Jared's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 17 Feb 2025 03:13:00 -0800 60 Jared's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Blue Bar (Blue Mumbai, #1)]]> 59955194
After years of dancing in Mumbai’s bars, Tara Mondal was desperate for a new start. So when a client offered her a life-changing payout to indulge a harmless, if odd, fantasy, she accepted. The setup was simple: wear a blue-sequined saree, enter a crowded railway station, and escape from view in less than three minutes. It was the last time anyone saw Tara.

Thirteen years later, Tara’s lover, Inspector Arnav Singh Rajput, is still grappling with her disappearance as he faces a horrifying new crisis: on the city’s outskirts, women’s dismembered bodies are being unearthed from shallow graves. Very little links the murders, except a scattering of blue sequins and a decade’s worth of missing persons reports that correspond with major festivals.

Past and present blur as Arnav realizes he’s on the trail of a serial killer and that someone wants his investigation buried at any cost. Could the key to finding Tara and solving these murders be hidden in one of his cold cases? Or will the next body they recover be hers?]]>
390 Damyanti Biswas 1662503903 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.74 2023 The Blue Bar (Blue Mumbai, #1)
author: Damyanti Biswas
name: Jared
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[After the Lights: An EMP Post Apocalypse Prepper Thriller Boxset]]> 227808728 1169 James Hunt Jared 0 currently-reading 4.34 After the Lights: An EMP Post Apocalypse Prepper Thriller Boxset
author: James Hunt
name: Jared
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: currently-reading
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Blackout 59967909
Seven hard-won months into her sobriety, sociology professor Maris Heilman has her first blackout. She chalks it up to exhaustion, though she fears that her husband and daughter will suspect she’s drinking again. Whatever their cause, the glitches start becoming more frequent. Sometimes minutes, sometimes longer, but always leaving Maris with the same disorienting question: Where have I been?

Then another blackout lands Maris in the ER, where she makes an alarming discovery. A network of women is battling the same inexplicable malady. Is it a bizarre coincidence or something more sinister? What do all the women have in common besides missing time? Or is it who they have in common?

In a desperate search for answers, Maris has no idea what’s coming next—just the escalating paranoia that her memories may be beyond her control, and that everything she knows could disappear in the blink of an eye.]]>
296 Erin Flanagan 1542039886 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.58 2022 Blackout
author: Erin Flanagan
name: Jared
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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Carrion Comfort: A Novel 219787904 Ordinary vampires possess the body. But only those who use the living can violate the soul.

They gather their strength through the years. They plot their unholy games. They war among themselves. And the victor will stand alone against a world without defenses.

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801 Dan Simmons Jared 0 4.16 1989 Carrion Comfort: A Novel
author: Dan Simmons
name: Jared
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
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A Beautiful Poison 34932769 Just beyond the Gilded Age, in the mist-covered streets of New York, the deadly Spanish influenza ripples through the city. But with so many victims in her close circle, young socialite Allene questions if the flu is really to blame. All appear to have been poisoned—and every death was accompanied by a mysterious note.

Desperate for answers and dreading her own engagement to a wealthy gentleman, Allene returns to her passion for scientific discovery and recruits her long-lost friends, Jasper and Birdie, for help. The investigation brings her closer to Jasper, an apprentice medical examiner at Bellevue Hospital who still holds her heart, and offers the delicate Birdie a last-ditch chance to find a safe haven before her fragile health fails.

As more of their friends and family die, alliances shift, lives become entangled, and the three begin to suspect everyone—even each other. As they race to find the culprit, Allene, Birdie, and Jasper must once again trust each other, before one of them becomes the next victim.

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350 Lydia Kang 1477828109 Jared 4 A mystery and some history.

This book takes place in 1918 in NYC. The time is important because WW1 and a major flu epidemic are part of the backdrop. That and one of our characters is a radium girl.
Our lead character is an 18 year old girl. Most of the characters are around that age. She is from a well to do NYC family and has all the advantages of such. Not all her friends do though.
One evening during a party at the lead character’s house a young female guest falls down the stairs and dies. Is it murder? The police say no but the group of friends say yes.
This leads the book down the direction of danger and a murder mystery as secrets in the friend group come to light.
I liked this book. I liked the historical angle as well as the mystery. The characters were all well done and I enjoyed the various angles they were playing. To me the book was as much a character piece of the times as it was a mystery. I liked that. ]]>
3.94 2017 A Beautiful Poison
author: Lydia Kang
name: Jared
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves:
review:
A mystery and some history.

This book takes place in 1918 in NYC. The time is important because WW1 and a major flu epidemic are part of the backdrop. That and one of our characters is a radium girl.
Our lead character is an 18 year old girl. Most of the characters are around that age. She is from a well to do NYC family and has all the advantages of such. Not all her friends do though.
One evening during a party at the lead character’s house a young female guest falls down the stairs and dies. Is it murder? The police say no but the group of friends say yes.
This leads the book down the direction of danger and a murder mystery as secrets in the friend group come to light.
I liked this book. I liked the historical angle as well as the mystery. The characters were all well done and I enjoyed the various angles they were playing. To me the book was as much a character piece of the times as it was a mystery. I liked that.
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<![CDATA[The Elias Network (Caspian Anderson, #1)]]> 201915708 Mr. & Mrs. Smith meets political thriller in this heart-pounding series debut about two undercover flames whose new mission risks exposing their true identities to the world…and, worse, each other.

Caspian Anderson is a translator for the United Nations—or so he’s led everyone to believe. No one suspects that mild-mannered Caspian, with his baggy clothes and sensible car, is actually an elite assassin for the US government. And that’s just how he wants it.

For ten years, Caspian has worked under the code name Elias for Onyx, a black program deep within the Department of Homeland Security. His latest mission takes him to Switzerland to kill a target tied to a human trafficking ring. There, Caspian stumbles onto a web of conspiracies involving high-level political figures.

Meanwhile, Caspian’s girlfriend is starting to pull away, and he wonders whether she may have secrets of her own. The truth is, Liesel Bergmann’s a spy. But neither knows the truth about the other�yet. As their covert operations converge, trust becomes paramount. Can they work together to bring down the enemy with their lives—and hearts—still intact?]]>
349 Simon Gervais 1662518528 Jared 4 Hit men, hit women, and hit squads galore!

This is a book about an “Operator.� That’s what they call military James Bond types these days. It’s book one in the Caspian Anderson series and it’s the only one I’ve read so far.
Cas is a hit man of sorts who works for the US department of defense. He’s on a mission in
Europe and things go wrong. Now he had to find a way to survive and figure out what exactly
happened?
I liked this book. It wasn’t the most original but it was a good story. There was a lost of action
and some romance. In general it’s the kind of action oriented thriller that I enjoy.
I’d read some more books in this series. ]]>
4.18 2024 The Elias Network (Caspian Anderson, #1)
author: Simon Gervais
name: Jared
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves:
review:
Hit men, hit women, and hit squads galore!

This is a book about an “Operator.� That’s what they call military James Bond types these days. It’s book one in the Caspian Anderson series and it’s the only one I’ve read so far.
Cas is a hit man of sorts who works for the US department of defense. He’s on a mission in
Europe and things go wrong. Now he had to find a way to survive and figure out what exactly
happened?
I liked this book. It wasn’t the most original but it was a good story. There was a lost of action
and some romance. In general it’s the kind of action oriented thriller that I enjoy.
I’d read some more books in this series.
]]>
<![CDATA[Conan the Barbarian: The Complete Collection]]> 33549329
- The Phoenix on the Sword
- The Scarlet Citadel
- The Tower of the Elephant
- Black Colossus
- The Slithering Shadow
- The Pool of the Black One
- Gods of the North
- Rogues in the House
- Shadows in the Moonlight
- Queen of the Black Coast
- The Devil in Iron
- The People of the Black Circle
- A Witch Shall be Born
- Jewels of Gwahlur
- Beyond the Black River
- Shadows in Zamboula
- Red Nails
- The Hour of the Dragon
- The Hyborian Age]]>
774 Robert E. Howard 8822880315 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.14 2016 Conan the Barbarian: The Complete Collection
author: Robert E. Howard
name: Jared
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: currently-reading
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Dead Flowers 34598111 Family dysfunction is nothing new. The Rivers/Whitten family knows this well. If you mix in money and greed, the twists and turns are endless. Danny Rivers, an only child to Patricia and Martin, had no prior connections to his grandpa Dan before his funeral. Grandpa was a loner. A wealthy, simple living recluse with a dark secret. His grandson discovered it beneath the floorboards of his house. A wet pile of dead and dying white roses with the names of every woman he had killed. Danny recognized it quickly. He also had killing desires.
DNA - Greed - Murder and Revenge. Union Connecticut has a new family in town. How long will they stay?]]>
199 F.A. Carroll Jared 0 3.50 Dead Flowers
author: F.A. Carroll
name: Jared
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
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The Fall of the Roman Empire 13088827 578 Peter Heather Jared 0 4.04 2005 The Fall of the Roman Empire
author: Peter Heather
name: Jared
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
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Geekomancy (Ree Reyes, #1) 15747010 Clerks meets Buffy the Vampire the Slayer in this original urban fantasy eBook about Geekomancers—humans that derive supernatural powers from pop culture.

Ree Reyes's life was easier when all she had to worry about was scraping together tips from her gig as a barista and comicshop slave to pursue her ambitions as a screenwriter.

When a scruffy-looking guy storms into the shop looking for a comic like his life depends on it, Ree writes it off as just another day in the land of the geeks. Until a gigantic BOOM echoes from the alley a minute later, and Ree follows the rabbit hole down into her town's magical flip-side. Here, astral cowboy hackers fight trolls, rubber-suited werewolves, and elegant Gothic Lolita witches while wielding nostalgia-powered props.

Ree joins Eastwood (aka Scruffy Guy), investigating a mysterious string of teen suicides as she tries to recover from her own drag-your-heart-through-jagged-glass breakup. But as she digs deeper, Ree discovers Eastwood may not be the knight-in-cardboard armor she thought. Will Ree be able to stop the suicides, save Eastwood from himself, and somehow keep her job?]]>
255 Michael R. Underwood Jared 0 currently-reading 3.61 2012 Geekomancy (Ree Reyes, #1)
author: Michael R. Underwood
name: Jared
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why]]> 8161217
Since the advent of the printing press and the accurate reproduction of texts, most people have assumed that when they read the New Testament they are reading an exact copy of Jesus's words or Saint Paul's writings. And yet, for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. For the first time, Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible.

Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes -- alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible.]]>
288 Bart D. Ehrman Jared 0 4.18 2005 Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
author: Bart D. Ehrman
name: Jared
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
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<![CDATA[Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed at All]]> 16137839
Praise for David Fitzgerald’s
Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed At All

“Fitzgerald’s is possibly the best ‘capsule summary� of the mythicist case I’ve ever encountered …with an interesting and accessible approach.�
—Earl Doherty, author of The Jesus Puzzle

“Fitzgerald summarizes a great number of key arguments concisely and with new power and original spin. I really learned something from him. Recalls classical skeptics and biblical critics. A surprising amount of new material.�
—Robert M. Price, author of Deconstructing Jesus and The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man

“David Fitzgerald reveals himself to be the brightest new star in the firmament of scholars who deny historical reality to “Jesus of Nazareth.� His brilliance would have been sufficiently established had he done nothing more than illustrate and explain traditional arguments with a clarity and transparency never achieved…But he has done more. He has developed new arguments and insights as well...�
—Frank R. Zindler, editor of American Atheist Press and author of The Jesus the Jews Never Knew

“Fitzgerald has hit the nail on the head…A nice, readable introduction to the top ten problems typically swept under the rug by anyone insisting it's crazy even to suspect Jesus might not have existed.�
—Richard C. Carrier, Ph.D., author of Not the Impossible Faith: Why Christianity Didn’t Need a Miracle to Succeed and the forthcoming book On the Historicity of Jesus Christ

David Fitzgerald is a writer and historical researcher who has been actively investigating the Historical Jesus question for over ten years. He has a degree in History and was an associate member of CSER, the former Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion. He lectures around the country at universities and national secular events and is best known for his popular multimedia presentation "The Ten Thousand Christs and the Evaporating Jesus."]]>
226 David Fitzgerald Jared 0 4.24 2010 Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed at All
author: David Fitzgerald
name: Jared
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
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<![CDATA[Posing Guide For Models and Photographers - Volume 13 (Posing Guides)]]> 19051613 68 Paul Moore Jared 0 2.89 2012 Posing Guide For Models and Photographers - Volume 13 (Posing Guides)
author: Paul Moore
name: Jared
average rating: 2.89
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Regards, Ditko: An exploration into the mind of Steve Ditko]]> 48715349 248 Jaison Chahwala Jared 0 currently-reading 2.89 Regards, Ditko: An exploration into the mind of Steve Ditko
author: Jaison Chahwala
name: Jared
average rating: 2.89
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Stonehenge: Solving the Neolithic Universe]]> 22173685 ‘‘Overall I found this publication highly readable, being both informative and slightly controversial.’�
‘‘The one thing that makes this book a winner is the fact that it’s central theory is not a house of cards.’�

Simon Charlesworth, Reviewer for The Megalithic Portal.



Current opinion of Neolithic times imposes medieval roles on men and women: Women as chattels, men as warriors and monuments as places of worship and human sacrifice. But what if such a patriarchal society did not exist before history was recorded?

This fully illustrated e-book, by a Fellow of two engineering institutions, puts forward a detailed and fully developed alternative interpretation for Stonehenge based on recent research into renewable energy: It shows how its plan layout is the same as an idealized geocentric (fixed world) description of the Universe; its inner stone monument is shown to be capable of creating a spectacular visual description of a the sun's movement around a fixed world.

Part 2 shows examples of where that early knowledge of the Universe could have been obtained. It also shows that, in all the locations needed, the monuments of that period appear to fit that which would be required.

Part 3 is about how the monuments would be perceived: It shows how mythological and Arthurian references all appear to fit this explanation of Stonehenge and other monuments. This offers an alternative explanation for the Grail and the Four Treasures of.the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Part 4 looks at the most recent evidence published in 2012 and part 5 summarizes the possibilities.]]>
78 Jonathan M. Morris Jared 0 3.75 2012 Stonehenge: Solving the Neolithic Universe
author: Jonathan M. Morris
name: Jared
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
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review:

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<![CDATA[The Templars: The History & the Myth]]> 8961466 384 Michael Haag 0061959944 Jared 0 3.76 2008 The Templars: The History & the Myth
author: Michael Haag
name: Jared
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
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Alliance (Androne, #2) 187959711 It’s a fight for the future as the past aims to destroy the present in the mind-blowing sequel to Androne by screenwriter Dwain Worrell.

As an orphaned girl, Harmony survived a strange war waged by an enemy called the Quondam. They crushed every technological advancement in the world, eviscerated the landscape, and killed millions. It can still be stopped. As prophesied, Harmony has a destiny to fulfill.

Thirty years later, she is in a tenuous alliance with a cult of zealots who worship time itself. A master code breaker, she’s enlisted to obliterate the power of the Quondam and prevent a war that has already ended. The mission is a success. And with it, Harmony’s new moniker of Peacemaker is enshrined. But as Harmony is There’s something else out there.

She’s finding out what it is—alongside a close-knit group of allies and one fearless sergeant who rescued her so many years ago. The war with the past may be over, but as the Church of Time reveals its biggest mystery, the war with the future has just begun.]]>
320 Dwain Worrell 166251199X Jared 4 A nice part two.

I don’t usually do this but I liked book one of this pair so that I immediately bought book two. It didn’t disappoint. We continue the story of a soldier in the future who fight in a mech suit. Except this book had the young girl he was allied with in the first book and we see things from her point of view. Most of the book is about her but we’re waiting for the inevitable team up.
I don’t want to give too much away but this book also involves concepts of time that were in the first book. Not time travel but some interesting manipulation of time concepts.
Overall this book was a good successor to the first one and continued the story well. ]]>
3.90 2024 Alliance (Androne, #2)
author: Dwain Worrell
name: Jared
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
A nice part two.

I don’t usually do this but I liked book one of this pair so that I immediately bought book two. It didn’t disappoint. We continue the story of a soldier in the future who fight in a mech suit. Except this book had the young girl he was allied with in the first book and we see things from her point of view. Most of the book is about her but we’re waiting for the inevitable team up.
I don’t want to give too much away but this book also involves concepts of time that were in the first book. Not time travel but some interesting manipulation of time concepts.
Overall this book was a good successor to the first one and continued the story well.
]]>
Androne (Androne #1) 63293050 Humanity’s new war is an enigma with an enemy threat beyond all imagination in this near-future novel of mind-blowing adventure where the fate of mankind rests in the choices of one ordinary soldier.

