Bookwormex - Book Reviews for Avid Readers - Page 2 of 26 - The First Stop for Literature Lovers

“The House on Garibaldi Street” by Isser Harel – Kidnapping a War Criminal

March 20, 2022March 20, 2022

“The House on Garibaldi Street” by Isser Harel (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Isser Harel was a man of rare talents and biographical diversity, having both served as the Director of the Mossad for eleven years, as well as having had a successful career as an author. The House on Garibaldi Street is perhaps his best-known work of non-fiction, detailing the operation to capture Adolf Eichmann in Argentina to extract him to Israel to stand trial for his role in engineering “The Final Solution”, all while avoiding an international scandal.

“The Girl in the Painting” by Tea Cooper – A Past Hidden in Brushstrokes

April 12, 2022March 17, 2022

“The Girl in the Painting” by Tea Cooper (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Tea Cooper has been perfecting her craft as an author of historical fiction novels for over ten years now, and with The Girl in the Painting we see it all come together in brilliant fashion. The story follows a woman, Elizabeth Quinn, and her adopted daughter, Jane Piper, as they embark on a quest to discover long-hidden truths after the former of the two experiences a traumatic episode at a local exhibition.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann – A Criminal Silence

March 13, 2022

“Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

David Grann has long sought to expose truths which received little recognition from the world, and in Killers of the Flower Moon he takes us back to the 1920s, when the Osage Indian nation discovered oil beneath their land, becoming the richest people per capita in the world. However, in the years which followed members of the nation started being killed off one by one, paving the way for one of America’s most shameful inner tragedies.

“True Crime Story” by Joseph Knox – All the Missing Girls

March 10, 2022

“True Crime Story” by Joseph Knox (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Joseph Knox has taken the world of thrillers by storm with the first novel of the Aidan Waits Thriller series, and with True Crime Story he takes a side-step to write a standalone story. It follows the investigation conducted by a crime writer, the author himself, into a woman named Evenly Mitchell, who became obsessed with the disappearance of Zoe Nolan who, in 2011, walked out of her dorm room never to be seen again.

“Aftershocks” by Marko Kloos – A Planet in Crisis

May 6, 2022March 7, 2022

“Aftershocks” by Marko Kloos (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Short Summary

Marko Kloos found his foothold in the science-fiction genre beyond the shadow of a doubt, and with Aftershocks he begins a new series, The Palladium Wars, by taking us on an Earth-like planet in the Gaia system called Gretia. As it tries to stabilize in the wake of interplanetary war, various actors see their fates intertwined on the precipice of a massive insurrection threatening to tear Gretia apart.

“The Matchmaker” by Paul Vidich – The Banality of Evil

May 6, 2022February 23, 2022

“The Matchmaker” by Paul Vidich (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Paul Vidich has become an expert at writing espionage novels loosely-based on real facts, and with The Matchmaker he returns to what he does best, taking us towards the end of the Cold War and sending us on a hunt after a high-ranking East German counterintelligence officer. Simply known as the titular Matchmaker, he is desperately sought-after by the CIA, being helped by the one woman who knows his face, having once seen it on a photograph.

“The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Erasing an Existence

February 16, 2022

“The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Carlos Ruiz Zafon, though he is sadly no longer with us, retains his title of the most successful contemporary Spanish author for good reason, his stories carrying the reader to places few authors could imagine. In The Shadow of the Wind, the first entry in The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, Zafon tells the story of a young bookshop owner’s son in post-war Barcelona as he tries to unravel the tragic fate of Julian Carax, an author whose works someone has been systematically destroying.

“Survive the Darkness” by Ryan Casey – The Remaining Few

February 10, 2022

“Survive the Darkness” by Ryan Casey (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Ryan Casey is fast becoming a respectable voice in the world of science-fiction, having written numerous bestselling series over the last few years. Survive the Darkness is perhaps his most renowned work, telling the story of three people during a sudden EMP attack. Two of them are caught in the mayhem of it all and are trying to survive, and the third one is a prisoner who just stepped out of his cell with his sights set on vengeance.

“The White Ship” by Charles Spencer – The Pivotal Point

February 3, 2022

“The White Ship” by Charles Spencer (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Charles Spencer has found his niche in the world of literature as the guide who takes his readers on lesser-known tours of English history, a status he reinforced yet again when he published The White Ship. Taking us back to 1120, it presents us with a narrative which explores the sinking of the titular ship, with members of royal families on-board, and its consequences in relation to the Norman Conquest as well as the decades of civil war that followed.

“When We Cease to Understand the World” by Benjamin Labatut – The Burden of Discovery

January 23, 2022

“When We Cease to Understand the World” by Benjamin Labatut (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Benjamin Labatut is quickly proving himself a unique author defying traditional classification, a notion he reinforced most recently when he published his third novel, When We Cease to Understand the World. In short, it’s a fictional examination following the lives of numerous real-life scientists and mathematicians, with an emphasis on the earth-shattering discoveries they’ve made and the repercussions those have had on the world, both beneficial and destructive.

“Branches” by Adam Peter Johnson – Endless Chances

January 21, 2022

“Branches” by Adam Peter Johnson (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Adam Peter Johnson is without question one of the more promising authors to have arrived on the scene recently, having published his first novel, Branches, in 2020 and received a fair share of acclaim for it. The story follows a man who discovers that not only is he in the wrong timeline, but there’s also a remedy for it. With the world around him headed for catastrophe and chaos, he takes the plunge, and begins a surreal trip of seemingly endless second chances.

“Hotel” by Arthur Hailey – A Vacation Crisis

May 12, 2022January 6, 2022

“Hotel” by Arthur Hailey (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Short Summary

Arthur Hailey has been able to pierce and expose various industries over the course of his illustrious career like few others could have hoped. In Hotel (a novel adapted into a television show as well as a movie) he takes us through five fateful days at New Orleans’ largest hotel as the lives of its guests, workers and managers intersect in unpredictable ways.

“Yestertime” by Andrew Cunningham – The People Behind the Science

June 16, 2022January 3, 2022

“Yestertime” by Andrew Cunningham (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Andrew Cunningham is the sort of author who enjoys leaving his own comfort zone, and with Yestertime he dives into the untold potential of the time travel genre. It follows the story of Ray Burton, a journalist who, by pure accident, discovers a box from a hundred years ago carrying a seemingly impossible message, prompting him to embark on an investigation bound to change his life forever.

“The Judge’s List” by John Grisham – Two Decades of Condemnation

December 16, 2021

“The Judge's List” by John Grisham (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

John Grisham is a name needing no introduction for fans of legal thrillers, by numerous metrics being one of the most successful writers in the genre, an achievement he rightfully deserves. In The Judge’s List, the second book in The Whistler series, he blends his craft with murder mystery, sending investigator Lacy Stoltz on the trail of a serial killer, with her main suspect being a sitting judge.

“Gravity’s Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon – Meaning in a Cruel World

December 7, 2021

“Gravity's Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Thomas Pynchon might not be a very prolific author, but his books have often had a powerful impact when they were published, with the most prominent of the lot arguably being his 1973 classic bestseller, Gravity’s Rainbow. It’s an unusual kaleidoscope of a novel, taking place against the backdrop of the Second World War, exploring through a large number of characters the madness and all-consuming paranoia it gave birth to.