last kingdom

The Last Kingdom is not the latest Cotton Malone novel by Steve Berry, but it's pretty recent. I picked up this copy from the book sale at my library, which discarded my copy after the rush for this title calmed down (I assume.)

I've read a bunch of the Cotton Malone stories, because my wife likes them, but I haven't read all of them, nor have I read them in order, but it seems to me that Steve Berry is working on spinning off a new character; Luke Daniels. I don't recall the last one of the Cotton Malone stories I read, but Luke Daniels may have made an appearance in that one. I've been a little lax in keeping up the blog, and unfortunately, not every book makes it on here as it should

Maybe its just that Berry has written Cotton Malone as a more mature character, and now he's aging out. He's essentially retired, owns a small rare bookstore in Amsterdam, or someplace... sorry, you can read it if you want the details has new young wife, or girlfriend ibid and the new guy, Daniels, is a much younger man. Young enough that he looks to Malone for help. So maybe, its a passing of the baton, rather than a new series?

This one had a little of that Dan Brown or "National Treasure" feel to it. The Last Kingdom has Malone and Daniels trotting around the Bavarian region in Germany searching for information about this local legend. They soon discover that they aren't the only ones looking, so the sub-plots, plot twists, double-crosses (and triple-crosses!) ensue. This was a fun romp, but didn't have me glued. I can usually tell based on how long it takes me to read a book; if it isn't a great book, I don't go out of my way to keep reading. Some books keep me at the breakfast table for an extra 10 minutes, or I stay up to finish a chapter before I go to bed. Great books have me skipping other things to find more time to read. This book took weeks, so, average read.

firing point

Take a look at this book cover. Do you know who DIDN'T write this book?

That's right Tom Clancy didn't write this book. He "slipped the surly bonds of Earth" nearly 10 years ago. it means he's dead

So is this a "Tom Clancy Brand" book or something? Has anyone Penguin Random House come out and said what this is about? My wife bought this book, thinking it was written by Tom Clancy. The publishers must know that is going to be the case, and I'm sure they feel confident that adding the real author's name on there covers them in the legal department, but is that the right way to do business? Lying to customers? I don't think so. its not the smallest font on the cover I guess

For a while, books like this said something like "Tom Clancy's: super bad-ass character," which claimed some ownership, either of the story, or the characters, or something. When you look at the Tom Clancy page at Penguin Random House the 's books way outnumber the books Clancy actually wrote. Penguin Random House has them listed as books Tom Clancy "contributed to." That sounds a lot like the co-authorship attributed to James Patterson on approximately 30% of the books published in America, based on my extensive sarcastic research project. After reviewing 3 or 4 Wikpedia articles on Clancy, it looks like he started to work with co-authors a few years before he died. He also appears to have collaborated with Steve Pieczenik on the creation of the Op-Center and Net Force novel series, of which he wrote nothing. So he an Steve came up with these ideas, and then some authors got assigned to it like cub reporters in a publishing newsroom or something. 

Its like the Agribusiness of writing.

So I finished it. Jack Ryan Jr. is in the same vein as Son of Frankenstein, as far as I can see. They'd like to keep writing Jack Ryan stories but the haven't figured out how to disengage him from a normal human life span like they've managed to do with James Bond. So Jack Jr. does the same kind of word saving things his dad did, just not as well written.

If you're into the whole Tom Clancy brand, and you assume that the publishers are only working with authors who have Clancy's raw talent, and would otherwise be writing bestsellers on their own, if they weren't so interested in keeping Clancy's characters going, then you'll probably enjoy this. Mike Maden asked me to suspend disbelieve a few times too far.

I wouldn't bother. In fact I'd say we skip the book mill fake authors like the Clancy brand and James Patterson and anyone like them. We don't need publishers and marketing executives clogging up the bookshelves with curated crap and formulaic plot points designed to drive sales and make money. We want quality authors, working hard at what they do, and we want room for them on the shelves. 

Organic, farm-to-table writing, please.

life of fikry

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin, was a book sale purchase at a library I visited recently to do some work between meetings, rather than return to my office for an hour, only to turn around and drive back to within 5 miles of where I was. I picked up a few books at that sale, more than I usually do at my own library, only because I look at the offerings so often at my library, many of them are the same. I think it may also be true that the same small group of people donate books to the library book sale, and their tastes are well represented there, and may not always align with my own. chick lit is fine, now and again, but romance novels are a bridge too far

A.J. is a bookstore owner on a small island off the coast of my own Massachusetts. Its not quite Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard, but its close enough to either to make it clear that’s what the author is talking about. maybe elizabeth islands? its even quieter there A.J. is a smart guy, he just hasn’t had the best of luck. The story follows A.J. through his ups and downs, and while they aren’t earth shattering to us as readers, I’m sure these changes are dramatic enough for A.J.

