This is a story about a woman named Grace Lawson who picks up her photos from a local print shop only to find there is a picture in the set that wasn’t taken with her camera. What’s strange about the picture is that when she looks closely at it, she thinks she recognizes a younger version of her husband Jack in it. And what makes it stranger still is that the woman he’s standing next to in the photo has a giant red X marked over her. When Grace takes the photo home and shows it to her husband to see if he knows anything about it, he reacts very strangely to it, claiming it isn’t him in the photo; then, excusing himself to take a phone call, he leaves the room and never comes back.

Grace is panicked. She’s part of a good marriage — her husband wouldn’t just leave her. She can’t believe a simple photo would just make him disappear. So she goes to the police, but they don’t believe her when she says her husband is in danger. They think he’s left her for another woman, perhaps the woman in the photo, and when she receives an ill-timed phone call from her husband telling her he needs some space just as she’s talking to the police, she knows they’ve written her off as the unsuspecting, cheated wife. But Grace knows her husband and can tell from the way he’s worded his phone message that he’s telling her he needs help and that the police shouldn’t be involved.

So Grace will have to find him on her own. And as she searches for him, she starts to learn that the photograph is much more dangerous than she realized. Her husband has already gone missing, and soon she receives the message loud and clear that she and her children are next if she doesn’t stop searching for him leave the photo alone.

And, as is usually the case with Coben novels, a whole cast of other characters (people in the neighborhood, long lost family members, even mobsters) become intertwined with the event depicted in that simple photograph of the crossed out girl and Grace’s younger husband. You get the sense that it’s a very small world out there.

I liked this book, but not as much as Coben’s other books. I felt the story clipped along nicely and that the suspense was thrilling enough to keep me reading through the night. I didn’t particularly care for the ending — I felt it came together too loosely in the end to justify all the connections between the characters. But hey, Coben isn’t a bestselling author for nothing. He can tell a story and he can tell it well. There’s just the right amount of gruesome violence, thrilling cat and mouse scenes, and twists along the way.

When I was a kid, I loved The Baby-Sitters Club. The first weekend of very month, my parents would give me a few dollars (man, back in the day when you could get a book for a few dollars — I feel so old) and I’d run out and buy the latest book in the series. I adored the idea of a club for baby-sitters that was run like a business with positions like secretary and treasurer. I loved the idea that they met once a week and took calls from parents who wanted to pay them to watch their kids. Maybe it was because I’ve never babysat for kids myself, and I thought the idea was so glamorous.

As were the characters. Tomboy Kristy, artsy Claudia, wallflower Mary Anne (who totally took a step up the cool ladder when she got her boyfriend, Logan), sophisticated Stacey, hippie Dawn, bookworm Mallory, dancer Jessie. There were so many of them! And so many kids to babysit too.

Anyway… I loved the books. I read them from elementary through junior high. And then I stopped because I outgrew the characters. The series itself ended in 2000. But then I discovered a little while ago that Martin wrote a prequel this year to the series called The Summer Before, all about the summer before Kristy’s Big Idea (book one in the series). And I had to read it. It just reminded me so much of my youth that I couldn’t pass it up.

So I got it from the library and reading it again brought back so many memories of the series and when I was a little girl. The story itself wasn’t anything special. Sort of an introduction to the 4 original members of the club. Thinking on it now, I wonder if this book is Martin’s attempt to capture those girls who so loved The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (the BSC of the current generation). Perhaps they’re hoping to renew interest to the series and bring new stories out soon.

I have to say that I like that idea. I think the BSC is good for young girls today. Certainly tamer than Gossip Girl and the other “Mean Girl” type series that are out there now. You’re not going to find Kristy worrying about teen pregnancy the way you might expect Serena Van Der Woodsen to have a new bedfellow every week. And, as a mom, I think I’d prefer my pre-teen to be reading the BSC.

