the ice princess

the ice princess
camilla lackberg
fiction/mystery
pegasus
published 2010

A grisly death exposes the dark heart of a Scandinavian seaside village.  Erica Falck returns to her tiny, remote hometown of Fjallbacka, Sweden, after her parents' deaths only to encounter another tragedy: the suicide of her childhood best friend, Alex. It's Erica herself who finds Alex's body - suspended in a bathtub of frozen water, her wrists slashed.  Erica is bewildered: Why would a beautiful woman who had it all take her own life?  Teaming up with police detective Patrik Hedstrom, Erica comes to light, Erica and Patrik's curiosity gives way to obsession - and their flirtation grows into uncontrollable attraction.  But it's not long before one thing becomes very clear: a deadly secret is at stake, and there's someone out there who will do anything - even commit murder - to protect it.

Camilla Lackberg's The Ice Princess was hailed to be a good book for fans of Stieg Larsson and while it was a decent story, it was no The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Translated from Swedish, I think there were times when something was lost in translation or something was explained too much due to the translation.

I think it was a little over halfway through the book when one sentence caused the whole thing to click for me and I knew who and why.  At that point it made the second half of the book unbearably slow.  It just seemed like it took a really long time to wrap up loose ends and even after the killer is revealed and arrested there was still a while before the book finished.

The other thing that bothered me was the unfinished business with Erica's sister and brother-in-law.  I kept waiting for that to happen and it never did so I felt like I was left hanging there.  Seeing as this is a series I suppose eventually it will get figured out, but it still bugged me.  I'll give it one more book and see how I feel then.

field of prey

field of prey
lucas davenport #24
john sandford
fiction/thriller/mystery
putnam
published 2014

The night after Fourth of July, Layton Burns, Jr., of Red Wing, Minnesota, finally got lucky.  And unlucky.

He'd picked the perfect spot to lose his virginity to his girlfriend, and abandoned farmyard in the middle of cornfields: nice, private and quiet.  The only problem was ... something smelled bad, like, really bad.  He mentioned it to a county deputy he knew, and when the cop took a look, he found a body stuffed down a cistern.  And then another, and another.

By the time Lucas Davenport was called in, the police were up to fifteen bodies, and counting.  And as if that wasn't bad enough, when Lucas began to investigate, he made some disturbing discoveries of his own.  The victims had been killed over a great many years, one every summer, regular as clockwork.  How could this have happened without anybody noticing?

Because one thing was for sure: The killer had to live close by.  He was probably even someone they saw every day.

I love these books.  I love these books so much I'm considering blowing off all the books I have started reading and just going back to Rules of Prey and start the whole series over again.  Honestly, they really do just get better and better.  After Stolen Prey and Letty's amazing freaking amazing-ness (there's really no words for how much I love Letty) and then the appearance of Kidd & Lauren in Silken Prey I really didn't imagine that things would get even better, but they did.

Here's why John Sandford is such a perfect story teller: He tells a slow burner story.  There is this HUGE case in Red Wing and Lucas isn't even the head investigator.  He's the heavy.  He's the one Rose Marie sends in to get shit done.

So he's doing.  And usually he's doing with Del, Jenkins or Shrake along for the ride, but this time there's stuff going on all over the place and everyone, including Virgil are off on other cases.  So Lucas is poking around.  And the whole time you know who the killer is.  You know how close and how far they are from him.  But everything is taking time.  Lucas jumps to the wrong conclusions, makes assumptions that are close, but not right.  He gets the guy, right there, but then skips right over him.  And you, as the reader are thinking, holy crap!  He's RIGHT THERE!

But you're not mad, because if you've read a Lucas Davenport book you know he'll get it done.

So you wait.  And while things are moving slowly you aren't frustrated or bored.  Sandford somehow makes the mundane interesting.  In the middle of the giant case, Lucas goes home so he can go shopping to buy new shoes.  But that's how real life works.  Cases don't get solved right away.  Sometimes months go by.  Sometimes cases go cold.

But then shit hits the fan.  And it isn't even anything to do with what you think it should be, but damn it, I'm invested.  I'm invested in all of these people.  For most of them, I've been with them for 20 years.  They're like my book friends.

