Isn't Cussler pretty much using a ghost writer at this point? Seems to happen when blockbuster authors begin to 'franchise' themselves...it's happened to Clancy as well, I think...
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
More from the Da Vinci Code man, and pretty much along the same lines. If you can ignore Brown's weaknesses (painful dialogue, frequent clunkiness, etc) his unputdownable way of hooking the reader and making the familiar unfamiliar works as well as it has before. One of the "big secrets" can be seen coming a mile away; others can't. If the final revelations aren't on the scale of his earlier works it's still an enjoyable page-turner.
I believe Tom Hanks has committed to playing Robert Langdon for a third time when they get round to filming this (and after the payday he got for Angels & Demons that's not surprising) but Ron Howard has still to confirm.
Isn't Cussler pretty much using a ghost writer at this point? Seems to happen when blockbuster authors begin to 'franchise' themselves...it's happened to Clancy as well, I think...
He's is indeed turning his 'brand' into a franchise, and there are a couple of writer's who also contribute to his NUMA series, but with different protaganists. I can't say for certain if it was ghost-written. Admittedly, Black Wind is billed as being co-authored by Cussler's son Dirk Cussler, but I can't tell if that helped or hurt.
More from the Da Vinci Code man, and pretty much along the same lines. If you can ignore Brown's weaknesses (painful dialogue, frequent clunkiness, etc)
I never did get Dan Brown Fever like so many others I knew. The Da Vinci Code was such a blatantly poor book that it took me months to finish it. I figured I'd just wait for the films, but I never did get around to seeing Angels and Demons. I will say this: in what seems a subtle stroke of genius, I felt Tom Hanks casting was as poorly imagined as Dan Brown's hero in the books!
I read Angels and Demons a few years ago and really enjoyed it, but then I read the other books and realised how much of a one trick pony he is. Formula films are one thing but books like this just annoy me
I've just finished my first graphic novel, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Good stuff, shame the film didn't have the saucy, dark edge to it. It went all Hollywood blockbuster instead. The novel has some wonderful eyepopping panels to the point where it sometimes slows down the action because you want to absorb it. I think the final third, an aerial shootout over Limehouse, London, got a bit OTT however. I'm not sure Connery should have been Quartermain, he looks the same but Connery always has to dominate everything and be The Man. This is an ensemble piece.
This is Alan Moore on top form some of the little cameos are quality and the ads are top. Look up the hoo-ha over the Marvel brand duche ad that was withdrawn. And if you like War of the worlds wait till you see the next book.
I have read the first three Ian Rankin books in the Rebus series. They are murder mysteries set in Edinburgh. They show the not so bonny side to Scotland.
I have once again been drawn into the world of The Boy Who Lived. I drive a lot with my job and have started listening to audiobooks to make my journeys more enjoyable. As I had nothing new to listen to a month or so ago I put Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone back on to my iPod with a view to listening to it until I got something new. It didn't work, I have been pulled back into the story completely despite having read the books 3 or 4 times already. I can't put my finger on exactly what, but something about the story really resonates with me. I am now about three quarters of the way through Order of the Phoenix and I am completely captivated by it. I love how the books get much darker with every installment as Harry gets older. The books aren't without their flaws but to me they don't detract from the great story.
The world that J.K. Rowling has created is so rich and lovingly crafted it's hard not to fall in love with it. I'm suprised (and very pleased) that WB have so far not tried to create anything else within the world as a spin off to the main series. Maybe they are waiting for the films to end first. I shudder to think what they might do.
1- On Her Majesty's Secret Service 2- Casino Royale 3- Licence To Kill 4- Goldeneye 5- From Russia With Love
"N"; The standout of the collection by far, involving a psychiatrist's notes on a patient suffering from a particularly bad case of OCD. What starts out as a seemingly harmless analysis quickly takes a hard left turn into Lovecraftian territory. It was a real page turner and really stayed with me after I finished it (always a good sign). I would put this one right up there with King's best works.
All in all, a good diversion if you're a Stephen King fan; and even if you're not, try to find a copy of "N" somewhere as it's definitely worth a read.
Agreed- "N" is the best story of this collection, and it might have been even better if King had expanded this to a full-length novel. This is the one which haunts and stays in the memory- King at his best.
