The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared - go with the flow

If you think this book must the sad, little tale of a deranged centenarian who gets lost from his care home ... think again! Despite his age, the man in question, one Allan Karlsson, takes us on a fast-paced road trip of a story. It is Allan's 100th birthday, and in order to escape from the party that has been arranged for him and which he does not want, he climbs out of his window, and heads off to the bus station in his slippers with the intention of going anywhere his money will take him. He is asked to look after a suitcase while the owner answers a call of nature, but when his bus arrives, instead of abandoning the case, he takes it with him. The case, it turns out, is stuffed full of money and the owner is a hardened criminal who wants it back ... and so, the chase is on. It's amazing how elusive a man of such a grand age can be, and we follow Allan as he keeps one step ahead of both a criminal gang, AND the police. He takes everything as it comes, well, what else can you do at his age? He falls in with a range of oddball characters, who join forces to become a family of sorts, as they can all see the life-changing opportunity that Allan and his suitcase is offering them. Over the course of the adventure, we get to hear about Allan's amazing life, in which, without him really trying very hard, he inadvertently becomes one of the most influential people of all time, and brings about momentous change in various countries across the world. The skill of Jonas Jonasson (and that of Rod Bradbury, who translated this from the original Swedish version) is that he has created a strange but familiar world in which you could believe that this might all be true.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared may well be one of the longest book titles I've come across, but DO NOT be put off by this title. Just disappear with Allan for a few hours and go with the flow. Who knows where you might end up?

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 400 print print pages.
Price I paid: £0.20.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

The Name of the Wind - excellent start to a new fantasy series

I have been holding off reading this book (which I purchased nearly two years ago!) as I didn't want to start another new series last year. Little did I know what I was missing. If the rest of The Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy is as good as this, then all I can say is whooppeeee!!!! The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss is a dream of a book and grabs your attention from the very first few sentences. We start off in a lowly tavern, where Kote, the quiet and slightly dour innkeeper is tending to his few customers. But all is not what it seems (of course!). Kote's real name is Kvothe, who is a legend in his own lifetime. Two narratives begin to run alongside each other. The first is a third person account and is in the present, with the action taking place in and around the tavern. The second is in the first person, with Kvothe relating his life story to The Chronicler, a man who has tracked him down to the tavern to "collect" his story and write it down for posterity. Thus we get to hear about the childhood and teenage years of our hero - from clever and happy childhood with a travelling troupe of performers, to becoming orphaned by the hands of the mysterious Chandrians, to living on his wits on the streets to going to university and starting to learn about magic ... where his prime aim is to gain access to the thousands of books in the Archive to try and find out about the Chandrians and why they killed his parents and their travelling troupe. Kvothe gathers friends and enemies along the way, and also falls in love with Denna, a young lady who has secrets of her own and who cannot be pinned down for any length of time. This is a real journey of discovery for the hero as he grows from boy to man. This book is full of interesting details, but not to the extent where everything starts to get muddled. Whilst there is plenty of stuff going on within the book, it also teases the reader with what might be coming in the next thrilling instalment. I really, REALLY, enjoyed this book, which I felt was enhanced by the magnificent narration of Rupert Degas in the audio edition which I read. My only criticism is specifically with the pricing of the Audible audio download edition - which was been spilt into TWO books, for which you have to pay separately. This makes this version much more expensive compared to the other formats, and has put me off purchasing the next part through Audible. However, it certainly has NOT put me off from continuing with the series, which I wish I'd started sooner!

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 672 print pages.
Price I paid: £15.98.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio CD, unabridged audio download, ebook.

Echo Burning - suspend your disbelief!

Echo Burning, by Lee Child is the fifth in the thriller series which features man-of-action, Jack Reacher. The ex-military cop gets into an altercation in a bar one evening. He doesn't think anything of this until the next morning, when a police car pulls into his motel car park, and one of the policemen who gets out of the car is the bloke he came to blows with! Reacher decides on a tactical retreat and heads out to the nearest main road to hitch a lift in the searing Texan heat. He is stunned to be picked up by an attractive Mexican lady within a few minutes. Of course, it was too good to be true. She starts to ask him a set of questions that make him feel like he's having a job interview. It turns out she is desperate for someone to help her "deal with" her violent Texan husband, who is soon to be released from prison. She claims he has been beating her since they got married and cannot face him coming home and starting the abuse all over again. Her ideal is that the husband meets a sticky end, but Reacher won't go for that. He agrees to go back home with her to help keep an eye on her, but keeps trying to persuade her to report the husband to the police or to flee with her daughter, but she stubbornly refuses to do either. Needless to say, there is more to this situation than meets the eye. When the husband's lawyer, goes missing, alarm bells start to ring, and who, exactly, are the people watching the house?

