Blog Archives
The Killing Place (UK) / Ice Cold (US)
Author: Tess Gerritsen
While attending a pathologist’s conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Dr. Maura Isles impulsively (and due to personal problems back home with her lover-priest Daniel Brophy) goes on a road trip with her new friends. Caught up by a huge snow storm, they get stranded in the middle of nowhere, a place called Kingdom Come, where it seems all residents left abruptly for some mysterious reason.
When she doesn’t turn up in Boston, Jane Rizzoli, together with her husband Gabriel Dean and tormented soul Daniel Brophy, fly to Wyoming to search for her.
Scar Tissue
Author: Anthony Kiedis, Larry Sloman
Red Hot Chili Peppers fans: this book is about Anthony Kiedis, not the band, so if you want to read mostly about the band and not their front man, then this book is not for you (I mean, you should read it anyway, but just don’t complain later on that you were expecting more about the other members). Of course RHCP will appear a lot along the book, as it is part of Kiedis’ life, and he tells us about relationships between the guys and where the inspiration for many songs came from, but the book is focused on his life, from his birthday in 1962 to the publication of his biography in 2004.
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
Author: Piers Paul Read
This is a true story, and I believe you all have already heard about it. It is a tragedy, but also a demonstration of faith and hope.
4 decades ago, a chartered flight carrying a Uruguayan Rugby team and their friends/families, flying from Montevideo – Uruguay to Santiago – Chile, crashed in the Andes Mountains due to bad weather and the pilots’ error. The plane split in two, with the tail and 7 people landing far from its body. From the 45 people aboard, 33 survived the crash. This was the 13th of October 1972.
The next day, 8 more people had died from cold or injuries. The only doctor aboard had died in the crash, so two of the guys who were studying Medicine were left to try their best to treat injuries and keep people alive, even though there were no medical supplies available.
On the 11th day in the mountains, through a small radio, they discovered that the search for them had been cancelled.
Crime
Author: Irvine Welsh
After a mental breakdown due to a child murder case he investigated, and still recovering from drug abuse, D.I. Ray Lennox (Filth) goes on holidays to Miami, Florida with his fiancée Trudi, whose only idea is planning their wedding.
While there, they have a fight which ends up with Ray going with two women he met in a bar to their apartment to have some cocaine. Things go wild and Ray is now responsible for Tianna, a 10 year old girl and daughter of one of the women.
Haunted by the memories and ghosts from his recent case back in Edinburgh, Ray’s only quest now is to protect Tianna from a paedophile network.
The book is good and easy to read, but I didn’t get attached to it as with the other Irvine Welsh’s books. I don’t think there is enough depth on the story and the characters, and although the usual combination of drugs-sex-booze-violence, typical from the author, is there, it felt quite a different writing style – which is not my favorite. I love Welsh’s old and usual way of writing.
Buy Crime from: The Book Depository or Amazon.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
Author: Kim Edwards
1964 – During a snowy night in Kentucky, Dr. David Henry has to make the delivery of his and his wife Norah’s own and first child, helped only by a nurse called Caroline. A perfect boy named Paul is born – and that’s when he realizes there is another baby coming – a girl with Down Syndrome. Worried about her health and the impact on Norah’s life, he asks Caroline to put the baby girl in an institution, and tells his wife the girl was stillborn. Caroline, seeing the precarious conditions of the institution, decides to take care of the baby, and names her Phoebe.
The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Set in Germany during World War II, this could be another book amongst millions that explore the war period with a dramatic story on top. Huge mistake. The Book Thief is simply a masterpiece and should be in the bookshelves of every person in the world. So what makes it so special?
A Song of Ice and Fire – A Feast for Crows (book 4)
Author: George R.R. Martin
**CAUTION: IT DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS**
After the slaughter of several important characters in the previous book, one had to wonder who was left to tell the story and how the author was going to keep it up. The answer is plain and simple: a whole bunch of new POVs. 6 they are: The Prophet / The Drowned Man (Aeron “Damphair” Greyjoy); The Captain of the Guards (Areo Hotah); The Princess in the Tower / The Queenmaker (Aryanne Martell); The Kraken’s Daughter (Asha Greyjoy); The Soiled Knight (Ser Arys Oakheart) and The Iron Captain / The Reaver (Victarion Greyjoy). Additionally to them, there’s also 6 POVs already known to us from the previous books (thankfully, otherwise I would not follow it so eagerly): Cersei and Jaime Lannister; Samwell Tarly; Brienne of Tarth; Arya Stark / Cat of the Canals and Sansa Stark / Alayne Stone. All the above with a slash between names mean that character has chapters of his own with two different names – confusing, if you are not paying too much attention on the new characters. Also, the prologue is told by a novice of the Citadel.
Said that, I found the first two hundred pages a bit boring and struggled to get past it, but persistence paid off – once the story caught up, I couldn’t stop reading.
The Silent Girl
Author: Tess Gerritsen
First of all, I like Tess Gerritsen’s books very much, in particular the ones with Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles, a forensic pathologist whom I usually compare and put at the same level as Kay Scarpeta (Patricia Cornwell’s character).
The Silent Girl, though, disappointed me. I read the book until the end, but only because I don’t like to leave a story unfinished, and also because I was hoping it would get better, which it didn’t.
A body is found in Boston’s Chinatown, which brings Rizzoli to the investigation and Maura Isles to do the autopsy – and she finds two non-human hair strands in the clothes of the victim. This murder is soon connected to a tragedy that occurred 17 years ago, also there in Chinatown. Read the rest of this entry
The Shadow of the Wind
Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
I’m not someone who sheds tears for a book, at least not very easily, and only a few books have made me cry – The Shadow of the Wind is one of them.
Daniel Sempere is taken by his father to a secret place called Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library full of old and rare titles, where he must choose a book (or perhaps be chosen by one), and take care and protect it for the rest of his life. He picks up “The Shadow of the Wind”, written by Julián Carax.
The Library of Shadows
Author: Mikkel Birkegaard
When Luca Campelli, the owner of a second-hand bookshop called Libri di Luca, in Copenhagen, oddly dies, his son Jon inherits the bookshop, even not wanting it initially. Days after his father’s death, with whom he had not had contact from more than 20 years, someone tries to burn the shop, so Jon decides to take a better look into his family’s past, discovering that Libri di Luca was not just a regular bookshop, but a place of meeting for a secret society of booklovers with powers to manipulate and induce people’s feelings and actions while a book was being read. Now Jon and those helping him are in danger and must fight for their survival.
It has been a long time since I read this book, but I remember I was not that impressed after finishing it. The idea of touching people’s feelings in a particular way through a book is very interesting (when not used for bad purposes, of course), but there are too many cliches and some things are simply too much and overrated.
Buy The Library of Shadows from: The Book Depository or Amazon.
