VictoriaPL's 2nd thread

Now that book #81 is in sight, I wanted to make myself a home base for the rest of the year. I can't possibly do another 81, but we'll see how far I go. And I hope you don't mind if I hang out here because it's a fine place to be!

Books for NaNoWriMo

1. Under and Alone by William Queen (9.11.2009)
2. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb (9.7.2009)
3. Columbine by David Cullen (8.31.2009)
4. The Unknown Darkness: profiling the predators among us by Gregg McCrary (9.25.2009)
5. Keeper by Greg Rucka (9.7.2009)
6. Absolute Convictions by Eyal Press (9.9.2009)
7. Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer by John Leake (10.4.2009)
8. Live From the Gates of Hell: An Insider's Look at the Antiabortion Underground by Jerry Reiter (10.12.2009)
9. Special Agent: My Life on the Front Lines as a Woman in the FBI by Candice DeLong (11.8.2009)

Random Picks

1. The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz (9.27.2009)
2. Still Life by Louise Penny (10.14.2009)
3. The Eleventh Victim by Nancy Grace (10.18.2009)
4. Do No Harm by Gregg Hurwitz (10.18.2009)
5. Winged Creatures by Roy Freirich (10.25.2009)
6. The Haunting by Shirley Jackson (10.28.2009)
7 Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (11.21.2009)
8 Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin (11.21.2009)
9 They Hunger by Scott Nicholson (11.27.2009)

007 Heaven

1. Casino Royale (9.13.2009)
2. Live and Let Die (9.22.2009)
3. Diamonds are Forever (9.26.2009)
4. From Russia with Love (10.2.2009)
5. Goldfinger

Foreign

1. Out by Natsuo Kirino (9.19.2009)
2. Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup (9.29.2009)
3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (10.23.2009)
4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by StiegLarsson (9.4.2009)

Making Amends
Books that were Bumped from my original 999 challenge

1. Baltimore: or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola (12.9.09)
2. Book by Robert Grudin (11/2009)
3. Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston (12.13.2009)

finished Columbine by Dave Cullen
category: Books for NaNoWriMo

This is the fourth book on the Columbine shootings that I have read this year. It is by far the most readable. It just flows, it has a good voice about it and I found the book addictive. I read it in one sitting and finished about 3:30AM. I was impressed by the scope. Obviously a lot of effort went into this work and it shows.

Great idea, I hope you don't mind if I follow your lead on this one. I have also (more recently than you) finished my 999 and know there is no way of doing another, but I also like hanging out around here. Congrats

I'm behind on my reviews! I'll post some comments today to try and catch up!

finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
category: Foreign
4 stars

Billionaire Henrik Vanger hires journalist Mikael Blomkvist to solve the mysterious disappearance of his niece while using the cover story of writing a family history. Harriet disappeared over thirty years ago, but Vanger knows that if anyone can dig deep enough, Mikael can. Also assisting in the case is Lizbeth Salander, a quirky peeper who never lets the law stand in her way.

Occasionally the writing was a tad stilted but I chalked that up to reading a translation. All in all, I thought Larsson did a fine job of describing the locales. I've only visited Sweden once, but reading these passages made me feel like I had been transported back there - without an 8-hour plane ride! It's a decent thriller and I will likely read the whole trilogy.

Glad to see you're still here, Victoria. I, too, am following your lead and seeing how far I'll get with the 2nd challenge (with no expectation of completing it).

Are you going to do the NaNoWriMo? I almost have my son-in-law convinced to give it a try. He, of course, says that if he does it, then I should too, but I keep telling him I'm a reader not a writer.

I also enjoyed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and expect to start the 2nd book in the next couple of weeks. I too suspected that the occasional awkwardness was due to the translation. Lucky you to have been to Sweden! I had to make do with pulling out the atlas to follow their route...

Hi Ivy,
I am doing NaNo this year. It's such a positive experience. I'm hooked on it, this will be my third one. I encourage everyone to give it a go at least once.

#8 & #9

I've read other books the translator of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has translated and he can be a bit "off" at times, unfortunately. The original is not stilted or awkward at all. Too bad, but I'm glad to hear it's not worse than you can still enjoy it!

