Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Teaser Tuesdays (6)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- Be careful not to include spoilers (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)!
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

I'm currently reading 16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber.

"I'll change," Olivia offered quickly, and left the room before Jack could protest. So much for a hot date.

I like this book so far - it's sweet and occasionally funny, as shown by the above quote.

Monday, August 9, 2010

It's Monday, What Are You Reading (7)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.

READ LAST WEEK
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
This was the first book I read on my Kindle, and it was a quick read. I actually read half of it in one day, which is rare for me. Whether that's because of the book or the Kindle, I'm not sure. ;)

CURRENTLY READING
16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber
This is about a judge in a family court, her mother and the young couple who appear in her courtroom wanting a divorce. Reminds me a bit about the TV series Judging Amy, which I really liked. I think this the first book in a series, but I'm not sure if the other books have the same characters in them. Anyone know?

WHAT'S NEXT
I've been putting it off for a while now, so I really think it's time for The Secret River by Kate Grenville.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

On My Wishlist (3)


On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where we list all the books we want to read but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming.
 
Cold Sight by Leslie Parrish (Extrasensory Agents #1)
Recommended by Book Chick City.

Goodreads description: After being made a scapegoat in a botched investigation that led to a child's death, Aidan McConnell became a recluse. Still, as a favor to an old friend, Aidan will help on the occasional XI case. But under his handsome, rugged facade, he keeps his emotions in check—for fear of being burned again.

Reporter Lexie Nolan has a nose for news—and she believes a serial killer has been targeting teen girls around Savannah. But no one believes her. So she turns to the new paranormal detective agency and the sexy, mysterious Aidan for help.

But just as the two begin forging a relationship, the case turns eerily personal for Lexie—and Aidan discovers that maybe he hasn't lost the ability to feel after all...
 
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer
Recommended by Coffee N Crackers.

Goodreads description: This stunning novel of fraud and revenge is the book that launched Jeffrey Archer's career as an international bestselling author. A bogus North Sea oil company and a few well-placed whispers were all Harvey Metcalfe needed to pull off an easy million-dollar scam. Now his victims have decided to get even.
 
Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle (Bibliophile Mysteries #1)
Goodreads description: Murder is always a bestseller...

First in the new Bibliophile Mystery series!


The streets of San Francisco would be lined with hardcovers if rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright had her way. And her mentor wouldn’t be lying in a pool of his own blood on the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration.

With his final breath he leaves Brooklyn a cryptic message, and gives her a priceless—and supposedly cursed—copy of Goethe’s Faust for safekeeping.

Brooklyn suddenly finds herself accused of murder and theft, thanks to the humorless—but attractive—British security officer who finds her kneeling over the body. Now she has to read the clues left behind by her mentor if she is going to restore justice…
 
Crescent Dawn by Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt #21)
I love Dirk Pitt, and even though bringing in the twins kind of ruined things for me, I wouldn't dare not read any new book in fear of missing something good.
Goodreads description: In A.D. 327, a Roman galley barely escapes a pirate attack with its extraordinary cargo. In 1916, a British warship mysteriously explodes in the middle of the North Sea. In the present day, a cluster of important mosques in Turkey and Egypt are wracked by explosions. Does anything tie them together? NUMA director Dirk Pitt is about to find out, as Roman artifacts discovered in Turkey and Israel unnervingly connect to the rise of a fundamentalist movement determined to restore the glory of the Ottoman Empire, and to the existence of a mysterious "manifest," lost long ago, which if discovered again...just may change the history of the world as we know it.
 
Diamond Dove by Adrian Hyland
Recommended by Desert Book Chick
I'm always interested in finding new Australian authors, and Desert Book Chick's review convinced me I should read this one.

Tanum description: Emily Tempest has been away from Central Australia's outback for a long time - uni, travel, dead-end jobs... finding trouble all over the world. Now, she's back at Moonlight Downs, the community where she grew up, investigating the untimely death of an old friend.
 
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
When I read the opening lines of this book over at Puss Reboots, I knew this had to go on my wishlist.

