Theme Thursdays [Animal] – 31Mar11

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event that will be open from one thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
  Ex: If the theme is KISS; your sentence can have “They kissed so gently” or “Their lips touched each other” or “The smooch was so passionate”

This will give us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

The randomly selected theme for this week is suggested by Yvonne from Socrates Book Reviews. Yvonne is an animal lover as is obvious from her blog and so …..this week’s theme is ……..

ANIMAL

My THURSDAY THEME for ANIMAL

And this, my friends is how I’m finally going to find myself during my Year of Me. I can’t believe I frittered away weeks of my life sabbatical on ideas such as becoming a pet sitter (yes, it turns out that you have to like dogs in order to walk dogs). You live and you learn.

Taken from “Life From Scratch” by “Melissa Ford”

OUR THEME STORY SO FAR:

If you have not noticed we follow a particular pattern of theme selection for each month. In February we did LOVE; In March we did INANIMATE OBJECTS and in April it is going to be THEME PARTY . So this month is going to be all about you.

If you have not suggested a theme go ahead and do it now.. Check back again next week to see if you are the theme decider for the week. (During the random selection I will be considering all the themes suggested last week and any new ones that you will be suggesting this week)

Leave a comment here with a link to your post. Do make sure to visit and comment on other Theme Thursdays.

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7th Heaven by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

The Book:

After 2007’s raging California wildfires, James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club novel will carry the shock of recognition with many readers. In 7th Heaven, a series of devastating house fires have set detectives Lindsay Boxer and Rich Conklin hot on the trail of the arsonist culprits. As the conflagrations proliferate and grow ever closer to home, the fiery pursuit becomes more urgent and even deadly personal. A five-alarm barnburner from James Patterson.

Source: Goodreads

The View:

My goal is to finish reading the Womens Murder Club Series by the first half of this year and I think I am doing fairly well. I am also doing ok (read great!) with my James Patterson Reading Challenge; but I wish I had gone with my instinct and chosen level 3 instead of 2. Anyways, I am definitely going to enroll in a few more challenges and find more excuses to read Patterson..

As you probably know, it has been a while since I read a book by James Patterson and enjoyed it … 7th Heaven will break that streak for me. The trademark short chapters, the fast paced plot, multiple crime investigations and a team of woman with brains were back. Both the Michael Campion disappearance and the arson attack plots were lively and interesting. The twist at the end made me sit up on my seat and reminded me again of why I love this series so much.

Rated a 4 on 5. This is a short and exciting read. If you are a Patterson fan don’t miss it.. and if you are not give this series a go anyway. Yes, there are some books that are a drag but the good ones will make you forget them.

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The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg

The Book:

Erica had recently arrived at Fjallbacka, Sweden to sort out her parents belongings after their sudden death. To add to her tragedy she finds her childhood friend Alexandra dead. At first sight it is a suicide but why would Alex who had everything take her own life? Erica’s obsession with finding the truth gets aggravated when Alex’s parents require her help to write about Alex. With police officer Patrik’s help she starts solving the mysterious life of her childhood friend.

What appears as an apparent suicide could be a murder to hide a deadly secret from the past. But what are they trying to hide? Can the past really catch up with you after so many years?

The View:

I love fiction and I could spend half my life (well, all of it) sitting in a couch and turning pages of intense well-written suspenseful fiction. “The Ice Princess” by Camilla Lackberg is definitely one of those books.

The story kept me glued. There were so many revelations that it got my head spinning. I am a fast reader and with this book I seem to have beat my own record. (I finished this in 5 hours except for the breaks that I absolutely had to take). The ending was something I least expected – I had my suspicions but it was nowhere close. I also enjoyed it tremendously when a part of the mystery is solved but is not exposed to the reader until much later.

There were many characters in the story; all of who played a vital part in the crime or in unravelling it. Their names however were another story, too complicated if I did intend to pronounce them loud. Also there was Alex (the murdered victim) and another Axel… Got me confused if only for a second. I liked both Erica and Patrik and the way they worked separately (yet together) in finding the culprit.

For me Camilla Lackberg with this book did what Steig Larrson did with his Millenium Series…ofcourse Erica Falck was not Lisbeth Salander and did not create the same impact Lisbeth had, but nevertheless she did have strengths of her own. Rated a 4 on 5.

I received a complimentary copy by Free Press in exchange for my honest review.

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Teaser Tuesday – Mar 29 2011

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Here are the rules for participating in this meme..

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

“You haven’t touched anything?”
“No, what do you think we are? I just talked to dispatch in Uddevalla and they’re sending over a team to examine the crime scene. We also talked to Mellberg so I assumed you came because he rang you.”

Taken from page 230 – “The Ice Princess” by Camilla Lackberg

Anything goes on Saturday – Urban or Oxford

This is a new meme called “Anything Goes on Saturday” hosted by Yvonne from Socrates Book Reviews. It’s a chance to choose any topic you want and talk about it on Saturday – it can be about a book, TV show, movie, a recipe or just an update on your week. Whatever you choose.

I was driving down yesterday and came across a bumper sticker that read “I’M AWETASTIC”. I was impressed by the usage of a word that combined “Awesome” and “Fantastic” so much that I managed to google it today.. Surprise!! There is a whole new website dedicated for such random words – Urban dictionary

Here are a few words I thought was .. Well! Out of the ordinary.

Word: Bloggerazzi
Meaning: An individual that waits for authors of popular blogs to post new entries so that they can be the first to leave a comment.

Word: Froday
Meaning: The day you finally realize you are in desperate need of a haircut

Word: Surpleased
Meaning: Getting a surprise that pleases you.

Have you come across a word that is more a part of the urban world than the Oxford dictionary? Do you think it is appropriate to make up words for our convenience or would you rather stick to the conventional words? Would love to know your thoughts…

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