"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.