Persuasion / Jane Austen / 290 pages

Bonus categories: Audiobook, Stories with a TV/movie adaptation

This was a re-read for me--one of my favorite novels by Jane Austen. I listened to two different versions, one from Dreamscape Media on Hoopla and one from Blackstone Publishing on Overdrive and preferred the latter, narrated by Nadia May, though both were well-done.

The premise of the story is this: Eight years before the novel begins, Anne Elliot is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that she is too young and inexperienced for such a match. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When Wentworth returns from sea eight years later as a rich and successful captain, he and Anne are thrown into company again by mutual friends who know nothing of the previous events. Anne has the pain of witnessing Captain Wentworth wooing other women while she herself is being pursued by interested men, and the story sifts through various changes until the quick and dizzying conclusion!

Jane Austen has always been one of my favorite authors because of her ironic observations on social custom, love, and marriage. In Persuasion even more than her other novels, we see the differences of rank and situation found in Regency English society and what all those differences entail. There are also many observations on life and society in the English countryside versus Bath, and I would recommend this to anyone with a love for classic British literature or a curiosity about life among the gentility of early 19th-century England.

Wild Storm/Richard Castle/344 pgs

As I have said before, I am a huge fan of Richard Castle - both books and the TV show.  But I never really liked the previous Derrick Storm novels - but this one may have changed my mind about that.  It starts with a series of plane crashes - one of which is the plane that Storm is on and he manages to save.  The only one that is saved - this starts a trip that takes him from Egypt to Morocco in search of the terrorist group that has gotten hold of one serious weapon.  This was a very good book and may have just changed my mind about this series.  That said it still isn't the Nikki Heat series but that is okay!

Deadly Heat/Richard Castle/291 pgs

First off I have to admit I love Castle.  This is the 5th in the Nikki Heat series based from the characters in Castle.  Nikki is still trying to find the people who had her mother killed.  She is also trying to find a serial killer who has decided that Nikki is his next victim.  The books are always part of the show itself - whether it is him writing them or doing his book tour thing.  The writing is pretty much the same as the show and I can hear the characters in my head (they are all based on characters in the show) or maybe it is just voices??.  A good book and some pretty light reading.

Star Trek Voyager: Encounters with the Unknown / 208 pages

This comic book is a compilation of four different Star Trek Voyager comics, each with different authors. I found it very enjoyable. I haven't read a comic book before (pretty sad, I know...) and I thought it was easy to read and fun as well. The stories were interesting enought to keep my attention, and I read it all in a weekend. Being based on my favorite Star Trek series helped, as well. False colors / Nathan Archer -- Avalon rising / Janine Ellen Young & Doselle Young -- Elite force / Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning -- Planet killer / Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith.

Heat Rises/Richard Castle/305 pgs

This is the third Nikki Heat title written by Richard Castle - based on the ABC series "Castle". This one is the best one yet I think. Nikki is suspended from the force in the middle of the investigation into a murder of a priest at a New York bondage club. She knows that there is a cover up and knows she can only trust one person - Jameson Rook - the investigative reporter that she is in love with but who has been gone for a month. If you enjoy the TV show like I do, you will enjoy the books.