Pride and Prejuidice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Now, if you are anything like me, you always hear about "the classics" and think that maybe you should read them. But...when you actually pick them up, they bore you to tears. I can't tell you how many times I have tried to read Moby Dick *insert puking sound here*. Sorry, but I just can't get into Ishmael and all that.

So...when I heard that there was a version of Pride and Prejudice coming out that involved zombies and ninjas, I thought 'hmm, this could possibly keep me awake!'. I listened to it on audio, which I very much enjoyed because it was then all in an English accent, as it should be. It was a fun romp of a book! The zombie part did get quite graphic, and there was a part where I was literally gagging in my car, but overall it was great. At this point, I am not exactly sure what there would have been to the story if it were not for the zombie story line. Why would Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth had any interest in each other if it was not because they were both first-rate warriors? But, let I give something away, I'll end. And, I am going to try Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter very soon!

Heart of the Sea by Nora Roberts

3rd in the Trilogy. Darcy has always claimed that she only wants a rich man who can provide for her want of material things. She doesn't plan on falling in love, ever. Until Trevor Magee shows up on the scene.

Narrator wonderful. The whole series is emotionally satisfying!!!

Tears of the Moon by Nora Roberts

The 2nd book in a trilogy. Brenna O'Toole has a "yen" for Sean Gallagher, a man she has known all her life. She figures a good roll in the hay will cure her of it, and so she proposes it to her. Sean is horrified...Brenna is like his sister. Then he starts to think of it and decides that she isn't going to get rid of this 'yen' so easily. Especially when Carick, the fairy king, gets involved.

Again, the narrator is wonderful. I love the Irish accents and Gaelic words. Both the book and the audio are worth the time.

Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts

This is the first in a trilogy. I've read the series before and really enjoyed it, so when I needed something to listen to in the car, I gravitated toward this. In this first book, Jude has come to Ireland from Chicago and she's not sure why. She's always done what is right and expected of her in life. Since her husband of 2 months left her for another woman, so has been restless and unhappy. In a move not understood by her parents, she quits her job as a psychology professor and goes to stay in Ireland for 6 months. Here in the small village of Ardmour, she is welcomed with open arms since her grandmother was raised there. She befriends the Gallagher siblings and Brenna O'Toole. All the while she is supposedly writing a paper on the psychological aspects of legends and storytelling. When she becomes part of a legend, things get very interesting.

I loved this book and the narrator is wonderful in her Irish accents, and the pronunciation of many Gaelic words. A great read or listen!

The Rag and Bone Shop by Robert Cormier

I probably would have had an easier time with this book if I had read it instead of listening to it on audio. The book focuses on the murder of a 7 yr old girl, Alicia. The main character, a 12 yr. old boy named Jason, is under suspicion for her murder, although he doesn't know it. The bulk of the book is Jason being interrogated by a professional police interrogator named Mr. Trent. This made me so uncomfortable that I had to shut the tape off at least 5 times.

See, Jason's mother lets him go to the police station alone, thinking he is only there to give police some background information to help their investigation. Once there, they corner him in a small stuffy room with Mr. Trent and let him at Jason. Mr. Trent has been promised political favors if he secures a confession from Jason. I'll stop there, so I don't give everything away. A thought-provoking book, although the subject matter was uncomfortable.

Zapped by Carol Higgins Clark

For those of you who have never read Carol Higgins Clark, don't go into her books thinking that you are getting something like what her mother, Mary Higgins Clark, writes. Carol does write mysteries, but they are not nearly as well written or thought out as Mary's. Not that I don't like Carol's, there are just a lot different.

In Zapped, Reagan Reilly (P.I.) and her new husband, Jack (head of the Major Crimes Squad at NYU) are returning home to New York City as a major blackout occurs. Somehow, they are each able to run separate investigations of separate crimes, but all the bad guys and all the good guys somehow run into each other in the darkness of NYC and all is solved almost concurrently. There are way too many coincidences in this book, but yet it is a light mystery read, if that is what you are looking for.

