Publisher: Random House

The Last Kind Words by Tom Piccirilli

Posted July 8, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Thriller / 0 Comments

Title: The Last Kind Words (Goodreads)
Author: Tom Piccirilli
Series: Terrier Rand #1
Published: Random House, 2012
Pages: 336
Genres: Thriller
My Copy: Audiobook

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I picked up this novel because I got an email from Amazon recommending this book because I liked Drive by James Sallis. While I didn’t believe it would be anything like Drive the synopsis did intrigue me. Terrier Rand grew up in a household of thieves and grifters; from a very young age Terry had been engaging in theft. He left his family and life of crime to go straight but five years later he has been dragged back in when his brother is claiming to be innocent of one of the victims of his killing spree. His brother is only days away from execution and has asked his brother to look into one of the murders. He has pleaded guilty for all the other murders but the police won’t listen. Collie doesn’t want to the real killer to remain on the loose and even though Terry hates his brother and what he did, he finds himself investigating.

Terrier finds himself being sucked into a life he has tried really hard to escape. As the story slowly unfolds Terry begins to find out that maybe his grandfather was right when he told him; “We’re born thieves, it’s our nature, handed down to me, handed down from me. This is our way.” Can Terry really escape a life of crime? Is Collie really guilty of this crime? Can Terry save his teenage sister from falling into a life of crime?

The Last Kind Words has some interesting family elements throughout this novel; each member of the family is unique and interesting; even if they are all named after dogs. His father, Pinsch is a retired cat burglar, his uncles Mal and Grey are in trouble with the local mob and his Grandfather Old Shep may be suffering from Alzheimer’s but still proving time and time again that he is a master pickpocket. Throughout the book, the reader is left wondering if Terry should help his family or try and save himself; always questioning the importance of family, when your family can be so self destructive.

From the start I was hooked, this novel had a nice pace to it, mixing elements of crime and mystery with an interesting character driven story about love and family. While Tom Piccirilli did a wonderful job in writing a novel of suspense, guilt, justice and redemption, I never really understood Terry’s motivations. I get that he wanted to help his family and I get that the book is meant to question the reader but I just felt that the characters motivation never felt clear to begin with, he didn’t want to be there, he didn’t want to help his brother, in fact he hated his brother and never believed him, so it felt like obligation was the only reason to return, even though I thought that reason didn’t fit this character too well.

The Last Kind Words is an interesting book and well worth reading. Crime lovers will love the suspense and mystery throughout this book and literary lovers will love the character building and family turmoil in this novel. The narrative is atmospheric with a slight noir feel to it; personally I would have loved more of a noir narrative but Tom Piccirilli did a brilliant job writing this book anyway. One of the better books I’ve read this year; I just had so much fun reading The Last Kind Words.

The Grifters by Jim Thompson

Posted June 27, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Pulp / 0 Comments

Title: The Grifters (Goodreads)
Author: Jim Thompson
Published: Knopf Doubleday, 1963
Pages: 189
Genres: Pulp
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

There is a reason they call Jim Thompson the Dimestore Dostoevsky; his works really spotlight the moral dilemma his protagonists and main characters face, so I was really looking forward to reading The Grifters. I’ve seen the movie so I was interested in seeing the inner thoughts of the characters. 25-year-old short con operator Roy Dillion suffers an injury when a simple con goes horribly wrong; he finds himself in hospital recovering from an internal haemorrhage. This brush with death has led him to rethink his life, though his mother Lilly feels like Roy still owes her. She’s inattentive and manipulative while trying to care for Roy, but she is also trying to pull off a long con at the race tracks at the same time. Throw in another femme fatale, Moira, Roy’s girlfriend, who we also find out is also a grifter who favours the long con. The three explosive characters make for an interesting and twisted noir story, much to what we have come to expect from Jim Thompson.

I have to admit I do love Jim Thompson’s twisted plotting, he captures the pulp feel well while giving it is own flavour of surrealism. While The Grifters is not is most solid piece it does a good job at spotlighting what this author can do with crime and with is unreliable narrating. The characters are great and they each work well together while making life difficult for each other. His is one of the few pulp authors that break into the world of serious literary while never losing sight of what he does best.

