2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge

Duration: 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015

Host: Samantha-Lin.com
Challenge Rules and Sign-Up Page

The Challenge: Read an Author for each letter of the alphabet.

This one allows re-reads and crossovers with other challenges, so I might be able to accomplish this one, I hope.

• A - 
• B - Borgford, Brian: Pepper
• C - Carline, Gayle: Freezer Burn
• D - 
• E - 
• F - 
• G - 
• H - Howell, Dorotohy: Fatal Debt
• I - 
• J - 
• K - Kenyon, Nate: The Bone Factory
• L - Lange, John: Binary
• M - Myers, Tim: Room for Murder
• N - 
• O - 
• P - Paterson, Jill: The Celtic Dagger
• Q - 
• R - Rand, Johnathan: Savage Dinosaurs of South Dakota
• S - Swanson, Cidney: Rippler
• T - 
• U - 
• V - 
• W - Wullert, Mark: The Stolen Adventure
• X - 
• Y - 
• Z - 

Conclusion: I actually ended up reading more books than I really anticipated. Having some ebooks for exercising and taking our child to the library for the first time and reading to him seemed to have helped increase my reading capacity, though not to the point of successfully completing my goal. (I mean, I read most of the boy's library books to him, and if I counted those I might have made it; but I won't count those as most of them were fewer than 20 pages.)

Book Review: The Celtic Dagger by Jill Paterson

The Celtic Dagger
by Jill Paterson


Publisher: Jill Henderson
Release Date: 14 October 2012
ASIN: B009QTC28E
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 208
Genre: Mystery
Time to read: 4 hours
Source: Amazon (Free at the time) [20 October 2014]
aStore Link (Real Book): The Celtic Dagger
aStore Link (Kindle Book): The Celtic Dagger

Summary
(Goodreads)

University professor Alex Wearing is found murdered in his study by the Post Graduate Co-coordinator, Vera Trenbath, a nosey interfering busybody. Assigned to the case is Detective Chief Inspector Alistair Fitzjohn. Fitzjohn is a detective from the old guard, whose methodical, painstaking methods are viewed by some as archaic. His relentless pursuit for the killer zeros in on Alex’s brother, James, as a key suspect in his investigation.

Compelled to clear himself of suspicion, James starts his own investigation and finds himself immersed in a web of intrigue, ultimately uncovering long hidden secrets about his brother’s life that could easily be the very reasons he was murdered.

This gripping tale of murder and suspense winds its way through the university’s hallowed halls to emerge into the beautiful, yet unpredictable, Blue Mountain region where more challenges and obstacles await James in his quest to clear himself of suspicion and uncover the truth about his brother.

My Reaction

I started reading this book to pass the time on the treadmill in the wee early morning hours that I have available to go to the gym. Then there were freezing warnings and I started a second job so I really didn't have to time to get back to the gym or pick up where I left off. But it was easy to start from my last save-point to finish this story that had me guessing until the end.

When I downloaded the book from Amazon, it said it was the first in the Fitzjohn Mystery series (Fitzjohn being the detective with a mouthful of a title: Detective Chief Inspector), but I found it odd that for a series bearing his name he barely featured in it. While I was reading, Alex Wearing was clearly the main character. It wasn't until I began writing my review that I found the note on the author's website that this story began as a stand-alone, and only later did the interesting Fitzjohn become a serial character. Still, that point did not really distract me while reading.

There are two things I love within this tale: Australia and academia-related things, and Wearing as a professor in Sydney combined with his travels to several other names I've heard about but have never experienced were fun for me. I don't believe I've read anything taking place in Australia before, and because much of the story takes place between May and August, it was a bit mind-stretching to remember that the setting is winter for the characters.

I loved that the artefacts from the museum were key in the murder and investigation. The way Paterson weaved them all together with the storylines and relationships of each character made everything believable. My only real disappointments in the book were the several proofreading errors (including some liberal use of commas in places that made phrasing difficult in my head) which seem to plague many of these free ebooks I find on Amazon. Then there was a rather pivotal action scene that seemed written too quickly, though it also gave the feeling that one might feel in that situation when so much is going on that it passes by so fast you don't know what really happened. So I guess I'm a bit ambiguously disappointed there rather.

I think The Celtic Dagger probably classifies as a Cozy Mystery, but I also enjoyed the brief look into Australian syntax, culture, and bit of geography as well.

Reading Challenges: 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge, 2015 eBook Reading Challenge

For more information on this book:

Author's Website

Amazon  |  Kindle

2015 eBook Reading Challenge

Duration: 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015

Host: Annette's Book Spot
Challenge Rules and Sign-Up Page

The Challenge: Read your ebooks, especially the ones you've accumulated over time.

