Collected Alison Dare Little Miss Adventures by J. Torres & J. Bone
Alison Dare is not your typical 12-year-old. The daughter of an archeologist/adventurer and the masked hero known as the Blue Scarab (and the niece of an international super-spy), Alison's life has always been different from other girls her age. A craving for danger is in her blood. Unfortunately, her parents have locked her away at the prestigious St. Joan of Arc Academy for Girls, hoping that this would lead to a more "normal" life for their daughter. But despite all the strict rules at the school, Alison and her best pals –– Wendy and Dot –– somehow manage to get into adventures that rival those of Alison's globetrotting, planet-saving relatives.

Fun, fun, fun...

Emily & the intergalactic lemonade stand : a story of ponies, robots...and world domination by Iam SmithTen-year-old Emily wants nothing more than to own a pony. So she starts selling lemonade to raise money, aided by Juicer, her indestructible combat robot. Her only real customer is Jace, who's only really interested in hanging out with Juicer, because robots are just so cool. This doesn't sit well with Daisy, the spoiled rich girl who's got a crush on Jace, so she has her daddy give her her own robot. That's when the alien invaders show up.

Another graphic novel but more for the younger set. It is a quick read but not really much substance as I couldn't figure out how Daisy, the rich girl, kept getting all these robots. Plus how did Emily get hers? But

Sidekicks: the transfer student, Volume 1 by J. Torres
Terry Highland’s dad was once a superhero sidekick, and Terry has powers of her own. So how do kids with super-powers learn to use them? By enrolling in Shuster Academy, a state-of-the-art high school that trains future heroes. Life at Shuster isn’t all costumes and kicking butt, though; use your powers between classes and you’ll have to deal with the strict Ms. Sternin. As Terry adjusts to her new environment, she has to deal with exams, demerits, and cliques like any other high school student. Her greatest challenge, however, will be overcoming her own fears; although Terry’s power is super-strength, she can’t face returning to the virtual reality fight-training room where an accident threatened her life.

I like this series. I find it interesting how people become super heros and this series shows us how!

What's Michael? by Makoto Kobayashi
Michael is a rotund tabby cat who is often likened by Americans to the comic strip character Garfield. In some stories, Michael is shown as a creature of nature, and Kobayashi expounds on the virtues of cats in the wild, often with surprising conclusions. Michael is also shown in a number of stories with different owners. It is apparent that these stories are not connected, with each one having a completely different set of supporting characters. After all, one aspect of the domesticated cat is the cat owner. The owners are occasionally more interesting than the cat.

A hard day's life - Vol.6

Ideal Cat - Vol. 9

This is a very fun and interesting series as it focuses on the cat and how he observes things around him. I've read the two above volumes and enjoyed both. Nice to have a japanese series that isn't all fighting.

Marvel Age Emma Frost Volume 1: Higher Learning
Introduces us to Emma Frost as a senior in high school and her disfuctional family who manipulate each other to get their own way. Emma means well but often her best intentions go wrong. When she finally realizes that in order to have some kind of life she needs to leave her family and go out on her own. But will it be good for her? We'll see in the next 2 volumes.

Emma Frost Volume 2: Mind Games
Finally free from her overbearing father, Emma Frost is on her own for the very first time. She's found love - but she's also found trouble, as her new boyfriend is in deep with the Boston mob! As Emma learns more "creative" ways of using her newfound telepathic abilities, will it be enough to help her escape the grasp of the criminal underworld?

Emma Frost Volume 3: Bloom
After fighting the Boston mob, her family, and her own boyfriend, Emma heads to university in New York. There she discovers that the teacher she had a crush on in high school is now teaching at the college and secretly dating her rommie. But the biggest discovery is that she discovers she is not alone in her telepathic talent and she develops a risky relationship with another telepath who is not what she appears to be. Emma discovers that there is a fine line between reading people's minds and actually controlling them.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Vol. 1: The Story of a Childhood
Her autobiographical graphic novel shows us Marjane's life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

We see this unique view of daily life in Iran: of the contradictions between home life and public life and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit. Marjane's child's-eye-view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. At the end of this volume she is sent to Austria to get a more balanced education.

