Read a Great New Mystery: "Faces of the Gone" by Brad Parks.

Reading Brad Parks' book Faces of the Gone is great fun.  The book is engaging, fast paced, witty and wry; it is pure reading entertainment.

The story takes place in Newark, New Jersey.  Four bodies are found in a vacant lot, each killed by a single shot to the head.  Thirty-one-year old Carter Ross, investigative newspaper reporter for the Newark Eagle-Examiner, is told by his editor to "get to the bottom of what the hell happened".  Carter, with the aide of his Facebook-obsessed intern, heads out into the street to do just that.

As Carter works the story for "the bird", as locals refer to the Eagle-Examiner, he tries to discover what links the murder victims together.  While he snoops around for the story, we meet an assortment of characters:  Small-business owners, gang-bangers, strippers, grandmothers, and newspaper folks.  Carter's observations on the newspaper business and the characters who work in it provide an entertaining back story to his investigation of the murders.  And as he dodges his editor's demands for copy, Carter discovers a criminal scheme that puts his own life in danger.  

Faces of the Gone is a great read.  Fresh, original, and highly recommended.



  

Wish you had a good book to read?

Bored? Looking for a good novel or mystery to read?  Check the link to The Good Stuff to find recommended books, music, and more.

Good books are hard to find.  Let's talk about what books we like. I want to know your views, so post your comments on the books reviewed here.  And join the Facebook group, comment there, and get more info on what I really enjoyed reading - and what I did not!

It's all about finding Something Good to Read. 

Movies We Like: Sundance Winner and Oscar Nominated "Winter's Bone"

Looking for a good movie to watch over this winter weekend?  Then rent or download Winter's Bone, which was nominated this week for the best-picture Oscar.  It's really good.

Winter's Bone, which won top prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, is set in the Missouri Ozarks.  Seventeen-year old Ree Dolly must track down her dad, a meth cooker.  After her dad's last arrest, he put up the family home and wooded acreage to make bond.  Now he's gone missing and Ree, her two younger siblings, and mentally ill mother face the possibility of losing everything.

The plot is suspenseful.  Filmed in the drab colors of winter, poverty and danger, Dee's determination to keep her family together and do what everyone warns her not to do - find Jessup Dolly - is a force on the screen.  And actor John Hawkes, who plays Dee's uncle, does an outstanding portrayal of a man you should fear if you are smart.

Check it out this weekend:  Winter's Bone.

Video on Demand:




The DVD:

Some Amazon Shoppers May Want to Up-Date Their Password.

It's time to up-date your Amazon password if you have not done so in the past few years.

The Consumerist reports that some older Amazon accounts appear to have a flaw in their password protection powers.  This flaw makes the account vulnerable to a brute force cracking attempt.  According to The Consumerist, "For affected accounts, if you haven't changed your password in several years, and it's over 8 characters long, it looks like all people have to do is enter the first 8 characters correctly and they're in. Even if after the 8 characters they just type gobbledygook."

How to create a good password?  Here is one strategy.  Think of a sentence that you are likely to remember, and use the first letter of each word to form the password root.  For example, the sentence "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" (from a Robert Herrick poem), creates the root "gyrwym".  Now, toss in a couple of numbers memorable to you and you have a password:  gyrwym21.  For more password tips, check out this article from Lifehacker.

Patti Smith is Writing a Detective Novel

Singer, songwriter and poet Patti Smith continues to undertake new challenges as an artist.  Smith is reportedly working on a detective novel set in London.  In 2010, she won the National Book Award in nonfiction for her memoir Just Kids.  

Patti Smith is so talented.  I'm looking forward to seeing what she does when working in my favorite genre of fiction.





 

"Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson.

Sometimes events converge.  This morning I see that Powell's Books posted a review of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, a popular novel from last year.  Last week my friend (and sister-in-law) started this same book, which I read last summer.  "Did you like it?"she asked.  "Well, I finished it," I replied.  This, as you may imagine, is not my most ringing endorsement for a novel.

I did finish Major Pettigrew's Last Stand because it is a readable and mildly engaging story about race, relationships, and community in a small, English village, but certainly not because it was lighting my reading world on fire.  For me the book read like sparkling water gone flat:  Acceptable, drinkable, but not what you hoped for.

Have you read this book?  Let me know what you think about it:  Fabulous or Flat?  

   

Books into Movies: "Pride, Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Graham Smith.

Reportedly there is a new chink in the chain bringing out a movie adaptation of Seth Graham Smith's book "Pride, Prejudice and Zombies."  Various web sites are reporting that director Mike White has left the project because of scheduling conflicts.  

On the positive, this gives everyone plenty of time to either read the book or read it again.