Yearly Reading Wrap-up at Moonshine and Rosefire

Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading year for yourselves. I am known as Rosefire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog. I originally posted my reviews over at my daughter's blog, Emeraldfire's Bookmark but am now in the process of transferring them all over to my own blog. My daughter makes blogging look like so much fun that I thought that I would try it out for myself! :)

Anyway, I started out January with about 1,031 unread books lying around the house and ended December with...umm...uncountable amounts of books unread. All of the books that I acquired this year came from authors, Price Chopper, Netgalley, Bookmooch, Paperback Swap, Library Book Sales and friends. Quite a number of my books that I read this year left my house to go to new homes so that's something I guess. :)

Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Rereads

Changes to the TBR pile Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- Kramer Versus Kramer by Avery Corman
- The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
- The Sixth Commandment by Lawrence Sanders
- The Missing World: A Novel by Margot Livesey
- Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
- The Friends by Rosa Guy
- Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
- The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer by Robert K. Tannenbaum and Peter S. Greenberg
- The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! :))
- The Most Wanted by Jacquelyn Mitchard
- Ashes to Ashes by Tami Hoag
- The World's Last Mysteries by Reader's Digest
- Criminals: A Novel by Margot Livesey
- The World's Last Mysteries by Reader's Digest
- Rose Madder by Stephen King
- Behind the Mask: A True Story of Obsession and a Savage Genius by Stella Sands 
- 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories by Martin H. Greenberg, Robert H. Weinberg and Stefan Dziemianowicz


Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))
- The Missing World: A Novel by Margot Livesey
- Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
- Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner
- Mercy Street: A Novel by Mariah Stewart
- Love Kills: The Stalking of Diane Newton King by Andy Hoffman
- The Saving Graces: A Novel by Patricia Gaffney
- The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer by Robert K. Tanenbaum and Peter S. Greenberg
- Grave's End: A True Ghost Story by Elaine Mercado, R. N.
- The Senator's Wife by Karen Robards
- No One Left to Tell by Jordan Dane
- Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag
- Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
- The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
- Like Water For Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, With Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies by Laura Esquivel
- Random Hearts by Warren Adler


Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading year for me. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 8
Pages Read: 2,610
Grade Range: A+! to B+!

So, there you go! The reading year that was 2015! I hope that you all had an equally good reading year; if not a little better. :) See you all next year! :)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Reading Wrap-up For January at Moonshine and Rosefire

Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Rosefire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog. I originally posted my reviews over at my daughter's blog, Emeraldfire's Bookmark but am now in the process of transferring them all over to my own blog. My daughter makes blogging look like so much fun that I thought that I would try it out for myself! :)

Anyway, I started out January with 1,031 unread books lying around the house and ended the month with 1.023 books unread. All the books that I acquired this month came from Paperback Swap and Bookmooch
 
Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Rereads

Changes to the TBR pile

Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty
- The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer by Robert K. Tannenbaum and Peter S. Greenberg
- Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
- The Friends by Rosa Guy
- Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
- The Missing World: A Novel by Margot Livesey
- The Sixth Commandment by Lawrence Sanders
- The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
- Kramer Versus Kramer by Avery Corman

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! Not too bad though, I suppose:))
- 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories by Martin H. Greenberg, Robert H. Weinberg and Stefan Dziemianowicz
- Behind the Mask: A True Story of Obsession and a Savage Genius by Stella Sands
- Rose Madder by Stephen King
- Criminals: A Novel by Margot Livesey
- The World's Last Mysteries by Reader's Digest
- Ashes to Ashes by Tami Hoag
- The Most Wanted by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))
- Random Hearts by Warren Adler 
- Like Water For Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, With Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies by Laura Esquivel
- The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
- Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
- Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag
- No One Left to Tell by Jordan Dane
- The Senator's Wife by Karen Robards
- Grave's End: A True Ghost Story by Elaine Mercado, R. N.
- The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer by Robert K. Tanenbaum and Peter S. Greenberg
- The Saving Graces: A Novel by Patricia Gaffney
- Mercy Street: A Novel by Mariah Stewart
- Love Kills: The Stalking of Diane Newton King by Andy Hoffman
- Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner
- Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
- The Missing World: A Novel by Margot Livesey

Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 8
Pages Read: 2,610
Grade Range: A+! to B+!

