Book Review: No Middle Name by Lee Child (part 1)

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“No Middle Name” is a collection of Jack Reacher short stories. All of them, actually. It’s fucking awesome. I mean, what Reacher fan wouldn’t love this? Instead of taking an entire book to see how clever he is, we get short bursts of his brilliance. It’s a quick gratification from a character that I really dig.

You know those tiny little roller coasters you’ll see at traveling carnivals? They don’t really have room to set up a huge, full-size coaster like you’d see at Six Flags or Disney Parks. So they set up little dinky ones that are mostly just a few hills and maybe one upside-down loop on a track that’s more or less an oval if seen from above. They’re extra scary though because they’re so small. The turns are harder, the loop is more terrifying. You wonder—can there possibly be enough time to build up the required momentum for this trip upside down?

Oh, but there is. You feel squished into your seat as you take on a whole new perspective of the world for just a second. Then it’s gone.

That’s what these stories are.

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Book Review: Personal by Lee Child

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“Personal” by Lee Child is a fantastic book. I love the voice and the feel of the narrative. He uses a bit of an unconventional writing style, but it is uniquely his own. If you, like me, have never read anything he’s written before, I highly recommend buying one of his books and giving it a shot. I mean, come on… He’s a best-selling author for a damn good reason. He writes gripping thrillers that are really driven and action-packed. I’m already looking forward to picking up some more of his books and devouring them.

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Book Review: Deadly Kiss by Bob Bickford

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“Deadly Kiss” grabbed me right from the synopsis. Decades of deaths can all be blamed on a stolen kiss that happened out back of a country store in Georgia in 1946. Mike has to follow the trail of secrets if he’s ever going to solve the mystery of what was silently haunting his father ever since he was a young boy.

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Book Review: The Rising by Heather Graham and Jon Land

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I decided to read this book because it was co-written by two wonderful, friendly people whom I had the pleasure of meeting last year at ThrillerFest. What do you get when two amazing bestselling authors put their heads together? A freaking fantastic book that grabs you and holds on right up until the very end.

"The Rising" by Heather Graham and Jon Land is a gripping thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. It took me around a week to read it, but every time I put it down, I couldn’t wait until I had time to pick it up again and read some more. It’s full of questions and the mystery keeps driving the story forward. I just had to keep reading. I had to know what the hell this was all about.

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Book Review: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

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In "Dead Ever After," the thirteenth and final Sookie Stackhouse book, we see a lot of changes and get to revisit a lot of old friends, as well as a few old enemies. First, is the style change. To the best of my recollection, all of the other books were written exclusively from Sookie’s perspective. Entirely first person, and in a very casual form. It’s very colloquial, charming, and endearing. But in this book, we get a number of perspective shifts where we are witnessing an event from third person, well outside of Sookie’s knowledge, even after the end of the book. She had no way of knowing any of it. I actually liked this change. It gave us what we needed to know, without Sookie knowing, too.

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Book Review: The Game by Jack London

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Genevieve meets Joe in the candy shop where she works. Both are instantly smitten with each other. After dancing around their shyness, they begin to “walk out” together, strolling in public parks and talking, or even just sitting in an amicable silence. They fall in love, plan to be married, and have a wonderful life together.

What she doesn’t know until after she’s fallen for him, is that he’s a famous boxer. The Game has him, and it doesn’t want to let him go.

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Book Review: Anthem by Ayn Rand

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Anthem by Ayn Rand is one of my favorite novellas. The first time I read it, I had no idea what it was about. I do this more than most people, I suppose. Sometimes I’ll download a classic from Kindle simply because I’ve heard of it, but never read it. Or because I’ve heard of the long-dead author, but never read any of their work, so I’ll pick a short one to start out with. Anthem was one of the short ones I’d chosen. And I’ll never regret it. I’ll love this book until the day I die.

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Book Review: Jennifer Government by Max Barry

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The premise lies in the not-too-distant future, where the USA has mostly taken over the world, but not by government—they’ve done it with corporations. The “government” has very little power, and executives run the world. Every man and woman takes the name of their employer as their last name. Every child takes the last name of their school, which are all run by corporations. Unemployed persons have no last name.

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Book Review: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

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The synopsis of Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay intrigued me, so it was my next choice from my stack of physical books. A young teen begins to show signs of schizophrenia, but is she actually possessed? A TV show called The Possession is made about her and her family. Madness ensues.

The book is not written in a conventional narration throughout. It is split up into three ways. Modern day, told in present tense and first person. Then there is the blog format, my most disliked in the book. The most abundant is a past tense, first person narration of the eight year old sister of the possessed girl. All are necessary for the book to be as great as it is.

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