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H Is for Homicide (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries) by Sue Grafton

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From an occasional reader of the Kinsey Millhone series Sue Grafton I am only an occasional reader of this series as you can probably tell since I am reading H Is for Homicide more than 15 years after it was first published. I have no idea what letter Sue Grafton has worked her way to by this point but I am more interested in catching up after reading this installment. Lots of fast-paced action keeps Kinsey thinking on her feet throughout the book. Ostensibly, she is undercover to expose a car insurance fraud ring (they cause low speed accidents and fake serious hard-to-prove injuries such as 'back pain') but mostly she's trying not to get killed as things spiral out of control as she goes undercover with some very tough people. Good job. I give this one 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: H is for Homicide by Sue Grafton . Reviewed on May 7, 2006.

The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate (audiobook) by Gary Chapman

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Fill your mate's "love tank" Published by Northfield Publishing in 1996. 4 hours, 46 minutes. Read by the author, Gary Chapman. Gary Chapman The author, Gary Chapman, does an excellent job of narrating the audiobook version of  The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate . Chapman's thesis is, simply, that we all have a love tank, and it is best filled by two of 5 different love languages. If your spouse expresses his or her love to you in a love language that you don't speak than you will both be frustrated and your love tank will not be filled and eventually you will look for other ways to fill it. The five love languages are: -Quality Time -Words of Affirmation -Gifts -Acts of Service -Physical Touch Chapman provides plenty of concrete examples so that most listeners will be able to identify themselves or their spouse. He includes a section about expressing love to one's children as well using his

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo

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A more "grown up" fairy tale Kate DiCamillo Inspired by a friend's son who wanted DiCamillo to write a story about "an unlikely hero...with exceptionally large ears," The Tale of Despereaux is both dark and joyful. It is a story of fear, hate,sadness, greed and the awful things of life as well as being the story of love, kindness, pity and courage. There are many vocal detractors of this book on this site. I am not one of them. I am not entirely happy with the book (For example, no one mourns the jailer and the rat is essentially pardoned for his death for it is not brought up at the end of the book.) but I don't hate it - its many strengths greatly outweigh its weaknesses. For those that don't like its themes of abuse, servitude and death I would refer you to this lengthy, but appropriate comment from C.S. Lewis: "Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (audiobook) by Maryanne Wolf

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Brilliant. One of the best books I've encountered this year. Published by Highbridge Audio Read by Kirsten Potter 8 hours, 21 minutes Unabridged. Filled with everyday examples but also full of technical explanations about how the brain actually works when it reads, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain is a bit of history, a bit of science, a bit of philosophy, a bit of educational theory and a whole lot of learning bundled into an entertaining package. Maryanne Wolf I may be an ideal reader for Maryanne Wolf since I am a foreign language teacher, a history teacher, I love reading and I am very much interested in how boys, in particular, suffer from reading difficulties (Wolf cites biological research that is butressed by others who say we start too early to try to teach our students and we label students too early as having reading difficulties). Wolfe explores the early history of writing and reading, the different types of

My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith by Benyamin Cohen

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A charming spiritual journey in which an Orthodox Jew discovers that "Hanging out with Jesus has made me a better Jew." Benyamin Cohen First off - this is not one of those stories of conversion. Rather, Benyamin Cohen does not feel fulfilled by his experiences with the synagogue or the hundreds of rules that an Orthodox Jew must follow. He decides to go to the other side of the street and see if the grass is greener (he literally grew up across the street from a Methodist church that seemed so much more vibrant and alive and happy than the synagogue that was attached to his house). Cohen gets permission from a Rabbi to spend a year with the Christians - he goes to church every Sunday (after synagogue on Saturdays this makes for some long weekends I am sure) and treats the experience as a wandering anthropologist looking into the strange and wondrous world of Christianity. What follows is a remarkable journal of one man's exploration of Judaism an

Twice Buried (Bill Gastner #3) (Posadas county #3) by Steven Havill

Not up to the standards of later Gastner mysteries Having read several of the later Undersherrif Bill Gastner mysteries I found myself a little torn with Twice Buried . I love the character of Bill Gastner. The characters in this series are particularly well-developed and realistic. The procedures in this book are thorough and seemingly well-depicted (I'm not a police officer but it seemed pretty kosher to me) except for one very large hole in the way the investigation developed - a whole line of investigation was ignored that seemed obvious to me. This hurt the integrity of the book in my eyes but I still give it 4 stars. If you are a fan of Tony Hillerman's Navajo Tribal Police books you should check out this series. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Twice Buried . Reviewed on December 29, 2008.