Book: Michael CRICHTON - Prey

Prey is a pretty easy book to read, even if it's talking about emergent technologies that only a few scientists and computer super nerds had heard about.

We are lucky, the good ones seem to win at the end. But we are not even sure. That's nice from CRICHTON to let geeks to be the heroes (I didn't read that many books with geeks as principal characters).

It's a good book, scary, fast , unpredictable. But I still have some trouble to believe that this book could happen in real life. Yes, it's a pure fiction, but CRICHTON want us to believe that it could happen. But it's still too much. Nanotechnologies evolving at light speed by themselves in the desert?? Hum, it took life so many years to get where we are, that's really unlikely that machines can do the trick...

My note: 3/5

Book: Terry GOODKIND - Faith of the Fallen

I'm still reading the Sword of Truth collection, from Terry GOODKIND. The last one I read was Faith of the Fallen, the number 6.

I now know why Terry GOODKIND is selling so many books and has been ranked as "New York Times Best Seller" for ages. He is using situations and facts from our world and just sends it in a world without time but with wizards and magic (people like magic, when it's good).

In Soul of the Fire (number 5), GOODKIND is using today's STD's (Sexually Transmitted Diseases).

In Faith of the Fallen, GOODKIND is now showing us that Communism is bad for you (letting you starve, taking all your money to give it to others, not letting you do your business) and Liberalism is the way it should be.

Was this book written during the Cold War? That's what I was thinking while reading it...

But that's a good book, keeping you up late at night to know what will happen next. Will Richard get out of this life of slavery and hell??

My vote: 3,5/5

Book : Terry GOODKIND - Soul of the Fire

My note: 4/5

Terry GOODKIND - Soul of the Fire is the fifth volume of the collection Sword of Truth. I've already read the 4 first ones last year. The collection is extremely famous in the sci-fi and epic circles of readers.

Action is constant in this book. You never really stop, there is always something going on. And so the book is less slow than the previous ones. For once, the end of the volume is kind of tragic. But the last 100 pages are so intense that I couldn't let the book down (and kept on reading until the end, even if it was already 1:30am!)

If you are looking for a long story about magic, swords, good and bad, this collection is for you. Terry GOODKIND used some knowledge of the present time (the mouth to mouth to save people for example), but the fact that characters are using swords as weapons, burn witches and lords are reigning other their subjects just bring us back to somewhere in the middle age.

Book: Kathleen MEYER - How to Shit in the Woods

My note: 4,5/5

How to Shit in the Woods, Environmentally Approach is first of all a funny book. Kathleen MEYER did her best to get the book written in an enjoyable fashion. The 132 pages book is easy and fast to read.

This is a book where the author really get involved, and practiced everything that she's writing. I especially like the last chapter, for girls only, giving us tip on what position adopt to pee in the woods without wetting our pants or flooding our boots :)

I started the training young enough, when I was a scout girl, to be able to pee without having to really sit down. But I understand that women without the thigh strengh are kind of in trouble if they must pee in the woods :) Girls, I bet you'll love this chapter !!

I learned a lot of things too, in particular the one that it takes more than one year for our poo to biodegrade, and it degrades faster if buried. So get your shovel and dig a small hole before you get into action ! And don't rinse your hands directly in the river as I was doing, it's contaminating the water with fecal viruses, which can end up in your glass of water without filtering and get you sick !

And don't leave the paper away ! Pack it out or burn it :)

A book full of advice, talking of our disgusting needs with a frivolous tone :)

Book: Nancy FAIRBANKS - Crime Brulee

My vote: 3,5/5

I started reading Nancy FAIRBANKS the wrong way. Crime Brulee is one of her first books, and it doesn't have the double point of view I like so much. Here Carolyn BLUE is the only narrator in this book, and a lot of stuff happens to her.

Probably too many things to really be true. She is really lucky to still be alive to tell the story as time goes in the book.

The story is pretty simple: her best friend Julienne disappears after having words with her husband. Carolyn is the only one believing that something really bad happened to her, and is the only one really looking for her. Which puts her completely in trouble.

