pontalba's 2014 Reading List

[pontalba]

Sounds interesting. I went to add it to my wishlist, but apparently it was already on there.

That happens to me too sometimes .

 

Me too!  Library Thing is merciless in reminding me though.  If I input an ISBN that I already have....their stock remark is Duplicate ISBN in your catalog  or the ever popular, There is another version of this work in Your books.  They are so very helpful.      

 

 

^ That was re: I, Claudius and me giving away the copy and now thinking seriously that maybe I need to borrow the book and read it. 

 

I played Trivial Pursuit for the first time in years last week, and one of the history questions I was asked had something to do with the Roman Empire etc, and I thought, being awful at history, that I know Julius Caesar but it can't always be him... So I remembered Claudius and it was the correct answer I guess I owe it to him to read the book

 

 

What an interesting sounding book! And 'interesting' doesn't even begin to cover what I thought of this after reading your review, but I can't think of another word at the moment I'm going to google the book and see what else has been said of it. This is most likely going to go on my wishlist Glad you enjoyed the book! 

 

 

LOL, yes, you do!  

 

Interesting, and downright mind boggling in places would do nicely. 

Edited October 11, 2014 by pontalba

[Little Pixie]

Ooh, you`ve read some interesting books. 

 

I couldn`t get past the first few pages of I am Pilgrim , too scary/graphic for me. 

[pontalba]

Ooh, you`ve read some interesting books. 

 

I couldn`t get past the first few pages of I am Pilgrim , too scary/graphic for me. 

Thanks!

 

Yes, it did start out that way, true dat. But the whole thing is not in that vein....there are about five graphic scenes in The Pilgrim. The plot is so, very, intricate. Those scenes are really not out of place or context. IOW, the author didn't put them in to titillate, or "score", they are integral to the motivations and thought processes of the protagonists. But I certainly can understand and sympathize with your point! One of the scenes made me a bit queasy. I glossed.......

[Little Pixie]

Thanks!

 

Yes, it did start out that way, true dat. But the whole thing is not in that vein....there are about five graphic scenes in The Pilgrim. The plot is so, very, intricate. Those scenes are really not out of place or context. IOW, the author didn't put them in to titillate, or "score", they are integral to the motivations and thought processes of the protagonists. But I certainly can understand and sympathize with your point! One of the scenes made me a bit queasy. I glossed.......

 

I`ve seen so many good things about the book, but I`ll stick to my ` Grandma` reading. 

[bobblybear]

I'm pretty sure I know what scene you are talking about, Pontalba...I skimmed it too. Is it the scene where

the Saracen removes the eyeballs, so he can use them to get in the building?

. That was seriously grim.

 

It's true that it started off a bit graphic, but that's what actually hooked me in. Not the "graphicness" per se, but just the detail about it. I was quite intrigued.

[pontalba]

I`ve seen so many good things about the book, but I`ll stick to my ` Grandma` reading.

 

Oh! I didn't mean that to persuade you to read it.....I totally understand. I'm sorry if I came across like that.

P.S. Don't read the spoiler.......!

 

I'm pretty sure I know what scene you are talking about, Pontalba...I skimmed it too. Is it the scene where

the Saracen removes the eyeballs, so he can use them to get in the building?

. That was seriously grim.

 

It's true that it started off a bit graphic, but that's what actually hooked me in. Not the "graphicness" per se, but just the detail about it. I was quite intrigued.

Yup, that is the one. And, yes...it was the close attention to realistic details that intrigued me so. Detective work is fascinating to me. Edited October 24, 2014 by pontalba

[Little Pixie]

Oh! I didn't mean that to persuade you to read it.....I totally understand. I'm sorry if I came across like that.

P.S. Don't read the spoiler.......!

 

 

 

No no, `twas just a comment. I didn`t feel that I should forsake my spot behind the sofa. 

 

I think the scariest I get are the books of Kathy Reichs. 

[pontalba]

I am abandoning Tim O'Brian's The Lake of the Woods, at least got now. I'm still a little more than halfway through. Totally stuck. It isn't the lack of good writing....that's not the problem at all. I think it's more the strong connection for background to the Vietnam War experience. The protagonist was in that "conflict", and is obviously suffering from undiagnosed PTSD. Combine that with his present day problems, quite severe......it's just not what I want to read.

