TITLE: ONE SHOT
AUTHOR: LEE CHILD
Pages: 363
Date: 16/08/2010
Grade: 5-
Details: no. 9 Jack Reacher
Library
I really shouldn't have to review this book. The fact that it is a Jack Reacher story really says it all. If the reader has been reading these book in order than (s)he knows what to expect, and as always the book delivers. The lone Jack Reacher on a quest, against formidable opposition with the odds firmly stacked against him saves the day. And put like that it would be fair to wonder what the attraction is. But, the attraction of course is exactly that it is a Jack Reacher story, with a solitary but very attractive hero who manages to remain fully human despite all his exceptional achievements. A story that is full of thrills and twists but with enough quieter moments to keep the story from turning completely over the top.
This book starts with a gunman shooting five people coming out of an office building. The man, James Barr, however leaves behind so many traces that he's identified, found and arrested within hours. Once arrested and charged Barr refuses to speak except to say that they've got the wrong man and "get Jack Reacher for me."
Reacher is hundreds of miles away when all of this takes place, but starts travelling towards Barr as soon as he hears about what has happened. When he arrives it turns out though that he didn't come to help Barr. He's there to make sure Barr will be convicted.
But of course, things aren't always what they seem and when things look too good to be true, they usually are. And soon Reacher finds himself not only dodging criminals but also the police.
A fast and furious thriller that was hard to put down. And I'm glad I've still got a few books left before I catch up with this series and find myself waiting for Child to finish the next instalment.
TITLE: SKIPPY DIES
AUTHOR: PAUL MURRAY
Pages: 661
Date: 14/08/2010
Grade: 4
Details: Long listed for the Man Booker Prize 2010
Library
For a long time while reading this book I thought it was unlikely I would grade it higher than 3, but as I got on with the story I got to appreciate it more and more and in the end I was grateful that I had decided to read all of it rather than give up half way through.
Still, I'm not as impressed with this book as a lot of other people appear to be.
From the blurb on the back of the book I was under the impression that this story was going to be something like a tragi-comedy. I found very little to laugh about in this book though. I did laugh out loud once, while reading the book, but most of the time I found that the story was depressing me a bit.
This book starts with the death of Daniel "Skippy" Juster during a donut eating contest with his friend and dorm-mate Ruprecht Van Doren. From there the story goes back to the events leading up to Skippy's death. Events including scientific experiments with Ruprecht, training for swimming competitions, and Skippy falling in love with Lori, a beauty from the girl's school next door to the private boy's school where Skippy is a boarder. The big problem with his infatuation is that the girl has also attracted the attention of Carl, a big hulk of a boy without a social conscience.
Skippy has other problems in his life, apart from his love for Lori, problems which he keeps secret and which will, eventually, play a big part in his death.
After Skippy's death life in the school appears to return to normal but underneath the facade everything and everybody has been affected by his demise and more shocking events are to follow.
This book handles a lot of topics; it shows the world of teenagers in a scary and for me not quite recognizable way. We're confronted with bullying, drug use and dealing, sexual fantasies, and paedophilia among other issues.
What did strike me was the way the adults were described as having no more sense then the teenagers when it came down to it, although the selfishness of everybody in the story was hard to stomach.
I think the school in this story may well have been a metaphor for Irish society, with the old boys network ruling everybody's lives and the needs of the individual always taking the backseat to the requirements of the whole.
Whatever this book is or isn't though, it does leave the reader with a lot to think about and if those thoughts aren't always happy ones, they are definitely worth lingering on.
TITLE: FROM BLOOD
AUTHOR: EDWARD WRIGHT
Pages: 359
Date: 10/08/2010
Grade: 4
Details: This book will be published in the UK on November 25th. I was send an ARC by Eason Bookshop/Book club after I became a Eason Book club reviewer
Own
Shannon Fairchild has always felt a bit like the odd one out in her family and has rebelled against her parents for as long as she can remember.
When her parents are brutally tortured and murdered, her mother's dying words to her tell her to find and warn "them", to not tell the police and a few other apparently disjointed things Shannon doesn't understand at all.
Going through her parents stuff she discovers that they were part of a militant faction of the anti war movement in the 60's, a discovery that also explains who she should be warning. But before she can set out on that path she's attacked herself by someone who wants to know where "they" are.
Soon afterwards Shannon sets out on a journey into her past, a journey that will bring her into contact with violence, betrayal, and shocking discoveries about herself and her past.
This was a reasonably good thriller and an interesting idea for a story. However the writing failed to draw me in and I never quite connected with the character of Shannon at all. It seemed to me that the story was a bit choppy. Some things just happened for what appeared to me as no reason and without enough explanation. And on one or two occasions I found what happened or didn't happen completely unbelievable. For me a good thriller should tell of something which of course is never going to happen to me or anyone I know, but just might. I never felt like that in this book. I also figured quite a few things out long before the main character did, although the story did have a few surprises for me by the time the last page came around.
Having said all that, the story did grab me and kept me turning the pages to see how it was all going to end, and that is what a decent thriller is supposed to do.
TITLE: THE SEARCH
AUTHOR: NORA ROBERTS
Pages: 488
Date: 08/08/2010
Grade: 5-
Library
Sometimes you pick up a book and you find yourself torn between wanting to race through it in order to find out what happens next, how it's going to end, and wanting to take it slow, just to let the pleasure last that little bit longer. This was such a book, and I'm afraid the racing impulse won out.
