Nachos Book Club: Episode 6

One of my 2019 Blog Resolutions is to read 12 books for the year.  As you'll see with my next Blog Resolution Check-in (hopefully within the next couple of days), I actually did manage to read 12 books with a few months to spare!  I discussed the first four books that I read this year in an earlier blog post if you are interested.

Note:  Each book will have an Amazon link.  Amazon pays me a little bit of money when people click through my links and then order something (at no extra cost to the buyer).  I'm always looking for different ways to support my hobby so any Amazon purchases you make through my blog is much appreciated.  

Enough fine print, let's get to the book list!  Here are the books #5 - 8 that I read in 2019:

#5:  The Mark of the Assassin 

By Daniel Silva

The CIA, spies, and world travel.  This novel has a little bit of everything.  For a "junk novel" I found it to be well-written and quite engaging throughout.  In fact, I liked it so much that I ended up picking up another Daniel Silva book to read next (see below). 

As for the plot here, it's basically a CIA agent trying to solve a mystery which ties in back to his past including a lover plot.  If you like this type of novel, it's definitely worth a read - I won't spoil anything here.  My score:  95/100



#6:  The Kill Artist

By Daniel Silva

After reading The Mark of the Assassin by Daniel Silva, I had to look up other books written by him.  I ended up picking up this book because it was the first book in the Gabriel Allon series by Silva, a series about a Jewish spy getting into all sorts of trouble around the world.

In this book, an art restorer and a fashion model reunite as they were once old spies (and lovers).  This book had great characters that were well outside of the usual mold for thrillers like this book.  As a whole, the book was definitely a page-turner though I think I preferred The Mark of the Assassin just a hair more.  My score:  92/100


#7:  Jack Reacher:  Never Go Back

By Lee Child

I was first exposed to Jack Reacher via the Amazon (or was it Netflix?) miniseries but honestly, I didn't make it past the second episode.  As it turns out, the miniseries is a pretty good mirror image of the book series (and that's not a great thing in this case).

Never Go Back can best be described as a quick read with a semi-interesting story but I found the book to be poorly written.  Perhaps the best way I can sum up this book is by copying what an Amazon reviewer titled a review post:  "Not the best in the series, but far from the worst."  My score:  78/100



#8:  Jack Reacher:  Persuader

By Lee Child

In Persuader, we follow Jack Reacher through another novel where he is basically superman (this is book #7 in the series so by this point it is well-established how tough Reacher is).  That said, the beginning of this novel was particularly interesting (one of the best beginnings to a novel like this that I've read) but unfortunately the intrigue didn't stay consistent throughout the entire novel.  By the end, it was a lot of the same old usual trappings used in most novels of this ilk.  Still, it was better than Never Go Back mostly thanks to that great beginning.  My score:  83/100



My goal for 2019 was to read 12 different books so I knew I'd probably have to plow through a few "junk novels."  As you can tell, the four books in the middle of my reading list were all basically crime/mystery/thriller type novels.  Between the two Lee Child books and the two Daniel Silva books, it's no contest as to which books were better (Silva's all the way)!  These were all read during the middle of summer and they certainly fit the mold of a light, breezy novel to read while on vacation from work. 

That said, the final four books that I read in 2019 proved to be a much more interesting mix of books.  I'll be sure to highlight those at some point in the near future!