The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

by Carol7 Comments
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson From the dustjacket: A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue. It's about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden...and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance . . . and about Lisbath Salander, a twent-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age - and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it - who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism - and an unexpected connection between themselves. My thoughts: This book did start slowly,...
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The Italian Lover Giveaway

by Carol16 Comments
The Italian Lover by Robert Hellenga From the back: Margot Harrington is an American woman living in Italy whose memoir, The Sixteen Pleasures, about her discovery of a priceless masterwork of Renaissance erotica - and the misguided love affair it inspired - is finally, after twenty-five years, being made into a movie. Margot, with the help of her lover, Woody, has written a script that she thinks will validate her life. Of course, her script is not used, but never mind - happy endings are best for movies. At the former convent in Florence where the movie - based on the memoir but now called The Italian Lover - is being shot, Margot enters into a drama she never imagined, where her ideas of home, love, art , and aging collide with the imperatives of commerce and the essential unknowability of other cultures and other people. The giveaway: Thanks to the Hachette Book Group, I am able to give away five copies of The Italian...
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The Boxcar Children Halloween Special

by Carol3 Comments
The Boxcar Children Halloween Special created by Gerturde Chandler Warner From the back: #31 The Mystery of the Singing Ghost The Boxcar Children are helping to fix up the house that their cousins have bought. But the house seems to be haunted by a ghost who sings! Will an old diary explain the house's secrets? #88 The Mystery of the Mummy's Curse Strange things have been happening at the Greenfeld Musem ever since an Egyptian mummy arrived for a special exhibit. Could an ancient curse be to blame for all the bad luck? #91 The Mystery at Skeleton Point The mansion the Aldens are visiting is not only spooky and deserted, it's filled with bones! Rumor has it that a skeleton comes alive at night. Is the legend of the Walking Skeleton for real? My thoughts: These were my favorites of the Boxcar Children series so far. There is actually a semi-spooky mystery in each of the stories, complete with suspects, clues and red herrings. Amber enjoyed them too...
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Tuesday Teaser

by Carol1 Comment
TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given! Please avoid spoilers! Sorry this is a day late. This is truly a random teaser, since I haven't actually started this book yet, but plan to later today. Behind him, he could sense Rod van Vleet, doing everything in his power to pretend he was not listening. "Nobody," Az said, "was stupid enough to try." -44, Second Glance by Jodi Picoult See what teasers others are sharing this week....
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