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"They've been using the money to fund eco-terrorism. Paying for safe houses. Guns. Bombs."
~Page 210
Title: Out At Night
Author: Susan Arnout Smith
ISBN: 978-0007275519
Publisher: Minotaur Books/2009
Pages: 283
When Professor Thaddeus Bartholomew is being chased by a killer, he has no time other other than type a text message with the name of Grace Descanso, before he is killed. He is found in a soy field, with a crossbow shot in his chest.
Grace, is a crime-scene tech and is on a vacation with her daughter. FBI has no compunctions about getting in touch with her. Grace has only a vague recollection of the Prof and does not understand his last text before his death. Her Uncle Pete, who is in the FBI does not want her to walk away.
When she starts the investigations in her own way, she finds her family involved in it. And the genetically modified soy is only a scratch in the surface. And the Prof. murder is not a random act! there are politicians, and agriculturists involved. It is always question of money.
Out At Night is very real. In the sense that by modifying our plant life, we are playing God, creating havoc for the nature, for humanity. The initial want of better yields, has given way to destruction, power and money. We need to tackle those questions.
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. 5 Minutes For Books is hosting MM for the month of August.
I received four books in my mailbox:
1) Cera's Place by Elizabeth McKenna:
Tormented daily by the cousin who holds her responsible for ripping their family apart, Maori teenager Aroha has many, many other things to worry about. Though she lives in the US with her aunt and uncle, the dreams that have plagued her since her childhood in New Zealand are starting to recur more and more often. 
Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant, a compulsive gambler and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables. But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive. Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see. 
There is something like Despair which has plagued the Earth for some years now. This has resulted in mass suicides. And as soon as there is a suicide, a shadowy group arrives from nowhere to collect the bodies.
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It's a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.This past week, I had a good one in the sense of writing. I wrote poetry after coaxing my muse out of its vacation. I read scientific articles and also a few romance novels along with crime fiction. As my niece is getting married, I did some shopping too, for myself. I need to get Sari, a dress or two, Jewellery and shoes. I have bought half the stuff and will buy whatever is left, in the next shopping spree. I am not a very enthusiastic shopper but I did enjoy looking through Saris and dress (the party wearing kinds, that is). (I am VERY enthusiastic when I buy books!!)
As my niece is getting married in two months time, we are all nostalgic. She sent me some old photos. I am sharing two here:
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| my nieces and nephews, youngest niece is NOT in this photo |
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| My oldest niece shares a special bond with my youngest nephew. They are cousins.. |
Do you like to talk about what you read? Do you have somebody to talk WITH?
Yes, I like to talk about what I read. Very much so. BUT I do not have somebody to talk with about the books I have read. In school and college, I had such friends. NOT any more. At times I do feel frustrated but that is how it is.
I think, book blogging takes care of our MUST discuss needs!!!
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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 Aroha by Anaru Bickford
Book Description:
Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts this weekly meme. The idea is that you post the opening paragraph (sometimes maybe a few ) of a book you decided to read based on the opening paragraph (s).
I am posting the intro from Perla by Carolina De Robertis
Sometimes, to hide your sadness, you have to cut yourself in two. That way you can bury half of yourself, the unspeakable half, and leave the rest to face to the world. I can tell you the first time I did this. I was fourteen years old, standing in a bathroom stall holding the last note I would ever receive from my friend Romina, a note consisting of a single question in furious capital letters.
We had been in class together for years, but did not grow close until we were thirteen, when Romina began to have her experience. That was her own word for it, experience, spoken in a hallowed tone that gave it an aura of great mystery.
“An experience,” I repeated blankly, the first time I heard of it.
“Come over tonight, I’ll show you,” Romina said.
As it turned out, Romina’s experience was nothing more and nothing less than the philosophical and aesthetic expansion of her world. She had begun exploring her parents’ bookshelves. That was all.
We began to spend hours together after school, after homework was done, exploring books, ideas, poems, life’s great questions. We pillaged her parents’ bookcase, pulling volumes down, reading, and sharing our findings with each other.
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.
This week's Top Ten pick : Top Ten Favorite Books I've Read During The Lifespan Of My Blog
I started book blogging in mid 2006. There are many books which have been my best reads since then. To list 10 is not doing justice to all those great reads. Here I go listing the best ones I remember. Do click on the titles to read my reviews.
Those are no particular order:
1) East of Eden by John Steinbeck
2) Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
3) The Road by Cormac McCarthy
4) Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
5) Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
6) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
7) The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
8) I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
9) Faces In The Fire by T. L. Hines
10 A) The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
B) The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
C) The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
"Two sons and two fathers now," he said. "plus one girlfriend. McKnight, I think we've something terrible going on here."
