BMS

I, Alex Cross

2012-01-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

Alex Cross' job brings him often and close to the many brutal crime scenes in the DC Area. And in all his dealings with crimes, he exerts an enormous effort to separate his work from his family. And he succeeds in just doing that, most of the time.

But the brutal murder of his niece once again makes this particular case personal. And Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Det. Brianna Stone found themselves confronting powerful people with ties to the White House in their search for justice and then some.

Sex, crime, fetish, lies, power and fantasy- this book has it all and is another gem of a suspense- thriller which only James Patterson could weave as he once again imparts his brand of writing to his legions of readers with ease.

Peek-a-Books #2

2012-01-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers." ~Charles W. Eliot

Dead Shot

2012-01-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

Behind the steady finger that pulls the trigger and the sharp eye that peeks through the crosshairs are men like Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Swanson and the enigmatic Juba, two snipers on different sides of the spectrum but with one common mission- to exterminate anybody on their path with 'one shot, one kill."

Add Baghdad, Black Ops, Al Qaeda, Chemical weapons and the Iranian connection make Dead Shot a good read; a novel that is just all right but still manages to intrigue.

The Lion's Game

2011-12-24T21:25:00.000-08:00

In ex-NYPD cop and terrorist Task Force contract agent John Corey, author Nelson DeMille has created a character that is a replica of what a real NYPD cop should be -- brass but effective, wise-cracking but intelligent, and street-smart but knows how to navigate his way in and out of the system. He may be obnoxious to others, but he's also loyal to his job and peers.

Asad Kahlil (aka The Lion) is on a mission -- to kill the men responsible for his family's death, in this case, the pilots and navigators of the F-111s that raided Al 'Aziziyah in Libya in retaliation for Libyan involvement in various attacks against American interests in Europe.

The moment the commercial Boeing 747's 'unusual flight' from Paris landed at the JFK Airport, the game was on and the players were put into motion.

Nelson DeMille plotted this novel with attention to some historical events and data incorporated into the course of the story. The dialogues are laden with cop jargon and street lingo but are also serious and humorous in substance at other points.

In a novel of this proportion, some miscues and inaccuracies are inevitable, but the misses are few and forgivable. And the author has more than redeemed himself with crisp pacing and superb storytelling.
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The Lion's Game (2000)

Kafka on the shore*

2011-04-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

Literature as comics, why not?

Peter Kuper's adaptation of Franz Kafka's classic is a good start for the not-so-serious reader to be introduced and get acquainted to the Czech writer's works.

The comic book is simple and is easy on the eye that gives new life on the old novel that easily metamorphosed into a a serious graphic and dark work of art but still retains Kafka's original narrative and expression.

This is not only a faithful adaptation but the artwork is also kafkaesque- dark, nightmarish and surreal. Another good introduction to Franz Kafka's brilliant catalog of works.

*with apologies to one of my favorite Japanese writers, Haruki Murakami, for usurping the title of this post from his 2002 fantasy opus.

Shortcomings

2011-02-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Food for thought for Asian men: “Is your attraction to white women a sublimated form of assimilation?”

WAR as seen through the eyes of Sebastian Junger

2011-01-31T21:15:00.000-08:00

A personal experience and in- depth look at the war on terror in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley wherein US Troops were engaged in a war of attrition against a rag-tag but determined group of Taliban fighters whose unwelcome presence is a constant; where living and dying is measured by mere inches and precious seconds.

Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm), who was embedded with 2nd Platoon, Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team for months, gave us a raw picture, the horrors and reality of war, as seen through the eyes and experiences of the men who were there.

This book is an 'expanded version' of materials culled from his articles on Vanity Fair Magazine about his journey to Afghanistan's Korengal Valley wherein he was on assignment from June 2007 to June 2008.

The book also mentioned the exploits of Specialist Salvatore Giunta, the first living recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. His unit was ambushed by the enemy and he earned the award for risking his life while preventing a wounded comrade from being captured by the enemy.

John Sandford's Storm Prey

2010-12-26T22:37:00.001-08:00

Feeling Minnesota: The 20th installment of the Prey Series and Lucas Davenport is at it again- solving crimes and kicking ass in his usual stomping ground.

The victims in this case were mostly at the 'wrong place at the wrong time' and Davenport had his sidekick Virgil Flowers in tow to solve the case of 'bad medicine' as well as neutralize the threat to his wife Weather Karkinnen, a surgeon at the hospital where a fatal robbery occurred that put into motion the series of killings in the Twin Cities and its outskirts.

