Book Review : "Ceux qui vont mourir te saluent" (F. Vargas)

Have finished this book a while ago actually. But the review is coming a bit late. Now good/bad excuse for it. Here it comes: "Those who are about to die salute You" (in English):A sketch signed Michel Angelo appear on the market. A recognised connoisseur suspects it comes from the archives of the Vatican (Rome). He is suddenly murdered during a pagan party outdoors in Rome. First in line for the suspect, his son and his two special friends. The trio always presents themselves as three Roman emperors. Add to this a still young and attractive widow with secrets and a cardinal sharing part of those secrets... You get it : a well-written crime novel from Fred Vargas.

After one third of the book, the story sounded quite "déjà vu" (or "déjà lu" : ) Indeed I bought this book in February while waiting for my fligth in Paris and after starting it (back home then) I made a break and search in my library: Here it was the very examplar borrowed to my youngest sister! So you may say that this book is not quite something to remember. Indeed the story is a bit long and the end well if you think of it, you may have guessed some of it at half the book. Still I liked the written style, but a bit disappointed after the breath-taking "Have Mercy of Us All". The trio-vira is a bit superficial, the intrigue -still great- could have been a bit longer to end, so the final result is definitely not on the same level of other masterpieces of Fred Vargas.

So my recommendation is: Well take it for what it is. It may be read quick or slow. . If I recall well it is one of the first novel she wrote and you can see that her style has evolved considerably since (Good for us!). Read it for the fun (but follow it by another Fred Vargas in the Adamsberg's serie). An overall 6/10.

Book Review : "L'Alchimiste" // "The Alchimist" (P. Coelho)

So many have heard of it, so many are even mentioning it, but really: How many have read it (I mean for real)? I chose the French version (original title "O Alquimista" in Portuguese, "The Alchemist") for the ease of reading. Indeed this philosophical novel is really smooth and easy to read. Making it available to any level of reader.
It is no science fiction, no fantasy, no detective, nor thriller. It is a simple novel about life and its path. That any one can follow its dream and get on a spiritual quest, in order to find its own Truth.

The story is the one of Santiago, a Spanish sheperd, who starts a search for a treasure buried near the Egyptian Pyramids. His quest brings him to meet an/The Alchimist in the desert of sand who will teach him how to listen to his heart, to find the Soul of the World, how to read the signs that Destiny put on one's path and -most important above all and being part of all that- to be determined to follow through on one's dreams.

The greatest part (among others) in this book is that it is so easy to read. It makes one's reflect on one's own situation, experience, life and thoughts. It can be read to children as well as to teenagers or adults (when does the difference even arise here?). Feelings are in the air and this book bring them out from the deepest unconscious mind to let us think through where we are, how we reach this place and what's gonna happened next. In brief: it brings forward a total revaluation of one's thoughts and ideas about what is important in life.

The journey is indeed as important as the destination. The hero here (not unlike every one on this Earth, I may suggest) does have a goal: to reach this treasure he has dreamt of. But the real treasure he finds it throughout his journey, experiencing lost, happiness, entertainment, training, new companies, love, learning... Well a whole path for this quest for a treasure which happens to be... Well you'll have to read the book for discovering it!!!

I enjoyed the sentence: "When you want something, all the world conspires in helping you to achieve it".

I highly recommend this book. Not at all in the same domain as the previous reviews here. To anyone who wants to enjoy life and find answers. To anyone believing in beauty in life. To anyone wishing to make their dreams come true... And to anyone not following the former descriptions... All minds can change, all attitude can be learnt... I therefore give here a strong 8.5/10. Free your mind!

Book Review : "Pars Vite et Reviens Tard"//"Have Mercy on Us All" (F.Vargas)

Here I need a double or triple-Wow! Read in French, you can find it under the English title "Have Mercy on Us All", which could be an interesting reading as the title DO MEAN SOMETHING in the book in French, but I have difficulty to see how it becomes such an English title. Anyway, back to the review. This book is not too heavy and can be read really quick. Not due to its shortness, but because of the story keeping the reader waiting wit bated breath. Japp! I'm good to find those kind of book. And in original version it is always a pleasure.

The story is contemporary and happens in Paris. A town crier gets all kind of crap from his customers, but nothing like those messages lacking of understandable meaning written either in Latin or old French, predicting the arrival of a terrible thing. Does not matter for our crier: he is paid for shouting loud the messages of his customers and this one pays well.
On the other side of the town start to appear strange "4"-signs with no real explanation. The Chief Inspector Adamsberg newly promoted to the Crime Brigade gets his nose on those strange signs even before anything (hear here "Crimes") happens. Indeed his domain of expertise is crime! But when the forst body appears he gets a strange feeling, linking maybe those two strange happenings.

Nonono! You won't here the end from me. : ) The intrigue is permanent in the book, keeping the reader open-eyed and careful in his/her guess about what will go on next. Indeed it is not easy job to try to precede the action. But still the reader cannot avoid it. He/She pleases him/herself in doing so. The book is full with action, suspense, well a little-littlebit of sex (but don't buy it for that. In my view it was almost a waste of the author talent to include a love-story in the book.. butbutbut... It may have a meaning in the following books with this special characters).
The characters are well described and have the "right place" in the book. The end seems a tiny-little-bit out of the blue. But well, you like it or not. Every book needs an end! This one is well worth any other and works well.

