Secound time reading it actually. I thought it was a very good thriller. Bret Ratner and Ted Tally did a far better job bringing this book to film than Michael Mann.
Former President, George W. Bush made a decision that when writing his memoirs he didn't want to tell a life story, but rather focus on the major events and decisions he made during his presidency, I think it was a wise decision.
Bush spends the first couple chapters racing through his early life prior to the presidency and it is fairly interesting. He admits to being incorrigible at times when he was younger and also admits to having a drinking problem, which he later overcomes. After racing through his early life he spends entire chapters on the events and decisions during his time in office. Among others, he discusses, stem cell, 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, funding aids programs in Africa, Katrina, his two presidential races and more. I found some chapters more interesting than others, I will also admit I had tears in my eyes several times reading the 9/11 chapter. In detailing what went into the various decisions, he also upon reflection critiques the decision and offers admissions on how the decision or implementation of the decision could have been better.
Not wanting to start a political storm, I will just say I found the book very informative and it left me thinking, this is a man that is misunderstood by many and a man who was deeply affected by 9/11. Decisions are not always a choice between black and white.
I've seen countless adaptations of Dicken's Christmas classic but had never read the book. After seeing Robert Zemeckis' 3D CG version I became curious about how faithful it and other versions were to the original story.
I found the story to be quite accessible and even moving at times. Interestingly, Scrooge really didn't come across as particularly vitriolic in the novel; by the time he'd finished revisiting his youth with the ghost of Christmas past he had already mellowed considerably and was all but reformed. Of course, the story is about embracing the spirit of Christmas and remembering our loved ones and those less fortunate than us. In that respect it remains a very timely piece that is just as relevant today.
While I plan on buying a nice hardcover edition at some point, I actually downloaded the book electronically from the Gutenberg Press website, which is a free repository of thousands of books in the public domain. It's a great resource for exploring texts that you are curious about but uncertain if you wish to buy and you can read the books right on your PC or via iPad, smartphones, Kindles or other devices. Their website is posted below and is definitely worth a look:
re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in preparation for the midnight showing of the Movie (part 1) on the 19th. I'm beyond excited.
I'm in the middle of this one. I've read the whole series this year, & they're unputdownable. However after all seven I'm looking forward to getting back to some Fleming when I've finished.
fantasy writing at it's best (besides Lord of the Rings, of course). Knights, Dragons, Wildmen, Magic, Battles, Wars, Sinister Plotting, Betrayals, Revenge...it has them all.
a must for any fantasy fan.
oh, and there's a two ep mini series coming out in April with Sean Bean as one of the main characters.
Currently reading Sir Roger Moore's autobiography, My Word is my Bond ...which I picked up at B&B over the weekend. Fascinating antecdotes about Cary Grant and the Saint/Persuaders/Bond experiences.
Despite having watched TMWTGG umpteen times, I had never noticed the "Saintly Encounter" before. Nice!
Mo Hayder is one of my favourite authors, and I tend to buy her books without even reading the synopsis. However, this one, for some reason I never picked up - I think it was because I had just discovered her Flea Marley series, and this just passed me by.
And it's almost like when you discover that forgotten £10 in an old jacket pocket - how could I have forgotten this? Great read, and Mo Hayder is on top form.... deep dark, and addictively page turning.... as we follow our protagonist's long held grudge to a secret cult's leader's retreat on an island in Scotland. Everything is quite not what it seems and finally the mystery of a half man/half beast sighting, on said island, is discovered - with surprising results. Throw in some very dark practices - and the twist ending (literally revealed in the last page....) you can see why Hayder is revered by other longer standing authors - like Karin Slaughter (another favourite of mine....)
I'm a bit upset I've finished it...... and that is always a sign of a great novel.
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Positioning itself as an after the fact account of survivors of a global zombie war this is an absolutely chilling read, if you allow yourself to be taken in by the story.
It reads as straightforward interviews with certain survivors of the conflict. Some of the stories that come out of the war are absolutely fascinating.
An absolute must for anybody who likes zombie films/fiction.
1- On Her Majesty's Secret Service 2- Casino Royale 3- Licence To Kill 4- Goldeneye 5- From Russia With Love
I recently finished Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwall.
This is the first Sharpe book written, though it's not the first chronologically, Cornwall went back and wrote some books that took place earlier, makes you wonder if Fleming couldn't have done that with Bond had he run out of ideas, covering his time in WWII. Then again, maybe not cos Fleming subtly changed his hero's age didn't he.
