This photo is of a piece of art in front of the Denver Public Library. Did not have a ton of time for reading in October. We spent a good portion of our time painting and remodeling the new condo and moving, so I often would collapse in bed too exhausted to even pick up a book.
Here are the books I read in October:
A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion by Ron Hansen (library)
The Gardener Heist by Ulrich Boser (library)
Mule by Tony D'Souza (library)
Fear Less by Gavin De Becker (library)
The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard
Garnet Hill by Denise Mina (library)
The Silent Land by Graham Joyce (library)
Iron House by John Hart (library)
Long Gone by Alafair Burke (library)
Heart of the Matter by Emily Griffin (library)
The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure (library)
The Girl who fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow (library)
Malled by Caitlin Kelly (library)
The Lying Game by Sara Shepard (library)
A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion is a fictionalized account of the true life murder that was the inspiration for Double Indemnity (book and movie) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (book and movie). I enjoyed it quite a lot!
The Gardener Heist is about the theft of $500 million worth of artwork from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. I have visited the museum and seen the empty frames where the artwork used to be. So I was very interested in this story.
Mule is about a man who is hit hard by the recession and becomes a drug trafficker to make ends meet. If you like the Showtime series Weeds, then you ought to check out this book. It is very much about a guy who is "NOT A DRUG DEALER" getting involved in the drug trade and finding out that he has a talent for it.
Fear Less by Gavin De Becker. (His book the Gift of Fear is really great.) Fear Less focuses on the fears of terrorism after 9/11. Many people rarely see the effects of 9/11 on our world, or don't even notice them so much. But it totally affected my job and my life, so I found this interesting.
The Silent Land by Graham Joyce, can't wait to read more by this author. This was a creepy surrealistic book about a couple who are trapped in an avalanche, and how they survive. Very good and Stephen King recommends another book by this author called Indigo, so that one is on my TBR list now too.
The Boys of My Youth by JoAnn Beard, I read her "InZanesville" last month and loved it. So I am now reading everything that she has written. This is a collection of autobiographical essays and once again, I was sad to see it come to an end. I could read her stuff all day long.
Garnet Hill is a mystery/psychological thriller set in Glasgow, Scotland. A woman having an affair with a therapist (but not her therapist) finds him dead in her apartment and she is a suspect in the murder. Kind of dark, the characters are not cracking many jokes in this one, but an enjoyable read if you like this kind of thing...fans of Minette Walters, Kate Atkinson etc. might want to try Denise Mina.
Long Gone is a thriller much like the movie starring Liam Neeson, "Unknown". A girl finds a perfect job in an art gallery and one day comes in to find a body. It turns out that everything she thought about her life was a lie. The art gallery, her boss, it was all a set up for this murder....I quite enjoyed it.
Iron House is a thriller by John Hart, he was recommended to me. And it was pretty good, but I did not like the female characters. I was very annoyed by one of them and hoped that she would be killed off, so I did not have to read about her spineless whining anymore. I don't know if I will read any more by him, perhaps I will give him a chance at a later date.
Heart of the Matter is a chick-lit book by Emily Giffin. She has a huge fan base and authored Something Borrowed, which was made into a movie. This one is a look at infidelity in a marriage, it was okay.
I loved the Wilder Life and I might just have to devote an entire blog entry to it! McClure traces her journeys to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder tourist sights around the country and talks about her fascination and love for the books (and the TV show). Since I dragged my granny to see the sights along the Laura Ingalls Wilder Highway across Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota, I was very familiar with much of the book. If you are a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, don't miss this one!!
The Girl who Fell from the Sky was a book about a bi-racial girl who is abandoned by her (black) father when her (white) mother commits suicide. She is sent to live with her paternal grandmother in Portland, OR. I enjoyed this look at the bi-racial experience.
Malled is about the retail life much like "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich. Caitlin Kelly also had a lot of information from Paco Underhill, the author of "Why We Buy: the science of shopping". I used to work retail and what I do now is not that much different from retail. I always like this subject matter.
The Lying Game: I said that I was not going to read another Sara Shepard, Pretty Little Liars book, but this is a stand alone title about a twin who is murdered and the twin who takes over her life. Sounds a lot like a certain Sarah Michelle Geller TV show called Ringer that is currently airing.
Only 14 books read in October.
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2 comments:
Wow--I know libraries all over the country have had budget cuts, but wow, to go so far as to paint in fake books instead of just buying real ones? *shaking head* ;o)
-- Ryan
Hey, Ryan, I like those "fake" books :)...we think there used to b a box in the general vicinity...
Amanda, how have I missed your book lists before? You gave me a great idea for our personal website -- thanks -- and brought a couple of books to my attention that I had missed.
Just read Iron House last month as well and had some of the same thoughts. Think I have read Hart previously and liked him...will have to do some research.
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