Plum vs Millhone

Joanie, your post got me to thinking....I've never read a Kinsey Millhone mystery by Sue Grafton! So...in between work and family visiting last weekend, I took care of that little issue and read 'A is for Alibi' the first in the celebrated Kinsey Millhone series. It was a very compelling book...I read it straight through. Different from some of the other girl gun-toter mysteries that I've read, in particular Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum. (Is there an adult female in this country who has not read at least one of the Plum mysteries? If so, wow! What rock are you living under?)

Stephanie: Has a family. In fact, we love her family! From her father with his avoidance issues, to her closet-drunk mom to her crazy grandmother, we can see the forces that shaped Stephanie into the woman that she is today! Her family could possibly be the AnumberOne reason her books are so popular! Stephenie even has a relationship with Rex, her pet hamster.
Kinsey: No family and only one reference to history...her parents were killed when she was 5 years old, so one assumes she barely remembers them. She was raised by an aunt. No siblings and apparently, no cousins although there's always that option for later books. But...Kinsey is a loner. Not even a pet!

Stephanie: Not averse to sleeping with men who turn her on but she knows them first. Joe she pretty much knew since the cradle...or was that kindergarten? (Loved the choo-choo-train game! laughed so much...) She doesn't know the mysterious Ranger as well in the first book, so she waits to get to know him better. Man of few words...that Ranger.
Kinsey: This really strained the bounds of credulity. Not only does Kinsey not know Charles, but he's a suspect in a murder investigation! The heat didn't seem all that hot and there weren't chapters of learning of the conflict Kinsey went through to make the decision to sleep with Charles. In any event, he did buy her a meal so I guess she 'owed him'.

Stephanie: An average gal who sort of fell into the bounty hunter role but is afraid to carry a gun. That gun spends more time in the cookie jar than in her purse and who knows where the bullets are?
Kinsey: An ex-policewoman--got to be a story there that hope is discussed further in future books--who makes a point to bring the gun wherever she goes and isn't afraid to use it--judiciously.

Given all that, I really enjoyed 'A' is for Alibi. I was able to partially solve the whodunit very early on and I felt good about that. I will be reading the rest of the series!

Thanks Jo....for inspiring me to add another author to my must-read list!

Charlaine Harris is just SO good!

My first introduction to Charlaine Harris' writing was through her Sookie Stackhouse series. A bar waitress who looks like the typical bimbo blonde but is very intelligent. Her problem is that she's continually bombarded with other people's thoughts. An empath, she really just wants a little peace and quiet. Her world is peopled by vampires...well...OK...it wasn't peopled by vampires until the first novel, when Bill walked into her bar and life. But...otherwise, it's peopled by vampires, weres (wolves and other shape-shifters), witches, elves and all sorts of other "supes" I gobbled these up, one each night until I finished the series. Then went on a Harris hunt and managed to find the rest of her books....her other series are more of the typical whodunit mysteries:

Aurora Teagarden, the librarian who stumbles onto dead people. Unless of course, they fall out of the sky and into her yard.

Harper Connelly the corpse-finder who was somewhat raised by drug-addicted parents. Not only was she hit by lightening, her full sister was snatched and never found. She and her step-brother Tolliver travel the country looking for dead people. For a fee. Her hope is that someday she will find her sister.

And...Lily Bard, who settled in Shakespeare, Arkansas and is still recovering from a very traumatic event that occured in her early 20s. THIS is my favorite Harris series! While whodunits are not my favorite genre (that would be romance!) I do enjoy exploring past baggage that makes characters behave the way they do. And Charlaine Harris does this with Lily's character. Her past makes Lily work on being strong. It makes her have trouble with trust. It causes her to choose cleaning as a career -- which enables Harris to bring in all sorts of random clues to solving the whodunit. But utmost, I love these novels because of the exploration of Lily's relationships with the other characters: The gym owner; the chief of police; her various clients; the PI who blows into town and just so many more. Whew...I managed to write a whole paragraph without a single spoiler! I encourage everyone to read these books!!!!

List of recently published books

I decided to take the bull by the horns this year! Instead of being tossed to and fro at the whim of the publisher's....never knowing what book was gonna' be released when and then being totally surprised during a trip to Target (seeing that my one of my very favorite authors' released a book without even telling me!) I took a trip to www.fantasticfiction.com.uk and made the following list:

1. Jeanniene Frost At Grave's End 12/30 Can this person possibly get any better? She started at the top!

2. Kresley Cole Kiss of the Demon King 1/20 Could hardly wait for the next installment of the Immortals After Dark series. I rushed to Borders on 1/19 but they didn't put any out early!!! Since it's now 1/21, I can tell you--without spoiling anything--that it was worth the wait and I'm planning on rereading Kiss... after I reread them all the way through AGAIN. Then MAYBE I'll put this set up for sale. It'll be a special set because I have every single Cole ever written, including the hard-to-find Pleasure books!

3. Christine Higgins 2/1 ooooh nooooo! Can I wait nearly 2 weeks for this book? I'll have to reread her first 3 before then just to tide me over!!!!

4. Lynsay Sands 4/1 boo hoo! This is not going to be another Argineau book. To be fair to Lynsay, she'd explored the nano theory of vampirism as far as she can. How many different ways can you read about 'the change'? But most of them were great. Lynsay is such a hoot that I'm sure whatever she puts out will be well worth the trip to Borders!

5. Kerrilyn Sparks 3/31 Yes...so Kerrilyn was an afterthought. It's so hard when a person has a million favorite authors! But a Sparks book is always a pleasure to read so she did make the list.

Ok...so even armed with this list, I still missed a few. Jayne Ann Krentz snuck Running Hot right by me! It had to be out at least 2 days before I found it! (I picked it up on a Thursday at Sams and as most everyone knows, Sams puts out their books on Tuesdays) Running Hot was the best Arcane novel to date...and I've read them all!
Julie Garwood got by me, too....Fire Ice is another FBI romance. How did I miss this? I love every single book Julie has ever read!!!!! Fire Ice is not as good as Murder List but it's better than some of the FBI romance, which means that it's very, very good! The main protagonist is one of the Murder List's main character's best friends....so it was nice to see some old friends.

I have to admit, I did not put Charlaine Harris on the list but only because she just had a Sookie novel published before I made the list, not because she didn't deserve a place on it.

So...hey...happy reading to you all!

It's a NEW DAY! Starting to Blog....

Lists:
1. Love to make lists
2. Blogging--what the heck is that?
3. Favorite authors
4. Favorite books
5. Following an authors career -- rating the books
6. Book reports