Vol. 2 - Story of the Return
Four years later we see how she has tried to change herself to not stand out as someone different. Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran. Interestly enough in Austria she tried very hard to fit in and in Iran where is forced to fit in she has to discover how to keep her unique perspective.

These two volumes were facinating and I wish there is another volume to bring us uptodate on what her life is like now. Read it!

Comics by Alan Moore

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 - a comic that is set in Victoria England in which some of our favorite literary characters are real. Mr. Griffin "the Invisible Man", Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Alan Quatermain, Captain Nemo and the mysterious Ms Murray (recently divorced, hints at a horrible scandle and wears a long scarf tied around her neck at all time hmmmm....)

Recrutied by Campion Bond and the mysterious "M" could it be Mycroft Holmes but ends up being Sherlock Holmes nemephis, Professor Moriarty. Who is secretly controlling England and wants to go to war with a Chinese warlord who controls the East. He has discovered a cavorite that allows anything it resides in to fly.

Will the League be able to discover the truth in time and save England and possibly the world? Of course they will! Very exciting and graphic collection. I am still curious as to what is Ms Murray's special gift and what about Mr. Quatermain? Perhaps Vol. 2 will help me out.

Top 10 Vol 1 & 2
The city of Neopolis is populated by science-heroes and villains, and even the general population have weird powers and traits; there are also aliens, gods and other dimensional beings. Policing the city is a tough job, but somebody's got to do it, so the citizens accept the jurisdiction of a multi-dimensional force of peacekeepers, spread over several alternate Earths. In Neopolis Precinct 10 (Top 10) is the hub and Robyn Slinger (Toybox) is the rookie with a lot to learn, who carries around a crate full of intelligent supertoys who do her bidding. Her new partner is a hulking, sullen, blue dude named Smax who shoots energy beams out of his chest..

Robyn's coworkers include Girl One (whose bioengineered skin constantly changes), Jack Phantom (a lesbian who can phase through solid matter, Hyperdog (a sentient Doberman in a cyborg skeleton), Irma Geddon (a middle-aged housewife with a nuclear battlesuit), King Peacock (worships Satan; punches through solid stone), Synaesthesia (listens to smells, feels colors, sees sounds -- believe it or not, this is a real condition), Janus (a switchboard operator with two faces and two personalities), Alexei (a Communist telepath with a chimanzee for a wife), and a number of others. From giant saurians to weird aliens, from deicides to shark-headed lawyers, not to mention internal affairs, Robyn has her work cut out for her.

Vol. 1 was more fun for me as we got to learn much about the various characters. Especially the relationship between Robyn and her new partner Smax as we see how she deals with her father's decline into Alzheimer's. Vol. 2 started out well then the last section just got weird and preachy. Oh, well.

Leave it to Chance Series by James Robinson
Bk 1: Shaman's Rain
Chance Falconer is a 14-year-old only child born into a family of municipal sorcerers that has protected the city of Devil's Echo for centuries. Chance can't wait to start training in the family business, but her father decides he doesn't want a girl joining the family's dangerous profession. Predictably, it's not long before she stumbles onto a dead body and a kidnapping in progress, and soon enough she's got a full-fledged mystery on her hands. Reminds us of the Nancy Drew mysteries that inspired it but mixed with a Buffy the Vampire Slayer tomboy.

This jumps around a lot. Very fun reading. Can't wait to read more of this series.

Bk 2: Trick or treat and other stories will be available soon.

Ruse: Enter the Detective
Volume 1: Introduces us to detective Simon Archard and his girl-Friday, Emma Bishop. But it is from Emma's point of view that we experience the story and get to know Simon. Plus we discover that Emma has special powers to stop time and yet interact in it. Set in an alternative reality, in a city called Partington, similiar to a Victorian-era-style Sherlock Holmes detective story. There are mysterious gargouls who fly above the sky. But there are many mysteries unanswered. But this is very fun to read and as I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan I did truely enjoy this book.

