Rei Shimura Mysteries by Sujata Massey
Salaryman's Wife
Rei Shimura is a 27-year-old English teacher living in one of Tokyo's seediest neighborhoods. She doesn't make much money, but she wouldn't go back home to California even if she had a free ticket. Her holiday, to an ancient castle town, is marred by the murder of the beautiful wife of a high-powered businessman. Who killed Setsuko Nakamura, and why is Hugh Glendinning, the handsome Scottish lawyer who works with Setsuko's husband leaning so hard on Rei for help? Rei suspects the police aren't looking in the right places, so she does. What she discovers is blackmail and deceit going back 50 years.
This is the first in the series featuring Rei Shimura, Japanese American living in Tokyo. I read this book probably 7 years ago as my friend Karen recommended it to me. I completely forgot who did in until it was revealed at the end. Plus we see how Rei gets her start on collecting antiques as this is major part of her life in future books.
2. Zen Attitude
3. Flower Master
4. Floating Girl
5. Bride's Kimono
6. Samurai's Daughter
7. Pearl Diver
8. Typhoon Lover
9. Girl in aBox
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Tangerine by Edward Bloor
Paul Fisher is legally blind. He wears glasses so thick he looks like a bug-eyed alien, and kids tell a story about how he blinded himself by staring at an eclipse of the sun. But Paul doesn’t remember doing that. And he doesn’t mind the glasses, because with them he can see. Can see that his parents’ constant praise of his brother Erik, the football star, is to cover up something that is terribly wrong. But no one listens to Paul. Until his family moves to Tangerine, FL.
Tangerine is like another planet, where weird is normal. Lightning strikes at the same time every day. Underground fires burn for years. A sinkhole swallows a local school. And Paul the geek finds himself adopted into the toughest group around–the soccer team of his middle school. Suddenly the blind can see, geeks can be cool, and–maybe–a twelve-year-old kid can finally face up to his terrifying older brother.
This was an incredibly intense read. I listened to it on CD in the car. It is a mix of Paul's observations of his life with him memories of his past.
Paul Fisher is legally blind. He wears glasses so thick he looks like a bug-eyed alien, and kids tell a story about how he blinded himself by staring at an eclipse of the sun. But Paul doesn’t remember doing that. And he doesn’t mind the glasses, because with them he can see. Can see that his parents’ constant praise of his brother Erik, the football star, is to cover up something that is terribly wrong. But no one listens to Paul. Until his family moves to Tangerine, FL.
Tangerine is like another planet, where weird is normal. Lightning strikes at the same time every day. Underground fires burn for years. A sinkhole swallows a local school. And Paul the geek finds himself adopted into the toughest group around–the soccer team of his middle school. Suddenly the blind can see, geeks can be cool, and–maybe–a twelve-year-old kid can finally face up to his terrifying older brother.
This was an incredibly intense read. I listened to it on CD in the car. It is a mix of Paul's observations of his life with him memories of his past.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich
Alexandra Barnaby, aka Barney, hails from Baltimore working in an insurance office. She donned mechanic's overalls in her father's garage during summer breaks from college. Her younger brother, Wild Bill, shares her passion for cars, and now he's disappeared from Miami, along with NASCAR star Sam Hooker's boat, the Happy Hooker. Evanovich doesn't mind showing her romance roots, as Barney and Sam start off snarling at each other; as any reader can tell, they have to team up (a) to save Bill and (b) to enjoy delicious sex.
You can't help but compare this with Stephanie Plum novels that Evanovich writes. So it would get a little annoying to see a lot of the same trends but not as well done going on in this novel. I tried really hard to pretend I hadn't read any of the Plum books but it was impossible to do so. I finished the book but it didn't leave me wanting more like the Plum books do. I laughed and enjoyed it but now I'm done and can move on with my life.
