A Quote for Dog Lovers

When they reached the car, it was shaking from Ilia's jumping and barking. She was trying to squeeze herself through the two-inch gap at the top of the window that Joy had left open for fresh air. There was nothing for it but to open the door and let her dive into Kubu's arms and do a complete lick and polish of his face. (from The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu by Michael Stanley)

I've totally lost track of the number of rotten days that have been magically transformed by coming home to my dog. Animals have an amazing way of putting things into perspective, don't they?

The Broken Shore by Peter Temple

Title: The Broken Shore
Author: Peter Temple
ISBN: 9781847240446, Quercus, 2007
Genre: Mystery, Police Procedural
Rating: A+

First Line: Cashin walked around the hill, into the wind from the sea.

Seriously injured in the line of duty in Melbourne, Joe Cashin returns to the coast of southern Australia where he grew up. There he enjoys being a small town cop while his body slowly heals.

An elderly local millionaire is bludgeoned to death, and the investigation turns up three aboriginal boys trying to pawn the victim's watch. An ambush is put in motion, two of the boys die, and the police close the case. They are satisfied that the killers have been brought to justice. Only Cashin feels that something's not quite right, and he goes about putting the pieces together on his own time.

The first half of this book is a subtly written character study of many layers and its own inexorable pace. There is humor. There is a puzzling back story. There is the casual violence of well-entrenched bigotry. There is a depiction of place so atmospheric you can taste the salt spray and hear the surf crashing on the rocks:

Even standing well back from the crumbling edge of the keyhole, the scene scared him, the huge sea, the grey-green water skeined with foam, sliding, falling, surging, full of little peaks and breaks, hollows and rolls, the sense of unimaginable power beneath the surface, terrible forces that could lift you up and suck you down and spin you and you would breathe in icy salt water, swallow it, choke, the power of the surge would push you through the gap in the cliff and then it would slam you against the pocked walls in the Kettle, slam you and slam you until your clothes were threads and you were just tenderised meat.

By the time Cashin has gathered the pieces of truth and is beginning to put them together, there is no way you can stop reading. It doesn't have a thing to do with the time you have invested in the book. It has everything to do with the strength of Temple's writing and the siren song of the story he has to tell. You are well and truly hooked, and even though you have guessed where the clues are pointing, and you dread the outcome of it all, you can't stop turning the pages until every last word is read and you're light-headed and slightly queasy and stunned by the power of The Broken Shore.

After I'd finished the last page, all I could do was sit there and let my breathing slow down...let the dizziness pass...think about what I'd read. I felt as though the Kettle had just spit me out.

This is the first book by Peter Temple that I've read. It won't be my last.

[Note: Temple does use a bit of Aussie slang in this book. I usually don't have a problem with this because I've read many a book that didn't cater to the American public. Even so, I did find a word or two that I couldn't figure out from its context. If you don't have friends who can help you out, you can always make use of the Internet and websites like the Australian Slang Dictionary or Australian Slang.]

What Type of Transportation Are You?

You Are A Train

You are a true romantic. You have big dreams about how life should be. You take life at a slow and steady pace. You try to appreciate every moment you have. You are a very visual person. You are always on the lookout for beauty and inspiration. You are able to relax and let go more than most people.

What Type of Transportation Are You?

On Movies-- Action Heroes

This week, the Bumbles would like to know which action heroes are our favorites. I have a soft spot for those big action flicks, and I just had to get together a list of the characters who've saved my bacon, whether it be with humor, smarts, stubbornness, super powers...or being the one hero no one would suspect.

Here's my list:



I grew up knowing that John Wayne could save my bacon any day of the week--with one hand tied behind his back. The photo is from probably the best Western of all time, The Searchers.








If you're in San Francisco and you're in trouble, your best bet is Harry Callahan.

Go ahead. Make his day. Callahan is probably the best action hero with his one-liners. You don't want a hero who's too busy yakking to kick some serious butt.







Want some high tech heroes? You couldn't get much better than Hiller and Levinson from Independence Day. One's got great strength and reflexes; the other has the smarts to think all of us out of trouble.






Sometimes you're in so much trouble that you gotta have a super guy with super powers and cool super toys. One of these days, my husband's going to take the Batcycle out for a spin, and I'm going to see how the Batmobile handles rush hour!







Harrison Ford is the only actor I can think of whose hero status is equal to or greater than John Wayne's. Just think of all the blockbusters in which he's saved the day!












Sometimes the bad guys are so bad that the only thing that can save you is the element of surprise. "I am no man!" Indeed!

(Miranda Otto, The Return of the King)



Got some alien butt that needs serious kicking? I know who I'm going to call-- Ripley!

"Get away from her, you bitch!"








If you'd like to see more favorite action heroes, click on the movie graphic at the top of this post to be taken to the hosts of this meme, the Bumbles!

Mailbox Monday-- Restraint? What Restraint?

Only 3 books were sent to new Paperback Swap foster homes this past week, while...er...um...the mail carrier lugged 18 to my mailbox and I just had to stop at Barnes & Noble and buy 3 more.

I'm blaming Denis for Barnes & Noble. If he hadn't bought me that netbook which led to me using his laptop desk which meant that he didn't have anything to put his laptop on, I never would've gotten the idea to go see a movie that was conveniently located almost on the doorstep of a B&N. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Of course I did buy the wrong Andrea Camilleri mystery the week before, and I just had to see if the right one was on the shelf in the bookstore....

