Book Reviews

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Rating: 4/5 teacups

Summary

“Nicholai Hel is the world’s most wanted man. Born in Shanghai during the chaos of World War I, he is the son of an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father and is the protégé of a Japanese Go master. Hel survived the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world’s most artful lover and its most accomplished—and well-paid—assassin. Hel is a genius, a mystic, and a master of language and culture, and his secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection known only as shibumi.

Now living in an isolated mountain fortress with his exquisite mistress, Hel is unwillingly drawn back into the life he’d tried to leave behind when a beautiful young stranger arrives at his door, seeking help and refuge. It soon becomes clear that Hel is being tracked by his most sinister enemy—a supermonolith of international espionage known only as the Mother Company. The battle lines are drawn: ruthless power and corruption on one side, and on the other . . . shibumi.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I read this book because it was pictured in the first John Wick. As it’s my favorite movie, and I love reading books that are featured in movies, I had to give this one a go. And it had the famous “kill someone with a pencil” scene, though it certainly wasn’t what I expected.

Deep writing.
First off, this is an extremely heavy book. It’s one of those books that you read for a while and think you read a ton of the book, but in reality it was only a few pages. It was complex writing and complex themes. It was covering a lot of Japanese philosophical ideas. It’s hard enough as it is philosophical but then they are trying to put words to things that are indescribable. It was interesting to see Trevanian to try and tackle this obstacle. And it hurt my brain to read. But it was interesting and I loved the challenge.

Lots of traveling.
The book is set in all of these different locations and it jumps around, but with a logical aspect. It also breaks up the chapters by locations. So it will jump between Hel and where he is and what he is doing, sometimes in the past, and then go to Washington, D.C. where the government people are and eventually everyone comes together.

Killing with a pencil is the turning point.
So this is totally not important, but this is one of the reasons I was curious about the book. John Wick is known for killing people with a pencil. That is his signature movie and that idea was taken from this book. So I just had to find out where it came from. And the killing with the pencil was the turning point which changed everything in Hel’s life. This book was not graphic with the violence, it would touch on what was happening but mostly leave it there…save for the opening scene where there was a little carnage. But it was in moderation.

The sex was something new and rare.
So there was sex in the book. But it wasn’t incredibly graphic as you would think, and it was completely in moderation and well proportioned. It was a lot of mind games. The lover in Hel’s life was technically a concubine and she was there to help him out around the house and in life. But she was well trained. Hel was able to play mind games with people and so their sexual adventures sometimes didn’t even involve touching. And even then, the descriptions were simple and restrained, keeping with the theme of the book.

Supernatural abilities?
As I was talking about just above, Hel seemed to have these mental abilities. It wasn’t supernatural exactly but it was a heightened state of mind, probably from all the meditation that he had done while in Japan. It was a little strange to read about as you had this other worldly feel to him, that he was just slightly higher than other humans, but it was an interesting touch, one that I think definitely added to the story.

Overall I loved the book. I would have given it a 5 out of 5 teacups but I didn’t because some of the philosophical ideas, while they were interesting to read, took up a lot of the book and I know that many people really wouldn’t like them. While I thought it was interesting, it was a strange balance between the simplicity of the story and then these really deep ideas. That’s the only reason I would give it a 4/5 rating. But I highly recommend the book as it was fantastic!

Rating: 5/5 teacups

Summary

“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, “we have no theory.”

Frankfurt, one of the world’s most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.

Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner’s capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I came across this book in a box in my basement and it has been there for a while and was a gift for another family member. However, it never made it there so I decided to give it a read, curious as to what the book was about. It was such a crude title, and so short, that I just had to know what was in the 67 pages.

It was like reading a longer essay written for a small topic in college. And absolutely well written. It was on exactly what the title says, bullshit. It essentially was talking about the difference between bullshitting and lying. It eventually decided that bullshitting is getting through something to survive, not knowingly using wrong facts, while lying is deliberately telling a falsehood while knowing the truth in your mind.

It was incredibly well written and something that I think is important for EVERYONE to read. It will only take you about 30 minutes of your time. With everything happening in the world now, and the rhetoric used by everyone, it is important to know what the difference is between lying and bullshitting. And the difference is clear and needed to be understood.

I give this small book a 5 out of 5 teacups because of what the book was about and how it is relevant in today’s society!

Happy Reading!

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Rating: 4/5 teacups

Summary

“This gripping and emotional debut novel, Pink Slips, tells a spine- tingling and harrowing story of survival, friendship, doggedness, and love. The inimitable power of the relationship between Betsy Ryan and her beloved dog, Barney, gives this suspense thriller soft spots to counter the uncertainty and intense action.