Alexandra Barnaby, aka Barney, hails from Baltimore working in an insurance office. She donned mechanic's overalls in her father's garage during summer breaks from college. Her younger brother, Wild Bill, shares her passion for cars, and now he's disappeared from Miami, along with NASCAR star Sam Hooker's boat, the Happy Hooker. Evanovich doesn't mind showing her romance roots, as Barney and Sam start off snarling at each other; as any reader can tell, they have to team up (a) to save Bill and (b) to enjoy delicious sex.
You can't help but compare this with Stephanie Plum novels that Evanovich writes. So it would get a little annoying to see a lot of the same trends but not as well done going on in this novel. I tried really hard to pretend I hadn't read any of the Plum books but it was impossible to do so. I finished the book but it didn't leave me wanting more like the Plum books do. I laughed and enjoyed it but now I'm done and can move on with my life.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Stained by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Jocelyn (aka Joss) has two boys in her life.
* Gabe has shared fourteen years of growing up next door. He's a "golden boy, an all-star". Yet now, in the spring of 1975, he's missing, disappeared on the brink of senior year at Weaver High. The whole town is set to go searching for him.
* Benny has only been in New Hampshire since January, yet for Joss, he's the answer to a long held prayer to be someone in somebody's eyes. She loves them both.
The book is told from Joss's point of view both her past and her present. We see how she has evolved to the person she is in the present. Joss feels that her soul is stained because she never got her first communion. She loves Gabe who will never love her back. She is passionately involved with Benny who feels guilty for everything they do and makes her feel that she is the temptation leading him astray. The catholic church has a lot to play in the novel as we see Joss's journey for the truth but often the truth will not set you free. This is a painful but beautiful book to read as it ends with hope.
The ending quote from the book pretty much sums it up.
"I look down at myself, stained by color. No. Not stained. Celebrated. And it occurs to me that perhaps souls are like prisms. Prisms that allow us to see clearing into the soul of another and, at the same time, recognize our own glorious light."
Jocelyn (aka Joss) has two boys in her life.
* Gabe has shared fourteen years of growing up next door. He's a "golden boy, an all-star". Yet now, in the spring of 1975, he's missing, disappeared on the brink of senior year at Weaver High. The whole town is set to go searching for him.
* Benny has only been in New Hampshire since January, yet for Joss, he's the answer to a long held prayer to be someone in somebody's eyes. She loves them both.
The book is told from Joss's point of view both her past and her present. We see how she has evolved to the person she is in the present. Joss feels that her soul is stained because she never got her first communion. She loves Gabe who will never love her back. She is passionately involved with Benny who feels guilty for everything they do and makes her feel that she is the temptation leading him astray. The catholic church has a lot to play in the novel as we see Joss's journey for the truth but often the truth will not set you free. This is a painful but beautiful book to read as it ends with hope.
The ending quote from the book pretty much sums it up.
"I look down at myself, stained by color. No. Not stained. Celebrated. And it occurs to me that perhaps souls are like prisms. Prisms that allow us to see clearing into the soul of another and, at the same time, recognize our own glorious light."
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?
These are the kind of questions Levitt asks. He studies the riddles of everyday life-from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing — and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality.
Steven D. Levitt is the Alvin H. Baum Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, where he is also director of The Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. Stephen J. Dubner is an award-winning author and journalist who lives in New York City. Dubner comes to know Levitt through an interview and together they wrote this book. I listened to it on CD and Levitt was the narrator.
This book has many thought-provoking questions such as did Roe vs. Wade impace violent crime in the late 1980's? This was a hard thing to think about but it did make me think how events in our lives really unfold. I found the chapter on the Ku Klux Klan most interesting not because the authors thought they were like real estate agents but how one man brought them down by selling their secrets to the Superman radio show. The ending was most shocking as well. I will say this while much of what Levitt has to say is kind of out there it made me look at things differently. I think I'll need to read it again - this time in print form.
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?
These are the kind of questions Levitt asks. He studies the riddles of everyday life-from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing — and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality.
