The Rendition Experience

Well, I did not follow through with the Kathy Reichs’ book last time. Instead, I followed the advice of my one and only commentator up to now (C. doesn't count) and got myself a book by Chuck Palahniuk. I started with Fight Club of course because it was the first one to be written and I had seen the movie.
There will probably be some spoilers in this…

I shall start with the end, the afterword by the author.
I was surprised to find that it all started with a short story. When he was asked to expand that story into a book, all the author did was gather experiences from men all around him and put them together. I am over simplifying this… He collated these experiences together, writing in a simplistic half cynical way that made the story extremely compelling to me. In this, he wrote a code which men all around the world were already following or discovering for the first time. It amazes me how something done in a few hours of boredom could have triggered such an effect. Men all around the world.

So, basically, it is about a white collared job man who goes about his life feeling miserable. He makes himself feel better by being materialistic and by frequenting help clubs that help people cope with all sorts of random ailments. He doesn’t really have any diseases but goes there looking for some comfort for his misery.

He meets Tyler Durden during one of his business trips and after losing his home to a gas leak explosion, they start living together and start gathering to fight so that men can be men as they were meant to be.

Enough with the spoilers. I’m sure it is more interesting to actually read it.
I wish I had read the book before I watched the film. I think the impact might have been a lot bigger when, after the surreal read of intertwined of contradictory thoughts and dialogues, it all clicked into place and you realize it is two in one and the whole split personality thing.

So, what else makes this book so great? The answer is… it just tells you how it is. It is fiction but it is so real. We are all materialistic sheep defined by what we own and most don’t even know how to live and feel alive.

This is the story of a guy who is becoming lost in this world of pleasantries and fakeness and how his sub-conscious creates a personality in a cry for liberation.
His name is Tyler Durden and he is everything everyone wants to be.

PS - I never ever noticed in the movie or in the book until after I had finished that the narrator’s (main character’s) name is never mentioned, only his alternate personality.

PSII – This was one of the hardest reviews I have written so far. I have found it difficult to express the multitude of feelings I had when reading this book and I’m still not sure it is everything I wanted to say.

Wow 3 books to my one I better get cracking.

I had decided to give the slasher stabby killer novels a rest for the time being and read something more mystery and far fetched as it were, I do like the escapism from time to time. The book I chose was by an author I hadnt heard of before much but wrote in a similar style to the author who wrote the bourne supremacy and is similar to dan brown who i really like.

The story is based around the theories surrounding the untimely death of the great composer Mozart and the conspiracy theory that he was part of the masons and that it was rival sects of the masons that potentially got him killed. The central character is Ben Hope who appears in another of Scott's books and I think there is a planned series of books with this character. At first it's not something I immediately warmed to although it does grab you right from the start and you learn what kind of man Ben Hope really is. A well written story that twists and turns and leaves you breathless at times with shock at some of the ordeals that characters are put through.

This book was all action and plot twists the characters were developed enough for you to start to care about them but other than Ben Hope you never really get to the nitty gritty of any of the characters. In some ways this is a relief as the book is quite a detailed and action packed one. I didnt get tired of reading this book and there are times when I couldnt put it down in places as all I could think is "has he really done that to them??" There is also a certain amount of gore which made even me cringe.

The ending wasnt one that I liked for escapism purposes but in terms of plot twist it was a work of genius as now I cant wait for the next Ben Hope book and I am going in search of the last one with him in it. It is a good read for anyone into stories written in the style of Dan Brown or Ian Fleming. Give it a try you maybe surprised at its understated start but keep reading and the surprises keep coming.

C :)

I have always enjoyed the Bones series on TV (it is not just the fact that David Boreanaz stars on it, although that is a good contributor to my liking of the series...) so I have been looking forward to starting to read the books that inspired it all.

There are quite a few differences to start with. The character in the book is more believable as we get to hear her thoughts and doubts. Anyhow, this is about the book, not a comparison between television and book.

Temperance Brennan is a Forensic Anthropologist who specializes in determining causes of death by analyzing bones. She's middle aged divorced woman and mother to a teenage girl. She takes a position in Canada in order to take a break from her marriage and ends up staying there. 

The story starts when a mutilated corpse is found inside bin bags. After analyzing the remains, she sees a connection between the current case and one she analyzed before. The connection is faint but her instinct keeps telling her there is a connection. She has to deal with Claudel, a cynic detective who doesn't know the meaning of "being nice", scrutinizing her findings and dismissing her due to the lack of concrete evidence of a connection.

Throughout the rest of the story, she keeps finding these links to a puzzle that the police department doesn't think exists. She keeps investigating for herself, despite the admonition of her colleagues and puts herself in danger as the killer starts seeing her as a threat and targets her.

I have found this book difficult to read at times, as the mind of Dr. Brenan is a maze unlike any. The technical expertise of the author is evident when Brenan starts discussing her work with her old colleagues and a rain of technical jargon is spilled out, leaving me a bit lost. This would make it a bit tiring to read at times but did not affect the story which kept creeping surprise after surprise. The character does put herself in some stupid situations when I thought “Why are you doing that??”, but the state of mind that leads her to these is evident and helps keep it more credible.

Maybe I am a little biased because I do like the series where she is a strong confident woman who has a knack for jiu jitsu. But despite enjoying the book, it made me feel like something was missing.

I grabbed another Kathy Reichs’ one this morning. I have yet to decide whether to read it or not.

V.

I finished reading the previous book while I was away and ended up with nothing to read since I already borrowed all the books I wanted from the MILTB.

I finally found one stuck in the corner of the shelf. I had not heard of the author before so did not know what to expect but the little summary at the back of the book seemed decent enough.

The story starts as the relic bones of the three wise men are stolen from the Cathedral in Cologne. I always enjoy reading about places where I have been already. I can see it clearly in my mind as I imagine the events of the book developing on those locations.

