Karen's Book Nook

Current Read: City of Bones

2009-11-08T14:29:19Z

Starting a new fantasy YA series beginning with City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.

About the book: Fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is looking forward to having a good time with her friend Simon as the Pandemonium Club in New York City. But what she witnesses through the dazzling lights and pulsing beats will change her life forever.

While dancing, Clary’s eyes fix on a beautiful woman in an elegant white dress luring a young man into a private area of the club. Following them, Clary sees two strange, knife-wielding men brutally kill him. And when the victim vanishes into thin air, she is shocked. Intrigued by these mysterious beings, Clary begins a journey that draws her into a world filled with vampires, werewolves and the Shadowhunters–a group of warriors attempting to eradicate the legions of the evil demons infesting the world.

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

Current Read: City of Bones

Current Read: Alex Cross’s Trial

2009-11-08T14:04:24Z

Finished two Young Adult books this morning sitting by the fire so changing gears and jumping into the latest James Patterson novel, Alex Cross’s Trial.

About the book:

Alex Cross tells the incredible story—passed down through the generations—of an ancestor’s courageous fight for freedom.

SEPARATED BY TIME
From his grandmother, Alex Cross heard the story of his great-uncle Abraham and his struggles for survival in the era of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, Alex passes the family tale along to his own children in a book he’s written—a novel called Trial. More here.

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

Current Read: Alex Cross’s Trial

Stephanie Plum Challenge

2009-11-08T14:06:22Z

Since I just started reading Janet Evanovich and am reading the Stephanie Plum novels in order, there’s no better time to join a challenge. It’s being sponsored by J.Kaye’s Book Blog.

Guidelines:

1) The goal is to get caught up on the Stephanie Plum series, so create a list of the books you haven’t read yet. You have between now and December 31, 2010. Don’t include books you’ve read prior to or started before 7/23/09.

2) This reading challenge is for participants with a blog. If you decide to participate in the 2009/2010 Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge, create a post on your blog telling others about this event. In your post, be sure to include the link to this post on your blog. That way others can find their way here and join in the fun.

3) If you want to have your reading list on your blog’s right sidebar, then please include a link to this post.

4) Audio and eBooks count.

5) You can join anytime between now and the later part of next year.

6) When you sign up under Mr. Linky, list the direct link to your post where your library books will be listed. If you list just your blog’s URL, it will be removed. If you don’t have a blog, leave the URL blank.

7) Books to be published after signing up do not have to be listed. This is optional.

There will be a place for you to link your reviews, but this is optional.

9) When you have completed your number of the Stephanie Plum books, link your completed list to the completed page. One will be set up.

10)If you have any questions, feel free to ask below or email me at jkayeoldner@yahoo.com. Comments usually get a quicker response.

**Since I read my FIRST book just last month they all qualify for the challenge. I’ve got two down, one on hold at the library, and lots to go!

Stephanie Plum Series

1. One for the Money (1994) finished 10/12/09
2. Two for the Dough (1995) finished 10/24/09
3. Three to Get Deadly (1997) library request
4. Four to Score (1998)
5. High Five (1999)
6. Hot Six (2000)
7. Seven Up (2001)
8. Hard Eight (2002)
9. To the Nines (2003)
10. Ten Big Ones (2004)
11. Eleven on Top (2005)
12. Twelve Sharp (2006)
13. Lean Mean Thirteen (2007)
14. Fearless Fourteen (2008)
15. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen (2009)

Stephanie Plum Between-the-Numbers Novels

Visions of Sugar Plums (2002)
Plum Lovin’ (2007)
Plum Lucky (2008)
Plum Spooky (2009)

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

Stephanie Plum Challenge

Current Read: The Last Jihad

2009-11-08T14:07:01Z

Starting a new audio book to listen to while I work around the house and get things done this weekend. The Last Jihad is the first in a series by Joel C. Rosenberg

About the book:

The book that started it all, The Last Jihad is the first of Joel C. Rosenberg’s New York Times best-selling series, with 500,000 in print. The first page puts readers in the cockpit of a hijacked jet on a kamikaze mission into an American city–but it was written nine months before 9/11/01. As the plot unfolds, White House advisors Jon Bennett and Erin McCoy are under attack in Jerusalem as the U.S. goes to war with Iraq over weapons of mass destruction–but The Last Jihad was published four months before the actual Iraq war began.

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

Current Read: The Last Jihad

For the month: October

2009-11-08T14:07:11Z

I got lots and lots of reading done this month thanks to a weekend getaway and being laid up in recovery mode. Of course, audio books always help in the multitasking. (Links to all books are in the library and in each post.)

This Side of Married by Rachel Pastan
A Sister’s Wish by Kate Jacobs, Nancy Carpenter
Malice Prepense by Kate Wilhelm
Summer On Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant: A Novel (Ballantine Reader’s Circle) by Anne Tyler
Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum, No. 2) by Janet Evanovich
Twenty Wishes (Blossom Street) by Debbie Macomber
Back on Blossom Street (Blossom Street, No. 3) by Debbie Macomber
A Good Yarn (Blossom Street, No. 2) by Debbie Macomber
One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1) by Janet Evanovich
Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
There Are No Shortcuts by Rafe Esquith
The Deepest Water by Kate Wilhelm
Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith
Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing (The Self Healing Series) by Andrew Weil
The Shop on Blossom Street (Blossom Street, No. 1) by Debbie Macomber
The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
The Broker by John Grisham

Breakdown:

Audiobooks: 13

Paper books: 6

Of course, I consumed lots of magazines as well.

Reading rocks!!

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

For the month: October

Current Read: Pointing from the Grave

2009-11-08T14:07:38Z

Started my new audiobook Pointing from the Grave: A True Story of Murder and DNA by Samantha Weinberg today while working around the house and going out and about.

