Innocent, Not So Innocent, And Really Naughty

I haven't been reading lately and once again it's a case of Not The Book's Fault, I'm Just Lazy. So in the meantime, let's hit the links.

The American Library Association has just announced that And Tango Makes Three has topped it's list of most challenged books. For those of you who don't know the story, And Tango Makes Three is a children's book based on a true story about two male penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo who raised a baby penguin together. Well those sneaky authors, dontcha know they're promoting a homosexual lifestyle!

I'm sorry, I have a hard time believing that when kids read this book they immediately think to themselves, "I want me some hot, gay lurve!" I guess there is a deeper message of non-traditional families being "OK" - but are kids really going to get "all that" out of a picture book? I'm thinking they'll think that it's a "cute story about cute penguins." But hell, what do I know? I'm just the librarian here.

In a case of not giving kids enough credit - a 16-year-old boy cracked an Internet filter that the Australian government spent $84 million dollars on. In thirty minutes no less. My God. And here I thought the U.S government held the market share on idiocy. To add insult to injury, when the government offered up a second filter, he cracked that in 40 minutes. I won't get on my soapbox about Internet filtering, but this story has an important message - that I am right. Seriously, let's not rely on technology to protect our children. Frankly there ain't no short cuts to good parenting - but again, what the hell do I know? I'm just the librarian here.

In delectably naughty news, I came back from a committee meeting (which was like having my brains sucked out of my nose through a straw) to find a package from Dorchester on my desk. I met one of their editors at RWA and when she told me, "If there is anything you'd like from us..." I told her how much I totally dig the Hard Case Crime line. Yeah, you guessed it! I got me a free book!

Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Terrall (reprint of 1960 original). Available in bookstores now.

Description:

When Ben Gates took the job guarding the presents at a ritzy upper-class wedding, he thought it would be a simple assignment: stand around, look tough, and make sure none of the bridesmaids walk off with the jewelry.

But that was before someone slipped sleeping pills into Ben’s coffee and a bizarre robbery attempt left two people dead. Now Ben’s reputation is on the line—and if he doesn’t figure out which of three beautiful women is hiding a murderous secret, his life may be as well…

Three femme fatales? Be still my heart! And I totally dig their covers. Her feet look a little too big, but dang, sometimes I wish romance would go back to these artist painted covers. Ripped bodices, heaving bosoms and copious amounts of man-titty just look a whole lot classier when they're painted. Wouldn't you agree?

The First Step Is Admitting You Have A Problem

Leya over at Wandeca Reads tagged me, and I've known Leya a long time so figured I better actually do this one. Plus, it looked kinda fun.

1) Total Number Of Books I Own: Well the To Be Read Sometime In My Lifetime But Probably Never Going To Happen Pile is at 884. I actually keep very few books once I read them, and I'm estimating here, but I'd put the grand total somewhere in the ballpark of 920.

2) Last Book I Bought: I picked up Rafferty's Bride by Mary Burton at the used bookstore a couple of weeks ago. A western Harlequin Historical (big shock) from several years ago. I've really gotten a lot better about my book buying.

3) Last Book I Read: The totally awesome Heartsick by Chelsea Cain. Buy it on September 4.

4) Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me: Here it goes...

• Bears In The Night by Jan and Stan Berenstain - The first book I ever remember reading all by myself. "Up spook hill...."
  

• The Nancy Drew Files series by various ghostwriters - Totally hooked me on reading in my early teens. Before that I had a some reading comprehension issues and I had a difficult time just reading, let alone finding something I liked. A year in "special ed" and they straightened me right out. A browsing trip to the local library started my serious love of mystery fiction and thank god for Nancy - especially for a girl who loathed Sweet Valley High.

• Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck - The first book that openly made me weep. I'm talking big, sobbing, choking tears. A neat trick since I finished it while sitting in the high school history class where the only thing I learned was that I could finish my chemistry homework for next period while sitting in the back row. For my money Steinbeck is the Great American Writer. Oh sure, people always say Hemingway - but I'm sorry Ernie, war has never been, nor will it ever be, romantic. Steinbeck was often dismissed as a hack because his work was so accessible (still is) and he wrote about the common man. Frankly, that's where his genius lies, and anybody who tries to convince you otherwise is just plain wrong. You can tell them I said so.
  

• Cooking Up A Storm by Emma Holly - This book was a revelation to me. Straight-up erotica written from a woman's perspective and marketed towards women. The heroine is allowed to be open and honest in her sexuality, bedding several lovers. No apologies, no guilt. The heroine was sexy and enjoyed sex and was The Heroine. Not the villainess. Can I get an amen? It flipped my erotica-as-feminism switch in a hardcore way.

• Breathless by Laura Lee Guhrke - The librarian heroine I've been waiting for my whole life. She's allowed to be feisty, abrasive and vulnerable. I loved how she held her ground, gave it to the hero with both barrels, but wasn't such a hard ass that her feelings never got hurt. For me this is the quintessential romance novel. The very best the genre has to offer. But admittedly it might be the whole awesome librarian heroine thing....

5)Tag Five People: Which I'm not going to do. But if you haven't been tagged yet, and think this looks like fun, feel free to say I tagged you.

Twisted Little Monkey

I pride myself on writing semi-coherent reviews. Plot synopsis, opinion, what worked and what didn't. But every once and while I just want to write something like:

Squee! I lurved this book! It is like the awesomest book evuh!

And leave it at that.

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain has been getting The Big Promotional Push by St. Martin's and now that I've read it I totally see why. It's got a great hook, female serial killer Gretchen Lowell, and it's a projected trilogy. What's interesting here is that while St. Martin's has put on the full court press regarding the Gretchen Lowell character, she's not really the focus of this story. No, Gretchen is more like the puppet master. She's behind the scenes, with the main characters still dealing with the aftermath.

