Book #70

The Sixth Man, by David Baldacci. Unabridged audio.

Do you remember that story a year or so ago about a certain celebrity (I wish I could remember who it was) who had an eidetic memory, the extremely rare condition that goes beyond "photographic" memory. An eidetic can never forget anything.

Are you familiar with the TV show "Chuck?" In it, someone has the entire corpus of US Intelligence downloaded into their brain.

I am guessing that David Baldacci remembers the news story, and perhaps has watched Chuck. At least his book is a neat combination of the two scenarios. Edgar Roy is an eidetic who is employed as The Analyst by US Intelligence. Not an analyst; The Analyst. The entire flow of data gathered by the US (called "The Wall" in the novel) floods Roy's mind, and he makes recommendations based on that information.

When six dead bodies turn up at Roy's farm, the program is thrown into disarray. Has The Analyst gone insane and turned sociopath? Or does someone want him out of the way? Despite Roy's success, there are people in Washington who are not thrilled by this program. Some for legitimate reasons, some for personal or political reasons.

Former Secret Service personnel Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are hired to look into Roy's case, and shortly after more bodies start to pile up. King and Maxwell find themselves caught between powerful Washington factions, most of whom don't care who they harm (or kill) on the way to meeting their own objectives.

Baldacci has written some of my favorite thrillers, and I have particularly enjoyed most of the King & Maxwell tales. This is one of the strongest ones -- the plot is a bit unbelievable, and I don't buy the motivations of all of the villains, but the plot moves along at a great pace, the drama builds up well, and the resolution is satisfying. All in all, a very fun read.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

From chapter 36 of The Sixth Man, by David Baldacci.

MY TEASERS:
"That was beacuse the alarm wasn't on. She whirled around. Shawn stood there, the butt of his gun visible at his waist."

Book #69

Academ's Fury, by Jim Butcher. Unabridged audio.

I started reading Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series because it contained fewer books than his more famous Dresden Files series. My thinking was that it would be easier to get into a shorter series.

The part of the equation that I forgot to consider was the length of the novels themselves. The six epic fantasy tales of the Codex Alera come close to accounting for as many pages as the dozen Dresden novels.

Not that I am complaining – epic tales often need epic lengths to be told properly.

Gaius Sextus, the First Lord of Alera is gravely ill, news that would invite invasion if it were made known. Spies are all over the palace, and the land, seeking news of the First Lord’s condition. Tavi, who became a ward of the First Lord after the events of the prior novel, must use all his wits to keep his master.

Unfortunately, he is the only adult in Alera without any fury-crafting powers. Other than him, every Aleran has some ability to manipulate water, air, earth, fire, wood, or metal. With the help of his aunt Isana, who is no fan of the First Lord, and the mysterious young woman Kitai, Tavi strives to protect the First Lord, and thus the Realm.

I enjoy the magic system in these novels, and the character development among all the leads is quite strong. I also like fantasy world’s that are in some ways analogous to our own world, and in this case, Alera is structured very similar to ancient Rome. I look forward to future novels exploring the nature of the bond between Tavi and Kitai, as well as the ramifications of a major revelation that happened in this novel’s epilogue.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

From chapter 14 of Stronghold, Book 1 of the Dragon Star trilogy (from the early 1990s), by Melanie Rawn.

MY TEASERS:
"A forced march had brought Tilal and his family to Kadar Water in excellent time. Lord Kolya, knowing his immediate need must be for a Sunrunner, sent his out to meet Tilal with the news that the entire holding was at his disposal."

Book #68

Pearls of Lutra, by Brian Jacques. Hardcover.

I love juvenile/YA fiction that makes no pretense of being anything else. There is no subtext in the Redwall stories, nothing sly or subversive, just a rollicking adventure story. Talking animals, sword fights, bows and arrows, pirates, battle strategy, humor. This book contains all of that and more.

Six rose-colored pearls are the heritage of Holt Lutra. Grath Longflecth the otter is seeking them out, to restore her family heritage. Ublaz, a ruthless pine marten who rules the island of Sampetra, has created a new crown for himself to house the pearls.

The pearls themselves found their way to Redwall Abbey, and clues have been left as to their location. Tansy the hedgehog has taken on the mission of following the clues to find the pearls, and is helped on her quest by many of the Redwall animals. Ublaz sends a raiding party to Redwall, the Father Abbot is kidnapped and held for ransom in exchange for the pearls.

