Monday, April 28, 2008

The Case of the Demure Defendant

Author: Erle Stanley Gardner
My Description: Another wonderful Perry Mason book! I really loved it.
It's definitely the most suspenseful of the them all... I never would have guessed who dunnit! I had no idea how Perry was going to pull this one off!
Back-Of-The-Book Description: A young woman under the influence of the "truth" serum sodium penthahol confesses to her doctor that she poisoned the older man in whose house she had been living. After the man's death, she says, she threw the bottle containing the poison into a lake. The doctor, armed with this information and a recording of the session, consults Perry Mason, bringing the famous lawyer into the case.

The police have no knowledge that anyone has been murdered. The possible victim's cause of death was put down to natural causes when he died. Now, though, the police get wind of the confession, and Mason finds himself racing against time to determine whether a crime has been committed at all. He goes to the lake and succeeds in finding a bottle that, thankfully, does not contain poison. Apparently, the case is at an end. The "confession," he thinks, was just a product of the woman's imagination and guilty conscience. However, just when Mason thinks he can rest easy, the police recover a second bottle.

Now, not only is Mason's client back in hot water, but Mason himself is also facing legal trouble. The police, it seems, suspect Mason of having planted the first bottle... Can Perry Mason save his client--and himself?
Starting Date: April 25th
Ending Date: April 28th
Reading Time: Four days
Pages: 242
Recommendations: To anyone who likes mysteries. Again, Erle Stanley Gardner has proven himself a most fabulous writer!
Writing Rating: 7 3/4
Story Rating: 7 3/4
Overall Rating: 7 3/4

Book #26 of '08

Friday, April 25, 2008

GOAL REACHED!!!

Hooray! I've read 25 books just like I wanted--am I even halfway through the year yet?!?!?! Anyway, I'm very happy and I look forwards to seeing how many I devour by the end of the year!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Case of the Shapely Shadow


Author: Erle Stanly Gardner
My Description: Fabulous! Amazing! Wonderful! READ IT!!!
The mystery was very interesting and highly unpredictable. Perry (yes, this is another Perry Mason book) did a great job in solving the case, and I think this book was wonderful--it really kept you on your toes and guessing.
One negative thing is that near the end they kept talking about putting the Defendant on the stand, and I was getting really excited about that, but they didn't, and that made me a little disappointed. Besides that, this book was great, and I highly recommend it!
Back-Of-The-Book Description: When Janice Wainwright shows up in Perry Mason's office with a suitcase full of money and a story of her employer being blackmailed, Perry, Della, and Janice start recording the numbers of as many bills as possible. However, when her employer ends up murdered, the evidence points to Janice as a blackmailer and a killer. Even more surprising, Perry Mason puts on no defense evidence, effectively betting Janice's life on one small detail, a detail which sets off a firestorm of legal fireworks and has Hamilton Burger (District Attorney) spitting nails.
This is a novel that defines Perry Mason; one where he goes up against a mountain of evidence, but finds a different analysis of it, combined with legal tactics which run circles around the district attorney. Highly recommended.
Starting Date: April 20th
Ending Date: April 24th
Reading Time: Four days
Pages: 162
Recommendations: To anyone who loves/likes mysteries. This is fabulous.
Writing Rating: 7 3/4
Story Rating: 7 3/4
Overall Rating: 7 3/4
Book #25 of '08

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Case of the Fabulous Fake


Author: Erle Stanley Gardner
My Description: It's Perry Mason! I love Perry Mason! (there's a black-and-white TV show starring him on weekdays at noon, Fox. It's a great show. Wonderful mysteries) Perry Mason is an lawyer, who not only proves his client innocent, but finds the actual Murderer in the process. This case was wonderfully written, highly suspenseful, and kept me guessing 'til the very last line.
I love Perry Mason.
Back-Of-The-Book Description: Perry Mason's beautiful new client isn't giving anything away, not even her name, and he suspects that what she does choose to reveal is mostly lies. Certainly the bag full of cash she carries isn't shopping money. All the mystery woman asks is that Mason make himself available for a few days in case she needs him--for what purpose, she remains silent as the grave.In fact, his headstrong client, who identifies herself only as "36-24-36," is headed for disaster--not only into a blackmailer's clutches but into a lethal trap from which not even Perry Mason's brilliant courtroom sorcery may be able to extricate her. Alive, anyway . . .
Starting Date: April 19th
Ending Date: April 21st
Reading Time: Three days
Pages: 180
Recommendations: To anyone who likes mysteries.
Writing Rating: 7 1/2
Story Rating: 7 1/2
Overall Rating: 7 1/2
Book #24 of '08

The Lightning Thief


Author: Rick Riordan
My Description: I love ancient Greek mythology. I love, love, LOVE ancient Greek mythology. So I love, love, love, LOVED the Lightning thief, a story about a young boy name Perseus--a.k.a. Percy--who tries to save his mother from death, man kind from World War III and his father's--Poseidon, god of the sea--reputation on a journey with some very interesting characters.
I highly recommend this book... I'll definetaly be looking for the second!
Back-Of-The-Book Description: Perseus, aka Percy Jackson, thinks he has big problems. His father left before he was born, he's been kicked out of six schools in six years, he's dyslexic, and he has ADHD. What a surprise when he finds out that that's only the tip of the iceberg: he vaporizes his pre-algebra teacher, learns his best friend is a satyr, and is almost killed by a minotaur before his mother manages to get him to the safety of Camp Half-Blood--where he discovers that Poseidon is his father. But that's a problem, too. Poseidon has been accused of stealing Zeus' lightning bolt, and unless Percy can return the bolt, humankind is doomed.
Starting Date: April 16th
Ending Date: April 19th
Reading Time: Four days
Pages: 375
Recommendations: To anyone who likes/loves greek mythology and to kids 9-14 who like fantasies.
Writing Rating: 7 1/2
Story Rating: 8
Overall Rating: 8


Book 23 of '08

Shakespear's Secret

(no picture available--sorry!)

