Author: ekkarn

Hard Rain – Barry Eisler (John Rain # 2)

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Hard Rain – Barry Eisler – Book 9 for 2015

 

It’s been a while since I visited Japan and the world of assassin John Rain. In fact it’s been so long that I have forgotten most of what happened in Rain Fall, Book 1 of the Barry Eisler series, when I started Hard Rain Book 2 in the series. What I didn’t forget was that the half-American, half Japanese Rain was a killer and a good one. What he is particularly good at is making his hits look like the victim died of  “natural causes” I also remembered that he has rules, no children, no one else is involved except rain and his client, and the victim has to be a principal, someone of importance!

When Hard Rain opens John Rain has left his Tokyo home for Osaka and is considering getting out of the business. But a former nemesis from the Japanese FBI, Tatsu doesn’t want him to retire, in fact, Tatsu has a job for him. The hit is on an assassin at large, who unlike Rain has no rules and kills indiscriminately.  Before Rain will take the job though, he goes to Tokyo to determine how difficult the hit will be. When Rain arrives in Tokyo he meets with his friend, a hacker, named Harry. Harry has a new girlfriend that seems way out of Harry’s league and that doesn’t sit well with Rain. Rain’s first assumption is that someone is setting Harry up, as he investigates he discovers Harry is also being followed,,,,,, soon Rain is sucked back into the world of violent criminals, and US government officials. The hit may be the most difficult  that Rain had ever faced and the deadliest!!!

John Rain is one of those characters that I would never like in real life, but hey, when he is going up against the Japanese underworld, and shifty CIA agents I’m going to root for the guy! He’s loyal to his few friends and he knows his job, as does Barry Eisler. Eisler does a great job of making Tokyo come alive and the descriptions of Japanese culture, the fights and surveillance tactics were great. The one thing that did bother me  was that Rain dispatched more people than I thought necessary, Not that they didn’t need it!

Bottom Line: Hard Rain is a solid four stars (really liked it). I like John Rain and will continue to read the series, which is now up to book 8. I book 6 Requiem for an Assassin is on my TBR shelves but I do think I will try to read the books in order! I  also hope I can shorten the time between visits with Mr. Rain!

ADD and Blogging – Not Perfect Together!!

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So my ADD and I have delayed writing anything today for about as long as I can. I was supposed to babysit Oliver today, but the icy road conditions this morning necessitated a change of plans, so I will be babysitting him tomorrow and Zoe on Wednesday, both for full days! Which is why today I exercised this morning and tonight!! So how did I delay writing today?  Well this morning I decided to go through some piles of papers and magazines and then vacuum the room where I spend most of my time. Couple that with finishing up some laundry from yesterday and reading some in Hard Rain and before I knew, it was lunchtime! My afternoon and evening were spent finishing Hard Rain, a trip to Target and dinner, after which I still hadn’t written anything!!

I did listen to some music though throughout the day. This morning while I was straightening up and cleaning it was some blues from Tinsley Ellis and his new album Tough Love, and the soundtrack for my reading was the jazz trumpet of Eddie Henderson and his latest Collective Portrait and the Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet’s The 21st Century Trad Band. All three of the albums have been in my music rotation for a while but I haven’t written about any of them yet! This afternoon on my trip to Target I  listened to Robert Earl Keen‘s new release Happy Prisoner full of songs that feature murders and prisons and all that good time bluegrass stuff!  I also listened to a little of the new release from Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and her solo release Tomorrow Is My Turn.

Additionally, this morning I read that on this date in 1998  Images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat. I did a search at Google that sent me to an article at Space.com – Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa: Best Bet for Alien Life?, which II read along with another article at Space.com, concerning the best bets for finding life in our solar system.

Oh yeah, while I was checking out things that happened on this date at Wikipedia I spotted this under Did You Know…

… that the engineer Willie Hobbs Moore, credited with expanding Japanese manufacturing practices at Ford Motor Company, was the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in physics?

….since I didn’t. I had to go and read about Ms. Hobbs Moore , but then at the bottom of Willie Moore’s page there was a link to an article at The Star Garden about Women in Science which was extremely interesting! I think I’ll try to put together a post about Willie Moore and some of the other women scientists of the 20th century!!

