Its been a few weeks since my last book review, and it’s not that I have slowed down my reading per say but instead its that the latest book I read, Assegai by Wilbur Smith was one of those books I had a tough time getting through. For each book I read, I do read custom reviews, and the reviews for this book were varied all over the place from being great to being horrible. What interested me about Assegai was that the author Wilbur Smith had such a stellar track record and I had never read any of his work, so I figured I better give it a shot.
The book takes place leading up and to the start of World War 1 in British Africa. The story revolves around a british solider and his relationship with the African natives who are his biggest supporter throughout the novel. The first half of the book talks of the main characters war background and then his eventual transition into hunting. The last portion of this book brings up this rather unbelievable love story that has very little to do with the rest of the book. The ending is extremely underwhelming especially for such a well developed novel.
Overall I just never got into Assegai. It was excellently narrated, one of the best narrated books of teh year, it was just a shame that the book itself although beautifully written with great metaphors for life sprinkled throughout the novel, it ends up falling for short for what it could have been.
Joel Books
There have only been two audible books that I have listened to and stopped part way through. First Family by David Baldacci was one of them. I started this book in early April and just had a horrible time getting into it. This is a book falling just shy of 15 hours and by around 2 hours into it I gave up. So a few months later I was a few weeks away from getting my next Audible credit so I decided to give the book another chance and listen to the entire book promising myself to get through it. I have never read any David Baldacci in the past but have heard raving reviews, and although the reviews on this book were mixed I was still expecting a decent story. That just was not the case.
This is the first book I can honestly say I really did not enjoy on Audible. In fact the only thing that I did like was the stellar voice acting, it was truly superb. Outside of that the story had a few side stories to go along with the main narrative that could have been thrown out all together. You get literally half way through the book and they take a good hour or so exploring an avenue that really had a very poor tie in to the rest of the novel. I just didn’t understand a lot of the underlying complexities to a plot line that was dense enough on its own merits. What really bothered me way Baldacci’s heavy handed approach with the books message about hatred, which he spells out in far to great of lengths. To top it all off there is a very subtle love story intertwined into all of this that for me worked but it was so minute in comparison to the scope of the book that it fell flat in the end.
If you cannot tell already I was really disappointed with First Family. I thought the first time I listened through the opening chapters that maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for the book, but having given it the good old college try the second time through I have to say that this is one of the most disappointing audible purchases I have made since being a member over a year ago.
Joel Books
It’s been a while since i wrote a book review, not because I haven’t been reading but because I just haven’t made the time to write about it. However the latest book I read One Second After by William R Forstchen was one book I really felt the need/urge to write about. One Second After is a book about an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) attack on the United States and what the coming hours, days, months, and years would be like if we were attacked. The book is told through the eyes of an ex military man who has turned into a college professor who has two daughters.
What I loved about One Second After wasn’t all about just understanding what would happen in the event of an EMP attack but also understanding human nature. This book gave an amazing look at how human nature can turn to desperation so quickly especially when we all are as reliant on electricity and products with chips in them to get through life. The book also brings up several other social issues like class status and how that goes out the window in an event such as this but how a small town that was once all friendly can just as quickly turn and become mortal enemies. One Second After was an emotional roller coaster from start to finish.
When it is all said and done One Second After really has stuck with me and I finished reading it over a week ago. Its one of those novels that really makes you think well after you finish it. If your into audio books I would make sure to check it out as the narrator does a heck of a job bringing the story to life. All in all this was one of my favorite books of the year and I really think everyone should be required to read it just to have an idea of what could happen to our great country if we were attacked by an EMP, it is a pretty scary world.
Joel Books
Have you ever heard the name George Mallory? Maybe you have if your big into mountain climbing, but my guess is most of you haven’t heard of him. Well I know before listening to Paths of Glory I had never heard the name, and now that I have read the book I would love to know more. The basic premise of Paths of Glory is a novel based on a true story about George Mallory an English climber who made a few attempts at climbing Everest and it is unknown if he ever reached the summit.
