Blood and Dirt

Lloyd A. Meeker
Wilde City Press
Reviewed by Nancy
5 out of 5 stars

Summary

Family squabbles can be murder.

Psychic PI Russ Morgan investigates a vandalized marijuana grow in Mesa County Colorado, landing in the middle of a ferocious family feud that’s escalating in a hurry. Five siblings fight over the family ranch as it staggers on the brink of bankruptcy, marijuana its only salvation. Not everyone agrees, but only one of them is willing to kill to make a point.

Russ also has a personal puzzle to solve as he questions his deepening relationship with Colin Stewart, a man half his age. His rational mind says being with Colin is the fast track to heartbreak, but it feels grounding, sane, and good. Now, that’s really dangerous…

My Review

Even though I was assured this story was a standalone, I’m a stickler for order. So I purchased and read Enigma, the first Russ Morgan mystery, and was even more excited to read the second in what I hope is going to be an ongoing series.

Ellis Landry hires Russ Morgan to find out who vandalized his sister’s marijuana grow. What starts out as a simple investigation of a vandalism incident turns out to be much more complicated as Morgan assesses the dynamics of the Ellis/Landry clans using his empathic abilities and, as other facts and feelings begin to emerge, he decides to carry a firearm.

When Russ is not unraveling a tangled web of lies and deception, he is scared of his developing relationship with Colin Stewart, a paralegal he met during his first case, and a man nearly half his age. Russ has achieved sobriety, but still deals with pain from his past. Fortunately, Colin is very patient and mature for his years.

This was a clever, engaging, and thoughtful mystery that deals with toxic families and the fragility of new relationships. I loved the first-person narration of this story that allowed me to connect with Russ on a deeper level and I enjoyed alternating glimpses of his professional and personal life. He’s a very likable, well-rounded character who is easy to spend time with.

I very much look forward to more Russ Morgan stories.

Falling Kingdoms

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

He said, "I must tell you that while I was forced to guard you and you were making my life harder by being so stubbornly annoying, I fell in love with you for no apparent reason."

She said, "Truly?! While you were guarding me I also fell in love with you despite you not letting me have my way. It's clear that we must be wed since we love each other so."

I said, "I'm too old for this sh**."

Falling Kingdoms was very very young adult. I thought perhaps it was along the lines of a young adult story that is more mature and interesting in nature, but that wasn't the case. I blame Joe Abercrombie his young adult stories made me forget what real young adult stuff looks like, but truly this is my fault it says its genre is young adult. Reviewers kept mentioning how many people died in the story too which made me think it was a more mature young adult, but the majority of the deaths had little weight to them and hardly felt real.

I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but a books cover should have something to do with the book. There is no cool hooded warrior taking on all comers and winning against impossible odds as the cover hints at. Truthfully there is barely any fighting except for the last 60 pages or so.

So although I didn't give Falling Kingdoms a high rating please fans of the young adult genre don't let that dissuade you. I came in looking for the young adult A Game of Thrones not kids with magic and swords proclaiming their love and hate in a nearly elementary school fashion.


View all my reviews

WORLD WAR Z...MUCH MORE THAN JUST A ZOMBIE BOOK...BY MAX BROOKS

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

”The book of war, the one we’ve been writing since one ape slapped another was completely useless in this situation. We had to write a new one from scratch.”

With most apocalyptic situations, I think the hardest part to deal with is that there are no wrong decisions or right decisions. There are simply too many variables to consider if your ultimate goal is to survive. The most meticulously planned strategies can still result in failure. You make the best decisions you can and then hope for a bit of luck. Should we barricade ourselves hoping to be saved, or go North hoping the zombies will eventually become popsicles when winter hits? Are we safer in the underground tunnels of Paris or on a cruise ship or living in the woods by ourselves? Whatever decision you make, you must think long game and short game. The short game, the immediate concerns, involve food, water, and shelter. The short and long game both come into play when trying to figure out how to avoid becoming zombie chow.

Once you survive the first wave of contagion, then what?

This book is written as an investigative report, collecting all the experiences of survivors from around the world. Different cultures reacted differently to the apocalypse. Some were more successful than others. The learning curve, unfortunately, has to be short with apocalyptic situations, especially if the hope is to actually salvage civilisation. The lights go out, and many of the comforts we’ve become accustomed to are gone instantly, and the possessions that have come to define us, such as electronic devices, suddenly become useless.

