2018 50 Book Challenge

[California Dreamer]



3. No country for Old Men

Reading the book gives me a stronger appreciation for the movie, which might just be my favourite adaptation of any book yet.

For me, that was Adaptation, a fantastic twist on bringing the "unfilmable" The Orchid Thief to the screen

 

[MrXavier]

Sorry I know its a bit off topic - but I feel this is the best place to come as you are all so knowledgeable when it comes to books.
I am going on holiday (I say holiday its 5 days business - 5 days pleasure). Anyway, I'm looking for a good intellectual book to read - one that contains perhaps some aspect of our great British history... any suggestions?

Many thanks in advance and I hope you are all having a fantastic start to the New Year

 

[Steve B.]



3. No country for Old Men

Having enjoyed The Road, but having struggled through Blood Meridian without finishing it, I was hoping that this book would redeem Cormac in my eyes. Definitely did. Some of the best dialogue I've read, and each character is quite intriguing and provocative. I have to say, though, that I thought the ending was drawn out, almost painfully, with recount upon recount about a story that is, fundamentally, done and dusted.

Reading the book gives me a stronger appreciation for the movie, which might just be my favourite adaptation of any book yet.

Hope some of you have read this book - quite an enjoyable read.

I really like McCarthy. I agree on Blood Meridien, yet it's considered to be his best work.

I liked the Border Triology. You might want to try that.

 

[LonerMatt]

I just that there was so much happening in Blood Meridian - each page was a separate story - impressive, but compeltely draining.

 

[California Dreamer]



Sorry I know its a bit off topic - but I feel this is the best place to come as you are all so knowledgeable when it comes to books. 

I am going on holiday (I say holiday its 5 days business - 5 days pleasure). Anyway, I'm looking for a good intellectual book to read - one that contains perhaps some aspect of our great British history... any suggestions? 

Many thanks in advance and I hope you are all having a fantastic start to the New Year

For something a bit different in British history, I can recommend The Fears of King Henry IV. I read that last year, and reviewed it (way) above. Since you're on holiday, you should also read 1066 And All That, just for a giggle.

 

[Steve B.]

4. The Godfather of Kathmandu John Burdett 2010 Sonchai's mentor Col. Vikorn watches The Godfather trilogy and decides he wants Sonchai as his consigliere. He is also solving an exotic murder of a successful American film director with a voracious sexual appetite (after all everything in Bamgkok seems to be about sex in these books). Sonchai travels to Kathmandu in search of clues for the murder and meets a guru who tests his Buddhist mettle. However, said guru also wants Sonchai, in his new position, to broker a deal for 40 million dollars in heroin with Col. Vikorn. To invade China with. It's an interesting murder/mystery with a lot of humor involved.

I liked all of these books in this series but IMO the 2nd one wasn't really up to snuff.

5. Day of Reckoning Jack Higgins 2000 Another with Sean Dillon and the gang. Blake Johnson's ex-wife is murdered in MY while easing up to an expose of a mafia family. The gang swears revenge and the take apart the mafia empire piece by piece. Not Lee Child or Stephen Hunter, cheesy, but decent. The Eagle Has Flown and The Eagle Has Landed are far and away the best books Higgins has written that I've read.

I checked out about 5 more of these before the New Year and I need to finish them before heading on to some heavier stuff.

 

[California Dreamer]

1. Pyrotechnicon by Adam Browne (2012)

Pyrotechnicon is Adam Browne's first novel, and it is a cornucopia of invention.

The book tells the story of Cyrano de Bergerac's travels among the stars to win back his love Roxane, who has been abducted  by the Master of Secrets, a malign alien being. On the way, Cyrano is assisted by Fritillary, an orang-utan with a lamp for a head, and Louis XVI, who has succeeded God and lives in a palace that is a life-size model of the universe.

This is fantasy written in the proto-science fiction style of the 19th century (e.g. Jules Verne). Browne dreams up houses made out of birds, a planet consisting entirely of mathematics, a ship propelled by nothing (because nothing is faster than light) and a host of other ideas. And that's my problem with this book. The language is florid, there are endless little puns, and Browne is more concerned with showing off his ideas than constructing a solid plot. His Cyrano is a pretty one-dimensional character as well, so I eventually got tired of the whole thing.

 

[MrXavier]

For something a bit different in British history, I can recommend The Fears of King Henry IV. I read that last year, and reviewed it (way) above. Since you're on holiday, you should also read 1066 And All That, just for a giggle.

Fantastic. I have just looked it up - great reviews, have ordered it now - Thanks again for the recommendation - I'll be sure to write up a review after my holiday

 

[Steve B.]