This challenge has 6 levels ranging from 5 to 100 ebooks. I had attempted an ebook challenge once before on my older blog, but that was the year our boy was born so I found myself without a lot of time to do anything.

Like last time, I thought I'd start out small, so I'm attempting the lowest level of the challenge.

My Level: Bits (Read 5 ebooks)

1. Freezer Burn by Gayle Carline
2. The Celtic Dagger by Jill Paterson
3. Fatal Debt by Dorothy Howell
4. Rippler by Cidney Swanson
5. The Stolen Adventure by Mark Wullert
6. Keeping Mum: Long Weekend by Perrin Briar

Conclusion: Hey! I actually completed (and barely exceeded) a challenge! I didn't do very well at the reviewing part of it. I really don't know how other bloggers do it. It takes me a few days to even process how I felt about a book I read, and by then I'm trying to start a new book or getting off track of even reading at all because of all the other stuff I have to do.

Anyway, maybe I'll try again next time and get farther.

Book Review: Room for Murder by Tim Myers

Room for Murder
by Tim Myers


Publisher:Berkley Prime Crime
Release Date: 2 September 2003
ISBN: 0-425-19310-1
Format: Paperback
Pages: 181
Genre: Mystery
Time to read: 4 hours
Source: Dollar General
aStore Link (Physical Book): Room for Murder
aStore Link (Kindle Book): Room for Murder

Summary
(from back of book)

Alex couldn't be happier. His best friend, Mor Pendleton, is about to tie the knot--and he's asked Alex to be the best man. But before the festivities can begin, the bride-to-be's ex is found dead--in the cab of Mor's truck. Suddenly, trying to come up with the toast of a lifetime is the least of Alex's worries--especially when the town's top mayoral candidate goes missing. Now, Alex must hunt down a killer before he winds up with more ghosts than guests at the beloved inn....

Room for Murder is the fourth in Tim Myers' "Lighthouse Inn Mystery" series. It takes place in the fictional small town of Elkton Falls in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina. (I'm assuming it's fictional; a quick Google Maps search did not point me anywhere near NC.) The main setting is the Hatteras West Inn and Lighthouse, run by Alex Winston. The landlocked lighthouse on the grounds is an exact replica of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on NC's east coast.

My Reaction

This was actually the second time I've read this book; I first read it in 2007 and thought I had reviewed it on an earlier version of my blog, but I could find no evidence of doing so. This re-read proved to be as successful as the first read-through as I had no idea what the outcome of the story was until near the end when my memory finally started giving me feedback on the first reading.

As I remember thinking the first time I read this, you can tell that this is a story in a series; but the author does a great job of alluding to previous occurrences in Elkton Falls or outright catching the reader up on some of the details that would be familiar to a return reader. He does this in a very casual way that does not detract from the rhythm of the story and really made me want to go back to the first three books to see what adventures I missed.

I really enjoyed my time with this book as the action took up very quickly and the mystery held tight throughout the majority of the pages. Plus, the sideline plots of the tentative relationship between Alex and Elise and the mayoral race allowed for the dialogue to really flesh out the characters in a realistic manner. I especially enjoyed that main character is not really acting in the typical mystery book fashion as an over-the-top amateur sleuth who asks all the right questions; Alex seems like a normal guy who is just trying to help his friends and getting caught up in some of the craziness as it happens.

One thing about the title, book cover, and blurb bothered me after completing the story. It shows the interior of one of the rooms in the inn along with the teaser, "There's a sudden vacancy at the inn." However, as you can tell from the summary above directly from the book, the murder does not take place in the inn at all, let alone in a room of the inn. Fortunately the pace of the book allowed me to forget whatever expectation the cover may have stirred my mind to create. Also, one of the chapters is a pretty hilarious elimination of a red herring to which the book's back cover summary refers.

Two very big things stood out to me in this book that made me like it even more, though. Firstly, apart from the murders the book is clean. It's very rare to come across an author who understands that you can tell a riveting tale without using profanity or gratuitous sexual scenes.  Notably there was a scene where a character was said to swear, but the offending word was not used; and I don't feel the story was any poorer for doing so.

Secondly, the story takes place in a part of the country I'd visited many times and have oft dreamed of living some day. It's very similar to the small-town culture I grew up in along with the interesting characters that really do exist in these types of places. Myers does a great job of presenting the southern charm of North Carolinians with some of the references and figures of speech he used, which based on his bio seems to be because that is where he lives.