It's a real page turner, timeless (almost) but set in American suburbia in the 1970s, but as in a Lynch film a kind of darkness lurks therein. It's about the Lisbon family who have five daughters but we know in the first paragraph that they all top themselves during the course of the story.
That said, part of the reason it's a page turner is because you're wondering how and when the next daugther will do the deed, so it's a bit like a horror movie in reverse, esp as the first death is the most horrible and startling, as in the tradtion of horror films.
It's all written in a reminiscing tone by a guy who was an adolescent and the same age as the daughters. Nothing really happens in the present exactly, so you're feeling you're ina story that's done and dusted. Some of it I found quite implausible; the way lads are able to get into the Lisbon house in the dead of night without the parents noticing for instance. But the final page about the difference between natural deaths and suicides and the effect the latter has on the people around them I found quite affecting.
I'm going to watch the movie as someone has lent me the DVD but I can't see how they'll pull it off.
Just finished the first Matt Helm novel. Death Of A Citizen, (1960), and boy oh boy was it a great page turner in all the sense of that phrase. This isn't Dino cracking jokes. This is a brutal kill ride written in first person. (my favorite manner)
I got some great snags at a neglected used bookstore, three Matt Helms by Donald Hamilton, two Travis McGee by John Macdonald, one Modesty Blaise, and another three Michael Shayne detective books. I'd recently watched those movies and now, score!
I recently re-visited 'Death of A Citizen' a few weeks back, after hearing rumors of Spielberg heading up a Matt Helm film franchise. To my surprise, I had a lot of trouble getting through the book this time. At first, I enjoyed Hamilton's acerbic wit, but this time it really started to grate on me. It seemed he couldn't write more than two paragraphs without making some pessimistic commentary about something or other. Too often, the story would be derailed so that Helm could internally crack wise about how roads are made in New Mexico or some other inconsequential detail.
I admit that in over the past years I changed a lot, so much of my disappointment with the series comes from a change in my own perspective...taking Matt Helm off the shelf after a long time really fell short for me. Go figure.
I admit that in over the past years I changed a lot, so much of my disappointment with the series comes from a change in my own perspective...taking Matt Helm off the shelf after a long time really fell short for me. Go figure.
I know what you mean, having revisited the first Executioner book, War Against The Mafia, recently. I used to love the early action adventure paperbacks actually penned by Don Pendleton before he licensed out to a team of endless writers. They were macho, suspenseful, graphic, and at times erotic. All the things a boy wants in his literary heroes.
But re-reading it after all these years definitely fell short. The pacing and suspense were still there, and it was well written, but I just couldn't buy the cut and dried world of "good" and "evil" like I used to.
I have to say, this is her darkest novel yet. It doesn't follow the usual protagonists - but instead a Detective named Will Trent, a gangly severely dyslexic - (and from an abused background) who has to work with another DI - who just happens to be rather fond of 15 year olds, which he enjoys torturing and raping before killing them. The case follows a fresh murder....with all the same hallmarks of a crime that happened 20 years earlier - and the main suspect is freshly out of jail - All a bit too easy? Of course....and Will finds out just how close he is to being involved.
I have to say, there were parts I found quite uncomfortable to read - Will as a child being abused was quite difficult, and I had several bad dreams because of it....but like always, (and similar to a tube of Pringles you know you just shouldn't finish ), I couldn't stop reading. Very good, but very dark.
Now onto my favorite author to date.... Lee Child, and his latest 61 hours :x.
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,990Quartermasters
The Secret War, part of the TIME/LIFE Books' World War II series :v
Really excellent stuff here...the rivalry between the Abwehr and the Sicherheitsdienst, or SD, the two principal intelligence arms of the Third Reich, and their attempts to run operations in the United States during the war. Also cracking good stories about British MI6 and their wildly successful "Double Cross" operation vs Germany.
It's an embarrassment of riches, from a research standpoint...