Paths of Glory is written by Jeffrey Archer who wrote my favorite book in the past few years A Prisoner of Birth, so when I heard Archer was coming out with a new book I bought it the day it came out. Path of Glory was no disappointment, in fact similar to the A Prisoner of Birth I got really into this book to where I was driving around just to hear more of the book. A sign of a great book is one that keeps you thinking about it even when your not reading it, and Paths of Glory was one of those books, I just couldn’t get it out of my head.
What I loved about Paths of Glory was that Jeffrey Archer made him a real person, not some idol, he made mistakes, he learned from, and he kept on to accomplish his goal. I have to say that I loved this book, it was the best book I have read/listened to in 2009 and I would even think about re-listening to it if I had the time to.
Joel Books
I have been on a wierd phase as of late. The majority of the audio books that I have been listening to have some sort of middle eastern theme to them. Whether it be The Kite Runner or my latest read/listen through of Exile by Richard North Patterson. I bought this book for a number of reasons the two books I wanted to buy were not out yet and secondly it had been one I had contemplated a few times before and just never went through with. So I finally buckled down and picked up Exile for my first 20+ hour read through.
As I mentioned this was the longest Audible book I have read thus far and for me that was probably Exile’s worst characteristic. It was far to long and drawn out to the point where you found yourself not caring for long periods of time. The overall story is about a graduate of Harvard Law who falls in love with a woman who is already predetermined to marry another man. The story comes back thirteen years later and he is now defending her in court as she is convicted of murdering the President of Israel.
What was somewhat upsetting to me was how much detail and time they put into pointless ventures while the the ending clearly just comes to a really disappointing confusing. I understand everything can’t tie up all nice in a neat bow but some semblance at the end of the book would have been nice. Overall I can’t say I was overly pleased with this book, although it had a few ups it had far to many downs. If I was to give a grade to this book it would be a C-.
Joel Books Audible, Books, Exile
I try not to read the same authors over and over again with my monthly Audible credits, but instead continue to try new authors to get a taste for what I like and don’t like. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith was a highly reviewed book on Audible and I had it in my wish list for a bit, but was always a bit skeptical to pull the trigger and purchase it. Well a few weeks I broke down and made this my latest listen/read through and I have to say I was not disappointed.
The book started out with a huge plot twist that has major ramifications throughout the novel. Child 44 is set in communist Russia and you follow a police Officer through his trials and tribulations of arresting those who had supposedly committed crimes against the state. I know a bit about communist Russia but this book really brought that world alive to me. It told much of the small villages hatred of the new regime and the extremely dangerous day to day life of those in bigger cities like Moscow.
This book followed a really typical progression for me it started off really fast and then came close to a complete stop leaving us with a great last hour or so of pure non stop action. The middle of this novel was really where I struggled, it seemed to kind of drag on a bit and just sort of beat around with the impending climax. But when the end came there were so many plot twists and so many questions answered that it made up for some of the less enjoyable moments of the book.
For about 1/2 of the book I was ready to just pan this novel, but for me the sign of a great book is one that even after I finish it I start to think about it through my day. The ending for Child 44 was truly a remarkable one and I would highly reccomend sticking with this book and really living through this amazing tale.
Joel Books
It probably should tell me right away how much I didn’t like a book when I am trying to write the post and all I can remember is the author and not the title. So Audible had a great $9.99 deal for Dean Koontz’s latest mystery thriller Your Heart Belongs to Me a short listen about an internet entrepaneur. Sounds perfect right, I at least thought so. I have only read only one Dean Koontz book in my life, in fact it was an audio book way back when on a long drive somewhere on a family vacation. This had to be at least ten years ago and to this day I still remember a lot of that book and so I figured this would be a good way to see if I still liked Dean Koontz as an author.
Your Heart Belongs to me first off makes 0 sense. I am not going to spoil the ending but when you invest eight hours of your life into something you want to at least have some sort of enjoyment out of the process. I just never could wrap my hands around this book. You have this really rich guy who has everything, and his heart goes bad and he suspects the world of wrong doing. The mystery unravels and everytime the book tries to make you question you instead just wonder if your supposed to care.