So some shit hits the fan, but then all of a sudden, ALL of the shit hits the fan and I've got 88 more pages to go and I'm slapping my legs, bouncing up and down, pulling my hair, everything but biting my nails.  And it is so intense that when it's over I feel drained.  I feel relief and I feel spent.

Lucas is flawed.  And he's bent and twisted and ruthless.  But he is good and dependable and loyal and a fucking maniac.  And damnit I love Weather.  I love that she knows this man so well and loves him for it, expects nothing less than who he is, what he's capable of.

There is no better author out there.  None.

batwoman: world's finest

batwoman: world's finest
j. h. williams & w. haden blackma
graphics/superheroes
dc comics
published 2013

Batwoman's search for Medusa brings her together with the Amazing Amazon, Wonder Woman, but even the teaming of the World's Finest might not be enough to bring down the mythological monster -- leading Bones, the DEO, Abbot and the Religion of Crime all descend on Gotham City to take part in the fight.

*yawn*

Basically, that's what I felt about this volume.  I was hoping I'd really like this series, especially since Suicide Squad was ending and I could subscribe to another comic.  But it won't be Batwoman.

It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great.  It took so long to get some sort of closure in this story arc I really wanted to see it through, but halfway through I just wanted it to be over.  So much inner dialogue.

I'm just not into Batwoman.

the museum of extraordinary things

the museum of extraordinary things
alice hoffman
historical fiction/romance
scribner
published 2014

Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses.  An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father's "museum," alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle.  One night Coralie stumbles upon a stiking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River.

The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father's Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as a tailor's apprentice.  When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman's disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie.

I was incredibly disappointed in this book.  I admit, my opinion is colored in the fact that I don't usually enjoy historical novels, but really it was not a good book.  I think Alice Hoffman wanted to badly to write about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the fire of Dreamland in 1911 that she completely neglected the plot.  This was touted as a the story of two characters who come together and fall in love while surrounded by the mystery of a missing girl and while, for the brief moment Eddie was searching for the girl it was interesting.  And then, she wrapped that up with hardly a peep in a couple of pages and that was the end of that.  After that it was all about the fire of Dreamland.  Even that was disjointed and hard to follow.  I couldn't figure out how everyone ended up where they were and the culmination of the horrors in the book all come down to one short moment with hardly any fanfare at all.  It was a let down.

And as far as the love story was concerned, it was a joke.  I felt nothing for either character.  I could care less how they got together - which happens so far into the book I was beginning to think they book jacket lied to me.  Flat, unsympathetic, boring characters, and unrealistic relationships (Coralie and her father, Coralie and Maureen, Coralie and Eddie).  The characters I enjoyed (Beck, Ella, the liveryman, and Mr. Morris), the characters she wrote to have fire and substance were background characters we hardly got to see.  It felt like she poured all character into these roles and didn't save anything for Coralie and Eddie.

The writing itself was confusing and repetitious.  With the three different narratives the timeline jumped around oddly and there was so much overlapping that I sometimes thought I had accidentally jumped a previous chapter on the kindle.

A disappointment.

batwoman: to drown the world

batwoman: to drown the world
j. h. williams & w. haden blackman
graphics/superhero
dc comics
published 2012

MEDUSA.  Taking its name from the horrifying creature of myth, this global conspiracy of crime has taken its war against goodness to Gotham City.  There, its sinister agents prey upon Gotham's children, using the guises of urban legends.  Ghosts in the mirror searching for bloody retribution.  Monsters in the sewer hungering for innocent lives.  Crazed specters spreading their pain in a tide of blood.  Brutal killers wielding death with a hook-bladed hand.

At MEDUSA's dark heart stands the Mother of Monsters.  Her goal is to drown the world in darkness.

It's bugging me that 1) this story is taking so long to wrap up and 2) the disjointed flip-flopping of the story.  Switching from character to character isn't a big deal, but the time lines going back and forth really irked me.  I like a good, even flow to my books.

There's a whole lot of supernatural in Batwoman's world.  More so than Batman and yet they are from the same Gotham.

I don't think I'll keep reading Batwoman, but I do want to see how this story ends.

monster, vol. 2

monster, vol. 2
naoki urasawa
graphics/manga/suspense
viz media
published 1995

An ice-cold killer is on the loose, and brilliant Dr. Kenzo Tenma is the only one who can stop him!  Conspiracies, serial murders, and a scathing indictment of hospital politics are all masterfully woven together in this compelling manga thriller.

