A friend recently came to me, very excited because she discovered Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series novels. She lent me the first three and I read One for the Money. It was a quick, fun read with characters that can hold a reader's interest. The writing is not great, but the story was good and didn't 'cheat'. I will continue with the series, but not one right after the other because I quickly tire of a series that way.

One of my Christmas presents was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. I very much anticipated reading this book and it was certainly worth my time. Although it was very slow to start it turned into an interesting mystery story with a good back story. I will probably look into getting the second book, although not right away.

Lucky Man by Michael J Fox was my second memoir for the year. I truly admire his spirit and determination in facing the terribly debilitating Parkinson's disease. The title of the book says so much about his way of thinking. I learned a lot about Parkinson's disease from the book and from subsequent research that I did on the internet.

"What the dead know" by Laura Lippman. Good suspense novel that doesn't "cheat" at the end. I can't say that I saw the ending coming--even though I had a good idea, I wasn't quite right. Very quick read that kept me entertained and wanting to read more the whole way through.