Book

Tripwire (3rd of 18 Reacher Novels)

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Tripwire (3rd of 18 Reacher Novels) by Lee Child

Goodreads synopsis:

Jack Reacher, ex-military policeman relaxed in Key West until Costello turned up dead. The amiable PI was hired in New York by the daughter of Reacher’s mentor and former commanding officer, General Garber. Garber’s investigation into a Vietnam MIA sets Reacher on collision with hand-less “Hook” Hobie, hours away from his biggest score.

My thoughts:

This book grabbed me that’s for sure, I didn’t want to put it down. This book has all the fast paced page turning action and thrilling mystery of the other Reacher novels I’ve read, but also you get to see the more loving side of Reacher through his relationship with Jodie. I would like to think he sticks with Jodie, but I know from reading later penned Reacher books that she’s nowhere to be found, maybe later I’ll come across another book that will tell me what happened to her and General Garber’s house. I really like how with Lee Child we get a running account of all the big players in the story and how they always all come together at the end somehow. I always find myself trying to guess the puzzle, then he gives you another piece and you’ve got to guess again. Mr Child and his Jack Reacher always keep you guessing.

Four out of five stars for another enthralling Reacher investigation.

Reading books

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As a generalisation I won’t read a series until it’s finished. I hate the waiting. I dread falling in love with a book and not being able to read it’s follow up straight away and having to wait another year or so. I’m rather impatient in all aspects of life actually, one of my major flaws, causes me all sorts of grief, but that’s a trillion different stories right there.

I purchased all of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter books at once, then read them back to back! I read all five of Douglas Adams’s HHGTTG in one go, all The Percy Jackson series, hunger games trilogy etc. I’ve got Shadows of The Realm and A Time of Darkness sitting on my book shelf and I’m waiting for Dionne Lister to publish the third instalment so I can sit down and read them all.

I know you’re thinking ummm you bought the whole series before reading the first book, what if you don’t like it? – In my defence, I read reviews to get a feel of the book and see whether I think I’m going to like it or not, I can’t just read for readings sake, it’s got to draw me in! Normally the first book will come out and I’d decide I wanted to read it, if I find out it’s a series I’ll note it down to keep track of it and wait for all the books to come out, then buy the first book, read it and see if I like it before buying the rest – but by waiting till they all are published I can go and buy the next one straight away, no anguish waiting.

Yeah, I should just learn to be patient hey!

My big problem with reading at the moment is my ‘want to read’ list keeps getting longer, my bank out keeps getting lower and I can’t seem to get much time to read, hmmm I’m wasting reading time right now!!

Night All.

The Demigod Diaries (Heroes of Olympus)

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The Demigod Diaries (Heroes of Olympus) by Rick Riordan

Goodreads Synopsis:

What dangers do runaway demigods Luke and Thalia face on their way to Camp Half-Blood? Are Percy and Annabeth up to the task of rescuing stolen goods from a fire-breathing giant who doesn’t take kindly to intruders? How exactly are Leo, Piper, and Jason supposed to find a runaway table, dodge a band of party-loving Maenads” (“who just might be a little psychotic), and stave off a massive explosion…all in one hour or less?

With his trademark wit and creativity, Rick Riordan answers these questions and more in three never-before-seen short stories that provide vital back-story to the Heroes of Olympus and Percy Jackson books. Original art, enlightening character interviews and profiles, puzzles, and a quiz add to the fun in this action-packed collection.

My thoughts:

I found it very cute the way Riordan set up and linked the short stories as a training manual for Demigods. While I only gave this three stars as an adult, I think if I were a young teen (the demographic that this books is aimed at) I would go crazy over this and have loved it.

In this book we get a story from Luke Castellan’s point of view, a first-person Percy Jackson story, a Leo Valdez story and a short story debut from Riordan’s sixteen year old son Haley.

I will add that the short story by Haley Riordan is quite good and I think he’ll be an emerging author to watch.

Call Me Ishmael

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Today’s post ”Call Me Ishmael” asked us to take the first sentence from your favourite book and make it the first sentence of your post. I can’t really narrow down ONE book as my favourite so here is a mash up of my favourites:

 

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. The tracks of an old railway line run from Adelaide in South Australia to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. It is a truth universally acknowledge, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Did you guess any of them?

 

Now these are not in a particular order because I couldn’t choose between them:

 

For out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. The hitch hiker’s guide to the galaxy – Douglas Adams. All hail the late Douglas Adams and his trilogy in five parts, I’ve put the first line out of the first book, but in my heart it’s representing the whole series.

 

The tracks of an old railway line run from Adelaide in South Australia to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Albert of Adelaide – Howard L Anderson. If you haven’t heard of it you should look it up. http://sarahalison27.org/2013/12/14/albert-of-adelaide/

 

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. Harry Potter – J K Rowling. As with HHGTTG I’ve put the first line out of the first book, but in my heart it’s representing the whole series.