So you can see that today was an ADD day, a little exercising, reading both on the Web and Barry Eisler;s Hard Rain and some music listening. Oh and I worked on my blog Finding Out! transferring it so that it will be a subdomain of this blog!! And now as midnight approaches I better stop and post this or I will have posted nothing today!! Good Night and Good Day!!

 

New Releases for March 2015

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New Releases from Four of My Favorite Authors

 

Ok so now I have to put my reading into high-gear! Why you ask? Well after briefly reading The Big Thrill on-line magazine I discovered that there will be new releases from four of my favorite authors in March,.Here’s a little about those new releases…..

Endangerd - C J BoxEndangered – C J Box – Joe Pickett No 15

From Amazon

She was gone. Joe Pickett had good reason to dislike Dallas Cates, even if he was a rodeo champion, and now he has even more—Joe’s eighteen-year-old ward, April, has run off with him.

And then comes even worse news: The body of a girl has been found in a ditch along the highway—alive, but just barely, the victim of blunt force trauma. It is April, and the doctors aren’t sure if she’ll recover. Cates denies having anything to do with it—says she ran away from him, too—and there’s evidence that points to another man. But Joe knows in his gut who’s responsible. What he doesn’t know is the kind of danger he’s about to encounter. Cates is bad enough, but Cates’s family is like none Joe has ever met before. More

One thing that I have loved about the Joe Pickett series from C.J. Box has been the development of the characters from novel to novel and it appears that this new release will continue the tradition! I can’t wait!

The Patriot Threat - Steve BerryThe Patriot Threat – Steve Berry – Cotton Malone # 10

From Amazon:

The 16th Amendment to the Constitution is why Americans pay income taxes. But what if there were problems associated with that amendment? Secrets that call into question decades of tax collecting? In fact, there is a surprising truth to this hidden possibility.

Cotton Malone, once a member of an elite intelligence division within the Justice Department known as the Magellan Billet, is now retired and owns an old bookshop in Denmark. But when his former-boss, Stephanie Nelle, asks him to track a rogue North Korean who may have acquired some top secret Treasury Department files–the kind that could bring the United States to its knees–Malone is vaulted into a harrowing twenty-four hour chase that begins on the canals in Venice and ends in the remote highlands of Croatia.More

I am a little behind on this series, but since I haven’t read all of the books in order anyway, I may just read this new release now, because it sounds really good!!

 

Inspector of the Dead

Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell

From  Amazon

The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters. Amid this crisis comes opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, one of the most notorious and brilliant personalities of Victorian England. Along with his irrepressible daughter, Emily, and their Scotland Yard companions, Ryan and Becker, De Quincey finds himself confronted by an adversary who threatens the heart of the nation. More

I loved  David Morrell’s Murder as a Fine Art, which was the first of Morrell’s books to feature Thomas De Quincey.I was hoping for this new release, when I finished Murder as a Fine Art! Once again I can;t wait!!

The Strangers = Harlan Coben

The Stranger – Harlan Coben

From Amazon:

The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar, or a parking lot, or at the grocery store. His identity is unknown. His motives are unclear. His information is undeniable. Then he whispers a few words in your ear and disappears, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world.More

As  I read this introduction to this new release from Harlan Coben, it seems like it’s just about like every other book he has written some small thing comes out of the past and shatters the protagonist of the novel’s world. With that said, I know I will be totally engrossed in the story Harlan writes and will love the book!!

Like i said at the beginning of this post with these new releases coming in March I better get cracking on the books that I am currently reading. Here are my current reads…..

1. The President’s War – Chris DeRose

2. Green-Eyed Lady – Chuck Greaves

3. Crown of Midnight – Sarah J Maas

4. Hard Rain – Barry Eisler

The one I am the closest to finishing is Hard Rain, which is really getting good! So I’m off to read that one and pine for these new releases

The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

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The Things They Carried  – Tim O’Brien (Book 8 of 2015)

 

For those of us who like me, were lucky enough to have a high draft number, (mine was 306), and escaped the war in Vietnam, Tim O’Brien has shown us slices  of  life in it,  in his novel The Things They Carried. And it’s everything that we thought it was, everything that we protested to end.

