A GREAT BOOK from MR. Kellerman!

As you know I love Faye Kellerman but I am kinda hit or miss with Jonathan Kellerman.  But Museum of Desire (Alex Delaware #35) was just fantastic.  VERY creative, I think.  Super creepy premise and didn't let up on the tension until the end.  Great stuff.

Meh

Fans of Alex Delaware may enjoy this much more than I did.  But I really didn't.  I just can't seem to warm up to Mr. Kellerman.  Night Moves was just meh for me.

Not Fair

The thing is, had a never read a Faye Kellerman book, I think I would be more fair to Jonathan Kellerman books.  It's just that every page of every Faye Kellerman book has made me want to keep turning.  I have never wanted to skip or skim.  Not so with many books that I still love.  But F. Kellerman is just that good!
Breakdown was a good book!  And again the thing is, I would have given it a five if I wasn't always saying, "Man I wish Peter and Rina were involved!"  So not fair of me!
Anyway, I recommend Dr. Delaware to anyone.

Kellermans in a Row

After reading Savage Spawn, I thought I would pick up an Alex Delaware, as it had been a while for me.  As I have said before, I am more of a Faye fan than Jonathan.  Compulsion was okay.  It seems that I still favor the Mrs. over the Mr.  It might be the whole Robin-Alex thing.  It might have been that this particular mystery seemed to lose me.  I still love Milo though.

Get Me Some Kellerman

I have read a lot of Kellermans and written about them a lot, too.  Savage Spawn:  Reflections on Violent Children is an old nonfiction book.  Written in 1999, there are so many more horror stories that it would include today.  This was published just before the Columbine shooting, for example, I assume.  Although folks on goodreads remarked their surprise at it not being included, the book was published in 1999 and the massacre took place in 1999, and it takes a long process to write and publish a book, regardless of the exact date, this one was done before April 20.
In addition to being an author, Kellerman is has a PhD in Psychology and has done a great deal of work with children.  He is very informed on the topic.  This work seems like a very balanced read.  The pros and cons of nature vs. nurture, an examination of what begets violence, is it the media?  Maybe, maybe not.  Is it oppression?  Poverty?  Education?  Maybe, maybe not.  There is discussion of psychopathology as well.  A lot to think about and Kellerman doesn't claim that he or anyone has the answers. But one thing he definitely takes a stand on is children's access to guns.  He admits he has gotten a lot of criticism about this but it makes sense.  I know I always repeat the story that there was a knife attack in China in a school on the same day that the Sandy Hook nightmare occurred.  No fatalities.  Dude to strict gun laws.  Could anyone have stopped the nut who stabbed the Chinese children?  Could anyone have stopped the nut who shot the children of Sandy Hook?  Who knows?  But if the Sandy Hook nut had not had a gun....

Abridged is just fine

So I ordered the audio cd of Deception at the library and when it came I realized it was an abridged edition. I guess this doesn't really count as a Read in 2010, so I'll come up with a new tag for it, rather than go back and read the whole blasted thing. I've written about the Kellermans before, I'm definately a fan, but Jonathan is the one Kellerman that I think lends himself to abridgement! Deception is a fine example of this fact. I have often wondered why, if a book can be so easily abridged, and approved by the author, the author didn't just edit the freaking book to begin with and turn out a nice, tight book. This is another predictable-in a good way- Alex and Milo mystery. I'll keep reading them as long as he writes them, but next time when I get the abridgement, it won't be by accident.