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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 29, 2016 11:54:22 GMT -5
That's a great cover!
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Post by berkley on Sept 29, 2016 12:14:24 GMT -5
Just finished Jerome K. Jerome's Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, a collection of short, comical essays on everyday subjects (e.g. the weather, cats and dogs). If that sounds a bit like a present-day stand-up comedian, you're right: many of the observations you'll have heard before, but some you won't and I like Jerome's style so much that it's a pleasure to read throughout. Not a masterpiece on the level of his Three Men in a Boat, but then very few things are, and I'd recommend this to anyone who's enjoyed that more famous book.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2016 21:38:04 GMT -5
Psalm Springs by Dane G. Kroll A bunch of 'troubled' teens are shipped off to Bible camp by their families. After a week of the usual orientation and activities, there's a big assembly. One girl is singled out as unrepentant and refusing to change her ways. She's forced out a gate into the woods surrounding the camp, where a big dude in an old man mask and carrying a spear attacks her and drags her off. After all, the dude running the camp reasons, if you've turned your back on God and are headed for Hell, why should you be allowed to live and maybe corrupt others who might be saved? Yep, Friday the 13th at Bible camp. The writing is very straight-forward, even transparent, which didn't impress me at first. But each chapter deals with a different camper, so we see events from multiple points-of-view, which is kinda neat. And there's a cool twist at the end that I didn't see coming. I could've done with more exploration of the ramifications that should have come out of the revelation of the killer's nature. And more background on the camp, how it came to be and how it keeps going when campers keep getting brutally killed, stuff like that. But overall, a fun idea, and a fun quick read.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 30, 2016 14:10:33 GMT -5
That's not a book I would have ever thought existed.. interesting! Read How Firm a Foundation last week.. #5 of David Weber's Safehold series. Alot of reviews seem to think the book is the start of the series meandering and petering out, but I really liked it. Sure, he started on some new side characters, but it feels more like simply covering all of what's going on in the world (as many such books do)... some pull out certain side plots for their own book. Here, he goes in CHronological order, which I like better. Sure, there are times where you just want to get back to the main threads, but it works well over all. Today's book: Devil Met a Lady Stuart Kaminsky I've not read many Toby Peters' mysteries, but this one fit the form... Toby gets the crap kicked out of him and seems generally incompetent until about 2/3 of the way through, then brilliantly puts everything together, sets a trap to catch the bad guys, and manages to not get arrested. This one centers around Bette Davis and her 2nd (I think) husband Arthur Farnsworth, who gets to be a military researcher to add a Nazi spy element to the mix. I have no idea if that was a legitimate thing back in the day (googling it didn't get me anything other than his mysterious death, which does get a mention at the end of the book), but it worked nicely for the story, which involved bad guys trying to kidnap Davis to get Farnsworth to give them their secret plans, with the additional weight of a blackmail tape (which involved Davis and Howard Hughes). Farnsworth hires Toby to protect her, which he fails at mostly, but in the end it all works out. There's some great bits with The Toby Peters' cast which I know just enough about to appreciate, and which series fans I'm sure loved. Kaminsky paints Davis is the best possible light, contrary to most of what I read about her otherwise, which is interesting and very believable.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 2, 2016 7:37:16 GMT -5
Menace of the Saucers by Eando Binder While not a piece of fine literature, you can't find a more perfect wish fufillment story than this one. I'm not sure if it's mean to be parody, or if it's just writing for 10 year old boys of the 60s, but the main character is a science fiction writer who discovers all the UFO conspiracy theories are pretty much true, and he essentially becomes James Bond for the good aliens against the bad aliens. And of course there's an alien girl spy... Fun stuff if you don't take it too seriously... and there's even a sequel!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 2, 2016 16:17:17 GMT -5
Menace of the Saucers by Eando Binder While not a piece of fine literature, you can't find a more perfect wish fufillment story than this one. I'm not sure if it's mean to be parody, or if it's just writing for 10 year old boys of the 60s, but the main character is a science fiction writer who discovers all the UFO conspiracy theories are pretty much true, and he essentially becomes James Bond for the good aliens against the bad aliens. And of course there's an alien girl spy... Fun stuff if you don't take it too seriously... and there's even a sequel! With the Binder Brothers I think it's probably very safe to assume it was written to appeal to young SF readers and not as parody. Upon further review it appears this is probably just Otto Binder as it was published four years after Earl died.
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Post by Calamas on Oct 2, 2016 16:28:32 GMT -5
RECENTLY FINISHED:
The Miernik Dossier by Charles McCarry This time I was not as dubious. The first time I encountered a novel fashioned solely of various reports from a variety of sources, it was a book called The Anderson Tapes by Lawrence Sanders, and I responded, in part, with: “I have to admit I had my doubts: a novel told entirely through the transcripts of various wiretaps? I had forgotten that this man was a master of the form.” This is my first exposure to Charles McCarry but apparently he was as equally accomplished.
