Explosive Eighteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich/ Review

Janet Evanovich (Author)

“No less than her plotting, Evanovich’s characterizations are models of screwball artistry. . . . The intricate plot machinery of her comic capers is fueled by inventive twists.”—The New York Times

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home, in this dynamite novel by Janet Evanovich.

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.

About the Author

Janet Evanovich is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum novels, twelve romance novels, the Alexandra Barnaby novels and graphic novels, Wicked Appetite (the first book in the Lizzy and Diesel series), and How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author.

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    Hardcover: 320 pages
    Publisher: Bantam (November 22, 2011)
    Language: English
    ISBN-10: 0345527712
    ISBN-13: 978-0345527714
    Genre: Literature, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense & Romance
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Mystery of Moon's Lost Magnetism Solved?

One of the abiding mysteries of our moon is why it apparently once had a magnetic field. Now two teams of scientists have offered two separate, but potentially complementary, explanations.

This illustration shows one suggested mechanism for creating an ancient magnetic field on the moon. In this scenario, impacting space rocks on the moon would create instability in the moon's core that could lead to a dynamo that creates a magnetic field. credit: M.-H. Deproost, ORB, Belgique

When Apollo astronauts brought back samples of moon rocks from their lunar landing missions in the 1960s and '70s, some of them shocked scientists by being magnetic. That means that individual rocks might have a magnetic north and south pole and a small magnetic field of their own.
This can happen to rocks with the right minerals inside them, if they cool in the presence of a magnetic field. The problem is, scientists had no idea that the moon had ever had a magnetic field, and were at a loss to explain how that might have happened.

A magnetic field is generated by what's called a dynamo, which is caused by the fluid motion of a conducting material, such as liquid iron. In the case of the Earth's magnetic field, this motion occurs in the planet's outer core, and is caused by the convection of heat.
But the moon isn't large enough for convection to take place. Scientists were at a loss to explain what else might generate the required liquid motion of iron inside the moon, until now.
Stirring it up
In one new proposal, Christina Dwyer of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her colleagues suggest that the moon's solid-rock middle layer, called its mantle, stirs up its liquid iron core. The researchers think this happens because the moon's core and its mantle rotate around slightly different axes, and the boundary between them is not quite spherical, so their relative motion causes the fluid to mix around.
The strength of this stirring is determined by the angle between the core and the mantle, and the distance between the Earth and the moon, because the tidal gravitational tug from the Earth causes the moon's mantle to rotate differently than the core.

This model would explain why the moon used to have a magnetic field, but no longer does. That's because the angle between the mantle and the core has narrowed over time, while the distance between the moon and the Earth has widened, causing the tidal forces to steadily decrease. While these forces used to be enough to generate a dynamo inside the moon, they aren't anymore.
Based on their calculations, the researchers estimate the lunar magnetic field might have lasted for about a billion years, somewhere between around 2.7 billion and 4.2 billion years ago.
"Based on what we know about stirring, and everything we know about fluid motion, we can find no reason that this would not work," Dwyer told SPACE.com. "All the flags are go, and now this needs to be taken to the next level to get tested."
Dwyer said her research team had studied the basic scenario, but hopes that scientists who specialize in modeling the complex physics of dynamos will now step in to investigate whether this could explain what happened on the moon.
The researchers reported their theory in the Nov. 10 issue of the journal Nature.

Violent impacts
But theirs isn't the only possible solution to the moon's mystery.
In the same issue of Nature, Michael Le Bars of the French National Center for Scientific Research and the Université Aix-Marseille in France, along with his colleagues, propose another explanation for the ancient lunar magnetic field.

Le Bars' team also suggests that the moon's mantle might have stirred up the liquid in its core. However, they offer a different impetus for this stirring. Instead of tidal interactions between the Earth and the moon, the researchers posit that impacts by large space rocks slamming into the moon have changed its rotation rate, causing differential motion between the mantle and the core.

While the first scenario would cause steady stirring while the Earth and moon were the right distance apart, the second picture would induce brief periods of especially strong stirring of the core, creating spikes of a magnetic field on the moon.
While either option may be correct, it's also possible that both mechanisms played a role in causing an ancient magnetic field on the moon.

"The two studies are thought-provoking and may be complementary," Dominique Jault, a researcher at ETH Zürich in Switzerland and the Université Joseph-Fourier in France, who was not involved in either new study, wrote in an accompanying essay in the same issue of Nature. "Future palaeomagnetic experiments on samples from very old lunar rocks will enable their theories to be tested."
Via Space.com

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The Rum Diary (2011)/Review

Taglines: One part outrage. One part justice. Three parts rum. Mix well.
Release Date: 28 October 2011 (USA) Runtime: 120 min
Genres: Drama | Mystery | Thriller

American journalist Paul Kemp takes on a freelance job in Puerto Rico for a local newspaper during the 1950s and struggles to find a balance between island culture and the expatriates who live there.

Director: Bruce Robinson
Writers: Bruce Robinson (screenplay), Hunter S. Thompson (novel)
Cast overview: Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Rispoli, Amber Heard, Richard Jenkins, Giovanni Ribisi, Amaury Nolasco, Marshall Bell , Bill Smitrovich, Julian Holloway, Karen Austin

Storyline

Paul Kemp is a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self-destruction.

