"Wicked Prey"

"Wicked Prey" by John Sandford

Pg.169

The Women in Lucas's life reduced him to a chattering-chipmunk state about
once a month. If not Letty, then Weather; if not Weather, then Jennifer
Carey, mother of his other daughter; if not Carey, then Elle Kruger, a mun
and lifelong friend; if not her, then Carol, his secretary. They were, he
sometimes thought, when he had time to think about it, all crazier than a barrel
of hair. All of them together, and also taken as individuals. But
this, he thought, took the everlasting triple-decker chocolate-fudge cake.

:) 5 *'s

Summer Knight

"Summer Knight" by Jim Butcher is Book Four of the Dresden Files, quite possibly the best fantasy/mystery series ever written. It starts with a rain of toads and continues on with White Council Wizards, ex-girlfriend wizard, werewolves, Faery Queens (summer and winter) Hellhounds, Faery Godmothers, as well as assassins both mortal and otherwise.
Obviously I give it 5 stars.

On page 26 we get an official introduction to our first Faery Queen.

The woman ran an opalescent fingernail through the blood on my desk. She
lifted it to her lips and idly touched it to her tongue. She smiled,
slower, more sensual, and every bit as alien. "I have many names," she
murmured. "But you may call me Mab. Queen of Air and Darkness.
Monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe."

Incidentally they hate being called Faery Queens so you should probably avoid that.

Page 76.

She'd just been toying with me in my office, and I'd fallen for it. I
wanted to kick myself. Somewhere out there was a village I'd deprived of
its idiot.

Page 81.
I slammed the doors open a little harder than I needed to, stalked out to the Blue Beetle, and drove away with all the raging power the ancient four-cylinder engine could muster. Behold the angry wizard puttputtputting away.

158-159
Billy pursed his lips thoughtfully. "So you're taking us into a maze of lightless, rotting, precarious tunnels full of evil faeries and monsters."
I nodded. "Maybe leftover radiation, too."
"God, you're a fun guy, Harry."

And page 207.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I reflected that odds were that not a lot
of clandestine meetings involving mystical assassination, theft of arcane power,
and the balance of power in the realms of the supernatural had taken place in a
Wal-Mart Super Center. But then again, maybe they had. Hell, for all
I knew, the Mole Men used the changing rooms as a place to discuss plans for
world domination with the Psychic Jellyfish from Planet X and the Disembodied
Brains-in-a-jar from the Klaatuu Nebula. I know I wouldn't have looked for
them there.

If you think about it, evil aliens at Wal-Mart would actually explain a lot...

Grave Peril

I am forever grateful to Rebecca for getting me started reading the Harry Dresden series. Grave Peril is the third in the series and while the first two books are alright it is with "Grave Peril" that Jim Butcher really hit his stride. In fact Rebecca had me read the 3rd book first and after loving it I went back and read the first two, but really you could just read a summery of "Storm Front" and "Fool Moon" and call it good...although Fool Moon does have some good parts.

I sometimes think that I get more Spiritual Education from Harry Dresden through Michael Carpenter (who is a Knight of the Cross) and Father Forthill than I do from going to Church. Perhaps because over the years while I have had some very positive experiences with church I have also had some very painful and negative ones. In addition to that the ongoing pain of my Mothers death is all tied up with my feelings about attending church. Whereas while reading Harry Dresden I get all of the benefit without any of the emotional baggage. And I really like and admire Michael which is not something I can say about just anyone. Yes I do realize he is a fictional character, but he happens to be an honest, intelligent, humble, worthwhile, humerus, respectful, tough, caring, stalwart, fictional character. And he doesn't come across as preachy .

First quote page 38.

"Holy shit," I breathed. "Hellhounds."
"Harry," Michael said sternly. "You know I hate it when you
swear."
"You're right. Sorry. Holy shit," I breathed,
"heckhounds. Godmother's out hunting. How the hell did she find us
so damned fast?"

Page 50.

Michael half-smiled "The Lord will never give you a burden bigger than your
shoulders can bear, Harry. All we can do is face what comes and have
faith."
I gave him a sour glance. "I need to get myself some bigger
shoulders, then. Someone in accounting must have made a mistake."
Michael let out a rough, warm laugh, and shook his head, then lay back on
the bench, crossing his arms beneath his head. "We did what was
right. Isn't that enough?"

I should mention the previous bit of conversation takes place in a jail cell :)
Next quote page 53.

