Tag: Michael Connelly

Mickey Haller is Coming to Netflix!

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Yes! I hate when characters get caught up in the abyss of adaptations and rights are purchased and then nothing happens. For any fellow Michael Connelly fans, you probably know this is what happened in the early days of Harry Bosch. Then Michael Connelly spent years fighting to get the rights back. Ultimately, Amazon’s Bosch was created and so well done.

Something similar almost happened with Mickey Haller, Harry Bosch’s half-brother who works out of his Lincoln. The defense attorney who rarely comes across a case he won’t take. Most have probably seen The Lincoln Lawyer adaptation. It was okay. Nothing great, and not surprising that it didn’t spawn a series of movies. Later, CBS bought the rights to pursue a series, which went nowhere. Seems unlikely Netflix won’t finally adapt the smart talking defense attorney into a worthy series.

Mickey Haller isn’t my favorite character created, but he’s rather enjoyable. Have you read any of his books by Michael Connelly?

Bosch is Back

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Y’all. Season 5 of Amazon’s Bosch is now streaming! Since its beginning I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the adaptation of Michael Connelly’s most popular character.

The show avoids the common shortfalls so many crime shows seem eager to embrace.

Harry is relentless in his pursuit of justice for every one of the victims he’s forced to investigate because in his view everybody counts or nobody counts.

Last year I got my mom to watch and we went through the first four seasons as fast as possible. And she was always wanting to keep watching when we’d stop.

Now go watch!

How Many Authors Do I Own!?

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I got a new computer late last year. But I’m barely starting to actually use it. I work on two monitors 40 hours a week, so when I’m home I’m not dying for more screen time.

Anyway, over the weekend I started organizing some of my reading-related documents I have (I’m writing a full post on them for tomorrow). One of which counts the number of books I own by author. I’ll have to do some checking, but I now know I have *at least* 270 books. That’s not surprising. What surprised me was that I have books written by *at least* 109 authors! Like, holy cow! That’s a lot of authors!

When I think of the hours I’ve spent reading my books compared to the hours spent writing them, it’s insane.

My favorite authors obviously carry much of the load in my little library, which I imagine is true for most people. Michael Connelly, Robert B. Parker, T. Jefferson Parker, Steve Hamilton, Robert Crais, and James Patterson (ugh) account for 107(!) of the books. And I have several single title authors.

Do you have any idea how many authors you own?

New Page For My All-Time Top Reads!

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When I wrote recently about a book that somehow managed to become one of my personal top 5 reads ever, I came up with the idea to create a page here to keep an up-to-the-minute list of the best books I’ve ever read. It took me a bit longer to figure out exactly how I wanted to do it, but I ultimately settled on a list of the top 15 books I’ve started and finished. When I look at my list there are a couple of things that surprise me. 1) How far down Harper Lee’s masterpiece is (she’s barely hanging on for a spot!) and 2) Michael Connelly DOES NOT WRITE METIOCRE BOOKS.

I thought of just sharing the list in this post, but the page has links to everything I said about some of those books immediately after I read them. Now go and take a look for yourself and tell me what you think! Or, tell me some of the best books you’ve read? Maybe we have some in common!

January Reading Roundup

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Y’all!

Earlier this year I made it clear how disappointed I was in my reading last year. 5 books. Just saying that makes me want to hit my head on my desk. But 2019 is off to a better start! So I decided to do a little roundup of my January reading.

Two Kinds of Truth

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Harry Bosch ages in real time. In this book he’s into his 60s, but I DON’T CARE. Never stop writing him, Michael Connelly. Or we’re fighting.

Crimson Joy

⭐⭐⭐

I hate to say it, but this was rather unremarkable. I love Spenser. And this won’t discourage me from continuing the series, but I finished the book wanting more.

LA Requiem

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I wrote about this earlier in the week here. This book was the best crime novel I’ve read! There’s no exaggeration. I gave my reasoning in my previous post. I’m still considering it, but it’s likely a top five all-time read for me. And I have the next four in the series awaiting my curious eyes.

Rodrick Rules

⭐⭐⭐

I said I’d stay with crime novels for a bit, and I mostly did. But this was the lone exception last month. It didn’t have hardly any laugh out loud moments, whereas the first in the series was full of them.

The Second Life of Nick Mason

⭐⭐⭐

This was the first in a new series written by Steve Hamilton. He’s also one of my favorite authors and it was my first time reading one of his books in several years. It’s well below 300 pages and I felt it. It went way too fast and lacked much depth throughout. But still had a number of exciting moments, which kept it at the above rating.

I count 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 books for the month! It was really in the last two weeks, but shh. I matched my entire 2018 in the first month of 2019 and I’m still going! I know there will be some down months ahead, but I’m happy with and encouraged by my start to the year.

How was your month of reading!?

Pick My Next Read!

John Guillen4 Comments

I’m about to finish my 5th book of the year (matching my 2018) and I want your help to pick my next read!

They’re both by one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly. The first is The Late Show, which introduces Detective Renee Ballard to the world. The second is The Lincoln Lawyer, which is the first in the Mickey Haller series. I’ve gotten some exposure to him because he’s related to Harry Bosch, but I haven’t read anything with Renee Ballard yet. She was featured in another book last year.

Tell me, tell me!

To Meet or Not To Meet

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Michael Connelly is coming to Houston next month in support of his new book. I haven’t had the chance to meet him before. I’m thinking I might want to. But of course my schedule has to allow me to.

Meeting authors is always interesting. You gain insight and persepective you can’t obtain any other way. Social media is nice, but it just isn’t quite the same as having them right in front of you speaking about their experience and writing.

I’m thinking I’ll likely meet him. I mean, he created Harry Bosch. 

2016 Reading Challenge: The Burning Room

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This won’t contain any spoilers.

If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time it’s highly likely you’ve read something about Harry Bosch. I’ve written about him more than just about any character, even KATNISS!

He is the epitome of who and what I think a fictional detective should be. This was the 17th book in the series I’ve read, and to me it was the best one yet. No matter the character being written, an author who can keep the reader interested in a single character over two decades is one of those rare jewels in literature. Michael Connelly is right there with the likes of Sue Grafton and Robert B. Parker.

Harry Bosch has never become stagnant or boring. His stories have never escaped the realm of reality. And he’s never forgotten his mantra that “Everybody counts or nobody counts”.

This book satisfied the requirement of my 2016 reading challenge to read a crime novel.

Now TOMORROW I will post an update on my progress! Stay tuned!

Also, the first book in the Harry Bosch series is The Black Echo. Just saying. 😊