Break No Bones

Break No Bones (Temperance Brennan #9)

Kathy Reichs, 2006

While teaching an anthropology field school on the South Carolina coast, Dr. Brennan and her students come across a recently buried body in the excavated Native American burial ground. In her search to identify the remains, Dr. Brennan stumbles across a much bigger plot - one in which the body count is rising - and her life may be at risk as well.

I really enjoy this series of books. Even though this title wasn't one of my favorites in the series, it was still a very enjoyable read. (In general, I prefer the ones set in Montreal.) There was plenty of action, excitement, drama, and science (I'm a nerd at heart). I wasn't overly thrilled with the personal drama - I'm just not a big fan of Pete - but that was a small enough part of the plot that it didn't distract me too much. I was also pleased that I was not able to see the big reveal coming, about why the people were being murdered, and I was just as unsure about whodunnit as Brennan was. 

Overall, an excellent read, and I'm looking forward to picking up the next book in the series soon. 

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park

Michael Crichton, 1990

Geneticists have discovered a new technique for recovering and cloning the DNA of extinct dinosaurs, and one man sees this as the perfect money-making opportunity. John Hammond's goal is to use this technology to open the world's greatest theme park on a small island off the coast of Costa Rica - a place where dinosaurs are displayed like zoo animals for the adoring public. But when a small group of experts are brought in to investigate the park's safety, things start to go wrong. What starts with a minor power loss in the facility eventually leads to a complete breakdown of order. And for those people lost inside the park itself, it becomes a struggle for survival against some of the greatest predators ever known.

This was a re-read for me. I first read it about 15 years ago after seeing the movie version and with the recent movie re-release, I figured it was as good a time as any to pick this one up again.

I have to say that, while I still really enjoyed this book, I like the movie better (which is very rare for me). I actually thought that most of the main characters were better developed in the movie version (Grant, Sattler, Malcolm, Hammond, Lex and Tim), and the jump-out-of-your-seat moments were more dramatic and/or scary in the film. There were more of these moments in the book, which was fun, but the ones that the movie put in (the T-Rex attack on the cars, the raptors in the kitchen) were just better done in the movie version.

I still really liked this book, though. Plenty of tense and scary scenes, good storyline, intriguing and novel concept (at least at the time it was written), and (mostly) interesting characters (I kind of hated Lex in the book). Definitely worth a read. Now I just have to go and dig up The Lost World, 

Death by Black Hole

Death by Black Hole: and Other Cosmic Quandaries

Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2006

This book is a compilation of essays that were first published in Natural History magazine's "Universe" section. Neil deGrasse Tyson is able to take complex concepts of astrophysics and make them accessible to the non-scientist, with just enough humor to make them interesting. 

I thought that this was a really good book. Most of the essays were really interesting and - more importantly - understandable! I never thought that astrophysics could be easy to understand, but Tyson writes it so that even the uninitiated can at least comprehend most of what he is writing about. There were definitely sections that made me feel really stupid, when what he was writing about went over my head, but the majority of the essays actually made me feel kind of smart for understanding it all (even if I know that in reality it mostly is over my head). I think that Tyson is a great writer, as well as being a brilliant astrophysicist, and I'm glad I picked up this book. I'll definitely be reading more by him in the future.

Under the Dome

Under the Dome

Stephen King, 2009

Late one Saturday morning, with no warning and with no apparent reason, an invisible dome appeared over the town of Chester's Mill, Maine. Running into it was like hitting a brick wall, and getting too close to it played havoc with electronic devices. Where it came from and why it's there is a mystery, but the biggest question for the people in the town is how long will it last? While a few citizens, led by former military investigator Dale Barbara, try to figure out how to survive and bring down the Dome, another man is determined to increase the power he has over the town, while trying to keep his own secrets from coming to light. Because even in a small town like Chester's Mill, there are secrets... and people you don't want to be trapped with....

I have been reading books in June, I swear...

I can't think of the last Stephen King book that I really loved. I have felt that his more recent books have been a little sub-par, especially compared to the great books he has written previously (The Shining, The Stand, etc.). He's still one of my favorite authors, though, so I've never given up on him. And after finishing this one, I'm so glad I didn't. 

Under the Dome is probably the best book I've read this year, and definitely one of my favorite King books. Even at a daunting 1000+ pages (although it didn't really seem to daunting while reading it). It had great characters - lovable ones and truly horrible ones - and insanely compelling drama. I was dying to know what was going to happen next. And I felt the reveal about where the Dome came from was interesting and (in a supernatural kind of way) completely believable. A great book all around. 

Dream Team

Dream Team

Jack McCallum, 2012

In 1992, the Olympic committee began allowing professional players to compete in the games. This book chronicles the stories of players such as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson, and tells about how the greatest basketball ever assembled came together at the Olympic Games in Barcelona.

I love basketball, but it's not something that I really grew up following. Other than knowing that Larry Bird and the Celtics were awesome, the Lakers were hated, and Michael Jordan was the best player in the world, I didn't grow up with a whole lot of basketball knowledge. I only really started watching basketball regularly in the past 5 years or so and have come to love the sport like I never thought I could. Because of this, I'm often left wishing that I knew more about what came before...

Enter this book. A wonderfully written account of a time when the best players in the world came together to form the greatest team ever. This book was an interesting account, not only of the Barcelona games, but of who each player was, how they played off of each other, and what the league was like at the time. One of the best books I've read so far this year. I don't know how someone who watched the Dream Team at the time would feel about it, but I'm pretty sure they would get just as much enjoyment out of the book as I did. A great read.

The Scent of Shadows

The Scent of Shadows (Signs of the Zodiac #1)

Vicki Pettersson, 2007

Joanna Archer, daughter of one of the richest men in Las Vegas, spends her days as a freelance photographer and her nights prowling the dark streets in the less pleasant side of town. But its not the criminals and vagrants that she has to fear, which she realizes when she is attacked - in her own father's hotel - by someone who she knows is not quite human. It turns out that she is coming into powers that will allow her to fight on the side of Light for the city of Las Vegas. But the agents of Shadow are very powerful, and the agents of Light have been dying off one by one for some time now. Joanna has to come to terms with what she is becoming, at the same time trying to discover if there could be a traitor among the agents of Light.

This was a surprisingly enjoyable urban fantasy novel. I sometimes feel like all the plots have been done - how many times can you have fantasy creatures battle it out and not have it become repetitive? - but this was just different enough that it kept me interested. Just people with a little extra strength and talent battling it out, good vs. evil. A fun, enjoyable read. I'll definitely keep going with the series to see how it turns out.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

Tom Franklin, 2010

In rural Mississippi, the young daughter of a well-to-do family has gone missing. While there are no real clues as to what happened to her, the majority of the suspicion is directed at Larry Ott, a mechanic in the town who was suspected of murdering a girl back in the 1970s, when he was still in high school. While he was never convicted of the crime, the girl was never found and Larry was the last person to see her alive. Now, Silas "32" Jones, the town constable and former boyhood friend of Larry Ott, is tasked with finding the missing girl, and  what happened in the past just might be forced into the light.

This ended up being a really good mystery novel. I thought that the characters were very well-developed and sympathetic, even when what they did wasn't quite right. Even the minor characters were pretty well fleshed out. I was able to work out a few of the twists before they were revealed, but not in detail, and I thought that even though I saw some of them coming they were very well done and fit with the storyline very well.

In addition, I listened to this one on audiobook and I thought that the narrator did an excellent job with the reading, even giving distinct voices to the main characters that made them identifiable and gave them a little additional personality. 

An excellent mystery novel. Highly recommended.