What makes Fikry’s story interesting enough to warrant a book about it, even one which refers to his life as ‘storied’, is the unlikeliness of more than one of these things happening to the same person, especially when that person lives on a small island off the New England coast. Even more unlikely is how these events all seem to be connected somehow.

Zevin has crafted a sweet, tightly knit, and interesting story about a quiet, book-loving, thoughtful man. But its just good, not great. I’m not sure I know whats missing, but I did find myself reading a few minutes extra to find out what happens next, so it was an enjoyable read, just one that I ultimately didn’t find what I was looking for in.

empty ever after

I read this book on vacation, and I'm still playing catch-up. Its been weeks, and I've read a few books since I finished this one, so I'm going to keep it short on this one, and the next few so I can get caught up.

Empty Ever After is another Moe Prager novel in the series by Reed Farrel Coleman, and the third one for me. I wasn't able to find copies of them in order when I was looking but you can get them on Amazon now. Barnes and Noble didn't carry them last year when I was in there, but I did find them in a small, specialty bookstore in Brattleboro, Vermont; Mystery on Main Street.

So a few years has gone by for Moe Prager since the last story I read, and things haven't really improved for the guy. Prager takes it on the chin pretty hard, and while some things seem to go his way, like his cases (eventually), he certainly has his share of hard knocks along the way. Coleman uses this technique to keep Prager grounded, and to enliven his inner monolog, which we're privy to as the now semi-crusty private dick narrates his story and his life.

This one was good, I wish I read them in order.

silas marner

Silas Marner is one of those books I saw the smart kids carrying in high school, and the journalism kids carrying in college, but I never got around to it. I found copy a few years ago in McIntyre and Moore, Booksellers, in Davis Square, so I guess its been a while; they're gone now. The copy I bought is a pretty little hardcover, clothbound in bright blue buckram, with a blue burnished top, and gray and white endpapers decorated with the publisher's (Collins) logo, two back-to-back, linked "c"s, set in a diamond grid. Looks a lot like the Chanel logo, if you ask me, but it probably predates it. The book jacket is almost perfect. click on the cover for a blow up

This copy also has an interesting provenance: it was printed in the UK by Collins,* of London and Glasgow, in 1970, as part of their Collins Classics, and is numbered on the spine as 523, and then purchased in South Australia, according to a sticker placed on the inside cover, which reads:

BECK BOOK CO. PTY. LTD.

New and Secondhand Booksellers

53 PULTENEY STREET,

ADELAIDE, S.A. 5000.

There is a half title page, which includes an etching of the author on the verso, and a handwritten dedication on the recto, in French, which reads:

A mes petites amies Ariane et Daphnaé avec mes meilleurs voeux et gros baisers. Canberra, 1976, Tania Joukovsky

Which I've translated as:

To my little friends Ariane and Daphnae with my best wishes and big kisses. Canberra, 1976, Tania Joukovsky

Assuming the book was purchased in Adelaide, and mailed out from Canberra, a two hour flight, or 11 hour drive from Adelaide, I assume our Miss Joukovsky was traveling in the southern part of Australia and mailed this to two young girls (sisters?) here in the States, or maybe Canada?

So how was the read? Silas Marner was pretty good. There are a few other, shorter stories in this volume, and few poems. The other short stories reminded me of Henry James, particularly; The Turn of the Screw, and Daisy Miller: A Study. Its not that those short stories were similar in plot, its more a similarity of subject matter and writing style. Both The Turn of the Screw and The Lifted Veil deal with vaguely occultist matter, and both Daisy Miller and Brother Jacob are studies of a particular character.

George Elliot--a pseudonym for Miriam Evans--is a very careful writer, and pays close attention to the writing and character development. It doesn't seem as if the plot is the driver in her stories, its the writing. A similarity she also seems to share with James.

Silas Marner: The Weaver of Ravelow is about 175 pages, and it is a study of a bachelor who is torn from the place he knows and transplanted in a new place: Ravelow. Elliot then studies what happens to him as various things befall him, and writes about the results. This is also true with the supporting characters, and even some of the minor characters. Elliot seems very interested in what makes people tick, and examines it in her writing.



