Be Cool by Elmore Leonard

I started on book #2 of this Chili Palmer series, series = two books. I'm honestly not sure how I liked this book. I was interested but I couldn't just get into it.

Chili is a former wiseguy who got relatively big with the movie Get Leo and bombed with the follow up Get Lost. He starts out meeting with his friend Tommy Athens, a record producer, who ends up with a bullet in the head as Chili is the witness.

Enter Linda Moon, a woman from a dating site whom Chili decides needs to be the star of his next film. Moon is really a musician and, through a series of events, Chili ends up as her manager. All the while, there's Raji (Moon's former manager and a stereotypical pimp) and Elliott (Raji's Samoan gay bodyguard who wants to make it in Hollywood) who want pretty much everyone dead and can't seem to decide who to kill.

Chili cleans up the record company of Tommy's, gets music made, gets people shot, tries to manipulate real-life events so he can have scenes in his movie and starts having sex with HIS manager. And WTF.

I honestly didn't like any character in this book except for Elaine. But I felt I needed to see where it ended. And it ended Meh.

Holy Ghost by John Sandford

The 11th book in the Fuckin' Flowers series. Virgil is right up there with Lucas on my favorite character list. And Sandford is one of my favorite, will-never-miss-a-book authors.

It could be the sinus infection, but even near the end, I couldn't figure out what Flowers knew. Jenkins and Shrake popped in for a bit and even they were at a loss until they got the whole crazy scheme from Flowers. When we finally were told, I was...skeptical. I think I wanted to end this on a grander scale, for all the legwork and dead ends that had happened.

We first have some schemers, including the mayor, who wanted to bring more money back into Wheatfield. So they scared up a Virgin Mary sighting in their church. Lo and behold, all the religious goobers came flocking to Wheatfield to see the Virgin. Coincidentally, the Mayor (Holland) and his genius sidekick (Skinner), bought up some storefront to sell Eats and Souvenirs of the Virgin. They are making a bankload of money when a sniper shows up.

Holland calls in Flowers to find the sniper before he kills someone. So far, sniper has had bad aim and is just wounding people, but he gets lucky soon enough. Weirdly enough, we never got perspective from the sniper's point of view, which we normally get. This was a strict POV of Flowers trying to catch the sniper.

So many dead ends, so much confusion. Even when Flowers figured it out, without telling us, I was still confused. His explanation and the motive seemed a bit weak, but I'll admit I still loved the book. Flowers doesn't need to be in mortal danger every book and this was a definite whodunit.

The Outsider by Stephen King

I was so prepared to be disappointed. I mean, King did write himself into the Dark Tower series. (not a spoiler, it's been out for YEARS). But I was very pleasantly surprised and even, dare I say, excited about this jacked up trip King took me on.

This starts out depressing and grisly when a little boy's mutilated corpse is found. It seems like a slam-dunk case, with eye witnesses stepping forward and letting Ralph Anderson, Flint City PD, know that Coach T, Terry Maitland, was with the victim right before the victim disappeared. It seems like everyone in town saw Terry, either with the kid or covered in blood. At this point, I already start saying to myself that this is TOO slam dunk. How could the guy be this dumb?

Ralph and co arrest Terry in the most spectacular way, causing the whole town to come down on Coach T (what happened to innocent until proven guilty??). Things turn mobbishly ugly and lives are lost. Problem? There's proof Terry was in Cap City with other teachers. Actual proof of Terry both on the corpse and in an entirely other city.

How can someone be in two places at the same time?

The answer to that is: Sister, you are in King's world now. The answer is horribly disturbing and crazy. There is an appearance by someone I know and love and, since I was so surprised by it, I won't tell you :)  But truly, the appearance made this book for me.

The ending was strangely satisfying. I'm very happy to say this is a great King book that is really worth reading.

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

For some reason I had Matthew "Alright-alright-alright" McConaughey in mind while I read this book. Turns out, I somehow knew this was a movie with the man himself. How did I know that?

Regardless of the movie that I have never seen, this was a fantastic book! I carried the book everywhere and read as often as I could, and it's been a bit since I've done that with a book. I knew all the pieces to the story and the twist - I think we all did - but I was still unprepared for how Mick Haller played the game. And equally unprepared for how the game ended.


