Gina G writes

 The "O" Books Book one: Poor Deer by Claire Two little girls who live next door to each other go out to a muddy lake to play. They are seen by a teacher who tells them they should go home. They go back to their houses and decide to play a version of hide and seek. The neighbor girl climbs into an old freezer. It locks. The other girl can't figure out how to open it. She tries and tries, finally gives up, and runs home, pretending to have been there all along. Hours later, the neighbor's girl is discovered. Dead. Poor Deer is created at that moment. Poor Deer is part human, part little girl, and she tries her best to coax the girl into confessing, but it doesn't work. Poor Deer trails the girl as she grows up, becomes a teenager, deals with her crazy mom and her doting aunt. The girl figures the only way she can make everything right is to run away to Niagara Falls.  Okay why? I was interested up until this point because it made no sense. By the time I got to the ...

                                                                   The "N" Books Book one: The Cat Who Saved The Library by Sosuke Natusukawa A good friend of mine got me this book for my birthday. It did not disappoint. This is a story about Nanami, a young girl with asthma who spends as much free time as possible in the library. She loves to read and knows where every book is located. She is particularly fond of the classics, and when she notices several of them disappearing, she grows suspicious. When she alerts the staff, they dismiss her. Discovering a strange man perusing the shelves, she follows him. He disappears down an aisle that doesn't exist, but leaves behind a mysterious light and a talking tabby cat named Tiger.  Tiger, the cat, saves books. He takes Nanami with him to another realm, where they encou...

 The "M" Books Book one: "Lamb" by Christopher Moore. I love Christopher Lamb's writing. It is very tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic, and funny. This book was no exception.  Lamb is about Jesus's best friend, Biff, who is raised from the dead by the angel Raziel to fill in the missing gap in the bible when Jesus disappeared at the age of twelve and was not seen again until he reappeared in Galilee. The name Jesus was translated incorrectly. Jesus's known name was Joshua.   Biff and Joshua have been best friends since childhood. No one loves Joshua as much as Biff does, except for maybe Maggie (Mary of Magdalene) and Mary, Joshua's mother. They left Israel because Joshua wanted to track down the three Wise Men (a magician, a Buddhist, and a Hindu yogi) and learn how to become the messiah. Joshua learns how to multiply food, walk on water, and raise the dead. Biff went along to get laid since Joshua could not know the pleasures of the flesh.  Throughout his ...

 The L Books " Call For The Dead " by John Le Carre This is the book that introduced George Smiley to the world. I picked this book up at Shakespeare and Company in Paris. The original store was opened by Sylvia Beach in 1919 and closed in 1941. It was reopened in 1951 by George Whitman and moved to a new location across from Notre Dame. I suggest that any book lover who visits Paris check the store.  George Smiley works for the Circus , a government spy company loosely based on the SIS. Smiley is summoned early in the morning by his boss, Maston. Once arriving at the office, Smiley learns that Foreign Office Civil Servant Samuel Fennan has killed himself following a routine check that Smiley himself conducted. Because Smiley held the interview with Fennan out of the office, Smiley is questioned.  Calling on a few trusted colleagues, Smiley begins investigating the supposed suicide. Something about the situation does not make sense. For one thing, why does a man who ...

                                                             The "K" Books Book 1: Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw My niece and I picked up this book two years ago. I almost bought it. I'm glad I didn't. Now, don't get me wrong, the book was well written. The story had promise, but it failed.  Described as a gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists, the story is about four friends who decide to spend the night in a Heian-era abandoned mansion. Its foundations rest on the bones of a bride and its walls are packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. After a night of food, drinking, and games (yawn) the ghost bride appears with a hungry heart and a blackened grin. Lucky for me it was a short book. The characters were cliche. You had your...

 The "J" Books Book one: Oceano Beach Bedlam, written by my friend Topper Jones This is book two in the Thad Hanlon and Bri de la Guerra Mystery series. (I am eagerly awaiting the third.) In Book Two, Thad and his partner, Bri, are newly licensed private investigators. They do it all: fraud busting, background checks, surveillance, and anything else. They just need a client. When the body of a young man is discovered on the beach, Thad recognizes him from the day prior, when the now-dead young man was arrested with a few of his BVL 13 homies during a weapons search. After being questioned by the police, Thad and Bri head back to the tent where he and his son Zale are living, until the detective agency starts bringing in money. Bri lets Thad know that the fledgling company is in the red. They need a client or else. But where do you get a client?  And then, an exotic, dark-haired woman makes her way across the sand to Thad's camp setup and hires the team to find her missing...