"The Quickie"

I thought the title "The Quickie" was stupid so if the book hadn't been recommended to me by someone who has good taste in books I never would have read it. I am happy to report that the book is much, much better than it's title.

Lots of twists and turns, just when you think you have it all figured out the situation changes. Excellent.

First quote page 103.

Whoever said moving and divorce were the two most stressful events in your life
never had their husband shoot their lover.

Page 211

I wanted to say no. With a bullhorn. Brooke and I were the last two
females on Earth who needed to bond. But like any red-blooded American
woman given the choice between her sensible desires and a guilt-laced
obligation, I, of course, agreed.

Exactly true, at least for me. All of my life decisions are made under the influance of guilt and responsibility. And sometimes fear.

This next quote, page 284, is awesome and I just can't condense it, the entire page is too good.

I was lifting my Glock toward the sound, ready to squeeze off a shot, when
the lights went on.
"SURPRISE!" said a couple of dozen voices in unison.
I'll say! Jesus God, it was my friends and family. The female ones,
at least. By some miracle, I didn't fire a round. THank goodness for
safe-action pistols.
I gaped at the Mylar balloons, the green-and-yellow wrapped presents, the
three-wheel yuppie jogging stroller parked in the corner.
It wasn't a home invasion after all. Not bad news or tragedy.
It was my baby shower!
And judging by the number of hands that shot up over open-mouthed,
b;ood-drained faces, I guessed it had been a real surprise all around.
I lowered my sights from between my elderly Aunt Lucy's eyes. She
started breathing again.
"Look Mommy," my sister Michele's four-year-old daughter said in the dead
silence. "Auntie Lauren has a gun

Seriously good writing, I kept busting up as I typed it :)
Page 297 makes me crack up too.

It was a little after eight the next morning when the barista at the
Starbucks across from Paul's Pearl Street office building raised an eyebrow at
me in surprise.
Jeez, I thought. You'd think she'd never seen a disheveled,
emotionally demolished woman ask for the entire top shelf of the pastry case
before.

"You've Been Warned"

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started "You've Been Warned" by James Patterson and Howard Roughan. My Boss lent it to me and said it was good, but different from Patterson's other books and bizarre. Which is fairly accurate.

Kristin wants to be a professional photographer, and is a full-time Nanny to two young children that she loves. She despises their step-mother "the Pencil" and is having an affair with their father.

Now Kristin is having a disturbing, recurring dream, hearing music in her head, her neighbor is complaining about her waking everyone up with her screaming every morning, some strange man is warning her, but she doesn't understand what he's warning her about. Theres a cop after her for a crime that maybe hasn't happened yet. Maybe she can figure out the puzzle that will make it all make sense, or maybe Kristin is just losing her mind.

Quote on page 99

Thankfully, there's an errand I have to run. Errands are good when you think you
might be going stark-raving mad.

Good advice.

L.A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker

I'm lucky in that my boss and her boss are both readers. This is great for me because I get to borrow a lot of books that I wouldn't otherwise read. "L.A. Outlaws" is one I wouldn't have ordinarily have picked up, but when your boss has a bag of books on her desk from her boss and says "Pick which ones you want to read first and then we'll trade" how could I refuse. "L.A. Outlaws was on the top of the pile and I'm glad I picked it up.



Allison Murrieta claims to be a direct descendant of the Joaquin Murrieta a Hispanic Outlaw in California that stole from the rich and gave to the poor. She ends up with a fortune in stolen diamonds, a handsome (of course) cop on her trail and a killer looking for her.



One quote I want to remember, on page 33.

Marlon had invited Hood one evening after work to a bar where they drank and
agreed that war is worse than hell, because hell punishes sinners but war
punishes everyone.

Part mystery, part spaghetti western, part romance, very good read.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Here's the thing. For someone who tries to be tough , is always trying to distance herself emotionally and doesn't believe in Romantic Love. I am an emotional wimp. I cry every time one of my children starts pre-school or kindergarten (I do manage to wait until after I drop them off so they don't see). I cry often when I am angry (which I HATE doing). I cry about the girls I work with because I worry about them. And I cried when I read "the host". The really pathetic part about this is that it's not the first time I've read the book, so I know whats coming and I know how it ends. And yet. I just finished reading it and I cried...again.



Why do I cry over books? I think in part because having an emotional attachment to a book is so much safer than having an emotional attachment to a person. When you let a person close to you, you are giving them the opportunity to hurt you. The more you open up to someone the more opportunity they have. The more you allow yourself to love someone, the more power they have over you. To me, that is terrifying.



Why do I cry over "the host" specifically? Is Stephenie Meyer that good an Author? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing she does exceptionally well is creating characters that are believable. Even when, maybe especially when, they are not strictly human characters.



