All things bookish moving to Pinterest

Truth is I’m lazy and have better things to do than blog. It’s never really been something I’ve enjoyed. That’s why I’ve switched blogging gears so many times in the last 5 years. Trying to find my comfort zone. I’ll probably switch gears again, one never knows. Writing, editing and proofing blog posts just isn’t the way I want to spend my evenings and weekends. I’d much rather be turning the pages of a really good book then torturing myself over a keyboard. Besides I’m a truly visual person and the cover of a book will catch my interest or spark a memory long before reading a blog post does/will. So all things bookish are all moving to Pinterest boards. And it’s so much faster/easier/lazier to pin a book cover than put together a blog post.

Hooked by a Book/Mailbox Monday Pinterest boards

2012 reading list
Book ‘em Dano (misc bookish stuff)
Library Loot & Marcia’s Mailbox
T.I.M.B.E.R. – Too Incredibly Many Books (I’m) Expecting (to) Read (book wish list)
Love the cover (book cover art)

Library Loot | July 12th

If I Die by Rachel Vincent

No one wants to be this teacher’s pet . . .

Everyone else is talking about Eastlake High’s gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck, but Kaylee Cavanaugh has bigger things on her mind. Kaylee’s a banshee–her scream is a portent of death.

But the next scream might hit too close to home. Kaylee’s borrowed lifeline has almost run out.

Yeah–it’s a shock to her, too. So to distract herself from her own problems, Kaylee is determined to defend her school against the latest supernatural threat. That hot new teacher is really an incubus, who feeds from the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend’s delinquent ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren’t quite human either.

But Kaylee’s running out of time, and those who love her will do anything to save her life.

Anything.

Never to Sleep by Rachel Vincent (Soul Screamers novella)

Don’t Close Your Eyes.

Sophie Cavanaugh is not going to let her freak of a cousin’s strange psychiatric condition ruin high school for them both. Not after all the work she’s put into cultivating the right look, and friends, and reputation. But then, Sophie sees something so frightening she lets out a blood-curdling scream–and finds herself stuck in a bizarre parallel world where nothing is safe and deadly creatures lurk just out of sight, waiting for her to close her eyes and sleep…forever.

Could this world be real? Or does insanity run in the family…?

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Library Loot | July 3rd

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

My Soul to Keep by Rachel Vincent

Kaylee has one addiction: her very hot, very popular boyfriend, Nash. A banshee like Kaylee, Nash understands her like no one else. Nothing can come between them.

Until something does.

Demon breath. No, not the toothpaste-challenged kind. The Netherworld kind. The kind that really can kill you. Somehow the super-addictive substance has made its way to the human world. But how? Kaylee and Nash have to cut off the source and protect their friends – one of whom is already hooked.

And so is someone else.

My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent

Trying to work things out with Nash – her maybe boyfriend – is hard enough for Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can’t just pretend nothing happened. But “complicated” doesn’t even begin to describe their relationship when his ex-girlfriend transfers to their school, determined to take Nash back.

See, Sabine isn’t just an ordinary girl. She’s a mara, the living personification of a nightmare. She can read people’s fears – and craft them into nightmares while her victims sleep. Feeding from human fear is how she survives.

And Sabine isn’t above scaring Kaylee and the entire school to death to get whatever – and whoever – she wants.

Act of Terror by Marc Cameron

From coast to coast, our nation is witnessing a new wave of terror. Suicide bombers incite blind panic and paralyzing fear. A flight attendant tries to crash an airliner. A police officer opens fire on fans in a stadium. And at CIA headquarters, a Deputy Director goes on a murderous rampage. Special Agent Jericho Quinn has seen the warning signs. As a classified “instrument” of the CIA reporting directly to the President, Quinn knows that these random acts of violence pose a clear and present danger. But Quinn may not be able to stop it. The search for terrorists has escalated into an all-out witch hunt. And somehow, Quinn’s name is on the list.

Library Loot | June 26th

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Soul Screamers, Vol. 1 by Rachel Vincent

My Soul to Lose
Kaylee is just your average girl shopping at the mall with friends – until a terrified scream bursts from her that cannot be stopped. Taken to a hospital ward, will she be able to save her mind – and her life?

My Soul to Take
She’s always felt different, but now Kaylee discovers why. The screams that cannot be denied mean that someone near her will die – and she can never save them. Because saving one life means taking another..

My Soul to Save
Going on dates with her boyfriend is still new to Kaylee. But when the singer of the band they’re seeing dies onstage and Kaylee doesn’t scream, she knows something crazy is going on. Soon she discovers souls can indeed be sold..

Library Loot | June 24th

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she’s had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic’s doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes.

Amidst the chaos and desperate urging of two very different suitors, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat. Tess’s sailor also manages to survive unharmed, witness to Lady Duff Gordon’s questionable actions during the tragedy. Others – including the gallant Midwestern tycoon – are not so lucky.

On dry land, rumors about the survivors begin to circulate, and Lady Duff Gordon quickly becomes the subject of media scorn and later, the hearings on the Titanic. Set against a historical tragedy but told from a completely fresh angle, The Dressmaker is an atmospheric delight filled with all the period’s glitz and glamour, all the raw feelings of a national tragedy and all the contradictory emotions of young love.

Library Loot | June 19th

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould

Laura della Scala knows nothing beyond the convent walls which have trapped and bound her since she was twelve years old. A single night will change her life. She will soon learn the difference between an arranged marriage and true, reckless love. Venice is a dangerous city. Intrigue, romance and power lie at its heart and secrets run through the blood of its rulers. They call Laura ‘La Muta’. The Silent One. She is about to break her silence …but at what cost?