Filming Locations: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Budget: $45,000,000 (estimated)
Production Co: Dark & Stormy Entertainment, FilmEngine, GK Films
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Review

Rum Diary was an interesting movie that told the story of a writer at a crossroads in his life who flees to Puerto Rico in 1960 to either find something better in himself or get lost in a river of rum.
Johnny Depp goes a good job as a failing novelist who takes to journalism for the San Juan Star in hoping that writing something will help him ultimately succeed at writing novels. Depp is captivating in every scene, as his character falls into endless trouble but finds ways out. Ultimately, the chaos around him helps Depp's character find focus and purpose.
Michael Ribosi does an outstanding job as Depp's sidekick and American guide to Puerto Rico. Ribosi's character survives on rum and the occasional hamburger. Despite his character's self-destructive nature, his character adds warmth and humanity to the film.
I initially went to see Rum Diary for its setting in Puerto Rico. I have lived in Puerto Rico and visited many times. The rural settings accurately depict the rural Puerto Rican lifestyle even today. And the beauty of the island and Old San Juan is captured nicely throughout the movie, albeit less than I hoped.
The Rum Diary is a captivating look into a fascinating and flawed character in a unique time and place. 

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Nightwoods: A Novel by Charles Frazier/Revie

by Charles Frazier
Publisher: Random House (September 27, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 140006709X
ISBN-13: 978-1400067091
Literature & Fiction 
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

A Letter from Author Charles Frazier

Lost in the woods. A dangerous phrase, but also with a resonance of folktale. Hansel and Gretel with their bread crumbs. Jack alone, roaming the lovely, dark, and deep southern mountains. So, young people and old people being lost in the woods has always been interesting to me for those reasons. And also because it happens all the time still.
Back when I was a kid, eight or ten, my friends and I lived with a mountain in our backyards. We stayed off it in summer. Too hot and snaky. But in the cool seasons, we roamed freely. We carried bb guns in the fall and rode our sleds down old logging roads in winter. We often got lost. But we knew that downhill was the way out, the way home. When I grew up and went into bigger mountains, you couldn’t always be so sure. I remember being lost in Bolivia. Or let’s say that I grew increasingly uncertain whether I was still on the trail or not. That’s the point where you ought to sit down and drink some water and consult your maps and compass very carefully and calmly. I kept walking. At some point, it became a matter of rigging ropes to swing a heavy pack over a scary white watercourse. I ended up at a dropoff. Down far below, upper reaches of the Amazon basin stretched hazy green into the distance. Downhill did not at all seem like the way home.
You’ll just have to trust me that this has something to do with my new novel, but to go into it much would risk spoilers. I’ll just say that early on in the writing of Nightwoods, Luce and the children were meant to be fairly minor characters, but I kept finding myself coming back to them, wanting to know more about them until they became the heart of the story. Some of my wanting to focus on them was surely influenced by several cases of kids lost in the woods in areas where I’m typically jogging and mountain biking alone at least a hundred days a year. It’s part of my writing process, though I hardly ever think about work while I’m in the woods. But I do keep obsessive count of how many miles a day I go and how many words I write, lots of numbers on 3x5 notecards. All those days watching the micro changes of seasons can’t help but become part of the texture of what I write, and those lost kids, too.

PRAISE:

"...[A] taut narrative of love and suspense, told against a gritty background of bootlegging and violence. The characters are rich and unforgettable, and the prose almost lyrical. This is Charles Frazier at his best. ...Just mention a new novel by the Cold Mountain author, and a line will start forming."  —Booklist
"...[T]hink Thunder Road meets Night of the Hunter meets old murder ballads. This is a suspenseful noir nightmare, complete with bootleggers and switchblades." —The Daily Beast

"A boisterous, confident novel that draws from the epic tradition: It tips its hat to Don Quixote as well as Twain and Melville, and it boldly sets out to capture a broad swatch of America’s story in the mid-nineteenth century."  —The Boston Globe on Thirteen Moons

REVIEW

A Most Memorable Novel of Mid 20th Century Appalachia from Charles Frazier

By   John Kwok (New York, NY USA)

In his latest novel "Nightwoods", Charles Frazier returns to the same bleak, quiet Appalachian landscape that he introduced readers to in "Cold Mountain". However, unlike his celebrated earlier work of fiction, there is an almost timeless quality in "Nightwoods", a story that could have taken place as easily during the midst of the Civil War or sometime late in the Twentieth Century. Instead Frazier drops subtle hints (e. g. a reference to the film "The Defiant Ones") that it is set in the late 1950s, in a rural Appalachia that is virtually indistinguishable from the one described in "Cold Mountain", rendered vividly in a sparse, often lyrical, prose that will remind readers of Cormac McCarthy's recent work, especially "The Road"; a comparison that is most apt since "Nightwoods" is almost as bleak as McCarthy's rural near future dystopian novel. Frazier offers his readers a most captivating, often poignant, and quite brilliant, portrayal of Luce, the young woman who unexpectedly inherits her sister's troublesome, emotionally scarred, son and daughter. Hers is an epic battle of wits with her sister's husband, Bud - whom she suspects is her sister Lola's killer - as she seeks to protect Lola's young children from their alcoholic, violence-prone father. Her only ally in this quest is the unassuming Stubblefield, who becomes both friend and guardian angel to Luce, her niece and her nephew. Frazier has once again combined his excellent storytelling talent with his superb prose into a winning combination destined to be celebrated by critics and fans alike; without question, one of the finest, and most compelling, works of fiction published this year.