Wanderer aka Lives in the Stars aka Rides the Beast aka Wanda is a Soul. An alien parasite who has lived multiple life times on multiple planets. She is now living on earth in a human body, Melanie's body. Melanie's awareness was supposed to fade away when Wanderer was implanted onto her spinal cord but Melanie is strong willed and refuses to fade away.



I suppose technically "the host" is science fiction what with the aliens and space ships, but what it really is, is what Stephenie Meyer does so well, a book about fascinating, believable characters and interesting perspectives on what it means to be human.



Naturally there are several quotes I want to save, the first on page 141

I'd never lived on a planet where such atrocities could happen, even before the
souls came. This place was truly the highest and lowest of all worlds -
the most beautiful senses, the most exquisite emotions...the most malevolent
desires, the darkest deeds. Perhaps it was meant to be so. Perhaps
without the lows, the highs could not be reached. Were the souls the
exception to that rule? Could they have the light without the darkness of
this world?

Page 210

I didn't drop my arms when his anguish quieted; I was in no hurry to
let him go. It seemed as though my body had been starving for this from
the beginning, but I'd never understood before now what would feed the
hunger. The mysterious bond of mother and child - so strong on this planet
- was not a mystery to me any longer. There was no bond greater than one
that required your life for another's. I'd understood this truth before;
what I had not understood was why. Now I knew why a mother would
give her life for her child, and this knowledge would forever shape the way I
saw the universe.

Page 211, fabulous definition of friendship ;)

He grinned that huge, cheek-stretching grin, and I couldn't help grinning
back, though my smile was more rueful than delighted. He was supposed to
be my enemy. He was probably insane. And he was my
friend. Not that he wouldn't kill me if thing turned out that way, but he
wouldn't like doing it. With humans, what more could you ask of a
friend?

Page 247.

I was not a liar, and I don't think I could have lied to Jamie if I
were. I tried not to think about the implications of my feelings for
him. Because what did it mean if the greatest love I'd ever felt in my
nine lives, the first true sense of family, of maternal instinct, was for an
alien life-form? I shoved the thought away.

Page 356, commence with the tears.

It was absolutely silent in the starlit night. Even the wind was
calm. I whispered, but I knew my voice carried to everyone.
"There was no hatred in your heart," I whispered. "That you
existed is proof that we were wrong. We had no right to take your world
from you, Walter. I hope your fairytales are true. I hope you find
your Gladdie."
I let the rocks trickle through my fingers and waited until I hear them
fall with a soft patter onto Walter's body, obscured in the deep, dark
grave.

Page 389-390, now we start drifting into the Romantic Love category which I cannot believe in, though I wish it were real.

His mouth turned down.
"It's just the body," I repeated.
"That's not true at all," he disagreed. "It's not the face, but the
expressions on it. It's not the voice, but what you say. It's not
how you look in that body, but the things you do with it. You are
beautiful."

Page 472,

What was it that made this human love so much more desirable to me than the
love of my own kind? Was it because it was exclusive and capricious?
The souls offered love and acceptance to all. Did I crave a greater
challenge? This love was tricky; it had no hard-and-fast rules - it might
be given for free, as with Jamie, or earned through time and hard work, as with
Ian, or completely and heart breakingly unattainable, as with Jared.
Or was it simply better somehow? Because these humans could hate with
so much fury, was the other end of the spectrum that they could lobe with more
heart and zeal and fire?

Page 546. No special hidden meaning, I just like this one. The last part needs to be made into a poster or cross-stitch.

We made it home without incident. We saw no sign of the Seekers'
surveillance. Perhaps they'd accepted the coincidence. Maybe they
thought it was inevitable - wander the desert alone long enough, and something
bad would happen to you. We'd had a saying like that on the Mists
Planet: Cross too many ice fields alone, and wind up a claw beast's
meal. That was a rough translation. It sounded better in Bear.

Page 594, and more tears.

The bottle opened. I heard him shake it onto the cloth in his
hand.
"You are the noblest, purest creature I've ever met. The universe
will be a darker place without you," he whispered.
These were his words over my grave, my epitaph, and I was glad that I got
to hear them.

Page 605, and more,

Ian squeezed my hand and leaned in to whisper through all the hair.
His voice was so low that I was the only one who could hear. "I held you
in my hand, Wanderer. And you were so beautiful."

Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich

"Motor Mouth"is the second in the Alex Barnaby series by Janet Evanovich. Not as good as her Stephanie Plum series but still fun.
Barney is working on Hookers racing team. They were also in a relationship, but Hooker cheated. Now Barney suspects a competitor on the racetrack is cheating and she and Hooker have to help a friend and get caught up in the murder and mayhem. Repeat visits from the characters in "Metro Girl", entertaining, light read. One quote on page 147.

"Well, that was friggin' embarrassing," Hooker said. "I just
got my ass saved by a woman with a six-pack of soda."
"What were you doing back here with them?"
"They said they wanted to talk to me."
"And they couldn't do it by the bench?"
"Looking at it in retrospect..."