Library Loot | June 14th

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Never Buried by Edie Claire

Advertising copywriter Leigh Koslow doesn’t pack heat—just a few extra pounds. And she doesn’t go looking for trouble. When she moved into her cousin Cara’s refurbished Victorian house, she wasn’t planning on discovering a corpse-certainly not one that had been embalmed ten years before. But as anyone in the small Pittsburgh borough of Avalon could tell her, her cousin’s house has a history attached. A history dating back to two mysterious deaths in the summer of 1949.

Someone wants Leigh and Cara out of the house—someone who has something to hide. But that someone doesn’t know Leigh’s impetuous cousin, and when Cara digs her heels in, Leigh looks to her old college chum, local policewoman Maura Polanski, for help. But the answers the trio find only point to more questions. Were the scandalous deaths of fifty years ago really an accident and a suicide? Or were they murder?

The nearer the women get to the truth, the more desperate someone becomes. Because some secrets are better off kept. Especially when they hit close to home!

Patient One by Leonard Goldberg

U.S. President John Merrill is hosting Russian President Dimitri Suslev at a glittering state dinner to celebrate a new economic pact. As the after-dinner toasts begin, the two leaders, their wives, and scores of prominent guests become violently ill. Merrill and Suslev, along with the other stricken guests, are rushed to the nearest hospital. As Secret Service agents struggle to secure the hospital and locate Merrill’s daughter, the President’s personal physician – who’s been withholding critical medical information about the Commander-in- Chief – tries desperately to stabilize the President.

In the chaos, Chechen terrorists make their move, breaching the secured area and taking both presidents hostage. Emergency-room physician David Ballineau, a former commando struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, and trauma nurse Carolyn Ross may be the President Merrill’s only hope for survival.

Library Loot | June 8th

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Broken Promises: A Novel of the Civil War by Elizabeth Hoffman

1861: The war that’s been brewing for a decade has exploded, pitting North against South. Fearing that England will support the Confederate cause, President Lincoln sends Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams, to London. But when Charles arrives, accompanied by his son Henry, he discovers that the English are already building warships for the South. As Charles embarks on a high-stakes game of espionage and diplomacy, Henry reconnects with his college friend Baxter Sams, a Southerner who has fallen in love with Englishwoman Julia Birch. Julia’s family reviles Americans, leaving Baxter torn between his love for Julia, his friendship with Henry, and his obligations to his own family, who entreat him to run medical supplies across the blockade to help the Confederacy. As tensions mount, irrevocable choices are made—igniting a moment when history could have changed forever.

Library Loot | June 5th

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Carved in Bone by Jefferson Bass

On the campus of the University of Tennessee lies a patch of ground unlike any in the world. The “Body Farm” is a place where human corpses are left to the elements, and every manner of decay is fully explored — for the sake of science and the cause of justice. The scientist who created the Body Farm has broken cold cases and revolutionized forensics, and now, in this heart-stopping novel, he spins an astonishing tale inspired by his own experiences.

A woman’s corpse lies hidden in a cave in the mountains of East Tennessee. Undiscovered for thirty years, her body has been transformed by the cave’s chemistry into a near-perfect mummy — one that discloses an explosive secret to renowned anthropologist Bill Brockton. Dr. Brockton has spent his career surrounded by death and decay at the Body Farm, but even he is baffled by this case unfolding in a unique environment where nothing is quite what it seems.

The surreal setting is Cooke County, a remote mountain community that’s clannish, insular, and distrustful of outsiders. The heartbreaking discovery of the young woman’s corpse reopens old wounds and rekindles feuds dating back decades. The county’s powerful and uncooperative sheriff and his inept deputy threaten to derail Brockton’s investigation altogether. So do Brockton’s other nemeses: his lingering guilt over the death of his wife, and the fury of a medical examiner whom Brockton dares to oppose in court.

The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens

Deep in the shadowy foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains lies a dying town.

My name is Amelia Gray. They call me The Graveyard Queen. I’ve been commissioned to restore an old cemetery in Asher Falls, South Carolina, but I’m coming to think I have another purpose here.

Why is there a cemetery at the bottom of Bell Lake? Why am I drawn time and again to a hidden grave I’ve discovered in the woods? Something is eating away at the soul of this town – this withering kingdom – and it will only be restored if I can uncover the truth.

Library Loot | June 1st

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Trail of Blood

Seventy-five years ago, a madman nicknamed the Torso Killer terrorized Cleveland. His horrific spree lasted four years and crisscrossed the entire city. Overall, he was credited with more than a dozen murders. And he was never caught.

Today, forensic scientist Theresa MacLean is called to an abandoned building where a desiccated, decapitated body has been found in a room that’s been sealed off for years. Although there’s no immediate proof, everyone assumes the same thing: that the newly discovered corpse was a Torso Killer victim. The body has decayed beyond recognition, leaving few forensic clues, but Theresa sees this as an opportunity to shed some light on a big piece of Cleveland’s past that until now has been shrouded in mystery.

But then another body – this one recently deceased – turns up, and all signs at the scene seem to indicate the work of a new Torso Killer. Suddenly, Theresa’s investigation takes on a whole new meaning. Her examination of the old body has opened a door to the past – a door someone wanted to keep closed – and she shifts her focus from solving a historical puzzle to catching a very dangerous, present-day psychopath.

But as the body count rises, Theresa finds herself nearer to danger than she ever imagined. For the killer is keeping a watchful eye on Theresa, and she begins to feel his presence everywhere. Each step brings them closer and closer to each other – at one point separated by no more than a speeding train in a railroad switchyard – as Theresa scours the city in her hunt for a murderous lunatic intent on reliving a terrifying past.