Wednesday, December 1, 2010

If Chins Could Kill

Haven’t seen “Bubba Ho-tep” or “The Adventures of Briscoe County, Junior” or any of the “Evil Dead” quickies? Then you have missed one of the top of the line B-actors: Bruce Campbell.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Girl who kicked the hornet's nest

Lizbeth Salander is bullet riddled and close to dying as this final novel in the trilogy opens. Are we going to lose the dark heroine of the work? No, a neurosurgeon comes to the rescue and provides a skilled solution to the bullet in Salander’s brain: he removes it without damaging any of the vital circuits that allow her to be the skilled thinker and computer hacker we have come to respect.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Saturday, November 13, 2010

Scammed

A friend had his email and FaceBook accounts hacked. The hacker sent out a fake distress call asking for money because of a mugging and robbery. I grew up with the friend and said I would be glad to help. Unfortunately, the questions I asked were available on his FB account so my verification was useless. I sent the money and found out that it was a fake request and I'm out the money. As a result I have deactivated my FB account and friends can contact me via email or phone.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Beau Geste

The year was 1926 and Percival Christopher Wren published “Beau Geste.” He used a descriptive technique that hadn’t been very popular to that time and that was to convey a mysterious occurrence to a traveling companion on a train.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Friday, August 27, 2010

The Dogs of Riga

A rubber raft with two dead men confronts Kurt Wallender with a crime that he tackles with his usual efficiency even though there doesn’t appear to be any way to trace the raft or the men. After Interpol identifies the men as Latvians a policeman from Latvia arrives to give Wallender needed help.

Wallender gets along well with the major from Latvia even though the man is quite taciturn, revealing very little of his background as he tries to solve the crime in a business-like manner.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

In the first of three volumes dedicated to understanding Lizbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson shows how she and Mikael Blomkvist come together to solve a very old mystery that could be a murder. Before that can happen, however, Blomkvist is tried and convicted of libeling one of the most powerful men in Sweden, Hans-Erik Wennerstrom.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Monday, August 2, 2010

Jurassic Park

Michael Crichton ends his novel “Jurassic Park” with words that indicate that a sequel is in the offing.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Monday, July 26, 2010

Hitch-22, a memoir

Hitch-22, a memoir begins with an erroneous death notice that gives Christopher Hitchens a tongue-in-cheek way to begin the examination of his life.

After he describes the premature death notice and muses on his own extinction, Hitchens reveals that he is/was a non-bomb throwing radical, a non-artiste of the homosexual stripe and a non-complicated man with a complicated set of life circumstances (a mother who committed suicide and a taciturn father who was a part of the Royal Navy).

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Big Short

If you took all the really bad aspects of human behavior and spread them around the money managers, politicians and bright Ivy League graduates (who work on “Wall Street”) you’d instantly see why the rest of us have had to endure “The Great Recession.”

Greed, stupidity, ignorance, fraud, self-deception, lies, half-truths and chaos all were involved in the near catastrophe that the world credit markets experienced and that we are barely coming out of now.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills

Vietnam gave us the term “body count,” but the number that was reported was only an aggregate and didn’t provide any ratio of how many soldiers it took to achieve one of the kills in the “count.”

Charles Henderson in his book, “Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills” shows exactly, and in gruesome detail exactly what is meant by the phrase “one bullet, one kill.”

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Fordlandia

Greg Grandin weaves a tale of duality and irony in his “Fordlandia.” Ostensibly it’s an examination of Henry Ford’s nascent rubber empire in Brazil. As the machinations to acquire land and not have to pay taxes take place Henry Ford’s point of view about his machine and the industrial empire it created slowly evolves through the pages of the book into a paternalism that both stifled the original intent of producing rubber for his machines and revealed how brute force (the same that he used to build his cars) did not have a chance against the intricacies that nature had evolved in the tropical rain forest.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Through the Looking Glass

What do you get when you cross a penchant for chess with a fertile, but bizarre imagination? Why, Through the Looking Glass, of course. Lewis Carroll’s fascination with chess is quite apparent in the reading of this supposed children’s tale. Not only are the chess pieces abundantly in evidence (Red and White Queens, and knights that have a tough time sitting their steeds) but so are the moves across the board to make the transformation from a pawn to a queen.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Allan Quartermain

Africa was the “dark continent” for much of the 19th Century and because of that captured the imagination of the English reading public. Haggard knew that and capitalized on it with his books set in various parts of the real Africa and then devolving into the mythical regions.

Allan Quartermain is a sequel to “King Solomon’s Mines” and has adventure at its core. Rather than seeking riches Quartermain is bent on recapturing the feelings and flavor of his life in Africa. His son has died so there is no reason for him to remain in England when the call of Africa is so strong.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Saturday, May 22, 2010

Faceless Killers

Henning Mankell created a character that Kenneth Branagh has made his own in the “Wallender” series on PBS. In this first Wallender crime novel, the spare technique Mankell uses gave rise to the PBS Wallender. As you read through the book you can see the bits and pieces that Branagh and the writers chose to flesh out the TV Kurt Wallender.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Girl Who Played With Fire


Stieg Larsson opens the sewer in the prolog with a sadistic sexual scene that features unnamed characters. From there he digs through the pit and into the black hole. In that hole he introduces Lisbeth Salander a woman who appears to be whatever others’ perceptions deem her to be. On the contrary she is someone unto herself with a photographic memory, above and beyond computer skills, wealth secreted in various locations, and an intense desire for revenge.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Treasure of Khan

A reviewer once wrote that if nothing else I could write like Clive Cussler. He no doubt thought it was a slam (being from New England as he was), but I thought it was medium high praise.

I used to read Cussler’s work many years ago and with a certain trepidation I picked up a remainder copy of Treasure of Khan, written by Clive and his son.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Sunday, March 21, 2010

King Solomon's Mines

When H. Rider Haggard titled this book “King Solomon’s Mines” he could have easily called it “Allen Quartermain” one of three main characters in the story. Allen Quartermain was to have his own title of his own book but that was after he’d survived the adventure in this tale.

Almost like Ishmael in “Moby Dick” Quartermain was at loose ends when he was introduced to the other two characters in the story. He’d been a hunter of some note in Africa but becoming a bit tired of safari he nonetheless signed up for a trek that would almost be the end of him.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Saturday, March 6, 2010

The God Delusion

Richard Dawkins chose this title well for his discussion of what most people call “God.” He makes a clear distinction between the Deity that provides comfort to a person in need and the Supreme Being that is the result of belief in a creator responsible for the universe we inhabit.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Sunday, January 24, 2010

She

H. Rider Haggard knew Africa and he knew how to tell a story. She is set in Africa although it begins in London. A mysterious iron box contains something that must await the 25th birthday of a man (Leo) who has been given to the guardianship of one of the ugliest men in the world (Holly), a man so unattractive that a woman who attempted to have a relationship said of them “If I am beauty then who are you?” meaning that he was indeed the beast.

When Leo reaches his 25th year Holly and he set off to find out whether the mystery contained in the iron box was a fantasy, a hoax or a reality.

If you wish to read more of my comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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