Archie Sheridan spent his entire police career working on the infamous Beauty Killer case. Then the Beauty Killer herself, Gretchen, kidnapped and tortured him for weeks. As her final act of manipulation, she let him live - barely. He's been on disability for the last couple of years, and is now popping Vicodin like breath mints. He's a wreck - but he somehow manages to get his old job back. This time the Beauty Killer Task Force is looking for a killer targeting pretty, dark-haired teenage girls.

After years of letting Gretchen manipulate him, Archie is looking to turn the tables - so he asks Portland newspaper writer, Susan Ward, to follow him around and write a series of stories. The paper obviously jumps on this offer, but little do they know that Archie has manipulated this turn of events to get what he wants - closure.

This sounds like a fairly basic serial killer/suspense novel - but it's really not. The suspense here is almost incidental. This is more like a character study, as readers watch Archie further descend into his pain and addiction, watch Susan follow leads and make disastrous romantic decisions, watch Gretchen sing her siren song that's always calling Archie "home," and watch Archie's wife, Debbie, deal with the fact that her ex-husband ultimately chose a psychopath over her. It makes for messy entanglements.

Swirling around all this is this new threat - the After School Strangler. A man who kidnaps girls, rapes and murders them. Obviously this is not a sunshine happy book. I wouldn't say the author paints the details terribly gory - but sometimes just planting the suggestion is enough. If there was even a doubt that Gretchen Lowell was one twisted little monkey, it's pretty much wiped from my mind when I hear about what she once did with a crochet hook. Seriously, the girl has major issues.

I started out life as a mystery reader, and to this day nothing gets my blood flowing quite like a page-turning suspense yarn. If it weren't for some of the more gory details, I think Heartsick has massive crossover appeal. The characters here are really fantastic, and while the suspense itself is well done, it's these people that made me come back for more. They were the reason why I kept picking up the book and reading. And I'm suddenly filled with a wonderful sense of euphoria to know that two more books are in the works. Let's hope Cain brings some of these original cast members back for those future installments.

Final Grade = A. Honestly, I'm not doing this book justice. Official laydown date is September 4, and both of my sisters really need to get on the library waiting list for this one. Like now you guys.

It's Official, I'm Old

After a four hour rain delay (why they didn't just suck it up and play a double-header today or Sunday, who knows?) my Tigers (they're "my" Tigers as long as they're winning) beat the Yankees last night in 11 innings thanks to Carlos Guillen's walk-off homerun. At 3:30AM EST. That was only 12:30AM here and I still fell asleep well before the game went into extra innings. I had a rough day yesterday - that trip to the day spa just wore me out! What with the massage, pedicure, manicure and the nice sunburn I managed to work on.

In other news, The Guy Every Girl Would Love To Take Home To Meet Mom, Curtis Granderson, hit two triples last night, bringing his total up to 21 on the season. The first Tiger to hit 20 triples since Ty Cobb did it in 1917. Being the despicable human being that he was, I can only imagine how many times Cobb has rolled over in his grave this morning.

Bonderman pitches today. It's 9AM here and I'm wondering if it's too early to start drinking. All that, and I still feel like a nap.

Girlfriend Has Issues

Tomorrow will be a banner day here at the Super Librarian bat cave. First, I'm finally using the gift certificate The Boyfriend got me over a year ago and am hitting the spa, where I'll be getting a massage (sheer heaven) and I'll once again have cute feet (pedicure here I come!). I also hope to devote more time to Heartsick by Chelsea Cain, which I honestly think will be The Next Big Thing.

But what the heck do I know? Really. I thought The Da Vinci Code would be a minor, midlist success and that nobody would want to read The Lovely Bones.

Besides the cool ARCs, the publisher seems more than eager to throw advertising dollars around, so we've got a series of book trailers - the first two of which (I think the plan is for three altogether) are now making the rounds on the 'Net.

Now honestly, I don't get the whole book trailer thing, and it doesn't really help matters that some of them look pretty amateurish. But these two? Totally kick ass. Just saying.

Meet Gretchen Lowell - Part I


Meet Gretchen Lowell - Part II

See Jane Read

Making the Internet rounds this morning there's already been quite a bit of discussion on the recent AP poll that 1 in 4 Americans didn't even read one book last year. Not one.

On the bright side is that this poll also means that 3 out of 4 (or 75%) of Americans are reading. Maybe not a lot, but they did pick up a book within the last year. So hey, all is not lost.

I have theories on why people "don't read like they used to" and most of it involves our culture's determination to suck all the fun out of the activity. Required reading lists in school. Accelerated reading lists. Book clubs and the ever pervasive snotty literary opinion that it's not a real book unless it bores you senseless.

We live in a culture that delights in telling people what they should read, why they should enjoy it, and how "clueless" they are if they just don't get it. What do you mean you didn't like Catcher In The Rye? What do you mean you don't believe Oprah is the Goddess Of Great Book Selection? Well, you must be a moron! Look at you. Turning up your nose at Salinger while you're reading Nora Roberts!

This is a tough subject for me to pontificate on, because librarians are often the biggest offenders of what I like to call Telling People What They Should Read For Their Own Good. Drives me bonkers. Listen, I don't care what you're reading, just keep reading. Graphic novels? Fine. Romance novels? Fine. Street Lit? Fine. True Crime? Fine. ::Shudder:: even Danielle Steel? Fine. Y'all are keeping me in business and making it possible for me to pay my rent every month.

I read a lot. Even my sisters, who grew up in the same household, will contend that I read a lot. My parents were (and are) good parents, but I honestly can't remember them ever reading a book for themselves when I was a kid. Too busy. Too tired. Both of them working full time and raising three kids. That said, we were encouraged to go to the library. We were encouraged to read. My mother does read a newspaper every, single day. Every day people! My father read to us. He can probably still recite most of Are You My Mother? from memory.