If you haven’t read a Jim Thompson book maybe this is a good place to start, it’s not as dark or gritty, the characters are great, the plot isn’t as twisted as some of his other works and the suspense is a bit watered down. Let’s just call this book ‘Jim Thompson for beginners’; it gives you everything you expect in a Thompson book, just not to the same intensity, making the book approachable and easy to read.

The Deep Blue Good-By by John D. MacDonald

Posted June 24, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Pulp / 0 Comments

Title: The Deep Blue Good-By (Goodreads)
Author: John D. MacDonald
Series: Travis McGee #1
Published: Ballantine Books, 1964
Pages: 384
Genres: Pulp
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I’ve never read a John D. MacDonald book before and I’ve read a lot of good things about his Travis McGee novels, so I thought I might start at the beginning for this series. This is the first in what is now a 21 book series and the first time we meet Travis McGee, a self-described “salvage consultant”, almost like a treasure hunter but instead he recovers the property of his clients for a fee; half. He is hired and has to go up against the pathologically evil antagonist Junior Allen, who may seem friendly but has a very sinister agenda.

For a hard-boiled style “salvage consultant” McGee seems to be very ordinary; I felt like all the guys liked him (except the antagonist) and all the girls wanted him. There wasn’t much depth in the character at all except in one scene where he was ready to torture someone for information and I saw a glimpse of a sociopath in McGee. This just made me want to read a book with a sociopath hard-boiled detective, so if you have any recommendations let me know.

The story felt very predictable, it was more of a quick enjoyable story being told to me. I think, while this series might work well as filler reading to help recover from something heavy, there are much better books out there to read instead of this series. The sex and violence that was in this book was pretty intense for a book written in 1964 so I really don’t want to just write off the entire series because of predictability; so if you share a different opinion or can recommend me one of the Travis McGee books that could change my mind, please let me know.

Railsea by China Miéville

Posted June 16, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Young Adult / 0 Comments

Title: Railsea (Goodreads)
Author: China Miéville
Published: Random House, 2012
Pages: 448
Genres: Young Adult
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I’ve only really enjoyed one China Miéville novel (The City & The City) but I am a fan of what he does for literature and speculative fiction. His latest novel Railsea is his second attempt at a YA novel and while I’ve not read his other YA novel Un Lun Dun I must say I wasn’t really impressed with this one. I really loved the complexity of The City & the City so I was looking forward to see Miéville’s take on Moby Dick. Granted I should have read Moby Dick before this book but I found this book was too simplified and weird; writing without some intelligent plotting just ends up making the book weird.

Set in a dying dystrophic world that is now desert, Railsea is an adventure novel that tells the tale of three young orphans joining the train to hunt for Mocker-Jack; the giant Mole. The book mixes adventure elements that remind me of Treasure Island with Miéville’s own genre; which he calls ‘weird’ and is a mix of fantasy and steampunk. The main protagonist, Sham, was pretty average in this book but the train captain Abacat Naphi peaked my interest. I think she was the Ishmael in this book; even considering Mocker-Jack as her nemesis.

I thought this book might be more of a children’s book rather than a YA novel; io9 said it best when they said this book was for “kids who cut their teeth on Thomas the Tank Engine, then Lemony Snicket”. It just felt odd and too simplified but a twelve or thirteen year old would probably enjoy it as a gateway into the YA fantasy/steampunk genre. The main issue I had with this book was the overuse of the ampersand. There is way too many in the book; even a large amount of sentences starting with ‘&’. It just never looked or felt write when reading it and I found I got really annoyed with it.

This book is for young teenagers and China Miéville fans, anyone else interested in trying this author might want to look elsewhere. I’m a little disappointed with this book but would be interested to see how my other friends find it, if they read it. There are some interesting elements in this book but for me I felt more frustrated by it. I hope others love and enjoy this book more than I did. Miéville has a lot to offer the literary world but I personally think skip this one and go read The City & The City.