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
The Age of Chivarly by Arthur Bryant. It covers what many regard as the apogee of medieval times, the 1300s. It starts off with Edward I and his grinding determination to beat both the Scots and the French, but the war on two fronts wears the ageing king ragged. It does go back and forth a bit, as William Wallace has his rebellion, then Robert the Bruce takes up the cudgels against his wimpy successor Edward II, who had male favourites and ended up with a red hot poker up his backside from his disgruntled followers. All the same Mark II was v popular with the common folk. Then Edward III is on to the glory days, with definitive defeats against the French at Crecy and Poiteurs, foreshadowing Agincourt under Henry V in 1415.
It's an important time because originally the Plantagenet Kings were all about trying to reconnect with their French origins (they came from Anjou in south-east France) and make an empire bound up of both England and France as was with the first Plantagenet Henry II (who fell out with Beckett, his Archbishop - c'mon keep up at the back now!). So it didn't in itself seem like an invasion really to them. But as the French fought back, so it strenthens notions of Englishness, in keeping with Edward III's insistence that English rather than French be the main language of the day in England, plus the emphasis on chivarly and Arthurian legend, v popular then.
Also, Ian Mortimer's Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England is a romp through the 1300s day-to-day stuff: how to get around, where to stay, what people wear and so on. Quite readable even if the style grated with me only slightly. It's an eye opener.
Finally, Karen Maitland's Company of Liars is a 500-page gothic tale about a group of travellers across southern England in 1348, the year the plague hit England. It's a page turner, even if the style isn't very dense and it's a tad soapy. It touches on all the concerns of the day, although it seems less impressive when you put the book down, unlike the Flashman novels. Next up, Eco's The Name of the Rose, set earlier and in Italy of course.
it's about an archaeologist who's after a Templar relic with the help of an FBI agent. evil plots, (accurate) historic flashbacks, tons of action and some romance. Khoury REALLY did his research for this book.
in my opinion, like Da Vinci Code, but BETTER. yeah, that's right. BETTER
Just finished Lee Childs latest book - 61 Hours.....
I love these books, Jack Reacher is the main protagonist - and is the seemingly invincible 6'4 rogue who manages to turn up at some crime in progress and solve the issue.
Not sure if it's the need to churn these thrillers out each year, but some of Child's novels are a bit hit and miss, and this one seems a bit rushed.... however we are left this time with not knowing if Reacher has got out alive, and for the first time - there are the words on the final page "To Be Continued" - :v
Now seeing as Child's books are far more hit, than miss..... I can't wait for the 'continued' story....I just hope that Reacher has made it, and not come to his untimely end....
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Erskine Childers's The Riddle of the Sands (1903), often considered the first modern spy thriller. Its historical importance aside, the book sometimes struck me as deadly dull--if you want to learn how to sail a nineteenth century yacht or you're aching to know Frisian coastal geography, this is right up your alley--and the adventure is largely Victorian Boy's Own stuff. But you really can see where so many of the 20th century writers, such as Buchan, got the idea for the amateur who follows duty and becomes a spy; and our own Ian Fleming was obviously inspired by this. After all, what is the quentessential Bond plot if not to investigate a seemingly legitimate enterprise that turns out to be a cover for a dastardly international plot?
Just finished Lee Childs latest book - 61 Hours.....
I love these books, Jack Reacher is the main protagonist - and is the seemingly invincible 6'4 rogue who manages to turn up at some crime in progress and solve the issue.
Not sure if it's the need to churn these thrillers out each year, but some of Child's novels are a bit hit and miss, and this one seems a bit rushed.... however we are left this time with not knowing if Reacher has got out alive, and for the first time - there are the words on the final page "To Be Continued" - :v
Now seeing as Child's books are far more hit, than miss..... I can't wait for the 'continued' story....I just hope that Reacher has made it, and not come to his untimely end....
Jack Reacher is the man, I love these books. Got 'em all, just about to start 61 Hrs. Can't wait now. I've nearly finished reading, "A spy by nature" by Charles Cumming. Excellent IMHO, Gonna get more of his work.
"Yes,dammit,I said "was".The bitch is dead now."
"It's not difficult to get a double 0 number if your prepared to kill people"
A comment from a friend told me that this book was 'not what you would expect' - and they were right. For some reason I had a pre-conceived idea of what this book was about - some sort of lengthy modern day 'Pride and Prejudice' (don't get me wrong, I love P&P but I dislike modern day takes on it....) but it's anything but.
