You Know My Name

Oh my goodness, it has been an age! Many things have been happening in the interim, among them: moving, job searching, seeing family and new places. This blog, however, is not the place I have chosen to go into detail about these things (my IRL experiences are contained in my social media, thank you very much). This blog is about books and libraries and do I ever have some new and excellent reads to share.

First foray into Bond books!

A couple of nights ago, my family and I went to see the new James Bond movie "Skyfall". It was quite epic and classic Bond - with girls, explosions and dastardly villains. At the end of the movie, there was an acknowledgement that the Bond franchise had turned 50. 50! You must imagine my horror when I realized that even though the franchise had been around for that period of time, I have not read a single book. Seen tons of the movies but have not read one book. Oh, the shame! So, as I prepare to dive into "Casino Royale" by Ian Fleming, here are some other reads that not only remind me slightly of James Bond, but also have movies out (or coming out) that are inspired by book series.



Killing Floor by Lee Child

Jack Reacher is the hero of this long running series of books. Reacher is easily twice as brutal and not even a tenth as suave as James Bond. However, both heroes are able to walk into situations that seem utterly impossible to the rest of us poor mortals and manage to escape unscathed. They also attract the ladies like crazy and when the battle is won, ride off into the sunset in search of more mayhem. In this first book, we meet Reacher who is an ex-military cop on a cross-country ramble. He decides to stop in the tiny town of Margrave, Georgia just for kicks. As he is polishing off breakfast in the town's greasy spoon diner, he gets arrested for murder. After a stint in jail (and a little ass kicking) Reacher convinces the local police that he was innocent of the crime. Reacher discovers that the murder victim is in fact his long estranged brother, who works for the United States Treasury. Jack Reacher decides to pick up where his brother's investigation came to an abrupt halt and soon finds that the tiny town of Margrave hides some pretty sinister activities. This book is a great "easy" read, and by "easy" I mean tons of action, a powerful hero and pages that seem to turn themselves. If you like your heroes big, slightly bad and holding blazing guns, look no further than Jack Reacher. Furthermore, Tom Cruise will be starring as Jack Reacher in a film of the same name. I urge (perhaps beg would be a better word) you all to read the book before Tom is cemented in your brain as Jack Reacher forever.

The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum

This is one book series I did manage to get to before the movie came out. The books were passed between my younger sister, her friends and I. When the movies starring Matt Damon came out, we all went to see them. However, the discrepancies between the books and the movies soon became apparent. So much so, in fact, that one of my sister's friends joked that the movies should be called "The Bob Identity". I am not knocking the movies - they're good stories in and of themselves - but if you want to read the book series, you have to prepare yourself for a bit of a different story. The first part of the book starts out similarly. A man is found floating in the Mediterranean ocean with hideous injuries. He is picked up and nursed back to health. The man has no idea who he is or where he came from. As he searches for answers, he discovers that he comes from a violent past. He finds references to Jason Bourne, a ruthless assassin who is wanted for countless atrocities. When the man is cornered at a hotel, he takes a Canadian government worker named Marie St. Jacques hostage. As they both fight to stay alive, Marie helps the man known as Jason Bourne to discover who he really is and what he is capable of doing. The main character in Robert Ludlums series is also an international man working in the shadows, just like James Bond.