e_phemerart's place

72) McDermid, Val. THE GRAVE TATTOO. St. Martin's Minotaur, 2007.

by and large, mysteries aren't my favorite genre, but this one caught my interest first with the tattoo referencing title, and then with a literary/bookish plot.

from jacket blurb: when summer rains uncover a bizarrely tattooed body on a Lake District hillside, long-discarded old wives' tales take on a chilling new plausibility. For centuries, Lakelanders have whispered that Fletcher Christian staged the massacre on Pitcairn so that he could return home. And there he told his story to an old friend and schoolmate, William Wordsworth, who turned it into a long narrative poem - a poem that remained hidden lest it expose Wordsworth to the gallows for harboring a fugitive." "Wordsworth specialist Jane Gresham, herself a native of the Lake District, feels compelled to discover once and for all whether the Wordsworth manuscript ever existed - and whether it still exists today. But as she pursues each new lead, death follows hard on her heels. Suddenly Jane is at the heart of a two-hundred-year-old mystery that still has the power to put lives on the line.

cake notes: this past weekend, I made two different cakes.

I baked an avocado/greek yogurt not-quite-cheesecake with granola crust for a picnic on Saturday. It was "healthy", light, and edible,and got completely eaten up at the event, but I think I need to to tweak and finetune the recipe if I do it again. Think I could get the texture a little creamier (like the avocado smoothies I enjoy).

I also baked a triple layer marbled mocha tiramisu cake to take to Hannah's on Sunday. No pretensions of healthy with this one, lots of sugar and cream, but it was yummy. That recipe is definitely a keeper, even if B said I ruined a perfectly good cake with coffee flavors. :)

kitty notes: have been enjoying having the new kitten at home, even if she did crap twice on my side of the bed (which B finds funny). Have named her Josette (Jo and her coat of many colors). She has a squeakly little meow, but purrs LOUDLY (actually, I kind of like it, reminds me of the buzz of tattoo needles)

70)Carlson, Stacy. AMONG THE WONDERFUL. Hanover, NH : Steerforth Press, c2011.

Set against the outlandish arrival of showman P.T. Barnum in 1840s Manhattan, Carlson's bighearted debut follows two employees of Barnum's American Museum-a giantess, Ana Swift, eight feet tall and resigned to being a spectacle, and Emile Guillaudeu, a taxidermist who has worked at the museum since long before Barnum's arrival. As each ventures beyond their comfort zones, they find a larger physical and emotional world waiting to challenge them.

68)Wolff, Naomi, A VINTAGE AFFAIR. Bantam: 2010.

Enjoyed it for what it was, light summer reading in the chick-lit genre. Of course, I liked the setting of the London vintage clothing shop, and how the clothes were part of the story. Liked the description of 50's era prom dresses as "cupcake dresses". Identified with the spunky female characters, but wasn't quite sure which of the male romantic interests the reader was really supposed to root for? I suppose it was a successful enough novel, as I was left with the desire to go shopping with a good girlfriend. :)

65)Hale, Benjamin. EVOLUTION OF BRUNO LITTLEMORE. Twelve: 2011.
"Twelve" is a small publishing company that publishes one "important" book a month. http://www.twelvebooks.com/about/about.asp This one was about humanity through the memoir of a chimpanzee; meh, wouldn't make my top 12 list for the year.

66)Russell, Mary Doria. DOC. Random House: 2011.
Western historical fiction about "Doc" Holliday; I enjoyed this one.


Spent all of Sunday with my nose in one book or another. Was feeling depressed (no reason just depressed) and just decided to "live someone else's life" for a while. B. said that is what actors as well as readers do sometimes as well. I appreciated that he just "let me be" in my mood but also was comforted that he was around.

Got in an 11 mile run on Saturday, but didn't go out of the house at all on Sunday.

Friday evening we had a quiet evening watching ALL THAT JAZZ on DVD; it's one of B's favorite movies. Saturday, we went out to be social and had a nice time. wasn't a bad weekend, I was just off kilter on Sunday.

57)Marr, Mellissa. GRAVEMINDER. Wm. Morrow: 2011.
Amazon: The New York Times bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series delivers her first novel for adults, a story about the living, the dead, and a curse that binds them.
Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."Now Maylene is dead and Bek must go back to the place--and the man--she left a decade ago. But what she soon discovers is that Maylene was murdered and that there was good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in placid Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected. Beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D--a place from which the dead will return if their graves are not properly minded. Only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk.


58)Kellerman, Jesse. TROUBLE. Putnam: 2007.
Publisher's Weekly: Kellerman, the son of bestsellers Faye and Jonathan Kellerman, shows that his impressive debut, Sunstroke, was no fluke with this gripping psychological page-turner that echoes the best of Hitchcock. Jonah Stem, a young medical resident at St. Agatha's, a midtown Manhattan teaching hospital, heroically intervenes when he encounters an attractive woman desperately fleeing a knife-wielding assailant early one morning on a street near Times Square. After Stem kills the man in self-defense, he enjoys a brief celebrity, but his life soon becomes complicated when the woman he rescued, Eve Gones, seeks him out and the two begin a frenzied affair. Taken aback by Gones's masochism, Stem attempts to end the relationship, but soon finds himself stalked relentlessly. Kellerman artfully conveys Stem's descent into near madness, making the step-by-step degradation of a decent man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time plausible and chilling.