Goodreads description: "Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator of The Lace Reader, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations, but the disappearance of two women brings Towner home to Salem and the truth about the death of her twin sister to light." The Lace Reader is a tale that spirals into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths in which the reader quickly finds it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction, but as Towner Whitney points out early on in the novel, "There are no accidents."

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Review: Ice Station

Ice Station by Matthew Reilly

Read: 20 July - 1 August 2010
Pages: 689


Back cover: "At a remote ice station in Antarctica, a team of US scientists has made an amazing discovery. They have found something buried deep within the coastal ice shelf. Something trapped inside a 100-million-year-old layer of ice. Something made of metal.

It is the discovery of a lifetime.
A discovery of immeasurable value.
A discovery men would kill for...

Led by an enigmatic Lieutenant Shane Schofield, a team of crack United States Marines is rushed to the station to secure this discovery for their country. They are a tight unit. Tough and fearless. They would follow their leader into hell. They just did...

In a land without boundaries, the only law is survival."

Fun, non-stop action

This is the fifth Matthew Reilly book I've read (others include the Jack West Jr. series and Temple), and as he writes your typical formulaic thrillers, I knew what to expect: Lots of action and fighting, a conspiracy of some sort and stereotypical characters. I got all that from Ice Station, plus the added bonus of actually liking and believing in several of the characters (as opposed to Temple, which I mostly wanted to throw out the window).

Ice Station is non-stop action: the first gunfight is underway on page 80 and neither the main characters nor the readers get a chance to catch their breath until the very end. Some of the scenes do require some serious suspension of disbelief, but for the most part I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. I wish Reilly didn't feel the need to educate me on all the different types of weapons used though – I don't care if the bad guys are shooting at the good guys with a MP-5 or a FA-MAS assault rifle or even a crossbow – I just want to know who gets hit.

Reilly is not afraid of killing off his characters, which serves to make the story more realistic – yes, good guys die. People are introduced on one page and killed on the next. The main character, Lt. Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield is an interesting guy who comes across as capable and credible – not something that can be said for most of Reilly's characters (I refer again to the utter rubbish that is Temple). There were also a couple of delightful instances of self-irony which I adored.

One of my problems with Reilly is his habit of using italics and/or exclamation marks to underline something bad/unexpected happening, which I find very annoying. It wasn't as prominent in this book as in Seven Ancient Wonders, but it still happens a lot. A few examples:
Kirsty squealed in surprise, looked up, and saw that she had hit the underside of the bridge. She couldn't go any further up!

They were melting the ice around them, and were now starting to slide out from the wall!
I tend to notice the typography more than the actual content in these cases, which interferes with the pace of the story.

All in all this was an enjoyable thriller which made me want to read the next book in the Scarecrow series. My only wish is that Reilly could have found a way of making the Australians and not the Americans the heroes. Now that would have been fun.

My rating: 4

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Teaser Tuesdays (5)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- Be careful not to include spoilers (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)!
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, which I'm reading on my Kindle (sorry, had to make it 3 sentences):

I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.

Monday, August 2, 2010

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (6)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.

READ LAST WEEK:
Ice Station by Matthew Reilly
A fast-paced thriller set in Antarctica. For the Aussie Author Challenge.

CURRENTLY READING:
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan (Kindle edition)
My first Kindle book. I've only read the first chapter, but it looks like a quick read.

WHAT'S NEXT:
Not sure, but probably one of the three books I have yet to read for the BookCrossing challenge, either The Secret River by Kate Grenville, 16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber or The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

In My Mailbox (3)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren in which we share what books we have received in the mail, bought, borrowed or otherwise acquired during the week.


The highlight of my week was of course receiving my Kindle. I haven't had time to sit down and actually read a book on it yet, but I've made sure to stack it with lots of free classics like Les Miserables and Alice in Woderland. I also got some newer books, like the first five books in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. As soon as I've finished my current read, I plan to start reading my very first Kindle book.


I also got Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris from BookMooch.com. I enjoyed Dead Until Dark, and I'm looking forward to continuing the series.
Related Posts with Thumbnails