thriller

Black Swan

01.20.2012 screen

I’m getting concerned that I may have a full-on movie addiction. For the second night in a row I’ve spent ninety minutes (that I’ll never get back) watching a flick on the free hotel HBO. Oh I had grand plans; in order, I was going to get back to the room, get a workout in, [...]

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Red Riding Hood

01.19.2012 screen

I’m not proud of this. I’m not sure Gary Oldman should be proud of this either. On this very night that my wife went to see Gary Oldman in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I sat in a sorry old Courtyard by Marriott about 600 miles away and watched Red Riding Hood on the free hotel [...]

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Athabasca

06.30.2011 books

This is turning out to be the year of the re-reads, mostly because of that fateful trip to The Brown Elephant a few months ago. This is another book I recall finishing years ago and saying, “meh.” Actually, I didn’t say that exact word because it hadn’t been invented yet. But I’m sure you get [...]

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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

02.05.2011 screen

Well, it’s over. I just watched this one on Netflix, so all three books and all three movies are behind me, done, finito. I can now get back to normal life. That is, at least until the American version of the TGWTDT comes out at the end of this year. I don’t know, for some [...]

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Black Ops

10.24.2010 books

Well, The Presidential Agent Series may have just nuked the fridge. Yeah, I don’t think it means I’m going to be moving on, but my respect for the series has taken a little hit. Maybe respect isn’t the right word. I’m struggling with how I feel, but I’ll sort it out by the end of [...]

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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

10.08.2010 books

Well, I’m done with the Dragon Tattoo girl series. What an epic ride it was; full of peaks and valleys, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, not boring for a second. I thought early on that my only option was to read all three books this year and I was correct. I had no choice. There [...]

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The Girl Who Played With Fire

06.25.2010 books

I used to like to space out books in a series, but I’m moving off that trend. The dragon tattoo girl series hooked me on the first one big time. I loved it. So I recently grabbed book two in paperback with a Borders gift card. It was also good and I had trouble putting [...]

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The Shooters

01.07.2010 books

This book is just about all dialogue. I noticed it earlier in the series but it really seemed to stand out in this one. Especially in the first half. Griffin basically tells the bulk of the story with dialogue. It’s amazing, and really cool. It’s non-stop chatter that moves rather rapidly. The violence and action [...]

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The Company of Strangers

09.25.2009 books

I was looking for a serious spy novel – I got a serious spy novel. There’s nothing light about this book. I read one of Wilson’s novels before I started Booktakes and I recall thinking it was really cool. Well, this one is even better. In fact, it’s the best book I’ve read so far [...]

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The Hard Way

08.27.2009 books

This is the next installment (for me) of the Jack Reacher series. I’ve had it sitting around for awhile but I was inspired to read it after reading about Lucas Glover’s win at the US Open. If you’re wondering why, read the first few paragraphs of this article and you’ll understand. So Glover is a [...]

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The Hunters

01.10.2009 books

This is the third book in Griffin’s Presidential Agent series. A series which is fast becoming one of my top fiction reading experiences. I think the stuff is genius. I really like the way Griffin humanizes his characters. He gives them quirks and cool traits that add to their personalities and add a lot to [...]

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One Shot

12.07.2008 books

When you’re reading a book in the middle of a series, you know the hero isn’t going to die. This takes away some of the anxiety you feel when the hero embarks on the “attack on the fortress,” against impossible odds of course. Which is not a good thing because it also takes away some [...]

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