Blacklands - Belinda Bauer

I loved this book! The story itself is quite good - a 12-year-old boy, Stephen, tries to mend his broken family by finding the resting place of his uncle, who was murdered 19 years earlier. As Stephen has been praised by his teacher as being a great letter writer, he turns directly to the source - the murderer himself, a man in prison for the past 18 years. Because of prison censors, the letters are cryptic but fulfill a need on both sides - resolution for Stephen and escape for the murderer Avery. It's a pretty realistic take on both sides, and I can easily see a 12-year-old coming to this solution. In addition to the story, however, the author is absolutely wonderful at turning a phrase, and every sentence is a pleasure to read. This is definitely going on my top ten list, and I eagerly await Ms. Bauer's next book!

The Fourth Millennium – Paul Meier and Robert Wise

I'm kind of in a weird reading funk right now.  I’ve started and stopped about five books, reading the first couple pages, maybe the first chapter or so and just not getting into the story and having to put the book back.  It’s strange, I can’t recall going through a period like this, maybe just a touch of spring fever.

Anyway, I did pick this up, which is the sequel to The Third Millennium that I just finished a few weeks ago.  While the previous book talks about the time of the Tribulation as described in the Bible, this book talks about the 1000 year reign of Jesus on earth before the final judgment.  This time period has always fascinated me when I heard it mentioned in church over the years and during my reading of the original Left Behind books, the beginning of this time period is where the final book left off (they may have written about it sense, I haven’t followed that series). 

This book picks up about 999 years into the reign and we see where Satan is released for the final battle.  The story is contrived yet interesting enough.   Had this not been a quick read I may not have finished this one either, but this only took a few hours to pour through.  Interesting enough adventure story, with a Christian background and viewpoint.  If you enjoy this type of book, not a bad choice.  While they try to stay biblical, don’t look for any great theological truth here, just a good story.

The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

Stephen King picked this as his #1 read of 2009 in Entertainment Weekly, and as I'm always looking for a new favorite author, I decided to give it a shot. I really enjoyed the writing, which is something like saying "she has a great personality," I suppose. Most of the first 300 pages are descriptions of Dr. Faraday's visits to the Ayres home, The Hundreds, an old family mansion fallen into hard times after WWII. The last 150 pages get into the actual ghost story, which was somewhat disappointing, as it was extremely subtle and didn't raise a single hair on the back of my neck. As a historical novel, it was actually a pretty good story of a romance-gone-wrong and an old money family falling apart - the "ghost" element was actually unnecessary.

The Third Millennium – Paul Meier

I have mixed feelings on this one. On one hand this was an interesting take on the end times as prophesied throughout the Bible. As a Christian, I do believe that Jesus will return at some point in the future and that many of the fictional accounts, such as this one, may hold a bit of truth to them. However, we can never know, until it happens, just how much truth is in these style of books.

On the other hand, I really felt that I was reading a version of Left Behind, scaled from 15 books down to one. I realize that this novel came before the Left Behind books, but Left Behind took the concept and made it so much more accessible to the general reader. Paul Meier's version, while covering the main events throughout the Tribulation, skips so much between events that I almost felt I was reading more of a history book (albeit one looking into the future) than a novelization of prophecies found in the Bible. It was difficult for me to become attached to the characters as I did when I read through Left Behind. I also found that the rise of the Antichrist, where he comes from and how he comes to power, less believable than the method deployed in Left Behind. Meier's version of the Antichrist seems to be less Antichrist and more of just a brutal dictator.

Overall, while I didn't enjoy this as much as Left Behind, I still like this type of fiction and enjoyed this short time it took me to read through this book.

The Templar Legacy – Steve Berry

The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry is another typical, “something is hidden that the Catholic church doesn’t want found because it will destroy Christianity” book.  This was a fun read though.  Steve Berry does write exciting novels for the most part.  Not exciting in the sense of a lot of action, though there is some, but more in the sense of solving a puzzle and figuring out the clues for yourself.   While there was some knowledge that wasn’t supplied that kept me from truly solving this one on my own, I had a good sense on what the final solution was going to turn out.  The other thing I enjoyed about this novel is it made me (in a good sense, because I wanted to) do some research on my own.  I would come across something in the book, look it up on the web and learn more about the back story and puzzle at hand.  At times I felt I was the research assistant to the characters which in an odd sense I enjoyed.  The conclusion was fictional, but this was a well researched novel.  I don’t necessarily agree with the fictional conclusion, but I did enjoy crossing the finish line on this one. 

