowan, for some reason the story focuses on HER being the reason for all the mayhem with shootings and deaths etc when she really isn't the core of the problem. I didn't hate it, didn't love it and I didn't get sick of it anywhere. I really am past giving a shit about all the fucking but I suppose Nora isn't.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

The KENKEN KILLINGS by Parnell Hall ***

Mostly dialogue; clever or not so clever repartee with the "puzzle lady" who only does kenken puzzles and has a daughter or daughter in law do crosswords. How anyone could mix that into a murder mystery is beyond practicality. Two murders occur during Cora the puzzle lady's kind-of hearing of her alimony. The ex who is on his 5th bimbo wants to stop paying. Another ex wife bimbo is right behind the cheating ex husband of Cora.

It's a lot of back and forth supposed jokes, pointless repeat of clues and what ifs, who done it's and big mouth nosy Cora even acts as a lawyer in court AS IF that is the least bit realistic. So of course she solves the case, manipulates people to do things for her to prove it and voila! Case closed.

Personally I wasn't crazy about it. If you like labeled murder mysteries you might if you can get over the self importance of the main character. I read a LOT and didn't like it much. Just my opinion.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The DOG PARK CLUB by Cynthia Robinson ***

It's readable; somewhat, sometimes entertaining. What's entertaining about it is the pomposity of the people in the novel. Unintended I think, the clothing name tags, etc Prada, lining up nail polish by color, shoe brand names- actually I found all that comical and absurd and writer is very comfortable with all that crap. Almost chick lit-ish and don't think of that as a compliment. The characters are mostly all alcoholics, recreational drunks, pot heads, homeless or "do not label me" types. Men wearing caftans for example. Noticing a hair out of place etc. I think glorifying alcoholics went out in the 70s but I could be mistaken. The book is almost "Bridgets Diary-ish" but not nearly as funny and these characters take themselves way too seriously.

The mystery? Hmmmmm some pregnant slut screws around on her husband and disappears. Big whoop. The ending hints that she embezzled from her company and ran off with one of her screw mates. But you are never actually sure of this. And there are other disappeared/dead pregnant females thru the story with no explanation for them either. Ambiguous ending. So in actuality there is no finale. I didn't like it. Once the cops were on the scene. Once. They then became as disappeared as the pregnant slut.

Doesn't have much to do with dogs, or a dog park other than that's where these name brand cretins met each other. Main character is an opera singer...traveling around with his opera company being blase about his life and all his friends in general. The MYSTERY is; WTF happened to the missing pregnant female and the ANSWER is; you will not know by reading this book.  If I want to read mysteries with no ending the newspaper is full of them and I don't have to know what frickin tags were on their articles of clothing.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

The NIGHT SEASON by Chelsea Cain ****

The book is in pouring rain throughout the novel, flooding etc. An old body from another flood shows up just to make things more twisty. So the dead body's son who kidnapped a kid awhile ago (fruitcake) goes around killing people with octopi. Yeah, don't ask me I didn't write it.  In one scene where the octopi are swimming around in ice cold flood water apparently they can still be alive and kill when they are salt water creatures who would probably be more concerned with survival than looking for victims if they even had the strength to bite someone. Meantime lots of people die by octopi. Couple cops and nosy reporter are on the case.

Thing I really despise is the references to the past book...a series. Please spare me. And there aren't too many people who would take someone serious as a writer (like main character) if they had purple, pink and all the colors of the rainbow for hair with rainbow boots. She has a goat in her house. Really. I mean.....really. When I worked at a newspaper I didn't see one nose ring, tattoo or any purple hair. It was unprofessional and lots of children are led around to see how newspapers are made, along with reporters needing to be taken seriously at crime scenes and in court with lawyers etc. Grow her up or kill her off.

Please stop the series repeat nonsense. If you are going to force me to read books in some kind of order I will not read your books. Keep your main characters, assume we read the last book and move along. STFU about the past. It's past, keep it there. Actually the references were few but not few enough.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

ZERO DAY by Mark Russinovich ***

Way too many hackers involved in creating a virus to knock out the US internet system and either create havoc or create lots of tragedies, like plane crashes, dam malfunctions, power plant errors etc. due to our dependence on the internet. There are way way too many spies/secret societies involved, & it's always said the more people involved- the more chances for exposure by any one of them. This novel is difficult to swallow in that regard.

Is it Russians? Chechens? Mafia? Muslims? Single individual? Arabs? New characters intro'd on page 162 which is too far into this mishmosh of people for me to even GAS. Some of the spies have multiple names, online names, alias's, nicknames there are way too many hackers most of the time I have no idea who's the good guys and who's the bad guys which causes me to lose interest.

