Stone Cold (Camel Club #3): 3 Stars

Stone Cold by David Baldacci

Once again, we join the Camel Club (Reuben, Milton, Caleb, and Oliver) as they battle evil government officials.  They are joined again by Annabelle, the con artist, and Alex, the Secret Service Agent.

As we left it off with The Collectors, Annabelle has conned a high powered, not-so-nice, casino owner out of millions of dollars and now he's after her. Oliver, the leader of the Camel Club, has a very sketchy past as a government agent, and now someone is after him.  Both must work together and with the help of the rest of the gang to live another day.

I finished the second book in this series quite a few months ago.  It took me a long time to start it up again for two reasons:

1. They left the second book off in an unexpected cliff hanger.  I hate cliff hangers.
2. The audiobook for The Collectors had three separate readers.  It was completely and utterly obnoxious.

Both of these issues were corrected in this installment of the series.

I am a big fan of the four members of The Camel Club.  They are extremely unique characters.  As government conspiracy theorists who battle those who do wrong in high ranking positions, you would expect them to be slick, young, respectable fellas. This is not Baldacci's approach.  The characters range from Oliver, who is a former CIA operative who faked his own death and now sits outside the White House with a sign that reads "I want the truth", to Caleb, a lowly little librarian who is terrified at the idea of breaking the law or firing a gun.

The story was a fun one, although I am still not a fan of Annabelle.  I really would like her to go now, but it looks like she's here to stay.

Rating: PG-13

1984: 3 Stars

1984 by George Orwell

This book was...interesting. This is another classic I always heard about but knew nothing about. I was interested in it since I was born in 1984.

The book centers around Oceania, formerly England, which is controlled by Big Brother. The world involves Thought Police and people "vaporizing", being wiped out from history books. Not only are the killed by the government, they are erased from ever existing. Kids turn their parents in for saying questionable things, sex is gross, and separation is encouraged.

It was an interesting read and it's implications to WWII are fascinating. However, I was bored out of my mind. The story telling was boring and the characters were unlikeable. I wanted to get into a lot more than I did, but I just couldn't. However, I would like to read it again while researching WWII and find the similarities, but I am a nerd like that.

Rating: PG

Blogger Hop: Book Orders

Hosted by: Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer

When you receive new books in the mail, do the older ones get moved to the bottom of your list or do go strictly "by the book" and keep your list with older books first and then the new ones? 

Oh man, I have no rational explanation for my book order, it just depends.  Often times, the new book wins in what I read next, but only if it arrives AFTER I JUST finished a book.  If I still have a ways to go in the new book, the choice of the next book can range from what someone recommended to me, what is the oldest, or what I feel like reading at that time.