House of Reckoning - John Saul

Back in high school in the mid-eighties, I picked one of this author's books up from my parents' collection. I've liked John Saul ever since, but this book felt like too many of his other novels. Sarah, a 14-year-old finds herself crippled and in a foster home, after her father becomes a guest of the state penal system. Of course, her foster family is abusive and dysfunctional, and, of course, there is a old insane asylum across town that offers a solution. It is a simple formula, and the result in this case was a pretty simple story.

Sworn to Silence - Linda Castillo

This was actually pretty good. A simple thriller with serial killer and a cop with a secret in her past. What really made this interesting to me was that the setting was Amish country Ohio, no more than about 10 minutes from where I live. While the main town was fictional, the surrounding areas mentioned were real and I could relate to them. You often don't find the Amish in this type of fiction so that was a different twist.

As a thriller, this wasn't too bad. The twist, while not completely expected wasn't too far fetched and was in the back of my head, yet I didn't think it was real likely of an outcome, yet it was so that nice. I would recommend this to others and look forward to her Linda's future novels.

The Gates - John Connolly

While trick-or-treating a few days before Halloween, Samuel Johnson happens upon a few of his neighbors enacting a strange ceremony in their basement, culminating in a portal opening and Samuel being pursued by the former Mrs. Abernathy. As it turns out, the Great Malevolence (i.e., the Devil) is harnessing the power of a particle collider to open a doorway and take over the Earth. His only challengers are Samuel, a couple of his friends, and an exiled demon with a love for jellybeans. The story is similar something that Christopher Moore or A. Lee Martinez might write, and a fun, albeit brief, read. Great for the Halloween season!

And Another Thing - Eoin Colfer

Douglas Adams is one of my favorite authors, but regrettably passed away suddenly in 2001. For eight years, I've continued to check the beginning of the SciFi section at the bookstore, hoping to find that a forgotten work was found and published. No luck there. Mr. Colfer has written the 6th book in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (for the uninitiated, yes, Adams wrote five books in what started as a trilogy). First a positive comment - it was good to run into the whole gang again, even if much of the book seemed to be key players and events from earlier books held together by a loose storyline. The characters were there in name, but they weren't quite "right" in many respects - Ford and Zaphod seemed quite different to me. The story also didn't contain the wit that Adams captured in the 1st five books, and I don't believe that there was a single quotable piece of dialogue. To be fair, this wasn't a bad book, but when you're stepping into the shoes of someone like Adams, you can be almost certain that the shoes will never fit just right.

The Walking - Bentley Little

I've noticed two different types of books by Bentley Little. The first are where Little takes something normal and mundane and twists it into something creepy and horrific. The second type are the ones where he just tells a story, but without the twist of the first type. This is the second type. While the story isn't bad, it didn't have that twist of making an everyday thing evil. This just told a story and while interesting just didn't hold my grab me like a lot of his novels do. Little's books also tend to have endings that can at times seemed forced. The ending to "The Walking" just ended too nicely, everything wrapped up too cleanly with little fanfare. If you're a Little fan then by all means read this, but this may not be the best choice to introduce yourself to his work.

Black Cross - Greg Iles

What a great novel. WWII fiction depicting a raid on a concentration camp that was developing poison gas for the Nazis. Story is as simple as that. No real twists or turns to keep you guessing, just straight forward fiction that keeps you from putting this book down. My only complaint on this novel is I wanted to read more.

Greg Iles is becoming one of my favorite authors. I have a few more sitting on my shelf now and will be looking for the rest of his soon. Great stuff.

Common Sense - Glenn Beck

I know many people do not like Glenn Beck. They accuse him of being a partisan hack, using scare tactics and fear to forward an agenda. I disagree with those people. I respect the man and feel that he is honestly trying to warn people of a danger to our country that is coming from the inside. People may view that as using fear, but I see it as a slap in the face, a wake-up call to a nation that has become complacent and not willing to do the hard things it takes to better themselves, their country and their fellow man. Glenn is one of the first to criticize both the Republicans and Democrats when he sees that their policies are not in line with the founding fathers. If people take an honest look at the two parties today, they'll see not much difference between the two.

Now enough of the politics and on to the book. This is a short book that packs a lot of information into it's limited pages. This is something that a person can read quickly to get a general overview of what Beck is warning us of, but it is up to the reader to investigate further. Do not come into this book expecting to see solutions to the problems he sees (other than to use your common sense when thinking about things), but read this book with an eye to taking a view to what the gov't is doing and then see if common sense prevails. Both sides of the aisle could stand to use a little bit more common sense and we the people should hold the gov't accountable and call them out when the do something that goes against common sense.

The Devil's Punchbowl - Greg Iles

So, the author missed the original release date by a few months, but delivered with almost 600 pages of a great novel! Penn Cage is back as the mayor, and former city prosecutor, of Natchez, Mississippi. When his friend Tim Jessup is killed after uncovering a dog-fighting ring controlled by the manager of a floating casino, Penn and his family are drawn into a conspiracy that includes foreign dignitaries, Homeland Security, and a host of backroom deals. This novel brings back Caitlan Masters, the newspaper writer, and Kelly, a Special Forces soldier and friend of Penn. The new characters, Sand and his underling Quinn, are believably evil and starkly drawn, and admittedly I looked forward to their next appearance in the text, as it always signaled another turning point. The ending left a follow-up novel as a distinct possibility, and I'll look forward to that release day!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling

This was my favorite Potter book up to this point. It started off a bit slow but as the story line progresses and gets a bit darker, it's starting to appeal to my tastes a bit more. This was also the first book that I felt deviated enough from the movie that there truly was a good reason to read this book and not just rely on the movie. Great book and really progresses the Harry Potter story line along. Looking forward to book 5.