If the whole idea of a zombie apocalypse is too wild a concept for you to grasp, you might be relieved that for the most part the zombies are really just part of the background. What Max Brooks is really dealing with goes well beyond the concept of zombies and focuses more on how people survived the collapse of civilisation. He could have used microbes or conventional war or a devastating meteorite hitting the earth or any of the other fascinating concepts that people have come up with as ways to end the world. It reads like books of a similar nature that collect the stories of people who survived World War Two. The scope is huge and impressive. Brooks addresses aspects about a zombie apocalypse that I have never thought about before.

Quislings ”Yeah, you know, the people that went nutballs and started acting like zombies.” Ok, I’ve read a handful of zombie books, not enough to make myself an expert, but certainly enough to have some background on the lore of a zombie apocalypse. WTH? Now Brooks didn’t just make this term up. It is a term from WW2. ”A quisling is a person who collaborates with an enemy occupying force. The word originates from the Norwegian war-time leader Vidkun Quisling, who headed a domestic Nazi collaborationist regime during the Second World War.”

The minds of survivors, I’m sure, snapped in all kinds of strange and wonderful and terrifying ways, but unfortunately pretending to be a zombie was a quick way to find yourself...well...dead. First, any reasonably sane human who notices you lurching toward them, performing your very best mimicry of the undead, will smash your brain. Second, you don’t blend with the zombies. They know you are alive. You become a zombie delight!

People also just went to sleep perfectly healthy and didn’t wake up. This was called ADS, short for Asymptomatic Demise Syndrome or Apocalyptic Despair Syndrome. ”It killed as many people in those early stalemate months as hunger, disease, interhuman violence, or the living dead.” I’ve heard of things like this happening to people who experience long term stress situations. The body just reaches a point where the brain decides to just shut down the power to the spacecraft and let the mind drift away.

RIP

People will put up with a lot as long as there is hope that someday their situation will improve. Babies die when they are not held. People die when things become hopeless.

Brooks also told stories about zombies underwater. WTH? Yeah, people reanimated as the living dead on ships and eventually managed to fall off the ship in the water. It wasn’t unusual for zombies to just walk out of the water onto beaches or grab divers or attack fishermen in boats. Somehow they are more scary underwater than on land. It gives me the shivers just thinking about it. I’m having a Jaws flashback.

During and after WWZ, people had to relearn things that our grandparents and great grandparents knew.

A chimney sweep. ”I help keep my neighbors warm.” he said proudly.

A cobbler. ”You see those shoes. I made them.”

A shepherd. ”That sweater, that’s my sheep’s wool.”

A gardener/farmer. ” Like that corn? My garden.”

”That was the upshot of a more localized system. It gave people the opportunity to see the fruits of their labor, it gave them a sense of individual pride to know they were making a clear, concrete contribution to victory, and it gave me a wonderful feeling that I was part of that. I needed that feeling. It kept me sane for the other part of my job.”

The other part of his job?...killing zombies. Several of the survivors talked about how important it was not to think of them as people or of who they were or of who they might have become. They couldn’t see them as people or what they were doing was genocide.

This is by far the most serious zombie book I’ve ever read. The stories are compelling. This is a panoramic view of a society in crises. The observations are thoughtful. The writing is convincing. By the end I had the feeling I’d just read a history book, not a speculative zombie apocalyptic book.

The book is unfilmable, but the movie industry knew a catchy title when they saw one. They certainly borrowed aspects from the book, but really the movie should be considered a completely different entity. The zombies in Brooks book are the George Romero lurching, yucky living dead. In the movie, they are super charged, fast moving, aggressive, nasty creatures. The virus in the movie is fast acting. Someone bitten is transformed within seconds. In the book, the virus takes much longer to take effect.

Did it bother me that the director Marc Forster took such liberties?

Not one bite bit.

I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was thoroughly entertained. I certainly intend to watch the movie again. So read the book to discover new depths to an overly exploited genre, and watch the movie to experience a whirlwind of fear and dread. Just a suggestion, have someone else hold the popcorn.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten










View all my reviews

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty was released in 1971, we've all seen the subsequent film released in 1973, you might have read the book but an altogether different experience is guaranteed to scare the pants off you with the audiobook. Narrated by the author who won an Oscar for best writing/screenplay based on material from another medium for the Exorcist and I have to say this is easily the best production and performance from any audiobook that I've listened to.

Powerfully gripping, a story that is truly frightening with characters that are riveting and completely absorbing. Every character was perfectly fleshed out, I both liked and likened the detective William Kinderman to Peter Falks Colombo always that one more question or insight. Forever bordering on annoying and continually grasping at straws but really enjoyable, the film doesn’t show any of that as well as the book.

