The Whole Truth

For those of you, like me, who really enjoy David Baldacci, beware. This book was very disappointing.  While it still had plenty of action and a measure of suspense, I thought that it was based on a very worn out theme. The theme? The bad guys can control just about anything in any way they want if they have unlimited amounts of money to do it with, and most of the good guys are impotent, creepy and self serving. It’s just that they want to save the world. You can’t fault them for that.  I’ll try not to spoil the book for you, but guessing the end of this one wasn’t too difficult. The story centers around super sized, invincible good guy Shaw who runs around the planet snuffing out bad guys left and right until…until, he meets super brain Anna. Then he has a change of heart and determines he’s ready for retirement. That is after he finishes up one more, no two more, no three more things.  Bad guy is multi gazillionaire arms dealer Nicholas Creel who’s main idea of fun and earnings is starting a new global conflict just so he can rake in a few more dollars. Yawn.  Nothing new here. Though I’m sure Baldacci fans will still need to read on.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Lincoln Child /Douglas Preston

Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston are two authors who have plenty of great books on their own and who have now collaborated to bring us some excellent suspense/thriller stories, among them The Cabinet of Curiosities, the Relic, and the Book of the Dead.  If you enjoy mystery and suspense with a bit of the supernatural thrown in, these will hit the target.  I just finished the Book of the Dead, which is one of their Agent Pendergast stories, and I am ready for more.

The story centers on Aloysious Pendergast, a brilliant FBI agent, who is rotting away in a high security prison for a murder he did not commit. His brilliant, psychotic brother is about to perpetrate a horrific crime. Woven into the story is Charlotte, A young woman with an extraordinary past on the edge of a violent breakdown. There is an ancient Egyptian tomb that is about to be unveiled at a celebrity-studded New York gala, along with a pharoah’s curse that will be released.  This story kept me turning pages and anxious for more.  However, I need to go back to the beginning of this series, because I feel like I walked into the middle of the story and didn’t have a complete picture of why characters were behaving as they did.  The first novel of the series is Still Life with crows, and continues through their current book The Wheel of Darkness. 

I always love it when I discover new authors and stories. These will be great, “take it along on vacation books”.

Baking/Cooking

Perhaps you learned to cook when you were still a child at home. Maybe you picked it up from a college roommate, or perhaps like you were like me-you liked to eat and learning to cook was the only way you were going to get to eat. I had a few cookbooks when I was learning, but I always stuck to the main staples. Meat. Potatoes.Vegetables and DESSERT!  Now, mind you, I love to cook and since the early days, I have branched out quite a bit further than before.  The library’s shelves are filled with wonderful current cookbooks. There are even the cookbooks based on shows from the cooking channels. It’s a bit overwhelming, but one can’t say they can’t find something good to fix for supper.  I wanted to point you to a website that’s a bit out of the channel when it comes to finding and using recipes! It’s actually a social network. BakeSpace.com is more than just a place to find recipes. Their motto: “Come for the food, and stay for the conversation.” That is cool.  Besides finding recipes for every conceivable food item, you can hunt for those long lost recipes, have conversations with others in ‘community forums’ about cooking in general, you can set up your own ‘kitchen’ with your own recipes that you can share with friends.  This is a site that has lots of levels to it and if you enjoy social websites, cooking,blogging, chatting you could have lots of fun with this one.  Not to be confused with a person to person chat in the library, though. You’re always welcome here!

Book or Movie

We are eager for the next movie in the Chronicles of Narnia series-Prince Caspian, but always with the thought that it can never be quite like the book.  I’ve long ago stopped hoping for a movie that might be better than the book. I think that’s because my imagination is much more vivid than what actually comes across on the screen. (even in scary movies!)

Did you see the movie “Catch Me if You Can” starring Leonardo Di Caprio? You really should try the book by Frank Abagnale which is so much more detailed in description, and funnier as he details the chase of the FBI and the incredible deceptions he is able to pull off.  In fact, after seeing the movie I thought the only similarity between movie and book was the title. The book was better.

Or take the movie/book Ella Enchanted  written by Gail Levine and starring Anne Hathaway.  The book is truly delightful. In fact, it was a Newberry honor book. The book is a wonderful, thoughtful twist on the classic Cinderella.   The movie, however, was a huge disappointment.  It made me enact a new rule for myself about movies in general: “don’t read the book first.”

I really want you to check out an old book, though, Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth. It is a non fiction story of a family of 14 living at the turn of the last century.  The story is wonderfully funny, giving a clear sense of what it was like to live during that era and in a very unique and quirky family!  It’s a laugh-out-loud story.  Something the modern ‘remade’ movie with Steve Martin never accomplished, as funny and cute as it was.

It is amazing how many movies have been books first: (and this is a very short list)
James Patterson’s Along Came a Spider
David Baldacci Absolute Power
Sylvia Nasar’s A Beautiful Mind
Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn Dixie
the ancient Beowulf
Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
Chris VanAllsburg’s Zathura
James Bradley’s Flags of our Fathers

….And the list goes on. But my vote goes for the book. They’re almost always better!

Miracle at Speedy Motors

The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency is back. If you haven’t had a chance to read these mysteries be sure you start with the first in the series.  But, Alexander McCall Smith’s newest installment of Precious Ramotswe’s agency in Botswana, Miracle at Speedy Motors, is a wonderful read. Part of the reason I enjoy this series so much is that the world in which these detective stories are set seems to have very little in the way of real evil in them. I can sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy knowing that A threatening letter, a mysterious and missing set of parents, an orphanage struggling mightily against the forces of decaying machinery will be the most vile that I find.  But above it all, McCall-Smith’s characters shine:  the traditionally built Mma Ramotswe and her assistant detective Mma Makutsi, JBL Maketoni, the two orphaned/adopted children and a host of other Botswanian natives.  We find Botswana much unchanged, but there continues to be a stream of mysteries needing to be solved.  Don’t miss this one.