About The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories, several of which were published prior to being incorporated into the book, that paints a vivid picture of the Vietnam experience, which for the most part it wasn’t pretty. The book follows the exploits of the men that Tim O’Brien served with the one’s who died like: Curt Lemon, Ted Lavender, and Kiowa and those who made it through, alive, but changed forever like: Lt Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, and the narrator who has been writing about the war, since it ended, hoping some how that the stories will save him.

While all of the stories were amazing little slices of life in Vietnam, the one that got me was Chapter Four “On the Rainy River” where Tim is confronted with the being drafted to fight in a war that he really didn’t support and contemplates going to Canada. As I mentioned previously, I was lucky enough not to have to face that dilemma, but through the years, I have wonder what I would have done. In my mind, I always go to Canada, but in reality I don’t think that would have happened. I really don’t know how I could have handle even a tenth a hundredth of what Tim describes in The Things They Carried. At best maybe I could have been a Radar O’Reilly, I know wrong war, but you get the picture. My heart goes out to all those who lost their lives either in Vietnam or after they returned.

After I finished the book I thought, you know, the book really had no plot, no hook that catches you and keeps you reading. But then I leafed through the book, and realized that you can reread any story and get something from it, and that is wonderful. Each story provides a slice of life in Vietnam, some sad, while others just fascinating.

I read through the quotes about the book and this one from the Richmond Times Dispatch comes the closest to how I feel about the book….

“The Things They Carried is more than “another” book about Vietnam….It is a master stroke of form and imagery…. The Things They Carried is about life, about men who fought and die, about buddies, and about a lost innocence that might be recaptured through the memory of stories. O’Brien tells us these stories because he must. He tells them a they have never been told before…. If Cacciato was the book about Vietnam, then this is the book about surviving it”

Bottom Line

: The Things They Carried is an A++ book. I guess that is why the book won the prestigious French Prix du Meilleur Livre Erranger award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award! huh! Everyone who wants to know more about the Vietnam War or life in general should read it!!

 

February Reading Update with Some Music, too!

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Cross-Posted from Book-Ed

As the month comes to an end it’s time for a reading recap and update. Yesterday I finished reading Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried which is the fourth book I’ve finished in February. Previously I finished The Promise of a Pencil, Throne of Glass and Revelation Space. The Things They Carried had been on my TBR pile so it counts toward my goal on the TBR Pile Challenge and since it is about the Vietnam War it counts toward the 2015 Historical Fiction Challenge. Here is a current update on my Reading Challenges…..

Reading Challenge From TBR Pile Buy/Library Total Goal % of Goal
2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 0 1 1 11 9%
2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 3 1 4 23 17%
2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 1 0 1 5 20%
2015 Science Fiction/Fantasy Challenge 1 1 2 12 17%
Totals 5 3 8 51 16%

 

I am not doing too badly after the first two months of the year. I will try to write a review of The Things They Carried,, which by the way was really, really good Guess that’s why it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award!

Early this week I added to my new daily routine The Music and Reading Hour, of course, I did for it for the first to days of the week and then came babysitting Oliver and Zoe and work at Target and  two Reading Hours were all that happened. Next week I hope to do better. Anyway, what I did was I selected a genre  of music that goes well with reading, Monday it was jazz and the other day it was New Age and created a 60 minute playlist at Spotify. Then I gathered the four books that I am currently reading, set the timer for 15 minutes, and spent that time on each of the four books. It was a nice hour! The genre for the second Music and Reading Hour was New Age.Here are the artists and albums included and the album;’s position of the December 2014 Zone Music Reporter Chart.

No Album Artist
1 Spirits Erik Scott
5 Midnight Rhumba Johannes Linstead
8 Whispers in the Winter Snow* Dan Chadburn
10 Gymnosperm: Song of the Rose Jordan de la Sierra
* initially listened to Nocturnes

 

It was a nice way to read and also listen to some new music! I have even used the Jordan de la Sierra track for meditating and Midnight Rhumba has been in my music rotation and you’ll read more about that album soon!!