In one terrifying event called the Ninety-Nine, all major military installations on earth were eviscerated. But by whom? Foreign powers, AIs, ETs? Every conceivable adversary was ruled out. Reeling from massive casualties and amid hundreds of conspiracy theories, humanity creates Andrones: bipedal android drones piloted remotely by soldiers who will never again need to be on the field of battle. Newly minted Androne pilot Sergeant Paxton Arés has now been deployed into a fight against an enemy no one understands or has ever seen.

Passing mostly uneventful days patrolling an unidentified desert, Paxton spends time communicating with his pregnant girlfriend back home and reflecting on his impending fatherhood. But as he is drawn deeper into military camaraderie and begins quickly rising up the ranks on the strength of his father’s military legacy, Paxton starts to question the swirling rumors about the nature of the conflict. What he’s encountered in the shifting dunes—something inexplicable, indomitable—fills him with the fear that whatever is out there is destined to win.

Whether it’s curiosity, ambition, or a newfound paternal instinct, Paxton has a driving need to understand the dangerous truths of this strange, invisible war. And the choices he must make have the power to change everything.]]>
329 Dwain Worrell 1662511965 Jared 4 Let’s pilot a war machine.

Androne by Dwain Worrell
I think the title is a mashup of android and drone. I can’t remember if they actually said that in the book or not but it fits.
I liked this book. It is the story of a soldier in the future who finds himself involved in a war with an unknown enemy. He remotely pilots a robot that fights in the war. That’s the way wars are fought in this future. There is a lot of nice descriptive writing about what it’s like to pilot and fight that way.
Slowly over the length of the book the soldier discovers that things are not what he’s been told. He’s got to figure out what’s really going on and what he can do about it. In that lies the adventure and it was a fun adventure. ]]>
3.91 2023 Androne (Androne #1)
author: Dwain Worrell
name: Jared
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves:
review:
Let’s pilot a war machine.

Androne by Dwain Worrell
I think the title is a mashup of android and drone. I can’t remember if they actually said that in the book or not but it fits.
I liked this book. It is the story of a soldier in the future who finds himself involved in a war with an unknown enemy. He remotely pilots a robot that fights in the war. That’s the way wars are fought in this future. There is a lot of nice descriptive writing about what it’s like to pilot and fight that way.
Slowly over the length of the book the soldier discovers that things are not what he’s been told. He’s got to figure out what’s really going on and what he can do about it. In that lies the adventure and it was a fun adventure.
]]>
<![CDATA[Lichtenstein in New York: A Pop Art Life]]> 28592989
This book looks at Lichtenstein's life through the lens of New York City, taking the reader to the Manhattan that Lichtenstein knew, from the Prohibition era through the postwar era and countercultural revolution to the well-heeled iconoclasm of the 80s and 90s. It is a fascinating biography of a major but sometimes neglected trailblazer of 20th-centruy American art.]]>
192 Mark P. Bernardo 193890155X Jared 0 4.11 Lichtenstein in New York: A Pop Art Life
author: Mark P. Bernardo
name: Jared
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/03
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<![CDATA[The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe]]> 18186959
Based on personal memoirs, author interviews, and official American, German, and French histories, The Last Battle is the nearly unbelievable story of the most improbable battle of World War II—a tale of unlikely allies, bravery, cowardice, and desperate combat between implacable enemies.]]>
258 Stephen Harding Jared 0 3.90 2013 The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe
author: Stephen Harding
name: Jared
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves:
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The Handmaid's Tale 45864574
The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid’s Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and a tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best.
--hmhbooks.com]]>
311 Margaret Atwood Jared 0 4.11 1985 The Handmaid's Tale
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Jared
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/03
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<![CDATA[Stan Lee Lied: Your Handy Guide to Every Lie in The Origins of Marvel Comics]]> 218662018 For the first time, an in depth look at just how inaccurate Lee's story is - fact-checked with modern updated means of information collection and later interviews with the people who were there.
Stan Lee Lied. A LOT.
And that's a fact.

Includes 24 additional essays]]>
470 Chaz Gower Jared 0 currently-reading 3.29 Stan Lee Lied: Your Handy Guide to Every Lie in The Origins of Marvel Comics
author: Chaz Gower
name: Jared
average rating: 3.29
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/02
shelves: currently-reading
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Cryptic Inks 50363132 242 John R. Stuart 0991833775 Jared 4 Art, money, and murder.

As a comic book fan I discovered the backdrop for this book was the world of comic book art collectors. That intrigued me enough to pick it up and I am glad I did. For those who don’t know some comic book art has skyrocketed in price over the last decade or so. Some pieces reach fine art prices and that makes a good backdrop for murder and mystery.
We get a mysterious old comic book from the early 1960s, angry collectors, satanism, and a killer on the loose. Fun stuff. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. It was described so well that I even wanted to see the mysterious old comic book even though it was fictional. If you like a good mystery with a little thriller thrown in give Cryptic Inks a read.

Merged review:

Art, money, and murder.

As a comic book fan I discovered the backdrop for this book was the world of comic book art collectors. That intrigued me enough to pick it up and I am glad I did. For those who don’t know some comic book art has skyrocketed in price over the last decade or so. Some pieces reach fine art prices and that makes a good backdrop for murder and mystery.
We get a mysterious old comic book from the early 1960s, angry collectors, satanism, and a killer on the loose. Fun stuff. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. It was described so well that I even wanted to see the mysterious old comic book even though it was fictional. If you like a good mystery with a little thriller thrown in give Cryptic Inks a read.]]>
4.50 Cryptic Inks
author: John R. Stuart
name: Jared
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/09
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves:
review:
Art, money, and murder.

As a comic book fan I discovered the backdrop for this book was the world of comic book art collectors. That intrigued me enough to pick it up and I am glad I did. For those who don’t know some comic book art has skyrocketed in price over the last decade or so. Some pieces reach fine art prices and that makes a good backdrop for murder and mystery.
We get a mysterious old comic book from the early 1960s, angry collectors, satanism, and a killer on the loose. Fun stuff. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. It was described so well that I even wanted to see the mysterious old comic book even though it was fictional. If you like a good mystery with a little thriller thrown in give Cryptic Inks a read.

Merged review:

Art, money, and murder.

As a comic book fan I discovered the backdrop for this book was the world of comic book art collectors. That intrigued me enough to pick it up and I am glad I did. For those who don’t know some comic book art has skyrocketed in price over the last decade or so. Some pieces reach fine art prices and that makes a good backdrop for murder and mystery.
We get a mysterious old comic book from the early 1960s, angry collectors, satanism, and a killer on the loose. Fun stuff. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. It was described so well that I even wanted to see the mysterious old comic book even though it was fictional. If you like a good mystery with a little thriller thrown in give Cryptic Inks a read.
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Girl, Missing 183132214 What really happened to Sara-Jane?

It’s been fifteen years since Gem’s eight-year-old daughter Sara-Jane went missing, snatched with her best friend Abby right outside their school. A frantic search united the community at first, but after Abby was found and brought home, single mother Gem’s dogged persistence only led to accusations that she was stirring up class tensions. Even that she was somehow involved.

When Gem hears that human remains have been unearthed in the school’s chapel, she casts aside the new life she’s carefully built around herself and returns to the community that closed ranks against her all those years ago. Someone there knows something, she’s sure of it. And when Sara-Jane’s belongings start appearing on her doorstep, Gem knows she’s getting close—dangerously close—to the truth.

One thing’s for certain: it’s not just the remains in the chapel that have lain hidden for years. Can Gem unravel the dark secrets that might lead to Sara-Jane? Or has blind hope lured her into a web she’ll never escape?]]>
358 Dreda Say Mitchell 166251560X Jared 4 A Mother Wants To Find Her Daughter

Fifteen years ago an eight year old girl goes missing. The evidence suggests that she was kidnapped but some people suspect the mother. Now a body is unearthed in the chapel of the school that the girl went to and her mother rushes to the town that turned on her fifteen years ago to she if she can find out what happened to her little girl.
This one is definitely filled with a lot of twists and turns. At first there is nothing to find out but the mother just keeps on digging and talking to people. The rest of the book is her following a twisted path to the truth.
I enjoyed this one in general. The writing was crisp and I felt the mother’s desperation and relentless despite the pain she was in. The characters were all solid but this book is really about the plot. ]]>
3.87 2024 Girl, Missing
author: Dreda Say Mitchell
name: Jared
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/18
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves:
review:
A Mother Wants To Find Her Daughter

Fifteen years ago an eight year old girl goes missing. The evidence suggests that she was kidnapped but some people suspect the mother. Now a body is unearthed in the chapel of the school that the girl went to and her mother rushes to the town that turned on her fifteen years ago to she if she can find out what happened to her little girl.
This one is definitely filled with a lot of twists and turns. At first there is nothing to find out but the mother just keeps on digging and talking to people. The rest of the book is her following a twisted path to the truth.
I enjoyed this one in general. The writing was crisp and I felt the mother’s desperation and relentless despite the pain she was in. The characters were all solid but this book is really about the plot.
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The Flock 59937680 From J. Todd Scott comes a chillingly engrossing thriller about a cult survivor who must confront the horrors of her past to ensure the safety of the future.

Ten years after a fiery raid kills her family, former cult member Sybilla “Billie� Laure has a completely new identity. She’s settled in rural Colorado with her daughter, hoping for a quieter life. But the world has other plans.

With wildfires raging and birds dropping from the sky, Billie wonders if her cult leader father’s apocalyptic predictions are finally coming true. When an intruder murders her husband and kidnaps her daughter, Billie has no choice but to confront the secrets of her past. But Billie’s journey has other perils, too—namely, a police chief hot on her trail, determined to expose the dangers of the defunct doomsday cult.

To save her daughter, Billie will have to go back to where it all began—to the ruined compound in New Mexico where the real threat is the truth.]]>
416 J. Todd Scott 1662500408 Jared 3 Cults sure can be trouble.

This one is the story of a woman who survived being at the center of an apocalyptic cult and what happens to her ten years later when the legend of the cult grows and new people start it up again.
That woman, an FBI agent who was undercover in the original cult, and a small town sheriff who gets caught up in a cult related murder are our three main characters. Though there are plenty more characters who take the center stage now and again as there are a lot of short chapters from different POVs.
Overall I’m a bit ambivalent about this book. It was good enough that I read the whole thing but I’m not sure if I was ever really into it. It could just be me. Sometimes I really relate to the characters in a story and sometimes I don’t. In this book I was a bit at arm’s length with them. It was still a solid read. ]]>
3.54 2022 The Flock
author: J. Todd Scott
name: Jared
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/08
date added: 2024/06/08
shelves:
review:
Cults sure can be trouble.

This one is the story of a woman who survived being at the center of an apocalyptic cult and what happens to her ten years later when the legend of the cult grows and new people start it up again.
That woman, an FBI agent who was undercover in the original cult, and a small town sheriff who gets caught up in a cult related murder are our three main characters. Though there are plenty more characters who take the center stage now and again as there are a lot of short chapters from different POVs.
Overall I’m a bit ambivalent about this book. It was good enough that I read the whole thing but I’m not sure if I was ever really into it. It could just be me. Sometimes I really relate to the characters in a story and sometimes I don’t. In this book I was a bit at arm’s length with them. It was still a solid read.
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X Omnibus, Volume 1 25507707
Violent and morally ambiguous, X walks the thin line between heroism and obsession and shows that sometimes the cure may be worse than the disease]]>
352 Steven Grant 1630080217 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.78 2008 X Omnibus, Volume 1
author: Steven Grant
name: Jared
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[The King Tides (Lancaster & Daniels, #1)]]> 38198033 Reality and illusion blur for an ex-Navy SEAL investigating a deadly case of stalking in this page-turner that Michael Connelly calls “a hundred percent adrenaline rush disguised as a detective novel.�

Nicki Pearl is the perfect daughter—every parent’s dream. And that of strangers, too. Wherever she goes, she’s being watched. Each stalker is different from the last, except for one thing—their alarming obsession with Nicki.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Nicki’s father is turning to someone who can protect her: retired private detective and ex–Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster. Teaming up with FBI agent and former abduction victim Beth Daniels, Lancaster can help—his way. He’s spent most of his career dispatching creeps who get off on terrorizing the vulnerable. Unlicensed, and unrestricted, he plays dirty…But this case is unusual. Why so many men? Why this one girl? Does Nicki have something to hide? Or do her parents?

Trawling the darkest depths of southern Florida, Lancaster faces a growing tide of secrets and deception. And the deeper he digs, the more he realizes that finding the truth won’t be easy. Because there’s more to this case than meets the eye.]]>
318 James Swain 1503956695 Jared 4 A Likable Fellow

This book says it’s book one in the Lancaster and Daniel’s series. Lancaster is an ex-Navy Seal and current private investigator while Daniels is a current FBI agent. Most of the book is about Lancaster and Daniels doesn’t show up until about halfway in.
Lancaster takes a case involving threats to a teenage girl and things go on from there.
Lots of mystery and investigating in this one and it was fun to be along for the ride.
Lancaster is a very likable character and that’s what defined most of this book for me. He is one of those charismatic and pleasant to be with characters that are enjoyable to read about. I’ll have to check out what other books are in this series. Good stuff. ]]>
3.96 2018 The King Tides (Lancaster & Daniels, #1)
author: James Swain
name: Jared
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
review:
A Likable Fellow

This book says it’s book one in the Lancaster and Daniel’s series. Lancaster is an ex-Navy Seal and current private investigator while Daniels is a current FBI agent. Most of the book is about Lancaster and Daniels doesn’t show up until about halfway in.
Lancaster takes a case involving threats to a teenage girl and things go on from there.
Lots of mystery and investigating in this one and it was fun to be along for the ride.
Lancaster is a very likable character and that’s what defined most of this book for me. He is one of those charismatic and pleasant to be with characters that are enjoyable to read about. I’ll have to check out what other books are in this series. Good stuff.
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<![CDATA[Graveyard of Memories (John Rain, #8)]]> 39963424 What makes a legendary assassin? For John Rain, it was the lessons of love, war, and betrayal he learned in Tokyo in 1972.

Fresh from the killing fields of Southeast Asia, Rain works as a bagman under the watchful eye of his CIA handler, delivering cash to corrupt elements of the Japanese government. But when a delivery goes violently wrong, Rain finds himself in the crosshairs of Japan’s most powerful yakuza clan. To survive, Rain strikes a desperate deal with his handler: take out a high-profile target in the Japanese government in exchange for the intel he needs to eliminate his would-be executioners.

As Rain plays cat and mouse with the yakuza and struggles to learn his new role as contract killer, he also becomes entangled with Sayaka, a tough, beautiful ethnic Korean woman confined to a wheelchair. But the demands of his dark work are at odds with the longings of his heart—and with Sayaka’s life in the balance, Rain will have to make a terrible choice.

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345 Barry Eisler 147786816X Jared 4 A Young John Rain Adventure

So far I’ve enjoyed all of the John Rain novels that I’ve read. He’s a freelance operator who has worked for all sorts of spy agencies in his career. But this is the story of his beginnings. He’s fresh out of being a soldier in the Vietnam War and spending some time in Tokyo where his parents used to live.
The story is narrated by a much older John Rain as the younger John Rain gets caught up with the Yakuza and the CIA. Spies on one side of him and gangsters on the other. As the adventure goes on the older version of John gets to tell us all the mistakes the younger version of him made as he was trying to navigate this choppy water.
This book was a good read. ]]>
4.36 2014 Graveyard of Memories (John Rain, #8)
author: Barry Eisler
name: Jared
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
review:
A Young John Rain Adventure

So far I’ve enjoyed all of the John Rain novels that I’ve read. He’s a freelance operator who has worked for all sorts of spy agencies in his career. But this is the story of his beginnings. He’s fresh out of being a soldier in the Vietnam War and spending some time in Tokyo where his parents used to live.
The story is narrated by a much older John Rain as the younger John Rain gets caught up with the Yakuza and the CIA. Spies on one side of him and gangsters on the other. As the adventure goes on the older version of John gets to tell us all the mistakes the younger version of him made as he was trying to navigate this choppy water.
This book was a good read.
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<![CDATA[The Killing Fog (The Grave Kingdom, #1)]]> 50022413 The Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Kingfountain series conjures an epic, adventurous world of ancient myth and magic as a young woman’s battle with infinite evil begins.

