Notes of Life

Author: Lee Child
Publisher: Transworld Publishers
ASIN: B0040GJJR0
ISBN: 978-0593065662

Having read 61 Hours by Lee Child (the previous book in the Jack Reacher series) and enjoying it, I decided to get the latest book in the Jack Reacher series, Worth Dying For. Well, 61 Hours had left us with a cliff hanger too, so I HAD to get Worth Dying for as it promised to tell us how he did it.

On his way through desolate Nebraska to Virginia to see the new CO of the 110th Special Unit, Jack Reacher arrives at a motel and encounters the local alcoholic doctor. The two end up visiting a victim of domestic violence, but Reacher soon learns that she’s the least of their troubles. The victim is the wife of Seth Duncan and the Duncan family are running the town. People are afraid of them and what they’ll do if they step out of line. Jack Reacher, of course, won’t stand for this and sets about vengeance.

I expected the book to start with telling us how Jack seemingly survived the end of 61 Hours, but it didn’t and I was a third of the way through the book before I found out. Was it worth it? No, not really. I don’t know what I expected, but, for whatever reason, I found it a bit disappointing and not worth the suspense from the end of the previous book.

Furthermore, I became increasingly annoyed at Jack Reacher. While I’m aware that his life was in danger (well, it was after he stuck his nose in), I became increasingly annoyed at the increasing body count (whether injured or murdered). The man seems to come across as if he’s the law and God forbid if you get in his way! Where’s the justice in that? I like that he helps people, but I also believe that somebody who has done wrong should stand trial and take their punishment from the law, not from one man. He also seems to think that he’ll get away with what he’s done.

Also, Jack Reacher is quite obviously hurting from what happened at the end of the previous book, 61 Hours. This is made plainly obvious in the first half of the book, but then it’s as it those injuries have been forgotten in the latter half of the book.

So while I enjoyed 61 Hours, I wasn’t so thrilled with this book. It was far too violent and a bit far fetched for me. Will I be reading any other Jack Reacher books? Probably not.

This week I received a sizeable amount of books and all in one package too. If you haven’t gathered by now, I’m a sucker for books, so I just couldn’t help myself when The Book People sent me their latest mailing. So, what did I get?

The True Blood Collection (10 books) by Charlaine Harris for £9.99 (RRP £69.90) – Bargain! The collection includes:

• Dead Until Dark
• Living Dead in Dallas
• Club Dead
• Dead to the World
• Dead as a Doornail
• Definitely Dead
• All Together Dead
• From Dead to Worse
• Dead and Gone
• A Touch of Dead: The Sookie Stackhouse Stories

I’ve been meaning to read these books for some time now and I just couldn’t pass on this bargain of 10 books for £9.99! The Book People also have a set of 3 books from the Harper Connelly series (Grave Sight, Grave Surprise and An Ice Cold Grave) for £4.99, but I’ve already got Grave Sight on my Kindle, so I didn’t get that set.

Christopher Fowler Collection (3 books) for £4.99 (RRP £25.97) – Another bargain! The 3 books included in this set are the first 3 in the Bryant & May series – Full Dark House, The Water Room and Seventy-Seven Clocks. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Bryant & May On the Loose (Book 7) and Bryant & May Off the Rails (Book 8), I thought I’d give some of the earlier books a go and this set has given me the perfect opportunity to do that.

If you enjoy crime and mystery books, then I’d definitely recommend Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May series. I’ve found that you can jump into any of the books without having previously read any of the others. There’s a bit of humour running through the stories too and make suitable reading for adults of any age.

Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock for £6.99 (RRP £25). This book in my Waiting on… post back in August. It was released last month in hardback, so I was quite surprised that The Book People already had it in stock at £6.99. This is an authorised biography and I can’t wait to read it. I was quite a fan of Roald Dahl’s when I was a kid. He was such a talented and imaginative author.

I ordered these books on Wednesday evening, they were dispatched on Thursday and arrived on Friday. I was impressed by the speed of the service, especially as I’d had free postage.

In total I paid £21.97 for 14 books… That’s not bad going! Only now, I really need to get reading as my to-read pile has just doubled in size!

I finished reading Worth Dying For by Lee Child this morning, so the review for that will be coming shortly.

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This pelican (along with a number of others) was at the Buckingham Palace end of St. James’s Park in London when I visited a couple of weeks ago. I kept my distance and just took photos, but one woman stroked one of the pelicans… I would have be afraid of getting nipped by their big beaks though!

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… and this week I’m in the middle of reading Worth Dying For by Lee Child.

I chose this book, because last month I reviewed (as part of the Transworld Summer Reading Challenge) the previous book in the Jack Reacher series, 61 Hours – See my review. Worth Dying for is the latest book in the series and follows on from 61 Hours. However, 61 Hours left us with a bit of a cliffhanger and the end of the book leads us to believe that this book, Worth Dying For, will give us the answers. Well, I’m a quarter of the way through and so far I’ve not really had any answers, though I’ve heard I should find them out soon enough. So I’m hoping to get plenty of reading done tonight!

I finally got around to reading Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (see my review) while I was in London last week. The next book in that series is Crescendo and it is out here in the UK in hardback at the end of the week. I’m not sure whether to get the hardback copy or the Kindle version (which isn’t out until mid-November).

I’m hoping to read Paul O’Grady’s The Devil Rides Out soon. It’s his 2nd autobiography and follows on from where At My Mother’s Knee… And Other Low Joints (which was one of the best autographies I’ve read!) left off. I do enjoy a good autobiography and Paul O’Grady is always good for a laugh.

What is everyone else reading and what do you recommend?

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As I mentioned in my London post a couple of days ago, the squirrels of St. James’s Park in London are quite tame… or maybe that should be ‘cheeky’! They have no qualms about jumping up on you to be fed, even if you don’t actually intend on feeding them anything. A couple of times I’d be taking photos and notice a squirrel was about to leap up at me, so I’d have to take a couple of steps backwards to make it clear that that was not going to happen.

This man obviously didn’t mind the squirrels being ‘friendly’. Funnily enough, this man reminded me of another Camera Critters post I did last year… again featuring the squirrels of St. James’s Park!

Left: This squirrel had grabbed a peanut from the man feeding the squirrels, but had run to the path to eat it. It was quite content to left me take photos though. Right: I think this squirrel was trying to camoflage itself! It had run up the treat, before turning around and staying in this position for some time! If I hadn’t seen it run up the tree in the first place, I don’t think I’d have seen it hiding there.

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