It's a complex, lengthy debut novel (the first of 3) about a computer hacker, a journalist and a Millionaire CEO who is trying to find the answer to a 20 year old mystery of a family member's disappearance. What unfolds is corruption and a horrific family secret that could destroy the legacy of said CEO.
Craig, I'm told, is in talks to play the journalist - in the Hollywood remake. I wouldn't have put him in the role myself, but now I have a possible picture to the character of protagonist Mikael Blomkvist - it makes the reading all the more enjoyable :x
Now reading the second in the series, The Girl Who Played With Fire.
All I can say, is read it. It's bloody brilliant
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
yup. you guessed it. re-reading the entire series in order
Hey! Observer! You trying to get yourself Killed?
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,990Quartermasters
Farewell, My Lovely, by the great Raymond Chandler B-)
The second Philip Marlowe mystery, published in 1940, begins with Marlowe's random encounter with Moose Malloy, a giant man of little education and quiet voice, outside a blacks-only establishment on the rough side of Los Angeles. Malloy goes into the bar searching for a girl named Velma, and ends up shooting the manager to death with a Colt .45.
Marlowe is drawn into a typically labyrinthine maze of seedy characters: lazy/crooked cops, mobsters, racketeers, middle-aged drunks and a particularly shady torch singer...And all of the sub-plots (including one where Marlowe is paid $100 bucks to be a bodyguard to a sleazy gigolo who claims that a priceless jade necklace has been stolen, and is on an errand to pay $8,000 for its return) miraculously end up in the same time and place, culminating in violent death and a tinge of pathos.
I love this stuff -{ Highly recommended for fans of classic hard-boiled detective fiction.
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
well as of late i've been polishing off the entire ian fleming james bond catalog again
but here are the last 15 books I've read (since january of this year to today)
1.) James patterson - Pop goes the weasel
2.) David Baldacci - Absolute Power
3.) Richard matheson - I am Legend (and stories)
4.) Brett easton ellis - American Psycho (reread)
5.) James Patterson - Roses are red
6.) James patterson - Violets are blue
7 - 15.) Ian Fleming - Diamonds Are Forever - You only Live Twice
currently reading - The Man With the Golden Gun
rereading - Evil - Inside Human Cruelty and Violence by Dr. Roy F. Baumeister PhD
as well as a host of american legal briefs and criminal records for my job
I've just read Shakespeare's Macbeth, for the first time.
Good stuff, his shortest tragedy, which makes some think this play as it stands is only a prompt piece of a longer version out there somewhere.
Shakey's plays are a bit like Beatles albums, you can say, "Well it's got this song and this song in it/such and such quotes." Out damn spot is Lady Macbeth's quote as she tries to wipe her hands of blood (shamelessly ripping off Vesper in Casino Royale ) Is this a dagger before me is a hallucinating Macbeth, perturbed by his villainous misdeeds, and all sound and fury signifying nothing is a derisive commentary on life itself, like a bit-part actor who thinks he's a big deal but exits and is soon forgotten...
There was a Macbeth a few years back with GE's Sean Bean and Samantha Bond but I didn't see it because I wasn't familiar with the play. Not sure Bean would convey the same ambivalence and introsepction really, Burton and Taylor they would have been great.
Oh, Sean Connery himself is in a version from 1961. You can youtube it (or part of it) and order it via learmedia (sounds like the sort of website I like to visit... ;% )
Farewell, My Lovely, by the great Raymond Chandler B-)
Marlowe is drawn into a typically labyrinthine maze of seedy characters: lazy/crooked cops, mobsters, racketeers, middle-aged drunks and a particularly shady torch singer...
I love this stuff -{ Highly recommended for fans of classic hard-boiled detective fiction.
Loeffs, I meant to refer you to this comparison made on the BBC radio about the unexpected connection/similarity between the two seemingly very different authors Raymond Chandler and Jeeves and Wooster's PG Wodehouse. I've just remembered to do so...
my mentor recommended it to me 'cause he knows I enjoy Steam Punk type stuff...
faaaaaaar in the future, the earth has lost all our modern conveniences and has reverted to steam powered technology. Fitzpatrick is a controversial war hero, and this book is sort of his biography.