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Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse /Book Review

James Wesley Rawles (Author)
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Atria Books; 1St Edition edition (October 4, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439172803
ISBN-13: 978-1439172803
Genre:Literature & Fiction, Action & Adventure,  Mystery & Thrillers

Description

WHAT IF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT ENDED TOMORROW?
The America we are accustomed to is no more. Practically overnight the stock market has plummeted, hyperinflation has crippled commerce, and the fragile chains of supply and high-technology infrastructure have fallen. The power grids are down. Brutal rioting and looting grip every major city. The volatile era known as “the Crunch” has begun, and this new period in our history will leave no one untouched. In this unfamiliar environment, only a handful of individuals are equipped to survive.
Andrew Laine, a resourceful young U.S. Army officer stationed overseas in Afghanistan, wants nothing more than to return home to Bloomfield, New Mexico. With the world in turmoil and all air and sea traffic to America suspended, Laine must rely on his own ingenuity and the help of good Samaritans to reach his family. Andrew will do whatever it takes to make it home to his fiancée, no matter how difficult the circumstances.
Major Ian Doyle is a U.S. Air Force pilot sta-tioned in Arizona with his wife, Blanca. Their young daughter, Linda, is trapped in the North- eastern riots. Three teenage orphans, Shadrach, Reuben, and Matthew Phelps, have no choice but to set out on their own when their orphanage closes at the beginning of the Crunch. Then there is Ignacio Garcia, the ruthless leader of the criminal gang called La Fuerza, who will stop at nothing to amass an army capable of razing the countryside. And over everything looms the threat of a provisional government, determined to take over America and destroy the freedoms upon which it was built. The world of Survivors is a terrifyingly familiar one. Rawles has written a novel so close to the truth, readers will forget it’s fiction. If everything you thought you knew suddenly fell apart, would you survive?
About the Author
Former U.S. Army intelligence officer and survivalist James Wesley, Rawles is a well-known survival lecturer and author. Rawles is the editor of SurvivalBlog.com—the nation's most popular blog on family preparedness. He lives in an undisclosed location west of the Rockies. He is the author of the bestselling Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse and a nonfiction survival guide, How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It.

Review
I'm a Survivor,   By  F. Harrison

If Patriots was a great survival manual in novel format, Survivors is a great novel with a survivalist theme. If you read his first successful novel, you'll be glad to hear that author John Wesley Rawles has made dramatic improvement from the standpoint of fiction writing. The latest (not really a sequel, but based on the same setting of a post collapse world), has a much more fluid story and much more interesting characters. I couldn't tell you one thing about the characters from Patriots, but there are some memorable ones in Survivors.
The lead character, Anders, is a soldier in Afghanistan, who gets stuck after the US cuts off fuel supplies during the collapse. He has to make it back to his wife and brother back in America and uses his technical and survival skills to do so.
Other story lines intersect as Rawles showcases how people in different parts of the country try to cope with the shocking collapse of the economic system. While all of the protagonists in Patriots were survivalists, some of the characters in Survivors aren't, making for a compelling plot. Not only do they have to deal with a shattered economy, but the entire country has turned into a Mad-Max-esque free for all with roving gangs becoming dominant.
If you enjoy dystopian or political fiction like Orwell or the excellent Gods of Ruin, you must read this book!

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The Thing (2011)

Release Date: 14 October 2011 (India) Runtime: USA: 103 min
Genres: Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Taglines: It's not human. Yet.

At an Antarctica research site, the discovery of an alien craft leads to a confrontation between graduate student Kate Lloyd and scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson.

Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Writers:  Eric Heisserer, John W. Campbell Jr. (short story "Who Goes There?")
Cast overview

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Paul Braunstein, Trond Espen Seim, Kim Bubbs, Jørgen Langhelle, Lars Jan Gunnar Røise , Stig Henrik Hoff, Kristofer Hivju , Jo Adrian Haavind, Carsten Bjørnlund Jonathan Walker

Produced by J. Miles Dale , David Foster & Gabrielle Neimand
Original Music by Marco Beltrami     
Cinematography by Michel Abramowicz        
Film Editing by  Peter Boyle, Julian Clarke & Jono Griffith
Storyline

At an Antarctica research site, the discovery of an alien craft leads to a confrontation between graduate student Kate Lloyd and scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson. While Dr. Halvorson keeps to his research, Kate partners with Sam Carter, a helicopter pilot, to pursue the alien life form. Written by IMDb Editors 

Filming Locations: British Columbia & Ontario, Canada
Budget:  $35,000,000 (estimated)
Production Co:  Morgan Creek Productions, Strike Entertainment See more »
Sound Mix:  Dolby Digital  | DTS (as Datasat Digital Sound) | SDDS
Review
Truly a film for the fans
Author: gbi09403 from United States

John Carpenter's version of "The Thing" is a classic. The makers of this film clearly recognize that. So instead of doing the typical thing of this generation and "rebooting" a series/film, they did something classy- they expanded on a story. And they pulled it off exceptionally well. Yes, this movie has MUCH more CGI effects, but it wasn't overboard. The tie-ins to Carpenter's version are spot on. Set designs were great. The acting went way beyond my expectations- Winstead was amazing as the lead. The story was tight. As its first week of release showed, I'm certain this film - like Carpenter's - will go under-appreciated. But I would bet the farm this movie will find its place right next to Carpenter's on your movie shelf at home. Give it a chance!!