My vote of 3,5 is due to the unexpected end. I would have liked another end, but the author didn't decide like me :)

Book: Nancy FAIRBANKS - Bon Bon Voyage

My note: 4,5/5

Yes, well, I already finished the second Nancy FAIRBANKS in less time that it needs to say it. The writing is still good, with the double (actually this one has got more than two) points of view.

Carolyn, the heroin, is on a cruise and, of course, somebody dies. This time we know who could the dead straight away, but Carolyn doesn't and she's got to find. At the same time the cruise is hijacked, and the question is: "will they stop the hijackers before they flee with the randsom?"

It's a good book easy and quick to read. A few recipes seemed worth a try (raspberry crème brûlée?!ouh yeah!!) and the finishing of the book is really exciting! I still love this author, which is why I'm now reading Crime Brûlée (quelle coïncidence!!)

Book: Nancy FAIRBANKS - French Fried

My note: 4,5/5 (almost excellent!)

Yes, this book is great !! If you like mysteries, then just go for it !! It's easy to read, funny and the suspens is here!

My favorite thing about this book, it's not only the fact that the author makes the characters travel into real places in France, but it's the way she writes through two characters, Carolyn and Jason, wife and husband. You can see the same situation from every point of view, with the feelings and their misunderstandings. This make the book alive and not boring, because you are not stuck in just one brain ;)

Until the (almost) end Nancy keeps the secret about the murderer. What murderer? There is no murder !! It's even better ;) But we really want to know who and more over why somebody is trying to kill the two main characters, Carolyn and Jason!

The two bad points (well, I know, but it's just to improve the whole thing!)
Almost all the French names are mispelled !! From place de l'Horlage to Rue de l'République, the mistakes on French names are redundant.
And I feel like the very end of the book has been just hurried over, as if the author wanted to get rid of it all and reach the end.

But at least she's talking about Albi and the famous cathedral in the last chapter, so I can't really criticize too much ;)

Book: Luis A. URREA - The Hummingbird daughter

My vote: 1/5

Weeeeeellll, as you noticed if you really were careful, it took me more than 3 weeks to read this book. And there are only 500 pages. Even Harry Potter and its 800 something pages took me 3 days.

I didn't like the book. But I always finish a book that I started, so I went for it till the end. This book is weird. The book is the story of the life of a girl, called Teresa. The book starts with her birth, where straight away we learn that she is promised to a great destiny. She is a bastard girl from the master of a ranch in Mexico (country) in the 1870s.

Life on the ranch is described precisely and so the book is very slow. The real start of the action is when she dies and then comes back from the dead, about 15 years after her birth. She met God in the meantime, and after this experience she can accomplish miracles and attract the crowds.

The end of the book is completely inexpected, and I didn't like the end either.

I must admit, there is one good side in this book (for the 1 out of 5). You can encounter some very emotional passages in the book. I must say I ended up crying while reading, 20 pages before the end.

Book: Tamar MYERS - Too many Crooks Spoil the Broth

My vote: 2/5
+ : the main character who needs a slap in the face (yes, it's a +)
- : the characters difficult to remember; the book takes its time; the killer easy to find;

Small book (255 pages), easy to read, it took me less than 5 days to go through. Ok, I must admit, I had a trouble with the characters. I never could remember who was who.

I know, there are only 14 characters in the book, it should be easy. In fact I had some trouble with the guests (or clients, depend how you see it) of the Inn. They all check-in more or less at the same time in the book, so you don't have any time to get used to the first one that another one shows up already.

So everytime the book was talking about a character, I was lost. Ok, at the end I almost caught up, still having trouble with only two ladies. (ok, the third one was already dead...but you know it, it's in the small summary at the back of the book!!)

And I must say that the book takes a huuuuge amount of time to start, and too bad, but I already knew who was the killer before the half of the book...

So, yes you can read it, if you want to improve your english, but not if you want to die with suspense...