Reading In/Out

Hallelujah! I finally have something to tell you!

OUT

Immortal In Death by J.D. Robb - Number 3 in the series. The body of a low-rent drug dealer and police informant is pulled from the river. He'd been beaten so badly, they had to use his fingerprints to ID him. When Dallas and Peabody search his place, they find a bag of a brand new powdered drug and the formula for making it. A really unpleasant model/wannabe actress is found murdered the same way with that drug in her system. She was found by Dallas' best friend in that friend's boyfriend's apartment. He had had a relationship with the model and she wasn't ready to give him over to the nobody. Best friend is arrested for the murder. All the people who had hung out with the model that night are also under suspicion. Since there is a new drug on the scene, the illegals department of the police want in on the case. The detective from that squad is dating Peabody and hovering around the case all the time. He is pretty gross. Apparently he looks great, but he hits on Dallas constantly, even though he knows she is engaged to Roarke. Even though he is dating Peabody. He's gross. So I wasn't too shocked when he turned out to be the bad guy.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - This was a lot of fun. Sophie is the oldest of three girls and she knows that the oldest always fails. When she messes something up, or gets something wrong, she says she couldn't help it. She's the oldest. It was bound to happen. After their father's death, the stepmother sends the two youngest girls out to be apprentices and keeps Sophie at home to help her run the family hat shop. The Witch of the Waste shows up and casts a spell on Sophie and makes her into an old woman. Sophie knows no one will believe her so she runs away. She ends up at the Wiard Howl's castle, that does indeed move around constantly, and makes herself useful cleaning and cooking. The wizard himself is under a curse from the Witch of the Waste and is running away from her. The story gets very weird and convoluted. The fire demon in the grate cooks the food. There is at least one animal that is a man under a spell. The king wants Howl to go find his brother who went off into the Waste to find the Royal Sorceror and Howl really doesn't want to do it. It's pretty delightful.

IQ by Joe Ide - Isaiah Quintanabe is IQ. Around the neighborhood where he lives, he solves mysteries for people in exchange for food or car tires or whatever. Rich people, he charges. He's been called in by a famous Rapper named Cal who was nearly murdered by a giant pit bull who got into his house in the middle of the night. He was rescued at the last minute, but now he won't leave his house. He's depressed and addicted and can't write new songs. His record manager is really unhappy with this turn of events. Isaiah's right-hand-man is pretty great. He's the comic relief. Isaiah's ability to notice things and piece things together is his strong suit. He might be brilliant, but mostly he's just observant and can follow a chain of logic. I liked it.

IN

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas - This is a collection of novellas in the Throne of Glass YA fantasy series. The are officially pre-quel novellas, meaning they take place before the events of the first book in the series, but the author recommends reading them after the first three books so you aren't spoiled for those. I have read the first three books. My dance co-director was reading it last Sunday so I figured I would join in. It's been 10 days, so she's probably already finished, but still.

Life After Death by Damien Echols - The author was convicted of murdering 3 boys in the 90s in West Memphis, Arkansas. He was a weird teenage kid who liked to shock people by talking about witchcraft and stuff. Satanic Panic was strong then, and he and his two friends were easily convicted. After 17 years, they were set free when new evidence pointed to one of the boys' father. This is his version of the story. I bought this book a decade ago or more. I'm reading it now because the case was one Dr. Vincent DiMaio was called in on. DiMaio wrote Morgue that I read last month. It reminded me that I have this, so it's up next.

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe - And of course, we are still reading this one. I'm about 60% through it. It is extremely convoluted with Russian Gangsters and Ugandan gangsters with Indian names. It's crazy. This teenage Londoner who wanted to be wealthy and important got hooked up with the people through big lies. He claimed he was the son of a Russian Oligarch. He managed to convince everyone. Even the Russian gangsters. Meanwhile his parents are regular middle-class Brits who do not understand their son's fascination with flashy cars and expensive watches. He committed suicide halfway through this book, but now we're finding out how the whole situation got to that point. People are seriously messed up.

The Accidental Law Librarian by Anthony Aycock - I am still slowly picking through this one at work. It's highly informative, and definitely written for the non-legal professional.

There it is! A couple of new books to shake things up. I most likely won't finish any of them in May, but we are on a good start toward June's reading.