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The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes/Book Review

Julian Barnes (Author)
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Knopf (October 5, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307957128
ISBN-13: 978-0307957122
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers > Literature & Fiction 

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize [2011]

“The David Cohen Prize is in effect a UK version of the Nobel Prize for Literature, open to writers of fiction and non-fiction, comedy and tragedy. . . . What is remarkable about Julian Barnes is that he has excelled in all these areas. The already extraordinary list of David Cohen Prize–winning authors has been fittingly extended.”
—Mark Lawson, David Cohen Prize citation

Editorial Reviews

“Barnes builds a powerful atmosphere of shame and silence. . . . As ever, Barnes excels at colouring everyday reality with his narrator’s unique subjectivity, without sacrificing any of its vivid precision. . . . Novel, fertile and memorable.” —The Guardian
“Compelling. . . . His reputation will surely be enhanced by this book. Do not be misled by its brevity. Its mystery is as deeply embedded as the most archaic of memories.”
—The Telegraph

“Short and sharp. . . . A true master of his craft, Barnes’s precise and economic prose is often a delight, and he packs in some vivid characterisation, scene-drawing and emotional insight within his brief 150 pages.” —The List

“Barnes has effectively doubled the length of the book by giving us a final revelation that obliges us to reread it. Without overstating his case in the slightest, Barnes’s story is a meditation on the unreliability and falsity of memory. . . . Such a slyly subversive book.” —London Evening Standard

“Julian Barnes is one of those marvelously inventive authors who writes a very different book each time. He experiments with historical and contemporary fiction, memoir, biography and essays, seamlessly moving from genre to genre. . . . His prose is rich without being showy; he has a precision and economy of language that at times recalls William Trevor.” —The Oregonian

“Barnes is among the most adventurous writers—in style, versatility and narrative structure—of his Amis-McEwan-Hitchens generation.” — The New York Times Book Review

Description

By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse.
This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he’d left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he’d understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.
A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes’s oeuvre.

Review
Dirk Sinnewe "books galore" (Germany)

If Barnes's novel was only a philosophical treatise on themes such as, for example, the constructedness of history, memory, love or remorse, then only a few people would read it, so the author offers us some kind of mystery story which the main protagonist Webster has to solve: the deceased mother of his former girlfriend Veronica has left him 500 pounds as well as the diary of his friend Adrian. Why does Veronica's mother do this and will the content of Adrian's diary shed some light on his suicide?
This "mystery story" only works because Veronica remains more or less silent throughout the second part of the book. She may fall into the category of the mysterious woman; after all Barnes is at pains to portray her as a woman that is surrounded by an air of secrecy, so it may seem in keeping with her character that she does not immediately tell Webster all she knows, her monosyllabic replies may also just be credible, but her continuous repetition of the set phrase "You just don't get it, do you?" when she meets Webster after so many years is just not credible at all. For me this is the central weakness of the plot, resulting from a flawed character-construction. Either that or the unreliable narrator may have, once again, constructed his very own version of the past.

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Shock Wave (A Virgil Flowers Novel) /Book Review

By John Sandford
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult (October 4, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399157697
ISBN-13: 978-0399157691
Mystery & Thrillers >Suspense

Book Description

The thrilling new Virgil Flowers novel from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.
The superstore chain PyeMart has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two very angry groups want to stop it: local merchants, fearing for their businesses, and environmentalists, predicting ecological disaster. The protests don't seem to be slowing the project, though, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands.
The first bomb goes off on the top floor of PyeMart's headquarters. The second one explodes at the construction site itself. The blasts are meant to inflict maximum damage-and they do. Who's behind the bombs, and how far will they go? It's Virgil Flowers's job to find out . . . before more people get killed.
About the Author
John Sandford is the author of twenty-one Prey novels, most recently Buried Prey; the Virgil Flowers novels, most recently Bad Blood; and six other books. He lives in Minnesota.

Review
Outstanding entry in Sandford's Virgil Flowers series ! 
By  Gerald M. Bull (Fairview, TN United States)

We are big fans of Sandford, having read every single one of his Kidd, Lucas Davenport, and Virgil Flowers novels. These latter stories are similar to, but usually less violent than, the "Prey" novels, as Virgil is inclined to let the "regular" cops do most of the dirty work while he contemplates things quietly and often draws clever conclusions from just talking to people.
"Shock Wave" is aptly named, as it involves a plot about a very busy bomber who has it in for "Pye-Mart", obviously a Walmart knockoff, that is in the early construction phase in Butternut Falls (MN), and expected to destroy the local merchants and pollute the river with runoff, etc., etc. While that's not exactly an original premise, the one or two bombings per day keep everyone hopping to an insane degree, with a similar increase in suspense to the reader. Not surprisingly, there appears to have been illegal payoffs to local politicos to make the approval for the new megastore a reality; and while he's trying to discover the identity of the bomber, Virgil uncovers those crimes as well, nicely cleaning up the local scene. Meanwhile, Virgil seems to be telephonically breaking up with his new sheriff sweetheart, which slows down his tendency to womanize key characters, but that only added to the "off-screen" fun.
We don't award many books all five stars, but this one seems quite deserving -- a terrific protagonist in an exciting and suspenseful plot combine for a thrill-charged entertaining novel -- highly recommended!

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Abduction (2011)/Movie Review

 Release Date: 23 September 2011 (India) Runtime: 106 min

Genres: Action | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Taglines: The fight for the truth will be the fight of his life.

A thriller centered on a young man who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website.

