randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

This book #2 in a series (of 7, I believe).? The first book, Dies the Fire, was an awesome book.? An exciting, interesting and sometimes intense read.? The Protector’s War lives up to the first book in every way.? I’m gonna have to get my hands on the next books in this series as Rob has created a monster.? He loaned me the first two (from his brothers library, LOL) and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the series so far.

A friend loaned it to me and said that when I’m done I’d be begging her for the next book in the series.? I put it off until I was done reading the book I was reading at the time (The Protector’s War by S. M. Stirling – I’ll review that in another post in a moment) and decided to pick it up.

It was good.? The characters were engaging, the story was interesting.? A nice little love story and all that.? When I finished Twilight, I did not feel the need to immediately get my hands on the next book and read it.? HOWEVER, when I read the snippet at the end of the book of the NEXT book in the series, I was overcome with an intense “BUT WHAT HAPPENS???”? feeling.? So I guess I WILL end up begging for the next book.? Not based on the merit of Twilight itself — I would probably have pursued the rest of the series eventually because it was a good story and I enjoyed it quite a bit; but on the basis of the excerpt from the next book which painted a portrait of a scene so intense and dramatic that I simply must know how it’s resolved.

And just to give you a taste of my eclectic reading habits… I’m now reading “Heir to the Empire” which marks the first time I’ve ever read a Star Wars book.? Hello Geek-dom, I’m here to join.

I’ve done a lot of reading lately.? Let’s see… first I read Little Women, which somehow I’d never read before.? I thought it was a really good story, very charming.? Now I understand why so many people have said to me “You’re so Jo.”? Except that I’m not what I’d consider clumsy, and I got the impression that Jo is a bit clumsy.? I’d love to see the movie at some point and see how it compares.

Another book in the “I hadn’t read that before…” category that I read was Black Beauty.? Yes, I know it’s primarily for a younger audience than myself, but I’d never read it.? We had a copy when I was a kid, it had a lot of illustrations in it.? But the time frame was before I could read more than a couple of words.? I remember my older sister reading a few chapters to me, but that’s all.? So I finally got to read that one.? It was REALLY good.? Reading it, I kept thinking “jeez this? is a great example of the need for standards as far as caring for animals.”? And apparently, that’s about what it was written for.

Chocolat was another book that I read last week.? Another really great book.? I’m actually glad we didn’t watch the movie when we got it from netflix awhile back.? It was romantic and interesting and made me want to start making chocolates professionally, LOL.? It was a good story.? I’m glad that I got the chance to read the book before watching the movie… so now I can get the movie and enjoy it.

Continuing in the books from my “they made that into a movie” bookbox, I read Angela’s Ashes.? God that was a good book.? I’ve wanted to read it for years but never had a chance.? Actually it was promos for the movie that made me want to read the book.? And like the others it’s a movie I wanted to see, but only after reading the book.? It’s a great story.? Really quite moving and interesting.

Brain, by Robin Cook was among the books I read.? It was disturbing to say the least.? Especially since it’s about somethign that people probably suspect the government of actually doing.? Not sure that I’d believe they’re doing it without some hard evidence, but I have no doubt that there’s someone out there at least considering medical experiments without the patients knowledge or consent.

Rules of Prey by John Sanford is on the list as well.? I almost thought that Davenport was gonna lose the guy in this one, seriously.? And while you know who it is, the literary tension is in seeing how the cops figure it out… this is a pretty intense one, I gotta say.? Guess why it’s called suspense/thriller.

See Jane Run by Joy Fielding was not at all what I expected… it was SO? much better.? And more disturbing.? Seriously.? I read this thinking that maybe the woman caught her husband having an affair and stabbed him or he tried to kill her or something… it’s worse.? Much worse.

I think that’s all that I read in the past week or so… there might be more.? But it was a good week for reading, that’s for certain.

By Gregory Maguire.? I just finished it yesterday.? ? I think that means I’ve read all of Maguire’s? books? centered around classic fairy tales/stories.? I loved Wicked, although I expected to hate it.? Confessions of an Ugly StepSister was almost as good as Wicked, but not quite, and Lost was interesting if not phenomenal.? Mirror Mirror didn’t seem worth reading, to be honest.

But Son of a Witch… this was almost as good as Wicked.? It picks up where Wicked left off, and tells the story of? Liir (Elphaba’s son) and his growing up and making a statement of his own.? There were some parts that seemed a little formulaic, but for the most part it was an interesting yarn and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now I’m onto a novel by Joe Hill… who happens to be one of Stephen King’s sons.? No, I’m not expecting literary genious just because of who his parents are… but I thought it would be interesting to see his style.

I just finished reading this.? It was SO good.? I really enjoyed the story, fast paced and you didn’t know where it was going to end up.? There were things that I thought were going to happen that didn’t happen, and things that were so utterly unexpected.? It was great.

If you like a good suspense/thriller, especially one that involves secret agents, covert operations and that sort of stuff — get it, read it, enjoy it.? Seriously.