Bringing Down the House - Ben Mezrich

I almost picked this book up a year or two again when the movie "21" (based on this book) was released. This is the story of six students from MIT that used various mathematical techniques and a team approach to turn the probabilities of blackjack in their favor. Even given the quality of intelligence that even gets a person into MIT, the ability to continually "count cards" (which is discounted at the end of the book) and monitor teammates' signals is fantastic. The book does show the darker sides of the gambling lifestyle as well, especially with a glimpse of how the casinos don't care if you drop the mortgage, but will bar those that win too much. This was a quick read, but something off the beaten path as well.

Altar of Eden - James Rollins

My first book of 2010 - 99 more to go. I've liked Rollins for several years, and after a few Sigma Force books, this was his return to a stand-alone novel (and his second book in 2009). Admittedly, through the first quarter, I was really concerned that the heroine was going to be chasing a saber-toothed tiger for the balance of the book - happily this wasn't the case. Dr. Lorna Polk is a veterinarian at ACRES, and is called to check out animals found in a boat washed up by a Louisiana hurricane. Every animal shows a regression to a point earlier in its evolution, a fact that the sponsoring organization wants to cover up with a scorched earth policy. There is a point in the last half where I felt like I had fallen into Jurassic Park given a remote island housing DNA-tinkering scientists and a host of living fossils. In all, an entertaining book, and exactly what I need on a cold weekend in Ohio.

The Hole – Guy Burt

Finished this short one this afternoon.  I’ve read one of Burt’s other novels, Sophie, and was very pleased with that one.  Less so with this one.  While the story was interesting, I found it started slow and I had a hard time keeping everything straight with the many shifts in perspective.  Now once you read the prologue of this one, you understand that the confusion was integral to the story, but nevertheless, it made reading through this a big tough at times.  Luckily it only took 150 pages to tell the story so it wasn’t too difficult to keep plugging away.  If I’d read this one first, I probably wouldn’t have went any further with his works, but Sophie was so much better that I’m glad I started there first.  Read Sophie first, then come back to this if you like.

Baal – Robert R. McCammon

This was a good first novel by this great author.  I was so impressed a few months ago when I read his novel Swan Song that I went out and found a large portion of his other novels.  Baal seemed like a good place to start.  Not a bad novel at all (though nowhere near the level of Swan Song).  I could tell however that this was his first novel.  Some of the plot points seemed forced, the characters were flat and the ending was weak.  However, overall this was a fun book and I enjoyed the shock value that he provides at different points. Needless to say, this was a decent book and I know that his later books get better, so I’m looking forward to more of his novels.

Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows – J. K. Rowling

Finished up this book today and obviously the series. Great book and was hard to put down. Nice finish to the series as a whole. I can say that I had most of it figured out long ago, but still a fun read. Now that it’s over, I can say that while this was a fun ride, it still doesn’t go down as one of the ‘classics’ for me. Still though, if there is anyone out there that hasn’t read this series yet, please do, it will be worth the minimal effort that it takes. I wish I would have read them all before I saw the movies, but am glad I finished it before the final movies came out.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard – J. K. Rowling

I felt I had to read this for completeness.  I could have passed on this.  While somewhat interesting, it really didn’t add anything and I could have done without.  But it didn’t take long so no harm done.

2009 in Review

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Well here we are at the beginning of a new year.  I rarely like to look back on the previous year as I’m always trying to look forward to new opportunities.  In the case of what we talk about here on Words for Words, I’ve got bookshelves of books that need read…lots of opportunity there.

But let’s take a brief moment here to review what I’ve read in 2009.  I read a total of 46 books this year, far more than last years high of 27, but slightly short of my goal of 50.  I’ve very happy and will set my goal this year at 50 again, though I won’t be disappointed if I can at least make a dent in my bookshelves.

I stayed away from those large epic series I tend to read in 2009, which probably help my count greatly…but I’ve got a few large series awaiting me which I may just pick one to tackle throughout the year.

Least favorite book of the year, there were a few that may rank up there as worse, but being they were so bad, I probably just don’t remember them.  If I had to pick one, it would probably be Cuts by Richard Laymon, in fact this book (and admittedly I couldn’t even finish it, though I made it more than half-way) may just have turned me off of Laymon.  I’ve said it before, but his books seem to follow a well defined pattern, that once you’ve read one, you’ve read them all.

Favorite book of 2009?  Wow, I read a lot of good books this year, so it will be hard to choose just one.  I’m finishing up the Harry Potter series as we speak.  My wife read them years ago as they came out, I’ve seen the movies and finally decided to tackle the series, great series, lots of great books there (really enjoying Deathly Hollows now).  I read a few good non-fiction this year (Contrarian’s Guide to Knowing God stands out as perhaps the best non-fiction).  But the book that stands out in my mind as perhaps the best of the best, not necessarily because of subject matter because it isn’t my typically type of read, but this book kept me enthralled for the four hours it took me to read it through.  This book is Picking Cotton. 

Well I’ll wrap up here and wish everyone a Happy New Year and many good reads!!