I watched the two of them for a moment, walking in step beside one another,
while I stood there alone. Then I stuck my hands into my pockets, and
turned away. I hadn't ever noticed, before, how well the tow of them
matched one another - Michael with his quiet strength and unfailing reliability,
and Charity with her blazing passion and unshakable loyalty to her
husband.
The Married thing. Sometimes I look at it and feel like someone from
a Dickens novel, standing outside in the cold and staring in at Christmas
dinner. Relationships hadn't ever really worked for me. I think it's
had something to do with all the demons, ghosts, and human sacrifice.

Page 72.

The sun came up as we entered the parking lot. I felt the golden rays
slice across the morning skies, the sudden, subtle shift of forces playing about
the world. Dawn is significant, magically speaking. It is a time of
new beginnings. Magic isn't as simple as good and evil, light and dark,
but there's a lot of correlations between the powers particular to night and the use of black
magic.

Page 162.

A second later, the door opened, and Michael stood there, blinking sleep out of
his eyes. He wore a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with John 3:16 across his
chest. He held one of his kids in his brawny arms, one I hadn't seen yet -
maybe a year old, with a patch of curly, golden hair, her face pressed against
her daddy's chest as she slept.

John 3:16 reads "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Page 210 part A

I squinted our the window of the truck, silent. I don't have anything
against God. Far from it. But I don't understand Him. And I
don't trust a lot of the people that go around claiming that they're working in
His best interests. Faeries and vampires and whatnot - those I can
fathom. Even demons. Sometimes, even the Fallen. I can
understand why they do what they do.
But I don't understand God. I don't understand how he could see the
way people treat one another, and not chalk up the whole human race as a bad
idea.
I guess he's just bigger about it than I would be.

Something I have thought about myself quite alot, only Jim Butcher phrases it much better than I ever could.
Page 210 part B.

"Lord," Michael said. "We walk into darkness now. Our
enemies will surround us. Please help to make us strong enough to do what
needs to be done. Amen."
Just that. No fancy language, no flashy beseeching the Almighty for
aid. Just quiet words about what he wanted to get done, and a request that
God would be on his side - on our side. Simple words, and yet power
surrounded him like a cloud of fine mist, prickling along my arms and my
neck. Faith. I calmed down a little. We had a lot going for
us. We could do this.
Michael looked up at me and nodded. "All right," he said. "I'm
ready."

See what I mean about Spiritual Education?

U is for Undertow

After having read "T is for Tresspas" I was worried that Sue Grafton had lost her magic touch, I just didn't like it.
Happily with "U is for Undertow" the magic is back. Although it was slightly confusing to go back and forth between not only different characters perspectives, but also different time periods, I enjoyed the book immensely and give it 41/2 stars.
Kinsey is pulled into investigating a two decades old crime by Michael Sutton, a 27 year old college drop-out with a multitude of issues who believes he has remembered evidence that he witnessed as a child from an abduction in his neighborhood.
Whenever I read a book I end up with little scraps of paper tucked between the pages making either things/words I want to look up or quotes that I want to remember. What is interesting about this first quote is that I read this book about a month ago and liked it, but now that I am finally getting around to typing it up I find it has more significance in my life now than it did when I first marked it.
Page 215

"I can undersand how you feel," I said. "It's not about
vengence. It's about balance, the sense that good and evil are in a state
of equilibrium."

There is more to the paragraph but that is the part that is stricking a chord with me right now.

This next one is long, but I can't see how to shorten it, so here
goes. Page 225
It's our nature to condense and collate, bundling related elements for ease
of storage in the back of our brains. Since we lack the capacity to
capture every detail, we cull what we can, blocking the bits we don't like
and
admitting those that match our notions of what's going on. While
efficient, the practice leaves us vulnerable to blind spots. Under
stress,
memory becomes even less reliable. Over time we sort and
discard what
seems irrelevant to make room for additional incoming
data. In the end,
it's a wonder we remember anything at all.
What we manage to preserve is
subject to misinterpretation. An event
might appear to be generated by the
one before it, when the order is
actually coincidental. Two occurrences
may be linked even when widely
separated by time and place.

Interestingly I went to a RS activity/class/thing where Dr. R spoke and he said something about how we are constantly changing our own past and remembering our personal history differently.

Walking Shadow

"Walking Shadow" by Robert B. Parker, a Spenser Novel. 4 *'s. I love a book in which I have to stop and look things up.

Page 22

"What you going to do?" Hawk said.
"Susan and I are going to a reception and board meeting at the
theater," I said.
"What could be better," Hawk said.
"How about getting whacked in the nose with a brick?" I said.
"Well, yeah," Hawk said. "That would be better."

