24 Fiction Books

I already read 24 fiction books and 1 non-fiction this year, halfway through my goal of 50. So far, most are great, some are just so-so, and thankfully, only 2 are rated 1 star.



 The Strange Library - Haruki Murakami
 Saint Odd - Dean Koontz
 Malice: A Mystery - Keigo Higashino
 Skynoise - Ernie Lindsey
 Wreckage - Emily Bleeker
 The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro
 Confessions - Kanae Minato
 F: A Novel - Daniel Kehlmann
 Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury



 To The Grave - Steve Robinson
 Strangers On A Train - Patricia Highsmith
 Dragon Tears - Dean Koontz
 The Snowman - Jo Nesbø
 The Golem Of Hollywood - Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman
 The Stranger - Harlan Coben



 Spark: A Novel - John Twelve Hawks
 The Redeemer - Jo Nesbø
 Crow Hollow - Michael Wallace



 The Infatuations - Javier Marías
 Hounds of Autumn - Heather Blackwood
 Tales of Tinfoil: Stories of Paranoia and Conspiracy - various authors
 Every Fifteen Minutes - Lisa Scottoline



 Miramont's Ghost - Elizabeth Hall
 The Dead Key - D.M. Pulley

Remo Williams

tags: action, comedy, rewinding the 80s 

Synopsis from Amazon.com

When a street-smart NYPD cop (Fred Ward) regains consciousness after a bizarre mugging, he has a new face and a new identity! Now he's Remo Williams, the Number 1 recruit of a top-secret organization, and he's toppling evil at every turn, even atop the Statue of Liberty, in this "spectacular and funny adventure film" (Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune)! Trained by a quirky Korean martial arts master (Joel Grey) to dodge bullets, brave terrifying heights and thwart attackers with his bare hands, Remo becomes the ultimate criminal exterminator. But when he faces off against a corrupt millionaire and his army of henchmen, the real adventure begins!

I've never heard of this movie nor the books it's based on. I watched it because I liked Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, starring Fred Ward. Remo Williams is my kind of 80s movie - kinda cheesy, full of action and laughs, satiric, and politically incorrect. The "Korean" martial arts master, Chiun, is played brilliantly by Joel Grey (Jennifer Grey's dad, I learned). His hilarious one-liners and great delivery steal the entire movie. Fred Ward, although not matinee idol with regards to looks, is believable and does great in his action scenes. Kate Mulgrew is very good playing an army Major; looks pretty too.

Highly recommended. Currently streaming on Netflix.

I also downloaded for free from Amazon the first book - Created, The Destroyer and a short 67-page book The Day Remo Died.

Interstellar

tags: dystopian, science fiction, time travel

a generous 

Excerpts of plot description from Wikipedia

On Earth, crop blight has caused civilization to regress into a failing agrarian society. Former military pilot and NASA astronaut Cooper runs a farm with his family. Murph, Cooper's 10-year-old daughter, believes her room is haunted by a poltergeist trying to communicate with her. They soon discover that Murphy's "ghost" is an unknown intelligence sending coded messages using gravitational waves, leaving binary coordinates in the dust that direct them to a secret NASA installation led by Professor John Brand. Brand reveals that a wormhole, apparently created by an advanced intelligence, has opened near Saturn and leads to new planets in another galaxy that may offer hope for humanity's survival. NASA's "Lazarus missions" have identified three potentially habitable worlds orbiting a supermassive black hole named Gargantua: Miller, Edmunds, and Mann, named after the astronauts who surveyed them. Brand recruits Cooper to pilot the spacecraft Endurance to recover the astronauts' data; if one of the planets is habitable, humanity will follow on space stations. Cooper's departure devastates Murph, and they part on bad terms.

My beef with this not-so-stellar production:
>too long at almost 3 hours; needs seriously smart editing
>everybody mumbles his/her lines; so so performances by all
>music too loud; specially irritating when cast are mumbling and music is still on drowning out the dialog; makes me constantly yell at the teevee
>tries too hard to be deep and meaningful; puts me to sleep instead
>stupidity abounds: Anne Hathaway's character, Amelia Brand, has a death wish - the mother of all tsunamis is visibly upon them but, la la la la, she still lingers in the water, la la la la la; whoosh! One dead colleague; thanks a lot Amelia.
>only in movies will you see a flabby astronaut (Maaaaatt Daaaaamon); about 30 minutes of wasted film because his part adds nothing to the story.
>the ending is terrible and vague: why would Cooper's daughter tell him to go and join Amelia? There isn't a whiff of "budding romance" between them.
>Anne is the most annoying and her dinner plate eyes are distracting; she reminds me of Powerpuff Girls cartoon characters.

Anne Hathaway and Buttercup - separated at birth?

Not recommended; okay, maybe for insomniacs.

The Snowman

 tags: mystery-crime, Norwegian, serial killer



Book description from Goodreads

Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Out his window, in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably appeared in the yard earlier in the day. Around its neck is his mother’s pink scarf.

Hole suspects a link between a menacing letter he’s received and the disappearance of Jonas’s mother—and of perhaps a dozen other women, all of whom went missing on the day of a first snowfall. As his investigation deepens, something else emerges: he is becoming a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game whose rules are devised—and constantly revised—by the killer.

Fiercely suspenseful, its characters brilliantly realized, its atmosphere permeated with evil, The Snowman is the electrifying work of one of the best crime writers of our time.

