I'm reviewing books for techstatic (next month, my review is on MediaWiki and then April's title is Library Blogging).Review - Developing Facebook Platform Applications with RailsReview - Content Management Systems in Libraries

Dixie Riggs by Sarah Gilbert : I picked this one up at book sale for 50 cents. Now I know why. According to Amazon it's YA (Young Adult). Knowing that it is meant to be a Young Adult book also might explain why I didn't think it was very good, but honestly, I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. ;-) The story is that Dixie Riggs wants to get married to Buck Speed, who is a body builder/auto repair/evangelist wannabe. In order to try to advance her career, she enters modeling school along with her friend Sparkle.

Predator (Kay Scarpetta Mysteries) by Patricia Cornwell Well, this is the first Kay Scarpetta (the lead detective/character) book that I've read, so I am not sure that this book is an accurate portrayal of the whole series. Generally, the book is a solid enough mystery and while there are not a lot of twists in the story, the 'big' twist attempts to sort of pull the various pieces together. Does it work? I'm not sure. It feels kind of hurried and a little unfinished, sort of soap opera-ish.

Well, I'm not sure what happened to my longer reviews as they have disappeared, but here is the quick & brief. ;-)Smashed by Koren Zailckas A semi-autobiographical (?) tale of a young woman's adventures with alcohol. I think it is a fairly accurate portrayal of a many women's experiences in college; however, the book seemed to shift gears and moods too much. At times the author seems to glorify excessive drinking.

PopCo by Scarlett Thomas (FICTION):A friend recommended this to me and I found this a very fun read. Alice Butler is a whiz at cryptography, crosswords, and also works for one of the world's leading toy manufacturers, PopCo, designing 'kid's spyware'. Having been selected for a special retreat which is actually to develop a new toy/marketing scheme for teenage girls, she quickly discovers that things are not always what they seem (to use a clichè).

Well, out of these, I didn't really like any of them. ;) Two novels about literature, two thrillers/mysteries.Let's start with The Rule of Four.The Rule of Four: Ian Caldwell, Dustin Thomason (FICTION):Lurching novel (literary thriller) about a renaissance era book which is supposedly impossible to deciper and filled with clues. Kind of like a renaissance Finnegans Wake? I'm not sure as I don't know alot about renaissance lit (my speciality was gothic/romantic). Touted as a thinking person's The DaVinci Code. I really wanted to like this but I barely finished it.

Voodoo Season : A Marie Laveau Mystery by Jewell Parker Rhodes (FICTION) If you like historical or gothic inspired mysteries/crime thrillers, this might be an interesting read. It's inspired by Marie Laveau a real life historical figure from New Orleans, and "Voodoo Queen." Set in modern day (pre Katrina) New Orleans, this book weaves mystery, history, and a story of both making peace with the past and finding oneself into a contemporary crime thriller....and it even has zombies! I enjoyed this immensely.

With the snow queen by Joanne Greenberg (FICTION):Well, this is a collection of short stories and one novella. The novella is interesting... if you could go back in time would you fix things to turn out differently? What happens when you return to 'normal' time? Several of the other short stories are interesting enough, but somehow, these stories seemed a little bit random to fit together nicely as short stories. Maybe I missed something.Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Macguire(FICTION): This one has seen a lot of hype due to the Broadway musical.

Robin reads: Pompeii, The Nanny Diaries, Trading upwell, I am slowly getting better and I thought I would update my reading list. To be honest, I haven’t read anything of much quality, but some of it was fun!Pompeii by Robert Harris An interesting premise. What happened the few days before Mount Vesuvius erupted? Did anyone know what was happening? What did people do? An engineer with the Aquaduct discovers something amiss and travels to Pompeii to find the source of the problem.

Olivia Joules and the overactive imagination / Helen Fielding.From the author of bridget jones. A silly fluffy read. Great fun. Actually, I liked it much better than Bridget Jones.White as snow / Tanith Lee.A remaking of the Snow White story in a traditional fantasy fiction vein. I forgot I had already read this one. The story is superficially straightforward, but it has alot of strong undercurrents of gender dynamics, relationships, ageism, violence/abuse, and of course, lots of obvious symbols and metaphors.