novel

The Bat

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 15:09 on 3 November 2015, kitt created this:

Okay, really now, this book surprised me completely.

It is the first Harry Hole series. The first Harry Hole I read, turns out, was book five in the series. Which meant, there were four books of character development that I completely missed out on. Which is surprising, given that this book was also in the stack of books from Mom. WHEN AM I GOING TO GET THROUGH THAT STACK? I swear, that woman has defined my reading for this year, and likely next.

So, this book, the first Harry Hole book, actually acknowledges the odd name, though most people in this book pronounce Harry's last name as Holly and Holy.

The book takes place in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, which I found ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL, as I started reading it when I was in Sydney. It made the story more interesting to me in the way the Harry Bosch series was engaging: I knew the area. I knew what the spaces looked like, I walked along the places, watched people in the different locations. I hadn't really realized how much that connection appeals to me.

This story also gives us a large part of Harry's background, which also made the character more interesting to me.

The plot is that Harry flies to Sydney to look into the death of a Norwegian citizen. Amidst a whole bunch of other deaths, a serial killer is discovered in investigation, and boom, now we have a plot. There were a number of Australian cultural references in the book that went along with the museums that Mom and I were visiting as I was reading the book, that made the story have a stronger impact.

I enjoyed the book, and am looking forward to the other Harry Hole books in the stack from Mom, unlike how I was after the previous Hole crime mystery thriller I read.

Recommended.

Make Me

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 22:09 on 1 November 2015

The latest in the Jack Reacher series, which means I'll read it. I have been enjoying the Reacher series, pretty much non-stop. I did try not to buy this book, opting for the library checkout, but became too impatient and just bought it. I suspect at some point I'll grow tired of the same-ish plot and same-ish highlights and the fact that REACHER ALWAYS GETS HIS MAN (no, not a correctly parallel sentence), but I'm not there yet. Enjoyed this one.

The basic premise of the book is the same as all other Reacher books, he's wandering without any destination, this place sounds good, he stops, and hey! what do you know? MYSTERY. He follows the clues, someone dies, likely someone else dies, and possibly another person dies, but that isn't a guarantee in all the Reacher books. There's a woman and he hooks up with her. In the end they part. Well, except for the love of his life lasted TWO whole books earlier in the series.

SPOILER: this one might last another book, too. We don't know, but it seems that it might be somewhat happening that way.

Part of me wonders when I will grow tired of Reacher always figuring things out. Another part of me is glad I'm not there yet.

If you like Reacher books, keep reading. This one is fun, with a clever mystery and a lot of Reacher Luck™.

Small Wars

Book Notes kitt decided around 15:08 on 1 November 2015 to publish this:

Okay, really, anything by Lee Child that has Jack Reacher in the book I will most likely read. No, that's not right, I will read. Mom has tired of Reacher, how EVERY book he has a new woman to f---, screw, eh, have sex with, and that's rather tiring. I can't say I blame her for not wanting to read the books, they are very much of the same plot flavor.

I, on the other hand, am still enjoying them. This one, Small Wars, as a short novella (Kindle Single, short story actually), was no exception. I read it on the flight from Sydney back to San Francisco, which was the longest flight I've been on since the flight to Sydney. This, and Make Me, the latest full-length Reacher book, kept me entertained on the way.

This book goes back to Reacher's career beginning, which means, of course, that Joe Reacher is still alive. Having been recently been reading Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series, I pretty much assumed that any action in the book was a misdirect of the actual events. Turns out, nope, what you read is what you get, except the WHY is what is important in this book. We follow along in the plot, and, of course Reacher figures everything, which I really can't understand how amazing he is, given he never makes a mistake.

Best part of the story is that we meet Frances Neagley when she is much younger. Totally great.

I enjoyed this book, but I'm enjoying all the Reacher books, so, yeah, I'll keep reading.

The Rosie Project

Book Notes Posted by kitt at 22:11 on 31 October 2015

Mom and I were wandering around Sydney after Web Directions, and wandered into Dymocks, a bookstore and stationery store, because, you know, paper. I was tired and winding down from the stress of speaking and giving a workshop, and I just wanted to be around paper. Thing is, I don't need more journals, so I pretty much just wandered around, picked up a few classic books, oogled over the fantastic number of well-bound classics, put the books and journals I had picked out back, and let her know I was ready to leave.