So even though I don't recall my parents reading books when I was growing up, I still turned out to be a librarian. My other sisters? High school English teacher and a nurse's aide who was reading to her children before they were a year old. They both love books now, although my nephew is still learning the finer points of "being gentle with paper."

Reading has to be made a priority, and it just isn't for some. Also, if they never developed that appreciation, they might have a really hard time reading a whole book. They figure, "I'll read this book that Oprah liked" or "SoAndSo told me the Pulitzer Prize winner was great" and they get stalled when they don't-like-the-book or frankly, it's too hard. Then they feel "stupid" for not getting it and just plain give up. They think that reading isn't for them.

My advice? Try to find something that you'd like to read. What kind of movies do you like to watch? Romantic comedies? Well maybe you'd like romance novels. Heist films? Well, maybe a suspense novel. Documentaries? Heck, just about any non-fiction on a particular subject that interests you. Star Wars? Hit the science fiction my friend. Is finding the time a problem? Have a long commute? Try audio books! And read at the level you're comfortable with. There is no shame in having reading difficulties. That's why God invented literacy programs (ask your local librarian if there's one in your area). 900 page book on the Civil War too daunting? See if you can find something in the YA section. The more you read, the better you get at it. Hey, if it weren't true I'd still be reading Nancy Drew.

So while it is a bit depressing that 25% of Americans aren't reading, it's not that shocking of a statistic for me. I know why it is. I know where it comes from. Now it's just finding a way to convert that 25%. What's the first step? Letting them discover what they like and not brow-beating them over it. Librarians, are you listening?

Slippery Slope

It's no secret that I loved The Roofer by Erica Orloff. When I found out she was writing under the name Tess Hudson, I figured that it was a way for her to separate her more "gritty" books from her chick lit/romance/paranormal stuff. To a certain extent it is, but Double Down was a bit of a disappointment. It was one of those books that starts out great, then spends the next 250+ pages sliding down hill.

Skye McNally lives in Las Vegas and is a compulsive gambler. She blames this on the fact that she was raised by her single father, a notorious New York bookie whose idea of daddy-daughter time was to teach his little girl how the spread works. Skye ends up in Vegas after a "lost weekend" where she gets drunks, blows a ton of money, marries, then annuls the marriage to her father's right hand man.

She's now attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings and failing miserably at it. Her sponsor is George "T.D." Russell, a disgraced NFL offensive lineman who was banned from the game thanks to his gambling addiction. He's the father she never had and is trying to get her to see the error of her ways - but Skye's past just keeps calling her home.

After a visit to New York, and a losing streak a mile wide, Skye hits the Nevada desert where she runs into none other than Mark Shannon, pretty boy quarterback for the New York Mustangs, the expansion team poised to go to the Super Bowl. But Mark "ran away" and now everyone in the free world is looking for him. Well Skye finds him, and sparks fly. But it doesn't take long for the NFL to become very unhappy that their golden boy is hanging out with a bookie's daughter.

The book starts out with a wonderfully gritty tone, and the prologue is damn near perfect. Arguably one of the best I have ever read. Unfortunately, once Skye hooks up with Mark the whole novel stops working entirely for me. They spend one evening in the desert together and whamo! We have love at first sight, destiny, fate, all the crap that I tend to hate in romance novels. Does love at first sight happen? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I'm a firm believer in lust at first sight - so let's just leave it at that. Plus all the "it must have been fate that we hooked up in the middle of nowhere" crap just gets on my nerves. It's right up there with soul mates in my opinion.

Of course Skye is powerless against her addiction until she meets Mark, when suddenly she realizes that she hasn't thought about gambling once since meeting him and she feels "shame" over her problem. So basically our girl is cured by the love of a good man. Excuse me for a minute -

Puke, barf, puke.

Sorry, that kind of thing gets on my nerves. Call me old fashioned, but you can't make anyone change. They have to want to change. And up until meeting Mark, Skye has no desire to change, even though she's paying lip service at her GA meetings. Suddenly this guy shows up and viola!

I've already ranted about a former offensive lineman (Skye's sponsor) having the nickname of "Touchdown." Well the rest of the football stuff in this book just doesn't sit well. Mark talks about games being played on Astroturf (for the record, this book was published in 2005 and by that point teams had moved to either natural grass or field turf, which is like a Cadillac compared to Astroturf's Yugo). The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders do not wear red, white and blue - they just wear white and blue. An expansion team going to the Super Bowl? Yeah, and tomorrow pigs fly. None of this is terribly "big" stuff, and if you don't know a lick about football you won't care, but it drove me insane. Little, nitpicky stuff. What I found intriguing is that the gambling stuff rang true, but the football stuff felt "off."

Towards the end I began to get bored because the book morphs into a street version of Romeo and Juliet, with Mark and Skye's "romance" paralleling the romance of her parents (Southern debutante meets street thug at Kentucky Derby and they elope). It's during this portion of the story that Hudson seems to do a 180 and suddenly Skye's daddy and childhood aren't so bad after all. Hey, it's great Skye stops blaming her father for her problem(s), but Daddy Warbucks he ain't.

Final Verdict? A promising beginning and premise that steadily fizzles out with each passing chapter. Final Grade = C

Guess I Better Get On That

Even though my reading has slowed to a crawl, that hasn't stopped me from anticipating two releases hitting the shelves in September. Honestly, I need to stop watching the Tigers. I'm barely on speaking terms with them at the moment for dropping three games to the Yankees this weekend. You guys are killing me over here!

Anyway, back to the autobuys. I have very few these days, but lucky me, two of my favorite authors have new books coming out next month!

Fairyville by Emma Holly, laydown date September 4.

Description:

Zoe Clare is a medium who has no trouble communicating with the dead-or with real live fairies, for that matter! But she can't seem to get her feelings across to her landlord-slash-manager- Magnus Monroe, Fairyville, Arizona's most eligible bachelor. She's tired of his erotic antics with every woman in town but her. So when her high school flame returns to town, Zoe is more than a little vulnerable to his charms. How Alex broke her heart is a scandal no one in Fairyville has forgotten. But even if Zoe isn't ready to forget, she's willing to forgive. The rules they're about to break will bring out the jealousy in Magnus-and the astounding truth.