Steven D. Levitt is the Alvin H. Baum Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, where he is also director of The Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. Stephen J. Dubner is an award-winning author and journalist who lives in New York City. Dubner comes to know Levitt through an interview and together they wrote this book. I listened to it on CD and Levitt was the narrator.
This book has many thought-provoking questions such as did Roe vs. Wade impace violent crime in the late 1980's? This was a hard thing to think about but it did make me think how events in our lives really unfold. I found the chapter on the Ku Klux Klan most interesting not because the authors thought they were like real estate agents but how one man brought them down by selling their secrets to the Superman radio show. The ending was most shocking as well. I will say this while much of what Levitt has to say is kind of out there it made me look at things differently. I think I'll need to read it again - this time in print form.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Urban Shaman by C. E. Murphy
Joanne Walker, born Siobban Walkingstick, is returning to Seattle from her Mother's funeral in Ireland. On the plane home, as pilots are making a final pass into the city, she sees a woman being attacked at a church. After her plane lands she finds the first cab and tries to discover if what she saw was real or her imagiation. She is a mechanic-cop for Seattle PD. She discovers that she is becoming a shaman.
In her search for the truth she runs head on into Cernunnos, an ancient Celtic god and leader of the Wild Hunt. She has three days to learn to use her shamanic powers and save the world from the unleashed Wild Hunt. No worries. No pressure. Never mind the lack of sleep, the perplexing new talent for healing herself from fatal wounds, or the cryptic, talking coyote who appears in her dreams. Will she decide to ride with the hunt or work to destroy them?
This was a pretty good read. It took me several weeks to read it so it really didn't grab me but I wanted to finish it.
Joanne Walker, born Siobban Walkingstick, is returning to Seattle from her Mother's funeral in Ireland. On the plane home, as pilots are making a final pass into the city, she sees a woman being attacked at a church. After her plane lands she finds the first cab and tries to discover if what she saw was real or her imagiation. She is a mechanic-cop for Seattle PD. She discovers that she is becoming a shaman.
In her search for the truth she runs head on into Cernunnos, an ancient Celtic god and leader of the Wild Hunt. She has three days to learn to use her shamanic powers and save the world from the unleashed Wild Hunt. No worries. No pressure. Never mind the lack of sleep, the perplexing new talent for healing herself from fatal wounds, or the cryptic, talking coyote who appears in her dreams. Will she decide to ride with the hunt or work to destroy them?
This was a pretty good read. It took me several weeks to read it so it really didn't grab me but I wanted to finish it.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Love, Lies & Liquor by M.C. Beaton
17th Agatha Raisin mystery
Agatha still carries a torch for her ex-husband, James Lacey, who is once again living next door. He invites her to a terrible bbq with his snobby friends. For once Agatha stands up for herself with James and leaves him with his rude friends. He then invites her on holiday to make up for the bbq. Unfortunately, the surprise destination is a rundown British seaside town, Snoth-on-Sea, in which James has fond memories of visiting as a child.
After an altercation a fellow guest at their hotel is murdered, strangled with Agatha's scarf. So Agatha is determined to clear her name. But fefore Agatha can make much headway in her investigation, two more guests are killed.
Typical Agatha style but for once stands up for herself when it comes to James and the other men in her life. While Agatha will never be perfect, she is starting to value her self worth.
17th Agatha Raisin mystery
Agatha still carries a torch for her ex-husband, James Lacey, who is once again living next door. He invites her to a terrible bbq with his snobby friends. For once Agatha stands up for herself with James and leaves him with his rude friends. He then invites her on holiday to make up for the bbq. Unfortunately, the surprise destination is a rundown British seaside town, Snoth-on-Sea, in which James has fond memories of visiting as a child.
After an altercation a fellow guest at their hotel is murdered, strangled with Agatha's scarf. So Agatha is determined to clear her name. But fefore Agatha can make much headway in her investigation, two more guests are killed.
Typical Agatha style but for once stands up for herself when it comes to James and the other men in her life. While Agatha will never be perfect, she is starting to value her self worth.
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