December 11, 2009; Somerville, MA
Hardcover, 2009; 279 pp.
Subtitle: Joining the Revolution to Lift the World Out of Poverty.
Photography by Jeremy Cowart.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert
December 10, 2009; South Amboy, NJ
Paperback, 2009; 230 pp.
Paperback, 2009; 230 pp.
Monday, November 9, 2009
The Clinic by Jonathan Kellerman
October 31, 2009; Jinhua, Zhejiang, China
Paperback, 1996; 465 pp.
I know Kellerman from the TruTV appearances he has made, but this is his first book I read. I read this book during my Hong Kong/China trip.
Alex Delaware is a psychologist retained by the LA police department in the case of the murder of Hope Devane. We find out eventually that four murders are committed by the same person Reed Muscadine to avenge his kidney’s being harvested for an organized crime boss. Three of the victims (Devane, Mandy Wright, and Casey Locking) were involved with the drugging and surgery on Muscadine; the fourth, a bartender, was a somewhat innocent bystander.
The story leads the reader down many dead ends such as the novel written by Hope Devane. Perhaps that’s how real life investigations work, but some people read fiction to escape real life. The actual plot could have been developed better. The climax all happened in the span of a few chapters. I kept wondering if I missed anything, and at the end I decided I didn’t; it was just a poorly constructed novel.
And I didn’t like the way the story ended: without resolution. The novel isn’t good enough to qualify for that sort of an ending.
All said and done, however, I rate Kellerman as a better author than Patterson.
Paperback, 1996; 465 pp.
I know Kellerman from the TruTV appearances he has made, but this is his first book I read. I read this book during my Hong Kong/China trip.
Alex Delaware is a psychologist retained by the LA police department in the case of the murder of Hope Devane. We find out eventually that four murders are committed by the same person Reed Muscadine to avenge his kidney’s being harvested for an organized crime boss. Three of the victims (Devane, Mandy Wright, and Casey Locking) were involved with the drugging and surgery on Muscadine; the fourth, a bartender, was a somewhat innocent bystander.
The story leads the reader down many dead ends such as the novel written by Hope Devane. Perhaps that’s how real life investigations work, but some people read fiction to escape real life. The actual plot could have been developed better. The climax all happened in the span of a few chapters. I kept wondering if I missed anything, and at the end I decided I didn’t; it was just a poorly constructed novel.
And I didn’t like the way the story ended: without resolution. The novel isn’t good enough to qualify for that sort of an ending.
All said and done, however, I rate Kellerman as a better author than Patterson.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Bourne Sanction by Eric van Lustbader
August 18, 2009; South Amboy, NJ
Paperback 2008, 672 pages
Basically two plots that both have Jason Bourne as the main character. The plot that is easier to follow involves a power struggle between the NSA and the CI. Somehow the NSA are the bad guys as they want to take over the espionage functions of CI, but they are eventually undone because of the torturing that goes on in a safehouse.
The other plot centers around Black Legion, a Nazi organization that eventually got taken over by Muslim terrorists. The two people that started the transformation were supposedly on bad terms, but were working together to attack a new LNG terminal in Long Beach. One of the two (Sever) was David Webb's (Jason Bourne) mentor at University, the other (Icoupov) was a father figure to Arkadin. Arkadin was actually the original Treadstone, he was sent to the US to be trained as a super-assassin by Alex Conklin. Icoupov was killed by Arkadin to avenge the killing of his girlfriend, Sever was shot by Arkadin and was in a coma when the story ended, and Arkadin himself fell overboard during the final struggle on the tanker.
The actual story is quite a bit more complicated than that. For instance, we get to know how the dark past of Arkadin’s shaped him to be the person he was. The other was the deception put in place by Black Legion to use a chain of couriers to pass plans of another site (Empire State Building) and how Arkadin track down the couriers and killed them. The author’s habit of weaving multiple subplots together and jumping from one to another sometimes makes it difficult to follow. Before it was revealed that Icoupov and Sever worked together, I was a bit concerned about not being able to distinguish who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. Turns out it wasn’t important. These techniques led to a book that was 200 pages longer than necessary.
