Origin (Booktober)

 

"Nature was once the core. For all of us."

 

 

 

When Dan Brown first published The Da Vinci Code way back when, he probably had no idea just how popular it - and Robert Langdon - would become. Bolstered by the performance of Tom Hanks, the series continues in Origin, a Spain-based novel filled with the usual Brown ingredients: mystery, fast-paced chases, and some added information for tourists and historical students alike. And at the end, it's Langdon against an unseen foe yet again. What more do you need on a rainy fall afternoon?

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement—the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever.” As the event begins, Langdon and several hundred guests find themselves captivated by an utterly original presentation, which Langdon realizes will be far more controversial than he ever imagined. Navigating the dark corridors of hidden history and extreme religion, Langdon and Vidal must evade a tormented enemy whose all-knowing power seems to emanate from Spain’s Royal Palace itself . . . and who will stop at nothing to silence Edmond Kirsch.

(from Goodreads)

 

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*image not mine

 

Quo Vadis (Booktober)

Death on the Nile (Booktober)

The Little White Horse (Booktober)

The Sign of Four (Booktober)

Harry Potter #2 (Booktober)

Troublemaker (Booktober)

The Lord of the Rings (Booktober)

The Lost Symbol (Booktober)

"Nothing is hidden that will not be made known."

Dan Brown is one of those authors that is easy to read, his books are super quick to run through, and although they sometimes read like a travelogue ... that doesn't mean they aren't fun! Plus, Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon is something you NEED to see. My book pick from his lineup, however, is one that didn't make it on screen. The Lost Symbol kind of has middle child syndrome in the Langdon series, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, probably because it isn't as famous as the others. It also happens in Washington, which I found kind of exciting.

So grab hold of your Mickey Mouse wrist watches, and tag along! Professor Langdon is waiting.

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object - artfully encoded with five symbols - is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation ... one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom ...

(from Goodreads)

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*image not mine

The Host (Booktober)

The Bridgertons (Booktober)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Booktober)

The Infernal Devices (Booktober)

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (Booktober)

Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Booktober)
Broken Sky (Booktober)

The Shadow of the Wind (Booktober)

Dracula (Booktober)

Life and Death (Booktober)

ACOTAR series (Booktober)

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (Booktober)

Sepulchre (Booktober)

Pride and Prejudice (Booktober)

Tempting Autumn (Booktober)

Harry Potter (Booktober)

The Hobbit (Booktober)

Tome Thursday: Holy Blood, Holy Grail

Hello everyone!

So every once in a while I'll pick up a book which has somehow or other been deemed inappropriate, scandalous, or, you know, it may even have been forbidden at some point or other.

I mean, The Da Vinci Code is certainly on that list!

But then again, other times I'm going to go back to re-read some things and remember there are other books connected to whatever it is I'm reading, which means that I'll be on the hunt to track down these other sources.

This was what happened to me with tonight's book of choice.

I was never one of those people who would fall so completely into a legend or story that I'd be doing my own research, but just before my parents took a short trip I asked my dad to dig up a book I'd remembered seeing lying about at some point, but books in our house tend to grow legs and clatter everywhere you can imagine.

My father being the amazing man that he is went and actually unearthed this book from under a couple of tires and out of a box. I'm talking about Holy Blood, Holy Grail, of course.

Tome Thursday: Angels & Demons

Hello everyone!

It's book talk time again, and with my e-reader situation still the same as it was around Christmas (aka alas, poor Kobo, I knew thee well), I have to resort to different tactics if I want to read certain books.

Luckily, however, some of them are pretty easy to grab right off my bookshelf.

Which reminds me that I should at some point continue with my bookshelf tour, but maybe not right now. Maybe I'll do it in May though?

Anyway, for this particular blog post I've decided to go with the tried-and-tested trope of an author who people love and hate at apparently the same time. For me, I tend to enjoy reading his books because I don't necessarily go into the reality of it all and just ... you know, read it for the enjoyment of reading.

I'm talking about Dan Brown, of course.

Brown is one of those authors that just LOVE stirring up the pot, and his book Angels & Demons is definitely no exception.

Tome Thursday: Origin

Hello everyone!

I think ... no, I'm fairly sure that I've never before reviewed one of Dan Brown's books on my blog.

Let me do a quick search to double-check.

I have not.

BUT I do have the review for the movie Inferno, which is the latest in the Robert Langdon series with Tom Hanks in the titular role, so I'm going to be including the link to that one at the very bottom of this page. And maybe someday I'll be bored enough to actually reread the lot of the books and review them one by one. That job alone would give me food for these posts for two solid months!

Anyway.

Origin, the subject of tonight's post, is the absolute latest of Brown's novels and it once again features professor Robert Langdon doing what he usually does best: solving puzzles people left behind for him.

In this case, we're once again dealing with the Church.

Tome Thursday: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

Hello everyone!

After a long while I'm back with another Rick Riordan appreciation, er, blog post. The last one I posted was roughly in summer last year when I reviewed the first of his Trials of Apollo series (which reminds me that I should probably review his second one in that trilogy soon), but then I kind of fell off the Riordan map, even though I continued reading his books.

Namely, I was taken in by this Norse mythology series the author launched.

It's title is, as you can see on top of this blog post: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.

Sounds familiar?

You're right. There's another Chase running around Riordan's books, and her name is Annabeth, aka Wise Girl, aka Percy Jackson's girlfriend.

Magnus and Annabeth are cousins, and that DOES come into play in the books. Mostly though it just adds to the hilarity of all the situations these kids find themselves in, including but not limited to saving the world, often twice. Who's counting?

So below, you'll find a record-sharp recap of the entire trilogy. And all this while I'm reading Dan Brown's new novel, Origin!

Talkie Tuesday: Inferno

"Cerca trova."

Hello everyone!

Since Sherlock has now finished, and Game of Thrones hasn't begun yet for me to do my weekly blogs with recaps of it, I'm back to reviewing movies, as per usual. 

Now, I do have quite a backlog it would seem, considering the fact that I keep finding other stuff to write about, which sometimes might feel counter-productive, but believe me, with the amount of things I watch just to relax, it's not actually THAT far-fetched I don't think.

Anyway.

I wanted to watch this movie pretty much as soon as it was announced they were filming it, mostly because I have, in fact, enjoyed reading Dan Brown's books with Robert Langdon as the primary character. Also, I've enjoyed watching Tom Hanks on screen, making sure everybody else around him and those watching wonder about what he was talking about half the time.

And while Inferno sounds like something straight out of Hell, it's actually, in my opinion, a tourist guide to Florence.