Top Ten Tuesday

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme is Books to Read if You Loved  _________, and you're supposed to fill in the blank with whatever you want. This took some thought. I finally settled on Books to Read if You Loved Jurassic Park, mostly because I love books with dinosaurs on the cover. So here are ten covers I love:

Oops...I think I just did eleven. Oh, well. They're all fun dinosaur covers.

The only one of these I've actually read is The Dinosaur Four, but the rest look equally good. 

I'd check them out. 

Happy Reading!

 

Right Behind Her by Melinda Leigh

 

When Sheriff Bree Tagger was eight years old, her father killed her mother, then shot himself. Now, twenty-seven years later, the bones of two more murdered people have been found on her family's farm in Grey's Hollow in upstate New York. Did her father kill them, too? Or was it someone else? As Bree and Matt Flynn investigate, threats are made against her and her family. But Bree is determined to find out the truth, even if that truth hits close to home.

My thoughts:  I love this series! Right Behind Her is the fourth book about Bree Taggert and Matt Flynn. They're such likable characters. I love seeing how their relationship has developed and grown with each book. And I really liked the mystery in this one, too, especially how it tied into Bree's past. You find out a lot more about her unhappy childhood in this one. I also enjoy watching Bree and her deputies investigate a case. That small town setting is always fun. And Matt's police dog, Brody, plays an important role in this one, too, which I also loved. All in all, this is a very entertaining mystery series, and I highly recommend it.

Happy Reading!

Also see my review of: See Her Die (#2)

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

 

Two months ago, Charlie's roommate, Maddy, was murdered by the Campus Killer. Charlie's been a mess ever since. And now she feels an overwhelming need to leave school and go home. ASAP. So she accepts a ride from Josh, a guy she meets at the campus ride board. He says he's headed to Ohio, too. And even though her boyfriend, Robbie, said he would drive her home that weekend, Charlie can't wait. So she gets in the car with a stranger. But they're only an hour into their drive when Charlie catches Josh in a lie. And she starts to wonder if Josh might actually be the Campus Killer. Only Charlie has hallucinations, movies that she sees in her head, and she's just gone off her meds. So are her fears about Josh true? Or are they the product of her own anxious imagination?

This book is billed as a thrilling cat-and-mouse game. I found it mostly frustrating. You spend the majority of the book inside Charlie's head, with all her self-doubts, her fears, and her 'mind movies'. Not only is she an unreliable narrator, but she's an incredible indecisive one, too. And because you only see Josh through her eyes, it's hard to know what to believe about him, or what game he's playing, if any. Is he a killer? Or is she just crazy?

After awhile, I found it hard to care. Mostly because I couldn't find anything to like about Charlie. Or Josh. And the plot just kept getting more absurd and implausible. Then, Sager throws in one last twist at the end that I just couldn't buy into; it was one twist too many and felt like an unfair, last minute surprise.

Needless to say, Survive the Night ended up being a very disappointing read for me. Which is sad because I've enjoyed reading all of Riley Sager's other books. But I guess they can't all be 4-star reads. Still, I did get to read this one with Melody, which is always fun. Be sure to check out her rant, I mean her review, of this one for another opinion. 

Happy Reading!

Other books by Riley Sager that I liked better than this one:

Home Before Dark

Lock Every Door

The Last Time I Lied

November's bookish art...

 

Jacques-Emile Blanche -- Portrait of Lucie Reading

"I wanted to lose myself in happy memories, to be inhabited by gentle novels, to live deep inside books."

--Gael Faye

A Classic Play...

 

Who is Cyrano de Bergerac:

My nose is enormous...I carry it with pride, because a big nose is a sign of affability, kindness, courtesy, wit, generosity, and courage.

With whom I'm in love? Come now, think a moment: this nose of mine, which precedes me by a quarter of an hour wherever I go, forbids me to dream of being loved by even an ugly woman. You ask me whom I love? The answer should be clear to you! Whom else would I love but the most beautiful woman in the world?

Cyrano loves Roxane, but he knows she could never love someone as ugly as him. Christian de Neuvillette, on the other hand, is more than handsome enough for a woman like Roxane, only he is tongue-tied and dull-witted whenever he's around her. So Cyrano decides to pen the words for him to say to woo the lovely lady, words that come from Cyrano's own heart. 

Together, we can win her heart! ... Shall we complete each other? We'll walk together: you in the light, I in the shadows. I'll make you eloquent, you'll make me handsome.

The story of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, with the love triangle between Cyrano, Christian, and Roxane, is one I've long been familiar with, but I'd never read or seen the actual play. Then, last year, Sam @ Book Chase read and reviewed it, and put it on my radar. So when I saw that I needed to read a Classic Play for Karen's Back to the Classics Challenge, I knew immediately that I wanted to read this one. And it's a fun read; it has lots of wit and action and is very entertaining, though it also made me cry at the end. Cyrano is quite the memorable character. He writes poetry, fights, and gives no quarter to anyone. But it's his own words that describe him best:

I prefer to lead a different kind of life. I sing, dream, laugh, and go where I please, alone and free. My eyes see clearly and my voice is strong. I'm quarrelsome or benign as it suits my pleasure, always ready to fight a duel or write a poem at the drop of a hat. ... I may not cut a stylish figure, but I hold my soul erect. I wear my deeds as ribbons, my wit is sharper than the finest mustache, and when I walk among men I make truths ring like spurs.

I ended up really liking this play. And someday, I hope to see it performed onstage.  

Happy Reading!

 

 

A Recent Read...

 

John Connolly's Every Dead Thing is a complicated and darkly compelling thriller. And too long for me to even attempt to summarize it here. (Plus, I'm lazy.) But I loved Charlie "Bird" Parker and his criminally-inclined friends, Angel and Louis, and I can't wait to read the next book in this series. Just be warned, parts of this book are very dark and not for the faint of heart. But if you like Gregg Hurwitz's Orphan X series with Evan Smoak, or Nicholas Petrie's The Drifter with Peter Ash, then you'll probably like this one, too. I did! 

Happy Reading!

Three favorite quotes...