Survivor of a combat school, the orphaned Bingmei belongs to a band of mercenaries employed by a local ruler. Now the nobleman, and collector of rare artifacts, has entrusted Bingmei and the skilled team with a treacherous assignment: brave the wilderness’s dangers to retrieve the treasures of a lost palace buried in a glacier valley. But upsetting its tombs has a price.

Echion, emperor of the Grave Kingdom, ruler of darkness, Dragon of Night, has long been entombed. Now Bingmei has unwittingly awakened him and is answerable to a legendary prophecy. Destroying the dark lord before he reclaims the kingdoms of the living is her inherited mission. Killing Bingmei before she fulfills it is Echion’s.

Thrust unprepared into the role of savior, urged on by a renegade prince, and possessing a magic that is her destiny, Bingmei knows what she must do. But what must she risk to honor her ancestors? Bingmei’s fateful choice is one that neither her friends nor her enemies can foretell, as Echion’s dark war for control unfolds.

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404 Jeff Wheeler 1542014999 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.17 2020 The Killing Fog (The Grave Kingdom, #1)
author: Jeff Wheeler
name: Jared
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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The Bad Weather Friend 135415637 Benny is so nice they feel compelled to destroy him, but he has a friend who should scare the hell out of them.

Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée, and his favorite chair. He’s not paranoid. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why. Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. All will be well in time.

How strange—though it’s a blessing, his uncle promises. Stranger yet is what’s inside the crate. He’s a seven-foot-tall self-described “bad weather friend� named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world. Spike will take care of it. He’ll find Benny’s enemies. He’ll deal with them. This might be satisfying if Spike wasn’t such a menacing presence with terrifying techniques of intimidation.

In the company of Spike and a fascinated young waitress-cum-PI-in-training named Harper, Benny plunges into a perilous high-speed adventure, the likes of which never would have crossed the mind of a decent guy like him.]]>
374 Dean Koontz 1662500483 Jared 4 Left me with a good feeling

Though I’ve known his name since the 1980s I think this is the first Dean Koontz novel I’ve ever read. I associate his work with suspense novels but this isn’t one of those. I think this falls under the category of Magical Realism.
We get two concurrent stories of our lead characters Benny. One when he was a child mainly focused on the brief time he was at a boarding school and the other when he is an adult in his early twenties as his life is sabotaged.
The magical part starts when a relative he never knew sends him a package that gives him the opportunity to straighten out his life. Meanwhile past Benny is having his adventure back at school.
The book was very pleasant and optimistic. It was about being nice and having hope. There are villains, romance, adventure, and some magical powers. Overall a very enjoyable read that left me feeling good. ]]>
3.89 2024 The Bad Weather Friend
author: Dean Koontz
name: Jared
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/26
shelves:
review:
Left me with a good feeling

Though I’ve known his name since the 1980s I think this is the first Dean Koontz novel I’ve ever read. I associate his work with suspense novels but this isn’t one of those. I think this falls under the category of Magical Realism.
We get two concurrent stories of our lead characters Benny. One when he was a child mainly focused on the brief time he was at a boarding school and the other when he is an adult in his early twenties as his life is sabotaged.
The magical part starts when a relative he never knew sends him a package that gives him the opportunity to straighten out his life. Meanwhile past Benny is having his adventure back at school.
The book was very pleasant and optimistic. It was about being nice and having hope. There are villains, romance, adventure, and some magical powers. Overall a very enjoyable read that left me feeling good.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Cipher (Nina Guerrera, #1)]]> 53966623 To a cunning serial killer, she was the one that got away. Until now�

FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along.

His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social media superstar—an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”—but to Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches.]]>
332 Isabella Maldonado 1542022487 Jared 4 FBI in action.

This is the story of an FBI agent, Nina Guerrera, with a lot of trauma in her past that she is trying to overcome. She takes it day by day until the serial killer who caused that trauma in her youth shows his ugly head again and starts a public campaign of murder.
Guerrera, a lone wolf, has to learn to work with her new FBI team to track down this elusive killer.
This was a solid read. A crazy villain and a likable hero (and her team) play cat and mouse and murder. Guerrera is a fairly down to earth character who deals with a lot. She’s not the superhero that some of the operator characters that I read about are. She can take care of herself for sure but the villain is bigger, stronger, and more physically skilled than she is. The team has their work cut out for them. And work they do.]]>
4.19 2020 The Cipher (Nina Guerrera, #1)
author: Isabella Maldonado
name: Jared
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/30
date added: 2024/02/28
shelves:
review:
FBI in action.

This is the story of an FBI agent, Nina Guerrera, with a lot of trauma in her past that she is trying to overcome. She takes it day by day until the serial killer who caused that trauma in her youth shows his ugly head again and starts a public campaign of murder.
Guerrera, a lone wolf, has to learn to work with her new FBI team to track down this elusive killer.
This was a solid read. A crazy villain and a likable hero (and her team) play cat and mouse and murder. Guerrera is a fairly down to earth character who deals with a lot. She’s not the superhero that some of the operator characters that I read about are. She can take care of herself for sure but the villain is bigger, stronger, and more physically skilled than she is. The team has their work cut out for them. And work they do.
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Watchmen 472331 Watchmen, the groundbreaking series from award-winning author Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, presents a world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history—the U.S. won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the Cold War is in full effect.

Considered the greatest graphic novel in the history of the medium, the Hugo Award-winning story chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the superhero is dissected as an unknown assassin stalks the erstwhile heroes.]]>
416 Alan Moore 0930289234 Jared 3 4.38 1987 Watchmen
author: Alan Moore
name: Jared
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[According to Jack Kirby: Insights drawn from interviews with comics' greatest creator]]> 58099312 348 Michael Hill 1667133071 Jared 3 3.81 According to Jack Kirby: Insights drawn from interviews with comics' greatest creator
author: Michael Hill
name: Jared
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves:
review:

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Palookaville #24 62711570
Palookaville 24 marks the long-awaited return of Seth’s beloved series, which offers readers an invitation into the world and varied artistic practice of the iconic cartoonist.

Beginning with Seth’s serialized adolescent autobiography, Nothing Lasts , we enter the fleeting summers of his late teen years, specifically focusing on his summer jobs―a stint as a gofer at the Ministry of Natural Resources and his experiences as a bellboy, dishwasher, and cook at a local inn. A memoir ruminating on memory and place and the people who pass through his life, this chapter of Nothing Lasts closes with a seminal event in Seth’s young life.

An intriguing visual feast, The Apology of Albert Batch is the culmination of ten years of collaboration between the director Luc Chamberlane and Seth―a short film documenting Seth's venture into puppetry. An extensive photo essay detailing the making of the film accompanies a DVD.

And lastly, Seth presents, warts and all, an exercise from his sketchbook. A simple Select five names from a list and produce five stories to go with them. Drawn loosely with poster paint and ink, the work is spontaneous, showing a different side of the master artist. Palookaville 24 showcases Seth’s artwork alongside his continually evolving artistic practice with unique elegance.]]>
112 Seth 1770466657 Jared 4 4.14 Palookaville #24
author: Seth
name: Jared
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Sin City, Book 1 (The Hard Goodbye 1993 1st Edition) (Sin City, 1)]]> 142336638 0 Frank Miler Jared 4 4.00 1991 Sin City, Book 1 (The Hard Goodbye 1993 1st Edition) (Sin City, 1)
author: Frank Miler
name: Jared
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves:
review:

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Warlock 5 Omnibus 53866953 405 Gordon Derry 1947659618 Jared 0 to-read 3.40 Warlock 5 Omnibus
author: Gordon Derry
name: Jared
average rating: 3.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Jam: Super Cool Color-Injected Turbo Adventure from Hell # 2]]> 60041877 68 Bernie Mireault 1949996328 Jared 0 to-read 4.12 The Jam: Super Cool Color-Injected Turbo Adventure from Hell # 2
author: Bernie Mireault
name: Jared
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Jam: Urban Adventure: Beginnings]]> 61285649
Collected here for the first time is the original five-issue storyline of Bernie Mireault's cult favorite alt hero series The Urban Adventure , newly remastered and enhanced by Mireault himself. As an added bonus, the book leads off with a series of shorter pieces that appeared in New Triumph Featuring Northguard and The Jam Special .]]>
167 Bernie Mireault 1949996433 Jared 4 4.24 2022 The Jam: Urban Adventure: Beginnings
author: Bernie Mireault
name: Jared
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: The Ink Art of Boris Pelcer]]> 59838387 40 Boris Pelcer Jared 0 to-read 0.0 STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: The Ink Art of Boris Pelcer
author: Boris Pelcer
name: Jared
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Grendel: Devil by the Deed, Master's Edition]]> 156733895 Matt Wagner returns to the seminal “Devil by the Deed� Hunter Rose story that started the epic, centuries-spanning Grendel saga.

In this all-new reimagining of “Devil by the Deed,� Wagner brings his decades of experience and artistry back to the famous narrative that first began his lengthy and illustrious career as a comic-book author.

The original tale of the dashing and diabolical Hunter Rose was deceptively brief, considering its cultural impact.Over the years, Wagner has expanded on the story of Hunter Rose and now he weaves the most dramatic of those elements into a brand-new graphic novel.

Devil by the Deed—Master’s Edition is Matt Wagner at the height of his artistic and story-telling prowess, featuring 120 all-new story pages that will dazzle first time and longtime readers alike.]]>
136 Matt Wagner 1506737277 Jared 4 to-read 4.50 Grendel: Devil by the Deed, Master's Edition
author: Matt Wagner
name: Jared
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[All the Devils (Livia Lone #4)]]> 43247249 Now the disappearances have begun again. And Agent Little’s efforts to investigate are being blocked by forces far above his pay grade. Desperate, he turns to Seattle sex-crimes detective Livia Lone, the most obsessive hunter of predators Little knows.

Livia will need that obsessiveness, and a lot more. Because the two men Little is pursuing are fearsome.

]]>
336 Barry Eisler 1542094216 Jared 4 Livia Lone thrills us again.

This is the third book in the Livia Lone series and it’s another good one by Eisler.
Lone is a Seattle police officer who investigates sex crimes but spends most of her time in these books tracking down the worst of the worst of powerful international sex criminals. That’s because over the course of Eisler’s various book series she has made allies of various bad-ass secret agent “Operators� who star in those other books. Though she’s a local cop she ‘s involved in a lot of national and international stuff too.
In this book it’s homeland security agent BD Little who needs Lone’s help in tracking down the men who killed his daughter years ago. It leads them down a violence filled path where they have to deal with men of power.
I’ve grown to like all of Eisler’s books but I think the Livia Lone ones might be my favorites. She’s a five star bad-ass but is also vulnerable and relatable. She’s the one character in the Eisler-verse who is driven by wanting to get justice for victims and has become the moral center of Eisler’s books. Even if that moral center is pretty violent and full of death.
Another exciting Livia Lone book.]]>
4.52 2019 All the Devils (Livia Lone #4)
author: Barry Eisler
name: Jared
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/07
date added: 2023/12/07
shelves:
review:
Livia Lone thrills us again.

This is the third book in the Livia Lone series and it’s another good one by Eisler.
Lone is a Seattle police officer who investigates sex crimes but spends most of her time in these books tracking down the worst of the worst of powerful international sex criminals. That’s because over the course of Eisler’s various book series she has made allies of various bad-ass secret agent “Operators� who star in those other books. Though she’s a local cop she ‘s involved in a lot of national and international stuff too.
In this book it’s homeland security agent BD Little who needs Lone’s help in tracking down the men who killed his daughter years ago. It leads them down a violence filled path where they have to deal with men of power.
I’ve grown to like all of Eisler’s books but I think the Livia Lone ones might be my favorites. She’s a five star bad-ass but is also vulnerable and relatable. She’s the one character in the Eisler-verse who is driven by wanting to get justice for victims and has become the moral center of Eisler’s books. Even if that moral center is pretty violent and full of death.
Another exciting Livia Lone book.
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What Never Happened 59362274
But as Coco learns more about these deaths, she quickly realizes that the circumstances surrounding them are remarkably similar…and not natural. Then Coco receives a sinister threat in the mail: her own obituary.

As Coco begins to draw connections between a serial killer’s crimes and her own family tragedy, she fears that the secrets on Catalina Island might be too deep to survive. Because whoever is watching her is hell-bent on finally putting her past to rest.]]>
423 Rachel Howzell Hall 1662504144 Jared 3 Island life is different.

This is the story of a woman who moves back to a California island community where she survived the murder of her family when she was a child. It’s a thriller as strange things happen to her on the island and she gets some threatening notes.
I liked the book but was also a little ambivalent towards the main character. I was rooting for her but kind of at arm’s distance. She was obviously a survivor of a lot of trauma but also seemed to be a little entitled. It was a strange combination. I was on her side but sometimes would shake my head at her. She alludes to her pretty person entitlement at least once so it makes sense.
The book had a good ending too. I liked the way things wrapped up on a hopeful but not happily ever after note. ]]>
3.63 2023 What Never Happened
author: Rachel Howzell Hall
name: Jared
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/05
date added: 2023/12/06
shelves:
review:
Island life is different.

This is the story of a woman who moves back to a California island community where she survived the murder of her family when she was a child. It’s a thriller as strange things happen to her on the island and she gets some threatening notes.
I liked the book but was also a little ambivalent towards the main character. I was rooting for her but kind of at arm’s distance. She was obviously a survivor of a lot of trauma but also seemed to be a little entitled. It was a strange combination. I was on her side but sometimes would shake my head at her. She alludes to her pretty person entitlement at least once so it makes sense.
The book had a good ending too. I liked the way things wrapped up on a hopeful but not happily ever after note.
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Here To Stay 42249612 A beautiful home. A loving wife. And in-laws to die for.

Gemma Robinson comes into Elliot’s life like a whirlwind, and they marry and settle into his home. When she asks him if her parents can come to stay for a couple of weeks, he is keen to oblige � he just doesn’t quite know what he’s signing up for.

The Robinsons arrive with Gemma’s sister, Chloe, a mysterious young woman who refuses to speak or leave her room. Elliot starts to suspect that the Robinsons are hiding a dark secret. And then there are the scars on his wife’s body that she won’t talk about . . .

As Elliot’s in-laws become more comfortable in his home, encroaching on all aspects of his life, it becomes clear that they have no intention of moving out. To protect Gemma, and their marriage, Elliot delves into the Robinsons� past. But is he prepared for the truth?]]>
370 Mark Edwards 1542044898 Jared 3 I found the main character hard to deal with because he kept letting himself get taken advantage of. That was the point of the character but I still got frustrated with him.
Most of the first half of the book was our main character slowly getting boxed into a corner, the next quarter was his life getting wrecking, and the final quarter was the resolution. It was all pretty well done but it was a tough read sometimes because I just wanted this guy to stand up for himself even though I knew he really couldn’t. Solid overall. ]]>
4.04 2019 Here To Stay
author: Mark Edwards
name: Jared
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/16
date added: 2023/11/16
shelves:
review:
I found this novel a little strange a different. It’s a suspenseful story but protagonist is not the heroic type at all. It’s the tale of a nebbishy guy who marries in haste and then has his in-laws move in with him. That’s when his life turns miserable because they won’t leave. And they’re not nice people.
I found the main character hard to deal with because he kept letting himself get taken advantage of. That was the point of the character but I still got frustrated with him.
Most of the first half of the book was our main character slowly getting boxed into a corner, the next quarter was his life getting wrecking, and the final quarter was the resolution. It was all pretty well done but it was a tough read sometimes because I just wanted this guy to stand up for himself even though I knew he really couldn’t. Solid overall.
]]>
Meru (The Alloy Era, #1) 61183452 One woman and her pilot are about to change the future of the species in an epic space opera about aspiration, compassion, and redemption by Hugo and Nebula Award finalist S. B. Divya.

For five centuries, human life has been restricted to Earth, while posthuman descendants called alloys freely explore the galaxy. But when the Earthlike planet of Meru is discovered, two unlikely companions venture forth to test the habitability of this unoccupied new world and the future of human-alloy relations.

For Jayanthi, the adopted human child of alloy parents, it’s an opportunity to rectify the ancient reputation of her species as avaricious and destructive, and to give humanity a new place in the universe. For Vaha, Jayanthi’s alloy pilot, it’s a daunting yet irresistible adventure to find success as an individual.

