April 2011 Book Reviews
Some of the books I read in April (acutally read Instinct last week, but who’s counting?)…
Weirdly enough 3 of the books I read this month turned out to be about genetic mutations\de-evolution\super-evolution etc. In fact, 2 of them both featured female veterinarians as the heroines. Just thought that odd… Made me wonder if we’ve run out of things to be afraid of and had to start making up shit. Anyhoo…. I’ll start with the biggest loser…
Breathless by Dean KoontzContemporary Literature)
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Horrible. Too may story threads that never really come together. A lot of character building that wasn’t very well sequenced. The worst though, in my view, was the complete non-ending. It just ends… no closure, no explanation, nothing. I guess I was expecting something better from a writer of Koontz reputation. This is one of those that had a female vet and weird genetics (or possibly aliens, couldn’t really figure that out). Not recommending this one folks.
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Altar of Eden by James RollinsLiterature & Fiction Books)
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Girl-vet (actually cryo-zoologist) v. weaponized genetic mutations. Better than Breathless by a long shot but still just mediocre. I did enjoy the scenery though… one interesting setting was an alligator farm in New Orleans. Wasted a few pages with yet another romantic angle… I really don’t understand the purpose of that in suspense-thrillers… but oh well.
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Storm Cycle by Iris Johansen & Roy JohansenContemporary Literature)
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Things that I liked: the heroine is a computer whiz and is chasing down secrets from a long dead Egyptian Lady Doctor. Love it! And thanks to the authors who included a note at the end telling about the real Egyptology involved (which I also loved!). This book had another common theme I see in thrillers of late… looking for a cure for something ‘incurable’. Of course, I didn’t need the romantic twist (there were actually two) but in this case I don’t think it detracted from the story too much. Ending could have been better but overall I enjoyed it.
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Instinct by Jeremy RobinsonAction & Adventure Genre Fiction)
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Here’s a twist… genetic freaks v Delta Force. If you’re into military fiction then I think you’ll enjoy Robinson’s Chess Team. (Warning… there weren’t any magical Ramboesque M-60s but some of the Delta members do seem to be more than human.) I will likely pick up another of the Chess Team missions because of this book. The story was okay… alot was borrowed from other stories… several came to my mind. It was entertaining enough to keep me reading through to finish it in one night.
The Siege of Troy by Greg Tobin
Current Mood:
Book Review &
Thinking! &
Writing
Another episode of funny forwards…
Did you ever notice…
- Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
- I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and
sticks when they’ve invented the lighter? - Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like
check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk. - I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
- The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will
never be ending a work email with the phrase “Regards” again. - Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would
magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft. - There is a great need for sarcasm font.
- Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.
- I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting
90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little
bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it. - How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
- I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
- I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
- The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.
- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.
- Was learning cursive really necessary?
- Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.
- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
- My brother’s Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, “Cuz we beat you, and you hate us.” Classy, bro.
- Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.
- How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?
- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete
idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm….Goonies” - What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?
- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it….thanks Mario Kart.
- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
- I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
- Bad decisions make good stories
- Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got
the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do! - Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?
- If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.
- Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….
- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.
- There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
- I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I
swear I did not make any changes to. - “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.
- I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will
they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and
leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’ - I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and
goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away? - I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
- When I meet a new girl, I’m terrified of mentioning something she hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light
internet stalking. - I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
- Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…
- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
- Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
- It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood…
- I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
- I think that if, years down the road when I’m trying to have a kid, I find out that I’m sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from
the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college. - Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.
- Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my
ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time… - My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?
- It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
- I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.
- I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
- I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.
- The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words,
someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people
eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard
before dinner.
Current Mood:
Amused &
Ja Ja Ja &
Naughty

Happy