Reading is Good (Apr 09)

Read four books since last review.

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Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer is a fantastic read.

It's like Ocean 11 with just four people, so Ocean 4?


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It's a story about a nasty businessman who manipulated the share market by creating a shell company with empty promises and burst the bubble when he had raked in enough, causing those who fell for and invested in the fake company to go bankrupt.

Among the victims, four persons were hit the hardest, a professor, a doctor, a gallery owner, and an actor-wannabe lord.

These four persons ganged up to get even, by devising plans to con the money back from the businessman. They were fundamentally decent people (like me!) so they just wanted to get their invested amount back, plus whatever cost incurred during the operation to get back their money, hence the title of the novel.

I repeat, it's a fantastic read, gripping good story line and well paced. Go read.

Quote fromthe novel:

"it's not winning that matters. It's taking part" (origin: Baron de Coubertin, remark when opening the 1896 Olympics)

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Dark Paradise by Tami Hoag is intriguing.


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It's about a city girl, this Marilee Jennings who had just broke up, and who was stucked in an unhappy job looking for a break.

She went looking for the only friend she could talk to, who stayed in New Eden, Montana, the cow boy cow girl country, only to find the friend is dead. Police said it's a hunting accident but Marilee doubted it.

The dead friend left Marilee a fortune, including a ranch. Marilee decided to investigate her friend's death and in doing so got involved with the locals. Lives were changed.

There's a Hollywood happy ending with murderer found, evil rich and power hungry person taken down, relationship mended, live happily ever after. Those kind of stuff.

The in between is where the juicy bits are, especially with all those wild sex.

Yea, I think that's enough to cause some people to want to read the novel, heh. =P

Anyway, good read, page turning entertainment.

Quotes from the novel:

"belonging doesn't necessarily have anything to do with birthright"

"...in limbo. What a curious place to be. A fog, where contact to the past had been severed and the future lay beyond the thick white mist."

"if you can't do the time, don't do the crime"

"that's what you do, not who you are. Never confuse the two... That kind of thinking only limits you."

"that boat sailed a while ago, skipper."

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The Deal by Joe Hutsko is an alright book. Interesting enough story line and relatively easy read.


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It's about a power grab of one Matthew Locke, who took over the position of Peter Jones, the founder of Via Computer Inc, and how Peter Jones did a come back.

The good, bad and ugly of business deals and workings were touched on, as well as the danger of the internet. There were stuff about designing hand held computers, hand writing and voice recognition. There were romances, real, fake, and illicit.

I would say the novel is okay, not spectacular but not bad either.

There is a good moral of the story though:
Don't believe everything you read online, and exercise caution with people you meet online, you never know who they really are and what they are really after.

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The final book I read in April is a collection of short stories by Jeffrey Archer called A Quiver Full of Arrows.


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I was mildly disappointed not to find anything related to archery in this novel. However Jeffrey's twelve short stories were such good reads that I forgive him for deceiving me with the title.

=P

I won't go over any of the twelve stories, just wanted to say that they are all entertaining read and the length is just nice for my before sleep reading duration. Some stories are better than others but generally all were well written and interesting.

I particularly like Old Love, it's a sweet story. Or maybe because it's the last story and the only one I can still remember...

Light and easy, all in all a good novel.

Quote from Old Love:

"Philippa and William confronted the examination papers every morning and afternoon for two weeks with an appetite that bordered on the vulgar."