Ruse: The Silent Partner
Volume 2: Takes up where volume 1 leaves off with discovering that Simon's dead partner, Malcolm Lightbourne, his former mentor and present nemesis. This master detective has become a master criminal under the influence of the Enigmatic Prism, a mystifying gem that focuses (and corrupts) its possessor's personality, which, of course, makes it insanely desirable. But we do not know why Emma does not use her powers again and much of this volume takes place outside of the city so a whole new cast of characters are introduced.

Ruse Traveler: Criminal Intent
Volumen 3: Is out of print as the company went out of business. So I may never see a conclusion to this fun series.

Marvel Age Mary Jane Volume 1: Circle of Friends
MJ's story is about being a high school teen, sorting out who she wants to be and, equally important, who she wants to be with. MJ's best friend, Liz, has her sights set on becoming Homecoming queen. Her boyfriend, Flash, the star quarterback, has been dragging his feet on getting his application for king handed in. MJ doesn't have a date for the dance, but Liz has that sewn up: the perfect guy, Harry Osborn, is up for grabs, and has his eye on our Mary Jane. She likes him, but does she really "like" him? He's no Spidey, but he sure is nice, and he pays for everything. MJ's efforts to raise money for a new dress and the identity of Flash's secret crush add even more complications.

Interesting to see life from MJ's point of view. We see Peter very occassionally but more often as Spiderman. More interesting things to come.

Stuck With You (Time of Your Life) by Trish JensenAs lawyers on opposing sides of a messy divorce case, Paige Hart and Ross Bennett ought to have kept matters purely professional, yet Paige and Ross came to loathe each other with an intensity that was strictly personal. The bad blood between them takes on an unexpected new dimension when the infuriated pair is forced to share a hospital room, when they're quarantined after being exposed to the rare and highly contagious Tibetan Concupiscence Virus that's reputed to shift sensual desire into high gear. When symptoms (which a nonmedical person might mistake for pure and simple lust) start showing up way ahead of schedule, the lawyers' objections to each other are overruled -- and they enjoy every minute of it. But, after the doctors declare that the disease has run its course, Paige and Ross are still feverish with a longing for one another that they hope will never be cured. When the verdict comes in, will they be sentenced to life -- in love?

Fun read and an interesting story.

Kinsey Millhone Mysteries by Sue Grafton
I have read this series several times over since I first started reading it in the late 1980's. But it's like visiting old friends so every few years I start back at letter A and work my way to more recent book.

S is for Silence
Kinsey takes on a cold case--the question of what happened to a shady lady who disappeared 30 years earlier. From the days surrounding the Fourth of July, 34 years earlier, when a hot-blooded young woman named Violet Sullivan disappeared. Violet's daughter, Daisy, who was seven at the time, hires Millhone to discover her mother's true fate. Violet had toyed with every man in town at one time or another, so there's no shortage of scandalous secrets and possible suspects. Grafton alternates between Millhone's first-person point of view and third-person flashbacks that depict the life of the missing woman in 1953.

It did abruptly end with an ok solution. I think the books are becoming more about Kinsey allowing herself to develop relationships with other women.

R is for Ricochet
Kinsey is hired to "babysit" Reba who is getting out of prison after serving almost 2 years for embezzlement- simple, huh? Luckily for Kinsey, Reba, her new best friend also has great taste in clothing and manages to do some fashion re-education for Kinsey. More surprisingly, Kinsey gets a great new haircut- imagine how stylish she's looking! All this happens before the danger picks up and Kinsey is in the middle of breaking and entry and even scarier elements around the edges of crime. No great surprise, these lead to actual danger for Kinsey and fears for Reba's life.

A sub-plot with Henry trying to find love was a welcome side note for a much loved character. Though it was strange to read Reba as a force so strong she bends our tough Kinsey, it was still refreshing to see Kinsey have a female friend with some spunk. Also, I like Cheney he's tough enough, seems to give her enough space and there is a good chemistry between them. Hope they stick it out.

