BOOK REVIEW ; SKELETON COAST

Title : Skeleton Coast

Author : Clive Cussler

Another Cussler, this time featuring Juan Cabrillo, chairman of the Corporation, proud owner of the ship Oregon.

And the face to where CIA turns to when they need to do "dirty stuff". As usual. 

So this time Cabrillo, on his way to a rendevous with the Congolese army to hand in tagged weapons, found himself embroiled in a search for the missing HMS Rove and the sacks of diamonds rumored to be still on board. Sloane McIntyre, DeBeers cunning representative had pursued the clues in order to claim the diamonds, but can't seem to find it on the ocean floor of the coast of Nigeria. Cabrillo met her when she started exploring the giant metallic snakes that fishermen around the area told them about, and one thing led to another. They were also caught in the middle of a high profile kidnapping, which has deadly consequences to the environment. Driven by personal hatred, Dan Singer plotted revenge on his former colleague and a lesson to the world by spilling oil into the gulf and raising the temperature if the ocean by a few degrees in order to generate a hurricane to hit America. 

Usual Cussler stuff, full of action, yet it becomes almost monotony once you've been an avid reader of his books (yeah that's me). 

But I learned stuff about hurricanes. And I met Dirk Pitt again a wee bit. So that's worth the time.

PS : i'm getting slower at reading, aren't I?

Rating ; 6/10

BOOK REVIEW ; THE HISTORIAN

Title : The Historian

Author : Elizabeth Kostova

Dracula. 

First up, I have never actually read that much about it. Not even Bram Stoker's. Not even a dracula movie, although I had glimpses of vampires on TV (where I had hurriedly change channels) due to my lack of interest. 

So this is my first formal foray into a fiction-y reading of Dracula, or real name Vlad Tepes. Oh wait. I watched a documentary on his descendants before. So this book deals with it's history, where Dracula was reigning in Wallachia, in the Transylvanian area of Europe. Okay help me out if I get some facts wrong, I really need to brush up my history and geography. So Dracula fought bitter battles with Mehmed II, the sultan of Istanbul at his time, and swore that he will outwit the sultan and his other enemies by being immortal. 

So this one PhD student, Paul, stumbled upon a strange book with a dragon engraving which he puzzled upon. He brought it to his advisor, who trembled visibly and began telling him about the supposedly legend of Dracula. Cutting things short, we are brought into a historical chase where Paul's daughter, with the aid of a young man, ran in her father's steps to retrace her own story while saving him from Dracula. In the race, she learnt about her mother, Helen, and the story behind Helen's disappearance and close ties to Dracula. All along things were learnt through writings of various individuals, and some lives were lost/ became undead through the process. 

We are brought through the streets of Istanbul (thankyou for the walk down memory lane!), Budapest (who would have known before that Buda and Pest is separated by a river?), Bulgaria, France, etc etc. 

Book was a bit confusing in the first pages (know who you are as the narrative) but it gets more interesting as it progresses. Family ties woven into a journey of learning. 

Sparked in me again the longing of learning history in good libraries, writing about it and sharing it in ways accessible to the world. Someday, when things are stable enough for my dream to be realized. 

Please be advised this is a historical fiction. Draw lines where you should. 

 

Rating : 8/10

BOOK REVIEW ; ROOM

Title : Room

Author : Emma Donoghue

Heart-wrenching.

Posted my review of Frog Music (http://thebuddinglibrocubicularist.blogspot.com/2014/01/book-review-frog-music.html) while on the road, so I might not stressed enough how she writes really well.

In Frog Music, Donoghue writes an adventure thriller jam-packed with interesting characters, but Room is really something else.

And reading Room reminds me of Little Bee that I read earlier in this year.

Room lets us into the world of Ma and I, and their world that revolves in the room they live in. Never given the chance venturing out, I learns about life as he sees it; the room. Ma has to invent stuff such as exercises around the room and explanation as to why the man comes only at night. 

Until one day, I learnt a little about reality. And together they hatched a plan to run away from their world of the room, to the world which holds promise although is ridden with harsh realities. 

A police investigation turned into a hauntingly beautiful novel. Must read. 

Rating : 10/10

BOOK REVIEW ; SOUTHERN SEAS

Title : Southern Seas
Author : Manuel Vazquez Montalban

I read this back in Professor Dienst's class. Not the last book, by the way. Kept stalling due to my awful experience.

God. Professor, I wished we did another Ripley book.

I HATE YOU FOR PUTTING US UNDER SUCH PAIN.

So this is about Pepe Carvalho, a detective who is more interested in his gastronomy and other annoying habits rather than focusing on the investigation itself. His assignment was to look for Stuart Pedrell, a businessman who went missing a year ago.

But instead of talking heavily about the plot Montalban went winding over food and it's recipes (yes you can easily get 5 recipes from this book), how skillful he is in his wines and sex. Not the kind people are interested/worth reading anyway. Seriously, I am not trying to dissuade with all my heart from reading it, but....nope.

Yet Montalban has around 19 Carvalho mysteries, and is a very celebrated writer, so...maybe a clump of people in this world are entertained.

Rating : 2/10 and how I wish it could go lower. Just thanks for bringing me around Barcelona.

PS : so far a lot of other reviews online and in class have similar views as me. So, blame isn't entirely on my shoulders. Urgh yuck.

BOOK REVIEW ; SNOW

Title : Snow

Author : Orhan Pamuk

Whoever reading enthusiast has heard of Pamuk, and hasn't read his My Name is Red?

Me.

His literary fame was enough for me to pick up his book in the Strand (oh how I miss the rows of second hand books on the New York pavement!) and stash it for "future" use.