As the journey challenges their resolve in unexpected ways, the two form a bond that only deepens with their time alone on Meru. But how can Jayanthi succeed at freeing humanity from its past when she and Vaha have been set up to fail?

Against all odds, hope is human, too.]]>
443 S.B. Divya 1662505086 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.78 2023 Meru (The Alloy Era, #1)
author: S.B. Divya
name: Jared
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[A Killer’s Game (Daniela Vega, #1)]]> 61311024 An FBI agent with a background in cryptography. A brilliant game maker bent on revenge. A deadly battle of wits and wills. An ingenious thriller from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Cipher.

FBI agent and former military codebreaker Daniela “Dani� Vega witnesses a murder on a Manhattan sidewalk. The victim is chief of staff for a powerful New York senator. The assassin turned informant is Gustavo Toro. His code: hit the target and don’t ask questions. When Dani suspects a complex conspiracy, the only way to take down the mastermind is from the inside, forcing her to partner with Toro. Together they must infiltrate the inner circle at a remote facility.

Except it’s a trap. For all of them.

Locked in a subterranean labyrinth and held captive by an unseen host, Dani, Toro, and others must fight for their lives. Now Dani must stay undercover, unravel a bizarre conspiracy, and survive lethal puzzles. But will Toro be friend or foe? Because in this killer’s game, everything is real: the paranoia, the desperation, and the body count. And only one person can make it out alive.]]>
365 Isabella Maldonado 1662507828 Jared 4 A fun action thriller.

This book is a page turner about a former Army Ranger turned FBI agent. It’s full of short chapters and lots of action.
The lead character is named Daniela Vega and being that it says it’s book one I assume there are more books staring her.
Vega stumbles onto an assassination of a senator’s staffer on the streets on NYC and that eventually takes a turn that leads her to a dangerous undercover assignment. The undercover gig then takes another turn that leads her into a “The Most Dangerous Game� type situation.
If you like action thriller novels this was a good one. Give it a read. ]]>
4.18 2023 A Killer’s Game (Daniela Vega, #1)
author: Isabella Maldonado
name: Jared
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/17
date added: 2023/09/17
shelves:
review:
A fun action thriller.

This book is a page turner about a former Army Ranger turned FBI agent. It’s full of short chapters and lots of action.
The lead character is named Daniela Vega and being that it says it’s book one I assume there are more books staring her.
Vega stumbles onto an assassination of a senator’s staffer on the streets on NYC and that eventually takes a turn that leads her to a dangerous undercover assignment. The undercover gig then takes another turn that leads her into a “The Most Dangerous Game� type situation.
If you like action thriller novels this was a good one. Give it a read.
]]>
<![CDATA[Don't Make a Sound (Sawyer Brooks, #1)]]> 49245059
River Rock is where she’d been abandoned by her two older sisters to suffer alone, and in silence, the unspeakable abuses of her family. It’s also where Sawyer’s best friend disappeared and two teenage girls were murdered. Three cold cases dead and buried with the rest of the town’s secrets.

When another girl is slain in a familiar grisly fashion, Sawyer is determined to put an end to the crimes. Pulled back into the horrors of her family history, Sawyer must reconcile with her estranged sisters, who both have shattering memories of their own. As Sawyer’s investigation leads to River Rock’s darkest corners, what will prove more dangerous—what she knows of the past or what she has yet to discover?]]>
285 T.R. Ragan 1542093864 Jared 4 Murder mystery and coping with trauma.

An up and coming investigative reporter goes back to her hometown to figure out some murders past and present. Her hometown holds trauma for both her and her two sisters so it’s a tough trip for her. Her past is full of her being abused so is that is a trigger for you stay away from this one.
Otherwise I found this to be a pretty good book. It moved quickly and had a second plot as well as a group of women got together the punish those who committed various SA crimes.
Sawyer, our lead character, is constantly on the move as she investigates murders in her current town and her hometown. That is what I think I liked best about this book. The flow of it. It had the feeling of moving forward over rapids. Good stuff. ]]>
4.06 2020 Don't Make a Sound (Sawyer Brooks, #1)
author: T.R. Ragan
name: Jared
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/06
date added: 2023/09/14
shelves:
review:
Murder mystery and coping with trauma.

An up and coming investigative reporter goes back to her hometown to figure out some murders past and present. Her hometown holds trauma for both her and her two sisters so it’s a tough trip for her. Her past is full of her being abused so is that is a trigger for you stay away from this one.
Otherwise I found this to be a pretty good book. It moved quickly and had a second plot as well as a group of women got together the punish those who committed various SA crimes.
Sawyer, our lead character, is constantly on the move as she investigates murders in her current town and her hometown. That is what I think I liked best about this book. The flow of it. It had the feeling of moving forward over rapids. Good stuff.
]]>
The Hanging City 63127235 For a young woman who wields the power of fear, humanity’s greatest enemy is her only hope in a new fairy-tale adventure by Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.

Seven years on the run from her abusive father, and with no hope of sanctuary among the dwindling pockets of human civilization, Lark is out of options. Her only leverage is a cursed power: she can thrust fear onto others, leaving all threats fleeing in terror. It’s a means of survival as she searches for a place to call home. If the campfire myths of her childhood are true, Lark’s sole chance for refuge could lie in Cagmar, the city of trolls—a brutal species and the sworn enemies of humanity.

Valuing combat prowess, the troll high council is intrigued. Lark could be much more useful than the low-caste humans who merely labor in Cagmar. Her gift makes her invaluable as a monster slayer to fight off the unspeakable creatures that torment the trolls� hanging city, suspended from a bridge over an endless dark canyon.

Lark will do anything to make Cagmar her home, but her new role comes with a caveat: use her power against a troll, and she’ll be killed. Her loyalty is quickly put to the test when she draws the hatred of a powerful troll who loathes humankind. Still, she finds unexpected friendship in the city and, even more surprisingly, love. But if everything else doesn’t undo her, being caught in the arms of a troll surely will. Now in the fight of her life, Lark has a lot to learn—about her past, about trust and hope when all seems lost, and above all, about the extraordinary power of fear itself.]]>
344 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662508719 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.96 2023 The Hanging City
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Jared
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[As It Turns Out: Thinking About Edie and Andy]]> 58772705 The story of the model, actress, and American icon Edie Sedgwick is told by her sister with empathy, insight, and firsthand observations of her meteoric life.



As It Turns Out is a family story. Alice Sedgwick Wohl is writing to her brother Bobby, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1965, just before their sister Edie Sedgwick met Andy Warhol. After unexpectedly coming across Edie's image in a clip from Warhol's extraordinary film Outer and Inner Space, Wohl was moved to put her inner dialogue with Bobby on the page in an attempt to reconstruct Edie's life and figure out what made Edie and Andy such iconic figures in American culture. What was it about Andy that enabled him to anticipate so much of contemporary culture? Why did Edie draw attention wherever she went? Who exactly was she, who fascinated Warhol and captured the imagination of a generation?

Wohl tells the story as only a sister could, from their childhood on a California ranch and the beginnings of Edie's lifelong troubles in the world of their parents to her life and relationship with Warhol within the silver walls of the Factory, in the fashionable arenas of New York, and as projected in the various critically acclaimed films he made with her. As Wohl seeks to understand the conjunction of Edie and Andy, she writes with a keen critical eye and careful reflection about their enduring impact. As It Turns Out is a meditation addressed to her brother about their sister, about the girl behind the magnetic image, and about the culture she and Warhol introduced.]]>
272 Alice Sedgewick Wohl 0374604681 Jared 0 3.51 As It Turns Out: Thinking About Edie and Andy
author: Alice Sedgewick Wohl
name: Jared
average rating: 3.51
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/04
shelves:
review:

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Nick 54621208 A critically acclaimed novelist pulls Nick Carraway out of the shadows and into the spotlight in this "masterful" look into his life before Gatsby (Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and Chances Are).

Before Nick Carraway moved to West Egg and into Gatsby's periphery, he was at the center of a very different story-one taking place along the trenches and deep within the tunnels of World War I.Floundering in the wake of the destruction he witnessed firsthand, Nick delays his return home, hoping to escape the questions he cannot answer about the horrors of war. Instead, he embarks on a transcontinental redemptive journey that takes him from a whirlwind Paris romance-doomed from the very beginning-to the dizzying frenzy of New Orleans, rife with its own flavor of debauchery and violence.An epic portrait of a truly singular era and a sweeping, romantic story of self-discovery, this rich and imaginative novel breathes new life into a character that many know but few have pondered deeply. Charged with enough alcohol, heartbreak, and profound yearning to paralyze even the heartiest of golden age scribes, Nick reveals the man behind the narrator who has captivated readers for decades.]]>
305 Michael Farris Smith 0316529753 Jared 4 A Narrator’s Prequel

Since The Great Gatsby hit the public domain there have been various projects related to it. This is one of them.
It imagines what Nick’s (the narrator of Gatsby) life was like before moving to Long Island for that fateful summer.
Though it is mentioned in Gatsby, World War One, and the trauma it dealt to a generation, wasn’t a big topic in the book. Probably because it was too soon after the war. Societies like to ignore such war trauma for awhile before it gets addressed in popular culture.
The first half or so of this book is Nick dealing with being in the Great War and what happens to him over there. This part felt the most real to me. It felt like it was stuff that could happened to Nick.
The second part of the book was post war and on his way home Nick sojourns in Frenchtown Louisiana. He’s mostly an observer in this part as he gets involved in some criminal, noir, gangster stuff that was going on. His is trying to deal with what happened to him in the war and he doesn’t want to go home until he gets his head straight. So he was slumming it with other messed up outcasts.
This part of the book felt less Nick-like to me but that was okay. I didn’t read this book in hopes that it would be a Gatsby-like book. I like the idea of the public domain and creative people being inspired by their favorite works to create something new. This fit that bill.
Overall I liked this book. It’s well written with some very nice turns of phrases in it. Give it a read. ]]>
3.31 2021 Nick
author: Michael Farris Smith
name: Jared
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/04
date added: 2023/08/04
shelves:
review:
A Narrator’s Prequel

Since The Great Gatsby hit the public domain there have been various projects related to it. This is one of them.
It imagines what Nick’s (the narrator of Gatsby) life was like before moving to Long Island for that fateful summer.
Though it is mentioned in Gatsby, World War One, and the trauma it dealt to a generation, wasn’t a big topic in the book. Probably because it was too soon after the war. Societies like to ignore such war trauma for awhile before it gets addressed in popular culture.
The first half or so of this book is Nick dealing with being in the Great War and what happens to him over there. This part felt the most real to me. It felt like it was stuff that could happened to Nick.
The second part of the book was post war and on his way home Nick sojourns in Frenchtown Louisiana. He’s mostly an observer in this part as he gets involved in some criminal, noir, gangster stuff that was going on. His is trying to deal with what happened to him in the war and he doesn’t want to go home until he gets his head straight. So he was slumming it with other messed up outcasts.
This part of the book felt less Nick-like to me but that was okay. I didn’t read this book in hopes that it would be a Gatsby-like book. I like the idea of the public domain and creative people being inspired by their favorite works to create something new. This fit that bill.
Overall I liked this book. It’s well written with some very nice turns of phrases in it. Give it a read.
]]>
Bandwidth (Analog #1) 36458711
Like everyone else, Dag relies on his digital feed for everything—a feed that is as personal as it is pervasive, and may not be as private as it seems. As he struggles to make sense of the dark forces closing in on him, he discovers that activists are hijacking the feed to manipulate markets and governments. Going public would destroy everything he’s worked so hard to build, but it’s not just Dag’s life on the line—a shadow war is coming, one that will secure humanity’s future or doom the planet to climate catastrophe. Ultimately, Dag must decide the price he’s willing to pay to change the world.]]>
272 Eliot Peper 1612184529 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.68 2018 Bandwidth (Analog #1)
author: Eliot Peper
name: Jared
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Mister X: The Brides of Mister X and Other Stories]]> 9914945 320 Jeffrey Morgan 1595826459 Jared 4 Now it’s 2023 and for the past 20 years or so I’ve been reading and enjoying all the new Mister X comics that Dean Motter has been doing with Dark Horse. But there hasn’t been any new Mister X stuff in a while so it dawned on me recently that there was a big hole in my Mister X reading that was volume two.
This collection of Mister X “The Brides of Mister X� collects the twelve issues of volume 2 plus a few extra short stories. Volume one was in color but volume two is black and white.
This volume starts out a little slow but then keeps getting better and better. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it since in my mind it was still “The Mister X I didn’t like.� Not anymore. This is a terrific book.
There are three main stories in the twelve issues and each one gets more mysterious. Mister X has always been a mysterious character but in the first story there is a lot of clarity about him. We know who he is, what his job was, and the main heavy of the piece is his old college roommate. By the end of the book who he’s a mystery again. There is usually a lot of misdirection with Mister X. That’s how he lives his life.
The art and storytelling by D’Israeli is terrific. The artists in all Mister X comics have always strived to be stylish. It’s a hallmark of the series and D’Israeli upholds that tradition with a lot of imagination. A lot of graphic design work went into the illustrations and each page is an inventive pleasure to look at without ever losing the thread of the visual narrative.
The city, Somnopolis/Radiant City, that Mister X designed and lives in is an important part of the story and D’Israeli draws the heck out of it. Lots of city design mixed in with the graphic design and it looks really good..
The printing in this book makes the art look good. Since it’s a black and white book the modern printing of rich black ink on the bright white paper gives the art maximum contrast and therefore all the design elements look their best. I actually pulled out my old newsprint version of issue one to compare the printing and there is no contest. As much as I love single issues of comic books the newer collects edition printing looks much better.
So if you’re a fan of mysterious stories with stylish art give this one a read.




]]>
3.75 2011 Mister X: The Brides of Mister X and Other Stories
author: Jeffrey Morgan
name: Jared
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/06/27
shelves:
review:
I’m a Mister X fan from way back. I bought the original issues from volume one off the racks as they came out. But when volume two came out five years later in 1989 I bought the first issue and that was it. I guess I didn’t like the new creative team or maybe time had passed and I lost my interest in Mister X in general. I’m not even sure why. From then on in I referred to volume one as the Mister X I liked and volume two as the Mister X I didn’t like.
Now it’s 2023 and for the past 20 years or so I’ve been reading and enjoying all the new Mister X comics that Dean Motter has been doing with Dark Horse. But there hasn’t been any new Mister X stuff in a while so it dawned on me recently that there was a big hole in my Mister X reading that was volume two.
This collection of Mister X “The Brides of Mister X� collects the twelve issues of volume 2 plus a few extra short stories. Volume one was in color but volume two is black and white.
This volume starts out a little slow but then keeps getting better and better. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it since in my mind it was still “The Mister X I didn’t like.� Not anymore. This is a terrific book.
There are three main stories in the twelve issues and each one gets more mysterious. Mister X has always been a mysterious character but in the first story there is a lot of clarity about him. We know who he is, what his job was, and the main heavy of the piece is his old college roommate. By the end of the book who he’s a mystery again. There is usually a lot of misdirection with Mister X. That’s how he lives his life.
The art and storytelling by D’Israeli is terrific. The artists in all Mister X comics have always strived to be stylish. It’s a hallmark of the series and D’Israeli upholds that tradition with a lot of imagination. A lot of graphic design work went into the illustrations and each page is an inventive pleasure to look at without ever losing the thread of the visual narrative.
The city, Somnopolis/Radiant City, that Mister X designed and lives in is an important part of the story and D’Israeli draws the heck out of it. Lots of city design mixed in with the graphic design and it looks really good..
The printing in this book makes the art look good. Since it’s a black and white book the modern printing of rich black ink on the bright white paper gives the art maximum contrast and therefore all the design elements look their best. I actually pulled out my old newsprint version of issue one to compare the printing and there is no contest. As much as I love single issues of comic books the newer collects edition printing looks much better.
So if you’re a fan of mysterious stories with stylish art give this one a read.





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<![CDATA[Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s]]> 63251765
As the era of protest faded and the dark shadows of Watergate spread, Forçade hoped that marijuana could be the path to cultural and economic revolution. Bankrolled by drug-dealing profits, High Times would be the Playboy of pot, dragging a once-taboo subject into the mainstream. The magazine was a travelogue of globe-trotting adventure, a wellspring of news about “the business,� and an overnight success. But High Times soon threatened to become nothing more than the “hip capitalism� Forçade had railed against for so long, and he felt his enemies closing in.

