Hell's Corner, by Baldacci
I think I've caught up with this series.
They're good, and tension-filled. A group of people with varying skills and backgrounds banding together to solve mysteries and crimes. I like how they collect new characters in each book, and they all come in to help in their certain areas of expertise.
Rascal, by North
This is a true story of a boy who raised a baby raccoon.
It was a good book.
But I can't help thinking of what it did in Japan. See, at the end of the book, he releases the raccoon into the woods. And apparently there's an anime of this book, which was really popular. It started a craze for pet raccoons. They are very bad pets, except when they're cute babies. So course everyone wanted to release them when they grew up, as happened in the book. So now American raccoons are wild and invasive in Japan.
Don't ever release pets. ESPECIALLY when they're not native to your area.
Sorry. Rant. Continuing on.
X-Men, by Claremont
I think I posted about a couple of these in my last book update. But I read the last one (at least the last one I have). The novelization of X-Men 3. My least favorite of the first three movies. But my favorite of the books. It was the best written. And while the movie tried to cram far too much into it, the book expanded on all those points and did the characters more justice.
They told you what Nightcrawler was up to.
Plus they mentioned Kitty's dragon Lockheed!
Rest In Pieces (and other Sneaky Pie books), by Brown
I've been listening to these audio book during my commute. They're fun! It's a mystery series, where the dog and cat help to solve the mysteries.
The biggest annoyance I have is this. They live in a small town. Small enough that everyone knows each other. And yet there's a different murder every few months. And everyone commiserates about how awful it is that this stuff is happening in their town. I live in a very populated area. I don't know anyone who's been murdered. Let alone someone every year (and it doesn't sound like she has the kind of community where murders would be common).
And there was one scene that drove my crazy. Harry, the main character, offered to help catch a potential murderer. And after antagonizing that person, Harry walks off on her own with no protection. And of course almost gets killed. Since she's friends with the police, they let her help investigate some things, but that was horrible of them to not keep her safe when they knew what she was doing. (And then a few books later, they try to talk her out of helping with investigations, and give no reason for it, when they had no problem letting her help before XD)
Okay, that's the end of my rant. I do enjoy the series. I plan to keep reading it.
Before Tomorrowland, Jensen, Case, Bird, Lindelof
I loved the concept of the movie. So I thought I'd try this book too. It was interesting to see some of the background to the world.
Total Control, Baldacci
This writer is good at suspense. But I'm stunned that the main lady didn't get into a lot more trouble at the end @_@
Searching for Bobby Fisher, Waitzkin
Wow, nothing at all like the movie. But the book is a true story about a little boy who's a genius at chess.
And a fascinating insight into Russia, which I did not expect when I picked up this book about chess. Yes, Russia is big on chess, but that's not was surprised me. When they went to play in Russia, it's like going to war. The government forces players to lose if they're not of the right race. They refuse to let good players leave the country. They're full of corrupt and frightening people and incidents. All about a freaking board game! I feel so bad for the people who are stuck in countries like that. Where you can fear for your welfare, and that of your family, because of a board game.
Still Foolin Em, Crystal
I stumbled across this by accident, so I decided to listen to the book on tape. It started off really weird, but it got a lot better after the beginning. I've only seen some of his movies, but it was fun to learn more about them.
No mention at all of Howl's Moving Castle though. TT^TT
Secretariat, Nack
It's written like a textbook, but the story of Secretariat is amazing for anyone who loves horses.
Spindle's End, McKinley
The best fantasy book I've read in a long time.
Though the author jumps back and forth with the timeline, which is confusing. And the "final battle" gets all vague and magical, so it's hard to really comprehend what's going on. I guess that was kind of the point, but it still left me feeling lost.
I Robot, Asimov
A collection of short stories from one of the classic sci-fi writers.
Many of them centered on these two poor guys whose job it is to go around and check on robots in different remote parts of the solar system. These guys can't get a break!
The Wright Brothers, McCullough
It was fascinating to learn about the Wright brothers. It was well-written and well researched.
The Perfect Horse, Letts
Another true story. This time of horses in World War II.
The Nazis wanted to start their own super-race of humans. And also of horses. So they stole some of the best horses in Europe - the amazing performing Lipizzaners and fine-bred Arabians. But when the Nazis were driven into the corner at the end of the war, all of these amazing horses were at risk of being killed. So this is the story of their capture and rescue.
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