REVIEW: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

This was a funny book. I'm not sure that I liked it as much as Moore's other works, but I guess that's to be expected since I didn't resonate with the Christianity aspect as much as others who follow the religion and know it's history would. However, that being said, I did recognize a few things from what I recall of the story of Jesus, for instance, it was funny the way he worked the walking on water thing into the story at one point, as if it was something Joshua (his real name) did every day. And the way they'd talk, even the Buddhist monks, saying things like, "Just fucking with you..." That was a hoot! A sarcastic and ironic tale, in the manner I've come to expect from Moore. I only hope that Christian fundies didn't get all over his ass for writing this, and took it with the grace and humour with which I'm sure was the author's intent.

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REVIEW: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

This was the first book (or story) I've read by Neil Gaiman, and I found it a pretty interesting read. It had the air of a wild, hallucination. One of the blurbs at the front of the book compared it to Alice in Wonderland which I think would be an accurate comparison once you figure in the dark aspect of the novel.

I really like dark novels and there wasn't anything I didn't like about this book. However, I couldn't give it a 10 simply because, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, I couldn't quite rank it up there with my favorites that I've given the highest possible score. Perhaps it was the inability to fully relate and sympathize with any particular character in the story. Not that you don't feel for them in some way, they were certainly depicted well enough, and quite colorful as someone else mentioned. But only Richard's, and sometimes Door's character, managed to endear themselves to me in any meaningful way. On Amazon's scale though, being a smaller range, I'd probably give it a 5, the highest. The BC ratings scale of 1 through 10 allows for a bit finer distinction between those that are your absolute favorites and those books you really liked a lot. I definitely plan to read more of Gaiman's work in the future.

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REVIEW: Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

This was a quick and fun read. I saw someone on Amazon refer to the first book in this series as a "cozy mystery" and I think that's an accurate description. There's not a lot of horror, and what horror there is, with regards to the murder that has taken place, is somewhat silly and zany. Meg is a likable character and based on this book, I've added the others in this series to my wish list now too. :)

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REVIEW: Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

My Rating: 10 out of 10 stars

Wow! This book totally blew me away. Best Koontz book I've read yet, and I thought Odd Thomas would be a tough act to follow. I may have to pick up a copy of this book for own PC bookshelf so I can let hubby and all my other non-BC friends read it too. :)

Great character development, suspense, the kind of book I didn't want to put down. At times, I was so anxious to know how a particular situation would turn out that I'd find myself skipping ahead a couple of chapters, and then immediately scolding myself for doing so. Screw going to bed! I must read a few more chapters so I can see how this part turns out! LOL

Though it contained plenty of suspense, it was also a love story in a sense, not a romance, but so many parts of the book, and particularly the end, gave me the warm fuzzies--the kind that bring tears to your eyes. I guess touching is the right word, as the story touched me on so many levels. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it held me in thrall. An excellent read indeed!

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