When you look like your Passport Photo...

I usually really enjoy reading Erma Bombeck and laugh out loud, but "When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time To Go Home" just wasn't as good. There were a few good moments, but overall just 2 *'s.
One quote I did find interesting since I enjoy mythology. Page 177.

"This is the spot where Artemis-Cybele was worshipped," he said.
"They were a group of women who were dedicated warriors -archetypal women's
libbers." He paused and his eyes met mine. "These women had sex with
men once a year so that the race might not die out. The male children were
left to die at birth." He had my attention. "Artemis is always shown
as an Amazon," he continued, "one breast bare, the peplum draped over the right
shoulder to hide the scar where the other breast had been cut off to allow full
freedom for the bow arm." I nodded blankly. "But then you could
relate to that." He smiled
I looked down at my own bust and wondered what he meant by a crack like
that. And all that because I opened my own car door.

Phantom Prey

Read Phantom Prey by John Sandford on my day off Monday and LOVED it!


Alyssa Austins daughter is missing, probably dead and Alyssa doesn't think the cops are doing enough to solve the crime. She bumps into her friend Weather and asks her to talk to her husband Lucas Davenport, an officer with the BCA. Lucas thinks Alyssa is a spacey hippy, but agrees to look into the case.
At the same time a mysterious Goth Fairy is on the trail to get revenge on the killer.

As usual Sandford has interesting things to say about humanity and psychology. Quote from page 282 &283.

Thought about Austin, and what she'd said about insanity, about how it was
nothing more than an extreme version of everyday quirks...

Good theory, he thought. Lucas had a theory of his own, sociological,
rather than psychological.
Some people, he believed, looked at
the world and saw a clockwork. Events happened and triggered off other
events, people did what they were programmed to do, and the results came out the
other end: love, hate, war, murder, children, whatever.

Other people, Lucas among them, looked out the window and saw nothing but
chaos: accident, chance, stupidity, intelligence, avarice, idealism, all rubbing
against one another in an unpredictable stew.

Last quote page 400.

She said this friend - she said his name was Loren- said there were riverboats
of souls going down the Mississippi, and some of these were glorious riverboats,
and some were like slave ships. The bad souls, obviously. She
thought Frances might still be here, but on a different plane. Not on a
boat yet."

The Women's Murder Club books 3 & 6

2 people at work recommended the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson and various co-authors. I think Maxine Paetro is my favorite of the co-authors. Anyway, now I'm hooked on the series. Lindsey Boxer is a cop in San Francisco, she and 3 friends are the Women's Murder Club. Claire the medical examiner is my favorite of the friends.

Starting with quotes from book 3 "The 3rd Degree". Page 13

"A house without music," her mother used to say, "is a house without life."

From '6th Target' at the beginning of chapter 55, page.139

I drove toward San Francisco General, my mind swirling with terrible, sinking
thoughts. Claire once told me this thing about brain chemistry, the nub of
it being that when you're feeling good, you can't ever imagine feeling bad
again. And when you're feeling bad, it's impossible to imagine a time when
you won't be circling the drain.

I'm not sure about the first part because I know what it's like to be laughing and yet still have a black pit inside of you. The second part makes sense to me though. When you are feeling down what really gets you is when you have no hope of the situation getting better.

Hidden Prey by J. Sandford

'Hidden Prey' another good entry in the John Sandford 'prey' series. 4 stars.

First quote is a long one on page 18. The capitals are the authors.

Weather rarely cried. She considered crying an insult to the feminie
mystique. But her lip trembled: "The door went up too
slow."
Lucas had been married only a short time, but his history with women had
been
intense. He know exactly what to say. He said, "Maybe
there's a
brownout or something, and there wasn't enough power. I was
afraid you'd
decapitated yourself. That you were hurt."
This
instead of screaming, "THAT'S BECAUSE YOU DROVE INTO THE DRIVEWAY AT
FIFTY
MILES AN HOUR, YOU FUCKIN' MORON."

Next one on page 38.

Flattery, Lucas thought; makes you feel warm and fuzzy, unless it makes you
feel manipulated and used.

Kind of reminds me of someone who shall remain nameless, that has been sucking up to me lately.

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

Gross, spooky, icky, creepy, disgusting. In other words classic Stephen King. 4 friends save a 'retard' from bullying by older kids. Duddits is different and special and their friendship with him changes them and their lives.
As adults on an annual hunting trip when the bizarre surrounds them Duddits may still be influencing them.

1st to die by James Patterson

A bride and groom are killed in their honeymoon suite. Lindsay is a homicide detective called in to investigate. Another bride and groom are killed on their honeymoon and another at their reception. Lindsay starts meeting with 3 friends to discuss the case. The Women's Murder Club is born.Interesting characters. Good mystery, lots of twists and turns. Looking forward to reading the next in the series.

One quote that I wanted to save.