 

I just don't enjoy reading about something so painful that took place in my own lifetime. I saw those boys come home, so unappreciated.

Edited October 25, 2014 by pontalba

[Athena]

I hope your next read will be nicer .

[pontalba]

Niv by Graham Lord 3.5/5

 

While actually an excellent rendition of David Niven's life, I felt the middle section was dragged out too much.  Jetting here, jetting there, messing about with this woman, messing about with that woman.....you get my drift.  The middle was more of a travelogue/list of women than a story.  Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but it can't be helped.   I liked Niven, and still like him quite a lot.  He was essentially a good man with an enormous libido, and with wife # 2, absolutely no home life at all.  His basic tragedy was that.......well I don't want to give it away.  Suffice it to say that he did in any measurable manner, have a tragic life.  I believe he was never really artistically appreciated and never "came into his own" in an artistic sense.  Which is a shame, as he was credited with the talent to have done so. 

 

His writing of his novels is covered fairly thoroughly in this biography, and it turns out he loved to tell tales, er, embroider.    So what, I say, they made good stories and sold lots of books for him.  More power to him!

 

The last part of his life is beautifully and sensitively rendered by the author and will  have many weeping at the end.  He was a lovely man.

Edited October 27, 2014 by pontalba

[Little Pixie]

^^ I liked his autobiographies ; read them years ago and can still recall some of his tales. 

[Little Pixie]

I am abandoning Tim O'Brian's The Lake of the Woods, at least got now. I'm still a little more than halfway through. Totally stuck. It isn't the lack of good writing....that's not the problem at all. I think it's more the strong connection for background to the Vietnam War experience. The protagonist was in that "conflict", and is obviously suffering from undiagnosed PTSD. Combine that with his present day problems, quite severe......it's just not what I want to read.

 

I just don't enjoy reading about something so painful that took place in my own lifetime. I saw those boys come home, so unappreciated.

 

I`ve been putting off reading Citadel by Kate Mosse for a similar reason ; it starts off in Nazi-occupied France and I`m just not in the mood to deal with family memories popping up. 

[Janet]

Niv by Graham Lord 3.5/5

I've just read David Niven's The Moon's a Balloon, which I thought was great.    I'm not sure I want to read this though, but I would like to read David Niven's second memoir. 

[pontalba]

The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case by Michael A. Ross  4/5

The 1932 Lindbergh Kidnapping case was far from the first "sensational" kidnapping that took place in the States. Neither was the often credited 1874 abduction of Charley Ross in Philadelphia, although many historians claim it to be so.

Little Mollie Digby was kidnapped in June of 1870 from what was then the 'back of town' in New Orleans, now just the edge of the Central Business District. The crime took place in broad daylight with a street full of people milling about. It was a mixed neighborhood, blacks alongside white residents, many of whom were Irish immigrants, as was Mollie's family.

Two Afro-Creole women were arrested for the crime, and this book tells, in great detail, of both the investigation and trial of these women.

This took place only 5 years after the American Civil War, and a Radical Reconstruction government was in power over the defeated South. New Orleans was unique in many ways in their race relations. There were white Creoles and Afro-Creoles that had many familial ties and were closely tied together, making for convivial relations in more cases than not. It wasn't till 1877 when Reconstruction ended that so called White Supremacy became the "norm".

Ross details much of these relationships and tells of one of the very first detectives in the country an Afro-Creole, John Baptiste Jourdain, considered the best. His methods were ahead of their time and effective, although sometimes contravened by circumstances.

This is a fascinating look at the history of Reconstruction in this area, and puts some new light on the reality of what happened and why.

[Athena]

Wow, it sounds like a thought provoking book. I'm glad you liked it .

[pontalba]

Ratcatcher (John Purkiss Book 1) by Tim Stevens  3/5

According to this story, a Ratcatcher is "...the outsider, tracks down Service personnel who've broken the rules...." (page 133). We are of course speaking of the (British) SIS and the Security Service, or Six and Five. Also known as Little Sister and Big Sister. John Purkiss is a disillusioned ex-SIS agent now working outside of the system in much the same manner as when he was a member.

