What are you reading the week of May 13, 2012?

[DUgosh]

Chomped by Carl Hiaasen

2012 - book # 76

[zbdent]

1. DU ...

[Little Star]

2. Hey....

This is the fiction group!

[zbdent]

6. are you saying that what those wingnut trolls post

is true?

[Little Star]

10. I was just joshing with you...

[zbdent]

11. Well, I was zbdenting with you ...

I don't know this Josh guy ...

[Little Star]

12. lol

[mvccd1000]

3. "The Butterfly Forest" by Tom Lowe

Finished it last night, actually.

Rose, if we can agree that the first two books in the Sean O'Brien series sucked mightily, I'd have to say this one was actually pretty good! Enough so that I didn't find myself groaning over horrible dialog, and was actually interested to get back to my room and pick up where I left off.

If this was the only book of Lowe's I had read, I'd recommend him. As it is, though, the first two were pretty awful... I'll probably see what he does for #4 (and there is a #4; there was a sneak preview in the back of this one).

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in the group!

[fadedrose]

14. Didn't read the 2nd one..

24th Letter?

Trouble is I looked up the butterfly one and it's in kindle or paperback. My numbness really acts up holding paperback books, and it's getting worser. I like books, especially old ones, that are gentle on old hands and politely stay open by themselves. It's like taking a 4-month old lab for a walk compared to a 11-yr old one...

Books are a lot like dogs.

But I put the 24th Letter on request again. Without the lady cop who wanted to bed our hero almost as soon as she met him, maybe there's hope.

I notice he killed her off before anything nasty could happen, and that's because the first book was dedicated to Tom Lowe's daughter and he didn't want her to think he was a pervert or something. Let's hope he doesn't even let her read his next books...am I on to something here?

[mvccd1000]

4. "The Back Door Man" by Dave Buschi

Fast-paced adventure story about a corporate computer security guy who finds out he's being setup as a scapegoat for a massive financial fraud scheme. Probably around 3.5 stars out of 5. It was entertaining and a page turner, but maybe a little more action than would be strictly believable.

I liked it enough that I started and finished it today.

[fadedrose]

15. Looked it up

It's only on Kindle. It's got almost 5 whole stars, which is good, and the one after that, Proportionate Response, also has almost 5 complete stars. Maybe if they get enough good responses it'll go into print.

[getting old in mke]

5. Body Copy by Michael Craven

Ex-pro surfer turn PI Donald Tremaine delays his vacation to investigate the murder of a high profile creative director at an LA ad agency. Smooth always, funny sometimes. Enjoying it.

In this case, the protagonist doesn't seem to be based off the author...the murder victim does. Craven certainly has some very high profile ad campaigns out there. Some of his work (including a fair number of the "I'm a PC" commercials) can be found at his web site.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich...and I love Hiaasen!!!

That is a children's book, isn't it? I only read one of the juvenile books he wrote (Scat) and enjoyed it.

[DUgosh]

17. Hiaasen kids book

They are good, I've read Hoot, Scat, Flush and now Chomped. I love how the "bad guy" always gets trounced by Mother Nature.

[Curmudgeoness]

20. Mother Nature kicks ass

in the adult books he writes too. I love the irony of what happens to the bad guys! And he always makes me laugh.

[mvccd1000]

8. "Motion to Kill" (a Lou Mason thriller) by Joel Goldman

I really enjoyed the Jack Davis books by Goldman, set in Kansas City. Lou Mason was mentioned in passing as a character in some of the books, but I never got around to looking up the publication dates of the Lou Mason books so I could start at the beginning.

Finally made the effort today and downloaded the first one, "Motion to Kill." Looking forward to it, as the books featuring retired FBI agent Jack Davis were all great reads.

[mvccd1000]

31. Finally got to finish this one, enjoyed it a lot

Great series debut, and I'm looking forward to reading more of the Lou Mason books.

[Onceuponalife]

9. Caesar by Colleen McCullough

Just finished Bones of the Dragon by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and I loved it. The only other thing I'd read of theirs was the first Dragonlance trilogy but Bones is much better. It's basically about men and gods battling ogres and THEIR gods. OK, that sounds WAY more simplistic than it is lol. A very good fantasy story that also involves weird druids and their fae overlords. Just found out that this will be a six book series, which is good news.

Now about 100 pages into Caesar, my first Colleen McCullough book. This seems to be part of a series about the historic Roman general, circa 50-70, B.C. Pretty engrossing so far but, oy! those long, difficult names!

[closeupready]

13. Dan Simmons' "The Terror".

And "Slaughterhouse-Five".

