A Giveaway!! The Intercept!!

OK, I am not quite sure how it happen,
but somehow I ended up with 2, count 'em, 2 copies of The Intercept.
So I took it as a sign from the stars that it is time for a giveaway.
As I said, I have two copies,
one very gently read and one untouched by human hands,
both Advanced Review Copies.
Hey, they look just like that book on the left!

So, if you would like a slightly late Christmas present, just leave a comment.
And leave an e-mail address!
No address, no entry.
So leave an e-mail address. OK?
I will pick the two lucky winners on January 4th, so jump on in!!

Review of "Midwinter Blood"

Midwinter Blood: A Thriller by Mons Kallentoft 
Atria/Emily Bestler Books, ISBN 978-1451642476
June 5, 2012, 464 pages

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When Inspector Malin Fors and her partner Zeke Martinsson are called to investigate a dead body, they come upon a murder scene that is about as bleak as bleak can be.
In a snow covered field is a lone oak tree and hanging from the tree is the beaten and tortured, naked body of a very dead, very obese man. It is a murder that brings to mind the “midwinter blood” sacrifices of Viking times, a theory they actually consider for a time, because in this Internet age, all sorts of strange people get involved in all sort of strange rituals.

But while the death of Bengt Andersson, an eccentric loner, may have it's roots in the past, it is not a past that goes back quite that far. Or one that is unrelated to some other horrible and violent crimes both past and present. That pure white winter landscape can hide some very dark deeds.

There are some things I liked quite a bit about this book.
I will admit I am a fan of these rather bleak Scandinavian mysteries, red blood against that pure white snow, the brutal cold.
And the author, Mons Kallentoft has quite a reputation. Midwinter Blood is the first in a series he was written about Malin Fors and the books have been very popular in Sweden.
Without question, the best thing about the book is Fors. As I have often said we love our flawed cops and Fors is indeed flawed. The divorced mother of a 13 year old daughter who lives with her, she appears on the edge of a very serious alcohol problem. Then there is the reporter she seems to hate, but not enough to stop sleeping with him, an ex-husband she can't quite cut herself off from and she is really a pretty lousy mother. Not that those things would necessarily stop us from liking our fictional cop!
OK, that is the good news.

Now the problems.
This book is slow, at times painfully slow. Too slow. Big and sloooow.
There is a much better 300 pages book hiding in this 450+ page one. 
I will admit that I was forced to skim a bit to reach the end, a shameful thing. I was losing interest, but had to find out what happened. Which is still a good thing, I guess, that I cared.

And then there is Bengt, the dead man. Yes, he is dead, but that does not stop him being one of the narrators of the book, observing and commenting on things as he watches them trying to solve his murder. It sounds a bit forced, and is sometimes confusing, but it could have worked. Except for the fact that the Bengt that is talking to us seems nothing like the Bengt whose life and history the police uncover. Odd. Maybe you get a lot more insightful once you are dead.

As I said, this is the first in the series, written in 2007 but just translated into English this year. There are four additional books already written and I assume see will see them in the US market soon, as popular as these Scandinavian mysteries have become.
But I am not sure I will be back for another.

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A Review of "A Hard Death" [53]

A Hard Death: A Novel by Jonathan Hayes
Harper, ISBN 978-0061691768
April 12, 2011, 432 pages

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When disgraced pathologist Dr. Edward Jenner loses his medical license in his home of NYC, he is happy to receive the invitation from his old mentor to fill in during his vacation. The pay in Port Fontaine, Florida might not be much, but it's something. That is until he called to the site of a body found out in the glades, a body that appears to have been tortured before his death..and it turn out to be that same mentor, Dr. Martin Roburn. Things get even worse when he is called to another murder, in fact four decomposing bodies, of Mexican migrant workers, tied up in the trees on an island deep in the swamp, and there are signs the murders may be connected.

Before you can jump in the airboat, we are in the middle of a fast paced thriller involving drug cartels, the very wealthy local country club set, child sex trade, and a sick and violent conspiracy that will go to the very heart of the community. It soon becomes apparent to Jenner that there may be very few people he can trust and it will be a race to see who will get taken down first, them or him.

Jenner is a classic flawed, troubled hero, yet smart and with a deep sense of justice. Perhaps to fully understand him you should read the author's first book, Precious Blood, that had Jenner in NYC pursuing a serial killer. I didn't, but I think we receive enough information in this book for that not to be an issue.
Jenner, like so many of these flawed fellows. has a bad habit of going after the wrong woman, in this case a local rich girl, Maggie Craine. Her scene with her father by the pool was truly creepy and will leave you considering taking a shower. Meanwhile there is that nice park ranger Deb, who our good doc seems to ignore again and again. Will these guys never learn? But Jenner is not above talking on some danger, even the female variety, for a good cause.
A fast paced, totally entertaining thriller, as hot and dangerous as the steamy Everglade setting.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Think of This When You Post Your Next Review...

You read a book and sadly, you hate it. You must tell the truth, warn fellow potential buyers out there, right? So you go to Amazon, and post that 1 star review. But what happens next....

Hey! That's Sort of Cool!