In any case, not a bad book to read while on vacation. I read it during our trip to the West Coast, mostly during plane rides.
Paperback 2008, 672 pages
Basically two plots that both have Jason Bourne as the main character. The plot that is easier to follow involves a power struggle between the NSA and the CI. Somehow the NSA are the bad guys as they want to take over the espionage functions of CI, but they are eventually undone because of the torturing that goes on in a safehouse.
The other plot centers around Black Legion, a Nazi organization that eventually got taken over by Muslim terrorists. The two people that started the transformation were supposedly on bad terms, but were working together to attack a new LNG terminal in Long Beach. One of the two (Sever) was David Webb's (Jason Bourne) mentor at University, the other (Icoupov) was a father figure to Arkadin. Arkadin was actually the original Treadstone, he was sent to the US to be trained as a super-assassin by Alex Conklin. Icoupov was killed by Arkadin to avenge the killing of his girlfriend, Sever was shot by Arkadin and was in a coma when the story ended, and Arkadin himself fell overboard during the final struggle on the tanker.
The actual story is quite a bit more complicated than that. For instance, we get to know how the dark past of Arkadin’s shaped him to be the person he was. The other was the deception put in place by Black Legion to use a chain of couriers to pass plans of another site (Empire State Building) and how Arkadin track down the couriers and killed them. The author’s habit of weaving multiple subplots together and jumping from one to another sometimes makes it difficult to follow. Before it was revealed that Icoupov and Sever worked together, I was a bit concerned about not being able to distinguish who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. Turns out it wasn’t important. These techniques led to a book that was 200 pages longer than necessary.
In any case, not a bad book to read while on vacation. I read it during our trip to the West Coast, mostly during plane rides.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Sail by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
June 10, 2009; Enroute UA896 HKG-ORD
Paperback 2008, 414 pages
In an attempt to get her family together, Katherine Dunne takes her three children on a long sailing trip, on their 62-foot sailboat captained by her deceased husband's brother Jake. It turns out her new husband Robert Carlyle has hired a former CIA operative to kill them to get Katherine's $100 million wealth by sabotaging the sailboat. The eventual explosion kills Jake and leaves the four Dunnes stranded on an uninhabited island in the Carribbean. A group of fishermen discover that the Dunnes are still alive from a message in a bottle, and Robert manages to find them before the Coast Guard does. His attempt to kill them is foiled but he manages to get acquitted in the subsequent trial. His girlfriend, however, is in cohorts with the assassin and kills Robert, and the assassin in turn kills the girlfriend to tie up all loose ends. The assassin, however, is hunted down in Paris by a federal agent.
The book was an easy read. There are some parts that defy logic, such as the crew's decision not to call an emergency even as the boat was taking on water, or were about to be swamped by a storm, and that an infection caused by a shin bone reset while in a liferaft goes away on its own. Nonetheless, the story is intriguing enough that I finished it basically in one sitting (during a 14-hour flight). The lame ending was a bit of a let down.
Still, this is one of the better Patterson novels - I have panned all the other novels that I read. Must be that Howard Roughan is a pretty good writer.
Paperback 2008, 414 pages
In an attempt to get her family together, Katherine Dunne takes her three children on a long sailing trip, on their 62-foot sailboat captained by her deceased husband's brother Jake. It turns out her new husband Robert Carlyle has hired a former CIA operative to kill them to get Katherine's $100 million wealth by sabotaging the sailboat. The eventual explosion kills Jake and leaves the four Dunnes stranded on an uninhabited island in the Carribbean. A group of fishermen discover that the Dunnes are still alive from a message in a bottle, and Robert manages to find them before the Coast Guard does. His attempt to kill them is foiled but he manages to get acquitted in the subsequent trial. His girlfriend, however, is in cohorts with the assassin and kills Robert, and the assassin in turn kills the girlfriend to tie up all loose ends. The assassin, however, is hunted down in Paris by a federal agent.
