Rising Star: A-Fu Teng
Taiwanese singer
A-Fu Teng is a new singer getting popular here in Taiwan. She started out posting Youtube videos of herself singing covers of Western singers like Bruno Mars and B.O.B. Now she’s been signed and her first album is already out. It’s pretty good, too. I’m actually pretty impressed with A-Fu, as I generally don’t care for Chinese music because, Taiwanese anyway, seem to really like slow, sad songs, but A-Fu sounds fresh and vibrant. She’s got over 23 million views on Youtube so far. Below is a sampling of her work.
Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/14/tom-cruise-to-play-jack-reacher
Eh… I guess it could work. Maybe. I always saw Reacher as more of an action hero kind of character, though. Even ignoring the height issue, I don’t see Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. I can’t imagine Cruise playing a tough character. It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.
Intrigue in 1936 Berlin
Garden of Beasts by Jeffery Deaver
We meet Paul Schumann in an apartment building that’s not his own and watch as Schumann realizes he’s been set up and is moments away from eating it. But we soon learn that actually Paul Schumann, a hired gun, or “button man”, is not moments away from death after all, but instead is being offered a chance to turn his criminal life around and help out the U.S government and the world at the same time. And all he has to do is assassinate a high ranking Nazi official, Reinhard Ernst, the man responsible for rebuilding Germany’s military. With his only chance at a new life a high risk assignment into Nazi Germany during the lead up to the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, Paul Schumann can do nothing but agree.
First Time’s the Charm
Free Agent by Jeremy Duns
*NOTE* Make sure you’ve read Chapter 1 of this novel before you read the review, as there is a spoiler for that chapter in the review. The rest of the review is spoiler free, except for establishing the main plot.
Another image swam into view: their skeletal frames immobile on those flea-infested mattresses. The flies buzzing into the huge eyes of the children as they had stood in the hut. I pushed it down, as Gunner had pushed me down into the wet earth a few minutes before. Humanity coming over the hill. Don’t let it spot you.
I don’t trust blurbs, those little mini reviews of a new book by famous authors. I wonder sometimes if the people giving these blurbs have actually read the book and really mean what they say, or if they are just throwing out a cheap, standard compliment to help a fellow author. I’ve bought books based on blurbs before, and I’ve been burned.
So I was skeptical when I looked at the back cover of Jeremy Duns’ Free Agent
Big praise from some big authors. And comparisons to le Carre and Deighton and Forsyth? Surely this must be the standard hyperbole I’ve become accustomed to with blurbs. Is Free Agent really that special?