Page 23

"Remember where we are," Susan said. "I could have you both arrested
for sexual harassment."
"I counter with the charge of racial insensitivity," Hawk said.
"Yes," Susan said. "That would be appropriate. Then we
join forces against our common oppressor."
They both turned and gazed at me.
"The white guy," I said.

Sudden Mischief

"Sudden Mischief" A Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker in which Susan asks Spenser to help her ex-husband by investigating the sexual harassment claims by four women made against him. Of course it ends up more complicated than that. 4*'s
Page 5

"I always assumed it would bother you," she said.
"I'm entirely fascinated with you," I said. "And what you are
is a result of what you were, including the other men."

Page 22

"The ability to understand doesn't automatically confer the ability to change."

Page 198

"This is the most excitement I had since that lemon scone," Hawk said.

Page 205

"That's something."
"I'm not sure it's worth dying for," I said.
"Most things aren't," Hawk said. "Why we don't do it more
often."
"Yeah, well, let's try not to do it this time," I said.

Page 212

"You said I was the finest man you ever knew. Probably am. Most
of humanity isn't all that goddamned fine to begin with. I am
flawed. You are flawed. But we are not flawed beyond the allowable
limit. And our affection for each other is not flawed at all."
She had
stipped looking at the distance and was looking, for the first time, at
me.
"And every day I have loved you," I said, "has been a
privilege."

Page 296

"If I shot everybody I wanted to," I said, "I'd go broke buying
ammunition."

"Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Last month I made it to book club even though I hadn't quite finished the book. This month I finished the book, but didn't quite make it to book club. Maybe next month I'll manage to finish the book on time and make it to book club, wouldn't that be something.
The book was "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston" first published in 1937.
To oversimplify it is the story of Janie Crawford a Black woman in the south descended from slaves. The dialogue is written in a very thick, strong accent and was a little difficult to get into, but well worth it.
Janies Grandmother raised her and married her off young to a rich man to protect her and take care of her.
The first quote is about 3 months after the marriage, all of chapter 3 (about 3 pages) is really good, however I'm just quoting the end of page 25

The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and
looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not
make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman.

To get the full effect of this next one you really need to read all of page 71 and 72, I am just quoting the middle of 72.

She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him,
and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up
and put away in parts of her heart where he could never find them. She was
saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and
an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.

On with the trend you really should read pages 89 and 90, I am quoting just part of page 90.

When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and
glittered all over. Then after that some angels got jealous and chopped
him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. So they
beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a
song. So they covered each one over with mud. And the lonesomeness
in the sparks make them hunt for one another, but the mud is deaf and
dumb. Like all the other tumbling mud-balls, Janie had tried to show her
shine.

Page 113

"No mo' than Ah took befo' and no mo' than anybody else takes when dey gits
married. It always changs folks, and sometimes it brings out dirt and
meanness dat even de person didn't know they had in'em theyselves. You
know dat. Maybe Tea Cake might turn out lak dat. Maybe not.
Anyhow Ah'm ready and willin' tuh try 'im."

Again for the full efffect you need page 144 and 145, I'm quoting the beginning of 145.

All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering
without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshippped. Through
indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine
emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom.
Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require
blood.

This quote is on page 191, but to really get it you need to read the book.

"Dey gointuh make 'miration 'cause mah love didn't work lak they love, if
dey ever had any. Then you must tell 'em dat love ain't somethin' lak uh
grindstone dat's de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it
touch. Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all,
it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every
shore."

Dead Watch by John Sandford

The first novels I read by John Sandford were his Prey mysteries featuring Lucas Davenport who I quickly developed a crush on. Next I read a spin off with Lucas making an appearance, but featuring Virgil Flowers. I may have a crush on him, but we'll have to wait for more books in the series to be sure. Now I've just finished reading "Dead Watch" a political thriller featuring Jacob Winter. I possibly could develop a crush o him. Jake is not a cop, unlike Davenport and Flowers, although he was in the military and was injured in Afghanistan causing a permanent limp. Jake is a 'fixer' similar to Davenport in the more recent Prey novels, but he goes about it as a political intellectual or as one of the other characters calls it "Forensic bureaucracy. When something goes wrong, I try to find out what really happened."

I give it 4 *'s and hope Sandford isn't giving up his writing career anytime soon as I want to hear more of all three of these protagonists.

Couple of quick quotes, first page 186.

Patterson smiled again: "The hat...I've never been questioned by a guy
wearing a Hello kitty hat. Kinda scary, in a chain-saw-massacre
way."

And on page 199.