Sharpe is a working-class Lieutenant serving in the fictional South East Regiment in the Napoleonic Wars, who entered the ranks and worked his way up. His career has stalled because he lacks the money and influence to buy his promotion. In this tale he is in central Spain and has to put up with a posh, incompetent Colonel who's been parachuted in, an armchair general who thinks he's an expert.
It's a page turner alright, I got thru it quick. Unlike Jeffery Deaver, you do feel this page turner is good stuff and authoritative with great research. Each chapter 20 pages long, ending usually with a cliff hanger of sorts. That said, the emotions it engages with are rather petty, Sharpe usually falls out with someone on his own side, and that's where the drama takes place for most of it, as the actual enemy doesn't get to engage for the while. Having started the follow-up, Sharpe's Gold, set in the same year of 1812, the writing does seem to follow a formula where Sharpe rubs up someone in power the wrong way, then gets to redeem himself. One is invited to side with Sharpe and feel superior to these incompetent posh nitwits, but there's the uncomfortable sneaking feeling that Sharpe himself would find the reader wanting in battle, so the enjoyment is fleeting at times.
In a way Sharpe is the antithesis of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series set a few decades later, being working class and brave, whereas Flashman is a boarding school bounder. Sharpe is a bit like Flashman without the jokes, even then I'd say that Flashman's history is as well researched and you feel you're enjoying a more nutritious read, it's a better bit of writing. I'd advise any American to read Flash for Freedom followed by Flashman and the Redskins, the latter being revelatory or interesting about the Native Americans and expansionism.
I thought Sharpe's Rifles was the first book, followed by 'Eagle'? I enjoy the Sharpe series, but I certainly have a hard time keeping all of the titles straight...Sharpe's Rifles, Sharpe's Eagle, Sharp's Havoc, Sharpe's Chamberpot, etc. It doesn't help that Cornwell continually revisits the characters at varying points in the timeline.
Oddly enough, I've read other works by Cornwell, but none of them grab my like his Sharpe novels.
Sharpe's Rifles was the first of the TV series, and written as a book, but its later in the decade. Might have been an ease into storyline thunk up by the author to kick off the TV series.
Cornwell himself has said that when the TV producers opted the novels, they wanted a story that told of Sharpe's first command, his meeting Harper, etc.; so Cornwell came up with Sharpe's Rifles, and so that became the first TV movie. Like DH, I've read plenty of Cornwell, and I enjoy his works. IMO, he's the man who should have written the "one-off" Bond novel a couple of years ago, not Sebastian Faulks.
Ah! Makes sense...I actually stumbled upon the books long before I had seen any of Sean Bean's TV movies, and I read 'Rifles' and 'Eagle' essentially back to back. It's a credit to Cornwell's talent as a writer that he can write a consistent tale in a non-chronological order...something I always felt C.S. Forester somewhat failed to do with Horatio Hornblower.
IMO, he's the man who should have written the "one-off" Bond novel a couple of years ago, not Sebastian Faulks.
Yeah, he's v much a Bond type, with cruel mocking face etc, not much sex to go on so far, he has it in Eagle, but it's skirted around, no Flashman type relish in the description here. I'd argue that Cornwall's authority comes from his knowledge of the period, without that it might be a bit soapy, even a bit (whisper it) Barbara Cartland. Okay that's harsh, but it again lacks the reflectiveness and depth Fleming could bring.
Yeah, I remember pointing out to Loeffs (where's he got to lately) that Chandler went to the same school in London's West Dulwich as PG Wodehouse of all people, and their turn of phrase is remarkably similar. "She had a laugh like the cavalry charging over a tin bridge." "She was the kind of blonde who'd make a bishop kick a hole through a plate-glass window."
Immediate follow-on from Sharpe's Eagle. Again, a real page turner, I've never done that thing where you stay up til dawn reading a book, albeit I couldn't get to sleep at the time anyway. This one is set a few months later, again in Spain 1812. It's more to do with internal politics, whether the Spanish can cooperate with the beleaguered English against Napoleon's mighty French army, in particular in locatiing some gold that the Spanish feel should be theirs when the Duke of Wellington wants it for himself, to serve the British cause in Spain. Sharpe is becoming slightly two-dimensional here, his whole character tied up with envy at those who can buy their commission, a soft spot for a lovely young lady, no matter how banal, self-serving or unpleasant she is (then again, helped the likes of Liz Hurley to get roles in their early days... ) ), impatience with jobsworths or the unworldly. Still it gives you an insight into the time and it's to his credit that Cornwall doesn't shrink from describing the bloodier aspects of battle and the human sacrifice. I have to say I found the escapades more unbelievable as the book went on however, somehow it helped that Bond got thrown into a new locale with each book, it helps you believe in his 'nine lives' ability. Sharpe's Gold is ultimately a bit of a potboiler.
Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie. I usually prefer the Poirots that are written from the perspective of Captain Hastings, but this one just hooks you from the start regardless of being in third person narrative.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
This is not my typical kind of book, but I enjoyed it thoroughly---a paranormal romance that deals with reincarnation, the afterlife, witchcraft and karmic debt. It's the story of two people who've loved each other across the seas of time...but who just can't seem to 'get it right.' Alice, in previous lives, was hanged and burned at the stake for being a witch; she remembers her past lives. Her soulmate, Henry, isn't so lucky...and constantly has to relearn the hard lessons of the past.
I happen to know this author personally---and I'm busily adapting this book for the screen---so Oscar Jade is currently sharing my writing time with these two star-crossed lovers.
"May you live in interesting times." - Old Chinese curse
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Alas, I read almost entirely nonfiction ever since I started grad school. The last book I read was Nassim Taleb's Black Swan, which is a deliciously scathing critique of our ignorance in predicting the future and how that leads to economic crises. No matter what your views on macroeconomics, he has a humorous and compelling argument for our inability to predict the odds and what we can do. As a researcher who investigates age differences in how emotions influence memory biases, I've yet to come across anyone, let alone an academic, who makes this topic so readable.
I am dying to read John le Carre's Our Kind of Tratior as I only have 3 spy novels of his left that I haven't read yet.
Flattery will get you nowhere, but don't stop trying.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
Somewhere In Time, by the brilliantRichard Matheson
Chances are you've seen the film starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour---now widely regarded as a classic (or at least a 'cult' classic), as they apparently hold conventions at the hotel where the film was shot---but as is usually the case, the film pales in comparison to the book.
Matheson's prose is both austere and elegant in its stream-of-consciousness first-person delivery: the story of a man diagnosed with a fatal and inoperable brain tumor who travels to an old hotel and falls in love with the portrait of a long-dead stage actress from 1896...he manages to travel back in time to be with her and find the true love of his life...and complications ensue. Matheson masterfully handles the wild improbability of the premise, and tells a story so earnest in its emotional appeal that it ultimately just sweeps you along with the narrative.
This was the first complete book I've read on my new Kindle (which I love)...and I highly recommend it. It's now on my list of all-time favourites...
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
finishing A Clash of Kings, the second in George R. R. Martin's song of Ice and Fire saga. absolutely brilliant work.
on my TO READ list:
1. Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2. The White Road - Lynn Flewelling (Nightrunner Series book 5)
3. The Once and Future King - T.H. White
4. A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin (Ice and Fire book 3)
5. A Feast For Crows - George R. R. Martin (Ice and Fire book 4)
6. Dances With Dragons - George R. R. Martin (Ice and Fire book 5)
Wasn't sure if I wanted to read this, as I know the main protagonist dies (read another book by the same author - not realising that she was overlapping characters..... and well, realised that the main character from this series dies) but I'm glad I did, as it fills in the blanks. It's basically about a small American county that is run by a drug gang - and it's main kingpin is the local sheriff. I really wasn't expecting the Sheriff to be caught up in it.... and as always, Karin spells a dark and twisted tale. It now sets up the next line of stores nicely - as we see the partner of said protagonist a very sad widow.... but no doubt will fall for the other character Karin has let us get to know
5 out of 5 stars for her again -{
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Several months ago (page 17), I wrote on what I thought was the late Robert B. Parker's final Spenser novel, Painted Ladies. Well, it turns out there was another bullet in the chamber--Sixkill, which, the dust jacket tells us, is indeed Spenser's last stand. (A semi-educated guess is that at the time Parker took the big sleep, Painted Ladies was in the galley stage, Sixkill was on the hard drive.) Unfortunately, it looks as though Parker was either out of gas or--more likely--he didn't have a chance to put the novel through some rewrites. On the surface, the book works as well as any other Spenser story: there's a breezy, fast-moving plot and the characteristic witty, bantering dialogue (a weakness, though, and it's true of most Spenser novels, is that everyone talks alike, and they all sound like they strolled out of a 1940s private eye flick). Otherwise, the "mystery" is really something of a squib, hinging on "evidence" that a casual police investigation should have uncovered after some basic questions (i.e., who drove the victim to the place where she was killed?) and which the ME definitely would have found. Too much of the novel also has a been-there-done-that feel: Spenser gets dropped from the case, but he continues because he made a promise; a killer from the west coast is sent out to dispatch Spenser; Spenser picks up a sad-sack kid and trains him to become something worthwhile. . .
