Whispers of the Dead by Simon Beckett

This is the third novel I've read by mystery writer Simon Beckett, and it's only been a few weeks since I read his first one, "The Chemistry of Death". The second was a bit of a disappointment, but "Whispers of Death" is perhaps even better than the first book.

By now, I'm familiar with the protagonist, Dr. David Hunter, who came to a small British village called Manham in response to an advertisement for a GP, a general practitioner. His back story is that Hunter's wife and daughter were killed in an auto accident, and he left London to escape the tragic memories of their deaths brought up daily by his career as a forensic anthropologist. In short, he found it hard to deal with the death of his family while constantly working on other homicide cases for the police. After solving a murder there, Hunter returned to London with a new girlfriend, Jenny, but she leaves him after the second book
finds him bogged down again in a new murder mystery in the British Isles. One of the team of brother/sister killers from that book tracks him to his London flat, and leaves him near dead. That brings us to the beginning of this book, in which Hunter again tries to escape bad memories, this time by coming to America and the "body farm" in Tennessee, the infamous field laboratory where law enforcement personnel study real corpses, and where his old mentor teaches.

But as fate would have it, the Knoxville facility soon sees its own share of corpses, and that's just among the staff and students! Tom Lieberman, Hunter's mentor, is asked to help the local detectives at a baffling local crime scene using his special skills. However, this time Hunter has to help him, as Lieberman's health is rapidly failing, even though the local police and medical personnel are
unhappy at his interference. The case they try to solve is complicated by the fact that the killer seems to know as much about time and method of death as the Body Farm staff, and he is making the murders hard to solve by switching bodies and identities. Along the way, Hunter is stalked, Lieberman dies, and the pregnant wife of a colleague is kidnapped, before Hunter uses his instincts to
stumble onto the body farm the killer has set up at a decrepit spa.

By now, I'm familiar with Beckett's use of misdirection to throw the reader off the killer's trail, so even as he calls one character the killer, I wait for the final twist and reveal which have been the hallmark of Beckett's work so far. In the dramatic conclusion, Hunter again faces off against the true murderer, using his words and his wit to survive until help arrives. Another great novel by Simon Beckett from his reviewer, someone who generally doesn't like mystery novels, but who somehow can't stop reading Beckett books! A gruesome good time for those who like shows where crimes are solved by forensic evidence.

Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale

This book has a magical premise - there is a place called Austenland where modern romance-starved adults can experience Regency England, a place where Fashion Bug-attired women can change into empire-waisted gowns and spend their days in the leisurely manner of Jane Austen characters. Well, that's the place Shannon Hale writes about, again, in "Midnight in Austenland," this novel that is not quite a sequel to her previous book on the topic. This time, the heroine of the book is a divorced mother of two called Charlotte Kinder, who goes to Austenland as a vacation from the troubles and sorrows of her real life.

Unlike Hale's first "Austenland" novel, this book is more mystery than history. Charlotte has these "Inner Thoughts," which drive her forward into all kinds of dangerous ~ventures. Since there is no TV or other electronic amusement in this artificial 18th century world, the small group gathered at Pembrook Park play
a game called "Bloody Murder." But Charlotte does find a dead body during the hide-and-seek game which takes place in the darkened manor house. She doubts herself, and then has a hard time figuring out who to trust as she puts the pieces in the murder mystery together. She is almost killed twice, but figures out what really happened to vulgar Mr. Wattlesbrook by the end.

And yes, Charlotte does have a romantic encounter or two during her weeks in Austenland, finally ending up with the actor who was playing her brother in the fantasy scenario. And while she is willing to leave him behind in order to return to her children (who are staying with the ex-husband in the States), her relationship with the murderer means she has to remain in England as the chief prosecution witness. Being a good mother, she arranges for her children to come stay with
her there.