The story begins with Tadeusz Miernik and his small group of friends, all associated with the World Research Organization, an agency of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The year is sometime around 1959 (though the book was written in 1973) and the middle of the cold war era makes the WRO the perfect environment for deep-cover spies. Most of this group are exactly that--and each automatically assume the same of the others. The African, a prince of a Sudanese Muslim sect, is legitimate. As is the Pakistani, who drops out of the story quickly. The American, the Englishman and the Frenchman are all spies, and along with their superiors and allies, it is their reports that make up the “dossier” of the title. The initial question is whether Miernik, apparently in fear of being forced to return home to Russia-occupied Poland, is also an operative.
The cast promptly expands to include relatives, lovers and old family friends, not all of whom are innocent. Simultaneously the story expands to include road trips, defections and a terrorist organization. And we follow along as these various levels of espionage interconnect.
Following isn’t always easy. A Russian enforcer and an ally of Miernik’s have similar names. As do an informant among the terrorist and the Chief Inspector who is hunting them. And the ending doesn’t clear up everything. With the last, though, some of the fault may be mine; I am a slow and not-always-continuous reader. I may have missed something.
I recommend the work anyway. McCarry effortlessly displayed significant depth of character, and did so in spite of the impersonal means of communication inherent in the novel’s concept. In the end--even with some things left unexplained--I enjoyed having traveled with these characters.
Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry I felt I had to give Thomas Perry another chance. At the same time I felt I had plenty of reason not to. Despite a glowing-but-carefully-worded introduction by Michael Connelly to Perry’s first book, The Butcher’s Boy (Random House, 2003), it remains the only novel--off the top of my head--that I’ve rated 2 Stars on Goodreads. In fact, I found the introduction much more interesting than anything that followed it. But I closed the review with: “. . . there is something here. I find myself wanting to read more. Neither can I deny I was disappointed.” Perhaps that’s the reason I jumped to Perry’s sixth book, the first in the acclaimed Jane Whitefield series. I was greatly rewarded for doing so.
Jane, who lives in upstate New York near the Canadian border, is half Seneca Indian by blood and completely so in spirit, at least as much as the modern world will allow. Perhaps that is why, when it comes to her life’s work, she thinks of herself as a guide. She helps people disappear. Not criminals, unless there is a greater good involved, but decent people who are forced by circumstances to give up their lives as they know it. She works unofficially, without government knowledge, and has access to an extensive network of people who work outside the law. She fits among them, a thorough professional playing her part. Unfortunately, not knowing this would be her calling, she was sloppy in the beginning and now too many people not only know of her existence, but actually know her physical address. A man suddenly showing up at her house and referencing a previous, successfully-relocated “client” begins our introduction to Jane.
What follows is a mix of Indian lore, Jane’s skill at her profession, and pursuit from those trying to kill the man she is attempting to help. A murder results when things go wrong, and though the killer is obvious I believe that was always the author’s intention because he never makes Jane look stupid, not an easy thing to avoid when the reader knows more than she. Eventually it comes down to a one-on-one confrontation, which Jane can only win because of who she is and what she believes. It reaffirms everything we’ve come to know about Jane and her world. Nothing can be more satisfying than that.
Blossom by Andrew Vachss You run a risk when you remove a series character from his environment. You take away a large part of what the reader comes to the book expecting. Vachss attempts to counteract this by spending some time watching Burke, his protagonist, operate in and around the New York City cesspool before heading out to Indiana to help a “brother.” In Burke’s world a brother is someone for whom there nothing you will not do. Burke is asked to determine whether a kid living in his brother’s house is the sniper who has been shooting up the local lover’s lane. Once determining the kid’s innocence, for various other reasons Burke sticks around to find the shooter.
The fifth Burke novel is the least successful so far. Part of the reason may stem from reading a 1990 novel in 2016. The elements of human depravity that Vachss routinely exposes was virtually unknown then; today, sadly, they are common knowledge. The novel’s other drawback is structural. Vachss had taken a turn toward scattershot chapters. There are chapters that consist of ten or so lines, others of less than fifty words. 186 chapters form the book. The results? Scenes are no longer built and atmosphere is lost.
I’ll have to get used to it because writers seldom go back from this. Luckily, Vachss is such a great storyteller that I know I’ll be entertained regardless. But is greatness still obtainable? Since the series--not particular eras or individual books but the entire series--is so highly regarded, I have to think so. Either way I’ll read them all. Burke and his family of friends are endlessly fascinating.