And then I just couldn't stay away from a Bookcloseouts sale....

But I digress.

Here's my latest haul:

1. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves (PBS), the first Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope mystery set in East Yorkshire. I love Cleeves' Shetland Island Quartet books, and I've heard good things about Vera.
2. Unseen by Mari Jungstedt (BC), the first Inspector Anders Knutas mystery set on Gotland Island, Sweden.
3. Excursion to Tindari by Andrea Camilleri (B&N), an Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Sicily. I wasn't all that impressed with the first in the series, but I fell in love during book two.
4. The Smell of the Night by Andrea Camilleri (B&N). These books can be hard to come by in a used state, so I decided not to take any chances!
5. The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri (B&N). With the ones I was able to find on Paperback Swap, this means I know have all the books in the series that I haven't read yet. Bliss!
6. Tilt a Whirl by Chris Grabenstein (PBS), the first in the John Ceepak mystery series. I've heard nothing but good about this series. I'm glad PBS finally came through for me!
7. The Devil Is Dead by Roy Lewis (PBS), another in the Arnold Landon mystery series set in Northumberland, England that mixes murder with ancient architecture.
8. In the Wind by Barbara Fister (BC). I've gotten to know this author through a Yahoo mysteries group and couldn't resist getting a copy of one of her books.
9. The Writing Class by Jincy Willett (BC). Can a class of wannabe novelists solve a murder in their midst?
   
10. Stewball by Peter Bowen (BC). I almost had heart palpitations when I realized that I didn't have all the books in my beloved Gabriel Du Pre series!
11. Nails by Peter Bowen (BC). Now I have all the rest of Gabriel Du Pre to read, and I feel much calmer now!
12. The Companion by Ann Granger (BC). I've read other mysteries by Granger and enjoyed them, so I thought I'd give her first Lizzie Martin historical a try.
13. The Price of Darkness by Graham Hurley (BC), which completes my Detective Inspector Joe Faraday series set in Portsmouth, England.
14. What Never Happens by Anne Holt (BC), the next in line in the Vik and Stubo mystery series set in Norway.
15. A Darker Domain by Val McDermid (PBS), one of my absolute favorite mystery writers. If you haven't read any of her books, I'd suggest A Place of Execution. It's brilliant!
16. The Anglo Files, A Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall (PBS). I'm looking forward to seeing what this American writer for the New York Times has to say about living amongst the British.
17. The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson (PBS). Russian historical novels rank among my guilty pleasures...especially ones that speculate about any of the children of Nicholas and Alexandra who supposedly survived.
18. Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear (PBS), the latest in the Maisie Dobbs mystery series set in England during the 1930s. I love this series!
19. Who Cut the Cheese? A Cultural History of the Fart by Jim Dawson (PBS). I got this for someone else in the house, but I won't name names....
20. The Greenway by Jane Adams (PBS) is about a woman who returns to the area where her cousin disappeared as a child, only to have another child disappear. Has Cassie's return triggered this second disappearance?
21. Rules of Engagement by Bruce Alexander (PBS), the last of the excellent historical mystery series centered around blind Sir John Fielding of the Bow Street Court and his young assistant.

Th-th-that's all, folks-- and it's certainly enough, isn't it?!?

I'd like to send a big Thank You to Marcia of The Printed Page for hosting this meme. If you'd like to participate or if you'd just like to see what other people got in their mailboxes last week, click on that hungry-looking mailbox at the top of this post! See you next Monday!

Poll Results Are In!

For the past three weeks I asked you to choose up to three things that could make you run screaming from a blog. I'm pleased to say that 125 of you answered the call. Here's what you told me:

82 voted for "Music you can't turn off." That would've been one of my answers a few years back, but as it stands, I'm probably one of the few people who didn't vote for this. Why? When Denis first lived here, I was not aware of the extent of his hearing loss. We worked opposite shifts, and I got used to creep mousing around in order not to wake him up. I'd have a fit whenever I'd land on a website that had nonstop music because I was convinced that I'd just awakened my husband. I finally just turned the sound all the way down. To this day I only have the sound on when I want it to be on. If I didn't have this odd little quirk, I would have voted for this.

63 voted for "Too many things that Scroll, Flash, or Twinkle." Anyone who's been to the front page of Kittling: Books knows that I have nothing against scrolling. That also extends to flashing and twinkling...but they should all be used in moderation. If you've got all sorts of bits and bobs rolling up, rolling down, flashing on, flashing off, or twinkling away, it becomes very distracting. Readers don't know where to look first, and may even get headaches. I've been to blogs like this, and I've actually started getting headaches. Do you think I stuck around very long? I knew you all were smart! Excessive SFT (what I privately call "motion sick blogs") can also lead to the third largest complaint.

51 voted for "A long load time." If your blog takes a minute to load on a broadband connection, you might have fallen victim to excessive SFT and Widget Overload. I think most beginning bloggers are guilty of this. There are so many fantastic widgets and other goodies to put on your blog that it's easy to use too many and really slow down the loading time of your page. Most people aren't going to wait!