The story is rather basic fare, nicely packaged, a planned assassination coupled with unreliable sources and agents our protagonist cannot trust but must work with. There are some interesting twists and turns that make Ratcatcher a worthy read, and, obviously, being the first in a series is always a hard thing. So the next few in the series are definitely on my list to follow up on later.

[Athena]

I'm glad you enjoyed this book, I hope you enjoy the other books in the series too .

[pontalba]

Finally received, in the mail, the Nobel Price for Literature winner.......

 

Missing Person by Patrick Modiano.   Now to get to it! 

 

Other newbies are:

 

Malice by Keigo Higashino (author of The Devotion of Suspect X)

41 A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush

Peripheral by William Gibson

[pontalba]

Truman's Spy, A Cold War Thriller by Noel Hynd 2.5/5

 

I wanted to love this Cold War spy story, taking place in Harry S. Truman's Presidency.  Most of the action takes place in the early part of 1950.  The world has had five years to begin to recover from the very hot World War II, but the Cold War is revving up and the world is about to be shaken up again.

 

The story is told from several seemingly unconnected  perspectives that finally coalesce and make perfect sense.   An ex-FBI agent, an FBI agent still in the field, some Soviet spies/assassins with a hodge-podge of miscellaneous characters, many of which are not (duh) what they seem to be. 

 

It all comes down to one grand chase that peters out, drags out, and finally fizzles to a predictable ending.  And, predictably is one of the main problems with this story.  Hynd telegraphs every major twist and turn so far ahead of himself that it's almost laughable.  I found the prose to be rather stilted, even given the setting is more than half a century ago. 

 

Final verdict:  Predictable and uninspired.

[Athena]

Finally received, in the mail, the Nobel Price for Literature winner.......

 

Missing Person by Patrick Modiano.   Now to get to it! 

 

Other newbies are:

 

Malice by Keigo Higashino (author of The Devotion of Suspect X)

41 A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush

Peripheral by William Gibson

I hope you enjoy your new books !

 

It's a shame you latest read wasn't good at all . I hope your next read will be more enjoyable!

[pontalba]

missing person by Patrick Mondiano  4/5

Mondiano weaves a mesmerizing tale of search for what one once was.

The setting, post WWII France, lends layers of mystery to his search for himself. Our protagonist has memory only of the last 10 years of his life and has reached the point that he cannot continue to live in ignorance of his past. He follows faint threads, some leading nowhere, some bearing slight fruit.

The success or failure of his quest is not the most important part of the story. The quest is the thing, the searching, probing, meeting and interviewing people he may or may not have known in his previous life.

Does it matter who we were in the past? Is it possible to insert ourselves into another's life? Would we even want to. Are we able to manufacture a past for ourselves? While these questions are not answered, the fact that they are asked makes for a fascinating story.

Highly Recommended.
 

Edited November 19, 2014 by pontalba

[Ben]

Does it matter who we were in the past? Is it possible to insert ourselves into another's life? Would we even want to. Are we able to manufacture a past for ourselves?

 

These are very interesting questions, even if like you said they aren't exactly answered. Missing Person added to the wishlist.

[Athena]

This sounds like an interesting book, great review! I'm glad you enjoyed it .

[Little Pixie]

Hope you`re okay, all the weather in the US looks scary on the news ! 

[pontalba]

LOL  Not so much for us, we are far enough South that we were only brushed with the cold....we went down in the low to mid 20's two nights in a row.  The pipes are all wrapped and we let the water run a little during the freezing hours.  It could be a lot worse!  Temperature example.... 25F equals minus 3.88C.

 

A friend in New York told us last week that we were actually having colder weather up to that point then they were!  That rather shocked us.  That's changed by now though. 

 

Oh, also, BTW, the last book I read, reviewed up above was my 100th!  That was my goal, and if I'd kept reading at the rate I read the first 8 months of the year, I'd have read a lot more, but I'm happy with this.  First time I've broken a hundred. 

 

Nothing like some of you guys though!!