Books I have read recently

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting and thought provoking






Wild Cards by George R.R. MartinMy rating: 2 of 5 stars

Collection of short stories by various authors.

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Dark in Death (In Death, #46)

Dark in Death by J.D. Robb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Eve is busy hunting a killer who assumes the identities of killers in DeLano's books and targets victims she visualizes as the victims in the best selling crime series. But when Eve throws the "writer/killer" a few plot twist she is unable to cope and Eve soon tracks her down.

Nice to catch up with the regulars in the series. Nadine appears to be in a series relationship with Jake (I like him), Somerset is on vacation so Eve and Rourke have the house to themselves, and McNab has his groove back.

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City of Endless Night (Pendergast #17)

City of Endless Night by Douglas Preston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

H and Pendergast are working together again but there is a definite chill between them and Pendergast for once is attempting to follow the rules until H tells him not too, that he needs the old Pendergast back but that he is still in the doghouse. Pendergast is also missing Constance who has gone to live with her son.

Vincent is the lead detective in a bizarre homicide of a young socialite (Grace Ozmian) who was beheaded some time after her murder. The only clue seems to be the fact that she was responsible for a young child's death in a hit and run and thanks to her Father's (Anton Ozmian) money only received a slap on the wrist. Soon after a series of beheadings occur of wealthy well guarded men who have lots of enemies, in fact so many it's hard to narrow down the suspect list. Pendergast is involved as it seems the young socialites body may have been taken across State Lines.

The Reporter Harriman comes up with the idea that the beheadings are being done by a vigilante who is tired of the 1% getting away with their crimes, and the Police buy into the theory hook line and sinker. Including Vincent even after Pendergast warns him that things are not as they seem. And when Adeyemi a woman who is near a saint as anyone can tell and no one can find any dirt on her is beheaded at the United Nations,  it seems Pendergast was right. It's the challenge of the kill the Decapitator seeks.

Bryce Harriman is summoned to Anton Ozmian's office where he is presented with a threat either he will print an article praising Grace Ozmian and retracting his earlier disparaging statements of her or he will go to jail for embezzling money from the charity he set up in memory of his deceased girlfriend who died from uterine cancer. Ozmian has already used his computer skills to take the money out of the Charities account and place it in an account in the Cayman Islands under Harriman's name and with a paper trail leading back to Harriman. At first Harriman bows under Ozmian's blackmail but then he gets the bright idea to investigate Ozmian and discovers that Ozmian brutally attacked a priest and was never punished for it. Unfortunately Harriman doesn't dig deeper before he confronts Ozmian and to Harriman's dismay Ozmian sets his blackmail scheme in motion and Harriman winds up in jail (Really to bad Harriman didn't go to Pendergast when Ozmian first blackmailed him). According to Ozmian the priest had raped him and that was why he was never charged with assaulting the priest even though he did it in front of a church full of people.

While Harriman sits in jail Ozmian sets his most daring plan into motion. Vincent and H are contacted supposedly by Pendergast and told to meet him at an abandoned asylum "King's Park" just outside the city. They are taken prisoner and used as bait to get Pendergast to come to King's Park alone. When Pendergast arrives H has already been beheaded and Vincent has bombs strapped to him. (H had forgiven Pendergast prior to this and told him he was officially off the shit list, I am still very sad that H is dead and wonder how that will impact Pendergast's job with the FBI). The only way Pendergast can save Vincent is to agree to play Ozmian's deranged hunting game. Gambling that Ozmian is trying to work through the time he spent at King's Park after his rape Pendergast engages in a deadly gamble he finds Ozmian's records in the basement and use them to lure him into a trap, allowing Pendergast to capture Ozmian alive. Because as Pendergast put it "I'm afraid I've developed an unfortunate reputation at the Bureau as an agent whose perps end up dead." Surprisingly enough Pendergast didn't have a clue to who the perp was until near the end of the book, again as Pendergast put it " Ozmian completely took me in. Until he tried to foist Hightower as a suspect on us, I hadn't the slightest inkling that he was a possible suspect.. THAT will trouble me for a very long time." They find the heads in a secret room in Ozmian's apartment mounted on plaques on the wall, there is a plaque at the end of the room with Pendergast's name on it.

