Holiday Book Worm

And I read, boy did I read on holiday. The reviews are up on my last 7 books (yes, seven).

Crime and punishment is Lieutenant Eve Dallas's business. Murder her speciality...Named by the social worker who found her when she was a mere child roaming that city's streets, Eve Dallas is a New York police detective who lives for her job. In over ten years on the force, she's seen it all - and knows her survival depends on her instincts.While at Millers, I read the first 6 books of J.D. Robb's In Death series - I definitely recommend them next time you're in need of a holiday read. It's not the whole series, there are loads more books ... those are just the first six and more specifically, the ones I managed to get thru while at our holiday house over Christmas.

1. Naked in Death
2. Glory in Death
3. Immortal in Death
4. Rapture in Death
5. Ceremony in Death
6. Vengeance in Death

It took me a little while to get into the first one, purely because they are set in 2058. I thought this was an extra little detail that was really unnecessary and just served to make the writer's life harder. But I got into it and was certainly quite enjoying some of the ideas she had for the future :) And as Peeb's boyf Button said, she's cornering 3 genres at least.1) She's got the Sci-Fi angle covered by writing 50 years in the future
2) There's the obvious Crime and Mystery angle since her lead character is a homicide detective and well, she solves murders.
3) There's an interesting bodice-ripper angle to it after Eve get's involved with Roarke in the first book ... there are some fairly lengthy and detailed scenes that would be out of place ordinarily.

So yes, as I said, an ideal book for lazing on the beach ... nothing too deep and meaningful and certainly no twists you didn't see coming :)

Oh, and by the way in case you're wondering, J.D. Robb is a pseudonym for Nora Roberts

* This book is part of the In Death series: Naked in Death (1995), Glory in Death (1995), Immortal in Death (1996), Rapture in Death (1996), Ceremony in Death (1997), Vengeance in Death (1997), Holiday in Death (1998), ~Midnight in Death (1998), Conspiracy in Death (1999), Loyalty in Death (1999), Witness in Death (2000), Judgment in Death (2000), Betrayal in Death (2001), ~Interlude in Death (2001), Seduction in Death (2001), Reunion in Death (2002), Purity in Death (2002), Portrait in Death (2003), Imitation in Death (2003), Divided in Death (2004), Visions in Death (2004), Survivor in Death (2005), Origin in Death (2005), Memory in Death (2006), ~Haunted in Death (2006), Born in Death (2006), Innocent in Death (2007), Creation in Death (2007), ~Eternity in Death (2007) ~ included in Anthologies

And then I finished Corinne Hofmann's The White Masai while on the farm - truly an interesting look at a relationship trying to survive across vast cultural differences.The four-million-copy international bestseller of the incredible love story between a European woman and an African warrior.

The White Masai combines adventure and the pursuit of passion in a page-turning story of two star-crossed lovers from vastly different backgrounds. Corinne, a European entrepreneur, meets Lketinga, a Samburu warrior, while on vacation in Mombasa on Kenya's glamorous coast.Despite language and cultural barriers, they embark on an impossible love affair. Corinne uproots her life to move to Africa—not the romantic Africa of popular culture, but the Africa of the Masai, in the middle of the isolated bush, where five-foot-tall huts made from cow dung serve as homes. Undaunted by wild animals, hunger, and bouts with tropical diseases, she tries to forge a life with Lketinga. But slowly the dream starts to crumble when she can no longer ignore the chasm between their two vastly different cultures.

A story that taps into our universal belief in the power of love, The White Masai is at once a hopelessly romantic love story, a gripping adventure yarn, and a compulsively good read.

I bought this book to read after my trip to Kenya and a Masai village in August 2007. It was a truly interesting read but for the life of me I can not understand what happened to this woman to keep her in Kenya with a man who, although she loved and he seemed to love her, treated her the way he did.

She left Switzerland, a First World country, and gave it all up to live in a mud hut with no running water. I also don't understand the emotion she must've felt to give up the life she knew after seeing a man only a few times over the course of a week.

But, that said ... it was an amazing book to read in terms of two vastly different cultures colliding. I lift my hat off to her for how determined she was and how hard she tried to make it work.

I'm curious to read the sequel ... but not enough to buy it, will have to investigate the local libraries.