I'm only a few pages in, but I'm enjoying it very much.
Hey! Observer! You trying to get yourself Killed?
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,990Quartermasters
Farewell, My Lovely, by the great Raymond Chandler B-)
Marlowe is drawn into a typically labyrinthine maze of seedy characters: lazy/crooked cops, mobsters, racketeers, middle-aged drunks and a particularly shady torch singer...
I love this stuff -{ Highly recommended for fans of classic hard-boiled detective fiction.
Loeffs, I meant to refer you to this comparison made on the BBC radio about the unexpected connection/similarity between the two seemingly very different authors Raymond Chandler and Jeeves and Wooster's PG Wodehouse. I've just remembered to do so...
Fascinating stuff, NP; thanks {[] I've never read Wodehouse...
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
Comments
Isn't Cussler pretty much using a ghost writer at this point? Seems to happen when blockbuster authors begin to 'franchise' themselves...it's happened to Clancy as well, I think...
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
More from the Da Vinci Code man, and pretty much along the same lines. If you can ignore Brown's weaknesses (painful dialogue, frequent clunkiness, etc) his unputdownable way of hooking the reader and making the familiar unfamiliar works as well as it has before. One of the "big secrets" can be seen coming a mile away; others can't. If the final revelations aren't on the scale of his earlier works it's still an enjoyable page-turner.
I believe Tom Hanks has committed to playing Robert Langdon for a third time when they get round to filming this (and after the payday he got for Angels & Demons that's not surprising) but Ron Howard has still to confirm.
He's is indeed turning his 'brand' into a franchise, and there are a couple of writer's who also contribute to his NUMA series, but with different protaganists. I can't say for certain if it was ghost-written. Admittedly, Black Wind is billed as being co-authored by Cussler's son Dirk Cussler, but I can't tell if that helped or hurt.
I never did get Dan Brown Fever like so many others I knew. The Da Vinci Code was such a blatantly poor book that it took me months to finish it. I figured I'd just wait for the films, but I never did get around to seeing Angels and Demons. I will say this: in what seems a subtle stroke of genius, I felt Tom Hanks casting was as poorly imagined as Dan Brown's hero in the books!
www.scottacademymartialarts.co.uk
This is Alan Moore on top form some of the little cameos are quality and the ads are top. Look up the hoo-ha over the Marvel brand duche ad that was withdrawn. And if you like War of the worlds wait till you see the next book.
www.scottacademymartialarts.co.uk
The world that J.K. Rowling has created is so rich and lovingly crafted it's hard not to fall in love with it. I'm suprised (and very pleased) that WB have so far not tried to create anything else within the world as a spin off to the main series. Maybe they are waiting for the films to end first. I shudder to think what they might do.
Agreed- "N" is the best story of this collection, and it might have been even better if King had expanded this to a full-length novel. This is the one which haunts and stays in the memory- King at his best.
It's a real page turner, timeless (almost) but set in American suburbia in the 1970s, but as in a Lynch film a kind of darkness lurks therein. It's about the Lisbon family who have five daughters but we know in the first paragraph that they all top themselves during the course of the story.
That said, part of the reason it's a page turner is because you're wondering how and when the next daugther will do the deed, so it's a bit like a horror movie in reverse, esp as the first death is the most horrible and startling, as in the tradtion of horror films.
It's all written in a reminiscing tone by a guy who was an adolescent and the same age as the daughters. Nothing really happens in the present exactly, so you're feeling you're ina story that's done and dusted. Some of it I found quite implausible; the way lads are able to get into the Lisbon house in the dead of night without the parents noticing for instance. But the final page about the difference between natural deaths and suicides and the effect the latter has on the people around them I found quite affecting.
I'm going to watch the movie as someone has lent me the DVD but I can't see how they'll pull it off.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I got some great snags at a neglected used bookstore, three Matt Helms by Donald Hamilton, two Travis McGee by John Macdonald, one Modesty Blaise, and another three Michael Shayne detective books. I'd recently watched those movies and now, score!