 

It is a truth universally acknowledge, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen. You all know this book I’m sure. If I really had to narrow it down to one book as my favourite, this would probably be the one –

 

BUT if you’d asked me as a child it would have been Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and this book will always be right up there!! Anne of Green Gables opens with a whopping 148-word sentence.

Mrs Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops, and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs Rachel was sitting at her door, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

All these Books in my opinion are pure awesomeness!!!

365daysofprompts   Post 5/365 missed 1

The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)

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The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4) by Rick Riordan

Goodreads Synopsis:

Percy Jackson isn’t expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse.

In this fourth instalment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos’s army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth – a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.

My Thoughts:

Oh wow, jam packed teenage action awesomeness!! This the fourth book of the Percy Jackson series and is By Far My Favourite (so far). So much happens in this instalment and the ending leaves you wanting to open the fifth book straight away.

I don’t even know where to begin.

All my favourite characters back together, Tyson, Percy, Grover & Annabeth Yay!!! And they all return alive by a mortal miracle. There’s danger at every turn, Pan is found, non-stop action the whole way though, Kronos awakens. We even get some teen angst romance in this instalment. This book reads really fast because you don’t want to put it down. But I will point out that you have to read the previous three books to know the characters backgrounds and to understand the drama or otherwise you’d be like “what the hell are these teenagers running around doing”.

Five Stars!!!!!

Well that’s all I’m going to say, I’m off to read number five now!!!!!

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1)

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The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan

Gosh dang! Where to start!

Synopsis from goodreads.com:

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school… again. And that’s the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he’s angered a few of them. Zeus’ master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus’ stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

My thoughts:           

I made the fatal mistake of seeing the movie adaptation of this book before reading it! Hence I roughly knew what was going to go down and kept trying to place the parts of the movie into the book. The movie was good, the book was better, but I knew too much so it didn’t really pull me in at first.  Luckily I know nothing of the other four in the series and don’t intent to find out until I’m reading them. Also seeing the movie first, I had figured the main character to be around fifteen/ sixteen (forgive me it has been a couple of years since I’ve seen the film) and in the book he is only twelve. I found Percy being only twelve and doing the things he was doing a bit hard to swallow, I had to keep reminding myself Harry was only eleven at the beginning of his adventures. I had to get my head in the right mind space to enjoy this book, I struggled but by the end it had got me and I will go on to read the next book. So while seeing the movie made this book less impressive, it did introduce me to the series and that’s a good thing.

I would recommend this book to a younger audience and those still in touch with their inner child. While I rate this book a three I think I could have been a four or five if I hadn’t seen the darn movie.

Most of the time if I see a movie I like the look of and see that’s it’s based on a book, I read the book, that’s only fair to the original story and that’s how I found Lee Child and Jack Reacher (now there’s a movie that DID NOT live up to its book) I read all the twilights before I saw the movies etc etc. In fact bar the Harry Potter series this is the only time I saw the movie first, I watched all the Potter movies before I opened the first book, but they were so good that the movies and the books stand up as awesome on their own. Never again my friends will I watch the movie first, always always read the book first.

Close Call: A Doris and Jemma Vadgeventure

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I’ve just finished reading Close Call: A Doris and Jemma Vadgeventure by Eloise March.

Close call is an amusing story about a young women and her vagina, I giggled the whole way through, then got to the end and went ‘I want more’.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who’s ever been a woman with a vagina on the dating seen (I’d say that covers most of us) and any open minded men wanting a light, funny and refreshing read.

In this book you not only get to hear Jemma’s side of the perils of dating life, but insight from her vagina Doris and the information that Doris gets from talking to Penises. You can’t help but want Doris to succeed in finding Jemma and herself a good man. You would be forgiven for thinking, oh! Ok… taking vagina’s and penises, no thank you, but really it was a funny and most enjoyable read.

 Five Stars

Bad Luck and Trouble

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Bad Luck and Trouble (11th of 18 Reacher Novels)

You do not mess with the Special Investigators – in this Reacher novel we see Reacher back together with his old team of elite army investigators.

Reacher finds out about the brutal death of a one of his old team mates and soon the remaining members reunite to solve a mystery that’s bigger than them.

I don’t know why I wasn’t as sucked into this book as much as the other three I’ve read. I’m assuming the reason was that in this novel you learn quite early on that this will be a revenge mission for the most part and you know Reacher will survive as Lee Child went on after this book to write another 7 Reacher novels. I guess there wasn’t anyone for me to care about him saving, no innocent man or pretty ladies. It’s strange because in the worlds current condition the ‘mystery’ should have meant more to me than any pretty lady, hmmmm.

Now don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it, it was still a page turner and I still want to read all eighteen and I still think Lee Child is an awesome writer but this one just didn’t grab me as much as the others – I’m baffled & would love to know what others thought.

http://www.leechild.com/