The movie Jack Reacher is coming out and fans have mixed emotions about Tom Cruise playing Reacher, so I had to read the first Reacher novel to find out why there was such a hubbub among true Reacher fans. I get it now. There’s a big deal in the books about Reacher’s size. He’s a big guy. Over six feet tall. Tom Cruise, no offense, is a Hobbit next to Reacher.

Cruise can pull off the badass anti-cop all for the good of everyone guy… but can he pull of a no rules really big and intimidating guy like Reacher? Time will tell.

I will see the movie, mainly because my son is dying to see it. Will it hold up? I’ll let you know. For now, I will likely work my way through the Reacher novels between new reads. If you like fast paced, not really police procedurals, but mystery/suspense/action novels, and especially if you have given up on Alex Cross (I still hate you, James Patterson, for giving in to the almighty dollar and sacrificing quality books) ever being the man he once was, you might give Reacher a try.

Happy Reading from the Verge!

I’ve just returned from Mexico and managed to read a couple of books while I was away. None of them were the ones I was supposed to read, but vacation is for fun, and there were some books I was anxious to read so…..

Expect updates about Jonathan Kellerman’s Victims and Carol O’Connell’s Chalk Girl soon. I’m 65% (thank you, Kindle) through Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children at the moment, and enjoying it very much….

As soon as I scale the laundry mountain and get my work schedule sorted out, I’ll give  you some thoughts about my current reading list….

Geez, you spammers are worse than clowns. And I HATE clowns.

Without “spoiling” it for you, this is mild BDSM and lots of abnormal psychology. Both main characters appear to be schizophrenic because they fall in love in seconds, cure a fetish, and the woman alternately wants/doesn’t want to be with the messed up guy. If that isn’t enough for you, NOBODY wants to have that much sex. Ever. Nobody. I’m telling you now, I don’t even want to READ about that much sex. One more “thrust” and that book was going in the bonfire. So, if you want to know what all the fuss is about, go ahead and read it. But don’t come here and ask me to explain what a butt plug is.

After I suffered through Fifty Shades of WTF, I read Fifty Shames of Earl Grey by Andrew Shaffer writing as Fanny Merkin.  It was worth reading the over the top erotica just so I could enjoy this parody. It was hilarious and played off of the books perfectly. It is the only real reason to read Fifty Shades in the first place. Trust me. It won’t hurt a bit.

I will take this moment to apologize and to add that I have given in to reading the Fifty Shades trilogy, if only so I can mock them properly. If I read the word thrust one more time I may hurl. But I will treat you to a nice review… maybe not nice. Soon. As soon as I slog through the last one.

Have you heard of Adam? He’s immortal… but that isn’t the only interesting thing about him. He is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60,000 years old, but looks 32. He charms the ladies and is often drunk, but what better ways to pass the time? Of course, you cannot discount his encounters with supernatural beings and his entanglements with ancient Greek mythology… Well, let’s hear a little from Adam and his creator, Gene Doucette, about the sequel to Immortal: Hellenic Immortal.

Adam: We’re talking today with Gene Doucette, the author of Immortal and the upcoming Hellenic Immortal, due out on May third. Tell me what these books are about, Gene.

Gene: Um.

Adam: What?

Gene: They’re about you, dude. Why are you doing that?

Adam: I’m supposed to be interviewing you. That’s what you told me.

Gene: Could you do it without the cardboard toilet paper tube?

Adam: I don’t have a microphone.

Gene: It’s a print interview.

Adam: Fine. Talk about Hellenic Immortal. Or what you had for breakfast or something. Whatever.

Gene: When I wrote Immortal I more or less avoided entirely a significant portion of history: the classical Greek period. Now obviously you spent time there, but so much more happened during that era it didn’t make sense to talk about it as Just Another Time like it would have had I stuck it into Immortal. It almost deserved its own book.

Adam: Plus there was that whole thing about it not being relevant to the events in Immortal.

Gene: Right. Although I hope we don’t have to wait for something from the distant past to resurface and threaten your life before we can talk about it again, because I was kind of interested in Byzantium and the silk road and all of that, but none of that’s likely to come back to life and try and kill you.

Adam: That’s what we thought about the Eleusinians.

Gene: True enough.

Adam: Do you think people who liked the first book will like the second?

Gene: Well yeah, of course.

Adam: I know it’s a stupid question, just go with it.

Gene: Okay, okay. I think the second book has a different kind of pace to it. It’s slightly more mature, because as a writer I was slightly more mature when I wrote it. We also spend more time discussing philosophy and religion, which is not inherently pulse-pounding.

Adam: So it’s boring.

Gene: Oh my god do you not want people to read it??

Adam: It’s not boring.

Gene: No it’s not boring. It’s intellectually more challenging. Especially the Silenus passages. Plus there are plenty of folks who are trying to kill you, which is diverting.

Adam: Diverting, you say.

Gene: More interesting than you talking about drinking for two hundred pages.

Adam: Hey, I thought that was a pretty good first draft.

Gene: I think we’re done, yes?

Adam: Close enough.

I love my book group, but they tend to like a nice safe read like The Help. I like to read things with a little more edge, but I love the discussion, the diversity of the women and their opinions, so I stick with it. Just FYI.

Anyway, The Lace Reader was less about reading lace and more about blind faith, cult worship, witchcraft or the perception of it, and sanity. I found it intriguing. Warning: buy it on kindle. The cover is kind of wimpy looking. I’d love to hear what YOU think of it. Give it a try and let me know.

After reading The Lace Reader for my book club (I’ll post about it ne

xt) and the JFK book from King, I was in need of some light reading. I grabbed Janet Evanovich’s Smokin’ Seventeen and Explosive Eighteen and read them both within a week. Stephanie Plum, inept bounty hunter with an ex-ho spandex clad sidekick and two hot

men after her never fails to make me laugh. And while Steph is fun, the books wouldn’t be anywhere near as hilarious without Grandma Mazur, Lula, and Mooner (wish he was in more).

So, if you have been re-reading Oprah’s depressionfest of books or too many serious novels or nonfiction, grab a Plum, have a seat, and enjoy.