What is NaNoWriMo?

Hi bfertig, I left you a profile comment.

re #11:

Thanks, bookoholic! I'm glad to have confirmation that it's the translation. I thought it mostly read pretty smoothly, and I definitely enjoyed it and am looking forward to the 2nd book.

#14

In one of his earlier translations (it was a Mankell book), he even managed to translate a few idioms verbatim, which caused much glee in my household, but it sounds like he's gotten away from that! :)

>12 GoofyOcean110:
NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month (the site is here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/)

finished Absolute Convictions: My Father, a City and the Conflict that Divided America by Eyal Press
category: books for NaNoWriMo
3.5 stars

A very apt subtitle. Part of the book covers Dr. Press, who provides abortions in Buffalo, NY and the murder of his close associate, Dr. Slepian. The remaining material contains historical perspective, observations and even interviews with clients of Press's clinic.
One thing this book put into perspective for me is that many women in the 1950s and 1960s focused on abortion as a civil liberty issue. Which makes sense considering the socio-political climate of that time. As a young adult, abortion was presented to me purely as a moral issue. And even though I knew it was called a 'woman's right' or a 'woman's choice', I never followed the dots to the civil rights movement before. In fact, this book gave me a lot of clarity. Not about abortion necessarily but to the fact that I don't give my personal liberties enough thought.
Press has a calm, conversational tone. It's a heavy subject but it doesn't weigh down the reader.

Wow! NaNoWriMo? Still learning something new everyday!

finished Casino Royale by Ian Fleming.
category: 007 Heaven
1.5 stars

I've tried to write this review four times and have erased all of them. What it boils down to is that this book is boring. Too much talk and not enough action. It's a short novel, easily read in one sitting and yet I fell asleep twice while reading it. I am so glad that I had previously read (and enjoyed) Moonraker and Dr. No else this book would have put me off Fleming entirely.

>19 VictoriaPL: that's ok - i fell asleep during the movie of Casino Royale - though in general I really like the James Bond series.

I saw that the original movie was at my library, with Peter Sellers as the main character! It must be a spoof, but I didn't get it as I was in a hurry.

I have got to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I keep saying that, now I need to do it.

finished Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
category: 007 Heaven

"In the history of Negro emancipation," Mr. Big continued in an easy conversational tone, "there have appeared great athletes, great musicians, great writers, great doctors and scientists. In due course, as in the developing history of other races, there will appear Negroes great and famous in every other walk of life." He paused. "It is unfortunate for you, Mister Bond, and for this girl, that you have encountered the first of the great Negro criminals."

Written over 50 years ago, Live and Let Die shows the unfortunate racial, ethnic and gender prejudices of that time. Fleming isn't a literary paragon and his protagonist certainly doesn't take the high moral ground, but his works still have something to offer. I choose a Bond novel when I want escapism: high-stakes espionage, adrenaline-charged action scenes and a cunning and cognizant arch-villain. And based on that criteria, Live and Let Die succeeds. And may I say that it does so infinitely better than its predecessor, Casino Royale. I saw much improvement in Fleming's writing style. The action scenes were fantastic. When Bond found what he found (no spoilers!) my jaw dropped open. Mr. Big's simple and elegant solution brought him up a notch on my villain leader board. And the scenes of Bond swimming with sharks and barracuda will certainly give me pause should I ever be presented with the opportunity to go reef diving. I enjoyed it and I look forward to reading Bond's adventures in continuity...

finished Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
category: 007 Heaven
4 stars

"In the history of Negro emancipation," Mr. Big continued in an easy conversational tone, "there have appeared great athletes, great musicians, great writers, great doctors and scientists. In due course, as in the developing history of other races, there will appear Negroes great and famous in every other walk of life." He paused. "It is unfortunate for you, Mister Bond, and for this girl, that you have encountered the first of the great Negro criminals."

