Book: Daisy Miller

 Book: Daisy Miller

Author: Henry James

Pages: 102

This is my 123rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

This is a classic novella about a young America girl's journey of self-discovery during her travels in Europe.  The story follows Daisy, a vibrant and free-spirited American girl, as she falls in love with a young Italian man and navigates the expectations of American and European societies.  As she straddles the line between the 2 cultures, Daisy must decide what she truly desires, and whether she will choose freedom or convention.

Weird book.  Read strictly for the Rory Gilmore Challenge.

Stars: 3

Book: The Christie Affair

 Book: The Christie AFfair

Author: Nina De Gramont

Pages: 400

This is my 122nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Why would the world's most famous mystery writer disappear for 11 days?  What makes a woman desperate enough to destroy another woman's marriage?  How deeply can a person crave revenge?  In 1925, Miss Nan O'Dea infiltrated the wealthy, rarefied world of author Agatha Christie and her husabnd, Archie.  In every way, he became a part of their life - first, both Christies.  Then, just Archie.  Soon, Nan became Archie's mistress, luring him away from his devoted wife, desperate to marry him.  Nan's plot didn't begin the day she met Archie and Agatha.  It begane decades before, in Ireland, when Nan was a young girl.  She and the man she loved were a star-crossed couple who were destined to be togehter - until the Great War, a pandemic, and shameful secrets tore them apart.  Then acts of unspeakable cruelty kept them separated.  What drives someone to murder?  What will someone do in the name of love?  What kind of crime can someone never forgive?

This was a pretty good book.  I liked being able to look up Agatha Christie, Archie Christie and Nan's actual lives to see where she stuck to the truth and where the author took liberties.  This book was told from Nan's perspective, and I could find very little about her online.  Archibald's Wikipedia page is 2 lines long and no where it mentioned that he was married to anyone except Agatha.  However he was married to Nan and they had a kid and they stayed married until she died in the 1950s.  Anyway - there were some other parts of the book where she veered from the truth, but I won't go into them since it would give away the plot of this book too much.  The characters are well developed and you end up liking just about everyone.  It had a good ending and I am glad it lead me to looking more into the lives of these people.

Stars: 4

Book: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

 Book: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

Author: Charles Seife

Pages: 272

This is my 121st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics.  Now it threatens the foundations of modern physics.  For centuries the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics.  For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers.  It is both nothing and everything.  In Zero, Science Journalist Charles Seife follows this innocent-looking number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its rise and transcendence in the West, and its ever-present threat to moder physics.  Here are the legendary thinkers - from Pythagoras to Newton to HEisenberg, from the Kabalists to today's astrophysicists - who have tried to understand it and whose clashes shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics, and religion.  Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persits in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang.  Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.

I read this book for an Alphabet challenge, and ended up really liking it.  Math - not my favorite subject - makes for a tricky read, but the author does a good job laying it out for lay people like myself.  This book starts quiet a ways back in history and I actually learned quite a bit.  Interesting read.

Stars: 4

Book: The Possession of Alba Diaz

 Book: The Possession of Alba Diaz

Author: Isabel Canas

Pages: 384

This is my 120th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas.  Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiance, Carlos, to his family's isolated mine for refuge.  But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions.  She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin.  Something angry.  Something wrong.  Elias, haunted by a troubled past, came to the NEw World to make his fortune and escape his family's legacy of greed.  Alba, as his cousin's betrothed, is none of his business.  Which is of course why he can't help but notice the growing tension between them every time she enters the room - and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon's thirst for blood gets stronger.  In the fight for her life, Alba and Elias become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets, and each other - not knowing that one of these things will spell their doom.

Stars: 3

Book: Beggars in Spain

 Book: Beggars in Spain

Author: Nancy Kress

Pages: 154

This is my 119th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

This coming of age tale follows Leisha Camden.  She is the first person gentically altered before birth so that she does not need to sleep.  Her rich industrialist father pays for the procedure so that his daughter will have a competitive edge over others.  It's soon discovered that Leisha's mother is also carrying a "normal" child.  As Leisha grows older she finds others who've had the non-sleep genetic alteration.  Compared to their age mates, the non-sleep children, who have not had IQ genetic manipulation, are more intelligent, better at problem - solving, and more joyous than non-engineered children.  And no negative side effects reported so far.

This book was interesting.  I picked it up after having a discussion with my husband that with all the books I read, especially in my favorite genre (Dystopian), I have not read a book where people don't sleep and it is a NORMAL phenomenon.  Not "can't sleep", or a disease comes into the world that causes people to stay awake and chaos ensues - but a world where not sleeping is known.  I did a deep search and this is the only one I could find.  It started out strong, but alas, as a novella, it didn't satisfy me completely.  It has an abrupt end - almost on a cliff hanger like the author might want to write more and continue on, but this is an old book so I guess that won't be happening.  It has quite a bit of smart thinking in it - the author put some thought into how this would work and what it would look like.  But the story was just so-so.  She kept starting ideas, but because of the short stories - there was no world building which is my favorite in these types of novels.  I am glad I read it.  I was just hoping for a bit more.

Stars: 4

Book: Mary and O'Neill

 Book: Mary and O'Neill

Author: Justin Cronin

Pages: 256

This is my 118th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Mary and O'Neill: They are ilke any other couple.  They have survived loss and found love and managed the occasional hard-earned laugh as they moved toward the future, hearts thick with hope.  Each human life is ever changing, born of moments large and small - births and deaths and weddings, grave mistakes and chance encounters and acts of surprising courage - and in this unforgettable book, Justin Cronin makes vivid how those moments connect us all, making us more than we could ever be on our own.  

This book was okay.  The title is a bit confusing.  Yes - there becomes a Mary and O'Neil, but honestly - this book should have been called Kay and O'Neil, because it is more about the brother and sister than the husband and the wife.  It was dry and mundane, and while I enjoy Justin Cronin books, this one fell flat for me.

Stars: 3

Book: Kill for Me, Kill for You

 Book: Kill for Me, Kill for You

Author: Steve Cavanagh

Pages: 352

This is my 117th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

One dark evening on NYC's Upper West Side, 2 strangers meet by chance.  Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realize they have much in common, including an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families.  As they talk into the night, they coe up wiht the perfect plan: if you kill for me, I'll kill for you.  In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the beautiful brownstone she shares with her husband, Scott, is invaded.  She's attacked by a man with piercing blue eyes, who disappears into the night.  Will she ever be able to feel safe again while the blue-eyed stranger is out there?

This was an interesting enough book.  It has been on my shelf for awhile, and I am determined to make a big dent in that thing this year.  It has an interesting enough mystery.  There was a twist I didn't see coming - bravo.  Two of them actually.  It was an easy read - a lot of short chapters.  I liked a lot of the characters.  The ending - even with a bit of a twist - was still just okay.

Stars: 3.5