What Wendy Says: Gotta say, I'm a little hesitant about this even though it is the Emma Holly, who I love like a fat kid loves cake. I'm just not a fan of paranormal mixed with erotica. I'm sorry, I'm just not. I'm sure it can be well done, and I have total faith that Holly will pull it off, but it's a hard sell for me. Still, I'll be hitting Borders on the laydown date because I'm a junkie like that. And I love Emma Holly. Have I said that yet?

The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen, laydown date September 18 (yes, in hard cover).

Description:

Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil—human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time. . . .

Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, Norris Marshall, a talented but penniless student at Boston Medical College has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”—those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. Yet even this ghoulish commerce pales beside the shocking murder of a nurse found mutilated on the university hospital grounds. And when a distinguished doctor meets the same grisly fate, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.

To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer: Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums who fears she may be the next victim. Joined by a sardonic, keenly intelligent young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Norris and Rose comb the city—from its grim cemeteries and autopsy suites to its glittering mansions and centers of Brahmin power—on the trail of a maniacal fiend who lurks where least expected . . . and who waits for his next lethal opportunity.

What Wendy Says: I suspect I was the only reader disappointed in Gerritsen's last novel, The Mephisto Club. My sisters liked it, a friend of mine (new to Gerritsen) loved it. Me? I'm apparently a piss pot. But this one? This one I'm really looking forward to and I'll probably be camping outside of Costco on the 18th. I love historical mysteries, but don't read nearly enough of them, and I'm always intrigued when authors spin off in a new direction. Oh sure, this sounds like more grisly suspense from Gerritsen, but as far as I know, it's the first time she's dipped her hand in the historical waters. Also, great choice of time period and topic - but I'm a deviant like that.

What new books are you looking forward to?

Pick, pick, pick

I'm reading Double Down by Tess Hudson (another name for Erica Orloff, in case you don't know) and so far it's following a more gritty tone, which is aces by me because I think that's what I'm in the mood for. The heroine is a compulsive gambler trying to earn her thirty day coin with Gamblers Anonymous and failing miserably since she lives in Las Vegas. Her sponsor is a disgraced former NFL-er who got kicked out of the league for betting on games.

My problem? His nickname is T.D. - for touchdown.

What's the problem, Wendy? Touchdown = NFL. Um, yeah, except this guy is a former offensive lineman. How the heck does an offensive lineman get a nickname like that? Maybe he's a such a good blocker that he opens up huge running lanes for the running back? But then wouldn't the running back be nicknamed T.D. since he's the one actually scoring the points? Generally speaking, guys on the O-line block. They can score touchdowns but only under certain conditions:

• They recover a fumble and run it in

• They catch a deflected pass and run it in

• They declare themselves as an "eligible receiver" - which means reporting to the referee before the play is snapped

Outside of these instances, if an O-line guy touches the ball it's a penalty. Penalties are bad folks.

So it just seems really odd that Hudson would give her character this nickname. I mean, sure a guy on the O-line can score a touchdown, but it's hardly an every day thing. I mean, it's usually an oddity, or trickery the coach whips out in the hopes of surprising the opposing team. Frankly, guys on the O-line have enough on their hands with blocking, they don't have time to worry about catching the ball as well. That's why they pay wide receivers.

More believable nicknames for offensive lineman would follow along the lines of Ox, Bubba or Tank. But I'm giving Hudson time. I'm only 30 pages into the story. She very well could explain the nickname later on. Maybe he scored one touchdown in his entire career and it happened in the Super Bowl or a playoff game and a nickname was born?

Either way, the lesson here is girls watch sports too. Authors, do your homework.

Just A Bit Outside

I'm beginning to suspect that Major League Baseball let a drunken monkey set up the schedule. Case in point, the Tigers just wrapped up a two game set with the Indians (divisional rivals), now it's on to a four game set with the Yankees, then it's back for three more with the Indians, then another four game set with the Yankees. It's enough to make a girl take up drinking.

Oh who am I kidding? With the way our pitching has looked this year I've already busted the lock on the liquor cabinet.

But one thing to look forward to - the rousing welcome Gary Sheffield is sure to get when he shows up at Yankee stadium today.

Sheffield isn't fearing a negative reaction when he returns to New York later this week. "I know what kind of appreciation I get," said Sheffield, who spent three seasons with the Yankees before being traded.

Where I come from we call this denial. She-it, he'll be lucky if they don't throw batteries and spare engine parts at him.

Still, it's something to look forward to. Definitely more interesting to watch than my pitching melting down.

So in honor of what is sure to be a long, long, long week and a half, here's a clip from one of my favorite baseball movies. Incidentally, this is kinda what the Tigers bullpen has looked like this year.

Warning: a few naughty words ahead

Liberation Day

The one liberating thing about no longer "officially" reviewing is that I can now just quit books that aren't working for me. Such is the case with Walk Into The Flame by Ronda Thompson, a Native American western romance that came out in 2003 and which has probably been sitting in my TBR since then.

Now, I'm probably one of the few readers who isn't entirely burnt out on these. When most romance readers were cutting their teeth on them in the 1980s and 1990s, I was reading Mary Higgins Clark and Sue Grafton. Plus, Native American romances can be done well - it's just they're very few and very far between.

Walk Into The Flame starts out with a lot of promise, but by page 100 I was getting bored with it. It also didn't help that I knew exactly where it was headed. By far the highlight of the 100 pages I managed to read was the heroine, Rachel Brodie, who was abandoned by her abusive father and raised by the Mescalero Indians in New Mexico. She was a haunted child, refusing to talk for many years following the death of her white mother. She is raised by a loving Mescalero couple, and develops an unhealthy crush on her adoptive brother, Swift Buck.

