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Thanks, Greger. Off to B&N.com to check him out.

SUDDEN DEATH by David Rosenfelt is the second from the last book of his series that I have read. True to his self-created mystery genre, is this book: no new gimicks, no new principle characters, but a good twist at the end.

A pro running back for the NFL's Giants is accused of murder. Is he innocent or a serial killer?

A good, quick read.

Kathy Albers

Khaled Hosseini has me as a fan; in fact, he'll probably join my buy-the-hardback-as-soon-as-it's-published group of authors. I had already read and liked A Thousand Smiling Suns—with a slight reservation about its ending. I have no reservations about anything in Hosseini's first book, The Kite Runner. The plot moves and even at the end when I was starting to think, "OK, let's wrap it up," Hosseini throws in a final plot twist—totally unexpected and totally believable. Damn! I wish I had an imagination that worked that way. Oh, well. The best I can do is marvel when I see it in others.

As with any book I really like, there were sentences that jumped up and slapped me across the face.

1) The narrator believes himself to be a disappointment to his gregarious and powerful father. In one scene he, the narrator, overhears a conversation between his father and a friend, during which the friend says, "Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them in with your favorite colors." (page 21) Isn't that great? Don't you wish more parents felt that way? I was lucky; mine did. They didn't even flinch when the colleges I applied to included one mentioned in a dedication in a YA book and another because it had the same name as the motel in Psycho. Don't know if I could have been that hands-off if I'd tried parenting.

2) At one point the narrator thinks, "…that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too." (page 55) You mean they don't?

3) A bit of dialogue occurs between a soldier and the narrator's father while they make their escape from Afghanistan. The soldier says, "There is no shame in war." The father responds, "Tell him he's wrong. War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace." (page 115) Which is why Abu Ghraib and the prison at Guantanamo were/are so very, very bad—IMHO, of course.

And I've decided to ignore the one thing I'm pretty sure is a mistake. Towards the end the narrator is severely beaten. The doctor warns him of a few things, one being that "you will be talking like Al Pacino from the first Godfather movie for a little while." (page 295) Now I'm not willing to rewatch The Godfather I to prove my case, but I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that he meant Marlon Brando. At least I don't remember Pacino talking funny. Did he?

Bottom line: if you haven't already read The Kite Runner, do so. It's really, really good.

Brando had cotton stuffed in his mouth to make the funny voice didn't he? My favorite author makes a mistake over and over that is driving me nuts. I'm in the stair business, he keeps referring to people sitting or cats sleeping on a stair riser. Cant be done, the riser is the vertical part, the tread is the part you can sit, step, sleep, etc, on.

Cotton balls? I thought it was orange peels...I might have to do a little research on that one. Although, since we're talking Brando, there might well have been no devices at all....

These United States
My favorite portraits of Americans.
Here is a list of five books about Americans that I intend to read.
1. "Real Life at the White House" by John Whitcomb and Claire Whitcomb (Routledge, 2000).
2. "No Ordinary Time" by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster, 1994).
3. "When Trumpets Call" by Patricia O'Toole (Simon & Schuster, 2005).
4. "We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young" by Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway (Random House, 1992).
5. "The Life and Times of a Thunderbolt Kid" by Bill Bryson (Broadway, 2006).
This list of books is recommended by Brian Williams the anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News."

Also look at "Revolutionary Characters, What made the Founders Different" by Gordon Wood.

Death By Scrabble

A Short Story

Cool story. And cool site.

Mercy, Mercy, David Rosenfelt's DEAD CENTER has been requested by Martha to be placed in her rotating pile of books to read.....Let's see if it makes it through Martha's very strict rule: Make the Case in 50 Pages or You're Trash!

I started reading the David Resenfelt books when his latest was recommended on a sports radio show. It only took me reading through four of his books before I found anything sports related.

The main character and his cast of friends appear in all the books. Andy Carpenter is a lawyer who is very self effacting. He loves to watch sports but only if he bets small wagers on the games. Somewhere in one of the books is the best explanation of the point spread that bookies use to encourage betting.

Back to Dead Center. Andy Carpenter travels to Finlay, Wisconsin to help defend an innocent young man accused of two murders. The murdered girls are from a community called Center City. I am guessing that Center City is a community of 10,000. The entire city worships The Centurian Religion.....and here is where the sarcism of Rosenfelt's previous books moves beyond sarcasm and into satire.

The Centurian religion revolves around decisions that are made by spinning a giant wheel on which there are symbols. The Keeper of the Wheel is the person who interprets what these symbols mean when the wheel is spun. The Keeper serves for life. Every decision of every person is dependent on the decisions of this wheel. Yet, the town is oddly content, even happy and peaceful.

Rosenfeld writes, "...the townspeople have achieved a serenity and bizarre freedom of choice in their choosing to give up that freedom (to the wheel). What I can't grasp....is the level of devotion that these people seem to have."

I think if I were a hip college or high school teacher I would assign this book and start a dialog.

If there weren't so many book nazi's in book clubs, maybe they too could enjoy discussion about books less lofty than many that they choose.

I have one more David Rosenfelt book to read. It has the ridiculous title, BURY THE LEAD. I'm certain I'll enjoy it too.

Respectfully Submitted,

Kathy Albers