Book 56- Snuff

Hand to God the premise of this book is the that a porn star decides to participate in the largest gang-bang ever- she's going to have sex with 600 men on film, all at one time. And if she dies, then she'll leave her life insurance to the child she gave up for adoption.

This story is told in alternating chapters between 3 men who are waiting in line for their turn to be "with" the porn star, and her personal assistant.

This is a dark comedy by author Chuck Palahniuk. Oh yeah, it was gross but still so very funny, in a tongue in cheek way... no pun intended.

Book 55- Faithful Place

Another wonderful novel from Tana French is Faithful Place. This thriller brings Frank into the limelight. He's the head of the Dublin (Ireland) Undercover squad. And now he's involved in a cold case homicide in his own back yard. His high school girlfriend who vanished on the night he was to run away with her to elope suddenly turns up as a dead body back in his old neighborhood, a place, a faithful Place where he hasn't sent foot in 22 years. Until now.

French continue spinning a fabulous thriller, while not all that complex, is still compelling. Her in depth characterization Frank and those around him still astounds me with every novel of hers I devour. I like that she can take a popular medium like "thriller" and take it into the world of literature with detailed character analysis. This is an excellent story.

And while Frank is a secondary character in her previous two novels, he takes center stage in this one. I appreciate that French keeps her setting and tone consistent but brings out the different characters with every novel. I love the Dublin setting, one of my favorite cities ever. I also love that while these are similar in setting, character and context, these are stand alone novels- they aren't really a series nor do they have to be read in any sort of order to be enjoyed.

Excellent third outing from French and I'm eagerly await more!

Book 54- 61 Hours

This is a great Jack Reacher book. He's former Army and is now a loner with no belongings and travels the world, righting wrongs when he finds them and just taking in life.

Until he finds himself on a bus tour with a bunch of senior citizens. The bus crashes in the middle of a South Dakota winter. Reacher goes with the seniors into the nearest town and learns of some evil afoot. He's befriended by the assistant chief of police and Reacher decides to stay and help right some wrongs in this small town where a prison was recently built.

Excellent thriller. Lots of twists and turns. A good read!

Book 53- Private

Typical beach read from James Patterson...

Jack Morgan owns a private security company that does PI for the rich and famous. When his best friend's wife is killed, he sets out to find the murderer, even if it means breaking the rules.

Jack's hunt for her killer brings about harm and terror; revenge is good.

Good stuff, and a super fast read.

Book 52- Walking Dead

Walking Dead by Greg Rucka is part of the Atticus Kodiak series. Atticus is going after a missing girl who's been sold into prostitution as revenge for evil her father had wrought. Atticus finds himself going around the world, hunting her, in hopes to bring her back to some sort of safe life. While his girlfriend Alena disapproves because it might ruin their lives and ruin the cover they've developed over the years, he must still do it anyway to right a wrong.

Pretty exciting stuff, and it was nice to see a character appear from Atticus's body guarding days. Even though there was quite a bit of Russian "stuff" it was still easy to follow. Lots of action!

What was I thinking?

Okay in theory it seemed like a good idea to read a whole bunch of books with the same theme: memoirs written by women who turned to cooking careers. I checked out several of these from the library and started reading and... it's not the fun I thought it would be,

I read Julie and Julia last year and it was awesome, and I loved it. I also read I Loved I Lost I Made Spaghetti and loved it as well. Ditto the recently read The Sharper the Knife, the Less You Cry. I also read a few others so that's what nudged this project along for me. I thought since I tend to gravitate to these books and enjoy them, reading several for a theme month would be fun. I was wrong.

First, I screwed up because I ended up with books that weren't exactly what I was looking for. While Spaghetti, Knife and Julie were about just regular women doing cooking, the books I found were a bit different. I read Garlic and Sapphires which was about a woman who was a food critic for the NYTimes. While it was interesting, it wasn't what I wanted, exactly. I read The Recipe Club which was a fictional story of the friendship between two women told through letters and recipes. While it wasn't what I wanted, I did, however, REALLY enjoy it, and was glad I found it (thanks for the recommendation from a fellow blogger who pens Food for Thought!)

Then I found a book called Spoonfed about a woman who turned critic and something about her messed up life and blah blah blah. I have to admit I didn't even finish it! Spiced was about the alleged drama in the life of a new pastry chef. And it wasn't that dramatic as it claimed to be; I read it cover to cover waiting for the spiciness.

I wanted more of a feel like Julie, Knife and Spaghetti, I guess. Or maybe I read too many of the same genre all together. Whatever my problem, I just know it wasn't my best plan. So now, I'm back to mixing it up a bit. I'm got lots of good books in my stack:

• a new Greg Rucka book with the Atticus Kodiak character
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• Little Bee by Chris Cleave
• The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
• State Fair (a Bennie Harper mystery) by Earlene Fowler
• Beachcombers

So with that failed projected off my plate, I can turn to my waiting list of books, which is about 100 right now. Until I come up with another harebrained scheme!

Happy reading!
Mags