For his part, Swift Buck is also attracted to her - but then she decides to live in the white man's world with her half brother. Rachel wants to "find herself," being caught between two very different worlds. Swift Buck has the patience and understanding God gave a concrete slab, and sees her defection as a betrayal.

Fast forward five years and Rachel is playing both sides of the fence. The Mescalero have been herded onto a filthy, desolate reservation and are dying. Rachel wants to help, but she's a woman, which means the only way to get to New Mexico is under the guise of preaching to the savages. She easily finds a preacher and his wife to help her travel plans along. Thinking Swift Buck was killed in the fighting with the U.S. Army, she's shocked to see him very much alive, and a single father to boot. But he hates her on sight for leaving the Mescalero and doesn't trust her worth a lick.

Rachel is smart, independent and haunted by her past. This poor girl has no idea who she is, torn between two worlds warring with each other. I admired her moxie and her smarts. She wants to help, but how to travel all the way to New Mexico? Playing the missionary, of course! And she quickly realizes that in order to help the Mescalero, she's going to have find a way to work with the Army captain stationed at the reservation - a man who is sweet on her. It's a very tight rope our girl has to walk.

My problems with the story start with Swift Buck, who is very unsympathetic (a neat trick since he's Native American and the reader goes into the story automatically wanting to sympathize with him). It just really bothered me that he was so mule-headed about Rachel. Doesn't he get it? She's neither "white" nor "Mescalero." Couple that with her abusive childhood and she's a woman adrift. She needs to find herself. She needs to heal from her past. Instead he takes her hostage, calls her "woman" and is determined to treat her like a captive. It also doesn't help that his dialogue occasionally drifts into what I call Native American Purple Prose Only Found In Romance Novel Land. And I'm sure y'all know what I'm talking about.

I skipped to the end and read the last chapter. Looks like Swift Buck does come around, and we have a happily ever after. I suspect if I had managed to read the whole book it would have fallen under my "average" umbrella (a C), but I got bored with the journey so Final Grade = DNF.

Rust Belt

I have a soft spot for "tough guy mysteries" and Loren Estleman writes some of the best. He also writes about Detroit, which means whenever I get a case of the Midwestern Homesick Blues, I pull out one of his Amos Walker mysteries. Sugartown is the fifth book, and compulsively readable.

Amos Walker is a Detroit private investigator with a whole lot of nerve, a smart mouth, and little to no tact. This time out he's hired by an elderly woman named Martha Evancek who wants him to find the grandson she lost track of nineteen years ago. There's been a lot of tragedy in the Evancek family, and young Michael is the only one left. Meanwhile, Amos also gets his hand on another case - someone is threatening Fedor Alanov, a Russian novelist now living in the U.S. because he ticked off one too many people in the good old U.S.S.R. He soon suspects that the two cases are connected and thrown into the mix is a long-lost heirloom. A silver cross embedded with semi-precious stones. The question is, will Walker be able to piece it together before someone knocks his skull against the pavement.

Estleman writes old school pulp, and bangs out sentences to a staccato beat. No wasted words, with dialog so fun to read it's easy to ignore the fact that nobody in real life talks like that. There are always gems to be found in his stories and two of my favorites in Sugartown are:

"She would not know a solid man if one fell on her."

and

"It was a good neighborhood. The very best people were found dead there."

The only knock I have against Estleman is that it helps if you know the Detroit area. You just get more of the jokes. For instance, most Michiganders (those that can be bothered anyway) know what he means by "fielding flies like Horton," when he talks about seeing the lights of Windsor, or when he tosses out a reference to The Purple Gang. They're still enjoyable reads, but let's face it - we librarians would categorize Estleman's work as having "strong regional appeal."

I'm not sure how wildly read he is, but my guess is not near enough. I think his earlier books aren't quite as dated as say, Robert B. Parker's early Spenser novels. Although, that said, Sugartown does show it's age in spots. Hey, it was first published in 1984 - so of course the Soviet Union is still around, and Amos is resisting the siren song of computers. The Tigers are still playing ball on The Corner, and the auto industry is actually looking for ways to bring jobs into the city. One thing hasn't changed all that much though - the complete clusterf--- that is Detroit. Everything from politics run amok to urban renewal gone bad. It's never a pretty picture, and it's a damn near perfect setting for the type of crime novels Estelman writes. Detroit is to him what Los Angeles is to James Ellroy.

A highly enjoyable series. I need to keep reading and hit the more recent installments. I'm curious if Amos 1) ever stops smoking like a chimney or 2) gets an office computer. Final Grade = B.

This, That And The Other

I'm lazy today, so y'all are getting links.

Sybil has posted the cover for Maureen McKade's next book, A Reason To Sin. I like it, and that's all that matters says I. Look for it in March 2008.

Speaking of Ms. McKade, I'm still pondering A Reason To Believe which means that "B" grade probably won't stick. I'm thinking of bumping it up to an A-. Not that any of this really matters since the way things are looking right now it's going to end up on my Best Of 2007 Reading list at the end of the year. Seriously, does the grade really matter in that case?

New group blog! Petticoats and Pistols features several writers of western romance. Gee, why would Wendy be promoting this one? And lookie here, Lorraine Heath is one of the contributors. Is this a sign of things to come? (Oh, and Patricia Potter too!)

Speaking of Lorraine Heath, Rosie and I hit another area used bookstore this weekend and I scored a lovely, pristine copy of Sweet Lullaby! The only "older" Heath novel I didn't have. And I got it for the extremely reasonable price of $6.50. Have I mentioned it looks brand spanking new? Not a spine crease to be found.