This is the story of Fiona Bristow who, nine years ago was the only survivor of a man who strangled women with a red scarf, a man who did manage to kill her boyfriend.
Now she has restarted and rebuild her life on Orcas Island where she runs a dog training school and is part of the search and rescue team with her three dogs. However, the past won't leave her alone. Although the man she escaped from is still in prison, someone else is out and about killing young women with red scarfs, copying the earlier murders and probably on his way to finish the job his predecessor left unfinished.
Through her dog training school, Fiona meets Simon Doyle a wood artist with a clear lack of social graces. The two are attracted to each other and soon Simon finds himself reluctantly getting closer to Fiona than he wants and up to his neck in her problems, which are getting ever closer to her island.
This is a typical Nora Roberts story. An independent woman trying to hold her own, an attractive man falling for her despite himself, a menace lurking in the background, a beautiful setting and as a bonus in this book, lots of dogs.
I loved the parts of the book concerned with dog behaviour and training and, as always, thoroughly enjoyed the sexy bits.
I do feel this book could have been a bit shorter without losing anything essential but really liked that the ending I was predicting to myself didn't actually happen.
Mrs. Roberts will always be my safe haven when I need a comfort read, and I hope that she'll go on writing forever.
TITLE: DEATH MASKS
AUTHOR: JIM BUTCHER
Pages: 408
Date: 06/08/2010
Grade: 4+
Details: no. 5 Dresden Files
Own
When you pick up a book in this series you know what to expect. You'll get Harry Dresden, the only practising professional wizard in Chicago up to his neck in trouble. And that's exactly what you find in this story.
And Henry has a lot on his plate. He's hired to find the Shroud of Turin which has been stolen, has professional hit-men taking shots at him, is challenged to a duel by the champion of the Red Court Vampires and dealing with the return to Chicago of his ex-girlfriend Susan. And that is before you take into account deadly deceases, headless corpses, knights and demons.
This really is a thrill a minute; neither Harry nor the reader is allowed any respite from the action.
However, underneath all of that there's always Harry struggling with the forces of good and evil, trying to do the right thing but finding that his emotions can take over. The whole story line with Susan is rather sad, which adds an other layer to the story again.
All in all I read these books for the action, but really appreciate the extra depth on offer.
TITLE: AWAKENING
AUTHOR: S.J. BOLTON
Pages: 392
Date: 04/08/2010
Grade: 4.5
Library
This is one heart stopping thriller. And if you're at all squeamish about snakes I'd advice you to stay away from this book. However, if you like your thrillers of the page-turning variety, with lots of twists and turns, a decades old secret and tension rising off the page, this is probably the book for you. And if you appreciate beautiful descriptions and use of language as well, you have just about hit the jackpot with this novel.
The story is set in the Lyme Reggis region of England, where Clara Benning is a vet running a wildlife hospital. Clara has been disfigured since early childhood and lives a life as solitary as she can make it when a neighbour calls her because she's found a snake in the crib with her baby.
Clara manages to get the very poisonous snake safely away from the baby, but soon learns that this has not been the first incident involving snakes and poison in the region in the recent past. Nor will it be the last.
Together with a rather eccentric snake expert and a police officer Clara tries to get to the bottom of where the snakes are coming from, who is using them as a deadly weapon and why. An investigation that will take them back to horrific events that took place 50 years earlier, events that someone is desperate to keep secret. An investigation that may well end up killing our investigators. But also an investigation that will force Clara to at last come to terms with her past and how she looks, and face the world head on.
The fact that I read this book from beginning to end in one day is proof of how good a thriller this is. The only reason the book didn't score a 5 is that I don't like it when my main character becomes the chief suspect in the investigation in which they are involved. And that is a purely personal dislike and has nothing to do with the quality of the book.
TITLE: THE LACUNA
AUTHOR: BARBARA KINGSOLVER
Pages: 507
Date: 03/08/2010
Grade: 5+++
Library
Oh what a wonderful book. I think this may be the best book I've read this year so far. It is beautifully written, thought-provoking, informative and totally absorbing. This book, this story, this period of recent history will stay with me for a very long time.
This is the story of Harrison William Shephard. Born in the United States early in the 20th century to an American father and a Mexican mother, he is taken to Mexico by his mother; a reluctant participant in her hunt for a better life and a richer husband.
From a young age Shepard is a writer and most of the book is told through his diaries and letters which are all beautifully descriptive, painting a picture that comes fully alive for the reader. Through his diaries we learn about his turbulent years in Mexico, two years of schooling in Washington followed by many more years in Mexico.
During those later years in Mexico Shepard is working for the painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and in their employ he meets and ends up working for Lev Trotsky.
Shortly after the start of WW II Shephard moves to the US where he finds himself a successful novelist only years later. However, his past in Mexico will come back to haunt him when McCarthyism hits America.
It is the story of a man who through accident, circumstance and fate ends up in situations he has no real control over and can't estimate the consequences of. A man who doesn't really understand life or people, who is too much on the outside to understand how the world works.
This is the second time this year that I've read a book that has made a part of recent history that I knew about in theory real for me. The first book was The Help, by Kathryn Stockett which made segregation more than a historical fact for me. The Lacuna has given a (fictional) face to McCarthyism for me.
I bow to Mrs. Kingsolvers talent and can't recommend this book highly enough.
TITLE: ONE SHOT