It wasn’t a bad book but the love story was just odd, the main character was sort of odd, and I just never could connect. I got to the point about 3-4 hours in that I was thinking of giving up, but then I realized I had gotten to the point of no return, there was no choice but to go forward and just finish it out. Looking back I wish I would have just gave up it was just a really odd, somewhat depressing read that made me hesitate to want to read Dean Koontz again.
Joel Books
I am back at Audible.com! And boy does it feel great to be back! They gave me $25 and I have a 30 minute ride to and from work, so it was a perfect match. The first book I bought was Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn one of the more intense reads I have gone through to date. Quite frankly this is a fantastic thriller.
If you read the reviews of Extreme Measures on the interweb you will find that it has been highly praised, and I give a lot of that to the great character development. Both Nash and Rapp (the two main characters) are highly involved characters. You also pear into the eyes of a radical Islamist terrorist which has a really nice impact on the book. The book starts fast, slows down with some legal battles, and ends with a big bang, literally.
I couldn’t have picked a better book to get back into my Audible.com fanboyism. This is a thriller in every sense of the word and is made even better by the tremendous voice naration done by George Guidall. I hear that this is a series of books about the two characters and I look forward to not only going back and reading past novels by Vince Flynn but also reading future ones. If Extreme Measures is any indication of Flynn’s ability to write a great thriller, then count me in.
The best line of the book is the final words: “Senator, we will not fail.” It literally had me at the edge of my seat drive home. Heck the last half hour of the book was so intense I forgot I was driving to work and I passed the exit and had to U-Turn back around this morning. This was a great novel and one that I am truly glad I read.
Joel Books
There are very few times that I have been truly captivated by a story, but A Prisoner of Birth by Jefferey Archer was one of the best novels I have ever read (or I should say listened to). A Prisoner of Birth was my latest book I purchased from Audible.com. I will get to the novel in one moment but first let me just say that my hat goes off to Roger Allam who did the narration for this book. Roger Allam a somewhat known British Actor couldn’t have done a better job bringing this story to life. After listening to the 16+ hour book you could see his acting shine through with so many different accents and personalities that really made this book a privilege to listen to.
The book itself tells the story of Danny Cartwright a simple down to earth man who goes out to celebrate his engagement to the love of his life with his best friend. The bad timing among other things finds Danny in jail and from there the story is something out of the pages of The Count of Monte Cristo. In fact Jefferey Archer who does an interview at the end of the audio book tells of this comparison and tells of how he thinks his story is better, which having read both, I 100% agree.
I listened to this novel with Jenn and we would get giddy before sitting down to read. This was the first audio book that Jenn has asked me if I wanted to listen to it, it was that good. The story has such a good soul that if your wanting to try an audio book this is the book that truly shows how great of a medium audio books really are. If you have a commute into work, time to spare, or just wanting to give an audio book a chance then A Prisoner of Birth would be the best choice I could ever think of. Its truly one of the best and most engaging novels I have ever had the privilege of listening to.
Favorite Quote: “Think like Danny, act like Nick” (When you read the book you will 100% understand it)
Joel Books A Prisoner of Birth, Audible
I have read now my fair share of audio books, in fact Jenn and I are currently running through another one right now. With our big trip this summer coming up, and school wrapping up I did stop my Audible account at least for now. With that being said the last book I bought with my Audible subscription is Playing for Pizza a book by John Grisham. I read The Broker by Grisham a few months ago and loved it. The Broker was set mostly in Italy, and after reading online it seems as though the country had a big place in the heart of the author as Playing for Pizza also sets itself into this location, this time in Parma, Italy. The book was about an NFL Quarterback who had some pretty bad stints in the league, and was hated so much that they really through him out of the country, and he ended up playing in the Italian NFL.
What was so interesting was that the main character Rick was one of the few paid athletes on the Parma Football team and in fact the majority of the Italian Football players literally played for the fun of the game which is why this book was so entertaining, it was refreshing to hear people playing for the love of the game. The book was a quick read, short and sweet, nothing to deep, nothing to jaw-dropping, just a good story and a good read. If you need a quick book this isn’t a bad choice by any means.
Joel Books