Tenma springs into action when he discovers that Johan, the boy whose life he saved nine years ago, has grown up and turned into a serial killer.  But when Tenma finds out that Johan has strong inside connections with government officials, he realizes that this monster is far more powerful than he could have ever imagined.

Dr. Tenma is searching desperately for clues to Johan & his twin sister's whereabouts, sure that more murders will happen soon if he can't find them.  He teams up with a reluctant reporter and together the try to connect the dots that will ultimately lead them to terror.  The story builds within every page, tension is rife throughout the entire book.  How is that possible?!

The manga reads like a novel, rich and satisfying, but seriously terrifying as well.  I think it's time to rip into this series!

snail mail

my first attempt at sewing patterns on envies

About six months ago I filled out my first form to be matched with a pen pal on the International Geek Girls Pen Pal Club.  I was matched up with another Geek Girl who loves Batman & comics and we've exchanged a couple of letters.  While I was on one of the boards there I joined the reading group (shocker) and another member told me I should check out the League of Extraordinary Pen Pals if I wanted to write/receive more letters.

On the outside the main difference between the two is that the IGGPPC is free and LEP exists on a monthly subscription, but really, that's not all.  On IGGPPC, you get paired based on your interests.  Every month they have an open round and when it's over you're paired, they send each of you an email and you take it from there.  Easy, peasy.

With LEP you decide if you want to pay month by month, or from three months, six months or a whole year.  After you've paid you fill out a form that has your pertinent info and interests and you're directed to join the Facebook page, a closed group page for LEPeeps.  After a day or two you are sent an email with the database.  The database contains all the info you will need to start sending letters.  

my workstation.  hello mr. fillion!

LEP has their main FB group, a reading group, a fountain pen lovers group, a yarn crafters group and a flea market group where members can trade or sell stuff.  There are also off shoots.  One member is doing a project for school and started a group with LEP members for research and another member started a group for her traveling Wreck This Journal project.  The group is very close, very active and it's almost as much fun as writing and receiving letters!

my first batch of envies with the envelope punch board

When I first started I was amazed by everyone's beautiful envelopes and stationery art work.  Washi tape, stickers, envelope punch boards are must-haves when you start your snail mail journey.  Well, they're not must-haves, but you will find yourself coveting them and soon enough you'll have a ridiculous collection and you won't really know how it happened!  

washi tape & stickers, your unnecessary must-haves

I really do love writing letters and getting to know people through written word.  It's nice to keep in touch with friends through Facebook, texts and emails, but there is something sweeter about snail mail.  The time it takes someone to write their letter and mail it makes things more precious.

some postcards to send out random happy mail

Every day that you find a pretty piece of mail in your mailbox you feel like a kid on Christmas Day.  You'll find yourself thinking of new ways to decorate your letters & envelopes and just sending random postcards or greeting cards just because.  I have around 36 pen pals.  It sounds crazy, but surprisingly easy to keep up with.  Of course, at times I get behind and my reply pile will be 20+ deep, but when the writing bug hits you get those letters out and a few more surprise happy mail packets.

 a thank you card i made

The best part about all of this is that it's brought out a crafty side I really didn't think I had!  I'm addicted to watching tutorials on youtube and checking out the picture of the mail other LEPeeps post of mail they're sending out to get inspiration.  In addition to writing letters I've been rubber stamping and my Mother's Day present this year was a Big Shot die cutter and embossing machine that has been so much fun to play with!  I also learned to knit this year which was/is so exciting to me!

my first knitting project

With all these new found hobbies I now have I've decided to bow out of a portion of my reading challenges.  It bums me out to do it, but I want to enjoy everything I'm doing and not be stressed about books I need to read.  While I am bummed, I'm also not because I know I had signed up for way too many challenges this year!  So I'll go through and figure out which challenges I'm still going to attempt.  I'm going to lower my overall goal to 200.

So that's what I've been up to lately, which explains the lack of book reviews.  Hopefully, I'll keep up with blogging and go back to doing more non-book posts.  A pen pal has convinced me to try the #100HappyDays project so maybe I'll post about that too, but we all know how well I do with consecutive day photo challenges!

 If you're interested in getting your own pen pal IGGPPC is currently in open round 14 so check them out!