Killing Floor

Title: Killing Floor
Author: Lee Child
Series: Jack Reacher, book 1
Genre: Mystery
Published: 1997
Rating: 7/10

Review: I picked up this novel on a whim from a local bookstore. Sometimes when an author's series takes up two shelves worth, I get awfully curious about it and buy the first book in the series. I've never heard of the author before that day, nor had I seen the movie alluded to on the book jacket.

The book starts out really well and sucks you in almost immediately. We get introduced to Jack Reacher, who's a tough guy, an ex-military cop, and who is wrongfully arrested for a murder in a town that he's just passing through.

There are a number of idiomatic elements in the book. There's a black police detective, a hot female cop who takes a liking to Reacher, and an asshole chief who always gets in the way. The elements work pretty well together and I definitely enjoyed the fast ride that begins the first half of the story.

The part that I didn't enjoy is all the killing that happens in the second half of the book. Things seem to get gruesome just for the sake of being so and the fact that Reacher has no compulsion about killing first and asking questions later made me rather uncomfortable with him as a protagonist. At the end, Reacher's body count is no smaller than that of the bad guys and to me that's a bit of a turn off.

Otherwise, the book is quite well-written, with strong pacing and lots of good "aha" moments in the investigation. There are a few plot points that I thought somewhat shaky, but overall, that's a solid mystery novel that kept me reading well into the night to finish the story.

Timeless

Title: Timeless
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: Alexia Tarrabotti, book 5
Genre: Steampunk
Published: 2012
Rating: 7/10

Review: After two months of non-fiction, I decided that the next installment in Gail Carriger's series would be the perfect book to read. And indeed, I've got what I was looking for. There is off-the-wall humour, adventure, sassy dialog, and plenty of intrigue. It's an easy and enjoyable read.

Timeless takes Alexia, Conall, and their daughter Prudence to Egypt where they are to meet an old vampire queen Matakara and discover the source of God-Breaker Plague. Ivy and her theatre troupe travels with them and of course lots of antics and fainting ensues.

This is the last book in the 5-book series featuring Alexia hence some of the conflicts previously left unresolved got brought over and taken care of. At the same time, the author seems to have left plenty of story for herself to write and a few loose ends still open. Unsurprisingly, there are more books planned in the same universe, though I wonder if they are going to feature Prudence instead of Alexia.

All in all, it's a nice segue back into reading. Hopefully, I can get back on track and finish a few things waiting on my shelves this month.

Effective C++

Title: Effective C++ Third Edition
Author: Scott Meyers
Genre: Non-fiction
Published: 2005
Rating: 9/10

Review: It's been a couple month since I last posted here. I am sad to admit that in all this time, I have read exactly one book -- Effective C++. I generally tend to be a slow reader when it comes to non-fiction, but apparently programming books go even slower for me.

I knew that if I let myself read other books simultaneously, this one would just never get finished, so I concentrated all my reading time on this. However, reading something to learn just requires much more dedication than reading a novel for fun, therefore there were fewer occasions before bedtime when I felt up to picking up the book and turning my brain back on to read this.

Getting back to the actual book, notwithstanding my slowness in reading it, I did find it quite interesting. I am new to C++ as a whole, having only done C in college but this book worked really well for me. I found the writing and explanations really engaging and accessible. There's a wide variety of topics covered and many important ideas introduced. I would recommend it both to novice and intermediate C++ users looking for some basic overview of techniques and syntax.

The book is split up into 9 chapters covering topics from good coding practices to good design choices to basics of template programming and various miscellany. Some things I learned about C++ just blew my mind. For example, function call parameters are not guaranteed to be evaluated in any particular order! Coming from languages like Java and Python that just amazes me. Or the fact that creating a new polymorphic method in a subclass hides all the superclass variants. Shocking! But really good to know.

All-in-all, a book well worth reading for those not already up on their C++ use. Well chosen topics and well-explained. I really liked it!

Code Name Verity

Title: Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Genre: YA Fiction
Published: 2012
Rating: 7/10

This is the second book set during WWII that I read in February. This congruence of themes wasn't at all planned -- both are books from the "Best of" lists from last year and they turned out to be quite different despite that both could be very roughly described as "young women doing brave things during the war".

Code Name Verity begins in the form of a report by a captured English spy. Chapter by chapter, we learn about her training in England, her best friend who is a mechanic and a pilot. And about her interrogation at the hands of Gestapo in the town of Ormaie.

My initial feelings towards the book mostly revolved around how unlikely I thought the premise was. There you have a woman broken down during interrogation and instead of asking her some direct questions, they spend valuable paper (that they are short of) to let her ramble on for hundreds of pages about her best friend with occasional mentions of something that may be considered useful. Even if you allow for the possibility of her questioning officer being a bit soft on her, her treatment is still a far cry from anything you'd expect.

I decided to set that qualm aside though and tried to immerse myself into Verity's story telling. The story itself flows quite well with the characters and friendships being developed. I didn't get the same sort of feel for the atmosphere in England during the war that Mr. Churchill's Secretary created, but there are different bits and pieces that are quite interesting.

The second half of the book is told from Maddie's point of view. Once again there are things she does that I have trouble believing anyone could possibly get away with and I had to try hard to suspend my disbelief at certain events that she narrates. On the other hand, the narrative is cleverly woven together with the story Verity has told in the first part to expose events in a different light and often turn them around in clever ways. I rather enjoyed that aspect of the plot and the second part of the book was a faster reading than the first.