Written over 50 years ago, Live and Let Die shows the unfortunate racial, ethnic and gender prejudices of that time. Fleming isn't a literary paragon and his protagonist certainly doesn't take the high moral ground, but his works still have something to offer. I choose a Bond novel when I want escapism: high-stakes espionage, adrenaline-charged action scenes and a cunning and cognizant arch-villain. Based on that criteria, Live and Let Die succeeds. And may I say that it does so infinitely better than its predecessor, Casino Royale. I saw much improvement in Fleming's writing style. The action scenes were fantastic. When Bond found what he found (no spoilers!) my jaw dropped open. Mr. Big's simple and elegant solution brought him up a notch on my villain leader board. And the scenes of Bond swimming with sharks and barracuda will certainly give me pause should I ever be presented with the opportunity to go reef diving. I enjoyed it and I look forward to reading Bond's adventures in continuity...

I've seen plenty of Bond movies, but I've never read the books. This one sounds like fun.

finished The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among Us by Gregg McCrary and Katherine Ramsland
category: Books for NaNoWriMo
4 stars

Gregg McCrary was one of the first agents assigned to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and he helped form what it is today. As a profiler he was involved in some well known cases. He assisted with the capture of several sexual sadists and serial killers but his experience ran to many kinds of criminals. He studied a forger turned bomber and was part of the negotiating team at Waco. He also testified regarding Marilyn Sheppard's murder when her son, Sam, sued the state of Ohio for his father's incarceration. The case I found totally captivating was that of Jack Unterweger, an Austrian, who not only perpetrated the murders of almost a dozen women, but also covered the crimes for the media!
McCrary believes there is no possibility of reforming a pyschopath and I particularly enjoyed his explanation of this belief: "What if you discovered that a cake had no sugar in it? Could you rub sugar into it to make it edible? No. What if you found that it had motor oil baked into it? Could you squeeze it out to make the cake edible? Obviously not. The only question is what to do with the cake."
McCrary goes into great detail with his frustration at the situation in Waco. Not only with the trouble of multiple agencies working together (or not, as was the case) but also difficulties with the public. As he recalls "Several people who thought they were God and wanted to go in to set Koresh straight."
I don't know if the style is largely from McCrary or his co-author, Ramsland, but the book is very readable. A fascinating look into the mind of man who looks into the minds of 'the predators among us'. Fans of true crime and psychology will enjoy it.

finished Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming
category: 007 Heaven
3.5 stars

M sends Bond after The Spangled Mob, smugglers moving diamonds out of Africa and into the United States. Bond, posing as a mule, meets Tiffany, a beautiful blonde who can be as cold as the ice she helps move. Bond is successful in making the delivery and recieves both payment and a firm dismissal. To achieve his true objective of shutting down the operation, Bond decides to make trouble to see who comes to slap his hand. It's a mission that takes him all the way to Vegas and back across the Atlantic. As always it's a highly physical task but the real mileage may be on his heart.

This is the fourth book in the Bond series. I really felt while reading this one that Fleming had come into his own. He's comfortable with his formula, with his protagonist and it shows. It feels polished. And he actually made an effort to develop the female lead this time around! Given her tragic past, Tiffany has a remarkable sense of humor. I loved her romance with Bond. To see him melt her and to see her change him. There's still a lot of humanity in Bond at this point and I'm enjoying that. I was slightly disappointed with the Spang brothers. They weren't scary enough, big enough, bad enough to be villains worth of a double-oh's attention.
Despite that, Diamonds is a solid entry in the Bond saga.... now off to Russia!

So this great red full stop marked the end of the Spangled Mob and the end of their fabulous traffic in diamonds. But not the end of the diamonds that were baking at the heart of the fire. They would survive and move off again across the world, indestructible, as permanent as death.

finished The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz
category: Random Picks (yes, a new category!)
5 stars

Drew Danner is a best-selling novelist living in LA. In writing his crime novels he's made many contacts in the law enforcement community. Men who tell him how murders are really committed and explain how evidence works. One day Danner awakes in a hospital with a doctor who informs him they've removed a tumor from his brain. But there's someone else next to the doctor, a cop. A cop holding a picture of the woman Danner once wanted to marry. Not only has she been brutally murdered, but Danner was found at the scene with the body, holding the murder weapon. It's a mystery better than Danner could have ever written himself. He'll have to use his knowledge and all his contacts to find the truth.

