50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

PS. I thought Edward Fox perfect casting for The Jackal, Bruce, not so much.

I knew that it was the detail that you'd like Cote. In that respect it reminds me of The Martian in an odd way, because the book is about planning and intricate detail, not sciency but similar in a way. I'm about halfway and enjoying it but not loving it so much as I did before - but it is probably a third or fourth read of it for me.

13. The Day Of The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

This was brilliant - meticulous, analytical, realistic, and devoid of whiny feeeliiiingggs. It had detailed explanations for exactly how each clue was found, and the exact motivations and thought processes of each character. My sort of book. I think I'll go on to The Odessa File next

It was interesting to see that the plot of the film Jackal (with Bruce Willis) has practically nothing to do with the book, but the details that made that film good were taken from here. I think the plot of the book makes far more sense but am of course grateful that they made place in the film for Richard Gere.

Stokey - If you're annoyed by The Twelve stay well away from the final book in the trilogy - it's much, much worse.

Stokey you forgot John Grisham

I also spent my teens surrounded by Dean Koontz and Danielle Steel. We lived in India and it still saddens me to think that they were the forefront of English lit at the time, maybe diluted with a bit of Jeffrey Archer.

Glad to hear the love for The Power. I haven't read it yet but have chosen it for book club this month.

I'm reading The Twelve by Justin Cronin. He spent the two-hundred pages going back 100 years before the events in the last book. Why??? Does he not realise that I'm reading a sequel to find out what harems next?

A book called Daughters Of The Dragon on the Kindle 99p deal at the moment. Anyone read it? Five stars on Amazon and more significantly it scores an average of 4.42 from 4312 ratings on Goodreads so I've added it to my TBR pile in hope. Blurb says: Anna [is led] to the Seoul apartment of the poor yet elegant Hong Jae-hee. Jae-hee recounts an epic tale that begins with the Japanese occupation of Korea and China during World War II, when more than two hundred thousand Korean women were forced to serve the soldiers as “comfort women.” Jae-hee knows the story well—she was one of them.

at Tell Not Show School of Terribleness

I went through a very short Dean Koontz phase in my teens. I should have really given up at book one, but I was naive and hadn't yet developed a strong taste in books. Even then I knew it was a bit rubbish, but persevered because my male friends walked around the sixth form campus holding Koontz books and looking smug. The day I realised I'm wasting precious life moments on his drivel was a turning moment

Ha ha, very true! As for Aech - if you only see the other characters as their avatars, as he does in the book, it'll be no different? On the wiki page they didn't declare the casting for that character like the others so assume they are going for it.

Satsuki Well, it should be good then but I, like the author, have seen the last Indiana Jones movie! Aech's secret will be blown rather easily though.

Spielberg is doing the film, river. I'm optimistic it might even be better - I enjoyed the book but it felt to me like it was very movie friendly.

*scene in Heathers

12 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Thank you, you wonderful human beings, for pointing me in the direction of this book! Enjoyed it and indulged myself with it. It would be hard for me to not like a book that quoted Peter Venkman in the second paragraph and had a setc in Heathers on the third page! Loved the little details too like mentions of Wil Wheaton or the Pepsi Challenge. The plot felt very like an 80's film too. It was fun and I'm curious about how it will transfer to the big screen. (Probably badly)

Going to read The Queen of Distraction next, a self help books for women with ADHD for...reasons.

Haha that's probably why I've never picked one up! It's quite gothic, I like it so far (30% in).

20. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

An account of Haig's experiences suffering from depression and anxiety. He tells it in short segments which are interspersed with lists and random bits and pieces. Having had depression in the past myself, although not as seriously as he did, it was interesting to read his descriptions of his experiences but I wouldn't say it was terribly insightful. That may be because I have had depression - someone from my book club who had read it found it very informative because it was outside his own experience.

My review:

The first in the Charlie Parker crime series, which I’ve seen recommended on MN several times. Well, I’m here to tell you that whoever recommended it is WRONG. The ex-cop figure is fine, the idea (nasty man murdering people horribly and cutting off their faces) is fine, a couple of good characters (gay hitmen were my favourites) also fine, but Connolly is an absolutely dreadful writer from the Tell Not Show School of Terribleness. If the book had been 80% shorter with 60 or so fewer characters, massively reduced back story, a bodycount that didn’t descend into cartoon-esque figures, had had a decent ending and been written by Raymond Chandler it might have been good. As it was, it was bloody awful and I wish I had given up after twenty pages. Stay well away.

Charlie Parker as in the jazzman? Yes if so! (But then if book 14 thinking maybe not . . . was imagining a biography . . . )

I read the first Charlie Parker last year, iirc. Unfortunately I thought it was diabolical!

The Koontz has been returned in disgust. I've never returned a Kindle book for being crap before.

Am reading a Charlie Parker book for a RL book club. I am, v surprisingly, enjoying it. Anyone a fan?

Book club is reading book 14 btw. have clearly missed a lot of back story!

I used to read Dean Koontz when I was a teen. The revaluation that it was rubbish happened pretty much overnight I seen to recall.

Just finished book four (I know I'm slow!) Stella Gibbon's Cold Comfort Farm, set in 1919 but written in 1932 and I would have thought quite racy for the time. The words that best sum it up are 'whimsical' and 'arch'. It was diverting and enjoyable, not earth shattering but pleasant enough. As it's a well known novel (a modern comic classic even) and one of my mothers favourites (she's been hounding me to read it for years!) I'm glad I finally got round to it. The no-nonsense character of Flora Poste will certainly stay with me, as will the much referenced 'something nasty in the woodshed'. Pity we don't get to find out what the 'something' is. I'm looking forward to seeking out the 1995 film on YouTube and seeing how that compares.
A trip to the library today and I returned home with book 5 'The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying' by Marie Kondo. I think I already know all I need to about the KonMari method of decluttering from articles and on line snippets so not sure what the book will add, or indeed if I can follow her methods, getting every article of clothing you own and making a huge pile of them on the bedroom floor sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, I'm sure I'll look at the enormity of the problem and end up shoving everything back into wardrobes and drawers a week later making the problem even worse

I've been reading, but not posting - in the middle of the most ridiculously busy few weeks at work. Still managing to read a little on my commute though, in between fielding emails! Just finished number 26, All Quiet on the Western Front. Just extraordinary. Including the translation. I read it alongside Scars Upon My Heart (again) - what a pairing.

When I was a kid and had nothing to read I used to raid my mum's and brother's bookshelves, one had Danielle Steel and the other Dean Koontz. There was surprisingly little difference in the two styles, one just had gory stuff happening every so often.

I've just begun and quickly abandoned a Dean Koontz - absolute drivel.