What are we reading?

[George]

I started the latest Longmire novel, "Dry Bones" on audio CD from the library this week. So far, so good.

Be warned, here I go again with the Jack Reacher...

I was a different part of my county today and saw a library branch I didn't even know existed. I went in to look around and found a few good books for bedtime stories for the kids, and then, certain it wouldn't be there, because it never has been, I wandered over to the C section in Fiction and found the 20th Reacher novel. It's titled "Make Me", and it came out in 2015. I have been hoping to find the audio book on CDs instead, but that probably has a waiting list a year long. I figured a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, right?

I read the first two chapters almost immediately and would like to share my thoughts, briefly. No spoilers, I promise. Not a word about anything in the book - just my impressions after reading them. Still, I'll spoil it, so those (like me) who like to know absolutely nothing about a book they're anxiously awaiting to read can skip it if they choose.

Spoiler:

The last two Reacher novels, "Never Go Back" and "Personal" were okay, but just okay. I mean, any new Reacher is better than no new Reacher, but I'm hoping for another "can't wait to read/hear more!" and "oh, no, it can't be over! No! I need MORE!!!" book with this one, like some of the previous Reacher books that were so good. Sort of like how I imagine AC/DC and ZZ Top fans, I want more of the exact same stuff as before. Change the words a bit, sure, but give us the same song, over and over.

If anyone said, "I don't understand this Reacher guy. You say he's a drifter who doesn't look for trouble, so just how does he get sucked into all these crazy adventures?"

This book is what I would hand them to answer that question. The first two chapters are simply perfect. Let's hope the rest of the book lives up to the first few pages.

[Freude am Fahren]

Just finished Ready Player One. I really liked it. Unfortunately I'm about 5-10 years too young to get all of the references from memory, but I still really liked it. When I was reading it, I thought it would be really fun to make it into a screen play (a secret fantasy of mine is to write a movie, and yeah, I actually have some training background, and no, I don't hang out at Starbucks). Turns out it's been done by the author himself (Ernest Cline), and Speilberg is directing. Right now it's schedules to be released the same day as Avatar 2 and Episode VIII.

Starting my next book tonight or tomorrow; just picked up The Gunslinger. I figure it's about time I read the Dark Tower series.

[thesameguy]

Hang out at *$ more and you'll have that screenplay in no time!

[George]

I finished the latest Jack Reacher novel "Make Me".

My very short review, which contains no mentions of anything in the book, just my opinion:

Spoiler:

Good stuff. Sure, I'm biased, like a starving man handed the meal of his choice, but I think this one deserves a grade of B+, at least. I'd love to mention a couple things, but won't. Reacher fans: read it. Or listen to it on audio book, which takes longer and therefore prolongs the enjoyment.

With this last book, I've (finally) figured out what it is about Reacher stories that are so much fun. No spoilers here - just a couple things that are surely common knowledge about the character by now, and I'll compare Reacher books to James Bond movies (I've never read a James Bond book).

Like Bond, Reacher usually, if not always, has a showdown with the bad guys toward the end. Sometimes those are almost disappointing in comparison to the rest of the story.

What's cool about Bond is the beginning through middle parts of the movies - how he tosses his hat on the hat rack in Miss Moneypenny's office, his banter with her, M treating Bond like a naughty schoolboy, Bond checking out Q's latest gadgetry - with a bit of the naughty boy routine there too (Q: Don't touch that!), and then his suave ways with the ladies and smoothly getting close to the bad guy, etc. All the Bond movies that I've seen (I haven't seen the last few, since Brosnan got the role) have most of these things in common.

Reacher stories work the same way. I think it's common knowledge by now he carries no luggage, lives nowhere, eats in diners and drinks coffee like it's going out of style, buys new clothes and throws away the old, typically travels by hitchhiking or taking a bus, and usually gives the minor bad guys a chance to walk away before making them really, really wish they had...if they survive the encounter.

So I say it's not the destination that matters. It's the journey to get there that is the most fun.

My last word about "Make Me":

Spoiler:

The journey is good in this one, and pure classic Reacher just like I had hoped it would be. Critics may say they've read this book before, and a couple times, at that, but the journey in this one was just what I was hoping for.

[George]

I finished the latest Walt Longmire book "Dry Bones" yesterday, and I'm quite sorry it's over. For any who haven't read any Longmire mysteries but would like to, I suggest reading them in the order they were published. There is quite a cast of characters in his professional and personal life who appear in multiple books. The development of these characters is best enjoyed as it happens, rather than trying to figure out things like "who's that, and why is it important that such-and-such a thing just happened?"

And a word about Walt's lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear - is there a better friend/sidekick/guy who's "got your back" than Henry? He reminds me of Mr. Spock in a lot of ways - interesting because he's from a different culture, but loyal, intelligent, perceptive, and very dangerous, when he needs to be. I haven't seen enough of him on TV as portrayed by Lou Diamond Phillips, but the man is a total badass in the books, but also the coolest guy around, when it's not time to kick ass.

No actual spoilers below, but some observations about "Dry Bones" that those like me who want to know nothing at all about books and movies they haven't read or seen yet will want to avoid.

