Mamma's comments on books read recently:

Clive Barker
Abarat
A book for young adults. Its about a girl named Candy Quackenbush who lives in Chickentown, Minnesota.  She is unhappy and goes for a walk and discovers a whole different world just outside of town.  She enters this other world Abarat and meets many strange people and has all kinds of adventures. I really enjoyed it.  Clive Barker is also an artist and has included over 100 paintings throughout the book. 

Mary Higgins Clark
Two Little Girls in Blue
A book about a kidnapping of 3 year old twin girls Kelly and Kathy.  The kidnapper who calls himself the Pied Piper calls and makes his demands known.  Kelly returns home.  The other twin Kathy they think is dead until Kelly says Kathy is telling her that she wants to come home.   I thought the book was a good idea and I kept reading to find out what happened, but nothing surprised me and I thought it was just okay.

Janet Evanovich (Titles in a "numbered" series)
One for the Money
Two for the Dough
Three to get Deadly
Four to Score
Hot Six
These books were great.  I just loved them. They are about Stephanie Plum, a not so very good bounty hunter who lives in Trenton, New Jersey.   The books are page turners and funny.   All her characters are very colorful and I laugh out loud when I read about  them. Mom is always in the kitchen cooking something and Grandma Mazur is something else. Lula is another interesting one. Wait until you met Sally, the cross dresser who wearing black platform pumps and is close to 7 feet tall! Then there is Joe Morelli the love interest. Ranger is another great character.  So far the series goes up to 12 and I plan on reading every one.

Janet Evanovich
Visions of Sugar Plums
Another Stephanie Plum bounty hunter book.  This is a short book, only 164 pages.   As the title suggests its a Christmas story.  A fun to read little book.  I liked it.

Janet Evanovich
Metro Girl
Barney gets a call from her brother in the middle of the night.   He tells her that he has to leave Miami for a while but that he is okay.  She hears a woman scream in the background and the phone goes dead.
The book is about her finding out what happened to her brother.  A mystery with some romance and laughter.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Janet Evanovich
Smitten
A funny romance novel.  Lizabeth gets a job as a carpenter and falls in love with her boss Matt.  Aunt Elsie, a real character comes for the summer to babysit Lizabeth's 2 sons while she is at work.  Just to make things interesting there is a flasher in the neighborhood.  Great characters and a fun book to read.

Janet Evanovich
Full House
This is the first book of a romance series that Janet wrote with Charlotte Hughes.  I started reading it and didn't like it.  Just couldn't get into it.  I think I will just pass on the Full series.

Dick Francis
Decider
This is the first Dick Francis book I have read and liked it a lot.  Lee Morris is a architect and builder.  He buys ruins, lives in them while fixing them up and then sells them.  He becomes involved with a racetrack owned by a family who just can't seem to get along.  He has his 6 sons with him and they are living in a bus that was fixed up to be an RV.  The thing I liked best about this book is how he and his kids interact.  Really like the kids!        

Dean Koontz
Frankenstein Book 1 The Prodigal Son
and Frankenstein Book 2 City of Night
You all know the story of Frankenstein, but did you know the story continues?   Read these two books by Dean Koontz to find out the rest of the story.   Seems that Dr Frankenstein who now goes by the name of Victor Helios is still alive and living in New Orleans with some very strange people.
Koontz is one of my favorite authors.  These two books were good, but not some of his best.   There must be a book number 3 coming along because it ends with lots of loose ends.

Mary Shelley
Frankenstein
I had to read the original Frankenstein to see where it left off and how Dean Koontz continued the story.  It certainly isn't how I would have continued the story. 
I liked reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  It is a bit slow going and is boring in parts but the story is good.  Mary was only 21 when she wrote Frankenstein after having a bad dream.  Something I didn't know was that her husband was Percy Shelley, the poet.
Of course once I read the books I had to watch the old Frankenstein movie with Boris Karlof.  The only thing the movie had in common with the book is that there was a monster Frankenstein created by Dr. Frankenstein.  The first name of the doctors were even different.  Elizabeth was in both. It was interesting to see the differences.

Dean Koontz
The Husband
This book keeps you on the edge of your seat.  Lots of twists and turns. 
Mitch gets a call saying his wife has been kidnapped and the ransom is 2 million dollars.  The action starts there and never quits through the whole book.  I thought it was great. 

Bentley Little
The House
At first this book seems like its a bunch of short stories about 5 people.  They all do have things in common though and you find out how everything comes together as you read on.  The book is a strange one but good and I enjoyed reading it.

Anita Shreve
Where or When
This book is about Charles and Sian, two people who spent a week together at camp when they were 14 and fell in love.  Camp ends, they go their separate ways, grow up, have families and then 30 years later end up meeting again.  To find out what happens next you will have to read the book.
I thought the book was good and worth reading.  Not a great book but good.