Wolf in White Van--#108 finished

 A different sort of book.  A young man has been disfigured and his life is a struggle but he seems to have come to terms with it and lives simply.  He runs a through the mail sort of dungeon & dragons game--popular I guess back before internet but even still with internet he has fans that send in monthly money to do the game.  A young couple he was corresponding with took the game way too seriously and tried to actually follow it in real life--the young girl died & the boy is in critical condition in hospital.  He was taken to court on this but seems like there was no case.  This book told a story but seemed to me like it never really got anywhere.  After I finished I checked and seemed like well received but I guess just not for me.

There are like 10 WL for this book on PBS so I will get it mailed off some point.

Also just a quick note, not sure if I will finish another book this year or not--have one short story book that is a maybe.  But at 108 this is a new high in books read for me.  I have already told myself and a few others that I will not be trying for the 100 books read next year.  I noticed I was picking books to read based off how quick I could finish them and don't like that--so now putting it in writing too--hopefully won't do that(at least not too much).  I will make sure to grab a few long reads and just enjoy without any pressure of just finishing the book.

Gorky Park--#107 finished

 This is the first book in the Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith.  I had read this book probably back in high school and years later started reading the other books in this series.  I remembered really enjoying this book and had wanted to go back & read it and it was finally the time.  Re-reading it now it is not as interesting or fun as I remembered.  Arkady is still an interesting character and how the USSR worked at the time is fun to think of.  I think part of my original enjoyment was that I really knew nothing of USSR or Moscow at the time and this book opened up that whole country to me.  Now with many, many books and internet, etc it is not such a mystery.  Still a fun read and glad I read it and will try to work through this series again.

This is one I am keeping, will keep this series.

Amateur Hour--#106 finished

 The rest of the title is: Motherhood in Essays and Swear Words.  It is a kind of funny look at her life and raising kids.  Some parts could laugh at and others just sort of rolled my eyes as a normal bitch about the world, life, kids story.  Not bad overall though, stories mostly short and quick easy reads.

I have already posted it on PBS, it is only copy in system so maybe will move at some point.

The Omega Factor--#105 finished

 This is a standalone book by Steve Berry--he is the writer of the Cotton Malone series that I read.  This one is similar to those but instead of Cotton and a sort of team, it is loner sort that works for a UN group dealing with art issues.  The woman he loves and was engaged to, broke it off & joined a convent.  She is restoring an important piece of art and has invited him to visit, while he is there the art piece is destroyed and the follows the ladies that did this and becomes involved in a whole investigation.  A couple countries and throw in the Vatican as well and some bad guy Dominicans and some questionable motives of this other convent and there you go.  Not a bad read but characters were not very exciting and story was in many ways predictable.  Not sure if he will make this new guy a series but would need to improve to keep my attention.

There are like 30 WL for this book so I will post & send off at some point but have plenty of credits and try to avoid post office at this time of the year so no hurry.

Witch--#104 finished

 I had finished this a couple weeks ago--think it was the first weekend of Dec.  It is a true story/investigation about a lady that killed her mother and likely one of her husbands and maybe her brother too.  She is away in jail for life for her mother.  She put her mother in a plastic trash can and left her in a storage facility for at least months maybe a couple years before the can ruptured and the smell was too great that people noticed.  This is one of those stories about people's lives that you realize there are really some screwed up people in this world.  This lady's parents were screwed up and of course influenced her then as well.  The daughter Brookey had a good job in the tech industry in San Jose and a 2nd life in Las Vegas, where her mom also lived.  They were basically criminal sorts before this point but still should have been at a good point--at least where Brookey could have just left her mother alone.  I don't see the reason for the murder but I just guess Brookey just isn't right and that is probably enough.  Sad story and sad lives for them and the people they touched.

I did wikipedia Brookey and she is still in prison--life with no parole, that is good because like I said something is just not right with her and prison is probably best place for her.

The book does have some minor stains on it so I won't be posting on PBS & there are a few copies already so no loss there.

Damascus Countdown--#103 finished

 This is the 3rd and final in series about a 12th Inman coming in Iran that is actually a false prophet but still is able to bring most of the Islamic countries together and start a war with Israel.  The main character is a CIA spy in Iran that has provided sat phones to the leaders of Iran that the CIA & NSA can listen in on.  The phones are being used way more than expected so not enough translators and messages getting missed during main action.  The action does move so keeps interested.  The author also throws in a Christian bent to the book--where basically saying all Islam is false & Jesus is true son of God.  I saw this more of an angle to rub it in but series does talk about Islam a lot so I guess has a place, just seems over the top at times.

I have already posted it on PBS, there were 3 WL for it and it was on Auto Approve, didn't have to wait either.  I will get mailed off next week.