 

The Music and Reading Hour……

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Music and Books Perfect Together

 

The other day I decided to get a little more organized in both my reading and music listening, I decided what I will  do is to try to set aside an hour a day to read and listen to music together. The music genres that I prefer to listen to if I am reading are: new age, jazz, classical or progressive rock.I figured I will create a 60 minute playlists containing a few tracks from several artists, that I am unfamiliar with,  in whatever genre I pick. My first music and reading hour was last Friday and the genre that I chose was jazz. To start, I reviewed the JazzWeek Charts and found five artists that I was unfamiliar with, which was not hard at all.  Then I went to Spotify, to create the playlist.

Here are the five artists and their albums with the position of the album on the JazzWeek Chart.

No Artist Album
1 Justin Kauflin Dedication
11 Joe Alterman Georgia Sunset
12 Charles McPherson The Journey
13 Sam Most New Jazz Standards
16 Dave Bass NYC Sessions

 

Music and Reading Hour Musicians..…

 

Justin Kauflin,

, Justin Kauflin is an Award-winning jazz pianist who began performing at the age of six,  in concerts, nursing homes and weddings, eventually becoming concertmaster for several orchestras.He then lost his eyesight due to a rare disease, but he never gave up.and…

…..In 2004, Justin graduated in the top 1% of Salem High School alongside his sighted peers, and valedictorian at the Governor’s School, receiving a Presidential scholarship to attend William Paterson University in New Jersey.  At WPU, he was taken under the wings of legendary trumpeter, Clark Terry and performed in the Clark Terry Ensemble.  He also had the tremendous privilege of learning from his hero, the late Mulgrew Miller, as well as Harold Mabern and the late James Williams. He graduated summa cum laude with an Honor’s degree in Music.

….Dedication is his second release and is now number 1 on the JazzWeek Charts….. more,

Joe Alterman from his website…..

In a recent feature on Joe Alterman in the Wall Street Journal, legendary writer Nat Hentoff wrote, “’Talk about the joy of jazz!…It’s a pleasure to hear this music’…You’ve got it!”

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Alterman moved to New York in the fall of 2007 to study music at New York University, where he earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Music. While there, he had the opportunity to study with greats including Don Friedman, Joe Lovano and John Scofield. More

Dave Bass’s story is also one of stick-to-it-ness…..

‘In the 70s and 80s Dave Bass

…. supported his growing family as a full time musician. Immersed in the vibrant San Francisco jazz and Latin music scene, he led his own group playing often with friends Bobby McFerrin, drummerBabatunde Lea, jazz vocalist Jackie Ryan and others at the legendary Keystone Kornerand other well known venues on the scene. In 1981…..

.In the mid-80s, after a random slip and fall on the way to a gig caused a seriously damaging wrist fracture, doctors did not offer a promising prognosis for him to ever play piano again. With his beloved music career no longer an option, and with a wife and young daughter to support, Dave enrolled at the University of California, Irvine, graduatingPhi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude. He moved on to UCLA School of Law becoming an Editor of the UCLA Law Review and began his legal career in 1992 with a prestigious commercial firm. Dave is now a California Deputy Attorney General in Civil Rights Enforcement, and was honored with the 2009 Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Achievement.

then……

….In 2005, after a twenty-year absence from the music scene, Dave’s long-forgotten dreams of playing and composing jazz were re-kindled when his own self-discovery coincided with an invitation to play some impromptu solo piano during a private party while the band took a break. The guests clamored for more and the band invited him to sit in for the rest of the night.

Dave continued on from there and since then has released to albums Gone and his current release NYC Sessions both have been very well received climbing high on the JazzWeek Charts.

Sam Most From Wikipedia.

Samuel “Sam” Most was an American jazz flautist and tenor saxophonist, based in Los Angeles. He was “probably the first great jazz flutist,” according to jazz historian Leonard Feather. Read More

Charles McPherson From Wikipedia

Charles McPherson is a jazz alto saxophonist born in Joplin, Missouri, and raised in Detroit, Michigan, most notable for his work from 1960 to 1972 with Charles Mingus…..

