Triptych--#63finished

This is the first book in a series about Georgia Bureau of Investigations detective Will Trent. I had read the 2nd or 3rd in the series already, I think it was Blindsighted but don't quote me on that. That one I have already mailed off. I just picked up this book a month or so ago and wasn't planning on reading it so soon but just did. I really enjoyed it, good suspense, easy read kind of page turner. Will Trent and his on and off girlfriend Angie were orphans growing up and suffered much both physically & mentally. They have an on again & off again relationship sexually but are also the only people that really understand each other to. Will is dyslectic which is an interesting turn for an investigator and how he has learned to develop his system of doing things to manage. This one was really kind of a sick story about a teenager that was setup by his cousin for a rape & murder, does 20+ years and gets out. Cousin in mean time has become a detective and has continued his raping and killing ways and is now in the process of again setting up John who just got out of prison. Sick but good and interesting story.

I had it posted on PBS but there were 260 or more copies already in the mass media copy and more hard bound and other paperback versions as well. I have pulled it and will probably send it to my mom with all of the others I have gotten in for her. I am not sure I have mentioned it but I have been collecting Robert Parker, Sara Parensty(probably spelled wrong) and Margaret Truman books for my mom. I have over a dozen here and had 5 or 6 shipped directly to her already--so really building up her collection.

The Monster of Florence--#62 finished

After the title, it includes a short line "A True Story", it is probably a good thing it is there because there is some really unbelievable stuff regarding this investigation. The Monster of Florence is about a serial killer in Florence Italy starting in 1968 and into the 1980s, 16 people were killed always in twos. All were couples, but one was 2 homosexual men that they think the killer thought one was female. The females had their vaginas cut out and some also had breasts removed. Really sick stuff, but nearly as sick as the killer is how the police and prosecutors have screwed up this case. The Italian police in the 1970s & 1980s really wasn't equipped to handle a serious investigation and never really got close to figuring this one out. They jumped to conclusions and later pushed out suspects whenever possible with them, the prosecutors, riding the convictions to promotions. Well, later into the 1990s and 2000s, the leaders got pulled off into checking into and believing satanic worship and cults and leading citizens were all involved, even a journalist that helped write this book. It is really crazy stuff. If you have ever wondered about how screwed up our judicial system is, this book will have you thanking God for it over anything the Italians have. By the way this crime is still not solved according to the book when it was published in 2008.

I have posted it on PBS, there were 20 WL for it but that number was dropping steadily. Hopefully, I will get it mailed off later this week.

Nancy Culpepper--#61 finished

I enjoyed this book, it talked about a girl that grew up in Kentucky on a small farm. She moved away for college and got married. I jumped back to Kentucky and went over her family while her mother was fighting cancer in the 1980s. It jumped to different points in her life with her family and her husband. It was a nice story, good writing. There was not a lot of action but what happened in the book made me think throughout about life itself and how we perceive ourselves. I enjoyed it but it certainly wasn't an exciting page turner or anything like that.

I will be posting it on PBS, there are no copies of it so I would guess it will move at some point maybe a month or two at most I would think. Still reading Monster of Florence and A Map of True Places, will probably be starting a 3rd book tonight.

Boo--#60 finished

A kind of comedy with some romance in a come to God sense book. A different type book, that started out okay but in the end became predictable with very 2 dimensional characters. A horror writer finds God so of course he has to quit writing horror novels(??? I don't know why). He opens up and starts dating the younger perfect woman in the small town. The whole town or at least the town leaders are against this fearing no more horror novels means no more tourists and the town's economy down the drain. Throw in some plain old just simple characters with no depth and a big conspiracy and that is pretty much it. Oh well, not a terrible read but just nothing that exciting either.

I had ordered this book from PBS because I have the 2nd book in the series, Boo Who, and figured I should read the first well first. I have already reposted it, there is 1 copy ahead of mine but I expect it to move eventually since there are a couple of people wanting Boo Who. I am not sure if there is a 3rd book in the series or not.

Blue Nude a book I finished not long ago was just requested today so it didn't take long for it to move. I am still waiting on Boot Tracks though. I am reading Nancy Culpepper, A Map of True Places and Monster of Florence right now. I am just under 100 pages from finishing Nancy Culpepper but still early on the other two. Not sure if I will be grabbing a fourth now but I will probably look over my books & see.

The Doomsday Key--#59 finished

This is another James Rollins book that is similar to the other(or others--not sure)that I have read. A good read, fast paced action with a lot of good history involved. While how Gray solves things is more than a little over the top, if you can sort of suspend reality enough it is enjoyable. No great literature or anything like that but still fun. I know there are more books in this series and I should probably go back and read earlier ones & I might at some point, but just don't really feel like it right now.

There are 45 people that have this book on their WL but this number has been dropping steadily. The dropping is one of the reasons I grabbed this book and read it so that I could get it mailed off before the WL got to zero.

I am still reading Boo and Map of True Places and I just started Nancy Culpepper--all of them a ways away from being finished. Probably won't be starting a 4th for at least a few days, till I get closer to finishing one of those already started.