* I assume this is William Collins and Sons, acquired by HarperCollins, who still prints Collins Classics under the name New Collins Classics.

venetian judgement

This the last book I read in Italy, and I finished it when I got home. I bought this in the same store in Italy, which seemed to have British imports, but who knows, maybe they're American. The cover on the last one I read didn't seem to match the cover shown on my local (American) book buying sites.*

The Venetian Judgement is also a spy novel which takes places partially in Italy. Venice as you can imagine from the title. This one is written by David Stone, a pen name in the author blurb it actually says 'cover name' for a very mysterious type of guy who has lived in "North America, South America and Southeast Asia". Yeah. Very mysterious. I guess I hope he doesn't get killed for writing this novel?

Anyways, this writer, whatever his or her name is, but lets call him David Stone, DOES seem to know his stuff. The military and intelligence backgrounds (also eluded to in the blurb) seems to show in the writing. The Venetian Judgement centers around a character named Micah Dalton, sometimes know as the Crocodile. Stone has 4 novels out, each featuring Dalton. I think this is the third one so Dalton has some history, which is eluded to in this story. In this story, Dalton is introduced as a CIA 'cleaner' which I take to mean, a guy who comes in after the nasty bits are done by others, to clean up, but it may be that he doesn't just take out the trash, he may have a hand in its production. I guess I need to read more spy novels Stone's grasp of the lingo certainly seems solid, but it did leave me wondering in a few places.

I was again pleased with the Italian connection and delighted to have found a very entertaining read for the end of my vacation and the flight home. I'll also keep my eyes open for any more David Stone novel I happen to see.

* Yeah, the cover on Amazon doesn't match the cover of the book I bought in this case either.

jefferson key

Cotton Malone is back in action. Malone returns in The Jefferson Key;  the seventh installment of this retired agent from the super-secret Magellan Billet, within the Justice Department, from author, Steve Berry.

Malone got out of the spy business, after it ruined his personal life and nearly killed him on various occasions. Now he is officially retired, though only fifty or so, and he lives in a quiet, northern European city, where he owns a bookstore.

Even though he retired from an American agency, in the past, Malone's adventures have been mainly outside the US, often times assisted by a few close European ties, with an occasional help from his friend, the President of the United States. But in The Jefferson Key, the action takes place mainly in America, and in close association with the president and white house staff. The adversary, in this case, is a secretive privateering organization, which has been plying the waters--and more recently, the world financial network--based on a Letter of Marque granted to their ancestors by George Washington.

Berry flexes his history muscles in this one, as he has in the past, and Cotton Malone and friends are soon tied up in a historical Gordian Knot, which they need to unravel in order to prevent catastrophe. The historical puzzle has a familiar characteristics: it involves the secret plans of some of the founding fathers, lost or hidden documents, secret codes and puzzles, and clues which may lie right under our noses, in plain sight! yeah, where have we seen that before

It was a fun romp nonetheless. I think I missed a few of Berry's books since the last one I read, The Charlemagne Pursuit, which I didn't like very much so I'll have to look for them at the library.

kennebunk book port

The Kennebunk Book Port bookstore in Kennebunkport, Maine is a great, privately owned, old world bookstore. Its tucked in on the second floor, over a fancy gift emporium, in what used to be a rum warehouse. You walk between the weather beaten, clapboard dock buildings, and up a set of stairs to a large porch which looks out over a small inlet of the Kennebunk River, which splits Kennebunkport from Kennebunk lower village.

Like many of the stores in Dock Square, the building is old, and the old wooden floors, walls and framing are left exposed. The shelving is made in the same rough wood to match. There is a desk in the middle of the floor, close to a steel spiral staircase to the upper level (the attic), and there is a couch for reading by the big window which looks out over the square.

[Screeach!] That, my dear friends, was the sound of me dragging the needle off the record of the serenade I was just singing to you about this bookstore. I (Just Now!) went looking for their web site so I could provide you with the link, and found that they have moved since I was there last. So, forget all that. It was great when I was there, you can check out the new location for yourself and let me know.

I had a chat with the proprietor when I was there last, and he was asking what kind of books I read, and recommended a book for me: The Beast God Forgot to Invent, by Jim Harrison. This is a collection of 3 short stories that are very well written about some edges-of-humanity kind of folks. I liked it a lot.