Assembled from exclusive interviews, archived correspondences, and declassified documents, Agents of Chaos is a tale of attacks on journalism, disinformation campaigns, governmental secrecy, corporatism, and political factionalism. Its triumphs and tragedies mirror the cultural transformations of 1970s America, wrought by forces that continue to clash in the spaces between activism and power.]]>
432 Sean Howe 0306923912 Jared 0 to-read 3.75 Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
author: Sean Howe
name: Jared
average rating: 3.75
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Flâneur: The Art of Wandering the Streets of Paris]]> 35698406
A man walks the streets of Paris, alone and without a destination. He travels long avenues of great buildings, loses himself in the crowds at the Grands Magasins. Wrapped up in a black overcoat, he wanders the city restlessly. But what is he looking for? Where is he going?This book teaches you how lose yourself in the it contains stories of promenades and urban adventures, stories of dandies and flâneurs� It contains information regarding characters, authors and artists who have wandered the streets of Paris. By reading these pages you will discover the secrets of flânerie, the noble art of wandering without a destination.

About the Author.Federico Castigliano holds a PhD in Comparative Literature (University of Turin) and is Associate Professor of Italian Studies. Having worked for several years in France, he currently teaches at Beijing International Studies University. His writing combines nonfiction and fiction and centers on the relationship between the individual and urban spaces, thus exploring the possibilities of today’s city.

federicocastigliano.com



TABLE OF

Itineraries of flânerie (map)

Instructions for reading this book Prologue � Into the street How to be a true flâneur A day in the life of a flâneur Once there was the flâneur Getting lost Where to wander in Paris Drifting along the boulevards The ruins of Paris A dangerous game The city of tomorrow Shopping as one of the fine arts Paris spleen Epilogue � At the gate Memorandum for flâneurs

Bibliography]]>
162 Federico Castigliano Jared 0 currently-reading 3.47 2017 Flâneur: The Art of Wandering the Streets of Paris
author: Federico Castigliano
name: Jared
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth]]> 60760105 196 Zoe Thorogood 1534323864 Jared 4 The first half is tough to get through because it’s all about her day to day existence living in a world where she doesn’t want to exist. She offers no easy insight into her desire not to exist and part of the problem is that she drives everyone away rather that cope with them. That almost included me as a reader. I couple of times I asked myself, “Why am I reading this?� That’s when I put it down and picked it up later.
The second half of the book is when things happened and she interacted with the world a bit more. There was still no easy insight but there was more to be found. I found myself glad that I stuck with it.
The art work and visual storytelling was pretty good. There was a lot of symbolism going on with the characters too. The art really carried the story for me in a lot of places. Give it a look. ]]>
4.19 2022 It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth
author: Zoe Thorogood
name: Jared
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/01
date added: 2023/06/01
shelves:
review:
This one was a tough read for the first half of the graphic novel. It’s about a young cartoonist who has been suicidal since she was fifteen. She’s twenty three now and this GN is about six months of her life.
The first half is tough to get through because it’s all about her day to day existence living in a world where she doesn’t want to exist. She offers no easy insight into her desire not to exist and part of the problem is that she drives everyone away rather that cope with them. That almost included me as a reader. I couple of times I asked myself, “Why am I reading this?� That’s when I put it down and picked it up later.
The second half of the book is when things happened and she interacted with the world a bit more. There was still no easy insight but there was more to be found. I found myself glad that I stuck with it.
The art work and visual storytelling was pretty good. There was a lot of symbolism going on with the characters too. The art really carried the story for me in a lot of places. Give it a look.
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Daisy 61887059 184 Libby Sternberg 1610885872 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.55 2022 Daisy
author: Libby Sternberg
name: Jared
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Chromasophy: A Study on the Consciousness of Color]]> 57963927
Color is very important as it is the one thing the universe makes in abundance with each shinning star and each color has a story and pattern to which it follows. These colors interact with each other on a larger scale and have relationships in the macrocosm across dimensions, which we can extrapolate to our level and observe and experience through our social dynamics.

You are a multi-dimensional light being who is living out a manifestation of a color and Chromasophy is the tool that will help you navigate the multi-dimensional light universe which illuminates your life path.]]>
139 Raphael Farray Jared 0 5.00 Chromasophy: A Study on the Consciousness of Color
author: Raphael Farray
name: Jared
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2023/05/18
date added: 2023/05/18
shelves:
review:

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Clyde Fans 41940346 A masterful work about a failing family business and the ensuing erosion of sibling relations and one’s sanity

Twenty years in the making, Clyde Fans peels back the optimism of mid-twentieth century capitalism. The legendary Canadian cartoonist Seth lovingly shows the rituals, hopes, and delusions of a middle class that has long ceased to exist in North America—garrulous men in wool suits extolling the virtues of their wares to taciturn shopkeepers with an eye on the door. Much like the myth of an ever-growing economy, the Clyde Fans family unit is a fraud—the patriarch has abandoned the business to mismatched sons, one who strives to keep the business afloat and the other who retreats into the arms of the remaining parent.

Abe and Simon Matchcard are brothers, the second generation struggling to save their archaic family business of selling oscillating fans in a world switching to air-conditioning. At the center of Clyde Fans’s center is Simon, who flirts with becoming a salesman as a last-ditch effort to leave the protective walls of the family home but is ultimately unable to escape Abe’s critical voice in his head. As the business crumbles, so does any remaining relationship between the brothers, both of whom choose very different life paths but still end up utterly unhappy.

Seth’s intimate storytelling and gorgeous art allow urban landscapes and detailed period objects to tell their own stories as the brothers struggle to keep from suffocating in an airless city home. An epic time capsule of a story line that begs rereading.]]>
488 Seth 1770463577 Jared 5 3.99 2019 Clyde Fans
author: Seth
name: Jared
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/16
date added: 2023/05/16
shelves:
review:

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Marvel Team-Up #68 35154968 18 Chris Claremont Jared 4 3.50 Marvel Team-Up #68
author: Chris Claremont
name: Jared
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/16
date added: 2023/05/16
shelves:
review:

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Carrion Comfort 8305270 Stephen King

"Epic in scale and scope but intimately disturbing, CARRION COMFORT spans the ages to rewrite history and tug at the very fabric of reality. A nightmarish chronicle of predator and prey that will shatter your world view forever. A true classic." --Guillermo del Toro

"CARRION COMFORT is one of the scariest books ever written. Whenever I get the question asked Who's your favorite author? my answer is always Dan Simmons." --James Rollins

"One of the few major reinventions of the vampire concept, on a par with Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, and Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. --David MorrellTHE PAST... Caught behind the lines of Hitler’s Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazi’s themselves�

THE PRESENT... Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saulwill span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkestcorners of 20th century history to reveal a secret societyof beings who may oftenexistbehind the world's most horrible and violent events. Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to 'use' read their minds, subjugate them to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable aggression. Eachyear, three of the most powerful of thishiddenordermeet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and deliberate destruction. But thisreunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul’s quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the depths of mankind’s attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself�


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801 Dan Simmons 1429986646 Jared 4 Rereading a horror classic from back in the day.

I think it was the early 1990s when I first read this book. Now thirty some years later I decided to read it again. It’s a horror novel that was a favorite back then but I didn’t remember any of the details except that the villains had the power to take over people’s minds and control their bodies.
First off it’s a long book. I read it digitally and I think the reading time said it took around 30 hours to read. A normal thriller around five or six hours. Written in the late 1980s the book takes place in the early 1980s but first it takes place in the early 1940s.
We are introduced to a man suffering in the Nazi death camps. He is our lead character, Saul, and he meets a special Nazi who controls Saul’s mind and body. That stays with him the rest of his life.
Then it’s the 1980s and we’re introduced to the rest of the cast. They stumble onto and get caught up in a plot by the various mind vampires. That’s what they end up calling these monsters.
The rest of the book it taken up by our main cast members trying to figure out how to survive these monsters and maybe stop them. A lot of scary stuff happens. People die horrific deaths in unpleasant ways. Horror novel stuff.
I enjoyed this book all these years later. It was a fun, scary, and emotional read. I can see why mid 20s me liked it. Give it a read. ]]>
3.93 1989 Carrion Comfort
author: Dan Simmons
name: Jared
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/16
date added: 2023/05/16
shelves:
review:
Rereading a horror classic from back in the day.

I think it was the early 1990s when I first read this book. Now thirty some years later I decided to read it again. It’s a horror novel that was a favorite back then but I didn’t remember any of the details except that the villains had the power to take over people’s minds and control their bodies.
First off it’s a long book. I read it digitally and I think the reading time said it took around 30 hours to read. A normal thriller around five or six hours. Written in the late 1980s the book takes place in the early 1980s but first it takes place in the early 1940s.
We are introduced to a man suffering in the Nazi death camps. He is our lead character, Saul, and he meets a special Nazi who controls Saul’s mind and body. That stays with him the rest of his life.
Then it’s the 1980s and we’re introduced to the rest of the cast. They stumble onto and get caught up in a plot by the various mind vampires. That’s what they end up calling these monsters.
The rest of the book it taken up by our main cast members trying to figure out how to survive these monsters and maybe stop them. A lot of scary stuff happens. People die horrific deaths in unpleasant ways. Horror novel stuff.
I enjoyed this book all these years later. It was a fun, scary, and emotional read. I can see why mid 20s me liked it. Give it a read.
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<![CDATA[The Radical Gatsby: A 1990's Retelling]]> 61154056
When 17-year-old Nick Carraway moves to Long Island for the summer, he's introduced to the rich kids of West Egg and their wild, all-night, booze-fueled parties—parties that all emanate from the mansion of a mysterious 19-year-old named Jay Gatsby.

On his first night at Gatsby's, Nick meets someone who will change the course of his summer—electric, energetic party girl Daisy Fay, who may be more than what she seems...

Set in the summer of 1996, the classic novel has been reimagined as a story about the freedom, magic, danger, and difficult decisions that come with being 17.]]>
163 Charlie Wood Jared 4 Full of parties and joy.

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books and I know it well. Since it entered the public domain a couple of years ago we’ve gotten lots of new Gatsby projects. This is one of them.
This book takes the Gatsby story as a starting point, sets it in 1996, and makes the cast teenagers (or slightly older). It’s not the same story but similar. You’ll read some familiar scenes and see some familiar characters but overall it’s changed enough to be its own thing.
Gatsby itself was a short book and this one is even shorter so it moves at a quick pace. Since it stars teenagers a lot of the underlying themes of the original are gone or changed. Plus since it’s set in 1996 the underlying idea of an America emerging onto the world scene is also gone. But in their place are themes of youth, friendship, and romance. Young themes.
Overall I liked this book. It was a bit more plot driven than the original but there was also a lot of life to it. Despite it being a tragic story it made me smile on more than one occasion. ]]>
3.98 The Radical Gatsby: A 1990's Retelling
author: Charlie Wood
name: Jared
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/10
date added: 2023/04/11
shelves:
review:
Full of parties and joy.

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books and I know it well. Since it entered the public domain a couple of years ago we’ve gotten lots of new Gatsby projects. This is one of them.
This book takes the Gatsby story as a starting point, sets it in 1996, and makes the cast teenagers (or slightly older). It’s not the same story but similar. You’ll read some familiar scenes and see some familiar characters but overall it’s changed enough to be its own thing.
Gatsby itself was a short book and this one is even shorter so it moves at a quick pace. Since it stars teenagers a lot of the underlying themes of the original are gone or changed. Plus since it’s set in 1996 the underlying idea of an America emerging onto the world scene is also gone. But in their place are themes of youth, friendship, and romance. Young themes.
Overall I liked this book. It was a bit more plot driven than the original but there was also a lot of life to it. Despite it being a tragic story it made me smile on more than one occasion.
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<![CDATA[Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby]]> 20895859 For the legions of Great Gatsby fans and scholars, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s early version of his masterpiece provides a new understanding of Fitzgerald’s working methods, fresh insight into his characters, and renewed appreciation of his genius—now available in ebook for the first time.Reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Trimalchio, an early and complete version of The Great Gatsby, is like listening to a familiar musical composition played in a different key. It is the same work and yet a different work. Fitzgerald wrote Trimalchio during the summer of 1924 and submitted it to Maxwell Perkins, his editor at Scribner’s, in October of that year. (He titled the book after the ostentatious party-giver in the Satyricon of Petronius.) Perkins had the novel set in type and sent the galleys to Fitzgerald in France. Fitzgerald then heavily revised the galley pages, shifting material around and changing the title. The result was The Great Gatsby, his signature work. Trimalchio, however, is also a remarkable achievement. It differs considerably from The Great its plot and structure are not the same, two chapters of Trimalchio were completely rewritten for the published novel, characterization is different, Nick Carraway’s narrative voice is altered, and it contains several passages and sequences missing from Gatsby. Most importantly, in Trimalchio Jay Gatsby’s past is revealed in a wholly different way.]]> 157 F. Scott Fitzgerald Jared 0 4.52 2000 Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Jared
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at: 2023/04/10
date added: 2023/04/10
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin]]> 58473038 Who is the Last Ronin? In a future, battle-ravaged New York City, a lone surviving Turtle embarks on a seemingly hopeless mission seeking justice for the family he lost. From legendary TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, get ready for the final story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles three decades in the making!

What terrible events destroyed his family and left New York a crumbling, post-apocalyptic nightmare? All will be revealed in this climactic Turtle tale that sees longtime friends becoming enemies and new allies emerging in the most unexpected places. Can the surviving Turtle triumph?

Eastman and Laird are joined by writer Tom Waltz, who penned the first 100 issues of IDW’s ongoing TMNT series, and artists Esau & Isaac Escorza (Heavy Metal) and Ben Bishop (The Far Side of the Moon) with an Introduction by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez!

Collects the complete five-issue miniseries in a new graphic novel, an adventure as fulfilling for longtime Turtles fans as it is accessible for readers just discovering the heroes in a half-shell.]]>
224 Kevin Eastman 1684058414 Jared 0 4.37 2022 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin
author: Kevin Eastman
name: Jared
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II]]> 95784
This book tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved many.]]>
290 Iris Chang 0140277447 Jared 0 4.23 1997 The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
author: Iris Chang
name: Jared
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves:
review:

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Other Lives 7134034 136 Peter Bagge 1401219020 Jared 3 It’s tough to describe except as the story of four lost thirty-something’s and how their lives connect and collide with one and other’s. As big a Peter a Bagge fan as I am I didn’t really connect with this story. It’s okay. It’s solid but it only really got interesting for me in the third act. That’s better than never at all though.
Baggie’s artwork and visual storytelling is as good as ever in this book so that’s always a treat]]>
3.18 2010 Other Lives
author: Peter Bagge
name: Jared
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/25
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves:
review:
I’ve been a big Peter Bagge Fan since the late 1980s. I’ve read most of his stuff but this is one that passed me by somehow. It was originally published by Vertigo (DC Comics) back in 2010 but I just noticed it here in 2023.
It’s tough to describe except as the story of four lost thirty-something’s and how their lives connect and collide with one and other’s. As big a Peter a Bagge fan as I am I didn’t really connect with this story. It’s okay. It’s solid but it only really got interesting for me in the third act. That’s better than never at all though.
Baggie’s artwork and visual storytelling is as good as ever in this book so that’s always a treat
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Nine Elms (Kate Marshall, #1) 44375176
Fifteen years after those catastrophic, career-ending events, a copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.

Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. But there's much more than her reputation on the line: Kate was the original killer's intended fifth victim . . . and his successor means to finish the job.]]>
392 Robert Bryndza 1542005698 Jared 4 A first case. Almost.

Here we get a detective story but not really a hard boiled one. There is plenty of gruesome violence in the book but it’s done by the killers. Kate Marshal is a former police officer who was once a victim of a high profile violent crime but is now a college professor. One day she gets an email from the parents of a girl who has been missing for a couple of decades. They think the case might be linked to Kate’s old case and ask if she’d look into it. Thus starts Kate’s career as a private detective.
In enjoyed this book. The writing was clear, breezy, and enjoyable as we watched Kate and her teaching assistant, now her PI assistant, try to figure the case out. The parts with the killers were equally creepy and violent. So it’s part casual British murder mystery and part gruesome serial killer story. An interesting mix. ]]>
4.06 2019 Nine Elms (Kate Marshall, #1)
author: Robert Bryndza
name: Jared
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/23
date added: 2023/03/23
shelves:
review:
A first case. Almost.

