Archive for the ‘Action’ Category
Monday, June 30th, 2008
Hardcover, 388 pages, 2008
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: I’ve read a few of Patterson’s books a number of years back but took a break when they seemed to be getting a little too fluffy for my tastes…but enough time has passed to try again.
Synopsis: Katherine Dunne is disappointed to leave her new husband on shore but hopes that taking a trip on a personal boat with her former brother-in-law and three kids will bring them together again, a feeling they haven’t had since her first husband passed away four years ago. A disaster strikes and they’re going to be forced to work together if they want to live, especially when it seems that all the disasters at sea aren’t so natural…
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Posted in Fiction, Suspense, Action | No Comments »
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
E-book, 81 pages, 2008
Rating: 8/10
Reason for Reading: Sometimes a girl just needs a romance story. And let’s face it, that cover and any site named Book Brothel just belong together.
Synopsis: Meg is hunting through the jungles of South America looking for ancient runes and treasures when one of her guides shoots a jaguar. In tending to it, she realizes she may have found a different sort of gem - the jaguar can turn into a man. A gorgeous, highly muscled, incredibly sexy man that just might prove to be as wild as she is - if they can survive the jungle long enough to find out…
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Posted in Romance, Action, Novella, Paranormal | No Comments »
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Hardcover, 439 pages, 2008
Rating: 10/10
Reason for Reading: Always happy to try out a new thriller author - especially one who had a big-name director (Ridley Scott, American Gangster) attached to the movie adaptation a year before his debut novel was even in stores.
Synopsis: It’s hard for atrocities to stand out in Stalin’s brutal Russian regime during the 1950s - everyone is a potential enemy of the state, and men, women, and children are routinely rounded up and killed with no more than the fear-induced pointing of a finger. But staunch supporter of the regime, Leo Demidov, has found something that may stand out as horrific even amongst his own brutalities: the possibility of a serial killer who focuses only on children. The problem? According to the ideologies of Stalin, there is no crime, and all efforts to investigate the killings make Leo a rebel and betrayer of state policies. In order to pursue a criminal, he must become one, endangering his life and those of his family…
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Posted in Fiction, Historical, Thriller, Politics, Action | No Comments »
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Hardcover, 631 pages, 2008
Rating: 10/10
Reason for Reading: I’ve never considered myself a ’sci-fi reader,’ but before Harry Potter, I never considered myself a reader who would be into children’s books about wizarding school, so I knew I had to take a chance when Stephenie Meyer and J.K. Rowling were compared as success stories (though The Host is Meyer’s first adult novel).
Synopsis: They call her Wanderer, because of how many bodies and planets her spirit inhabited before she found herself on her current home of Earth. Her species has taken over the host bodies of most of the human race, except for a few incredibly strong people like that of Melodie, her current host body. In fact, Melodie is proving so strong that she’s not vanishing, and Wanderer can feel her strongest feelings taking over her own - namely, the love of her younger sibling and of her boyfriend, Jared. Torn between these odd feelings of love and the very nature of her species to take over all humans, Wanderer decides to set out to find Jared, unsure of which urge will prove stronger - and if it will even matter when she finds some of the planets’ few remaining humans, who would kill to retain their humanity…
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Posted in Fiction, Romance, Sci-Fi, Action | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 18th, 2006
Hardcover (available in mass market May 2007), 510 pages, 2006
Rating: 10/10
Reason for Reading: I own The Zero Game but haven’t read it yet, so on to my usual bad habit of reading newer books first.
Synopsis: Wes Holloway was a presidential aide ready to take over the world until a would-be presidential assassin destroyed his face with a bullet and took out Ron Boyle, one of the president’s oldest friends. It’s now eight years later, and Boyle seems to be alive and a massive conspiracy underway, but unless Holloway can figure out who’s being targeted and what exactly is being covered up, he’s just a disposable pawn who might be in the way of the most powerful government in the world…
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Posted in Fiction, Suspense, Thriller, Politics, Action | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
Trade, 282 pages, 2006
Rating: 8/10
Reason for Reading: I read the first chapter online here after hearing the Carl Hiaasen comparisons, and I knew I had to keep reading.