The book ends on a happier note with Pendergast traveling to India to ask Constance to come home with him.


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Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Inspiring!!!!! I loved it's central theme of choosing kindness.

When August "Auggie" Pullman, a young boy born with a facial deformity, starts school he faces some some unique challenges as a 5th grader. From the kids who shy away from him because of how he looks, to a friends unkind words when the friend is trying to fit in with the cool kids. But as the school year progresses Auggie wins a place in everyone's heart.

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much. ~Blaise Pascal

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Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection

Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed it immensely and was thrilled to discover that Brandon Sanderson has plans to give Lift a larger role in future books. I find her pluck oddly enduring and she is one of my favorite characters, I look forward to seeing her grow.

Lift was featured in Edgedancer and tells how she traveled to Tashikk to stop Darkness (Nale Herald of Justice) from killing Radiants. She also meet an Old Man who turned out to be a Sleepless Creature.

Books featured:
The Selish System- The Emperor's Soul and The Hope of Elantris- How Matisse saved the children of Elantris.

The Scadrian System (Mistborn) - The Eleventh Metal, Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania Episodes 28-30, Mistborn- Secret History

The Taldain System White Sand - How Kenton found all 5 spheres in order to pass the Mastrells Test, but went after the sixth at great risk to himself.

The Threnodite System: Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell

The Drominad System: Sixth of the Dusk

The Rosharan System (Stormlight) Edgedancer

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Dark Cities Dark Cities by Christopher Golden

Dark Cities by Christopher Golden
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Dark Cities
by Christopher Golden (Goodreads Author) (Editor), M.R. Carey (Goodreads Author), Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author), Tim Lebbon (Goodreads Author), Scott Sigler (Goodreads Author), Amber Benson (Goodreads Author), Kasey Lansdale, Simon R Green , Paul Tremblay (Goodreads Author), Nathan Ballingrud (Goodreads Author), Tananarive Due (Goodreads Author) 

To be honest I wasn't terribly impressed, I got it because Sherrilyn Kenyon had a story in the book and while she was the only author I was familiar with it doesn't seem like any of them brought their A game to the collection.

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Goldeline by Jimmy Cajoleas

Goldeline by Jimmy Cajoleas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hauntingly sad.

Goldeline never knew her Father and was orphaned after The Preacher convinced the townspeople to burn her Mother at the stake for witchcraft when she turned down his marriage proposal. Goldeline was rescued from being burned at the stake along with her Mother by Gruff a bandit that lives in the woods with his men.

As the only child living amongst a group of men Goldeline is lonely so when they rob a carriage Goldeline helps the young boy (Tommy) hiding in it stay hidden from the bandits but this act of kindness has terrible consequences The Preacher leads a mob to kill the bandits in the woods and capture Goldeline, so he can burn her at the stake. Tommy who lead the mob to the bandit camp helps Goldeline escape into the woods.

Hunted by the Preacher they meet people who help them and others who try to use them but in the end Goldeline finds the strength to face The Preacher down.

But there is no happy ending for Goldeline. Taken in by Tommy's Aunt Barbara Goldeline fails to fit in with town life and flees alone back to her forest.

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Deer Island 6-18-2017

For Father's Day and Our Anniversary we kayaked to Deer Island. I had a nice time although I got too much sun and got sick after we got back to the truck.

 Deer Island was once connected to Biloxi and isn't considered one of the barrier islands. And while it is the closest island to land, it's actually a lot further then it looks especially when you are kayaking to it.

 We got a lot of rain this summer, so this was one of the few times we were able to go out in the kayaks.

 On our first visit to Deer Island we noticed the channels through the marsh and wanted to see if we could find where it opened to the Bay if it did. We found the channel opening and paddled up it for awhile. We never were able to get to the one we saw on our first trip though.

 The island is pretty large. There were other people there but for the most part we had certain sections of the island to ourselves, which was nice.

