Rita Mae Brown - Hiss of Death

Hiss of death is the 19th book in Rita Mae Browns mystery series which she writes together with her cat Sneaky Pie and which focus around ex postmistress Harry (Mary Minor Harristeen) and her pets. The story begins with the planning of a 5K run in favour of breast cancer victims.
As in most of the "Crozet"-mysteries Harry is involved in the findings of bodies. This time, Paula Benton, nurse, is found dead in her barn, with a hornet lying next to her. As Paula was allergic, nobody thinks of murder in the first place. The 5K run is dedicated to her, and after the run Harry and her friends decide to make the necessary mammographie, just to check that everything is ok - but it isn't. Harry is diagnosed with stage one breast cancer, gets operated and gets radiation treatment.
Harry, trying to do something new every day, now she is diagnosed, goes for a ride with a friend on very good horses, and finds another body - the one of Thadia, another person working in the hospital.
Later on, Harry witnesses another murder - a surgeon. Now things are clear, something is happening at the hospital, and Harry will soon find out - and get herself into troubles, as usual :-)

I bought this book, despite the mostly negative critics on amazon.com. I can understand, why people have problems with the last few book of Brown - mostly she is writing in a very political way, and what made the first 15 books or so so loveable was the story, the pets, and the loving creation of the characters. Now a lot of these characters are either completely missing (Miranda) or have just a very short appearance (Reverend). But I sense Brown is coming back. Hiss of death beats the pants of Cat of the Century (which really was not readable at all).
All in all I award 6 out of 10.

I have not yet decided what to read next, I am hovering between the second Panem book and the 10th Kathy Reichs book, but it might be something completely different as well. UPDATE: So! Now I decided what to read! This morning I started with "What Maisie knew" by Henry James.
UPDATE2: Henry James... I do not think I will read another one of his books... well, I am at 32% (12.4.2012), and I decided to put my kindly on my nightstand, and read now "Kai Meyer: Die Gebannte".

Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys

Neil Gaiman tells the story of Charles Nancy - known to everyone as Fat Charlie, thanks to his father. Fat Charlie is a perfectly normal guy, living somewhere in London, has a normal job, a normal fiancée and finds out by chance, that his father (a more or less friendly guy, always a little mischievous) has died. He flies to the US, where his father lived, and as if losing his father is not enough, he learns, that his father was a god, and that Fat Charlie has a brother - and what is really strange, if he wanted to get to know to him, he shall tell a spider to get and find him. Back in Europe, Fat Charlie does tell a spider to find his brother, the spider winks, and the next thing you know is, that the brother is there. The brother - Spider - and Fat Charlie go grieving about their late father in the necessary three stages: wine, lady, song.
When Fat Charlie awakes the next morning, he lies next to a naked lady, and has no idea, who she is, has overslept and his fiancées mother is on the front door. At the end of the next day, all of Fat Charlies live is completely changed: he gets money from his chef, and a plus of 2 weeks holidays, he has lost his fiancée to his brother and is no more able to get home... Things involve another trip to the States, a trip to the beginning of the world (mind you, not the end!), a murder, a ghost, a trip to the prison and (without telling too much) a happy end!

I do have my problem with Neil Gaiman's Godstories, I don't know why this is, but "American Gods" is not one of my favourites either. All the same... I did not like all of the story, but I really liked the last 50 pages or so. Everything turns in a nice way, everything comes to a good end, so a perfect happy ending!

I award 7 out of 10, for a story which could not really convince me, but which turned out to be very nice!

Next book to be reviewed is the much discussed (in amazon, anyway) Hiss of Death by Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown.

Richard Bachman - The Long Walk

Richard Bachman - or rather Stephen King - tells the story of this years Long Walk. The Long Walk is a walk of 100 boys in their teens, who take part on their own choice. Each boy has to walk faster than 4 mph, if he does not manage, he gets 3 warnings, and if he still does not manage the apropriate speed he is shot. They have to walk day and night, without any stop! The boys are allowed to wear anything they like, and are allowed to take anything with them, they can carry. The get a bottle of water as often as they ask for one (they have to ask by themselves), and food is distributed each morning at 9 in form of a belt full of astronaut nourishment and crackers.

So this years Long Walk starts on the 1st of May, a sunny, warm day. A small group around Garraty forms more or less immediately after the start, and they call themselves the "Musketeers", who one after the other die - despite being a Musketeer - on their own.
Garraty is - propably together with another boy, Stebbins - the main character of the book. Garraty faces the first deaths in a shocked manner, but the more boys die, the duller he gets. Stebbins seems to be the boy who knows most about the Long Walk. He seems to have studied the history, knows all the records, special deaths... Garraty thinks Stebbins to be the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, but Stebbins likes to think of himself as the rabbit type.

Well, the book is well written, a lot of description, which is typical for King, but a lot good story around. I do not like the last few lines, the ending is a little to abrupt for my liking. I award 6 out of 10. This is because I think the characters around Garraty could have been more specifically "illuminated", and I would have liked it more, if one would know, when all of this takes place. It is called a dystopia, but it is not clear, why people changed in such a hard way, why would anyone support such a thing as the Long Walk, why would anyone volunteer for such a thing?