Q is for Quarry ~ It was eighteen years ago that officers Stacey Oliphant and Con Dolan, out on a morning hunting trip, found the decomposing body near the quarry. She was young, white, bound, and stabbed multiple times, and then her throat was slashed. She'd never been identified, her murderer never brought to justice, and the unsolved case has haunted Oliphant and Dolan all these many years. Now, old and sick, and at the end of their respective careers, they want one more shot at solving this Jane Doe homicide, and decide to enlist the help of Santa Teresa private detective, Kinsey Millhone. After hearing the whole story, and reading over the old murder book, Kinsey has to admit she's hooked, packs her duffle, and joins this "odd couple" on what turns out to be quite an intriguing and ultimately dangerous adventure in search of the truth.

Inspired by a still unsolved murder in Santa Barbara County over thirty years ago this rings as a true unsolved mystery. At the end there is a plastic composte of what the girl probably looked like.

P is for Peril ~ Kinsey looks into the disappearance of Dr. Dowan Purcell, who's been missing for nine weeks. Dr. Purcell is an elderly physician who runs a nursing home that's being investigated for Medicare fraud. His ex-wife, Fiona, hires Kinsey when it seems as though the police have given up on the search. Fiona thinks that he could be simply hiding out somewhere, especially since he's pulled a disappearance stunt twice before. However, Purcell's current wife, Crystal, believes that he may be dead. Kinsey is dubious about finding any new leads after so much time has elapsed. She's also worried about having to move out of the office space she now occupies in the suite owned by her lawyer, and between her interviews with suspects she tries to rent a new office from a pair of brothers whose mysterious background begins to make her suspicious.

With typical flair Kinsey is able to unravel all the loose ends.

O is for Outlaw ~ What begins as a random phone call from a "storage space scavenger" (someone who buys the contents of defaulted storage units) leads Kinsey to a box of old papers and personal effects that her ex-husband, former cop Michael "Mickey" Magruder, left behind. The story zigzags between past and present, as Kinsey gets involved again with her first ex-husband. The mementos include an undelivered letter addressed to Kinsey, providing Mickey with an alibi for the beating death of Vietnam vet Benny Quintero, the unproven charge against Mickey that prompted Kinsey to leave him. Although never convicted, Mickey was ruined--losing his job, wife, and friends. Conscience-stricken, Kinsey looks up acquaintances from her early marriage, questioning her judgment and values at the time. Then two Los Angeles police detectives inform her that Mickey has been shot and is in a coma, and Kinsey decides to investigate. But 15 years later, Kinsey realizes that foul play may have been involved in the murder, a deadly temptation for her.

N is for Noose ~ If Kinsey had had just a smidgen of foresight, she would never have taken her current case, handed down to her from her on-again, off-again flame and comrade in arms, Robert Dietz. We encounter the two this time out after Deitz's knee surgery, as Kinsey drives his "snazzy little red Porsche" back to Carson City, where she checks out his digs for the first time. To her surprise, he lives in a palatial penthouse, which--under the unspoken bylaws of investigative etiquette--she qualmlessly snoops through. They sit around for a fortnight playing gin rummy and eating peanut butter and pickle sandwiches together, but perennially single Kinsey grows wary: "It was time to hit the road before our togetherness began to chafe."
She heads off to meet Dietz's former client, Mrs. Selma Newquist, a devastated widow whose husband, Tom Newquist, a detective himself, had been working on a mysterious case when he abruptly died of a heart attack. Selma suspects foul play but can't figure out what Tom was working on even though he's left behind enough paper to fill a recycling truck. Kinsey digs right in and roams the sleepy, one-horse town of Nota Lake for clues, interviewing a colorful cast of in-laws and locals. Beneath the quaint, quiet, country veneer, she unearths a bubbling hotbed of internal strife and familial double-dealing. Was Tom covering up for his partner? Is Selma protecting someone?

M is for Malice ~ Bader Malek, a local industrial tycoon, has died, and his four sons now stand to inherit a substantial fortune. But one of them, Guy, has been missing since 1968. A drug addict, ne'er-do-well and all-around miscreant, Guy had been disinherited by his exasperated father shortly before he vanished. But that particular will has disappeared, and Kinsey has been hired by the family to find out if Guy is still alive and thus in line to collect his original portion of the estate. She quickly succeeds in locating him and brings back a sweet, guileless and totally reformed man. But is he? The three other brothers?a truly devious, arrogant and greedy lot?are deeply ambivalent about Guy's return. A murder in the family leaves the surviving Malek kin as prime suspects.