Betsy Ryan is pregnant with her third child, and receiving threatening notes from an anonymous person. During what should be a joyful time in her life, she’s forced to face a decade old memory, and relive one of the most devastating nights of her life. In order to uncover the mystery behind the threats, she enlists the help of an unlikely, but oddly reliable source, her dog Barney. As the menacing notes continue to arrive, her husband is called out of town for work, and she struggles to keep her composure while shielding her two young sons from danger. She trusts no one except her parents, best friend Misty, and her extraordinary dog—who has proven to literally understand everything she says. Is this person out to harm her? And how do they have so much personal information about Betsy? She can’t help but think it’s the same person who attacked her at the train station almost a decade ago, and changed the course of her life forever. To save herself and her unborn child—Betsy must face her fears and find her strength, to reveal who is after her and most importantly…why.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I was sent this book by the wonderful Beth Aldrich and I’m so glad that I received a copy as it was a really good book. This is the second crime/thriller kind of book that I have received recently and I’m really loving the genre. It’s kind of like a TV show turned into a book.

Page turner!
This book kept me wanting to read more and I finished it in one reading (about 4-5 hours or so). It was not a difficult read, but I’m not saying that the language was simple either. It was just so fast paced that it kept me wanting to read it and find out what happened! It always is good when a book keeps you hooked and this one certainly kept me hooked.

Pregnant main character – different!
As for the main character, Betsy Ryan, she was quite interesting. First of all, she was pregnant during the whole ordeal which was so  different. Not many times is there a pregnant character in a book, especially when there’s a stalker following her and her kids and trying to kill them all! It was just another element of ‘stress’that added to the story.

Was like a crime drama episode.
Since the story was almost written like a TV episode, some people don’t like those kind of books. But I don’t generally read books that are like that and I liked the change. It was something new! So if you’re looking for a really deep book, this may not be the one for the moment, but it’s still a quick read and really enjoyable!

Overall I did really enjoy this book. It was fast paced, kept me wanting to know what was going to happen, and kept you guessing until the very end! I highly do suggest giving it a read, grab your copy HERE, and I hope that you enjoy. I know that I did!! So for that reason, I give it a 4 out of 5 tea cup rating!

Check back next week for a giveaway of this book!!

Happy Reading!

Rating: 4/5 teacups

Summary

“Jo Stevens’s evening with Rick isn’t going too well, so when she spots her friend Gemma a few lanes down at the bowling alley, she seizes the opportunity for a double date. When Gemma says she’d like to kill her sleazy boss, the two couples joke about forming a club to execute perfect murders. But when Jo stumbles upon a corpse of a woman the next morning, she realizes that murder is no laughing matter. Jo describes her gruesome discovery to Inspector Henrietta “Hen” Mallin who has her work cut out for her as the bodies count continues to climb.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I generally do not read mystery books, but this one was such a good choice on my part!

It kept you guessing until the end.
When they say mystery for this book, it really was! I mean, it literally kept you guessing as to who had done what until the last 3 pages or so! I mean I felt like I had figured it all out, and I felt so smart too! And then it was a slap to the face to see just how wrong I was. And then it explained how it was who it was and you were like “how did I not see it?!” I love those kinds of books and it was just written so well.

It had descriptive writing and you were able to visualize the story clearly.
Honestly, I don’t know what it was about the writing but I was able to visualize the story so well. I just had this feeling of this small cottage town in England (as that is where the story is set) and I was living the story as if it were grey all the time (#justenglandthings). You really got to understand where the story was taking place. I really don’t know what it was about the writing, as the story wasn’t written in a way that was particularly descriptive, but it just worked!

Not everyone in the story was a perfect person.
I really did like the Jake character in the story. He was this large guy who was just slightly different. People in the town judged him because he was quiet but Jo saw him for who he truly was and it was just nice that there was one of those kinds of characters in the story was well.

It was a traditional kind of murder mystery/who-done-it.
If you are looking for something more from the story, then this may not be it. It was written kind of like a TV episode so it kept the pages turning and it followed the kind of cookie-cutter mold that mystery stories have.  I personally loved it, because I don’t generally read this kind of story, and would recommend it, but if you read these kinds of stories all the time and are looking for something different, it might not be your cup of tea.

Overall, I really did enjoy the book and would definitely recommend reading it. I easily give this reading 4/5 teacups!