Haissen’s books usually make you smirk or giggle but this one had me laughing out loud at points. It’s the story of two winning lottery tickets and the people whose lives they touch. It’s absurd, it’s funny and it’s clever. If you’ve not read any of Hiassen’s works this is a great place to start.

The continuing saga of DS9.

First in the Anita Blake series

Next in the Anita Blake series.

A fascinating look inside Disney as run by Michael Eisner.

3rd in the Anita Blake series

Part of the Hard Case Crime series. Kind of a throw-back to the pulp novels of the 40s and 50s this little mystery was very well done. Told from the first-person perspective with some great descriptive passages. Basic story—ten year ago, Miranda left our hero to go to college and become a doctor. Now, our hero sees her obit in the paper and finds out she never graduated and was a stripper. He wonders why and begins to look into only to be drawn into a case of greed, double-crosses and murder. A great book though I guessed the ending about 20 pages before we got to it. But if it’s only 20 pages before the denouncment, I can live with that. Highly recommended.

Latest in the Ender’s saga. The Shadow novels have followed the story of Bean and explored the gap between Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead in an effective manner. This one started out slow but picked up speed toward the end, to the point that the final few chapters end in a bittersweet way that really touched me. I am not sure if Card will write any more sequels from here to this series. If not, he gave us a great closure to a great series.

The first-person narrator of this story, Matthew Scudder, is a great voice. I was compelled to read this story because of the “voice” of the story alone. That’s not to say I found this the greatest book I’ve ever read. It’s a mystery and it does well enough until the ending which, quite frankly was too much of a set-up for a sequel.

Yet another spin-off series from the ever popular Star Trek publishing line at Pocket Books. This one is about Captain Riker taking command of his own ship, the Titan. The novel is really a lot like a TV pilot where we get isolated moments with the new cast and crew, getting to know more about them. There’s also a plotline that deals with the effects of the events of the last movie, Nemesis. Overall, a fast-paced, fun book that is a nice introduction to another Star Trek spin-off. It’s certainly not quite on the same level as the New Frontier or DS9 relaunch novels, but it has potential to get there.