8-25-12 The Wolf Hunt by Gillian Bradshaw - Fiction

4 - Oops, forgot one!  This is a period book set in France in the days of lords and lieges.  It is a good combo of intrigue, romance, politics, and the supernatural, surprisingly so.  Marie Penthievre is the heir to her fathers estate and is kidnapped by the Bretons from her Norman priory.  Ironically, one of her kidnappers is a blood relation.  She is kept at court but is treated as one of the family.  At the beginning of her stay, there is some drama with one of the lord's knights rushing off to steal away with his lover before her wedding to another.  The story is full of twists and turns with one mystery leading into the next and the battle, legal and personal, for Marie's lands once her father has been killed in the crusades.  This was a much more interesting book than I initially expected and well written historically.

9-2-12 Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez - Fiction

5 - So a werewolf and a vampire walk into a diner.....that's how this fun book starts.  They meet a determined owner Loretta who, after serving them their food, proceeds to shoot up the zombies that start attacking her diner.  Again.  So begins a strange sort of partnership.  Earl, the vampire, and Duke, the werewolf, stay to help Loretta with her zombie problem and to install a gas line to the kitchen.  Who would have guessed that in such a small town in the middle of nowhere someone would be trying to raise the old gods and start the apocalypse?  And did you know the language of the old gods is pig latin?  I laughed a lot and really enjoyed this book and I know I'm going to read more of Martinez's work.  It's just the kind of quirky that I love.

8-29-12 Proof of the Pudding by Phoebe Atwood Taylor - Fiction

3 - I think if I had started this series closer to the beginning I would have enjoyed this a little more.  Asey Mayo is a self made detective in Cape Cod in the 40's and the book is full of the particular dialect of the time and area.  Not a bad mystery but I feel I may be missing some back story that would definitely have made it more fun.  Quirkiness abounds in the story with some distinctly odd characters, as there are in any small town, but a well put together murder mystery overall.

8-20-12 The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi - Fiction

3 - A much more "intellectual" book than I normally read, this is a look at an Indian teen living in 1960's England and trying to find his way in the world.  His father has an affair and leaves his wife for another woman.  His mother, an Englishwoman, fades into the background but slowly becomes independent.  His stepbrother becomes a rock star, travelling and then living in America in all the rock star, drug addled glory of the time.  He struggles with finding his place in the world and with trying to balance the traditional Indian values of family and obligation with the excesses and uprising occurring during the 60's.  It was ok.  There is a lot of sex of all kinds in the book and some odd characters.  Overall, it kept me interested enough to finish but I definitely won't be reading another of Kureishi's books.

8-12-12 Hounded by Kevin Hearne - Fiction

4 - This was a surprisingly good read!  I was doing the random walk down a library aisle, turn & grab something, and this caught my eye.  I figured it would be some of that mediocre fantasy that has been released lately but it actually was a well researched and fun book.  It's set in Tempe, AZ so I had a great time because I knew where everything was.  The story is about a Druid living in our time.  He's still living because he is smart and can blend in.  And he has great friends including his dog, Oberon, who he speaks with mentally, his lawyers, a werewolf and a vampire, and the blessings of the Morrigan, one of the Irish goddesses of death.  Hearne intertwines modern day with Irish mythology so well.  Very fun, so I will read the other two books in the set.

8-12-12 Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

5 - This is a great addition to the series and seems to pull a little more of Sookie's & Sam's relationship to the forefront.  Sookie is having a time trying to keep her vampire boyfriend from being married off to a queen as his maker's final wish and now the fae on this side of the door are starting to get antsy.  Then there are problems with the werewolf pack too.  And this whole time, Sookie is trying to hide that she has possession of a very powerful Fairy gift.  Really picked my interest back up in this series as Sookie is faced with a few life changing decisions.

8-12-12 Farm City by Novella Carpenter - Non-Fiction

5 - This book made me laugh.  Novella and her boyfriend start an urban farm.  Before you think of a pretty terraced backyard in the suburbs, this was in Oakland, California.  Yep.  "The Ghetto"  She converted a vacant lot and began growing there and kept bees, and chickens, and ducks in her yard.  She also did turkeys.  This book is the story of how that came about and how she helped advance a movement for people to know where there food is coming from and to have the opportunity for freshness.  She still has the farm and you can follow her blog, Ghost Town Farm.  A really great and, I hate to say it, inspiring read.