Book: Knife

 Book: Knife

Author: Jo Nesbo

Pages: 512

This is my 281st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Harry Hole is not in a good place.  Rakel - the only woman he's eve loved - has ended it with him, permanently.  He's been given a chance for a new start with the Oslo Police but it's in the cold case office, when what he really wants is to be investigating cases he suspects have ties to Svein Finne, the serial rapist and murderer who Harry helped put behind bars.  And now, Finne is free after a decade - plus in prison - free, and Harry is certain, unreformed and ready to take up where he left off.  But thigns will get worse.  When Harry wakes up the morning after a blackout, drunken night with blood that's clearly not his own on his hands, it's only the very beginning of what will be a waking nightmare the likes of which even he could never have imagined.

Stars: 4 

Book: The Vanishing Family

 Book: The Vanishing Family

Author: Robert Kolker

Pages: 368

This is my 280th read for the eyar

What Amazon Says:

In the idyllic American town of Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, there lived a family with 9 silbings, the youngest a girl named Barb.  As the older children headed off to college and started their lives, only Barb was home to see their beautiful, still-yng mother fall under a gothic spell, changing into someone she didn't recognize: withdrawn, neglectful, uncaring.  Thus begins The Vanishing Family, journalist Rober Kolker's heartbreaking follow-up to his beloved Hidden Valley Road.  This family, we learn, has a genetic mutation that causes dementia, but with an especially cruel twist.  As early as their forties, formerly loving parents and hard-driving executives will lose their jobs, have affairs, take up drinking - shed all inhibitions and sense of responsibility - and become people their families hardly know.  Their former personalities seem to vanish - and there is a 50-50 chance that it will happen to their children, too.  This book unfolds with dramatic intensity as the siblings beging to realize that what happened to their mother is happening to them: first one, then 2,3,4 and more being to change.  Sue, in search of a calling, finds her place in caring for the others.  Barb sets out to find a cure.  Alongside their story, Kolker weaves in the dramatic scientific fight against dementia; after decades of blind alleys, this family's rare form of FTD might lead to a breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of all dementia - including the scourge of Alzheimer's disease.  Moving, intimate, unexplectedly hopeful.  this book is an enthralling narrative about one family's fate, and a medical detective story that speaks to all of us who fear losing ourselves in the end.

This book was excellent.  It is well written and tragic.  This poor family.  the author researched this book well and the siblings who were not affected helped him gather all the details from the beginning of their family until present.  9 siblings and 5 affected plus several of their children - it would be a lot to bare.  There is details about Frontal Temporal Dementia in this book and the history of where we are in finding a cure which was equally as interesting at the family's personal tale.  Gret read.

Stars: 5 

Book: When The Night Comes Knocking

 Book: When The Night Comes Knocking

Author: Kathering Daniel

Pages: 304

This is my 279th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Rattle, rattle in the dark - the mountain's bones seek out a heart.  Jane has not spoken to her brother Thomas since the accident that neraly killed them both.  Their drive from college through the North Georgia mountains is uncomfortably silent, until they stop at a roadside convenience store, where a man stumbles in with a mutilated body, claiming to have been attacked by a monster.  At first, no one believes the man's ravings, but when the next person to leave the store is brutally killed, they fear that local legend might be true.  There's a beast in these mountains who feast on guilty hearts - and someone among them has lured it out of hiding.  Jane and Thomas each harbor secrets, but so do the other patrons, and as the monster claims more hears, the survivros turn on each other, desperate to save themselves by uncovering the guiltiest among them.  If the siblings can't overcome the rift between them, they'll surely become the monster's next victioms - or worse - become monsters themselves.

Stars: 3

Book: The Minders

 Book: The Minders

Author: John Marrs

Pages: 416

This is my 278th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

In the 21st century, informtaion is king.  But computers can be hacked and files can be broken into - so a unique governemnt initiative has been born.  Five ordinary people have been select4ed to become inders - the latest weapon in thwarting cyberterrorism.  Transformed by a revolutionary medical procedure, the country's most classified iformation has been taken offline and turned into genetic code implanted inside their heads.  Together, the five know every secret - the truth behind every governemtn lie, conspiracy theory and cover up.  In return, they're given the chnce to leave their problems behind and a blank slate to start their lives anew.  But not everyone should be trusted, especially when they each have secrets of their own they'll do anything to protect.

Stars: 3

Book: Hawkings Hallway

 Book: Hawkings Hallway

Author: Neal Shusterman

Pages: 368

This is my 277th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Nick Slate, in order to protect his father and little brother, reluctantly must help the Accelerati complete Tesla's great device.  Their power-mad leader wants nothing less than to control the world's energy - but there are still 3 missing objects to track donw.  Nick's friends can't help him, as they are spread across the globe grappling with their own mysteries - with Vince in Scotland, Caitlin and Mitch on thier way to New Jersey, and Petula's whereabouts unknown.  On his own, Nick must locate Tesla's final invetions - which are the most powerful of all, capable of shatterig time and collapsing space.

A good wrap up to the trilogy

Stars: 4 

Book: The Pirate Queen

  Book: The Pirate Queen

Author: Ariel Lawhorn

Pages: 528

This is my 276th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Grace O'Malley was born to be a sea captain.  But despite her natural skill on the water, Grace learns early that her dreams of a life at the helm are not compatible with the expectations of her noble family.  As the only daughter of a powerful chieftain, her role is to secure a strong alliance and bear children.  Butwhen she's sent to foster with a nearby clan, Grace falls for a clever and open-minded second son - a man she cannot have.  Married off aganist her will to a brutal warrior, Grace performs her duty, all the while gathering followers loyal to her, and consolidating her husband's power, only to be ousted from his lands.  But this betrayal offers Grace the opportunity to return to the sea, finally leading clan O'Malley's might fleet.  Just as she finds true independence, Queen Elizabeth's incursions into Ireland grow bolder and Grace must fight to defend her land, her ships, and the people she loves most against the cruel and power-huntry English deputies, who will stop at nothing to check her influence.

This was an excellent book.  I loved The Frozen River, so I was excited to read this book.  It was well written with a very interesting story about someone who deserved more notice than history gave her.  This work is from years of deep research and it shows.  Ariel Lawhon does a great job of building a picture with the knowledge she obtains and this one was a page turner.  What a woman Grace O'Malley was!  Glad I read it - highly recommend.

Stars: 5 

Book: Partita

 Book: Partita

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Pages: 352

This is my 275th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core.  Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and promise as an extraordinary pianist.  His request, not, to see her again stirs up ghost she's kept at bay for a lifetime.  Shifting between past and present, Livia's decision to meet or reject the reunion means confronting step by step, in memories framed as musical dances, the experiences of childhood loss, abandonment, self-immolating passion, and perilous attachment to a man who broke her belief in love and ruptured the course of her life.

This was a pretty good book.  I am a big fan on Barbara Kingsolver, so I am always willing to try her books when they come out.  The writing is brilliant, and while it an epic scale novel, it still packed a lot into the short pages.  The only thing that knocked it a bit for me was the ending - bit of a meh ending.

Stars: 4