Some crap about Yousef too far towards the end of the book, and his complicated life from birth to now I just skipped that chapter. Then after learning words like "triggers" and other hacker terms, author throws in other hackers different terms for same words like red, yellow etc representing 'triggers' it gets too deeply detailed and I just drift off into lala land. Some actual action happens around chapter 50 or so but by then you've been dulled into wanting to read something else.

Less is more. What happened to that? There's too many people, too many conspiracies, too many individuals, too many hackers, too many viruses and worms and whatever. Too much of too much.

Friday, June 10, 2011

MURDER in PASSY by Cara Black **

Looks like author drinking tea or demitasse on back flap...shoulda had a clue but I picked it up anyways. Flics apparently are cops. Lots of other French terminology crap to go with that. I'm only around page 60 but I'm skipping over a lot of descriptive b.s. cuz I'm trying to stay awake. Of course the PI is so much more intelligent than the flics and her godfather is being accused of a crime. He goes to jail, gets beat up and at the end goes right back to his cop job. Protag Aimee Leduc doesn't seem all that bright, or the French PI's have less technology to work with. Not horrible enough to quit reading but not intriguing enough to drag around from room to room either. Something about Basques, old vendettas or promises and who all knows. I couldn't figure it all out. Confusing.

Aimee is on the case, get used to all the French-isms and plan on going slow. Not my cup of tea. If the title was Murder in Pussy; well that would be interesting wouldn't it? LOL Meanwhile brace yourself for a slow mover. Books like this; why? and who publishes this crap? I have read 1,000 better books. Bottom of the barrel. I still don't know where all the American mystery writers have gone. Sick of foreign crap.

The ILLUMINATION by Kevin Brockmeier

Boring. Tedious. From one person to the next with injuries that light up. No explanations for the "illumination". No scientific queries. No suggestive ideas. Nothing like that. Just people with their boring lives being boring. If they have a cut it lights up. That's about it folks.

GOOD THIEF GUIDE to VEGAS by Chris Ewan **

In one section this killer used a crowbar to break into a car trunk to kill someone or dump the body then later on the protagonist (a thief) just needs a key to open the trunk and find the body. Now wouldn't the key be unnecessary with a broken trunk? DUH

Then the entire novel is based on someone stealing a "juice list" WTF is that you ask? I read the book and still am confused. Either investors? Or people to blackmail? Or some such nonsense. The ending is so confusing with so many criminals and people involved in whatever the book is about (who knows) that it takes an entire chapter to explain it all IF you happen to be able to remember all the characters, their names and parts played.

I really don't GAS what happens to a main character who is a thief. He steals, robs and pilfers anything he touches. Bet he won't enjoy his girly position in jail. Hated him. Story was barely tolerable.

I hate this stuff too: I locked onto her eyes (OUCH) and held them (DOUBLE OUCH), nodding as sincerely as I could. Blahblahblah

Monday, June 6, 2011

The TERROR of LIVING by Urban Waite **

There are 3 guys; one Hunt who boards horses with his wife used to be a criminal. His best horse just got shot and it's not even discussed at home. Then Drake who's father is in jail and Drake is a cop after Hunt, he caught Hunts companion who just got offed in jail. I have no idea how the killer in jail gets out without being caught but anyways there's the boss of Hunt, Eddie. So far lots and lots of past history back to childhood in some cases. For each character in the novel. I really don't GAS about that stuff. It's way too rambling for me, and over descriptive. Not interested in continuing. I like fast reading and this slows me way down with the detail crap. I'm at page 65 and am closing shop. Not interesting enough FOR ME to continue. Someone else may get engaged and like it but that person isn't me.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

COME AND FIND ME by Hallie Ephron ****

Sort of suspenseful, easy to read novel. Not really a mystery. Some dumb bunny hacker Diana falls in love with a hacker Daniel, who it really seems is gay (not verified) with his boyfriend Jake. They've been planning on destroying sort of the Big Brother network of having everyone who is born's information. DNA, GPS, Satellite crap. The two guys planned this years in advance, picked up dumb bunny somewhere then faked Daniels' death. Why? Not a good reason. How'd she get involved when she seems to know so little about hacking in general? IDK. Because of her fake boyfriends fake death she is almost agoraphobic...adds a little more dumb to her bunny. Anyways that's the entire gist of the situation.

Have no idea why she let the boyfriend run off into the world without any punishment whatsoever even tho it was planned to destroy all 'virtual' evidence in existence. Only Jake gets nailed for accidently kidnapping her sister. She's really a lightweight in the 'men' department.

Not murder, not mystery, nothing grabbing you to turn pages but you do it to see if any damn thing will happen to make it more interesting when it actually gets less and less interesting, less details of what's occurring etc. So, ok library book. Wouldn't pay for it.