Vamped

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Vamped : A Novel

David Sosnowski

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I always enjoy a good vampire story, so when I saw Vamped staring at me from the library shelf, I had to take it home.

In this alternate future, the only humans left are farm-raised for uber-rich vampires (all the others have been vamped already), and a single box of Count Chocula goes for several hundred dollars on ebay. Then Marty, an eighty year old vampire, and the person who was responsible for the vamping of the world, finds a five year old mortal child on the run from one of the farms, and instead of killing her, or vamping her into a Screamer (as other child-vamps are called), he decides to raise her as his daughter.

Plot twists and romance are woven through the story, but the parts that I enjoyed most were the descriptions of societal changes – grocery stores selling mainly bleach and laundry detergent, and apartments built without toilets, for example.

Leap of Faith

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Leap of Faith : Memoirs of an Unexpected Life

Queen Noor

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I borrowed this from a friend about a month ago because she seemed to really enjoy it, and I wasn’t disappointed in the least, though I did take forever to really begin reading it, which is rare for me.

In most respects, this is a fairly straightforward tale of the way an American girl named Lisa ends up being Queen Noor of Jordan, and that part of the book was interesting enough. But the first-hand explanations of the political, cultural, and social climate in that part of the world, from the early seventies to today, was really what gripped me.

The events are all well-known to most of us.
The perspective is new, and interesting.

Velocity

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Velocity

Dean Koontz

In all honesty, I didn’t choose this book. It was a monthly selection from some book club and I forgot to fill out the reply box OR visit the website. Still, when a book shows up at your door, you may as well read it.

I began reading it the day before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince arrived, and finished it a couple days after, and am finally posting it now, because I’ve been reading fanfic for a week.

Anyway, it’s a thriller, in which an average guy finds a note on his windshield after his shift as a bartender. If he goes to the police, someone will be killed, but if he doesn’t go, someone ELSE will die. As the book moves forward, the notes come with increasing frequency, and our average guy must find the murderer and stop him before he himself is arrested for the vari0us killings.

Typical of Koontz, the characters are people any of us could know, and live in situations that are completely familiar, and it is this familiarity that sucked me in, and kept me reading. It was a fast-paced story, and totally gripping.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)

J. K. Rowling

After waiting two years for this installment, the second to last in the Harry Potter series, it seems a shame that I finished it in about four hours, not including the nap I took around page 204, and the ninety minutes I was out of the house for dinner with my husband.

I think at this point people need to get beyond the “children’s book” label for this series. EVERYONE is reading them, not just children. This book was both more and less dark than it’s immediate predessor (less CapsLock!Harry, but with a major character death, and many many shades of grey) , but it still was heavy on exposition, as seems to be typical with the middle books in ANY series.

I can’t write any more about it without giving away the details. It’s enough to say that the next two years (the minimum duration we must wait for book seven) will crawl by, at least in the Potterverse, and many of us who dabble in fanfic have to restructure our versions of Rowling’s sandbox.

The Map of Love

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The Map of Love : A Novel

by Ahdaf Soueif

Ahdaf Soueif’s The Map of Love is a multi-generational story that takes place in both New York and Cairo.

A woman named Isabel meets a famous Egyptian conductor at a party in Manhattan, and he offers to give her names of friends in Cairo, knowing she’s headed there to research a project. She’s found some old letters from her grandmother, and wants to trace them, and learn her family’s story.

The conductor sends her to his sister, and together the woman piece together the story of Lady Winterbourne, and her romance with Sharif Pasha al Barudi in turn-of-the-century (19th to 20th) Egypt.

It’s a great love story, as well as an interesting portrait of modern Egypt.

STTNG: Immortal Coil

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Star Trek: The Next Generation #64: Immortal Coil

Jeffrey Lang

I bought the eBook version of this because I was desperate for instant-gratification in the form of mind-candy, and Trek books always qualify. This one is the only novel that features EmotionChip!Data, and it’s also the only full-fledged Data-romance.

A fanfic author I respect once said that she didn’t think it was possible to write a credible romance for Data. I disagreed at the time, but after reading this, and finding that many of the scenarios were more than a bit contrived, I’ve changed my mind.

Still, it was enjoyable, in a guilty-pleasure sort of way.

Storm Front

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Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1)

Storm Front

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Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a detective named after three magicians, which is appropriate, since he’s a wizard. Storm Front, the first novel in The Dresden Files, introduces us to Harry, who is a little bit snarky, a little bit romantic, and more than a little bit of a gentleman, despite his lack of finances.

The mystery is interesting, with a good balance of action and exposition, and the world – an alternative Chicago – is just enough like our own that it’s believable.

The overall tone? Sara Paretsky meets the Supernatural. I’m eager to read the rest of the series.

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

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Walking on Water : Reflections on Faith and Art (Wheaton Literary)

Madeleine L’Engle

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I picked this up a couple months ago, but put it aside, because I’d been reading so much religious/spiritual stuff that my head was getting clogged. I’m glad I waited, because this book, really a series of essays, was refreshing and inspiring.

L’Engle’s been a favorite author of mine since I first read A Wrinkle in Time when I was seven or eight, and I’ve read much of her fiction (both fantasy and not) over the years, as well as her Crosswicks Journals. It seems I always find a L’Engle work in my hands just when I most need one.

THIS book included the author’s reflections on what makes a Christian book, or a children’s book, and included some interesting etymology on words like “whole” and “holy.”

I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, but if you’re inclined to this sort of reading, definitely add it to your list.

Industrial Magic

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Industrial Magic

Kelley Armstrong

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The fourth installment in the Women of the Otherworld series picks up just a few months after Dime Store Magic, and continues the story of Page and Savannah, this time throwing in a series of murders of young Cabal relatives as the mystery plot. Paige and her sorcerer boyfriend Lucas must track down the murderer while protecting their young ward, and maintaining their new relationship.

As with the previous novels, it’s a fast-paced, entertaining read.

Dime Store Magic

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Dime Store Magic : Women of the Otherworld

Kelley Armstrong

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Dime Store Magic the third installment in Ms. Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series changes its focus from Elena the werewolf to Paige the witch and foster-mother. It’s as much a tale about mother-daughter relationships as it is about witchcraft and sorcery, with not a little romance thrown in. A delightful read, and consistant with the world Armstrong has introduced to us in the previous two novels.