a gripe about book covers

Yeah I know we all complain about them sometimes but I had to post about it since one if the books I just recently read that is sitting on the table in front of me, drove me nuts when I read the story. I don't want to say what book as some of my comments on the cover may give away some spoilers about the story.

Anyhow, in this book, a 30's or so year old man is abducted mistakenly as the kidnappers wanted his brother. The kidnappers brought in the heroine, a psychiatrist that's best in her field of deprogramming of minds, hypnotherapy and similar stuff. Well on the cover, they have this woman sort of leaning over the man, who is leaning back against the wall and she's holding up a crystal dangling on a string. The implication being that she is hypnotizing him. Well that is ALL wrong. The man was drugged almost the whole time and in bed lying down, never once until they escape ever referenced as being in anything but pajamas and the cover has him in jeans and a t shirt. And not once in the book did the heroine ever try to hypnotize him, with a crystal or otherwise.

There is also an inset picture of two little boys same age and dressed exactly the same, which gives the idea they are twins, though it doesn't say so. But I know when I first looked at the cover before reading I thought they were twins as that is the most obvious assumption from the picture. Well they aren't twins, though they look a lot alike, and one was actually adopted.

Then we won't even talk about the cover blurb which is fairly accurate but not quite. I can't stand when cover artists get it all wrong.

I never posted last week's reads. And here it's almost time to post this week's!

Well not quite as much reading over vacation as I had hoped, but I did get through several. In paper I finished Oceans of Fire by Christine Feehan while I was getting a pedicure though that was actually last Friday (the day I started vacation). I read The Charmed Sphere by Catherine Asaro (long book and probably a big reason I didn't get as much reading in this week since that one took a while), the Charmed Destinies anthology by Rachel Lee, Mercedes Lackey, Catherine Asaro. I also read the prequel book to the Family Secrets series by Silhouette, Broken Silence. But it was an anthology of stories by Maggie Shayne, Eileen Wilks and Anne Marie Winston. I also read the first book of the Family Secrets series itself, Enemy Mind by Maggie Shayne. And I started the book Crimson City by Liz Maverick as well. Presently I'm about one third of the way through it. (Don't worry Sara you got dibs after I finish. I also have Book 2 you can borrow after I finish it too.) After I finished The Charmed Sphere, I was able to knock off almost a book a day.


In audio I finished Legends Volume 3 and started Legends Volume 4. I also finished Nora Roberts' Key of Knowledge, the second in the trilogy though I actually started that one over again since I think I missed a few parts.

I didn't do any eBook reading at all last week.

Not book related, but part of the reason I didn't read as much is because vacation for me also means outlet mall shopping! So I did that one day and went shopping another day as well. And I got a new kitten on Wednesday who is borderline feral and sick with all sorts of stuff from overcrowding at the Humane Society so he's been needing lots of TLC and medication giving time. (That part's the worst! Trying to give a 1 1/2 lb kitten three different meds all the while he's squirming and yowling.)

Catching the Big Wave -- or keeping up with the Jones in reading THE HISTORIAN

Every year there is a book that is a "must read" either designated by the critics, the media or word of mouth. The book you either do read or must be seen having in your possession. Well, I succumbed and picked up THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova. After all, the magazines, the buzz, the hype, it can't be all bad, can it?

Oh, my! Well, first it is HUGE and hardcover -- thus means buying at Costco when I've got some spare change or can hide it along with the bottles of wine and salmon -- sorry, Costco means wholesale shopping and they were out of fresh flowers so I compensated with the HEAVY book. And after finishing Harry Potter VI, another heavy book meant aching wrists! Sheesh, can't they make it lighter? Or aren't you supposed to lounge when reading?

Anyway, I got this big book and it was about a series of historians -- thus history, chasing after the theory of Dracula, or Drakula, or some other death defying guy from eastern Europe. By a narrator with NO NAME (shades of Rebecca), and flashbacks with journal entries and lots and lots of history. If you're a fan of history, this might be the book for you. If you're a fan of the bloodsucker legends, this might be the book for you. If you're a fan of 1970s Europe, you might enjoy the rendering of a time slightly gone by. If, on the other hand, any of this bores you to tears, take my advice and don't spend the bucks, even to be a "fashionable reader."

Lucky for me, I don't mind reasonably easy-to-follow flashbacks (convoluted, time tripping ones annoy the heck out of me). The switches from the narrator (she of no name), to the father's recollections were easy to follow as well. I must give all credit to Kostova. She did an excellent job in keeping me straight on the path to understanding. And the Europe of the 1970s rang true -- I lived there from 76 to 81 and visited in 70. And I've had a passion for Istanbul since reading Byzantium history. I'd still like to visit, even though I know it must have changed from the times in THE HISTORIAN visits. And even riding the European trains, ah the memories.

As for the story about the death avoiding Impaler, it was, to coin my husband's favorite luke warm phrase -- it was okay.

So there you go, a book that took me two days to read was okay.

To Die For, or Not

Over the weekend I was in the mood for what we all call a "comfort read" but still didn't want to re-read something, so I pulled out Linda Howard's TO DIE FOR.

Quite a few book-clubbers said the "voice" that the author used in this one was different from her usual and I have to agree. The first person style let me be a little more tolerant of a lead character, bouncy cheerleader, than perhaps I would have otherwise.

What do you all think about this one?