Thursday, October 23, 2008

Organize Your Corpses


For a professional organizer, Charlotte Adams is not very organized. She gets framed for murder because the real killer stashed some of her things around dead bodies. I thought that I would enjoy this series because I like to organize and I like mysteries, but this chick just annoys me. She's really not that bright and lets her friends push her around. No wonder her clients are always dieing. Or are they? This book had an interesting twist at the end. I sure has heck didn't see it coming, but I usually don't. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't super great. I read the second book already and didn't really like it, and if another one comes out, I might check it out, it will be better.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Water For Elephants


This book has always caught my eye whenever I saw it at the bookstore, and it's a bestseller, but I never wanted to read it because I don't like the circus and didn't think that reading about it would be exciting. Yes, this book does mostly take place during a circus, but it's about how it changes the life of a young man. Jacob's parents die, and he's lost and confused and one night jumps on a moving train which ends up being a circus train. Some guys take him in and show him the ropes and soon he gets a job being the vet for the animals. The story follows his adventures and heartaches during 3 months of being with the circus. There's tons of interesting people, those you love and those you hate. And of course these aren't all fiction as the author did her research and some of the stuff that happens in the book happened in real life. The chapters jump back and forth between the time Jacob was 23 and now when he's 93, but the author does it in a way so that you don't get confused. Sometimes when there are flashbacks I find them hard to follow, but not in this book. I still hate the circus, probably more so now, but love this book. It was just very entertaining and well written.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Weeping On Wednesday


I found this book to be very flat. It wasn't very long so I thought that i could read it pretty quickly, but it was just blah and couldn't keep my attention. The main character Lois was still a grouch and the author has been watching to many mystery shows. This book kind of felt like it should be turned into an episode of Murder She Wrote. Heck, maybe it was and the author stole the idea. Not really sure if I'll continue to read the series.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Terror On Tuesday


I liked this one better than the first. It was much more exciting and fast paced. There was still to many characters to try and keep track of and it felt like you never had any idea who was good and who was bad. I didn't like how the main character seemed really rude to everyone. And no one stood up to her. So that bothered me. But other than that, it was a decent read. And seeing as how I have the next book in the series sitting here, I might as well read that.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Tippy Toe Murder


If this had been the first book that I had read in this series, I probably wouldn't have continued. It was a little dark and disturbing. I still love the main character, Lucy, and the writing makes me want to move to Maine and have a family. But this book was a little bit twisted, women getting beating up, children being molested. It's just not right. So, unless you are okay with reading about those things, I say skip this one and go read the Christmas Cookie Murder. That is so far my favorite in this series.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder


This was an okay book. I like the main character, but it annoys me when they decide that they are going to play detective and of course in the end almost get themselves killed. This is the first book in this series and I'll read more. I really liked The Sugar Cookie Murder that I read a few weeks ago. And this one wasn't so bad. It's a good series for people who like to cook, because it comes with recipes. I don't cook, so they are wasted on me, but they sound yummy.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Holidays On Ice

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris: Book Cover I did not like this book at all. I thought it was suppose to be a collection of funny Christmas stories, but really, there was nothing funny in it. The first story was pretty interesting, his tale of being an Elf at Macy's. But that was about it. The other stories were blah and not very Christmasie. So yeah, I was disappointed. I do however want to find a shotglass with snowflakes on it like shown on the cover.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Roommates Wanted

Roommates Wanted by Lisa Jewell: Book Cover So I probably think that I picked up this book because I'm hunting for a roommate myself, and it just sounded interesting. Back in 1990 Toby's dad gives him a big house for a wedding gift. The marriage doesn't last and he's stuck with this giant house. So he posts an ad and gets some roommates. 15 years later, one of the people living in the house dies and leaves everything to Toby along with a note telling him to take the money he left him, fix up the house and start living life. So Toby decides to fix up the place and sell it. But how can he just kick out the people who live there. The cover blurb makes it sound like he's met a new girl and they can't live together until he gets rid of the roommates. Not true. Throughout the book Toby and Leah are friends who like each other, but don't even say so until the end. Mostly it's a book about different people growing up and realizing who they are and what they want to do with life. It was a good book. A bit long, but good enough that it doesn't feel that way.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Kissing Christmas Goodbye

Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M. C. Beaton: Book Cover As I'm sure we all know by now, I love Christmas books, and was excited when I found this one at the library. But it's not about Christmas at all. The book mostly takes place in October. How very disappointing. It's part of a mystery series that I had never heard of, and I probably won't read again. The main character, Agatha, is just a cranky old bat, who is snippy to everyone then wonders why she's sitting at home alone on Christmas and New Years. Doesn't take a detective to figure that one out. It's a quick read, but had to many characters and I got confused who everyone was. There's weren't very many clues for the reader to go on with trying to figure out who the killer was. It was kind of like the author forgot that she needed to have one and just pulled a character's name out of a hat. In other words, I'm not going to keep reading this series.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Murder On Monday

This book was kind of hard to follow. The author is Scottish or something so the writing was kind of hard to follow. But I kept at it because the plot sounded good enough. Lois cleans houses and one day someone ends up dead, so the police ask Lois to have a look around the houses that she cleans to see if she can find any clues. But the person didn't get murdered until about halfway through the book, so there was just a lot of randomness that didn't really have anything to do with anything. And I felt like there were to many characters, I was often confused by who was who and such. And yet I still want to read the rest of the books in the series, so it couldn't have been that bad. Maybe it was because it was a bit different from all the other mystery books. There wasn't really a lot of sleuthing going on, no sneaking around trying to find out who did it. Mostly things were just figured out by everyday conversations. It was different which is kind of refreshing, and also a little bit boring.