"You're a little cynical," she said.
"I work in Washington."

I give it 4*'s and hope Sandford isn't planning to give up his writing career anytime soon as I want to read more of all three of his protagonists.

Pale Kings and Princes

"Pale Kings and Princes" is another good read by Robert B. Parker, which I guess sounds repetitive and not very imaginative, but it is also true. All of the Spenser novels are good reads. They are all enjoyable, smart and funny. Generally the ones with a large presence of Hawk are especially good, and though I like Susan alright, I don't tend to enjoy the ones where she has too much of a presence. Since Susan is a psychologist perhaps she can analize that for me ;)

This particular novel has Spenser hired by a newspaper to look into the death of one of its reporters who was killed while researching a story. The police in the town of Wheaton have written the murder off saying it was done by a jealous husband. Which is possible, but there is also a large cocaine presence in the town which is what Valdez was investigating. So, was he killed by the jealous husband? By the Cocaine interests? By the police who may be covering something up?

Since Spencer is a wise ass (with emphasis on the wise) there are several quotes I'd like to remember. The first from the newspaper owner/editor on page 3.

"Colombians have been dealing with cocaine since your ancestors were running
around Ireland with their bodies painted blue."

Part of the same conversation with newspaper man. Page 5

"Cynical Mr. Spenser."
"Old, Mr. Kingsley."
"Probably the same thing," Kingsley said.

Which does make you think, or makes me think anyway. . .

Page 251.

"You thinking hearts full of passion, jealousy, and hate?"
"Maybe," I said.
"Makes the world go round," Hawk said.
"Thats love," I said.
"Same thing," Hawk said.
"Not always," Susan said.

Interesting how our life experiences influence our definition of love.

"My Antonia"

I just finished reading "My Antonia" by Willa Cather for book group. Of course book group was last night and so I obviously wasn't finished reading in time, but I was able to follow the discussion pretty well, and was able to keep the book an extra day. I'm really glad I did, it was well worth it. Not an exciting or suspenseful book, but beautiful.

I really, really disliked Antonia's mother, which I think is just proof of how well the book was written that I believed in the characters that much and felt reproofed by Jim's Grandmother when he expresses dislike for Mrs. Shimerda and his Grandmother tells him something to the effect. "You never know what effect Poverty will have on a person"
It reminded me of a quote in the movie "Becoming Jane" when the her Father tells Jane. "Nothing destroys Spirit like Poverty.

Many excellent quotes although I think some of my markers fell out while I was reading. Oh well, I'll put in the ones I have and catch the rest the next time I read it.

First quote on page 14.

I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect
anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it,
like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was
entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of
something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any
rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and
great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.

Page 56, Christmas Morning, there is much more to this section, I must read the book again.

Grandfather came down, wearing a white shirt and his Sunday coat.
Morning
prayers were longer than usual. He read the chapters from
Saint Matthew
about the birth of Christ, and as we listened, it all seemed
like something that
had happened lately, and near at hand.

Page 72,

That afternoon Fuchs told me story after story: about the Black Tiger Mine,
and about violent deaths and casual buryings, and the queer fancies of dying
men. You never really knew a man, he said, until you saw him die.
Most men were game, and went without a grudge.

The thought of dying doesn't generally frighten me. I believe in an afterlife (most of the time) and I try to be a good person and live up to my own Moral Code. I am afraid of dying while my kids are young. Which I suppose isn't surprising since my own mother died just after I turned 9. While I was brushing my daughters hair last night after her shower and blowing it dry I realized she will be turning 8 this year and I was wondering how will I know what to teach her and how to raise her when my mother wasn't there for me? And if something what will she remember about me and who will be there for her?

Now on to something else, page 172.

Lena's face dimpled. "Some of us could tell her things, but it wouldn't do
any good. She'd always believe him. That's Antonia's failing, you
know; if she once likes people, she won't hear anything against them."

On page 173. I forgot sometimes while reading "My Antonia" that it was written by a woman because I found the male narrator so convincing.

When I closed my eyes I could hear them all laughing -- the Danish laundry
girls and the three Bohemian Marys. Lena had brought them all back to
me. It came over me, as it had never done before, the relation between
girls like those and the poetry of Virgil. If there were no girls like
them in the world, there would be no poetry. I understood that clearly,
for the first time. This revelation seemed to me inestimably
precious. I clung to it as if it might suddenly vanish.

Again with this quote I'm only saving the middle part to remember it by, but I love the entire section. Page 186.