I admit that I check out the NY Times bestsellers list. I like to see what is on there, see which I have read and might want to check out. But folks, let's be real. Dan Brown is locked into first place once again and we all know that I, along with a large number of readers, don't have the highest opinion of his work. So what if there was a site that melded together the NYT list and some big review site, say the star rating from Amazon. Certainly a lot of reviews there.
Well, someone has done it and the result is Reading Radar, a site created by self described "mashup posterboy" John Herren. It employs something called API, application programming interface, which I have absolutely no understanding of...but the result is cool.

By the way, you will see that Dan's book might be the #1 seller...but it only got two little stars.

I Need A Plan...So I Plan to Check Out Musing Monday.

So, let's see what this weeks question is from the ever curious Just One More Page!

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about note taking…

Do you take notes while reading – either for your reviews or for yourself? How/where do you make these notes (on the page, post-its, scrap paper, notebooks etc)?

I will admit it. I am a bad book reviewer.

I don't mean that the result is bad...I leave that to you, my dear readers, to decide. Maybe yes, maybe no. No, I mean I am very bad at actually going about it. I have no system.

Really, I have been doing this for awhile now, certainly over a year now and I have written a goodly number of reviews, so one would think that I would have it down pat, but I do not. Which may also explain why I have a small pile of books, sitting in my view, waiting to be reviewed. Now that pile is not to be confused with the pile of ARCs to be read. Or the pile of library books to be read. Or the much larger pile of the general To Be Read pile.

I know that there should never be, for me, a pile to be reviewed, because I MUST write the review while the book is fairly fresh in my mind. Not immediately..it needs to ferment overnight or an afternoon maybe. But I know if I finish a book, put it down and start another book, I am in trouble. My wee mind will soon be full of the new book and it will just take me that much longer to get back to what I felt, what I wanted to say, about the review book. So, sometime it joins The Pile Granted, this is where notes might come in. So, what about notes. Do I take notes and if so, do they help?

Well, here again I have not really found a system that works for me all the time.
I do not write in books.
That is just evil.
A notebook would seem too much like work. And work is always to be avoided.(don't mention that to my boss, ok?)
On occasion, I have used regular sized post-it notes to write some ideas down and stuck them in the book near a quote that it refers to, but that has problems. First, my handwriting is awful. Often I have no idea what the note says when I go back to read it. Second, I hate to pause to find the post-it, the pen, actually write the note. I know, I should be better organized, but I am not and have come to peace with that. So now, I usually stick one of those wee post-its or those arrow-like post-its pointing to what I think is an important point in the book. I love the cute dispensers and I got a big pack of them at Sam's Club, so I can stash some all over the place. Then, before I start to write the review, I go back and look at all the things that I have 'highlighted'.

About half of them usually make sense to me. I study the rest, trying to figure out why in the world I thought that was important.
Then I lay down and take a nap.
Perhaps you now see my reviewing problem.

I really need to get a better system.... ;-)

Do you Miss Me...I Missed My Musing Monday

Did ya all notice I posted no Musing Monday last week? Well, I didn't because I was on a cruise ship, heading up the coast of Alaska and the Internet connection on the ship was SOOOOOO slow, it drove me nuts.
But I am in the Anchorage today, so I thought I would drop in again with a muse. So what is today question?

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about sticking with it…

How much time (or how many pages) do you give a book that you aren't really enjoying before you'll set it aside? If you're reading it for a book group discussion, or for review, will you give it more of a chance then, say, a book you're reading for your own interest? Why, or why not?

Back when I first started blogging, I read a very good line of advice on another blog, that life was too short to spend it reading a book you don't want to read.
I must say, I have a hard time giving up on a book. I respect books and I respect authors and the work that put into a book. Especially one that I have excepted for review. When I do that, except a book, I feel a commitment. And yes, I will most likely give it more of a chance than one I am just reading on my own.

But...honestly, it only goes so far. Some books are just very, very poor. Several of them have been self published books, but a few were books published by major publishers. Sadly, I have found, that is not a guarantee of quality. Some are just bad. Badly written, badly edited.
Some, are just not my cup of tea...and yes, life is too short to force yourself to read something that you hate.

How long to I give it? It depends. Maybe 50-60 pages on average, which I think is fair. Then I put it aside and go on to other things. I always tell myself that I will go back to it, but it reality, I have my doubts that I every will. Poor is poor...and I am not changing my cuppa tea at this point in life.

And that TBR pile is getting no smaller...

Well, I must go. A am off to a day of fly fishing tomorrow, on some remote stream or lake that we will fly into. So I need my rest.

Anyone wish that they were here too? I am sure there is room on the wee plane.

The Carnival is in town! No elephants though....

Oh, it is a book carnival! That explains it.
In fact, it is the 13th Book Review Carnival over at Bookish Ruth, with links to over 50 reviews of a wide variety.

Fiction, non-fiction, romance, mysteries, children's, YA, Christian....golly, there are even reviews of a book of poetry. What more can you ask for?

Oh, look, one of mine!

So be sure to check it out!
I am hoping for a balloon thought....

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