Weekly Finds: 12/27/09 (Christmas Part 2)

Williams's Choice Literature edited by: Sherwin Williams - A Christmas present from my Grandmother.  This is quite an old book that I used to love when I was little.  I do not have a working scanner at the moment, and the cover isn't much to look at so I have no picture.  It is a collection of short stories that appears to be originally intended for school use.

Wisdom of Kittens compiled by Franchesca Ho Sang - A Christmas present from my out of state relatives.

From the back of the book:  If ever a book could lift your spirits and make you smile, this is it.  Wisdom of Kittens is a wise and whimsical book that passes along optimistic and heartfelt messages about friendship, confidence love, hope, loss, and fear.  With quotes such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Confucius, and many others, Wisdom of Kittens is filled with insight and inspiration.

House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo:  A book my Grandmother read on her way up to visit and decided to just leave for me to read. (My book has both volume one and two combined into one book)

From the back of the book:  Book One in the series, the Kings move from L.A. to a secluded small town and fifteen-year-old Xander is beyond disappointed.  He and his friends create amateur films...and the tiny town of Pinedale is the last place a movie buff and future filmmaker wants to land.

But they soon discover there's something odd about their new house.  Sounds come from the wrong directions.  Prints of giant, bare feet appear in the dust.  But then the really weird stuff kicks in:  They find a hidden hallway with portals leading to far-off places - in long-ago times.  Xander is starting to wonder if this kind of adventure is a teen's dream come true...or his worst nightmare.

Watcher in the Woods by Robert Liparulo

From the back of the book:  Book Two in the series, the Kings learn that pretending everything's all right is harder than it sounds.

But when a stranger shows up to take their house, their options start dwindling fast.  Why would he be so interested in a run-down old place?  And what secret is he hiding - just as he hides the scars that crisscross his body?

The mystery gets stranger with each passing day.  Will the Kings be able to find a way to harness the house's secrets and discover who is watching their every  move before another gets snatched into an unknown world?

Dark Alley by Evan Marshall - Won from the LibraryThing.com member giveaway program.

From the inside cover:  Sanitation worker Garry Thomason runs behind Manhattan's NewAmsterdam Mews one morning to collect the trash...and vanishes.  The next morning he's found in the middle of the mews, brutally murdered.

When Garry's boss, New York's Department of Sanitation supervisor Anna Winthrop, begins to investigate, she uncovers Garry's startling secret past involving shoplifting, drug-dealing, and a deadly episode from a tour in Iraq.

Then more people are found dead - a pretty daycare worker, a respected professor, a medical student - all left in hidden mews around the city.  As Anna works to expose this 'Mews Murderer' she herself becomes a target.  For this cold-blooded killer will do anything to hide a shocking secret from his own past.