Moje książkowe "the best":

Najbardziej intrygująca książkowa postać:

Tyrion z książki "Nawałnica mieczy: Krew i złoto" (George R.R. Martin)

Najlepsza okładka:

"Zimny dzień w Raju" (Steve Hamilton), Wydawnictwo Amber, 2008r.

Najlepszy cytat:

"Gdyby ktoś umiał spojrzeć na nas z góry, zobaczyłby, że świat jest pełen ludzi biegających w pośpiechu, spoconych i bardzo zmęczonych oraz ich spóźnionych, pogubionych dusz."

"Zgubiona dusza" (Olga Tokarczuk)

Największe zaskoczenie:

"Martwi za życia" (Graham Masterton)

Najlepszy autor:

Stephen King ("Billy Summers")

Najlepsza książka:

"Billy Summers" (Stephen King)

Największe gnioty:

Najbardziej irytująca książkowa postać:

Harry Hole z książek "Czerwone gardło" i "Człowiek nietoperz" (Jo Nesbø)

Najgorsza okładka:

"Morderstwo w Orient Expressie" (Agatha Christie), Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, 1991r.

Najgorszy cytat:

"Wiatr... Dopada cię, ledwie wyjdziesz z namiotu, wygłodniały ledwie wgryza się w każdy odsłonięty kawałek skóry, pożera każdą odrobinę ciała i wypluwa ją wprost w posępne, szare niebo"

"Cień i kość" (Leigh Bardugo)

Największe rozczarowanie:

"Ostatnie dni Sylvii Plath. Biografia" (Carl Rollyson)

Najgorszy autor:

Jo Nesbø ("Człowiek nietoperz", "Czerwone gardło")

Najgorsza książka:
 
"Człowiek nietoperz" (Jo Nesbø)

_______________________________________________________________________________

W liczbach:

Wszystkich przeczytanych książek 50, w tym:

 
Biografie/Autobiografie/Dzienniki/Pamiętniki - 1
Czasopisma - 3
Fantastyka - 3
Film + książka - 2

Horror - 1

Literatura dziecięca - 5
Literatura faktu/Reportaże/Eseje - 1
Literatura piękna/współczesna - 4

Literatura popularnonaukowa - 11

Poradniki - 4
Thrillery/Kryminały/Sensacja - 14

Utwór dramatyczny (dramat, komedia, tragedia - 1

W nagrodach:

Nominowani (2)

1) Książka Roku Lubimyczytac.pl (2018)
"Opowiadania bizarne" (Olga Tokarczuk)

2) Nagroda Literacka Nike (2013)
"Mokradełko" (Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska)

Nagrodzeni (0)

Imaginative story of Billy and his Monster friend who love to celebrate holidays but love Easter most of all because of all the chocolate, their favorite thing. But chocolate at grandma's tempts them too much and they learn the value of moderation.

I chuckled as Billy and the Monster make a mess of the Easter chocolate. I shook my head as Billy decided he could get up early to clean the mess (like he is any different from the rest of us--ain't gonna happen!) An adorable story for your 3-5 year old.

”Billy Summers" jest powieścią sensacyjną i kryminałem w jednym. Nie ma w sobie nic z horroru ani typowych dla Kinga elementów fantasy. Troszeczkę przypomina "Misery" ale w małym procencie.
Zaczynamy od poznania głównego, tytułowego bohatera. Summers jest płatnym zabójcą i mimo, iż właśnie ma zamiar skończyć ze swoim dotychczasowym zajęciem, przyjmuje ostatnie zlecenie.

Książkę czyta się jednym tchem i nawet nie czuć jej gabarytów. Kolejne strony wchodzą jedna po drugiej. Ani się obejrzeć a już jest 200, potem 300 stron... King stworzył ciekawy świat i intrygujące postaci, zwroty akcji. Choć fabuła tej powieści nie jest specjalnie odkrywcza, to ma w sobie coś, co nie każe od niej odchodzić.
W mojej ocenie ta powieść jest bardzo dobra. Nie tylko za to, że się ją szybko czyta. Także za to, że niesie ze sobą pewien morał oraz ma dobre zakończenie.

"Billy Summers" to książka o złych ludziach, szukaniu własnego "ja" i dziwnej przyjaźni. Jest lekturą, podczas której można się złapać na kibicowaniu głównemu bohaterowi, a niekiedy nawet na współczuciu. King niewątpliwie zagrał na emocjach czytelnika, co według mnie nie obniża powieści oceny.

Poznajemy tu paru różnych bohaterów i jedngo w trzech osobach, a mimo to nie dało się pogubić w tym rozgardiaszu, co już mi się niegdyś zdarzyło przy powieści tego Autora. Dostrzegam przekaz, mimo iż książka miała być dobrą rozrywką. A u Kinga przy ostatnio przeczytanych "Panu Mercedesie" i "Znalezione nie kradzione" miałam tylko rozrywkę i nic ponadto.

Tytuł jak najbardziej polecam.

Opinia opublikowana na moim blogu:

https://literackiepodrozebooki.blogspot.com/2021/11/billy-summers.html

I dithered about the rating. This wasn't a bad book, but it definitely starts to drag around the 60 percent mark. I think if Jensen had followed the conclusion to the cases he introduces readers to through and moved on to another case it would have worked better. Instead the book starts off trying to do that, and then it goes into how he meets Michelle McNamara and her quest to find the Golden State Killer. And from there the book focuses on her death and it jumps around a lot to Jensen talking about a case and then Michelle or a case and the Golden State Killer. Then the last portion is focused on Citizen Detectives and I hard cringed about it. I don't know. Jensen seems adamant that he does not expect to be praised by law enforcement and he does the things he is doing to help the families of murder victims, but then at other times in the book you can "see" his frustration with law enforcement not looping him in on things or not giving credit to Michelle McNamara. I think I would compare this book more to a journal where he is getting all of his feelings out about a whole host of subjects.

"Chase Darkness With Me" is a memoir written by Billy Jensen that shows how he became invested in true crime cases and why he started to report and then help investigate them. I think some True Crime readers and podcast followers recognize his name. I only became aware of him when I read Michelle McNamara's book and I knew he was one of the people who helped finish her book after her death. I have tried to get into podcasts here and there on True Crime, but honestly the only one that I like these days is "Murder Minute." I don't like to listen to Stay Sexy Don't Get Murdered because it definitely got too big for me to stay into it anymore. Most of the show seems to be the hosts trying out their comedy routine with each other and the victims in the story don't feel important. I love Murder Minute since they walk you through current murders in the U.S. and then into their topic of the day. I tried to listen to Mr. Jensen and Mr. Paul Holes's podcast but I could not get into it. 

So first off Jensen seems like a nice guy, but his writing I found to be all over the place. I think the first part of the book with him showing us how his father got him into true crime was really good. And then we get to see his first case he got involved with that I even know about (Howard B. Elkins murdered a woman he was having an affair with, Reyna Angélica Marroquín who was pregnant at the time). From there Jensen just jumps around in his narrative and tries to provide us information about cases that have stayed with him.

I honestly think the book could have cut out how he used social media to track down suspected murderers. He explained it once to readers and we didn't need to read it every time. And then at times he seems to want praise for spending his own money on this and then frustrated when he doesn't hear back from the police right away. I don't know, this memoir was weird for me. I get his frustrations. When he explains the number of unsolved murders in the United States and how many more get added on every year i shook my head. I mean I knew just on talking to my friends in law enforcement how many murders are not solved without a confession or a killer whose DNA is already in the system. I don't know if Citizen Detectives are the answer though. I joke about "Black Twitter" tracking down people, but I caution people doing that on a day to day basis. Especially after Twitter people wrongly identified a man as the one who assaulted two children this past weekend. The wrongly identified man ended up getting death threats over it. Social media is very powerful as we have seen over the past few weeks, but I think everyone has to be careful how they use it. 

And when Jensen tries to go into the Golden State Killer case I just got totally lost. I already read McNamara's book so it didn't really need to be included here as well, except I guess to show how it affected him and others involved in the True Crime business. 

The book ends on tips to be a citizen detective and I had a flashback to when at the end of G.I. Joe cartoons they always did a PSA to the kids watching and ended on Go Joe. It just didn't add much to the book for me and I really don't know about a bunch of untrained people running around trying to solve crimes. Jensen tries to show positive and negative outcomes to these detectives, but I was left baffled in the end. 

Hmm good book for True Crime readers. I think Jensen does peg a lot of True Crime readers correctly that most of the readers want things solved and don't like mysteries. I am not one of those though.

And I love love love that he calls out the issues with unsolved murders in the United States and how often people skip over cases involving POC, sex workers, and others. Most True Crime readers seem to only want to read about the "famous" murders. I personally love reading everything because don't all victims stories deserve to be told? 

He also gets into how he met Michelle McNamara and how her death affected him. I do like the photos included too. Okay back to the book!