Books
Read in 2010
 Marrying George Clooney
by Amy Ferris
Though I went through menopause in 1996, many woman in a group discussion were raving
about this book, so I got it. It's the most different--and possibly the most
honest--look at menopause you'll ever read. In a sometimes angry, often funny way,
she chronicles the things she thinks about when lying awake in the middle of the night,
the things she googles in the middle of the night and later, her problems with her
severely demented mother. Its a quick, but entertaining--and mostly enlightening
book that will make any woman approaching or going through (or even having gone
through) menopause know that she's not alone.
Lost Light by
Michael Connelly
Harry Bosch has quit the LAPD but finds retirement boring, after all his years of chasing
the bad guy, so he gets a private investigators license and starts checking into one of
his old unsolved cases, the unsolved murder of Angella Benton, linked to the theft of $2
million from a movie set. As he begins his investigation, it takes him to the
disappearance of an FBI computer expert, gets him in trouble with all sorts of law
enforcement types and, when all questions have been answered, he gets the biggest surprise
of his life coming at him from left field.
As with all his other books, "Lost
Light" does not disappoint Connelly fans!
The Narrows by
Michael Connelly
Terry McCaleb's ("Blood Work") wife Graciella has come to Harry Bosch to ask him
to investigate her husband's death. It was supposedly a heart attack for this heart
transplant patient, but Graciella thinks there is more to it. Harry quickly agrees
with her as he begins to check McCaleb's papers and his actions in the last days of his
life. It soon become a possibility that "the poet," a serial killer
everyone thought was dead, was not only not dead, but was responsible for McCaleb's death.
Connelly tells this story in two voices, one is the voice of Harry Bosch and the
other is a third-person account and he alternates the two throughout the book.
I like the way that Connelly mixes his
characters from one book to the next. Several book characters appear in this one and
the conclusion will leave your heart racing.
The Keepsake by
Tess Gerritsen
When Boston's Crispin Museum decides to do a CT scan on a mummy they found hanging around
the basement, Medical Assistant Maura Isles is invited to watch. Imagine everyone's
surprise when the mummy, wrapped in genuine ancient cloth, not only has a filling in a
tooth, but also a bullet in her leg. This and the discovery of several other
gruesome souvenirs of other killings sets the tone for another gripping Gerritsen thriller
with more surprising identities than you can shake a stick at. I didn't realize
until after I'd finished the book, though, that there is a big question left unanswered at
the end. I guess now I'll never know....
The Closers by
Michael Connelly
After a period of "retirement," Harry Bosch returns to the LAPD and is assigned
an "open unsolved" case (TV calls 'em "cold cases"). Rebecca
Verlorn, a young high school girl, was murdered 17 years before and the case was never
solved. In the hunt for her killer, departmental mistakes are uncovered and there is
a fear that things are more complicated than they seem on first look. Eventually a
suspect is apprehended and a confession is made and once again, in true Connelly fashion,
there is a twist. I thought this book preceded "The Narrows," and was
surprised to hear so many references to Bosch's daughter, whom I had not encountered in
any of the previous books--and I've read nearly all of them. Now I have to go read
"The Narrows" to find out how Harry happened to acquire a daughter!
City of Thieves by
David Benioff
Based on Benioffs grandfather's tales of surviving WWII in Russia, "City of
Thieves" tells the story of 17 year old Lev Beniov caught looting the body of a
German paratrooper found on the streets of St. Petersberg. The penalty is supposed
to be execution, but since Col. Grechenko is planning daughter's wedding, he is in a
generous mood and instead charges Lev and Kolya, a Russian Army deserter also facing
execution, with the task of finding a dozen eggs for the wedding cake. The book
covers their search for eggs in a country that hasn't seen eggs in months. They set
off on a journey that takes them through a series of nightmarish war zones, populated by
cannibals, prostitutes, starving children, and demonic Nazi chess enthusiasts. Benioff
finds a good deal of humor amid the grisly absurdities of wartime.
The Weight of Gold
by Ruth Chambers
Written in the voice of "The Widow Chambers," this book tells the story of the
overland treck to the gold country in 1849, losing her husband, finding a new
"career" in Sacramento, the gateway to the gold country. It is replete
with lots of colorful characters, fictionalized to give the reader an idea of what life
was like in the gold rush days. Chambers works as a story teller in Old Sacramento
and has set several of her stories into this self-published book that could use an editor
to tighten the stories and catch the typos, but if you look hard enough there are some
real golden nuggets contained within the book.
Trunk Music by
Michael Connelly
Tony Aliso's body is found in the trunk of his car with a couple of bullets through the
back of his head. The security guard phones the crime to the LAPD and Harry Bosch's
team gets the case. It seems Tony was doing money laundering for the mob and the
investigation takes the team to Las Vegas, where they learn more than they neeed to
know...and Harry finds an old friend. Just when it looks like they have the killer,
Bosch is in for the surprise of his life and the investigation takes him in a different
direction. As usual Harry will butt heads with most of the people in charge, but in
the end, like Jack Bauer, Harry will save the day.
The Last Coyote by Michael
Connelly
This is an early Harry Bosch novel, which begins with Bosch's
probation from the police force following an angry confrontation with his boss. With
time on his hands, Harry decides to investigate the murder of his mother, a prostitute,
years before, a case that appears to have been ignored by the investigators at the time.
As with all Connelly's books, this one takes unexpected twists and turns but I
haven't read a Connelly book yet that was boring!
Books read in 2009
Books read in 2008
Books read in 2007
Books read in 2006
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