Have you read . . .?: November 2006 Archives

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November 28, 2006

"Motor Mouth" by Janet Evanovich

Motor Mouth is the second in Janet Evanovich’s relatively new series (first book was Metro Girl) about mechanic Alexandra “Barney” Barnaby and NASCAR driver Sam Hooker. Although I really enjoyed Metro Girl and was glad to see Evanovich writing another fun series, Motor Mouth seems to fall flat. It didn’t have the laugh out loud dialogue fans enjoy with her Stephanie Plum series and the story just seemed to have too many dead bodies, bad guys and stops for junk food. Fans of NASCAR may enjoy the book more; I was lost in some of the trade specific lingo. It is nice to see a heroine who is well trained and competent at her job (Barney has worked on cars her whole life and has an engineering degree, unlike Stephanie Plum who sort of fell into being a bounty hunter and has never been very good at it) and for the leads (Barney and Hooker) to realize they are lousy detectives, even though they refuse to turn the sleuthing over to the police or NASCAR officials (part of the story relates to mechanical tinkering that constitutes cheating in the race world).

ISBN: 0060584033

Pam, reserves

Posted by jnardine at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2006

"Vamped" by David Sosnowski

“Vamped” by David Sosnowski is not your typical vampire novel. Marty Kowalski was mortally wounded fighting in Europe in World War II. Just before dying, a female vampire turns him into a vampire. It is now many years later. Marty is over 100 years old and a bored bachelor. It is a time in which vampires are the majority, due in large part to efforts of Marty and his benevolent vampire movement which turned humans into vampires on a large scale. Now the only mortals left are farm raised for the amusement and sport hunting by the rich who want access to fresh blood, instead of the bottled variety everyone else drinks.

As the story opens, Marty is bored and depressed. Then he runs across Isuzu Trooper Cassidy, a five year old girl, orphaned that evening when vampires killed her mother. Isuzu and her mom had escaped the farm and been living in a hole, coming above ground to forage during the bright light of day. Initially Marty plans to drain Isuzu dry, but decides to wait until she is less frightened (apparently adrenaline affects the taste of blood). So Marty takes Isuzu home. As time passes, their relationship morphs from diner/dessert to owner/pet to father/daughter. Over the course of the book Marty raises Isuzu and regains much of his lost humanity and joy in life as he grows to love and protect his “little SUV.”

Though not great literature, this amusing book is an enjoyable read. It is less the story of the hunted and hunters than a novel about a man regaining his soul and purpose in life through the love of a child.

ISBN: 0-7434-9359-1

Pam, reserves

Posted by jnardine at 08:38 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2006

"Another Good Loving Blues" by Arthur Flowers

“The blues is about a lot of things…. The blues about accepting life for what it is, good and bad. Its about making folks feel what you feel. And its mostly about people and life and stories. You know any stories?”

Arthur Flowers knows some stories; he knows some magic, too. In Another Good Loving Blues he gives us “a fine old delta tale about a mad blues piano player and a Arkansas conjure woman on a hoodoo mission.” Set in the years when Southern blacks began the great migration north, it follows Lucas Bodeen and Melvira Dupree from the moment he first sees her in the spring of 1918 until the moment, nearly six years later, when he says “I don’t ever want to lose you again.” In between are a lot of pain, a lot of music, and enough magic to make it all work out, told in a rich, muddy voice that brings the South roiling up out of the pages as viscerally as the mighty Mississippi in full flood.

ISBN: 0345381033

Everett, reference

Posted by jnardine at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2006

"Bangkok 8" by John Burdett

Some concepts are universal. For instance, when a policeman’s partner is killed, he must be avenged, whether it is in New York City or Thailand. As the title suggests, this time it happens in Thailand. The location complicates things a bit.

First complication: the murder, well, wasn’t murder. The officer was killed by a poisonous snake. The snake was inside a locked car, where it had, presumably, been instrumental in killing the dead man inside; that it killed the cop who opened the car to investigate is incidental.

Second complication: the dead cop’s partner is a Buddhist, which means he is as conflicted as Hamlet by the thought of seeking revenge.

Third complication: the intended victim is a U.S. Marine—so the U.S. government gets involved. That always causes problems. In this case, one of these problems is an attractive FBI agent to further distract our Buddhist cop.

Burdett mixes these ingredients with a healthy dose of local Thai flavor—weather, corruption, gridlock, jade, drugs, prostitution, and bureaucracy—to stir up a spicy little thriller.

ISBN: 1400032903