Well. The next book to be reviewed will be "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman.

Suzanne Collins - The hunger games

The hunger games tells the story of Katniss. She lives in a postapocalyptical world, which is divided into 12 districts (there happened to be 13, but one was destroyed by the capitol). Each district serves the capitol in another way, Katniss's district is responsible for coal. Within the districts, people are poor (the higher the number of the district, the poorer the people), have not much to eat, and are monitored during all times. Katniss goes hunting in the forests surrounding her district, and is therefore a skilled archer.

When the reaping day arrives - a day on which from each district a boy and a girl are drawn in order to fight to death - Katniss's sister Primrose is drawn. Katniss volunteers to take her place, so she and the boy Peeta are taken to the capitol, are fed and trained for a few days and then are taken to the arena, where they have to fight for their lives.

I wont tell more about the book, firstly because I think it is quite worth reading, and I don't like to spoil your experience! And secondly, if you don't like reading so much, the film is starting in a couple of weeks, so go and watch it. Having seen the trailer, I think the book is met very well!

I award 8 out of 10, because the story is mostly for teenagers, I think, but very brutal sometimes. The mix of postapocalyptical world and "love" story is ok, what I don't like are the very fast and emotionless treating of the other contestants death.

So, the next book to come is Richard Bachmans "The long walk". I read it in german, though.

Die Abenteurer

Die Abenteurer 1 - Auf den Spuren von Atlantis ist eine Sammlung von 9 Heften der Bastei-Lübbe Groschenromanserie "Die Abenteurer". Erzählt wird die Geschichte vom jetzigen "2012"-Helden Tom Ericson und seiner Kollegin Gudrun Heber. Die beiden kommen auf abenteuerliche Weise an einen telepathisch veranlagten Kristall in Form eines kinderfaustgroßen Auges, das der Schlüssel zur sagenumwobenen Insel Atlantis sein könnte, und begeben sich in bester Indiana Jones Manier auf die Suche danach.
Es gibt einen Kar, einen Wissenschaftler, der sich langsam in eine Echse verwandelt, Symbionten, zeitunabhängige Ortsversetzung, Kornkreise, Zeitreisen, Höhlen, Explosionen, Verfolgungsjagden und natürlich einen Hut... Also alles drin, was ein Abenteurer braucht :-)

Danke für die Leihgabe an TH, der auch die restlichen 4 Bände zu Hause hat, und sie mir sicher mal borgt!

Ich vergebe abenteuerliche 8 Punkte und habe bereits mit der Kindle-Edition von "The hunger games" von Suzanne Collins begonnen

Die Abenteurer 1. Auf den Spuren von Atlantis

I started reading Die Abenteurer 1. Auf den Spuren von Atlantis. This book tells the history of Tom Ericsson (the main character of the dime novel 2012). So this will be the next book reviewed!

The mysterious Island

A happy new year, everyone!

Finally I made it :-) Yesterday I finished Jules Vernes "The mysterious island", my first ebook! Regarding the story, it is still one of my favourites, despite I wonder, whether my german version and this version are really the same book, both versions have the grade "complete edition"... but either I am not the attentive reader I like to be, or there are some differences...

Ok, what is this book about? Cyrus Harding (Smith in my german edition), his ex-servant Neb, Gideon Spillett, Herbert and Pencroft, as well as the dog Top, manage to flee - by taking a balloon - from Richmond during the American Civil war. After days and days without knowing their whereabouts they finally see land. The balloon, constantly losing gas, is freed from everything, in order to make it rise again. Harding looses his footing and falls into the agitated sea, Top following swiftly. His friends manage to get to a very small island, just a mile in front of a much bigger land-mass (it is not yet assured, whether this is an island). Well... A few days later they find Harding, in a somewhat mysterious way - Top appears from nowhere and lead the stranded ones to Harding. Harding, after regaining consciousness, does his best to find out their position within the ocean, and dashes all their hopes because they are at least 1200 miles from the next land. After this, the cast-aways speak of themselves as settlers and try to make the perfect island of the now called "Lincoln Island". Harding knows very much about nearly everything, and so they manage to make a formerly waterfilled cave habitable. Many mysterious things happen on Lincoln Island - a pellet is found within a young pecary, a treasure chest is found on the beach, containing everything the settlers need, Top is rescued in a very strange way after having troubles with a dugong... (but I wont whistle blow to much). Well, the settlers even manage to build a large enough boat to make a visit to their "neighbour" Tabor Island. In the end they get known to the mysterious helper, and... well... It is really hard not to tell too much, and not to tell too little...

Best is, you read the book yourselves! I love it, and despite the kindle edition has some spelling mistakes (sometimes it looks like, they scanned the text, and the scanner did not get everything right...) I award 10 out of 10.
As I am now a little behind with Vampira and 2012 it may take a while until I post again!