The RIP V Challenge

It's here, it's here, it's here!!! The challenge I've been waiting for since...well, since this time last year. Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings has finally announced the start of the Fifth edition of his R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril (RIP) Challenge. And the first thing I want to say (besides yippee!!!) is: Just look at that graphic!

OK, down to business. The challenge runs from September 1st through October 31st, and as usual will offer several levels of participation. You can read all about that on the challenge announcement page here. Last year, I signed up for Peril the First (at least four books), and didn't have any trouble finishing. This year, my schedule is going to be a little hectic during the next couple of months, but I'm throwing caution to the winds and signing up at the Peril the First level once again. In fact, I'm hoping to combine that with one or two of the other "perils," but we'll just see how it goes (Carl has added a Peril on the Screen category this year, and it looks really tempting).

Now, about books. I've been giving a lot of thought to what I might read for this one. And since the challenge focuses on just about all my favorite genres (mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, supernatural), my list of possible reads is unbelievably (and ridiculously) long. But these are a few of the books I'm considering:

• The Dark Half or The Dead Zone. Stephen King (It's been over thirty years since I read anything by the King of horror.)
• Grave Sight. Charlaine Harris (The first book in the Harper Connelly mystery series. Everyone else has read something by Harris, and I'm beginning to feel left out.)
• The House Next Door. Anne Rivers Siddons (An early work by Siddons, and very different from her later books.)
• The Hunger. Whitley Strieber (I'm not usually a vampire fan, but I could make an exception for this one. Loved the movie.)
• Mr. Murder. Dean Koontz (Never read anything by Koontz, but several trusted recommenders have recommended this one.)
• The Prince of Mist. Carlos Ruiz Zafón (A spooky novel for young adults, by the author of Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game.)
• The Rapture. Liz Jensen (Mainly because I received an ARC of this one which I never got around to reading. Shame on me. Must do better.)
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Shirley Jackson (I've had this one on my TBR list for years now, and this would be the perfect excuse to get it read. Recommended by my cousin MLB.)
• Widdershins. Oliver Onions (First published in 1911, and one of the classic ghost story collections; includes the novella that is probably Onions' best-known work, The Beckoning Fair One.)

Or, I might ignore all those and just stick with Preston and Child – there are still quite a few of their Pendergast novels I haven't gotten to yet. And Diogenes P. is a really delicious villain – perfect for a little autumnal reading spree. Anyway, during the challenge I'll be updating my reading progress on my challenge blog here.

Now, I'm off to sign myself up for the challenge, and then do some blog-hopping to see what everyone else is thinking about reading.

Teaser Tuesdays: Juliet

Wow – last day of August. Can't believe this year is zipping by so fast. Fall is right around the corner; although that's hard to believe too, what with temperatures still in the 90s here in Northern Virginia.

So, here we have the last teaser of the month. This week my teaser lines come from Anne Fortier's debut novel Juliet. Since I'm just getting started on this one, I'm using the first lines from the book's Prologue. And this is Juliet speaking – one of the Juliets, anyway:

They say I died. My heart stopped, and I was not breathing – in the eyes of the world I was really dead. Some say for three minutes, some say four; personally, I am beginning to think death is mostly a matter of opinion. (p.3)

Hmmm. Sounds a little like something Anne Rice might have written. I'm hoping Julie isn't hanging out with the undead.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in a comment here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

I know I'm late getting this posted. Wish I had some really exciting excuse – just getting back from that week in Tuscany or something similar. Alas, the only excuse I have is that I stayed up way too late last night, reading – so I've been running on empty all day. Must try to mend my ways.

So, anyway, here's how things stand:

• Last week -
  
  Finished Think of a Number by John Verdon (review to come)
  Started All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost by Lan Samantha Chang (should finish this one up tonight or tomorrow)
  Made a start at posting brief reviews of some of the books I read earlier this year (The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, and Damaged by Alex Kava)
  
  
• This week -
  
  Besides the L.S. Chang book (see above), I'm going to try to get back to Anne Fortier's Juliet which I started earlier this month. Also hope to get a few more reviews finished and posted.
  
  
• In the wings -
  
  I'm thinking either Peter Robinson's new Inspector Banks novel, Bad Boy, or Julia Stuart's The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise, both of which I've had for a while and really need to do something about. Given my tendencies, I'll probably look at that bad boy first.
  

Booking Through Thursday: Giving Up

This week, the BTT question is about perseverance: "If you’re not enjoying a book, will you stop mid-way? Or do you push through to the end? What makes you decide to stop?"

Interesting questions. There was a time, not too long ago, when I would have simply said "Life is too short to read books I'm not enjoying." Well, life is still short, but these days, what with ARCs and reading challenges, sometimes I will try to finish up a book that isn't really turning out to be my cuppa. This doesn't happen too often because I'm pretty careful about choosing my books. And as to what makes me decide to stop - well, that's a little hard to define and could be any number of things. But if a book isn't touching me emotionally or intellectually, then it's time to give it up.

