Category: books

The Fallen Angel by Daniel Silva

On By Rick McIn books, IslamLeave a comment

Well written, as always, the plot kept me going. It’s one of the best books in the series.

After narrowly surviving his last operation, Gabriel Allon, the wayward son of Israeli intelligence, has taken refuge behind the walls of the Vatican, where he is restoring one of Caravaggio’s greatest masterpieces.

But early one morning he is summoned to St. Peter’s Basilica by Monsignor Luigi Donati, the all-powerful private secretary to His Holiness Pope Paul VII. The body of a beautiful woman lies broken beneath Michelangelo’s magnificent dome. The Vatican police suspect suicide, though Gabriel believes otherwise. So, it seems, does Donati, who calls upon Gabriel to quietly pursue the truth—with one caveat.

My main criticism is that Silva is VERY pro-Israel, anti-Palestine. There’s not the slightest attempt for balance on that issue.

West with the Night – Beryl Markham autobiography

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West with the Night is a 1942 memoir by Beryl Markham, chronicling her experiences growing up in Kenya (then British East Africa) in the early 1900s, leading to a career as a bush pilot there.

It is considered a classic of outdoor literature …

There are some questions of whether Markham is the real author of her memoir. According to the 1993 biography, The Lives of Beryl Markham, by Errol Trzebinski, the book’s real author was her third husband, the ghost writer and journalist Raoul Schumacher. …

Ernest Hemingway was deeply impressed with Markham’s writing, saying:

“she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers … it really is a bloody wonderful book.”

In 2004, National Geographic Adventure ranked it number 8 in a list of 100 best adventure books. …

Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli

On By Rick McIn books, travelLeave a comment

Keen to learn more about Bhutan, I picked up this rather casual account of an NPR journalist’s trips starting 2008.

Lisa Napoli was in the grip of a crisis, dissatisfied with her life and her work as a radio journalist. When a chance encounter with a handsome stranger presented her with an opportunity to move halfway around the world, Lisa left behind cosmopolitan Los Angeles for a new adventure in the ancient Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan—said to be one of the happiest places on earth. …

As she helps to start Bhutan’s first youth-oriented radio station, Kuzoo FM, she must come to terms with her conflicting feelings about the impact of the medium on a country that had been shielded from its effects. …

Bhutan’s still too expensive for me.

All tourists must pay US$250 per person per day (US$200 a day from December to February and June to August), with a US$40/30 surcharge per person for those in a group of one/two. This covers accommodation, transport in Bhutan, a guide, food and entry fees.

Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

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This fantasy book started well. I liked the interesting story premise.

By the end it had too much fighting, not enough plot. A frequent problem in this genre. 

Furies of Calderon (2004) is the first novel in the high fantasy series Codex Alera …

It tells the story of a young boy named Tavi who is the only one without any fury crafting abilities …

The story takes place in the Aleran Empire, which contains “crafters”, people who control the elements: water, air, earth, fire, wood, and metal, through a person’s bond with an element’s fury. …

Furies of Calderon was well received by critics. …

Not sure I want to carry on to book 2 – Academ’s Fury. 

A Brief History of Seven Killings

On By Rick McIn books, musicLeave a comment

Couldn’t do it. 

This book is too abstract. Too confusing. More than 75 characters.

And too violent.

I gave up about a third of the way through.

A Brief History of Seven Killings is the third novel by Jamaican author Marlon James. …

The novel spans several decades and explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1976 and its aftermath through the crack wars in New York City in the 1980s and a changed Jamaica in the 1990s. …

The book was awarded the 2015 Man Booker Prize. This marked the first time that a Jamaican-born author has won the prize. …

Trevor Noah – Born a Crime (2016)

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Kate recommended this book. I’m glad she did. It’s a fantastic insight into growing up in South Africa as Apartheid was ending.

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood is an autobiographical comedy book written by the American comedian Trevor Noah. …

Noah has been the host of The Daily Show  on Comedy Central, since 28 September 2015.

Amazon

The son of a Xhosa mother and a Swiss-German father, Mr. Noah recalls that “the only time I could be with my father was indoors”: “If we left the house, he’d have to walk across the street from us.” It was dangerous, as a light-skinned child, to be seen with his mother as well: “She would hold my hand or carry me, but if the police showed up she would have to drop me and pretend I wasn’t hers.” …

In the end, “Born a Crime” is not just an unnerving account of growing up in South Africa …, but a love letter to the author’s remarkable mother …

NY Times – ‘Born a Crime,’ Trevor Noah’s Raw Account of Life Under Apartheid

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)

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Though I was a huge science fiction fan in my teens, I never became a Le Guin fan (aside from her brilliant Left Hand of Darkness). Though a skilled writer, Le Guin’s plots are too complex to be great storytelling.

Heinlein was better.

I still feel that way. This book has a terrific plot: Shevek (a physicist) is the first from his planet in ages to travel to the supposedly utopian mother planet, Urras, in order to share an astonishing discovery.

It does not go well.  Nor does the book. It’s too wordy, too complicated.

The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is a 1974 utopian science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin …

The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1974 won both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1975 …

It achieved a degree of literary recognition unusual for science fiction works due to its exploration of many themes, including anarchism and revolutionary societies, capitalism and individualism and collectivism. …

 

 

I’m not smart enough to read Louise Penny …

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A Fatal Grace (Dead Cold), by Louise Penny, is the second (2007) novel in the Three Pines Mysteries series, which feature Inspector Armand Gamache.

CC de Poitiers, a sadistic socialite, is fatally electrocuted at a Christmas curling competition in the small Québécois town …

CC, who had a “spiritual guidance” business based on eliminating emotion, was hated by seemingly everyone, including her husband, lover, and daughter. …

There is NO WAY I could guess the murderer. Great writing. And very complex.

Chief Inspector Gamache tells new agents four sayings that can lead to wisdom – four sentences his own mentor taught him:

I was wrong
I’m sorry
I don’t know
I need help

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

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The Kingkiller Chronicle is a fantasy series by Patrick Rothfuss, telling the autobiography of Kvothe …

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick RothfussThe first two books, The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear were released in 2007 and 2011, respectively. A third is planned to fill out a trilogy, but a release date has not been announced. …

I loved the first two books.

Rothfuss is a superb story teller.

When will we get book 3? The author says … soon.