Author: Elise Broach
My Description: It's a very enjoyable mystery about a girl named Hero and her search for the rumored 'Murphy Diamond' that is said to be within her newly bought house.
Shakespeare's Secret had a lot to do with history and--shocker--Shakespeare, I had a lot of fun reading it... and though there are a few things that Hero and some of the other main characters do that I don't quite understand, I definitely would recommend this book.
Back-Of-The-Book Description: Hero has always hated her Shakespearean-based name, for, as her new sixth-grade classmates are quick to tell her, it's better suited to a dog than to a girl. Resigned to their constant teasing, she concentrates instead on her new found friendship with her kindly, if somewhat eccentric, elderly next-door neighbor. Mrs. Roth tells Hero about the missing "Murphy Diamond," a precious jewel that supposedly disappeared from the house where Hero now lives. Mrs. Roth has the necklace that once held the diamond, an heirloom that possibly once belonged to Anne Boleyn, and she is convinced that it is still hidden in the vicinity. She and Hero set out to find what the police could not, and, with help from Danny, a popular yet self-assured eighth grader who befriends them both, they succeed. Only then do the real connections among the three of them come to the surface and change their lives forever.
Starting Date: April 13th
Ending Date: April 15th
Reading Time: Three days
Pages: 272
Writing Rating: 6 1/2
Story Rating: 6 3/4
Overall Rating: 6 3/4

Book #22 of '08

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The Riddles of Epsilon

Author: Christine Morten-Shaw
My Description: I really loved the way this book was written! It was a girl's (Jess's) Diary most of the time, and every once in a while it was the print-outs of her in a chat-room on the computer talking with either Epsilon or with her friend Avril(who I personaly don't like... she's a bad girl).
The Riddles of Epsilon has awesome riddles, a highly interesting plot, and bunches of cool twists and turns. I really liked it!
Back-Of-The-Book-Description: Jess has moved to a remote island called Lume off the coast of England. Her parents are restoring an old house, and Jess discovers an abandoned cottage on their property Inside the cottage Jess encounters an eerie presence--something like a ghost but suffused with a comforting energy. She also finds three locked boxes. Inside each she finds antique papers that send her mind spinning.
As Jess unravels the mysteries of Lume, she finds the writings of Sebastian, a boy who lived one hundred years ago and whose life contains unsettling reflections of her own. To her horror, the dangers he unearthed in 1894 now begin to threaten Jess and her family. Something dark has awoken, and Jess doesn't have much time to do something about it.
Jess has a talent for solving puzzles, riddles, and codes. She is confronted with a series of riddles that she must unlock in order to save her mother from a dark and ancient threat. Jess is guided by the creepy presence in the cottage. The mysterious guide is called Epsilon, but is he a guide from the bright side, or the dark?
Starting Date: April 9th
Ending Date: April 12th
Reading Time: Four days
Pages: 375
Recommendations: To late pre-teens and teens. It's a little spooky, and there is one swear word, but it still is a great book!
Writing Rating: 8 1/2
Story Rating: 8 1/2
Overall Rating: 8 1/2


Book #21 of '08

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The Xanadu Adventure


Author: (the amazing, the fabulous, the really really awesome writer) Lloyd Alexander
My Description: It's another of those Vesper Holly books! I really loved all of them, but they did get a little repetitious... I was very disappointed when they never introduced a new villain, (of course different accomplices, but the same main villain) and I got a little bored. Not only that, but I had a picture of this one character--'The Weed' as Vesper nick-named him--and as it turned out, I was way off and some of the things that happened I was completely unprepared for because of that different picture I had of him... anyway, besides all that, Vesper Holly is as cool and Indiana Jones-ee as ever, Brinnie is still her Dear Old Tiger, and all in all it's a very good book.
Back-of -the-Book Description: Vesper Holly loves archaeology and adventure. So when she is told that archaeologist Herr Schliemann has found the ruins of ancient Troy, she's determined to go investigate further. So she and her friends Brinnie, his wife Mary, and the knowledgeable oddball The Weed (not his real name) set out to Hissarlik. But things rapidly go awry. A sinister boat captain dumps them off in the wrong place, and a sputtering archaeologist -- who claims he, not Schliemann, has found Troy -- turns out to be working for the malevolent Dr. Helviticus. And this time, the doctor has far-reaching plans not only to take control of the world's oil, but to rule the world itself from his own luxurious Xanadu...
Starting Date: April 4th
Ending Date: April 6th
Reading Time: Three days
Pages: 145
Recommendations: To all who loved the other Vesper Holly books, and to those who like Indiana Jones.
Writing Rating: 8
Story Rating: 8
Overall Rating: 8

Book #20 of '08