This is not as good a book as "Austenland." But Hale has several clever turns of phrase. Still, for me, the "Inner Thoughts" voice is maddening by the end of the book, and many times, Hale is just trying too hard to be clever. For example, this quote from the middle of the book. "Suddenly, her lungs did fine imitations of rabid dogs, snarling and snapping at her. MUST HAVE AIR, they said. Her eyeballs hurt, the cold pressure of the water unbearable. She released her held breath in a flurry of bubbles and beat her way to the surface." Not impossible to read through, but harder to read than it needs to be in such a light-weight novel.

As an Austen-related book, "MIA" is guaranteed some fans. And while a pleasant diversion for people who are not "lost in Austen," for me it is not Hale's best effort. It feels forced, as if her agent (or the public) demanded another book about this world of Austenland.

Submitted by Gerti

Journey of the Sparrows by Fran Leeper Buss

Journey of the Sparrows is an in-depth look at the struggles of Central Americans immigrating to the
United States. It tells the story of a family of refugees from EI Salvador, fleeing from that nation's brutal civil war. Maria, her brother Oscar, and her older sister Julia are smuggled over the Mexican border in a crate. They are taken in by a sympathetic group of immigrants in Chicago, and forced to find work to feed themselves and their baby sister and mother, who are still trapped in Mexico. The book is a heart-wrenching description of the hardships that go on out of our sight, of the hope and faith of those who live in the bleakest of conditions. Maria does whatever she can to earn money, using all her skills and talents. Just when things start to look up again, everything takes a turn for the worse. You start to feel for these people, and this story touched me. Very rarely can you see things from another point of view, and I think it's important to. We have to be open-minded, or we will never get anywhere. But enough philosophy. Overall, I think the book was well written. Perhaps it could have been shortened, but in my opinion it is a great look at one of our biggest issues today. It is a reminder of the humanity of the people we see on the new~fn the paper. This book is groundbreaking, and should be more well­ known. I found it easy to read, and not too predictable. Check it out (literally)!

Submitted by Max

The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett

I'm not generally a mystery fan, but I do love shows like CSI and books by Robin Cook which also deal with murders solved by smart people with medical skills, so Simon Beckett's "The Chemistry of Death" seemed like a perfect read.

The protagonist is a man named David Hunter, who came to a small British village in response to an advertisement for a GP, a general practitioner, needed to help out the elderly doctor there. Just'like Hunter, Dr. Henry Maitland is a widower, but he's been taken care of by his housekeeper, Janice, ever since a car accident took away his ability to walk as well as his wife. Hunter's wife and daughter were also killed in an auto accident, but Hunter was not involved. He came to the village of Manham to get away from the painful memories of his family tragedy back in London, as well as to escape his previous line of work, which was as a
forensic investigator for the police there. He found it hard to deal
with the death of his family while constantly solving other homicide cases.

But as fate would have it, the rural Norfolk village soon sees its own share of corpses, and Hunter is asked to help the local detectives solve the crimes with his special skills. However, as a newcomer to the village, Hunter is also considered a prime suspect in the eyes of many of the villagers, who are hostile to anyone who hasn't grown up there.

Beckett uses misdirection several times to throw the reader off the killer's trail, setting up first one red herring, than another, before the dramatic conclusion where Hunter faces the murderer unarmed after his new girlfriend gets abducted. The killer is revealed, but the action doesn't end there, as gentle Dr. Maitland is also implicated in the crimes through his own interest in the twisted psychology of the killer. The conclusion, though drawn out, is both surprising and satisfying for the reader, and the details about forensics are true but not gruesome. I had to finish the last half of the book in one sitting because it had me so wrapped up in the mystery. "The Chemistry of Death" is not only a great title, but a heart­ stopping tale of murder in a small town, told very well by author Simon Beckett. Can't wait to read more by him!

Submitted by Gerti

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

Cabin Fever is yet another installment of the Wimpy Kid saga, and like all the others is guaranteed to make you laugh. These books get rave reviews, and having read almost all of them, I would say it's because of the humorous illustrations and clever stories that are brilliantly linked with each other. What might seem like a pointless tangent will actually be an integral part of the novel. This series is one of my favorites, and I hope the author will continue for a long time.