50 voted for "Lots of misspellings and grammatical errors." Don't let something this "fixable" chase people away from your blog. You want people to stick around and read what you have to say. Use spell check at least twice. I use Blogger's built-in spell checker, and when I'm done correcting with that, I click on preview and read the entire post slowly. Once in a while an error slips through, and if I see one that has, I edit that post. No...there's no ironclad rule that says you can't edit something you've written once it's been posted! That post is going to hang around on the Internet for a good long time, so it may as well do its hanging properly spelled and parsed.

39 voted for "Too much clutter!" This is something else that's easy to fall victim to. You want all your challenges to be Right There. You want all your cool widgets to be Right There. And you need Subscribe buttons and Archives buttons and Label buttons...and what about your awards??? Sit down and take a good long look at your blog's front page. Is a reader going to know where to look first?

38 voted for "Design colors that are either too dark or blindingly bright." Personally dark backgrounds and light text doesn't bother me, especially if the blog has a lot of photos. The dark background makes the photos pop. But many many people disagree with me completely. Since I don't have a photography blog, I don't have the dark background. My peeve is stopping by a blog and finding the clashing fluorescents color scheme. Makes my eyeballs bleed, that does!

50 votes were cast for the remaining items such as "Text that has too many sizes, too many fonts and too many colors", "Too many graphics, not enough words", "Too many words, not enough graphics", and "Poor placement of widgets." If you're blogging strictly for yourself and you don't give two hoots what anyone else thinks, well that's all fine and dandy. Whatever floats your boat as my grandfather would say. But something tells me that most (book) bloggers want to feel a part of this community of words and ideas. We want to be heard.

If you do want to be heard, like it or not, you have to take into consideration what your readers want, and I'm here to say that the learning is an ongoing process!

Once again, my thanks to each and every one of you who took the time to vote in this poll. My favorite diet is the Food for Thought Diet, and all of you can be relied upon to give me plenty to ponder!

Thank You, Natalie and Wisteria!

It's been a quiet weekend here at Kittling Acres. Just our jobs, a few chores at home, a bit of reading, and snuggling together on the couch to watch a video or two. Have you ever noticed? It's the Quiet Weekends when awards arrive. I think of them as "owls". (What? Not read Harry Potter!)

This weekend two lovely owls swooped in, and I want to take the opportunity to thank the bloggers who bestowed them upon me.



Natalie of The Book Inn gave me the Humane Award. Here is a description of this award:

"The Humane Award honors bloggers that I feel are kind-hearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn’t for them, my site would just be an ordinary book review blog. Their blogs are also amazing, and are tastefully done on a daily basis. I thank them and look forward to our growing friendships throughout the blogging world.”

Thank you so much, Natalie!



Wisteria of Bookworm's Dinner gave me the Proximidade Award:

This blog invests and believes in Proximity - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!

Thank you, Wisteria!

Both of these awards mean a great deal to me!

Weekly Link Round-Up

I hope everyone had a great week and that you're all enjoying your weekend. Let me take a look and see what sort of links I have to share. (Whew! Good thing I caught that typo. I almost talked about sharing kink. Blush)

In the News

• Longtime Utah bookseller, Sam Weller, died at the age of 88. I lived in the Salt Lake area back in the mid-70s, and many's the Saturday I spent in Mr. Weller's wonderful bookstore. I could take you into my library and show you the books I bought there. Let's hope that his family can carry on the tradition for many decades to come.
  
• The local book examiner from Examiner.com pits her summer reading list against Oprah's.
• While we're on the subject of summer's best books, here's librarian Nancy Pearl's summer reading list. (And they're all available at your local libraries!)
• The San Francisco Public Library conducted a two-week amnesty period and asked people to submit "excuses" for their lateness. Check them out!
  

Blogging, Techie & Social Media Tips

• 11 Useful Twitter Tools That Don't Require Your Password.
• Periodically you should go through the pages of your blog and check for broken links. If you use Firefox as your browser, there's an add-on that will do the checking for you: Link Evaluator.
• Have you heard of PhotoPeach? Susan of The Book Chook has been test driving it, and it looks really cool. I think I'll give it a try soon!
• You may remember that Gautami Tripathy's original blog was taken down without her knowledge because of malware. In her new blog, she shares some simple tips to prevent that from happening to anyone else.
• Have you been hearing about meta tags and want to know what they have to do with your blog? Blogger Tips and Tricks has a post about them. (Only for Blogger blogs, by the way.)
• ProBlogger gives tips on How to Defend Your Blog's Copyright.
  

Out & About in the Book Blogosphere

• There's been a lot of conversation lately about what impact (if any) book blogs have on book sales. Nathan Bransford wants to know Where Did You Hear About the Book You're Reading? So far there are only 319 comments!
• Nicole of Linus's Blanket wants to know if you include disclaimers about sex, language, violence and the like in your reviews.
  
• Padfoot & Prongs (love that blog name!) is going to be selling book-related t-shirts. Check them out!
• Liviania of In Bed With Books wants to know which is the most important part of the book in your opinion-- the beginning, the middle or the end?
• The Bumbles have a weekly Monday Movie Meme that I'm going to have to keep an eye on. Last Monday was The Movies You'd Most Like to Hang Out In. I'm still thinking about my answers!
• Betsy of Joyful Reflections had the best Father's Day post.

