A 14th Century book is found hidden in a wall in a monastery, inside it there is a map which points to a cave filled with outstanding paintings on its walls. The book is sent to Paris for restoration where Hugo Pineau, a literary historian, enlists the help of Luc Simard, an archaeologist to find the cave.
About: Bringing Down Gaddafi: On the Ground with the Libyan Rebels by Andrei Netto is a non-fiction book telling the story of the author, a Brazilian journalist. Mr. Netto traveled to Libya to witness firsthand the uprising against Gaddafi. 320 pages Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Trade Language: English ISBN-10: 1137279125 My rating for Bringing Down Gaddafi — 4 Buy this book in paper or electronic (Kindle) format* Thoughts: Bringing Down Gaddafi: On the Ground with the Libyan Rebels by Andrei Netto tells of the Libyan Revolution, the author’s harrowing experience, captivity and the people he met along the way. Together with an Iraqi journalist, Mr. Netto’s capture and release was, for me, one of the most interesting aspects of the book. The book also gives an excellent overview of the situation in Libya, including historical context to the revolution. The story moves back and forth between profiles of the revolutionaries, a history lesson and the author’s experiences. Even though the civil war in Libya was brief, it was still very dangerous, especially for reports at the time. The book is written in a very professional, but also personal manner depending on what subject Mr. Netto writes about. Mr. Netto’s book is…
This novel was a delightful summer read, quick, funny and easy to ingest. The storytelling and dialog are sharp and funny, and the characters are engaging and natural.
About: World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters is the last book in a trilogy starring detective Hank Palace taking place when the world is about the end. The first two books The Last Policeman and Countdown City were a good read and I was looking forward to reading the ending of the trilogy. 320 pages Publisher: Quirk Books Language: English ISBN-10: 1594746850 My rating for World of Trouble — 4 Buy this book in paper or electronic format* More Books by Ben H. Winters Thoughts: World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters is a fitting end to a wonderful trilogy. I really enjoyed the fact that Mr. Winters doesn’t back out of the doomsday scenario he has created for a sappy Disneyesque ending which I was expecting. This novel ties up some loose ends which were introduced in the previous books, also the author concentrated on police procedural more than in the previous novels. That was a good call, I believe, since the first novel as well as part of the second, focused on how society has gone berserk in preparation of the impending doom. In his investigation, Palace meets many characters, some take advantage of the situation for…
The book is actually two well written essays. The first essay is a fascinating look at Colonial America and the life of an 18th Century regular people without the wealth and genealogy of many of our Founding Fathers. The second part is more of a scholarly essay about uses and methods of history.
The strength of the book is in the way Mr. Krakauer tells the story, combining an adventure with social commentary without resorting to dry timeline lists
About: Tarzan – In The City of Gold (Vol. 1): The Complete Burne Hogarth Sundays and Dailies Library by Don Garden is a 3 year collection of all Hogarth’s newspaper strips. This is the first of four volumes. The publisher is giving away one copy of this book –to enter fill out the Rafflecoptter form at the end of the post. 208 pages Publisher: Titan Books (May 13, 2014) Language: English ISBN-10: 1781163170 My rating for Tarzan: In The City of Gold (Vol. 1) by Don Garden – 4 Buy this book from Amazon.com* Thoughts: Tarzan – In The City of Gold (Vol. 1): The Complete Burne Hogarth Sundays and Dailies Library by Don Garden is a coffee table book featuring the early comic strips. While the title is similar to the Tarzan and the City of Gold, the story is different. For me, the story is secondary to the art when it comes to these type of books (a very close second, nevertheless…). While the adventures of Tarzan are always exciting, and especially in this format leaving you wanting for more, I found the story (which included time travel at some point) to be somewhat lackluster. I really enjoy these…
About: The Bat by Jo Nesbø is the first novel in the Harry Hole series. The series has been translated to several languages and even being made into a movie. My rating for The Bat— 4 Buy this book in paper or electronic format* More Books by Jo Nesbø Thoughts: The Bat by Jo Nesbø is not the first Harry Hole book I have read, I was on a book tour for The Devil’s Star and that’s when I discovered Harry Hole. The nice thing about this series that, while you follow the characters, they novels are more or less standalone. Reading the other novels will give you more insight and more enjoyment, but they are not a must. This is an enjoyable novel, I found it peculiar that the author chose to set the novel in Australia, simply because it is the first novel in a series about a Norwegian detective, but it works. The “fish out of water” storyline seems particularly interesting in this case. Mr. Nesbø’s characters and descriptions are nicely written (great job by translator Don Bartlett) and the Norse attitude jumps off the pages. The novel’s mystery is solved about two thirds into the book…
I enjoyed this novel as a fast, exciting read which is a lot of fun, lots of action and an interesting simple plot. The narrative flows, there are some interesting twists in the plot but nothing shocking or surprising.
The story revolves around the French roundup of Jews during WWII. A little girl, named Sarah, which escaped death and the search for her little brother whom she locked in a cupboard before the French police took their family away.