So, there you go! The reading month that was January. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

January's Book of the Month

 

Hello Everyone! I chose the picture posted above because it reminds me of reading to my daughter Mareena when she was little. Every afternoon until she was about eight or nine years old, we would take one of her books that she wanted to read or that she was reading and we would curl up together on my big bed. 

We would spend an hour or so reading a chapter of her book, and then take a nap together. Her absolutely favorite author at that time was an English author named Enid Blyton. Ahh, nice memories... 

My picks for 'Books of the Month' will be decidedly more adult these days, but they will be from almost any genre. January's Book of the Month is:

The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg

 Published as: Isprinsessan in January 2003   

Publisher: Forum

Birth Name: Jean Edith Camilla Läckberg 
Born: 30 August 1974 in Fjällbacka, Bohuslän, Sweden (Västra Götaland County)

Canonical Name: Camilla Läckberg  
Pseudonyms: None  

The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg was the eighth book that I read in 2015. I have had this book on my TBR shelf since August 16, 2014 and it took me two days to read. I'm passing this book on to Mareena for her to read.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Camilla Lackberg - The Ice Princess

8. The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg (2009)
(Originally Published as: Isprinsessan) (2003)
The Patrik Hedstrom Series Book 1
Length: 394 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 26 January 2015
Finished: 28 January 2015
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 16 August 2014
Why do I have it? I like contemporary mysteries and Camilla Lackberg is a new author for me.

After struggling biographer Erica Falck's parents pass away, she returns to her hometown of Fjallbacka, Sweden to attend their funeral. What she finds is a town in crisis; and a community on the brink of inexplicable tragedy. The apparent suicide of her childhood best friend Alexandra is the catalyst.

Erica actually discovers the frozen body of her one-time friend in an ice-cold bath with her wrists slashed. At first glance, it does appear that Alex took her own life - yet Erica is still confused. The friendship between herself and Alex may have drifted apart as they reached adulthood, but surely, Alex would never have become so desperate as to commit suicide, would she?

At the behest of Alex's parents, Erica tentatively agrees to write about her childhood friend. She conceives of writing a book about the beautiful but remote Alex, one which will strive to answer questions about their shared past and lost friendship. As Erica's interest slowly develops into an obsession, her investigation only stirs up even more unanswerable questions...

Meanwhile, local detective Patrick Hedstrom is following his own suspicions about the case. But it's only when Erica and Patrik start working together that the truth begins to emerge about this small town with a deeply disturbing past. And it seems that even after all this time, what is hidden still has the power to cause immeasurable pain and tragedy...to everyone.

I must say that I absolutely loved reading this book. I thought this story was beautifully written and I felt that I got a true taste of Sweden through Ms. Lackberg's writing style. The plot was dramatic, well-developed and it kept me guessing about who were possible suspects right through to the end. In my opinion, Camilla Lackberg is an extraordinary writer and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author sometime very soon. I would give this book an A+!

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Lawrence Sanders - The Sixth Commandment

7. The Sixth Commandment by Lawrence Sanders (1978)
The Commandment Series Book 1
Length: 312 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 22 January 2015
Finished: 24 January 2015
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 14 August 2001
Why do I have it? I like contemporary mysteries and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

The Bingham Foundation is a corporation that assesses the grant applications of scientific researchers. Samuel Todd is the corporation's field investigator, tasked with finding out all he can about Gordon Telford Thorndecker, Nobel Prize-winning doctor and resident darling of Coburn, New York. The good doctor Thorndecker is the head of a combined research facility and rest home for the elderly, affluent, and infirm in Coburn, and has recently applied for a million-dollar research grant.

Dr. Thorndecker has impeccable scientific credentials; his project - to investigate the "cellular clock" that controls the normal life span of human beings - seems entirely credible and worthy of support; and despite the rumors and occasional rabid gossip-monger - the whole town of Coburn is rooting for its most famous resident. 

Samuel Todd's mission is basically to get background information about the eminent Dr. Thorndecker. Deep background information: Samuel has to "assess the intangibles, things known only to the applicant's priest, psychiatrist and/or mistress. As a suspicious romantic, Samuel is too young to have seen it all, but too old to expect the best of this world. 