Director: John Singleton
Writer: Shawn Christensen
Cast: Lily Collins, Jake Andolin, Oriah Acima Andrews,     Ken Arnold, Maria Bello    , Steve Blass, Derek Burnell, Benjamin J. Cain Jr., Holly Scott Cavanuagh, Radick Cembrzynski, Richard Cetrone, Mike Clark  

Original Music by Ed Shearmur
Cinematography by Peter Menzies Jr.
Film Editing by Bruce Cannon       
Casting by Alan Lee Joseph Middleton       
Production Design by Keith Brian Burns       
Production Companies: Gotham Group  Lionsgate  Quick Six Entertainment  Tailor Made Vertigo Entertainment
Filming locations:  Brownsville, Pennsylvania, USA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Sutersville, Pennsylvania, USA
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
REVIEW

The premise for this story is that Nathan (Lautner) is living a wonderful life with his two parents. However, one fateful day a group of men kill his parents and destroy his home sending he and his girlfriend Karen (Lily Collins) on an adventure, as they try to avoid the CIA and the Russian Intelligence. This is really all I can say without ruining any major aspects in this tried and true plot.
I'll start this review by saying that trailer was more action packed then the actual movie. Rather than seeing Lautner wield a gun and do some awesome martial arts, a majority of the action involves the teenage couple mainly eluding the henchmen. Various chase scenes, both car and on foot, are shown throughout the movie, and are interspersed with repetitive dialog and occasional, albeit brief combat scenes. As a result, action lovers or even semi action lovers will be disappointed with what this movie has to offer.
So you may be asking, "Robbie if the story was bad and the action was not very good, what was good about it?" Well the two biggest strengths of this movie were the soundtrack and the suggestion of a plot twist. The soundtrack for the most part provided more of an adrenaline rush than anything interlacing fast paced techno tones with hard core guitar. The combination of the two styles gave half of the chase scenes their character. Perhaps the biggest reason I stayed though was that the film kept suggesting there was going to be some plot twist, or underlying motif to the reason Nathan was being chased. Although they told you the reason he was being hunted, the acting and plethora of shady moves kept hinting there was something more. I'm here to tell you that there is a very minor twist that really wasn't worth the long wait.
The only other things I can say about this movie are the following. First Taylor Lautner fans are going to go gaga over watching their favorite werewolf smolder and pout throughout the whole movie. He still delivers the same monotone dialog that he made famous in his teenybopper career, but this time keeps his shirt on to actually act. Regardless teenage girls and other big fans will not mind as they scream in delight, while those who don't will enjoy watching him get owned in a few scenes. Guys will be happy to see the cute Lilly Collins throughout the movie, and may even enjoy her acting as much as I did. I have to applaud the camera work as well as they do a nice job of capturing what little detail was in this movie. Finally fans may have seen Sigourney Weaver in the trailer, but like so many cameos these days, her star appearance is few and far in between.
Lautner may have finally escaped his werewolf days of Twilight, but he hasn't really traveled that far outside of the role. The promise Abduction had shown in the trailers was grossly overrated. A shallow plot, overabundance of chase scenes, and lack of twist really disappointed me.

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Heat Rises (Nikki Heat) by Richard Castle/Book Review

Richard Castle

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Hyperion (September 20, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1401324436

ISBN-13: 978-1401324438

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

Description

Fast-paced and full of intrigue, Heat Rises pairs the tough and sexy NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat with hotshot reporter Jameson Rook in New York Times bestselling author Richard Castle's most thrilling mystery yet.

The bizarre murder of a parish priest at a New York bondage club opens Nikki Heat's most thrilling and dangerous case so far, pitting her against New York's most vicious drug lord, an arrogant CIA contractor, and a shadowy death squad out to gun her down. And that is just the tip of an iceberg that leads to a dark conspiracy reaching all the way to the highest level of the NYPD.

But when she gets too close to the truth, Nikki finds herself disgraced, stripped of her badge, and out on her own as a target for killers with nobody she can trust. Except maybe the one man in her life who's not a cop. Reporter Jameson Rook.

In the midst of New York's coldest winter in a hundred years, there's one thing Nikki is determined to prove: Heat Rises.

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Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues (A Jesse Stone Novel)/ Book Review

Michael Brandman (Author)

Hardcover: 288 pages

Publisher: Putnam Adult (September 13, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0399157840

ISBN-13: 978-0399157844

Description

Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone returns in a brilliant new addition to the New York Times-bestselling series.

Paradise, Massachusetts, is preparing for the summer tourist season when a string of car thefts disturbs what is usually a quiet time in town. In a sudden escalation of violence, the thefts become murder, and chief of police Jesse Stone finds himself facing one of the toughest cases of his career. Pressure from the town politicians only increases when another crime wave puts residents on edge. Jesse confronts a personal dilemma as well: a burgeoning relationship with a young PR executive, whose plans to turn Paradise into a summertime concert destination may have her running afoul of the law.

When a mysterious figure from Jesse's past arrives in town, memories of his last troubled days as a cop in L.A. threaten his ability to keep order in Paradise-especially when it appears that the stranger is out for revenge.

About the Author

Robert B. Parker was the author of more than fifty books. He died in January 2010.

Michael Brandman is uniquely qualified to carry the Jesse Stone series into the future. An award-winning producer of more than thirty motion pictures, he collaborated with Robert B. Parker on more than a dozen of them. Together they wrote the screenplay for Tom Selleck's TNT movie Monte Walsh. Brandman produced and Parker wrote three Spenser films for A&E, and their collaboration continued with the Jesse Stone TV movies currently broadcast on CBS. Brandman lives in California.

Review

The practice of having relatively unknown authors write novels under a popular author's name, dead or alive, is awful, as far as I'm concerned. Look at James Patterson, for example. How long has it been since he wrote a book on his own? Ian Fleming, for another. Long dead, the James Bond novels just keep coming.

