ー歩ー歩學箴言 ‐ 作智慧人。劉少平 著。

- 學習怎樣ー歩ー歩走出愚眜, ー級ー級邁向智慧
上册243頁 (2009)
下册267頁 (2009)

Completed January 26, 2010, South Amboy, NJ.

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

Paperback 2009, 384 pages
December 23, 2010
South Amboy, NJ

This book was found in complete manuscript form after Crichton’s death in 2008. It is not your typical Crichton novel in that it is not a scientific tour-de-force. Instead it is a rather straightforward narrative of how Charles Hunter leads a team of privateers and successfully takes a treasure-laden Spanish Galleon, escapes the pursuit of the Spanish, but is tried and convicted as a pirate when he returns to his home port in Jamaica, escapes and finally avenges his conviction. The one interesting “science” angle is how Hunter successfully sinks the pursuing Spanish warship.

The book is very easy to read. Comparisons with John Grisham’s non-legal novels are inevitable, and I have to give the edge to Crichton.

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

Paperback 2009, 361 pages
December 18, 2010
Hong Kong

Caroline Cross, Alex’s niece, was murdered and ran through a woodchipper. Turns out the murderer is the “First Gentleman,” the president’s husband, called Zeus. He is a rich and powerful man who is also a serial killer. He hires many people to clean up after him; these hired guns do an excellent job of killing anyone connected to the murders. One of the victims escapes and hides in Alabama. The case is solved when somehow Alex Cross tracks her down. The killer is then killed by a secret service agent loyal to the president; the agent is then killed by other agents charged with protecting the president. The story ends there, it is left to the imagination of the reader to decide if there are further developments, e.g., if the president is aware of her husband’s actions. I imagine most readers can weave together a story better than Patterson can, so he wisely leaves the task to them.

A side story is Nana, Cross’s mother, gets very sick, is in a coma for a while, but manages to pull through. This is a relatively short novel, so Patterson must have felt obliged to throw another story in there. Wonder how many readers of the Cross series care? Another thing is Bree agreeing to marry Alex, another issue of unknown importance to the reader.

In any case, by making this a rather straightforward story, Patterson manages to produce one of his more readable books. An average thriller, but above average for this author.

True Blue by David Baldacci

Paperback 2009, 571 pages
December 7, 2010

The story’s main character is Mace, an ex-cop who was framed and went to jail for two years. Upon her release she wants to clear her name (and get re-instated) by trying to solve a crime on her own. Other characters are her sister Beth who is the Police Commissioner, and Roy a lawyer.

The premise is incredulous enough. And Baldacci adds to that by making the case one of international conspiracy. Money is being laundered through Roy’s law firm with the help of a rogue organization in the intelligence community. The murder of Diane at the law firm is just the first of many murders committed by the group. The story takes the reader through many layers of intrigue before it unveils the real culprits, which it does in haste. The story also ends abruptly with a lame plot by the protagonists to expose the bad guys. Evidently Baldacci suffers the same lack of ability to end a story in a satisfying manner also.

This book is about the same length as the last book I read (one page shorter). I have to say it is quite a bit better than the other one (The Scarpetta Factor) in terms of readability. Baldacci doesn’t have to make tons of digression and needs only a minimal amount of flashbacks to make the story move along. On the other hand, saying the book is better than “The Scarpetta Factor” isn’t saying much.

The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwall

Paperback 2009, 572 pages
November 5, 2010. UA862 Enroute HKG-SFO.

Five letters sum up this novel: A-W-F-U-L.

I vaguely recall the character Kay Scarpetta, but I can’t possibly forget if I had ever read a novel that is so awful. The story’s many main characters are Scarpetta, a volunteer medical examiner; Benton her husband; Lucy her niece and a computer wizard among other things; Jaime the DA and Lucy’s lover; and Marino the cop who was Scarpetta’s ex-lover. The last characterization is uncertain, and brings to mind one of the writer’s many annoying and flawed techniques. There are lots of flash backs that the reader may think will eventually resolve but end up being dead weight (i.e., make the novel longer without adding much to it other than confusion).

Other literary skills (trespasses really) fully utilized in the novel are interleaving several things all at once by devoting short paragraphs to each in turn; using many sentences to describe one simple thing that’s is not germane to the story (e.g., a staircase); and using a simple narrative to try to outline the real plot since the author seems incapable of putting the real excitement into action.

At the end you simply have a deranged killer (Chardonne) who ended up being shot dead at the end of the story. If the story is condensed into a novelette of 100 pages it may be worth a read. But at close to 600 pages, that’s simply the work of a writer with illusions of being a literary novelist, and one who couldn’t let any thought go to waste at that.

Since I am writing this inside a plane, I can’t go back and see how bad this book is compared to other atrocious ones I have read. I’m sure it will take the cake, hands down.

Smash Cut by Sandra Brown

Paperback 2009, 489 pages
South Amboy, NJ

I started reading this book on my trip to Boston, and finished it at home.

The story is about how Creighton Wheeler, a horror movie buff, hires someone (Billy) to kill his uncle Paul and frames Paul’s supposed lover Julie Rutledge for the murder. Creighton gets Billy to do the killing because Creighton first kills a witness in Billy’s murder trial. This and other actions by Creighton are inspired by murder mystery films such as “Strangers in a Train”. Julie enlists the help of the defense lawyer Derek Mitchell who gradually changes his opinion from doubting Julie to fully supporting her view of events. Eventually they (Derek, Julie, and a investigator by name of Dodge) catch up with Creighton as he is about to kill Billy’s former girlfriend.

The story is generally okay, perhaps with too much gratuitous sex thrown in. At the end we find out Julie is actually Paul’s daughter instead of his lover. This “surprise” ending unfortunately detracts from the overall plot. Julie remains a suspect because people think she is with Paul for the money, there is much less reason to suspect her if it is known that she is actually Paul’s daughter. The reasons for her not telling people are too arbitrary.

In any case, this is a good book to read. The author tries to explain the term “smash cut” a couple of times, unsuccessfully in my case.

Ford County Stories by John Grisham

Paperback 2009, 340 pages.
Clearwater, Florida

I bought the book on Monday at SFO because I ran out of things to do on the return trip from Sydney. I hesitated a bit because the previous non-lawyer books by Grisham that I read were quite disappointing. I finally bought it because (i) it was relatively cheap at $7.99, (ii) it was either listed as the #1 or #2 bestseller, and (iii) maybe it will be different this time.

Anyway, the book consists of 7 short stories (about 50 pages each) talking about life in and around Clanton, the county seat of Ford County. After reading a couple of the stories I began to regret why I bought the book. First, most – if not all – of the stories seem to reinforce an outsider’s view of that part of the country as being backward, and that people there are particularly mean. I thought Grisham is from that area, and that he would be more sympathetic to people in that area. Second, the stories while somewhat interesting, aren’t developed well at all. Perhaps there is not much to develop? Third, you get the feeling that these were all Grisham’s writing experiments during his fledgling days as an author, and now that he is famous, he wants to see his work in print. That these were his older works is further confirmed by the gas chamber execution and the AIDS death.

In the end, I am left with a similar feeling of disappointment as I did when I finished “Playing for Pizza.”