Finished reading the third J.A. Konrath book Rusty Nail. Actually, Rusty Nail is both the third J.A. Konrath in his Jack Daniel's series, and the third that I've read. Like most other series, I'm reading this a bit out of order, it just happens that I read the third book in the series third. So far I've read the fifth, first; the first, second and now the third, third.
It's an interesting series. Konrath's main advice to new authors (through his blog A Newbies Guide to Publishing) is to always have conflict. Every page, every paragraph, every sentence should be brimming over with conflict. If not, get rid of that sentence, paragraph or page. He follows his own advice. His stories are big on conflict. They are also some of the most disturbing stories ever. Think Silence of the Lambs meets Stephanie Plum. One of the villains in this story is heavy into masochism, and at one point the reader is treated to the disgusting act of the primary villain flaying a victim alive.
When I was a teenager I had a book called "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way." In this book on comic drawing, Stan Lee wrote something about how artists should let their minds go wild when they create villains. Go look at the villains in a comic book; huge heads, swords for hands, skulls instead of faces. Konrath took Stan Lee's advice and ran with it. His villains have to be the creepiest in the business.
Despite the fact that his stories, spilling over with conflict, have little room for deep character development, they do have flashes of well written passages and metaphor. One that I marked made me take notice, the kicker is the last line.
"I had no doubts Bud Kork was insane. But there was more to it than that. Sitting this close to him, I felt a deep sense of revulsion- the same kind of feeling I had when I watched a nature program on TV that showed a spider catching a fly. Bud Kork radiated a very real feeling of harm, of fear and decay and death. Talking to him made me want to take a hot shower and brush my teeth until my gums hurt."
Sadly, I bought this book at the Half Price Book Store and did not read it on Kindle, therefore I made few notes. One thing I've found I enjoy about the Kindle is it's ability to store and keep my notes. It's a habit I enjoy and one I have never developed in conventional book reading. Nevertheless, Rusty Nail was as good as Whiskey Sour and Fuzzy Navel, and in terms of the villainy, much better. Stan Lee would be proud....disgusted but proud.
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Monday, May 4, 2026
Book Review: Catch-22 - Who Knew a Word Like Infundibuliform Even Existed?
Finished Catch-22 last week. If you read this blog you knew I was reading it based on this post about déjà vu. Also if you read this blog you’ll know that my book reviews aren’t book reviews per se where I recommend reading or not reading the book, or discuss it’s strengths and weakness. I might do that, but in general, my aim is to pick out the words, phrases and passages that catch my eye and mark them down so I can better remember them. That being said; Catch-22 is a terrific book to read in terms of vocabulary. The below are just a small sampling:
Infundibuliform - shaped like a funnel
Denudate – to lay bare by erosion
Otiose- producing no useful result; futile
Argosies - a fleet of ships; a rich supply
Fustian - a strong cotton and linen fabric; a class of cotton fabrics usually having a pile face and twill weave; high-flown or affected writing or speech; broadly; anything high-flown or affected in style
Callipygous- having shapely buttocks
And, perhaps the most apropos word in Catch-22 as it so elegantly states the Yosarian’s nature in one word:
Captious- marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections ;calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument
As I said in my previous post, I remembered many of the lines and the same is true of the vocabulary words. I recall asking my grandfather about the word fustian. He didn’t know the definition. I believe he made me go look it up.
I also remember several passages, including this one about one of my favorite characters, Major Major Major Major:
“Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieved mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.”
When describing Doc Daneeka, Heller writes:
“He was like a man who had grown frozen with horror once and had never come completely unthawed”
My question, shouldn’t it be “thawed?” I mean unthawed is frozen, right? You thaw a steak to make it not frozen?
Finally, a rather significant scene occurs when a naked Yossarian is sitting up in a tree watching Snowden’s funeral. Milo comes to hang out with him and the following passage appears:
“Milo was stung and made no effort to disguise his wounded feelings. It was a muggy, moonlit night filled with gnats, moths, and mosquitos. Milo lifted his arm suddenly and pointed toward the open-air theater, where the milky dust-filled beam bursting horizontally from the projector slashed a conelike swath in the blackness and draped in a fluorescent membrane of light the audience titled on the seats in hypnotic sages, their faces focused upward toward the aluminized move screen. Milio’s eyes were liquid with integrity, and his artless uncorrupted face was lustrous with a shining mixture of sweat and insect repellant.”
I liked it for those final two words. Writing “insect repellant” seems to thrown the whole passage off kilter. Makes the reader wonder why it was used at all.
“The floor swayed like the floating raft at the beach and the stitches on the inside of his thigh bit into his flesh like fine set of fish teeth as he limped across the aisle.”
Great simile that…..like fine set of fish teeth. Perfectly describes stitches.
The final passage was used when Yossarian had to deal with a new group of young roommates.
“He could not make the shut up; they were worse then women, they had not brains enough to be introverted and repressed.”
What I find the most interesting part about this book, and other Heller books is the way in which the ending is revealed at the beginning of the book. For the entire book the reader knows that Yossarian is struggling with Snowden’s death. The reader even knows how and when it happened. The final reveal is minor but significant in putting the entire puzzle together. It’s similar to most of Heller’s other books I feel, particularly “Something Happened.” But, it has helped me. I’ve been having trouble dealing with a similar aspect in my own manuscrip, On Edge. Perhaps I should take a cue from Heller. Instead of hiding it from the reader, just let them know a good part of it right up front, let a detail or two fall throughout the story, then reveal the entirety at the end.
Nevertheless, fun to read if you like long, run on sentences, confusing arguments, and words like callipygous.
Infundibuliform - shaped like a funnel
Denudate – to lay bare by erosion
Otiose- producing no useful result; futile
Argosies - a fleet of ships; a rich supply
Fustian - a strong cotton and linen fabric; a class of cotton fabrics usually having a pile face and twill weave; high-flown or affected writing or speech; broadly; anything high-flown or affected in style
Callipygous- having shapely buttocks
And, perhaps the most apropos word in Catch-22 as it so elegantly states the Yosarian’s nature in one word:
Captious- marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections ;calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument
As I said in my previous post, I remembered many of the lines and the same is true of the vocabulary words. I recall asking my grandfather about the word fustian. He didn’t know the definition. I believe he made me go look it up.
I also remember several passages, including this one about one of my favorite characters, Major Major Major Major:
“Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieved mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.”
When describing Doc Daneeka, Heller writes:
“He was like a man who had grown frozen with horror once and had never come completely unthawed”
My question, shouldn’t it be “thawed?” I mean unthawed is frozen, right? You thaw a steak to make it not frozen?
Finally, a rather significant scene occurs when a naked Yossarian is sitting up in a tree watching Snowden’s funeral. Milo comes to hang out with him and the following passage appears:
“Milo was stung and made no effort to disguise his wounded feelings. It was a muggy, moonlit night filled with gnats, moths, and mosquitos. Milo lifted his arm suddenly and pointed toward the open-air theater, where the milky dust-filled beam bursting horizontally from the projector slashed a conelike swath in the blackness and draped in a fluorescent membrane of light the audience titled on the seats in hypnotic sages, their faces focused upward toward the aluminized move screen. Milio’s eyes were liquid with integrity, and his artless uncorrupted face was lustrous with a shining mixture of sweat and insect repellant.”
I liked it for those final two words. Writing “insect repellant” seems to thrown the whole passage off kilter. Makes the reader wonder why it was used at all.
“The floor swayed like the floating raft at the beach and the stitches on the inside of his thigh bit into his flesh like fine set of fish teeth as he limped across the aisle.”
Great simile that…..like fine set of fish teeth. Perfectly describes stitches.
The final passage was used when Yossarian had to deal with a new group of young roommates.
“He could not make the shut up; they were worse then women, they had not brains enough to be introverted and repressed.”
What I find the most interesting part about this book, and other Heller books is the way in which the ending is revealed at the beginning of the book. For the entire book the reader knows that Yossarian is struggling with Snowden’s death. The reader even knows how and when it happened. The final reveal is minor but significant in putting the entire puzzle together. It’s similar to most of Heller’s other books I feel, particularly “Something Happened.” But, it has helped me. I’ve been having trouble dealing with a similar aspect in my own manuscrip, On Edge. Perhaps I should take a cue from Heller. Instead of hiding it from the reader, just let them know a good part of it right up front, let a detail or two fall throughout the story, then reveal the entirety at the end.
