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Tim
I like to read fiction with plots that drive forward with cinematic pacing. Not sure why. Well, yes I am. I studied filmmaking back in school and worked for Warner Bros. for a few years. That's probably why. However, I've delved into some historic non-fiction and biography a tad. But none of the boring ones! It's got to fit in with my healthy diet of spy thrillers.
See more of my Staff Pick Archives here -->
Tim's Staff Picks:
$27.99
ISBN: 9781250120458
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Minotaur Books - January 28th, 2020
Bookseller: Tim
Title: Into the FireComments: In this 5th installment of Orphan X's adventures, once again all the ingredients for a smart action-thriller are here: a deadly assassin on the trail of an innocent victim, the last-resort call for help on The Nowhere Man's "bat-phone" hotline, and the good vigilante who can operate outside the law to save the day. But this time, the villain has more layers than a bad onion, and Orphan X must follow the crooked trail. With a hydra-head plot like this, you're kept guessing all the way down the line.
$27.00
ISBN: 9781524797683
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Ballantine Books - January 7th, 2020
Bookseller: Tim
Title: Mr. NobodyComments: If you can't remember who you are, how do you know who you can trust? Or, if you're England's leading psychiatrist on missing memories, how can you avoid the secrets from your own past?
Catherine Steadman weaves a taut psychological thriller here with intense wit and gifted writing. And it's only her 2nd book ever! (Read Something in the Water if you haven't already - but it's not necessary for this story.)
I love that I liked all the characters - they're incredibly relatable - and they're all making intelligent choices here. (There's nothing worse than a thriller with dum-dum characters making their situations worse.) But that all makes the conflict all the more intense!
$28.00
ISBN: 9780316525244
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Voracious - November 5th, 2019
Bookseller: Tim
Title: You Look Like a Thing and I Love YouComments:
If only AI knew how funny it was to us humans! Janelle Shane does a fantastic job making the science behind machine learning algorithms informatively hilarious; she started a humor blog called aiweirdness.com devoted entirely to ridiculous AI miscalculations.Read this for a fun way to learn about AI, or just to laugh at the absurd results that the AI brains produce as they try oh so very hard to think like a human. Indeed, most examples read like experimental poetry written by aliens.
Find out why we're safe from an AI apocalypse (for now), how AI use pick-up lines (which produced this book's title) and how to bake things that AIs think humans will eat (we won't.)
Here's one example of an original AI recipe for "Spread Chicken Rice"
2 lb hearts, seeded
1 cup shredded fresh mint or raspberry pie
1/2 cup catrimas, grated
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 salt
1 pepper
2 1/2 tbsp sugar, sugarAnd you don't even want to see the step-by-step instructions.
According to one AI neural net, this book is “a featureless masterpiece of tough-minded language.” Click here to read more hilarious AI reviews of this book.
$24.99
ISBN: 9780593115015
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Philomel Books - September 17th, 2019
Bookseller: Tim
Title: The Fate of Fausto: A Painted FableComments:
This beautifully crafted book feels hand-made. (Even the typeface inside is printed lithographically, rather than with a computer, lending glorious subtle imperfections.)
But more importantly - this story is GREAT!It's like the classic "The Giving Tree" except the greedy anti-hero here gets his comeuppance.
These amazing paintings on the pages just blow me away - and yet they're not overdone. (You know Jeffers' art from "The Day the Crayons Quit" series.)
$26.95
ISBN: 9780525654971
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Knopf - October 15th, 2019
Bookseller: Tim
Title: Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIAComments:
Could you ever have guessed that a spy's most valuable item to carry around would be, not a gun or a disguise, but 3x5 index cards?
Want to know how agents use the balance on coffee cards to communicate with their handlers?
Ever wonder what the clandestine training at "The Farm" is really like?As a reader of spy fiction, I absolutely loved Amaryllis Fox's memoir and the light is sheds on the real world corners of the intelligence lifestyle. Her soulful observations about terror, love, and genuine human connection give the espionage here more heart than you might expect.
You'll love it, too, if you like fiction like "The Expats" and "I Am Pilgrim," or TV shows like "Alias," Covert Affairs," or "The Americans."
$27.99
ISBN: 9780062916433
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Ecco - September 3rd, 2019
Bookseller: Tim
Title: Cold StorageComments:
Even a deadly mutating fungal-virus hybrid can't dampen the fun you'll have with these characters, if you can stay un-infected long enough.Imagine a pseudo-zombie-infection plot, brief and concise and occurring mostly over a single day and night. I had a lot of fun seeing two characters in particular cope with the events: it was as if Jesse Pinkman and Jane Margolis from "Breaking Bad" are coworkers on the night shift at the doomed self-storage facility, and Koepp's sense humor through their dialogue is delightfully infectious.
$17.95
ISBN: 9789887903406
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Victionary - July 10th, 2019
Bookseller: Tim
Title: The TypefacesComments: Coming soon.
$26.99
ISBN: 9780062897022
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Harper - June 25th, 2019
Bookseller: Tim
Title: The SnakesComments:
This story is a psychological thriller, but only in the same excellent way that "Breaking Bad" was a crime procedural show. The necessary elements are all there, but it's the way that it's told -- pacing, perspective, detail -- that elevates it to a higher lever of superb drama.Lesser writers confuse mere conflict for drama. Sadie Jones is far better. Here, the conflict is subtle (at first), pulsing just beneath the surface, like unseen snakes in your attic. And yet, the diminutive conflict leaves room for massive drama that is fragrant, rich, and delicious.
I love how these characters are nearly under-described, but so clearly defined by their simple existence: they way they speak or how they order at a restaurant or the way they hold their room keys.
Sadie Jones is a master magician -- a snake charmer. But this illusion isn't with big set pieces, it's close-up gallery magic. Perfect sleight of hand. This is the best kind of un-contrived thriller, and one that rattles around in your head long after you put it down.
*PS: If you loved "Something in the Water" by Catherine Steadman, you must read this one.
$25.95
ISBN: 9780393651645
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - February 12th, 2019
Bookseller: Tim
Title: Sounds Like TitanicComments:
This book feels like the a classical-music-version of Almost Famous, an on-tour-with-the-rock-band story with a great soundtrack. Even though “writing about music is like dancing about architecture,”* you can really feel the dance in this memoir. This story is a crazy dance that was so fun to read, and thought provoking, too. Hindman's beautiful prose describes a bizarre plot: Playing the violin for a traveling ensemble that secretly mimes along to a CD player, a detail which the audience never realizes.I was truly fascinated by the cast of real life characters that are straight out of a Wes Anderson film. A successful Composer who has never heard Beethoven's Fifth. The sensitive mustachioed roadie who gets teary-eyed every time he hears the ensemble perform. The Russian classical violinist who only listens to techno in his car. And Jessica, the young woman in the big city fresh from Appalachia trying to make a living as a professional musician.
I love how weird the real world can be!
*credited to comedian-musician Martin Mull in 1979
$27.95
ISBN: 9781524731656
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Knopf - May 21st, 2018
Bookseller: Tim
Title: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley StartupComments:
I started writing this review when I was only one-third of the way into this book: that's how good this is! Because it's almost not about what happens or where this true story goes (even though those aspects are truly captivating!), it's really about how superbly Carreyrou crafts the messy real-life events into a grippingly dramatic business thriller!DEFINITELY READ if you:
- Watched the series Halt and Catch Fire on AMC
- Read any of the Steve Jobs biographies, The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, or my other staff pick The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald
- Kind of love seeing disasters follow bad planning (like those FYRE Festival documentaries!)