Sometimes It's All About ME

• Weeks ago Elizabeth of As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves asked me to participate in her weekly meme, 451 Fridays. I finally got around to choosing 5 books that I would save.

Blogs I've Discovered in the Past Week

• Reading Through the Night
• DogEar Diary
• One Literature Nut
• The Book Inn
• Grace's Book Blog
• Laura's Book and Movie Reviews

A few more links than usual, but since I now have a netbook, I can sit with Denis in the family room. While he watches baseball, I can surf. Stop by next Sunday when I'll have a whole new batch of links!

Took Me Long Enough!

Weeks and weeks ago, Elizabeth of As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves asked me to participate in her meme, 451 Fridays. It is based on Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Each participant is asked to list five books to save and why they should be saved. It's fascinating to see which books are being chosen, and I have a feeling that I waited as long as I did to make sure that many of my favorites would be saved by others. (They were. I know...I cheated.) With that knowledge in mind, I went for broke on some titles that are dear to me but perhaps a bit more off the beaten path. If you'd like to see my list of books that I would save, head on over to As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves.

Thank you for the invite, Elizabeth!

Saturday Soliloquy-- Reading Can Scare You Silly

When I started reading Stephen King's books, I was in college and living in a basement apartment in an eight-plex off campus. If you take a look at the vintage photo below, you'll see my apartment windows. The bottom one at the front was my living room window. The one around the corner past the pine trees to the right was my bedroom window.


While I lived there, I got used to looking out the window and seeing people's ankles. It gave me a slightly different perspective on the world, but I digress.

I'd read Stephen King's first book, Carrie, and although I didn't rave about it, I liked it. When 'Salem's Lot came out the following year, I bought a copy. I read the first few chapters during a lunch break and was hooked. I didn't want to put the thing down, but I had a heavy course load that semester and tons of work. I forced myself to leave the book alone until I'd finished studying for the evening. This usually meant I didn't get to read for pleasure until the wee hours of the morning, so it's a good thing that I've always been a night owl.

My twin bed was in the corner of my bedroom. The head of the bed was against one wall; the side of the bed was against the window wall, which meant that my head was practically underneath the window. I crawled into bed at midnight with 'Salem's Lot and began to read.

There's something about reading very late at night when everyone else is asleep and the world around you is hushed-- especially when it's a scary book. It wasn't long until I'd scooched up to a sitting position with my back against the wall. Actually I was wedged into the corner so nothing could sneak up behind me.

My eyes were flying across the pages, and all the hairs on my body had stiffened into tiny antennae that were a-quiver with the effort of sensing danger. I had just reached the part where a boy's best friend has shown up in the dead of night and is scratching on the screen of his window, wanting to be let in. The friend is a vampire and should definitely not be let inside. The student lamp's narrow cone of light was perfect for reading, but it certainly left the rest of the room dark. I shivered and tried to back further into the corner.

Scratch, scratch, scratch. "Please let me in."

I tried to wedge myself tighter into the corner. Before I could finish turning the page, something started scratching at the window screen above my head.

All I can say is:

1. It's a good thing I have excellent bladder control.
2. It's a miracle that my hair didn't turn snow white on the spot.

I immediately turned that lamp off. Sitting in the dark, I put my bookmark in place and carefully laid the book on the floor. Just as my heart had calmed down a bit, there was more scratching. It wasn't light scratching either. It was basso profundo scratching-- the kind that's serious about getting to where you are.

An eternity went by with me sitting there wedged in a corner with my heart in my mouth and something scratching at my window screen. Then I began to get angry. I did not appreciate having a top notch reading experience interrupted, and I certainly didn't like being scared and feeling helpless. It was time for me to Do Something!

Slowly...so slowly that a glacier could beat me...I reached out to the hem of the curtains and even more slowly pulled them back.

Staring down at me were the glowing eyes and gleaming fangs of the neighbors' Rottweiler.

Six years later, the latest Stephen King book was...you guessed it...Cujo. For some odd reason, it didn't frighten me.



What about you folks? Has anyone else read a book that scared them silly? I definitely want to hear about it!

Friday's Feathers-- Barn Swallows

Friday's Feathers is a weekly meme over at my Aussie friend's blog, Archie's Archive - The Curmudgeon's Magazine. Back when I had multiple blogs, I participated all the time because usually I can just sit here at the computer and take photos of the birds that show up outside my window. When I began concentrating on my book blog and closing down the others, I stopped. I had to make an exception this week.

When Denis and I travel down to Bisbee, we normally stop at Benson for lunch. This latest trip was no exception. When Denis parked the Jeep outside Wendy's, I made the remark that the barn swallows were still in residence, and while he went inside to get our food, I sat where I was and watched the birds.

There's something about the flight of swallows that mesmerizes me. Without doubt, they have to be some of the most graceful birds in flight. Last year, I stood in a May snowstorm in the White Mountains on the shore of Black Canyon Lake and watched the swallows' ballet above the pewter-colored water until I was almost too frozen to move.

In Benson, the watching was much easier. I watched their looping, swooping flight over the parking lot, and I noticed that they kept going back to the Ace Hardware across the way. Some ducked into the bottom tier of red roof tiles, and I knew they had to have nests there. Still others flew up into a covered walkway. That Ace Hardware is a busy place, and people were constantly walking right underneath the swallows, but it didn't bother the birds one bit.

