WOT????

Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Am re-reading MALLORY'S ORACLE by Carol O'Connell...the first of the MALLORY series. I had forgotten what a good book this is....great plot, well-developed characters..the whole thing...Kathleen Mallory is an early, American version of Lisbeth Salander (GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO)...another Wild Child, computer hacker extraordinaire...Ms Mallory dresses better, and lives in NYC...but under the skin they are the same....amoral to a fault, in the cause of their version of Justice.... (

Another PLUM

Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


....where Stephanie & Lula stumble upon a deli-robbery....except..Stephie sees the perp

Stephanie loses another vehicle...and stands to lose her life

one more trip into GANGLAND..and Miss Plum might stumble onto something UGLY..

Keystone Kops here...in North Jersey

the horror of modern-day life....sifted through Ms Evanovich's wondrous EYE$


3 Stars

Another PLUM

To the Nines by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars







To the Nines

concerns a Role-Playing computer game gone Homicidal...a villain of the "Creepy-in-his-Innocence"variety...deadly but Soft

Family Dramas are a must...Love Hangovers...more Exploding Vehicles

Lula-on-a-Meat Diet

Keystone Kops antics

Ranger or Morelli..The HOT MAN debate

serious 3 Stars

THREE PLUMS...One (of three)

Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I've been a fan of Janet Evanovich and her STEPHANIE PLUM series since the first title One for the Money was published. If anyone is interested, that's the place to start.

Lately, I've revisited this part of Jersey....beginning withHard Eight

in Stephanie Plum's world..the events herein are not surprising. Bond Enforcement is a Job...brings into play various criminal "masterminds" who don't want to "pay the price" for their obsessions. A Psychotic military Game-Player loses his nut when a "trophy" goes missing...Mother-and-Daughter try to go Underground

Stephanie spends a lot of time face-down...trying to apprehend Bail skips.

Vehicles blow up

A Psychotic man-in-Rabbit Suit messes with everyone's heads

Stephie's LOVE LIFE sucks

Did I mention Albert Kloughn??


serious 3 Stars here!!

Meet Me At The Side Show

The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno: A Novel by Ellen Bryson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


These are my "reading notes"

They will not make any sense...but, what the hell..

Here Goes

>Nights at the Circus is referenced here...Take note!

>"Freaks" from the inside..."inside" as in Prison..or in Safety

>Before P T Barnum became the Circus impresario we all know and love... he was the owner/operator of the AMERICAN MUSEUM....home to freaks and geeks of several persuassions....through tableaux and individual performance

>BARTHOLOMNEW FORTUNO...THE THINNEST MAN IN THE WORLD....our protagonist...thinks his physical abnormality is a "gift"

> Heirarchy within the museum residents..is "over the top"...adolescent to a fault...gossip...insecurity

>Enter IELL...THE BEARDED LADY....a sensuous, gifted, 'other"....Love arrives....Barhtolomew is unprepared...he wants to woo her...save her..."Love is a rose..the thorns ate toxic"....watch out! The lady has more secrets than her beard!!

>This is a story from the "other" side...where the Freaks look at us..Shit, I lost this post...and We are Them....vice versa...and their vision is very clear.

>Bartholomew's Transformation?? becoming "normal"...and remembering why he became an Oddity..in the first place...His world crashes...but he survives..the beauty of this story..Love nearly killed him...then he started to EAT...

I loved this story...told from the "inside" of the Side Show world....Ms Bryson mentions Nights at the Circus...and i heartily recommend

This "review" makes no sense at all..I make no apologies...go somewhere else for intelligence

WHAT'LL I DO???

Sumner Island by Michael Cormier

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Ghost-Hunting at the Smythe, a luxury hotel/resort located on Sumner Island, off the coast of Maine. The very same Smythe where Maria Boudreau, "America's Princess" in the last century's Golden Age, met an untimely and violent end in 1924....eighty years before this story takes place. Mitchell Lambert, history professor at Fowler College, made his literary mark with a popular biography of Miss Boudreau. Mr Lambert is a tad obsessed with our Maria...some would call it LOVE. The ghost hunt is the result of several sightings of Boudreaus's ghost..by people not in love with her. Psychics, bystanders,and a cranky, psychotic spirit plus a Wise Old Man with a personal stake in the story's outcome...all make for a fine cast of characters.

Paranormal Romance is not my genre of choice but I did enjoy this book. Mr Cormier is a crackerjack story teller, and a decent stylist. the prose had "flow" and only hit a few bumps toward the end, when all the paranormal "Bells & Whistles" flew thick and fast...a bit much, in my opinion. All the "massed spirits of the long dead", the phenomenal thunder storm with attendant lightning strikes/fires..and the sudden lack of oxygen...left me a little breathless..and impatient for the story's end. The malevolent spirit was so, indeed..then came across as a petulant frat boy with a murderous streak.. Mitch Lambert was a bit "soft" as a character..too moony by half, but maybe Academics are like that now. In my day, they just drank too much and tried to charm the pants off college girls..Oh well. Small complaints, when all is said and done. the ending was..well...paranormal. Love does endure through the ages...

I liked the book,in spite of the "flaws" which are not such...just my quibbles. This is a good summer read if you like your novels not-too-heavy..but not floating off into the air. The period detail was good..be it present day or late-Victorian past. This is not Paranormal of the Heaving Bosom variety, rather it's more cerebral....unto the slightly obsessive. The Passion here is of the hopeful sort. Good food-for-thought that won't give you a headache, or set you to yawning.

This is a review of an ARC.

3 Stars

DUPPY CONQUEROR (with apologies to Bob Marley)

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
These are Notes....rather than a fluid review. Be warned!

:Aliens, not extraterrestrial.Cultural. Aliens in their own lands, their experiences as Outsiders while living in the Inner city. The OTHER SIDE, as it were.

:TORONTO-in-the-Future. The privileged and monied classes fled the city, threw up barricades and roadblocks in their wake....left the inner City to fester and rot....left it in the hands of posses/criminal gangs, and the desperate disenfranchised. Until the need arose for body parts/organs...the wealthy needed organ transplants..and the state run Pig Farms were rife with disease (and dis-ease)..... here is where the Posses enter..Oh, the horror!

:Three generations of Afro-Caribbean "seer" women have made a life for themselves amidst the city's ruins..a life of grief, secrets, lies...Herb Lore and ancient ritual...Obeah...Santeria..."the spirits"

:The Two Worlds collide (sometimes literally) in a tale that incorporates both Zombies and organ transplants...a future that contains ancient ritual amidst Urban Decay...A Future that could be "just around the corner"..and, in this case, actually works as story.

:I liked the book for its unique perspective and "take" on Aliens/Alienation. The women characters were strong..to a fault, at times...whereby they couldn't recognize their Strength until it was almost too late. It always took a harrowing crisis to bring on a 'Wake Up Call"..there were plenty of crises. I could have done without the "mushy-mushy" love story...but Ti-Jeanne, the young woman at the forefront of the story, needed it..needed to get through it..to find her own SELF..In the end she was still learning..still "seeking". This is not a New Age tome..more "old as the hills"...no easy answers..no smooth closure. Plenty violence and blood..evil duppy...sadness beyond the grave. As I said, i liked this book..it won the WARNER ASPECT FIRST NOVEL CONTEST back in the day..and as a debut novel...is pretty damned good. Never set the world on fire..but I think it would make a great Graphic Novel. Ms Hopkinson's prose is that sensuous...one can see the action and smell the decay of the dying city. I own the follow-up title Midnight Robber...it's waiting "in the wings". Will get to it toot-sweet, oui.

3 1/2 Stars......