So I set the timer on my phone for 15 minutes and then read from these four books as I listened to the above musicians!!!

Music and Reading Hour Books

 

The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

Crown of Midnight – Sharon J Maas

Hard Rain – Barry Eisler

Green-Eyed Lady – Chuck Greaves

It was a successful experiment and a very pleasant morning, soon to be followed by more playlists and music!!

 

 

A Trip to the Library-no books, except maybe an Alex Kava

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So I had to take books back to the library yesterday — mine and my daughter Elizabeth’s. On the way, I told myself: “You are not getting any books out of the library. You’re already reading four or five!”

My counter-argument: “Well… maybe if I find something by someone I really love. Like Alex Kava.” I figured I was safe because her books usually come out in the summer.

I browsed the new-release shelf — nothing that called out. I moved on to the regular stacks, but someone else was blocking the aisle, so I jumped ahead to the end of the alphabet. At S I found Locked In by John Scalzi.

“Hey, I like this guy… and I’ve been meaning to read this one.”

Maybe I’ll just get this one book… And so it begins.

Back to the start of the alphabet — A…B…C…D…E… maybe I escape with just the Scalzi?

Then I reached the Ks.

And there it was.

NO!!! YES!!!

Breaking Creed - Alex Kava

Breaking Creed — a new book from Alex Kava. Released in January? What’s with that? Maggie doesn’t usually show up until the summer! From Amazon:

New York Times– and internationally bestselling author Alex Kava’s thrilling new series introducing Ryder Creed, ex-marine turned K-9 search-and-rescue dog trainer, as he teams up with fan-favorite FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell.

Well, that did it. New series? I have to get it.

And since I already had two books in hand… I circled back to something I’d seen under G — Green-Eyed Lady by Chuck Greaves. I don’t know Greaves, but an author I do know and read, Douglas Preston, says this about the book:

“The wickedest read of the year: smart, real, vivid as hell. I loved this book.”

How do you walk away from that? Exactly — you don’t.

Luckily they’re all four-week loans, so now I just need to finish the four books I already started. OK, enough — I need to read before I head to work at Target!

Post Update (2025): Since I first wrote this library-adventure post, a few things have changed — and a few haven’t! While I’ve read several other John Scalzi books over the years, I still haven’t read Locked In. I did finish Green-Eyed Lady, but never continued the series, which only ended up with three books total. As for Alex Kava, I’ve kept up better there — I’m now up to Book 9 in the Ryder Creed series!

February 2015 Reading Update…..

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So it’s past the middle of February and time for a reading update. My reading for the year and my Reading Challenges has been going pretty well, I have already finished three of the five books that I have planned to read for Fenruary. The books that I have finished are

Revelation Space – Alastair Reynolds – Science Fiction and TBR Pile challenges

The Promise of a Pencil – Adam Braun – Non-Fiction Challenge

Throne of Glass –  Sarah J Maas – Fantasy – my own Sci-Fi Challenge

 

All three books are really good so check them out……..Now I had planned on reading two more books Good Omens from Terry Pratchett and Nil Gaimn. and The Templar from P.C. Doherty. I am still reading  Good Omens, but not The Templar, I read the first few pages and it didn’t really like it so I have set it aside. Here’s a reading update with a little about  the five books in my reading rotation:

 

Hard Rain

 Amazon

Hard Rain from Barry Eisler – Book 2 in the John Rain series. i’ read Rain Fall Book 1 several years ago, but my library didn’t have book 2 so I put off reading th series. Then I found Hard Rain and put it on my TBR shelf. I figure now is the time to read it!!  John Rain is an interesting character an assassin who specializes in death by “natural causes” set in Japan the  first book was really good and since the series is now at eight books, From Goodreads…

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..

The book is for both my Cloak & Dagger Challenge and the TBR Pile Challenge.

Things They Carried

 

 

Amazon

The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien. From Goodreads

They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, each other. And if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since its first publication, The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature, and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.. More

The Things They Carried won several awards and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award. This book replaces The Templar as a historical fiction read and a is a TBR Pile read!!