In their stark, ghostly expressions was the strongest statement I have ever
seen that life may not be governed by anything fair or clement.

A little depressing actually as I have been wondering lately exactly what does govern human life.

Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich

First in the Alex Barnaby series. Great new Heroine. Fun read, classic Evanovich. Mystery, mayhem, car chases, hit men, hot girls and NASCAR guy.
As it advertises "Creative cussing and sexual innuendo included."

3 quotes to remember. The first on page 21, kind of deep actually for a light, easy book.

He had a reputation for being a fearless driver, but I didn't buy into the
fearless thing. Everyone knew fear. It was the reaction that made
the
difference. Some people hated fear and avoided the experiencce.
Some people
endured it as a necessity. And some people became addicted to
the rush. I
was betting Hooker fell into the last category

.


Next starting on page 159.

Men never cease to amze me. I remembered reading somewhere a description
of men and women in terms of boxes. The female box had a bunch of knobs
and buttons and complicated instructions. And the male box had an off/on switch. That was it. Just a single switch.
Hooker's switch was always turned to on.

Thats it in a nutshell folks.
Now page 212, just for fun.

"Good thing you're such a tough guy," I said to Hooker.
"Yeah," he said. "And I'm going to protect you, too. Both of
you. You're going to have to hold still, thought. I can't protect
you when you keep spinning like that."
"Hang on. I'm going to take you to the emergency room."
"That's nice," Hooker said. "I like going places with you."

Lots more good stuff in the book. I highly recommend it, but only to people who aren't squeemish or easily offended, so actually I guess most of my aquaintences wouldn't like it.
*sigh*

Emma by Jane Austen

Emma is an excellent character, all the more so because of her flaws. She starts out rich, spoiled and thinking that she knows best (for everyone). It is so much fun to see her have to come to terms with her selfishness and mistakes. Throughly enjoyable, excellent read.

"Mortal Prey" continued

Alright, finally have a day off after 6 days in a row (full shifts too). So I now have time to get back to the quotes from the incredibly awesome "Mortal Prey" by the incredibly awesome author John Sandford.

First quote page 110.

And she thought about Paulo, dead on the ground in Cancun, his blood all
over her, his blue eyes vacant. Thought about her baby, the way things
were going to be forever. The adrenaline was a familiar thing, but now
something else flowed in, a coldness that she'd felt only once before, about her
stepfather.
Hate. And it was liquid and cold, like mercury flowing through her
veins. Nanny Dichter, two blocks away, still breathing, while Paulo lay
rotting in his grave...

I can understand the concept of hate much more easily than I can the idea of love. I get friendship love and love for you kids. The thing I'm not so sure I believe in is man-woman love. Marriage love, soul-mate love. I just don't think its real. But if it isn't real then how do people know to write about it? Why are there so many songs, movies, books written about it? I read a book by Augusten Burroughs recently and there is such a beautiful, amazing quote about how he feels about his boyfriend and it almost makes me think that love must be real or how could he write that? But if it is real, why do so few people have it in their lives, in their marriages?

Next quote page 129.

"Holy shit, you're rich," Andreno said.
"Comfortable," Lucas said.
"Bullshit, you're rich," Andreno said happily. "Why don't you give me this
car when you leave? I'd look great in it -- clubs in the passenger seat, kind of
casual-like, driving along with my sunglasses and the Rolex."
"Couldn't do
that. You have to have a certain level of sexual magnetism before you're allowed
to drive a Porsche," Lucas said.
"And I'd have to get a Rolex," Andreno
said.

Page 225, men truly are pigs, funny pigs though. At least in fiction they're funny.

"Seven? Eight?"
"Jesus, no. Not that early. I got a date."
"Heavy date?"
"I do have plans involving sex. Then I'll probably have to talk to her for
a while and probably won't be outa there until three o'clock or so."
"You sensitive types are going out of style," Lucas said. "Women are going
back to the more macho, tough-talking guys."
"What I got is what I got,"
Andreno said, and he eased the car away from the curb.

This next one I want to show to my Psychologist to see if he agrees.

Lucas had seen it before: Women recovered faster than men from the death of a
spouse. Lucas believed that both men and women expected the wife to live
longer, so that women were somewhat braced for the departure of a husband, while
a husband, in most police cases, was absolutely unprepared--unless of course,
he'd done the killing himself

Starting in the middle of a paragraph on page 384 and continuing on page 385.

They all three rode to the cemetary together, and Mallard asked Lucas, "Why'd
you come?"

"I kind of liked her," Lucas
said. "All the time "I've been a cop, I've
divided assholes into two
groups: people who were assholes because they
wanted to be- people who made
themselves into assholes- and people who were
make that way by life.
Rinker never had a chance. But she kept trying."

"You sound like National Public Radio," Mallard said. They fell into
the
short line of cars going to the cemetery.