Still Running

Yesterday, Monday, was PSR night, the first class of the year. A couple of weeks ago it was checkin & meet your teacher night. This also means get a run in night & I did. I went to McDonnell Park which is nearby and got 3 miles in. It is a hilly course at least for me and it was tough--all 3 miles were 13 minutes plus. I need to remember to do this, get some hill runs in every once in a while.

Tonight was volleyball practice night so I got my 5 mile run in. It was better averaging around 12:40 a mile with all the miles under 13. I am happy with these runs. Now I just need to drop some of my extra pounds and I would probably pick up a little speed also.

Busy week and weekend ahead so don't know when that next run will be but need to get a couple miles in to keep my weekly total at 10 or more miles.

Wilderness--#58 finished

This is an old Robert B Parker book, written around 1979. I got it as part of a package order from the Book Bazaar, I think it was a 3 for 1 with some Margaret Truman books. These are all books that my mom is looking for. I thought I had it set to mail them straight to my mom but I must have messed it up and had them mailed to me instead. No big deal, I have other books to mail to mom so I will probably box up the whole thing & ship them off sometime in the next few weeks. I am waiting on one more book to come in also.

This book Wilderness was not too bad. A guy, a writer, witnesses a murder on a running path. He calls the police and IDs the bad guy and the bad guy is a real bad guy. When he gets home he finds his wife tied up and naked & he gets a call telling him to retract his statement of who did the murder. Well he does this but knows there will still be trouble. His neighbor is ex-military guy that joins in with them to plan the murder of the bad guy. It eventually happens after the neighbor is killed, the writer and his wife have to kill a group of 5 bad guys in the forest of Maine, the wilderness. Not too bad when it sticks with this story. It gets weird when it goes over the relationship of the writer & his wife--just not very good, not believable and is a real drag on the story. I don't know if this is something left from the time it was written where relationships were still in a kind of flux, certainly different kind of flux than today. Oh well.

I will not be posting it but as I mentioned earlier will be shipping to my mom. There are 19 copies still in the system so that is probably plenty for this book. Still reading The Doomsday Key, Boo and just starting The Map of True Places, probably won't add a 4th, at least not anytime soon.

Blue Nude--#57 finished

An interesting book that grew on me the more I read it. An artist and art teacher, Danzig, brought in a model for his class & she became in a sense his muse that in the end reawakened his art. It goes in to the back story of both Danzig and the model Merav. Danzig growing up in post WWII Germany to a father that was a Nazi war criminal. The book talks about Danzig's older sister who committed suicide because she could not reconcile her life after WWII, where she was pulled in as a child to the Nazi thought and how she realized her father was basically evil and she did not want to continue living with part of him being in herself. The book doesn't actually say how much of this influenced Danzig or since he was a child how much he realized what was going on. In the end he uses Merav to reawaken his art because he sees his sister in her.

Merav is Jewish and her mother is a Holocaust surviver. Merav is born in Israel and grows up on a kibbutz. Her childhood friend and then lover is killed in a bus bomb and this forces her to leave Israel and move to the US. She becomes an art model and the book goes into her earlier marriage to a photographer as well.

I really enjoyed this book by the end. At the beginning it was a little hard to get into and I wasn't sure what the book was all about. It is a very good book that makes you think as well as just enjoy the depth of the characters.

I have posted it on PBS, it is the only copy on the system now. Earlier there was one WL for this book when I started it but it disappeared a week ago, I guess someone else had a copy they mailed or the WL person went on hold or removed it or something else. I figure this book will get requested at some point, hopefully sooner than some of the duds on my PBS shelf.

Boot Tracks--#56 finished

What I thought would be a quick read of a 206 page book wasn't that. What the cover said was a "white knuckle suspense", I did not find that either. It was kind of a psychological thriller type book with little thriller and mostly confusing thoughts. I really didn't like the book, not much here for enjoyment and nothing really new either. I am glad it was only 206 pages because I really wanted to quit reading several times throughout, finally when I got to around 150 pages I figured it was getting no better but I could just tough it out. Oh well, as I have said in the past not every book I read is going to be good and this is one that certainly isn't good.

There is one WL for it & I have already posted it. I will have to see if it gets accepted and if it has any requestor conditions. The member had a note about their bookshelf having no ex-library books and with this being an ex-library book, I am guessing it will not be acceptable. Will just have to see. There are obviously no other copies out there so I would expect as some point it will get requested if it doesn't go now.

6 miles

I has been a while since I ran 6 miles at one time. Last week I ran 5 miles twice and earlier this week I did 5 miles but for 6 it had to have been a couple months. I didn't really want to run either, it was a busy day and finally around 6pm I talked myself into getting out there.

I ran the first mile slow 13:05, then a 12:50, then 12:15, missed the 4th mile split. 5th mile was just under 12 minutes and 6th was 12 something maybe 30 or 4o. Nothing great but I will take it. I am still a little sore but will manage. I hope to get runs in both Sunday and Monday but might end up being only one of the days, will just have to see.