Category: Books-Fiction

More Books – Just What I Needed – Right!

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Hello, my name is Edward and I’m a book-a-holic! Yes and I need to be kept away from bokstores and libraries! The other night even after getting so many books for Christmas I was checking out the list of books I made before Christmas and my Wish List on Amazon and I saw Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness , Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard, which looks to me to be a great read! So I checked the library catalog and it was checked in at one of the branches, so I requested it, and tonight it came in!

Now this I mind you is while I am currently reading The Boy in the Suitcase, along with Empire of the Summer Moon about the Indian Wars against the Comanches and Waging Heavy Peace Neil Young’s autobiography both of which I am enjoying! Anyway I went to the library to pick it up and rather than just walking straight to the check out desk to pick it up, I went and checked out the new books and of course there were two other books there that I just had to have! One was Fireproof the latest Maggie O’Dell novel from Alex Kava and the other The Inquisitor’s Key the latest Body Farm novel from the pen of Jefferson Bass. I love Kava’s O’Dell and Bass’ Bill Brockton so I couldn’t pass them up! Now I just have to find the time to read them all! Oh, if I could just read as fast as my wife and daughter who I think can average about a book every day or so!

Ok so let’s make a plan of attack – hum, Empire of the Summer Moon and Waging Heavy Peace are both ebooks, so I can read them a little at a time – so I’ll split my main reading time between The Boy and the Suitcase and Destiny of the Republic, that is until another book catches my fancy like that Bill Brockton book or the Patrick Lee book I got for Christmas – no Edward focus!!! One book at a time – no two at a time – oh hell to many books too little time!!! So now back to Denmark and that poor boy Nora found in the suitcase!

Book 1 of 2013 – Reset: Iran, Turkey and America’s Future

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 Book 1 of 2013 is a book that I picked up at Dollar Tree, Reset: Iran, Turkey and America’s Future by Stephen Kinzer. I knew little about Mr Kinzer when I purchased the book, but I found the premise that the best path for the US to follow to lead to a stable Middle East runs not through Israel and traditional Arab allies but through Turkey and Iran. The foundation of the premise is that these are the only two countries in the Arab world that have a strong democratic tradition. I realy enjoyed the history Kinzer presents in the book. I knew little about Kemal Ataturk. I knew the name but not the impact that he had on the formation of a democratic Turkey. Kinzer also discusses the democratic foundations of Iran that were derailed by the US as we supported the 1953 coup that replaced democracy in Iran with the despotic Shah, a move that ultimately lead to the theocratic government that now is in power in Iran. Other highlights included an analysis of the US’ support of and partnerships with both Saudi Arabia and Israel, which really my not be the best in the ;llong run for the US!

Here is a little more information about Stephen Kinzer from his website:

Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. His articles and books have led the Washington Post to place him “among the best in popular foreign policy storytelling.”

Kinzer’s most recent book is Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future. “Stephen Kinzer is a journalist of a certain cheeky fearlessness and exquisite timing,” The Huffington Post said in its review. “This book is a bold exercise in reimagining the United States’ big links in the Middle East.” Complete biography

Here’s another review of the book from  John Lancaster of The Washington Post:

Review of Stephen Kinzer’s “Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future”

Based upon this book I think that I will seek out some of Kinzer’s other books especially All the Shah’s Men!

 

 

Book 38 of 2012 – Sign of the Cross – Chris Kuzneski

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I first met Jonathan Payne and David Jones on their fourth adventure The Lost Throne  for Book 3 of 2012, I traveled back in time to their second adventure Sign of the Cross. Both books sprout from the mind and pen of a terrific writer Chris Kuzneski. From his website:

The first victim is abducted in Italy then crucified over a
thousand miles away. The next day, the same crime
is repeated—this time in Asia and Africa.
Three different continents but one brutal pattern:
someone is reenacting the execution of Christ.

While visiting Spain, Jonathon Payne and David Jones
are arrested for crimes they committed during their
military careers. Fortunately, the CIA brokers a deal on
their behalf: all charges will be dropped if they help
catch Dr. Charles Boyd, a master thief who has stolen
some of the finest treasures in Europe.

With little choice, the duo begins their pursuit, only to
realize that Boyd is more than a criminal. He is one
of the world’s top experts on Ancient Rome and is
close to making a discovery that threatens to rewrite
the basic foundations of Christianity.

From its breathtaking beginning to its mind-blowing
conclusion, expect the unexpected with Sign of the Cross.

