Airplane reading again.

This is a standard “ancient mystery threatens world domination” plot.    The cover sports a lot of “Da Vinci Code” references.  Oh gee is that cuz of maybe the name?

Well anyway, Dan Brown is a sappy clod when it comes to women characters.  And now that I think about, pretty much all characters in general, whereas this guy like to put a SIG Sauer 9mm semiautomatic blah blah in each of her hands.  Personally, I prefer that kinda thing in my actiontrash women.

The main character is a linguist so the ancient mystery requires a full fuxton of interesting factoids about the history of language and culture.  I like that kinda thing too.

If you read this kinda thing I highly recommend this one.

I picked it up in a Mobile Alabama grocery store so probably it can be found anywhere.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

Well it ain’t Catcher in the Rye, but really, any story told by this guy is a pretty fun ride.

This is yer basic JD’s zany east coast family and its (now a universal standard) zany east coast family hijinks. Just like movies with the kid from Rushmore. I dig all of them pretty well but Salinger has something beyond. Or deeper. I can’t tell. Prolly it just comes down to the fact that Salinger has one of the greatest voices in the history of written language.

Anyway, these are both short so pick it up if you see a copy.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

Ok, look what I found. Here’s a picture of the Pillars of the Earth author. Uncanny. I think I really nailed it.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

This is what I read over the holiday season.  I just found out there’s some kind of mini-series of it and that makes perfect sense.  

“Soap opera.” I stewed for weeks over how to describe it and finally (after giving up almost a month ago) those two words really nail it for me. Ironically this book came into my life soon after the Thomas Hardy debacle and I say ironic because if I were to put that name before the two aforementioned words it would describe this book even better. It seemed to me that Ken Follett was a depressed gay hairdresser who had read every Hardy novel between high school and college so when he cut hair he would tell the ladies Thomas Hardy stories.  
 
Judging from “Pillars” though, he clearly had mixed up the characters and plots so badly that by the time Bev or Jan or whomever urged him to write his own book he was happily free of any real plagiaristic details.  
 
Well the book is a real fun read if you don’t mind cheap and catty set in a rich historical tapestry in which case you might also try “I, Claudius”.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

Well the narrative doesn’t exactly cruise right along. By page 78 I found myself flipping through the rest of the book reading a page here and there. This guys writing style is fantastic but it constipates after a short while. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

As far as plots and stories go this one is just plain silly. But then again that’s not what it’s about. If you’re into food, France and French wine this is what might be called an elegant romp and it’s definitely for you.

I’m gonna read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao next. Just as soon as we’ve had our two-day break from tour.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

Apparently this book was discovered as a complete manuscript after Crichton’s death in 2008. I didn’t even know he had died. Well the book is pretty damn fun. It’s got me through four flight delays and one cancellation, three van rides and a seaplane.

One thing though, it’s been a while since I watched Captain Horatio Hornblower but I kept thinking that this was the same story. Or was it Yellowbeard.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

I forgot to stop at Powells so this was kinda the only choice left to me from the PDX news stand.  It has the word “pirate” in the title and right below it is the sentence: “Crichton’s ultimate adventure.”  Ooh, that sounds great.

Well, seventy pages in I can tell you that it’s pretty goofy.  It reads like a book for kids but with pummelings and daggery.  This book also seems to have an abundance of wenching.  Oh well, at least the swashbuckling is gonna commence any page now…

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR