Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Definitely a horror story - especially because it seems so calm and gentle. This is the story of 3 people - childhood through young adult years - that were cloned, created for "donations". Though you learn about the donors on page 1, still the way the story unfolds gives it a creepiness. Not a book you will soon forget.

Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress by Maria Padian

This is the first book by Dad's cousin, Maria Padian. She lives in Maine in the same town as your cousin Matt Stuart. This is a young adult book with the main character the age of 14.

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The book is organized into 45 chapters, each one with a new vocabulary word. The word is listed at the top of each chapter and then described later in the chapter. I found this to be very irritating. I could overlook the chapter being defined by a vocabulary word but I found having the description in the chapter itself (rather than at the top with the chapter title) to be distracting.

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So, I had to force myself to read this book. I decided on reading a chapter a night. Even so, I would have dropped it after a few chapters had it not been written by a Padian. By the time I got to about page 50, I found I was enjoying the book and the characters and I was reading a few chapters each night. Before long, I left my latest mystery book sitting at the bedside table while I read this book! Overall, I really liked it - the story, the characters, how everything was tied up but also very believable. It was a good book and very enjoyable once you really get into it.

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I have a copy (given to me by Marna) so if you want to borrow it, just let me know. :)

Frozen Tracks by Ake Edwardson

This is the 3rd book in the series about Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter of Gothenburg, Sweden. The first two are titled "Sun and Shadow" and "Never End". I like how the books are written and that though they are mysteries, they concentrate more on the characters. For example - Winter had problems communicating with his father and his thoughts on that: "Everything could have been resolved if only they'd spoken to each other. The only thing that helps is communication with words. That's the only thing that enables us to make progress. Silence begets more silence, and eventually causes a muteness that is like cement."

There are 12 Erik Winter novels but so far, only 3 of them have been translated from Swedish to English. I'm looking forward to the other 9.

Premonition

I just finished watching Premonition, the one with Sandra Bullock where her husband dies and she wakes up the next day and he isn't dead and etc etc. My spontaneous utterance at the end of the movie was "oh my god....what a bunch of preachy crappy garbage!"

Needless to say, I don't recommend.

no end in sight

great. depressing but great.

rocket science

granted this is an indie movie that suffers initially from a surfeit of cleverness and self-aware hip teens and some unnecessary (in my opinion) narration but after awhile i really grew to dig this movie. kind of tender and heartwarming and original.

Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber

This was an unusual book, somewhat difficult to classify. Though it is a mystery, it is also a character study with much of the action occuring in the main character's past or her imaginings. I really enjoyed the author's writing and it wasn't until I had the book home from the library and started reading it that I realized she is a Portland author - spending time here and in Miami.

Lena Dawson is not a cop or a detective but a fingerprint examiner. She is also an orphan and this plays a major part in this story.

About 3/4 of the way through, the story begins to lag and the book could have used some more editing. The author does bring the book to a satisfying conclusion though and it is well worth reading - but not for everyone.

I'm looking forward to reading more books by this author!