Louis Roulet calls in defense attorney Haller when he's arrested for assault and attempted rape of a prostitute. Roulet is from big, big money and could afford to have any lawyer he could buy, but he chooses Haller. All Haller sees are dollar signs from a possible franchise client. Defense attorneys are usually dealing with the worst and Haller is no exception. His entire job is to get his client off with as little punishment as possible, and Haller states outright that he doesn't want to know if they are innocent or not.

Things start turning in a bad way with the Roulet case, which makes Haller bring up Jesus Menendez's case and the fact that man went away for 40 years while proclaiming his innocence. Are these 2 cases tied together somehow?

This ended up as a fast-paced read and I loved every turn in the road. And it's a series! And the first in the series!

Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs

I love the Brennan series so much more in book form than in TV form. Book Brennan is human and intelligent. TV Brennan just always seemed so robotic.

Book Brennan finds herself called into a plane crash site where she uses her expertise to sort body parts and help ID victims. Montreal Detective Andrew Ryan also appears in the US to help at the crash site, which seems odd, but his former partner was on board, escorting a criminal.

You'd think this would be the actual plot of the book.

You'd be wrong.

Brennan comes across a dismembered foot being chewed on by coyotes. Thinking it's part of the crash and thinking the coyotes might run off with it if she doesn't take it, she grabs the foot and takes it to the makeshift morgue. From there, everything just goes to hell. Because of a foot.

The crash ends up very secondary to every thing else that rains down on Brennan's head.

Excellent mystery! Even read out of order!

A Sister in my House by Linda Olsson

An interesting read that I don't think I would have picked up on my own. I'm going to get my pet peeve about this one out of the way immediately and I shall not dwell on it anymore: no contractions. When I see entire soliloquies without contractions, my brain dies a little. It feels entirely too formal. Of course there were some, but the monologues were overwhelmingly formal. Also, "Good morning, how did you sleep?" is not a question that invites monologues, but in this book, that's what you get.

Away from the peeves!

Emma and Maria are two sisters who have lost contact with each other. Maria lives outside Barcelona and, on impulse even she can't understand, invites Emma to stay with her for a visit while they are cleaning up at their mother's funeral. Emma seemingly ignores the request until two years later when she emails Maria that she is coming for that visit. Maria is instantly upset and angry at Emma (and, rightfully, at herself) but prepares for the visit anyways. Clearly, these two sisters have, not just issues, but subscriptions worth of problems.

The book unfolds with many monologues and pouring forth of sisterly tears as they finally, actually, talk to one another. We have one sister, Emma, who stayed near home and became the caregiver to a Mother that the other sister could not stand. Maria, after the death of her twin Amanda, went off and never came back.  Neither of those situations are ideal and they naturally created a rift between the two. The rift started when Emma was born and "invaded" the twins space and just grew larger and larger.

Ignoring my peeves, the way this story unfolded was interesting. Little bits and bops of things kept popping up and disappearing and made me (the reader) anxious. "We need to talk about Amanda" was said enough times that I yelled at the book "TALK ABOUT AMANDA". The book ignored me and continued on until it was damn well ready to talk about Amanda. And what a talk it was.

Interesting little book. Definitely worth a read. I'm sure I'm a rare reader when it comes to the contractions and formal language deal, so I'm sure you will do just fine.

The Unemployed Fortune-Teller: Essays and Memoirs by Charles Simic

Travel for work helped me knock out several books. Dogsitting an old dog helped me justify time on my couch finishing Simic's essay collection. I even read choice bits to the dog. I think she enjoyed it.

I didn't pick this book up by chance. My friend who actively reads poetry lent me 3 Simic books, I think to try and entice me into his world.  I honestly am not a poetry person, with the exception of Charles Bukowski, but my friend keeps trying.

I started with the essays and memoirs to ease myself into Simic. What I found was truly excellent writing about a ton of things I know nothing about. He mentions so many artists, poets, and authors and I'm making notes because my knowledge base is zilch.

But going outside of me not knowing the references, this little book is truly packed with good writing. With bullshit (fully acknowledge by the author) and truth.  Food and Happiness and Don't Squeeze the Tomatoes! are my two favorites (I might be hungry...). Someone who can wax poetic about the perfect tomato and make me so mad that I currently do not have any tomatoes is a great writer.

The Minotaur Loves His Labyrinth is so full of tidbits to store away and chew on later. Really, I didn't skip through any of the essays and that's saying something.

I'll be attempting the poetry next. If the writing is the same, I will probably be a convert.