Talked to my folks this weekend and my mother informed me that she had to stop reading my blog at work. It seems her employer is cracking down and severely limiting Internet access. Her and one of her coworkers were making the habit of visiting my blog when they worked together. For shame Mother, not being the good little worker bee I know you are. To which The Boyfriend observed, "Man, your readership is diverse" to which I replied, "Um, not really." I'm just happily filling my own little niche here in cyberspace.

Hurting The One You Love

It was once suggested to me that I don't give romance readers enough credit. That's true - I don't give the majority of romance readers enough credit. It's been my experience that many romance readers want the safe bet. The book that is going to give them exactly what they want, and not challenge any notions they might have of love, sex, marriage or basic human nature. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but own up to it. Sadly, very few actually do - which means the comments about A Reason To Believe by Maureen McKade should make for interesting reading. This is one flawed heroine. Deeply, deeply flawed. While there were aspects of this story that didn't entirely work for me, you have to admire the author for having the balls to write it.

Rye Forrester has a debt to pay. An Army deserter (with the brand on his back to prove it), he rides up to Dulcie McDaniel's dilapidated farm to atone for his part in her husband's death. But the words get stuck in his throat and instead he asks for a job. He'll fix up her home, property and bring in her crops in exchange for room and board. Dulcie is desperate beyond measure, and not taking a moment to look a gift horse in the mouth, accepts his offer.

Dulcie married the useless Jerry McDaniel to get the hell out of Locust, Texas. She gets out of Locust, but in exchange she gets a worthless husband who spends all of his time either in saloons, with whores or both. When Jerry dies, she is left with a young daughter to care for and no means of support. The only answer is to go back to Locust and the farm where her useless, lazy, drunken father still lives. They hitch a ride with a peddler who expects payment, and Dulcie only has one thing to offer (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). After they arrive, her father is accused of murdering the most popular man in town and is lynched. Dulcie knows damn well her father didn't murder anyone, but nobody believes her.

She doesn't trust Rye Forrester as far as she can throw him. Her experiences with men have taught her to be wary. But the more she gets to know him, the more she lets her guard down. What happens when she learns the truth about Rye? And what will he think when he discovers what kind of woman she really is?

Dulcie is a woman who has made disastrous choices, mostly brought on by youth and desperation. For a girl whose home life is terrible growing up, what options were there in the 19th century? Um, not a whole lot - so Dulcie uses the one thing she has (her body) to secure herself a means out of Dodge (marriage). Unfortunately, she picks the wrong guy. When the peddler threatens to leave them stranded in the middle of nowhere if she doesn't pay up, Dulcie does what she must to secure the safety of her young daughter. Yes, she uses her body and yes, she allows others to use it as well. But that's not what haunts her. It's the fact that her body "betrays her" and she enjoys sex that troubles her the most - and when Rye begins awakening her desire she hits the whiskey bottle to starve it off.

This is a heroine that won't work for a lot of readers, and I'll admit the whole "drinking in secret" thing is really hard to read about. But half the joy in this book is watching the characters owning up to their mistakes and trying to make amends. The scene where Dulcie learns the truth about Rye is particularly fantastic, and really brings both of their destructive tendencies to a head.

What doesn't work so well here is the conflict surrounding the lynch mob and Dulcie's Daddy. She swears he's innocent, nobody believes her. Frankly I felt this aspect of the story was unnecessary. There's oodles of internal conflict; this just mucks up the works and takes the focus off the internal struggles of our romantic couple. I guess it does give them something to do - but the main problem here is that the mystery is no brain-bender. Frankly the minute Rye starts snooping around I had the thing solved and after that it just got tiresome. It does succeed for helping the plot move along, and if you're the sort of reader who needs external conflict then it does serve it's purpose. Me? I just didn't see the point.

I didn't like this one nearly as much as A Reason To Live, but I still admire what McKade has done with this book. It's not easy to read and it features characters that aren't always easy to like. Both Rye and Dulcie have a lot to atone for, and to watch these two damaged people learn to truly love each other is a joy to read about. So McKade gets the gold star for not taking the easy way out, but Final Grade = B.

Space Cadet

Crap! My father's birthday is Sunday and I totally blanked on it! Worst. Daughter. Ever.

Also, fallout from the Toronto/New York scuffle earlier in the week. Towers came out smelling like a rose. Now if only he weren't such a terrible pitcher....

Blood Is Thicker

My nephew got his very late birthday present from his Auntie Wendy today. Upon opening the package for him (hey, he's only three) my sister told me he said:

*Gasp* It's a BOOK!

Yeah, he was excited about it. I figure I only have a couple of years left before he'd rather have toys that could potentially poke his eye out (or his sister's eye out) for his birthday than a book. For now, I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Still A Douche After All These Years

The Boyfriend has admitted to me that he's only a Toronto Blue Jays fan until Roy "Doc" Halladay takes his pitching prowess to another team. It's too depressing to watch them most of the time, especially this year when they are once again trotting out the horrible Josh Towers to pitch and almost every guy on the team has spent time on the disabled list.

The Yankees routed them last night (9-2), but it sounds like I missed a heck of a game. One thing about the Jays - they have long, long memories. Also, their manager looks like he could hold his own in a bar fight. Just saying.

Back in May, Douchey-McDouche (oh, sorry - Alex Rodriquez) shouted something out to back-up third basemen Howie Clark and he dropped a pop fly. Raising the blood of back-up shortstop, John McDonald, a lunch-pail sort of player and arguably the best defensive utility guy in the league (he can't hit for crap, but you don't pay him for his bat). Naturally there was no consensus on what Douchey (oh sorry - ARod) said - but given the general dislike for ARod (people hated him before he was a Yankee, that's how special he is) the "play" was roundly dismissed as being "bush league." Whatever actually transpired, it seriously pissed off the Jays and have I mentioned their manager looks like he could hold his own in a bar fight?

Well last night, it happened. Right or wrong (I'm going with right here), bless his heart, Josh Towers threw at Douchey (oh sorry - ARod) and hit him in the knee. It's just a shame he didn't aim for his chin.

