Take Me With You

Once in a blue moon one encounters a book that just demands to be read and for me this was such a book. The storyline involves Alcoholism, coming of age, grieving the death of a child, and camping in an RV. The description of scenes from Joshua Tree, Zion, Arches, Canyonlands brought back memories and the other parks a desire to see new lands. With all the grammar and spell-checking software available today I’m mystified as to why so many errors still evade publishers and authors but this volume is better than most. Highly recommended. Kudos to Goodreads for directing me to this book.

Jet (I)

Maya was an orphan neglected and serially abused. Possessed of a great mind and gifted with stunning genetic beauty and athleticism she was recruited by Mossad during her 2-year compulsory service in the Israeli military. In a secret service she is recruited to an elite force so secret it has no name. These agents have no identity, no family outside the service, no moral compass, no life. This begs the question, what distinguishes them from the terrorists they supposedly fight. You fight your way into this service through hard work, no one leaves it alive. Hyper-vigilance, trusting no one, and the need to constantly hone one’s skills and be on one’s guard will follow one for the rest of one’s life, or it will be a short life.

The book begins with a bang as Maya is attacked by three men one with a garrot, another with a custom-made silencer, and a third who failed to make it through the door. She doesn’t wait around to find if there are more but there are. The story is filled with brutal violence involving a woman. Think Ziva on NCIS. It reads like one of those ultra-violent video games. A hard-luck case from early childhood her fortunes do not improve, terminating with extreme prejudice seems to be the only thing she’s really good at.

Well edited and readable with a storyline with enough action to carry you along if you don’t mind the violence a decent read.

Jet: Ops Files

A black ops action adventure, this being the prequel to an entire series of novels. Since it is obvious that there is no series without the chief protagonist much of the tension is relieved leaving only the question of how she manages to pull herself out of each successive scrape. Well edited and matter of fact in its approach like its heroine the action proceeds apace. We are left in no doubt as to who the bad guys are, matters are rather black and white. Not great literature but an acceptable means of passing a bit of time.

Paper Towns

Read this book to see what else the writer of The Fault in Our Stars had written. The book starts out well but somehow begins to drag in the middle. The last section becomes an extended road trip. I’m afraid I finished it just so I could say I did so. The over-arching theme is our perception of ourselves and others. There’s the way we see another, the persona they attempt to project, the way they see themselves, and the true persona that even the individual himself may fail to recognize. The way we see ourselves often differs from the way others see us.

Shane

by Jack Schaefer

A book written in the year of my birth it epitomizes the ethos of the legendary wild west gunfighter, who having once established his reputation found it impossible to escape it. And so a man named only Shane rides into the life of a pioneering farm family in cattle country, a land where fences and barbed wire were fighting words and open range reigned supreme. Shane is lean and rock hard, ever vigilant with a haunted, hunted look in his eyes. We get the sense of a coiled spring ready to jump into action instantly at need. There is deep irony in seeing such a man wield an ax, till the soil, or mend fence but he does it with grace and absolute economy of motion, no effort wasted. When the inevitable confrontation comes our hero reluctantly proves himself equally adept with his fists as he is fast with the draw. But when he can barely keep his feet after beating down a gang of tough cowhands he is described as being carried out of the bar like a child. He rides off into the sunset gut-shot with what was probably a fatal wound but legends can never die. Several movie versions of the book have been made but you owe it to yourself to read the original.