book of september: deadly décisions

It says so right on the cover: “Better than Patricia Cornwell”. In all caps even. Now, I have no idea who Patricia Cornwell is, but I trust the Sunday Express to tell me the truth. So, yeah, better than Patricia Cornwell. Kathy Reichs’ third novel, Deadly Décisions was another page turner.

If you haven’t seen the show Bones, and haven’t read any of Reichs’ books, you gotta get on that train! I personally really enjoy Reichs’ writing style and the way she seamlessly integrates the technical with fast paced action and suspense.

The nice thing is that you don’t necessarily have to have read the preceding two novels to enjoy this one. (Doing a bit of guess work here since I have thus far read them in order of completion). I do have the suspicion that many of Reichs’ novels can also be read as stand alone books. Though the recurring character development is surely more satisfying when read according to release date.

Read on!

book of july: genome

Matt Ridley has written a book entitled Genome: The Autobiograpy of a Species in 23 Chapters. The premise of the book is quite interesting – take 23 chapters to disucss 23 chromosomes, picking one (or a few) thing(s) that are of particular interest (to many readers) from each of the chromosomes.

To begin I would like to mention that Ridley has written a refreshing and self-aware preface. You I never know with these kinds of books if the author really knows their stuff well enough to be penning such *mainstream* works. Ridley is quite clear from the beginning about just what he is and isn’t doing. So, right off the bat he gets my vote.

Though at times very mainstream, and a little out there from a purely scientific perspective, I did very much enjoy Ridley’s work. It was an entertaining read to be sure, add this one to your to-read list!

Genome has actually been on my to-read list for quite some time now. I think I may have bought this book when originally published…seeing as it’s a hardcover and it says “FIRST U.S. EDITION” in there. All the signs seem to be pointing to the purchase occurring around 20 years ago. That being said, I am quite happy to finally have read it. Per my 30 before 30 list I get to check a book off my to-read list!

Happy reading!

book of may: tripwire

Jack Reacher is at it again, Lee Child I suppose is actually the one at it – but Reacher is the star of the show. It was March of 2015 that I read my first Child book – and thus started a grand love story.

Okay, I suppose I just enjoy reading the Reacher books a normal amount – and I’m here today to say, you should too! After reading Persuader I was hooked, and inclined to start at the beginning of the Reacher novels. As they say, the beginning is a very good place to start. Tripwire is now the fourth Reacher book I’ve read, and third in cronological order.

When I say cronological order I mean order in which the books were written. You, dear reader, really don’t need to read the books in any particular order – which is nice. Though I do think I will continue my Reacher journey in order of publication. Have you, dear reader, not yet started your own Reacher journey, I behove you to begin.

Happy reading!

book of march: death du jour

I read Kathy Reich’s first book, Deja Dead, after seeing the television show Bones‘ series finale. You see I hadn’t had enough, so what’s a girl to do? Read the entirety of Reichs written work, of course! Though to be entirely honest I don’t think I’ll be reading her scientific papers. I will keep you, dear readers, in the loop if it turns out I do.

Death du Jour was equally as enthralling as Reichs’ first novel, so it comes with equally as vehement recommendations. It’s a quick read, likely due to how captivating the story line is, so it’s perfect reading for a long weekend like this one. I definitely recommend Reichs, I hope you enjoy her as much as I do!

swedish word of the month: latmask

This was actually one of the first words I learned in Swedish, after hello and hippopotamus (priorities). I learned latmask because my dear wife lovingly adorns me with the title, often. Latmask is pronounced laht-mahsk. Directly translated latmask means lazy worm, so Evelina clearly thinks I’m an up-and-go kind of person.

The old adage goes, the early bird gets the worm. So logically the lazy worm doesn’t get eaten. I’m choosing to see the bright side of things – Evelina is essentially saying I’m a clever survivor.

If you Google lazy worm, you get a bunch of amusing pictures, like the one shown here. I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s Swedish word of the month. Just think, now you can start calling everyone you know a latmask!

Until next time.

