Monday, November 26, 2012

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown



Author: Dan Brown
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Rating: 8

I actually finished this book quite some time ago, and I am currently reading The Da Vinci Code. I am someone who loves conspiracy theories, symbols and hidden messages and this book gave me all of that PLUS mystery, something else I quite enjoy.

The book was about professor Robert Langdon, who is called in for his expertise on symbols in the case of the Illuminati. The symbol, burned into the skin of a dead scientist leads Langdon to the Vatican, where he must race to solve the mystery of who is harming the most religious men in the world and why.

The book takes place in the span of a day---over 300 pages all taking place in one day. To most, and when I think about it to me too, this seems excessive. It seems like things SHOULD drag on forever and honestly in some places they do, however for the most part the book is so full of action it truly flies by. There are multiple points of view and narrators in the book, and the use of the many story lines makes it so that 20 or so pages could go on about one specific instant and it does not seem weighty.

In the end, I liked the book enough to start the next one and I am glad that I did. The story left me wanting more- more story, more mystery and more symbols. There is some debate about whether Brown is a great author or a terrible one and I would have to side with those who think that he is great--I truly enjoyed the book, it got me to question many things that previously I had not thought about.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk



Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Genre: Mystery, action
Rating:4

I went into this book very excited. I have only read one other Palahniuk novel- Invisible Monsters- so I was looking forward to reading this one. The story sounded great: a med school dropout who fakes choking to death in restaurants to pay his mother's way through the nursing home. The book proved to be less about that and more about nothing, really. I think I have to just face the fact that I am not a Palahniuk fan, because it took me finishing this book to remember that I did not particularly care for Invisible Monsters the first time I read it.

I do not mesh well with Palahniuk's style, and the overall content of the book was nothing I could relate to, nor was it anything that I was interested in finding more about.

The book was blah for me. I really did not care for it, but that does not necessarily mean that the book was bad. I just didn't care for it. I know that some people have liked this book, but alas I did not.

Friday, November 2, 2012

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen





Author: Tess Gerritsen
Genre: mystery, action, drama, crime, thriller
Rating: 8

I have always been a fan of crime and mystery books. I will often gravitate towards James Patterson or another mystery/crime writer when I want to read a book that will require minimal work on my part. Sometimes, reading is a chore, it requires you to think and respond, but with me, and with crime books, I am able to be a passenger along for the ride. I also like crime television shows, almost exclusively, for this reason.

I had wanted to read Tess Gerritsen for a while. I discovered her Rizzoli and Isles series when I was in high school, and made a mental note to read it if I ever found the found the first book. Around Halloween time every year, I want to read something a little scary, and this year I picked up this novel, and it was well worth reading. I was able to read it the way I wanted- for enjoyment, but it also captured my attention and left me wanting to read the rest of the books, which are conveniently NOT in the library that I have the most access to.

The story revolves around a handful of characters: Rizzoli, the disgruntled female cop who ever feels the need to prove herself, Moore, a cop with a devastating past and surgeon Cordell, a woman who was the final target of a serial killer who was grotesque in his torture and killing of multiple women. The story takes place in Boston, where it appears that a copycat killer has struck, but as the killer knows things that were not made public knowledge, the investigation turns to Cordell and the details surrounding the night she killed the serial killer in Atlanta, Georgia.

The story takes twists and turns that make sense with the flow of the plot. As an avid watcher of crime shows, I saw the ending coming, but not so much in advance that it felt like it was a waste of time.

Overall, a good book with some very interesting characters. I look forward to reading more Gerritsen.