L is for Lawless ~ Kinsey agrees to help the family of recently deceased neighborhood WWII vet, Johnnie Lee, find out why the military has no record of his service. Soon after Kinsey has finished looking through his papers, Lee's rooms are burgled, and Ray Rawson, who claims he is an old friend recently arrived in Santa Teresa unaware of Lee's death, is beaten up. Kinsey soon finds herself on a plane bound for Florida, in possession of only the clothes she's wearing and her purse( with an extra toothbrush), trailing a young pregnant woman in possession of a duffel bag spirited from Lee's home. On a stopover in Dallas/Fort Worth, Kinsey sleuths disguised as a hotel maid dusting baseboards, meets the increasingly unreliable Rawson again and encounters yet another figure from Lee's past, a violent, vengeful psychopath. While gradually sorting out the connections among this cast, Kinsey travels to Louisville, where Rawson's 80-something mother proves her mettle and Kinsey, determining that lawless, in this case, is neither adjective nor collective noun, unravels a decades-old mystery. But will she make it home in time for William and Rosie's wedding?

K is for Killer ~ Kinsey agrees to look into the 10-month-old death of Lorna Kepler, a young woman whose decomposed body was discovered in her cabin so long after death that it was impossible to determine the cause. Kinsey's client, Lorna's mother, who works the night shift in a 24-hour diner, suspects murder. So does Kinsey, especially after investigating Lorna's effects and her considerable assets, some unaccounted-for. An anonymously delivered pornographic tape adds to the emerging portrait of the dead woman as an intriguingly self-sufficient, ambitious woman of the evening. In nighttime forays, Kinsey talks to an all-night deejay whom Lorna often visited at his studio; she meets--and befriends--a prostitute who occasionally teamed up with Lorna to party with clients. She also investigates the victim's day job as a part-time receptionist for the water district, where a high-stakes development project is currently raising tempers. A host of suspects includes a porn filmmaker in San Francisco, members of Lorna's family, her landlord, the water district employees and even a smooth-dressing cop, whom Kinsey talks to at night. But lack of sleep dulls Kinsey's perceptions, will she be able to figure it all out?

J is for Judgement ~ Kinsey is working again (or at least consulting) for California Fidelity. Shady financier Wendell Jaffe has recently been decreed dead, five years after his real estate empire collapsed and he disappeared from his beloved 35-foot ketch off the coast, an apparent suicide. California Fidelity has just paid his widow $500,000. But then Jaffe is spotted in Mexico with another woman. Kinsey's investigation lands her in some tough spots--such as a drunken stranger's hotel room where she pretends to be a hooker--gets her shot at and leads to a dramatic resolution at sea. Things get more complicated when Jaffe's 18 year old son escapes from prison and 3 people are left dead. He is caught and then suddenly released. Kinsey has to discover who is involved and who is just an innocent bystander.

While interviewing various people who were scammed by Jaffe she is introduced to a family she didn't know she had. As they try to bring her into their world she resists and pushes herself out. Kinsey has to revise her notion of herself as an orphan alone in the world. Thanksfully we see more of Kinsey's octogenarian landlord Henry, his older brother William, and Rose, the neighborhood bar owner. William and Rose are now engaged and living together. Many loose ends are left hanging in Kinsey's life though she's able to solve the mystery. Hopefully these will be answered in the next book.

I is for Innocent ~ When fellow PI Morley Shine dies of a heart attack, Kinsey takes over the task of gathering evidence for a local lawyer who is prosecuting architect David Barney. Six years earlier, Barney was acquitted of murder charges in the still-unsolved death of his wealthy estranged wife Isabel, killed by a bullet fired through the peephole of her front door. Now Isabel's first husband, Ken Voigt, hoping to strip the architect of the fortune he inherited, is charging Barney with Isabel's wrongful death in a civil court, where less stringent evidence is required for conviction. Quickly finding holes in Shine's investigation, Kinsey uncovers a slew of suspects in Isabel's murder, including Voigt's second wife, Barney's first wife, Isabel's less attractive twin sister and even her best friend. Kinsey determines that Shine's death was not straightforward, solves the mystery of another years-old death and comes under direct fire herself before she finally, nearly too late, figures out who is the threat. Kinsey is getting back to her old self as she has to sort out a mess left by another PI who dies suddenly. It's great seeing her find her groove and her way to the answers.

