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Criminally Hopeful Reviews
Jun. 3rd, 2014 11:30 pmHey,
So you know what's awesome? Reading books on my Kindle.
You know what else is awesome? Libraries.
You know what being able to borrow kindle books from my local library is? Well, honestly a bit of a pain since they only have a limited number of copies of things so you often have to wait for the book to free up so you can read it. Which, admittedly, is no different than it is for a lot of physical books.
Anyway, I've been interested in reading through the Parker series of books by Richard Stark and the library system has the kindle versions of the University of Chicago reprints. So I put out a hold and waited. Once the book freed up, the borrowing was super simple. I got a link that took me to the book on Amazon, logged in, and downloaded the book. I could download it to a couple different devices and read across all of them. The only hassle was that returning the book wasn't as simple. I had to go into account management for my kindle and return it that way instead of some built-in command from the kindle itself.
Overall, it was a pretty positive experience and I'd certainly use it for "second-tier" books where I don't want to purchase the book or aren't sure if I want to.
So that's the digital borrowing review, let's talk about the books I've been reading.
I got into the digital library to start reading the Parker series of books and that starts with The Hunter by Richard Stark. The first Parker novel, it's been made into a couple of movies and shows. The story revolves around Parker, a professional armed robber who's betrayed by his wife and former partner and left for dead. He survives and makes his way across the country to New York where he confronts his wife and starts to track down the guy who set him up.
The book isn't deep literature, it's just a crime novel, but the prose is lean and crisp and the plot ticks over like a Swiss watch. Parker himself is absent from a large chunk of the story as his former partner gets wind of Parker's resurrection and makes plans to escape from him. In the end, Parker gets his revenge but makes an enemy of the mafia. Settling that score will occupy the next several books.
You have to keep in the mind the book was written in the early 60's. In the modern-day world, his revenge story would be over before it starts. In particular, story starts with him forging a driver's license and then conning his way into a small bankroll because back then it was a bit easier. Still, a fun page-turner.
I resorted to the old-fashioned library experience for my next book: The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Praag. The story opens with Alba, a fiercely intelligent young woman whose academic career has come to a crashing halt. She's wandering London, wondering what to do next when she comes across an old Victorian house she's never see before. A knock on the door and she's ushered in by Peggy the landlady. The rules are simple, the house is magical and has helped hundreds of women (many of them famous) who were at the end of their rope and gotten their life back on track. Alba can stay for ninety-nine days and take advantage of what the house can offer and must then leave, hopefully with her life back on track. With no better prospects, Alba accepts.
So the magical house helps out and that's the basic gist. We meet two other women staying in the house, Greer a failed actress and Carmen a failed singer. The landlady, Peggy, is herself at something of a crossroads, the House having explained that she's nearing the end and needs to find a replacement.
The book is a bit twee. The house is a live-in Mary Poppins filled with talking photos of the many famous women who've passed through it's rooms. The women all have a host of secrets that add to their sorrow and tragedy but each one of them is slowly dragged out over the length of the book. It also suffers a bit in that the house supplies ready answers that you the reader (even if you didn't have the book's third person omniscience) would probably supply but the individuals are completely wrapped up in their own misery and repeated applications of the clue-by-four just don't work. To be fair, thats honestly how most people are with their own problems it was just a bit irksome.
Despite all this, there were some really sweet, really nice scenes at the end of the book that I did enjoy. There's also an short biographical section at the back talking about the various women depicted on the walls or otherwise mentioned in the story. Some of them are quite famous, others less so, and it was nice to have some background to spark further reading. Anyway, mildly recommended if you want a sort of Lifetime movie meets Harry Potter movie.
By the time I finished that, the next Parker book was free for download so I picked up The Man with the Getaway Face by Richard Stark. Picking up right after The Hunter, Parker has been worked over by a plastic surgeon in Lincoln, Nebraska (Go Big Red!) so that he's no longer recognizable to the mob. But now he's broke again and a fellow crook has a line on an armored car hold up. The operation looks like it could work, but an ambitious girlfriend promises trouble. Meanwhile, there's trouble following Parker from the plastic surgeon's.
Again, another easily-read page-turner. The armored car job takes up the first two-thirds of the book and surgical complications take up the last third. I liked this a bit better than The Hunter since Parker is planning and executing and doing less reacting. It also highlights that while Parker is a ruthless, dangerous man he's also relatively fair. He's no thief with a heart of gold, but he tries to play fair since the returns are better that way.
