Friday, March 26, 2010

The Help


SO ADDICTIVE. My Mom also loaned this book to me and I feel sort of depressed that I finished it. What will I read now? I think everyone has either read this or knows what it's about so I won't give a detailed description here. It's essentially about three women in Jackson Mississippi in the early 1960's. Two of them are African American and work as maids for white families and one is a white girl who has convinced them to help her write a book about their experiences working for white women. I really loved it.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Faceless Killers

This was my attempt to recreate my love for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Swedish author? Check. Murder mystery? Check. Potential for sequels? CHECK.

It was pretty good. I'm not sure I'll rush out to buy the next one, but I'll probably read it soonish. The mystery was very perplexing and I didn't really know how it was going to end - which is important for me when it comes to mysteries. Kurt Wallander - the detective in this mystery series is complex (also important). But it wasn't quite as smart and addictive as the Dragon Tattoo series. It's like Dragon Tattoo lite.

Also - I can't make the image of this book smaller. Sorry. Blogger hates my Mac and I don't have the energy to fight it.

Deadly Errors

My Mom loaned me this book. The cover is sort of embarrassing.

It's about a brain surgeon in Seattle who discovers that the hospital's new electronic medical record system is making mistakes and causing deaths. It turns into a thriller slash mystery where the FBI asks him to investigate and lives are threatened and ... it was okay. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed it - but it wasn't particularly believable. Or believable at all actually. I did love how accurate the descriptions of Seattle were and I could picture every location described in perfect detail. And it's pretty cool that the author is an actual brain surgeon. I mean I was essentially a party planner before having my daughter and I wasn't capable of also writing a book, much less get it published. So the fact that this dude is able to save lives AND write a book? Impressed.

But the whole plot - while grounded in plausibility - became kind of ridiculous when an FBI agent blackmails the main character into risking his life (multiple times) to do his job for him. Said FBI agent also doesn't seem to care much that others who have looked into the mystery are being murdered left and right. Really? Call me an optimist, but I like to think that the FBI have my best interest in mind and wouldn't threaten me into getting killed by greedy hospital administrators while they sit back and watch.