I decided that, once lunch was eaten, I was going over that way to check things out.

Since it was raining a bit, Denis drove us over there and parked. As I got out of the Jeep, camera in hand, I could hear the adult birds...and quite a bit of cheeping. It certainly did seem that Ace Hardware was home to a thriving barn swallow colony.

As soon as I walked under the covered walkway and got out of the rain, all the cheeping stopped. I got myself into position, aimed my camera, and took a look through the viewfinder. I was being watched. I was being watched very intently.



And they weren't very happy to see me. I took a few photos, and while I did, they remained silent and grumpy. My attention was then drawn elsewhere-- just the way it was supposed to be. One of the adult swallows was perched on a sign and wanted me to stop paying attention to its young and to pay attention to it instead.


I can be very obliging when I want to be!

As always, click on the photos if you'd like to see them full size. I hope you enjoyed your visit at Benson's Ace Hardware as much as I did. Who knows? There may be more feathered posts in the future!

It's Time for...Friday Feud!

Another week has come and gone, and once again it's time for Friday Feud here at Kittling: Books. The rules are few and simple:

1. Do not duplicate answers.
2. Leave all your answers in the comments section of this post.

That's enough of that. Let's play The Feud! This week's question:

Name a food that always tastes best in the summer.

The Keeper of Secrets by Judith Cutler

Title: The Keeper of Secrets
Author: Judith Cutler
ISBN: 9780749079123, Allison & Busby, 2008
Genre: Historical Mystery
Rating: B

First Line: I was musing on my future, seated in the room I had been kindly allocated in the east wing of Moreton Priory, when I heard the scream of terror.

Judith Cutler is one of my favorite writers, and I'm a bit puzzled as to why she's not more well known on this side of the pond. Her characterizations are often brilliant, she knows how to plot and to set a fine pace. She's even made me laugh countless times, so she's no stranger to humor.

Her series about young police officer Kate Powers shows how difficult it can be to juggle a personal life with a demanding career. Her series about an older police officer Fran Harman portrays a very caring woman toward the end of her career, and she's also written two laugh-out-loud funny books centering around Josie Welford, a middle-aged pub owner in the West Country. When I discovered that she'd written an historical mystery, I almost clicked my heels together in glee. I couldn't wait to see what Cutler could do in a different time period. She does a very fine job indeed with young Parson Tobias Campion in the spring of 1810.

Born to a life of wealth, Campion accepts a living in the small village of Moreton St. Jude, and his real education begins. His privileged childhood has not prepared him for the poverty in which he's surrounded. Fortunately he's guided by a fine cast of supporting characters: his childhood friend and (now) servant Jem, Edmund Hansard the local doctor, and the housekeeper of Moreton Priory, Mrs. Beckles. He is a sincere and quick learner which is a very good thing because things begin to happen. A poacher dies a suspicious death. A local aristocrat meets an untimely end, and Campion himself is viciously attacked. Just what is going on in Moreton St. Jude? What is the secret for which someone is so eager to kill?

Cutler once again has a marvelous cast with the lovable and naive Campion at the center surrounded by three stout hearts and true. The early nineteenth century comes to life under her pen, and her social commentary is in turns chilling and humorous. The only part of the book that was a letdown for me was the identity of the murderer. I don't consciously set out to figure out whodunit from the very first page. If I do figure it out, all well and good, but one phrase in The Keeper of Secrets leaped out at me, and everything fell into place way too early. I felt as though I'd stepped on the blade of a hoe and got whacked right between the eyes with the stick. Ouch.

That was a bit disappointing, but my championship of Judith Cutler is unchanged. I won't rest until I've read every single one of her books!

Body Count by P.D. Martin

Title: Body Count
Author: P.D. Martin
ISBN: 9780778325215, Mira Books, 2005
Genre: Police Procedural, #1 Sophie Anderson mystery
Rating: B+

First Line: The house is quiet. It's 3:00 a.m.

Aussie transplant Sophie Anderson has been working as an FBI profiler at Quantico for about six months. She's made a home for herself as well as several friends-- especially fellow profiler Samantha Wright. The only thing in her life that she's not sure how to deal with is her psychic ability. When she was a child, she had dreams that presaged the disappearance and murder of her brother. She's had occasional visions and dreams ever since.

Sophie may feel uncomfortable with her gift, but she's smart enough to use it in her career. When women begin to die and the media dubs the latest serial killer the "D.C. Slasher", Sophie's unit goes into high gear trying to put together a detailed profile of the killer that will lead to a swift arrest. When Sophie's friend Samantha is abducted, the FBI closes ranks and works desperately to find one of their own before it's too late.

I really enjoyed this book. Martin knows how to plant subtle clues and set a fast pace to keep the suspense cooking. Sophie is a multi-faceted character, and her desperation is palpable as she tries to find her friend Samantha.

I was afraid that Body Count might descend into "fem jep" (the female lead character willingly putting herself into deadly situations), but it didn't. All the female characters were cautious and didn't take silly chances-- especially Sophie and Samantha. Unfortunately they weren't cautious enough for a particularly wily killer.

For readers who prefer a book to be spiced with a bit of romance, there is a touch of that in Body Count, but not enough to bother those who prefer to do without it. Another aspect of the book that I enjoyed was watching the profilers work to piece clues together in order to identify a killer.