In this stage of the series, Christmas is approaching and everyone is scrambling to get ready. Greg (the protagonist) is disappointed to have to go back to school, and needs money to pay for presents. Having no money of his own, he tries several ideas to attempt to earn some cash, from shoveling driveways(and being thwarted by nature, as always) to starting his own newspaper. When he and best friend Rowley attempt to put up posters advertiSing their paper on the school walls, they are almost caught and try to take them down, ut they have left permanent stains. They flee and try to lay low.

A search begins for the "vandals", and the police are called in. Greg is nervous he will have to face the music, but suddenly a blizzard hits and everyone is trapped inside. The question becomes, which is worse: giving yourself up or having to spend the holidays with your family? I don't like to spoil things, so I'll let you read it for yourself. Overall, just another hit in a great series that I hope continues for a long, longtime.

Submitted by Max

Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney

This book is another fantastic addition to the best-selling Wimpy Kid series, and covers the main character's conflict as he begins to get older. Each book has a different theme, but they always maintain their whimsical flair, stemming from the comical illustrations and masterful writing. This is another great
read, and you'll probably enjoy it as much as I did .

The protagonist, Greg, is at a troubling time in his life. He is growing up, and it's not what he expected. He is introduced to parties, new friends, and overwhelming responsibilities. He stumbles through every adventure, leaving humor in his wake. No
different from the rest of the saga, it is a quality novel, and I definitely recommend it to anyone.

Overall, just an~her Kinney masterpiece, and hopefully one of many more. These "diaries" are some of my favorite children's books, and high-profile critics agree. If you're thirsty for an outrageous journey of laughter and fun, this is the series for you.

Submitted by Max

The Hardy Boys #61-The Pentagon Spy by Franklin W. Dixon

Get ready for another exciting mystery with the Hardy Boys! This time, their famous father, Private
Detective Fenton Hardy, is sent off to investigate secret government files that have been stolen. The
boys are left to handle his other appointments, and they get a call from a Mr. Hammerly, a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer who fears his prized weather vane will be stolen. Along the way, the boys meet many friends, but also enemies and suspects.

As the Hardy family begins to unravel the secrets behind their cases, it becomes more and more obvious that the two are connected somehow. Faced with threats and attempts on their lives, they must come through yet again and put those responsible behind bars. Overall, a moderately exciting book with a surprising ending. Check it outl (literally).

Submitted by Max

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

This is the last Suzanne Collins book in the popular "Hunger Games" series. The series is an enormous hit at school, and paperback copies were circulating there for weeks before I could get my hands on the edition from the library. As hard as
it was to get the book, I find Collins' style to be an easy read, although not as easy or as pleasurable as the 2 books leading up to the point.

I must say that the beginning of the book was very disorienting. Compared to the other two books, which Collins puts in chronological order, this book jumps ahead of the action and finds Katniss Everdeen waking up after her injuries in
and rescue from the special Hunger Games anniversary edition she had to endure. The importance of that Games, the Quarter Quell, is that many champions from past years have to fight each other. Katniss and her partner from
District 12,Reeta Mellark, study the films of the past winners so that they are familiar with their strengths and weaknesses before choosing their allies. But the
Games don't go as the Gamemakers plan; many of the previous winners are out to defeat the government of Panem, and not each other, due to the cruelty of the Hunger Games system.

The book opens as Katniss recovers from her concussion, and we only slowly find out how she has ended up in a District 13 hospital ward, and what happened to her friends, family, and fellow competitors. It is interesting to find out about life in this District which was supposed bombed to the ground during an earlier war, but in which the inhabitants have moved to underground tunnels many layers deep. There is however, menace from the start, as Katniss tries to figure out who
cares for her and who is trying to use her for their own political ends.

