Currently reading "The Whole Truth" by David Baldacci

Publisher's Summary

A rising threat has startled the world. Armies are preparing to fight. And as nations slip ever closer to open conflict, the struggle to reveal the truth might be the most dangerous battle of all...

“Dick, I need a war.”

Nicolas Creel is a man on a mission. He heads up the world's largest defense contractor, The Ares Corporation. Dick Pender is the man Creel retains to “perception manage” his company to even more riches by manipulating international conflicts. But Creel may have an even grander plan in mind.

Shaw, a man with no first name and a truly unique past, has a different agenda. Reluctantly doing the bidding of a secret multi-national intelligence agency, he travels the globe to keep it safe and at peace.

Willing to do anything to get back to the top of her profession, Katie James is a journalist who has just gotten the break of a lifetime: the chance to interview the sole survivor of a massacre that has left every nation stunned.

In this terrifying global thriller, these characters’ lives will collide head-on as a series of events is set in motion that could change the world as we know it. An utterly spellbinding story that feels all too real, The Whole Truth delivers all the twists and turns, emotional drama, unforgettable characters, and can’t-put-it-down pacing that readers expect from David Baldacci -- and still goes beyond anything he’s written before.

Audiobook "Handle with Care" by Jodi Picoult

When Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe’s daughter, Willow, is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, they are devastated – she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain.

As the family struggles to make ends meet to cover Willow’s medical expenses, Charlotte thinks she has found an answer. If she files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, the monetary payouts might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. But it means that Charlotte has to get up in a court of law and say in public that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance – words that her husband can’t abide, that Willow will hear, and that Charlotte cannot reconcile. And the ob/gyn she’s suing isn’t just her physician – it’s her best friend.

Handle With Care explores the knotty tangle of medical ethics and personal morality. When faced with the reality of a fetus who will be disabled, at which point should an OB counsel termination? Should a parent have the right to make that choice? How disabled is TOO disabled? And as a parent, how far would you go to take care of someone you love? Would you alienate the rest of your family? Would you be willing to lie to your friends, to your spouse, to a court? And perhaps most difficult of all – would you admit to yourself that you might not actually be lying?

Currently reading "The Name of the Game was Murder" by Joan Lowery Nixon

Novelist Augustus Trevor has written a manuscript that reveals the darkest secrets of his guests. Whoever can solve Trevor's clues can have his story removed from the book. But when Trevor is bludgeoned to death, the survivors (along with the reader) are challenged to find both the manuscript and the murderer.

2011 Christmas cards

Remi's tree scrapbook page

Audiobook: "The Christmas Wedding" by James Patterson

The tree is decorated, the cookies are baked, and the packages are wrapped, but the biggest celebration this Christmas is Gaby Summerhill's wedding. Since her husband died three years ago, Gaby's four children have drifted apart, each consumed by the turbulence of their own lives. They haven't celebrated Christmas together since their father's death, but when Gaby announces that she's getting married—and that the groom will remain a secret until the wedding day—she may finally be able to bring them home for the holidays.

But the wedding isn't Gaby's only surprise—she has one more gift for her children, and it could change all their lives forever. With deeply affecting characters and the emotional twists of a James Patterson thriller, The Christmas Wedding is a fresh look at family and the magic of the season.

Audiobook "Santa Cruise" by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark

Alvirah Meehan, lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, and private investigator Regan Reilly are guests, along with their spouses, on the "Santa Cruise." The cruise is a gift from Commodore Randolph Weed to a select group that "has made the world a better place." His largesse is prompted by the desire to create a buzz about his new cruise ship, the Royal Mermaid, as she sets out on her maiden voyage.

Alvirah, Regan, and her new husband, Jack -- head of the NYPD Major Case Squad -- are joined as guests on the cruise by a mystery fan convention celebrating a "ghost of honor," as well as ten men who donated time playing Santa Claus, now hoping for a restful post-season. That tranquility vanishes when two Santa suits disappear from a locked room, a storm develops, and an attempt is made on a passenger's life. As the Royal Mermaid sails through troubled waters, Alvirah, Regan, and Jack uncover clues that lead them to dangerous criminals not on the original guest list....

Audiobook: "Kill Alex Cross: by James Patterson

The President's son and daughter are abducted, and Detective Alex Cross is one of the first on the scene. But someone very high-up is using the FBI, Secret Service, and CIA to keep him off the case and in the dark.

A deadly contagion in the water supply cripples half of the capital, and Alex discovers that someone may be about to unleash the most devastating attack the United States has ever experienced.

As his window for solving both crimes narrows, Alex makes a desperate decision that goes against everything he believes—one that may alter the fate of the entire country. KILL ALEX CROSS is faster, more exciting, and more tightly wound than any Alex Cross thriller James Patterson has ever written!

Currently reading "The Other Side of Dark" by Joan Lowery Nixon

The last thing 13 year old Stacy remembers is a stranger bursting from her house and shooting her. When she wakes up in a hospital room four years later, she finds out that he killed her mother and she is the only one who saw his face. Now she must deal with being 17 when she still feels 13, and get over the loss of her mother. At the same time, she is fighting to remember the killer's face before he can find her and stop her! This suspenseful novel is one of Nixon's best mysteries.

Audiobook: "Say Goodbye" by Lisa Gardner

Come into my parlor …

For Kimberly Quincy, FBI Special Agent, it all starts with a pregnant hooker. The story Delilah Rose tells Kimberly about her johns is too horrifying to be true-but prostitutes are disappearing, one by one, with no explanation, and no one but Kimberly seems to care.

Said the spider to the fly …

As a member of the Evidence Response Team, dead hookers aren’t exactly Kimberly’s specialty. The young agent is five months pregnant-she has other things to worry about than an alleged lunatic who uses spiders to do his dirty work. But Kimberly’s own mother and sister were victims of a serial killer. And now, without any bodies and with precious few clues, it’s all too clear that a serial killer has found the key to the perfect murder … or Kimberly is chasing a crime that never happened.

Kimberly’s caught in a web more lethal than any spider’s, and the more she fights for answers, the more tightly she’s trapped. What she doesn’t know is that she’s close-too close-to a psychopath who makes women’s nightmares come alive, and if he has his twisted way, it won’t be long before it’s time for Kimberly to … Say Goodbye.

Retirement/Congratulations card

Christmas layout exchange

Audiobook: "Chill Factor" By Sandra Brown

Set in the mountainous region of western North Carolina. It was in this wilderness that federal agents finally apprehended Eric Rudolph, the man who bombed Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park. For years he had escaped capture by hiding in this area.
Being familiar with that part of the country, I understood how the sparsely populated, mountainous terrain would provide good cover for someone who wanted to remain elusive -- like a serial killer, for instance.
In Chill Factor, Lilly Martin is stranded in her mountain cabin with Ben Tierney, a man suspected of being. . .you guessed it.
They're marooned during the worst blizzard of record (here's where the weather became a significant factor), without hope of a timely rescue, totally dependent on each other for their survival.
Tierney is a threat to Lilly on several levels. (I'll let you think about that for a while.) Even if she withstands the storm, even if she escapes Tierney, she may not survive her so-called rescuers. Among them are a tough FBI agent, the high school football coach whose personal life wouldn't hold up under close scrutiny, and Lilly's short-tempered ex-husband who is the local chief of police. All are desperate to reach her and Tierney. But not everyone is desperate to rescue them.
I think you'll agree that the final scenes of this book are some of the most exciting I've ever written. Expect high-stakes action along with several shocking revelations.

Christmas Card Exchange

December 2011 challenge