One thing that bothered me a bit was the rather weak portrayal of Tucson. (So weak that I wonder about the author's sources.) And although I slapped my forehead when the Slasher's identity was revealed, it made me wonder if such a person really could stay unidentified for so long.

But both of those things are minor quibbles. I enjoyed the plot, the pace and the characters so much that I'll be continuing on with the series. Sophie is one FBI profiler on whom to keep an eye!

The Desk of Mr. Kittling...for Belle

Belle of Ms. Bookish and I were recently tagged for Sassy Brit's What's on My Desk Wednesday. Last week Belle and I were tweeting about the messy states of certain desks which led to her tagging my husband for this meme. He's not a blogger, so this is why the photo is showing up on my blog.

Unfortunately Denis has cleaned off his desk so it doesn't look "normal" at all. You can click on the photo to view it full size. The books on the right side of the top shelf represent his TBR stack. (He's currently reading Craig Johnson's latest Walt Longmire mystery, The Dark Horse.) You can also see signs of a couple of his other interests: the Phoenix Suns (sign needlepointed by yours truly) and old airplanes.

Don't be surprised if, sometime in the future, his desk appears again--in its more natural state. Or maybe not...I have to weigh the pros and cons of payback!

Scene of the Blog-- Ti of Book Chatter and other stuff

This week it's time to head to California to visit Ti of Book Chatter and other stuff. Ti is a technical writer and a very busy mother of two. When she began her blog in February of 2008, she thought it was to be strictly books until friends urged her to include personal stories. You see...Ti is one of those folks that things just seem to happen to. (I know all about that because I tend to be one of those folks, too!)

Ti's blog is a good blend of the literary and the personal. If you haven't visited Book Chatter, please do so and you'll see why it's one of the blogs in my reader.

Time for The Reveal! Is Ti going to be a blogger in the middle of Grand Central Station...or tucked away in a quiet little corner?

A bit of both! (Click on the photos to view them full size.)

This is my office at work-- my windowless office. I joke about being in a dungeon, but it's true! I never know if it is raining or sunny outside. I do a lot of updating at work since I get there so early each morning.

This second photo shows a corner of my living room. I seem to write most of my reviews here. My kids don't like to hang out here too much, and although you can't see it from this picture, it faces three bay windows that overlook my front yard. I like to look out of those windows as I write.

My blog has been up for a little over a year now, and it has been a fun experience. The books and the people make it totally worthwhile!

Ti is the first featured blogger who's admitted to blogging at work, but as she says, she gets there super early in the morning, so why not? One semester in college, I had all my morning classes scheduled in the basement of the same building, starting at 7 AM. I never knew what was going on in the outside world because-- like Ti's office-- there were no windows! I don't like being cut off from the outside world, so I can certainly see why she loves to blog by those bay windows in her living room! I also agree with Ti's closing sentiment: the books and the people make blogging totally worthwhile.

Thanks, Ti, for allowing all of us this glimpse into your creative world. We certainly do appreciate it!

Come back next Wednesday when another book blogger will be featured here on Kittling: Books. If you'd like to be featured on Scene of the Blog and I haven't contacted you yet, feel free to contact me. Don't be shy! Just keep in mind that it may be several weeks before your feature is scheduled. Scene of the Blog has become rather popular, which tickles me to death because it's so much fun to do!

Wordless Wednesday

In the Chiricahua Mountains
Cochise County, Arizona

More Wordless Wednesday.

What's on Your Desk Wednesday

What's On Your Desk Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sassy Brit at Alternative Read. For this, I'm supposed to:

--grab my camera (which is usually on my desk anyway!)
--take a photo of my desk "as is"
--list at least 5 bookish things that are on my desk
--list at least non-bookish things (hopefully that are a bit unusual) that are on my desk
--tag 5 more people (which I'm usually crap at doing because I'm a contrary soul)



This is one part of my desk. I have two Ikea desks put together to form an L shape, and this is the part that's to my right as I sit at the computer. If you'd like to take a closer look, click on the photo to view it full size.

The only obviously bookish things you can see on the desk are the books to be reviewed. I've since removed that stack and replaced it with the books that have arrived in my mailbox so far this week. Behind the lamp, you can see some file folders, and since the folders have books on them, it's safe to assume that they contain bookish things all relating to my blog: publisher info for any ARCs that I have, Scene of the Blog info, future Friday Feud questions, future poll questions, ideas for my Saturday Soliloquy posts. I usually carry around a spiral notebook to write ideas in wherever inspiration strikes, and when I get home, I tear out the pages and put them in the proper folders. Another item on my desk relating to books is the scheduling pad from Levengers. I schedule 99% of my posts ahead of time, and all I have to do is take a look at this pad to see which posts I still have to write and schedule.

As far as the non-bookish things, you can see

• some items hanging from a silver chain on the lamp. Two of the items are dog tags. One is my grandfather's from World War II; the other is my father's. The magnifying glass was my grandmother's. She used it before she found out that she had macular degeneration and graduated to a much larger one.
  