H is for Homicide ~ As the murder of an insurance claims adjuster sends PI Kinsey Milhone undercover in a Los Angeles barrio. Following up a suspicious claim in the murder victim's files, Kinsey trails beautiful young Bibianna Diaz, recently moved up the coast to Santa Teresa from L.A. Under the alias Hannah Moore, Kinsey befriends the young woman and learns she is attempting the same scam pursued by Raymond Maldonado, her ex-boyfriend in L.A. When Raymond's brother, sent to bring Bibianna back, is shot by the young woman's new lover, an old friend of Kinsey's, both Bibianna and Hannah/Kinsey are taken to jail, where Kinsey secretly agrees to join a statewide fraud investigation. Raymond's henchmen grab Bibianna, and take Kinsey too. Now Kinsey is undercover and up to her eyeballs in lies. Will she make it out alive to make sure the bad guys get theres? You can't help but cheer for Kinsey even when she isn't doing too well. This book shows her her not at her best and kind of a depressed side. But we'll stick it out anyway.

G is for gumshoe
A rich, complex, and gripping tale in which Kinsey's grit is tested to its utmost as she unearths the gruesome truth about a long-buried betrayal and, in the process, comes face-to-face with the grisly fact of her own mortality. "G" is for guilt and guile, for greed and grief and the Grim Reaper. California PI Kinsey Millhone, hired to investigate the disappearance of a client's eccentric, elderly mother, but the lady mysteriously disappears within hours of her arrival. Meanwhile she must evade a vengeful criminal whom she helped put away four years earlier. Trying to outwit the hit man on her tail. To this end, she teams up with another P.I. to act as her bodyguard. Right from the beginning sparks fly between these two, hence the romantic aspect of the book.

F is for fugitive ~ Kinsey work takes her to the small California town of Floral Beach, where she's been hired to investigate a 17-year-old murder. Though innocent of the crime, Bailey Fowler was coerced to confess to it; he escaped from prison soon after his sentencing and lived a quiet life under an alias until the cops picked him up on a fluke and discovered his convict status. Bailey's father Royce, now dying of cancer, hopes Kinsey will find the real murderer and save his son from returning to jail.

During her investigation, Kinsey lives at the Fowlers' beach motel with Royce, his demanding, hypochondriacal wife and their resentful, middle-aged daughter. The experience puts Kinsey in a dark mood, reminding her of her own short-lived family (she was orphaned at age five). Nor does the case itself bring joy, as she unearths the ugly secrets of many of Floral Beach's respected citizens--the hypocrisy of the unctuous minister; the philandery of the local doctor and the violence-prone schizophrenia of his wife; the sad secret of the high-school principal; and, of course, the intentions of the murderer, who kills again as Kinsey draws near. As usual never the person you expect and it leaves you guessing until the very end.

E is for Evidence ~ When someone mysteriously deposits $5,000 in Kinsey's bank account and changes the records on one of her cases, private eye Kinsey Millhone takes herself on as a client and finds out that "E" stands for evidence planted and evidence lost . . . and sometimes "E" stands for eternal. Her past has caught up with her as we meet childhood friends and her 2nd ex-husband. But it is not like old home week as murder becomes the key to the past. E is for excellent as always to me.

D is for Deadbeat ~ Kinsey Millhone meets a drunkard named Daggett using another name. He claims that he wants to give $25,000 to a friend who helped him out in the past. After his retainer check bounces Kinsey discovers his real name and that the money has been stolen from a drug sale. As she tries to track Daggett down he is discovered drowned. When she decides to deliver the money to Daggett's designee, a young man who was the sole survivor of an auto accident perpetrated by Daggett, Kinsey finds herself in a dilemma: too many ``D's'' are after the loot. There are two Mrs. Daggetts, a daughter, the drug dealers and a determined killer who soon claims a second life.

