Boondock Saints . . .

This was a movie that theresat had long recommended. I had seen it once and watched it with N. last night. She got a kick out of it.

Anyway, after I watched it, I jumped on www.imdb.com, as I often do, and I discovered a number of things.

( Read more... )

More book reviews . . .

Cross-posted from [Bad username or site: 50 Book Challenge @ livejournal.com]

It's been three weeks between posts. School has been insane, but it is completely over in 10 days. I have already started stockpiling books for the summer.

What we have today is a Fiction Festival. I am not sure why, but I think it has to do with the fact that technothriller or mystery novel reads more quickly and doesn't requirement as much brain power

20. "Scarecrow," by Matthew Reilly.

One of the best technothrillers I have read in a long time, and the second (I think) of Reilly's books I have read this year. He is a much, much better writer in this one, as he returns with his protagonist, Shane Scofield (Scarecrow), trying to save the world again. You have to suspend disbelief, but he get easily pulled along. Excellent characterization on Scarecrow, some old, familiar characters, and severl important new ones. Clearly sets up for sequel. This is one you really should read this summer, but it's in hardcover, so hit the library like I did.

21. "Deadline," by Mark Arsenault.

Formula newspaper mystery, Reporter returns to hometown paper to resurrect his career, and lo and behold one of his newspaper buddies is murdered. So the reporter out-investigates the police, almost gets killed himself, etc., and he links urban renewal and a possible connection to the Khmer Rouge genocide. It's pretty basic for most people, but it's set in a town about 20 miles from me (Lowell, Mass.), and Arsenault, a Boston Globe reporter writing his first novel, nails the details.

22. "Golden Buddha," by Clive Cussler and Craig Durgo.

OK, remember the old Star Trek movies rule abut the even-numbered movies being better? Well it's kinda like the same thing here. If it's by Clive Cussler and involves Dirk Pitt, read it. If it's by Cussler and someone else and therefore doesn't involve Pitt, leave it on the shelf.

Interesting proposition regarding a Golden Buddha and bringing the Dali Lama back to Tibet. But it bogs down in chase scenes that are far too long, and it's really hard to keep track of who is who.

23. "The Command," by David Poyer.

Part of a long-running Modern Navy fiction series. Highly recommended. Better characterization than most in this genre.

Poyer tackles the topics of terrorism, officers making excrutiatingly difficult decision and mixing men and women on ships. You learn a lot about many people other than the captain, and the novel is far more believable than Scarecrow and Buddha. Good depictions of Muslim characters, including an American agent who is a female Black Muslim. Lots of technology and Navy politics. At times, the main character is too whiny for me.