BOOK DETAIL/INFORMATION:

This is the sixth Spenser novel written by Robert B. Parker.  It was originally published in 1980.  The book’s title character Rachel Wallace would go on to be a recurring character in the Spenser universe.

Preceded By: The Judas Goat
Followed By: Early Autumn

PLOT SUMMARY:
Rachel Wallace is a lesbian feminist author who hires Spenser for a security detail.  She’s completely biased against him and his macho ways and eventually fires him.  Afterwards, she is kidnapped and “The Code” kicks in and Spenser takes it upon himself to rescue her.

COMMENTARY:
This is a pretty straight forward Spenser novel which is to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Parker deals with some pretty heavy issues for the time.  Sure these days lesbians in the media are a dime a dozen, but back when this was published in 1980 they were few and far between.  The first time I read this I don’t recall enjoying this one all that much, but years later when re-reading for this blog I find that this stretch (from Mortal Stakes through A Savage Place) are some of my favorites.  As always, Parker makes me laugh at least a couple of times during each novel.  One instance between Spenser and Rachel in particular had me rolling:

“I am told you are quite tough.”
“You betcha,” I said.  “I was debating here today whether  to have lobster Savannah or just eat one of the chairs.”

I’m a big fan of the Spenser “universe” as a whole and it’s always nice to see the origin of the characters which pop up from time to time.  Now that Dr. Parker is gone there won’t be any more entries into the Spenser series but we can always go back and read his older works.  If you haven’t yet, this is a good one to check out.

At time the book can be a little “boring” but let’s face it… that’s what it’s SUPPOSED to be based on the title and the fact that it’s nothing more than a transcript of Smith’s blog.  However, Smith’s control of the English language in both his script writing as well as his stand up comes through in his blogging style as well.  I laugh out loud watching his movies and I laughed out loud MANY times while reading this book.

The secondary tag line for this book is, “The Uncomfortably Candid Diary Of Kevin Smith” and that’s very accurate.  If you don’t like bad language or discussion about anything and everything when it comes to married life, then you simply will not be able to get through this read.  Smith delves into everything from sex with his wife to his diet (and everything associated with dieting).  While there is no “plot” per se, this follows the time in Smith’s life when he’s filming Catch and Release and directing Clerks 2.  I was also particular fond of the (rather large) section of the book that dealt with Smith’s friend Jason Mewes’ addiction and subsequent cleaning up.

If you’re a fan of Smith and his work then I’d give this a definite thumbs up.  If not you can probably pass.  Unless of course you’re into bad language, potty humor and a bluntness that hasn’t been seen since the likes of George Carlin.

BOOK DETAILS/INFORMATION:

This is the ninth Jesse Stone novel written by Robert B. Parker. It was originally published in 2010 and was the first book published after the death of Dr. Parker.

NOTE: This review will contain spoilers.

Preceded By: Night And Day

PLOT SUMMARY:

This is essentially two stories in one novel, one of them being a Jesse Stone story and one of them being a Sunny Randall story.  The Stone side of the story goes something like this.  A mob shooter ends up dead in the trunk of his car in Paradise.  After some investigation, Jesse and crew find out that not only do they have one former mob boss living in Paradise, but they’ve got two that happen to live right next door to one another.  Oh yeah… and they’re married to twin sisters.  If that wasn’t good enough, the sisters have a past that has given them the moniker of “The Bang Bang Twins”.  You do the math.  Jesse goes on a bender based on Jenn issues that are still not dealt with.  Another body shows up and Jesse quickly begins to deduce that the twins are somehow involved.  There are a few twists and turns by the time everything is solved which I won’t reveal here.

As I said, there is also a Sunny Randall story going on here as well.  Sunny has been hired by a girl’s parents to find out who has “kidnapped” their daughter.  Turns out she’s run away and joined a “cult” which she is very happy with.  A little while later, Sunny learns that the girl has gone missing from the cult as well and learns that the parents have kidnapped their own daughter away from the cult.  Sunny’s friend Spike helps Sunny rescue the girl from her parents and return her to where she’s happiest (with the commune).  That is until she’s forced into  some sexual situations she’s not comfortable with (imagine that).  When Jesse and Sunny let the leaders of the cult know that they’ve got the situation figured out they conveniently agree to leave town and wrap up this part of the story.