Damien Karras was superb, a compelling character that the film could never quite portray adequately enough and then the impact of Father Lankester Merrin and the attempted exorcism. One word fanfuckingtastic. Merrin has short page time but he is a significant presence all the same. Regan, lovely and sweet, for a short time anyway, until she starts to manifest different personalities and becomes quite the opposite of lovely and sweet. Vomiting, cursing and using a religious cross for a purpose altogether different to what it was intended for.

This is demon possession horror and its done both horrifically well and with immense impact. From the different impersonations by the demon to the relationships of the characters entwined in the story, everything is perfect. Obviously this has been reviewed to death so this is more a profession of adoration for a masterpiece than a review and I really need to watch the film again it feels way to long since I last watched it. *Just watched it and rightly justified as one of the best horror films of all time but the book, well the book is even better, simple as that*.

Absolutely nothing compares to this and it’s without doubt the best and easily my favourite horror story, in fact any bloody story. I rate it that highly and the audio narration by the author adds a level that's nigh on impossible to surpass in the realms of horror and audiobooks. Intense just doesn't seem to cover it. If it's been a good while since you last delved into The Exorcist then it might be time for a revisit.

And I think another star is needed.

Also posted at http://paulnelson.booklikes.com/post/...

View all my reviews

Apeshit by Carlton Mellick III

Apeshit by Carlton Mellick III
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What the fuck can I say about Apeshit, well pretty often, almost as easy as the flip of a coin, the story went from flat-out batshit crazy to head shaking incredulous wonder.

We have six college kids taking off for a break to a country retreat, one of the kids grandfather has died and left him the cabin. So that’s where they are heading. There's plenty of weirdness in this story, on the way up the perilous mountain road to the cabin they run past an area full of dead animals and a random dead bloke at the side of the road. The animal apocalypse it seems but that’s pretty tame as expectations should go.

Now these aren't your average college kids, one's a tattooed cheerleader sporting a mohican who happens to be in a relationship with two of the guys. She spends the majority of the book running round with her intestines hanging out, performing the odd lasso trick. There's a couple who don't have sex and it might be said, get up to some pretty funny sexual activities. That's not funny haha, that's fucked up funny. One guy has had an alleged urinary tract infection for a number of months that's prevented him taking part in the shagging Olympics going down but oh! fucking no, stupid boy, he's had an altogether different operation that... yeah you'd have to read it.

They arrive at the cabin and its total madness, total fucked up mayhem and yes the review does completely deserve this many expletives, there's mutants and a heap load of freakish, rifuckingdiculously queer and downright outlandish shit going on.

Did I enjoy it? I don't think I'll ever be able to answer that, it felt weird and it’s written with an extremely simplistic writing style. This author is as nutty as a dive bomb into a swimming pool full of peanuts and he certainly entertains but I'll be forever torn between genius and padded cell.

Also posted at http://paulnelson.booklikes.com/post/...

View all my reviews

The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Out of work and gripped by a serious drinking problem, Rachel still rides the train to London and back every day, fantasizing about a couple she sees living near a house that used to be hers. When the female half of the couple goes missing, Rachel is convinced she knows the answer. But who would believe a drunk?

Every once in a while, a book is seriously hyped and I keep it at arm's length for as long as a I can. Sometimes, I regret it, like with The Martian or Gone Girl. The Girl on the Train was similarly hyped. How could I resist for long?

Well, as much as The Girl on the Train is hyped as the next Gone Girl, it ain't no Gone Girl. Here are my thoughts.

The Girl on the Train is told by three viewpoint characters: Rachel, the alcoholic jobless divorcee, Anna, Rachel's ex-husband's new wife, and Megan, the female half of the couple Rachel is entranced by. None of them are good people but I wouldn't put them in the league of Amy of Gone Girl fame. They're all varying degrees of messed up.

Rachel's drunken detective playing is entertaining but also sad. She just can't let go of Tom and is determined to help Megan's husband figure out what happened to her.

While I think Paula Hawkins does a great job of juggling three viewpoint characters and serving up plate after plate of deep-fried red herring, it still feels like an attempt to cash in on the Gone Girl hype to me. Gone is the unreliable narrator. Unfortunately, she got the less than completely sympathetic leads part right. However, it was pity I felt rather than revulsion.

As long as you aren't expecting the second coming of Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train is a gripping thriller. I wolfed it down in near record time. There was just a little something missing. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

View all my reviews

Unexpected Flavors

Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way by Ruth Reichl
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Expecting a comedic Shit My Dad Says diversion? Keep moving. Not Becoming My Mother is not the book you're looking for.