59)Von Hof, John. FIXING YOUR FEET: Preventions and Treatments for Athletes. 5th ed. Wilderness Press: 2011.
Foot pain and injuries can thwart even the most experienced athletes. Foot expert John Vonhof discredits the conventional wisdom of "no pain, no gain," teaching instead how the interplay of anatomy, biomechanics, and footwear can lead to happy or hurting feet. With a focus on individual and team care, this fifth edition covers everything that an active person needs for immediate and long-term foot care solutions. Vonhof's advice comes not only from his own experience but also from many foot experts and endurance athletes. He offers numerous solutions for each problem, as there is no one best solution — different treatments work for different feet. This comprehensive resource covers footwear basics, prevention, and treatments along with clear diagrams, photos, and charts that demonstrate techniques and solutions. If it can happen to a foot, it's covered in this book.

60) Massey, Sujata. FLOATING GIRL. Avon: 2001.
from Booklist:The fourth entry in Massey's series starring Rei Shimura, a Japanese American antiques dealer living in Tokyo, maintains the high standards of its predecessors. This novel explores the Japanese fascination with animation, or manga. In her new position with a Japanese magazine for foreigners, Rei writes about antiques--until the boss assigns her a story on manga. As Rei enters the secretive world of manga, where people dress up as their favorite characters, a man she talks to is murdered. One of the manga artists, who may hold the answers, is missing. With her wry humor and her multicultural background, Rei is one of the most complex female protagonists around. She is Japanese, but she is also an American living in Japan, and this dichotomy gives her observations on Japanese culture a fascinating double edge. Another must-read from an author who has honed the skill of captivating and educating her readers at the same time.

Yay...and when I got back to the library this morning, there was a zombie novel, WARM BODIES, on the new book shelf that I scooped up!

53) Burke, Jan. THE MESSENGER. Simon & Schuster: 2009

Publisher's Weekly rview: In this outstanding supernatural thriller from bestseller Burke, her first venture into paranormal territory, Tyler Hawthorne, a British officer wounded at Waterloo, receives a memento mori ring on the battlefield from "Messenger" Lucien Adrian deVille, Lord Varre. The ring grants the wearer immortality, but in exchange Tyler must forever comfort the dying. Tyler also gets Shade, a black cemetery dog, for protection. In the present, a salvage diver uncovers Adrian's remains in a ship sunk in the Caribbean in 1815. A resurrected Adrian uses the diver to help locate Tyler in Los Angeles, where Tyler is attending to a leukemia patient. Tyler, an ageless 24, has also fallen for wealthy Amanda Clarke, who's haunted by family members killed in an accident that she survived. Mutual attraction and a dedication to do good unite the pair against the evil Adrian. Shade lends a distinctive Dean Koontzian flavor to the action, while Charlaine Harris fans will appreciate Amanda's ghostly abilities.

Not quite as good as I had hoped, but at least an adult thriller not a YA romance, and somewhat different from the glut of other paranormal series fiction out there.

49) Peters, Julie Anne. BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS I'LL BE DEAD. Hyperion: 2010

YA novel. Daelyn Rice has been bullied her entire life, whether it was for her past weight problem or because she currently does not talk. She has previously attempted suicide several times and now discovers a Web site called Through-the-Light, which is for suicide "completers." The members share stories of bullying, molestation, etc., and encourage each other's ultimate goal. Meanwhile, Daelyn meets a boy named Santana. She wants nothing to do with him; his presence and determination to draw her out of her shell only annoy her. Over time, however, she finds herself drawn to him. Will their connection be enough for Daelyn to change her plans?

46) Holly Black, ed. WELCOME TO BORDERTOWN. Random House Young Readers: 2011.

hell yeah. :)

"This is punk-rock, DIY fantasy, full of harsh reality and incandescent magic...a masterful anthology." (Kirkus reviews)

Bordertown: a city on the border between our human world and the elfin realm. Runaway teens come from both sides of the border to find adventure, to find themselves. Elves play in rock bands and race down the street on spell-powered motorbikes. Human kids recreate themselves in the squats and clubs and artists' studios of Soho. Terri Windling's original Bordertown series was the forerunner of today's urban fantasy, introducing authors that included Charles de Lint, Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, and Ellen Kushner. In this volume of all-new work (including a 15-page graphic story), the original writers are now joined by the generation that grew up dreaming of Bordertown, including acclaimed authors Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Catherynne M. Valente, and many more. They all meet here on the streets of Bordertown in more than twenty new interconnected songs, poems, and stories. It’s easy to be transported by each entry’s rich details and compelling characters, but this page-turner’s biggest success is in how veteran authors simultaneously address the themes through traditional fantasy tropes and current reality." (amazon)

44) Aronne, Louis, MD. THE SKINNY: On Losing Weight Without Being Hungry.
Broadway Books:2009.

Think this high protein-low GL diet guide was a nutritional re-read for me. Reasonable information though, so a reminder was not time "waisted".

38) Ackroyd, Peter. CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN. talese; 2008.

39) Benjamin, Melanie. ALICE HAVE I BEEN. Delacorte: 2009

40)Oppegaard, David. SUICIDE COLLECTORS. St. Martins: 2008.

rats. B's computer is running too slow for me to search for the bib info or post easily. These were all decent literary novels though.