The book was an easy read. There are some parts that defy logic, such as the crew's decision not to call an emergency even as the boat was taking on water, or were about to be swamped by a storm, and that an infection caused by a shin bone reset while in a liferaft goes away on its own. Nonetheless, the story is intriguing enough that I finished it basically in one sitting (during a 14-hour flight). The lame ending was a bit of a let down.
Still, this is one of the better Patterson novels - I have panned all the other novels that I read. Must be that Howard Roughan is a pretty good writer.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman
June 6, 2009, Hong Kong
Paperback 2008, 327 pages.
Tess Monaghan is hired to guard a star Selene Waites during the filming of a TV series called Mann of Steel. The main threat is from George Sybert who thinks he, together with his good friend Bob Grace, gets his story stolen by the producers. This resulted in two murders. To complicate things, Selene and Johnny (Mann) also are sabotaging the show so as to get out of their contractual commitments.
The author seems to use two major techniques in her writing: boring the reader with all the minutiae of how a TV production works, and throwing in extra suspicious characters to keep the reader guessing. By so doing, she transforms a reasonably good plot into a work of mediocrity. Which is too bad as I am sure the book would be much more enjoyable if she just keeps to the knitting. Nothing is gained by describing the inner workings of TV production in detail (you get the feeling she doesn't want to waste any of her research) and putting nearly everyone under suspicion. I am no writer, but I did learn early in life how difficult it is to edit anything out once it is written. But I thought only amateurs have that problem.
Given all the panning I did above, I still think this is a reasonable book to read. I actually started reading it, put it down for several months, and picked it up again. And didn't miss much.
Paperback 2008, 327 pages.
Tess Monaghan is hired to guard a star Selene Waites during the filming of a TV series called Mann of Steel. The main threat is from George Sybert who thinks he, together with his good friend Bob Grace, gets his story stolen by the producers. This resulted in two murders. To complicate things, Selene and Johnny (Mann) also are sabotaging the show so as to get out of their contractual commitments.
The author seems to use two major techniques in her writing: boring the reader with all the minutiae of how a TV production works, and throwing in extra suspicious characters to keep the reader guessing. By so doing, she transforms a reasonably good plot into a work of mediocrity. Which is too bad as I am sure the book would be much more enjoyable if she just keeps to the knitting. Nothing is gained by describing the inner workings of TV production in detail (you get the feeling she doesn't want to waste any of her research) and putting nearly everyone under suspicion. I am no writer, but I did learn early in life how difficult it is to edit anything out once it is written. But I thought only amateurs have that problem.
Given all the panning I did above, I still think this is a reasonable book to read. I actually started reading it, put it down for several months, and picked it up again. And didn't miss much.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Shack by Wm. Paul Young
May 28, 2009, South Amboy, NJ
Paperback 2007, 252 pages.
I was made aware of this book because it was proposed to be the subject of a discussion to be held during an upcoming reunion. Greta said it is unconventional, which piqued my interest. The cover says over 3 million copies in print, so it was natural that I saw a copy of it while house-hunting in Florida earlier this month!
Mackenzie Allen Philips (Mack) took his children camping in the Northwest. As he was trying to help two of kids in an overturned canoe, his youngest daughter Missy was kidnapped and probably murdered by a serial offender. Thus began “the great sadness” during which he felt incomplete and guilty. One day he got a note from "Papa" asking him to return to the shack where the kidnapping occurred. He decided to drive up by himself when his family was away. During the trip he met God in the persons of Papa (who was a woman most of the time), Jesus, and Sarayu (Holy Spirit); in addition he had an encounter with Sophia, the wisdom of God. Over the course of two days, he came to a deeper understanding of the nature of God, free will, judgment, and – most importantly – a different and intimate relationship with God. His last and most difficult step was to forgive the killer. After retrieving and burying Missy’s remains, he found himself back in the old shack.
