Book Voting Poll

[aero63]

Well here are the next two options. Both are great authors. One of the authors was explored last season and the club loved her! The other author is also an excellent writer. I read one of his books last year, and as well as previous books of his, I enjoyed it immensely. I appreciated at the suggestions and went with them since they were good ones.

Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark

In her new thriller, America's #1 bestselling Queen of Suspense delves into a legal battle over the guilt or innocence of a man accused of murdering his wife. Woven into her plot is an eerie, little-understood but documented medical phenomenon -- the emergence of a donor's traits and memories in the recipient of a heart transplant.

Natalie Raines, one of Broadway's brightest stars, accidentally discovers who killed her former roommate and sets in motion a series of shocking events that puts more than one life in extreme peril.

While Natalie and her roommate, Jamie Evans, were both struggling young actresses, Jamie had been involved with a mysterious married man to whom she referred only by nickname. Natalie comes face to face with him years later and inadvertently addresses him by the nickname Jamie had used. A few days later, Natalie is found in her home in Closter, New Jersey, dying from a gunshot wound.

Immediately the police suspect Natalie's theatrical agent and soon-to-be-ex-husband, Gregg Aldrich. He had long been a "person of interest" and was known to have stalked Natalie to find out if she was seeing another man. But no charges are brought against him until two years later, when Jimmy Easton, a career criminal, suddenly comes forward to claim that Aldrich had tried to hire him to kill his wife. Easton knows details about the Aldrich home that only someone who had been there -- to plan a murder, for instance -- could possibly know.

The case is a plum assignment for Emily Wallace, an attractive thirty-two-year-old assistant prosecutor. As she spends increasingly long hours preparing for the trial, a seemingly well-meaning neighbor offers to take care of her dog in her absence. Unaware of his violent past, she gives him a key to her home...

As Aldrich's trial is making headlines, her boss warns Emily that this high-profile case will reveal personal matters about her, such as the fact that she had a heart transplant. And, during the trial, Emily experiences sentiments that defy all reason and continue after Gregg Aldrich's fate is decided by the jury.

In the meantime, she does not realize that her own life is now at risk.

House Of Reckoning by John Saul

Synopsis
After the untimely death of her mother and the arrest of her father for killing a man in barroom brawl, fourteen-year-old Sarah Crane is forced to grow up fast. Left in the cold care of a foster family and alienated at school, Sarah befriends classmate Nick Dunnigan, a former mental patient still plagued by voices and visions, and the eccentric art instructor Bettina Phillips, a mentor eager to nurture Sarah’s talent for painting. But within the walls of Bettina’s ancestral mansion, Sarah finds that monstrous images from the house’s dark history seem to flow unbidden from her paintbrush—images echoed by Nick’s chilling hallucinations. It seems the violence and fury of long-dead generations have finally found a gateway from the grave into the world of the living. And Sarah and Nick have found a power they never had: to take control, and take revenge.

Publishers Weekly
Set in Vermont, this supernatural thriller from bestseller Saul (Faces of Fear) updates but adds nothing new to a traditional story. Six months after 14-year-old Sarah Crane's mother dies from cancer, Sarah's father, Ed, accidentally kills a man in a fight. On top of that, a drunken Ed hits Sarah with his truck while he's behind the wheel. After Ed goes to prison for manslaughter, Sarah, whose leg was badly injured in the truck accident, is placed with a foster family. Mitch and Angie Garvey and their two teenage children treat Sarah like Cinderella, expecting her to serve meals and do all the chores. Meanwhile, word of Sarah's circumstances makes her an outcast at her new school. Only two people reach out to her: Bettina Philips, an art teacher labeled a witch, and fellow student Nick Dunnigan, who's also isolated by his peers and prone to scary visions. Needless to say, the mystical abilities Sarah discovers she possesses come in handy in turning the tables. (Oct.)

[susanny]

Oh boy, you sure gave us two good choices. I really have no preference and will go with whatever everyone else decides. Perhaps we could even read both of them if everyone feels the same way, or if it is a really close poll. Just a suggestion. Thanks for checking these out for us!

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

Thanks for checking these for us Antoinette. I'm with Sue on this, either one is fine; maybe both. One after the other so.... we can start with Ms Ckark if you want.

[mary57]

I like both, so either or, or both will be fine. I'm with Jackie on starting with Mary Higgins Clark, then moving on to the John Saul book.

[aero63]

So looks like we will be reading Mary Higgins Clark's, Just Take My Heart. When everyone has it, we can get started.

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

I'll check the library on line ... see if it's available.

[susanny]

I just finished my 'dracula' book this morning and planned on returning it to the library today. Perfect timing! Now to be able to get this new book....... fingers crossed that everyone can get it. If it's a new one it may be difficult.

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

I've got the book; just waiting for the word re: what chapters.

[susanny]

I picked it up yesterday! Ready and raring to go!

[aero63]

Wow everyone that was fast. I downloaded my copy onto my eReader last nite. I don't think they run any different, as far as pages, but not quite sure.

I thought we could read Chapters 1-15 that is up to page 67 in my eReader edition. Let me know if it is much different. We could meet again on Tuesday the 8th to discuss it. How's that sound?

[mary57]

OK, I'll get my hands on a copy and catch up with you all. Boy that went fast.

[aero63]

Mary, it won't be hard to catch up at all. I find I am breezing through it. I am trying to accommodate those that have to have the books back to the library but I won't jump too far ahead, .

[mary57]

I picked the book up on Thursday, as you said not a hard read at all. I'm good for 6 weeks with the book. We sign out for 3, then renew for 3. It's a good story, with a lot of characters,

[aero63]

Glad you are finding it easy to catch up.