"Fuck a bunch of public radio," Lucas said. "Rinker was twisted
and
tortured by people a hell of a lot worse than she ever was, and nobody
did
anything about it. And she was probably getting out of it when we came
along. I think if she'd never come to Minneapolis, she'd probably be out
of it now."

Andreno shook his head. "Ross never would have let her get out.
If she'd
tried to get out, he'd have had her killed the first chance he
got."

Some people are given chances and breaks and some people aren't. I'm not sayingthat there aren't people who waste their chances or people who don't try orpeople who give up or expect the world to take care of them. All of thosethingsexist. It's just that some people try and try and try and never breakthrough.And don't give me that shit about successful people make their ownbreaks, lifeis not that simple and cliched.

Naked Prey

"Naked Prey" by John Sandford

Another excellent Lucas Davenport mystery. Lucas works for the State now and is called on when a white woman and black man are found hanged, the Governor does not want the crime to be seen as a racist lynching, and of course there is much more to the story.
Murders, kidnappings, car theft and drug smuggling nuns.
Love the introduction of Letty West.
First quote page 23.

"A fuckin' lynching, and we gotta fix it. For our own sakes, along
with everything else," Del said, when Lucas had finished.
"Not a lynching."
"Walks likes a lynching, quacks like a lynching..." They sat silently for a
moment, watching the snow come down around a red light. Then, "Could be a
good time, you know?"

Page 248

The deputy winced. "Okay. You know, out here on the
prairie...strange things happen when people are alone too much."
"In the city, strange things happen when they're together to much," Del
said.
"Strange things happen," the deputy said.

Next quote page 346. It's a long one, but I couldn't decide what to leave out. Classic Lucas and Del. Have I mentioned I have a crush on Lucas?

"Good time to quit," one of the Californians said, talking through the
snorkel of his snorkel parka. "If you'd kept it up, I would have been
tempted to take out my piece and kick your sorry ass. No offense,
ladies."
"I don't want to seem insulting, or vulgar, but none of you fuckin' FBI
humpty-dumpties can shoot half as well as Del over there, and I personally can
shoot several times better than Del," Lucas said.
"Au contraire," Del said. "You can hold your end up on the nice,
heated, lighted range. But out here, in the real world, you can't hold a
candle to me. Though you're right about the fuckin' FBI
humpty-dumpties."
Ruth looked at Letty and said, "Oh, God. This is why you should
never get married, honey. These people got a rivulet of testosterone
running through them, and anything can set it off. A cheese sandwich can
set it off."

I'm looking forward to the next 'prey' book, but sadly we're about caught up to the most recent Sandford has written and when we are I'm not sure what I'll do without a Lucas fix.

Horoscope - May 26, 2009

Intellectually I don't really believe in Horoscopes, I do however read mine several times a week (From the Beliefnet website) and they are often eerily accurate.

You may be confronted with having to make a decision that affects others at work
today, yet you don't think you're the one who should decide. It's usually more
comfortable for you to step back and let someone else with more authority take
the responsibility. Unfortunately, you might not be able to avoid this task. If
so, give yourself some quiet time so you can check in with your intuition before
making your choice.

I really hope this one is wrong, because I don't like making difficult decisions that affect others and it is true that I am much more comfortable stepping back and letting someone else be in charge.

Mortal Prey by John Sandford

Awesome, simply awesome. Probably the best Lucas Davenport novel ever! Clara Rinker returns to North America after the murder of her Lover and unborn baby. Lots of twists and turns. Lots of Action. Excellent characters, I must admit I have a crush on Lucas Davenport. Clara is a fascinating adversary.

Several excellent quotes, but it is bedtime and I must be to work early in the morning.

A Northern Light

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

"A Northern Light" is advertised as a YA novel, but I think it is great for adults I really enjoyed this one, recommended by Sheila, I'm loving having someone at work to talk books with. I miss Rebecca.

The chapters skip back and forth from Matties past to present, but once I got used to that I enjoyed it. The murder that takes place in the book is based on an actual murder that took place in 1906 and the letters in the book were the letters that were used in the trial. The character of Mattie however is fictional. Excellent descriptions. Believable characters, I cared about what happened to them.

Mattie picks a word from the dictionary each day to learn and tries to use it in a sentence, here's the first on page 15, I was feeling rather fractious before I started the book.

Tommy peered at the dictionary. " 'Apt to break out into a
passion...snappish, peevish, irritable, cross,' " he read. "
'P-per-verse. Pettish.' "
"Isn't that just perfect?" I said. "Fractious," I repeated,
relishing the bite of the f , the teeth against lip. A new
word. Bright with possibilities. A flawless pearl to turn over
and over in my hand, then put away for safekeeping.

On page 78, italics are the authors.

I thought of my new word of the day. Can a girl be unmanned? I
wondered. By a boy? Can she be unbrained?

The answer to that question is unfortunately yes.
The next one is a long one pages 96 and 97.