Robert B. Parker was a wonderful writer when he started out. His early Spencer novels were very satisfying, with fully fleshed out characters and intelligent plots. By the 90s, they read like TV scenarios, very short novels fattened up by double spacing and printing on thick paper. His writing style had evolved as well. I read a full page in arecent Parker novel which consisted of short statements or questions by two characters in which every quote was followed by "he said". "Sit down," he said. "I'm fine," he said, "Why are you here?" he said, etc., etc., for a full page. Talk about choppy! It sounded even worse on a book on tape.

Also,the idea of a hard-bitten detective who fought in Korea has become ridiculous. Spencer must be 85 by now!  Please, let the man be gone.

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New York to Dallas (In Death) by J.D. Robb /Book Review

J.D. Robb (Author)

Hardcover: 416 pages

Publisher: Putnam Adult (September 13, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0399157786

ISBN-13: 978-0399157783

Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches

Description

The new novel from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author, which takes readers deeper into the mind of Eve Dallas than ever before.

The number-one New York Times-bestselling author J. D. Robb presents an intense and terrifying new case for New York homicide cop Eve Dallas, one that will take her all the way to the city that gave her her name-and plunge her into the nightmares of her childhood.

When a monster named Isaac McQueen-taken down by Eve back in her uniform days-escapes from Rikers, he has two things in mind. One is to pick up where he left off, abducting young victims and leaving them scarred in both mind and body. The other is to get revenge on the woman who stopped him all those years ago.

About the Author

J. D. Robb is the pseudonym for a number-one New York Times-bestselling author of more than 190 novels, including the futuristic suspense In Death series. There are more than 400 million copies of her books in print.

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The Race (Isaac Bell) by Clive Cussler & Justin Scott/Book Review

Clive Cussler (Author) & Justin Scott (Author)

Hardcover: 416 pages

Publisher: Putnam Adult (September 6, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0399157816

ISBN-13: 978-0399157813

Description

Detective Isaac Bell returns, in the remarkable new adventure from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.

It is 1910, the age of flying machines is still in its infancy, and newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway is offering $50,000 for the first daring aviator to cross America in less than fifty days. He is even sponsoring one of the prime candidates-an intrepid woman named Josephine Frost-and that's where Bell, chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, comes in.

Frost's violent-tempered husband has just killed her lover and tried to kill her, and he is bound to make another attempt. Bell has tangled with Harry Frost before; he knows that the man has made his millions leading gangs of thieves, murderers, and thugs in every city across the country. He also knows that Frost won't be only after his wife, but after Whiteway as well. And if Bell takes the case . . . Frost will be after him, too.

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Pirate King: A novel of suspense by Laurie R King/Book Review

Pirate King: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Russell & Holmes, Book 11)

Laurie R. King (Author)

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Bantam (September 6, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0553807986

ISBN-13: 978-0553807981

Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches 

Pirate King is a Laurie King treasure chest—thrilling, intelligent, romantic, a swiftly unreeling masterpiece of suspense. 
“The Mary Russell series is the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.”—Lee Child

Product Description

In this latest adventure featuring the intrepid Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King takes readers into the frenetic world of silent films—where the pirates are real and the shooting isn’t all done with cameras.

In England’s young silent-film industry, the megalomaniacal Randolph Fflytte is king. Nevertheless, at the request of Scotland Yard, Mary Russell is dispatched to investigate rumors of criminal activities that swirl around Fflytte’s popular movie studio. So Russell is traveling undercover to Portugal, along with the film crew that is gearing up to shoot a cinematic extravaganza, Pirate King. Based on Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, the project will either set the standard for moviemaking for a generation . . . or sink a boatload of careers.

Nothing seems amiss until the enormous company starts rehearsals in Lisbon, where the thirteen blond-haired, blue-eyed actresses whom Mary is bemusedly chaperoning meet the swarm of real buccaneers Fflytte has recruited to provide authenticity. But when the crew embarks for Morocco and the actual filming, Russell feels a building storm of trouble: a derelict boat, a film crew with secrets, ominous currents between the pirates, decks awash with budding romance—and now the pirates are ignoring Fflytte and answering only to their dangerous outlaw leader. Plus, there’s a spy on board. Where can Sherlock Holmes be? As movie make-believe becomes true terror, Russell and Holmes themselves may experience a final fadeout.

PRAISES

“Brilliant and beautifully complex….Her descriptions of locales are voluptuous, and her continued delineation of the relationship of Russell and Holmes exquisitely portrays the eroticism of intellectual give-and-take.”  —Booklist

“The great marvel of King’s series is that she’s managed to preserve the integrity of Holmes’s character and yet somehow conjure up a woman astute, edgy, and compelling enough to be the partner of his mind as well as his heart.” —The Washington Post Book World

“A lively adventure in the very best of intellectual company.”—The New York Times

“Erudite, fascinating . . . by all odds the most successful re-creation of the famous inhabitant of 221B Baker Street ever attempted.”—Houston Chronicle

“Imaginative and subtle.”—The Seattle Times

“Impossible to put down.”—Romantic Times

“Remarkably beguiling.”—The Boston Globe

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REVIEW

The Pirate King of the title is a reference to the Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan, a reference appropriate both in plot and motif. William S. Gilbert himself might have appreciated the ending, which mixes Gilbert's fairytale style with a mercantile Machiavellianism. It is much to her credit that Laurie King actually pulls it off. (Though some might disagree, the only part that seems implausible to me is the pace of those particular events.)

King's narrative is generally good and her descriptive skills a bit better. I found them actually moving in spots; others may disagree.

