i picked this up for defense in case i ever end up fighting for my life on an indian television game show. the three musketeers is worthy of its literary classic status and offers up a great example to modern story tellers on how to do coincidence properly. for a contemporary example of getting it wrong see the latest installment of star trek where one monster starts chasing kirk only to be eaten by a second larger monster who continues the kirk chase and ultimately corners kirk in a cave where conveniently spock from the future is hanging out to slay the monster, rescue kirk and explain the plot that got lost a long time ago in special effects.

from the introduction: it was undoubtedly in 1844 that dumas reached the zenith of his fame. that year saw him elevated to the position of uncrowned king of paris. “monte cristo” and “the musketeers” were hailed in the capital and, indeed, throughout france with the wildest enthusiasm. long queues waited for each fresh issue of the “journal des debats” for the next installment of “monte cristo” and int he provinces crowds assembled to meet the stage coaches which carried it.

at the end of last year i bought a second professional quality lens and for christmas asked for and received a top of the line external flash. so my combined camera equipment is now worth more than my laptop. as a result, i feel compelled to step up my photographic game. i looked around for a highly regarded photography book and no other book i read about was as highly regarded as “understanding exposure”. this is an excellent treatise on photography and a bit of eat your heart out as bryan peterson taunts you with all the wonderful places he’s been and includes bikini shots of his attractive wife.

from the author: i know of no other way to consistently make correct exposures than to learn how to shoot a fully manual exposure.

i’ve read more books by orson scott card than anyone else and its mostly because they are easy reading with engaging plots. he may have gone to the ender’s well too many times with this one because while it was easy reading, the plot was not engaging and the character dialog was juvenile. or maybe i’m just getting old… from the author: if these were his last hours of freedom, or even of life, why not spend them with the people he liked, eating food he enjoyed?

i imagine this to be one of those books that speaks to everyone a bit differently. for me, having just returned from new zealand, it was a great escape back to the place i miss so much. from the author: what a pity, she thinks, as she drops the bottle at the woodpile’s edge, that we humans don’t have aesthetically pleasing skeletons. none of the elegance and beauty of your humble mollusc. just a knobbily serrated jumble, headbone connected to de breastbone etcetera etcetera. on the other hand, maybe just as well… something might decide to start collecting us…

this is the first time i’ve listed an audio book as something read but the story is compelling enough to encourage others to have a look. while i’ve got some doubts about the full validity of the story, i’d wager on it being more fact than fiction. from the author: economic hit men (ehms) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. they funnel money from the world bank, the u.s. agency for international development (usaid), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. they play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

i finished this book on the flight back from new zealand. a stewardess stopped by and asked if i were enjoying it and i said i was. she said she had recently seen the movie and was having a hard time believing that anyone could grow up in such unusual circumstances and go on to become a successful author.

my life history is somewhat colorful and while i may not be a successful author i’d claim some degree of success, so i told her i was pretty confident you didn’t have to stretch your imagination too far to believe this story.

from the author: sometimes i wonder if his life would have been easier if my parents had taken him to a doctor instead of just assuming he was cold and emotionally blocked. but then i remind myself that my parents had very questionable taste when it came to choosing medical professionals. with this in mind, i like to think that my brother wasn’t so much overlooked as he was inadvertently protected.

my gangster image might take a hit if i acknowledged how much of this book i could relate to. but then again, if you’ve read anything else on this site you already know my nerd cred exists in buckets where my gangster cred exists in a thimble. on the comforting side, wao won the 2008 pulitzer prize for fiction so my people are obviously now in control of pulitzer. from the author: he tried to give magic a chance, tried to put together a decent deck, but it just wasn’t his thing. lost everything to an eleven-year-old punk and found himself not really caring. first sign that his age was coming to a close. when the latest nerdery was no longer compelling, when you preferred the old to the new.

for the lover of irony, this book represents a feast. barely a sentence goes by without a taste. add in a backdrop of world war ii and the insanity of war is palpable. from the author: ‘a million years?’ persisted the jeering old man with keen, sadistic zest. ‘a half million? the frog is is almost five hundred million years old. could you really say with much certainty that america, with all its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man man that is second to none, and with its standard of living that is the highest in the world, will last as long as . . . the frog?’

i was in too much of a hurry… put too much value in the “we recommend” placement on the bookshelf.. and didn’t read past the “war in nigeria” summary on the back cover… five pages in i knew this book was a mistake. twenty pages in i didn’t have anything else to read. one hundred pages in it was the pill i had to swallow. two hundred pages in i practically read it over night so i could move on. from the author: ‘you know what always amazed me?’ she would ask olanna, as if she had not told her only a day previously. ‘that civilized white folk wore nice dresses and hats and gathered to watch a white man hang a black man from a tree.’

for more than two-thirds of this book i was certain i would have to revise my five star book review rating system to differentiate this book from others. it was that good. then a few too many dramatic coincidences occurred and i thought it stretched the authentic, biographic feel of the novel. however, it finished strong and the washington post book world review on the back “parts of the kite runner are raw and excruciating to read, yet the book in its entirety is lovingly written” is spot on. from the author: nothing is wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. but when a coward stops remembering who he is… god help him.

before starting this book i had picked up a piece of literature to read. however, if you’ve been following along the circumstances of my life of late you’ll know i was in no way ready to tackle real literature. so, the comedy of lewis black seemed like the perfect alternative. if your not familiar with lewis black you’ll be pleased to know that while his book may not qualify as fine literature there is still a loud and proud message to be found in there. from the author: since my head was in a continual spin cycle at the drama school, it made perfect sense that i would get married at this time. the wedding took place at the courthouse in rockville, maryland, with just my immediate family and hers. directly following the ceremony my brother and i walked out the door just as two officers of the law were passing by with a prisoner shackled between them. i looked at my brother and said, “when god sends you a message he certainly makes it loud and clear”.

its hard to be critical of this story because the author goes from running through the forests of sierra leone slitting people’s throats as a child soldier to graduating college in the united states. but from a literary perspective the book is only so-so. its the humanistic perspective that saves it. from the author: “visualize the banana tree as the enemy, the rebels who killed your parents, your family, and those who are responsible for everything that has happened to you,” the corporal screamed. “is that how you stab someone who had killed your family?” he asked. “this is how i would do it.”