Nevertheless, fun to read if you like long, run on sentences, confusing arguments, and words like callipygous.
Book Review - Longshot - Is Meekness Even Minorly Heroic?
I just finished reading Longshot by Dick Francis. I was particularly engaged by this book in that I thought I had read all of Dick Francis' books. Longshot was new to me. Or I read it so long ago I've completely forgotten it.
Two passages stuck out.
The first is at the very end of the book. The hero is a travel adventure writer and the killer is using the hero's manuals on shooting game and survival against him. By the end of the book, when the hero is about to reveal who the killer is, the killer commits suicide and tries to make it look like an accident.
"A copy of Return Safe from the Wilderness lay on a workbench, and I picked it up idly and looked through it. Traps. Bows and arrows. All the familiar ideas. I flipped the pages resignedly and they fell open as if from use at the diagram in the first-aid section showing the pressure points for stopping arterial bleeding. I stared blankly at the carefully drawn and accurate illustration of exactly where the main arteries could be found nearest the surface in the arms and wrists...and in the legs.
Dear God, I thought numbly. I taught him that too."
I thought this was excellent if only for the O-Henry-esque ending. Loved it. Saw it coming just a bit, but not so much that it wasn't fun to read.
The second passage occurs early in the book.
"The letter from Ronnie Curzon came on a particularly cold morning when there was ice like a half-descended curtain over the inside of my friend's aunt's attic window. The window, with its high view over the Thames at Chiswick, over the ebb-tide mud and the wind-sailing sea gulls, that window, my delight had done most, I reckoned, to release invention into words. I'd rigged a chair onto a platform so that I could sit there to write with a long view to the tree-chopped horizon over Kew Gardens. I'd never yet managed an even passable sentence when faced with a blank wall."
Finally, the title of this post alludes to an aspect of this book juxtaposed against my own endeavor. My editor revealed to me that he has never read a Dick Francis book. I was impressed when upon receipt of my manuscript he went out and borrowed one from the library, ostensibly to read. I say ostensibly because I found out later that he did not actually read it.
Throughout the manuscript he has written "your hero is too meek, not showing even minor heroic qualities" or words to that effect. In Longshot, as in most of Dick Francis' books, the hero is meek. Strikingly meek. These two things, reading Longshot, reviewing my edited manuscript, brought this into focus. Is it bad to have a meek hero? Can't he act as a foil, as so many of Francis' heroes do, to all of the characters that interact around and with him? A sponge? An everyman who plays off others and travels through his story reacting instead of acting?
At the very least I can be thankful that according to Matthew writing about Jesus in the Beatitudes, my hero is blessed and will inherit the earth.
Two passages stuck out.
The first is at the very end of the book. The hero is a travel adventure writer and the killer is using the hero's manuals on shooting game and survival against him. By the end of the book, when the hero is about to reveal who the killer is, the killer commits suicide and tries to make it look like an accident.
"A copy of Return Safe from the Wilderness lay on a workbench, and I picked it up idly and looked through it. Traps. Bows and arrows. All the familiar ideas. I flipped the pages resignedly and they fell open as if from use at the diagram in the first-aid section showing the pressure points for stopping arterial bleeding. I stared blankly at the carefully drawn and accurate illustration of exactly where the main arteries could be found nearest the surface in the arms and wrists...and in the legs.
Dear God, I thought numbly. I taught him that too."
I thought this was excellent if only for the O-Henry-esque ending. Loved it. Saw it coming just a bit, but not so much that it wasn't fun to read.
The second passage occurs early in the book.
"The letter from Ronnie Curzon came on a particularly cold morning when there was ice like a half-descended curtain over the inside of my friend's aunt's attic window. The window, with its high view over the Thames at Chiswick, over the ebb-tide mud and the wind-sailing sea gulls, that window, my delight had done most, I reckoned, to release invention into words. I'd rigged a chair onto a platform so that I could sit there to write with a long view to the tree-chopped horizon over Kew Gardens. I'd never yet managed an even passable sentence when faced with a blank wall."
Finally, the title of this post alludes to an aspect of this book juxtaposed against my own endeavor. My editor revealed to me that he has never read a Dick Francis book. I was impressed when upon receipt of my manuscript he went out and borrowed one from the library, ostensibly to read. I say ostensibly because I found out later that he did not actually read it.
Throughout the manuscript he has written "your hero is too meek, not showing even minor heroic qualities" or words to that effect. In Longshot, as in most of Dick Francis' books, the hero is meek. Strikingly meek. These two things, reading Longshot, reviewing my edited manuscript, brought this into focus. Is it bad to have a meek hero? Can't he act as a foil, as so many of Francis' heroes do, to all of the characters that interact around and with him? A sponge? An everyman who plays off others and travels through his story reacting instead of acting?
At the very least I can be thankful that according to Matthew writing about Jesus in the Beatitudes, my hero is blessed and will inherit the earth.
Book Review - Under the Andes
I finished reading Under the Andes by Rex Stout. I won’t say that reading it was a complete waste of time, but it came pretty close.
I remember as a child, 1st grader I believe, I wrote a story about a boy who gets lost in a cave. The typical 1st grader pabulum. The kiddo in the story keeps referring to time in strange ways, ie. “it was one noon.” For some reason I thought that “noon” and “o’clock” were interchangeable. The plot was simplistic and plodding. The cave went on and on and never seemed to end. Then, BOOM, the kid finds the way out and the story is over.
Most of the above paragraph about my own story, would fit Under the Andes perfectly.
The only redeeming qualities of the book are that I downloaded it for free onto my Kindle. Apparently even the author knows it’s no good. Secondly, it provides a fun glimpse into the types of stories that must have been the foundation for action heroes of 1930’s film serials. The whole time I read it I couldn’t not think about Indiana Jones and Doc Savage.
Sadly, after the hero’s eighteenth chase through a darkened cave by crazed Incans, even the image of Indiana Jones would be tarnished. Unless you have a lot of time to kill, and don’t mind getting nothing in return for your investment, avoid Under the Andes at all costs. Thank goodness the Nero Wolfe books on the Kindle are $2.99. Seems to suggest they’ll be more worthwhile reads.
I remember as a child, 1st grader I believe, I wrote a story about a boy who gets lost in a cave. The typical 1st grader pabulum. The kiddo in the story keeps referring to time in strange ways, ie. “it was one noon.” For some reason I thought that “noon” and “o’clock” were interchangeable. The plot was simplistic and plodding. The cave went on and on and never seemed to end. Then, BOOM, the kid finds the way out and the story is over.
Most of the above paragraph about my own story, would fit Under the Andes perfectly.
The only redeeming qualities of the book are that I downloaded it for free onto my Kindle. Apparently even the author knows it’s no good. Secondly, it provides a fun glimpse into the types of stories that must have been the foundation for action heroes of 1930’s film serials. The whole time I read it I couldn’t not think about Indiana Jones and Doc Savage.
Sadly, after the hero’s eighteenth chase through a darkened cave by crazed Incans, even the image of Indiana Jones would be tarnished. Unless you have a lot of time to kill, and don’t mind getting nothing in return for your investment, avoid Under the Andes at all costs. Thank goodness the Nero Wolfe books on the Kindle are $2.99. Seems to suggest they’ll be more worthwhile reads.
Book Review: Rain Fall
I just finished reading Rain Fall by Barry Eisler. Liked it. Had a real good plot, great characters, and it took place in the Far East, a locale I've always wanted to visit. Seemed like a bit of Clancy's Without Remorse, mixed with Shogun. Been a while since I've been pleasantly surprised by a book, this one succeeded.
This is Eisler's first book, of eight that he has published. Throughout the first half I kept thinking, as I do in many first timer's books, "heck, mine's as good as this." Couldn't say it about the second half. Eisler's third and fourth quarters were great and kept me turning the pages,...or kept me clicking the advanced button on the Kindle.
A couple of lines struck me,
The hero, John Rain (note the title), is remembering his time in the war and his friends that he lost,
"Memories, crowding me like a battalion of suddenly reanimated corpses."
Makes me think of zombies, so naturally I bookmarked it.
Rain is checking out the love interest, Midori:
"I was struck by her eyes. Unreadable, even looking right at me, but not distant, and not cold. Instead the seemed to radiate a controlled heat, something that touched you but that you couldn't touch back."