Having read another of food critic Ruth Reichl's books, I rashly assumed this too would be light-hearted and humorous. It's not. In fact, it's a rather depressing look at the repression that became the keystone of her mother's life. Instead of quirky-funny stories about a mad-capped mom as might be expected by the first few pages, the reader is treated to sad tales of psychotherapy and antidepressant drug addiction.

While not a hoot of a read by any means, this is an insightful cautionary tale, the sort to give any feminist the willies. Ruth's mother grew up in a time when American women fought for suffrage rights, were not allowed into the male-dominated business world, tasted the ironic freedom of hard labor during WWII, and then had it taken away and replaced with the surprising drudgery of doing absolutely nothing. A life of idle boredom was the spoils of war for middle class women in America, and the long, slow death of Ruth's once creative and ambitious mother.

Through discovered letters, Ruth pieces together her mother's past, learning the hows and whys behind her mother's odd behavior. Not Becoming My Mother is at times touching and heartbreaking. It is also short and feels a tad perfunctory, like a feature story Reichl the journalist extended beyond the normal allotted newspaper article word count.

View all my reviews

Travels with Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road and on the Streets

Lars Eighner
Ballantine Books
Reviewed by Nancy
5 out of 5 stars

Summary

The true story of a modern Robinson Crusoe and Huckleberry Finn, a homeless man and his erstwhile companion, a dog named Lizbeth, and their unbelievable, funny and poignant adventures on the road and on the streets.

My Review

Travels With Lizbeth is a candid and thoughtful chronicle of Lars Eighner's three years of homelessness. The author writes very eloquently and with a sense of humor about his friendships, traveling companions, jobs, and hardships. He is a keen observer of people and places and the love he has for his dog, Lizbeth, is heartwarming. Eighner sheds light on the problems that still exist today within the U.S. medical and mental health care systems and debunks common myths about homeless people. He writes without self-pity, yet very humanely about a problem many people would rather forget existed.

A wonderful book!

Lord of the Silver Bow

Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lord of The Silver Bow is book one in a reimagining of the Trojan War. It revolves around a man known by many names. Those familiar with the Trojan War know him as Aeneas, but in this book he's also known as Helikaon and The Golden One. The man himself is one fit for the era. Helikaon is strong, brave, and brutal. His brutality has earned him no friends among his enemies, but then who has friends among their enemies.

I went into this book really not having a clear idea of what to expect. I think the author wanted it that way because there was no true continuous storyline other than Helikaon is a lost man trying to fight his demons to find his way and that Agamemnon wants to conquer all.

In many ways this story seemed quite true to life. David Gemmell hit many different areas such as duty, honor, pride, shame, love, and lust. He displays some truly human qualities in the characters which made me feel their emotions right along with them.

There were only two things I found I didn't enjoy about Lord of the Silver Bow. The first thing was that the story skips to some truly random point of view characters that seemed unnecessary. The second thing is that the middle fluctuated from interesting to boring so often that I wasn't sure if I could finish this book. The author ended the book quite well though so I must say I was more than satisfied.

One last positive to mention is that Odyseuss, in all his tall tale glory, appears in this book. He's quite the character and absolutely left me smiling.

After finishing book one, I know I'll be heading back to David Gemmell's Troy to finish this interesting series.

View all my reviews

The Ghosts of Watt O'Hugh

The Ghosts of Watt O'Hugh by Steven S. Drachman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Watt O'Hugh the Third is a gunslinging cowboy in a wild west show but he's also something much more. When J.P. Morgan gets Watt thrown into a Wyoming prison, what has he gotten himself into? And can he bust out and reunite with the woman he loves?

The Ghosts of Watt O’Hugh is the first part of a memoir written by a time-traveling cowboy. Watt goes from roaming the West to starring in a Wild West show to finding himself railroaded by J.P. Morgan into stopping whatever it is that's going on in the paradisaical mountain town of Sidonia.

As you might be able to tell, The Ghosts of Watt O'Hugh is a genre-bender with an epic scope. It's also a tale of lost love since Watt can't put his feelings for Lucy Billings aside.

The book was actually pretty funny at times, although there's an underlying current of sadness. There were enough unanswered questions to keep me plowing through the book when I should have been doing other things.

I liked this book but I wanted to love it. I don't know if it was a case of wrong book, wrong time, but I felt like I was in the dark for a lot of it. Watt's a pretty interesting character, though, and I'm curious about what finally shakes out. I'll probably wait until the trilogy is completed, though. Three out of five stars, though I plan on re-reading it once the trilogy is complete.

View all my reviews