Obviously during these two plots, Jesse and Sunny have been spending quite a bit of time together.  Jenn and Richie are no longer a part of Jesse and Sunny’s lives so it’s full speed ahead for their relationship.  By the time the book ends they’re professing their love for one another.

COMMENTARY:

This book was published after Dr. Parker’s death, so as I was reading it I couldn’t help but have a heavy heart.  I have to say that I was thrilled to see the Jesse and Sunny storyline continue in earnest without Jenn and Richie getting in the way.  I’m not sure what I think of having two story lines going on in one book.  I think Parker could have very easily gotten Sunny to Paradise without giving her a case there.  It seemed like both plots were a bit rushed and tied up a bit too neatly for my tastes (especially the Stone plot).  I’ve never been a big fan of the way Parker allows some of his plots to end with either the bad guy essentially “getting away with it” due to “the code” (particularly with Spenser) or the way his character allow vigilante justice to take care of things.  With those plot devices aside, I still always enjoy Parker’s novels primarily due to the witty dialogue and character interaction.  While this definitely isn’t my favorite of Parker’s novels it’s not my least favorite either.  I’m not sure how many (if any) additional Jesse Stone novels we’ll get so I’m certainly glad I got to read this one.

He covers everything here from his early life where he learned how to hate tennis to his victories in Grand Slams, marriage, divorce and fatherhood.  And yes, you are reading that right… he HATES tennis.  He says it over and over again to the point where there is absolutely no question of whether he’s being serious or not.

Agassi pulls no punches here.  There are players on tour that he didn’t like (Becker) and some that he thought were cheap (Sampras) and he tells you each and every detail.  He talks about his marriage and eventual divorce to Brooke Shields as well as how he met his soul mate Stefanie Graf (don’t call her Steffi… she hates it).  Make no mistake about it, for this book image definitely isn’t everything.

As I said before, if you’re a tennis fan this is one you should pick up.  If you’ve ever been an Andre fan it’s an absolute must read.

PS: If you’re interested in seeing Andre and Pete get into it at a recent charity even check out the video below.  Classic!

• How many moons does the earth have?  At least 7.
• The hottest part of a chili?  It’s the central membrane.
• A jalapeno = 4,500 SHUs (Scoville Heat Units) which means it needs to be watered down 4,500 times until you can’t taste it any more.
• The hottest chili is a “dorset” which chimes in at 923,000 SHU – holy shit!
• What effect does alcohol have on bran cells?  It doesn’t actually kill them (YEA!!!)  In fact, it just makes new ones grow less quickly.
• A hangover actually comes from the brain shrinking due to dehydration.  The brain itself feels no pain… it’s actually the membrane around the brain.

A couple of hundred pages of stuff like that.  Some are more interesting than others for sure but it definitely held my interest.  My one big bitch was that there was many times way too much info about a particular nugget of info.  For example telling me that Columbus did not in fact discover America but some other dude did is kind of cool.  Going on for a page and a half about said dude’s back story and where Columbus actually landed was not.

Some folks may really like this.  For me there were some interesting stuff and other stuff that I just skipped over.  Definitely a good bathroom book!

NOTE: This review will contain spoilers.

Like The DaVinci Code and it’s predecessor Angels & Demons, this book follows Dr. Robert Langdon as he goes on a treasure hunt.  Set in Washington, D.C. and dealing with Freemasonry, The Lost Symbol is an outstanding follow up to Code.  Langdon gets an early morning phone call summoning him to Washington for a last minute speaking engagement on behalf of an old friend.  When he gets there, Langdon quickly realizes that he’s been set up and there is no speech to be made.  In reality, Langdon must use all of his training and cunning to save his friend’s life while solving the riddles that have been put before him.