This was the opening of a chapter that I thought was well done:
"At first light the whole of Shibuya feels like a giant sleeping off a hangover. You can still sense the merriment, the heedless laughter of the night before, you can hear it echoed in the strange silences and deserted spaces of the area's twisting backstreets. The drunken voices of karaoke revelers, the unctuous pitches of the club touts, the secret whispers of lovers walking arm in arm, all are departed, but somehow, for just a few evanescent hours in the quiet of early morning, their shadows linger, like ghosts who refuse to believe that the night has ended, that there are no more parties to attend."
Another similar to the one above, this time middle of the chapter:
"There was nowhere, nowhere on the whole planet, that I would rather have been right then. The city around us was a living thing: the million lighters where its eyes; the laughter of lovers its voice; the expressways and factories its muscles and sinews. And I was there at its pulsing heart."
All told, a very good book and I look forward to reading number 2 from Eisler.
This is Eisler's first book, of eight that he has published. Throughout the first half I kept thinking, as I do in many first timer's books, "heck, mine's as good as this." Couldn't say it about the second half. Eisler's third and fourth quarters were great and kept me turning the pages,...or kept me clicking the advanced button on the Kindle.
A couple of lines struck me,
The hero, John Rain (note the title), is remembering his time in the war and his friends that he lost,
"Memories, crowding me like a battalion of suddenly reanimated corpses."
Makes me think of zombies, so naturally I bookmarked it.
Rain is checking out the love interest, Midori:
"I was struck by her eyes. Unreadable, even looking right at me, but not distant, and not cold. Instead the seemed to radiate a controlled heat, something that touched you but that you couldn't touch back."
This was the opening of a chapter that I thought was well done:
"At first light the whole of Shibuya feels like a giant sleeping off a hangover. You can still sense the merriment, the heedless laughter of the night before, you can hear it echoed in the strange silences and deserted spaces of the area's twisting backstreets. The drunken voices of karaoke revelers, the unctuous pitches of the club touts, the secret whispers of lovers walking arm in arm, all are departed, but somehow, for just a few evanescent hours in the quiet of early morning, their shadows linger, like ghosts who refuse to believe that the night has ended, that there are no more parties to attend."
Another similar to the one above, this time middle of the chapter:
"There was nowhere, nowhere on the whole planet, that I would rather have been right then. The city around us was a living thing: the million lighters where its eyes; the laughter of lovers its voice; the expressways and factories its muscles and sinews. And I was there at its pulsing heart."
All told, a very good book and I look forward to reading number 2 from Eisler.
Book Review: On Writing - Not Quite What I Expected
People have been telling me for years that I should read On Writing by Stephen King. I wish they hadn’t played it up so much.
I grew up a huge King fan. When I spent summers with my grandfather at his bed and breakfast, he introduced me to Stephen King. We would run into the small town of Brenham, from the even smaller town of Chappell Hill where the bed and breakfast was located, in order to buy books from the little paperback book resale shop. The shop had a fairly poor selection, but barring an hour-long ride into Houston, it was the best there was. It was from here that I bought my first King book.
Christine was the first book of King’s that I read, then Carrie and onward from there.I read The Stand and loved every page. I read Tommyknockers and thought it was great. I read Salem’s Lot in typing class at school and got so scared I jumped when someone interrupted me. I haven’t read anything since I gave up on Gerald’s Game until On Writing.
It’s a decent book on craft. I loved King’s description of writer’s needing a tool chest. He did a magnificent job of imparting that to the reader. I enjoyed reading about how he writes, and what was going on in his life through the writing of each book. I had no idea that Misery was such an impactful book in his life. Also, although I read about his being hit by a car while walking, this book details just how horrific the crash was and how much it affected him.
I noted a few passages that caught my eye.
On character, plot and setting, King says:
“The most important (thing I learned) is that the writer’s original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader’s. Running a close second was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”
And then this as well, on character:
“The situation comes first. The characters – always flat and unfeatured, to begin with – come next. Once these things are fixed in my mind, I begin to narrate. I often have an idea of what the outcome may be, but I have never demanded of a set of characters that they do things my way. On the contrary, I want them to do things their way.”
I resisted the urge to let other people read my work much. Following this book, I am changing that decision, ergo I need to find some “trusted readers.”
“Subjective evaluations are, as I say, a little harder to deal with, but listen: if everyone who reads your book says you have a problem, you’ve got a problem and you better do something about it.”
Finally, on back story and how much background to provide the reader, King says:
“I like to start at square one, dead even with the writer. I’m an A-to-Z man; serve me the appetizer first and give me dessert if I eat my veggies.”
All in all, it was fun to read Stephen King’s book On Writing. He has a tremendous voice, and even though this was non-fiction, it was fun to relive some of the books I read in my youth. It was great to read about his connection with his wife and the methods he uses to write. As a book on craft though….I’ve read better. Still doesn’t beat Maass’ book on Writing the Breakout Novel.
I grew up a huge King fan. When I spent summers with my grandfather at his bed and breakfast, he introduced me to Stephen King. We would run into the small town of Brenham, from the even smaller town of Chappell Hill where the bed and breakfast was located, in order to buy books from the little paperback book resale shop. The shop had a fairly poor selection, but barring an hour-long ride into Houston, it was the best there was. It was from here that I bought my first King book.
Christine was the first book of King’s that I read, then Carrie and onward from there.I read The Stand and loved every page. I read Tommyknockers and thought it was great. I read Salem’s Lot in typing class at school and got so scared I jumped when someone interrupted me. I haven’t read anything since I gave up on Gerald’s Game until On Writing.
It’s a decent book on craft. I loved King’s description of writer’s needing a tool chest. He did a magnificent job of imparting that to the reader. I enjoyed reading about how he writes, and what was going on in his life through the writing of each book. I had no idea that Misery was such an impactful book in his life. Also, although I read about his being hit by a car while walking, this book details just how horrific the crash was and how much it affected him.
I noted a few passages that caught my eye.
On character, plot and setting, King says:
“The most important (thing I learned) is that the writer’s original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader’s. Running a close second was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”
And then this as well, on character:
“The situation comes first. The characters – always flat and unfeatured, to begin with – come next. Once these things are fixed in my mind, I begin to narrate. I often have an idea of what the outcome may be, but I have never demanded of a set of characters that they do things my way. On the contrary, I want them to do things their way.”
I resisted the urge to let other people read my work much. Following this book, I am changing that decision, ergo I need to find some “trusted readers.”
“Subjective evaluations are, as I say, a little harder to deal with, but listen: if everyone who reads your book says you have a problem, you’ve got a problem and you better do something about it.”
Finally, on back story and how much background to provide the reader, King says:
“I like to start at square one, dead even with the writer. I’m an A-to-Z man; serve me the appetizer first and give me dessert if I eat my veggies.”
All in all, it was fun to read Stephen King’s book On Writing. He has a tremendous voice, and even though this was non-fiction, it was fun to relive some of the books I read in my youth. It was great to read about his connection with his wife and the methods he uses to write. As a book on craft though….I’ve read better. Still doesn’t beat Maass’ book on Writing the Breakout Novel.
Book Review: The Last Song - Go Ahead and Proceed with the Mocking
So, I'm trying to broaden my reading horizons. I met a guy at the last writer's conference who liked to compare himself to Nicholas Sparks. Intrigued, I went to Amazon and started searching for one of his books. I landed on The Last Song. It was better than I expected.
It was a bit simple, the themes, which were easy to spot, were engaging and added a lot to a what otherwise would have been a fairly shallow story. The characters were somewhat flat, but Sparks never gave up on them and so the reader keeps reading about them. And despite the fact that it is predictable, it was fun to read. I look forward to reading another if only to see if this one was simple cause it was aimed at teenage girls, or if all of Spark's books are so easy.
Couple of things caught my eye:
The father, describing himself says: "Though he had certain talents as a mucisian and composer, he laced the charisma or showmanship or whatever it was that made a performer stand out. At times, even he admitted that he'd been more an observer of the world than a participant in it, and in moments of painful honesty, he sometimes believed he was a failure in all that was important."
I liked the way he says "more an observer than a participant."
The same character, a pianist, describing his regrets again: "He wondered when he would have an opportunity to play again. He now regretted not making the acquaintance of others in town; there had been moments since he'd boarded up the piano when he fantasized about approaching a friend with the request to play the seldom used piano in his living room, the one his imaginary friend regarded as decoration. He could see himself taking a seat on the dusty bench as his friend watched from the kitchen or foyer - he was quite sure on this - and all at once, he would begin to play something that would move his friend to tears, something he'd been unable to accomplish during all those long months on tour."