I wondered if all hose things were the best things to have or if it was better
to have words and stories. Miss Wilcox had books but no family.
Minnie had a family now, but those babies would keep her from reading for a good
long time. Some people, like my aunt Josie and Alvah Dunning the hermit,
had neither love nor books. Nobody I knew had both.

Here's another long one, but I couldn't see what to leave out. Pages 273-274.

As I quickly patted my hair back into place, it hit me: Emily
Dickinson was a damned sneaky genius.
Holing up in her father's house, never marrying, becoming a recluse -- that
had sounded like giving up to me, but the more I thought about it, the more it
seemed she fought by not fighting. And knowing her poems as I do, I would
not put such underhanded behavior past her. Oh, maybe she was lonely at
times, and cowed by her pa,but I bet at midnight, when the lights were out and
her father was asleep, she went sliding down the banister and swinging from the
chandelier. I bet she was just dizzy with freedom.

Yet another long one, pages 312 and 313.

If you harness two horses together and one is stronger, the weaker horse
gets buffeted and bruised. That's what being friends with Weaver was like.
A farmer can put an evener on his team's yoke to compensate for the weaker horse
by shifting some of the load to the stronger one. But you can't put an
evener on two people's hearts or their souls. I wished I could just up and
go to New York City. I wished I was as strong as Weaver was. I
wished I was as fearless.
But I was not.

I wish I were strong and fearless too.
Page 372.

Lucifer was a beautiful angel whom God chucked out of heaven for being
rebellious. He found himself banished to hell, but instead of being sorry
for angering God and trying to make amends, he set about agitating again.

This one actually has a very different meaning in the context of the story and is part of a longer paragraph, I am just using this particular passage for my own nefarious purpose ;)

Edge of Evil

Edge of Evil by JA Jance.

JA Jance is the author of the Beaumont series which I love and that is what led me to Ali Reynolds. Edge of Evil is the first book in the Ali Reynolds series. I give it 4 stars out of 5.
Ali is fired from her network news job and is disillusioned in her marriage. She heads home to Arizona where her childhood friend Reenie is missing - presumed dead. While dealing with the disapearance of her friend, the end of her marriage and being fired from her job her son starts a blog for her. The following quote is from Ali's blog in the book. Page 76

I'm under no illusions that my presence here will change anything, but
that's what friends do -- they come and they sit or they talk or they do nothing
or everything. Sometimes friends just are.

Third Degree

Third Degree by Greg Iles

The tension and suspense start right at the beginning with an adulterous wife and a husband being pushed over the edge. I'm not really sure why I didn't like this one better. Maybe because the more sympathetic character of the wife was an adulteress? But I couldn't manage to scrape up much sympathy for the cuckolded husband either. I suppose it's true that one never knows what one will do in any given situation until one is in that situation, still many of the characters actions seemed unlikely at best.
That all being said there were a few quotes I wanted to keep, the first on page 79. The italics are the authors own.

Once somebody begins to doubt your honesty, wiping away suspicion is almost
impossible. That's why people never survive public investigations.
Some of the mud always sticks, justified or not.

There is a lot more of this quote relating to the wife's guilt since after all, she is cheating on her husband. But what I thought this part was the most interesting because it pertains to any relationship of any type and also to those in the public eye, which of course is why rumours and gossip are so destructive.

The actual monologue from which this quote is taken begins on page 358, I am just going to save the ending from page 359.

And don't tell me it's all made right in the afterlife, because you know what?
The agony of one infant dying senselessly mocks all the golden trumpets of
heaven. I don't want to sit at the right hand of a God who can torture
children, or even one who sits by and allows them to be tortured. Free
will, my ass. I made no choice to die at thirty-seven. This one's on
God's account, Major. We look for meaning where there is none, because
we're too afraid to accept randomness. Well, I've accepted it.
Embraced it, even. And once you do that, the world just doesn't look the
same anymore."

I must've been depressed or upset about the course of my life the day I read that page because it really resounded with me.
The next one also really hit me. I have a difficult time letting people get close to me.

"I've always loved you, Warren! I just wanted you to really let me
in, to let me love you, and you couldn't. I dok't think it's your
fault. It's just...I think your father wanted to make you tough, and he
did such a good job that you can't be soft, you can't be vulnerable at
all. And when you armor yourself like that, there's no way love can gtet
in."
"Or out. Right?"
She nodded sadly.

That quote reminds me of one from Metallica's DVD 'Some kind of Monster'. James Hetfield is speaking.

"I'm afraid to get close to people because I don't know how to do it. I
don't know how you're supposed to do it."

Too much introspection and personal honesty today.

Little Saigon

Little Saigon by T. Jefferson Parker

I had a really difficult time getting into "Little Saigon" The main characters never really seemed real or believeable to me so I didn't much care what happened to them.

And I know it sounds superficial but I really hated 2 of the characters names. What adult male would allow himself to be called 'Benny' Once you reach adulthood its time to move on to 'Ben' or 'Bennet', which was the characters given name.