The Mountain by Drusilla Modjeska

Posted June 14, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 0 Comments

Title: The Mountain (Goodreads)
Author: Drusilla Modjeska
Published: Random House, 2012
Pages: 448
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Personal Copy

Before reading this book, I must admit that I’d never heard of Drusilla Modjeska so I thought I would look her up and find out a bit about this book before starting The Mountain. I would never have picked up this book if it wasn’t for the fact that I needed to read this book for my local bookclub. Yes, this was the same book club that made me read A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale and The Hanging Garden by Patrick White so I was prepared not to enjoy, or even hate, this book. Modjeska is an award winning Australian author known for blurring the lines between Non-Fiction and Fiction. She has written three books in the past; Poppy (1990), The Orchard (1997) and Stravinsky’s Lunch (1999); all three books won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

The Mountain I believe was her first attempt at a purely fiction novel, but even this book has a lot of elements that might be considered non-fiction. I do like a book that uses real events and builds a story around them and I think Drusilla Modjeska did a decent job at doing just that. The first part of this book is a real coming of age story in Papua New Guinea during a time of colonialism. While there seemed to be a handful of characters this story covers (including Rika, Leonard, Jacob, Martha and Laedi) the books does a nice job of introducing each of the characters in this part of the book. The second part of the novel deals with a new generation who are dealing with the effects of everything that has happened. This generation is questioning their identity and the fallout of independence.

I really enjoyed learning more about Papua New Guinea’s history, featuring Whitlam government granting them independence and his dismissal. It was also nice to see the book revolving around other aspects of Papua New Guinea other than the Kokoda Track; which does feature but not in a huge way. Drusilla Modjeska took an interesting approach of making The Mountain the centre of this novel and almost took it to a point where she was making The Mountain a central character. This tactic helped drive the story a little for me; it was almost like the mountain has some secrets it didn’t want to tell.

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did but I felt the book ended up being too nice. While there are a lot of bad things happening during this book, the story itself felt too cutesy for me to enjoy properly. I think the characters were decent but I never felt like I knew them well enough to care about the struggles that they faced. I read this book right after reading another character driven book, The Red House by Mark Haddon, and I think Modjeska’s story was nice, but Haddon’s The Red House seemed to outshine The Mountain in terms of characters and exploring their personal struggles.

The Hanging Garden and Unfinished Novels

Posted May 28, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Historical Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: The Hanging Garden (Goodreads)
Author: Patrick White
Published: Knopf Doubleday, Random House, 2012
Pages: 224
Genres: Historical Fiction
My Copy: Personal Copy

During my last book club gathering, we were talking about Patrick White’s unfinished novel; The Hanging Garden and this lead into a discussion of books being published after the author dies which the author never wanted to see the light of day. Patrick White never wanted this novel released; I believe he did tell someone to burn it because it wasn’t finished or anywhere near ready for readers. There are heaps of authors that have had books released that were never meant to be released including; Kurt Vonnegut, Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Leo Tolstoy and the most famous of them all was Franz Kafka’s The Trial. This does lead to some interesting topics; do you think books that the author never intended to be released should be published? Are publishers just using them as a money making gimmick? And lastly, if those manuscripts were submitted to a publisher by an unknown author, would they still be published?

Patrick White is a two time Miles Franklin award winner and has also won the Nobel Prize for Literature. His unfinished novel The Hanging Garden was only just recently published; it feels like an old novel in the sense that, while it’s nicely written; nothing ever happens in the book. This is very much a character driven book, focusing on the two characters and a wild garden. I think I’d be alright with reading a book like this if I didn’t have the feeling that the author hated every single one of his characters; he was mean and cruel to them all, not just the key characters. As a general rule I love dark and flawed characters but this just felt mean and even the attempts of being erotic felt awkward. I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen and I was left disappointed. Also, as this is an unfinished novel, I don’t know what the overall goal was with this book and I get the feeling that maybe Patrick White doesn’t either. There are parts of this book that are beautifully written and then there are parts that felt like the author’s ramblings. This is supposed to be an unedited book but while I think there was some editing done there are also parts of the book that clearly feel unedited. Including a few paragraphs that didn’t make sense and had no punctuation and then some notes to himself reminding him to explore or research some parts later. While I’m not a fan of this book, I think a lot of people might get a kick out of it. Either for the memories of the time and the place; the memorable characters, or just to see the thought process of once of Australian top authors of all time.

On this day 100 years ago, Patrick White was born

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Posted May 23, 2012 by Guest Post in Erotica, Guest Posts / 20 Comments

Title: Fifty Shades of Grey (Goodreads)
Author: E.L. James
Series: Fifty Shades #1
Published: Vintage, 2011
Pages: 528
Genres: Erotica
Buy: Amazon (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I first came to hear about Fifty Shades of Grey through blog posts and friends, and couldn’t believe all the hype and excitement this book was creating amongst the reading world. It was phenomenon. I read several romances and erotica in the past so I became curious. I think the only thing that I was holding me back was the BDSM relationship. I’ve hardly read any books that involve BDSM, so I was slightly a bit nervous. But curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give it a go.

Now that I’ve read it, I’d have to say it was the worst book I have ever read and I want my 2 weeks back. When a few people mentioned that it was mommy porn, I should’ve taken their comment seriously, and not just waved it off as a silly and biased comment toward this genre. By the end of it, that is exactly how it felt.

The sex scenes were continuous, repetitive and boring; one scene, after the other, going through the motion of sex with a little variation of positions or setting but it was all the same – Porn. There was nothing sexy about it. It lacked any passion, class or emotion and I was numb the whole way through. As far as the BDSM was concerned, there was nothing new that I haven’t read previously. It was more talk and negotiation on how far Ana will go than the act itself. There were a few bondage sessions here and there but it was very light.

The writing was pathetic and utterly ridiculous, which made the characters unlikable. Ana is meant to be this intelligent, 22 year old literary student but her personality didn’t match to her persona. The constant use of these juvenile words and phrases such as ‘Inner Goddess’ or ‘talking to the Subconscious’ or ‘Holy Fuck’ almost made me want throw the book against the wall. She would gush or blush over the most so trivial things and came across as being an immature and stupid lady. It’s how I would expect a young teenager to act.

Christian on the other hand, I had an instant dislike him immediately. He’s a deranged and twisted character who likes to dominate every aspect of Ana’s life, not only in the bed; he would question her on how often she would eat, stalk her and set out rules on he would like her to act/behave around him – otherwise she would be punished (BDSM style). I felt the author tried very hard to make him seem appealing or sexy by Ana gushing and being aroused over his looks, charm, sexual comments but his behaviour was a complete turn off and he sounded creepier to me. I honestly can’t understand what women can see that is so appealing in Christian’s character!?!

All in all I think this series could be a great introduction to the genre, if you are new and interested in reading erotica as they ‘flying of the self’ and most people are raving about it. But unfortunately, it didn’t work for me and I have no intention of continuing the series in the future.

This is a guest post by Mish; when she is not reading she is busy moderating that Aussie Readers group on Goodreads. Big thanks to her for this post and being the first guest blogger on Literary Exploration.

The Fix by Nick Earls

Posted May 21, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 0 Comments

Title: The Fix (Goodreads)
Author: Nick Earls
Published: Random House, 2011
Pages: 291
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Personal Copy

(or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I started reading The Fix thinking this was going to be a literary novel but found this to be more like a YA novel with adult content. It took me a while to adjust my thinking about this book from literary to light hearted but when I did get into this mindset, I did start to really enjoy this book. In the back of my mind I was wanting something with more substance; something that would make me think.

Josh Lang is unemployed with aspirations of being a respected investigative journalist but all he can get is a job as a blogger expressing the opinions of a Gen Y male living in Brisbane. His brother offers to get Josh a job at the Star of Courage doing PR work which eventually leads Josh into a much more complicated situation involving a gunman, mini golf and a stripper.

While this book could almost be classed as a mystery novel, there is nothing really in the book to make it suspenseful or even a page turner. The characters feel very shallow which might be a way to portray some Gen Y character types. This book was light and easy to read but also felt too predictable. I can see what Nick Earls was trying to do in this book by slowly building up the tension but it felt like it was being built too slow that any feeling of tension was lost on me. I was waiting and waiting for a twist or a burst of excitement to come that when it did come I was expecting it.

While I did enjoy reading this novel there were a few things that stopped this book from being exciting. I love the whole blogging element in this book; as a blogger I can relate to the way his mind worked when it came to possible blog posts. There were enough little quirks in this book to make it a light and enjoyable read. I would say this felt like a transition book between YA and adult fiction more than anything else. I’ve only read one of Nick Earls’ short stories before reading this book so I can’t really judge this book in any way, shape or form. I think this book would be a great Summer read for someone on holidays and wants something quirky and easy to read.

The Red House by Mark Haddon

Posted May 18, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literary Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: The Red House (Goodreads)
Author: Mark Haddon
Published: Jonathan Cape, Random House, 2012
Pages: 272
Genres: Literary Fiction
My Copy: ARC from Publisher

Buy: Amazon (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

It’s hard to review a book like this; Mark Haddon is a very talented writer and he has some brilliant techniques employed into this novel. However, I can’t help comparing this book to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and ultimately I think this book lacked something to make this book great. With the huge success of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I can’t help but think that Mark Haddon has gotten overly confident with his writing. While it was refreshing and enjoyable to read a book with so many interesting writing techniques; I never really connected with the plot or the characters. I was so excited about reading another book by this author and I feel I made a rookie mistake by going into a book with such high expectations.

The Red House is the story about a well off physician, Richard, and his new family (recently married a woman with a sixteen year old daughter) taking a vacation. Richard invites his sister Angela and family to join them as they hadn’t seen each other since the funeral of their mother, fifteen years ago. Angela’s husband Dominic and three children are not as well off as Richard and took advantage of the offer as they wouldn’t be able to afford a vacation any other way. Together for a week in a rented cottage in Wales starts to show the cracks in everyone’s relationship and exposes just how dysfunctional the family really is.

Mark Haddon is contently switching between narrators in this book, I think I counted eight different points of views throughout this book (might be more) and one of those was an all-seeing third person narrative. With the narrative always changing and each character only giving a glimpse of an insight, this book started off a little confusing and hard to keep track of all of the main characters. One thing I’ve found that Haddon did in this book as well as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time that I really liked was that he wasn’t afraid to expose the inner voice of each character and allowing the reader an insight into the flaws and thoughts of each one of the characters. There were also a lot of references to pop-culture within this book that was quite enjoyable to read; especially all the references to each book the main characters were reading.

The Red House was actually a nice easy read and I was surprised how fast I got through this book; this could have been all the blank pages throughout the book. While I never really connected with this book the writing styles used throughout this book were interesting and almost experimental at times. Some of it worked and some of didn’t, I think Mark Haddon was overly confident when he wrote this book and it seemed to come through in the novel. I’m sure many people will love and enjoy this book and don’t let my opinion stop you from reading it. For me I struggled making that connection and I tried and tried to enjoy this book but it just didn’t quite get there.

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

Posted May 16, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Dystopia, Literary Fiction, Speculative Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: Super Sad True Love Story (Goodreads)
Author: Gary Shteyngart
Published: Random House, 2010
Pages: 334
Genres: Dystopia, Literary Fiction, Speculative Fiction
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

While this may be a story of a modern relationship; there is so much more in the novel worth exploring. This Dystopian American back drop mixed with some very interesting concepts; including the fact everyone is ranked based on their Finances, Personality, Attractiveness and Fuckablilty, makes this a fresh and different style of novel. Gary Shteyngart offers a witty and very humorous novel but this book goes much deeper than this; I found many interesting concepts in this book, which were well thought out and made for an opportunity to make in-depth conversations based on this book.

By reading this review you are denying the existences of this review.