Here we get a detective story but not really a hard boiled one. There is plenty of gruesome violence in the book but it’s done by the killers. Kate Marshal is a former police officer who was once a victim of a high profile violent crime but is now a college professor. One day she gets an email from the parents of a girl who has been missing for a couple of decades. They think the case might be linked to Kate’s old case and ask if she’d look into it. Thus starts Kate’s career as a private detective.
In enjoyed this book. The writing was clear, breezy, and enjoyable as we watched Kate and her teaching assistant, now her PI assistant, try to figure the case out. The parts with the killers were equally creepy and violent. So it’s part casual British murder mystery and part gruesome serial killer story. An interesting mix.
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As It Turns Out 61885153 The story of the model, actress, and American icon Edie Sedgwick is told by her sister with empathy, insight, and firsthand observations of her meteoric life.

As It Turns Out is a family story. Alice Sedgwick Wohl is writing to her brother Bobby, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1965, just before their sister Edie Sedgwick met Andy Warhol. After unexpectedly coming across Edie’s image in a clip from Warhol’s extraordinary film Outer and Inner Space, Wohl was moved to put her inner dialogue with Bobby on the page in an attempt to reconstruct Edie’s life and figure out what made Edie and Andy such iconic figures in American culture. What was it about Andy that enabled him to anticipate so much of contemporary culture? Why did Edie draw attention wherever she went? Who exactly was she, who fascinated Warhol and captured the imagination of a generation?

Wohl tells the story as only a sister could, from their childhood on a California ranch and the beginnings of Edie’s lifelong troubles in the world of their parents to her life and relationship with Warhol within the silver walls of the Factory, in the fashionable arenas of New York, and as projected in the various critically acclaimed films he made with her. As Wohl seeks to understand the conjunction of Edie and Andy, she writes with a keen critical eye and careful reflection about their enduring impact. As It Turns Out is a meditation addressed to her brother about their sister, about the girl behind the magnetic image, and about the culture she and Warhol introduced.]]>
272 Alice Sedgwick Wohl 1250872790 Jared 4 This book is written by Edie’s older sister Alice. It’s been around 50 years since Edie died and Alice looks back and contemplates her younger sister’s life and legacy.
As with a lot of siblings born ten years or so apart Alice didn’t know her younger sister especially well but she did know her and, of course, knows all about their family background. I liked the personal nature of Alice’s thoughts and ideas about her sister.
Edie Sedgwick was an interesting and tragic person who, through collaboration with Andy Warhol, captured the attention of the country for a brief time. She was an influencer before there were influencers. Her sister Alice does a good job exploring the person and image of her sister. ]]>
3.31 As It Turns Out
author: Alice Sedgwick Wohl
name: Jared
average rating: 3.31
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/26
date added: 2023/03/21
shelves:
review:
After never having read anything about them before this is the third book this year I’ve read about Edie Sedgwick and Andy Warhol. I’ve enjoyed all three of them.
This book is written by Edie’s older sister Alice. It’s been around 50 years since Edie died and Alice looks back and contemplates her younger sister’s life and legacy.
As with a lot of siblings born ten years or so apart Alice didn’t know her younger sister especially well but she did know her and, of course, knows all about their family background. I liked the personal nature of Alice’s thoughts and ideas about her sister.
Edie Sedgwick was an interesting and tragic person who, through collaboration with Andy Warhol, captured the attention of the country for a brief time. She was an influencer before there were influencers. Her sister Alice does a good job exploring the person and image of her sister.
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The Haunting of H. G. Wells 50097296 A plot against England that even the genius of H. G. Wells could not have imagined.

It’s 1914. The Great War grips the world—and from the Western Front a strange story emerges…a story of St. George and a brigade of angels descending from heaven to fight beside the beleaguered British troops. But can there be any truth to it?

H. G. Wells, the most celebrated writer of his day—author of The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man—is dispatched to find out. There, he finds an eerie wasteland inhabited by the living, the dead, and those forever stranded somewhere in between…a no-man’s-land whose unhappy souls trail him home to London, where a deadly plot, one that could turn the tide of war, is rapidly unfolding.

In league with his young love, the reporter and suffragette Rebecca West, Wells must do battle with diabolical forces—secret agents and depraved occultists—to save his sanity, his country, and ultimately the world.]]>
393 Robert Masello 1542093775 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.04 2020 The Haunting of H. G. Wells
author: Robert Masello
name: Jared
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[A Clean Kill in Tokyo (John Rain, #1)]]> 925
Name: John Rain.
Vocation: Assassin.
Specialty: Natural Causes.
Base of operations: Tokyo.
Availability: Worldwide.

Half American, half Japanese, expert in both worlds but at home in neither, John Rain is the best killer money can buy. You tell him who. You tell him where. He doesn't care about why...

Until he gets involved with Midori Kawamura, a beautiful jazz pianist--and the daughter of his latest kill.]]>
363 Barry Eisler Jared 4 This is also a solo story. John Rain has built up a team over the years and subsequent novels and so it’s different reading about him almost all alone.
Overall I enjoyed the book. Lots of intrigue and action as Rain finds himself in the middle of a dangerous plot as he had to protect himself and an unexpected love interest.
I like Eisler’s writing or I wouldn’t have read half a dozen of his books. So give this one a read if you want to start at the beginning. Or start in the middle like I did. Either way it’s good reading.]]>
3.96 2003 A Clean Kill in Tokyo (John Rain, #1)
author: Barry Eisler
name: Jared
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/22
date added: 2023/02/22
shelves:
review:
I’ve read and enjoyed half a dozen Barry Eisler novels but I decided to go back and read this first John Rain novel. Though the character had appeared in some of the other novels I’ve read he is a bit different here. As a veteran of the war with Vietnam he is much more tied to a time and place in this story. The war wasn’t mentioned in the other books I read.
This is also a solo story. John Rain has built up a team over the years and subsequent novels and so it’s different reading about him almost all alone.
Overall I enjoyed the book. Lots of intrigue and action as Rain finds himself in the middle of a dangerous plot as he had to protect himself and an unexpected love interest.
I like Eisler’s writing or I wouldn’t have read half a dozen of his books. So give this one a read if you want to start at the beginning. Or start in the middle like I did. Either way it’s good reading.
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No Home for Killers 60853678
The murder of jazz musician and social activist Markus Peña doesn’t come as a surprise to his estranged sisters. Melinda and Emily Peña know their controversial brother had enemies. After all, even they hadn’t spoken to Markus since their mother’s funeral two years ago.

Who killed Markus? Was it someone trying to keep his latest protest song from publication? Was it the powerful and secretive uncle of his ex-girlfriend Rebecca? Or was it one of the other women Markus had callously abandoned?

To unravel the truth, Melinda and Emily must first face their own demons. Melinda, a former social worker, suffers from PTSD—haunted by the people she failed to help and unable to maintain meaningful relationships. Emily also pushes people away—afraid she’ll get hurt and afraid they’ll find out she’s Three Strikes: a masked vigilante who violently punishes abusive men.

Markus wasn’t a good man, but he was family. And it’s up to his sisters to uncover his lifetime of lies and the truth of his death.

Haunting, gripping, and relevant, No Home for Killers explores the conflicts that tear families apart—and the tragedies that force them back together.]]>
328 E.A. Aymar 1662504551 Jared 4 Dysfunction and Crime Have a Meet-up

A pair of sisters dealing with the recent death of their brother get involved with some nasty criminals who run drugs and traffic in humans. The older sister is cautious but the younger one is a little out of control.
This book was as much about the dysfunctional family life of the characters as it was about getting caught up in crime. The two sisters each came with their own baggage and were interesting in general. I liked them but they were the kind of people you want to keep at arm’s length.
There was less power fantasy in this book than in a lot of the thrillers that I read but there was a lot of danger and a few scenes of gruesome violence. The scary people were pretty scary.
The book was engaging and worth a read. ]]>
3.46 2023 No Home for Killers
author: E.A. Aymar
name: Jared
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/14
date added: 2023/02/14
shelves:
review:
Dysfunction and Crime Have a Meet-up

A pair of sisters dealing with the recent death of their brother get involved with some nasty criminals who run drugs and traffic in humans. The older sister is cautious but the younger one is a little out of control.
This book was as much about the dysfunctional family life of the characters as it was about getting caught up in crime. The two sisters each came with their own baggage and were interesting in general. I liked them but they were the kind of people you want to keep at arm’s length.
There was less power fantasy in this book than in a lot of the thrillers that I read but there was a lot of danger and a few scenes of gruesome violence. The scary people were pretty scary.
The book was engaging and worth a read.
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Unspeakable Things 44323551
Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents� strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she’s grown accustomed to them.

All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale.

One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed—violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who’s responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface. Then Cassie’s own sister undergoes the dark change. If she is to survive, Cassie must find her way in an adult world where every sin is justified, and only the truth is unforgivable.]]>
296 Jess Lourey 154200876X Jared 0 currently-reading 3.84 2020 Unspeakable Things
author: Jess Lourey
name: Jared
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume]]> 32187251 1340 Jeff Smith 1888963573 Jared 5 A Classic

This comic is well loved for good reason. It’s a classic of the medium. It’s a humorous adventure comic that is full of fun and heart. And at 1300 pages it’s a long read so be prepared to live with it for a while. ]]>
4.64 1991 Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume
author: Jeff Smith
name: Jared
average rating: 4.64
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/19
date added: 2023/01/19
shelves:
review:
A Classic

This comic is well loved for good reason. It’s a classic of the medium. It’s a humorous adventure comic that is full of fun and heart. And at 1300 pages it’s a long read so be prepared to live with it for a while.
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Barb Wire Omnibus Volume 1 25675478 320 Chris Warner 1630084735 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.50 2008 Barb Wire Omnibus Volume 1
author: Chris Warner
name: Jared
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Too Dead to Die: A Simon Cross Thriller]]> 62873794 176 Marc Guggenheim 1534324518 Jared 3 3.13 2022 Too Dead to Die: A Simon Cross Thriller
author: Marc Guggenheim
name: Jared
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/09
date added: 2023/01/09
shelves:
review:
A slick and solid graphic novel. The story is about an American James Bond type of spy that comes out of retirement for one more mission. Not the most original of plots but well done. Howard Chaykin’s art and storytelling are the star for me here as the visuals are absorbing, elegant, and easy to follow. A fun way to spend an evening.
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Echolands, Vol. 1 59709169
The multiple award-winning Batwoman team, J. H. WILLIAMS III (Promethea, The Sandman: Overture, Batman) and W. HADEN BLACKMAN (Star Wars, Elektra), reunites for an all-new ongoing series! They’re joined once again by colorist supreme DAVE STEWART and master letterer TODD KLEIN.

In a bizarre future world that has forgotten its history, a reckless thief, Hope Redhood, holds the key to excavating its dark, strange past―if only she and her crew can escape a tyrannical wizard and his unstoppable daughter. But fate will send them all on a path leading to a war between worlds.

ECHOLANDS is a landscape format, mythic-fiction epic where anything is possible―a fast-paced genre mashup adventure that combines everything from horror movie vampires to classic mobsters and cyborg elves, to Roman demigods and retro rocket ships. It’s going to be a helluva ride!]]>
272 J.H. Williams III 1534321136 Jared 4 I’m not sure how to concisely describe the plot except to say that it’s a fantasy adventure with a wide variety of characters on the run from a powerful villain.
It’s the visual storytelling that’s the star here. JH Williams outdoes himself with the page design, storytelling, character design, and overall look of the book. His work has impressed me before but this is him at his most impressive.
When the story ends the last part of the book is packed with extra art. Good stuff. ]]>
3.79 2022 Echolands, Vol. 1
author: J.H. Williams III
name: Jared
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/07
date added: 2023/01/07
shelves:
review:
This is an unusual book in that it is a horizontally formatted comic book. It collects the first six issues in a hardcover book. It looks spectacular.
I’m not sure how to concisely describe the plot except to say that it’s a fantasy adventure with a wide variety of characters on the run from a powerful villain.
It’s the visual storytelling that’s the star here. JH Williams outdoes himself with the page design, storytelling, character design, and overall look of the book. His work has impressed me before but this is him at his most impressive.
When the story ends the last part of the book is packed with extra art. Good stuff.
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<![CDATA[Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 1]]> 21546585 272 Stan Lee Jared 0 currently-reading 4.50 1964 Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 1
author: Stan Lee
name: Jared
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[The Russian (Lance Spector, #2)]]> 53591940 The Kremlin activates a deadly assassin. Across the city, a massive bombing kills hundreds.

Washington DC, USA
The President believes the Kremlin is preparing for a new Cold War.

Langley, USA
With the world on the brink, the CIA has only one Asset capable of preventing catastrophe, but that man is AWOL. They have to find him.
But some men don't want to be found.]]>
574 Saul Herzog 177718973X Jared 4 I think I liked this one even better than the first book. The tension and action started early and never let up. Lots of betrayal and shenanigans follow as Spector and his crew try to stop a bombing and make some more allies and enemies along the way. There is another book in the series and I’ll probably check that one out soon. ]]> 4.45 2020 The Russian (Lance Spector, #2)
author: Saul Herzog
name: Jared
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/12
date added: 2022/12/12
shelves:
review:
This is the second book in a series following “The Asset� which I read a little while ago. It’s a thriller featuring a CIA assassin named Lance Spector. The last book ended on a cliffhanger and this one picks up with an injured Lance hiding out in Moscow as he comes upon another plot to do the USA wrong.
I think I liked this one even better than the first book. The tension and action started early and never let up. Lots of betrayal and shenanigans follow as Spector and his crew try to stop a bombing and make some more allies and enemies along the way. There is another book in the series and I’ll probably check that one out soon.
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Ghost World: Special Edition 991027 Ghost World has subsequently gone through 18 softcover printings, selling in excess of 150,000 copies in the United States, becoming one of the best-selling and most revered graphic novels of all-time, culminating in the 2001 Academy Award-nominated film.



To commemorate the tenth anniversary, Fantagraphics Books released this deluxe, expanded Ghost World special edition in 2008, combining the original graphic novel, the Oscar-nominated screenplay adaptation by Clowes and Terry Zwigoff, as well as over two dozen pages of rare and obscure bonus material in one book, along with a new cover and introduction.



Ghost World is the story of Becky and Enid, two teenaged girls and best friends facing the prospect of not only growing up, but growing apart from each other. Clowes paints a tender picture of this intellectually precocious, sexually adventurous (despite a mutual lack of experience), and formative period in their lives, filtered through a blue hue echoing a world lit by the cathode rays of a television � a perfect metaphor for their post- nuclear existence. Both naturalistic and nostalgic, Ghost World carves a layered narrative out of the daily existence of these fully-realized young women.



Ghost World: The Special Edition included the original, 80-page graphic novel; the out-of-print, Oscar-nominated 106-page screenplay; the little-seen comic strip created for the Ghost World soundtrack; and over 30 pages of rare ephemera related to the book and film, including covers to foreign editions of Ghost World, rare promotional art, pictures, sketches and much more.]]>
232 Daniel Clowes 1560978902 Jared 5 3.94 1998 Ghost World: Special Edition
author: Daniel Clowes
name: Jared
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/12/11
shelves:
review:
“Ghost World� is a classic. I first read it serialized in “Eightball� a long time ago and just reread it and loved it as much as ever. This edition was published to go along with the movie and has lots of extra art and movie ephemera to look at. It also has the script of the movie. I like this edition because it’s a little bit oversized. I like my comics big so I can really see 5he art.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Druid (The Dawning of Muirwood, #1)]]> 59028267 An abandoned child becomes a singular inspiration to the mythology of Muirwood in an epic series by Jeff Wheeler, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Muirwood and Kingfountain novels.

Eilean was born a “wretched”—a lowly foundling raised by the Aldermaston of Tintern Abbey. Then she’s chosen to assist in establishing the new abbey of Muirwood, now the site of a castle in the swampy Bearden Muir. Eilean’s role is as night servant to the druid Mordaunt, the king’s exiled advisor—and prisoner. He’s clever, dangerous, and invaluable to the Aldermaston.

Mordaunt’s priceless secret: the hiding place of an ancient tome that reveals the existence of other worlds and the magic between them. Mordaunt knows how potent its words are and how dangerous they could be in the wrong hands. But can Eilean win him over? All she must do is gain Mordaunt’s confidence and trust and persuade the apostate to divulge his secret to her. But as she learns more from Mordaunt, Eilean’s loyalties begin to fray. And the risks are greater than she imagined.