The story's weaknesses are the tangle of story layers necessary (a story about an adventure whilst filming a movie about the making of a play) and a certain formulaic feel to some of the Russell-Holmes scenes. One in particular has me wondering whether King lost touch with her characters or whether she is planning some future development. In my opinion, the best books in the series are the early ones that develop that relationship. At this point, it may be hard to sustain continued development, especially as King has castled Holmes queen-side, moving him well out of the reader's eye for most of the story.

Since the whole point of the series may have been to use Holmes as a launching-point for Russell, the stories may drift further and further from the Holmesian root. I think that a shame. I also think it a shame that Russell shadows Holmes so completely. The partnership of Russell and Holmes was a daring, outrageous stroke. It made the series in the beginning, and the forgetting of it may be the series's unmaking.

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Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson &Marshall Karp/Book Review

Kill Me If You CanJames Patterson (Author), Marshall Karp (Author)

Hardcover: 384 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (August 29, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0316097543

ISBN-13: 978-0316097543

Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches

Product Description

Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a duffel bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Station. Plans for a worry-free life with his gorgeous girlfriend Katherine fill his thoughts--until he realizes that he is being hunted, and that whoever is after him won't stop until they have reclaimed the diamonds and exacted their revenge.

Trailing him is the Ghost, the world's greatest assassin, who has just pulled off his most high-profile hit: killing Walter Zelvas, a top member of the international Diamond Syndicate. There's only one small problem: the diamonds he was supposed to retrieve from Zelvas are missing. Now, the Ghost is on Bannon's trail--but so is a rival assassin who would like nothing more than to make the Ghost disappear forever. From "America's #1 storyteller" (Forbes) comes a high-speed, high-stakes, winner-take-all thrill ride of adrenaline-fueled suspense.

REVIEW

It's the story of a young ex-Marine, Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran, who finds a bag full of diamonds, worth several million dollars. He decides to keep the treasure, and a blood-soaked series of events ensues, for the Russian mob has a strong "proprietary" interest in those diamonds.

A pivotal event in this novel reminded me of a device that I have seen used in movies. One of the actors, at a critical juncture, turns to the viewers and points something out or offers some explanation. It just seems awkward to me, and I've never seen it done well. Similarly, a character in this book, at about the half-way point, explains that readers have been purposely misled about an important plot element! So a stunning shift in the story made no sense until we had the "inside" info. I found it all rather confusing and felt a little editing could have gone a long way.

Too much time is spent on international tourist hot spots in Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, and Nassau. These travelogues do not really keep the story moving. Also, some of the villains are almost comically over the top and stretch credulity.

However, author James Patterson (writing here with Marshall Karp) is a master craftsman of the page-turner. I have read and reviewed fourteen of his works for this site and (almost) never had trouble finishing them, even those I did not rate highly. It seems to me that Patterson's fail-safe method is to juggle three or more intriguing elements at the same time. At least one of them will keep most readers engaged.

The book weaves two taboos into the plot. A college professor has an affair with one of her students. The other taboo is far more scandalous. Many readers will find this part of the book revolting, although the authors handle it in an almost matter-of-fact manner.

There's nothing profound here. But there are stretches of high excitement, and I did keep wondering what would happen to those diamonds and the man who took them.

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Now You See Her by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge/Book Review

Now You See Her

James Patterson (Author), Michael Ledwidge (Author)

"The prolific Patterson seems unstoppable." (USA Today )

"James Patterson knows how to sell thrills and suspense in clean, unwavering prose." (People )

"Patterson's novels are sleek entertainment machines, the Porsches of commercial fiction, expertly engineered and lightning fast." (Publishers Weekly ) 

Description

A successful lawyer and loving mother, Nina Bloom would do anything to protect the life she's built in New York--including lying to everyone, even her daughter, about her past. But when an innocent man is framed for murder, she knows that she can't let him pay for the real killer's crimes.

Nina's secret life began 18 years ago. She had looks to die for, a handsome police-officer husband, and a carefree life in Key West. When she learned she was pregnant with their first child, her happiness was almost overwhelming. But Nina's world is shattered when she unearths a terrible secret that causes her to run for her life and change her identity.

Now, years later, Nina risks everything she's earned to return to Florida and confront the murderous evil she fled. In a story of wrenching suspense, James Patterson gives us his most head-spinning, action-filled story yet--a Hitchcock-like blend of unquenchable drama and pleasure.

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Hardcover: 400 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (June 27, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0316036218

ISBN-13: 978-0316036214

Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches

REVIEW

Books that Patterson writes with Ledwidge have been some of my favorites. This one is up to their usual standards. It's a twisty, turny tale that moves very quickly. Nina's a great character. I loved the pacing of the book and finished it in one afteroon! The quick pacing of this book is what raised it from a 3-star to a 4-star read for me. I was in the mood for something fast and wouldn't require a lot of thinking. This book was perfect for me.

Some things in the book are more than a bit too coincidental and there's melodrama enough for three books, but this is still a fun, summer thriller. I am glad I read it and think that some people that are bummed on Patterson might enjoy this book more than some of his more recent ones. Try a sample, and I think this book will hook you from the start as it did me. It's so easy to get caught up and swept away before you know it. Overall, great beach read. Perfect for summer vacation, and just in time!

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Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue/Book Review

Emma Donoghue (Author)

Description

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating--a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.

