Author: John Grisham

ISBN: 978-0-385-53245-7

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 308

Publisher: Doubleday

Rating: 4 stars

I always love John Grisham’s books and this one did not disappoint!  It’s different from most of his others – it’s short stories rather than one novel and they aren’t suspense or legal stories like his others.  I did enjoy them very much though.  I’m not always a fan of short stories because it seems like a lot of times they kind of leave you hanging and wanting more but these didn’t do that – they were written in such a way that the story was wrapped up and finished by the end and I was satisfied with how it turned out.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves good fiction stories.

Author: Daniel Levin

ISBN: 978-1-59448-872-6

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 418

Publisher: Penguin Group  – Riverhead Books

Rating: 3 stars

From the cover flap:

Jonathan Marcus, a young American lawyer and a former doctoral student in classics, has become a sought-after commodity among antiquities dealers. But when he is summoned to Rome to examine a client’s fragment of an ancient stone map, he stumbles across a startling secret: a hidden message carved inside the stone itself. The discovery propels him on a perilous journey from the labyrinth beneath the Colosseum to the biblical-era tunnels of Jerusalem in search of a hidden 2,000-year-old artifact sought by empires throughout the ages.

As Marcus and a passionate UN preservationist, Dr. Emili Travia, dig more deeply into the past, they’re stunned to discover not only an ancient intelligence operation to protect the artifact, but also a ruthless modern plot to destroy all trace of it by a mysterious radical bent on erasing every remnant of Jewish and Christian presence from the Temple Mount.

With a cutting-edge plot as intricately layered as the ancient sites it explores, The Last Ember is a gripping thriller spanning the high-stakes worlds of archaeology, politics, and terrorism in its portrayal of the modern struggle to define–and redefine–history itself.

My thoughts:

I had a hard time deciding what to rate this book.  In some ways I could give it a four but decided to go with a three.  It is a very well-written book and I was impressed with the writing style but I had a really hard time staying connected with the story.  Much of the storyline and plot were things that I’m just not very familiar with so it made it hard to follow.  I found myself getting lost and wondering what was going on.  Many books will have a heading when the characters change or the location changes so that the reader knows what’s going on and which characters are in focus at that point.  This book didn’t do that and each time it switched it would take me a minute to figure out what was going on and what part of the story I was in.  If you have any knowledge of the main topics of the book I think you’ll really like it.  If not, it might be a little confusing.

False Pretenses

Author: Catherine Coulter

ISBN: 0-453-00641-8

Genre: Fiction/Suspense/Mystery

Pages: 380 pages

Publication: New American Library 1988

Rating: 3 stars (you can look here to read about my rating system)

I have been a fan of Catherine Coulter’s books – specifically her FBI series – for quite awhile.  Her books are always very suspenseful with great story lines – so much so that I usually hate even putting the book down!

I have to admit that I had a harder time with this one though.  This is one of her older books and I think she must have gotten better with time.  This book did have a good story line and it was, for the most part, pretty suspenseful which kept me interested enough to keep me reading it but some of the dialogue and topics in the book were a little much for me.  There was quite a bit of bad language and some pretty vulgar/risque material and I am not a fan of any of that kind of thing.   I came close to putting it down a couple of times early on in the book but since I was familiar with her other works I kept reading.  It did seem to get a little better further into the story and the plot of the story did keep me very interested so  I feel like it did end up being a good read.  I just wouldn’t say it’s anywhere close to my favorite of hers.

So, if you don’t mind putting up with the bad in order to get to the good, this book is a good read.  If you don’t want to subject yourself to any bad language or anything then this book is not for you.

Author: Ken Blanchard and S. Truett Cathy

ISBN: 0-310-24660-1

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 124 pages

Publication: Zondervan 2002

Rating: 5 stars (you can look here to read about my rating system)

This is an awesome book!  I was lying in bed one night, staring at the ceiling, not feeling tired and decided to pick this book up and read it.  I could not put it down and ended up finishing it before I went to sleep.  It’s an easy, quick read – it only took me about an hour and a half to read it!  It’s a great story that leaves you on the edge of your seat wondering what’s going to happen next.

The funny thing is I didn’t read the book flap and I didn’t pay attention to who the co-author was so, through the whole book, I was wondering who the story was about.  I know – duh!  haha!  Anyway, that was actually part of the fun of it and what kept it somewhat suspenseful because I was dying to get to the end to see if it told who these people were!  You see, through the whole book the people are referred to by what they are known for – the Broker, the Executive, the Driver, etc.  I actually thought that was kind of cool because it made it easy to know exactly who was saying what.  You know how sometimes you’re reading a story with several characters and you think, who is this person again?  It just made it easy to keep track.

It’s a great story of how a generous spirit can be so rewarding in so many ways.  A great book for anyone to read!

Title: Moving is Murder: A Mom Zone Mystery (Mom Zone Mysteries)

Author: Sara Rosett

ISBN: 0-7582-1336-0

Genre: Fiction/Mystery

Pages: 264 pages

Publication: Kensington Books 2006

Rating: 4 stars (you can look here to read about my rating system)

Title: Staying Home Is A Killer (Mom Zone Mysteries)

Author: Sara Rosett

ISBN: 978-0-7582-1338-9

Genre: Fiction/Mystery

Pages: 275 pages

Publication: Kensington Books 2007

Rating: 4 stars

Title: Getting Away Is Deadly (Ellie Avery Mysteries)

Author: Sara Rosett

ISBN: 978-0-7582-1340-2

Genre: Fiction/Mystery

Pages: 249 pages

Publication: Kensington Books 2008

Rating: 4 stars

Title: Magnolias, Moonlight, and Murder (An Ellie Avery Mystery)

Author: Sara Rosett

ISBN: 978-0-7582-2681-5

Genre: Fiction/Mystery

Pages: 250 pages

Publication: Kensington Books 2009

Rating: 4 stars

Sara Rosett did a great job with these books – the series was a really fun read for me.  They are all about Ellie Avery, a professional organizer, a mother, and wife of an Air Force pilot.  In each book she finds herself in the middle of situations that make her curiosity grow to the point that she gets involved and tries to figure out the truth of the matter.  As result of her investigations she finds herself in very precarious situations.

I loved how the author incorporated a glimpse into military life as well as a glimpse into motherhood.  She does a fine job of both and it makes the stories very real.  These books are very well written, very entertaining, and suspenseful enough that they kept me reading and not wanting to put them down. Another thing that I liked is that they were clean and did not have bad language or inappropriate topics.

The author also includes organizing tips at the end of most chapters in all four books.  These tips had a theme in each book and each chapter would deal with a different aspect of it.  Honestly, after reading them in the first book I tended to skip over a lot of them in the rest of the series.  Not because they were bad or anything – I was just too into the story to take the time to read them. 

I would highly recommend these to anyone who loves a good mystery!