Synopsis: Tara realizes it’s not normal to start robbing banks with your dad at the age of nine, but that’s everyone else’s problem - she quite enjoys the rush of success that the ‘47 rules’ have brought them. At least, it’s not a problem until she’s twenty-two and beginning to wonder if her dad is about to go completely off the deep end, a matter not helped by the fact that she’s taken a shine to the local sheriff’s son, Max. The heist of a lifetime is right in front of them, but there are cops, criminals, and love interests hot on their trail. Everyone is after someone and something, but not everyone can win, as they’ll find out the hard way…
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Posted in Fiction, Thriller, Humour, Action | No Comments »
Thursday, April 27th, 2006
Hardcover (available in trade), 341 pages, 2002
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: I found a hardcover copy up for offer in the bargain section of an on-line site, and remembered how popular it had been when I worked at a bookstore, so I thought I’d see what the fuss was about. Better late than never, right?
Synopsis: Loaded (renamed Smokescreen in later editions) is the story of Allen Long, a marijuana smuggler that operated mainly between Columbia and the United States in the 1970s. He starts off making a documentary about smuggling, but quickly realizes that the things he wants the most - wild adventures, the best drugs, and money in such quantities that it’s weighed, not counted - are much easier to get if he becomes a smuggler. But what becomes of a man that’s always on the prowl for more of everything?
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Posted in Suspense, Non-Fiction, Biography, True Crime, Action | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 11th, 2005
Hardcover (available in mass market), 310 pages, 2005
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: It looked like it would be fun in an Ocean’s Eleven kind of way.
Synopsis: It’s bad guy vs. bad guy vs. bad guy as groups of criminals plot to come away richer at the expense of the other bands of criminals. The story’s ‘likeable thief’ is John Dortmunder, who’s called in to do a heist for Arnie Albright at a very high percentage of the take. Arnie’s feeling generous because his target is Preston Fareweather, a rich jerk hiding out in an island resort to avoid being taken to the cleaners by his five furious ex-wives. While Fareweather is out of the country trying to avoid legal action, he’s left millions of dollars in valuables in his Manhattan penthouse, a tempting score that looks laughably easy for Dortmunder and his crew. But Dortmunder is distracted by the presence of some New Jersey mobsters looking to close down his favourite bar after milking it for all it’s worth, and it’s putting the heist in jeopardy. Nobody’s making any new friends as this large assortment of criminals all look to go home the winners.
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Posted in Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Action | Comments Off
Thursday, November 25th, 2004
Hardcover (available in mass market), 399 pages, 1995
Rating: 10/10
Reason for Reading: Pullman’s trilogy got mentioned a lot when Harry Potter was brought up, and a girl needs something to tide her over until the sixth Potter book, doesn’t she?
Synopsis: Lyra lives in a world much like our own, with a big exception being that each individual possesses a daemon in an animal form, Lyra’s being the shape-shifting Pantalaimon. While eavesdropping in a room of scholars, including her uncle, Lord Asriel, Lyra first learns about the mystical Dust, even though she can’t quite piece together what it is or what it does. There’s a suspicion that it has to do with the vanishing children in the area, and soon Lyra finds herself swept up in the mystery and adventure of a quest to the far north to discover the truth about Dust and the missing children. The Golden Compass is the first in the trilogy refered to as His Dark Materials, and is followed by The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
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Posted in Fiction, Action, Fantasy, Young Adult | Comments Off
Tuesday, October 19th, 2004
Hardcover (available in trade), 389 pages, 2004
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: I love Fforde, and if reading his Thursday Next stories is as close as I can come to living inside a book, I will be one content bookworm.
Synopsis: Thursday Next is a woman with the rather strange capability of being able to jump into books and interact with the characters, but after living in a peaceful book for a few years in order to give birth to her now-toddler son Friday, she decides it’s time to rejoin the real world. Her husband, Landen, has been eradicated and officially never existed anywhere but in Thursday’s mind, and she’s decided it’s time to go up against the Goliath Corporation to demand he be allowed back into existence. She’s also got to stop the book-burning Yorrick Kaine from becoming dictator to ensure the world doesn’t come to an end, and her time-traveling father tells her the only way to prevent this is…for her town to win a croquet tournament. Don’t ask. Just prepare yourself for a wild ride.
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Posted in Fiction, Humour, Literary Sci-Fi, Action, Fantasy | Comments Off