The Stand by Stephen King

 

This is a 1153 page book. Every page is worth reading. 

There's a virus that gets let loose and 99.6% of the people end of dying. The ones that do survive start to have dreams about an old black woman as well as a dark evil man. They all know that they need to choose sides as they travel to which even person they choose to want to be apart of. 

Fran, Stuart, Larry, Glen, Tom, Nick, Nadine, Harold and many others all travel to see sister Abagail. Lloyd and many others like the Trash can man travel to see the dark man. 

Many things happen along they way. They all know in the first group that they need to begin to start a place that would be safe for them. But, first they got to deal with the deaths that are all around them. Larry for instance, he had a huge problem going through a tunnel in New York. Because of all the cars piled up in the tunnel, as will as the dead just every where he had to deal with the smell of death. It took him a little while to get through it. He did make it out. It took a lot more out of him then he had thought. 

Fran and Harold, traveled together. Something about Harold wasn't quite right. He started to have feelings for Fran. He also left signs for other to follow them. He was only 17 years old and never has sex before, which he wanted to have with Fran.  Some where down the road, run into Stuart and Tom. That's when Harold really starts to have some problems concerning Stuart. He's jealous. 

When one of the small group does make it to sister Abagail's house, they eat and talk to her for while. She explains to them, that they are going to have to settle down some where, because there will be much more people coming. They are going to need to go west and settle in Boulder, Colorado. That's when, everyone packs up and sister Abagail goes with them. 

Well, there will be a few more deaths and the dark man isn't far from where the other group is. Yes, there are things that happen and comes down to whom still survives and who doesn't. You'll just have to pick up the book and read it to find out how it ends up. I wasn't happy with some of what happens but, over all it's a great story. 

Tell next time. Pick up a good book. You never know what you might like. Maybe, even something off my list of books on here. 

The last heir to Blackwood library by Hester Fox

 

This was a very good read for me. I did get a little frustrated with Ivy Radcliffe in some places in the book. 

Ivy learns that she's in heir to this Abbey in Yorkshire. She's never had anything like this happen to her before. She signs the papers and heads off to her new home. She arrives there thinking that this could change her life. But, when she meets the help that have been the care takers of the house for a long time. She notices that Mrs. Hewitt doesn't seem to like her much. The driver, Ralph picks her ups at the train station. 

The Abbey is very old and Ivy can tell by what she's noticing while she walking to her room. It's called the blue room and that because everything in the room is blue. She then meets Agnes who's quite young and seems very shy. After getting settled and changing her clothes. She gets Mrs. Hewitt to show her around. There are rooms in the Abbey that are locked Mrs. Hewitt tells her. Partly because they don't use them much. Ivy, doesn't understand why but, she lets it go. 

Later on that evening Ivy decides she's going to look around some on her own after she eats her dinner. Going to a few of the doors down the hall and some of the doors are locked. She heads downstairs and checks out a few more areas of the Abbey. There were double doors to a big room on the other side of them. She does decide to wait tell morning and ask Mrs. Hewitt to open them. 

In the morning after breakfast, Ivy decides to go into town and look around. She wants some new books. In a book store she meets Arthur. He seems very nice. After talking for a few minutes, she heads for home. Later on in the even after settling down in a chair to do some reading, something ends up flying off her dresser onto the floor. What the heck, Ivy says. 

That's the first thing that ends up happening. Other things start to really scare her. Are there ghosts in this Abbey. Another thing that starts to happen is she is not remembering things. She keeps asking about things and when she wakes up the next morning she can't remember. 

In the morning Ivy goes downstairs and asks Mrs. Hewitt to unlock the double doors. On the other side was a huge library and the perfect Ivy thought. She loved books. Mrs. Hewitt didn't look happy. Ivy began to look around and after awhile Mrs. Hewitt left. She Had been in there for a few hours and she started to get a read bad headache. 

Every time she had spent time in that library, she would get headaches. Something was going on and because in the mornings she couldn't remember things. It made her seem like she was loosing her mind.

I'm not going to give away the ending. It was a fairly fast paste read. Pick it up if you want to try it. You may just like it. 

Trace of the cat by Nevada Barr

 

Anna is a West Texas backcountry park ranger. She was out on patrol and she smells something really bad not far frown where she is. She walks closer and hiding in tall grass is a body. She checks it out more and she knows her. It looks like she's been attacked by a lion. That's not a good thing. They will hunt it down and kill it. She doesn't like what this looks like concerning the dead body. Something is wrong, she can feel it. She takes pictures. Other then that, all she can do now is report what happened. 