This is the type of book I love, one that blends history and action into one terrific story! At the end of these types of stories many others tell you what is actual fact and what the author made up, at the end of this one Chris didn’t say. He writes in the Author’s Notes: ” I have no intention of telling anyone (including my mother) which details are true and which are make-believe. I mean, that’s one of the reasons I chose to become an author. I longed for the opportunity to blur the line between fact and fiction without ever having to explain myself”

Well in this book he certainly did blur those lines, and he left me wondering about the events surrounding Christ’s crucifixion! I love the book and the characters of Jonathan Payne and David Jones. I read on Chris’ website that he almost killed Jones off in the FIRST book, boy, are all his fans thankful he didn’t do that!!

the series is now up to Book 7 so I have a lot of catching up to do and for all of you who haven’t spent time with Payne and Jones believe me it’s time well spent!!

Say You’re Sorry by Michael Robotham – Buckle Up!

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The first Michael Robotham book I read was Suspect. I was introduced to one of the best characters in the mystery-thriller genre Joe O’Loughlin, who not only battles wits against the bad guys but also battles Parkinson’s disease. Since that first books I’ve followed all of Joe’s adventures and Book 37 of 2012 Say You’re Sorry  is the fifth book in the series that just keeps getting better.

Recently Michael was named as one of the Top 100 most Influential People in Sydney. and Michael wrote, “I’ve been named among the 100 most influential people in Sydney. I’m not even the most influential person in my house. My daughters think it’s hilarious.”

The Story

n this installment while in Oxford to give a conference speech, Joe is enlisted by the police to aid in a double murder a man and woman have been brutally murdered in their farm-house. Soon the body of a missing girl Tash McBain is found frozen in a lake not far from the farmhouse. Tash is one of two missing teenagers known as The Bingham Girls. Tash and Piper Hadley went missing three years earlier. The farmhouse where the murders occurred was her former home!! Soon joe and his friend former police detective Victor Ruiz join the hunt for Piper before it’s too late!!

Along the way the story of their disappearance is told through Joe’s investigation and the writing of Piper.

Final Thoughts

Once again Robotham’s characters are great. Joe moves through the story battling his personal problems and his family problems which includes a separation from his wife, that was the result of a former casThe book is a fast paced fun book to read, I enjoy Robotham’s writing as much as any of the authors that I read!

Stephen King included Say You’re Sorry among his :2012 Best Books of the Year: Stephen King Lists His Favorite Reads of 2012

So check out his work, you won’t be sorry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book 36 for 2012: State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind

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So my goal for the Goodreads Reading Challenge was 40 books this year. For the longest time it looked like I would come nowhere near that total but a good October and November has brought me within 4 of that total. Now the trick will be to get 4 more books reads before the end of the year. December is always a challenging reading month, with so much to do getting ready of Christmas and then I usually am working more at Target, etc, so it will be tough but maybe doable!!

A good aspect of this year’s reading is that a third of the books that I’ve read (12/36) have been non-fiction. Certainly more than in previous years! Book 36 for the year is one of those non-fiction books State of Confusion:Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind by Dr. Bryant Welch.  Welch makes the case that many Americans have been manipulated by the Right with actions that are akin to “gaslighting” From Wikipedia:

Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented with the intent of making a victim doubt his or her own memory, perception and sanity. It may range simply from the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred, up to the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim.

The term “gaslighting” comes from the play Gas Light and its film adaptations, in which a husband secretly dims the gas lights in the house and, when his wife remarks on it, he claims that she is mistaken. This is done to convince the woman that she cannot trust her own judgment, and so will not be believed if she tries to report other strange things that are genuinely occurring, which the husband wishes to keep secret. The term is now also used in clinical and research literature.[1][2]

Bryant makes a valid case that, that is just what the Right does and the three prime States of Confusion are Paranoia, Sexual Perplexity, and Envy. All states that the Right uses to divide and confuse the nation! Chapter 6 is titled “Gaslighters: Architects of False Realities” sounds like the bubble world that many of the right live in- doesn’t it!! The Gaslighters include Fox News, and The Religious Right! The last chapters deal with the assault on Professionalism, Policy Implications and The Politics of Reality!

I thought that the book was well written and highly informative about what has gone on in America particularly over the last decade! Here’s what Robert Shrum says about the book:

“Bryant Welch makes a fascinating and compelling case that right-wing politics has subverted our democracy by infecting us with a form of political neurosis. This book unmasks the politics of fear-the deeper chords touched by campaigns to the dark side”

It’s a short book that took me way to long to read, but it is really worth reading!

Book 34 for 2012 – The Prophet – Michael Koryta

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Book 34 for 2012 is the latest from Michael Koryta The Prophet. I have read a couple of the books in the Lincoln Perry  series and really liked the series! I also started one of Koryta’s stand-alone novels So Cold the River, got bogged down in the middle, and never finished it, so I’ve stayed away from some of his other books, passing them up for other reads. Well, I’m sorry that I have and will need to go back and make up for that after reading The Prophet. 