For me, Echo Burning fell a little short of the usually excellent standard set by the author. I just could not believe that Reacher would stick around to get himself embroiled in such a deeply implausible tale as the one the woman was telling him. The first half of the book was overlong and not hugely credible. I know that in any thriller where the hero ALWAYS comes out on top, you do have to suspend your disbelief, but to make Echo Burning enjoyable, you have to take your disbelief and hide it under the bed in a box labelled saying Do Not Open Until 2016! However, in the second half of the book, the action really gets going, and the tale takes off and finds its feet - it's just a shame it took so long to do so. I am hoping this is just a small blip in an otherwise excellent series, and it was certainly good enough to read the next chapter in Reacher's story.

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 576 print pages.
Price I paid: Free, borrowed as an ebook from my local library.
Formats available: print; abridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Moonraker - definitely NOT the film!

So, the first book to be completed in this new reading year of 2015 is Moonraker by Ian Fleming, which I read in print format. This is the third outing for James Bond, the most famous spy in fiction. As per the comment kindly left regarding Live and Let Die, this is soooo not like the film which starred Roger Moore. It is, in my opinion, much better. It is taut and tense and the villain of the piece is Hugo Drax, a self-made multi-millionaire with a shady past (of course) who is being heralded as the saviour of the country with his defence project called Moonraker, which has been designed to combat the threat of nuclear attack. M asks Bond to take a look at Drax over the card table in an exclusive London club as a favour to the owner of the club who is convinced that Drax is cheating his fellow members. Nobody wants the scandal if this turns out to be true. Of course, Bond catches him out and Drax does not take it too well. There are only a few days to go before the test launch of Moonraker and the world is watching. Things are already tense, and are not helped by one of Drax's employees being murdered, and the murderer promptly committing suicide! Bond is sent in to assess whether there is any threat to Moonraker, and is asked to work with an undercover Special Branch Officer - the beautiful Gala Brand - who is has been in situ for months as Drax's personal secretary. Almost as soon as Bond arrives at Drax's base, it becomes apparent that he is not welcome and feels threatened but cannot quite put his finger on what is going on. But when he and Gala are almost killed by a "rock fall" he knows he's onto something ...

This is a really good read. The action races along, with the tension building and building. Even though you know Bond will come out on top in the end, you are left wondering how he's going to get there for quite some time. As usual with these books, the details about clothes, food, drinks and cars are all there, but with the added bonus of some technical bits about the Moonraker project thrown in too. Gala Brand is good foil for Bond. She is brainy and brave and, for once, Bond DOESN'T get the girl (hoorah!). Entertaining and edge of the seat stuff, this short book is worth a few hours of anyone's time!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 247 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from local library.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.

2015 here we come ...

So what's the theme for 2015 ... well, the theme is READ WHAT YOU DARN WELL WANT! Whilst I have really enjoyed setting myself specific reading challenges over the last few years, it can become a little restrictive. When friends and family say ... you must read ... if I'm in the middle of a challenge, I can't! I have got such a back catalogue of books hanging around on my "to read" list that I really am going to make the effort to get through as many of them as I can and clear some shelf space again! However, I'm not going to be too prescriptive, if something takes my fancy, I will go for it! What am I reading right now? Well, Moonraker, by Ian Fleming (continuing the James Bond series) which I'm reading in print, and The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss - which is book one of The Kingkiller Chronicles. I am reading the latter in audio format and am really enjoying it, although it is a bit of an epic and Audible have done a bit of a naughty thing by splitting the original printed work into two audio books, which you have to pay for separately! The narration thus far is brilliant, but I'm not sure I will listen to the whole lot in audio because of this sneaky marketing ploy.

Goodbye to 2014 ...

2014 has been a bit of a whirlwind year. My reading theme of Sequels and Series kept me reading books that I really enjoyed by authors that I have come to love, like Bernard Cornwell and Ben Aaronavitch, but also to discover some new ones, like Lee Child. I had envisioned completely finishing the Rebus, Sharpe and Harry Potter books, but only managed the latter as I became slightly distracted by new series such as the Dresden Files, and the Lewis Man Trilogy (which I started and finished this year). I wonder if, subconsciously I don't really want to finish the Sharpe books ... because I just love them so much? My personal life has taken a major shift in direction, with being made redundant from my place of work after 25 years! This event has enabled me to pursue other ambitions over the last few months, which has been absolutely brilliant (I won't bore you with the details). So, favourite book of the year has to be Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantell (I can't wait for the final book in this trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and the intrigues and politics of the court of Henry VIII). Coming in a very close second is The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - this is truly a laugh out loud book that if you haven't read yet, you MUST! I have spotted a sequel to this latter book, so it will be on my new list very soon! The thing about a series of books is that you have to care about the characters to come back for more, otherwise it becomes a very short-lived series. There are so many more books out there featuring the fabulous creations from Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the dark and threatening atmosphere of Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole books and the strangely alluring world of James Bond that I can't see myself stopping reading "more of the same" in 2015 ...