With a slow sports night behind us unless you're a baseball junkie like me I figured that I'd cover something off the beaten path. I just finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. Surprised? Shocked? Yes I occasionally read a book or two. I actually went years without reading much of anything except for the Lincoln Rhyme novels by Jeffery Deaver. Thanks in large part to my iPad and the Overdrive app that you can download to access library books for rental, I have read much more in the last year. I cruised through the Alex Cross series by James Patterson which was very easy reading and didn't contain much plot detail, but merely rather a quick moving easily solved case with mixed levels of danger. I don't fault Patterson for churning out books for the masses, but the feeling is that he spits them out over a long weekend.
I also worked through, working being a bad term because I actually enjoyed them thoroughly, the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly. I'll never be mistaken for a book reviewer, but I think that Connelly is an excellent writer. Its obvious that he has done exhaustive research on how the police and lawyers interact or at least he sells it to the reader well. The plots always start out simple enough, but they continue to to get deeper and the path to the resolution gets trickier for Bosch as he wades through political pressure and his own personal drive to not be stopped. The characters are always flawed, especially Bosch and that's what made me enjoy him even more. He made mistakes, whether interpersonal one with co-workers, friends or a significant other and he admitted them, but rarely learned from them. It was a bulldog personality that was his biggest personal demon. Burning bridges en route to finding justice was his forte. I can relate because I know I'm not the best with my own relationships when it comes to seeing other peoples needs and wants (just ask my wife).
I still enjoy Jeffery Deaver the most as a storyteller. If you've seen the movie The Bone Collector starring Denzel Washington, then you are familiar with the character of Lincoln Rhyme. A New York detective who has been paralyzed from the neck down save for the use of the fingers on his right hand (a convenience that I'm willing to overlook). He uses forensics and his encyclopedia worthy database of knowledge of everything related to the subject to help stay a step ahead of the killer. Deaver gives the reader just enough information to keep you guessing and pulls the curtain back just when you are expecting a different outcome. Does he take liberties to keep the drama flowing? Sure, but that's why I like it. He minimizes the extracurricular story lines and keeps the mystery flowing. Again I've read about 0.000000000000001% of books in the world and by no means am I an expert, but if you feel like reading something new I highly recommend any of the series listed and I hope you enjoy.
As for Abraham Lincoln and his secret life as a vampire hunter. I'm sure the movie will add more oomph to it, but some of it, okay most of it felt forced. I'm a sucker for history based conspiracy theory movies (National Treasure, JFK etc.) but reinventing history is probably a step too far. I'll give the author credit to interweaving fact based history with Lincolns' mysterious diaries about his hobby of choice, but I was expecting more. I don't know what it was, but I guess I was expecting a deeper more concise story not one that was covered in less than 300 pages and spanned his entire life. Hopefully that's not a spoiler, sorry. I guess I'm just used to a book lasting a couple of days or weeks at most over a couple hundred pages (unless you've read The Passage by Justin Cronin which covers a wee bit more time in 700+ pages, but has vampires!).
I'm trying to be a better reader after years of being a die hard movie watcher. I don't judge either type of person even though I know a lot of readers who insist the book is always better and look down on people who swear by the movie. Just because you've developed more characters and delved deeper into their lives doesn't make for a better story. Although I haven't read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I have seen the movie and asked friends about the book and they say that there's an extra 200 pages of characters and family history that are just not needed. Sometimes being forced to keep the running time of a story under 120 minutes is the best thing. Director's Cuts of movies are not also better, even though some are fabulous. Whichever path you choose, reading or watching, the reason you are doing so is you want to escape into another persons' life for a bit and enjoy the genre of the story and I'm all for that.
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There has been a lot of chatter about Stephen Strasburg and the supposed innings limit for this season coming off of his Tommy John surgery 2 years ago. The reason there is talk is because the Washington Nationals held fellow starting pitcher, Jordan Zimmerman to 160 innings during the 2011 season after he had the same surgery a year earlier. Last year the Nationals were not in contention to make the playoffs, but this year after a torrid start, they are. Washington is going to have a very, non pine tar related, sticky situation to handle come mid-August. Do they dare risk the prized jewel of the pitching staff and let him throw a full season and possibly more with playoff starts? Do they potentially sacrifice this season and keep in mind the next 10 years.
I'm not a medial expert and I don't know how many other pitchers have been held to an innings limit in their first full season back from Tommy John surgery. I can only hope that the Nationals brass have reached out to other teams and asked for input on how they handled this type of situation. I am sure there has been short term and long term research on recovery times and innings pitched for Major League starters.
Personally I would love to see the Nationals make a run at it. As a Washington Capitals fan I had been spoon fed the story that the window for the 'Young Guns' is wide open. That started five years ago and the window seems to be closing faster than ever. The youthful core for the Nationals seems to have a good 10 year window, but we fans realize all it takes is a Mark Prior type regression of a young star pitcher, a bad trade and a loss of a key player to free agency and the franchise is back to square one. I will completely understand if the Nationals choose the safe route as long as they continue to add payroll and keep the core intact in future years.
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