I don't even know where to begin. This book is so satisfying on many different levels. I could not stop reading it and then over breakfast I relayed it all to my husband. It is one of my favorite reads of the year. I will definitely be reading more of Hurwitz.

Just wanted to let you know that I started Unwind yesterday, mostly because your review made me really want to read it! I am loving it! I can't wait to see what happens next.

That's awesome Cindy! Thanks for letting me know.

finished Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup
category: Foreign
4 stars

What would I do with all that wealth? Eventually a man needs just six feet of cloth for his shroud.

I came to Vikas Swarup's book Q & A after seeing the film version Slumdog Millionaire. I enjoyed the film very much and I was curious to see what the original material was like. As I expected, the novel does differ from the film but it did not substantially alter my view of the storyline. It augments it very nicely. The change that surprised me the most was Ram's motivation for applying as a contestant on the show.

Many words are left untranslated. Sometimes it's colorful and other times it's just annoying. Not enough to make me stop reading but enough to give me pause. After a while I didn't bother looking them up on Google.

I think readers with short attention spans, or readers who prefer short stories could enjoy this book. The one-game-question-per-chapter format would suit them nicely.

finished: Entering Hades: the Double Life of a Serial Killer by John Leake
category: Books for NaNoWriMo
4 stars

A fascinating book which tells the true story of Jack Unterweger, the Austrian serial killer. Jack admitted to the murder he was convicted of and blamed his illegitimate birth, his unfortunate childhood and his youth. He wrote plays and novels in prison and so charmed the citizens of Vienna that he was allowed to give public readings in the prison cafeteria. With such dramatic public support, 15 years were knocked off his sentence and upon being paroled, this celebrity killed 11 more women. Then at the behest of his 18-year-old girlfriend, they became fugitives in Miami and she danced in strip clubs to support him. Women adored this man. He had no fewer than two or three girlfriends at one time. He kept detailed records of his sexual encounters, bedding over forty in an 18-month period. And most of them knew he was a convicted murderer, a sadist! As a woman, that just boggles my mind. His trial was an absolute circus. OJ had nothing on Jack. As a narcissist, Jack was so confident he would be found innocent. When the guilty verdict came in the FBI profiler told the warden to put him on a suicide watch but they didn't take the advice. And before they could even transfer him, Jack hung himself. After all his claims of innocence and his theory of a police frame-up, he used the same ligature knot on himself that he had used in all 11 murders. But I must say the most amazing thing I read was that he committed his first (known) murder on the very day of my birth! I had chill bumps all the way down to my toes.

#32 Excellent review - it actually makes me want to read the book even though this is not the kind of thing I ever like reading.

>32 VictoriaPL: & 33: Wow! Me too!

Thanks for the thumbs!

Hi Victoria
I'm still plugging away at my 999, though I'm starting to bump books and substitute other books I've read through the year.
Anyway if I remember correctly you read crime fiction and I just thought you might be interested in a new book by PD James which is nonfiction about writing detective novels. There is an article about her and the book: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6227400/PD-James-Queen-of-D...

Awesome! I'll check it out. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

finished Still Life by Louise Penny
category: Random Picks
2 stars

I read good reviews of another volume in Penny's Three Pine series, so I decided to start at the beginning with Still Life. Many people seem to love this book but it didn't find a niche in my heart. Which is very odd, because I own and cherish several small-town tales. The beginning started off well enough. I was charmed by a village where "the only reason doors were locked was to prevent neighbors from dropping off baskets of zucchini at harvest time." Being a southern girl, I can so relate to that. But halfway through the book I began to struggle.
Some passages were a bit odd and I had to read them a few times to digest what Penny was saying. I even discussed this one with my husband: "The bells of the Eglise Ste Marie rang and echoed along the valleys, heard miles away, and felt deep in the earth, where creatures lived who might not otherwise, had Jane Neal herself not lived and been the sort of person she'd been." Creatures deep in the earth, are we talking snakes and weevils and pill bugs? And these creatures were pampered by Jane Neal? I wouldn't think that would endear her to the population of Three Pines.
Also irritating was that Penny would neglect certain characters (such as Yvette Nichol) for chapters at a time, so that when she did mention them again I had almost forgotten who they were. It made it difficult to remain in a character's mindset.
I'm really not a 'cozy' reader but I'm still open to giving Penny another read at some point down the road.

edited to fix touchstone. Arrrgh.