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

If you have ever had a conversation with me about John Grisham, you know that I cannot stand his legal books. They're so boring, and they're about lawyers and laws and all that boring stuff. But, amazingly, I enjoy his non-legal books. The first one I ever read was given to me for Christmas by the best gift-giver ever, my Aunt Judy. She gave me Skipping Christmas by Grisham while I was in college. It is a delightful tale about all the commercialism at Christmas, and what would happen if we avoided it. If you saw the movie, Christmas with the Kranks, with Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis, it was similar, but of course the book is always better.

Anyways, back to Pizza. This book is about an NFL quarterback who, through a series of circumstances, basically ends his NFL career through one game. He is only 28 and not ready to be done with football, but football seems to be done with him. So, his manager Arnie manages to get him onto a team in the Italian version of the NFL. Each Italian team is allowed a maximum of 3 American players, and the Americans are the only ones who get paid, and not well at that. The Italians play for the love of the game, and they are treated to pizza and beer once a week by the team's owner.

The descriptions of Italian food, wine, scenery, and customs make me want to dash over to Italy and spend a week or five tooling around the cities and countryside eating and sunning on the beach. Wait until you read/hear the part about Rick trying to get his little Fiat out of a parallel parking place when there is a vehicle less than 12 inches from both front and back, and Rick has never driven a stick. Reminds me of a couple of friends of mine who learned to drive my little blue truck in high school=).

All in all: great book. Read it and crave pasta with me.

Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman

It took me a while to finish this audio because I've been bouncing back and forth between cars the last couple of weeks. The audio never seemed to be in the car I was in while I wanted to listen.

Anyways, while I have read many books by Faye Kellerman, I had never read any by her husband, Jonathan Kellerman. While they both write murder mysteries, hers center on a police detective and his 2nd wife, who is Jewish. Along with learning a lot about his cases, you learn a lot about the Jewish faith. Jonathan is a trained psychologist, so his main character, Alex Delaware, is a practicing psychologist who consults on police cases when his good friend, Milo, asks him to.

In Compulsion, Milo and Alex get involved in a series of cases that don't seem to have anything to do with each other. The only real correlation is stolen, expensive cars. Not like Lamborghinis and Corvettes, think Bentleys and other cars of that caliber. In one of the cases, a 25+ girl disappears while driving home drunk from the bar one night. In another, a kindly old ex-teacher is viciously knifed to death while getting her paper, by an old man in a blue cap who gets calmly back into a Bentley and drives away. At the same time as these cases, Milo is asked to re-open a 16 yr. old unsolved case of a 15 yr old kid who disappeared while selling magazines door to door.

I think I'll stop with the description there, because if I get too much further into it, I'll start giving things away. This was a really good book. I think I'm going to check out another JK book on audio for my drive home today.

Late Bloomer by Fern Michaels

This was a cute book, pure fluff, but enjoyable for riding in the car. It focused on an accident the main character had as a child where she was paralyzed and the other boy involved in the accident died. They were riding a home made zip line across a giant pond when they fell. She proceeds to need three years of rehab unttil she can walk again, and she also has amnesia of the event. Now 30, she moves back to that town to live with her elderly grandmother and begins asking questions. Specifically, she asks the people that she believes were witnesses to the event, although they all 4 deny it. Romances begin and her eccentric grandmother and friends play a big part in things. Total fun.

The Hanged Man's Song by John Sandford

I finished this book on audio today. I listened to the Recorded Books Unabridged version. I am not normally a John Sandford fan, but a coupl of weeks ago, I was at my in-laws' house and my father-in-law handed me "The Fool's Run" by John Sandford which is the first Kidd novel. I was kind of intrigued, especially since it is a hacker suspense novel written in 1989. The computer descriptions of that time were quite intriguing, especially since I was 8 when the book came out. Most of the hacking was done via the telephone lines, which seems quite antiquated now. So, back to "The Hanged Man's Song". In all of these Kidd novels, Kidd has a super-hacker friend named Bobby. In this book, Bobby is found murdered and his laptop with all its high-powered secrets is missing. This is both mystifying and bad. Even Bobby's closest friends do not know his real name or where he lives, so how did the bad guy get to him? Also, how much of the information on his laptop could be harmful to his hacker friends. Kidd has the help of his some-time girlfriend, Lu Ellen, and another reoccurring character named John Smith throughout the book. It made me want to stay in my car all day and drive around so I could find out what was happening next.