Then, Josh Towers, our hero, said this about Yankees first base coach Tony Pena:

"I heard somebody chirping when I was talking to Lyle [Overbay] and I didn't think it was Alex and I asked who it was," Towers said. "Tony Pena is running his mouth off and I was like, 'What's this guy running his mouth off for?' This dude is a quitter. He managed a team and quit in the middle of the season because he couldn't hack it. He's going to run his mouth off? So I ended up getting into it with Alex a second time."

I mean, the kid can't pitch worth a damn and probably shouldn't be talking smack - but dang, I can't help it. It's funny. Hell, it's funny because it's true.

But that's not the best part. Oh no. Roger Clemens, never one to have the coolest head, was later ejected for retaliating against the Jays and hitting Alex Rios.

Douchey (oh sorry - ARod) will likely whine and make excuses about this whole incident (it's what he does), but the fact remains that he's damn lucky that Josh Towers was pitching last night. If it had been Roy Halladay, Douchey (oh sorry - ARod) would be sipping his breakfast through a straw this morning. Just saying.

God, I love baseball and I love this team. This is almost as good as when The Manager Who Could Hold His Own In A Bar Fight got in an alleged fist fight with his own pitcher last year. Seriously, I heart John Gibbons. I love that man.

(And yes, I know my Tigers are playing horribly right now. And yes, I'm well aware the Yankees are breathing down our necks for a wild-card spot. Hey, I hate my pitching right now, what else can I say? But c'mon, hating A-Rod? I hardly hold the market share on that)

(And yeah, this entire post was pretty much for KristieJ who has a hard time watching baseball these days. Gotta keep the girl in the loop)

Seen Around The Web

I've over at Romancing The Blog today. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.

In other news, I scored A Reason To Believe by Maureen McKade at the bookstore yesterday (a day before the official laydown date). Guess what I'm starting on my lunch break today?

Potatoes And Cheese

When you're feeling down or blue there's nothing quite like comfort food. My comfort food usually involves potatoes, cheese or in ideal conditions - both. Which probably explains my need to drop more than a few pounds. So why when I hit a reading slump did I try to over think it? I suspect the sheer mountain that is my To-Be-Read pile caused my brain to short circuit. All I needed to do was go back to my "reading comfort food" - which in my case is western romances (hey, this should be no shock to anyone reading this unless you're new to the blog).

The Perfect Wife by Mary Burton is ideal comfort food. It tastes pretty good, goes down easy, but in a couple of weeks I won't remember a thing about the meal. Hey, that's OK. I'm not looking for groundbreaking here - I just needed something to get my mojo back. Hopefully this is the start of a long, steady reading streak.

Jenna Winslow has fallen from grace. Well, not her exactly, more like her family. Her younger, prettier and wilder sister apparently had more lovers than a brothel in a boom town and winds up pregnant. Her parents send her off to the country where the plan is to dispose of the child the minute it is born. Then Victoria has to go and die in childbirth, thus a scandal, along with a babe, is born. Jenna takes one look at sweet, innocent Kate and wants to keep her. This leads to her parents abandoning her for greener, less scandal-ridden pastures, and her fiance dumping her. Jenna has nothing. She was raised a lady - a rather bookish one at that - so that means the girl has no skills. So in desperation she answers an ad for a mail order bride. She tells Rowe Mercer she's a widow and has a young daughter. He's kosher with this and the two make plans to get hitched.

Jenna arrives in Colorado completely unprepared to be a rancher's wife, but determined to make it work. Rowe wants to settle down after a sordid bounty hunting past, and wants sons to inherit his land. All is well and good - but what will happen when Rowe's past comes a-callin' and Jenna's lies bubble to the surface?

The conflict here is really light, and Jenna's reasons for keeping the scandal a secret are easily understood until she meets Rowe. I'm not quite sure why she just doesn't tell the man straight away, but in her defense he does move things along rather quickly. It's off the stagecoach, married and heading for home before she even takes a breath.

Burton brings in a little external conflict to punch up this tale, but it's really rather simple and straight-forward. A perfect book to read when you don't want to think too hard. Pull it out to read while the kiddies are napping or you're waiting at the doctor's office. It's pleasant, it flows easily, but it's not the sort of book that will change your life.

That said, after slogging through the last couple of books I've tried, I positively tore through this one. That's saying something so Final Grade = B-.

It's Not You It's Me

I'm currently suffering from The Mother Of All Reading Slumps. Nothing sounds good, except not reading. Yeah, you read that right - I don't feel like reading. Anything. Thinking I needed a change of pace, I whipped out Have You Seen Her? by Karen Rose, hoping some dead bodies might be all I needed to get my reading mojo back. Unfortunately not. After forcing myself through 150 pages that took me a week to read, with me constantly berating myself to "just pick up the damn book already," I skimmed to the end.

Somebody is kidnapping and killing pretty teenage girls in wholesome small town North Carolina. Special Agent Steven Thatcher is on the case, when he's not wrestling with the guilt over his wife's death (she died in a car accident), the fact that his young son, Nicky, survived a kidnapping of his own and his other son, Brad, has gone from All-American Teen to surly pain-in-the-ass overnight.

Dr. Jenna Marshall is Brad's chemistry teacher and calls Steven when his son fails yet another test. Brad used to be such a good student, and Jenna feels that this sudden change in his personality is not good (well duh). Steven and Jenna are attracted to each other instantly - but she's still carrying baggage leftover from a dead fiance and he's got the whole single father guilt thing going on. Then the killer takes an interest in Jenna.

I just couldn't muster up much excitement here. Rose has worked for me in the past (I really enjoyed Nothing To Fear and Count To Ten) but Have You Seen Her? lacks the sense of urgency that made those other books so compelling. Also, I think the other problem is that Jenna is "just a teacher." That is to say, she practically screams damsel-in-distress - and frankly I'm just not that keen on that sort of conflict. I like the heroine who helps herself - which is why I think Nothing To Fear (heroine helps abused women escape their abusers) and Count To Ten (heroine is a cop) worked a lot better for me.

