Unspeakable

Unspeakable is one of Sandra Brown's more recent novels (post romance era).  While the plot is not her best, it definitely relies more on suspense and story than her earlier works. 

What fascinates me is that when Brown focuses on something other than the romance plot, the romance ends up being so much more believable.  We get so drawn into this deaf woman's world that the relationship that develops between the two main characters makes perfect sense.  It really couldn't end any other way. 

One stumbling point.  The tornado.  Yes, a natural disaster is great to move a plot along.  But I don't see a 70+ year old retired sheriff setting off on his own to try to save his town from a looming tornado.  Anyone in their right mind would duck and cover.  Going out to help pick up the pieces, sure, but let's not pretend he can stop a tornado.   

Deja dead

Kathy Reichs and I got off to a rough start.  I picked up Deja Dead expecting to solve a case with the Temperance Brennan I know from the TV show Bones.  That Dr. Brennan is not in this book.  Reichs writes about a forensic anthropologist named Temperance Brennan, but that is where the similarities end.  It took me a little while to adjust to this difference in character.

My patience paid off.  While this Dr. Brennan is not nearly as socially awkward and quirky as the TV version, she is still a strong, determined women.  Just battling a different set of demons.  And if you are looking for the Bones-Booth love story, it's not here either.  (Although I suspect a romance subplot with a detective to appear in  a later novel).  This debut novel is all about Tempe recognizing and feeding the urge to go out and get the bad guy.

The second summer of the sisterhood

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares is like slipping into a pair of well-worn jeans and sharing a pint of cookie dough ice cream with your best friends.  I was hesitant to revisit the sisterhood, fearing that like many sequels, this book could not possibly live up to the original.

I was wrong.

Brashares writes such amazing characters that you are immediately pulled into the plots that circle this group of young women.  Each of these characters is flawed.  But not over the top flaws.  They suffer the same flaws we all do- selfishness, insecurity, jealousy, anger, denial.  All those things we wrestle with in the course of discovering who we are and then living with that reality day to day. 

I love these girls. 

I miss my girls.

The river knows

Another Amanda Quick bodice ripper.  OK, no bodices were actually ripped in The River Knows, but it could have happened.

Again with the corsets, petticoats, bustles, fans, and ridiculous undergarments.  But in this novel, our heroine agrees that it is all ridiculous and refuses to wear half of it.  The sheer bulk of fabric worn by most women in polite society also turns out to be a contributing factor in the death of one lady.

Quick once again gives us a heroine pretending to be someone she's not in order to have the freedoms she cherishes.  Who doesn't rely on the man to get her out of the trouble she has gotten herself into.  (Though he might turn out to be helpful in the end). 

Another fun page-turner in old-school London!

The long walk

Stephen King had an alter ego for awhile.  His name was Richard Bachman.  His view of the world was a little darker than King's.  The Long Walk is one of his novels.

Just like King, Bachman realizes that a scary story does not have to be big.  It does not have to deal with the supernatural.  It only has to include the most terrifying species on the planet: humans.  Nothing is scarier than the things we do to ourselves and each other.

This book is a simple story.  100 boys set out to see who can walk the furthest without stopping. 

Here's the catch.  We're in a slightly altered world where the US is run by the Major.  For a reason not explained in this novel (it reminds me of the blood tribute in Crete), he has started the tradition of a long walk every year.  100 boys walk until they can't anymore.  After three warnings for dropping below a designated walking speed, they get their ticket.  The last boy walking gets the prize.  Whatever he wants for the rest of his life. 

The prize is what gets the boys to start walking in the first place.  The fascinating part of this novel is what keeps them walking. 

Of course, there is no guarantee that the winner will be in any shape to enjoy his prize....

The Pet

Ah, a boy and his dog.  I mean, horse. 

The Pet by Charles L Grant is a lovely story about a boy who wants to be a vet.  He has posters of animals on his walls, stuffed animals and other fake creatures in his room.  His parents don't approve. 

In the midst of his teenage angst (girls, school, bullies, and parents suck) he needs someone to talk to.  So he begins talking to a poster of a black stallion on his wall.  One day he notices that the stallion is fading from the picture and eventually disappears completely.  Later he realizes that his friendship has freed the horse. 

The horse has a mission.  Take care of all those people who are bothering his friend.  A serial killer, a football player, a science teacher, and almost girlfriend and parents are taken out.  Will he send the stallion back to the poster in time? 

At its heart, this is a "be careful what you wish for" tale.  More importantly, what do you do when you get what you want and you don't want it after all?  If you accidentally make a wish and want to immediately take it back? 

All in all, a good read.

The zombie curse

The Zombie Curse: A Doctor's 25-year Journey Into the Heart of the AIDS Epidemic in Haiti may be a slightly misnamed book, but that does not take away from the power of the story.  Arthur Fournier first stumbled across AIDS in Miami when it was still believed to be a disease of gay men.  Here's the trouble.  Fournier saw the disease striking men, women, and children.  The common denominator he saw in the group he worked with was that they were immigrants from Haiti. 

 

Eventually Fournier realized that the risk factor for AIDS in his patients was a lack of resources, not the fact that they were Haitian.  Thus began his crusade to bring healthcare to Haiti.  That's really what this book is about. 

 

For me, the most heart-wrenching part of the book was the sense of hope and accomplishment expressed by Fournier at the end.  He finishes this story with a sense that huge improvements have been made, that people's lives are better.  That was before the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010.  I can only imagine the impact of that earthquake on the fragile healthcare system set up by Fournier and his colleagues.