C is for Corpse ~ Bobby Callahan, a scared and ruined young man came to find something from his missing memory. His story was hard to credit: a murderous assault by a tailgating car on a lonely rural road, a roadside smash into a canyon 400 feet below, his Porsche a bare ruin, his best friend dead. The doctors had managed to put his body back together again -- sort of. His mother's money had seen to that. What they couldn't fix was his mind, couldn't restore the huge chunks of memory wiped out by the crash. Bobby knew someone had tried to kill him, but he didn't know why. He knew he had the key to something that made him dangerous to the killer, but he didn't know what it was. And he sensed that someone was still out there, ready to pounce at the first sign his memory was coming back. He'd been to the cops, but they 'd shrugged off his story. His family thought he had a screw loose. But he was scared -- scared to death. He wanted to hire Kinsey. His case didn't have a whole lot going for it, but he was hard to resist: young, brave, hurt. She took him on. And three days later, Bobby Callahan was dead.

B is for Burglar ~ Beverly Danziger looked like an expensive, carefully wrapped package from a good but conservative shop. Only her compulsive chatter hinted at the nervousness beneath her cool surface. She's looking for her absent sister, Elaine Boldt . A will to be settled -- a matter of only a few thousand dollars. Elaine Boldt's wrappings were a good deal flashier than her sisters, but they signaled the same thing: The lady had money. A rich widow in her early forties, she owned a condo in Boca Raton and another in Santa Teresa. According to the manager of the California building, she was last seen draped in her $12,000 lynx coat heading for Boca Raton. According to the manager of the Florida building, she never got there. But is Elaine dead or alive.

A if for Alibi ~ introduces California private investigator Kinsey Millhone--a twice-divorced, childless 32-year old woman who lives in a one-room "bachelorette" apartment. Kinsey is hired by Nikki Fife, a woman who had been sent to prison after being convicted of murdering her husband. Nikki maintains her innocence and wants Kinsey to find the real killer--eight years after the murder. While this is not my favorite book, you have to read it to get a feel for how Kinsey is. Plus it is important to see her relationships with her maiden Aunt Gin, her landlord, Henry, and Rosie the tavern owner which is nearby.
Kinsey is tough but it is her vulnerability that get you as she discovers that it is easier said than done to keep your distance. Her interaction with the other characters allowed us to understand her personality more as well. Also, I liked the style in which Grafton portrayed Kinsey through 1st person perspective. You "got into the shoes" of Kinsey Millhone and followed her through the mystery.

Houses of Stone by Barbara Michaels
Pseudonyme for Barbara Mertz but she also writes under the name Elizabeth Peters
Karen Holloway, an ambitious assistant professor at an unnamed women's college in the Northeast, learns of a previously unpublished novel by a 19th-century author known only as Ismene. Since she herself made Ismene famous in the academic world by publishing a volume of her verse, Karen knows her reputation will skyrocket if she can buy the manuscript from the bookseller who found it and issue it with her commentary. She and her colleague Peggy Finneyfrock travel to a dilapidated estate in Virginia's Tidewater region in search of clues to Ismene's identity. But other academics are also in hot pursuit, and Karen finds herself haunted by nightmares brought on by the claustrophobic themes in Ismene's work ("houses of stone" is a phrase from one of the pseudonymous author's poems).

While this did not appeal to me as much as I thought it would, it was still interesting. The main character, Karen, was rather flat but her friends, Peggy and others were much more fun to read about.

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata is the 2005 Newbery award winner.
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

I was worried about this novel with a terminally ill sibling, we all know's means death in those days. But this was a very uplifting book and I felt sad to leave these characters as the author really was able to make them seem real to me. I'm so glad it won the Newbery this year. So far two of my favorite novels have been Newbery award winners. I love Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.

Cynthia Kadohata is from the Los Angeles area so we're hoping to get her to speak for the library.

