I’m on a road trip to visit 5 Gymnastics events in 4 Gyms. At least. 🙂
I’ve got plenty of audio books.
Category: books
15th book in the Jack Reacher series
Worth Dying For is the fifteenth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. …
What’s wrong with Reacher?
For the second novel in a row he got beat up. AND did not get the girl.
Reacher’s getting old. 😦
EX_MACHINA
There’s much talk of when the first computer will gain consciousness. And supersede mankind.
EX_MACHINA is a 2015 British science fiction thriller film written and directed by author and screenwriter Alex Garland, making his directorial debut. The film stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac. …
Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.
Ex Machina has received widespread critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 91%, based on 174 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. …
On Metacritic, the film has a score of 78 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.
Garland is the guy who wrote that terrible 1996 novel – The Beach. 😦
Here’s the state of the art in 2015, a Toshiba humanoid named Aiko Chihira.Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. Humans have a few years left, obviously. 🙂
related – Uncanny valley
Lee Child – Without Fail (2002)
Without Fail is the sixth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. …
Skilled, cautious, and anonymous, Jack Reacher is perfect for the job: to assassinate the vice president of the United States. Theoretically, of course. A female Secret Service agent wants Reacher to find the holes in her system, and fast – because a covert group already has the vice president in their sights. They’ve planned well. There’s just one thing they didn’t plan on: Reacher.
The sixth time’s a charm for thriller meister Child, whose latest escapade starring ex-military cop Jack Reacher is handily his most accomplished and most compelling to date. …
Sure the plot is unbelievable. But I’d agree that this was the best of the series, so far.
In fact I’ve downloaded the first 17/20 audiobooks in the series (so far) and am working my way through them. 🙂
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Infidel: My Life (2006/published in English 2007) is the autobiography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-Dutch activist and politician. Out of consideration for the safety of the female ghostwriter, her identity is not given, as Hirsi Ali has attracted controversy …
Hirsi Ali writes about her youth in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya; about her flight to the Netherlands where she applied for political asylum, her university experience in Leiden, her work for the Labour Party, her transfer to the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, her election to Parliament, and the murder of Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the film Submission. The book ends with a discussion of the controversy regarding her application for asylum and status of her citizenship. …
Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria described it as “an amazing book by an amazing person”. …
Reporter Lorraine Ali in Newsweek magazine gave the book a negative review, claiming that the reader will feel “manipulated” by Hirsi’s story. She said that “Hirsi Ali is more a hero among Islamophobes than Islamic women.” She also said that Hirsi sounds as “single-minded and reactionary as the zealots she’s worked so hard to oppose”.
I’d agree with both those reviewers.
Her seemingly gradual emancipation from tribalism and Islam to become a secular, agnostic parliamentarian working to call attention to crimes being committed against Muslim women in Europe seemed somewhat … unbelievable to me.
On the other hand … I’ve traveled more in Muslim nations than any other Canadian I know, yet I was shocked by the author’s life story.
My perspective as a white male guest in famously welcoming and hospitable societies left me with very favourable impressions of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia. Even Yemen.
My first trip was 1994 and I did come back reporting that the bleakest aspect of Islam was the plight of women. But I had no idea just how bad it was (at least in Somalia) until I read this memoir.
She recounts her genital mutilation. And those of other women. Horrific.
It’s an African tradition. Though, as she points out, Islam has done little to educate or eradicate the practice. Today it mainly happens in 27 African countries and Yemen.
FGM has been outlawed or restricted in most of the countries in which it occurs, but the laws are poorly enforced. There have been international efforts since the 1970s to persuade practitioners to abandon it, and in 2012 the United Nations General Assembly, recognizing FGM as a human-rights violation, voted unanimously to intensify those efforts. …
Though Ayaan Hirsi Ali life’s work is in support of Muslim women, I suspect any group of Muslim women would count many who disagree with her.
Not all Muslim men beat their wife (or wives). Not all Muslim women are powerless in their families.
It’s bad. But not as bad as you’d be led to believe by this autobiography.
Bottom line. You should read this unforgettable book. Thanks for recommending it to me, Jane.
related – I watch the film ‘Submission’ by Theo van Gogh. Not impressed.
Philip Seymour Hoffman – A Most Wanted Man
A Most Wanted Man is a 2014 British espionage thriller film based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré …
The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright …
It is the last of Hoffman’s films released in his lifetime. …
A Most Wanted Man received positive reviews and has a … score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes
Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.
I was reminded just how terrific Hoffman was as an actor. Very believable. Never cliché. This film is recommended, if only as a tribute to his memory.
Philip Seymour Hoffman died of combined drug intoxication. Age-46. 😦
related – NY Times obituary
He appeared in more than 50 films over 25 years.
Running Blind – Lee Child
The Visitor (2000) is the fourth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. …. In the United States; the book was released under the title Running Blind.
The story begins in New York City, with Reacher confronting and beating up two thugs sent to collect protection racket money from the new restaurant he was eating in, during which he deliberately implies that he is a member of a rival crime organisation.
Reacher is picked up by the FBI and questioned but explains he’s been a loner since he mustered out of the army. He is then questioned about two women whose cases of sexual harassment he dealt with when he was an MP. It is revealed they have both been killed in the last few months and a criminal profiling team has come to the conclusion that the person responsible was someone exactly like Reacher. …
For the first part of the book I felt it was the best of the first four. But the ending was a bit unfulfilling. Still – I plan to buy book #5 in the series.
Tripwire by Lee Child
Tripwire is the third book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. It was published in 1999 …
The main story begins with Jack Reacher working two jobs in Key West and bumping into a private detective who happens to be searching for Jack. Costello is working for a client named Mrs. Jacob, a name Reacher does not recognise.
Later on, whilst Reacher is working his night job as a bouncer in a strip club, two very suspicious-looking men also make inquiries about his location. Reacher attempts to follow them but instead finds Costello murdered on the sidewalk. Jack then flies to New York to find out why Costello was looking for Reacher and why he was killed for it. …
Though weaker than the first two books, I still enjoyed Tripwire.
I’ll download book 4, Running Blind (The Visitor). I’m keen to see how the author keeps the story fresh while still following the revenge formula.
Gone Girl – a review
I’ve not yet read the book. But the film is excellent.
Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and adapted by Gillian Flynn from her 2012 novel of the same name. It stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. …
Affleck can only play Affleck. He’s OK. But there’s not much acting there.
Rosamund Pike is fantastic.
… she received nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. …
What a freak.
Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.
The Silkworm – J. K. Rowling
The Silkworm is a 2014 crime fiction novel written by J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It is the second novel in the series of private investigator Cormoran Strike, and is a sequel to The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013). …
Much like The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm was met with critical acclaim but, since Rowling’s identity as the series’ author was revealed in early 2013, managed to sell more copies than its predecessor in its opening weeks. …
Both books are good. But Silkworm even better than Cuckoo’s. Strike and his sidekick get more interesting. Rowling does an impressive job of writing from an old, gruff male perspective. Strike is believable.
I’ll certainly continue to read the Strike series. I’m suddenly a crime fiction buff.
Amazon – The Silkworm (A Cormoran Strike Novel)
Rick McCharles 