The villain in all of this is the tattooed Mal’akh who has an obvious obsession with Langdon’s friend Peter Solomon who happens to be a 33rd degree Mason with access to all of the Mason’s most guarded secrets – including The Lost Word.  Mal’akh has kidnapped Solomon and will kill him unless Langdon follows the clues that the Masons have left throughout history.  In addition to the Mason’s clues, Mal’akh proves to be a brutal advisory that Langdon must outwit while trying to elude the CIA who’s also on the case.

COMMENTARY:

This is not an “easy” read by any stretch of the imagination.  Brown’s got some sentences that seem to run on forever and the stuff that he’s talking about while fascinating can be confusing at times.  Brown does an amazing job of describing not only the character of Mal’akh but also the brutality that he emits.  I couldn’t help but thinking of the “Dragon” character from The Red Dragon when thinking about Mal’akh.  The tattoos are an obvious correlation, but the mentality of the character is what really got me.  He really thinks that what he’s doing is completely justified.

You can tell when a book is well written when you continue thinking about it long after you put it down.  There was one chapter in particular that really got me – the drowning.  The way it is described is stunning and really had me on edge after I closed the book.  Pure brilliance.

I don’t think this is Brown’s best Langdon novel (that title lies with Angels & Demons) but it’s definitely worth the read.  Brown has an uncanny knack of keeping you guessing till quite literally the final page.  With the success of the previous books and movies you can pretty much guarantee that Tom Hanks will play Robert Langdon once again.

BOOK DETAILS/INFORMATION:

This is the thirty-eighth (38) Spenser novel written by Robert B. Parker. It was originally published in 2009.  Recurring characters include Susan Silverman, Vinnie Morris, Hawk, Tony Marcus, & Ty Bop.

NOTE: This review will contain spoilers.

Preceded By: Rough Weather

PLOT SUMMARY:

Spenser is hired by a lawyer named Elizabeth Shaw to get to the bottom of her client’s problem – blackmail.  Shaw’s clients, wives of rich older men, have a mutual connection: they’ve all had an affair with a man named Gary Eisenhower— and now that he’s done doing the dirty with them, he’s getting dirtier… he’s going after the cash.   Spenser is hired to make Eisenhower “cease and desist,” but as many of Parker’s novels nothing is as it seems.  As bodies start turning up, Spenser’s call to action turns from blackmail to murder.  Susan Silverman offers her take on the situation and Spenser calls on old friends Hawk and Vinnie Morris to help him get to the bottom of things.

COMMENTARY:

I’ve had this post in my drafts for a while now and I felt compelled to finish it based on the untimely passing of Robert B. Parker.  As with all of Parker’s novels it’s all about dialogue.  The back and forth between Spenser and his clients makes for a very quick read though it does seem like we’ve been down these paths before.  I’ve never been a Susan hater but I don’t necessarily need to hear (from her) how good she and Spenser are in bed or that she went to Harvard yet again.

As he did in Rough Weather, Spenser ends up letting a murder walk in the end of the book.  I’m sure this is all about “The Code” but I just don’t get it.  I could almost forgive it in the last novel based on the fact that it was with Rugar but this was a brand new character that Spenser had no history with.  This one left me scratching my head.

I’ve read every Spenser novel that Parker has ever written so I won’t bother with an objective recommendation.  I’m so so sad that this is the last Spenser novel (unless there’s something sitting on the shelf that we don’t know about).  On a purely selfish level I’m glad that we’ve got one more Jesse Stone novel to look forward to.  It’s been a great ride Spenser…thanks for everything.

Suburban mother Grace’s world is turned upside down when she picks up some family photos and notices one that should be there.  A photo of her husband that’s twenty years old has been magically inserted into her pack.  Her husband Jack sees the photo and heads out of the house later that night leaving Grace and their kids to wonder just where he went.

Hours turn into days where Grace has not heard from Jack.  As Grace does some digging into the background of the mysterious photo she soon realizes that there is much more than meets the eye… she’s not the only one looking for Jack.