A lot of things going on and the main ranger station. Her boss, Paul tells her to leave it alone. The FBI are taking over it. This isn't right. Anna tells Paul she wants to see the autopsy when he can get a copy for her. She begins to think about everything. She needs answers to some of the questions she's having. 

Christina was working in the office while she was typing out forms for what happened and she keeps making mistakes. Anne decides to ask her for help. She also offers her a cold beer, which turns into, 'I'd rather have a glass of wine.' Anna say's thank you and walks away. 

Christina shows up at Anna's house. After sitting down with a glass of wine. Anna starts a conversation and in a way it sounds like she grilling her on where she's been and all that. Christina is a little defensive over it and decides it's time to leave. 

A few days later, Anna goes for a walk with her backpack and things she might need. She radio's ahead to ask for a ride when she gets back down is awhile. She's usually very good and paying attention to where she's walking and she falls down a 300 feet cliff. It kept my attention for awhile. Hoping she wasn't going to die. 

The book is a slow burn, but things do happen that makes you want to know what's going to happen. Anna knows that there's a murder out there. You'll just have to pick up the book and find out how it ends. Tell next time. 

Ink and Bone By Rachel Caine

 

This is the first book in a series called, The Great Library. Ruthless and supremely powerful, the great library is now present in every major city. Alexandria is where the main library is. Young Jess Brightwell is only ten years old when his father asks him to carry a book to one of his customers. Jess is never happy about doing this, he would rather be reading the books his dad is holding, even if it's against the law. Jess is what your call a runner and if he's caught with a book he could end up being hanged. His dad tells him where to take the book and protects it by hiding it in a sleeve under his clothes. Jess takes off running. 

The Garda is what tries to catch the runners. They see Jess and he takes off running. He ends up close to where the one library is in his town and sitting on stone pedestals are lions and they are looking at him. Their eyes turn red and Jess is frozen. Then, they start to move and people start to run. it's time for him to move it. He finally makes it to where he needs to be. But, the person he hands the book too, starts to tear pages and eat them. Jess is shocked and tries to get the book back and the guy pushes him out of the door. He ended up on the ground, frozen over what he saw. He finally makes it bac home. 

A few days later his dad tells him that he's going into be tested for the library. He also thought the library was a good thing and he hopes he'll get in. He does. 

His dad take him to the train. It will be a long trip. His dad tells him that he will be his eyes and ears for him. Jess, looks at his father and says, ' that's if I make in in.'  He meets other people that are going to the library. When the train finally pulls in, they meet their teacher Wolfe and he has no mercy at all when it comes to the way he teaches.

Jess is good at seeing things and he watches a lot of what's going on. Many things happen in this book and you should read it. I'm not going to spoil what goes on. I will say this, it's one of those reads that you won't put down tell you get to the ending. It has even got me thinking of reading the second, but, I'm going to wait. There is differently a few bad people and really bad things that happen. Deaths also happen. That's all for now. 

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

 

Reichenbach falls, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson make their way to Switzerland to confront Professor James Moriarty. Only for them to fight with words then it gets physical and James falls into the falls. The next thing that happens, Mr. Morran shows up and pushes Sherlock over the falls. 

Inspector Athelney Jones from Scotland yard shows up on the scene. He has followed Sherlock and being that he's followed everything Sherlock has ever done. Wants to know what happened and is Sherlock dead. 

Then, a Pickerton investigator by the name of Frederick Chase shows up one scene. Inspector Jones wants to know why he's there. He said, that he has been following a guy by the name of Clarence Devereux and heard about James and Sherlock and came to see what happened. He tells Jones that they found a body and it's a good chance it might be Moriarty. They both go see the body and they look through his stuff and on the body. They find something.

Athelney Jones, invites Mr. Chase to come back to London with him. On the train trip, Mr. Jones tells Mr. Chase a story about how he met Sherlock Holmes a few times and has read everything ever written about him. Mr. Chase is sitting there listening to all this guy is saying. Wondering if this guy is just good or maybe not. 

As the story goes on, there's a murder and not just one, but four people in the same house. To, Mr. Jones, it's a little weird. Him and Mr. Chase has just gone and told to the people and the very evening they get murdered. Mr. Jones, doesn't know what to make of it. There are a lot of things going on that don't make any sense to him. 

I'm not going to give the good stuff in the book away. You won't believe the ending. It shocked me. I wasn't expecting it at all. Pleasantly very happy how it turned out. If you have ever read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories. This on is right up there with them.

