12-25-11 Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - Harper Connelly unwittingly inserts herself into another missing person/murder mystery in Harris' second book of the series. As she is being "tested" by an unbelieving professor for his class, she discovers a second body in a grave. That second body is of a little girl she failed to find the year before. And so begins the new mystery of how the child ended up in a different state from where she was missing and who is trying to disrupt the investigation and get Harper accused of murder herself. These are well written murder mysteries. If you don't normally read paranormal themed stories, I suggest you try these anyway. The paranormal is almost second to the great mystery plot.

12-23-11 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson - Fiction

5 - Holy Crap! These books involve business, government conspiracy, international intelligence, defecting spies, lunatic asylums, and newspapers. And they are tied all together so neatly that at the end you go, "Wow. I have no more questions except what is Lisbeth going to do now?" It's such a shame that Larsson died without continuing the series because that is a true loss for book lovers everywhere. Seriously, I know I've said it before, read these books!

12-14-11 The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks - Fiction

2 - Sappy, but what do you expect from Sparks? I saw the twist, bittersweet ending coming and, yeah, I was right. This is a standard boy from the wrong side of the tracks falls in love with girl from a good family and they are kept apart but then come back together years later. Honestly, read The Notebook instead. Much better.

12-9-11 Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green - Fiction

4 - I love the quirky world of the Nightside. This is the first in the Nightside series and Green does a wonderful job of introducing the weirdness and debauchery that is the Nightside as well as giving a great sampling of the characters to be found in such a place while writing in a noir style. The Nightside is a part of London that isn't, a place where it's always 3 am, a place where your every dream, fantasy, and nightmare can and will come true. Fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

12-1-11 The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson - Fiction

5 - This trilogy really is incredible! The first book was enthralling and the second book is just amazing as it takes you on a whole new adventure that opens up the characters even more. Lisbeth Salander is the antiheroine in these books and, as weird and unusual as she is, she makes you root for her every step of the way. This book goes deeper into who she is and how she ended up being the way she is and the story continues to surprise and shock. Seriously, read these books!

11-16-11 Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - This is a different series by Charlaine Harris and something I think she started before the Sookie Stackhouse books. And I like it. Harper Connelly was struck by lightening when she was a young girl and ever since then she can find dead bodies and tell the cause of death. She travels with her brother and they are the people families call when they are desperate. Harris starts to flesh out the characters very well and combines the unusualness of their occupation with a very good murder mystery. I'm definitely continuing this series.

11-12-11 The Natural Laws of Good Luck by Ellen Graf - Non-Fiction

3 - This was a cute story about a woman, Ellen, who marries a Chinese man, Zhong-hua, who moves to upstate New York to live with her and her teenage daughter. The culture clash is extreme considering they each only speak a few words of each other's languages. But the most interesting part of the book is hearing the recollections of the husband's time living in China during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Those stories make this book worthwhile and add so much to letting the reader in on the character of Zhong-hua and the understanding and non-judgement of his new wife.