The Prophet revolves around brothers Adam and Kent Austin. Twenty-two years ago, Austin was supposed to take his sister home from school, he didn’t, he went to be with his girlfriend, Chelsea who was leaving town. What could go wrong it was only three blocks. lots she didn’t make it! Several days later her body was found and a family was shattered forever. Twenty-two years later, Adam is marking time as a bail bondsman, while Kent is the successful head coach of their high school football team the Chambers Cardinals, who are on their way to an undefeated season and a state championship, that is until the girlfriend of the teams star receiver is found brutally murdered. Soon the murder is tied to the Austin brothers and Adam and Kent who through the years have not even spoken must now work together to not only solve this crime, but deal with the memories of their sister!

The book was a couldn’t put down page turner for me, with characters that I think will stay with me for a long time! It was a starred Kirkus review. From the review:

Friday Night Lights meets In Cold Blood in this powerful tale of distant brothers whose torment over the murder of their sister when they were teens is compounded by the murder of another targeted teenage girl–a killing one of the brothers is determined to avenge even if that means committing murder himself.

Author Elin Hilderbrand says:

A delicious read, intricately woven, with characters who are impossible to forget. Michael Koryta excites and satisifes on every level. 

So check out The Prophet. As for me,  The Cypress House and The Ridge that have been added to my to be read list!!

 

Book 32 of 2012 – John Scalzi – Redshirts

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Book 32 of 2012 is a bit of a departure from my normal reading, kind of a throwback to an earlier era when I read a lot of science fiction. The book Redshirts by John Scalzi is actually a semi-mystery. Not a murder mystery, more of a why are all the little people getting killed mystery!

The Story

When Ensign Andrew Dahl is assigned to Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, he is thrilled! He was assigned to the xenobiology lab, and would have a chance to serve on “Away Missions”, along with the ship’s senior officers. He soon discovers that on every “Away Mission” the ships officers face some kind of deadly confrontation, while some members of the senior crew , particularly Lieutenant Kerensky get badly wounded. They always seem to survive, while one low-ranking member of the crew is killed!

Dahl soon learns, that one of the crew members actually monitors the movement of the senior crew, so that other members can hide to avoid being selected for the missions. In an attempt to discover what’s happening, Dahl makes contact with the elusive Jenkins, whose theory is the that ship is actually…….That sets Dahl and his friends on a mission to save his ship mates!!

Final Thoughts

But back to Redshirts, which is a funny and cleverly written book, that keeps your interest up to the touching ending! Here’s what some others have said about the book:

“I can honestly say I can’t think of another book that ever made me laugh this much. Ever” Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind”

“Scalzi takes apart the whole Star Trek universe and puts it back together for more plausibly – and a lot funnier , too”  – Levi Grossman, author of The Magician

About John Scalzi

John Scalzi is a terrific writer and blogger. His blog Whatever is great (Note to self read blog more often) The first Scalzi book I read was Old Man’s War, which I loved. I followed that quickly with The Ghost Brigades also great, then I got sidetracked and  The Last Colony is still on my to be read pile!

So check out Redshirts or for that matter any John Scalzi book and enjoy!!

 

Links

Author’s Website
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Twitter
Goodreads
Amaz

 

Wild Fire – Nelson DeMille Book 31 0f 2012

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 Wild Fire – Nelson DeMille (John Corey #4)

 

So it’s been 22 years since I read my first and only Nelson DeMille book The Charm School, and in the intervening years DeMille introduced the main character in Book 31 of 2012 John Corey. Book 31 is Nelson DeMille’s 2006 release Wildfire. To be precise, John Corey was first introduced in DeMille’s 1997 novel Plum Island. Wildfire is Book 4 in the series. Corey is an ex-NYC Homicide Detective working as a special contract agent for the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force, under the supervision of his wife FBI Agent Kate Mayfield.

In this installment, John and Kate are sent to the Adirondacks to investigate the disappearance of their colleague and friend Harry Muller. Harry was sent to perform survellience on the Custer Hill Club an exclusive hunting lodge whose members include some of America’s most powerful business, military and government leaders.  Prior to his disappearance, Harry is captured and forced to sit through an emergency meeting of the Custer Hill Club’s executive board as they make plans to active a US government retaliation plan known only as Wild Fire! Wild Fire involves nukes and ELF waves and John and Kate have to figure out the plan to be launched by the Club’s leader Bain Maddox before the it’s implemented, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance!