After this latest installment, the Sandford faithful will probably wonder whether the series still compels and is therefore worth keeping? Or realize that it is time for the author to hold the pill and spare his readers of the overdose?

Mr. Monk in Trouble

2010-11-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

This book is trouble, a case that even the brilliant Detective Adrian Monk on his best days cannot solve. Lee Goldberg tries to duplicate the success in the boob tube of the idiosyncratic detective into book form but fails.

One of the few times that the TV show is better than the book.

DONG XOAI

2010-10-12T18:20:00.000-07:00

Vietnam 1965: Joe Kubert captures the action and confusion of the men in the heat of battle through his ink and style. In this fiction loosely based on real events of the Vietnam War, he was able to depict the story clearly with his unique brand of illustrations- raw, rough and real.

The Rembrandt Affair

2010-09-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

I am a thriller junkie, schooled by the old Robert Ludlum school which by any standard is the best in the genre. So, any writer aspiring to be in his league has some huge shoes to fill in my book.

But Daniel Silva had me the moment I first laid my eyes on his novel The Unlikely Spy while browsing the book exchange section of a local library a couple of years ago.

Then I read the first book of the Gabriel Allon series, The Kill Artist, and I was hooked. Since then I have read all of his books and never looked back.

Daniel Silva is one great thriller writer in the league of an Alan Furst or a John Le Carre with a twist. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Silva is a fan of the Mossad, Israel's secret intelligence service, and Gabriel Allon its legendary assassin, is his man.

Gabriel Allon is the sensitive artist and the ruthless assassin whose exploits in and out of the spy game makes him the ideal renaissance man of the espionage world; when he is not tracking and killing the enemies of Israel, he is somewhere restoring old paintings back to their old glory.

In The Rembrandt Affair, Gabriel Allon is once again drawn back into the fire, not by his mentor Ari Shamron, as is usually the case in the past, but by his dear old friend, London art dealer Julian Isherwood.

Isherwood is in a big predicament when an art- restorer he commissioned, who was once Gabriel's classmate and rival when they were both studying under a renowned art teacher, was murdered, and the Rembrandt painting he was working on went missing.

Gabriel Allon simply cannot refuse an old friend in dire straits and went on a quest to find the missing painting that in so doing opened a can of worms while tracing its provenance and made him face the inherent dangers that come with it.

Daniel Silva once again proved his mastery of the genre as he deftly maneuvered Gabriel Allon into the realms of the evil that men do: from the Nazi's systematic art thefts in WWII to a "hidden child" in Amsterdam to the Gnomes that inhabit the Swiss banks and to the man who would stop at nothing and commit murders to prevent his dirty past from ever coming out.

The Girl with the multi- colored hair

2010-08-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

Mary Elizabeth Winstead aka Ramona V. Flowers

What would a guy do to win her love?

Fight and defeat her seven evil exes even if one of them is a girl.

Scott Pilgrim did.

How about you?

Well, the movie is good for cheap laugh but her beauty is not.

Yes, there is really a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Black Blizzard

2010-07-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

Yoshihiro Tatsumi's 1956 thriller Black Blizzard provides us a look into his past, when he was still a raw and inexperienced writer and mangaka.

Tatsumi, in several interviews, never hides the fact that he has 'conflicting' feelings about Black Blizzard to which he described it as "nostalgic for the past, for the days of my youth" but it's also "like exposing something shameful and private" that he would rather bury and have "hidden from sight."

But the work in itself is not bad for a twenty- one year old aspiring and struggling writer- cum- cartoonist. On the contrary it probably revolutionized the alternative comic scene in Japan in those days that eventually made him a gekiga pioneer.

Tatsumi's unorthodox visual narrative is like a study in contradiction; it was simple but is actually ahead of his time. The focus and angles are like those that can be seen from the eyes of a master filmmaker; the drawings speak for themselves.

The plot and storytelling are light and direct to the point. Even the dramatic moments were handled and told in a straightforward manner and avoided the melodramatic traps.

In Black Blizzard, the protagonists, Susumu Yamada, a depressed pianist, and Shinpei Konta, a hardened criminal, are both accused of murder although under different circumstances but were forced to work together when fate suddenly gave them a chance to be free.

What turns out next was both ordinary and extraordinary. The choices that they have to make are grim and the struggle that goes with them can make one cringe. But the twist in the end will make us heave a sigh of relief.