"Well, it's mainly because I don't want a husband. Men are all right for
friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn into cranky old fathers, even
the wild ones. They begin to tell you what's sensible and what's foolish,
and want you to stick at home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I
feel like it, and be accountable to nobody."

Page 206, makes me wonder of Love isn't real after all, (not just this little paragraph, but his entire page) because how could somebody write this so beautifully if they hadn't felt it?

I told her I knew she would. "Do you know, Antonia, since I've been away,
I think of you more often than of anyone else in this part of the world.
I'd have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my
sister -- anything that a woman can be to a man. The idea of you is a part
of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of
times when I don't realize it. You really are a part of me."

Then again...these characters didn't marry eachother, so maybe thats the trick. Love is killed by marriage?

Early Autumn By Robert B. Parker

I have a messed up back and about once a year or so the "Powers that be" decide they need to remind me of that and I end up flat for a week or so. This happened once again earlier this month. Now on the plus side I at least didn't end up in the hospital this time, but I did end up stuck in bed in excruciating pain.
Now a week in bed may sound nice at first glace. Trust me, it isn't. Not only is there constant pain, but when I say "flat" I really mean "flat". For the first several days I couldn't even sit up enough to watch a movie or crochet and, since sitting is the most painful position, it meant no computer which meant no e-mail, facebook or blog. Not to mention missing a week at work and having to delegate care of the house and kids to my husband (ask any wife, this is never good). Thankfully however I could read and, not for the first time in my life, reading is all that kept me sane.

2 of the books that I read were Spencer novels by Robert B. Parker. The Spencer series has been going strong since sometime in the 1970's and I have enjoyed all of them that I have read.
Spenser is a private eye who used to be a cop and also used to be a boxer. He is a tough guy and good with a gun, but also reads poetry and is an excellent cook. The fact that he is a smart ass is a happy bonus.

"Potshot" was a solid book in series with Spenser rounding up Hawk and several other tough guys to find out who killed Steve Buckman and also clear out the Dell, home to the Preacher and his criminal element.
Interestingly even though I enjoyed the book and give it 4*'s I didn't have any quotes marked that I wanted to save, although sometimes the scraps of paper I use fall out so that may be what happened.

Anyway, the other Spenser novel I read at this time was "Early Autumn" also a solid entry in the Spenser series and another 4 *'s.
In "Early Autumn" Spenser gets involved in a custody dispute when the father kidnaps the son from the mother even though neither of them really wants the kid who is a teenage boy.
I should explain that while I have read many books in the series I haven't read them in order (which is incredibly unusual for me) so there was this recurring character, Paul, whose origin I didn't know, happily "Early Autumn" explains it.

Couple of quotes to remember, the first on page 12.

"At 120,000 miles my 1968 Chevy convertible had bought the farm. There's
just so much you can do with duct tape."

I don't know if the fact that I currently have duct tape on the exterior of my mini-van (which I hate with un-holy passion) makes this quote more or less funny...

Next one page 13 speaking of jogging.

"I'd done the same thing along the Charles three hours earlier and the wind
off the river had been hard as the Puritan God."

Page 139 answering a question from Paul.

I let some air out of my lungs. "Because they don't know any
better," I said " Because they don't knowlwhat they are, or how to find
out, or what a good person is, or how to find out. So they rely on
categories."

1602

My Boys are in a comic book book club (which is just cool), they met yesterday for the first time after reading "1602" written by Neil Gaiman and penciled by Andy Kubert. Being an involved parent (and loving comic books myself) I made them lend me the book to read myself. And I really enjoyed it.

"1602" is actually an 8 part comic book series about marvel superheros in the year 1602. One of the heros has gone back in time, or to an alternate time line. The others are born into that time. Alas there is no mention of Storm or Wolverine who have always been my favorite X-men, but there are lots of others including Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, DareDevil, Charles Xavier. It even has the Templars and Thor!
There is strange weather all over England and Europe that many. inclucing Queen Elizabeth, fear signals the end of the world. This being a superhero story, they may be correct.

There are several excellent quotes I'd like to remember, but since I was only borrowing the book and had to read it quickly and return it I only have 2 of them written down, nor do I have the page numbers, but fear not I plan to buy the book and read it again.

First quote

"If a devil is one who dares when others hesitate, then I am happy to play the
devil in this mystery boy."

And the next.

"Sir Richard had you been in the garden of eden, and forbidden to eat the fruit
of knowledge of good and evil, by the time the lord returned I swear you would
be advising him on the finest preserv'd fruit recipes.

Excellent read for any comic book fan. Ingenous use of names and orgins of the heros. 5 *'s.