Book #53 was Biting the Moon, by Martha Grimes. The back of the book reads:
She does not know who she is, where she’s from, how she got here. She wakes one morning in a bed-and-breakfast alone. She is told by the owner she came in “dead asleep” with her father. But she knows the man is not her father. She takes her backpack, bedroll, and the wad of money she finds in his jacket and heads for the mountains, seeing in their bleak and towering landscape some kind of safety. Months later, she walks down from the mountains and into the life of fourteen-year-old Mary Dark Hope. Bound by their lack of family, their murky pasts, their affinity for animals, they set out to find the man who abducted her. Whitewater rafting, canned hunts, molestation, and murder – all move toward an inevitable and harrowing confrontation.
I recently joined a book group online, and this was June’s book of the month. I was decidedly underwhelmed. Much of the events just didn’t make any sense, and when a main character leaves the story, the things that happen afterwards don’t seem to fit in the story. This is the first Martha Grimes book I’ve read, and I’m not inclined to pick up another.
Book count: 53
Pages in book: 301
Page count: 21,190
Words in book: 100,400
Word count: 6,143,458
Book #54 was Twelve Sharp, the 12th book in Janet Evanovitch’s Stephanie Plum series. The back of the book reads:
America’s favorite bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, is back in her twelfth bestseller and sure to win more fans than ever before. Trenton, New Jersey’s premier troublemaker is once again struggling with her tangled love life, her chaotic family, and her gift for destroying every car she drives. Not to mention her attempts to bring in the sometimes scary bail jumpers of Trenton, and the sudden appearance of a mysterious female stalker—who turns out to have a close connection to Ranger. Twelve Sharp has twists that will drive readers wild and prove that once again, for sheer reading entertainment, no one tops Janet Evanovich.
I was anxious to read this. After realizing that it was going to be several weeks before I could get even the audio version from the library, I broke down and made a special trip to Kroger to buy it (40% off!) before we left for Nashville. It did not disappoint. The tension between Stephanie, Joe, and Ranger is better than ever. Now I can’t wait till the next one!
Book count: 54
Pages in book: 320
Page count: 21,510
Words in book: 77,490
Word count: 6,220,948
Book #55 was Proof, by Dick Francis. The back of the book reads:
Wine merchant Tony Beach has expertly catered his latest society soiree, but the fun’s over when a team of hit men crash the party…literally. The event leaves Tony with a bitter aftertaste of suspicion—and sets off a mystery that’s an intoxicating blend of deception, intrigue, and murder.
Another paperback I inherited from my dad. I’d never read Dick Francis before — this was pretty good. I’d read more. It’s part of the “Horseracing Mystery Series”, but it really didn’t have much to do with horseracing.
Book count: 55
Pages in book: 368
Page count: 21,878
Words in book: 101,054
Word count: 6,322,002
Book #56 was Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald. The back of the book reads:
Following the curves of history in the first half of the twentieth century, Fall on Your Knees takes us from haunted Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, through the battlefields of World War I, to the emerging jazz scene in New York City, and into the lives of four unforgettable sisters. The mythically charged family—James, a father of intelligence and immense ambition; Materia, his Lebanese child-bride; and their daughters: Kathleen, the eldest, a beautiful talent preparing for a career as an opera diva; Frances, incorrigible liar and hell-bent bad girl; Mercedes, obsessive Catholic and protector of the flock; and Lily, the adored invalid who takes us on a quest for truth and redemption—is supported by a richly textured cast of characters. Fall on Your Knees is a story of inescapable family bonds, of terrible secrets, of miracles, racial strife, attempted murder, birth and death, and forbidden love.
This was a very interesting story about a very odd family. It was a little disjointed sometimes, mostly because it would jump around in the timeline from time to time, but you could usually pick up what was happening pretty quickly. The description of the characters in the “back of the book” doesn’t really do them justice. I found myself rereading parts because something important would happen very quickly, and you wouldn’t realize the importance until later.
Book count: 56
Pages in book: 508
Page count: 22,386
Words in book: 167,184
Word count: 6,489,186
Book #57 was The Weatherman, by Steve Thayer. The back of the book reads:
A serial killer is on the loose in Minnesota, snapping young women’s necks with each change of the seasons. Within twenty four hours of the first murder, TV weatherman Dixon Bell, a hulking eccentric, warns his viewers that a tornado is about to strike. The National Weather Service hasn’t called it, but Dixon Bell does because he sees it coming in his mind. Among all the complex and original characters in this astonishing novel, the shifting weather and landscape of Minnesota stand out – demonic, majestic, bizarre, magical. Dixon Bell is not the only eccentric on Channel 7’s Sky High News. His alter ego is an investigative news producer named Rick Beanblossom, a Vietnam vet and Pulitzer Prize winner, who hides his napalmed face, and his feelings, behind a mask. Guided along the way by an unnamed police source. Rick is on the track of the serial killer. Then he is assigned an unlikely partner, Andrea Labore, a lovely and ambitious ex-cop turned TV reporter. The newsman and the weatherman start out as bitter rivals for this gifted woman. But an ambivalent friendship grows between them when Dixon Bell becomes a suspect in the weather-related killings and Rick Beanblossom sets out to prove him innocent.
I borrowed this from my dad since I blew through the last of the 4 books I took to Nashville on the day before we left. It was pretty good! You know me, I’m a sucker for a serial killer story. I’ll have to keep my eyes out for more Thayer books in the future.
Book count: 57
Pages in book: 464
Page count: 22,850
Words in book: 108,856
Word count: 6,598,042
1,000,000 words surpassed — 2/2/06
2,000,000 words surpassed — 2/14/06
10,000 pages surpassed — 3/10/06
3,000,000 words surpassed — 3/16/06
4,000,000 words surpassed — 4/3/06
5,000,000 words surpassed — 5/30/06
50 books surpassed – 6/12/06
20,000 pages surpassed — 6/29/06
6,000,000 words surpassed — 6/29/06