Home Books By Year Archive by category "2011 Reads" (Page 2)

Category: 2011 Reads

Book 21 – Chris Mooney – Remembering Sarah

Book 21 of the year Chris Mooney‘s Remembering Sarahhas been on my To Be Read pile for some time now. But the other day after moving some books around it was sitting out, so after finishing The Baxter Trust, I picked it up and for a couple of days I couldn’t put it down. The story begins when Mike Sullivan promises to take six year old daughter Sarah sledding on The Hill. When his overprotective wife Jess  hears about the outing, she tells Mike no way! So like a good husband Mike waits until Jess leaves and then sneaks out with Sarah to the hill! At the hill, Sarah, ever the strong willed and independent girl, wants to go up the hill by herself. Mike always encouraging her independence and strong will lets her go. Then the worst happens, Sarah never comes down! The book takes off from there as, Mike, with his marriage falling apart relentlessly searches for Sarah investigating every lead he can to find her. Mike, and everyone in town, is convinced that the Father Jonah, who has already been linked to the disappearance of three other girls is the culprit. But Jonas is dying and Mike must find out what he knows before he passes on or will lose Sarah forever!  Amidst all this Mike is also dealing with a mother that left him when he was twelve and a criminal and abusive father, not much on his plate, huh! Like I said I just couldn’t put the book down last night until I finished! Read More

Book 20 – 2011 The Baxter Trust – Parnell Hall

So one of my favorite mystery series is Parnell Hall‘s Stanley Hasting series. Well now Mr. Hall wishes to be the “King of Kindle” and as such he has placed his books at the Kindle store at bargain prices. In addition, he has put up a series he wrote under the name of J.P Hailey. These books feature a down on his luck lawyer, actor, and cab driver named Steve Winslow. Book 20 for 2011 is the first of these books The Baxter Trust” and while it may not be  great literature, it is great fun! Read More

Book 19 – Misery Bay – Steve Hamilton

So I was all set last night to write about my run. How another rock band Voodoo Circle and their new album Black Heart Syndrome was the soundtrack for the 4.2 mile run complete in just under a ten minute per mile pace (which was not bad because I went uphill for parts of the run), but alas that was not to be! I sat down started to read Book 19 Steve Hamilton‘s latest Alex McKnight novel Misery Bay and continued reading until I went to bed,(except for that 1/2 hour nap). I finished the book at lunchtime today.<u> Misery Bay</u> is the eighth book in the McKnight series and the first since 2006 and is a worthy addition to the series. Read More

Book 16 – Gideon’s Sword – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Book 16 is the latest book from the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lee Child Gideon’s Sword.The book is the first book in a proposed series featuring Gideon Crew. I go back a long way with Preston and Child to the first book in the Pendergrast series Relic published in 1995! Unfortunately, I only read the first book and parts of the second Reliquary. That series is now up to book ten and I have several on my Mount to Be Read pile! Anyway rather than go back and catch up I thought I move forward with the new series! At twelve years old Gideon sees his father killed in a hostage stand-off involving his work for the government. On her death bed his mother his mother reveals that his father was a scapegoat concerning a failed project that left twenty six CIA agent s dead! Gideon sets out to clear his father’s name and does that rather quickly in the book. After revenging his father’s death Gideon returns to his favorite fishing hole and thinks he will just resume his normal life. Soon he is contacted by a subcontractor for the Department of Homeland security and offered an assignment to steal the plans for a new weapon from a Chinese scientist who is entering the country. This plunges Gideon into a whole new world, but he may have the talents for it because along the way the reader discovers that he is a master of disguises and a former Art Museum thief. The action is fast paced with several twists and turns. I enjoyed the read but in places found some events very implausible, but sometimes that in these types of books, so you just suspend belief and go along for the ride. The ride is pretty damn good so check it out! I enjoyed the character of Gideon Crew and along the way I learned a few things particularly about the Falun Gong and the Potter’s Field at Hart Island in Long Island Sound. So again check it out as for me I guess I need to go back and read some of those Pendergrast books! Read More

Book 13 – Vince Flynn – Consent to Kill

Yeah finally finished Book 13 for 2011 Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn. Constent to Kill is the sixth book in the Mitch Rapp series by Flynn, The series is now up to Book 11, so I have some reading to do to catch up on the series! Mitch Rapp is a  CIA assassin working deep Black Ops. in the book prior to this one Memorial Day. Rapp saved Washington from a nuclear holocaust and along the way made some very powerful enemies! Now those enemies have put a price on his head and hired a very savvy assassin to do the job! Read More

Book 10 – The Breach – Patrick Lee

Book 10 of 2011 was Patrick Lee’s The Breach. The Breach is the first book of what’s now a two book series featuring Travis Chase, Paige Campbell and the Breach. The second book, which I read first is Ghost Country. The book is an action adventure book with some sci-fi thrown in. The Breach itself is an anomaly, like a ripe in space, through which entities are sent to Earth from some other vastly more intelligent world. The entity that is the focus of this book is The Whisper. The Whisper knows all and it’s mission is to cause trouble and in the book it certainly does! From the opening chapter when a plane carrying the Whisper and the First Lady of the United States goes down and the Whisper is stolen, to the last pages where the home of the Breach Border Town run by a group known as Tangent is attacked the action is fast and furious with lots of twists and turns. I really liked both of the books and I’m looking forward to more books featuring the likable team of Chase and Campbell! Read More

Book 7 – Virus of the Mind – Richard Brodie

So I want all the folks who graduated high school and college prior to 1977 who know what a meme is to raise their hands! Did lots of hands go up! If they did then you’re better than me. Until I read Richard Dawkins The God Delusion I did not know about memes. But now after reading that book and Book Number for 2011 Virus of the Mind by Richard Brodie I know a little more about this basic unit of cultural transmission and imitiation and memetics which is the study of the working of memes, how they interact, replicate and evolve. A meme (rhymes with cream) is an idea that forms itself into a distinct memorable unit and then is spread through a culture. They are the cultural equivalent of the gene. The term was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene. Memes can exist concerning any thing in life like danger, fear, sex and religion. Those that are best at replicating themselves keep evolving while others don’t far as well and are replaced. An example would be the Roman and Greek Gods for many years their memes were strong and dominated the culture but when science explained things they lost their ability to replicate and soon faded. Likewise religions like Mithra-ism a and other pagan religions flourished and died, while the memes of Christianity and Islam continued to replicate and be spread. Read More

Book 3 – The Lost Throne – Chris Kuzneski

By Chris Kuzneski

Book No 3 for 2011The Lost Throne by Chris Kuzneski is the fourth book of five in the Jonathan Payne David Jones series and it’s a good one.  I love books that are based on history and teach me something! This one certainly did!  After seven monks are brutally killed at the Holy Trinity Monastery in Greece, Nick Dial, head of Interpol’s Homicide Division is called to investigate the crime. Video footage of the murders reveal that the murders appear to have been commited by Spartans!! Meanwhile ex-special forces officer Jonathan Payne receives frantic calls from a Richard Byrd in Russia who is afraid he is being followed and will be killed! After Byrd is murdered Payne reaches his assistant, a graduate archeology major at Stanford, Allison Brown. Brown, Byrd;s assistant was set to meet Byrd and leave Russia when he was killed. Payne sets out to rescue Brown and discover why Byrd was killed. The remainder of the story revolves around Byrd’s search for the The Lost Throne of Zeus and that puts Payne and his partner on a collision course with the murderers in Greece! The story was great the characters believable and likable and I am certainly going back to catch up on the series! But what did it teach me? Read More