Library Loot - January 12, 2010

Okay, I went crazy when I was reserving books at the library. I had my list suspended, but forgot to check the dates, and ended up with 19 library books waiting for me. I felt a tad--well okay pretty-embarrassed when I told them my name and they said "oh yeah" and then went over the the shelves and pulled a whole box out just for me. Yes, I had a whole copy paper box of books to pick up. I was excited too though. I started going through the books and really couldn't decide what to start with first! There is nothing more exciting than a box full of books!
Okay, here we go:

The first book I decided to start reading is Up for Renewal, What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex and Starting Over by Cathy Alter.

"Up for renewal is a charming, hilarious look that proves that it is possible to change your life in just one year. Using the improbable guide to women's magazines, Cathy Alter transforms her relationship, her job, her body, even the color of her living room. She got me laughing out loud, and also vowing to try her recipe for Mexican Chicken Soup." - Gretchen Rubin, author of the blog The Happiness Project, www.happiness-project.com

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

(from the back cover) Once I'm on my feet, I realize escape might not be so simple. Panic begins to set in. I can't stay here. Flight is essential. But I can't let my fear show.

Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy #3) by Richelle Mead

I read the first 2 books in this series and can't wait to read this one.

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

(From the inside cover) A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.

Postmortem (Kay Scarpetta #1) by Patricia Daniels Cornwell

From Goodreads: Four women with nothing in common, united only in death. Four brutalized victims of a brilliant monster - a "Mr. Nobody", moving undetected through a paralyzed city, leaving behind a gruesome trail of carnage... but few clues. With skilled hands, an unerring eye, and the latest advances in forensic research, an unrelenting female medical examiner - Kay Scarpetta - is determined to unmask a maniac. But someone is trying to sabotage Kay's investigation from the inside. And worse yet, someone wants her dead...

Body of Evidence (Kay Scarpetta, #2) by Patricia D. Cornwell

from Goodreads:

Someone is after Beryl Madison -- spying on her, making threatening phone calls. Terrified, she flees to Key West. When she comes back home it's not harassment that's waiting...it's murder. Someone kills her, someone she trusted enough to open her door to. Police work begins with Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner. She finds laboratory clues no one wants to believe. So she follows them herself, putting her professional career -- and her life -- on the line. "Cornwell makes looking through a microscope as exciting as hot pursuit." (Washington Post)

All That Remains (Kay Scarpetta # 3) by Patricia Cornwell

from Goodreads: A serial killer is loose in Richmond, specializing in attractive young couples whose bodies are inevitably found in the woods months later -- minus their shoes and socks. After months of exposure to all the elements, all that remains of this killer's victims has in every case left Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta unable even to determine an exact cause of death. Frustrated that her high-tech forensic skills have apparently proved useless, Kay enlists the help of and ace crime reporter and a psychic whose powers have been vouched for by the FBI. Racing against time, Kay finds she must draw upon her own personal resources to track down a murderer skilled at eliminating every clue. All that remains to her now is her courage and intuition and the will to stop a killer before he can strike again.

Cruel & Unusual (Kay Scarpetta, #4) by Patricia D. Cornwell

from Goodreads: "Killing me won't kill the beast" are the last words of rapist-murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell, written four days before his execution. But they can't explain how Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds Waddell's fingerprints on another crime scene -- after she'd performed his autopsy. If this is some sort of game, Scarpetta seems to be the target. And if the next victim is someone she knows, the punishment will be cruel and unusual...

Fallen by Lauren Kate

from the cover: There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori. Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move. Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce--and goes out of his way to make that very clear--she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her. Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

from the inside cover: When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. He has no recollection of his parents, his home, or how he got where he is. His memory is black. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade, a large expanse enclosed by stone walls. Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning, for as long as they could remember, the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night, they’ve closed tight. Every thirty days a new boy is delivered in the lift. And no one wants to be stuck in the maze after dark. The Gladers were expecting Thomas’s arrival. But the next day, a girl springs up—the first girl ever to arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. The Gladers have always been convinced that if they can solve the maze that surrounds the Glade, they might be able to find their way home . . . wherever that may be. But it’s looking more and more as if the maze is unsolvable. And something about the girl’s arrival is starting to make Thomas feel different. Something is telling him that he just might have some answers—if he can only find a way to retrieve the dark secrets locked within his own mind.

Okay. That is all I am going to list for now. That is enough. I will be lucky to get through all of these let alone the books I didn't list yet!

Happy Reading!