Suspended Sentences

My second Modiano.

I read Dora Bruder back in 2004. I had no idea who Patrick Modiano was back then, but I remember very well how I managed to pick up his book, together with Amos Oz' Where the Jackals Howl, at a Book Sale outlet near the LRT Station in Pedro Gil because I was looking for something to read to ease the boredom of waiting in line for my interview at the US Embassy.

Now that Modiano is a Nobel laureate, I think it's the right time to start reading his works again.

Booked: The Complete Works of Shakespeare

I bought this book for a sonnet--err song ($3) during one of my forays at a local flea market. Not bad for an 1878 illustrated edition of The Complete Works of the Bard, eh? 

William Shakespeare would have been 449 today.

Peek-a-books #3

*old books found while tidying up my man cave.

The Killer Book of Serial Killers

To the uninitiated this is a peek into the evil that these people do. But to the initiated, this is nothing new since most of the stories and trivia in this book are old and a re-hash from other books that deal with the subject.

Spies of the Balkans

"The joke about Nazi racial theory- The ideal superman of the master race would be as blond as Hitler, as lean as Göring, and as tall as Goebbels."

The novel is set in the Greek city of Salonika amid the fear and confusion of a German invasion hanging like the proverbial sword of Damocles on everyone's head during the early years of WWII.

Constantine Zannis, a local policeman, gets embroiled in matters of politics, espionage and his heart as he treads on dangerous grounds on a journey that only a few men would have the undying resolve to pursue.

The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History’s Barest Family

Dr. Seuss' unsuccessful foray into 'adult' territory before he became famous for his children's books. Instead of becoming an 'ob-gyne,' he opted to become a 'pediatrician' and the rest is history. ;D

Visit Brain Pickings for more.

Private

If we have people like Jack Morgan and his investigation company in our midst, then most criminals will find it hard to sleep at night with the fear of being exposed in the backs of their heads, since PRIVATE does not always play by the rules.

Yes, PRIVATE can solve any case that they put their resources into and can also dish their own brand of swift justice if push comes to shove.

PRIVATE exist primarily because of the expertise of the people behind it and commands a huge fee for their services. But they also do pro bono cases on the side.

NFL gambling syndicate and cases of unsolved killings of schoolgirls make this thriller a good read, indeed.

1Q84

Contrary to what people (including some of my friends) thought when they first heard of the book, 1Q84 is not an offshoot of 1984, the dystopian novel that George Orwell wrote decades ago. The title might delude us into thinking that they might be really similar somehow, but the reality is, they're really very different in so many ways.

Or are they?

Haruki Murakami is known to be quite a story-teller with a very wild and fertile mind. In this particular novel; he uncorked his thoughts bottled up inside his brain to let the words flow like fine wine and turned a seemingly simple story (which is quite full of nonsense if you are a realist) into a great surreal fantasy love story.

1Q84...

The characters Tengo and Aomame have a big full plate to eat and digest in front of them. With Tokyo as their playground, they need to get over the obstacles that fate has outlined ahead of them in order to solve the puzzles and answer the questions that have been long simmering and hibernating inside their heads for quite a long time.

1Q84..

The question marks-

The 17-year old mysterious Fuka-Eri and the relationship of the maza and dohta. The paradox of the Little People and the Air Chrysalis. The riddle of the two moons; the large yellow one and the smaller, misshapen green one. And the power of the human touch and the extraordinary things that people will undergo and the sacrifices that they will do to finally find their one true love.

1Q84.

And of course, the graphic and weird S-E-X-U-A-L 'insertions' in the novel that only a Japanese male could conjure are worth noting, too.

Yes, I have toiled, lived, and dreamed in my own supernatural world, a parallel universe of sort for weeks. Ah, the hours that I had to spend and the labor that I had to endure just to get through the 925 pages of what seemed like a journey into the world of black magic and wet dreams.

But I am awake now.

1Q84-2012.

I, Alex Cross

Alex Cross' job brings him often and close to the many brutal crime scenes in the DC Area. And in all his dealings with crimes, he exerts an enormous effort to separate his work from his family. And he succeeds in just doing that, most of the time.