And there's the novel's biggest weakness. The title derives from the character Zebulon "Z" Sixkill, a Cree Indian who latches on to Spenser. He's also a complete cypher--no character, no personality, and his background and problems with alcohol are handled without depth or understanding. A truly bizarre feature of the novel is that, in the first half, there are several italicized "sketches" from Z's life--but they don't add up to much, and they don't establish Z as a character. I have to wonder if these were notes Parker wrote to himself and an editor decided to insert them into the manuscript in effort to "flesh out" an unknowable character. I also wonder if Parker wasn't a bit disconnected from society as a whole, since, in today's racially sensitive climate, not even out-and-out racists would PUBLICLY go around calling someone "the Indian," "Injun Joe," and "Tonto."
So. . .Spenser definitely ends on a whimper, but there are plenty of bangs in this series.
Late 60s Pan novel purporting to show off the new James Bond - only he smokes marijuana baby. Actually, the whole set up, including first person narrative, is more to do with Len Deighton's Harry Palmer, in particular his relationship with his posh disapproving superiors and the way he his bullied or coerced into the spy game with threat of jail for dealing drugs. There's no love lost there.
It's highly readable and only 180 pages. Very unPc and not in a good way, he talks about the birds in his office, one 'grimy toothed' who he nonetheless has earmarked for an erotic fumble at a future date, the other 'even more repulsive' who really digs the top 10 baby, while our anti-hero is a Bob Dylan man. As it picks up it seems our 'hero has a set of skills that Fleming's Bond would struggle to match ie his way with light aircraft, not to mention a big dose of foresight, so he goes out of character somewhat. He has a model, It girl-type girlfriend who seems typical of the age ie loads of hair and lips but a bit vacant. The contrast of gloomy London and the Greece locale is well done, but the ending is highly implausible, mainly to set it up for a sequel (there were two to follow). There's also a flashback to a Nazi atrocity which ruins the pulp fiction tone and is really rather horrible and sadistic.
Comments
And what did you think?
Secound time reading it actually. I thought it was a very good thriller. Bret Ratner and Ted Tally did a far better job bringing this book to film than Michael Mann.
Former President, George W. Bush made a decision that when writing his memoirs he didn't want to tell a life story, but rather focus on the major events and decisions he made during his presidency, I think it was a wise decision.
Bush spends the first couple chapters racing through his early life prior to the presidency and it is fairly interesting. He admits to being incorrigible at times when he was younger and also admits to having a drinking problem, which he later overcomes. After racing through his early life he spends entire chapters on the events and decisions during his time in office. Among others, he discusses, stem cell, 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, funding aids programs in Africa, Katrina, his two presidential races and more. I found some chapters more interesting than others, I will also admit I had tears in my eyes several times reading the 9/11 chapter. In detailing what went into the various decisions, he also upon reflection critiques the decision and offers admissions on how the decision or implementation of the decision could have been better.
Not wanting to start a political storm, I will just say I found the book very informative and it left me thinking, this is a man that is misunderstood by many and a man who was deeply affected by 9/11. Decisions are not always a choice between black and white.
I've seen countless adaptations of Dicken's Christmas classic but had never read the book. After seeing Robert Zemeckis' 3D CG version I became curious about how faithful it and other versions were to the original story.
I found the story to be quite accessible and even moving at times. Interestingly, Scrooge really didn't come across as particularly vitriolic in the novel; by the time he'd finished revisiting his youth with the ghost of Christmas past he had already mellowed considerably and was all but reformed. Of course, the story is about embracing the spirit of Christmas and remembering our loved ones and those less fortunate than us. In that respect it remains a very timely piece that is just as relevant today.
While I plan on buying a nice hardcover edition at some point, I actually downloaded the book electronically from the Gutenberg Press website, which is a free repository of thousands of books in the public domain. It's a great resource for exploring texts that you are curious about but uncertain if you wish to buy and you can read the books right on your PC or via iPad, smartphones, Kindles or other devices. Their website is posted below and is definitely worth a look:
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
I'm in the middle of this one. I've read the whole series this year, & they're unputdownable. However after all seven I'm looking forward to getting back to some Fleming when I've finished.
fantasy writing at it's best (besides Lord of the Rings, of course). Knights, Dragons, Wildmen, Magic, Battles, Wars, Sinister Plotting, Betrayals, Revenge...it has them all.
a must for any fantasy fan.
oh, and there's a two ep mini series coming out in April with Sean Bean as one of the main characters.