So lots of plus (intrigue, characters) and some minus (love story with neither head nor tail, the use of several clichés...). Well, like of or leave it! I DID LIKE IT : )

To summarize, I would strongly recommend this book, for spending time away from any everydaylife, to get a kick and lots of info on theplague (no more said here on this! Read the book ; ) A strong 8/10 and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Have already started another serie of the same author... Soon more about it : )

Book Review : "Et Après" (G. Musso)

Easy reading (in French). The English translated title is "Afterwards". Story of a character who has seen Death and came back... when he was 8. Now he is a famous lawyer in New-York (not sure to understand why the story cannot be in France... But New-York and the States will do!), unfortunately divorced from his longlife friend and with a little daughter.
Well, the promises from the back cover are unfortunately not fulfilled. The book is easy and quickly read and when you reach the end, you cannot recall what was catching you attention at the beginning (I bought this book for a reason, didn't I?). The story is plane and no real action in it. OK, it is no fantasy or criminology involved. But still even I can appreciate a book with none of the two fore mentioned pieces. But this one ... well, no. I saw the author in a French program and there as well they were welling him really much (another reason catching my interest for the book!).
The story is so simple and still kept me reading every page... Must have been something in it!
A bit too cliché for me to have this handsome guy from the poor side of the town falling in love with the daughter of the family where his mom is a made... and this same guy will work his *ss off to become the greatest lawyer ever... you read it well, it felt a bit of a "déjà-vu" (or here "Déjà-lu"!).
But still what kept me reading and reading in this book. No idea. I can even recognise that it was the second time I read it (Yapp! I had borrowed it from my lill' sis a while ago... and forgot to give it back...But now I know!).

To summarize rapidly a book read even quicker, I would not recommend highly this book. If you have a few hours to kill at the airport because your plane is delayed, do like me: Buy it, read it, and well you'll forget it pretty quick as well. But while reading it is still a nice feeling throughout the reading.

So if in search for near-death-experience story, start here (no surnatural or strange stuff, only basc for beginners). I am grading this book with a 5/10 and will actually read another book from the same author and see how it goes...

Ooops! Forgot to mentioned that this book has been "translated" into a movie recently... Any comment on it?

Book Review : "Personne n'y échappera" // "No One Will Get Out" (R. Sardou)

Another Wow! This book is tremendous. Breath taking from first page to final one (with however a few pages in the middle a bit long to digest - or at least for my taste !). This book was read extremely rapidly (over a week-end during evening, more scary hihi!). Read in French. English title is "No one will get out". The story starts with a massacre, well plenty of victims, same way of dying but the place and how they are found seems a bit odd. Indeed the victims seem to have cooperated to what happened to them... In parallel to this a new teacher arrives in a really close private school having hidden secrets and society. Well I won't tell too much of the action as I repeat it is BREATH TAKING really. During the police search, the suspect becomes an author more or less successful but for the least extravagant. It seems as well that his fictions happen to be quite detailed and remind a bit much of real crimes... Well the inspector believe the author does the killing and write the book about it (as some details in his book are way too close to reality and sometimes not communicated outside the police department)... You get the picture?

With a certain ability the author is bringing us the final solution and I am betting none can see it coming! The intrigue is present all the time, the suspense kept myself awake (actually some evenings it was difficult to sleep due to the outside sounds reminding from the book!!!). No extra bloody scene, no unnecessary violence (as it may be the case in thrillers). Cold blood and mind working! A masterpiece indeed.

I strongly recommend this book to any reader in search for special stories without straight-forward answers. A strong 9/10 and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

(note: this review should have been published 1.5 month ago... sorry!)

New book on the way!

Sorry! I've tried. But the "Blue Ocean Strategy" (in Swedish) is extremely annoying to read so I had to let it go. I will do a new try in English in a little while...
Meanwhile I found a French book "None will escape" (original title: "Personne n'y échappera") by Romain Sardou which is much more captivating and will probably receive a review by the end of the week ! ; )

Book Review : "Myths and Legends of the Martial Arts" (P. Lewis)

Great! This book is an anthology of Martial arts short stories. You will read about Kung-fu, karate, ninja, judo, tai-chi chuan and others. The short stories make the book easy to read, at any time of the day (or night!) It presents as well great ways from the martial arts and thoughtful legends which makes one to think about one's own life and situation (well at least it did for me!). As it said in the back of the book "Each (novel) is a jewel of enlightened wisdom, offering insight and delectation to students of the martial arts and lovers of eastern wisdom".
The philosophy behind each art is presented through the use of stories of well-know heroes of each presented martial arts. Poetry is not absent from this collection of novels.

I highly recommend it to martial art practitioners (beginners or advanced) but also to anyone searching for a bit of enlightening thoughts about life. A strong 8.5/10 and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!