Why didn't I think of this before?

I love books and usually enjoy telling people about them. Most times, people ignore me or start talking over me. So I decided to release all my pent-up book knowledge and reviews into a book BLOG! Genius, right? I"m glad you agree. So let's get started, shall we?

I have read many books over my fifteen years, some of which have become my favourites. But I'll talk about them later. Today, I am reviewing two books that I read recently: Split Second by David Baldacci and The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

Split Second-David Baldacci
"From Booklist
Baldacci's new thriller is sustained by the pulse-pounding suspense his fans have come to expect. Sean King is a former Secret Service agent whose career ended eight years ago when the political candidate he was protecting was assassinated. Now a lawyer, King has organized his life to forget his past, but it barges rudely in on him when he finds a colleague murdered in his office building. Further complicating his life are two women: Joan Dillinger, a former coworker and lover, and Michelle Maxwell, a Secret Service agent whose candidate, John Bruno, has just been kidnapped. Sean and Michelle start to suspect that their candidates' fates are connected and begin to investigate any ties the two may have to each other. It doesn't help that the police are on King's case, especially when yet another body turns up, this time in King's house. King and Maxwell turn their focus to Arnold Ramsey, the man who assassinated King's candidate, but it remains unclear if he was working alone. Meanwhile, the danger mounts, for neither King nor Maxwell can guess who the conspirators' next target is."

This was hardly a pulse-pounding, thrilling book. While the plot was well thought out and the characters were fairly interesting, the book moved at an unnecessarily slow pace. Baldacci over-glamorized his characters, making Michelle Maxwell drop-dead gorgeous while being unbelievably talented at everything and Sean King handsome and infallible. This made the characters very hard to relate to though their sexual tension was well-written even if it was a little predictable. The evil mastermind behind the entire shenanigan was a poor, two dimensional version of a psychopath. In fact, the ending was a little random. Baldacci could have benefited from a shorter novel with less dramatization of characters and their traits. But the book wasn't terrible and the plot was quite intelligent so I give this book a 2.5 out of 5.

The Cellist of Sarajevo-Steven Galloway
The world Steven Galloway portrays seems unrealistic, a world out of a horrid fantasy novel. Unfortunately, the setting of the book is completely real. The book is set during the Siege of Sarajevo and centers around three characters: Arrow, Kenan, Dragan. Arrow is a female sniper who is struggling to justify her actions against the men who are shooting down the citizens of her city from the 'hills'. Kenan is trying to keep his sanity as he makes the dangerous to get water for his family and Dragan is a man trying to keep the memory of his formerly beautiful city alive, if even in his own mind. The basis of the book comes from a real man; a famous Sarajevan cellist who witnessed a mortar shell drop on a line of 22 people waiting for bread to feed their starving families. He then vowed to play Albinoni's Adagio in G everyday for 22 days in memory of the dead.

I loved this book. It was beautiful, lyrical and moved me to tears on occasion. Steven Galloway captures the struggle to maintain hope and the continuation of life even in unimaginable situations. Each character clings to the shreds of their humanity in a city that has been destroyed, heartlessly by cruel humans who are identified as only the 'men on the hills'. Through it all, they are connected through the cellist and his beautiful adagio. A definite five out of five for this one!

Information about the Siege of Sarajevo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sarajevo#Aftermath

Adagio in G:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMbvcp480Y4