Again, this is my first meeting with John Corey, whose antics leave both his wife and his supervisor at their wit’s end. I really enjoyed his character and look forward to going back to Book 1 in the series Plum Island and catching up on Corey’s other adventures! Overall the book had a lot more humor than I thought it would have and just the right amount technology and policy injected into the story to teach me something and to scare me! Here’s what DeMille says about the book:

“This work of fiction is based on a rumor, repeated on the Internet about a government plan very much like the one I call Wild Fire. Hopefully, the story I am about to tell will play out only in these pages….”

If you want to start at Book 1 and you have a Kindle, the Kindle version of Plum Island   is only 99 cents!!

 

-Stay Close – Harlan Coben

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Ray Levine an ex-photojournalist, who has now fallen so far that he is taking pictures as a fake paparazzi. Ray visits the same abandoned iron mill in the New Jersey Pines every year on February 18th. On that date, seventeen years earlier his life came crashing down, when his girlfriend found an abusive customer, Stewart Green, who she knew from the strip club  where she worked, lying in a pool of blood along the path that Ray was now walking. She ran to protect herself – to protect Ray.

 

Megan Pierce was that girlfriend,back then she was “Cassie”, now she is a mother two living the suburban life, with a loving husband and two children, with a wanderlust for the “old life”. When the old bartender at the club appears and tells her she may have seen the old customer alive, and another man goes missing on the same day as Stewart Green, Megan is drawn back to Atlantic City to try to help the police solve the case. The detective on the case is Broome, he has been haunted by the case since it happened, wanting to help the widow Green find closure. All three are drawn into the story woven from the mind of Harlan Coben in his latest novel Stay Close , book number 26 for 2012! Like most of Coben’s books this one is a page turner, the characters are well drawn and are three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even the closest to them would never suspect.

Coben writes with wit and irony, and his flair for exposing the frail balance point between order and chaos in our lives has never been stronger than in this suspenseful outing.- Publishers Weekly

Here is an interview from the Today Show with Al Roker and Harlan discussing Stay Close. The best news from this clip is that Harlan is working on adaptations of  both Tell No One and Stay Close. I can’t wait. If you’ve never read Harlan Coben, this is a good one to start with, actually, any of his books are great reads!!

 

 

Bleed for Me (Joseph O’Loughlin #4)- Michael Robotham

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Bleed for Me -Joseph O'Loughlin Michael Robtham

One of my favorite characters in the Mystery-Thriller genre is psychologist Joe O’Loughlin, who springs from the pen computer mind of Australian author Michael Robotham. Book 24 of 2012 Bleed for Me is the fourth book in this series featuring Joe. On the cover of the book, Linwood Barclay sums up how I feel about Robotham’s work:

Michael Robotham doesn’t just make me scared for his characters; he makes my heart ache for them.

And in Bleed for Me my heartaches for all of them from Joe, his estranged wife Julienne, daughters Charlie and Emma and especially the focus of this book Sienna Hagerty

The Story

Sienna Hagerty, a troubled friend of his daughter Charlie. As the book opens, Sienna appears at the O’Loughlin’s doorstep, where she often spends time. Only on this night, she is covered with blood, terrorized and incoherent.

Later, police find Sienna’s father, a celebrated former police officer, murdered in Sienna’s bedroom and quickly, Sienna becomes the prime suspect!

Through the rest of the twists and turns of the book, Joe must untangle the lies, find truth and save Sienna, in more ways than one! All while trying to keep his world from falling apart!

Thoughts About the Joseph O’Loughlin Series

What makes Joe O’Loghlin unique is that he does all he does while fighting Parkinson’s disease, and as someone who has seen the crippling effects of Parkinson’s (both my mother and my father’s brother have struggled with the effects of the disease)  I feel for him.

Robotham does a great job with the creation of Joe’s character, much the way Karin SLaughter does with Will Trent, who battles dyslexia, and creates a character you really care about, well beyond the pages of a book!

While I think that the book could be read without reading the prior books. I would recommend that if you want to get the full effect of this book, you really need to have read the other books!! Robotham has just created so much that has happened to get the characters to get where they are in Bleed for Me that you just have to know them, to get that extra jolt from the book.

So check it out – as for me I just can’t wait for the next installment, Say You’re Sorry, due to be released on October 2, to see where Joe and his family’s life will go from here!

Links

Author’s Website
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Goodreads
Amazon

Michael Robotham

About Michael Robotham

Michael Robotham is an Australian crime fiction writer who has twice won the CWA Gold Dagger award for best novel and twice been shortlisted for the Edgar Award for best novel. His eldest child is Alexandra Hope Robotham, professionally known as Alex Hope, an Australian producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Wikipedia

Born: 1960 (age 65 years), Casino, Australia

Children: Alex Hope

Nationality: Australian

Notable awards: The CWA Gold Dagger, 2015, 2020

Notable works: Life or Death