MM - March 12th



Another pretty good week for books, despite getting so many last week. I have big on a big kick to read more of the Cirque Du Freak series after reading the first two. Bought my son the first two for Christmas and while he didn't read them, I did, and fell in love. Ordered book three, which arrived in the mail this week - yay!

Also went on another trip with friend to the used bookstore again and picked up several books.

And, finally, borrowed two this week. Here's a rundown:

In The Mail: Cirque du Freak 3: Tunnels of Blood


 
Darren, the vampire's assistant, gets a taste of the city when he leaves the Cirque Du Freak with Evra the snake-boy and Mr. Crepsley. When corpses are discovered--corpses drained of blood-- Darren and Evra are compelled to hunt down whatever foul creature is committing such horrendous acts. Meanwhile, beneath the streets, evil stalks Darren and Evra, and all clues point to Mr. Crepsley. Can they escape, or are they doomed to perish in the tunnels of blood?


Bought: Michael Chrichton Collection


Years before Jurassic Park, Michael Chrichton was known as The New York Times bestselling master of the techno-thriller. The three mesmerizing super-sellers in this collection--including his first novel, The Andromeda Strain--have sold well over 4 million copies and qualify as modern classics. Perfectly plotted stories that are fantastic, unbelievable and yet, somehow, very real, these novels pull the reader into bizarre situations full of spell-binding suspense, offering three great examples of the author's genius.

*Note: My fiances favorite book is the Andromeda Strain, so grabbed this one up. Read the Terminal Man years ago and really dug it. 

Bought: Needful Things by Stephen King

Leland Gaunt opens a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires: a prized baseball card, a healing amulet. In addition to a token payment, Gaunt requests that each person perform a little "deed," usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else from town. These practical jokes cascade out of control and soon the entire town is doing battle with itself. Only Sheriff Alan Pangborn suspects that Gaunt is behind the population's increasingly violent behavior


 *I didn't care for the movie at all, but I'm trying to grab up more King books so this was an easy buy.

Bought: House of Reckoning by John Saul


After the untimely death of her mother, fourteen-year-old Sarah Crane is forced to grow up quickly in order to help tend her family’s Vermont farm and look after her grieving father, who’s drowning his sorrow in alcohol. But their quiet life together is shattered when her father is jailed for killing another man in a barroom brawl and injuring Sarah in a drunken car crash. Left in the cold care of a loveless foster family and alienated at school, Sarah finds a kindred spirit in classmate Nick Dunnigan, a former mental patient still plagued by voices and visions. And in eccentric art instructor Bettina Phillips, Sarah finds a mentor eager to nurture her talent for painting.

But within the walls of Bettina’s ancestral home, the mansion called Shutters, Sarah finds something altogether different and disturbing. Monstrous images from the house’s dark history seem to flow unbidden from Sarah’s paintbrush–images echoed by Nick’s chilling hallucinations. Trapped for ages in the shadowy rooms of Shutters, the violence and fury of long-dead generations have finally found a gateway from the grave into the world of the living. And Sarah and Nick have found a power they never had: to take control, and take revenge.



*John Saul always writes fun horror focused on children, so more of him needs to be read.

Bought: The Night Boat by Robert R. McCammon


Couldn't find a synopsis for this one so need to type one up later. Looks cheesy horror but I want to get some more McCammon. Also, found this one at the Cracker Barrel of all places. Fiance and I went to lunch and they had used books for $1.00 as you were checking out! 


Bought: The Weight of Silence


 It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice.Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor.Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

Bought: Gift of Magic by Lois Duncan

 When the old woman died, she left each of her grandchildren something very special. For Kirby, the gift of dance. For Brendon, the gift of music. And for Nancy, the most extraordinary gift of all . . . the gift of magic. And now Nancy has a lot to learn - and even more to fear.


 * I remember reading Lois Duncan as a kid. The plot for this one fascinates me. It's also an older young adult I want to read.

Borrowed: Like a Charm


Kira Smythe never thought she'd end up back in her hometown of Sweet, Texas. But now that her high-powered job, along with her five-year plan, have gone right out the window, she's back where she started, staying with her hippie, tofu- obsessed parents-except that somehow she's inherited the local library. At least there's a gorgeous guy in town who seems quite smitten with her. So what if he's got a few secrets up his sleeve? After all, Kira's got her own secrets. Like the dead people who won't stop talking to her. Or the magical books on the shelves. Or the fact that someone who's very much alive seems determined to push her over to the other side


My best friend read this one and then gushed about how much she loved it! Magic library, witches, paranormal, how can I NOT want to read this one??





Borrowed: Stephen Lives! 

 A spiritual counselor and lecturer shares the incredibly moving story of her 15-year-old son's suicide and her subsequent communication with him. "Stephen Lives!" is a journey of faith and hope, revealing universal truths of life, death, and afterlife that will comfort and inspire. photo insert.

After John died, my coworker and friend Susan and I talk about death quite a bit. She loaned me this book, which she thinks is interesting. Not my usual thing but I'm curious about what's in it.