Mom, on the other hand, found The Rosie Project and told me I had to read it. Mom is often soft spoken about her book suggestions, so her enthusiastic recommendation meant a buy from me.

Wow, books are expensive in Australia. Oucharoo.

I started reading that evening as I was brushing my teeth, and it didn't take long for me to realize why Mom had recommended the book. It is a hysterical read, mostly in the way the fundamental source of the humour is never mentioned. The protagonist has difficulty meeting women, as he takes everything said as exactly literally, so decides to try a questionaire to weed out poor mate matches. As mentioned, hilarity ensues.

Worth the read. Highly recommended. Can't say I'm thrilled that Jennifer Lawrence has been chosen to be Rosie in the movie adaptation, but I prefer books anyway. Worth the expensive Australian price I paid for the book.

Way into Darkness

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 12:21 on 23 October 2015

And done. With this book read, I have finished the three book series, The Great Way, by Harry Connolly.

Have no fear in reading these books: the protagonists have a happy ending despite repeated eye rolling certain deaths and stunningly fortunate good luck. Except for the parts of complete unbelievability, because, really, a world of magic with the ability to create matter out of thin air (but really just a transporting of material from one dimension to another) and intelligence without mass, and the ability to transmute living creatures, and conquering alligators or an underwater wooden structure that sinks, isn't totally unbelievable, I enjoyed this book the best of the three.

The cover STILL has a depiction of a white girl representing the black girl who was actually IN the book. Still annoys me.

What also slightly annoyed me was the repeated "and here is where I die" thoughts followed by "oh look I'm still alive and have incredible human endurance and haven't pooped once since the series began" parts. I got over those annoyances.

I really really really like Harry Connolly's Twenty Palaces books. I don't know what happened with this series. It was difficult to read. Felt like a different author entirely.

Invisible Murder

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 16:10 on 20 October 2015, kitt created this:

Another one of my Mom-bought books, this one continues the story of Nina Borg, a medical activist who helps people in dire (think human trafficking) situations. I had previously read the Boy in the Suitcase, I thought last year, but didn't have it on my year-end list, so either I missed it, or read it in the previous year. I'm a bit puzzled about when I read it, but it was fairly recently.

I hadn't overly liked the Boy in the Suitcase, so I was a bit surprised to be reading this one as a continuation of that character and that plotline. Given that this is a series of Mom-books, I shouldn't have been surprised.

This book starts out following two brothers, one a bit reckless, the other who is mistaken for him and has to pay for his brother's sins. A few crazy mistaken-identities later, and we have a gypsy-looking kid from Hungary, travelling across Europe to track down his brother, and Nina trying to save a number of very sick children, and a kidnapping, and a huge mess of her kid's life, though really, said kid is just being a teenager.

I'm not a fan of this character, nor of this series. It wasn't a bad book, nor was it poorly written, I just don't like the genre. If this genre is to your liking, totally worth reading.

Way into Magic

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 22:09 on 15 October 2015, kitt created this:

Okay, in for a penny in for a pound with this series. I didn't really like the writing style of the first book, but apparently I became used to it in the second book because it didn't bother me as much as it did in the first book, I'm not sure what it is about this series of books so far, but I am finding them more than a little difficult to finish reading. And somewhat frustrating with the deux ex machina happening.

Phooey, I hate the autocorrect on the ios devices, especially when it corrects two words back after I've confirmed it was correct and moved on.

So, the book. Instead of the kabillion characters, the story lines have reduced to two, Cazia and Tejohn. To my complete and total unsurprise, bad things happened in the journeying, foreign creatures are strangely cool with humans, both others are utterly hostile, our heroes escape time and time again from likely death and absolutely certain disfigurement and captivity yet manage to escape both physically and mentally unharmed. It's kinda painful to read.

I'm doing a poor job of explaining my difficulties with the book.