When Steve is dying, and his daughter is ministering to him, she watches him waste away: "He didn't answer, only held his breath, waiting for the pain to pass. When it did, he seemed suddenly weaker, as if it had sheared away a sliver of the little life he had left."
Then, these two simple metaphors were fun in context:
"At his answer, she felt something shake loose inside, like the first pebbles skittering downhill before an avalanche."
"It was one of those gorgeous evenings typical of the Carolinas - a soft breeze, the sky a quilt of a thousand different colors. . ."
So? Not bad all in all. Engaging but simple. Easy and simple. I'll try another Sparks, but probably not too soon.
It was a bit simple, the themes, which were easy to spot, were engaging and added a lot to a what otherwise would have been a fairly shallow story. The characters were somewhat flat, but Sparks never gave up on them and so the reader keeps reading about them. And despite the fact that it is predictable, it was fun to read. I look forward to reading another if only to see if this one was simple cause it was aimed at teenage girls, or if all of Spark's books are so easy.
Couple of things caught my eye:
The father, describing himself says: "Though he had certain talents as a mucisian and composer, he laced the charisma or showmanship or whatever it was that made a performer stand out. At times, even he admitted that he'd been more an observer of the world than a participant in it, and in moments of painful honesty, he sometimes believed he was a failure in all that was important."
I liked the way he says "more an observer than a participant."
The same character, a pianist, describing his regrets again: "He wondered when he would have an opportunity to play again. He now regretted not making the acquaintance of others in town; there had been moments since he'd boarded up the piano when he fantasized about approaching a friend with the request to play the seldom used piano in his living room, the one his imaginary friend regarded as decoration. He could see himself taking a seat on the dusty bench as his friend watched from the kitchen or foyer - he was quite sure on this - and all at once, he would begin to play something that would move his friend to tears, something he'd been unable to accomplish during all those long months on tour."
When Steve is dying, and his daughter is ministering to him, she watches him waste away: "He didn't answer, only held his breath, waiting for the pain to pass. When it did, he seemed suddenly weaker, as if it had sheared away a sliver of the little life he had left."
Then, these two simple metaphors were fun in context:
"At his answer, she felt something shake loose inside, like the first pebbles skittering downhill before an avalanche."
"It was one of those gorgeous evenings typical of the Carolinas - a soft breeze, the sky a quilt of a thousand different colors. . ."
So? Not bad all in all. Engaging but simple. Easy and simple. I'll try another Sparks, but probably not too soon.
Book Review: Wild Horses
Just finished reading Wild Horses by Dick Francis. I’ve read this book, three times? It might be one of my favorites but if you asked me, what did you think about Wild Horses, I wouldn’t know it by name. I always remember it the second I read the first page. The story begins with a man dying next to the protagonist, Thomas Lyon, and telling Thomas about his greatest sin. The rest of the book is spent with Thomas uncovering that sin. It’s an interesting story in that it attacks the mystery from two different angles. There is the past mystery, and the mystery going on around Thomas as he films a movie about horse racing. Whenever I read it I think about a large rake or boom being dragged along the muddy bottom of a lake revealing things best left covered.
I tagged a few of my favorite lines:
I liked this first passage for its simplicity. It’s just one line, but it describes so much about what Thomas’ intentions are and why he is doing the things he does in the book.
“Conjurors never explained their tricks. The gasp of surprise was their best reward.”
The first part of this line isn’t anything to shake a stick at, but the last four words grabbed me.
“More people came, apparently plain-clothes policemen. Betty and I retreated to Dorothea’s sitting room where again, comprehensive chaos paralyzed thought.”
Loved this description of one of the suspects. Who wouldn’t want to be a person happy with little?
There was an obvious self-contentment in his whole personality. He had the weathered complexion and thread-venied cheeks of an outdoors man, his eyebrows dramatically blond against the tanned skin. Blue eyes held no guile. His teeth looked naturally good, even and white. No tension showed in his long limbs or sturdy neck. I thought him no great brain, but one of nature’s lucky accidents, a person who could be happy with little.
Some might think this description of a sun rise a bit ham-handed, but Francis inserts this into his usually utilitarian prose and it makes it more interesting.
“Faint horizontal threads of clouds were growing a fiercer red against the still gray sky and as he busied himself with camera speed and focus, the streaks intensified to scarlet and to orange and to gold, until the whole sky was a breath-gripping symphony of sizzling color, the prelude to the earth’s daily sping toward the empowerment of life.”
Thought this description of this aging professor and his room remarkable, particularly the length of that first sentence and the last line of that sentence . . . “and a brass Roman-numeraled clock ticking away the remains of a life.”
I was becoming accustomed to him and to his crowded room, aware now of the walls of bookshelves, so like Valentine’s, and of his cluttered old antique walnut desk, of the single brass lamp with green metal shade throwing inadequate light, of rusty green velvet curtains hanging from great brown rings on a pole, of an incongruously modern television set beside a worn old typewriter, of dried faded hydrangeas in a cloisonné vase and a brass Roman-numeraled clock ticking away the remains of a life. The room, neat and orderly, smelled of old books, of old leather, of old coffee, of old pipe smoke, of old man.
Francis throws in some ideas about his belief in having a strong fantasy life, a positive thing in his view.
“A good strong fantasy life, I’d guess, saves countless people from boredom and depression. It gives them a feeling of being individual.”
I’m biased I know, but I’d read this again in a heartbeat and will. Great hook, great plot, great story lines.
I tagged a few of my favorite lines:
I liked this first passage for its simplicity. It’s just one line, but it describes so much about what Thomas’ intentions are and why he is doing the things he does in the book.
“Conjurors never explained their tricks. The gasp of surprise was their best reward.”
The first part of this line isn’t anything to shake a stick at, but the last four words grabbed me.
“More people came, apparently plain-clothes policemen. Betty and I retreated to Dorothea’s sitting room where again, comprehensive chaos paralyzed thought.”
Loved this description of one of the suspects. Who wouldn’t want to be a person happy with little?
There was an obvious self-contentment in his whole personality. He had the weathered complexion and thread-venied cheeks of an outdoors man, his eyebrows dramatically blond against the tanned skin. Blue eyes held no guile. His teeth looked naturally good, even and white. No tension showed in his long limbs or sturdy neck. I thought him no great brain, but one of nature’s lucky accidents, a person who could be happy with little.
Some might think this description of a sun rise a bit ham-handed, but Francis inserts this into his usually utilitarian prose and it makes it more interesting.
“Faint horizontal threads of clouds were growing a fiercer red against the still gray sky and as he busied himself with camera speed and focus, the streaks intensified to scarlet and to orange and to gold, until the whole sky was a breath-gripping symphony of sizzling color, the prelude to the earth’s daily sping toward the empowerment of life.”
Thought this description of this aging professor and his room remarkable, particularly the length of that first sentence and the last line of that sentence . . . “and a brass Roman-numeraled clock ticking away the remains of a life.”
I was becoming accustomed to him and to his crowded room, aware now of the walls of bookshelves, so like Valentine’s, and of his cluttered old antique walnut desk, of the single brass lamp with green metal shade throwing inadequate light, of rusty green velvet curtains hanging from great brown rings on a pole, of an incongruously modern television set beside a worn old typewriter, of dried faded hydrangeas in a cloisonné vase and a brass Roman-numeraled clock ticking away the remains of a life. The room, neat and orderly, smelled of old books, of old leather, of old coffee, of old pipe smoke, of old man.
Francis throws in some ideas about his belief in having a strong fantasy life, a positive thing in his view.
“A good strong fantasy life, I’d guess, saves countless people from boredom and depression. It gives them a feeling of being individual.”
I’m biased I know, but I’d read this again in a heartbeat and will. Great hook, great plot, great story lines.
Book Review: Executive Orders (or the first book where in I did not find a single line worth mentioning)
Uh oh. Note the title. This is not good. There are two reasons I write these book reviews. First so I can remember what I read. The second reason. . . whenever I find what I believe is a well written line, a worthwhile analogy, or a clever turn of phrase, I like to share it with you and write it down for future reference. Executive Orders by Vince Flynn had none of those aspects that would fulfill reason two.