Mack got into an accident on his way back from the shack. To others, however, this occurred on the same day he headed out. In any case, he reconciled with his daughter Kate (who caused the canoe accident and blamed herself for Missy’s kidnapping), managed to find Missy’s remains, and (not sure how I can end this synopsis) life went on, albeit differently.
The subjects of suffering and evil, and how they serve God’s purpose, are issues that get discussed a great deal without satisfactory answers at least as far as I am concerned. By arguing that everything is about God and not about us, the author tries to bring a different perspective from how most people approach these problems. He brings interesting insights in areas such as how we hang on to our independence, how the three persons of God communicate with each other, and how God loves each person uniquely. While most people have not suffered a personal loss as great as Mack’s, the questions of “why” and “how could you have allowed that to happen” must be on a lot of people’s minds, especially after tragic events such as terrorists attacks and natural disasters.
Human beings, being constrained as such, must find it hard (if not impossible) to take God’s perspective on things. In other words, these questions will always be on our minds, even though their heaviness may depend on time, distance, and our overall relationship with God.
While I was quite moved by several passages, and quite appreciate of the author’s insight in many aspects of God, I found the relative light treatment of evil, justice, hell, and other dark subjects unsatisfying. Perhaps that reflects the author’s view of God. It may be all “good” when it comes to what happened to Missy, but there must be 6 year olds that die tragically before they have a chance to know God; what happens then? In that regard the book leaves many questions unanswered.
I would recommend this book to others, but would also warn them they won’t find all the answers in it.
Paperback 2007, 252 pages.
I was made aware of this book because it was proposed to be the subject of a discussion to be held during an upcoming reunion. Greta said it is unconventional, which piqued my interest. The cover says over 3 million copies in print, so it was natural that I saw a copy of it while house-hunting in Florida earlier this month!
Mackenzie Allen Philips (Mack) took his children camping in the Northwest. As he was trying to help two of kids in an overturned canoe, his youngest daughter Missy was kidnapped and probably murdered by a serial offender. Thus began “the great sadness” during which he felt incomplete and guilty. One day he got a note from "Papa" asking him to return to the shack where the kidnapping occurred. He decided to drive up by himself when his family was away. During the trip he met God in the persons of Papa (who was a woman most of the time), Jesus, and Sarayu (Holy Spirit); in addition he had an encounter with Sophia, the wisdom of God. Over the course of two days, he came to a deeper understanding of the nature of God, free will, judgment, and – most importantly – a different and intimate relationship with God. His last and most difficult step was to forgive the killer. After retrieving and burying Missy’s remains, he found himself back in the old shack.
Mack got into an accident on his way back from the shack. To others, however, this occurred on the same day he headed out. In any case, he reconciled with his daughter Kate (who caused the canoe accident and blamed herself for Missy’s kidnapping), managed to find Missy’s remains, and (not sure how I can end this synopsis) life went on, albeit differently.
The subjects of suffering and evil, and how they serve God’s purpose, are issues that get discussed a great deal without satisfactory answers at least as far as I am concerned. By arguing that everything is about God and not about us, the author tries to bring a different perspective from how most people approach these problems. He brings interesting insights in areas such as how we hang on to our independence, how the three persons of God communicate with each other, and how God loves each person uniquely. While most people have not suffered a personal loss as great as Mack’s, the questions of “why” and “how could you have allowed that to happen” must be on a lot of people’s minds, especially after tragic events such as terrorists attacks and natural disasters.
Human beings, being constrained as such, must find it hard (if not impossible) to take God’s perspective on things. In other words, these questions will always be on our minds, even though their heaviness may depend on time, distance, and our overall relationship with God.
While I was quite moved by several passages, and quite appreciate of the author’s insight in many aspects of God, I found the relative light treatment of evil, justice, hell, and other dark subjects unsatisfying. Perhaps that reflects the author’s view of God. It may be all “good” when it comes to what happened to Missy, but there must be 6 year olds that die tragically before they have a chance to know God; what happens then? In that regard the book leaves many questions unanswered.
