The Firm

I've been reading The Firm by John Grisham. This book is fantastic!
So far, our main character, a top tier law student who has been drafted by many law agencies, is choosing an agency in the Southwest. I forget the state. Anyway, the law firm seems, to me, sketchy. They're offering him everything, a car, a house, an extremely well paying job, but they're very secretive. They wont let him drink, or divorce his wife if he so desires, he seems to be trapped. Meanwhile, there appear to be some hidden dealing going on with the firm, as there is a "secret" office on the 4th floor that he is not allowed in to. This book is a great read and I look forward to seeing the new twists and turns!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

This week I've been reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The book mentions Tom and Huck finding gold in a cave and each get $6,000 a piece. The book begings with the Widow taking in Huck to make him "sivilized". He gets fed up, however, and decides to run away, throwing on his old rags. However, Tom tells him to go back to the Widow because if he does he can join Tom's band of robbers which Huck desperately wants to join. The Widow tries in vain to civilize Huck Finn and the difficulties are saddening. He will not pray before a meal or believe in Moses, since he is dead. However, Huck does learn to read due to the Widow's sister teaching him to read, this is the only non-failure of the process. The chapter ends with Huck in bed. He flicks a spider into a candle which scares him because he thinks of it as an omen, and then hears a meow. Huck "meow"s back, and sees Tom Sawyer out of the window in the yard. More next week!

Dune

This week I read and finished Dune by Frank Herbert. It details the story of Paul Atreides as he and his family move to the desert planet Arrakis, nicknamed Dune. Dune contains the secret of the universe, the spice of the world which everyone depends on, is addicted to. The inhabitants have all blue eyes, no pupils. Paul is, at the beginning, threatened to be assassinated but then finds the killer object before it can do its deed. Additionally, he is tested by a member of an organization of women who are more powerful than others. They can control people with "the voice" and use this to overpower enemies. He places his hand into the gom'jabbar and therefore becomes accepted as a human, instead of an animal. On Dune, his family is attacked, and Paul and his mother have to escape. They hide to the desert and there are chased by "worms", massive, hundreds of feet long, and extremely dangerous. They make a transition to a cave and are there found by a group of inhabitants on Dune, named the Fremen. They try to kill them but they persuade them out of it and are saved. Water is especially precious on this planet, and they are threatened to be "drained of their water". More next week!

Alienist cont'd

This week in my reading of the Alienist, the plot thickened more. John Moore disagrees with the coroner's report and decides that the murder of the child is connected to two other murders in which the victims had their eyes gouged out as well. They set up a base for operations outside of the police precinct to get rid of any political ties, and Roosevelt isn't able to stay with them that often because he can't risk his political career in the murder mystery. New detectives are found to help investigate and use new techniques that are modern to them, old to us. These are fingerprinting, and the Bertillion System. When I finished reading another person was killed, yet of what I know not. More next week!

The Alienist

This week I began reading The Alienist, by Caleb Carr. It describes the search of a serial killer in 1896. So far it seems like a very well written, tough book, which poses a nice challenge. It's interested me so far, and it reminds me of Sherlock Holmes, in a way. It seems like a mystery always trying to be solved, but in another aspect, it always seems smoky, and dark. I am referring to the atmosphere's of the book and throughout Holmes it seems to be that he is always either thinking in a dark chair smoking a pipe or out in the night. In this book, the first murder that is a seen, of a hermaphrodite child prosititute, it is done in the darkness by a dark river under a tower.

Note

See blog from last week, I did it when it was not assigned, you said to leave you a note.

Thunderstruck cont'd

This week in Thunderstruck, by Erik Larson, the story continues of the race to create wireless communication and Crippen going to kill his next victim. Meanwhile, on the boat, a love story unfolds, shown in the front pages of newspapers across the country, that Erik Larson chooses to show us.

The Chief Inspector in a murder mystery begins to feel sympathetic toward the killer and his lover, and this is shown via newspapers, a tragic tale of love. Meanwhile, Crippen, who is supposedly "the kindest man" shows how he is not by beginning to plan the "perfect murder" on the boat. This is similar to his other book, The Devil in the White City, which was a parallel between creation and murder, this is a parallel between murder and ingenuity, almost the same. The style is similar, very characteristic of Larson, a great portrayal of his writing. So far the story has been very suspenseful and you never really know what's going on, if Marconi will go insane, get beaten, or be the first to create wireless, and if Crippen will succeed in his murder. Next time.