• the bright reflective square at the top of the bulletin board is my husband's license plate for the motorcycle he owned in England. My online nickname used to be "Skye" and he had "Isle of Skye" put on the plate in my honor.
• below the license plate is a map of the Isle of Skye. I've been there twice, absolutely love it, and I'm always on the lookout for cottages to rent for our next trip, so I need to be able to see where they're located.
• the Mary Engelbreit "Friend" plaque is a gift from my niece, Karen, in Rochdale outside of Manchester in England. It's very special to me.
• the bird figurine was given to me by my husband, Denis, so I won't forget what a "proper robin" looks like!

As far as that black carrying case goes, it contains my brand-new netbook that Denis surprised me with last week. I'm typing this post on it now. I love it, and I'm sure that there will be a future post (complete with photos) about it!

Since I am so contrary, I won't tag 5 more people for this meme, but if you want to play along, by all means do so!

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

Title: Extras
Author: Scott Westerfeld
ISBN: 9781416951179, Simon Pulse, 2007
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Rating: B

First Line: "Moggle," Aya whispered. "You awake?"

It is now several years after the massive shift of Specials, the third in Westerfeld's Uglies series. 15-year-old Aya Fuse will do anything to boost her public name recognition, which is essential in the current "recognition economy". Yes...a celebrity-based system has now replaced the boring, brainless cult of Pretties. You have to have a high name rank in order to get any real perks in life. What Asa doesn't know is that the story that she follows is a dangerous one that will have many repercussions.

I have really enjoyed this series. Westerfeld is extremely talented in mining rich themes from today's culture and spinning them into engrossing stories. That said, I think this book is the weakest in the series. There are too many secondary characters, and some of the action is a bit difficult to follow. I do love how Westerfeld's mind works though. Tally Youngblood risked life and limb to change the world, only to have the world shift to this "recognition economy" which is just as shallow as the Pretties cult was. The world Westerfeld envisions is all too close to the world we have today, and that gives me plenty to ponder.

As a reader, I was reading Young Adult books well before the age of twelve, and I jumped straight into adult fiction. One of the things that book blogging has done for me is to make me aware of how much excellent writing is being done in the Young Adult category, and I'm enjoying the time I spend reading it. Westerfeld is now one of my favorite authors, and I'll keep a look-out for any of his future books.

Gold Digger by Vicki Delany

Title: Gold Digger
Author: Vicki Delany
ISBN: 9781894917803, RendezVous Crime, 2009
Genre: Historical Mystery
Rating: DNF (79 of 317 pages)

First Line: "Bloody hell," Angus said.

This was a mystery made especially for me, or so I thought. The Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, the city of Dawson springing up overnight in the Yukon Territory. A flood of people heading north to make their fortunes, either by finding the mother lode of ore...or by discovering every possible way to part the prospectors and miners from their hard-earned nuggets and dust.

Fiona MacGillivray is one of those people parting the miners from their profits. Leaving a shady past behind her in England, this single mother and her 12-year-old son made it over the Chilkoot Pass to Dawson. Now Fiona is the owner of the Savoy Dance Hall, has a handsome Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer hanging around who makes her nervous, and she occasionally has to keep her business partner, a former Glasgow street fighter, in line. If that weren't enough, now she's got a body to contend with.

I began reading this book fully expecting to fall head first in the pages and not come up for air. It was not to be. Delany set the stage well. I could picture Dawson clearly in my mind. No, the setting was not the problem.

The problem was in the characterization. None of the book people came to life and were very flat. Fiona, the main character upon whom the book depended, was very...aloof. Several hints were made about her questionable life in England. Perhaps if I'd stuck with the book longer, I would've made more sense of the hints, but Fiona was such a cold, penny-pinching, greedy character that I frankly got tired of her. Even knowing that a woman who had a questionable past in that day and age would naturally play her cards close to the vest didn't help. In order for me to begin to like Fiona enough to continue reading, Delany needed to provide me with a spark, a twinkle, to Fiona to let me know there was more to the woman than money mania. I closed the book and looked at it for quite some time. Shouldn't I persevere? Who's to say the book won't shed its stiffness and the characters become interesting?

Then I thought once more of Fiona and her greedy, cold nature. As much as I wanted to like this book, it just isn't my cup of tea. Someone else with more patience will have to see if Fiona has a heart of gold.

If you've read Gold Digger and have a differing opinion, please either leave a link to your review or a comment. My reviews, like everyone else's are merely opinions, and it's always good to get a second one of those!

What Circus Act Should You Perform?

You Should Be a Puppeteer

You are an entertainer - pure and simple. You know how to engage an audience. You are a natural storyteller. You are naturally dramatic, even when life doesn't call for drama. Luckily though, you save most of your drama for your stellar performances.

What Circus Act Should You Perform?

Mailbox Monday-- Goofy But Good

Requests from Paperback Swap have slowed down to a crawl again. I sent just 2 out to new foster homes. Right now I don't have enough energy to do anything about it, but that ennui will probably change once my days off roll around. I received 5 books last week, 4 from PBS and 1 from Amazon...which is where I goofed by ordering the wrong book in a series that I'd like to get back to reading!

Here's what I received last week:

--The Cross Bearer by Roy Lewis (PBS). #9 in the Arnold Landon series, featuring a planning inspector in Northumberland (UK) whose searches through wonderful old buildings usually turn up a body or two.