Anyway, I wouldn’t say this book was great reading, but it was great for a trip down memory lane to those of us who grew up on the BSC series. Finally… a plug for a blog called BSC Headquarters (www.claudiasroom.blogspot.com — genius domain!) I discovered a while back that is all about the BSC — the author, Tiff, is rereading the BSC books as an adult and offering her thoughts on the series now that she’s older. I find it to be a lot of fun.

The second installment of Frank Beddor’s Wonderland trilogy finds Queen Alyss learning that defeating her Aunt Redd for the role of Queen didn’t mean everything afterward would be easy in comparison. Her Aunt Redd may be gone, having leapt into the Heart Crystal with The Cat and disappearing, but no one knows if it’s for good or if she’ll find a way back to Wonderland to challenge Alyss for the queendom again.

It certainly seems like Redd may be on the verge of returning. Her army of Glass Eyes have continued attacking Alyss’s soldiers, and Glass Eyes are programmed to follow only their leader’s orders… and their leader has always been Redd. What Alyss doesn’t realize is that King Arch of Boarderland, Wonderland’s neighbor, has decided now is the time to rise up against Alyss and claim Wonderland for his own. He’s devised a plan to wipe out all of Alyss’s armies and to eradicate Imagination altogether so that everyone will be equal under his rule. His plan is WILMA, his Weapon of Inconceivable Loss and Massive Annihilation. Comprised of strands of silk from each of Wonderland’s caterpillar oracles, WILMA will destroy the Heart Crystal and the power of Imagination in Wonderland. But in order for it to work, Arch needs Hatter Maddigan, the top member of the Millinery squad of soldiers to set it in motion. To force his cooperation, he kidnaps Hatter’s daughter, Homburg Molly, and holds her hostage.

Arch doesn’t believe Redd will return, but Redd’s a determined villainess. She understands the Heart Crystal, and the fact that ideas that are passed into the Heart Crystal often find their way out to other worlds, such as Earth. And it is on Earth one day that a painter discovers he has lost his ability to paint the landscapes he so loves. Instead, every time he sets brush to canvas, he finds himself painting the image of a woman and a large feline. The harder he tries to stop, the more the images come to him, until one day he has painted a life-size portrait of Redd and The Cat, and they break through and find themselves free of the Heart Crystal and existing in France. Redd sets to work amassing an army of followers on Earth and finding the portals back to Wonderland — the puddles that exist where no puddles should exist. These portals will bring her back to Wonderland through the Pool of Tears, where she will challenge her niece again for the throne.

So Alyss doesn’t have a very easy start to her Queenship. Even though she has managed to rebuild Wonderland to be almost as glorious as it once was under her mother’s reign, she still has the threat of her Aunt Redd returning, and to top that, King Arch is plotting his coup, and her personal bodyguard, Homburg Molly, has been kidnapped. At least she has the love of her life, Dodge the palace guardsmen, to brighten her days, but even he is still focused on getting revenge at all costs against The Cat for the murder of his father, and it is obvious that he is willing to put his life in danger at every moment to get it. All of these problems are coming at her at once, and Alyss isn’t sure her Imagination will be strong enough to defeat them all. (more…)

I enjoy reading books that take a well-known story and twist it into something new, such as Gregory Maguire does for the land of Oz in Wicked and Son of A Witch. Which is why I’ve started reading Frank Beddor’s series of books based on the stories of Wonderland, from Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. While Maguire’s books are targeted for adults, Beddor’s books are classified by my public library as being books for the juvenile audience. Although, with the violence and death in it so far, I’d say these books are almost better suited for the young adult  and adult audiences.

