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What book(s) have you read that you’re secretly ashamed to admit?
Some romance novels that I downloaded free from Amazon for Kindle in PC. The titles are so racy that I am ashamed to tell anyone! Here I go:
1) Twin Passions
2) Indecent Proposal
3) Forbidden Love
4) Shameless
5) Mine Until Midnight
And such like!
I am answering CMash's question here:
Yes, I enjoyed reading those! LOL!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, we get a theme to list our top tens.
"She died maybe a day before she entered the water. And she was thrown in the water naked," Millard repeated.
~~Page 233
Title: Cut Short
Author: Leigh Russell
ISBN: 978-1842433546
Publisher: No Exit/2009
Pages: 352
DI Geraldine Steel has been recently promoted and arrives in the town of Woolsmarsh with a lot of baggage. As soon as she arrives, she is called to investigate in Lyceum Park where a body has just been found in the bushes. The victim is Angela Waters, a woman in her early 20′s with long blond hair. She gets headlong into the case and it soon becomes obvious that the first strangled victim will not be the last, so it's a race against time.
Geraldine Steel, is part of a team and not the leader. DI Steel does not enjoy a simple domestic life but has various problems of her own. DI Steel is assigned to listen to the messages from the public responding to the appeal. Nothing offered appears to have any relevance to the murder. To add to Geraldine’s problems, she is being stalked by someone whose appearance is vaguely familiar. She is on the fast promotion track, a route that encourages jealousy and resentment. She is too new to the town and to the Murder Investigation Unit to know if the stalker is someone from her personal life or someone who wants to unsettle her in her professional life.
This is not a really a whodunnit. We get to know the killer as he hides the body of the first victim and we are let inside his head, which isn't a good place to be.
The strengths of this novel lie in the author's powerful ability to get you up into the story and produce a cast of cameo characters that feel so real. The chapters are short and we may not dwell upon each victim's family or each witness's circumstances, but what we get is enough to feel the reality of a police investigation.
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. Jennifer of Mrs. Q Book Addict is hosting MM for the month of July.
I received three books, thanks to the authors/publicists:
1) The Drop by Howard Linskey:
David Blake is no gangster, or so he likes to think—the trouble is, when money and a man go missing, his gangster boss blames him
David Blake is a white-collar criminal, working for gangster Bobby Mahoney, enjoying the good life while the money keeps on pouring in. The trouble is, a big chunk of that money has just gone missing, along with Geordie Cartwright, and Blake is getting the blame. Has Geordie run off with the drop, or has he been killed by a rival gang? As Blake goes deeper into the Newcastle underworld, a seedy and violent place filled with dodgy clubs, pubs, lap-dancing bars, and brothels, he slowly starts to uncover the truth—there's a rat in Bobby's crew and someone else is planning a take-over. Meanwhile with the crime squad and an ambitious D.I. both closing in on Bobby, it's just a matter of time before he's finally nicked for good. If that weren't enough, he has to choose between his girlfriend and his boss's gorgeous young daughter, who could be the most dangerous person in his life right now, if her dad finds out. In a desperate and bloody finale, Blake has to make an agonizing choice, and someone has to pay the ultimate price.
2) The Damage by Howard Linskey:
David Blake is a worried man. He should be enjoying the high life now he's Newcastle's 'Top Boy', the man who controls everything in the city that's worth controlling. He lives in exiled luxury, while his brother Danny and trusted right-hand men, Palmer and Kinane, take care of business and make sure no one steps out of line. The money keeps on rolling in and Blake is sharing his life with the girl that he loves, Sarah Mahoney. Shame he had to murder her father to save his own skin but at least she doesn't know anything about that.
Blake never wanted to be boss but who else is savvy enough to deal with all of the firm s problems; like Braddock, the rogue drug dealer, who s keeping too much of the take, and The Turk , Blake s new source of product who s taken a million Euros down-payment on a shipment that never arrives. Newly-crowned Glasgow crime lord, Alan Gladwell, wants to do business with the firm and the deal makes sense but can Blake really trust the man whose brother he brutally murdered. Then there is his obsession with the beautiful but troubled Simone, who chooses to work in one of the firm's massage parlours when she is so much better than that.
When one of his men takes two bullets in the back and someone tries to kill him, Blake struggles to stay in control.
3) Suzy's Case by Andy Siegel:
Introducing Tug Wyler, a dogged and irreverent New York City personal injury and medical malpractice attorney. He is as at home on the streets as he is in the courtroom, and larger than life in both places. Once you’ve met him, you won’t ever forget him.