And that is where the adventure begins. Martin the warriormouse, Clecky the hare, and an army of shrews set off to rescue the Abbot, and they join forces with Grath the archer to storm Sampetra and recover their Abbot.

Jacques’ strengths lie both in plotting and character. Each animal type has distinct characteristics, and within each group there are individuals with their own unique aspects. And the story makes sense – there is no skimping in the narrative, no gaping plot holes, and no “writing down” to young readers.

Very good stuff.

Book #67

Guild of the Cowry Catchers, book 3, by Abigail Hilton. Podcast novel.

This is the middle section of a 5-book audio novel. Middle sections of epic stories often sag, as we have moved past the introductory sections, but have not yet moved toward the climax.

Hilton gets around this natural lull by writing some stunning character moments for Gerard and Silveo. There is just enough action in this book to keep the story moving, and the new character Dakar adds enough to the story to let the Gerard-Silveo moments to breathe.

This is by far the darkest of the 3 books produced so far, and Hilton finally earns the "adult content" warning that she has posted at the beginning of every episode. She hasn't really needed it until now, but perhaps she was simply preparing us for the events of this book.

Book #66

The Real Saint Patrick, by J. M. Holmes. Paperback.

I picked this little book up a few years ago when my family was visiting Ireland. There is no particular reason why it took me 24+ months to get around to reading it, but it was definitely worth the wait.

As short as the book is – a number of beautiful color pictures of Irish locales push the book to almost 100 pages – it is an intriguing read. There is extremely little actually known about historical Patrick the man, and only two of his writings are extant.

The first two-thirds of The Real Saint Patrick cover what of his biography we actually know. This is not hagiography, and the less reliable of the legends are dismissed. Holmes is able to take what academic knowledge there is about Patrick and turn it into readable prose. We know that he was taken as a slave from his native Britain to Ireland. There he was converted, and after a dream or revelation, he escaped back to his native land. From there he was called back to be a missionary to the Irish, the people who had enslaved him.

After this biographical section the book includes his 2 surviving works. His memoir (called a “Confession” in the manner of Augustine) recounts his life, and serves as a primary source for his biography. This serves as a fascinating, first-person look into the thinking of a 5th-century Christian. Really interesting stuff.

The second work is a brief letter to Coroticus, a tribe leader whose soldiers had slaughtered a group of recently baptized believers. This work again shows the workings of the ancient mind, in terms of dealing with tragedy and evil. This work is at times angry, at times pleading, and at times evangelical.

As I mentioned, there are some stunning photographs in the book, and the book itself is printed on high-quality paper. I am generally not a keeper/collector of books; most of what I read I get from the library. But the production quality of this slim volume makes it one I will display on the shelves.

Mini-casts

Most podcast episodes run close to an hour, and some (including some of the most popular) run 90-120-150 minutes, and single episodes of some can run even longer! But there are some good ones out there whose episodes regularly run less than 10 minutes each. Some of my favorite of these cute little podcasts include:

Grammar Girl's Network. Mignon Fogerty started her Grammar Girl podcast years ago, producing weekly 5-minute episodes on all parts of language usage, writing, and grammar. She has grown her network Quick & Dirty Tips since then to include similarly-formatted shows covering legal, health, organization, and other topics. The two that I listen to, in addition to Grammar Girl, are Money Girl and the Winning Investor.

Tom vs. _____. Tom Katers has put out consistently entertaining episodes since he decided to summarize early issues of the Justice League comic book in his Tom vs. the JLA. Since then, he knocked out more than 150 episodes/issues of Tom vs. the Flash, before moving on to his current project, Tom vs. Aquaman. Tom loves these early issues, but is more than wlling to point out when the silver-age silliness goes over the top.

The Dennis Miller Show. The full re-broadcast of Miller's daily radio show costs money to subscribe to, but they post a handful of short segments every day as "previews" through iTunes. The opening segment of the show, which is about 10 minutes long, is available every day, as are most of the interview segments of the show, which usually run 6-10 minutes, although a few do go longer.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

From chapter 11 of Academ's Fury, book two of the Codex Alera, by Jim Butcher, his high fantasy series.

MY TEASERS:

"The bull yawned, scarcely noticing what must have been half a ton of burden the two earth-crafters had casually lifted into place."

"She pressed her hand against her lower belly, and could almost feel the nearly invisible scars from the pockmarks the disease had left."