Broken Computer & Recent Reads

Alas, my computer has succumbed to either Bejeweled or the cats. The power is out and I am questioning whether I want to purchase a new power cord that may or may not work for $100 or purchase a new mini computer for $400. Hmmm...what to do? What to do? While I am in indescision limbo, I am without a computer at home. Oh, well, this means that I am not constantly on Facebook playing the very very addicting Bejeweled. I have heard that I can get it on my Iphone but I don't even want to go there, so I haven't and don't plan to. But at the same time, I realize that I am not on Facebook, keeping up with friends. But then again, I do have an Iphone that I have used for Facebook before. I am just being lazy.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have read a couple of books for Book Club, which is going very well. YEAH!! And a couple of books for myself.
Here is the listing:
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahme-Smith

This book took me almost 6 weeks to get through. It isn't a book that I was actually interested in. This was strictly for professional development. It seems to be a growing genre of either adapting a classic like Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen into a modern horror classic like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter was midly interesting. I only wish I actually new more about the famous president so that I could better determine what was fact and what was fiction--I mean other than the vampires. For example, did Lincoln really befriend Edgar Allen Poe? Was his father really a lazy drunk? So now I will have to find me biography of Lincoln to try to answer some of these questions.
Her Fearful Symentry by Time Traveler's Wife author Laura Niffenegger

Again this book almost took me a full month to get through. It was slow, overly detailed and then ended abruptly. It was almost like the author was as tired of her characters as I was and tried to tie up the story neatly. It is a bit of ghost story and ends bizarrly. Someone in the Book Club said that they read in a review that abrupt ending might have been due Ms. Niffenegger being under deadline pressure. In a way I was relieved that the book finally ended. I was entirely ready to be finished with it no matter how strange the ending was. There are much better ghost stories out there.
A Dangerous Road by Kris Nelscott

What a relief to pick up this title after the above two. This book is next month's Book Club selection. Since we have a limited number of copies in the system, I needed to read my copy quickly so that I can get it out to the next Book Club Member. I truly enjoyed this fast paced mystery set around the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, TN. I read this title in hours as oppossed to days or weeks that the other two books took. Since I read The Help by Katherine Stockett recently, I thought that A Dangerous Road made a good companion piece. Nelscott's characters were likeable and I had a sense of time and place. The book is from an African-American man's point of view which made it complimentary to the women's viewpoints in The Help.

I have also read the first of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, One for the Money. It is cute, quick, and I understand why she is now on her 16th or more Stephanie Plum book.
This evening I will finish Sue Grafton's A is for Alibi.

Also the first of her Kinsey Milhonne. The writing is fresh, fast-paced and interesting. It is no wonder her alphabet novels are best sellers. I do wonder what she will do when she is finished with Z is for...? Will she start with AA is for...? or switch over to numbers? Certainly double letters would make coming up with titles rather difficult. I can only think of batteries and bra sizes that have double letters. Hmmm... DD is for... might make an interesting book--but maybe not one in Ms. Grafton genre. Also it would be tricky for her to switch over to numbers because Evanovich is already using ordinal numbers (1, 2, 3..) and James Patterson has the cardinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd) nailed down pretty tightly. So perhaps Z will be the end for Kinsey and she will be ready for retirement.