When Henry Benson, a high-profile criminal lawyer known for his unsavory clients, recruits Tug to take over a long-pending multimillion-dollar lawsuit representing a tragically brain-damaged child, his instructions are clear: get us out of it; there is no case. Yet the moment Tug meets the disabled but gallant little Suzy Williams and June, her beautiful, resourceful mother, all bets are off.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila of Book
I finished reading:
1) California Man by E C Seedy
2) A Regency Holiday by Allison Lane, Alicia Rasley, Lynn Kerstan, Rebecca Hagan Lee
3) A Lesson in Passion by Jennifer Connors
4) Ruthless by Cheryl Douglas
5) Past Forward by Chautona Havig
6) Defiant Imposter by Miriam Minger
I am in the midst of reading:
Arctic Fire by Paul Byers
The Virgin Journals by Travis Laurence Naught (poetry)
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Have you ever read a book that, at the time, you didn’t feel a strong connection towards, but as time goes by you find yourself thinking about it a lot?
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I could not connect with it while I was reading it. But as time went by, I started to think about it a lot and found myself re-reading certain passages.
The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura?s story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist. Brilliantly weaving together such seemingly disparate elements, Atwood creates a world of astonishing vision and unforgettable impact.
Today my niece got engaged. So I am posting pictures of her enagagement.
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| Newest addition to my family with my mom |
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| My niece and her fiance |
From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday. The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review. (or any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.
Today I showcase Incognito by Gregory Murphy.
An elegant literary mystery set during the Gilded Age.
New York City, 1911. Representing the widow of a Wall Street financier, lawyer William Dysart travels to a small Long Island town with a generous offer for Miss Sybil Curtis's cottage and five acres of land. But when Sybil refuses to sell, the widow threatens to use her influence with the state to seize the property.
Intrigued by Sybil's defiance and afflicted by a growing affection for her, William develops a desire to help her that becomes an obsession he cannot define, one that tears away the facade of his life, and presents him with truths he's unprepared to face.
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Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books!
It’s the nature of book blogging to focus mainly on new releases, but there are thousands of great books out there that haven’t seen the “New Releases” shelf in years. We hope to be able to bring attention to some older titles that may not be at the top of the current bestseller list, but still deserve a spot in your To-Be-Read pile.
Company of Liars by Kate Maitland has been in my tbr pile too long. I have to read it soon.
In this extraordinary novel, Karen Maitland delivers a dazzling reinterpretation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales—an ingenious alchemy of history, mystery, and powerful human drama.
The year is 1348. The Black Plague grips the country. In a world ruled by faith and fear, nine desperate strangers, brought together by chance, attempt to outrun the certain death that is running inexorably toward them.
Each member of this motley company has a story to tell. From Camelot, the relic-seller who will become the group’s leader, to Cygnus, the one-armed storyteller . . . from the strange, silent child called Narigorm to a painter and his pregnant wife, each has a secret. None is what they seem. And one among them conceals the darkest secret of all—propelling these liars to a destiny they never saw coming.
So other than books … what periodicals do you read? Magazines? Newspapers? Newsletters? Journals?Do you subscribe? Or do you buy them on the newsstand when they look interesting?
I do get two newspapers daily. My staple diet. And then I also get a financial newspaper once a week. I have subscribed to monthly magazines related to Math and Science. I pick up other glossy magazines if they interest me. No hard and fast rules about that.
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. Jennifer of Mrs. Q Book Addict is hosting MM for the month of July.
I received only one book, thanks to the author:
Firefly Beach by Meira Pentermann:
When Beth LaMonte rents a cottage on the coast of Maine, she wishes only to withdraw and paint. A mysterious ball of light disturbs her peace and leads her to a secret beach where she finds the diary of a girl who disappeared in 1975. Now Beth is on a mission, not only to bury her own past, but to put to rest the spirit of Firefly Beach.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila of Book
I finished reading:
Arctic Fire by Paul Byers
Firefly Beach by Meira Petermann
I am in the midst of reading:
The Virgin Journals by Travis Laurence Naught (poetry)
I posted review of:
Murder In The Ashram by Kathleen McCaul
All He Saw Was The Girl by Peter Leonard
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When you’re stuck for a book to read next, what do you do?
I stand in front of my book shelves and pick up books which call out to me. It is THAT simple!!
I read 74 books in 2012. Much less than my target of 100+
January (5)
1) Love Returned by Mildred Colvin
2) Return of the Runway Bride by Donna Fasano
3) The Passionate Italian by Diana Fraser
4) Of Novel Birth by Brenda Novak
5) Wild Angel by Miriam Minger
February (2)......(7)
1) Gods and Fathers by James LePore
2) The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly
March (2).....9
1) The Litigators by John Grisham
2) The Book Of Lost Fragrances by M J Rose
April (2).....11
1) Voices of the Dead by Peter Leonard
2) The Minefields by Steven C. Eisner
May (3).....14
1) Good Father by Diane Chamberlain
2) Love Thy Neighbor by Mark Gilleo
3) In the Bag by Kate Kilse
June (20)........(34)
1) All I Saw Was The Girl by Peter Leonard