I admit that in over the past years I changed a lot, so much of my disappointment with the series comes from a change in my own perspective...taking Matt Helm off the shelf after a long time really fell short for me. Go figure.
But re-reading it after all these years definitely fell short. The pacing and suspense were still there, and it was well written, but I just couldn't buy the cut and dried world of "good" and "evil" like I used to.
I have to say, this is her darkest novel yet. It doesn't follow the usual protagonists - but instead a Detective named Will Trent, a gangly severely dyslexic - (and from an abused background) who has to work with another DI - who just happens to be rather fond of 15 year olds, which he enjoys torturing and raping before killing them. The case follows a fresh murder....with all the same hallmarks of a crime that happened 20 years earlier - and the main suspect is freshly out of jail - All a bit too easy? Of course....and Will finds out just how close he is to being involved.
I have to say, there were parts I found quite uncomfortable to read - Will as a child being abused was quite difficult, and I had several bad dreams because of it....but like always, (and similar to a tube of Pringles you know you just shouldn't finish
Now onto my favorite author to date.... Lee Child, and his latest 61 hours :x.
Really excellent stuff here...the rivalry between the Abwehr and the Sicherheitsdienst, or SD, the two principal intelligence arms of the Third Reich, and their attempts to run operations in the United States during the war. Also cracking good stories about British MI6 and their wildly successful "Double Cross" operation vs Germany.
It's an embarrassment of riches, from a research standpoint...
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
next, I don't know what. here's my list. opinions?
The Sign by Raymond Khoury
American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson
Fitzpatrick's War by Theodore Judson
The House that Hugh Laurie Built by Paul Challen
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
I have been getting into medieval stuff.
The Age of Chivarly by Arthur Bryant. It covers what many regard as the apogee of medieval times, the 1300s. It starts off with Edward I and his grinding determination to beat both the Scots and the French, but the war on two fronts wears the ageing king ragged. It does go back and forth a bit, as William Wallace has his rebellion, then Robert the Bruce takes up the cudgels against his wimpy successor Edward II, who had male favourites and ended up with a red hot poker up his backside from his disgruntled followers. All the same Mark II was v popular with the common folk. Then Edward III is on to the glory days, with definitive defeats against the French at Crecy and Poiteurs, foreshadowing Agincourt under Henry V in 1415.
It's an important time because originally the Plantagenet Kings were all about trying to reconnect with their French origins (they came from Anjou in south-east France) and make an empire bound up of both England and France as was with the first Plantagenet Henry II (who fell out with Beckett, his Archbishop - c'mon keep up at the back now!). So it didn't in itself seem like an invasion really to them. But as the French fought back, so it strenthens notions of Englishness, in keeping with Edward III's insistence that English rather than French be the main language of the day in England, plus the emphasis on chivarly and Arthurian legend, v popular then.
Also, Ian Mortimer's Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England is a romp through the 1300s day-to-day stuff: how to get around, where to stay, what people wear and so on. Quite readable even if the style grated with me only slightly. It's an eye opener.
Finally, Karen Maitland's Company of Liars is a 500-page gothic tale about a group of travellers across southern England in 1348, the year the plague hit England. It's a page turner, even if the style isn't very dense and it's a tad soapy. It touches on all the concerns of the day, although it seems less impressive when you put the book down, unlike the Flashman novels. Next up, Eco's The Name of the Rose, set earlier and in Italy of course.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
partly.
it's about an archaeologist who's after a Templar relic with the help of an FBI agent. evil plots, (accurate) historic flashbacks, tons of action and some romance. Khoury REALLY did his research for this book.
in my opinion, like Da Vinci Code, but BETTER. yeah, that's right. BETTER
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
I love these books, Jack Reacher is the main protagonist - and is the seemingly invincible 6'4 rogue who manages to turn up at some crime in progress and solve the issue.
Not sure if it's the need to churn these thrillers out each year, but some of Child's novels are a bit hit and miss, and this one seems a bit rushed.... however we are left this time with not knowing if Reacher has got out alive, and for the first time - there are the words on the final page "To Be Continued" - :v
Now seeing as Child's books are far more hit, than miss..... I can't wait for the 'continued' story....I just hope that Reacher has made it, and not come to his untimely end....
good gosh I love these books :x
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Jack Reacher is the man, I love these books. Got 'em all, just about to start 61 Hrs. Can't wait now. I've nearly finished reading, "A spy by nature" by Charles Cumming. Excellent IMHO, Gonna get more of his work.