Beddor’s Wonderland is not the light and airy world we remember from Disney’s adaptation of the book. It does start out that way, when the world is ruled by Queen Genevieve of the Heart family. Her Queendom is one of singing flowers and beautiful, shining cities. It is a land of imagination, where those who are inventive are able to create things out of nothing, just by using their thoughts and the power of the Heart Crystal. It is said that ideas that pass through the Heart Crystal are beamed out into space where they will reappear in similar forms in other worlds. It is a wondrous world, ruled fairly and kindly by Genevieve. But it’s also a world on the cusp of a war with Genevieve’s sister, Redd. Redd is gathering her card soldiers and inventing new weapons and tactics as she plans her takeover of Wonderland. Redd was once the heir to the Queendom, but when it became apparent she preferred to practice Black Imagination instead of White, she was exiled by her parents, and Genevieve was chosen as the next queen. Redd has never forgiven her family for the exile, and, together with her assassin, the Cat, she orchestrates a brutal attack that leaves Genevieve and her husband, King Nolan, dead. It would also leave her neice, the 8 year old Princess Alyss, orphaned and forced to escape Wonderland through the Pool of Tears, a lake into which no one who goes in ever comes out.

You’d be correct to assume that Alyss is the Alice in Wonderland character. In this version, she’s a princess and the next in line to take the throne, although with Redd’s coup d’etat and Alyss entering the Pool of Tears, that future seems very unlikely. Alyss’s entry into the Pool of Tears takes her to Earth, and Oxford, England in particular. Her bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, was sent with her by her dying mother’s last request, but they are separated in mid-transfer, and he ends up in Paris. On her own in a strange land with not nearly as much imagination as Wonderland, Alyss is forced to live as a street orphan, performing tricks of imagination to earn pennies in the street. She is caught one day and put into an orphanage where she is adopted by the Liddel family, and raised as Alice. Her stories about Wonderland are hushed by her adoptive parents, pushed down as silly imaginings, until she meets a friend of the family who takes an interest in her story. The Reverend Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carrol, listens to her stories and asks Alice if he may publish them into a novel. Alice agrees, hoping the book will open others’ eyes and help her find a way back to Wonderland. Instead, the Reverend turns her stories into a childish fantasy, and Alice is heartbroken. It seems Wonderland is lost to her forever.

Having given up hope, Alice tries to convince herself that she did imagine Wonderland, and that perhaps there was no such place. She lives in England for the next 12 years as the obedient Alice Liddel, and even finds herself engaged to marry a true prince. It is at her wedding day that unexpected visitors arrive and bring her back through the Pool of Tears to Wonderland, where she leads a new rebel army, the Alyssians, in a raid against the tyrant Redd, who, in Alice’s absence, has turned Wonderland into a dismal and bleak world of Black Imagination. Together with the Alyssians, the returned Alyss faces her Aunt Redd and the assassin Cat in a battle for the throne.

I enjoyed this novel. I thought it was fun, and an interesting take on the Wonderland stories. I don’t much like the cover of the book very much — it is quite boring in comparison to the sequels that follow. I’m looking forward to the rest of the novels in the series, including Seeing Redd (which I am reading now) and Arch Enemy. I hear that Frank Beddor, who also happens to make movies (he produced There’s Something About Mary), is in the process of turning these novels into screenplays. I think they’d make great movies. I’m also looking forward to seeing the new Alice in Wonderland movie slated for release in early 2010, starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Like this novel, it has a dark feel to it, which I think works so well for Wonderland lore. And, also related to that dark feeling, I recall playing a videogame called American McGee’s Alice, which was wonderfully sad and creepy, and had an accompanying soundtrack with equally sad and creepy (but fun!) music. Check them out, and visit Frank Beddor’s Wonderland site for some fun interaction with the books. (more…)

Anita Blake is known as “The Executioner” in St. Louis. She’ll occasionally hunt down vampires who have broken the law for the local police force, and she raises the dead for her day job. However, she finds herself in a position where she must help the master vampire of the city locate someone or something that has been killing vampires. You see, in Hamilton’s world, vampires are an accepted part of society and are even gaining legal rights for their existence and fair treatment under the law. And while Anita doesn’t particularly like vampires, and therefore doesn’t want to search for the killer, she doesn’t have much choice when the master vampire of the city, one who is a few hundred years old and very powerful, forces her to assist them. How? Powerful vampires are able to get into your head and read your thoughts or plant visions and feelings that can make life either very painful, or very pleasurable. In order to force Anita to help them, the master vampire makes it very clear that her life will be very difficult if she doesn’t. So Anita decides she will help… but she’s also going to take down the master vampire if it kills her.

