christianreader | August Books

Oh summer, wherefore art thou? : (

The Winter King
by Bernard Cornwell

Having thoroughly enjoyed The Saxon Tales I decided to check out more of Cornwell's work. Rather than jump into his 24(!) book Richard Sharpe series I opted for this trilogy based on the Arthurian legends. It was a little slow at the beginning, with Cornwell's usual throwing 1,000 different names of people and places at the reader, but the more I read the more I got into it and I was really enjoying it by the end. It has Cornwell's usual fantastic battle scene descriptions, along with his take of Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, and all the other familiar characters. It's told from the perspective of Derfel, who starts out as a boy living in Merlin's home and eventually becomes one of Arthur's most trusted and able warriors. Looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy. 3.5/5

Smokejumper: A Memoir of America's Most Select Airborne Firefighters
by Jason Ramos

Saw this at the library and thought it looked interesting, and it was. Smokejumpers are sort of the firefighting equivalent of the military's special forces, like Navy Seals or Army Rangers. They're highly trained, highly capable, highly versatile wildfire fighters who are also expert parachutists. They can be dispatched in small groups closer (and quicker) to fires than ground-bound firefighters and can make a huge difference in the fight against wildfires. Ramos tells his story of how he became one and tells the history of the smokejumpers. He also touches on some of the biggest wildfires in history, especially the ones where firefighters lost their lives. The book is very fast-paced and a quick read, which I really like. It's so fast-paced there were one or two times where even I was wanting a little more detail! Most of it takes place in the PNW and California of course, so that made it a little more interesting for me as well. 3.5/5

Stone Cold
by David Baldacci

Third book in the Camel Club series. Oliver's past is catching up to him as his former teammates are being killed one by one. The casino boss that Annabelle bilked out of millions is also in town, ready for revenge. Another good book in the series; I liked Harry Finn, the new character that was introduced and there was plenty of action as usual. The finale with the mob boss was a little anti-climatic but at least it didn't get dragged out into more books. 3.5/5

Divine Justice
by David Baldacci

Fourth book in the Camel Club series. As Oliver tries to escape in order to protect himself and his friends he ends up in the tiny coal mining town of Divine, Virginia. But of course he runs into trouble even there, and has to rely on his friends to save him. Another good character, Joe Knox, is brought it and like Harry he starts out hunting Oliver down but eventually ends up on his side. Good stuff as usual for this series. 3.5/5

The Door into Summer [audio book]
by Robert Heinlein

I think I've read everything Heinlein has written, but most of it's been a long time ago. I may have to do some more rereads. I've read Door into Summer at least a couple times but it's one of his best so I didn't mind listening to it on my road trip. It was written in 1957 and takes place in 1970 and 2000. The 1970 stuff sounds pretty realistic (especially to someone who wasn't actually alive then :p) but the 2000 parts are kind of funny for how off they are. When the main awakes in 2000 from 30 years of The Big Sleep (cryogenic sleep) and wants to look someone up he goes down to the county office to look at microfiche records, hahahaha! It's funny because Heinlein both understated and overstated the technology level we'd be at now. He totally missed computers, the internet, inter-connectivity, and all that kind of stuff, but he also had us all owning personal servant robots that would cook, clean, etc. The story itself is really good but the best part is looking at Heinlein's vision of the future and how close (or far off) he was to what actually happened. 4/5

Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie

I read a little bit of Agatha Christie as a kid but nothing since then. I wasn't super into this book at first but it got going pretty quickly (it's fairly short) and by the end I was really enjoying it. It had a very satisfying reveal and was very cleverly written. It is a little dated at this point, but nothing that can't be overcome. 4/5

Books for August: 6
Books for 2016: 38