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Despite having watched TMWTGG umpteen times, I had never noticed the "Saintly Encounter" before. Nice!
Mo Hayder is one of my favourite authors, and I tend to buy her books without even reading the synopsis. However, this one, for some reason I never picked up - I think it was because I had just discovered her Flea Marley series, and this just passed me by.
And it's almost like when you discover that forgotten £10 in an old jacket pocket - how could I have forgotten this? Great read, and Mo Hayder is on top form.... deep dark, and addictively page turning.... as we follow our protagonist's long held grudge to a secret cult's leader's retreat on an island in Scotland. Everything is quite not what it seems and finally the mystery of a half man/half beast sighting, on said island, is discovered - with surprising results. Throw in some very dark practices - and the twist ending (literally revealed in the last page....) you can see why Hayder is revered by other longer standing authors - like Karin Slaughter (another favourite of mine....)
I'm a bit upset I've finished it...... and that is always a sign of a great novel.
Positioning itself as an after the fact account of survivors of a global zombie war this is an absolutely chilling read, if you allow yourself to be taken in by the story.
It reads as straightforward interviews with certain survivors of the conflict. Some of the stories that come out of the war are absolutely fascinating.
An absolute must for anybody who likes zombie films/fiction.
This is the first Sharpe book written, though it's not the first chronologically, Cornwall went back and wrote some books that took place earlier, makes you wonder if Fleming couldn't have done that with Bond had he run out of ideas, covering his time in WWII. Then again, maybe not cos Fleming subtly changed his hero's age didn't he.
Sharpe is a working-class Lieutenant serving in the fictional South East Regiment in the Napoleonic Wars, who entered the ranks and worked his way up. His career has stalled because he lacks the money and influence to buy his promotion. In this tale he is in central Spain and has to put up with a posh, incompetent Colonel who's been parachuted in, an armchair general who thinks he's an expert.
It's a page turner alright, I got thru it quick. Unlike Jeffery Deaver, you do feel this page turner is good stuff and authoritative with great research. Each chapter 20 pages long, ending usually with a cliff hanger of sorts. That said, the emotions it engages with are rather petty, Sharpe usually falls out with someone on his own side, and that's where the drama takes place for most of it, as the actual enemy doesn't get to engage for the while. Having started the follow-up, Sharpe's Gold, set in the same year of 1812, the writing does seem to follow a formula where Sharpe rubs up someone in power the wrong way, then gets to redeem himself. One is invited to side with Sharpe and feel superior to these incompetent posh nitwits, but there's the uncomfortable sneaking feeling that Sharpe himself would find the reader wanting in battle, so the enjoyment is fleeting at times.
In a way Sharpe is the antithesis of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series set a few decades later, being working class and brave, whereas Flashman is a boarding school bounder. Sharpe is a bit like Flashman without the jokes, even then I'd say that Flashman's history is as well researched and you feel you're enjoying a more nutritious read, it's a better bit of writing. I'd advise any American to read Flash for Freedom followed by Flashman and the Redskins, the latter being revelatory or interesting about the Native Americans and expansionism.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Oddly enough, I've read other works by Cornwell, but none of them grab my like his Sharpe novels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sharpe_%28character%29
Sharpe's Rifles was the first of the TV series, and written as a book, but its later in the decade. Might have been an ease into storyline thunk up by the author to kick off the TV series.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Yeah, he's v much a Bond type, with cruel mocking face etc, not much sex to go on so far, he has it in Eagle, but it's skirted around, no Flashman type relish in the description here. I'd argue that Cornwall's authority comes from his knowledge of the period, without that it might be a bit soapy, even a bit (whisper it) Barbara Cartland. Okay that's harsh, but it again lacks the reflectiveness and depth Fleming could bring.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Immediate follow-on from Sharpe's Eagle. Again, a real page turner, I've never done that thing where you stay up til dawn reading a book, albeit I couldn't get to sleep at the time anyway. This one is set a few months later, again in Spain 1812. It's more to do with internal politics, whether the Spanish can cooperate with the beleaguered English against Napoleon's
Roger Moore 1927-2017
http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Henry-Novel-Anne-Eldridge/dp/1440190860/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
This is not my typical kind of book, but I enjoyed it thoroughly---a paranormal romance that deals with reincarnation, the afterlife, witchcraft and karmic debt. It's the story of two people who've loved each other across the seas of time...but who just can't seem to 'get it right.' Alice, in previous lives, was hanged and burned at the stake for being a witch; she remembers her past lives. Her soulmate, Henry, isn't so lucky...and constantly has to relearn the hard lessons of the past.