This one started out very slowly for me.  I’m not sure why but it really did take me quite a while to get into it.  Ever had one of those books where you had to read the first couple of chapters a couple of times to get started?  I can’t tell you how glad I was that I pushed on because it got REALLY good once I got over that initial hump.  There are a couple of different story lines going on here and there’s a couple of characters that are quite simply “killer”.

If you’re looking for a new author I’d suggest Harlan Coben’s Just One Look.  It’s not my favorite of Coben’s novels but the tail end of this one is really strong.  Get past those first few chapters and you’re in for a treat.  You’ll be glad that you did.

This book follows James and his buddies (The Fab Five) on their quest to win a national high school basketball championship.  We follow them from grade school through their senior season at Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.  Some of the games are glossed over which is completely fine.  Others are broken down to possession by possession recaps of who scored and how.  For someone who enjoys watching college basketball because the game is “more pure” than the pro game this was nice to see, but I have to admit that it got to be a bit much.

Lebron James is obviously the biggest star in this book.  Hearing the back stories of the other guys was interesting but in the end became a bit boring to me.  The last chapter where we were told how the guys are doing now was rather interesting.  If you’re looking for any info about James as a Cavalier go get yourself another book cause there is essentially nothing here for you.

I will say that this is a quick rather enjoyable read, but it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting.  It’s amazing to see what James has accomplished based on where he came from but unless you REALLY like high school basketball you’re probably going to get bogged down in the game details here.

First off, if you’re not a wrestling fan you’re probably not going to get the brilliance of this book.  It’s over 500 pages long and the detail that Bret goes into is just short of photographic memory type recall.  He does make a reference early in the book of the fact that he kept a diary of sorts over the years but even still the details that he’s able to provide are amazing.

Bret is one of 12 children and he goes into a ton of back story about the Hart family tree which I really didn’t care for.  One thing that the family history did do is frame quite a bit of the angst that is common toward the end of the book.  While the Hart family is certainly synonymous with the wrestling industry this is a book about Bret.  He goes into a ton of details about his marriage, his family, in-laws, etc.  One thing that shocked me was how cavalier he was about his infidelity when on the other hand he was so adamantly against drug use, etc.

Speaking of drug use Bret really sheds some light on the professional wrestling locker room.  He tells tales of steroids, uppers, alcohol, etc. being used like it was candy.  Not only that, but he pulls no punches.  He names names, talks about how he doesn’t like this guy or that guy, and calls out quite a few people for being bad workers in the ring.  He obviously prides himself on his work ethic and it really comes through during these discussions.

If you’re only a WWF / WWE fan then you’re going to want to skip over about the first 200 pages or so.  Those chapters deal with Bret’s time in Stampede Wrestling and other promotions prior to his arrival in the WWF.  That said, I think you owe it to yourself to read that stuff cause there’s some incredible stories in there.  They really provide a foundation for the wrestler that was The Hitman.

Bret talks very openly about everything from his love/hate relationships with Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan, to the deaths of his brother Owen and countless other wrestlers.  He provides insight into the wrestling business that I’d never seen before (even though I’ve read more than 20 wrestling titles over the years).  He certainly paints some people in a good light and others he completely trashes.  In fact, as I was reading this I was thinking how awesome it would be to have a “rebuttal” book where people would go through chapter by chapter and respond or defend their actions.  The Vince and Shawn chapters would be AMAZING!!!

He talks openly about his divorce, his time in WCW after he left the WWF, Owen’s tragic death and his stroke.  I found it weird that he only mentioned that Chris Benoit was among those wrestlers that have died (not that he murdered his whole family).  I guess that’s one can of worms that Bret didn’t want to open.

I’m a big wrestling fan so I loved this.  If you’re not a wrestling fan you should probably pass as you’ll never get past the Stampede years.  If you’ve ever been a fan of The Hitman you owe it to yourself to pick this one up.  It’s a long read but it’ll give you more Bret Hart than you ever wanted.