But the brutal murder of his niece once again makes this particular case personal. And Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Det. Brianna Stone found themselves confronting powerful people with ties to the White House in their search for justice and then some.

Sex, crime, fetish, lies, power and fantasy- this book has it all and is another gem of a suspense- thriller which only James Patterson could weave as he once again imparts his brand of writing to his legions of readers with ease.

Dead Shot

Behind the steady finger that pulls the trigger and the sharp eye that peeks through the crosshairs are men like Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Swanson and the enigmatic Juba, two snipers on different sides of the spectrum but with one common mission- to exterminate anybody on their path with 'one shot, one kill."

Add Baghdad, Black Ops, Al Qaeda, Chemical weapons and the Iranian connection make Dead Shot a good read; a novel that is just all right but still manages to intrigue.

The Lion's Game

In ex-NYPD cop and terrorist Task Force contract agent John Corey, author Nelson DeMille has created a character that is a replica of what a real NYPD cop should be -- brass but effective, wise-cracking but intelligent, and street-smart but knows how to navigate his way in and out of the system. He may be obnoxious to others, but he's also loyal to his job and peers.

Asad Kahlil (aka The Lion) is on a mission -- to kill the men responsible for his family's death, in this case, the pilots and navigators of the F-111s that raided Al 'Aziziyah in Libya in retaliation for Libyan involvement in various attacks against American interests in Europe.

The moment the commercial Boeing 747's 'unusual flight' from Paris landed at the JFK Airport, the game was on and the players were put into motion.

Nelson DeMille plotted this novel with attention to some historical events and data incorporated into the course of the story. The dialogues are laden with cop jargon and street lingo but are also serious and humorous in substance at other points.

In a novel of this proportion, some miscues and inaccuracies are inevitable, but the misses are few and forgivable. And the author has more than redeemed himself with crisp pacing and superb storytelling.
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The Lion's Game (2000)

Kafka on the shore*

Literature as comics, why not?

Peter Kuper's adaptation of Franz Kafka's classic is a good start for the not-so-serious reader to be introduced and get acquainted to the Czech writer's works.

The comic book is simple and is easy on the eye that gives new life on the old novel that easily metamorphosed into a a serious graphic and dark work of art but still retains Kafka's original narrative and expression.

This is not only a faithful adaptation but the artwork is also kafkaesque- dark, nightmarish and surreal. Another good introduction to Franz Kafka's brilliant catalog of works.


*with apologies to one of my favorite Japanese writers, Haruki Murakami, for usurping the title of this post from his 2002 fantasy opus.

Shortcomings

Food for thought for Asian men: “Is your attraction to white women a sublimated form of assimilation?”

WAR as seen through the eyes of Sebastian Junger

A personal experience and in- depth look at the war on terror in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley wherein US Troops were engaged in a war of attrition against a rag-tag but determined group of Taliban fighters whose unwelcome presence is a constant; where living and dying is measured by mere inches and precious seconds.

Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm), who was embedded with 2nd Platoon, Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team for months, gave us a raw picture, the horrors and reality of war, as seen through the eyes and experiences of the men who were there.

This book is an 'expanded version' of materials culled from his articles on Vanity Fair Magazine about his journey to Afghanistan's Korengal Valley wherein he was on assignment from June 2007 to June 2008.

The book also mentioned the exploits of Specialist Salvatore Giunta, the first living recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. His unit was ambushed by the enemy and he earned the award for risking his life while preventing a wounded comrade from being captured by the enemy.

John Sandford's Storm Prey

Feeling Minnesota: The 20th installment of the Prey Series and Lucas Davenport is at it again- solving crimes and kicking ass in his usual stomping ground.

The victims in this case were mostly at the 'wrong place at the wrong time' and Davenport had his sidekick Virgil Flowers in tow to solve the case of 'bad medicine' as well as neutralize the threat to his wife Weather Karkinnen, a surgeon at the hospital where a fatal robbery occurred that put into motion the series of killings in the Twin Cities and its outskirts.

