November Books
Dec. 3rd, 2015 01:43 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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christianreaderHigh Heat
by Lee Child
This is a short story that takes place when Jack Reacher is 16. It's totally ridiculous. The regular Reacher stories really push the limits of suspension of disbelief as it is, but you can sort of give it the benefit of the doubt when he's an mature, 30 or 40-something year old man with decades of experience. But here the 16 year old version accomplishes all the same things: beating up bad guys, outsmarting gang leaders, and making amazing observations. Poor effort by Lee Child on this one. 1.5/5
Deep Down
by Lee Child
Another short story, this one takes place in Washington D.C. and has Jack investigating a possible spy involved in an arms deal. It was OK; I think the Reacher character isn't very well suited to these short stories. A full-length novel is needed to develop the background of the story, the other characters, and the mystery itself. 3/5
Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst
by David Reingold
This is the kind of book that I found pretty interesting but wouldn't recommend to anyone else. The subtitle of this book is “A true story of inside information and corruption in the stock market.” Reingold was a buy-side analyst of the telecom sector during the late 90s/early 2000's when the whole dot.com bubble built up and burst. Looking back it's hard to believe/remember we went through all that. Anyway, this book was a very good inside look at what goes on in the market and how the big boys have advantages the individual investor can never match. Even the last thing the author says in the book is that individual investors shouldn't buy individual stocks! It goes pretty deep into the inner workings of finance, but I find all that pretty interesting. The book seemed a little self-serving, Reingold paints himself as an angel amongst a den of thieves, but overall I believe what he was saying. One of my co-workers saw the title and her response was “Corruption on Wall Street? Well, duh!” :p 4/5
The Summer Game
by Roger Angell
This is considered a classic sports book that I recently found out about. It's basically a series of collected articles Angell wrote as a sportswriter in the late 60s/early 70s. I was a little unsure about it at first, but his writing style is very entertaining and very witty. It was so interesting to read his thoughts and the general feeling about the first indoor stadium (Astrodome), Astroturf, expanded playoffs, giant lighted scoreboards, and other things we take for granted now. 3.5/5
Memorial Day
by Vince Flynn
Although this plot has been done approximately 475,332 times (“Oh noes, the terrorists have a nuke!”) this book in the Mitch Rapp series was still great because of Flynn's detailed and entertaining writing. I also liked that his new wife was only mentioned once in passing; she's kind of annoying and the whole dynamic between them isn't really contributing much to the series. Great read 4/5
Make Me
by Lee Child
Well, now I'm totally caught up on this series. I won't even talk about the plot at all since it's a current book in a very popular series, but it was definitely something different and interesting. Now I'm one of those poor souls that has to wait around for the next Reacher book to come out : / 4/5
Books for November: 6
Books for 2015: 67
by Lee Child
This is a short story that takes place when Jack Reacher is 16. It's totally ridiculous. The regular Reacher stories really push the limits of suspension of disbelief as it is, but you can sort of give it the benefit of the doubt when he's an mature, 30 or 40-something year old man with decades of experience. But here the 16 year old version accomplishes all the same things: beating up bad guys, outsmarting gang leaders, and making amazing observations. Poor effort by Lee Child on this one. 1.5/5
Deep Down
by Lee Child
Another short story, this one takes place in Washington D.C. and has Jack investigating a possible spy involved in an arms deal. It was OK; I think the Reacher character isn't very well suited to these short stories. A full-length novel is needed to develop the background of the story, the other characters, and the mystery itself. 3/5
Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst
by David Reingold
This is the kind of book that I found pretty interesting but wouldn't recommend to anyone else. The subtitle of this book is “A true story of inside information and corruption in the stock market.” Reingold was a buy-side analyst of the telecom sector during the late 90s/early 2000's when the whole dot.com bubble built up and burst. Looking back it's hard to believe/remember we went through all that. Anyway, this book was a very good inside look at what goes on in the market and how the big boys have advantages the individual investor can never match. Even the last thing the author says in the book is that individual investors shouldn't buy individual stocks! It goes pretty deep into the inner workings of finance, but I find all that pretty interesting. The book seemed a little self-serving, Reingold paints himself as an angel amongst a den of thieves, but overall I believe what he was saying. One of my co-workers saw the title and her response was “Corruption on Wall Street? Well, duh!” :p 4/5
The Summer Game
by Roger Angell
This is considered a classic sports book that I recently found out about. It's basically a series of collected articles Angell wrote as a sportswriter in the late 60s/early 70s. I was a little unsure about it at first, but his writing style is very entertaining and very witty. It was so interesting to read his thoughts and the general feeling about the first indoor stadium (Astrodome), Astroturf, expanded playoffs, giant lighted scoreboards, and other things we take for granted now. 3.5/5
Memorial Day
by Vince Flynn
Although this plot has been done approximately 475,332 times (“Oh noes, the terrorists have a nuke!”) this book in the Mitch Rapp series was still great because of Flynn's detailed and entertaining writing. I also liked that his new wife was only mentioned once in passing; she's kind of annoying and the whole dynamic between them isn't really contributing much to the series. Great read 4/5
Make Me
by Lee Child
Well, now I'm totally caught up on this series. I won't even talk about the plot at all since it's a current book in a very popular series, but it was definitely something different and interesting. Now I'm one of those poor souls that has to wait around for the next Reacher book to come out : / 4/5
Books for November: 6
Books for 2015: 67
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