Th Presidents' War

Amazon

The Presidents’ War : Six American Presidents and the War that Dvivided Them – Chris DeRose – This book deals five presidents who proceeded the Lincoln presidency. They were divided on the war, as well as, Lincoln’s policies. The five former President’s who were still alive during the War were, John Tyler, Martin Van Buren, James Buchannan, Millard Filimore and  Franklin Pierce. So far I have found this boo to be very interesting since, outside of Lincoln, I never learned much about any of  the other five presidents

Nonfiction Reading Challenge Book

Crown of Midnight

 

Amazon

Crown of Midnight – Sharon J Maas – Book # 2 of the Throne of Glass series. The time is right to continue with the story of Celaena Sardothien!!

My Science Fiction and Fantasy Challenge

Good Omens

Amazon

Good Omens – Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen – I will continue reading this funny book!

My Science Fiction and Fantasy Challenge and TBR Plle Challenge

For a more detailed reading update visit my Reading Challenge Update Page. So far seven books finished and five in process!!

Feb1995 Reads- Novels from Bill Pronzini, Frank McConnell and Vince Kohler

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Originally posted Feb 2015 updated Nov 2025

 

Tonight I started thinking about books that I’ve read, and decided to look at my Goodreads Bookshelf to see what books I finished in February of 1995, 20 years ago,yeah right!  

Books Read in February 1995

  • February 4 – Liar’s Poker – Harry Garnish #4 – Frank McConnell
  • February 21 –  Banjo Boy Eldon Larkin #3 – Vince Kohler
  • February 25 I Shackles a Nameless Detective # Bill Pronzini.

Shackles – Nameless Detective #16 – Bill Pronzini

Of the three Shackles was my probably my favorite. While I don’t remember all of the details I do remember that it was a great read! In fact the book was nominated for an Anthony Award for Best Novel (It lost to Thomas Harris; Silence of the Lambs, tough competition!

About Shackles from Goodreads…..

Who is the slightly overweight, Italian-American private investigator who never reveals his name? He is the “Nameless Detective”. This time the San Francisco Bay area’s hottest sleuth finds himself the victim of a ruthless, fiendish, and unknown enemy’s revenge.

That revenge involved shackling Nameless in a remote mountain cabin!! I just remember that it was a page turner that i finished in 4 days!

Bill Pronzini;s Nameless detective series was a staple of my reading in the 90s. Quicksilver, the 11th book in the series was the first Nameless Detective book I read. I read it in 1990, by the year 2000, I had read 11 more.books including:

Here are the Nameless Detective books I read through the ’90s and early 2000s. For the full series and more recent updates, visit my Bill Pronzini author page.

Deadfall (Nameless Detective, #15)
Jackpot (Nameless Detective, #17)
Hoodwink (Nameless Detective, #7)
Breakdown (Nameless Detective, #18)
Quarry (Nameless Detective, #19)
Epitaphs (Nameless Detective, #20)
Demons (Nameless Detective, #21)
Shackles (Nameless Detective, #16)
Sentinels (Nameless Detective, #23)
Boobytrap (Nameless Detective, #25)
Illusions (Nameless Detective, #24)

In the 2000s I read two more Nameless novels Crazybone (Nameless Detective, #26) and Nightcrawlers (Nameless Detective, #30). As I look over the Nameless Series at Goodreads, I see that June 23rd is the anticipated release date for book number 39 in the series Vixen!

Maybe I can get back into reading the series again by then…..I just found the book Mourners (the book that follows Nightcrawlers on my TBR bookshelf

  I guess I should start there, or maybe I should start with Book 1 The Snatch!! What do you think??

2025 Update: Since writing the original post, I did go back to the Nameless series. I finally read Mourners (#27), which follows Nightcrawlers, and just this month I finished Savages (#31). I’m working on a new post about Savages now — I’ll link it here once it’s live. But I still haven’t read Snatched!

Frank McConnell – Liar’s Poker – Harry Garnish #4

The  Frank McConnell book that I read Liar’s Poker was the 4th and final book in the Harry Garnish series. The series featured Sister Bridget O’Toole, a nun who inherited her father’s investigative agency, and Henry Garnish, her chain-smoking, hard-drinking, salty-mouthed assistant and they were great, really funny, as well as, exciting.

