# 45 & # 46 -- Survivor in Death and Visions in Death

The last two books I've finished recently have been more in the J.D. Robb "in Death" series. Survivor in Death is actually the first of her books I ever picked up. There was an audio copy in our local library, I was getting ready to take a road trip somewhere, and decided to try it out. I immediately fell in love with the characters and wanted to listen to everything Robb has written. The good thing about her stories....there are so many of them, I can re-listen after awhile because I can't remember "who done it."

Visions in Death is a little different. I thought I'd read all the books before beginning again, but realized that this in another one I had missed. This is the one where Dallas shares her past with Peabody. I'd always wondered when and how that happened because in the earlier books you know Peabody is in the dark as far as Dallas' history is concerned and then in the later books she know and references what happened. It was nice to finally fill in that part of the story.

As with all the J.D. Robb books, I love them!

# 44 -- Glimpse

I've read a couple books by Carol Lynch Williams and love her work. She does a great job of sharing the emotions and depth of her characters and pulls the reader in almost from the very first page.

Glimpse is a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat, novel in verse that takes you into the lives of two sisters and their relationship. It's their love for each other that makes them survivors against the circumstances of their existence.

After I finished the book, my co-worker picked it up and was reading it at her desk. Before I knew it, she was well into the pages, looked up at me and said, "I don't think I like where this is going, but I can't put it down. I have to finish it."

This one is really good, but be prepared to for the ride in the beginning...you won't be getting off until the story is done!

# 43 -- Gideon's Sword

Gideon's Sword was a book I picked up in a special sale on Audible. I think they were selling 1st novels in a series or something like that.

The story was good, but I killed it by only listening to it a little at a time. I had two other books going at the same time (one print and one audio), so I didn't spend as much time with this one as I would like. In fact, I was listening to it every night for about 15 minutes before I went to sleep. When I finished the other two books, I focused on this one and got to the end. It went much faster and the story line picked up. I'll be interested in looking for the next one in the series...the ending leaves the opening for a following story.

# 42 -- One Day

I happened upon this book in the Border's store that was closing in our town. I bought several books for a silent auction basket I had to build and this one caught my eye. A few weeks later, I found it on CD at my local library and checked it out.

It was a long book (13 CDs), but worth the listen. I was totally unprepared for the ending!

My daughter and I went to the movies for Mother's Day while I was reading the story and during the previews I saw that it was going to be made into a movie. One of the scenes we were watching was the scene I was reading at the time. It's going to be a good show, I think.

# 41 -- JINX

JINX is a young adult book written in verse. It's the story of a young girl who thinks she is jinxed when her boyfriend dies.

I am always amazed when I read a novel in verse and can get a complete story out of pages of poems. It's an interesting story full of loss, anger, grief, hope, family and friendship.

Not the best verse novel I've read, but a good one.

# 40 -- Cherry Bomb

I've read all the J. A. Konrath books that center around the Jack Daniels character (except the latest one). I like the tough female cop, though she might be a little too tough for some readers. Konrath doesn't pull any punches and some of his villains are hard core.

In Cherry Bomb, the antagonist is one from previous books that just keeps popping up. She is a psychopath and makes no excuses for the pain she inflicts. This is NOT a book for the faint of heart. Though the story is good, the descriptions of the deaths, mutilations and sex may be too much for some readers.

# 39 -- When Gifted Kids Don't Have All the Answers

I read this for a book study this semester. I needed to do something to keep my gifted hours current and the 6 hours I got from the class keeps me up-to-date.

The book was easy to read and had lots of great information. Most things were focused on the gifted kids in the classroom and dealt with not only the students, but the way the teachers can improve their teaching of gifted kids as well. I thought it was good stuff and wish I had read it when I was still in the classroom. It's something I will have my daughter read since she's about to go off to college to begin her studies to become a teacher.

One of the things I did get from the book that I will be using in my library are some rules that were mentioned for older students.

# 38 -- Shark Girl

When I picked up Shark Girl, by Kelly Bingham, I thought it was the book that inspired the movie that's out called Soul Surfer. I thought they were all about the same girl (the young surfer who was attacked by a shark and lost her arm). That's not the case. In fact, that young girl is actually mentioned, in passing, in this story.

This is a story about a 15 year old girl who is swimming in the ocean and gets attacked by a shark. Her brother saves her life, and she loses her arm just above the elbow. It's written in verse and takes you from her first moments out of the coma in the hospital through her first year of living with her new life without an arm.

Moving and inspirational, the book has great insight into how a teenager might struggle with this overwhelming event. I really enjoyed it and liked the quick pace of the prose verse.