Swiping Hearts (2023) is a short story by one of my favourite writers.
Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are called upon to tackle a crime unlike any they’ve ever faced.
An unknown subject is using his formidable skills to work his way into the lives—and hearts—of his victims, all with the goal of utterly destroying them psychologically and emotionally . . . for his pure pleasure.
Debut novel by Eva Jurczyk.
Too slow. Too long.
Liesl Weiss, the protagonist, was simply not a character I could cheer for.
The resolution no kind of surprising twist.
I downloaded this mystery because it was set in a library. And Jurczyk herself is a librarian at the University of Toronto and worked in its rare books library as a graduate student.
She knows of what she writes.
Skip this book — unless you are REALLY into libraries.
Click PLAY or watch an interview with the author on YouTube.
Can this actually be James Patterson?
It reads to me more like John Grisham.
Excellent.
Stafford Lee Penney is a small-town lawyer with a big-time reputation for winning every case he tries. In his sharp suits and polished Oxford shoes, Penney is Biloxi, Mississippi’s #1 Lawyer and top local celebrity.
Just as Penney notches his latest courtroom victory, his wife is scandalously killed. He spirals into a legal and personal losing streak, damaging his reputation and ruining his career. …
Perhaps this 2024 novel had a LOT of influence from co-author Nancy Allen.
She practiced law in the Ozarks for fifteen years as Assistant Attorney General and Assistant Prosecutor. She served on the faculty at Missouri State University for sixteen years, teaching law classes.
All the Light We Cannot See (2014) is a war novel by American author Anthony Doerr.
… set during World War II. It revolves around the characters Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind French girl who takes refuge in her great-uncle’s house in Saint-Malo after Paris is invaded by Nazi Germany, and Werner Pfennig, a bright German boy who is accepted into a military school because of his skills in radio technology.
It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Overall, I was disappointed.
Too long. Poor storytelling. It rambled too much.
There were dozens of scenes that could have been left out — leaving the core story stronger.
WHY have 4 diamonds? That added nothing but unnecessary pages.
I’m astonished that the Pulitzer judges were impressed.
The mini-series — 4 episodes — is MUCH BETTER.
Don’t listen to the critics who gave it only 27% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I commend the screen writers for improving so much of the messy book.
Werner Pfennig is a much stronger character on screen.
Hugh Laurie is excellent as the World War I veteran suffering from PTSD.
Marie-Laure is played by Aria Mia Loberti who is legally blind. She responded on a whim to an All The Light We Cannot See open global casting search posted online. An amateur. Well cast.
I’d agree with critics that the NAZIs are cliche in the TV series . No nuance.
That was my biggest complaint with the mini-series.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Fletch Won (1985) is a mystery/comedy novel written by American Gregory Mcdonald.
It is the eighth book to star the character Fletch, but is a prequel set before the events of first seven books in the series. …
Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher is moved off of obituaries and wedding announcements at the News Tribune and is assigned his first journalistic interview, only to have the subject turn up dead in the newspaper‘s parking lot. He investigates, beginning his dual profession of journalist and investigator.
Amusing. But I don’t think I’ll continue with any of the other Fletch books.
The book series was twice adapted for film:
Chevy seems the perfect fool to play this role.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’ve really enjoyed the James Patterson books with co-author Nancy Allen.
The difference is Nancy Allen.
In this book, there are two separate trials.
Ruby Bozarth, a newcomer to Rosedale, Mississippi, is also fresh to the State Bar — and to the docket of Circuit Judge Baylor, who taps Ruby as defense counsel.
The murder of a woman from one of the town’s oldest families has Rosedale’s upper crust howling for blood, and the prosecutor is counting on Ruby’s inexperience to help him deliver a swift conviction.
Ruby’s client is a college football star who has returned home after a career-ending injury, and she is determined to build a defense that will stick
Ruby never belonged to the country club set, but once she nearly married into it. As news breaks of a second murder, Ruby’s ex-fiancé shows up on her doorstep — a Southern gentleman in need of a savior. As lurid, intertwining investigations unfold, no one in Rosedale can be trusted, especially the twelve men and women impaneled on the jury. They may be hiding the most incendiary secret of all.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Mick Herron is the genius behind the Slough House series.
This Is What Happened (2018) is a standalone novel. Quite different than the Slough House books.
I enjoyed it for being so different.
In London, Harvey Wells, an MI5 agent, recruits lonely 26-year-old mail room employee Maggie Barnes to spy on her firm.
What at first appears to be a tale of spycraft and intrigue turns out to be something entirely different.
Very well written. I recommend the book.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”.
Bhagavad Gita
Initially, I wasn’t all that interested in either the long non-fiction book, nor the film.
BUT finally got around to both.
The movie is better. Not perfect, but a fantastic job telling a difficult story.
I streamed it on Prime over 3 nights as it is LONG.
Cillian Murphy would seem to be the best possible actor to play the brilliant, complicated J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Robert Downey Jr. is excellent.
Matt Damon as Gen. Leslie Groves, as well.
Kenneth Branagh as Niels Bohr is perfect. He has the gravitas to bring depth to Oppenheimer’s hero.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I read American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005) by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
Surprisingly, I was quite engaged in his early years. The beginnings of the theoretical Physics that would lead to the nuclear bomb.
Once it got to his downfall due to his security hearing in the McCarthy era. The efforts by Lewis Strauss and the FBI to undermine Oppenheimer — I got restless.
Always conflicted, I wished Oppenheimer had simply walked away from the controversy.
I also read The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer, the author being a friend of my brother.
It’s an interesting alternative history of the Manhattan Project historical figures.
Nobody calls James Patterson a great novelist.
BUT he has a lot of books. They’ve sold more than 425 million copies. And he’s helped thousands of people earn a living through the book industry.
Not to mention the dozens of author’s he’s promoted by co-authoring.
James Patterson is one of the good guys.
He calls himself a left-leaning political independent — but is disgusted with his neighbour, 4-time-loser Trump.
His 2024 nonfiction title, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians takes us inside the lives, and livelihoods, of the everyday heroes surrounding us in the literary trenches: booksellers and librarians.
In a collection of profiles that includes professionals of all types, from school librarians to independent booksellers to big box chain employees, Patterson and his co-author, Matt Eversmann, delve into how these reading gurus inspire young and old every day.
Publisher’s Weekly review – James Patterson’s ‘The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians’
In November 2015, Patterson received the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation.
Patterson has donated millions of dollars in grants and scholarship to various universities, teachers’ colleges, independent bookstores, school libraries, and college students to promote literacy.
In 2013, Patterson took out ads titled “Who Will Save Our Books? Our Bookstores? Our Libraries?” in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times Book Review, which employed the text “If there are no bookstores, no libraries, no serious publishers with passionate, dedicated, idealistic editors, what will happen to our literature? Who will discover and mentor new writers? Who will publish our important books? What will happen if there are no more books like these?”
Breathless is a murder mystery set on one of the 8000m peaks.
Not a great mystery — but I enjoyed hearing about the challenges of high altitude climbing.
When journalist and novice climber Cecily Wong is asked to summit Mount Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, it’s a career-making opportunity. She’s been personally invited by Charles McVeigh, one of the most acclaimed mountaineers in the world, who wants her to report on the final leg of his record-breaking series of summits. But there’s one caveat: he won’t give her the interview until she’s scaled the mountain as part of his climbing party.
Amazon
Amy McCulloch actually knows what she’s talking about. September 2019, she became the youngest Canadian woman to climb Mt. Manaslu in Nepal — the world’s 8th highest mountain.
She also summited Aconcagua, in -45C and 90kmph winds, and has visited all seven continents.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick McCharles 