About the book: Weaving together cutting-edge genetics and forensic criminology, courtroom drama and multiple perspectives, Weinberg’s book is an ambitious and riveting tale of crime and the science that has been developed to counter it. In 1984, Helena Greenwood, a chemical pathologist and successful executive in the burgeoning biotech industry, is sexually assaulted in her San Francisco home. Paul Frediani is eventually arrested as the primary suspect-after he is caught exposing himself to a 13-year-old girl. But following the initial arraignment, Greenwood is found viciously murdered in the front yard of her new home in Southern California. More here.

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

Current Read: Pointing from the Grave

Current Reads: Children’s Lit

2009-11-08T14:08:21Z

As part of my quest to keep up and read all of the Newbery Medal winners, I’m reading Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz. It’s a book of monologues of each of the characters in the village.

About the Book: From Publishers Weekly

Schlitz (The Hero Schliemann ) wrote these 22 brief monologues to be performed by students at the school where she is a librarian; here, bolstered by lively asides and unobtrusive notes, and illuminated by Byrd’s (Leonardo, Beautiful Dreamer) stunningly atmospheric watercolors, they bring to life a prototypical English village in 1255.

Reading a short one from Kate Jacobs, A Sister’s Wish. I requested it from the library because I’ve read all of her other books.

About the book: Things wouldn’t be so bad if I just had a sister!” A child’s longing for someone who understands her, for someone who is decidedly more feminine than her brothers, for someone who can help her miss her father less when she’s at her mother’s, or miss her mom less when she’s at her dad’s is all the six or seven-year-old heroine thinks she needs. In the end she realizes that sometimes “…just being a sister will do.”

My purse book (perfect size!) for this week is Diary of a Fairy Godmother by none other than Esme Raji Codell.

About the book: With humor and ingenuity, Codell weaves an unusual, intriguing, and enjoyable story. Hunky Dory is the top student in her charm school, but her inner conflict about the purpose of witchcraft plagues her. She wonders if it must always be focused on evil. Hunky becomes interested in the work of fairy godmothers, a group looked down upon by ordinary witches, and, after much soul searching, she concludes that she wants to become one. Characters from well-known fairy tales weave in and out of the story….

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

Current Reads: Children’s Lit

Current Read: This Side of Married

2009-10-30T23:52:46Z

Starting a new audio book since I finished the paper one that I wanted to return to the library. Now that I’m back on my feet, I’ll be walking more as well. This one is This Side of Married by Rachel Pastan.

About the book:

From Publishers Weekly

Dr. Evelyn Rubin became a doctor at a time when women simply didn’t become doctors, but in her 60s, her only source of pleasure is getting her own daughters safely married off. She’s succeeded with the middle child, Isabel, who hasn’t been able to get her husband to impregnate her; but her bitter disappointments are goody-goody Alice, the eldest, 38, and woefully single, and wild-child Tina, the youngest, who subscribes to the blow-and-throw disposable-man school of dating…. More here.

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

Current Read: This Side of Married

Current Reads: Summer on Blossom St & Malice Prepense

2009-10-24T14:58:06Z

Starting the final audio book in Debbie Macomber’s Blossom Street Series, Summer on Blossom Street while I knit. This one is read by the famous Delilah.. I should really enjoy it since I love her voice and it focuses on Lydia from the first two books.

About the book: Knitting and life. They’re both about beginnings—and endings. That’s why it makes sense for Lydia Goetz, owner of A Good Yarn on Seattle’s Blossom Street, to offer a class called Knit to Quit. It’s for people who want to quit something—or someone!—and start a new phase of their lives…. More here.

Finally got the 3rd Barbara Holloway novel, Malice Prepense in the series by Kate Wilhelm. I read the first two in audio format but this third wasn’t available so I’m reading the paper version… it will likely take me awhile to finish but there are lots of books in the series that I want to get to.

About the book: For the Defense: or, Malice Prepense
Teddy Wendover is a hulking twenty-eight-year-old with the mind of a child. An accident at eight left him severely retarded. But did it turn him into a cold-blooded killer? Someone has bludgeoned Congressman Harry Knecht to death. Knecht was the man who organized the field trip that led to Teddy’s injury.
Also started and finished Janet Evanovich’s Two for the Dough… the second in the Stephanie Plum series.

About the book:

It’s Stephanie Plum, New Jersey’s “fugitive apprehension” agent (aka bounty hunter), introduced to the world by Janet Evanovich in the award-winning novel One for the Money.

Now Stephanie’s back, armed with attitude — not to mention stun guns, defense sprays, killer flashlights, and her trusty .38. Stephanie is after a new bail jumper, Kenny Mancuso, a boy from Trenton’s burg. He’s fresh out of the army, suspiciously wealthy, and he’s just shot his best friend…. More Here.

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

Current Reads: Summer on Blossom St & Malice Prepense

Current Read: How to Get Your Child to Love Reading

2009-10-21T16:12:20Z

Reading another one by one of my favorite educators, Esme Raji Codell. It’s a booklist of sorts with lots of suggestions of children’s literature throughout the ages.

About the book:

Are children reading enough? Not according to most parents and teachers, who know that reading aloud with children fosters a lifelong love of books, ensures better standardized test scores, promotes greater success in school, and helps instill the values we most want to pass on.

Esmé Codell-an inspiring children’s literature specialist and an energetic teacher-has the solution. She’s turned her years of experience with children, parents, librarians, and fellow educators into a great big indispensable volume designed to help parents get their kids excited about reading.

Here are hundreds of easy and inventive ideas, innovative projects, creative activities, and inspiring suggestions that have been shared, tried, and proven with children from birth through eighth grade.

Post from: Karen's Book Nook

Current Read: How to Get Your Child to Love Reading