A Bookish Blog
Hitler, the megalomaniac, sees the world as if he is the only sane man left. Mad women pick up dog poop, the youth has not respect and the airwaves are filled with garbage. At some point he even justifies how Chaplin’s “cheap and shoddy” film, The Great Dictator, got less hits then him on U-Tube because it’s been on for 75 years.
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 […]
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.
Wolf Hunt: The Napoleonic Murders by Armand Cabasson takes place during the Napoleonic wars while the Austrians and the French battle over some small villages by the Danube. The mystery takes second place to the author’s impressive research of the time, whether it would be battlefield tactics or a Viennese ball.
The center of the story is a group of kids from various classes who get arrested and interrogated. Most of the kids are children to upper class parents (generals, politicians, entertainers) and think they’ll be all right. However, Stalin sees this as an opportunity to test the loyalty of the parents to the state (meaning himself) and uses them to his benefit.
Ruth Perlmutter, a retired Mossad agent and owner of a travel agency, has been asked to investigate the murder of Arthur, and ex-colleague from the Mossad. The death leads Ruth to investigate her colleagues, find ex-lovers and
historical letters written by Theodor Herzl (the founder of the Zionist movement).
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.
Countdown City by Ben H. Winters finds the world 77 days before a huge meteor will hit and will end life as we know it. As expected many people are going nuts, the government declares (basically) martial law and no one is really paying attention unless you have a gun.
It seems as if Mr. Barry put great thought into the narrative of this book. Each of us, I’m sure, can go back and point to events which, in our opinion, were either a turning point or crossroads in our linear path even though we did not know it at the time – this is what McNulty is writing about.
The murder / mystery is interesting but not the center, or the strength of the story. The characters are also interesting, it takes awhile to get to know them which is not necessarily bad, but are also not the strength of the book. The book is strong with describing a society gone amok.
