Dan's 2014 Books

5. Inferno by Dan Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I forgot I read this book. It was good, but clearly not all that memorable. The adventure was good though and I remember enjoying the story while experiencing it. Very similar to the other Robert Langdon thrillers.






4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While the story line was certainly compelling, it was pretty full of sexuality and brutality toward woman. Not to mention some very strong language. I would not recommend reading this book because it did not make me a better person. Not that I expect to feel happy and light with everything I read, but I think the things I learned were not necessarily things I needed to know and dealt with the seedier aspects of humanity.

3. Lone Survivor by Marcus Lutrell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listed to this on tape and it was an amazing story. Amazing that anyone survived the attack. Also very sad. I would recommend this book, but be aware that about 2/3 of the way into the book the language starts to get kind of foul. Maybe not unusual for those who read books about wartime, but not clean language. Mr. Lutrell did a fine job writing the book, though he does take considerable space to discuss a few political issues that he clearly disagrees with. I'm not sure it made the story any better. Not that I disagreed with his points, it just seemed a little more like a rant than simply pointing out a system that needed some improvement.
It made me proud to be an American and I feel like I got a lot of insight into was SEALs are required to do to. Pretty intense.

2. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I started listening to this book, I had no idea what it was about. It was very interesting to listen to and I learned a lot about Chicago in the late 1800's too. I think the juxtaposition of the psycho murderer against the World's Fair and the invention of the Ferris Wheel was very interesting and compelling to read. I liked this better than the other book I read by Erik Larson.

1. Medusa by Clive Cussler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a fun story about a virus that is going to annihilate the world (world-wide pandemic) unless NUMA researchers can come up with cure in a secret undersea lab. When the lab disappears off the map and a Chinese drug gang get involved, the adventure kicks up a notch. It is worth reading once and is very similar to other Clive Cussler books I've read. Nothing phenomenal though.