"It's not difficult to get a double 0 number if your prepared to kill people"
A comment from a friend told me that this book was 'not what you would expect' - and they were right. For some reason I had a pre-conceived idea of what this book was about - some sort of lengthy modern day 'Pride and Prejudice' (don't get me wrong, I love P&P but I dislike modern day takes on it....) but it's anything but.
It's a complex, lengthy debut novel (the first of 3) about a computer hacker, a journalist and a Millionaire CEO who is trying to find the answer to a 20 year old mystery of a family member's disappearance. What unfolds is corruption and a horrific family secret that could destroy the legacy of said CEO.
Craig, I'm told, is in talks to play the journalist - in the Hollywood remake. I wouldn't have put him in the role myself, but now I have a possible picture to the character of protagonist Mikael Blomkvist - it makes the reading all the more enjoyable :x
Now reading the second in the series, The Girl Who Played With Fire.
All I can say, is read it. It's bloody brilliant
yup. you guessed it. re-reading the entire series in order
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
The second Philip Marlowe mystery, published in 1940, begins with Marlowe's random encounter with Moose Malloy, a giant man of little education and quiet voice, outside a blacks-only establishment on the rough side of Los Angeles. Malloy goes into the bar searching for a girl named Velma, and ends up shooting the manager to death with a Colt .45.
Marlowe is drawn into a typically labyrinthine maze of seedy characters: lazy/crooked cops, mobsters, racketeers, middle-aged drunks and a particularly shady torch singer...And all of the sub-plots (including one where Marlowe is paid $100 bucks to be a bodyguard to a sleazy gigolo who claims that a priceless jade necklace has been stolen, and is on an errand to pay $8,000 for its return) miraculously end up in the same time and place, culminating in violent death and a tinge of pathos.
I love this stuff -{ Highly recommended for fans of classic hard-boiled detective fiction.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
but here are the last 15 books I've read (since january of this year to today)
1.) James patterson - Pop goes the weasel
2.) David Baldacci - Absolute Power
3.) Richard matheson - I am Legend (and stories)
4.) Brett easton ellis - American Psycho (reread)
5.) James Patterson - Roses are red
6.) James patterson - Violets are blue
7 - 15.) Ian Fleming - Diamonds Are Forever - You only Live Twice
currently reading - The Man With the Golden Gun
rereading - Evil - Inside Human Cruelty and Violence by Dr. Roy F. Baumeister PhD
as well as a host of american legal briefs and criminal records for my job
Good stuff, his shortest tragedy, which makes some think this play as it stands is only a prompt piece of a longer version out there somewhere.
Shakey's plays are a bit like Beatles albums, you can say, "Well it's got this song and this song in it/such and such quotes." Out damn spot is Lady Macbeth's quote as she tries to wipe her hands of blood (shamelessly ripping off Vesper in Casino Royale
There was a Macbeth a few years back with GE's Sean Bean and Samantha Bond but I didn't see it because I wasn't familiar with the play. Not sure Bean would convey the same ambivalence and introsepction really, Burton and Taylor they would have been great.
Oh, Sean Connery himself is in a version from 1961. You can youtube it (or part of it) and order it via learmedia (sounds like the sort of website I like to visit... ;%
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Loeffs, I meant to refer you to this comparison made on the BBC radio about the unexpected connection/similarity between the two seemingly very different authors Raymond Chandler and Jeeves and Wooster's PG Wodehouse. I've just remembered to do so...
Enjoy...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8784096.stm
Roger Moore 1927-2017
my mentor recommended it to me 'cause he knows I enjoy Steam Punk type stuff...
faaaaaaar in the future, the earth has lost all our modern conveniences and has reverted to steam powered technology. Fitzpatrick is a controversial war hero, and this book is sort of his biography.
I'm only a few pages in, but I'm enjoying it very much.
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Fascinating stuff, NP; thanks {[] I've never read Wodehouse...
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM