Showing posts with label Literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Literature. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Review Tuesday: The Matarese Countdown by Robert Ludlum

The Matarese CountdownEarlier in the year I read The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum. I loved the book (review HERE), so when I found out there was a sequel I had to get my hands on it!


Twenty years after the events of The Matarese Circle, the family business is back at it. The grand children of the Baron Matarese, along with the son of the shepherd-boy have put together a time-table for global domination. First, they will destroy economies, then the governments of the world. The smallest scraps of information on the case are dumped on the desk of CIA Agent Cameron Pryce and he's told to find the reclusive hero from the first book, Brandon Scofeld, for his assistance and knowledge on the subject.


The book is a series of twists and turns as the good guys and bad guys are in a death grip for control of the entire planet.

The concept is chilling, and the story will enthrall you. However there is entirely too much reflection by Scofeld and his wife to the first book to make it drag a bit.


All in all, it was a fun book to read and the 566 pages went by very quickly. If you like Ludlum and read the first one, definitely consider this book as well!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Thursday, August 11, 2011

billet \BIL-it\, verb:
1. To provide or obtain lodging.
2. To direct (a soldier) by ticket, note, or verbal order, where to lodge.
noun:
1. Lodging for a soldier, student, etc., as in a private home or nonmilitary public building.
2. A small chunk of wood; a short section of a log, especially one cut for fuel.
Billet stems from the French billet, "official register." The word relates to the English bill.
Mental virginity
  • The general state of mind characterized by complete ignorance about sex and human reproduction.

Dude they think that sex ed teaches us a heck of a lot of stuff we didn't know, but the truth is, we lost our mental virginity a while back.
Totally dude.
*high five
Trivia
What animal was given the Latin name Avahi cleesei in honor of actor-funnyman John Cleese?
  • Not a python—a woolly lemur. It was named for Cleese, who played a lemur-loving zookeeper in the 1997 film comedy Fierce Creatures and hosted a 1998 documentary about the endangered species titled Operation Lemur.

History
  • SOS: Arapahoe became the first American ship to use the distress signal (1909)

  • Alcatraz: island prison in San Francisco Bay received its first civilian inmates (1934)

  • Hussein ibn Talal: 16-year-old was proclaimed king of Jordan after his father was declared mentally unfit (1952)

  • Watts riots: civil disturbances in Los Angeles left 34 dead (1965)

  • The Mall of America: the most-visited mall in the world opened on the site of Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota (1992)

Birthdays
  • Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852): father of gymnastics

  • Alex Haley (1921-1992): author of Roots; also, writers Eduard Devrient (1801-1877), Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) and Louise Bogan (1897-1970)

  • Jerry Falwell (1933-2007): Moral Majority founder

  • Steve Wozniak (61): cofounder of Apple Computers

  • Hulk Hogan (58): wrestler/actor, host of NBC's American Gladiators

  • Julia Anne Clarke (39): aka Julie Clarke, Playmate 03/91, actress, model, hardbody