I read a spy/thriller novel every now and then. They're fun to read, and my indispensable brother Dave has given me several great miltary thriller ideas that I hope to one day write. I've read most of Vince Flynn's books. They fall into a category I like to call neo-con porn. The hero Mitch Rapp is an caricature of a CIA assassin and the politics that Flynn describes are complete fantasy. But, fun to read.
Disappointing in that i believe I now like Barry Eisler's books more (keep in mind I've only read one from Eisler). Where Flynn has a broader scope that include world-wide movements and plot developments, Eisler focuses on the main character more and the locales are more manageable.
The one redeeming part about Executive Orders was the description of the hostage rescue operation in the Philippines. The jungle, the rain storm, the misery, all served to remind me of our Ranger operations in Panama. My question . . . what with all the man love for SEALs. Fun to read but I'm glad it only took me two days to finish.
I read a spy/thriller novel every now and then. They're fun to read, and my indispensable brother Dave has given me several great miltary thriller ideas that I hope to one day write. I've read most of Vince Flynn's books. They fall into a category I like to call neo-con porn. The hero Mitch Rapp is an caricature of a CIA assassin and the politics that Flynn describes are complete fantasy. But, fun to read.
Disappointing in that i believe I now like Barry Eisler's books more (keep in mind I've only read one from Eisler). Where Flynn has a broader scope that include world-wide movements and plot developments, Eisler focuses on the main character more and the locales are more manageable.
The one redeeming part about Executive Orders was the description of the hostage rescue operation in the Philippines. The jungle, the rain storm, the misery, all served to remind me of our Ranger operations in Panama. My question . . . what with all the man love for SEALs. Fun to read but I'm glad it only took me two days to finish.
Book Review – Three for the Chair
I finished a series of Nero Wolfe short stories today by Rex Stout. Three for the Chair is as good as any of the other Nero Wolfe mysteries. I like these, they're like books for the "fusion" restaurant lover. My favorite fusion restaurant is a blend of Southwest, Central American, and Asian foods. Reading Nero Wolf mysteries is the fusion food equivalent of reading an Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot mystery, a Lawrence Sanders, McNally mystery and a 1950's hard-boiled detective mystery. All of these were poignant, fun to read, and wrapped the puzzle up nicely by the end, just as I expected.
A made some notes, of course.
Archie Goodwin describing a lady he is watching says:
"She stood up. Of course nurses are expected rise from a chair without commotion, but she just floated up."
Later in the same story, Archie describes a suspect succinctly and in a way that helps the reader understand Archie's tone and voice.
"I sat with my back to my deisk and took him in as an object with assorted points of interest. He was a uranium millionaire, the very newest kind. He was a chronic jaw-puncher, no matter where. He knew a good-looking nurse when he saw one, and acted accordingly. And he had been nomictaed as a candidate for the electric, chair. Quite a character for one so young. He wasn't bad-looking himself, unless you insist on the kind they use for cigarette ads. His face and hands weren't as rough and weathered as I would have expected of a man who had spent five years in the wilderness pecking at rocks, but since finding Black Elbow he had had time to smooth up some."
Archie describing Nero Wolfe shocked and surprised. I love the approximation in the description.
"Wolfe's brows went up a sixteenth of an inch."
As so much of the book includes, Archie describing Wolfe, this time as Nero Wolfe deals with a female contemporary.
"He frowned at her. Sometimes he honestly tries to speak to a woman without frowning at her, but he seldom makes it."
There was one other feature I wanted to note, but this was a running description through a mystery. There is one official that the detectives must deal with, and Archie says of him:
"Then more district attorney, a bouncy bald guy named Jasper Colvin, with rimless spectacles that he had to shove them back on his nose every time he took a step."
Throughout the rest of the story, Archie says things like:
"Colvin answered. "I did. I'm Jasper Colvin, district attorney of this county." He pushed his specs back up on his nose."
"Colvin nodded at him and down came the specs."
"Colvin cleared his throat and had to push the specs."
"Colvin pushed the specs. I'll only mention it every fourth or fifth time."
Then every few sentences dealing with this character Stout just writes, "Specs." Nothing more.
I thought that was a cunning way to bring humor and describe a major character.
Only two interesting vocabulary words.
Chimera – (modern) - a chimera is an animal that has two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated in different zygotes involved with sexual reproduction – (mythological) - a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her spine. (I knew this one, but I like to refresh my memory.)
Larrupe - give a spanking to; subject to a spanking
All in all, fun to read, as always.
Book Review: The Hostage
I know that I'm a book behind; I still haven't written what I thought of Dr. No. The problem is I read it in hard cover and haven't had a chance to transcribe my notes to the blog. This is not a problem with The Hostage by WEB Griffen. Not only did I read The Hostage via Kindle, but there were no notes or marks that I need to transcribe. This absence of compelling or noteworthy quotes does not speak well of a positive or glowing review.
I've said before that I write these little reviews for my own purposes; primarily to remind myself which books I have read and what I thought of them. In this case I hope that I remember that I wrote that the book is a waste of time and energy and when I one day think, "You know, I should read The Hunters, the next book in WEB Griffen's The Presidential Agent Series," I will read this review and reconsider that thought. I have faith that this process will work because as I was reading The Hostage I remembered that I'd read the first book in the same series, By Order of the President, and I remembered that I didn't think it was worthwhile. Had I written that in the blog I feel certain I would have passed on The Hostage and been a better person because of it.
I first read a WEB Griffen book when I was in the military. The first book in The Brotherhood of War series is The Lieutenants. It's not bad. It's about four different soldiers and how they experience the military and politics in the US in the 1940's and 1950's. I liked it enough that I read the second book, The Captains. At some point I switched to The Corps Series and read Semper Fi and A Call to Arms. I remember that I liked all of these books. They were fun to read, thick, engaging and patriotic. I also remember thinking that all of the characters were a bit extraordinary, almost caricatures of real people. This worked for that era. For some reason I see people in the 1950's as caricatures. Sadly this style does not work well in the present day and The Hostage exposes this weakness.
So much of the time in The Hostage it seems as though Griffen is just moving the story along to get it over with. Setting and scene descriptions take a back seat to military characters who say supposedly strong and poignant things but who come off seeming silly and trite. Having been in the military I think a majority of these characters would be punched squarely in the nose by real soldiers if they were actual people. The dialogue is ridiculous and the plot was flimsy. I find it difficult to watch movies about the military cause I spend so much of the movie thinking "That wouldn't happen" or "That's not how it works." In this book, Griffen even has his character think that same sentiment. Reading this book provided that same frustration in literary form.
In conclusion, I am going to abandon The Presidential Agent series and revert back to The Brotherhood of War series in the future.
Book Review: Dr. No - Even Better Than the Movie
I finished reading Dr. No by Ian Fleming and I have to say I am thoroughly impressed. I read it as a part of a five story compilation book and I can't wait to move to the next one. The one thing I do regret is that the books aren't on the Kindle. I swear I made more notes, or meant to, but when I was done and went back to look for interesting words or lines all I could find were the following:
Apotheosis – Elevation to a divine status; deification or the perfect example; quintessence (I thought I knew this word then I looked it up and realized how wrong I was)
Susuration – Whispering sound; murmur (knew this one, just really like saying it)
Putsch – A secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government (of course I knew this one, who doesn't know about the Beer Hall Putsch, but it's so much fun to use)
A couple of lines that caught my eye. When Bond and Quarrel are slipping into Crab Cay Fleming describes it as:
"There was a turmoil of water and a series of grating thuds, and then a sudden rush forward into peace and the canoe was moving slowly across a smooth mirror towards shore."
Then:
"The beach was black. The sand was soft and wonderful to the feet but it must have been formed by volcanic rock, pounded over centuries, and Bond's naked feet on it looked like white crabs."
These are indicative of Fleming's writing it seems to me. He could have said "The canoe came onto the shore easily" or "Bond jumped out onto the black sand beach" but the method he uses are far more descriptive and inspirational.
Finally, the story is far deeper and engaging than the movie story. In the movie Dr. No is portrayed as almost comical. In the book he is intriguing. A full chapter is given over to his back story and it might be the most engaging portion of the story. Did you know Dr. No was shot in the chest and only survived because his heart is shifted to the right side of his chest instead of the left? Well, you wouldn't from the movie. All you would think about are his metal hands. Dr. No is a far more engaging villain in the book than the movie's evil villain.
Well worth the time, glad I bought the compilation.
