Category: books

The Devil in the White City

On By Rick McIn books1 Comment

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

The Devil in the White City (2003) by Erik Larson was recommended to me by Ron & Kate.

It’s an incredible read. The truth truly is stranger than fiction. I highly recommend it. 

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The book is based on real characters and events. Leonardo DiCaprio purchased the film rights in 2010. …

The book is set in Chicago in 1893, intertwining the true tales of Daniel H. Burnham, the architect behind the 1893 World’s Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, the serial killer who lured his victims to their deaths in his elaborately constructed “Murder Castle.” …

Serial killer Dr. Henry Howard Holmes
Serial killer Dr. Henry Howard Holmes

 

 

Tricky Business by Dave Barry

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Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry have made careers out of making fun of Florida.

Dave Barry’s 2016 book is — surprisingly — …

Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland

For some reason I ended up reading, instead, classic Barry from 2002.

tricky-business

The Extravaganza of the Seas is a five-thousand-ton cash cow, a top-heavy tub whose sole function is to carry gamblers three miles from the Florida coast, take their money, then bring them back so they can find more money.

In the middle of a tropical storm one night, these characters are among the passengers it carries: Fay Benton, a single mom and cocktail waitress desperate for something to go right for once; Johnny and the Contusions, a ship’s band with so little talent they are . . . well, the ship’s band; Arnold and Phil, two refugees from the Beaux Arts Senior Center; Lou Tarant, a wide, bald man who has killed nine people, though none recently; and an assortment of uglies whose job it is to facilitate the ship’s true business, which is money-laundering or drug-smuggling or . . . something. …

Good Reads

Best was the subplot regarding the news team following the storm. 🙂

Daniel Silva – Portrait of a Spy

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The 11th title in the Gabriel Allon series is my favourite, so far.

While enjoying a day in London with his wife, antiterrorist expert Gabriel Allon spots a man he believes to be a suicide bomber and follows him into Covent Garden. Alas, undercover police knock him down before he can intervene, and carnage ensues. Afterward, the CIA asks Gabriel to track down an American-born cleric now setting himself up as a rival to Osama bin Laden. …

Barnes and Noble

portrait-of-a-spy

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (film)

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A sequel to the 2012 film Jack Reacher, the film stars Tom Cruise …

The plot follows Reacher going on-the-run with an Army Major who has been framed for espionage. …

wikipedia

It’s been successful at the Box Office. But reviews have been poor.

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Personally I very much liked the film. It’s stays quite true to the minimalist Reacher books.

And I’ve always liked Cruise as an actor.

Cobie Smulders is very believable, too.

Jack Reacher – Night School

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#21 in the series.

I’ve enjoyed all the Jack Reacher books. This is one of the best.

It’s much stronger than Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon books, in comparison.

A prequel set back in 1996 — Reacher is still in the army, age 35, and he’s moved to an emergency task force because the intelligence services in Europe have plucked a menacing phrase from the air: “The American wants a hundred million dollars.” For what?

With Frances Neagley, his trusted sergeant and trusty sidekick, by his side — what problem can’t be resolved? …

Lee Child

lee-child-and-night-school

Gabriel Allon – Israeli assassin

On By Rick McIn books, Islam1 Comment

For some reason I’ve continued with Daniel Silva’s series:

A Death in Vienna (2004)
Prince of Fire (2005)
The Messenger (2006)

They are easy listening. Formulaic.

Instructive of the Israeli dilemma — survival in a region surrounded by enemies.

Of these three Prince of Fire was best, I’d say.

… the semireluctant spy, Gabriel, is pulled from his cover to hunt down terrorists who have committed a horrific crime, in this case the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Rome. The mastermind behind the bombing is French archeologist Paul Martineau, aka “Khaled, son of Sabri, grandson of Sheikh Asad. …

Amazon

prince-of-fire

Daniel Silva – Gabriel Allon books

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I was not all that impressed with book 2 in the series.

1 The Kill Artist 2000
2 The English Assassin 2002
3 The Confessor 2003

But book 3 was better. A Dan Brown type thriller where the Israeli assassin is called in to prevent an attack on the Pope.

confessor

… The new pope, Pietro Lucchesi, who calls himself Paul VII, immediately angers powerful members of the Vatican by announcing his desire to speak at the synagogue of Rome. Opponents, such as Cardinal Marco Brindisi suspect that Paul VII intends to unearth candid and potentially damaging information about the role of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust. …

It motivated me to continue on to book 4 – A Death in Vienna (2004).

The Mountain Shadow – Gregory David Roberts

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Roberts’ Shantaram (2003) is my favourite novel all time.

The Mountain Shadow – a sequel set 2 years later – was not published until 2015.

Julia Flyte:

Like many others, I loved Shantaram, and so I approached this sequel with an equal mix of anticipation and trepidation. Could Gregory David Roberts repeat the magic? The short answer is no. This book isn’t nearly as good as Shantaram, and worse, it has the potential to make Shantaram seem worse in retrospect. But having said that, it’s not a total disaster either.

I agree with Julia and most other critics. I do not recommend The Mountain Shadow to anyone.

There are a few good scenes. Some interesting philosophical observations. But overall it’s a too long, messy ramble with no story line.

mountain-shadow

Roberts dropped out of public life in 2014.

The Rolling Stones by Robert Heinlein (1952)

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The Rolling Stones (also published under the name Space Family Stone in the United Kingdom) is a 1952 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. …

The Stones, a family of “Loonies” (residents of the Moon, known as “Luna” in Latin), purchase and rebuild a used spaceship, and go sightseeing around the Solar System.

The twin teenage boys, Castor and Pollux, buy used bicycles to sell on Mars …

rolling-stones

While on Mars, the twins buy their brother Buster a native Martian creature called a flat cat, born pregnant and producing a soothing vibration, as a pet. …

A similar concept and plotline appeared in the Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles“. …

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Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love are two of my favourite books.

The controversial, provocative Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke are considered the big 3 early Science Fiction authors. I was one of the teenage boys who read them avidly.