This is book one in the Anita Blake, Vampire hunter series of novels. I thought I’d give the series a try because my husband is a fan (he bought the series) and because when I worked in a library, I noticed that Hamilton’s books were very popular (particularly the Anita Blake ones). But I have to say that this first novel didn’t impress me very much. The storyline is interesting and Hamilton is pretty good at the macabre details, but the writing can be a little too repetitive (I’m not sure how many times she has to let us know about the sound air conditioners make, or the way Anita’s sweat “gels”), and her characterization lacks those small details that can really bring a character to life. I’m hoping that, like I found with Twilight, the series will get better as it goes on, and that Hamilton’s writing improves with each novel. However, I’m only a few chapters into book two in the series (The Laughing Corpse), and already have encountered enough references to the A/C and Anita’s sweat to discourage me from continuing the series.

Lexi Smart wakes up in the hospital one day to discover she’s lost all memory of the last 3 years of her life. All she remembers is being the frumpy, unappreciated girl everyone calls “Snaggletooth” due to her uneven teeth and untailored wardrobe. But the Lexi that wakes up in the hospital is completely different — she’s toned and sleek with designer clothes, she’s now the director of her department at work, and she’s married to a hunky millionaire and lives in a massive penthouse overlooking London. Yep, apparently, all that can happen in 3 years! As Lexi tries to recover her memories of the last 3 years, she starts to learn about the person she’s become. Nope, no suprises with this plot line. The Lexi of 3 years ago was a much nicer, more joyful person than the Lexi who wakes up looking perfect and living the rich life.

I can’t say this was a good novel. It was predictable and the story won’t be memorable down the road (good thing I have this blog). It wasn’t as fun as Kinsella’s “Shopaholic” series (which, in my opinion started losing the fun factor after the second book, anyway), though there are some funny bits here and there to keep you rooting for Lexi along the way. I also think the ending was decent enough, which is good since I hate finishing books and being disappointed with the turn of events at the end. But overall, not something I’d recommend unless you’re looking for a quick and fluffy read with an uncomplicated story that won’t require any thinking. (more…)

Joe Carpenter lost his wife and two daughters to a horrific plane crash with no survivors that authorities blamed on a mechanical error. He accepts the explanation, but can’t accept his family’s deaths. For a year, Joe has shut himself off from the world, locked up in his apartment, grieving his losses. On the first year anniversary of their deaths, Joe visits their graves and finds a woman there, photographing their tombstones. The woman claims to be the sole survivor of the plane crash that had killed over 300 others on board. But before she can explain how this is possible, she is chased away by two men intent on keeping her quiet. Joe’s curiosity is piqued, and he starts to think that if it’s possible she survived, perhaps others did too… perhaps his own wife and daughters could have survived. Using his skills as a former crime journalist, Joe starts investigating the two men trying to keep the sole survivor quiet, and begins to learn things about the crash that suggest all is not as it seems, and perhaps there is hope that his family will be returned to him. (more…)

Timothy Carrier is sitting in a bar one night when a man comes in, sits down next to him, slides over an envelope full of cash and a picture of a woman, and tells him he’ll get the other half of the money after he kills the woman. At first, Tim thinks the man is joking, but it quickly becomes apparent to him the man has mistaken him for a killer-for-hire. The man leaves before Tim can explain he isn’t a killer, and before he can go after him, the door opens again and the real killer walks in and takes the vacant seat next to Tim. Realising the killer and the man who hired him don’t know each other, Tim decides to pretend he is the man who hired the killer. Removing the picture from the envelope, he slides the cash over to the hitman and tells him that he’s changed his mind, he doesn’t want the woman killed after all, and he should take the money as a no-kill fee for his troubles. (more…)

Isabella Swan thinks her mother would he happier in her new marriage if she didn’t have to be responsible for her seventeen-year-old daughter. So Bella moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona, where she’s been living with her mother nearly her whole life, to live with her father, the police chief in the small town Forks, Washington. Bella doesn’t like Forks. It rains all the time and sunshine is rare. But she wants her mother to be happy, and she knows her father will be happy to have her live with him. Besides, she figures she can survive a year in the rain before she becomes an adult and goes to college.