A movie apparently will be made based on this chilling novel and fans started an online discussion as to who will be best to play Harry. Their number one choice is the Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård. The movie is originally to be directed by IMHO the most overrated director, Martin Scorsese. I didn't like the idea because he might cast his favorite actor, Leonardo diCaprio as Harry *I shudder at the thought*. Thankfully Scorsese is replaced by Norwegian director, Tomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In) and I hope the producers and director will resist the urge to cast a bankable but "short-in-stature" American actor as Harry Hole.

Let's take a look at Harry's statistics and the only 2 actors that are almost perfect to play him:

Harry Hole
Norwegian

age in The Snowman: almost 40 (born in 1963)

height: 6 feet 2 inches

eye color: blue

hair color: blonde

Trond Espen Seim
Norwegian
43 years old
height: 6 feet 2 inches

eye color: blue

hair color: blonde

I vote yes yes yes to Trond. He may be a few years older but he has the correct height, eyes, and hair. He also has acting credentials as a police detective playing the Norwegian P.I. Varg Veum.  

 

Alexander Skarsgård
Swede
38 years old
height: 6 feet 4 inches

eye color: blue green

hair color: light brown

My second choice. Although Alexander is nearer Harry's age, he's much too pretty and too tall.

Two Korean Movies - The Pirates AND Kundo: The Age Of The Rampant

Korean movies currently streaming on Netflix and Amazon.

The Pirates

tags: period action and comedy


Brief description from Amazon.com

On the eve of the founding of the Joseon Dynasty, an unprecedented robbery shocks the nation-in-waiting: a whale has swallowed the Emperor's Royal Seal, and a bounty placed on its retrieval. Now, every infamous gang of thieves, thugs, pirates, and government agents take to the seas, battling the elements, creatures of the deep, and each other to possess the mother of all rewards.

Kundo: Age Of The Rampant

tags, period action, comedy, and drama

from wikipedia

The year is 1862. The late Joseon dynasty was a period of social and economic unrest in Korea, and it was also a time of great tyranny. Due to continuous natural disasters and poor harvests, poverty, hunger and death are rampant. The aristocracy rule the country and, concerned only with their own wealth, they exploit and persecute the poor.In these turbulent times, a band of fighters named Kundo rise against the authorities. They raid corrupt officials, then share their booty with the vulnerable and impoverished. While the king stands powerless against them, Kundo becomes a figure of fear to undeserving nobles, and a ray of hope in the lives of long-suffering citizens. The members of Kundo believe that their cause is more important than their own lives.

Highlight: final battle between the butcher [wielding two large meat cleavers] and a master swordsman. 

The Vanishing Game

 tags:  adventure, mystery, short story, travelogue-ish

A down-on-his luck actor is paired with a weather-battered Land Rover Defender on a seemingly innocuous courier job. But some things are too good to be true and this innocent journey quickly unfolds into a dangerous plot with a shadowy cast of characters.

William Boyd was commissioned by Land Rover to write a novella. The Vanishing Game is the result. He was reportedly paid a low six-figure sum according to the Guardian interview.

He told the Guardian that despite the payout he had "total liberty to invent but it would be nice if Land Rover was mentioned" and in the 17,000-word story the character, Alec Dunbar, drives a Land Rover Defender.

"It was a most intriguing job to be asked to do. I would recommend it to any novelist, if they got the chance," he said. "Novelists have always written to commission, for example Charles Dickens. If I was approached to write a Batman movie I would assume it would have to feature Batman. There's really no difference in this case."

Boyd admitted he had "no idea how I'll be viewed" but added that he didn't "really care, to be honest". 

I've read 4 William Boyd novels. The Blue Afternoon is my favorite. I'm a bit conflicted with this very very short story. It is interesting and well-written but the ending is vague and left me wondering. I think it's still worth an hour of my time though.

If you have an hour, or 45 minutes if you're a fast reader, to spare, you can read/watch it at thevanishinggame, or download the ebook format with several photos to your device for free from Amazon.

The Dark Valley (Das Finstere Tal)

tags: drama, German language (Tyrolean), late 19th century, mystery, revenge, Western

Description fron Amazon

A lone rider arrives in a small high mountain village; nobody knows where he is from and nobody wants him there. Greider introduces himself as a photographer from America, and the town patriarch, Old Brenner, provides him with shelter for the harsh winter ahead. The village cut off by snowfall and barely a ray of sunlight reaching the valley, a tragic accident leads to the death of one of Brenners beloved sons. When another son is mysteriously killed, it is clear this is not a coincidence, and this visitor carries a secret with him.

I was wowed by this dark Austrian/Dutch/Italian produced vendetta film from the first frame to the end credits. I watched it not having seen any American westerns, although I've seen several times the spaghetti western Django with Franco Nero, one of my favorite shoot-em-up movies. 

The movie is deliberately slow to build with concise dialog but everything is done on purpose for the atmospheric feel and story. The cinematography is simply breathtaking. The alps is beautiful as the backdrop to the rustic village setting and the dark clothing of the inhabitants. Acting is top-notch too, specially the lead, English actor Sam Riley as Greider. Although it's easy to guess who Greider is and his motive, I was surprised as to the evil person's reason for his crime against his victims. I enjoyed this movie very much and will watch it again. 

Currently streaming on Netflix and Amazon

Highly recommended in German with English subtitles. English dubbed is also available but the voice actors sound cartoonish and unnatural.