~Page 92
Title: Misery Bay
Author: Steve Hamilton
ISBN: 9780312380434
Publisher: Minotaur books/2011
Pages: 304
On a cold miserable night, a college student hangs himself from a tree in the middle of a snowy, deserted field called Misery Bay near Lake Superior. He doesn't leave a note, but then suicide victims seldom do. The boy's father, a federal marshal and who happens to be an old friend of Alex McKnight's rival Police Chief Roy Maven, asks Alex to look into his son's suicide. But what appears to be a simple suicide, gets them embroiled in something sinister. Alex and Chief Maven find themselves working together, trying to find and stop a cold-blooded killer, who is hell bent on targeting law enforcement officers via their children. Meanwhile Alex tries to put the demons of his past behind him.
Hamilton’s drawing of characters or plot-line is superb and very believable, Alex McKnight’s relationship with police chief Roy Maven changes to grudging mutual respect as the novel progresses. The twists and turns in the story line keeps the reader on the edge. WE observe that the victims are the real focus, and although McKnight and the FBI search frantically for that elusive link that might lead them to the killer, we do see a hopelessness and bleakness in the characters.
Alex McKnight is one of the best fictional investigators that has been created in a novel. I am going to read as many books I can, written by Hamilton.
Nemesis by Agatha Christie
Book Blurb:
In utter disbelief, Miss Marple read the letter addressed to her from the recently deceased Mr. Rafiel—an acquaintance she had met briefly on her travels. He had left instructions for her to investigate a crime after his death. The only problem was, he had failed to tell her who was involved or where and when the crime had been committed. It was most intriguing.
Soon she is faced with a new crime—the ultimate crime—murder. It seems someone is adamant that past evils remained buried. . . .
My views:
Miss Marple had met Mr Rafiel in A Caribbean Mystery. She reads about his death in the newspaper and later contacted by his lawyers and given a letter by him. She has to solve the mystery of his death. If she succeeds she will get a share of his fortune. The money does not interest her but she has to investigate his death. There are some references to a rape, which seems outdated but given the time of the writing, the mindset of the people prevailed as mentioned in the book. Similar mindset persists in India, even now....
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. 5 Minutes For Books is hosting MM for the month of August.
I received two books in my mailbox:
1) Sweat by Mark Gilleo
When Jake Patrick took a summer internship at his estranged father’s corporation, he anticipated some much-needed extra cash and a couple of free meals from his guilty dad. He would never have guessed that he'd find himself in the center of an international scandal involving a U.S. senator, conspiracy, backroom politics, and murder. Or that his own life would hang in the balance. Or that he’d find help – and much more than that – from a collection of memorable characters operating on all sides of the law. Jake’s summer has turned into the most eventful one of his life. Now he just needs to survive it.
From the sweatshops of Saipan to the most powerful offices in Washington, SWEAT rockets through a story of crime and consequences with lightning pacing, a twisting plot, an unforgettable cast of characters, and wry humor. It is another nonstop thriller from one of the most exciting new voices in suspense fiction.
2) Winter Journal by Paul Auster
In 1982, following the death of his father, Paul Auster published what has become a classic of personal memoir writing, The Invention of Solitude. Now, on the 30th Anniversary of his breakthrough debut, Auster gives us another unconventional memoir with Winter Journal.
Auster, now thirty years older, confronts his own aging, writing a history of his body and his experience as a human being, life’s horrors and its great joys. Facing his sixty-fourth winter, internationally acclaimed novelist Paul Auster sits down to write a history of his body and its sensations – both pleasurable and painful.
A bookend to The Invention of Solitude, Winter Journal is a highly personal meditation on the body, time, and memory by one of our most intellectually elegant writers.
I also downloaded the following galleys from Netgalley:
Heiress Behind the Headlines by Caitlin Crews
Duty and the Beast by Trish Morey
Two Wrongs Make a Marriage by Christine Merrill
Her Good Thing by Vanessa Miller
Handpicked Husband by Winnie Griggs
The Valtieri Baby by Caroline Anderson
How to Disgrace a Lady by Bronwyn Scott
Improve Sewing by Nicole Blum, Debra Immergut
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey
I finished reading:
The Inconvenient Duchess by Christine Merrill
Duke of Deception by Stephie Smith
Spring's Fury by Denise Domning
I am in the midst of reading:
Varied Novels!
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Have you ever reread a book and found that your opinion changed?
Not really. But yes I have re-read a lot of books...
