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From Snuff
:Six hundred dudes. One porn queen. A world record for the ages. A must-have movie for every discerning collector of things erotic.
Didn't one of us on purpose set out to make a snuff movie.
What does one say about a book like Snuff? For starters, it's not for readers who like their books, um, clean. It's full of filth and vulgarity and descriptions of sex acts that will make your eyes bug out and your skin crawl. But then suddenly there are moments of improbable humanity that put a whole different spin on the story, that stand you in the shoes of these people and make you care deeply what happens to them.
In the large room where six hundred men wait, snacking at the buffet table, watching early Cassie Wright skin flicks on the televisions, anticipating their turn to enter the stage set door into porn history, four lives will intersect for the first time. Each will tell the tale of how he or she came to be there. And what starts out for the reader as a giddy, voyeuristic peek into a murky underworld, between giggles and condescending smirks and shocked gasps, becomes a series of humbling lessons in compassion and understanding. They come at you quickly and silently and then they're gone. But the mark is there. Snuff is everything you expect it to be, and so much that you don't. Go on. I dare you . . . :-)
that I occasionally had to quit reading because I was so angry I was having trouble concentrating on anything other than retaliating against Juana's tormentors. C.W. Gortner's ability to make me experience her triumphs and tears as if they were my own was something special. I can only imagine what he's got in store for us in the future with 
. From the pomp and paranoia of the 
right now. I don't think I'm quite ready to say goodbye to him.
is not a riveting page-turner, but a pleasant way to spend a few stress-easing hours in your favorite chair while Odd entertains you with his ironic observations of humanity, his dry, self-deprecating wit and his totally unrealistic adventures.
is a captivating view of the life of Henry's often overlooked fourth wife from their betrothal to Henry's death. The usual image of the dowdy, overweight, ill-smelling foreigner is replaced with a picture of a charming but plain, domestic-minded girl who couldn't measure up to the bewitching memory of Anne Boleyn or compete with the fresh and exciting Katherine Howard.
. In that book, Anne was depicted as living her life cautiously, acutely aware that Henry's favor could be revoked at any moment, at any provocation, real or imagined. In My Lady of 
, the eighth Lincoln Rhyme novel, doesn't make you want to pay cash for every single thing you ever buy and never lay hands on a computer keyboard again, I don't know what will. The feeling is just like when I read Thomas Harris' 
and swore I would never again bring pictures in to be developed, because the killer worked at a photo lab and picked his victims from customers' photos. Thankfully, digital cameras have eliminated that particular paranoia. Now we have all new ones to worry about!
of the first book, 
, Amelia Sachs will forever be Angelina Jolie, and I loved her in that role. Denzel Washington as Lincoln Rhyme isn't a bad visual while you're reading either. :-)
repeatedly, gleefully trying to memorize the "
was published in 2004 and is loaded with anger and offense. That's not to say it's not funny. But the truly funny moments are fewer than the ones that make you look around to see if anyone knows what you're reading. And that's not to say that I don't agree with some of what he was angry about. He has some good reasons. You can't live in this world today and not have a few things to be angry about. But I miss the hysterically funny. And I'll miss George Carlin. RIP.
by Carolly Erickson, also due out in October, right after that. But wait! I just got 
by Hillary Jordan
. It turned out to be everything it was promised to be. I initially thought the first half was moving too slowly. I was anxious to get to the revolt. (I apparently get blood thirsty on occasion.) In reality, I was frustrated by the treatment of Gabrielle by her family, her men, her life. Gabrielle is a highly intelligent and emotionally tough woman. Her inability to direct her own future is not due to any defect on her behalf. It drove me crazy to watch her be forced to submit to the whims of those in power. However, it was her perseverance through her early life that made credible her survival during a time when her peers were being slaughtered by the thousands under the blade of La Guillotine.
, the 18th book in Sandford's "Prey" series, Lucas Davenport encounters the Minneapolis goth culture when the disappearance of a wealthy widow's daughter leads him to a series of gruesome murders of her daughter's goth friends.
is the story of love, politics, intrigue and murder in an Ottoman Sultan's harem. DPhil candidate Elizabeth Staveley is researching the life of an English woman believed lost in a shipwreck. But a chance find seems to support Elizabeth's belief that the woman, Celia Lamprey, did not die, but lived in captivity in the palace of the Sultan.
is a quick, humorous, but unsettling look at the behaviors of the people that lately have been the movers, shakers and "deciders" of the United States. Everyone from elected officials of all levels and parties to journalists, lobbyists and lowly staffers are open game. Written loosely in the form of an anthropological study, the book would be outright hilarious if it didn't make you want to cry at the pathetic, selfish, greedy and often criminal activities that are rampant in Washington D.C. There I go again using my outdoor voice. . . :-) I'll go back to my 