ReadingGrrls Paper Safari

Title:   Signs of Struggle by John Carenen Publisher: Neverland Publishing 303 pages Genre: Mystery Synopsis:  After losing his family in a tragic car accident, Thomas O’Shea finds himself driving around the Iowa countryside, trying to find peace on a quiet afternoon. But when he stops to admire a unique mailbox, he sees a beautiful, bloody woman racing down the country lane from her home, screaming for help. Not wanting to get involved, Thomas considers not helping. Eventually his heroic side wins out. As Thomas continues lifting up and peering under rocks in the beautiful river town of Rockbluff, Iowa, the more he learns…and the more he attracts those who will do anything to stop him. Attempts on his life are made, but O’Shea is a tough guy with nothing to lose as he struggles with the loss of his family, drinking, women, and his guilt for precipitating so much violence in this peaceful town. Review: I had no idea what this book was about when I first opened it u...

Title:   Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone: A Novel by Stefan Kiesbye Publisher: Penguin 198 pages Genre: Horror Synopsis:  A village on the Devil‘s Moor: a place untouched by time and shrouded in superstition. There is the grand manor house whose occupants despise the villagers, the small pub whose regulars talk of revenants, the old mill no one dares to mention. This is where four young friends come of age—in an atmosphere thick with fear and suspicion. Their innocent games soon bring them face-to-face with the village‘s darkest secrets in this eerily dispassionate, astonishingly assured novel. Review: This is truly one of the most disturbing books I have read in a long time.  Not because of what goes on in this creepy little town but because of the lack of remorse from any of the characters.  Within the first 40 pages a boy murders his sister and a town bludgeons to death a family of 5 and life goes on. There were many moments when I almost ...

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading . Anyone can play along! •  Grab your current read • Open to a random page • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page •  BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!  ( make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others! ) •  Share the  title & author , too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! My teaser Tuesday is from: Love Water Memory by Jennie Shortridge "Her hands fidgeted, picking at the edges of the suit jacket sleeves. For the first time, he noticed broken fingernails, the raw skin of her palms. He tried to imagine what she'd had to do to survive and couldn't let himself."

Title:  Nocturnal: A Novel by Scott Sigler Publisher: Broadway 576 pages Genre: Horror/Mystery Synopsis:  Homicide detective Bryan Clauser is losing his mind. How else to explain the dreams he keeps having—dreams that mirror, with impossible accuracy, the gruesome serial murders taking place all over San Francisco? How else to explain the  feelings  excitement? As Bryan and his longtime partner, Lawrence “Pookie” Chang, investigate the murders, they learn that things are even stranger than they at first seem. For the victims are all enemies of a seemingly ordinary young boy—a boy who is gripped by the same dreams that haunt Bryan.  Meanwhile, a shadowy vigilante, seemingly armed with superhuman powers, is out there killing the killers.  And Bryan and Pookie’s superiors—from the mayor on down—seem strangely eager to keep the detectives from discovering the truth.  Doubting his own sanity and stripped of his badge, Bryan begins to suspect th...

Print books may or may not be in danger, but reading in general isn't going out of style. Data from the Pew Research Center indicates that about 78% of Americans 16 or older say they've read at least one book in the last 12 months. Pew looked at variations among reading habits in different communities  For example, 80% of urban and suburban residents alike say they've read at least one book in the past year, along with 78% of those in rural areas. We read for many reasons: 82% of suburban book lovers say they read for pleasure, as well as 79% of city dwellers and 76% of rural residents. At the same time, 79% of urbanites read to keep pace with current events; so do 79% of readers in the suburbs and 73% of rural readers. Its not all e-books, either: 58% of Americans 16 and older say they have a library card, and 69% say that libraries are very important to them and their families.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading . Anyone can play along! •  Grab your current read • Open to a random page • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page •  BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!  ( make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others! ) •  Share the  title & author , too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! My teaser Tuesday is from:   Nocturnal: A Novel by Scott Sigler "Bryan ran south on Van Ness, the six lanes of sporadic 3:00 am traffic moving along on his right. What few pedestrians there were got the hell out of his way - a black-clad, sprinting man with a Sig Sauer in his hand and blood streaming from his forehead didn't exactly court conversation." 

Title:   The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal Publisher: Schocken 304 pages Genre: non-fiction Synopsis: While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to--and obtain absolution from--a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Wiesenthal said nothing.But even years after the way had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? What would you have done in his place? Review:  This is more like 2 books in one.  The first is the story and the second is responses from scholars, religious leaders, and country leaders on what they would do or what they believe.  Its a difficult question with no right answer. Since I've never been in that situation its hard to know what I would do, I probably would d...

Title:   The Whisperers (Charlie Parker, Book 9) by John Connolly Publisher: Pocket Books 544 pages Genre: mystery, thriller, horror Synopsis:  It is there, in the vast and porous Great North Woods, that a dangerous smuggling operation is taking place, run by a group of disenchanted former soldiers, newly returned from Iraq. Illicit goods—drugs, cash, weapons, even people—are changing hands. And something else has changed hands. Something ancient and powerful and evil. The authorities suspect something is amiss, but what they can’t know is that it is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men’s hearts. As the smugglers begin to die one after another in apparent suicides, Parker is called in to stop the bloodletting. The soldiers’ actions and the objects they have smuggled have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man w...

Title: Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn Publisher: Crown Publishers 415 pages Genre: mystery Synopsis:  On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. Wi...

Title:   Lone Wolf: A Novel by Jodi Picoult Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books 448 pages Genre: Fiction Synopsis:  Estranged from his family while living in Thailand for the past six years, Edward Warren is summoned home to New Hampshire when his father, Luke, a renowned wolf expert, and Edward’s 17-year-old sister, Cara, are critically injured in a car accident. Cara’s wounds are not life-threatening, but Luke has suffered severe brain damage and languishes in a vegetative state doctors say is irreversible. As his father’s legal next-of-kin, it falls to Edward to make the hard choices about life support and organ donation, a nearly impossible responsibility, given that father and son parted on angry terms the night Edward tried to confide to Luke that he was gay. Then Cara becomes a volatile advocate for her father’s right-to-life, taking impulsive steps to wrest control away from Edward. Review: True to form Jodi Picoult has given us another ethical quandry, whe...