--August Heat by Andrea Camilleri (A). "When a colleague extends his summer vacation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is forced to stay in Vigàta and endure the August heat. Montalbano’s long-suffering girlfriend, Livia, joins him with a friend—husband and young son in tow—to keep her company during these dog days of summer. But when the boy suddenly disappears into a narrow shaft hidden under the family’s beach rental, Montalbano, in pursuit of the child, uncovers something terribly sinister. As the inspector spends the summer trying to solve this perplexing case, Livia refuses to answer his calls—and Montalbano is left to take a plunge that will affect the rest of his life."

--In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898 by John Taliaferro (PBS). "When eight whaling ships became icebound at Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of Alaska, in January 1898, a rescue mission blessed by President McKinley was launched to bring the 275 stranded men reindeer meat to fend off starvation and scurvy. The Overland Relief Expedition drafted Tom Lopp, a missionary and advocate of turning native hunters into self-sufficient reindeer herders, who left his wife, Ellen, and children in Cape Prince of Wales, 55 miles across the Bering Strait from Siberia, and drove his 300-head herd 700 miles across ice and frozen tundra."

--A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny (PBS). "Murder interrupts Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his wife's annual summer holiday at Quebec's isolated, lake-front Manoir Bellechasse in Agatha-winner Penny's intriguing, well-crafted fourth mystery. Irene Finney, the matriarch of a large eccentric family having a reunion at the Manoir, marks the event by having installed in the lodge's garden a statue of the long-dead father of her middle-aged children. When the massive statue falls and crushes one of the daughters, Gamache investigates and discovers no love lost among the surviving offspring."

--Borderline by Nevada Barr (PBS). "Unable to shake the despondency and self-doubt that settled on her after her horrific experiences at Isle Royale (Winter Study, 2008), Anna is put on administrative leave. In a move designed to help her recover, her husband arranges to take her on a guided rafting trip in Big Bend National Park, which straddles the border between Texas and Mexico. Their companions are four college students. Within hours of their departure, the raft careens into rocks and is lost. The occupants have barely recovered from the shock when one of them makes a gruesome discovery: the body of a very pregnant woman caught among tangled branches. Though unable to save the woman, Anna saves the child, whose welfare becomes her mission. Unfortunately, some people have other plans for the tiny new life and the struggling rafters."

A big Thank You to Marcia of The Printed Page for hosting this meme. If you'd like to join in, or if you'd just like to read more answers, click on that hungry-looking mailbox at the top of this post to be taken to The Printed Page. See you next Monday!

Musing Mondays-- Library Gluttons?

Do you restrict yourself on how many books you take out from the library at a time? Do you borrow books if you already have some out? Do you always reborrow books you don’t get to?

This is going to be a snap! I'm a mood reader who likes all the convenience of having a smorgasbord of books around her with none of the worries of late fees or knowing that others are waiting for the books.

I'm not a library patron, although I admire those who are. I happen to donate books to my local library, so perhaps I am a patron in my own strange way....

A big Thank You to Rebecca of Just One More Page for hosting this meme. If you'd like to join in, or if you'd just like to read more responses, just click on the Musing Mondays graphic at the top of this post.

See you next Monday!

Weekly Link Round-Up

Some of you may wonder why I don't participate in things like readathons or this weekend's "bloggiesta". The answer is simple. A "normal" work week for most people is Monday through Friday. I always knew I wasn't normal, and my work schedule proves it. I work Friday through Monday--right when all of these fun events are scheduled. Oh well. Just gives me a bit more time to find links for y'all! Speaking of which, here's a selection of links I ran into (ouch) this past week:

Bookish News

• J. K. Rowling was slapped with another plagiarism suit. After a while, these things look more like jealousy and sour grapes than legitimate concerns...or is it just me?
• Oprah's Book Club has chosen "11 Unputdownable Mysteries" for the summer. Your mileage may vary.
• The Washington Post recently asked authors to share with whom they'd spend a beach day.
• Do you Twitter? Have you heard of Blame Drew's Cancer? You might just want to check it out and support a worthy cause.
• An author shared "Why I Won't Be Trashing Twilight Anytime Soon."
• The Guardian wonders "Should We Be Promoting Bookaholism?"
  

Conversations 'round the Book Blogger Cooler

• Lori of Pure Imagination is another Outlander fan, and she's heard of a movie in the works. She wants to know how we feel about this...which concerns all readers who've had a beloved book turned into a film, not just fans of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books.
• Jackie of Farm Lane Books did some book review number crunching as an assignment for the year-long Blog Improvement Project. You'd be amazed at some of the things she discovered!
• A day or so later, Jackie asked for non-blogger book recommendations which started quite the conversation!
• Belle of Ms. Bookish asks in desperation, "How do you keep on top of your blog reading?"

Social Media, Techie Stuff & Blogging Tips

• Check out Scribnia, a rating and discovery engine for bloggers and columnists.
• Have you heard about BookBlips?
• If you're a Firefox user like I am, did you know that there's a Firefox add-on called Link Evaluator which checks broken links for you?
• iCopyright has announced a content tracking tool called Discovery. Although only available for publishers right now, it will soon be available to creators (like bloggers).
• The Book Seer is a program that has you type in the title of the book you just read in order for it to suggest a new book to try.

Blogs I've Discovered

• The Eclectic Book Hoarder
• The Narrative Causality
• The Book Butterfly
• A Southern Daydreamer Reads

Th-th-that's all, folks! Check back next Sunday when I'll have a new batch of links for you!