Also the name 'Chuck' every time I read it I saw Peppermint Patty talking to Charlie Brown, which is not the image you want when reading a thriller/mystery.

Only the last couple of chapters tying things together allowed 'Little Saigon' 3 stars instead of 2.

In spite of all this there were 2 worthwhile quotes, the first on page 248

And Frye knew that the last ten years of his life had been a slow retreat
from his family, his wife, his own future. When you ignore enough
problems, he thought, they become one problem. And the more you ignore it
the faster it grows until you end up sitting on a cold beach, wondering if the
one thing in your life you do well is going to kill you. More than
anything, you hate yourself for being afraid.
I want back in. I can try.

Very good introspection for Chuck, although it still takes him the rest of the book to start pulling himself together.
Now the next quote on page 375

He brought himself to the corner and waited, gun raised, stinking of death
and of a fear beyond death, wondering why things get funneled down to such
narrow, to such irrevocable moments. It was you choice, he
thought. You could be a thousand miles away if you wanted to be,
washing
your hands, forseeing reasonable futures, tending curable
wounds. The
simple awful truth is that somehow, this is where you
set out to end
up. Somethimes the best thing you can do is
the worst thing you can
imagine.

It made me think about all the small choices we make, or choices that we think are small, that end up having a huge impact on the rest of our lives. Each choice that we make is limiting the choices that we will have in the future. Once you realize that your choices in the past are leading you to what seems an unavoidable future, what do you do? Since we can't go back in time to change the choice of our past, our choices in the present are limited. So how do we change the future.

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher part 2

I'm already about 10 books behind on quotes that I want to save so I'm going to finish up the 'Turn Coat' quotes here really quick.



This first one is a long one, but I think it is all amazing. Pg's 82-83.

She blinked her eyes several times, but not fast enough to stop one
tear.
"You did a bad thing once," I said. "It doesn't make you a
monster."
Two more tears fell. "What if it does, Harry?"
I nodded. "Because if Morgan's right, and I'm just a ticking
timebomb, and I'm trying to rehabilitate you, you haven't got a chance
in hell. I get it."
She pressed her lips together, and it made her words sound stiff.
"Just before Mouse knocked me down, I wanted to...to do things to Morgan.
To his mind. To make him act differently. I was so angry,
and it felt right."
"Feeling something and acting on it are two different things."
She shook her head. "But who would want to do that, Harry? What
kind of monster would feel that?"
I slung the pack over one shoulder so that I could put my hands on either
side of her face and turn her eyes to mine. Her tears made them very
blue.
"The human kind. Molly, you are a good person. Don't let anyone
take that away from you. Not even yourself."

I think my Psychologist would like that one and this next one. Pg. 97

I had been scared. So scared. I was sixteen.
It was the same smell, and
that scent had the power to animate the corpses
of some of my darkest
memories and bring them lurching back into the front of my
thoughts.
Psychological necromancy.
"Brains," I moaned to myself, drawing the word
out.
If you can't stop the bad thoughts from coming to visit, at least you
can
make fun of them while they're hanging around.

Now on a rather different note, a quote from Lara. A seriously awesome badass.

A couple more pieces clicked into place. "Madeline," I said. "She
got to
this Aramis guy and coerced him into betraying
you."
"Yes," Lara hissed.
Barely suppressed, wholly inhuman rage filled her
level, controlled voice.
"When I catch up to her, I'm going to tear out
her entrails with my bare
hands." Which took care of my hormone problem. I shived. I'd seen Lara in
action. I could never decide if it had been one of the
most beautiful
terrifying things I'd ever seen, or it if was one of the most
terrifying
beautiful things I'd ever seen.

Gotta love this woman. Back to 'Turn Coat' and some fabulous insults. Pg. 284

"I am not some mortal scum you can command, mageling," Shagnasty
seethed. "No. You're immortal scum." "You blind, flesh-feeding worm," Shagnasty snarled. "Who are
you to speak to me so?" "The worm who's got what you need," I said. "Dusk. Keep the phone
handy." I hung up on him.

I was just going to save the first part of this, but the second half is just to good to miss, and it really is why I love this series apart from the humor. Pg. 297

The Gatekeeper muttered something to himself in a language I didn't understand
and shook his head. "I cannot decide," he said, "whether you are the most
magnificent liar I have ever encountered in my life-or if you truly are as
ignorant as you
appear."
I looked at him for a minute. Then I hooked my thumb up at my ridiculous head
bandage. "Dude". He burst out into a laugh that was as rich and deep as his
speaking voice, but...more, somehow. I'm not sure how to explain it. The sound
of that laugh was filled with a warmth and a purity that almost made the air
quiver around it, as if it had welled up from some untapped source of
concentrated, unrestrained
joy.
I think maybe it had been a while since Rashid had
laughed. "You," he said, barely able to speak through it. "Up in that tree. Covered with
mud."
I found myself grinning at him. "Yeah. I
remember."
He shook his head and actually wiped tears away from his good eye. It took him
anothr moment or two to compose himself, but when spoke, his living eye
sparkled, an echo of his laughter. "You've endured more than most young people,"
he said. "And tasted more triumph than most, as well. It is a very encouraging
sign that you can still laugh at yourself."

