Friday Finds (30th December)

Thanks to the fantastic Blog ShouldbeReading


They do a weekly post about the great finds you have made of the week.

What Great books did you discover/ hear about this week?


Thanks to the great present of my Kindle for Xmas I have been given so many recommendations by friends and just trailing Amazon.

These are some of my Finds:
How to Survive the End of The World As we Know it: Tatics, techniques and Technologies for uncertain Times - James Wesley Rawles (Kindle Edition)

I do not know what to expect with this book, but my friend said it would be a great read for me on the kindle. anyone read or even heard of it?
how to survive the end of the world....

A dirty Job: Christopher Moore

My friend had mentioned this author before, so while I was looking for purchases for my Kindle I noticed the name and looked at the rather awesome front cover. These are suppose to be quite popular books.
A Dirty Job

Plum Island: Nelson Demille

Plum Island

American conspiracies: Jesse Ventura

I just love this guy's TV show and was found by a friend of mine :) I've just started to read it and it is exactly how I imagined it to be!
American Conspiracies

Catwoman's 2012 Reading Challenges

 I was so bad last year. I barely read any books in the first half of the year. But my mojo has picked up.

This year I will also be going away on some big holidays which will involve some rather long flights. Back to what I did in 2010. Hopefully this will give me even more time to read and hopefully give me more incentive to keep my book lists going.

I also got a Kindle for Xmas so it will make me easier to read on the go.

I have decided to set myself a higher reading challenge this year. 50 BOOKS!!!! I know for some people this isn't alot for some but for me this is a lot.

Included in this I want to get back into reading Non-fiction again. I barely read any this year (2011) so I want to change this. I have some City guide books in this so that will help. My challange is to READ 10 NON FICTION BOOKS

Also want to get back into completing my LOST book club challenge. I only read a couple last year. So that is a little mini challange for me.MY challenge is 10 LOST BOOK CLUB BOOKS

Wanna try and get back into reading graphic Novels/ Comics again. so hopefully I can read 5.

Also I am going to Florida with my kids in August and while we are there we are going to The wizarding world of Harry Potter. I started reading the books in 2011 and I have read up to book five. I am starting to love them now, but I must make sure I finish them before Florida or my kids will kill me!! 

Do you guys have any reading Challanges? Any books that you are determined to read? A massive TBR Pile that needs to go down before it topples?

Book Review: The Bible Code 2: The Countdown - Micheal Drosnin

Rating 3 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis (taken from Amazon) 

"Twin Towers" was encoded in the 3000-year-old text. "Airplane" appeared in exactly the same place. "It caused to fall, knocked down" crossed "airplane" and "towers"...But it was not this terrorist attack that really shook me. It was what the Bible code predicted was yet to come.' This is the sensational sequel to THE BIBLE CODE, which rocketed to the top of the bestseller charts in 1997. The discovery of a code encrypted in the Bible some 3000 years ago caught the public imagination. But if this code predicted the disastrous events of 9/11, what more can it tell us about our future? And if we are on the road to Armageddon, can it give us the information we need to survive? One word of advice - don't make big plans for 2006... 

My review

 I read the first book a couple years ago after picking it up in an airport. It was a real quick and light read. As a conspitacy fan whether I believe the conspiracy or not I do enjoy them.


This isn't a conpiracy that I actually really believe. Nor is it something that I feel a need to keep researching. 


The beginning starts on the morning of 9/11, and how he goes to the computer to see if the Bible Code 'Predicted'the twin towers collapsing. Obviously, surprise surprise it does. Yes I suppose I did say that in a sarcastic tone. 


Looking back it probably looks like I hated the book. I didn't. I can understand why people did not like the book. But if you look at it as a book that shows someone's passions and theories than it's OK. It couldn't be that bad... I wanna read the next one. I wanna be converted!

Book review: Harry potter and the Goblet of Fire.

I know this is a book review and I should review, yet I don't feel I need to write a blurb or a comphrensive review. I feel everyone and their cats have read the series, I'm so far behind all I will say is that I LOVED IT, Loved the ending. Roll on the next book!

Book Review: Contest by Matthew Reilly

RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS

Synopsis


The New York State Library looms as a silent sanctuary of knowledge: a hundred-year-old labyrinth of towering bookcases, narrow isles, and spiral staircases.
But for Dr Stephen Swain and his eight-year-old daughter Holly it is a place of nightmare. Because, for just one night, this historic building is to become the venue of a horrifying contest... a contest in which Swain must compete whether he likes it or not.
The rules of the challenge are simple: seven contestants will enter, but only one will leave.
With his daughter in his arms, Stephen Swain is plunged into a terrifying fight for survival. The stakes are high, the odds are brutal. He can choose to run, to hide, or to fight - but if he wants to live, he needs to win.
For, in this particular contest, unless you leave as victor, you don't leave at all.


My review: 

My friend gave me this book as he thought I would love it. At the time I had loads of books I had to plough through.

First off I found that the edition I had, had a cover that did not really show a good representation of the book. This looks like some kind of Dan Brown thriller. It does have elements of Brown with it's fast pace and light reading style. Yet with this book there is an element of sci fi and fantasy.


So it starts off with you learning who the hero of the book will be. Stephen Swain is a Doctor, who with his daughter unwittingly enters a 'galactic' competition. A competition where the winner takes the ulimate prize.... Their Life!