Book Review: Hard Rain or “Man This Guy is Good”
When I was younger, teenage years, one of my favorite authors was Pat Conroy. I loved reading the Prince of Tides, Lords of Discipline, The Water is Wide and The Great Santini. I thought that Conroy had a lyrical voice and style that was engaging and interesting to read. In college I found the same style in James Dickey of Deliverance fame. Serendipidous then that I have run across Barry Eisler and his John Rain series. Hard Rain in this the second book of Eisler's that I've read and this series of his is easily my favorite series of the moment. His prose, particularly in the first chapters, are incredibly rich and he uses a vocabulary that makes you think. Perfect to read on a Kindle with a dictionary application. The story and plot are gruesome, his main character is an anti-hero, an assassin who although a murderer and killer is out to do good, but the story is wide in scope and has a tight POV that keeps me wanting to read more.
First the vocabulary. A majority of these came in the first thirty pages. Makes me think about all those books on writing where-in they tell you to make the first few chapters as perfect as you can make them. Sadly, the twenty-five cent words trailed off throughout the book.
Demimonde - A class of women kept by wealthy lovers or protectors; women prostitutes considered as a group; a group whose respectability is dubious or whose success is marginal.
Antedeluvian - Of or relating to the period before the flood described in the Bible; made, evolved, or developed a long time ago; extremely primitive or outmoded an antediluvian prejudice.
Ambit - Circuit, compass; the bounds or limits of a place or district; a sphere of action, expression, or influence : scope.
Anodyne - Serving to alleviate pain; not likely to offend or arouse tensions : innocuous.
Solipsistic - A theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing; also : extreme egocentrism.
Amanuensis - One employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript.
Quotidian - Occurring every day; belonging to each day; commonplace, ordinary.
Fulgent - Dazzlingly bright : radiant.
Soporific - Causing or tending to cause sleep, tending to dull awareness or alertness; of, relating to, or marked by sleepiness or lethargy.
Some lines that caught my eye.
First, despite the sometimes lowly descriptions, Eisler, a westerner, describes Tokyo in such a way that I can't wait to go visit it. Here is his description of a cemetery in Tokyo:
"I moved deeper into the comforting gloom, along a stone walkway covered in cherry blossoms that lay like tenebrous snow in the glow of lamplights to either side. Just days earlier, these same blossoms had been celebrated by living Tokyoites, who came here in their drunken thousands to see reflected in the blossom's brief and vital beauty the inherent pathos of their own lives. But now the blossoms were fallen, the revelers departed, even the garbage disgorged by their parties efficiently removed and discarded, and the area was once again given over only to the dead."
Then this:
"Everywhere were metastasizing telephone lines, riots of electric wires, laundry hanging from prefabricated apartment windows like tears from idiot eyes."
Finally, after he has used a disguise to kill someone, the hero, John Rain, gets rid of the elements of his disguise by leaving it for the homeless:
"Within days, perhaps hours, the discarded remnants of this last job would have been bleached of any trace of their origin, each just another nameless, colorless item among nameless colorless souls, the flotsam and jetsam of loneliness and despair that fall from time to time into Tokyo's collective blind spot and from there into oblivion."
I wrote about a Nero Wolfe story I read wherein Archie describes then watches a character continually replace his glasses ontop of his nose. Eventually Archie's narration boils down to nothing more than his saying, "specs again" or "glasses" and the reader knows exactly what the author is referring to. Eisler does a similar thing as Rain watches the people with whom he interacts, in this case catching someone lying, something I've always been intrigued by.
"He glanced to his left, which for most people is a neurolinguistic sign of recall rather than of construction. Had he looked in the opposite direction, I would have read it as a lie."
Then much later all Eisler has to write is the following, and the reader knows what he is referring to:
"He glanced to his right. The glance said, think of something."
Loved reading this book. Not quite as good as the first if only because the reader can tell that the first was meant as a singleton, and this is an expansion of a story that came to a nice tight end with book one. That being said, I look forward to reading the next in the series.
Book Review: The Danger
I finished The Danger by Dick Francis at about midnight on Tuesday. I don't know if I've read this one before or not. I suspect that I have as there were one or two scenes I felt I could just about have predicted before they were complete, but that could be because I consider myself such a Dick Franciscan.
One of the aspects of his writing that I enjoy, and have a new respect for now that I've tried it myself, is Francis' ability to have a story that revolves around horse racing and not have the main character be a part of the horse racing world. In The Danger, the main character is a hostage negotiator. He happens to fall into the racing world when a spate of kidnaps infects the horse racing world.
Not much in the way of vocabulary, but I highlighted some passages.
In this first the main character is describing to another character a father who is upset by the kidnapping of his son. A great sample of an interesting simile.
"John Nerrity is like one of those snowstorm paperweights, all shaken up, with bits of guilt and fear and relief and meanness all floating around in a turmoil. It takes a while after something as traumatic as the last few days for everything in someone's character to settle, like the snowstorm, so to speak, and for all the old patterns to reassert."
This next describes the main character talking to the police chief. I like the way Francis allows his own character to describe a dominant feature of himself, phrasing suggestions as questions.
"'Andrew!' The beginnings of exasperation. 'What's been going on?'
'Will you be coming here yourself?'
A short pause came down the line. He'd told me once that I always put suggestions into the form of questions, and I supposed that it was true that I did. Implant the thought, seek the decision. He knew the tap was on the telephone, he'd ordered it himself, with every word recorded. He would guess there were things I might tell him privately.'"
This final passage describes the way that the main character feels about America.
"I felt liberated, as always in America, a feeling which I thought had something to do with the country's own vastness, as if the wide-apartness of everything flooded into the mind and put spaces between everyday problems."
It's a good, solid, Francis book. I enjoyed it. Unlike many of his and other mystery books, this one ends rather abruptly. There is no denouement, just a quick sentence or two after the climax. The reader is forced to imagine the rest. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.
Book Review: Tough Cookie...or Don't Tell My Army Buddies, Sometimes I Like To Read Chick Books
ARGH! . . . As I've always said, I write these book reviews for me, not for you the reader. I like to know what I've read so I can either go back and read it again, continue or discontinue the series, or avoid the author completely. At the moment I'm struggling with the fact that I can remember reading a particularly compelling thriller about the Middle East, but apparently I didn't think enough about it to actually write it down here. Nevertheless, I'm also in a bit of a quandary about this latest book I've finished, Tough Cookie by Diane Mott Davidson.
I started reading Davidson's series on cooking and sleuthing and wasn't too disappointed. Now, the mild enthusiasm has waned. It might take quite a bit of convincing for me to read another. Although I find her characters shallow, her excessive use of modifying adverbs maddening and silly and her descriptions bordering on insipid and confusing, I will say that her mysteries, the actual story, the plot is fun to watch come together. It's as if she sprinkles all her characters in her book like fish food in an aquarium and they all dance and float around higgelty-piggelty then at the last instant they all come together. Sadly that's the only positive aspect I could find.
Some of the passages I highlighted, showing both good and bad:
First, the annoying adverbs.
"Without my business, an enterprise I'd lovingly built up for almost a decade, I entered a spiritual fog as thick as the gray autumnal mist snaking between the Colorado mountains."
“I’d lovingly built up?” Would have worked as well or better without “lovingly.”
“She expertly poured both the juice and the champagne into a clean crystal flute to make a mimosa.”
Expertly poured? What’s that really mean? Think about it a sec, how descriptive is that?
Tom’s makeshift version, composed of kettle-dipped water, cocoa, sugar, powered creamer and milk was actually quite luscious, like a hot chocolate gelato.
I have no idea what that above sentence means. Have you ever tried that recipe? I have. Less than luscious to say the least. And can someone tell me what hot chocolate gelato means?
There were a million more like the above throughout the book. Too many to mention. “She rolled the luscious chocolate in her mouth” or “The scrumptious aroma of beef” etc. It’s not as bad in this forum and when I just give a souciant of the whole, but it gets tiresome throughout the book.
One thing that Davidson does do well is relate food and cooking to every aspect of her writing, including scene and character descriptions. Two examples:
Describig a ski slope: “Most runs are set up like slant-sided wedding cakes. Long sloped section alternate with narrow flat areas.”
“Just before eight o’clock, a state patrolman knocked on our door. Into our kitchen Tom ushered a tall, corpulent man with black hair so short and think it looked like someone had ground pepper over his scalp.”
Another thing Davidson does poorly is dialogue. In many cases when I think an author is struggling with dialogue I can give a bit of leeway, but in this case, it’s just horrible. I don’t know anyone who speaks like this, do you?