I happen to know this author personally---and I'm busily adapting this book for the screen---so Oscar Jade is currently sharing my writing time with these two star-crossed lovers.
"May you live in interesting times." - Old Chinese curse
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
"It's not difficult to get a double 0 number if your prepared to kill people"
Also recently read The Shining. Not gonna lie, it's not King's best work!
I am dying to read John le Carre's Our Kind of Tratior as I only have 3 spy novels of his left that I haven't read yet.
Chances are you've seen the film starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour---now widely regarded as a classic (or at least a 'cult' classic), as they apparently hold conventions at the hotel where the film was shot---but as is usually the case, the film pales in comparison to the book.
Matheson's prose is both austere and elegant in its stream-of-consciousness first-person delivery: the story of a man diagnosed with a fatal and inoperable brain tumor who travels to an old hotel and falls in love with the portrait of a long-dead stage actress from 1896...he manages to travel back in time to be with her and find the true love of his life...and complications ensue. Matheson masterfully handles the wild improbability of the premise, and tells a story so earnest in its emotional appeal that it ultimately just sweeps you along with the narrative.
This was the first complete book I've read on my new Kindle (which I love)...and I highly recommend it. It's now on my list of all-time favourites...
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
on my TO READ list:
1. Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2. The White Road - Lynn Flewelling (Nightrunner Series book 5)
3. The Once and Future King - T.H. White
4. A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin (Ice and Fire book 3)
5. A Feast For Crows - George R. R. Martin (Ice and Fire book 4)
6. Dances With Dragons - George R. R. Martin (Ice and Fire book 5)
this should last me the next couple months :P
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Wasn't sure if I wanted to read this, as I know the main protagonist dies (read another book by the same author - not realising that she was overlapping characters..... and well, realised that the main character from this series dies) but I'm glad I did, as it fills in the blanks. It's basically about a small American county that is run by a drug gang - and it's main kingpin is the local sheriff. I really wasn't expecting the Sheriff to be caught up in it.... and as always, Karin spells a dark and twisted tale. It now sets up the next line of stores nicely - as we see the partner of said protagonist a very sad widow.... but no doubt will fall for the other character Karin has let us get to know
5 out of 5 stars for her again -{
And there's the novel's biggest weakness. The title derives from the character Zebulon "Z" Sixkill, a Cree Indian who latches on to Spenser. He's also a complete cypher--no character, no personality, and his background and problems with alcohol are handled without depth or understanding. A truly bizarre feature of the novel is that, in the first half, there are several italicized "sketches" from Z's life--but they don't add up to much, and they don't establish Z as a character. I have to wonder if these were notes Parker wrote to himself and an editor decided to insert them into the manuscript in effort to "flesh out" an unknowable character. I also wonder if Parker wasn't a bit disconnected from society as a whole, since, in today's racially sensitive climate, not even out-and-out racists would PUBLICLY go around calling someone "the Indian," "Injun Joe," and "Tonto."
So. . .Spenser definitely ends on a whimper, but there are plenty of bangs in this series.
Late 60s Pan novel purporting to show off the new James Bond - only he smokes marijuana baby. Actually, the whole set up, including first person narrative, is more to do with Len Deighton's Harry Palmer, in particular his relationship with his posh disapproving superiors and the way he his bullied or coerced into the spy game with threat of jail for dealing drugs. There's no love lost there.
It's highly readable and only 180 pages. Very unPc and not in a good way, he talks about the birds in his office, one 'grimy toothed' who he nonetheless has earmarked for an erotic fumble at a future date, the other 'even more repulsive' who really digs the top 10 baby, while our anti-hero is a Bob Dylan man. As it picks up it seems our 'hero has a set of skills that Fleming's Bond would struggle to match ie his way with light aircraft, not to mention a big dose of foresight, so he goes out of character somewhat. He has a model, It girl-type girlfriend who seems typical of the age ie loads of hair and lips but a bit vacant. The contrast of gloomy London and the Greece locale is well done, but the ending is highly implausible, mainly to set it up for a sequel (there were two to follow). There's also a flashback to a Nazi atrocity which ruins the pulp fiction tone and is really rather horrible and sadistic.
Roger Moore 1927-2017