Page 307

I had to work hard to keep from twitching. The only thing worse than scary is smart and scary.

Page 312

"What can I say?" I asked, truning to face Lara. I smiled at her and bowed my
head without taking my eyes off her. It was a more enjoyable paranoia than I'd
observed for the Wardens, if no less wary. "I used to be a trusting, gentle
soul, but the rigors of the cruel world have made me cynical and cautious."

Page 389

The scary part was that I was standing in a relatively small, enclosed space
with nearly six hundred wizards of the White council, men and women with the
primordial powers of the universe at their beck and call-and for the most part,
only the Wardens among them had much experience in controlling violent magic in
combat conditions. It was like standing in an industrial propane plant with five
hundred chain-smoking pyromaniacs double-jonesing for a hit: it would only take
one dummy to kill us all, and we had four hundred and ninety-nine to spare.

Page 418, end of book

See, here's the thing. Morgan was right;you can't win
them all.
But that doesn't mean that you give up. Not ever. Morgan never said that part-he
was to busy living
it.
I closed the door behind me, while life went on.

Now I have to admit the book wasn't perfect. In the beginning there is reference to horrible headaches that that Harry has been having and his friends are concerned about, but this is never explained or resolved. Also I was never completely clear on why exactly the Shapeshifter got involved witht he whole thing, maybe I need to read the book again ;) And I am NOT happy with theway things were left with Thomas! I have a kernal of hope that it is just a deep undercover plan, but I am worried. Still though amazing book, amazing series, and the best part is the series isn't over yet. I have more Harry Dresden to look forward to.

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher

On Tuesday April 7, 2009 the new Jim Butcher book 'Turn Coat' came out. An event that I had been looking forward to for months, but I was also a teeny, tiny bit nervous, could book #11 in the Harry Dresden series possibly be as good as the others?

As luck would have it I had to work Tuesday morning so I asked G. to pick the book up for me and then bring it by so I could see it (obsessed? maybe) which he very kindly did. Nice, pretty, shiny book. 418 pages. So I get home from work and ready to start reading, unfortunately I didn't get to cuz I had to do the mommy thing first. Grrr, the sacrifices I make for my kids. Finally after a few hours I was able to start reading and I gotta say, you know your getting into something good when you find a quote as beautiful as this:

"Clouds of emotion were interspersed with the flickering campfire sparks of ideas. Heavy flowing streams of deep thought rolled slowly beneath blazing, dancing gems of joy. The muck of negative emotions clung to surfaces, staining them darker, while fragile bubbles of dreams floated blissfully toward kaleidoscope stars." pgs. 21-22

From that to:

"Try to imagine the stench of rotten meat. Imagine the languid, arrhythmic pulsing of a corpse filled with maggots. Imagine the scent of stale body odor mixed with mildew, the sound of nails screeching across a chalkboard, the taste of rotten milk, and the flavor of spoiled fruit.
Now imagine that your eyes can experience those things, all at once, in excruciating detail." pg 22

Here's another favorite.

"There are bad things in the world. There's no getting away from that. But that doesn't mean nothing can be done about them. You can't abandon life just because it's scary, and just because sometimes you get hurt." pg. 27

Dang, time to get ready for work. I'll have to come back to this later, there are still about 10 quotes I want to get down here.

Declaration

Declaration - noun - the act of declaring; announcement.

When I was in my early teenage years I used to write down all the quotes from books that I liked on post it notes and stick them on my closet. Then my family moved and I tore down all the quotes and threw them away, a decision I regret to this day.
A couple years ago I started saving all the quotes I liked from books and occasionally movies and keeping them in my computer, which worked pretty well, until my computer imploded and since not everything was backed up (yes, yes, I know better, no lecture please) I lost all my quotes from the last 2 years as well as several book lists and whole bunches of other stuff. Not a happy camper.
So now we are onto the third incarnation of me saving quotes, well I guess fourth because I also have a treasured notebook with quotes, which in theory will get transferred over here as well.

I chose the title of this, my blog for 2 reasons.

1.The 200 books part- I was keeping track of the books I read last year, but alas due to back problems and moving the count got off. I keep telling myself that I am going to go back through the 3 different lists and figure out just exactly how many books I read...right, thats gonna happen...but 200 I think is pretty close.

2.The etc part- I also am a lover of music and occasionally movies so I will be keeping track of those here as well.

So anyway, this will be my compilation of quotes and things that I like and my chance to ramle about all the books ect. that I love since everyone I know gets tired of listening to me. :)