Flipping Out!

The book, not my state of mind. Here's the synopsis:

Nora Bannister is a bestselling mystery novelist who buys run-down houses in LA. While her business partners turn the house into a showpiece, Nora makes it the scene of a grisly murder in her House To Die For series. As soon as the new book goes on sale, so does the house — and the bidding frenzy begins. It seems a lot of people are willing to pay a lot of money to live in a real house where a fictional character has died a violent death.
Just before Nora’s latest book hits the market, one of her house-flipping partners is murdered. LAPD Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs are assigned the case, but this one is a hot potato – the dead woman is also the wife of one of their fellow cops. As Mike and Terry dig into the victim’s private life, more bodies turn up . . .
Is someone stalking the house flippers or is the murderer after cops’ wives? Either way, Mike and Terry have to track down the killer before he murders his next logical target — Marilyn Biggs, Terry’s wife.

If you haven't read any of the Lomax and Biggs novels, please start with Rabbit Factory. (Really, how many times do I have to recommend this book?!) It's the beginning of the story and starts you off with the characters at good points in their lives. Flipping Out is the third Lomax and Biggs novel. And it is awesome! The mystery is very tightly written - it twists and turns in lots of unpredictable directions. And the characters are as lovable and witty as ever. Mike Lomax is the hero with the heart of gold, again the heart and soul of the book. And Terry Biggs is the sidekick, providing comedy relief in some much-needed places. They make a great team and make this book a treat to read. It concludes with a very satisfying, surprising ending. All around, a great read. I give it 5 stars.

Now, wouldn't you like a chance to win an autographed copy of that fine novel? Send a question for the author, Marshall Karp, to askmarshallkarp@gmail.com, and remember - the more questions you send, the more prizes you can win!

Books By Quarter

I am totally stealing this idea from Janssen and Elizabeth and partially from Fiona, whose Buncha Books posts are so awesome. I thought this would be WAY easier than waiting until the end of the year to type up my book list. Here are the books I've read this quarter, along with my (hopefully brief) thoughts.

1. 7th Heaven - James Patterson - Seventh book of the Women's Murder Club series. Good series, quick reads. I enjoyed it.

2. The Woods - Harlan Coben - Recommended by Fiona. Really good mystery with lots of unpredictable plot twists. Really liked it.

3. Slam - Nick Hornby - Hornby is the author of About a Boy, High Fidelity, and other British "lad lit" books. They're all very entertaining and quick reads. This one is no exception.

4. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer - Twilight series. Awful. See previous thoughts here. Um, and here.

5. A Much Married Man - Nicholas Coleridge - For some reason, it took me a really long time to finish this book. It's not that thick, but the type must be really small or something. Anyway, it's not bad. Entertaining.

6. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - See, I read classics, too! Very good, very moving, but as is ALWAYS the case with Dickens, too many descriptions. Maybe I just bore easily.

7. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer - THANK GOD there are only four books in this series. I finally finished the whole damn series. Breaking Dawn is far and away the best in the series, but that is Not. Saying. Much.

8. Rise and Shine - Anna Quindlen - This book is very good until she makes a choice to use one of the characters as a plot device to bring another character home. I hated that choice and it colored the way I feel about the book.

9. Mr. White's Confession - Robert Clark - A very weird mystery. The plot is good and the book is well-written. I can't remember why it leaves me cold. Oh wait, yes, I do. The unlikely couple who become the heart of the book don't end up together. But it's good, and very twisty, and the red herrings are REALLY believable.

10. Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates - No, I haven't seen the movie. The sad part about this book is that the characters are not very likable. With likable characters, I think it would have rocked. And their kids are basically set pieces. In fact, the whole novel reads like a novel about marriage and family written by an unmarried man with no children.

11. Mohawk - Richard Russo - This is Russo's first novel, and it kind of shows. It's got the Russo hallmarks - set in a small town, focuses on families and the challenges they face. It doesn't have a very strong conclusion, though. Some questions are left unanswered. But it's still very, very good, as I hope should go without saying when we're discussing Richard Russo.

12. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler - Has Anne Tyler ever written a bad book? Didn't think so. This one focuses on a mother and her three grown children - her personality, the sibling rivalry and the wounds the siblings inflict on each other.

13. Third Degree - Greg Iles - Another fine recommendation by Fiona. This is a serious thriller that I couldn't put down. I read it in one day and basically did not move from my recliner until I finished it. Gripping, exciting and suspenseful.

