Sean

I always like seeing cold case mysteries get solved. The families should get that closure, at least. That makes this Bosch novel good in the end.

Some aspects of it are a little crunchy, at times. Like the scene where Bosch wonders if he was being disrespectful to his colleagues by calling them by their last name only. I guess, if literature is supposed to reflect the times, that is a good thing. Hard to picture Mike Hammer wondering if he was being disrespectful, though.

Maybe Bosch is mellowing with age.

At least he's still putting away the bad guys.

I thought this was a better outing than the debut of Alex Cross, but the reveal of Casanova felt a little out-of-left-field. Also, I feel like Patterson forces twists into the plot just for the sake of forcing twists into the plot. It gets to the point where it just gets a little too far-fetched.

Also, I feel like Alex Cross is too perfect a person to exist. Dude needs a bit more humility and not that faux-humility that Patterson tries to imbue to him.

Having a mind-numbing third-shift job that lets you listen to audiobooks while you work has led to me trying authors I don't usually care for, like James Patterson. When you need something to listen to and you're at the mercy of what's available, stuff happens.

I like the concept of Alex Cross. I understand why people like these books. To me, they're just okay. The first two books in the series are salacious for the sake of being salacious. Alex Cross is a frustrating protagonist, though. He's one of those “too good to be real” types who always has women falling for him, and never met a punch he couldn't shake off.

I think that's why I wrote the protagonists I did in my own mystery novel–they're the polar opposite of the Alex Cross-types. There's something exhausting about those beyond perfect protagonists. You just know they're the author's own avatar of who he wants to be, or thinks he is, and that's a little sad.

This book was alright. It was very clever and well done, but once I came to realize how it was going to go, it ceased to amaze and delight me, and I just pressed on to make sure I was right about the end (I was). Still enjoyable.

Fans of Star Trek will get a kick out of this. Fans of TV in general will, too. All in all a fun read.

This book has to be one of the most ambitious narratives I've ever read. It's plotted between the present (of the time of the book, of course) and four years prior. It moves seamlessly through these two times, weaving together a very complex tale and it does it successfully, as the past and the present blend without snare to present a very broad image.

The first book was something of an acquired taste. Jorg Ancrath was an arrow fired from a blindman's bow, hellbent on destruction, pain, and panic. This sequel finds a bit more of a likable Jorg. Maybe the first book blunted some of his edge. He's still a killer. He's still cleverer-than-you. But he's more reserved now. He's a man who sees the bigger picture in the game of life. He's a king of his own lands now, and there's a threat coming from a neighboring country. The Jorg from the first book might have realized the battle was unwinnable and retreated. This Jorg realizes that he has a people to protect and lands to unify under his banner.

Mark Lawrence is one of the best fantasy writers out there–emphasis on the word “writer.” Some fantasy writers are just storytellers, and there's nothing wrong with that. Lawrence understands the power of words and his prose is tight and focused. I enjoy that.

I will definitely be reading the third book.

One of the most original books I've ever read. There's a sense of melancholy running through the entire book that is almost oppressive, but this is a book not to be missed.

Well written, but weak. The reasons the girl killed herself are a lot less than a lot of people deal with on a daily basis. And to make it into some torturous game where she has people listening to her story–why didn't she tell them when she was living? Why go through the planning and everything for this tragic sport? She borders on being a psychopath. She gets zero respect from me. The main character was likable–too likable. Overall, this is a decent book. It will hold your attention. However, when you really examine it, it's not a life-altering work, nor should it be.

The first book in this series was great, epic. This...couldnt, and didn't, live up to the first book. It's okay, but it's really a bridge to the third book and that's about all. The first 400 pages drag horribly, and when it starts to get interesting, there really doesn't seem to be a point to it. The third book is set up to be quite interesting, but for the most part, I look at this book as something of a dull, tedious exercise.

There's really no such thing as a casual Rush fan. If you're a Rush fan, you know that Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio aren't their best songs. If you're a Rush fan, you know all about how those three guys are consummate musicians and songwriters. You know they have a wicked, strange sense of humor, but at heart, they remain polite Canadian boys from a small Toronto suburb.

The one thing you don't know as a Rush fan is much of their personal lives. Those three guys (especially drummer Neil Peart) always knew how to draw a line in the sand between “work” and “home.” Their private lives remained largely private. Neil wrote a few books about traveling the world by bicycle and motorcycle before his untimely passing, but they were really travelogues, insights about his experiences on the road and not so much backstage stories or tales of the three Stooges traipsing the countryside in their ongoing musical cavalcade. So, for Geddy to sit down and pen a monumental 500+ page journey that starts with his parents surviving concentration camps in WWII and arriving at where he is now, a semi-retired 70-year-old musician, father, and grandfather, is an applause-worthy feat. In MY EFFIN' LIFE, the esteemed master of the bass shows that he ain't just a musician by penning a funny, thoughtful, sometimes irreverent, and wonderfully heartfelt journey through his life and the music Rush brought to the world.

I have long been a rabid Rush fan, amassing all the records, watching the live concerts, buying bootlegs of concerts, etc...–you name it, I'm that guy. I have always said that my life could be largely encompassed by two bands: Rush and Marillion. To get his insights into the band's history, particularly the writing and recording processes of all their records has been something special. In my mind, this is the equivalent of Beatles fans getting that extended film from Peter Jackson last year.

