I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Wow; I think that pretty much sums it up. The tale of the last unaffected man surviving the vampire bacterial outbreak is absolutely amazing. We read as he slowly loses his mind, yet still manages to skeptically find hope from time to time. This book has fantastic rationalizations and explanations to why certain details of vampire lore exist, and also has a completely original take on the genre. This kept me deeply invested in the story and I could not wait to read on.

Worst Case by James Patterson

Michael Bennett books are always entertaining to read for his dry wit and sarcastic sense of humor, and in that regards, Worst Case just not disappoint. A loving father, a great cop, and a confused romantic all rolled into one finds himself once again stuck in the middle of a psychopath’s deranged plan, and also a side love triangle, but the latter seems less important. The storyline is good, not great, and the villain is somewhat boring, with barely a reason for doing what he does, but ultimately it is an enjoyable book and that is all that really matters.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was another surprising treat. I have been having great luck with ready books that my friends recommend, but I know absolutely nothing about the story. Turns out that the story is murder mystery, but for a murder that had taken place forty years prior to the story. The story revolves around the main male lead, Mikael Blomkvist, being hired to look into the murder at the request of an old man whose one last request in life is find justice for his beloved grandniece, Harriet. The trail of break crumbs leads him all over the place, and it is not until he joins forces with the gifted researcher, Lisbeth Salander (who happens to be the main female lead as well as the girl with the dragon tattoo), does his adventure really gain traction.

What I liked best about this book, besides the unique take on a murder mystery, and exciting plot, was that all the characters were so believable. Each character was so flawed that they seemed so genuine. Mikael was somewhat of a womanizer, but also a guy who tried to do the right thing, with the limitations he knew he had, and Lisbeth had a troubled path, a history of mental illness, apparent trust issues, and at points seemed borderline schizophrenic. Together though, the characters play off one another, and are build up by each others strengths into an unstoppable duo. Also, a highly interesting aspect of this book, was that it was written in another language (then translated to English), and as such I was able to get insight into the mind of a whole new culture (the story took place in Sweden). I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a great (not so easy to figure out) mystery, and/or someone who loves amazing character development. I must warn you however, that some parts of the book were a little odd, for lack of a better word. Not exactly a deal breaker, but the scenes did help to make the characters a little more interesting as well, albeit deter me from wanting to see the film adaptation of the book.

The Quickie by James Patterson

Not the best Patterson book, but still enjoyable. The story seemed more like a severe warning for anyone who thought about cheating on their spouse (perhaps there are some personal issues Patterson was addressing?). Much of the story seemed too straight forward and as the reader you could figure out what was going to happen next simply by asking yourself...hmmm, what is the worst thing that could possibly happen right now? Even the main character (although not too far off from the standard Patterson lead) was not too likable. I found myself not wanting to back her at all; in fact I kinda wanted her to get what was coming to her. The best part about this book was that it was not too long, so I did not have to invest too much time to get through it. I would recommend this to a Patterson fan who has perhaps run out of his better stories to read.

Zoo by James Patterson

I am torn with this one. I really wanted to read Zoo when I heard what it was about and I waited for the release, but then once I started reading I felt like it was not as good as I had hoped. Now I hold Patterson novels in the highest regard, and Michael Ledwidge is one of my favorite Patterson co-authors, so perhaps that lead to my disappointment, or perhaps it was because the “cause” of the conflict reminded too much of a Michael Crichton premise with a hidden agenda that was trying to be force fed to the reader. Then as fate would have it as the story unfolded and I chugged along with the semi-likeable main character, I started to enjoy the story, and when the ending came and I was left wanting more and hoping for yet another series from the man of many series, I guess I cannot be too hard on the book. All in all, not the best (unfortunately I was hoping it would be), but worth reading.

Next by Michael Crichton

I have always found Michael Crichton's writing to be very preachy and heavily saturated with a political agenda, trying to force feed his opinion on a touchy subject down the readers throat, but usually it is accompanied by a decent story. This time Crichton must have figured with less story he could put in more of his personal thoughts, and he did just that. Now I am not saying that Crichton did not have some interesting or valid points, which he did, but they could have easy been expressed in something other than a "novel".

From the beginning of the book there was never really any main character, just twenty or so concurrent stories that seemed vaguely correlated by each having something to do with genetics. Crichton spent little time on developing each character and moved on to the next story quickly, only to return back to previous mini-plots after twenty others, leaving plenty of time for the reader to lose interest in the characters completely (except for Gerard the talking bird, you can never grow bored with him!). Also, certain characters, mostly lawyers, seemed to be added into the story just to go on a rant about one of the topics Crichton wanted to mention, and their rant had little to nothing to do with the plot, and there were plenty of useless character rants. Then there were entire sections of the book in between plot jumping when Crichton used narration to ramble on about gene testing, flawed scientific research, medical research, and endless other topics. These narrations had nothing to do with the story, but Crichton probably could not find the proper character to go on the rant, so he did it himself.

I am not really a fan of Michael Crichton (and definitely not after this one), but I respect his ability to craft intelligent stories, so I keep trying his interesting sounding books. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is not already a Crichton fan, and if you find yourself holding it and teetering on whether or not to invest the time or money, I simply offer you one word which Crichton apparently tried to offer me..."Next".

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

It become clear just a few pages into this book what it means to be a classic. The Count of Monte Cristo is the definition of absolutely amazing. It has the perfect combination of adventure, excitement, mystery, humor, love, loss, sorrow, and I can go on and on, but I will spare you. Throughout the book you want Edmond to succeed and to get insight into his mind as his plan unfolds is spectacular. Some of the pieces I could only put together as they were happening, to which I find myself in the "now I see" moment. Such a clever book, and such a great writer. I have already began to use some of the dialogue of this book in my everyday life, which my dog does not appreciate because she claims the term "wretched scoundrel" does not truly capture her essence. All in all, if I were someone who liked reading, then you would enjoy this book.

Also, just a little disclaimer: regardless of whether you saw the movie adaptation of the book (which was a great movie), or whether or not you enjoyed the movie, the book is far better and much much different.