She sighed. “Not to worry, my dear friend. How's the planning going?”
I’ve never said “dear friend” when speaking to anyone.
“That won’t stop the ski traffic, unfortunately,” he said mournfully. “A day for accidents. What a shame.” – “Yes, indeed.” I said.
This one is filled with problems. Try reading that out loud then imagine saying it to a friend. It doesn’t work at all. “What a shame?” “Yes, indeed?” It’s stilted and unrealistic at best.
I try to read critically now, and I have to say to a great degree I notice new aspects of many of the books I’ve read. One thing I’ve noticed is that authors love to describe mornings. I could start a whole series of posts like my “First Lines” and “Last Lines” threads whereby I just include morning descriptions. Davidson used an original one when she says of the morning:
"To the east the sky was edged with pewter."
Finally, one problem I have with Davidson . . . her characters never goes to the store. She begins the description of Goldy making lasagna and meatballs with:
“Serving meatballs and lasagna could jeopardize my upscale reputation, I reflected while removing ground beef, ricotta, Fontina, whipping cream, eggs and mozzarella from the walk-in.”
I would have a hard time making a bowl of Cheerios with milk with what I have in my refrigerator right now, yet this lady can whip up lasagna, meatballs, a curry dish, shrimp scampi, cookies galore, two casseroles, desserts, etc. and never once have to go to the store. Made me think it was lazy writing. Kinda irked me.
There were a couple of vocabulary words that struck me:
Ingenue - a naive girl or young woman; an actress playing such a role
Frisson - a brief moment of emotional excitement : shudder, thrill
And finally, I love onomatopoeia. This example, although less than lyrical is certainly perfectly descriptive.
“The doorbell bing-bonged into the depths of Arthur’s condo.”
I guess what bothers me about this series is that I feel that my own novel is better; not much better, but better. My second novel will be much better. I suppose I should feel invigorated that if this can find an audience, my own novels should as well. I really only read these books cause I like cooking and enjoy mysteries. At this point though I might forego the next Davidson book. I might have outgrown them.
I started reading Davidson's series on cooking and sleuthing and wasn't too disappointed. Now, the mild enthusiasm has waned. It might take quite a bit of convincing for me to read another. Although I find her characters shallow, her excessive use of modifying adverbs maddening and silly and her descriptions bordering on insipid and confusing, I will say that her mysteries, the actual story, the plot is fun to watch come together. It's as if she sprinkles all her characters in her book like fish food in an aquarium and they all dance and float around higgelty-piggelty then at the last instant they all come together. Sadly that's the only positive aspect I could find.
Some of the passages I highlighted, showing both good and bad:
First, the annoying adverbs.
"Without my business, an enterprise I'd lovingly built up for almost a decade, I entered a spiritual fog as thick as the gray autumnal mist snaking between the Colorado mountains."
“I’d lovingly built up?” Would have worked as well or better without “lovingly.”
“She expertly poured both the juice and the champagne into a clean crystal flute to make a mimosa.”
Expertly poured? What’s that really mean? Think about it a sec, how descriptive is that?
Tom’s makeshift version, composed of kettle-dipped water, cocoa, sugar, powered creamer and milk was actually quite luscious, like a hot chocolate gelato.
I have no idea what that above sentence means. Have you ever tried that recipe? I have. Less than luscious to say the least. And can someone tell me what hot chocolate gelato means?
There were a million more like the above throughout the book. Too many to mention. “She rolled the luscious chocolate in her mouth” or “The scrumptious aroma of beef” etc. It’s not as bad in this forum and when I just give a souciant of the whole, but it gets tiresome throughout the book.
One thing that Davidson does do well is relate food and cooking to every aspect of her writing, including scene and character descriptions. Two examples:
Describig a ski slope: “Most runs are set up like slant-sided wedding cakes. Long sloped section alternate with narrow flat areas.”
“Just before eight o’clock, a state patrolman knocked on our door. Into our kitchen Tom ushered a tall, corpulent man with black hair so short and think it looked like someone had ground pepper over his scalp.”
Another thing Davidson does poorly is dialogue. In many cases when I think an author is struggling with dialogue I can give a bit of leeway, but in this case, it’s just horrible. I don’t know anyone who speaks like this, do you?
She sighed. “Not to worry, my dear friend. How's the planning going?”
I’ve never said “dear friend” when speaking to anyone.
“That won’t stop the ski traffic, unfortunately,” he said mournfully. “A day for accidents. What a shame.” – “Yes, indeed.” I said.
This one is filled with problems. Try reading that out loud then imagine saying it to a friend. It doesn’t work at all. “What a shame?” “Yes, indeed?” It’s stilted and unrealistic at best.
I try to read critically now, and I have to say to a great degree I notice new aspects of many of the books I’ve read. One thing I’ve noticed is that authors love to describe mornings. I could start a whole series of posts like my “First Lines” and “Last Lines” threads whereby I just include morning descriptions. Davidson used an original one when she says of the morning:
"To the east the sky was edged with pewter."
Finally, one problem I have with Davidson . . . her characters never goes to the store. She begins the description of Goldy making lasagna and meatballs with:
“Serving meatballs and lasagna could jeopardize my upscale reputation, I reflected while removing ground beef, ricotta, Fontina, whipping cream, eggs and mozzarella from the walk-in.”
I would have a hard time making a bowl of Cheerios with milk with what I have in my refrigerator right now, yet this lady can whip up lasagna, meatballs, a curry dish, shrimp scampi, cookies galore, two casseroles, desserts, etc. and never once have to go to the store. Made me think it was lazy writing. Kinda irked me.
There were a couple of vocabulary words that struck me:
Ingenue - a naive girl or young woman; an actress playing such a role
Frisson - a brief moment of emotional excitement : shudder, thrill
And finally, I love onomatopoeia. This example, although less than lyrical is certainly perfectly descriptive.
“The doorbell bing-bonged into the depths of Arthur’s condo.”
I guess what bothers me about this series is that I feel that my own novel is better; not much better, but better. My second novel will be much better. I suppose I should feel invigorated that if this can find an audience, my own novels should as well. I really only read these books cause I like cooking and enjoy mysteries. At this point though I might forego the next Davidson book. I might have outgrown them.
Book Review – The Tatja Grimm’s World
Vernor Vinge is my favorite author at the moment. Even his less than stellar works, like The Tatja Grimm's World, is so much fun to read that it's hard not to be impressed.
My wife and I, not sci-fi fans, enjoyed watching the first season of the new Battlestar Gallactica when it was released a few years ago. We thought the story lines were interesting, the acting was good, an all around good show. We felt it slumped in season 2 and stopped watching, but the authors employed an amazing technique between seasons 1 and 2, he advanced the story almost a year. All of a sudden the audience was forced to pay attention to understand what happened and how their favorite characters had developed during the time shift. I bring this up because Vernor Vinge does this not just in The Tatja Grimm's World, but does it in all of his novels, and he does it well. Just as the reader is intrigued by the story and the characters, boom! onto the same story but five years in the future. It's like a whole new story is created during that time but with characters who don't have to be re-introduced. It might be necessary to get reacquainted, but not re-introduced.
Another aspect of Vernor Vinge's novels that I find compelling are his larger than life characters. In Deepness in the Sky and Fire Upon the Deep the reader follows an almost god-like Pham Nuwen. In this novel it's Tatja Grimm. Both of these characters have almost super-human intelligence and reading about them, watching the plot unfold, is like watching speed chess . . . but really fun and interesting speed chess (normally I don't like chess, but the maneuvering of the characters, the ambushes and plots all have that type of appeal).
I noted some lines and words below:
"He was wrapped in blankets, his hands clasped and shivering in his lap. Only one eye tracked and it was starred with a cataract. His voice was quavery, the delivery almost addeled."
The description of the eyes caught my eye.
One of the main characters is on a forced road march, the description of the pain was interesting.
"Each step sent bright spurts of pain up Svir's calves. Each breath burned at his lungs."
Finally, although this is a common theme in many novels and stories about combat, I thought this character's thoughts summed up the idea nicely.
"He reflected with some irritation that in general his courage derived from that fear that he might be taken for a coward."
Mendicant – Beggar; a member of a religious order (as the Franciscans) combining monastic life and outside religious activity and originally owning neither personal nor community property : friar.
Soporific - causing or tending to cause sleep; tending to dull awareness or alertness.