The plot is very fast paced, nor is it hard to get confused with what happening. This I feel is because it's not exactly a complex storyline.  But then by what I have read online the author admits that he never intended his work to be epic masterpieces.  I read this book real quick and I think this would be perfect for a holiday read. Once finished I moved straight on to another book.


My only major issue is that I did struggle a little to imagine the setting. Sometimes I found it all too unbeliveable; which isn't a bad thing in a Sci-fi novel but there comes a point where it makes you fall out of the world that the author is trying to bring you in.


Overall a quick, fast paced book with a plot that is some what unrealistic scenes but is perfect for a plane flight.


Should i have given it a 4 star? yes and no. It kept me reading, I would recommend, yet I was not raving about it. What a hard book to review.

My first Friday Friday Finds Post.

So I decided that I would really try and work on making my blog more regular as I am starting get quite passionate about my blog so as I had the time I thought I would start of with this one.

Friday Finds is a weekly post made by the fab  Should Be Reading

What great books did you hear about/ discover this past week? Share with us your Friday Finds.

So hear I go.


I haven't found or heard about that many books this week but my first one is


Ice Station By Mathew Rielly Ice station

I have a couple friends who I have found out love to read and while waiting for our kids to finish school we have been talking about book recommendations. She recommended this series. 



Book number two is Digital Fortress By Dan Brown.  Digital Fortress 

This was given to me by a friend to read as even though I knew Dan Brown I had read The da Vinci Code, he Lost Symbol and Angels and Demons I had never got around to reading this one. 

And finally Book Three is Contest by Matthew Rielly. Contest by Matthew Reilly

This was also lent to me by a friend who had just finished reading it and thought I would like it. I have only just this second realised that it is the same author as the first book! I think I better start reading this author!

Book Review: Death Sentence by Mikkel Birkegaard

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars..... I think.

Synopsis
A murder committed on paper, safely within the confines of a novel, is one thing. To see that one crime in the real world, is something else entirely...
Frank Fons is a successful crime writer. His novels, famed for their visceral description of violent death, have made him a household name. but now someone is copying his crimes. For Frank what once served a clever, intriguing plot twist has suddenly become a terrifying, blood splattered reality.

Frank unwittingly swaps a role of writer for detective. He must find out who is using his fiction to destroy his life, and why. What had once been a game is now a matter of life and death.

In fiction the bad guy always get caught, but in real life there is no such guarantee. And as frank knows, no one is promising him a happy ending...

My Review.
This book was given to me from Transworld Books. 

This is an incredibly hard book to review and I have been sat at my computer wondering what I want to say and how I can truly convey what I am thinking right now. 

You know the phrase 'It does exactly what it says on the Tin (Blurb)'? Well this book doesn't. By that I don't mean that it doesn't have a serial killer. It does. I don't mean that there aren't some truly grisly tails of murder, torture and death. There are. What I mean is that the story layout and it's main stance on this type of genre is totally different to what I expected and I am still unsure whether or not I liked it. I would say however that I devoured the book in a rate like I had never experienced a crime book before. I found that I was totally involved in all the emotions that Frank felt and all the experiences and problems that he put himself in. I felt hatred and repulsion for the man and then at other times I kind of empathised with him, and for that I would like to applaud Birkegaard. Unlike other people I found the book to be fast passed with short chapters. This like other books I have read lately, including another Transworld Book; Crippen, they had two narratives. One where you saw the life of Frank; From the beginning of his love of reading and writing, to falling in love, being a dad, to finding the demons that fame, fortune and power can bring and how those demons can change you and bring the life that you once had down.  I found this storyline good, the characters were well executed and all rather memorable. 
The other part of this was the storyline that you expected after reading the blurb. Frank who now lives alone gets a telephone call to say that a murder has been committed and that it looks like something out of one one his books. Frank goes to investigate and soon becomes aware that the murder is closer to home than what he first thought.  This then starts what becomes a race against time for Frank to find the killer... This part of the book let it down for me. I had read other reviews that said that this book was incredibly gory and just too much. I hadn't found this to be true until the last 20 pages. I have read a lot of crime novels and those pages will forever be etched in my mind. Maybe I have a high tolerance to scenes that were described in the book but it didn't put me off at all. What did put me off was the way I felt the author rushed through the later part of the book. I felt that many loose ends were not dealt with and that the last 50 pages were just wrote to finish the book quickly. The ending was an utter disappointment and I wish so much I could explain why I thought this way but because of the risk of a spoiler I cannot say more, but it was a major let down. I can understand why the ending was the way it was but for me as a crime reader I read crime for a reason, and the ending was an utter anti climax! I would love to hear from other people who have read this book and see what they thought.

This is why my review is quite a strange one and part of me still doesn't know what to give the book star wise, as I utterly love some elements but despised others.

Would I read another book by the author? Yes, yes I think I would.

Do I think that he is the cream of the crop when it comes to Scandinavian authors? No, I do not understand why some reviews have said that he is like Larsson (The Girl with the dragon tattoo) There are no similarities between the two. If he is is to be compared by any other author from Scandinavia I would say that it would be more like a Camilla Lackberg. I haven't got round to reading my Jo Nesbo book to compare that yet.