All the students in her new high school welcome her, everyone but the stunningly beautiful Cullen family. But Bella soon learns that it’s not just her; the Cullens just prefer to stick to themselves, never making friends with anyone. Something about them seems odd, and Bella is mesmerized, especially by the mysterious Edward Cullen, who is the only Cullen that seems to despise her for some reason that she can’t figure out. Though she wishes she didn’t, Bella can’t help but find herself thinking about Edward and wanting him to like her even though everything he does and says to her suggests that he wishes he were as far away from her as possible. (more…)

I love myths, in fact, the mythology course at University was probably my favorite course of all time. I loved learning about the Greek and Roman myths; something about them just intrigues me. So it’s not a stretch for me to like the stories behind the superheroes of comic books too.

This book crossed my path at the library and once I started flipping through the pages, I got sucked right into it. It’s not so much the text that appealed to me, but the pictures. This isn’t a book about the mythology of the superheroes; it’s a biography of the artist Alex Ross and how he got into the comic book business, as well as an anthology of some of the work he’s done. I didn’t end up paying much attention to the words so much as I looked at the pictures, which are great. Though I will say that Alex Ross was pretty talented as a kid, so it’s not surprising he grew up to be an artist. All you with young children out there that love drawing should nurture that creativity; you never know what they’ll grow up to become.

Mixtionary: Mixed-up modern words for the mixed-up modern world is a “dictionary” of words created by the melding together of two or more words. When I heard about this book, I thought it would be a fun read. My husband and I have mixed-up words we use in our own conversations that belong to just us (for example, “Perfused” — being perplexed and confused). So when I was contacted by a publicist for this book to read and review here, I agreed because I thought it would be fun to discover more mixed-up words. (more…)

One of the perks of the good old world wide web is that this blog is out there for people to read what I write. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so this medium satisfies the desire to write and to be read, if only on this small scale. Plus, with various web goodies like Site Meter and WordPress’s stats features letting me know things such as where people are viewing my blog from to what terms people enter into search engines that lead them here, I know that I get visitors from all over the world, which is very cool. Other book bloggers, as well as professors, students, friends, and the occasional pervert Googling “Kristina’s sex blog” find their way here. Sometimes they stay and read for a while… and sometimes they get disappointed there’s actually no sex here and they move on. But the point is that they find their way here. What does all this have to do with The List? Well, Aneva Stout’s publicist came up with a really great way to get her client some free publicity with the idea to contact book bloggers and offer to send them a complimentary copy of the book to read and review on the site. The book is reviewed, the review is read by someone who thinks they might like to read it too, and then just like that, Stout’s got herself at least one new reader. And if the readers like the book, they’ll probably pick up her next book (if she were to write one), and all it took was a few complimentary copies of the book to pass out to bloggers and some postage. Smart thinking.

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This is a story about sisters who couldn’t be more different from each other. Rose, the older sister, is responsible, highly educated, successful, and the only real interesting thing about her is the fabulous shoe collection she has even though the rest of her wardrobe is drab. Her sister, Maggie, is gorgeous, wildly promiscuous, and unable to hold down a job for longer than a month at a time due to her severe learning disabilities.

Maggie is always getting into financial troubles, but thanks to her sister’s generousity, she always lands on her feet (usually wearing a pilfered pair of her sister’s most expensive shoes) and usually ends up over-staying her welcome at her sister’s home whenever she’s been evicted from her own apartments.

Hard to believe, but they’re jealous of each other for different reasons. I can understand why Maggie envies her sister’s success and intellect, and I know she really envies the fact that when she opens Rose’s wallet, there’s always cash in there to take. But why Rose envies Maggie’s carefree ways and ability to look good all the time is lost on me. It doesn’t seem like Rose has low self-esteem, but apparently she does. (more…)