But is it possible that his suspicions are getting the better of him? It's perhaps in the way the residents of Coburn stare past his shoulder while praising Dr. Thorndecker to the skies; or what he learns about the doctor's seductive young wife, Julie, and her not-so-secretive activities; or perhaps when he discovers that a patient at the rest home was buried rather suddenly in the dead of night, deceased, according to the death certificate, of simple heart failure. Whatever the cause, Samuel Todd is already mightily suspicious of this case, and his feelings only grow worse after he arrives at his hotel on a stormy night, and discovers a typed two-lined message waiting for him at the desk. The note is short, cryptic, and straight to the point: "Thorndecker Kills."

I really enjoyed this book and must say that I found it to be very indicative of Lawrence Sanders' work - incredibly suspenseful and quite dramatic. Mr. Sanders is perhaps one of my many favorite authors, and I have read quite a few of his books, although the first book from the Commandment Series that I've read. I would certainly give The Sixth Commandment by Lawrence Sanders a very strong A!

A! - (90-95%)
    
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Margot Livesey - The Missing World: A Novel

6. The Missing World: A Novel by Margot Livesey (1999) 
Length: 326 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 17 January 2015
Finished: 21 January 2015
Where did it come from? From Paperback Swap
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 8 December 2014
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

What if - by a seeming stroke of fortune - you could start again, could start afresh and wipe away that one catastrophic blunder in your past. Just how far would you go to establish that you had, in fact, done nothing wrong at all? After an accident causes Hazel to have amnesia, and she loses three years' worth of her memory, just such an opportunity is presented to her ex-boyfriend Jonathan. He is absolutely undone by his betrayal of this woman, whom he professes to love above all, and he is determined to do everything within his power to make it up to her; to earn her forgiveness.

While Jonathan begins to rewrite his and Hazel's history together, two other misfits - an American sojourner and an unlucky English actress - travel around London, each of them haunted by indelible memories which they would much rather forget. Eventually their hopes for redemption draw them toward Jonathan and Hazel, who has become a virtual prisoner of Jonathan's most cherished whims and desires. The story that follows is a brilliantly inverted love story: a story which chronicles one man's desperate attempts to realize and rationalize a lie, and a woman's harrowing attempts to recognize the truth.

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Margot Livesey is, in my opinion, a terrific writer, and she captures the essence of characters beautifully. As a matter of fact, the character of Charlotte is so like my sister-in-law, they could have been twins. I give The Missing World: A Novel by Margot Livesey a definite A!

A! - (90-95%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Dennis Lehane - Moonlight Mile

5. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane (2010)
The Kenzie and Gennaro Series Book 6
Length: 324 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 15 January 2015
Finished: 16 January 2015
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 22 August 2013
Why do I have it? I like contemporary mysteries and have read and enjoyed Mystic River by the same author in the past.

Twelve years ago, private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro were brought in to investigate the disappearance of four-year-old Amanda McCready. The toddler had suddenly vanished from her Boston neighborhood late one night, and her family feared the worst. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt had led them to take on the case - one of the toughest of their careers - and despite risking everything, the pair finally found the little girl. Against their better judgement, the investigators had to return little Amanda to the custody of her neglectful mother and a broken home.

Now Amanda is sixteen - and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she had seemed destined to escape her troubled upbringing. Yet Amanda's aunt is once again knocking at Patrick Kenzie's door, once more fearing the worst for the little girl who has blossomed into a striking, clever young woman - a woman who apparently hasn't been seen in weeks.

Haunted by their memories of the past - and determined to do something to settle their consciences - Patrick and Angela revisit the case that has troubled them the most and which, even after all this time, has stayed with them. Their exhaustive investigation leads them into the darkest depths of the criminal underworld - a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. This is a world where motives and allegiances constantly shift and where the slightest mistake can prove, or most likely will prove, fatal.

In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Patrick and Angela will be forced to question if it's possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that reaches beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don't always stay buried and the crimes of today are the ones that could end their lives.

Mareena had chosen this book for me at our August Library Book Sale jaunt because she knew how much I had enjoyed reading Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. In my opinion, this particular book just wasn't for me. While I certainly found it to be well-written, fast-paced and jam-packed with drama and action, I must say that the Russian Mob is really too much for me. I'm sure that there are some readers who enjoy reading that type of story; however, I am definitely not one of them. I would give this book a B+!

B+! - (89-94%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight