Something old, something new

First up, I read something NOT written by Stephen King (the peasants rejoice). Tami Hoag's Guilty as Sin was a pretty solid detective thriller. In a small rural town a little boy is abducted, and every lead only ends in more questions. When hope is fading, and while a suspect with mounting evidence sits in jail, the boy is miraculously returned in the middle of the night. However, he refuses to speak, and offers no clues as to who his captor was or how he was returned. The case then takes a hellish turn for the worse when, in a neighboring town, another boy is abducted (while the prime suspect is still in the clink). There are twists and turns aplenty, and while this wasn't the most incredible book I've read (it took awhile to really get hooked into the story), it was an interesting diversion and worth a look from the library.

Next, we have an entry that became an instant classic in the eyes of our son. Mel Brooks' Spaceballs has been revisited. It is just as tacky, just as cheezy, and just as funny as I remember. The bulk of the parody is in the Star Wars/Star Trek vein, with some minor tips to The Wizard of Oz and Planet of the Apes thrown in for good measure. Mr. Brooks knows how to make a movie that appeals to the 11-year-old boy in all of us. If you're unabashedly childish, I can't recommend this one enough!

A bit of catch-up...

I moved. I moved to another country. That's the short story. That's the long journey between posts. Over the course of the move I did manage a fair amount of reading and such, but had limited internet access with which to share. Now, in this hyper-over-extended post, I will attempt the daring feat of giving each bit a shoddy token review for your reading enjoyment.

Let's begin.

Following a trip to the beach, and in order to escape a looming storm, we ducked into the local theater with the kids to take in a screening of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. (the things I do for you guys) I admit to not having the highest of expectations for it, but I'm delighted to be corrected. It was highly entertaining, the dialog was snappy, and it was often funny. How good was it? I say the following with the utmost sincerity. Mr. T, yes, that Mr. T voices one of the characters, and was expertly cast! It was an honest to goodness treat to hear him do something other than a blatant caricature of himself. They wisely left phrase such as "I pity the fool" out of it. It's an entertaining film and loads of fun for the whole family. I'd recommend it.

In The Good Guy, we find a reasonably standard-issue crime thriller, mixed with a dab of conspiracy theory. It made for a pretty quick read, sets a pretty decent hook, and has some good tense moments. The basic plot is, an average Joe mason inadvertently ends up in the middle of a contract killing negotiation. His conscience compels him to take action to try and save the potential target. The bad guy is detestably bad and helped out by an amazing support system, and the result is a pretty good and non-stop chase to the finish. Will the good guy save the fair damsel? Why's she wanted dead in the first place? What sort of skeletons do they have in their respective closets? And how's the bad guy so effectively tracking them? All of these questions are answered in due time.

Michael Crichton's State of Fear is actually two books in one. Part of it is a well written and thrilling tale of corporate espionage and intrigue, and this part is pretty good and often exciting. The other part is Crichton's soap box platform for why global warming is a myth, complete with more charts and bibliography references than any book of fiction before or since. This part reads just like it sounds, like some dude's sermon on his own belief system and why those other guys are wrong. Were these two separate books, that'd be just fine. Combined, and you get a book where the action gets ta flowin' and things are movin' and shakin' and excitement's building and and... ...some dude goes off on a rant about the "real" data behind global warming being made up and so on and so forth and all that excitement gets shot to hell. To be honest, I'm not a climate expert, and for all I know he could be on to something, but I don't care to read it in my supposed book of exciting fiction. I'd no sooner turn to The Da Vinci Code for religious guidance. But there ya have it. The story parts are good, the soap box parts break the rhythm and take away from that. Your mileage may vary.

I've been finding myself reading a lot of Stephen King lately. I tend to find his stuff pretty good, and in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, that trend continues.

This is the story of a little girl who gets lost in the woods on a family hiking trip, separated from her mother and brother, and who, through a series of highly unfortunate choices, chooses a path that consistently takes her farther and farther away from help. Of course, this being Stephen King, there's more to it than that and it's a struggle between the need to see the little girl through to the end versus the fear of finding out what's going to be her final undoing. It's a well-written story and builds slowly over the course of the book to its conclusion. I'd recommend this one to folks if you enjoy some good suspense.

As previously mentioned, I've been reading a lot of Stephen King's stuff. Just After Sunset is a collection of short stories he's written over the years (of which he's released other collections, for example, Four Past Midnight, Skeleton Crew, etc.). There's a little something in this collection for everybody, I'd imagine. The stories take place at a variety of different locations, the themes vary widely, as do the levels of suspense and/or horror. It's a fun collection of short reads, often just right for a complete story in the evening before turning in for the night, plus it's an interesting exercise to see the many ideas this man experiments with in his writing endeavors. He really has an extraordinary imagination.

Did I mention I've been reading Stephen King's stuff lately?

Good.

The Colorado Kid is part of a collection of whodunit mystery novels churned out as Hard Case Crime stories. This one's less "evil clowns" and "alien infiltration" and more of a detective story. In that regard, it's not your typical King story, but he takes to the challenge and the result is a pretty good read. It's also, as part of this line of books, a small novel of the type one would pick up on the way through the airport to kill time on a flight. The basic plot synopsis is, a man is found on a beach one morning by a couple of joggers, he's dead, and nobody can figure out why or how he came to be there of all places. It's a good read and I'd recommend it.

At the end of The Colorado Kid, I read a quick synopsis of The Confession, by Domenic Stansberry, and was sufficiently intrigued to seek it out and read it as well. Story-wise, it was in a similar vein. A man is being questioned following the death-by-strangulation of his mistress, with his tie. Other suspicious characters enter the story, each with their own motives for such a crime, plus, this murder seems to fit in with a string of others that haven't yet been linked together. Also, our main character has a history of blackouts, so is he perhaps the guy after all?! The pacing and setup are pretty good, and combined with the small novel size, this makes for a pretty quick and entertaining read. I'd recommend it.

The self-titled album 3 Doors Down by the band of the same name is pretty good. The radio hits are good of course, but as was evident on Away From The Sun, the rest of it was pretty solid as well. If you're liking what you hear on the radio, I'd recommend checking out the full album. They don't seem to phone it in.