Despite betrayals, deceptions, and the deadly motivations of others, a girl from the flax fields is about to rise above her station. By exploring the potential of the power of an ancient spoken magic, Eilean is coming into her own.]]>
333 Jeff Wheeler 1542034744 Jared 4 A fun fantasy read.

I’ve been reading thrillers lately so this fantasy novel was a nice change pace. It’s really a part one rather than an individual novel so there is a lot left at the end for future books.
It’s a sorcerer’s apprentice story and the lead character is a young woman of humble origins who finds herself in a position to learn magic from a prisoner who is considered a heretic in her world. There is a bit of world building going on as we get to know the characters and their relationship to magic. The book climaxes with exiting stuff that happens as the main character starts on a literal journey but there is also the promise of further adventures ahead. It was a fun book.]]>
4.30 2022 The Druid (The Dawning of Muirwood, #1)
author: Jeff Wheeler
name: Jared
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/08
date added: 2022/12/08
shelves:
review:
A fun fantasy read.

I’ve been reading thrillers lately so this fantasy novel was a nice change pace. It’s really a part one rather than an individual novel so there is a lot left at the end for future books.
It’s a sorcerer’s apprentice story and the lead character is a young woman of humble origins who finds herself in a position to learn magic from a prisoner who is considered a heretic in her world. There is a bit of world building going on as we get to know the characters and their relationship to magic. The book climaxes with exiting stuff that happens as the main character starts on a literal journey but there is also the promise of further adventures ahead. It was a fun book.
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The Asset (Lance Spector, #1) 53499615 When Lance Spector quit the CIA, he swore he was out for good. One more government lie and he would go off the deep end. They could find someone else to do their dirty work. As far as he was concerned, Washington, Langley, the Pentagon could all go to hell.

Yekaterinburg, Russia
A secret Russian expedition returns with a devastating new pathogen, harvested from the frozen corpses of mammoths. It's the biological super weapon they've been looking for, an apocalypse-level pathogen, a virus more deadly than anything ever to come out of a Russian lab. Something that will stop NATO and the Americans in their tracks.
A Biological Chernobyl.

Washington DC, USA
A mysterious vial, sealed in a titanium case, arrives at CIA headquarters. They have no idea who sent it, but it comes with a note.
"I will only speak to Lance Spector."]]>
564 Saul Herzog 1777189705 Jared 4 Spies and bio weapons.

First off I have to warn you that this book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. I’m used to that sort of thing in the comic books that I read but not in novels. But it was still a good book. I’d call it a Cold War thriller if it was still that era but instead it’s a thriller with the Russian government as the bad guys and a US secret agency as the good guys. Intrigue, violence, and a bio weapon that could end civilization drive the plot as a betrayed Russian “Widow� agent and a reluctantly returning CIA (sort off) asset get caught up in a series of events they have to navigate. Plenty of characters and action.
]]>
4.29 The Asset (Lance Spector, #1)
author: Saul Herzog
name: Jared
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/01
date added: 2022/12/01
shelves:
review:
Spies and bio weapons.

First off I have to warn you that this book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. I’m used to that sort of thing in the comic books that I read but not in novels. But it was still a good book. I’d call it a Cold War thriller if it was still that era but instead it’s a thriller with the Russian government as the bad guys and a US secret agency as the good guys. Intrigue, violence, and a bio weapon that could end civilization drive the plot as a betrayed Russian “Widow� agent and a reluctantly returning CIA (sort off) asset get caught up in a series of events they have to navigate. Plenty of characters and action.

]]>
The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]>
180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Jared 5 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Jared
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/29
date added: 2022/11/29
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 18: Blood and Glory]]> 51483753
Cap like you’ve never seen him before! First, it’s Captain America’s landmark 400th issue � and while Operation: Galactic Storm rages around him, Steve Rogers must face a gauntlet of his most formidable foes! But will the cosmic conflict’s fallout sunder the Avengers? Then, prepare for one of the wildest Cap stories ever as Steve is transformed into a howling mad Cap-Wolf! Other werewolves, including Man-Wolf, Werewolf by Night and the New Mutants� Wolfsbane, join the fur-flying fun � as do Wolverine and Cable! But who will be the leader of the pack? Plus: When Crossbones captures Diamondback, it’s Cap and the Falcon to the rescue! But where’s D-Man? And Steve joins Frank Castle in a brutal battle for blood and glory!]]>
490 Mark Gruenwald 1302520040 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.17 2020 Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 18: Blood and Glory
author: Mark Gruenwald
name: Jared
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 17: The Superia Stratagem]]> 44546828
Hell hath no fury! Captain America faces a threat like never before when Superia raises an army of female super villains � from Anaconda to M.O.D.A.M.! The roguish gun-for-hire Paladin lends Cap a hand, but can these two mismatched adventurers thwart Superia's stratagem? Then, Cap comes face-to-face with his German counterpart, Hauptmann Deutschland. Both men are after the Red Skull � until they discover he's been killed by Scourge! But nothing is ever as it seems with the Skull. Plus: Diamondback seeks a quiet life � as Cap's executive secretary?! Bernie Rosenthal returns! Cap takes on Crossbones, Viper, Taskmaster, Jack O'Lantern, Doughboy and more! And journey back to World War II for a fresh look at the origin and earliest adventures of Captain America and Bucky!]]>
468 Mark Gruenwald 1302510266 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.33 2019 Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 17: The Superia Stratagem
author: Mark Gruenwald
name: Jared
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 14: The Captain]]> 58967780
COLLECTING:Captain America (1968) 333-350, Iron Man (1968) 228]]>
499 Mark Gruenwald 1302938479 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.78 2021 Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 14: The Captain
author: Mark Gruenwald
name: Jared
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 3: Bucky Reborn]]> 35604440
Draped in the red, white and blue, there's no character in all of comics who represents America like Cap - and his path through the tumultuous '70s reveals both the character's, and the nation's, soul. In story after story Stan Lee and Gene Colan push the envelope as Cap goes behind enemy lines in Vietnam, teams with the Falcon to oppose the radical Diamond Heads, and sets out on a coast-to-coast road trip full of motorcycle gangs, rock festivals and the Red Skull! Then, Bucky Barnes returns from the grave! But with Baron Strucker, Doctor Doom and M.O.D.O.K. tied up in his revival, this can't be the same pal that Cap remembers. What's really going on here? Plus: an unforgettable Captain America/Falcon/Spider-Man team-up!]]>
401 Stan Lee 1302498835 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.80 2017 Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 3: Bucky Reborn
author: Stan Lee
name: Jared
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[The Night Trade (Livia Lone, #2)]]> 32814023
For sex-crimes detective Livia Lone, a position with a government anti-trafficking task force is a chance to return to Thailand to ferret out Rithisak Sorm, the kingpin behind her own childhood ordeal.

But after a planned takedown in a nightclub goes violently awry, Livia discovers that she’s not the only one hunting Sorm. Former marine sniper Dox has a score to settle, too, and working together is the only way to take Sorm out.

Livia and Dox couldn’t be less alike. But they share a single-minded creed: the law has to serve justice. And if it doesn’t, justice has to be served another way.

What they don’t know is that in threatening Sorm, they’re also threatening a far-reaching conspiracy—one involving the highest levels of America’s own intelligence apparatus. It turns out that killing Sorm just might be the easy part. The real challenge will be payback from his protectors.]]>
316 Barry Eisler 1477809910 Jared 4 Back for more Livia Lone

I’ve developed a taste for Barry Eisler thrillers over the last few years. I haven’t read them in order though. This is the second Livia Lone novel, and though I did read the first one, I already read one of the “Team-Up� novels that came after this one. So this was like an origin story for me as it’s the first time Lidia partners up with another of Eisler’s characters, Dox.
Livia is a Seattle cop and Dox is an ex-Marine who now is an operator was who does freelance work for various people and governments. Separately the both end up in Thailand hunting down human traffickers. Violence, mayhem, and action ensue as the two of them eventually meet, try to figure out who wants them dead, and stop those people first. And save a bunch of children.
It was a good book. I like Eisler’s characters, plots, and writing in general. Give it a read. ]]>
4.36 2018 The Night Trade (Livia Lone, #2)
author: Barry Eisler
name: Jared
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/16
date added: 2022/11/16
shelves:
review:
Back for more Livia Lone

I’ve developed a taste for Barry Eisler thrillers over the last few years. I haven’t read them in order though. This is the second Livia Lone novel, and though I did read the first one, I already read one of the “Team-Up� novels that came after this one. So this was like an origin story for me as it’s the first time Lidia partners up with another of Eisler’s characters, Dox.
Livia is a Seattle cop and Dox is an ex-Marine who now is an operator was who does freelance work for various people and governments. Separately the both end up in Thailand hunting down human traffickers. Violence, mayhem, and action ensue as the two of them eventually meet, try to figure out who wants them dead, and stop those people first. And save a bunch of children.
It was a good book. I like Eisler’s characters, plots, and writing in general. Give it a read.
]]>
The Courier 44083482 The international bestselling godfather of Nordic Noir takes on one of the most horrific periods of modern history, in a stunning standalone thriller ... NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER **SHORTLISTED FOR THE PETRONA AWARD FOR BEST SCANDINAVIAN CRIME NOVEL** **LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER**` ____________________ 'The Courier is a stylish stand-alone thriller from the godfather of Scandi noir ... Ola Dahl ratchets up the tension from the first pages and never lets go' The Times 'Absorbing, heart-rending and perfectly plotted. Kjell Ola Dahl's The Courier passes seamlessly from the present to the dark past of WWII. Fabulous!' Denzil Meyrick 'Cleverly braiding together past and present, the who and why of murder and betrayal are unpicked. The detail is impressive' Daily Mail ____________________ In 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, saving herself. Her family in Oslo, however, is deported to Auschwitz. In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero, Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and allegations that he murdered his wife, Åse, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire. And yet, twenty-five years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo. He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But where has he been, and what is the real reason for his return? Ester stumbles across information that forces her to look closely at her past, and to revisit her war-time training to stay alive... Written with Dahl's trademark characterization and elegant plotting, The Courier sees the hugely respected godfather of Nordic Noir at his best, as he takes on one of the most horrific periods of modern history, in an exceptional, shocking thriller. ____________________ 'A dark but richly described backdrop and a relentless, underlying tension drive this sad story to its bittersweet conclusion. Fans of Nordic noir will be satisfied' Publishers Weekly 'Skilfully juggling three Oslo timelines � in 1942, 1967 and 2015 � Dahl starts his story with Germany's occupation of Norway and the work of those who tried to resist, then brings his characters forward to a post-war unravelling of what really happened in those dangerous days � and the traumatic rewriting of personal stories' The Times 'A fascinating, intricate, provocative read, set in motion by events in 1942, and brilliantly highlighting human need and emotions ... 'The Courier' sent a shiver coursing through me, it is a truly eloquent and rewarding tale, and oh that ending!' LoveReading 'Written with Dahl's trademark characterisation and clever plotting, The Courier sees one of Norway's most critically acclaimed authors at his best ... This stunning and compelling wartime thriller is reminiscent of the writing of John Le CarrÉ and William Boyd' New Books Magazine 'Kjell Ola Dahl's novels are superb.]]> 384 Kjell Ola Dahl 1495655040 Jared 4 A mystery story from the north!

This is the second book I’ve read in the genre called Nordic Noir. It’s a detective story that is, at first, set in the present of 2015 and then flashes back between 1943 and 1967. Since the setting is Norway the Second World War comes into play.
Our lead character’s (Ester) best friend is murdered during WW2 and her killer never caught. In 1967 the dead woman’s missing husband shows up and Ester gets drawn into try to figure out who killed her friend.
I liked the book. The history angle drew me in and the characters kept me there. I enjoyed the writing too. It’s a translated book so there were interesting little turns of phrase that were different than I’m used to. Just small things that occasionally made me think about language. Give it a read. ]]>
3.95 2012 The Courier
author: Kjell Ola Dahl
name: Jared
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/09
date added: 2022/11/09
shelves:
review:
A mystery story from the north!

This is the second book I’ve read in the genre called Nordic Noir. It’s a detective story that is, at first, set in the present of 2015 and then flashes back between 1943 and 1967. Since the setting is Norway the Second World War comes into play.
Our lead character’s (Ester) best friend is murdered during WW2 and her killer never caught. In 1967 the dead woman’s missing husband shows up and Ester gets drawn into try to figure out who killed her friend.
I liked the book. The history angle drew me in and the characters kept me there. I enjoyed the writing too. It’s a translated book so there were interesting little turns of phrase that were different than I’m used to. Just small things that occasionally made me think about language. Give it a read.
]]>
<![CDATA[It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken: A Picture Novella]]> 86142 An Acknowledged Classic returns gorgeously re-designed.

In his first graphic novel, It's a Good Life, if You Don't Weaken—one of the best-selling D & Q titles ever—Seth pays homage to the wit and sophistication of the old-fashioned magazine cartoon. While trying to understand his dissatisfaction with the present, Seth discovers the life and work of Kalo, a forgotten New Yorker cartoonist from the 1940s. But his obsession blinds him to the needs of his lover and the quiet desperation of his family. Wry self-reflection and moody colours characterize Seth's style in this tale about learning lessons from nostalgia. His playful and sophisticated experiment with memoir provoked a furious debate among cartoon historians and archivists about the existence of Kalo, and prompted a Details feature about Seth's "hoax".]]>
176 Seth 189659770X Jared 5 3.79 1998 It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken: A Picture Novella
author: Seth
name: Jared
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/23
date added: 2022/10/23
shelves:
review:

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Blankets 25179 A young man comes of age and finds the confidence to express his creative voice.

Craig Thompson's poignant sequential-art memoir plays out against the backdrop of a Midwestern winterscape: finely hewn linework draws together a portrait of small town life, a rigorously fundamentalist Christian childhood, and a lonely, emotionally mixed-up adolescence.

Under an engulfing blanket of snow, Craig and Raina fall in love at winter church camp, revealing to one another their struggles with faith and their dreams of escape. Over time though, their personal demons resurface and their relationship falls apart. It's a universal story, and Thompson's vibrant brushstrokes and unique page designs make the familiar heartbreaking all over again.]]>
582 Craig Thompson 1891830430 Jared 0 4.05 2003 Blankets
author: Craig Thompson
name: Jared
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/23
shelves:
review:

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Saga, Volume 1 15704307
Collects: Saga #1-6.]]>
160 Brian K. Vaughan 1607066017 Jared 0 4.16 2012 Saga, Volume 1
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Jared
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/23
shelves:
review:

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The God's Eye View 25835605 NSA director Theodore Anders has a simple goal: collect every phone call, email, and keystroke tapped on the Internet. He knows unlimited surveillance is the only way to keep America safe.

Evelyn Gallagher doesn’t care much about any of that. She just wants to keep her head down and manage the NSA’s camera network and facial recognition program so she can afford private school for her deaf son, Dash.

But when Evelyn discovers the existence of a program code-named God’s Eye and connects it with the mysterious deaths of a string of journalists and whistle-blowers, her doubts put her and Dash in the crosshairs of a pair of government assassins: Delgado, a sadistic bomb maker and hacker, and Manus, a damaged giant of a man who until now has cared for nothing beyond protecting the director.

Within an elaborate game of political blackmail, terrorist provocations, and White House scheming, a global war is being fought—a war between those desperate to keep the state’s darkest secrets and those intent on revealing them. A war that Evelyn will need all her espionage training and savvy to survive, because the director has the ultimate advantage: The God’s Eye View.

]]>
418 Barry Eisler 150394610X Jared 4 Another good thriller from Eisler

I’ve read a bunch of Barry Eisler’s thrillers over the last few years and have enjoyed them all. They have a cast of characters that have been introduced over the years but I haven’t read the books in order.
This book introduces the operative named Manus who’s defining characteristic is that he’s hearing impaired. That and he’s big and nasty.
I recently finished the second book he appeared in that mentioned how he helped clean up some problems involving the NSA director. This is that story. Lots of action, spy stuff, and intrusive government programs. If you like that sort of thing give this book a read. ]]>
4.13 2016 The God's Eye View
author: Barry Eisler
name: Jared
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/23
date added: 2022/10/23
shelves:
review:
Another good thriller from Eisler

I’ve read a bunch of Barry Eisler’s thrillers over the last few years and have enjoyed them all. They have a cast of characters that have been introduced over the years but I haven’t read the books in order.
This book introduces the operative named Manus who’s defining characteristic is that he’s hearing impaired. That and he’s big and nasty.
I recently finished the second book he appeared in that mentioned how he helped clean up some problems involving the NSA director. This is that story. Lots of action, spy stuff, and intrusive government programs. If you like that sort of thing give this book a read.
]]>
Jazzed 61387303 “The eroticism of Highsmith and the intensity of Ellroy in an ingenious gender-swapping take on the Leopold & Loeb case.� Steven Powell, author of Love Me Fierce In The Life of James Ellroy

Academic geniuses, Wilhelmina “Will� Reinhardt and Dorothy “Dolly� Raab, become roommates at Barnard in the early 1920s, a time when college for women was a rarity.