Spoiler:

There were a couple surprises in "Dry Bones" that I don't think would have nearly the impact they did had I not "known" the people involved so well from reading the previous books. I love how the author now has us (or at least me) excited and nervous about a situation that Walt will almost certainly have to face in an upcoming book. It seems like most of the other books just end, and that's it, until the next one, but "Dry Bones" has me very impatiently waiting for the next one(s) to find out what's going to happen with a situation I just wish I could mention, but won't.

The next Longmire book will apparently be called "An Obvious Fact" and is due out in September, 2016.

Up next for me on audio book from the library: "The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II" by Winston Groom.

[George]

Up next for me on audio book from the library: "The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II" by Winston Groom.

Finished "The Generals...". Pretty enjoyable to this history and WWII buff, and while not all new information to me - especially about Patton - I learned quite a bit. I didn't know much about George C. Marshall at all.

Next I re-read a couple Louis L'amour books and found them wanting the detail I've been getting from more modern fiction writers, but still better than staring at the walls when in the reading room.

I'm about to finish the audio book "It's A Long Story", the autobiography of Willie Nelson. It's good fun from a guy who you just have to like. I mean, who doesn't like Willie?

I stopped at the library on the way home from work tonight and found a real gem: "Pacific", written and read by Simon Winchester. I didn't even know it existed, but it makes sense, given his previous book "Atlantic." I've heard that and another audio book read by Winchester and I really enjoyed his storytelling style. He's as good of a reader/speaker as he is a writer. He's like that favorite teacher or professor that hopefully we all had a least one of whose classes were as entertaining and enjoyable as they were educational. I can't wait to start it - probably tomorrow.

The subtitle of the book on the CD booklet is "Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers." Whew.

[George]

While at the library, I also got a book - yes, a real book instead of CDs - "Krakatoa" by Simon Winchester. I don't know if I'll have time to read it at home but it really interests me. Wish I could find it on audio at the library.

New job, new library.

I went to the main Denver library branch downtown last week and got a Denver library card, to go along with two others cards I carry daily from nearby suburban counties. Guess what I looked for first? Yep, they had it, and it's great.

I have lots of time on the train these days to listen to books on tape and I'm enjoying "Krakatoa" - read by the author, of course - so much. I tried the book but it just didn't capture my interest as much as the audio version does. Just as importantly, I have time to listen to audio while commuting and doing boring work at work, but not so much time to sit and read a book at home.

I love this guy. He's the king of the backstory. Someone, tired of my long-winded prequels of a "guess what happened" kind of story, once said to me, "Damn, George, when you tell a story, you tell THE WHOLE STORY!" As most of you who read my ramblings here know, he wasn't paying me a compliment.

Well, I'm saying that about Mr. Winchester and I do mean it most complimentarily. I love his style. Here we have a book about a volcano that erupted in 1883, but before we get to hear about that occurrence, we get to hear him wonderfully articulate his own work for six (6!) audio CDs of background information, including - but certainly not limited to - the fall of the Roman Empire, the pepper trade, his trip to Greenland in 1965, how gas lamps work, all about Lloyds Of London, and much, much, oh-so-very much more. I'll probably think of eighteen other things that you'd think would have nothing to do with a volcano but actually do that I should have listed here after I post this, but I don't want to spoil the book for anyone who may be interested.

Next on my reading/listening list: any audio book that I haven't heard already that's written and read by Winchester...at least until the new Jack Reacher and Walt Longmire books come out later this year.

[Alan P]

Got an ebook copy of Moneyball. If you're at all interested in baseball it's a great read. Rather different to the movie too.

[George]

Below is a link to a recent article from The New Yorker called "How Jack Reacher Was Built".

There are some spoilers here, including a few hints about the latest novel "Night School", which was just released last week. Mostly these are very minor, but it does mention the ending of the book "61 Hours", if that's important to anyone.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...cher-was-built

Recommended for people like me who enjoy all things Reacher.

[George]

Maybe I should mention a real loser of a book (audiobook, actually) that I suffered through about three-quarters of before having to quit out of sheer exhaustion: "Maphead", by Ken Jennings. I confess it was the reader of the audio book that annoyed as much as the author - if you're going to read a book about maps, cartography, geography, and the nerds who obsess over same, you could at least make an attempt to pronounce places and historical names correctly!

A few examples that I unfortunately cannot forget: Hue, Vietnam, pronounced like the color variant that rhymes with blue; the River Thames pronounced as it's spelled, rhyming with James; and the last name of Samuel Pepys pronounced "peppies".

Yeah, I know this makes me sound like a snob, but to me, those things are common knowledge. My wife agrees, so I can't be the only one.

Other things I've read and am reading:

"TransHuman" by Ben Bova. Science fiction. Like other Bova audiobooks I've heard, this one kept my mind busy during my twice-daily 45-minute train commute, but it doesn't stand out as excellent in my mind. I was glad when it was over.

"The Churchill Factor" by Boris Johnson. Another biography of Churchill. Somewhat repetitive, but as with them all, I learned a few things...such as the author's claim that one hundred books about Churchill are published every year. Wow. I've read a couple and will probably pick up another eventually.

"The Highway" by C.J. Box. Crime drama. Excellent. Had me wishing for a sequel that I could have started immediately.

The Joe Pickett series by C.J. Box. Pickett is a Wyoming game warden. I thought it might be a Longmire clone, but it is not. Pretty good so far.

More later. Life interrupts.