6. Edge of Danger 2001 Jack Higgins Sean and the Gang are faced with a family of Arab/English aristocrats put to stir things up after their oil company is cut out of Russian/American negotiations. First an attempt on the US President's life, then the 12 sheikh council who have sold them out, then the Russian premier. All of these fail, 3 brothers die (only the sister is left). And amidst the pile of bodies our hero ambles off into the sunset. Cheesy, even for a thriller.

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 4/50: Elmore Leonard - Raylan (2012)

Leonard is one of my favourites in the cool crime fiction genre. His wonderful characters and the sleazy world they inhabit feel very real but at the same time definitely unique. He is a bit of a Raymond Chandler of the modern times.

Leonard has written many books that are better than this one but for an 86-year old writer (!) it is an extraordinary achievement and an entertaining experience for the reader. US Marshal Raylan Givens has three assignments though the course of this novel, the assignments are just loosely connected so the novel in many ways gives the impression of  a short story collection. Raylan gets to handle evil snatchers of body parts, a ruthless murdering mining corporation and young female bank robbers. 

For new-comers to Leonard I would highly recommend some of his older gems like Swag, LaBrava, Glitz, Mr Majestyk etc.

 

[legorogel]

Let's try to read more than Steve B. Too bad i get the headache of death when i read on flights.

Read this Year:

1. Ayn Rand - Anthem
I really like Ayn Rand's books. Not only because of the message, but because of her complete lack of reality in her characters. They are not humans, they are some sort of personified idea. Her first book 'Anthem' is different. Based on her life in russia under soviet communism. It tells the story of a group of people, their struggle in the society and how they deal with regime. The protagonists actually make mistakes and develop. Great ending, maybe the the closest thing to a real novel she ever wrote.

2. Nassim Nicola Taleb Antifragile
Nassim Taleb is angry on the world. He does not have the ability to relax and be ignorant to people. The resulting book is therefore great. Apparently it has something to do with statistics and stuff, but that can be summarized to 'limit your losses, don't limit your wins'. The rest are rants about pretty much everything. Google News, Harvard, Stiglitz, socialists, economists, academia and people in general...
If you read a lot of classics you might be more or less forgiving about his frequent name dropping of some authors. Easy read, wellwritten, some good insights.

3. Hayek - the Fatal Conceit
Hayek's best written work. Maybe because it is not written by him but only based on his last draft.
Amazing book, if you read one thing from Hayek it should be this. You will understand not only while socialism is bound to fail and why it emerges and why a free economy is the best economy.

4. Nate Silver - The Signal and the Noise
This book is supposed to be about statistics aswell, but reads more like a summary of fields in which forecasting is applied. Weather, finance, earthquakes and so on. If you are interested in those things, it is a good (and extremly easy) read.

almost trough: Hayek - Studies on the Abuse of Reason and Milton Friedmans Monetary History of the US. Then on my list are some books about plato's sophistes, the antonine plague, more Hayek, James Buchanan and I need to read more fiction.

 

[jpeirpont]

Ok I'm really going to reach for the 50 this year! So far I'm 2/3's of the way through A.N Wilson's Hitler. Will finally start on Don Quijote next and maybe this book on South Carolinian Folk Plays along with it. Wish me luck, friends.

 

[Steve B.]

7. A Darker Place 2009 Jack Higgins. A Russian novelist defects to the Dillon Gang's group. Problem is he's a double agen. Russia is blackmailing him in order to release his daughter from a Siberian gulag. Problem is, they were lying to him. When he finds out he stays defected. Pretty good reader.

Hydrofoil's up... Easing her out of the harbor.

 

[Steve B.]

8. The Wolf at The Door 2010 Jack Higgins Sequel to A Darker Place. A former IRA hit man, imprisoned in a Russian jail is freed to kill the gang. He activates a long-dead IRA cell to kill 8 members of the team at once. The assassins are rusty and off their game. The intended victims survive.

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 5/50: John Burdett - The Godfather of Kathmandu (2010)

I read the first three Burdett Bangkok novels a few years ago and developed a deep appreciation for the stories about Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep. What I like much more than the suspense and action is Burdett's phenomenally astute insight into the Thai mind, the intricate workings of the Thai society and Thai Buddhism spiced with the long tradition of mystic superstition. I know the city of Bangkok very well and Burdett's descriptions of this fascinating place are both clever and witty.

This novel has a few parallel plots: a major drug deal which involves a Tibetan freedom fighting Buddhist guru operating out of Nepal, the gruesome murder of a sex-addicted Hollywood director in a cheap Bangkok short-time hotel and the mysterious connection of a wealthy and powerful Chinese-Thai female pharmacist. It is maybe not a very good crime yarn and the complex plots have many weaknesses. The book's strength is instead in the characters and the mystical Buddhist backdrop. I loved it!