I recommend this book and look forward to finding the rest of the series to get more involved in the Lighthouse Inn Mysteries.

Reading Challenges: 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge

For more information on this book:

Author's Website

Amazon  |  Kindle

Book Review: Freezer Burn by Gayle Carline

Freezer Burn
by Gayle Carline

Publisher: Dancing Corgi Press
Release Date: 22 November 2012
ASIN: B007ZHVDN4
Format: Kindle book
Pages: 316
Genre: Mystery
Time to read: 3 days
Source: Amazon (Free at the time; One Hundred Free Books) [20 October 2014]
aStore Link: Freezer Burn

Summary
(from Goodreads)

Peri Minneopa has heard her name mangled a thousand ways to Sunday and hates them all. What she does like are clean houses, and dirty martinis. She recently traded in her housecleaning business for a P.I. license. Her timing seems perfect, when she cleans a former client's freezer and finds a severed hand inside, wearing an expensive ring. The client, Benny Needles, is a Dean Martin fanatic who swears he's innocent. But where there's a hand, there's a body, waiting to be found.

It's a brand new world for Peri, and she has a lot to learn. Her boyfriend, Skip, a detective in the Placentia Police Department warns Peri that this case could be dangerous, but she can't stop sticking her nose into the middle of things. Her first lesson is that investigating murder can have bad consequences. In the middle of trying to solve the case, Peri takes on a surveillance job. The philandering husband is unhappy with her, and she discovers that even surveillance isn't always low risk.  

As the two cases collide, will Peri learn the truth behind both of them? And more important, will she ever get that dirty martini?

My Reaction

The premise of Freezer Burn being a sharp-eyed, middle-aged woman leaving behind her house cleaning days for a new career as an investigator of insurance fraud-slash-marital infidelity cases really caught my attention. Not just that whole unique combination, but also some protagonist features that I really haven't encountered before. Most of the time our literary hero of the mystery genre is a seasoned veteran of the police force stepping out on his own, or a highly intelligent fresh-out-of-criminology class, twenty-something female (Miss Marple notwithstanding). The cleverly named Peri Minneopa (now one of my favorite character names) uses her eye for detail and strong will to team up with her boyfriend Skip (often against his wishes) in a case she stumbles into involving a character (Benny) whose quirks only she really seems to understand.

The flow of the story seemed to give me an idea of the thought process in the holistic, multitasking mind typical of the female psyche vs. the compartmentalized mind of a male (the latter of which I am very familiar with). While Peri is doing her day job of filling out insurance investigation paperwork, she also thinking of what a suspect on Benny's case said, planning a date with Skip, and worried about her biological time clock all at once; and I think the author presented it clearly enough that my mind was multitasking with her.

The characters were interesting, although some of the sideline people seemed to have come out of the hammerspace to bring in a new clue or plot detail then disappeared. There were also a few moments that seemed a bit too convenient in order to move the plot along, but not really enough to push me out of the story. These and the need for a copyeditor (to run through the book again are what pushed my rating down to 4 stars.

I've also read a few other reviews criticizing the character for not being smart enough to use ... well, a very feminine item that is also a plot device so I won't explain exactly what it is. But, regarding the criticism, I know many people (myself included) who are very intelligent in a number of fields, but something common (particularly common sense) is something that seems to evade their grasp.

Ultimately I found Freezer Burn an enjoyable and often humorous read that kept me guessing what the conclusion would be almost up to the last couple chapters. As this was the first in a series, I will certainly be looking forward to joining the Peri Minneopa Mysteries again soon.


Reading Challenges: 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge, 2015 eBook Reading Challenge

For more information on this book: 

Book Page on Author's Site  |  Author's Website

Amazon  |  Kindle

2014 Blog in Review

Well, 2015 is here, and another year has passed. Although life stuff has had its serious ups and downs this year, our family has certainly been blessed.

On the blog-front, however, I seem to have not quite found my routine. It's not that I really expect anyone to read anything I've posted. This is more of an exercise in strengthening my writing skills as well as a expanding my reading experiences. A sort of creative catharsis coupled with a quantitative aspect.

Looking back on 2014, I did accomplish something I haven't done in a while: I actually read some books for pleasure. I've also been reading some bedtime stories and such to the kid, but I didn't really count those.

Something I learned from last year is that I have no idea how to review a book I've read. It takes me a couple of days just to process my impression of the book as a whole (as it does for a movie, song, life experience, etc.), and it seems by then I've forgotten most of what happened in the book in order to summarize it. I'm going to give this another attempt for 2015. If you don't write at all, you can't learn to write better.

