No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong

Rating: 5.0

Another fun book from Kelley Armstrong. Part of her Women of the Otherworld series, No Humans Involved stars the intriguing necromancer Jaime Vegas. Some of the characters from previous books are back as well.

Jaimie has some big challenges in this story. She discovers the trapped ghosts of six murdered children in the garden behind the house where she is working on a t.v. show. As she digs for some answers to who killed them, with the help of werewolf alpha Jeremy, she uncovers a horrendous case of child sacrifice by a small cult of witch wannabes. Things turn threatening for Jaime when this cult discovers they have been found out.

I really enjoy this series. Armstrong adds just the right amount of action, humor and romance. It makes for great entertainment! Her characters of the Otherworld are captivating. "Armstrong deftly juggles such creatures as werewolves, witches, demons and ghosts with real-life issues." This series is a ton of fun....but don't take my word for it. : )

Watchers by Dean Koontz

Rating: 5.0

I first read this years ago, when I was a teenager. It was one of my first Koontz books. I loved it then and I still love it today. The dialogue seemed cornier than I remember it being but that's okay. I still loved it.

I really enjoyed this story. Two different animals are caged in the same government laboratory. They have been genetically altered. One is an extraordinary dog who I totally fall in love with.
The other is a monster who was made to be a weapon. They escape and are on the loose when the story begins. The human stars of the story are Travis and Nora. They end up finding the dog and learning it's capabilities. They also learn that this other thing....this monster....is after the dog and is capable of tracking it down and killing it and anything near to it. There are other things going on in the story that I won't go into, but it really keeps you on the edge of your seat as the monster gets closer and closer.

This is the Koontz book that pulls on my heartstrings the most. The dog is amazing, and I of course root for the dog's safety and to be able to stay with his new family. The monster, or the Outsider as it's called in the book, has blood lust in it's genes and makes the reader want to hate it. But it's really sad when we learn more about it. He hates himself for what he is. He's extremely lonely. He didn't ask to be this monster. Everybody loves the adorable dog who is almost human but is disgusted to even look at the hideous thing that the Outsider is. I feel sorry for it and that just makes the book all the more affecting to me. Great story! The Cincinnati Post calls it "A suspenseful page-turner...Koontz gives us characters we can care about...and enough tension to satisfy any thrill-seeker."

The Only War We Had by Michael Lee Lanning

Rating: 4.0

My dad loaned me this book of his and I'm glad he did. It's worth a read if you are interested in what an infantryman's day to day life was like in Vietnam. Michael Lee Lanning wrote this book based on his journal he kept while in Vietnam. This book covers his first six months over there on a day by day basis. It's slow at times and full of action at other times but it's the honesty I appreciated the most. The synopsis says it best: "Michael Lee Lanning's journal of his first tour of duty in Vietnam provides an unvarnished daily account of life in the field-the blood, fear, camaraderie, and tedium of combat and maneuver. Fleshed out with narrative and detail years later, the pages of this memorable book, first published in 1987, show an eager young recruit growing before the reader's eyes into a proud but bloodied combat veteran."

The Gerson Therapy by Charlotte Gerson and Morton Walker, D.P.M.

Rating: 4.0

The Gerson Therapy is a nutritional program that jump starts your body's healing processes. I watched a couple of intriguing documentaries on the subject and so went out to buy this book to learn more. Everything about this therapy makes sense, but for the average person who is not sick it may be a bit extreme to follow the Gerson Therapy as a lifestyle. It's a bit daunting to say the least. It requires massive amounts of juicing (once every hour) and coffee enemas. There is a lot of evidence that this can help the body cure itself of cancer and disease by flooding it with nutrients but it would be a hard regimen to follow. I guess if you had cancer though, it would be worth the effort to follow this therapy. The book starts with a short history of Dr. Max Gerson, who started healing people with this therapy in the '30's and '40's. It then outlines how the therapy works and how to adapt it to your particular condition. This book could be of interest to either people who are sick and want to heal themselves naturally or healthy people who are interested in the topic of health.

The Six Messiahs by Mark Frost

Rating: 4.0

The Six Messiahs, sequel to the fabulous The List of 7, is a good mystery with plenty of action.

Arthur Conan Doyle is back and on an American book tour with his brother Innes. There, he meets up with Jack Sparks, but it's not really the same Jack Sparks from the previous book. The Jack in this book is a broken man. After his near fatal fall from the last book, Jack turns sour and bitter and has lost everything I loved about him. This was disappointing for me but I guess it's part of the story and adds some suspense around whether or not Doyle can bring the old Sparks back. Along with Doyle, Innes and Sparks, there are several others characters they meet up with. Some of them seem to be having the same dreams about a black tower in the desert and a river of blood. So five characters are having this crazy dream but the real surprise comes when we learn who the sixth one is. Let's just say it's a blast from the past....meaning someone from The List of 7. And this mysterious number six has mad plans. It's one of those good versus evil scenarios that I've seen one too many times. But the characters are good and the way it all plays out is interesting.

So, overall I enjoyed this book. The story wasn't nearly as good as The List of 7 and the characters were not quite as fun. There wasn't as much humor. It's a decent follow up though and worth a read.

Gerald's Gamy by Stephen King

Rating: 4.5

Gerald's Game is a pretty terrifying book. Not necessarily in the way many of his books are though. It's a different kind of terror, more of a claustrophobia I guess.

It starts with a middle aged married couple, Jessie and Gerald, at their cabin in the woods. They are getting a little kinky, with Jessie handcuffed to the bed, when Gerald has his heart attack and drops dead on the floor. That's when the terror starts.

This book really made me cringe. Just reading the blurb, before I even started reading the book, I think I cringed. It's a horrifying scenario to imagine! The book flashes between Jessie trying to escape the cuffs and Jessie as a little girl, during the solar eclipse, when something happens to her that she has never gotten over. And if being handcuffed to a bed in the middle of nowhere isn't scary enough for you, King wrote in a little nighttime visitor that would give anybody goosebumps.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Rating: 5.0

The Scarlet Letter is a wonderfully written romantic thriller. I found it full of suspense and mystery.

This book really starts with a bang. Hester Prynne, along with her baby, Pearl, are put upon the scaffold as acknowledgment and punishment for her adulterous affair. She is forced to wear a large letter A on her chest so everybody can see her sin. She refuses to announce the man with whom she sinned. That's where the mystery and suspense starts. What do the Reverend Mr. Dimmsdale and the newcomer Doctor Roger Chillingworth have to do with everything? Lots.

This book really held my interest. I'd read it before, a long time ago, and had forgotten how good it really is. I had a hard time putting it down. The writing is beautiful and really conveys the Puritanism of the story. The synopsis from Barnes & Noble says it perfectly. "The landscape of this classic novel is uniquely American, but the themes it explores are universal—the nature of sin, guilt, and penitence, the clash between our private and public selves, and the spiritual and psychological cost of living outside society. Constructed with the elegance of a Greek tragedy, The Scarlet Letter brilliantly illuminates the truth that lies deep within the human heart."