The book gathered many aspects of my favorite genres. It had the specialized assault team (Sigma Force) with some very clever and charming characters who could all kill you in a blink of an eye. Gray Pierce the lonely commander, Monk the big guy with big guns and Kat the lady with blades in any imaginable place in her body. It also involved the Vatican and all its mysteries due to the fact the initial attack was seen as a direct attack to the church. There were plenty of riddle solving as this assault team along with Vigor, a Vatican official, and Rachel, his niece (an Italian expert in stolen artwork) worked against the clock trying to stop the culprits of the attacks and thefts (an ancient society called the Royal Dragon Court).

All the action happens on the most famous European Gothic Cathedrals and the author's descriptions have made me want to visit all the cities he mentions. Despite the rush of events, the author does not neglect to pay homage to the beauty of such places.

As we get enveloped in all the fast paced action, we get to know the main characters and how un-stereotypical they are. Without lengthy narrations of their personal characteristics, the author gives us the layer beneath the characters' mask to the world through their actions and through glimpses of thoughts.

My favorite aspect was definitely the riddle solving as they go through their hunt for more religious relics. The use of the religious knowledge to achieve the solutions has made me curious about religious texts. Not sure yet if to the point of wanting to read the entire Bible.

It is not often I am made to gasp while reading and there were occasions when I had to re-read several times just because I could not believe the author had dared to put the character through such ordeal.

I simply adored the main characters and was hoping to see them again and again as I believe they still have exciting lives to live in paper. 

V.

This was the first time I ever bought a book that came as a suggestion in a magazine. I read the mini description and just felt like buying something on impulse.

When I got it, it had a big sticker mentioning how it had been advertised on Richard and Judy's show. I started growing a little skeptical of my new acquisition.

Please forgive me if I leak too many spoilers.

The book starts as this teenage girl (Cynthia) wakes up to find her house completely empty. It then jumps forward 25 years later where

At first the book seemed to be about this girl (now a woman) and the way she is coping with her family disappearance. There's a coziness about the way the author writes that makes me want to know about all of the character's habits, insecurities and fears. I could have kept reading if it was just about the emotional and psychological gripes of her everyday life.

So it was a bit of a surprise when that carpet of coziness got taken from under my feet even though at the back of the book it said something like “She goes looking for her family but will end up regretting it..." (Not so eloquently put obviously).

The book is written from the point of view of her husband after the first, maybe the second chapter too. Through him we get what the world sees of her without ever penetrating into her psyche. When she mentions any strange events we see them as her own paranoia due to the events that scarred her 25 years earlier.

As it becomes more obvious that the strange events are not her paranoia, some doubt arises as to whether she has something to do with what is happening just to get attention.

All throughout the book Cynthia keeps mentioning dreams where she can hear her family talk. In between chapters you also get anonymous dialogues full of evilness and creepiness. Despite these being anonymous, you get hints and it seems like the voices off Cynthia's dreams, like it is her family talking about her without her being there. It got me so intrigued as there was no hint earlier that her family was anything but a loving normal family until they had disappeared.

It was cleverly written so that you get surprise after surprise right to the last page when you think all it is over. I could keep on writing about how each chapter surprised me and made me want to read every single word, but I think I have done enough spoiling.

Finally I got to read the final book of the Harry Potter series. I had decided a while ago that I was not going to be putting extra money into publishers pockets and get the hard back version. Mostly it was because all my collection is paperback and I decided to be stubborn and wait.

The torture was only a couple of months long as everyone else read theirs fairly quick. After that I had nearly forgotten it until I got the newsletter from Waterstones announcing it.

As you can tell, I am just filling post space because there isn't a lot to say about this book apart from... Wow! It was great!
Very dark... not sure how it can get away with being a children's book. It was a very fulfilling finale and I can safely say: "Aha! I knew it about Snape!". Despite a few correct guesses, the way it was delivered filled my imagination and made me a very bad employee as I slept late every night and was antisocial spending every lunch hour reading.

Now I just wonder, what else will J.K.Rowling have to offer in the future...
V.

This is another of Tess Gerritsen's masterpieces, it is now official... I am hooked!!

The books do all follow the same sort of style, all surrounding the Boston PD and their affiliates. This does not in anyway make the stories 'samey' or boring. Each one revolves around a character you may or may not have gotten involved with in the last Tess Gerritsen novel. You get wrapped up in each case that they have to solve and you along with the characters try to profile the 'unsub'. The read is as challenging as it is gripping but not in the tiring sense of challenging there is always something new, something fresh to take away from these books. They are truly a work of art. I have incidentally on another note found another who enjoys these books as much as I do and just like me they helped her get back into some good old fashioned keeping your light on at midnight gritty reading!!

Now to the story, of course surrounding murders of sometimes the most gruesome type, this one wasn't like Vanish, this one related very closely to The Surgeon. It lets the reader get closer to the hard female detective Rizzoli and see a much more vulnerable side to her character and also showed that like any human being that she sometimes needs protecting. Oddly enough this one was quite a warming empathic story even when Tess Gerritsen scrutinises the life of the killer. You get to see much more of the Apprentice from The Surgeon get deeper into his psyche. It never fails to make my skin crawl.

You do have to forgive me if while writing these posts I misquote or get my characters confused from one story to the next. Don't misunderstand this to be forgetfullness due to the lack of difference in the stories because I will put you straight they are all very different, but if you read them and find yourself hooked you will also find yourself as caught up in the world of Boston written from these books as I have, it's very easy to confuse events when they are so vividly written and the characters so well developed you feel as though you know them and all their work intimately.

Go on I dare you, pick one up, see if you can resist the pull of the gruesome, gritty and dark ;)

C