14. The Doctor's Wife - Elizabeth Brundage - Ugh. This book was populated by bad characters who did bad things. Nasty little piece of work.

15. A Disorder Peculiar to the Country - Ken Kaufus - A not-really-recommended by Fiona. But the premise sounded so good, I picked it up at a used book store and read it. And um, Fiona was right - it has a kickass premise on which it totally does not deliver. It's not bad, per se, it's just nowhere near as good as it could have been.

16. If Only It Were True - Marc Levy - Weird premise, weird delivery. A guy walks into his closet one day and finds a girl sitting there. She's the "spirit"? of the girl who owned the apartment before him. She's not dead, though, she's in a coma in a hospital across town, and they're getting ready to turn off her life support. Um, it's not that it's bad, it's just REALLY far-fetched.

17. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck - Very good. Rags to riches to fall from riches story set in China.

18. Away - Amy Bloom - Amazing until the ending. Too much buildup that didn't get delivered on. The prose is stunning, though.

19. Blindness - Jose Saramago - Tiresome. Kind of a post-apocalyptic novel. People start going blind. It is somehow contagious, so the blind people and the people they've come in contact with are quarantined in a mental hospital. There is one woman who doesn't go blind. I don't know, it was grim and unpleasant, and at first very gripping, but as things got worse and worse, I cared less and less. Maybe I am heartless.

20. Change Me Into Zeus' Daughter - Barbara Robinette Moss - A tough childhood, drunk dad memoir. Very compelling. Very well-written.

21. The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith - The 6th? 7th? book in the Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency series. This series is so sweet. I really did not expect to like this series as much as I do. They're like cotton candy - fluffy and sweet and insubstantial. But they're cute little books.

22. Flipping Out - Marshall Karp - I will be telling you all about this book in a week or so. For now, suffice it to say that it's a very sharp, very funny mystery. Oh! And don't forget the contest!

23. Loud and Clear - Anna Quindlen - Essays from Anna Quindlen's years as a NY Times columnist. Some are great, some are annoying, some are just so-so. Overall, the book is enjoyable, if a big dose of "what Anna thinks".

Friday Frivolity

It's finally Friday on the second Hell Week at work. All my work is done for the week, so I'm going to play on the Internet all afternoon - *shhh*, don't tell my co-workers. (I'm just kidding.) (No, I'm not.)

Since I'm not in the mood to think anymore today, I have some fun stuff to share:

On Wednesday, I was driving in the car with the two kids. The song "Renegade" by Styx came on the radio. Supergirl pipes up from the back seat, "Momma, did you put in the Styx cd?" AWW YEAH! Motherhood: I am totally rocking this gig. (Later, the Rolling Stones came on and I taught her their name. She remembered it at the end of the day, too!)

Where do you rank on the seven deadly sins? Here's my score:

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	High
Wrath:	High
Sloth:	High
Envy:	Medium
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	High

Discover Your Sins - Click Here
I had a feeling it would be either Sloth or Gluttony and I was right. Should the fact that I'm "high" on two other sins worry me? Nah, I'm too lazy to worry about that!

AND, since my company has fixed our Internet to not crash on any site that has Flash animation, I can now make a Superhero! Presenting The Superhuman Lasered Jones:

Try it yourself at The Hero Factory.

Flipping Out: The Contest

So! *brisk clap* Who's in the mood for a contest? Oh good, I am too! Why a contest? Well, over the weekend, this blog turned two. And true to form, I didn't even notice slash completely forgot. So to make up for that, we're going to have an extra big contest with lots of prizes. However, a comment on this post is not going to be enough to enter you in this contest. No no, you're going to have to work for this one. In order to be entered in the contest, you must send a question for Marshall Karp, author extraordinaire, to be asked and published in our multi-blog interview of him which will be posted on April 14th. Send your questions to askmarshallkarp@gmail.com, and don't stop at just one question - I'll be giving a prize to the person who asks the MOST questions. And a prize to the person who asks the BEST questions (in my humble opinion, of course.) And a random prize to a questioner picked at random. So you have lots of chances to win. (And don't worry if your question is random or weird. Marshall is a total smartass and lots of fun, so absolutely anything goes with the questions.) And what do you win? Why, I'm glad you asked. The first prize is an autographed copy of the best book I've read this year - Flipping Out! (Does anyone else love autographed books as much as I do? Aren't they just the coolest things EVER?!)

