Category: books

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

downloading audiobooks from the library

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I’m using the IOS Libby app from OverDrive.

It’s similar to the old IOS Overdrive app, but is somewhat newer. Perhaps better.

And it works well. Overdrive was horrible, terrible, hilariously bad for many years … but they finally figured out a good interface.

The selection of Audio books available is in 2018 quite good. Better than in the past. I have no problem finding things I want to read.

I wait anywhere from 2 – 12 weeks for a book to arrive. The library sends email notification when it’s available.

Death of the Demon by Anne Holt

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Anne Holt  is a Norwegian author, lawyer and former Minister of Justice.

Not super impressed with book 1 in her Hanne Wilhelmsen murder mystery series, I — none the less — tried a second book.

Who stabbed Agnes Vestavik, fortysomething director of one of Norway’s few residential facilities for children, the Spring Sunshine Foster Home? Among the murder suspects is 12 year old Olav Håkonsen.

Holt’s a good writer but again I found the pacing of the very interesting plot too slow.

I started with Holt wanting to learn more about Norway. Through two books I learned nothing about her nation. It’s as if she deliberately keeps the setting generic.

It’s not Nordic noir.

I won’t read Holt again.

I’m the Messenger by Markus Zusak

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Impressed with his wordsmithery in The Book Thief, I downloaded another Zusak.

The Messenger (2002) … was released in the United States under the name I Am the Messenger.

Four 20-year-old slacker friends in small town Australia spend their nights playing cards and days slacking … or working menial jobs.

Bewilderingly, the protagonist — Ed Kennedy — is drawn into a mystery where he must solve riddles and change the lives of other people in town.

Like Book Thief, it’s original and creative.

Most people enjoy this book.

Some are turned off by the silly plot.

It did keep me going.

Surprisingly Zusak has not published since Book Thief 2005. He plans to release Bridge of Clay in Oct 2018.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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The Book Thief is a 2005 historical novel by Australian author Markus Zusak and is his most popular work. …

I finally got around to reading this acclaimed novel.

Zusak intended it for the young adult market, yet the language is sophisticated. Almost poetic. He’s an excellent writer.

Quite original. The narrator is death.

Most people love the book but I wasn’t totally won over.

It’s about a young girl living in a small town near Munich with her adoptive German family during the Nazi era.

Taught to read by her kind-hearted foster father, the girl begins “borrowing” books and sharing them with the Jewish refugee being sheltered by her foster parents in their home …

It was adapted into a 2013 feature film of the same name. …

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 46% …

I didn’t bother downloading.

It’s about Liesel (Sophie Nelisse), the orphaned 12-year-old daughter of German communist activists, taken in by a middle-aged couple in 1938.

She and the smitten boy next door Rudy (Nico Liersch) join the Hitler Youth and goose-step around town burning books and fetishising der FĂĽhrer as little twinges of conscience and doubt slowly begin to manifest themselves.

Then her adoptive parents Hans and Rosa (Geoffrey Rush, all twinkly grandpa, and Emily Watson, super-grouchy but with a heart of gold) take in and hide the Jewish son of the man who saved Hans’s life in the Great War. …

Guardian – movie review

Memory Man by David Baldacci

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This is the first book I’ve read by Baldacci. He is a good story teller.

Memory Man is a crime novel about a man whose wife, daughter and brother in law were murdered …

… the first novel to feature new character Amos Decker …

Decker is 6′ 5″ and an obese 350 lbs.

His partner is a chain smoking anorexic.

Click PLAY or watch the author interviewed on YouTube.

After a mass shooting at a local high school, Decker is asked to assist in solving the case by the local police force he used to work for. It soon becomes apparent that the shooting is somehow related to the killing of his family 18 months before. …

I did enjoy the book. It kept me guessing.

That said, I probably won’t continue with Decker. He’s just not compelling enough for me.