Socially awkward Will, grieving her mother’s death, is fascinated by Dolly, a beautiful, charming rebel with an insatiable taste for adrenaline. Both musicians come alive at Harlem jazz clubs and Prohibition-era speakeasies.

Dazzled by the world they are discovering together, their romance ignites. But while Will is obsessed with Dolly, Dolly is obsessed with crime. The power dynamics keep shifting as Will agrees to commit petty crimes with Dolly in exchange for sexual favors.

When the University and their rich families unite to split them up, passions escalate. To strike back at those who deny them the right to be together, they plot another murder.

A gender-swapped take on the infamous “Leopold and Loeb� case, Jazzed is part historical fiction, part true crime. Juxtaposing the thrilling scientific breakthroughs in quantum physics and artistic explosion of the Harlem Renaissance with the pseudoscience of eugenics and anti-immigration fervor that also defined the era, the novel mirrors today’s polarized world and moves with the fast-paced rhythm of jazz itself.]]>
305 Jill Dearman Jared 4 Crime and history

I’m a fan of history and I’ve seen my share of TV documentaries on Leopold an Loeb but I really don’t know that much of their story beyond the basics. So I found the idea of a fictional gender swapped version their story intriguing.
Dolly and Will are two bright young women in the NYC of 1922. They are both gay an paying a price for that in a world that doesn’t want them to exist. Yet somehow the two of them existing together sets these two, in college, upper class, young women down a criminal path to murder.
What is going on in their heads? Those of us who read the book get to know. That’s what this book is about. The thoughts, ideas, and circumstances that lead to the crime are laid out for us to see and contemplate. But there aren’t clear answers besides the obvious one that the two women were guilty of the crime.
First we get the two characters falling for each other, then the crime, the investigation, and the trial. We get a look inside their heads at each stage and at various times they even explain their behaviors. But how reliable are they as narrators?
I enjoyed this book. The writing was sharp and on point and it gave us interesting characters and situations to ponder. ]]>
3.50 Jazzed
author: Jill Dearman
name: Jared
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/19
date added: 2022/10/19
shelves:
review:
Crime and history

I’m a fan of history and I’ve seen my share of TV documentaries on Leopold an Loeb but I really don’t know that much of their story beyond the basics. So I found the idea of a fictional gender swapped version their story intriguing.
Dolly and Will are two bright young women in the NYC of 1922. They are both gay an paying a price for that in a world that doesn’t want them to exist. Yet somehow the two of them existing together sets these two, in college, upper class, young women down a criminal path to murder.
What is going on in their heads? Those of us who read the book get to know. That’s what this book is about. The thoughts, ideas, and circumstances that lead to the crime are laid out for us to see and contemplate. But there aren’t clear answers besides the obvious one that the two women were guilty of the crime.
First we get the two characters falling for each other, then the crime, the investigation, and the trial. We get a look inside their heads at each stage and at various times they even explain their behaviors. But how reliable are they as narrators?
I enjoyed this book. The writing was sharp and on point and it gave us interesting characters and situations to ponder.
]]>
Infinite 49118403 From bestselling author Brian Freeman comes an explosive new psychological thriller that pushes the limits of reality as we know it.

One rainy night, the unthinkable Dylan Moran’s car plunges off the road into a raging river, his beautiful wife drowning as he struggles to shore.

In the aftermath, through his grief, Dylan experiences sudden, strange wherever he goes, he’s haunted by glimpses of himself. Dylan initially chalks it up to trauma, but that changes when he runs into a psychiatrist who claims he’s her patient. She says he has been undergoing a unique hypnotherapy treatment built on the idea that with every choice, he creates an infinite number of parallel universes.

Now those parallel universes are unlocked—and Dylan’s doppelgänger has staked a claim to his world. Can Dylan use these alternate realities to get a second chance at the life that was stolen from him? Or will he lose himself…to himself?]]>
328 Brian Freeman 1542023882 Jared 4 This world, that world, and the other world.

A good thriller involving parallel universes but not in a sci-fi way. More in a noir way. A man who almost drowns sees himself on the shoreline. That opens the story and leads the protagonist down a winding path to the idea that there are many worlds any many versions of us all. One of those versions of the man is a killer and now he has to try and stop himself.
I liked this one. It was well written and kept me wanting to know what would happen next. The characters were also well done. I thought the end was particularly good. Give it a read. ]]>
4.04 2021 Infinite
author: Brian Freeman
name: Jared
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/06
date added: 2022/10/06
shelves:
review:
This world, that world, and the other world.

A good thriller involving parallel universes but not in a sci-fi way. More in a noir way. A man who almost drowns sees himself on the shoreline. That opens the story and leads the protagonist down a winding path to the idea that there are many worlds any many versions of us all. One of those versions of the man is a killer and now he has to try and stop himself.
I liked this one. It was well written and kept me wanting to know what would happen next. The characters were also well done. I thought the end was particularly good. Give it a read.
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The Next Wife 54974710 USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda.

Kate Nelson had it all. A flourishing company founded with her husband, John; a happy marriage; and a daughter, Ashlyn. The picture-perfect family. Until John left for another woman. Tish is half his age. Ambitious. She’s cultivated a friendship with Ashlyn. Tish believes she’s won.

She’s wrong.

Tish Nelson has it all. Youth, influence, a life of luxury, and a new husband. But the truth is, there’s a lot of baggage. Namely, his first wife—and suspicions of his infidelity. After all, that’s how she got John. Maybe it’s time for a romantic getaway, far from his vindictive ex. If Kate plans on getting John back, Tish is one step ahead of her.

She thinks.

But what happens next is something neither Kate nor Tish saw coming. As best-laid plans come undone, there’s no telling what a woman will do in the name of love—and revenge.]]>
306 Kaira Rouda 1542025958 Jared 3 Turns out it not easy being any number wife

This one was a weird book to me. Not what I’m used to reading. I guess you could put it in the psychological suspense category but it’s mostly about the stuff that’s going on inside the heads of three women and a man. First wife (and mom), daughter, second wife, and husband (and father).
They all, except for the man, seem to be battling it out for supremacy in life and business. The book is all about the relationship between the three women. The dude seems to be a bit clueless. And then some bad things happen and it all comes to a boil.
It was a solid read. ]]>
3.75 2021 The Next Wife
author: Kaira Rouda
name: Jared
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/28
date added: 2022/09/29
shelves:
review:
Turns out it not easy being any number wife

This one was a weird book to me. Not what I’m used to reading. I guess you could put it in the psychological suspense category but it’s mostly about the stuff that’s going on inside the heads of three women and a man. First wife (and mom), daughter, second wife, and husband (and father).
They all, except for the man, seem to be battling it out for supremacy in life and business. The book is all about the relationship between the three women. The dude seems to be a bit clueless. And then some bad things happen and it all comes to a boil.
It was a solid read.
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Already Gone 12976360 Jake Reese is a writing teacher at an American university. He lives in a small brick Tudor close to campus with his art buyer wife, Diane. His life is quiet-Ordinary even. And he likes it that way. But it wasn't always quiet. Jake's distant past was a life on the streets, inflicting damage and suffering on more people than he can count. And now someone from his past, it seems, has come looking for him.

A raw, gripping thriller about the price paid for past sins, John Rector's third novel is a live wire that crackles with the intensity of a man who has nothing left to lose. When two men attack Jake in a parking lot and cut off his ring finger, he tries to dismiss it as an unlucky case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when events take a more sinister turn and Diane goes missing, Jake knows he can no longer hide from the truth.

As he embarks on a mission to find his wife, he realizes his dark past is refusing to stay buried, and that his future is about to unfold in ways he could never have imagined.

With taut and brooding prose, Rector paints a formidable portrait of a reformed man's slow descent into a life he thought he had walked away from forever. As the intensity becomes almost unbearable, the pace quickens and the suspense applies an unrelenting, vice-like grip, as ALREADY GONE hurtles toward its ultimate, explosive climax.]]>
304 John Rector 1612188761 Jared 3 Ordinary Joe Thriller

This book is a thriller but unlike other action thrillers the lead character in this one is fairly ordinary. No special training or fighting ability leads to him getting kicked around a lot.
The story starts with him getting a finger cut off by two men and that starts his life being turned upside down by a criminal conspiracy. He tries to be the one in the driver’s seat but circumstance and various criminals keep ruining his plans.
Overall is was a fun and fast moving read. ]]>
3.68 2011 Already Gone
author: John Rector
name: Jared
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/22
date added: 2022/09/22
shelves:
review:
Ordinary Joe Thriller

This book is a thriller but unlike other action thrillers the lead character in this one is fairly ordinary. No special training or fighting ability leads to him getting kicked around a lot.
The story starts with him getting a finger cut off by two men and that starts his life being turned upside down by a criminal conspiracy. He tries to be the one in the driver’s seat but circumstance and various criminals keep ruining his plans.
Overall is was a fun and fast moving read.
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Water Memory (Sentro, #1) 56449554 A fast-paced, page-turning thriller that contemplates the consequences of motherhood, memory, and crime as a commodity.

Black ops specialist Aubrey Sentro may be one concussion away from death. But when pirates seize the cargo ship she’s on, she must decide whether to risk her life to save her fellow passengers.

Sentro’s training takes over, and she’s able to elude her captors, leaving bodies in her wake. But her problems are just getting started. Her memory lapses are getting more frequent, symptoms of serial-concussion syndrome.

As she plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with the pirates, she pushes herself to survive by focusing on thoughts of her children. She’s never told them what she really does for a living, and now she might not get the chance.

While her memories make her vulnerable, motherhood makes her dangerous.]]>
358 Daniel Pyne 1542025125 Jared 3 Die Hard on a cargo ship

Remember when ever thriller used to compared to Die Hard? That idea come into my head as I was reading this. Only part of it was really that and the rest was a look at the main character and her relationship to her family.
The book is about a woman who used to do government spook work but for years has worked for a private community. She’s been having health problems an so takes a reluctant vacation. A slow vacation on a cargo ship. The ship gets hijacked and action ensues. It’s not your typical super agent violent action but lots of stuff happens. I was entertained. ]]>
3.66 2021 Water Memory (Sentro, #1)
author: Daniel Pyne
name: Jared
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/17
date added: 2022/09/17
shelves:
review:
Die Hard on a cargo ship

Remember when ever thriller used to compared to Die Hard? That idea come into my head as I was reading this. Only part of it was really that and the rest was a look at the main character and her relationship to her family.
The book is about a woman who used to do government spook work but for years has worked for a private community. She’s been having health problems an so takes a reluctant vacation. A slow vacation on a cargo ship. The ship gets hijacked and action ensues. It’s not your typical super agent violent action but lots of stuff happens. I was entertained.
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<![CDATA[The Chaos Kind (John Rain, #11, Livia Lone, #5)]]> 52961074 The assassins of Barry Eisler’s #1 bestseller The Killer Collective are back—and this time, it’s chaos.

Assistant US Attorney Alondra Diaz hates traffickers. And she’s determined to put one of America’s most powerful financiers, Andrew Schrader, in prison forever for his crimes against children.

But Schrader has videos implicating some of the most powerful members of the US national security state. To eliminate Diaz, the powers that be bring in a Marvin Manus, an implacable assassin whose skills have been forged in intelligence, the military, and the hardest prisons.

Enter former Marine sniper Dox and black-ops veteran Daniel Larison with an unusual not to kill Diaz, but to keep her alive.

A lot of players are determined to acquire the videos and the blackmail power they represent. But with Seattle sex-crimes detective Livia Lone, “natural causes� killer John Rain, and ex-Mossad honey-trap specialist Delilah, the good guys might just have a chance.

They’re not going to play by anyone else’s rules. They’re not going to play by any rules at all. They want a different kind of fight. The chaos kind.]]>
439 Barry Eisler 1542005604 Jared 4 A fun read.

I’ve grown to really like these Barry Eisler thrillers. This is around the fifth one I’ve read and it’s a good one. A whole bunch of his regular cast of operators are brought together because some powerful people are doing bad things. Short chapters, lots of action, and a likable cast make for good reading. ]]>
4.32 2021 The Chaos Kind (John Rain, #11, Livia Lone, #5)
author: Barry Eisler
name: Jared
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/09
date added: 2022/09/10
shelves:
review:
A fun read.

I’ve grown to really like these Barry Eisler thrillers. This is around the fifth one I’ve read and it’s a good one. A whole bunch of his regular cast of operators are brought together because some powerful people are doing bad things. Short chapters, lots of action, and a likable cast make for good reading.
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Maria M. (Love and Rockets) 32191898 270 Gilbert Hernández 1683960165 Jared 4 3.41 2018 Maria M. (Love and Rockets)
author: Gilbert Hernández
name: Jared
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/22
date added: 2022/08/22
shelves:
review:

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Edie: American Girl 14606 Revised, with a new cover

When Edie was first published, it quickly became an international best-seller and then took its place among the classic books about the 1960s. Edie Sedgwick exploded into the public eye like a comet. She seemed to have it all: she was aristocratic and glamorous, vivacious and young, Andy Warhol’s superstar. But within a few years she flared out as quickly as she had appeared, and before she turned twenty-nine she was dead from a drug overdose.

In a dazzling tapestry of voices—family, friends, lovers, rivals—the entire meteoric trajectory of Edie Sedgwick’s life is brilliantly captured. And so is the Pop Art world of the �60s: the sex, drugs, fashion, music—the mad rush for pleasure and fame. All glitter and flash on the outside, it was hollow and desperate within—like Edie herself, and like her mentor, Andy Warhol. Alternately mesmerizing, tragic, and horrifying, this book shattered many myths about the �60s experience in America.
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564 Jean Stein 0802134106 Jared 4 4.08 1982 Edie: American Girl
author: Jean Stein
name: Jared
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/01
date added: 2022/08/01
shelves:
review:

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Six Days of the Condor 2579284 192 James Grady 0393086925 Jared 4 It’s also a short book at 185 pages.
The version I read had a 40 page intro written by the author in the early 2000s (the book was written in the early 1970s). I enjoyed this intro as much as the book. It tells of how the book came to be published and turned into a movie all while the author was a young 24 year old. Good stuff. ]]>
4.10 1974 Six Days of the Condor
author: James Grady
name: Jared
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1974
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/24
date added: 2022/07/24
shelves:
review:
After decades of “Three Days of the Condor� being a movie favorite of mine I finally decided to read the book. It was good. A thriller about being caught up in a plot that assassinated all of the main characters coworkers. What more do you need to know?
It’s also a short book at 185 pages.
The version I read had a 40 page intro written by the author in the early 2000s (the book was written in the early 1970s). I enjoyed this intro as much as the book. It tells of how the book came to be published and turned into a movie all while the author was a young 24 year old. Good stuff.
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<![CDATA[Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention]]> 26264701
In an unprecedented investigation that draws on digital technologies and traditional textual analysis to trace Madison s composition, Mary Sarah Bilder reveals that Madison revised the Notes to a far greater extent than previously recognized. The Notes began as a diary of the Convention s proceedings. Madison abandoned the project at a critical juncture, however, and left the Notes incomplete. He did not return to finish them until several years later, largely for Thomas Jefferson. By then, Madison s views were influenced by the new government s challenges and Jefferson s political ideas. Madison s evolving vision of republican government, his Virginia allegiances, his openness to constitutional protection for slavery, his fascination with the finer points of political jockeying, and his depictions of Alexander Hamilton and Charles Pinckney shifted during the writing and rewriting of his account. When the Notes were finally published in 1840, the layers of revision were invisible.

Madison s version of events quickly assumed an aura of objectivity, and the Notes molded the narrative of the Constitution. Madison s Hand offers readers a biography of a document that, over two centuries, developed a life and character all its own.

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384 Mary Sarah Bilder 0674055276 Jared 0 to-read 3.90 2015 Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
author: Mary Sarah Bilder
name: Jared
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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