I enjoy reading about how Katniss endures each challenge, physical as well as mental. She has moments of weakness as she watches her old boyfriend Peeta being paraded on Panem lV in weakened condition, or sees her new Mockingjay costume designed by her friend from the Capitol, Cinna, who was killed before her eyes right before the Quell started. While she is mainly ignorant and often ambivalent about the political movement brewing behind her, she agrees to become its symbol, "the Mockingjay," in order to make a better life for her family and friends. There are many twists and turns and opportunities for her humanity to shine before everything resolves itself satisfactorily when Peeta rejoins her at the end.

While this is the weakest of the 3 books for me, Katniss uses her skills to triumph in the end, leading a squadron of rebels into the Capitol to witness the death of President Snow and the birth of a new government before returning to District 12.

Submitted by Stephanie

Slim : memories of a rich and imperfect life by Slim Keith

If you have a mental picture of Lauren Bacall, the sexy girl in those black and
white movies with Humphrey Bogart, then you come closest to visualizing the
subject of this book, a lady called Slim Keith. She was the wife of famed
Hollywood director Howard Hawks, and a good friend of Bacall's. In fact, Keith
claims that she "discovered" Bacall.

Born Nancy Gross, Slim was a rich child who grew up in the land around Salinas,
California. Her father owned some of those businesses made famous in John
Steinbeck's novel "Cannery Row," and her family knew his family. It was not the
only time Nancy would come in contact with a great writer. She was also good
girlfriends with Truman Capote, author of the true crime classic "In Cold Blood".
They had a falling out after he used her in a scathing short story. She was
lifelong friends with Ernest "Papa" Hemingway, and although he was eager to
become her lover, if her story is to be believed, she declined. He wasn't her type.
They remained friends, however, until he killed himself.

So Slim Keith was not what you'd think of as a good girl. She seemingly followed
the advice of Lois Griffin on "The Family Guy", which is "Make yourselves
available, ladies." And Slim was available. She lived with filmmaker Hawks
before his divorce from his mentally-ill wife was final. She slept with famed
Broadway producer Leland Hayward in New York City while his wife, a film
actress, was at their beach house taking care of their mentally disturbed children.
And while married to those rich and powerful men, she spent the night with other
people casually. But finally, husband Hayward dumped her for another famous
girl-about-town, Pamela Churchill, and author Slim retired to the British
Country side with Me~ third and final husband,--Sir Kenneth-Keith. And as the book­
reaches a close, she is quoted as saying to her third husband that she had no
idea how much money she had, just that she had enough to buy anything she
wanted. And to that I say, must be nice!

Still, in the process of partying around the world, Slim led a fascinating life. She
was able to meet and hang out with some of the sexiest men on celluloid at the
time, movie icons like Cary Grant, Montgomery Clift, William Powell and Gary
Cooper. She traveled all around the world as casually as I would take a trip to
Wiseway or Walmart. She paints a portrait here of herself as witty and desirable,
kind and intelligent, and perhaps hardest to believe, as a great mother and
stepmother to the children of her three husbands. And yet ultimately she is the
victim of these men who use and discard her as easily as they would toss away a
worn out script, and she herself calls her autobiography "memories of a rich and
imperfect life." But like Keith herself, her life story is always interesting, even
though it has its flaws.

Submitted by Gerti

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and their World by Hugh Brewster

My sister has a new favorite word, "meh", and that word is precisely how I feel after having finished this book "Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage" by Hugh Brewster. While discussion of the sinking of the luxury liner Titanic on her maiden voyage is always interesting, this book seems to drag with facts and therefore loses much of the drama of the episode.

I have no doubt that this book is exhaustively researched, and that every fact listed herein is accurate, but I have both read and seen other works that are far more engaging to me as a reader/viewer. The movies "A Night to Remember" and James Cameron's "Titanic" come to mind instantly, but even a made-for-TV
movie that was on just this year was more compelling than this book, and it was complete rubbish.

"Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage" reminds me of how author Hugh Brewster describes a book written by a man lost in the tragedy; Archibald Gracie IV apparently wrote a book about the battle of Chickamauga that was so weighed down in facts, that it bored even those who has been in the Civil War battle and might have been
especially interested in the subject matter. To me, this book has the same feel, leaving me as the reader drowning in facts when what I was really hungering for some human drama.

Submitted by Max

The Digest Diet Cookbook by Liz Vaccariello

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction
(3 out of 5)

This is a follow up to The Digest Diet book.  If you are looking for a new way to lose weight you may want to check this diet out.  It incorporates drinking shakes for breakfast and lunch and then having a sensible dinner.  Before starting any diet you should consult your doctor.  The cookbook has 150 all-new fat releaser recipes to keep you on track.  Even if you are not wanting to lose weight or follow this diet it does have some really yummy looking recipes that are good for you.

Madhouse Cookbook by Jo Pratt

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction
(4 out of 5)

The Madhouse Cookbook is all about how Ms. Pratt's life changed when she got married and had children.  It is a survival guide of sorts on how to make it through a hectic week and an even busier weekend.  She also gives you tips on how to cling to your social life.  The pictures in here of the food look fabulous.  The colors are just so vibrant and wonderful.  I wish the picture of the book did it justice, but it doesn't.  You will just have to check the book out to see what I mean.

Compulsively Mr. Darcy by Nina Benneton

I am what you would call a completer. I compulsively need to finish the things I start. So there are very few movies that I haven't watched to the end, including "Easy Rider," which becomes utterly intolerable after the graveyard scene. And
there are very few books in my life that I have not been able to finish; I think the count up till today is one, although there may have been another back in my pre­ school days before I started really keeping track of such things. I tell you this
because Nina Benneton's "Compulsively Mr. Darcy" is challenging even my deeply rooted compulsion to finish reading it. I am on page 83, and I must admit defeat.

This is the second time tonight I have wanted to stop reading this book. While I'm now on Chapter 11, the first I wanted to stop reading altogether was when I got to Chapter 7 and read the title "Charles Bingley is a Lucky Whore." Now, if you've
ever read Pride and Prejudice," Jane Austen's great novel of society, love and manners, you know the character of Charles Bingley, who falls in love with the
Bennet family's oldest daughter Jane. He is a sweet, gentle, bumbling teddy bear of a Regency millionaire, and also Mr. Darcy's best friend. To call him "a lucky whore" is so totally wrong on so many levels, that I almost feel as though I need to throw up. And to have that offensive phrase come out of Benneton's modernized version of Elizabeth Bennet, the clever but innocent heroine of
Austen's novel, is also 50 shades of wrong.

The only real question for me, then, is why I read this far. I've got to give it to Benneton. The initial concept was clever. Darcy is travelling with buddy Bingley to Vietnam, because the Hursts (Bingley's sister and her husband) want to adopt a baby. Elizabeth is an infectious disease doctor at the local hospital there, and Jane runs the orphanage. I don't mind the characters being placed in a uniquely
different situation. I actually think it's clever. But what I like about the many Austen redux novels that I have read, is that the characters retain their basic natures. And I knew this author had lost her course when Elizabeth mentioned that her sisters Mary and Kitty has asked her for prescriptions for birth control. Funny, since those are the 2 sisters in Austen's original novel who do NOT get married, but wrong and perverse. And while to me it's OK for Joan Aiken to take a character like Mary Bennet or Jane Fairfax and make her more adventurous, or give her more of a social conscience. But to have the young girls ask their Berkley hippie doctor sister for the Pill is a little much for my sensibilities!

I apologize to the author for not being able to finish this book, and to Sourcebooks publishing for therefore not being able to judge it fairly. But I just can't live in a world where Mr. Darcy tells someone to "F off."

Submitted by Gertie

National Library Week Question #2

What would you give up for one million dollars, chocolate or books?

Even though I am a huge fan of chocolate I would have to say chocolate because I can't live without books!

National Library Week: Question 1

What is the first sentence of the book you are reading right now?  I will tell you mine when I have it in front of me!