The story was simple, short and sweet.

Pirate Latitudes

2010-06-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

Found and published after the author's death. Pirate Latitudes is one swashbuckling read. As is always the case, Michael Crichton is a master of the pen; his works always enjoyable, enlightening and well- researched.

The Bourne Objective

2010-06-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

Eric Van Lustbader continues the Ludlum tradition and then some- mercenaries & assassins, mysterious organization, King Solomon's Gold, and of course, Leonid Danilovich Arkadin.

Morihei Ueshiba & Aikido

2010-05-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

"Always keep your mind as bright and clear as the vast sky, the great ocean, and the highest peak, empty of all thoughts. Always keep your body filled with light and heat. Fill yourself with the power of wisdom and enlightenment."

-Morihei Ueshiba

Damn Yankees: Katie Holmes & Tom Cruise

2010-05-05T15:21:00.000-07:00

See TomKat purr and meow their way at the A Fine Romance Benefit gala for The Motion Picture and Television fund into the hearts of the fortunate audience who witnessed them perform "Whatever Lola Wants" from the musical Damn Yankees in Los Angeles.

Amid the surprise and laughs, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes proved that they are both game and natural performers whether it is on the stage or in film.

Did this number also show that whatever Katie Holmes wants from her hubby, she gets it?

Jumpin' Jack Flash

2010-01-30T21:29:00.000-08:00

Spiderman meets Jackie Chan, eh?

Happy Birthday Elvis!

2010-01-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

Among the names enshrined in the pantheon of music, there is only one name that stands out among the legends. Among the names etched in our memory, there is only one name that is never forgotten. And in the history of Rock and Roll, there is only one true King-

ELVIS

John Lennon summed it all up best, “Before Elvis, there was nothing.”

Cloud NINE

2010-01-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

Despite the lousy box office showing and some critics bashing it to high heavens, I still loved

NINE.

Sorry folks but I fell in love with Marion Cotillard a long time ago and after watching this film I guess I can honestly say that I still am. She'll haunt you with her voice. She'll kill you with her eyes. She's just a beautiful presence on the screen.

The movie is not the best one that I have seen in years but I'll take it especially in this age of bad sequels and screw- up comedies. At least this is way better than The Love Guru or worse, The Hangover.

Fergie is a great revelation. Judi Dench is steady. Nicole Kidman is as luminous as ever. And Sophia Loren is just Sophia Loren.

Be Italian... Be Italian...

Daniel Day Lewis é meraviglioso. Marion Cotillard é fantastico..Kate Hudson é stupendo...

BUT

Penélope Cruz is just downright funny and fiery.

Excelente!

The Muppets do Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody

2009-11-26T17:28:00.000-08:00

I'm sure dear ol' Freddie is laughing in his grave...

Marge Simpson is a Playboy Bunny

2009-10-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

Yup, you read it right. Marge Simpson, mom to Bart and Homer's "bitter- half" is gracing the cover of Playboy Magazine's November issue.

So, what did Homer say to Marge when he saw her on the cover of Hugh Hefner's mag?

"Marge, you're as beautiful as Princess Leia and as smart as Yoda."

I guess the devil is in the blue hair, eh?

Donald Duck is a Gran'Pa

2009-06-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, Donald Duck is really old. And boy, I am old.

When I was a kid, I used to watch him on black and white TV for hours. Aside from Bugs Bunny, the duck with his unintelligible gibberish and grouchy character is my favorite cartoon character.

He was your next door anti- hero; the quintessential loser but you've got to give it to him for he was always a fighter and you will not find the word "quit" in his limited vocabulary.

So, who cares if the grumpy old duck is 75 today?

He will always be the young, hot-tempered but unflappable duck to me.

Everybody in the house, say quack!

The Ballad of J.G. Ballard

2009-04-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

"I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that's my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul. "

J.G. Ballard (1930- 2009)

Note: “Ballardian” adj) 1. of James Graham Ballard, the British novelist, or his works (2) resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in Ballard’s novels and stories, esp dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments.”

True Stories of CSI

2009-01-22T07:17:00.000-08:00

This book is a re-introduction and re- writing of the various crimes that have been featured on the top- rated show and is a good read by itself to have a general view of the said cases.

But if one considers himself a serious student of crimes even before the onset of the CSI phenomenon, then this book will offer nothing new that you have never read before.