 

2017, that happened

My last blog post that did not feature a book was in July. That’s quite a few months of happenings with no writing. In fact, after doing a quick scroll through of my 2017 blog I now realize I’ve only posted 7 times outside of my book of the month posts. Seven:

1. one year old
2. finally 2017 (a look ahead)
3. ry-guy
4. mediwift
5. t-man
6. 15 days: my iphone withdrawal story
7. four(teen)th of july

Either there’s not a whole lot going on for me, or a whole helluva lot. To be honest, definitely some of both. So, yeah, that happened. I do want to continue my recent tradition of reverse bucket listing my year. This year’s list will serve two purposes: it’s a great way to reflect on the good times of 2017, and is also a list of blog posts soon to be featured here:

1. Hosted wintry guests
2. Went on a cruise
3. Celebrated weddings in Newport, RI and Sundance, UT
4. Traveled to the western USA with my family
5. Saw the Grand Canyon
6. Went to Vegas
7. Followed my savings plan
8. Coached a growing group of girls
9. Attended my 10 year high school reunion
10. Completed another year of my ECE degree

I’ll stop at 10, because that’s been my modus operandi the previous two years, but there may be an extra post or two coming down the pipeline with happenings from the eventful 2017 – like my epic summer vacation. Get ready, 2018 is here.

book of december: fantastic beasts and where to find them: the original screen play

Well, 2017 is coming to a close. As such here comes the year’s final botm:

In the name of honesty I want to tell you something. I did something questionable. I watched the movie before reading the book. I gotta say, though, as this is the screen play I think I get a pass on this one. If you haven’t seen the movie, do. It’s a good one. If you haven’t read the screen play…well you can, I enjoyed doing it. If you’re a die hard Rowling fan and want to read everything she’s written – then you’ve probably already read it since it came out a while ago.

It was a fun, quick read. To end a fun, quick year. Strange how looking back on a year makes it seem so short, but looking ahead opens a world of possibilities. Strange. Here’s to looking ahead.

book of november: killing floor

Well, you didn’t have to wait long for another Jack Reacher novel. In September I wrote about A Wanted Man, mentioning that I was actually trying to read the first Jack Reacher novel in the series…and missed the mark by about 15 books.

This time around I successfully read the first Jack Reacher novel, and loved it. Not a huge surprise seeing as I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the previous two books I’ve read. This novel, like Persuader, was written in the first person. For some reason though it felt strange this time around reading from Jack’s perspective. I think probably because I was so into the third person of A Wanted Man.

I do think the adage practice makes better really applies here.

Side bar: at my elementary school it was decided that technical perfection is unatainable and instead we should be striving to better ourselves not perfect ourselves. Thus “practice makes better” was born. If you did not happen to attend my elementary school you can be forgiven for not knowing this.

Back to it. In my small and humble opinion I think that Lee Child becomes a better writer over the course of his career. I hope that this is seen as a complement, because it is meant as such. I like to think most people aim to better themselves and would not be entirely satisfied remaining at the same level. To be clear, Child starts at a damn high quality level. So go read this book.

book of october: the stand

They all say Stephen King is quite the author. I’d never read any of his work before now. Why now? Well it is October, and I wanted to plan for Halloween the whole month.

Halloween isn’t as big here in Sweden, but I still try to celebrate in my own way every year. Some years we bake Halloween treats and invite friends over, sometimes I try to watch a scary movie. The thing is I don’t like watching scary movies alone, and I can’t seem to get anyone here at home to watch with me. So this year I tried something new. What I didn’t realize is that horror books are also quite the scare fest. Definitely worth it though. Pick up a copy near you if you haven’t already read this one!

book of september: a wanted man

After reading Persuader in March of 2015 I was looking forward to reading more of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels. Now I’ve finally read another!

My expectation was to read the first of the Jack Reacher novels. The reality was that I read the 17th novel (according to Wikipedia, and the list in the back of the book). Missed it by a hair, you could say. To be honest I’m not exactly sure what went wrong. I’m sure it has to do with my lack of paying 100% attention to things occasionally. Or something of that nature. 

Persuader is the 7th novel in the series,  and A Wanted Man is the 17th (as mentioned). So now I either have to wait for the 27th or actually start from the beginning. The best part of the Jack Reacher books is that you really do not need to read them in order. It’s impressively done by Child. I’ve heard the claim before, that books in a series don’t need to be read in order, but this is the first time I actually ageee with that claim. 

A Wanted Man was an exciting read with a few surprising laughs along the way. Child’s writing style is a treasure and I so very much look forward to more Reacher novels. In whatever order I do very well please. And you should read a Jack Reacher novel, whichever one you very well please.