I just could not get invested in this story, and every reason "why" that I can come up with sounds really, really nit-picky. So I wouldn't consider this a review, more like a desperate cry for help. I skimmed the ending, but pretty much skipped the entire second half - so Final Grade = DNF.

Sigh, I hope I get my reading mojo back soon.

Spoiler Free Zone

Finished Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows yesterday.

I heart Neville Longbottom.

That is all.

How Wendy Reviews A Book

When The Misadventures of Super Librarian launched way back in 2003, it was little more than a sounding board for me. Over the years it has evolved to include everything from commentary, reviews, to my obsessive devotion to Detroit Tigers baseball. Now, long overdue, I thought it would be pertinent to post somewhere on this site my specific review guidelines or as I like to call them "How Wendy Reviews A Book."

Since severing my relationship with The Romance Reader and The Mystery Reader all reviewing is done on my own time and dime. Over 99% of what is reviewed on this blog comes from my own personal To Be Read stash (which can currently be seen from Venus) or titles I borrowed from work. I do this because I like to talk about what I've read/am reading with other readers. That's it. I don't get paid for it. This is a hobby for me and I adore "meeting" other people who are as passionate about reading as I am.

My grading system is very simple and is as follows:

• A = OMG this was incredible! Run to the bookstore!

• B = Very good and recommended

• C = Average. The good and the bad even out

• D = Happy beyond words to have finished it. Pretty much awful, with one or two redeeming qualities

• F = My eyes started bleeding and wouldn't stop

• DNF = Did Not Finish. For some reason this book wasn't working for me and I couldn't be bothered to keep reading

I am notoriously finicky, so A grades are rare. Likewise, since I am no longer reviewing in any official capacity, so are F grades. Chances are I'll slap the book with a DNF as opposed to slogging my way through to the end. B and C grades tend to be the most common. And just to clarify - on my grading scale a B is very good. No, it really is. You'd be surprised how many readers I've met over the years who were horrified that I slapped a B grade on a book that's resting on their keeper shelf. Hey, I liked it too - chances are a lot - it just didn't hit the rarefied air of an A grade (again, I'm finicky). So get over it. A B is good.

Everyone has a style when it comes to reviewing and mine tends to be focusing on the characters and plot. If you want to know all about historical accuracy in Regency romances or you want someone to dissect larger themes and discuss symbolism - I'm not your girl. I'm a simple girl, with simple tastes. I know what I like, and what works for me, and I stopped overly dissecting novels the minute I got my butt out of college. Personally that sort of thing always sucked all the fun out of reading for me - but everyone's different.

As far as accepting review requests from authors - I do, but on an extremely limited basis. You can ask - and I may or may not accept. A couple of things you need to be aware of:

• I don't do ebooks Thanks to the awesomeness that is my Sony Reader, I can now accept eARCs and ebooks for review. PDF files only. I do not, and will not, share eARCs or ebooks. I'm a librarian. If you can't trust a librarian to not pirate your electronic book, who can you trust? And yes, I still accept low-tech "dead tree" books.
  

• My main areas of reviewing are romance (all sorts), mystery (all sorts) and some women's fiction and historical fiction.

• I might turn you down. Nothing personal.

• I try to post reviews very close to the actual release date of the book. You can send me the Advanced Copy six months ahead of time, but it's better for readers if they read the review, then can walk into a bookstore and get the book. Waiting makes them fidgety.

• If you're interested in inquiring about a review, you can find a link to my e-mail address on my Blogger Profile page.

But before you do, I have oodles of reviews posted around the site. I don't pull punches. If I hate the book, I'm going to say why I hated it (sometimes with some frothing at the mouth depending on how annoyed I am). If I love the book, I'll gush about it from the highest mountain. Here are a few examples of my reviewing style:

Positive Reviews: All U Can Eat by Emma Holly, The Crossroads Cafe by Deborah Smith, Broken by Megan Hart, A Reason To Live by Maureen McKade

Negative Reviews: His Boots Under Her Bed by Ana Leigh, Hot Night by Shannon McKenna, Hard Evidence by Pamela Clare, The Blonde Geisha by Jina Bacarr

Either my style is going to work for you or not. Seriously, no hard feelings. That's the great thing about the Internet - there's literally something for everybody.

And so ends this public service announcement.

Convenience Store

I got an e-mail today from Borders informing me that a new store will be holding their grand opening this weekend. Imagine my total delight to discover the store is extremely close to where I work. This is either a very good thing, or a very bad thing - jury is still out. But given that next week brings a hotly anticipated title (on my part anyway), I'm currently ecstatic. Tuesday, August 7 is the official laydown date for A Reason To Believe by Maureen McKade, book two in her Forrester Brothers trilogy.

Can I get a Yee Haw?

Description:

Lonely and filled with regrets, Dulcie McDaniels struggles to provide a decent life for her daughter. Usually shunned by proper folks, she's suspicious of Rye Forrester, a drifter offering to work for his keep. But after he helps harvest the crop, her feelings toward the handsome stranger turn into a consuming passion. But Rye has his own secrets. When their tragic pasts catch up with them, these two wounded souls must fight for the love that will keep them together for a lifetime.

It's a poorly kept secret how much I loved the previous book in this series, A Reason To Live. When I found out Berkley bought it as part of a series I just about fell out of my chair (then thanked baby Jesus. Can I get an Amen?).

So for all of you who loved A Reason To Live as much as I did (and I know who most of you are), drop everything on Tuesday and run out to pick up A Reason To Believe. Seriously, like you have anything more important going on in your life that day? In the meantime, here's an excerpt to tide you over (or make you extremely impatient for Tuesday - take your pick).