Two impulsive lovers, each harboring deep seated issues and old wounds, decide to take on the task of living at an isolated Alaskan lighthouse for a year. But Kyle and Anna’s attempts at hiding from their pasts only ends up bringing them closer to what haunts them than ever. This book was an easy and engaging read, with lots of lush, vivid descriptors of the wild Alaskan landscape even as the two characters really do didn’t do a whole much. And I didn’t particularly like either Kyle […]
A Book You Can Really Lose Yourself In
This WWII survival story kept me at attention over the five page-turning days I read it (in case you aren’t impressed, that’s pretty fast for me). Lost in Shangri-La is the true story of how an army airplane crashed in New Guinea during World War II and the survivors encountered Stone Age cannabilistic tribes in their quest for survival. And besides surviving the plane crash and cannibals, there was the terrain, weather, injuries, gangrene, and the fact that Shangri-La was completely inaccessible to the outside […]
He warned us that he was an unreliable narrator
First off, I really enjoyed this book. Ms. French is smart and witty, with more than a little bit of gravel in her voice. Her prose is by turns clear and simple, then lyrical and dream-like. What I did not like was our narrator, Rob Ryan. What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective. Our relationship with truth is fundamental but cracked, refracting confusingly like fragmented glass. Yeah, he warned us early on, but that still didn’t make me like him […]
Harry just cannot catch a break
The third Harry Hole novel and the first set in his native Oslo, has the downtrodden detective working security detail when the American president comes to Norway for peace talks. He’s still shambling and barely together, but his partner Ellen refuses to let him go completely off the rails. Then an unidentified figure with an automatic weapon turns up unexpectedly on the path Ellen and Harry are monitoring. They frantically try to get it confirmed that it’s Secret Service, but the president’s motorcade is seconds […]