I always wished that McConnell had written more, for years if I was at the library and was looking for a good book I’d remember these books, and go and look to see if there was anything new.. Just tonight I found out why there were no more books,. Mr McConnell died in 1999. You can read more about Frank McConnell here. Seems like he was a terrific teacher and writer!

Vince Kohler – Banjo Boy (Eldon Larkin #3)

Finally, Banjo Boy by Vince Kohler….Banjo Boy was the third book in Vince Kohler’s series featuring Eldon Larkin.

From Mystery File:

Vince Kohler wrote four books, Rainy North Woods (1990), Rising Dog (1992), Banjo Boy (1994), and Raven’s Widow (1997). All four featured journalist Eldon Larkin who worked as reporter/photographer for the South Coast Sun, the local newspaper for small town Port Jerome, Oregon. Educated, he reads French classic literature in the original language, but proving how useful his education is, Eldon is a loser when it comes to the important things in life — women, cars, and career. He left Berkeley California and an ex-wife behind, and now dreams of the big story that will get him a job with a big city newspaper. Continue Reading

I have read three out of the four Eldon Larkin books with Raven’s Widow being the one I missed, maybe I should go back and read it!! like the other two series I remember enjoying the series.

Anyway, if you pick up any of the books by Bill Pronzini, Frank McConnell or Vince Kohler, I don’t think you’d be disappointed!! So check them out!!

Throne of Glass – Sarah J Maas

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Throne of Glass – Sarah J Maas – (Book 6 for 2014)

 

So the question is: Can a 63 year-old grandfather love a book that features an eighteen year-old kick-ass female protagonist? The answer is a resounding hell yes!! The book is Throne of Glass and the heroine is Celaena Sardothian the Adarlan Assassin who has been captured and sent to a slave labor camp. Celaena has amazingly survived 1 and 1/2 years in the Endovier Salt Mines, when the story begins. The novel opens when Crown Prince Dorian Havillliard of Adarlan visits and makes Celaena and offer she can’t refuse return with him to Rifchold and be his champion in a competition to be his father, the King’s Champion! If she wins and serves the King for four years, she will be set free. Soon Celaena is on her way to join a competition against twenty-three killers, thieves and warriors to become the King’s Champion and ultimately be set free.

Soon Celaena is in the competition of her life against not only the assembled competitors but against an evil that is lose in the Castle. An evil that is brutally slaying the competitors one by one. But Celaena is not in the fight alone, along the way she is helped by the spirit of the first Queen of Adarlan Elena, and from Princess Nehemia Ytger of Eyllwe, Celaena’s naive land. A land that has been subjugated by Adarlan forces. Celaena’s presence upsets the whole castle as Crown Prince Dorian sees her as more than just his champion in the competition and Chaol the Captain of the Guard must not only protect Celaena from danger, but also Dorian from the dangerous Celaena!!

I thought that the book was a well-written page turner with just the right mix of mysticism and suspense. I enjoyed all the main characters Celaena, Dorian, Chaol and Nehemia. I also thought that the attraction between Chaol and Celaena and Dorian and Celaena was handled just about right!

Here’s a quote from Kirkus Reviews that sums up my thoughts about Throne of Glass fairly well…..

“Woven in the vein of a Tolkien fantasy….This commingling of comedy, brutality and fantasy evokes a rich alternate universe with a spitfire young woman as its brightess star.”

Bottom line: Throne of Glass is a strong 4.5 out of 5 book. It was exciting and entertaining throughout the book. It was a great choice for my first exploration of the Young Adult genre and I look forward to checking out similar books! I already have the second book in the series checked out of the library. I don’t know if I can put off reading it long enough to finish some of the other books that I am reading or planned to read!! Oh, what the hell maybe I’ll just start it. What do you think??

Links for Further Explorations of Sarah J Maas and Throne of Glass

Sarah J Maas Website
Facebook: Throne of Glass
Twitter: Sarah J Maas
Amazon:Sarah J Maas