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Post by berkley on Oct 2, 2016 19:07:10 GMT -5
Blossom by Andrew VachssYou run a risk when you remove a series character from his environment. You take away a large part of what the reader comes to the book expecting. Vachss attempts to counteract this by spending some time watching Burke, his protagonist, operate in and around the New York City cesspool before heading out to Indiana to help a “brother.” In Burke’s world a brother is someone for whom there nothing you will not do. Burke is asked to determine whether a kid living in his brother’s house is the sniper who has been shooting up the local lover’s lane. Once determining the kid’s innocence, for various other reasons Burke sticks around to find the shooter. The fifth Burke novel is the least successful so far. Part of the reason may stem from reading a 1990 novel in 2016. The elements of human depravity that Vachss routinely exposes was virtually unknown then; today, sadly, they are common knowledge. The novel’s other drawback is structural. Vachss had taken a turn toward scattershot chapters. There are chapters that consist of ten or so lines, others of less than fifty words. 186 chapters form the book. The results? Scenes are no longer built and atmosphere is lost. I’ll have to get used to it because writers seldom go back from this. Luckily, Vachss is such a great storyteller that I know I’ll be entertained regardless. But is greatness still obtainable? Since the series--not particular eras or individual books but the entire series--is so highly regarded, I have to think so. Either way I’ll read them all. Burke and his family of friends are endlessly fascinating. I read all the books in the Burke series more or less as they came out, except the very last one which I'm still saving for another day. I do remember finding the quality dipped a little in the middle of the series, though they were all still very enjoyable reads. And I thought the series recovered its drive in the last several books, though I can't pinpoint exactly when. For me Hard Candy was the first one that I found a mild disappointment, after having been totally riveted by the first three, Flood, Strega, and Blue Belle. The recovery was a little more gradual. Somewhere during that run of less-than-standard Burke novels Vachss came out with a stand-alone called Shella, one of my favourites of his. Look out for that one if you're a fan of his style.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 2, 2016 23:21:23 GMT -5
Menace of the Saucers by Eando Binder While not a piece of fine literature, you can't find a more perfect wish fufillment story than this one. I'm not sure if it's mean to be parody, or if it's just writing for 10 year old boys of the 60s, but the main character is a science fiction writer who discovers all the UFO conspiracy theories are pretty much true, and he essentially becomes James Bond for the good aliens against the bad aliens. And of course there's an alien girl spy... Fun stuff if you don't take it too seriously... and there's even a sequel! With the Binder Brothers I think it's probably very safe to assume it was written to appeal to young SF readers and not as parody. Upon further review it appears this is probably just Otto Binder as it was published four years after Earl died. Yeah, I agree.. its funny how that works.. it totally could be a parody with just a small bit of tweaking. I'm about 1/2 way through the sequel and it's very similar. Looking back on the context of this stuff is really fun. It is odd he kept using the 'EandO' after his brother died.. I guess that's just what they were known by.. though by 1969 Otto had done a pretty good amount of comics. Of course, that was back when writers didn't get credits, so a guess that doesn't matter much.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 2, 2016 23:24:13 GMT -5
You have alot better talent at picking stuff to read than I do, Calamas.. I have plenty of 1 and 2 star reviews out there!
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Post by Calamas on Oct 3, 2016 8:08:22 GMT -5
You have alot better talent at picking stuff to read than I do, Calamas.. I have plenty of 1 and 2 star reviews out there! Well, these days I read mostly in the past, so it’s not as if I don’t have some fairly reliable guidepost. Also, Goodreads is slanted toward the positive. 2 Stars is defined as “It was OK.” That means only a completely negative reaction get 1 Star.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 3, 2016 10:09:37 GMT -5
You have alot better talent at picking stuff to read than I do, Calamas.. I have plenty of 1 and 2 star reviews out there! I'm not Calamas, but I may play him on TV. I tend not to have many extremely negative reviews. Probably because I tend to read books that are firmly in my comfort zone.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 3, 2016 10:48:23 GMT -5
Dead Ringers by Fredric Brown. Ed and Am Hunter are back. And this time they're working as carnies. Ed has joined Am working the ball toss game at a traveling carnival. When a naked midget is found murdered you know that things are going to get interesting. As the number of deaths mounts and the police aren't getting anywhere, Ed and Am have to start investigating to bring justice to the guilty. This is a very worthy sequel to The Fabulous Clipjoint. And it makes me wish that Fredric Brown in general and the Hunter boys in particular weren't pretty well forgotten. Carnivals are incredible places for mysteries and noir-like doings. There's a femme-"fatale" who sends young Ed into doing loops. The mystery is good. If I had any complaints, there is really never any sense that the boys are in danger. That's not necessary, of course, but it might help.
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Post by Calamas on Oct 3, 2016 11:09:04 GMT -5
You have alot better talent at picking stuff to read than I do, Calamas.. I have plenty of 1 and 2 star reviews out there! I tend not to have many extremely negative reviews. Probably because I tend to read books that are firmly in my comfort zone. That too. I rarely stray from my favorite genres.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 3, 2016 14:46:15 GMT -5
You have alot better talent at picking stuff to read than I do, Calamas.. I have plenty of 1 and 2 star reviews out there! I'm not Calamas, but I may play him on TV. I tend not to have many extremely negative reviews. Probably because I tend to read books that are firmly in my comfort zone. I wouldn't call 2 stars 'extremely negative'... I consider a 2 star book one I got through, but wouldn't recommended nor would I pursue any of the authors other work. It's really 1 star that's 'extremely negative' to me (usually means I either didn't finish it or the ending was terrible)
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