Because Rush has always been a fairly low-drama band that was more concerned with the music than with rockstar lifestyles, there aren't a lot of explosive reveals in this book, but ol' Ged doesn't shy away from the difficult topics. Firing their original drummer, John Rutsey (and Rutsey's eventual passing when he was only 55) is one of those tough parts. The drug use and alcohol issues in the band, while they never really got in the way of the music, were a prevalent part of the book. And the most interesting and telling parts are when Ged details how his marriage struggled because the life of a touring musician is just not the most conducive career for marriage or raising a family.

Still, the overriding theme that comes out of this book is the loyalty and friendship of the main triumvirate, but also their long-time road crew, many of whom began the same journey with them in the beginning and remained in their traveling circus until the final show. That speaks to the brotherhood of the music that they all believed in and were willing to sacrifice for. It's a big reason that Rush endured, and why people gravitate to their music. They did not compromise artistically. They remained true to their vision and each other.

MY EFFIN' LIFE is easily the best book I've read this year. It's easily one of the better music autobiographies I've read. It's not going to change anyone's life. It does serve as a beautiful companion piece to a fifty-year career in the music industry.

Thanks for the music, boys. It was a helluva ride.

This is gloriously Jon Richardson at his finest. I love his work on the panel shows, and I enjoy his stand-up. There's something compelling about his fastidious nature and odd examination of the world.

At first I was a little worried by the preface and set-up, but once I got past the conceit of the novel's presentation, I rather enjoyed this book. It was far better than the 1986 Sean Connery film version of it.

William of Baskerville is essentially a 13th Century Sherlock Holmes, and Eco doesn't even try to disguise that fact. The narrator, Adso of Melk, is a good Doctor Watson stand-in. The mystery is intriguing, and it the denouement is powerful.

I can't believe Eco never bothered to give William of Baskerville a sequel. It feels like his story is unfishined. But, nevertheless, it is a solid literary mystery.

Probably my favorite of King's novels. I actually “read” this the first time listening to it on CD while I was driving back from South Dakota. Ron McLarty was the performer on that audiobook and he was fantastic. Great story. Good characters.

I've become a fan of Mark Lawrence. Obviously, he has the pedigree to be one of the best ever, but that doesn't mean he's flawless. RED SISTER, while a great book, definitely has its flaws, but the high spots and the character work go well to cover the bumps.

In RED SISTER, we meet the Sisters of Sweet Mercy convent. The Sisters are no mere religious nuns. Instead, the Sisters are basically a cross between assassins, fighters, and wizards. Depending on their bloodline, they might be gifted with a form of shadow magic, or a form of destructive magic, or perhaps unnatural speed or strength. In the convent, the young novices learn to harness their gifts and become what they were meant to be.

Nona is the main character. She runs of the Hunska blood giving her the ability to harness speed (sort of like The Flash, but not as fast). Nona is on trial for murder, but Sister Glass, the abbess of the convent, steals her from the hangman's noose and takes her to train at the convent.

The novel covers Nona's training and the friends (and enemies) she makes at the convent. It is a solid opening novel for a trilogy, but it suffers from some predictability that I'm not used to from Lawrence, and it also feels like it's about 100 pages too long. Some of the scenes and descriptions plod along, rather than hustling to their conclusion to keep the pace brisk. Toward the end, when the big final climactic battle was happening, I found myself skimming pages and passages because the action began to drag. Some might say I'm incorrect in thinking that, but it's just how I felt it drag.

RED SISTER'S strengths lie in the characterizations of Nona, Ara, Clera, and the other girls, and their interactions and bonding. In some ways, it reminded me of the friendships between Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and I found myself wanting more of that, rather than the labored action passages and the explanations and world-building.

The sequel comes out next year and I will definitely be checking it out.

To me, Alex Bledsoe wrote a perfect book. It's subtle, but not dull in any way. It's got great characters without resorting to cliche. It's got a fresh concept, but still feels familiar. I didn't think I was going to like this book, but I ended up loving it from cover to cover.

Bledsoe's continued work in the Tufa realm shows that he's created a rich, deep world worth mining.

More of the same, really. Masculine, high-adrenaline, guns and spies, and of course a supernaturally built blonde who can't get enough of the main character.

But I still enjoyed it. Stan Hurley is one of the great supporting characters. Mitch Rapp is still out doing his American James Bond thing. It's capably written and doesn't lack action.

It's a good, fast book. Not gonna change your life. Not gonna solve any of the world's problems. But it's a fun ride.

I'm not sure what to think. The logical side of me wants to give it one star because it's a mystery novel, with a real corker of a mystery, but that mystery's conclusion is...unique. (Without giving anything away.)

Now, I know the point of the book is the storytelling itself. And I know that King connects the book to his Dark Tower series in several ways. And I know that King purposely made the story's ending and connections to the Dark Tower painfully ambiguous on purpose. But it does not make the ending any less frustrating after riding through the tale for 18 chapters.

The storytelling in the book is a masterclass, though. Told through dialogue of two old-timers to a young cub reporter, there is no real action in the book–at least not in the present reality of where the story is being told. The characters spend the majority of the book sitting and chatting. But the action is told through the dialogue and lets you truly construct the tale in your mind. The use of vernacular is thorough, but never too heavy. The Maine accent comes through in the men's speech, but never to the point of annoyance.

This was a different sort of story, and told from a unique point of view. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, though.

Interesting and well-written, but with almost zero action throughout the entire book. I like my fantasy done with swords and war. This was all about political circles.