(Doesn't that cover just scream AWESOME!?) I'll be posting a full review of the book on April 8th, but here's a sneak peek - I LOVED it! The next prize is what I'm calling the "Mystery Package". There'll be another copy of Flipping Out, which is a murder mystery, and then other "mystery" items - whether they have a mystery theme or are just a surprise to you. (Read: If I can think of items with a mystery theme, they'll be in there - if not, it will just be a fun prize pack.) And the third prize will be a fun prize pack. I will try to find some Mr. Pickles chickens, but given that I haven't even looked at the craft stores yet, I have no idea if there are any Mr. Pickles available around me. So! Get cracking on those questions, and increase your chances to win a fabulous prize. I'm assuming we'll close the email for questions a few days before the interview is scheduled in order to give Marshall time to answer them, so I would recommend having your questions in by midnight on Thursday, April 9th.

Perspective

So yesterday, I came in here with balloons and streamers and a plan to throw myself a pity party. I was going to tell you all how work has been "alternately making me homicidal and suicidal" (tm Alice), and how I'm fairly sure I have at least one, but probably two, kidney stones and no time to go to the doctor. Basically, my life has been stinking it up in here. And I was feeling MIGHTY sorry for myself yesterday. But then, something happened that put my life into perspective. I made a business call - just a regular, ordinary call to a business associate whom I had just met. He explained that he could not come to my office this week because there had been a death in his family. His 14 year old daughter had died suddenly, unexpectedly, the night before. I don't have many details and I have no idea what caused her death. I think she died at home, in bed. But the man was devastated. And while I don't believe in the, "shut up about your little problems, there is always someone worse off" school of thought, I have to admit, it DID make me see that despite some little difficulties, my life is damn good. My husband and I and both of our beautiful little children woke up this morning. Maybe we didn't pop out of bed with sunshine and rainbows streaming out of our asses, but we're all here. So for this week, we will be focusing on the positive here at Notthedaddy. Tomorrow, there will be fun and games. But first, today, we're going to have a moment of silence for a 14 year old girl who is no longer with us and her grief-stricken family. May God give them comfort, because I can't think of any available here on earth.

How I'm Weird, Part Two Trillion (Really, Couldn't This Be the Title of EVERY Post?)

Personality quirk that I like least about myself:

I HATE talking about personal situations with co-workers, especially bosses. So much so that I end up sounding weird and feel like I sound like I'm lying. I hope I really don't sound like I'm lying, but I suspect I do. I tend to just blurt out whatever is going on, offer little to no detail, practically cut off the other person if they try to say something comforting or nice (not intentionally), and lead with the fact that I need time off or whatever other work-related piece of the information that I can scrounge up. The ONLY time I have ever felt genuine when I was telling a supervisor about something bad happening to me was the day I found out my grandmother had passed away. I sent my supervisor an email letting her know what had happened, she called right away, and as soon as I picked up the phone, I started sobbing. Not graceful or dignified, but genuine. Oh, and when I broke my ankle, I called my supervisor and said, "I have a funny story to tell you that's not really funny at all." But that supervisor was a close friend (still is, actually). So that one doesn't really count.

So tell me - how do you tell bad news about yourself or your life to your boss? Is there a graceful way to do it?

Fun Fact Friday

Alright, that's enough gloom and doom on here. Thank you all for your kind words. I'm feeling much better, physically and emotionally.

Fun Fact Friday: (tm Tess)

1. Today is my mother's birthday. See last year's post as it is still applicable.

2. Impromptu movie review: Changeling. A-freakin-mazing. I'm still glad that Kate Winslet won the Oscar, and I haven't seen The Reader, but she better have BROUGHT IT to have beat Angelina. Her performance in this movie is awesome. The movie itself is very well written and the story unfolds nicely. As a modern woman, it will drive you crazy. Be prepared to yell at the characters on-screen and have your jaw drop open in disbelief at some of the things that happen.

3. Great classic book that I just finished: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. It's a rags-to-riches story set in China. Very, very good. A quick and compelling read.

4. Great book recommended by a blog friend: Third Degree by Greg Iles. Very suspenseful thriller. Recommended by Fiona Picklebottom.

Happy weekend everyone! What are your plans?