 On the Gulf side you have a nice view of the barrier islands.

~Alasandra

Warbreaker (Warbreaker, #1)

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting book but it's kinda hard to follow.

Dedelin, King of Idris has to send one of his daughters to wed the God-King of Hallandren. He is supposed to send his eldest daughter Vivenna, but she is his favorite and he can't bear the thought of her being mistreated or killed so he sends his youngest daughter Siri instead.

Siri is a rule breaker and a free spirit but she tries to follow instructions regarding the God-King who she fears will have her put to death if she displeases him. Mostly isolated she has few allies. Lightsong (Lesser God, Returned) befriends her a little and does get Hoid (Wit) to tell her the history of Hallandren and Idris. She eventually works up the nerve to talk to the God-King and learns that the priest cut out his tongue to keep him from using his breaths. She teaches Susebron (the God King) to read and write so they can communicate and they make plans to get help from the other Returned as they fear the priest are planning to kill Susebron. Before they can put their plan into action they are taken prisoner.

Vivenna travels to Hallandren with her friend Parlin, without her Father's permission to free Siri. She hopes to get help from the Idris agent whom she has corresponded with but discovers he is ill. She also finds to her dismay that he has stolen funds from her Father and bought Breath ( a big NO No in their religion). Before he dies he give Vivenna his Breath. She also inherits the mercenaries ( Denth aka Vara Treledees, Tonk Fah and Jewels) he supposedly hired. Denth (the leader) persuades her that the Hallandrens are planning to go to war with Idris that it is inevitable but encourages her to engage in sabotage to delay the start of the war and allow Idris to come up with a plan for defense. After being attacked Vivenna decides to learn to use Awakening (another thing against their Religion) but before she can she is kidnapped by Vasher (aka Kalad, Strifelover, Peacegiver the Blessed, Talaxin, Zahel, or Warbreaker the Peaceful). When Vasher leaves her alone Vivenna uses the little bit of Awakening she has guessed at and escapes. But when she gets back to the hideout she discovers that Denth, Tonk Fah and Jewels tortured Parlin to death to get him to tell them where Vivenna went. She flees and nearly starves on the street before Vasher finds her again. He tells her that he is trying to stop the war between Idris and Hallandren and gets Vivenna to help him. When she ask him to rescue Siri he goes to the Palace of the Gods alone and stumbles into a trap Denth laid for him. Denth takes Nightblood (In Oathbringer The sword was given to Szeth after his death and Restoration by Nale ) from him and has Tonk Fah throw it in the water. Nightblood calls to a fisherman and eventually finds his way to Vivenna who he tells that Vasher is hurt at the Palace. She takes Nightblood and goes to help him. When she gets there the Palace is under attack by the Pahn Kahl (lead by Bluefingers) who plan to kill Siri and Susebron in order to get their countries to go to war with each other. While Idris and Hallandren are fighting with each other the Pahn Kahl hope to reclaim their sovereignty.

Lightsong was exploring the tunnels when he discovered the Pahn Kahl torturing Blushweaver (a Returned Goddess) for her Command Codes to control the Lifeless Army, they kill her to convince Lightsong to give the Command Codes he has to them. They then throw him in a cage and to his surprise the God-King is soon thrown in the cage next to him. When he realizes the God-King's tongue has been cut out so he can't use his breath, Lightsong gives his life to heal the God-King. Susebron then uses Awakening to free himself and rescue Siri. But they don't know how to stop the army of Lifeless that are marching on Idris.

When Vasher reveals who he really is to Vivenna and that he left an army of "stone Lifeless" in Hallandren she realizes they can save Idris. She has guards take her to Siri and convinces Susebron to meet with Vasher. Vasher gives Susebron the Command Codes to the army he left behind and Susebron sends the "stone Lifeless" to stop the army of Lifeless sent to attack Idris.

Vivenna chooses to go with Vasher when he leaves

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Jhirmack Ageless Conditioner, 12 oz

It' much to thick almost impossible to get it out of the bottle. It does an OK job on your hair, but I am less than thrilled with it.