Listless with the dismal life I am now leading at home, and missing seeing snowflakes fall on the ground, I figured out "future" in Pamuk's case is now.

This book, translated from Turkish tells about the life of a political exile poet nicknamed Ka and his struggle in finding his own voice back. Having sought asylum in Frankfurt, Ka came back to Istanbul for his mother's funeral and found Turkey same yet somewhat changed; he wanted his childhood memories back. Better yet, he wanted to relive it.

Driven by this and the urging of a friend to discover a lost schoolmate, Ka travelled to Kars, a forgotten Turkish town near the Armenian border where snow, suicide girls, religious freedom, a coup, and a beautiful woman held him back.

Desperate to find meaning in the topsy turvy of sleepy Kars while waiting for the roads to reopen, Ka experienced more emotions than he had for years. Poems flow out of him incessantly, he felt moved by the slightest event, and Ipek, the lost schoolmate beguiled his heart and soul. Terrified of the revelations he experiences, Ka tried to make the best out of the situation; taking sides in the coup and at last, destroying many hearts, including his own.

Orhan as Ka's friend wrote this memoir as a remembrance for his poet friend after Ka was shot in Frankfurt, 4 years and 36 days after leaving Kars forever.

Pamuk walked the journey that Ka traveled while in Kars, met the people central to Ka's poetry, and tried to find the assemble of 19 poems Ka had produced in his stay there. Only one was discovered through an old video of Ka's televised reading of it.

The rest of poems, as the souls who inspired it, were lost forever.

Rating : 9/10. 

I am back, and I have graduated!

Hey people. 

Abandon is a loaded word. 

Although that was kind of what I did to this blog, my time still has been occupied beautifully with books. 

So, reviews coming up. 

Meanwhile, I have graduated ( yes I am revealing who I am nowwww) from Rutgers University (hey my beloved alma mater is now Big10! Woohooo!) with a double degree in Economics and Human Resource Management. 

Yes I question myself everyday why oh why didn't I triple major in English too. Note : Must believe in yourself. 

Currently seeking for the next step in life. Have some plans, waiting for answers. 

Keep waiting for some reviews, folks. 

PS : should also put some humble reviews on the Broadway shows i've been to. 

PPS : just saying. Phi Beta Kappa! 

LISTS; CRIME FICTION FROM PROFESSOR DIENST

The perfect ending. A comprehensive list of crime fiction books from dear Professor Dienst.

ps : some suggestions were from what we did in class throughout the semester.

FEAST FER YOURSELVES, FELLOWS!

My class reading list (all books are in a part of a series, so might be worth checking out all)

1. Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett
2. The Real Cool Killers - Chester Himes
3. Ripley's Game - Patricia Highsmith (read all 7 in the series!)
4. The Laughing Policeman - Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo
5. Fatale - Jean Patrick Manchette
6. short readings from Andrea Camilleri, Cornell Woolrich, and Massimo Carlotto
7. Southern Seas - Manuel Vasquez Montalban (ergh)
8. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
9. Nairobi Heat - Mukoma Wa Ngugi
10. Brother Kemal - Jakob Arjouni

The standard list

1. Edgar Allan Poe complete works
2. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series (4 novels, 56-ish short stories)
3. G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown 
4. Marcel Allain & Pierre Souvestre's Fantomas
5. Agatha Christie complete collection
6. Georges Simenon's Maigret collection (75 books)
7. Georges Simenon's other books (also called hard books)
8. Raymond Chandler's collection
9. James M. Cain
10. Jim Thompson
11. Cornell Woolrich
12. Richard Stark
13. Tony Hillerman
14. Michael Connelly
15. Sue Grafton
16. Sarah Paretsky
17. Megan Abbott
18. Stieg Larsson's Girl With Dragon Tattoo series
19. Natsuo Kirino
20. Qiu Xiaolong
21. David Peace
22. Martin Solares=Junot Diaz=Garcia Marquez

Literary Mentions

1. Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn
2. Leonardo Sciascia's "Equal Danger"
3. Jean Claude Izzo's Total Chaos
4. Michael Dibdin
5. Colin Cotterill
6. Luiz Alfredo Garcia Roza
7. Andrey Kurkov
8. Ian Rankin
9. Honore Balzac

Historical crimes (me zoning into this list first)

1. Robert Van Gulik
2. "Aristotle's Crime"
3. Philip Cairn
4. Josephine Tey
5. Umberto Eco
6. Jason Goodwin
7. Oakley Hall
8. Jacqueline Winspear
9. Alan Furst
10. Philip Kerr
11. Bruce Alexander
12. Boris Akunin (I got Professor Dienst's copy!)
13. Walter Mosley
14. James Elroy
15. Didie Daeninckx

Movies! (yes yes yes)

1. Maltese Falcon
2. The Big Sleep
3. Out of the Past - Tourneur
4. High and Low - Kurosawa
5. The Long Goodbye - Altman
6. Chinatown - Polanski
7. Thief - Mann
8. City of God - Meirelles
9. Gommorrah - Garrone
10. Children of Men - Cuaron
11. The Constant Gardener - Meirelles
12. Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) 
13. Strangers on the Train
14. Momento
15. Twin Peaks series
16. maybe a movie from Chester Himes' books
17. BBC's rendition of Case Histories
18. OBVIOUSLY HOLMES. but Professor liked the Jeremy Brett version, I stick to Benedict Cumberbatch. We agreed that RDJ's Holmes ain't that good, though.

Check out the Bulwer-Lytton website for some fun too!

HAVE FUN READING/COUCH POTATO-ING, FELLOWS!