A Maiden's Grave

Next book by Deaver. Lately I somehow had pretty some "series" of reading - "Cat who...", Coben, now Deaver. Let's see how it'll look in the future ;)

A group of deaf girls, together with two teachers is going for the performance on the festival of poetry. On the way there they see a car accident. When they stop to check it out, then they found out that it was not only an accident, but a place of double murder. And murderers are sill around...
They are kidnapped by murderers and brought to the old slaughterhouse, in which they're guarded by three armed ex-prisoners. Surroundings are full of police, FBI, representatives of the state and so on...
Negotiations with kidnappers are led by agent Arthr Potter, experienced FBI negotiator. How he will lead negotiations? Is there a happy end? Will they survive? Surrender or atack? Is it the end of the story?

The book is well written. Well, actually you can be quite sure about it if you're taking into your hand book by Deaver. Extended plot, with many changes of action. Action was keeping my mind all the time - I was wondering what will happen, if the girls will survive, if everything will finish well or not. And I couldn't wait until evertyhing will be clear.

Also the choice of the place of the plot is interesting - old slaughterhouse, full of signes and smells of trade held there, standing next to beig river, surrounded by trees and fields.

The characters of the story are also well constructed - for example "main" kidnapper Handy or one of the teachers - Melanie. Also the choice of characters is interesting, on each side - kidnappers, officers and victims. You may find your own feelings, hesitations, fears...

The book is good and interesting. However, at the beginning I had a problem with getting really into it. It seemed to be different from the others written by this author. Maybe because of the theme - hijack? Maybe because of the fact that the hostages were only girls and ladies and they were also deaf? I can't find a reason. But after all I like it and I'm not sorry that I read it.

My rating: 4,5/6

Momzillas

Another chick lit. I decided to read it because I felt I lack this kind of literature lately - too much of criminal stories ;) And besides - the description looks quite nice.

The book is written nicely, it's fast and easy reading. It's a story of Hannah, her husband and 2 years old daughter, who moved from West Cost to the East Cost - to New York. Josh is spending whole days in his new company and Hannah is trying to find herslf in such a new situation and new place. Thanks to their financial status they're landing in the heart of the city - in Manhattan. But they are still not included into "class A" - well, they can't be, if they are able to buy just the 1,3 million $ appartmanet :p

Hannah gets a "helper" in settling down there - Bee, wife of Parker, Josh' best friend. Thanks to Bee, Hannah has an opportunity to meet other mothers from Manhattan, get to know the "rules of the game", check how the daily routine looks like. But she is not totally happy about the life style there and is trying to find her own way between Momzillas. Would it be possible? Is she able to swim against the stream? Is her relationship strong enough for that?

The book is written quite nice, but the end is - in my opinion - just too sweet. Like movies in a Hollywood style ;) Besides, I'm still wondering - is it for real? Even if I know that such a life style happens much more often than I woul even expect. But still it's hard to believe for me that someone, while going for 10 days of holidays is renting a company to renovate a child room in the hotel and to create there a copy of the child room from their home, just for a small amount of money (like 10 000 $), it's just crazy...

To sum up - it's nice for reading and relaxing. Nice main characters, some bad Momzillas, funny stories.

My rating: 3,5/6

I don't want to join a bookclub

It's time for easy reading, kind of chick lit. I've found the description of this book somewhere in the internet and I found it interesting, so when I saw this book in my local library - I just took it. I was reading it slowly, as a "easy book before sleeping". And it's pretty good for that.

It's a diary of a sixty years old lady, who finally may live without obligations, tasks to do, in a way, how she would like to live. But in the same moment her life is not really getting more "empty" - new decissions, a grandchild on a horizon, friend daying because of cancer, committee of inhabitants, maybe also a love story? Who knows...

Well, the idea is very interesting, I do agree. It's an interesting try of looking on our life from the point of view of older person. How does it look like? How it'll look for me in the future? ;) I need to check how old is the author of the book, I'm curious now.

The realisation - average. Typical easy read. A few smiles, a few "o gosh!" and that's it. But for relaxing before sleeping - great. I'm thinking about offering reading it to my mother - she is almost in the same age. I wonder, if she would find anything in common with the main character of this book?

My rating: 3,5/6

The Blue Nowhere

So, it's time for the first "fresh" review ;)

It's fourth book by Deaver which i had a chance to read. And I just confirmed my opinion - he knows how to write compelling books. Each of them was surprising me with sudden changes of action, new ideas, solutions for situations. It's also clearly visible that he's having a lot of employees, as his books are very well prepared if it comes to the info given, for me they look credible (I know I'm not an expert at all ;P).

So, the story starts - how original - with the murder. The investigation is leading into anonymus hacker, who thinks that life is a computer game and people are just characters in it. That's why police decide to ask for help from another hacker, who is right now doing sentence - Gillette. Was is a right decission? Who the hell is Phate? And who is Shawn? How to fight with them?

I read this book almost with bated breath. There is a lot of interesting info there, I could learn new things. Especially, there is a lot of info related with social engineering and its' possible use. How you could manipulate people around you? What you can do to reach your aim? There is also a lot of information related with computers, internet, hacking, methods of police work and so on. That's also the thing which I like in his books - they look like well prepare with the content, having a lot of interesting details. And besides, I always learn something new while reading his books, even if they are just "popular massread" or however you'll call it.

Besides, I just confirmed my opinion even more about the influence of computers and internet on our daily life. How much we're reliable on them in basicly each moment of our life! And how huge danger it can be for us...

I gave to this book 5 out of 6. Because it's interesting, well written, compelling, with well builded plot. And I'm happy I have another 4 books of him already waiting on my shelve ;)

Short quote (my translation):

"(...) let's ask: to whom we turn when we move in the Blue Nowhere?"

My rating: 5/6

Re-start?

Hm... I will try again to write some reviews. I hope, I'll stay with this promise as long as possible ;)

Now I'm reading "The Blue Nowhere" by Jeffrey Deaver and "Balzakiana" by Polish author Jacek Dehnel. And as easy read before going to sleep I'm reading "I Don't want to join a bookclub " by Virginia Ironside.
I think the first one I'll finish will be the book by Deaver - I've read more than a half already. So, then something should appear here ;)

I'll also use a rating system - 1 to 6 (with 0,5 as well).

PS. Blog in Polish will be here - http://ksiazkowo.wordpress.com/