Though it had been released in 2002, The Lovely Bones wasn’t too popular.  When the trailer for the movie started popping up everywhere, I learned that it had been a book first and had to go read it.  Every book-based movie is ten times better when you’ve read the book.  At nearly 400 pages in the paperback edition, it was a fairly quick read and the pace of events in it was perfect.  There wasn’t a time I got bored and wanted to put it down, which many books often have.

The premise is a girl, Susie, who is raped and murdered in 1973 by a man who no one expects to have done it.  From her heaven, she watches her family as they grieve and attempt to move on, and the police as the get no closer to catching her killer.  She watches as her brother and sister grow up and mature faster than they should have, and her parents grow apart.  She sees her friends and classmates try to understand, and observes as some of them find each other within the tragedy of it all.

Her father suspects the killer to be their neighbor, George Harvey.  The police have no reason to suspect him, and turn up nothing when they question him.  He shares his suspicions with his other daughter, and Susie watches as her only sister risks everything to help and catch him.  

This book is full of an aspect from many genres- drama, suspense, a few laughs, tragedy, and an insight into the grievances of an entire family, and their community, when a piece of them is taken away.  It’s beautifully written and will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens to each of Susie’s family members, and Susie herself.
 
I know that I previously mentioned this series in prior posts, but I didn’t elaborate on it too much.  The In Death series by J.D. Robb (a.k.a. Nora Roberts) is one of a kind.  Nora Roberts is known for her romantic novels, with over 100 written.  The pseudonym J.D. Robb was adopted because she and her publishers didn’t want readers to know that the author was already so well-known and popular.  J.D. is from the first initials of her two sons, and Robb is a shortened version of Roberts.

The In Death series is printed in both paperback and hardback, and the first was released in 1995.  Robb continues her romanticism in this series, but with a twist: the setting is 2058, a futuristic world we can only imagine right now, but so much has already started to come true.  The main character?  Eve Dallas, a New York City Police Department detective with a horrific past.  Got your attention yet?

It is not necessary to read these books in order; however it does provide a better reading experience because you can get to know the secondary characters in the order that they were introduced.  There will be 30 In Death novels published by March of next year, though other books have been written under the pseudonym of J.D. Robb.  Now that it’s been almost 15 years since that first book of the series hit shelves, fans are made aware that it is Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb; many of the more recent books have it written right on the front.  I’ve read quite a few in this series, and own quite a few which I need to read.  Definitely check them out if you enjoy a good romantic/suspense novel, and even if that’s not your forte, check ’em out anyway.  You might just find a new genre that interests you.
 
I haven’t read many Stephen King books, but I own a lot.  And one of them that I read over the summer freaked me out, a lot.  The one I was reading is called Cell.  Basically, everyone with a cell phone go crazy-animalistic on everyone in their paths.  But Clay Riddell is one of the few who are unaffected.  The novel tells his story as he progresses with a few others who help him, but he learns that no one is the same anymore.  He sets his mind to doing anything he can to get his wife and son back to him, despite the fact that they (like just about everyone else) are practically walking zombies.  This story became so realistic to me that I was afraid of my cell phone for awhile.  It really takes a new look at how dependent we have become on technology.  Definitely a good read, and will capture your attention and take you into a whole new world that you have probably never imagined existing.