Did you see the 2007 film Golden Compass with Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman?

The movie tanked considering the US$180 million cost.

But the books are great. It was based on Pullman’s His Dark Materials series:

• 3.1Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass)
• 3.2The Subtle Knife
• 3.3The Amber Spyglass

La Belle Sauvage is a fantasy novel by Philip Pullman published 2017, the first volume in a planned trilogy named The Book of Dust. Set around 12 years before the start of His Dark Materials …

Reviews have been great for the start of the prequel.

I’d agree. It’s well worth reading.

My only criticism is the same one I have with all fantasy: deus ex machina. The plot twists are unexpected appearances of magical things unrestrained by any logic or rules.

It always seems a bit cheap, to me.

Muriel Spark’s Loitering with Intent (1981) was published when she was 64.

The novel is written in the first person, framed as a memoir, as Fleur Talbot, the celebrated writer, looks back, “in the fullness of [her] years”, to the weeks and months of winter 1949-50, when she was working on her first novel, living in a bedsit, supporting herself by working in secretarial jobs.

Guardian review

It is an excellent book. With an excellent plot.

If you are a fan of literature over fiction, I recommend it. The themes are still important in 2018.

It was made into a film in 2014. It’s 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Snowman (Norwegian: Snømannen, 2007) is a novel by Norwegian crime-writer Jo Nesbø. It is the seventh entry in his Harry Hole series. …

Looking through cold cases, Hole realises that he is tracking Norway’s first known serial killer. …

I’d heard great things about Nesbø. He is an excellent author.

The book is complex and very suspenseful. I appreciated all the main characters.

One criticism. I’d say the book is about 30% too long. 30% too complicated. It would have been stronger if more succinct.

The Snowman (2017 film) should have been excellent. But critics panned it. I can’t imagine how they bungled adapting this fascinating story.

It’s 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.

My first Grisham, I believe.

The protagonist Malcolm Bannister, an African American and former United States Marine, is an attorney … is wrongly convicted and given a 10-year prison term. …

Bannister makes a deal with the FBI to give them the name of a killer, in exchange for his release and being made a member of the United States Federal Witness Protection Program …

It was the #8 best seller on Amazon in 2012.

I found it OK. … The plot not believable. Story telling good.

It doesn’t motivate me to download more Grisham.

The author hopes Denzel will play the character in a movie adaptation.

Easily available on audio from libraries, I’ve ended up listening to several Connelly books in series.

Most recent – The Reversal (2010)

In this one his original hero, Harry Bosch, works a case with Lincoln Lawyer Michael “Mickey” Haller, his half-brother.

You get the best of both worlds.

Some fans are saying this author is getting better and better over time. I’ll read his most recent books first.

Like most people, I love the Bourne films, even the one without Matt Damon.

Click PLAY or watch a trailer for the first on YouTube. (2002)

I finally got around to reading the first — The Bourne Identity, a 1980 spy fiction thriller. Not good. I found the pacing WAY TOO SLOW. Every conversation far too dramatic.

I gave up around half way through.

Robert Ludlum died in 2001. But the Bourne books / films continued without him.  Eric Van Lustbader now writes the sequels.