[getting old in mke]

16. Last month

read _Hyperion_ for the first time after a friend had been telling me do so for a couple of decades. Glad I did. I liked it very much and it put me into a philosophical mood about how would we spend our remaining time with someone if we know the where and when of their departure.

[closeupready]

18. I tried to read Carrion Comfort a few years back but

couldn't quite get into it, though it was an early effort from him.

The Terror is actually quite engrossing - I've just started it and I'm reading it like I did Dragon Tattoo.

When I'm done, I'll look at Hyperion.

[sinkingfeeling]

19. "The Mummy Case" by Elizabeth Peters.

[JitterbugPerfume]

21. Red Mars

by Kim Stanley Robinson.

I just started it last night but it looks like a page turner

It is the first book in a trilogy , so I will be on Mars for the forseeable future LOL

[pscot]

22. The Devil All the Time, by Donald Pollock

I'm almost done. I really like this one. Life in the upper Ohio valley (shudder). The Mammoth Hunters is up next.

[fadedrose]

23. LEAVE THE GRAVE GREEN (1995) Deborah Crombie

Book 3 of the series of 14 so far...

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/C_Authors/Crombie_Deborah.html

Duncan Kincaid, a Scotland Yard superintendent, and Gemma James, a sergeant, in London, England



Book 42 of 2012

[getting old in mke]

24. Ghost War by Alex Berensen

sequel to _The Faithful Spy_.

[mvccd1000]

25. How are those books?

They keep popping up in my Amazon recommendations, but I don't think I've tried Berensen yet.

[getting old in mke]

27. I'm enjoying the 1.5 I've read so far.

I thought _The Faithful Spy_ had some nice stuff in it--particularly liked the way biological threats were handled--and the central character, a man who was embedded in al Qaeda for ten years coming back into American culture after ten years lets there be some really basic character angst beyond the usual will they/won't they pull things off of a spy thriller. Nothing groundbreaking, but if you like such things, very entertaining.

As for _The Ghost War_, I've had only a little bit of time so far, but am finding myself inhaling in gulps, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

I think maybe (and some other readers can chime in if they like) they're more like Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series than, for example, Barry Eisler's John Rain/Ben Treven series.

[mvccd1000]

29. Thanks

I like both Silva and Eisler, so either of those comparisons work for me.

[fadedrose]

28. Not great, but not really bad either....

I only read the first one....will have to go further witn him. Sometimes they get better but not always....

[mvccd1000]

30. That works

I think they're usually only $0.99 or some other cheap price on kindle, so I'll try one out one of these days and see if it's worth it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. Purse book: THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN by George MacDonald

MacDonald was a nineteenth century writer of fantasy and children's books who was highly regarded by JRR Tolkien, WH Auden, C.S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle, but who is little known today.

I first read this book at the age of nine or ten because it was lying around in my grandparents' attic, so when I found out that it was a free book on iBooks, I decided to download and read it again.

Despite a few touches of Victorian sappiness, this is an imaginative and well-written story about a princess who lives in a land haunted by goblins that come out only at night. One day, she and her nurse stay out too late and are pursued by the goblins, only to be saved by Curdie, the son of a miner, who is very familiar with the goblins, since the miners have to deal with them all the time. A bit later, the princess wanders into a section of the castle she has not seen before and finds a mysterious old woman who claims to be her great-great grandmother.

I think this book would appeal to readers of Harry Potter or His Dark Materials.
----------------------
Bedside book: THE MAN WITH THE BALTIC STARE by James Church

This is a really odd addition to the Inspector O series about North Korea. Inspector O has retired to carve wood in a mountaintop hut, but in the year 2015, he is called back to Pyongyang for purposes that no one explains adequately. This one is definitely strange, and I haven't read far enough to know what I think of it.

[justiceischeap]

32. The Chalk Girl Carol O'Connell

The little girl appeared in Central Park: red-haired, blue-eyed, smiling, perfect-except for the blood on her shoulder. It fell from the sky, she said, while she was looking for her uncle, who turned into a tree. Poor child, people thought. And then they found the body in the tree.

For Mallory, newly returned to the Special Crimes Unit after three months' lost time, there is something about the girl that she understands. Mallory is damaged, they say, but she can tell a kindred spirit. And this one will lead her to a story of extraordinary crimes: murders stretching back fifteen years, blackmail and complicity and a particular cruelty that only someone with Mallory's history could fully recognize. In the next few weeks, she will deal with them all . . . in her own way.

Probably my favorite Mallory novel.