Don't like Sci-Fi but love fascinating writing with rich characters and indepth plots? Go read a Vernor Vinge. Don't read this one right away, go get A Deepness in the Sky then read Fire Upon the Deep. You won't be disappointed.
Memorial Day Book Review or Becoming Thor
No, not about the new movie coming out, nor about my getting swoll off the new P-90X workout video. Nope, this has to do with the Vince Flynn book I just finished, Memorial Day.
One must know that it won't be Dickensian when one picks up a Vince Flynn novel. No David Copperfield, instead the protagonist is Mitch Rapp. Just the name alone tells you alot about the thriller that about to come. But I'm sorry to say the further in the series I've gone the worse the writing. I found nothing worth highlighting in the whole text. No interesting passages, no clever turns of phrase and no fun vocabulary. The only thing he did well was describe a raid in Afghanistan, but as soon as that was over, all downhill.
Still, I didn't give up on Page 1 as I did with Brad Thor. Maybe the title is a bit of hyperbole. Maybe he's not quite Thor-ish yet.
One must know that it won't be Dickensian when one picks up a Vince Flynn novel. No David Copperfield, instead the protagonist is Mitch Rapp. Just the name alone tells you alot about the thriller that about to come. But I'm sorry to say the further in the series I've gone the worse the writing. I found nothing worth highlighting in the whole text. No interesting passages, no clever turns of phrase and no fun vocabulary. The only thing he did well was describe a raid in Afghanistan, but as soon as that was over, all downhill.
Still, I didn't give up on Page 1 as I did with Brad Thor. Maybe the title is a bit of hyperbole. Maybe he's not quite Thor-ish yet.
Book Review: Rain Storm
I just finished reading the third John Rain thriller, Rain Storm. I'm getting tired of saying this, but I love these books. They are terrific thrillers and I think I've said it before, its so rare to read a good thriller that's written in the first person.
In this story, John Rain is found in Brazil, by the CIA, and begin working for them again. He meets up with another assassin who is trying to get to the same target he is after, and she happens to be a beautiful blonde (how prosaic). This was a bit of a surprise from Barry Eisler. He's full of formulaic characters, but for the most part he avoids patently obvious formulas. The girl in this was a bit too obvious, particularly when the love interest in the past two have been so deeply fleshed out and different. Viva la difference, Barry!
Despite this, the story is a fast one to read and spectacularly engaging. There were a couple of terrific passages and vocabulary, as usual, which I marked, also as usual.
Atavism: Relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral.
Senescent: The condition or process of deterioration with age.
Like Goldfinger, a lot of the first part of the story is wrapped up in gambling. I found some of these intriguing.
"We moved with them, past gamblers flush with fresh winnings, whome the girls eyed with bold invitation, eager to retrieve a few floating scraps from the casino food chain; pas middle-aged men from Hong Kong and Taiwan with sagging bodies and febrile eyes, their postures rigid, caught in some grim purgatory between sexual urgency and commercial calculation; past security guards, inured to the charms of the girls' bare legs and bold decolletage and interested only in keeping them moving, circling, forever swimming through the murk of the endless Lisboa night."
When I got to this section of the story I actually went back and read some of Casino Royale for it's terrific description of baccarat.
"I played baccarat at the upscale Bellagio; roulette at the off-strip Rio; craps at the fading Riviera, whose attempts to match the gayness and glitter around her felt forced, artificial, like makeup layered on by a woman who recognizes that she was never beautiful to begin with and has now, in addition, grown colorless an old."
I liked the way he made the tide sound like a defeated army.
"The rain had stopped and we strolled down to the edge of the water. The tide was receding, giving up wet sand like a defeated army abandoning terrain it could no longer control."
I thought it was interesting that he referenced Ian Fleming in the book, and right after I used him as a reference.
"What did Ian Fleming say? Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. And I don't believe in waiting for even that much evidence. It was pas time to act."
Finally, I loved the metaphor using the umbrellas.
"From Narita, I took a Narita Express train to Tokyo station, where I emerged to find my former city hunched up against characteristically rainy and cold late autumn weather. I stood under the portico roof at the station's Marunouchi entrance and took in the scene. Waves of black umbrellas bobbed before me. Wet leaves were plastered to the pavement, ground in by the tires of oblivious cars and the soles of insensate pedestrians, by the weight of the entire, indifferent metropolis."
A strong and fun book, as fun as the last two. I look forward to the next.
In this story, John Rain is found in Brazil, by the CIA, and begin working for them again. He meets up with another assassin who is trying to get to the same target he is after, and she happens to be a beautiful blonde (how prosaic). This was a bit of a surprise from Barry Eisler. He's full of formulaic characters, but for the most part he avoids patently obvious formulas. The girl in this was a bit too obvious, particularly when the love interest in the past two have been so deeply fleshed out and different. Viva la difference, Barry!
Despite this, the story is a fast one to read and spectacularly engaging. There were a couple of terrific passages and vocabulary, as usual, which I marked, also as usual.
Atavism: Relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral.
Senescent: The condition or process of deterioration with age.
Like Goldfinger, a lot of the first part of the story is wrapped up in gambling. I found some of these intriguing.
"We moved with them, past gamblers flush with fresh winnings, whome the girls eyed with bold invitation, eager to retrieve a few floating scraps from the casino food chain; pas middle-aged men from Hong Kong and Taiwan with sagging bodies and febrile eyes, their postures rigid, caught in some grim purgatory between sexual urgency and commercial calculation; past security guards, inured to the charms of the girls' bare legs and bold decolletage and interested only in keeping them moving, circling, forever swimming through the murk of the endless Lisboa night."
When I got to this section of the story I actually went back and read some of Casino Royale for it's terrific description of baccarat.
"I played baccarat at the upscale Bellagio; roulette at the off-strip Rio; craps at the fading Riviera, whose attempts to match the gayness and glitter around her felt forced, artificial, like makeup layered on by a woman who recognizes that she was never beautiful to begin with and has now, in addition, grown colorless an old."
I liked the way he made the tide sound like a defeated army.
"The rain had stopped and we strolled down to the edge of the water. The tide was receding, giving up wet sand like a defeated army abandoning terrain it could no longer control."
I thought it was interesting that he referenced Ian Fleming in the book, and right after I used him as a reference.
"What did Ian Fleming say? Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. And I don't believe in waiting for even that much evidence. It was pas time to act."
Finally, I loved the metaphor using the umbrellas.
"From Narita, I took a Narita Express train to Tokyo station, where I emerged to find my former city hunched up against characteristically rainy and cold late autumn weather. I stood under the portico roof at the station's Marunouchi entrance and took in the scene. Waves of black umbrellas bobbed before me. Wet leaves were plastered to the pavement, ground in by the tires of oblivious cars and the soles of insensate pedestrians, by the weight of the entire, indifferent metropolis."
A strong and fun book, as fun as the last two. I look forward to the next.
Book Review: Second Wind
UGH! Don't you just hate when your favorite author writes a horrible book? This is Second Wind. Easily the worst Dick Francis book I've ever read. The plot was ridiculous and was full of non sequiturs, the dialogue didn't seem natural, the characters were forgettable and the writing was bad. Throughout the story I kept thinking, "Wow, my novel is better than this." And I stand by that.
Thankfully, Dick Francis has alot of "political capital" with me. I'm not off him for life. The sad part is, while I was looking for my next book to read, I realized that there were only a couple of Francis book Kindle-ized. If they don't quickly Kindle more, I fear I'll be stuck with the dregs.
Thankfully, Dick Francis has alot of "political capital" with me. I'm not off him for life. The sad part is, while I was looking for my next book to read, I realized that there were only a couple of Francis book Kindle-ized. If they don't quickly Kindle more, I fear I'll be stuck with the dregs.
Book Review - Twelve Sharp
I just finished Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich. Anyone who knows me or who has read this blog will know that I enjoy Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series if only cause they are light-hearted, fast, easy, and fun to read. Evanovich has successfully created a world of clever characters who are consistently and constantly pulled into somewhat believable and intrigueing mysteries. The story is fast paced, and the characters are fun to read about. Whenever I read one of these books I always imagine it as a movie and it turns out to be a really good movie. My favorite character is not the paramilitary love interest, but the huge, African American side kick. Whenever Lula is involved in a scene I find myself paying attention more if only because if you read to fast you’ll gloss over some of her quips or one liners. All in all, no great vocab, no great lines, but one great book and a terrific series, even if its read out of order.
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