From Publishers Weekly

Five-year-old Jack and his Ma live and eat and play and sleep in one room--an 11×11-foot space that is their prison--captives of the terrifying man Jack calls Old Nick. But as Jack grows older and more curious, it becomes clear that the room will not be able to hold him and Ma forever. Michal Friedman shines as Jack; her narration is haunting and compelling in its every inflection and tone. The voice she creates for Jack is so convincing, listeners may even mistake her for an actual child. Her powerful performance is complemented by Robert Petcoff's sinister Old Nick, and Ellen Archer's portrayal of resourceful Ma, whose gentle voice is infused with patience, terror, and hope. The chemistry between the players creates a gem of an audiobook that will haunt listeners long after the story's end.

Room is based on an original, arresting, thought-provoking premise. It's narrated by a five year old boy (Jack), who has spent his entire life living inside a small room where he and his mother are held prisoner. If you want to read the book knowing no more of the plot than that, skip to the next paragraph. His mother was abducted at the age of 19 and has been repeatedly raped: Jack being born some 2 years later. Jack's mother is frequently depressed and desperate to escape. However she has protected Jack from the realities of their situation and one of the book's central ideas is that when you know no better, you always think the world that you live in is normal and it will still represent home to you.
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Paperback: 352 pages

Publisher: Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (May 18, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0316098329

ISBN-13: 978-0316098328

Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1 x 8.2 inches

REVIEW

Having a child narrate the book is very clever in many ways. Jack is oblivious to the heroic efforts that his mother makes to protect and entertain him, but these are obvious to the reader. However he never really worked as a narrator for me. He starts the book speaking in quite broken english but quickly leaves that affectation behind. I realize that he was meant to be a highly developed child in some areas while very behind in others. But I couldn't reconcile a child who knew words like omnivore, nutritional and antenna and then at other times would describe something as "the hurtest". The first time he sees his mother vomiting he describes it as "stuff falling out of her mouth like spit but much thicker", but next moment he's calling it vomit and using the word freely from then on. All these inconsistencies kept interrupting the flow of the book for me. There were also times when I would like to have been given a better insight into the reasons for his mother's actions, which the choice of narrator made impossible.

It's a story with two distinct acts, punctuated by a nerve-wracking section in the middle. I felt that the story loses momentum in the second half of the book, petering out towards the end.

This is one of those books that sucks you into its world and makes you reconsider your own. It's a quick read that's highly absorbing. I can understand why so many people think that it's brilliant, but I only found it good, not great.

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Hanna (2011)/Movie Review

Release Date:  8 April 2011 (USA)   Runtime: 111 min

Genres: Action | Crime | Mystery | Thriller
Filming Locations: Bad Tölz, Bavaria, Germany

Taglines: Adapt or Die

A 16-year-old who was raised by her father to be the perfect assassin is dispatched on a mission across Europe, tracked by a ruthless intelligence agent and her operatives.

Director:  Joe Wright

Writers:   Seth Lochhead , David Farr

Original Music by Tom Rowlands &  Ed Simons

Cinematography by Alwin H. Kuchler

STORYLINE

Hanna (Ronan) is a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a soldier; these come from being raised by her father (Bana), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Ms. Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

MAIN CASTS

Saoirse Ronan , Eric Bana , Cate Blanchett , Tom Hollander ,Paris Arrowsmith,   Olivia Williams ,Jason Flemyng , John MacMillan , Tim Beckmann , Vicky Krieps , Christian Malcolm , Jamie Beamish ,Tom Hodgkins , Vincent Montuel , Nathan Nolan

Box Office

Budget:  $30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:  $12,370,549 (USA) (10 April 2011) (2535 Screens)

Gross:  $57,670,856 (Worldwide) (4 July 2011) 

Production Co:  Focus Features, Holleran Company, Studio Babelsberg 

SYNOPSIS

Hanna Heller (Saoirse Ronan) is a 16-year-old girl who lives with her father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana) in the wilderness of Finland. Ever since she was born, Hanna has been trained by Erik to become an assassin. As part of her training, she has never come into contact with modern technology and has memorized a series of fake back stories for herself to be used when the time comes.

One night, Hanna approaches Erik and tells him that she is "ready", and he retrieves a box containing an old transmitter, which he gives to her. After analyzing the situation, Hanna flips the switch, sending a signal of her location to Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a corrupt CIA agent. Marissa sends a team to Erik's cabin, where Hanna, who had been waiting for them, is captured and taken to a CIA safe house in Morocco. There, she discovers that Erik is a former CIA agent who betrayed the agency and knows a secret that can't become public. Marissa has been assigned to kill him, but Hanna has been trained to kill Marissa by Erik. Knowing that Hanna was captured too easily, Marissa sends a body double (Michelle Dockery) to speak with Hanna. Hanna kills the false Marissa, breaks free and escapes the compound.

REVIEW

A friend got me tickets to an advance screening, telling me it was a spy thriller with Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett. I hadn't seen a trailer and was expecting something along the lines of Mission Impossible. Was I wrong.

I'm not great at doing reviews, but I feel I need to say something about this amazing movie! During it, I was very aware at how engrossed I was, hanging on every scene. It was visually stunning - some of the scenes or transitions between them were so beautiful. The title "HANNA" on the screen reminded me a lot of Kill Bill. In fact, I felt Saoirse Ronan's Hanna is a teenage version of The Bride from Kill Bill and Leeloo from The Fifth Element.

I've seen Cate Blanchett in a couple of movies, but was impressed by her portrayal of a ruthless agent. I hate to say that Eric Bana's character (Erik) was "almost" forgettable - in the end, the movie was really not about him. But he did show up once wet and without much clothing and that was just fine by me.

I am not a fan of violence (and Tarantino's bugs me a lot), but I was OK with the quantity and visibility of it in this movie. Fans of Kill Bill should enjoy Hanna.

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