And usually I'll know whether or not I like a book long before I'm midway through it. Usually. Sometimes there are exceptions, of course; but in general, I know after the first couple of chapters or the first few pages whether or not a book is for me. And if it's not, then yeah, I don't mind stopping and moving on to something else. Lots of books out there calling my name, you know?

Reading Report: The Forgotten Garden

Written by Kate Morton
Washington Square Press, 2010; 554 pages
Originally published by Allen & Unwin, 2008

Description from the publisher:

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book – a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell's death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit, I started this book with a lot of misgivings, not expecting to finish it. It's long (over 500 pages in the paperback edition), the story was improbable and formulaic, and none of the characters seemed particularly sympathetic. Morton makes rather liberal use of plot elements from Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's classic The Secret Garden, the sort of thing I usually don't approve of. And the writing in general is a mish-mash of styles, with bits of Charles Dickens here, Daphne Du Maurier there, and a little A.S. Byatt thrown in for good measure.

But even with all those things stacked against it, the book really won me over in the end. I wasn't even too bothered by the inclusion of all those fairy tales from the mysterious book at the center of the novel – the story-within-a-story device can be be boring and superfluous, but here it seemed a natural and necessary addition. I still think that most (though not all) of the characters were off-putting – some more than others. And I finally got very impatient with the way the plot jumped around among all the different settings and voices and time lines – at times, that made it difficult to figure out exactly where and when the action was taking place. But that seems to be pretty standard for novels these days. Whatever happened to just telling the story?

I'd give this one a very solid B, maybe even a B+. It gets strong marks for having an interesting older woman as one of the main characters, even though some of her behavior is a little questionable. It's wonderfully atmospheric with its hidden walled garden, mysterious maze, and frequent images from folk and fairy tales. And it kept me guessing and re-evaluating right up to the final chapter. And it's a book about a book – how could I not love that?

Reading Report: Damaged

Written by Alex Kava
Doubleday, 2010; 272 pages

This review refers to an uncorrected proof of the novel, furnished free of charge by the publisher.

Description from the publisher:

On Pensacola Beach, the Coast Guard prepares for a Category 5 hurricane that has entered the Gulf of Mexico. When the air crew patrols the waterways, they spot a huge fishing cooler about a mile offshore. Drug traffickers have been known to dump coolers with smuggled product to avoid detection and pay fishermen to retrieve them. But when the crew open this cooler, they’re shocked by what they find: body parts tightly wrapped in plastic.

Though she is putting herself in the projected path of the hurricane, Special Agent Maggie O’Dell is sent to investigate. Eventually, she’s able to trace the torso in the cooler back to a man who mysteriously disappeared weeks earlier after a hurricane hit Port St. Lucie, Florida. Only Port St. Lucie is on the Atlantic side. How did his body end up six hundred miles away in the Gulf of Mexico?

My Thoughts:

Overall, I enjoyed Damaged. Not quite as suspenseful as I had hoped – you sort of know from the beginning how the whole thing is going to tie up at the end. But Alex Kava is great at leaving you with just that teensy bit of doubt – just enough to keep you reading to see if your guesses are correct. She keeps the action rolling, too, peoples the book with an appealing cast of colorful characters, and pares it all down to the fine essentials without a lot of unnecessary filler. And although the subject matter can be a little gruesome (severed limbs, body parts brokers, shenanigans in the mortuary, etc.), the forensic details are fascinating. Maybe not for everyone, but if you're not squeamish about such things, it's actually a fun read.

This is Alex Kava's eighth whodunit featuring FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell, but my first. As usual, I've jumped right into the middle of a series, and I think that probably influenced my reaction just a bit. Some of the relationships that have been established in the earlier books were a little puzzling to me as I read this one. But that didn't keep me from enjoying the book. I liked Maggie O'Dell and definitely want to get to know her better.

Note: I received an advance uncorrected proof of this book from the publisher, free of charge. No other compensation was received, and no one tried to influence my opinion of the book.

Teaser Tuesdays: Remarkable Creatures

This week my teaser lines come from Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures. It's one of the books I picked up on my last library visit. You know – one of those trips when I was just supposed to be returning books and not even glancing at the "new books" shelf. But of course, I ended up bringing several home with me anyway.

I've just opened this one, so I'm not sure who's speaking here, or who she/he is speaking about, but the quote is from page 26:

At that time turbans had not yet arrived in Lyme - though I can report now that Margaret pushed the fashion onto Lyme's women, and within a few years, turbans were a common sight up and down Broad Street. I am not sure they complement empire-line gowns as well as other hats, and I believe some laughed behind their hands at the sight, but isn't fashion meant to entertain?

Well, of course it is! How else would you explain Five-Finger Shoes?



Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your blog post in a comment here.