Altogether I was a bit disappointed in Code Name Verity, but perhaps I just had unrealistically high expectations for the novel to start with. It's a very well written book with likable characters and an exciting plot. I just couldn't get past the bits that seemed unrealistic to me and that tarnished the experience somewhat. I'd still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys strong female protagonists.

P.S. Chad read Code Name Verity at the same time -- take a look at his review.

February Wrap-Up

The shortest month of the year is over, the sun is shining and it's very clearly spring outside my window. Good weather doesn't bode well for my reading counts, but February was quite successful with five books completed:

1. Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
2. A Trick of Light by Louise Penny
3. The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
4. Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal
5. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

I started this month by finishing off all the published books in the Inspector Gamache series. Bury Your Dead was particularly my favorite out of those I read this month. Then I switched gears and read a couple of fictional novels set in WWII which was quite a change of pace. I enjoyed both books, but wasn't particularly strongly affected by either.

The reason I suspect the next month will be slow beside the really nice sunny weather is because the next book I am reading is Effective C++ by Scott Meyers and that might take me quite a bit of time to get through. Nonfiction is always a drag on my total book count, but since I've made some goals for myself to read non-fiction this year and the book is actually interesting, I am investing time into it.

There are still several books on my to-read list that came from Best Of lists from last year and that I may pick up. Or I can catch up with Flavia since the latest book in the series came out in January. Time will tell. Happy March to you all!

Mr. Churchill's Secretary

Title: Mr. Churchill's Secretary
Author: Susan Elia MacNeal
Series: Maggie Hope, book 1
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2012
Rating: 7/10

I've seen Mr. Churchill's Secretary make the top 10 list of 2012 quite a few times and decided to give it a try. The book starts by introducing the reader to Maggie Hope, a rather progressive young woman for her time about to start her post-graduate degree in mathematics at M.I.T. Her plans are derailed by her grandmother's death and Maggie comes to London to sell the old house and becomes involved in WWII effort by becoming Winston Churchill's personal secretary.

I liked Maggie's character. She is no-nonsense, smart, straightforward and a bit naive. She grinds her teeth at  having to take a position below her ability, but she is capable and able to stand up for herself which makes her a rather sympathetic character.

My biggest issue with the book is the way it flows. The first half moves pretty slowly, we are introduced to all the characters, attend the parties, listen to the conversations. Maggie bumbles around learning her way around the new job. Then all of a sudden the book completely switches pace in the second half with crypto-puzzles, hostages, intrigues, bombings, and plenty more all packed into a rather small space.

Some of the things Maggie accomplishes seem a bit beyond belief and while I enjoyed the story and cheered her on, the thought of how unlikely some of the events were stayed with me in the second half of the novel. And even though I was satisfied with the resolution of the book in the sense that all plot lines neatly got tied off, I felt that the success turned out to be a little over the top.

I also didn't particularly care for the romantic story line of the book. It was clear from the beginning who Maggie would end up with, but it felt somewhat unmotivated and, for me, un-moving. In fact, none of the romances in the novel felt particularly natural to me. Something just didn't click there.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed the atmosphere that MacNeal created in the book. London during WWII seems well-presented and well-research. There are lots of neat details about the bombings, rations, St. Paul Cathedral watches, and other war-related trivia. I liked the descriptions of the Churchill's office and excerpts from his speeches. The details made the novel a whole lot more interesting than it would have been otherwise.

Altogether, it was an enjoyable read with some flaws, but I would definitely recommend it to someone who wants a quick adventure in a historical setting with a variety of memorable characters.

A Trick of the Light and The Beautiful Mystery

Title: A Trick of the Light and The Beautiful Mystery
Author: Louise Penny
Series: A Chief Inspector Gamache, book 7 and 8
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2011 and 2012
Rating: 7/10

A Trick of the Light is the next book in Gamache series that is predominantly focused on Clara, who has her debut solo show and then discovers a dead body in her garden the day after. Of course Gamache and his team come down to investigate the murder and the usual inquiries begin.

In addition to the part of the plot dealing with current investigation of the book, there are also quite a few plot advancements in the larger story arch here. There is a subplot dealing with Jean-Guy's painkiller addiction as well as changes to Clara and Peter's relationship.

A common theme in the book is the issue of forgiveness. There are multiple characters looking for forgiveness or trying to forgive and a number of different contrasting situations where the outcome is very different. A few relationships are restored this way and others are ruined, but the stories are nicely woven together and compared.

The Beautiful Mystery is a bit different in that it's not set in Three Pines and actually doesn't involve anyone from the village. Instead Gamache and Beauvoir fly off to a remote monastery to solve the murder of a monk.

I thought the setting of the book made it pretty interesting and I liked the character set and descriptions of the monastery life the Louise Penny integrates into the narrative. There is some religious lore, but also neat hidden rooms, mysterious hidden treasure, and chocolate blueberries.

One might think this book is a break from the larger story arch, but we manage to get some developments there in the relationship between Beauvoir and Gamache. I was somewhat dismayed at the direction their relationship took in this book and felt some of the changes were too fast and too forced. I hope this won't drag on past the next book in the series.

All-in-all, I enjoyed the last few books a bit less than some of the earlier books in the series, but the mysteries are still fun and surprising to me and the characters still draw me in enough to keep reading the series. Now I have to wait for the next book to be published.