I recommend this book.
A fictional account of a looming pandemic.
I got hooked from the start where a couple is enjoying Vietnam on a guided bike tour.
This is Bohjalian’s 21st book, though I can’t recall hearing the name. He’s Armenian / Swedish. Several of his works have been adapted for TV and film.
John recommend this book — comparing it to The Road, a 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy.
It’s very good. Though — like The Road — depressing.
Parable of the Sower is a 1993 dystopian novel by Octavia E. Butler, the first in a two-book series.
Set in the 2020s where society has largely collapsed due to climate change, growing wealth inequality, and corporate greed, Parable of the Sower centers on a young woman named Lauren Oya Olamina who possesses what Butler dubbed hyperempathy or “sharing” – the ability to feel pain and other sensations she witnesses. …
When Lauren‘s home is destroyed and family murdered, she travels north with other survivors.
The young woman evolves a new belief system, which she comes to call Earthseed. Her goal to build a community based on those beliefs.
Sadly, Octavia Butler died age-58 at her home in Washington State. A multiple recipient of both Hugo and Nebula awards, she influenced many other writers.
I’d seen No Country for Old Men, the 2007 thriller film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.
Very scary. Especially Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh.
Very violent.
The film won 76 awards on 109 nominations across multiple organizations; it won four awards at the 80th Academy Awards – Best Picture, Best Director(s), Best Supporting Actor (Bardem) and Best Adapted Screenplay …
… many regard it as the Coen brothers’ best film. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The Coens’ script was mostly faithful to the source material.
The 2005 novel has the same dark feel.
A drug deal gone wrong near the Mexican border in 1980. A psychopath killer.
Though some argue that Cormac McCarthy is “our greatest living writer” — early critical reception of the novel was mixed.
I loved The Road (2006), the post-apocalyptic novel awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The Road was an excellent film, as well.
I’ve always been anti-war.
Citizens should do everything they can to avoid war.
That said, the allies response to Hitler’s invasions and the attack on Pearl Harbor were justified.
Even Gandhi supported the allies in WW II.
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian (2008) is the story of a journey in the waning months of World War II.
A Prussian family flees west ahead of the advancing Russian army. They bring a Scottish POW that had been working on their farm. En route, they are joined by Uri Singer, an escaped Jew posing as a Nazi officer.
At the same time, Nazi work camp prisoners are being marched west.
It’s all horrible.
War is Hell.
I liked the previous book by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen — The Wife Between Us (2018) — and looked forward to their 2019 novel.
It’s even better.
Jessica, a Manhattan makeup artist, signs up for a research study into morality and ethics. She needs the money. It pays $500.
But what does Dr. Shields’ actually want of her?
A TV series based on the book is planned.
When Lee Child announced his retirement after the 25th novel in the Jack Reacher series, fans like me were disappointed.
The 26th book is The Sentinel (2020) co-authored by James Grant and his younger brother Andrew Grant but published using their respective pen names of Lee Child and Andrew Child.
Sounds like the much younger brother did most of the writing.
He’s taking over the franchise.
Happily, Sentinel is excellent.
In this one, Reacher battles those behind a ransomware cyber attack in a small town a couple of hours out of Nashville.
related – A bad review of the book.
Abaddon’s Gate is 3rd in The Expanse series — preceded by Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War.
James Holden and his crew have been successful in their ship-for-hire business, cashing in on their celebrity …
But things go wrong when our crew goes first through the Stargate called “The Ring”.
They have a camera crew onboard.
Abaddon’s Gate was adapted into episodes 7 to 13 of the third season of the television series The Expanse in 2018, with its title taken for the final episode of that season.
This is one of those rare series where the TV show is better than the books.
I find the books too slow.
Sue Grafton (April 24, 1940 – December 28, 2017) was an American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the “alphabet series” (“A” Is for Alibi, etc.) featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. …
Grafton described Kinsey Millhone as her alter ego, “the person I might have been had I not married young and had children.” …
The first book in the series is easy reading.
Her style has been described as “laconic, breezy, wise-cracking”. It reminds me a bit of the Harlan Coben books featuring crime solver / sports agent Myron Bolitar.
Not literature.
In “A” Is for Alibi (1982) Kinsey, age-32, investigates the death of prominent divorce lawyer eight years earlier. His wife was convicted of murder.
When the wife is released on parole, she hires Kinsey to find the real killer.
Good stuff. I recommend it.
Troubled Blood (2020) is the fifth novel in the Cormoran Strike series …
I ASSume Galbraith is a moral man — respecting human rights.
Cormoran Strike is as irritable and irritating as ever.
We can’t imagine why partner Robin Ellacott likes him as a boss — or for possible romance.
Happily, Robin finally divorced her husband. What a relief.
Troubled Blood is well written. But I enjoyed it least of the series, so far.
The 40 year old cold case is too long, too slow. I definitely couldn’t get into it.
More insight into Strike’s odd family was interesting. In fact, all the other story lines were engaging.
I’ll definitely be continuing with the series, even if it turns out Galbraith is a horrible person in real life.
A Song for the Dark Times (2020) is the 23rd Rebus book by Ian Rankin.
I’ve read them all.
This one is as good as ever. Despite Rebus being long retired. I said goodbye (the first time) in 2007 with Exit Music.
Rebus had to move to ground floor residence as he can no longer do stairs. And he keeps his inhaler at the ready.
Brexit looms. But there’s no talk of COVID-19.
When his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days.
Rebus fears the worst – and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect.
He wasn’t the best father – the job always came first – but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective?
ianrankin.net
My brother Randy linked to this video of a recent discussion of aging characters: Rebus v Harry Bosch.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick McCharles 