Library Thing Collections

Library Thing has added Collections. I am so going to love this. I can enter my Reading Journal there now and keep it separate from my personal library, which is good because a lot of books I've read are books I don't own.

The Chameleon's Shadow

TITLE: The Chameleon's Shadow
AUTHOR: Minette Walters

A new book by Walters is a treat. This one focuses on Charles Acland, a British soldier badly injured in Iraq. Back in Britain, he suffers from severe migraines and personality changes due to his head injury. He refuses plastic surgery for the badly scarred side of his face, nor does he want a false eye to replace the one he lost, preferring to wear a patch. He's suspicious of doctors and becomes agressive, especially toward women. Moving to London, he just wants to be left alone, but after getting into a violent altercation at a pub, he comes to the attention of police investigating the murders of three older, gay or bixsexual men, and a vicious attack on a fourth. When they discover Acland and the fourth victim crossed paths, he becomes their number one suspect. The only people who seem interested in helping him are a psychologist friend of his shrink at the hospital where he'd recovered, and the no-nonsense lesbian doctor who owns the pub with her partner.

The odd respect and almost friendship that develops between Acland and Dr. Jackson becomes the key for Acland to prove his innocence, something he seems almost reluctant to do. This time, the psychology is more central to the story than the mystery, but Walters keeps the story moving briskly and by the end, I'd come to care a great deal for the physically and emotionally wounded Acland.

Now, how long do I have to wait for her next one? :)

Falling Boy

I've fallen behind pretty much everywhere. Been sick the last few days. Thought it was allergies, but it looks like a bad cold. But I did finish reading a couple of books, so I owe some reviews here.

TITLE: Falling Boy
AUTHOR: Alison McGhee

I liked her earlier book Shadow Baby, so thought I'd give this a try. The prose isn't as mesmerizing as that book, but it was very appealing, focusing on a teenaged boy (Joseph) crippled in an accident he won't talk about, the boy (Zap) he works with at a bakery and who thinks Joseph is a superhero, and a precocious nine-year-old girl (Enzo) who tries to bend reality to fit her needs and desires. Joseph has moved from upstate NY to Minneapolis to live with his father after his accident. The whereabouts of his mother are unclear, something else he won't talk about. Enzo and Zap keep trying to discover the truth about Joseph's paraplegia, unmindful of how painful the past is to Joseph. The characters are quirky and entertaining and the book reads like a young adult novel for adults. Both Zap and Enzo have secrets of their own and in trying to get at Joseph's story, these three characters heal each other and themselves in this short (194 pages in trade pb) novel.

Memorable Books Meme

I need to write a review or two, but I've been lazy and still recovering from the nasty bacterial infection that I caught back in November. So, until I get those reviews up, someone posted this meme over on LiveJournal and I liked it a lot, so here are my answers, here, because it's a book meme.

"This can be a quick one. Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes."

In no particular order, and in longer than 15 minutes because I couldn't remember titles and drew a blank on one author's name and had to Google it:

1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
2. The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
3. Cat trilogy by Joan Vinge (Psion, Catspaw, Dreamfall -- I think of them as one long book)
4. Spares by Michael Marshall Smith (the first of his I read and it spurred me to read everything by him)
5. The Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters (the first of hers I read and I've devoured every other book she's written that I can get my hands on)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
7. Shardik by Richard Adams
8. The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
10. A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter Miller
11. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
12. Nancy Drew, The Dana Girls, and Trixie Belden books. Some of them are among my all-time favorite books, especially The Clue in the Crumbling Wall and The Ghost of Blackwood Hall (Nancy Drew) and The Secret at the Hermitage (Dana Girls).
13. Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (assigned in school, my fave of Hardy's books)
14. Midnight Nation by J. Michael Straczynski (A comic book maxi-series, it came out in trade as a graphic novel, so I'm counting this awesome work.)
15. Under the Skin by Michel Faber

There are so many more, but this is a nice, eclectic mix. I keep thinking there are 3 or 4 others that should come before these, but their titles are just beyond my reach for the moment, so this list will suffice. Good books all.

And Amazon Responds

What's being called Amazonfail was a glitch. Read about it on Seattlepi.com.