After this latest installment, the Sandford faithful will probably wonder whether the series still compels and is therefore worth keeping? Or realize that it is time for the author to hold the pill and spare his readers of the overdose?

Mr. Monk in Trouble

This book is trouble, a case that even the brilliant Detective Adrian Monk on his best days cannot solve. Lee Goldberg tries to duplicate the success in the boob tube of the idiosyncratic detective into book form but fails.

One of the few times that the TV show is better than the book.

DONG XOAI

Vietnam 1965: Joe Kubert captures the action and confusion of the men in the heat of battle through his ink and style. In this fiction loosely based on real events of the Vietnam War, he was able to depict the story clearly with his unique brand of illustrations- raw, rough and real.

The Rembrandt Affair

I am a thriller junkie, schooled by the old Robert Ludlum school which by any standard is the best in the genre. So, any writer aspiring to be in his league has some huge shoes to fill in my book.

But Daniel Silva had me the moment I first laid my eyes on his novel The Unlikely Spy while browsing the book exchange section of a local library a couple of years ago.

Then I read the first book of the Gabriel Allon series, The Kill Artist, and I was hooked. Since then I have read all of his books and never looked back.

Daniel Silva is one great thriller writer in the league of an Alan Furst or a John Le Carre with a twist. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Silva is a fan of the Mossad, Israel's secret intelligence service, and Gabriel Allon its legendary assassin, is his man.

Gabriel Allon is the sensitive artist and the ruthless assassin whose exploits in and out of the spy game makes him the ideal renaissance man of the espionage world; when he is not tracking and killing the enemies of Israel, he is somewhere restoring old paintings back to their old glory.

In The Rembrandt Affair, Gabriel Allon is once again drawn back into the fire, not by his mentor Ari Shamron, as is usually the case in the past, but by his dear old friend, London art dealer Julian Isherwood.

Isherwood is in a big predicament when an art- restorer he commissioned, who was once Gabriel's classmate and rival when they were both studying under a renowned art teacher, was murdered, and the Rembrandt painting he was working on went missing.

Gabriel Allon simply cannot refuse an old friend in dire straits and went on a quest to find the missing painting that in so doing opened a can of worms while tracing its provenance and made him face the inherent dangers that come with it.

Daniel Silva once again proved his mastery of the genre as he deftly maneuvered Gabriel Allon into the realms of the evil that men do: from the Nazi's systematic art thefts in WWII to a "hidden child" in Amsterdam to the Gnomes that inhabit the Swiss banks and to the man who would stop at nothing and commit murders to prevent his dirty past from ever coming out.

Black Blizzard

Yoshihiro Tatsumi's 1956 thriller Black Blizzard provides us a look into his past, when he was still a raw and inexperienced writer and mangaka.

Tatsumi, in several interviews, never hides the fact that he has 'conflicting' feelings about Black Blizzard to which he described it as "nostalgic for the past, for the days of my youth" but it's also "like exposing something shameful and private" that he would rather bury and have "hidden from sight."

But the work in itself is not bad for a twenty- one year old aspiring and struggling writer- cum- cartoonist. On the contrary it probably revolutionized the alternative comic scene in Japan in those days that eventually made him a gekiga pioneer.

Tatsumi's unorthodox visual narrative is like a study in contradiction; it was simple but is actually ahead of his time. The focus and angles are like those that can be seen from the eyes of a master filmmaker; the drawings speak for themselves.

The plot and storytelling are light and direct to the point. Even the dramatic moments were handled and told in a straightforward manner and avoided the melodramatic traps.



In Black Blizzard, the protagonists, Susumu Yamada, a depressed pianist, and Shinpei Konta, a hardened criminal, are both accused of murder although under different circumstances but were forced to work together when fate suddenly gave them a chance to be free.

What turns out next was both ordinary and extraordinary. The choices that they have to make are grim and the struggle that goes with them can make one cringe. But the twist in the end will make us heave a sigh of relief.

The story was simple, short and sweet.

Pirate Latitudes

Found and published after the author's death. Pirate Latitudes is one swashbuckling read. As is always the case, Michael Crichton is a master of the pen; his works always enjoyable, enlightening and well- researched.