Book: Cleopatra's Dagger

 Book: Cleopatra's Dagger

Author: Carole Lawerence

Pages: 364

This is my 54th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

New York, 1880.  Elizabeth van den Broek is the only female reporter at the Herald, the city's most popular newspaper.  Then she and her behemian friend Carlotta Ackerman find a woman's body wrapped like a mummy in a freshly dug hol in Central Park - the intended site of an obelisk called Cleopatra's Needle.  The Macabre discovery takes Elizabeth away from the society pages to follow an investigation into NYC's darkest shadows.  When more bodies turn up, each tied to Egyptian lore, Elizabeth is onto a headline-making scoop more sinister than she could have imagined.  Her reporting has readers spellbound, and each new clue implicates NY's richest and most powerful citizens.  And a serial killer is watching every headline.  Now a madman with an indecipherable motive is coming after Elizabeth and everyone she loves.   She wants a good story?  She may have to die to get it.

This book was fine.  I got it free with Kindle First Reads, and I am desperately trying to make my way through all those books in my library.  There was too much going on in this plot, and some of the main characters reactions to each other seemed overdone.  It started out strong and I was interested to see where it was going, but it quickly fell apart.  They did wrap up the ending fine, but I would not recommend this one as a good mystery.

Stars: 2.5

Book: Lady Chatterly's Lover

 Book: Lady Chatterly's Lover

Author: DH Lawerence

Pages: 354

This is my 53rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

This book explores the intesne affair between the sexually frustrated Connie- whose husaband Clifford, is paralysed from the waist down - and Oliver Mellors, the family gamekeeper.  First published in 1928, the novel challenged the social and sexual taboos of its time and was immediately banned as obscene.  

I read this book for the Rory Gilmore reading challenge.

Stars: 3

Book: Like Lions

 Book: Like Lions

Author: Brian Panowich

Pages: 293

This is my 52nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Clayton Burroughts is a small-town Georgia sheriff, a new father, and improbably, the heir apparent of Bull Mountain's most notorious criminal family.  As he tries to juggle fatherhood, his job and his recovery from being shot in the confrontation that killed his 2 criminally-inclined brothers last year, he's doing all he can just to srvive.  Yet after years of carefully toeing the line between his life in law enforcement and his family, he finally has to make a choice.  When a rival organization makes a first foray into Burroughs territory, leaving a trial of bodies and a whiff of fear in its wake, Clayton is pulled back into the life he so desperately wants to leave behind.  Revenge is a powerful force, and the vaccum left by his brothers' deaths has left them all vulnerable.  With his wife and child in danger, and the way of life in Bull Mountain under siege for everyone, Clayton will need to find a way to bury the bloody legacy of his past once and for all.

This was an okay book.  I picked it up for $2 at a library sale while on vacation.  It was slightly confusing and maybe a bit too much going on for a book under 300 pages.  I should have read the comments on this book before I picked it up to realize it is a sequel to the author's first book (which apparently was quite the hit).  Might have to go back and read that one.

Stars: 3

Fagin The Thief

 Book: Fagin the Thief

Author: Allison Epstein

Pages: 336

This is my 51st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of 19th centur London.  Born in the Jewish enclave of Stephney shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob's whole world is his open-minded mother, Leah.  But Jacob's prospects are forever altered when a light-fingered pickpocket takse Jacob under his wing and teaches him a trade that pays far better than the neighborhood boys could possibly dream.  Striking out on his own, Jacob familiarizes himself with London's highest value neighborhoods while forging his own path in the shadows.  But everthing changes when he adopts an aspiring teenage thief named Bill Sikes, whose mercurial temper poses a dnager to himself and anyone foolish enough to cross him.  Along the way, Jacob's found family expands to include his closest friend, Nancy, and his greatest protege, the Artful Dodger.  But as Bill's ambition soars and a major robbery goes awry, Jacob is forced to decide what he really stands for-and what a life is worth.  

This book was just okay.  My husabnd bought it because we both have been enjoying "The Artful Dodger" on Disney for a few seasons.  However, Fagin is my least favorite character on that show, and this book is a replication of that.  Also - the Artful Dodger is only a very small part of this story.  I finished it, but found it dry and boring.

Stars: 2.5 

Book: The Dressmaker's Gift

 Book: The Dressmaker's Gift

Author: Fiona Valpy

Pages: 287

This is my 50th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Paris, 1940.  With the city occupied by the Nazis, 3 young seamstresses go about their normal lives as best they can.  But all 3 are hiding secrets.  War-scarred Mireille is fighting with the Resistance; Claire has been seduced by a German officer; and Vivienne's involvement is something she can't reveal to either of them.  2 Generations later, Claire's English granddaughter Harriet arrives in Paris, rootless and adrift, desperate to find a connection with her past.  Living and working in the same building on the Rue Cardniale, she learns the truth about her grandmother - and herself - and unravels a family history that is darker and more painful than she ever imagined.  In wartime, the 3 seamstresses face impossible choices when their secret activities put them in grave danger.  Brought together by loyalty, threatened by betrayal, can they survive history's darkest era without being torn apart?

Stars: 3.5

Book: Lisa and David

 Book: Lisa and David

Author: Theodor Isaac Rubin

Pages: 144

This is my 49th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

2 stories about children who are emotionally different.  Jordi has trouble trusting others and is afraid of a lot of things.  With the help of a committed teacher he learns to trust and to distinguish between things that are harmless and those that may not be.  David is an aloof child who isn't interested in other people, but he becoems fascinated with Lisa, who speaks in rhyme and appears to have a second personality.

I read this book because it is on the Rory Gilmore list that I am working my way through.  It was decent.  IT is very short - read it in a few hours.  It says at the beginning of the book that Jordi wasn't a person but a representative of children who were like how he is represented in this book.  Lisa and David story was interesting and I understand it was a movie.  Might check it out.

Stars: 3

Book: The Women of Arlington Hall

 Book: The Women of Arlington Hall

Author: Jane Healey

Pages: 335

This is my 48th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

1947: Adventurous Radcliffe graduate Catherine Kileen cancels her wedding and upends a future that no longer suits her.  At the behest of her professor and hungry for a challenge, Cat arrives in Virginia to work on a confidential military project.  A student in cryptoanalysis, Cat is already ahead of the game - to assist in rooting out Soviet spices who have infiltrated the US.  Joining the government girls of Arlington Hall, Cat gains the respect of her superiors and the friendship of her peers.  Then, on a night out in DC, Cat runs into Jonathan Dardis, her arrogant and privileged Harvard rival and newly minted agent for the FBI.  What Cat and Jonathan share is a competitive drive and an attraction that's becoming just as spirited.  They're also united in the same critical goal for America.  Together, they're diving deep into the shads of espionage.  The stakes of the codebreaking operation grow ever higher, and Cat's relationship with Jonathn opens her heart.  Amid dangerous intigue and grave secrecy, Cat is ready for every risk - no matter how personal the stakes get 

This book was fine.  I wanted to like it more than I did.  I really liked the parts of the book where the Arlington Hall goverment girls worked closely on an espionage case.  Reading the author's note she based a lot of her characters on real people and some on actual people and their actual work.  Where the book lost me was two places.  One - I didn't find it overly well written.  And 2 - this became much more of a relationship/love story book than a work of the Government Girls.  More time was spent on this book with their activities outside of work than in, so it wasn't what I was hoping for.

Stars: 3