I would recommend this book to others, but would also warn them they won’t find all the answers in it.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Dark Tide by Andrew Gross
March 22, 2009, Hong Kong
Paperback 2008, 422 pages.
Charles Friedman is a hedge fund manager who is involved with the mob. He takes advantage of an explosion at a train terminal to disappear to the Caribbean. His wife Karen somehow finds out he is still alive and engages Ty Hauck to track Charles down. Turns out Charles's mentor Saul Lennick is also involved with the mob. Karen meeting with Charles leads the mob to him, resulting in his murder. Saul Lennick is killed by a sniper hired by the mob after he is arrested by the police.
The story is quite a bit more complicated that the description in the previous paragraph. The plot is basically sound, not requiring a huge suspension of common sense. Only "regret" is the lack of resolution of Lennick's murder. Also, I skimmed over many passages in my desire to finish the book before I return to New Jersey.
I enjoyed this book, rating it as so far the best among the books in the blog. The pace is good, the plot twists keep coming, and - most importantly - the author didn't have too much of a problem making up an ending that is not a let down.
I rate this book "good".
Paperback 2008, 422 pages.
Charles Friedman is a hedge fund manager who is involved with the mob. He takes advantage of an explosion at a train terminal to disappear to the Caribbean. His wife Karen somehow finds out he is still alive and engages Ty Hauck to track Charles down. Turns out Charles's mentor Saul Lennick is also involved with the mob. Karen meeting with Charles leads the mob to him, resulting in his murder. Saul Lennick is killed by a sniper hired by the mob after he is arrested by the police.
The story is quite a bit more complicated that the description in the previous paragraph. The plot is basically sound, not requiring a huge suspension of common sense. Only "regret" is the lack of resolution of Lennick's murder. Also, I skimmed over many passages in my desire to finish the book before I return to New Jersey.
I enjoyed this book, rating it as so far the best among the books in the blog. The pace is good, the plot twists keep coming, and - most importantly - the author didn't have too much of a problem making up an ending that is not a let down.
I rate this book "good".
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The 6th Target by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
February 3, 2009, en-route SYD to SFO
Paperback 2007, 386 pages.
This is another novel in the Women's Murder Club series. Basically it consists of two stories that aren't really related, despite the authors' attempt in intertwining them.
First is the shooting of several people on a ferry. The shooter turns himself in but is acquitted by reason of insanity. After he escapes from the psychiatric ward and is recaptured trying to kill his own mother, and yet another of his victim dies, he is re-arrested on charges of second degree murder. There is not much suspense in the story even though the ending is left open.
The second story involves a series of kidnapping of young girls by a couple who run a nanny-locating service with the fancy name of a “registry”. The man is apprehended while the woman is shot holding the kidnapped girl at gunpoint.
There are side stories such as the demotion and romance life of Lindsay Boxer that don't add much to the overall novel.
I have read a few Pattersons already since I start tracking the books I read. It's good I do so as I will probably won't remember this book in a year or so, and re-read it again.
Another below average book by Patterson.
Paperback 2007, 386 pages.
This is another novel in the Women's Murder Club series. Basically it consists of two stories that aren't really related, despite the authors' attempt in intertwining them.
First is the shooting of several people on a ferry. The shooter turns himself in but is acquitted by reason of insanity. After he escapes from the psychiatric ward and is recaptured trying to kill his own mother, and yet another of his victim dies, he is re-arrested on charges of second degree murder. There is not much suspense in the story even though the ending is left open.
The second story involves a series of kidnapping of young girls by a couple who run a nanny-locating service with the fancy name of a “registry”. The man is apprehended while the woman is shot holding the kidnapped girl at gunpoint.
There are side stories such as the demotion and romance life of Lindsay Boxer that don't add much to the overall novel.
I have read a few Pattersons already since I start tracking the books I read. It's good I do so as I will probably won't remember this book in a year or so, and re-read it again.
Another below average book by Patterson.
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