How about the cover of the book has the main female character on it, AND SHE IS WHITE. She's described as "dark-skinned" in the book. Talk about completely and totally pissing me off at that point. Put a black woman on the cover if the character is a black woman. More power to you, too.

Time passes oddly, things I expect to take days take hours and other things I expect to take hours take weeks, it's weird.

And it was okay. I read quickly. There wasn't any plot repeat that series often have, for which I was thankful. I suspect the three books are just one long book broken into three parts for easier publishing.

Little Drummer Girl

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 09:11 on 14 October 2015

Having read the Spy Who Came in From the Cold recently, I kinda knew what to expect from this book, also by LeCarre. It was going to be a spy book, full of twists and turns and, if it's good enough, an ending like No Way Out. Knowing kinda, sorta what to expect, I read this book anyway, another on the ever-shrinking stack of Mom-selected books.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, despite having read the previous LeCarre book, I didn't really like this one. I'm not really a fan of spy books, I guess. Yeah, the technology can be interesting, but the deception, use and abuse of others, and the violence-done-to-others parts of the spy way of life just does not appeal to me. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age (no, I have always been anti-violence, anti-abuse, anti-use people), but this type of story just does not appeal to me. I'm rather glad this is the last of the unread LeCarre books in my stack.

This book's plot revolves around a series of murders of Jewish people, and the infiltration of an Israeli intelligence group into a Palestinian militia group. Not that you get that from the first 30% of the book. Instead, it's all about an abused actress who is AMAZING apparently in her skills, and human enough to be susceptible to a dashing man's charm. Shock.

Eh, I finished the book. The last 1/4 was interesting. The first 3/4 I had to trog through. If you like spy books, this one will probably be interesting. If you don't, eh, don't read.

The Way Into Chaos

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 19:50 on 10 October 2015

This book, The Way Into Chaos: Book One of The Great Way (Volume 1), is the first of a three book series. It was written by Harry Connolly, who wrote about the Twenty Palaces series, which I think was recommended by Jim Butcher, and which I really liked. I vaguely recall being a little thrown off by Connolly's writing style in the Twenty Palaces novels, but I had read them just after I had read a few Dresden books, and, well, anything is going to seem odd after reading them (because they are awesome).

Which is a slight lead-in to the fact that I struggled with this book. I really wanted to read this book for the sole reason it was written by Harry Connolly (given the number of Bosch books I read, I feel specifying Harry (ANOTHER HARRY!) and not Michael is important here). I enjoyed the Twenty Palaces books, I like Connolly's writing.

I couldn't stand the writing in this book.

I've experienced this before, where I couldn't stand the writing style of a book and kept reading. Eventually the style becomes okay and I can finish the book. Happened in this one, too. I finished the book, but man, I am not excited about it. I'll keep reading the series and see what happens. Until then, neither not recommended nor recommended.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 21:12 on 29 September 2015, kitt created this:


Okay, another book of Mom's. I feel this is one of those "classic" books I should have already read already, along with some Lovecraft (check) and Dostoyevsky (check). So, through this slog of a month (holy moly, barely any books this month, and yet I am right on schedule with my original goal of one book a week - goals are weird sometimes), I finished this one just as the month was ending.

Holy crap, the ending of this book.

This book is worth reading for the ending alone.

The book, aptly titled, is about a spy who came in from the cold, which is to say, he'd been a spy in the post World War II, East vs West Berlin, Cold War not-quite-around era. A large part of the spy's network had been killed off, with the protagonist, Alec Leamas witnessing the death at the beginning of the book of his last spy, who almost got out of East Berlin.

So, for Alec to retire, he needed to do one more job, one more before he could come home, a final clean up job. It meant defecting, so he did. In the process he fell in love.

Such things never end well in the spy world.

There were many references to George Smiley, which I vaguely recall as the hero in a series of spy books that a high school classmate of mine really liked and devoured. I suspect, as a result, that this is an offshoot of that series, tangential to the series, maybe a wrap up.

I enjoyed the book, as far as spies doing spy things and the uncomfortable secrecy and the people being cruel to people sort of things involved in those spy things can go. If spy thrillers are your thing, and you haven't already read a bunch, this is a good one to start with.

But that ending. Wow.

Pages