The Parker books will have to wait a bit, there's a bunch of stuff coming out this month I'm eager to check out, but it's a fun series.
later
Tom
So you know what's awesome? Reading books on my Kindle.
You know what else is awesome? Libraries.
You know what being able to borrow kindle books from my local library is? Well, honestly a bit of a pain since they only have a limited number of copies of things so you often have to wait for the book to free up so you can read it. Which, admittedly, is no different than it is for a lot of physical books.
Anyway, I've been interested in reading through the Parker series of books by Richard Stark and the library system has the kindle versions of the University of Chicago reprints. So I put out a hold and waited. Once the book freed up, the borrowing was super simple. I got a link that took me to the book on Amazon, logged in, and downloaded the book. I could download it to a couple different devices and read across all of them. The only hassle was that returning the book wasn't as simple. I had to go into account management for my kindle and return it that way instead of some built-in command from the kindle itself.
Overall, it was a pretty positive experience and I'd certainly use it for "second-tier" books where I don't want to purchase the book or aren't sure if I want to.
So that's the digital borrowing review, let's talk about the books I've been reading.
I got into the digital library to start reading the Parker series of books and that starts with The Hunter by Richard Stark. The first Parker novel, it's been made into a couple of movies and shows. The story revolves around Parker, a professional armed robber who's betrayed by his wife and former partner and left for dead. He survives and makes his way across the country to New York where he confronts his wife and starts to track down the guy who set him up.
The book isn't deep literature, it's just a crime novel, but the prose is lean and crisp and the plot ticks over like a Swiss watch. Parker himself is absent from a large chunk of the story as his former partner gets wind of Parker's resurrection and makes plans to escape from him. In the end, Parker gets his revenge but makes an enemy of the mafia. Settling that score will occupy the next several books.
You have to keep in the mind the book was written in the early 60's. In the modern-day world, his revenge story would be over before it starts. In particular, story starts with him forging a driver's license and then conning his way into a small bankroll because back then it was a bit easier. Still, a fun page-turner.
I resorted to the old-fashioned library experience for my next book: The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Praag. The story opens with Alba, a fiercely intelligent young woman whose academic career has come to a crashing halt. She's wandering London, wondering what to do next when she comes across an old Victorian house she's never see before. A knock on the door and she's ushered in by Peggy the landlady. The rules are simple, the house is magical and has helped hundreds of women (many of them famous) who were at the end of their rope and gotten their life back on track. Alba can stay for ninety-nine days and take advantage of what the house can offer and must then leave, hopefully with her life back on track. With no better prospects, Alba accepts.
So the magical house helps out and that's the basic gist. We meet two other women staying in the house, Greer a failed actress and Carmen a failed singer. The landlady, Peggy, is herself at something of a crossroads, the House having explained that she's nearing the end and needs to find a replacement.
The book is a bit twee. The house is a live-in Mary Poppins filled with talking photos of the many famous women who've passed through it's rooms. The women all have a host of secrets that add to their sorrow and tragedy but each one of them is slowly dragged out over the length of the book. It also suffers a bit in that the house supplies ready answers that you the reader (even if you didn't have the book's third person omniscience) would probably supply but the individuals are completely wrapped up in their own misery and repeated applications of the clue-by-four just don't work. To be fair, thats honestly how most people are with their own problems it was just a bit irksome.
Despite all this, there were some really sweet, really nice scenes at the end of the book that I did enjoy. There's also an short biographical section at the back talking about the various women depicted on the walls or otherwise mentioned in the story. Some of them are quite famous, others less so, and it was nice to have some background to spark further reading. Anyway, mildly recommended if you want a sort of Lifetime movie meets Harry Potter movie.
By the time I finished that, the next Parker book was free for download so I picked up The Man with the Getaway Face by Richard Stark. Picking up right after The Hunter, Parker has been worked over by a plastic surgeon in Lincoln, Nebraska (Go Big Red!) so that he's no longer recognizable to the mob. But now he's broke again and a fellow crook has a line on an armored car hold up. The operation looks like it could work, but an ambitious girlfriend promises trouble. Meanwhile, there's trouble following Parker from the plastic surgeon's.
Again, another easily-read page-turner. The armored car job takes up the first two-thirds of the book and surgical complications take up the last third. I liked this a bit better than The Hunter since Parker is planning and executing and doing less reacting. It also highlights that while Parker is a ruthless, dangerous man he's also relatively fair. He's no thief with a heart of gold, but he tries to play fair since the returns are better that way.
The Parker books will have to wait a bit, there's a bunch of stuff coming out this month I'm eager to check out, but it's a fun series.
later
Tom