I also categorically failed at reading the Bible in a year again. I'll keep trying, though. I'll have to accomplish this at some point, even if I will know Genesis by heart when I reach that point.

Among the challenges I attempted:

• Bible in a Year: I read 305 out of 1189 chapters; that's 25.7% of the Bible.
• 2014 Read Your Freebies: I read 7 out of 12; only reviewed 3 out of the 7.
• Nonfiction Reading Challenge 2014: I read 1 out of 5. Oy!

For 2015, I'll set my goals low again, attempting only the lowest tiers of reading challenges, the details of which will appear on my 2015 Blog Preview post.

I hope yours was a great 2014. Here's to an even better 2015.

LeviSamJuno

Book Review: American Chillers #34: Savage Dinosaurs of South Dakota by Johnathan Rand

Savage Dinosaurs of South Dakota(American Chillers #34)
by Johnathan Rand


Publisher: AudioCraft Publishing
Release Date: 2012
ISBN: 9781893699595
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Children's Thriller; Chapter Book
Time to read: 3 hours
Source: Meijer
aStore Link (Real Book): Savage Dinosaurs of South Dakota

Summary
(from Back of Book)

Autumn McLachlan and her best friend, Brady Vanguard, love dinosaurs. They absolutely love them. They read dinosaurs books, watch dinosaur movies, and know a lot about these prehistoric creatures that existed millions of years ago.

When famed inventor Samuel Putnam announces that he's going to build a dinosaur park in Rapid City, South Dakota - complete with lifelike, mechanical dinosaurs - Autumn and Brady have good reason to be excited. It will be like traveling back in time, millions of years, to witness these incredible beasts that once ruled the earth. And because these dinosaurs aren't real, surely nothing could ever go wrong.

Could it? 

At the grand opening, Autumn and Brady are going to discover just how dangerous Mr. Putnam's park can be ... and when things go haywire, can two ordinary kids survive the savage attacks of these mechanical mega-ton monsters?  

My Reaction

We had a short vacation in Cincinnati earlier this year, and during our downtime at the hotel I visited a Meijer store, which I had never heard of until I saw it when we found our hotel. For those of you not in the know, it's sort of like a much less people-and-merchandise-cluttered Wal-Mart (with which I'm immensely familiar). I found a book to read to our son for bedtime and then stumbled across Savage Dinosaurs of South Dakota and its enticing dinosaur cover and had to buy it.

See, I've been a big fan of dinosaurs since I could first read Tyrannosaurs rex all by myself. I had a little book that I completely wore out carrying it around and learning to pronounce all the names before I could even really pronounce some relatives' names. Then came Jurassic Park when I was around age ten and my fascination with dinosaurs was at a peak.

The 10-year-old in me just had to have this book, so much so that I made sure to buy my wife a book as well so I wouldn't feel bad about getting my own. My inner child was also a huge fan of the Goosebumps series, and everything on this book cover figuratively screamed "a story influenced by the works R.L. Stine".

Savage Dinosaurs is #34 in Johnathan Rand's American Chillers series, each of which take place in a different US state with their own spooky or thrilling tales involving pre-teen protagonists. True to my first prediction of the cover, this story fell in the same storytelling style of the Goosebumps series.

I am rather of an ambivalent mind in my review of this book. From my adult perspective, this is not a well-written story. Everything is a bit predictable, redundant at times, and deus ex machina is in abundant supply. The main characters know very specific details about some of the dinosaurs that are in Putnam's Dinosaur Park that not only have I not heard of, but that are pretty rather recent discoveries. The author also used a lot of foreboding at the ends of chapters, all of which reiterated the following ending sentence of Chapter 7: "Neither one of us would forget that day ... but it would be for all the wrong reasons".

On the other hand, my nostalgic mind loved it. It followed a formula I was very familiar with and joined my two childhood loves of dinosaurs and Goosebumps in a fun and exciting way. Plus, there were some cliffhangers that did have me catching my breath and reaching to turn the page quickly. Furthermore, unlike the Goosebumps series, the cliffhangers actually led into something; the chapter-endings in Stine's books almost always turned out to be something mundane and not adding at all to the story.

I enjoyed the book and definitely want to read more in the series. It was nice to just plough through a book (which was easy in this case since it was written for middle schoolers) and get a complete story. My rating of 3-1/2 stars is mostly from my adult POV review, but it would get 4-1/2 probably from 10-year-old me.

Ultimately, though, this is a series I would have gobbled up in junior high, and I think it would be a great introduction to a reluctant reader.

Reading Challenges: 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge

For more information on this book:

American Chillers Site

Amazon