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Friday, May 08, 2009:
The mystery of it all...the Jack Daniels series
Lieutenant Jacqueline (Jack) Daniels is back, and this time she has to solve one of her goriest cases ever. Someone is running around Chicago dismembering women, and the spare body parts are winding up at the local morgue.

In addition to the headaches of the job, she also has to deal with her mother showing up to live with her, as well as the reappearance of her ex-husband, right when she'd thought she was making progress in a relationship with a new boyfriend.

Along with her binge-eating partner Herb, who's on a failing quest to find the perfect diet, we see Jack track down and convict one of the scariest serial killers in recent memory--but not before she becomes a target of his wrath, as well.

Every once in awhile I have to step away from the romance genre and read something different, cleanse my literary palette. One author I've recently discovered in the last few months, though he's been around for awhile, is J.A. Konrath. He lives in the Chicago area, and in fact I can remember being at a nearby B&N store and seeing him doing a booksigning, though I didn't stop to see what was going on. Looking back, I really wish I would have. Fortunately, he has a new book coming out this summer, so I'll have to see if he's doing any local signings - I'll definitely be going if he is.

What I find interesting about his series is that the protagonist is a woman, Detective Jacqueline Daniels, a.k.a. Jack Daniels. She's tough but not hard, good at her job but not perfect. J.A. doesn't make her really bitter or over the top. She's just very human. Sometimes the goings-on have me cracking up (as in the recent shenanigans of demon cat Mr. Friskers), and other times it turns my stomach. But I'm never bored reading these books, and having just finished this one, the 2nd book, I'm already anxious to read the next one. However I'm going to wait because I already have 2 trillion other books waiting for my undivided attention, and I'm probably thinking I should get started on those right now.


What non-romance book/series have you enjoyed?


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posted by Stacy~ at 5/08/2009 06:42:00 AM | 5 comments

Tuesday, March 17, 2009:
concerts & books & blogs
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I can't believe the weekend is already over. Hope you all enjoyed the mild weather that's been going on. On Saturday, Nickelback rocked the house! The concert started at 7pm with Saving Able kicking it off, and they were pretty good. Next up was Seether, and though lead singer Shaun Morgan wasn't much of a talker, I thought they were awesome. I just love his voice, and they even performed "Broken", and it was amazing. But my absolute new favorite song by Seether is "Fuck Me Like You Hate Me". I can't get it out of my head, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not complaining yet.
But of course the icing on the cake was the over 2-hour performance by Nickelback. From the first seconds of "Something In Your Mouth" to the last blast of fireworks after the encore, the show was incredible. Chad Kroger is a performer through and through, loves to talk to the crowd and is a total guy with his juvenile sense of humor and extreme fondness for beer. One cool thing is having seen them 2 years ago, they didn't do the same routine - that would have been lame. Instead the guys put on a show that was worth the price of admission a few times over, even without the other bands. I'm already anxious to see them again, and they will be back in the Chicago area in August. Hmmm....
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Read my first ever J.A. Konrath book over the weekend. I've been meaning to read "Whiskey Sour" for awhile, ever since I saw the author at a booksigning at a nearby bookstore and was curious to find out who he is. Plus he seems like he'd be really funny. His book wasn't so amusing, being about a gruesome serial killer and all, yet I was intrigued by the idea of him writing about a female protagonist. And there were many Chicago and surrounding area references, and that's always a treat. I definitely plan on picking up the next one, "Bloody Mary". Fun times.
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I also finished Sara Reinke's "Dark Thirst", which told the story of virgin hero Brandon Noble, whom I was made aware of during RNTV's "Virgin Hero" week. I enjoyed the story very much, though Brandon didn't come across as much as a alpha hero, despite his violent heritage. Still I liked the story enough to want to continue with the 2nd book, "Dark Hunger". I liked that all of Brandon's problems weren't solved in the first book and appear to continue at least into the second story. It has me hooked.
I've been feeling a strong case of reviewer's block lately, and this is not good for someone who does reviews for another, and truly wonderful, website other than my own. But with the support of the lovely ladies who run that site, I feel much better about it. I was putting too much pressure on myself to crank out reviews, and it was becoming a bit tedious and stressful, so now I'm just going to take a breather and get back into just reading for a little while. The problem was I was beginning to repeat myself way too much in reviews, and each one sounded too similar. That's when I knew I was in trouble. It's all cyclical, sure to infect me again in the future, and that's when I know I need to step back and not try so hard. As Marisa said, reviewing should be fun. I was making it harder than it had to be. My complete bad.
So, hopefully you'll all stop by RNTV for this week's "Duke of Slut" celebration. Andrea kicked it off with "London's Perfect Scoundrel", and she did a fabulous job. I'm chomping at the bit to read this one, but it's book #2, so I know I'll have to read "The Rake" first, even though Andrea said it wasn't completely necessary. Stay tuned for more Dukes of Slut, found in books by Lisa Kleypas, JD Robb and Nora Roberts, to name a few. I myself will be talking about my very own DoS: the one and only Sam Starrett, from Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooter series. Look for my take on this bad boy on Wednesday afternoon. I know I won't do him justice, but I sure the heck had fun trying ;)
What's been keeping you busy these days?

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posted by Stacy~ at 3/17/2009 06:58:00 AM | 7 comments