The Likeness by Tana French

 The is the second book in the Dublin murder squad series and Detective Cassie Maddox is back and transferring out of the murder squad. She's busy getting ready for work. Then, her cell phone rings and it's Detective Sam O'Neill is calling her. On the line she can hear he's worried about something and the first thing out of his mouth is find a pair of sunglasses and a hat and get yourself to Glenskehy as fast as you can. I wanted to know why. He wouldn't tell me.

I dressed and headed straight there. There was police tape every where and cops all over. Standing close to where I pulled in was Sam and he didn't look happy. I looked at Sam and then I saw Frankie. I wondered what the hell he was doing here. He told the other cops there, that he wanted me to take a look at the body. I knew there was a reason and as soon as got to where it was. I had to take a few slow breaths. The women lying there looked just like me. What the hell, was my thought. 

The ID read Alexandra Madison. She was a name I used when I was undercover once but, this was weird to say. I looked at Frank and he walked away. I knew what was on his mind. I also knew I wasn't going to like it. As soon as he mentioned me going undercover again, Sam started yelling. 

A few days after that, I sat down with Frank and Sam and we worked out what was going to happen. I was going into Whitethorn house and meeting my housemates, Abby, Justin, Rafe and Daniel. The story that was told to them, was that I hadn't died and that my memory wasn't all there. All my studying of them, didn't take away the looks on their face told me how shocked they were. Frank had dropped me off. 

I was supposed to find out who Stabbed her. Its wasn't going to be easy because none of them weren't going to talk to me about it. I settled in and all five of us, did out college thing, ate together and played cards. There was a few times where they were drinking. Daniel kept pressing me on things. I didn't pick up on that he was trying to find out who I really was. I knew it would be really dangerous for me if that did happen so, I had to be careful. 

I did noticed that they all weren't getting along at times. They were strange in some ways. Things were wrapping up and something differently was coming down when Daniel cornered me one night after we were all drunk. He kissed me and shocked me. I guess that game me away. 

Well, this book was very will written and it makes you want to know what's going to happen next. I'm not going to blow the ending of the book. You'll have to pick it up to read it. 

Now I'm off to start another book. Remember to pick up a good book, it might turn out to be a new favorite. Check out my older posts. 

Note: I'm still a slow reader at times. Please, hang in there and I'll keep adding new books on here. 

Catacomb by Madeleine Roux

 This is the third book in the Asylum series. It was really good. 

Dan, Abby and Jordan are on a road trip to New Orleans. Jordan is planning staying with his uncle Steve. Abby is wanting to make a few stops along the way to take pictures and do some research on a bad guy by the name of Jimmy Orsini who was caught making and selling booze. Even though Jordan just wants to get there, he lets her do what's she wanting to do. Dan's still having strange dreams and doesn't really want to tell his friends.

All three of them, have to stop because of the car getting a flat tire. They walk the few miles to the town up ahead of them. There's a sign on the gas stations door saying the guys next door. They meet a guy and he helps them get a new tire. Abby, feels weird about the guy, but lets it go. When they finish changing the tire they head back into town to get something to eat. Dan isn't feeling very hungry and only orders a coke. He takes his pill and just sits there listening to Abby talk to the older guy. 

They need to find a place to camp for the night and Dan isn't liking that. He wants a bed really badly. He also notices that there's a person on a motorcycle watching them. It took him a few minutes to notice it. 

They finally get on the road again. Abby wants to go to this library in Shreveport. It will take them most of the day. Abby and them get there and they go inside. What's interesting is Dan finds some interesting things in a glass case. Jordan, opens the case and lets Dan take a closer look. He sees some things about his parents that died. Jordan sees some things that Abby might want to read on. A few articles.

They finally make it to New Orleans and to Jordan's uncles. They are happy to be there because now the will have a bed to sleep in. Things will be okay, at least Dan hopes so, tell they meet Oliver. Jordan doesn't like him and figures there's something off about him. Its the stories Oliver starts to tell Dan that's become really weird. Dan's not sure what to make of it, tell later that day when they get back to Jordan's uncles house and there's a guy there talking to him. 

The guy introduces himself as Mr. Finnoway. He seems a little uppity. But, what Dan doesn't realize is this very powerful person is going to try and take his life and bones. He's a bone collector. Because of who his mom is, he wants to stop Dan from doing any more investigating into what his little group is really doing. One day, Dan goes where he shouldn't and ends up having his little finger being cut off. He's in a lot of pain when he wakes up. Then, after getting back to Jordan's uncles, a cop shows up to arrest him for murder. This whole thing, isn't going very will for him.

The book has really short chapters so its an easy book to read. I was having a hard time putting the book down the farther I got into it. 

Well, I'm off to start another book. Remember to check out older posts. You might find a book you will want to pick up.