Power of Five W.I.T.C.H. #1 adapted by Elizabeth Lenhard
It airs on Disney/ABC but I believe has been translated from a japanese series.
The text is book and it starts and ends with an vibrant color comics that kickstart the imagination. It's a story within a graphic novel. Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin (W.i.t.c.h.) are five ordinary friends with an extraordinary secret: they each have the power to control a natural element -- air, water, fire, earth, and finally, the mysterious "Heart of Candracar." The girls use their powers to guard against evil and to uncover the truth behind mysterious portals leading to other worlds.

Interesting series and it is super popular and the books are always checked out. I like the comic element and believe a true graphic novels are coming out summer 2005 so we'll see how it graduates.

Embrace the Wolf by Benjamin M. Schutz
First in the series that features Leo Haggerty, Private Eye

I have the admit the first chapter sucked me in. 5 years previously twin 5 year old girls were kidnapped by an unknown person. The kidnappers never made a demand but the father, Herb Saunders, never gave up hope they would come home one day. He had been doing his own investigations to find his daughters so when the kidnapper calls and plays a tape of his daughters voices he is off to find the fiend who stole them. His wife returns home to find a note saying he was going to find the devil so she calls in Leo Haggerty to help bring her husband home.

I should have stopped reading it after the first chapter and just skipped to the ending. This is a very tragic book that has a lot of horrible sex and torture that I could have done without. I'm reading his latest book Mongol Reply that is so much more interesting. Perhaps someday I'll try his Leo Haggerty books again.

Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years by Sue Townsend continues the Adrian Mole saga. Adrian , now 30, is divorced and the father of two sons (William, almost three years old, and Glenn, 12). His good friends are still around: old flame Pandora "we adore ya" Braithwaite has been elected a Labour MP by capitalizing on her short, tight skirts to win votes; best friend Nigel is trying to figure out how to tell his family he's gay. To Adrian's horror, his parents swap partners with Pandora's parents--and his dad discovers Viagra. Despite his ineptitude at cooking, Adrian works as the head chef at a snooty restaurant called Hoi Polloi, which specializes in "execrable nursery food." Adrian--temporarily--gets his own cooking show, "Offally Good!"

Another book on CD I keep laughing out loud in the car during some of the funny bits. I'm sure the other people driving by think I'm crazy.

League of Extraordinary Gentleman Vol. II by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neil
Collection of 6 comic books in the 2nd volume of the series. Set in an alternate, technologically advanced 1898 London, the story finds legendary literary heroes Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Hawley Griffin (the Invisible Man), Edward Hyde and Mina Murray fighting battles that the British Empire can't handle without them. Here, the eclectic team is defending Earth from a Martian invasion, partially set in motion by another pulp hero, Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars. I have not read Volume I yet so will go back and see if it fills in any blanks.

Giver by Lois Lowry
When Jonas turns 12, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver--who alone holds memories of pain and pleasure in life. Now there can be no turning back from the truth. Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. 1994 Newbery Medal winner. Lowry is such a wondeful author. Wow.

An interesting book as it really looks at how society would be if no one was different if there was a world where everything was controled by the committee and if you did not conform you were released from the society. A world in which death and love was not understood or color seen. The book leaves the ending open as you are not sure if he really escapes or if he is released. There are two related books that I am looking forward to reading to see if any of my questions are answered.

Gathering Blue is a companion to the Giver.
Lame and suddenly orphaned, Kira is mysteriously removed from her squalid village to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians. She meets Thomas, a carver, and Jo, a singer, who are also being trained for the future. When Matty, her only friend from the outside disappears she fears the worse but he brings her back something even more valuable than the color blue.

But as with the Giver, Kira discovers that while life seems so happy and perfect they are all really held captive and that there are consequences for everything. So she must choose.

Very engaging book and as with the Giver you do not know what will happen to the characters.

Elf of Union Square by Jan Carr
An ancient, crotchety elf named Hiram and his sidekick, a Norwegian rat named Knut, conspire to drive people away from Union Square Park, while fifth-grader Jack Crain and a reporter for the New York Times, Will Manley, investigate. It was an entertaining read as it is faciniating to see how quickly people follow the herd over small things. Plus this story made me laugh as I know someone named "Will Manley" who works for the city of Tempe.