Category: books

The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly

Only my second Michael Connelly book, I’m impressed.

The Wrong Side Of Goodbye is the 29th novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the nineteenth novel featuring Los Angeles Police Department detective Harry Bosch. It was published in 2016. …

I loved Titus Welliver as Bosch in the TV series. The character in the book is just as good.

Folks at goodreads love the book. It’s rated 4.35 / 5.00.

Streamlined clean storytelling. An excellent plot.

This book features Bosch’s paternal half-brother Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer. Haller is even more entertaining than Bosch.

Read the NY Times review.

I’ll definitely be reading more Michael Connelly.

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Bourne Identity film better than the book

Like most people, I love the Bourne films, even the one without Matt Damon.

Click PLAY or watch a trailer for the first on YouTube. (2002)

I finally got around to reading the first — The Bourne Identity, a 1980 spy fiction thriller. Not good. I found the pacing WAY TOO SLOW. Every conversation far too dramatic.

I gave up around half way through.

Robert Ludlum died in 2001. But the Bourne books / films continued without him.  Eric Van Lustbader now writes the sequels.

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

Happily single … that’s my story. And I’m sticking with it. 🙂

I heard something about this book. Downloaded it on a whim.

Modern Romance: An Investigation is a research book written by American actor and stand-up comedian Aziz Ansari and American sociologist and New York University professor Eric Klinenberg.

The book was published in 2015 and provides research information exploring the change in romantic society that has occurred in the past decade. …

As a selfish guy who almost never went to any effort to chase any woman I’d seem to be the last person to be interested in modern dating.

Yet I really enjoyed the book. The dating scene in 2015 sounds hilariously dreadful.

I learned a lot from the book.

On the upside, it seems to me that Tinder has got the right model for quickly getting introduced to people who might be a tiny percentage of 1% interested in going out with you.

 

Jack Reacher – Small Wars


Like many, I’ve read ALL the Jack Reacher novels and try to wait patiently for the next.

Author Lee Childs, however, has published some Reacher short stories / novellas.

“Small Wars” is set in 1989. Like all Reacher stories, it’s excellent. In this one older brother, Colonel Joe Reacher, works at the Pentagon. Jack Reacher calls on  the always entertaining Sergeant Frances Neagley for help.

It’s only 44 pages long on Kindle.

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

Quite good. And a big step up from the Baldacci books I’d been reading recently.

The Lincoln Lawyer is a 2005 novel, the sixteenth by American crime writer Michael Connelly. It introduces Los Angeles attorney Mickey Haller, half-brother of Connelly’s mainstay detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. …

Moderately successful criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller operates around Los Angeles County out of a Lincoln Town Car(hence the title) driven by a former client working off his legal fees. While most clients are drug dealers and gangsters, the story focuses on an unusually important case of wealthy Los Angeles realtor Louis Roulet accused of assault and attempted murder.  …

Click PLAY or watch the film trailer on YouTube.

Michael Connelly, author, thought the film loyal to the story and the character of Mickey Haller. It’s 83% on Fresh Tomatoes though I haven’t seen it yet.

Divergent – the novel

Divergent (2011) is the debut novel of Veronica Roth …

The … first of the Divergent trilogy, a series of young adult dystopian novels …

The novel has been compared to other young adult books such as The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner because of its similar themes and target audience. …

I’d say Divergent is not as good as either of the other two super popular books. I won’t continue on to book 2.

Divergent the film (2014) made hundreds of millions, but is also not considered as good as the other two adaptations. I’ve not seen it.

Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.

 

 

 

 

David Baldacci books

David Baldacci is an American novelist who has a net worth of $45 million dollars.

Though I’m not normally a big fan of thrillers, I tried three of his easy-to-read books:

Memory Man (2015)
Camel Club (2005)
Split Second (2003)

Two of those the author considers amongst his 5 best.

I simply couldn’t get into them. Too many characters. Impossibly unlikely plots. All action, no interesting details on the lives of the protagonists.

Memory Man was best of the three. Perhaps he’s getting better.

Count me out. No more Baldacci.