#38 Hi Victoria - thanks for this review of Still Life. I've also read all the rave reviews of the book - and the entire series - and was excited to give it a try. I wasn't able to make it even half way through. I thought maybe I was too distracted by other things in life and just wasn't giving it the attention it needed, so it went back to the library unfinished. And maybe part of the problem was mine, but I'm glad to know that I'm not the only person who wasn't bowled over by this book. I'm still planning to give it another try someday, though.

I'm still around though I'm not reading anything I particularly care to write reviews on. My reaction to most of them have been meh...

I finished off:

The Eleventh Victim by Nancy Grace

and

Do No Harm by Gregg Hurwitz

I gave up on Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami. I'm giving him a second chance with Norweigan Wood but so far I am not impressed.

For Murakami, Kafka on the Shore was really good. I have his others on my TBR, but have too much on my plate at the moment.

41 bfertig, my sentiments exactly as Kafka is the only one I've read too and just haven't had chance to pick up any more of his yet.

Haven't had much reading time this month as I'm participating in NaNoWriMo, but I managed to slip this one in:

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin 4 stars

Most people know the plot of Rosemary's Baby, either through seeing or hearing about the movie, so I won't recap it. While reading I felt that the book would have made a huge impression on me if I had read it prior to viewing the film. I'm still very impressed with Levin's writing, but knowing what I did took some of the impact away from it. A low-level feeling of dread permeates the whole book, much like what you get from Richard Matheson's I Am Legend or Stephen King's Salem's Lot. What's interesting about Levin's "monsters" is that they are not hiding in the dark, they walk around in the daylight with you. They might even be your best friend or your lover. Even though I knew what was coming, the last chapter still surprised me. I found myself wondering if I really believed Rosemary or not and I don't remember having that reaction to the film. I would definitely recommend this book to any fan of old school horror stories.

That was such a terrific movie for me because I didn't know what the movie was about at all (that was before previews and trailers). Nowadays, it would be very unusual to come to a movie totally ignorant of the genre and/or some general idea of the plot. I still would like to read Rosemary's Baby some day, because good writing can always thrill you no matter what you know.

Hey Bonnie - please do add this one to your list, you won't regret it. I love Levin's style. He's amazing.

finished They Hunger by Scott Nicholson
3 stars

An expedition sent to the Appalachian Mountains to field test a new raft on the dangerous Unegama River finds out that they aren't alone. For there's also a delusional bomber and his girlfriend camping out the ridge, hoping to shake two FBI agents off their trail. With so many alpha-males running around, things are bound to get edgy. And that's when the real danger appears: capable of flight, equipped with razor-sharp hearing, and possessing an unsatiable appetite for blood - the vampires. Who will come out of the woods alive?

Fine literature it is not. But as a creature-feature this book is very satisfying. These vampires do not have names or personalities. They do not ruminate on guilt or passion or play games or fall in love with their prey. These vampires are purely animals and they exist only to feed. It's a refreshing take on the genre.

Does that mean that these vampires are not the sexy kind of vampire who talks about his feelings? Do they at least use hair gel?

Nope, no hair. They don't sparkle either. Think of a really big bat and you have the picture. I was considering a trip to Mammoth Cave, but now I don't know if I'll be able to defeat my imagination and go.

finished Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston

I know that Huston's work is, in general, very violent. And I think I should have felt something when more than half the people in the story wound up dead. But what really got to me was the abuse the cat took. I believe one reason it bothered me is due to Huston's writing. He's so effective at painting the picture, setting the scene, that I just had to look away when they started in on poor Bud.

Yeah, I think pet abuse and child torture are the last two "forbidden" topics.

Does Bud need a new home?

I can't think of a way to answer that without giving the ending away!