Finished A Dangerous Man, by Robert Crais. Joe Pike is on hand to save the day when a teller in his bank is abducted outside on her break by two men. But instead of that being that, complications mount as the teller’s mysterious background starts to emerge and surprises even herself. She’s not even who she thought she was. Crais is at his usual best. And sadly, that is the last of his 22 books to read. No more out there. But a new one is due out next year, and Crais has joined the pantheon of writers whose works I will spring for the hardcover edition. Michael Connelly is still my favorite, Connelly is just a tad bit better, but Crais satisfies too.
Next up is Camino Winds, by John Grisham, the sequel to his Camino Island.
Dear Book People: I got a notification in my email that Stephen King is selling a short story online with all profits going to the ACLU. You can pay what you want. I got mine!
I was just about to link it here when it occurred to me it might be against board rules. You can find it though, at Mr. King’s website or at Humble Bundle.
I just reread Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, in preparation to teaching it as a book club. Dang, I love that book so much. If you’ve got any love for middle-grade fiction, I urge you to give it a go.
Just borrowed the audiobook from my library - thanks for the tip, LHOD.
Anthony Horowitz’s second Holmesian novel, Moriarty, is ok but not great (and not as good as his first, The House of Silk). I’m sure I’ll finish but I can’t say I’m eager to rush back to it.
Hans Hellmut Kirst’s WWII satire Officer Factory, about venality, conflicts and backstabbing among the faculty at a German military academy, has been underwhelming so far, too.
Finished The Moth Presents: All These Wonders–True Stories About Facing the Unknown, edited by Catherine Burns. I liked this book a lot, although some of the essays much more than others. My favorites were “California Gothic” by Taylor Negron and “Who Can You Trust?” by Mary-Claire King. If you’re interested, the answer to that question is, in this account, Joe DiMaggio, as an emergency babysitter of a five-year-old at the airport.
Presumably not, since the essay was about an incident that occurred in 1980. But Joltin’ Joe really stepped up to help a frantic mother by volunteering to watch her child when she had to run an emergency errand at the airport. The mother went on to discover the genes that cause hereditary breast cancer with funding she obtained by taking this plane trip.
I had to ditch Mary Jane halfway through. Some stuff was bugging me about it, so I checked the reviews on Goodreads and found that it struck other people the same way and wasn’t going to be redeemed.
Current read, Doors of Sleep, by Tim Pratt. It’s about a guy who wakes up in a new universe every time he falls asleep. Enjoying it so far.
Finished Inside Straight, which didn’t impress me as much as it apparently did others. It seemed to wander about quite a bit.
I picked up the 1951 edition of the Boy Scout Handbook, Handbook for Boys. This is the fourth version of the Boy Scout Handbook I’ve gone through (I have my own 1960s edition, a facsimile of the original, and a 1990s version). It’s interesting to se how it’s changed through the years. The thing that struck me the most about this version is that it’s got quite a bit of advertising in it, which they got rid of in later editions. I wasn’t that surprised about the ads for candy bars, coca cola, and Royal bicycle tires, but I was definitely surprised by the ads for Evinrude outboard motors and for entire motor boats. How big were the allowances these kids had?
Now reading Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958-1963). It’s a good anthology, but it seems weird that they treat this as a forgotten subject or that rare a thing. I’m glad to see women’s SF brought ack to the mainstream, but in the 1960s I was well aware of (and/or read the works of) Ursula K. LeGuin, Kate Wilhelm, Anne McCaffery, Zenna Henderson, Judith Merrill, Leigh Brackett, and Caherine L. Moore. Lots of these names were unfamiliar to me at the time, although I read them later (Kit Reed), and many are still unfamiliar to me.
On audio, I finished Clive Cussler’s Fire Ice, which I could have sword I’d already “read”. But it was not familiar to me when I listened to the book on audiodisc. Either I hadn’t read it, or had forgotten it. Not hard to believe the latter – Cussler’s stories tend to run together and have the same themes.
Horowitz’s Holmesian thriller Moriarty just had a whopper of a twist that really grabbed me, and has almost redeemed some of the more annoying and/or implausible earlier parts of the book.
Kirst’s WWII German satire Officer Factory is also picking up some steam, and I think I’ll stay with it for now.
Still enjoying reading John Scalzi’s military sf novel The Ghost Brigades aloud with my son. A good mix of smartass attitude, battlefield action and existential musing.
I read that about a year ago, and I agree. It’s one of those twists that is really implausible, although it explains a lot of the “what the…?” moments in the rest of the novel.
I started The Glass Castle over the weekend. I’m only 10% of the way into it, but I’m extremely impressed so far. The writer had a rough childhood with some negligent, criminal parents, but she manages to write about it in such a way that it sounds like an adventure. She simultaneously conveys that, as an adult, she knows exactly how twisted her childhood was, but also that as a child, she had no idea. I think it takes a tremendous amount of talent as a writer to be able to convey all that.
Finished Golden in Death , by J.D. Robb. Meh. Plot might’ve been a decent Law and Order episode, but these detectives aren’t interesting or plausible. BTW, I had thought the book was a stand alone, but it has spoilers for others, so be aware that if you choose to read the “In Death” series, you should start from the beginning.
Now I’m reading Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories, by John Allen Paulos.
They are formulaic writing at it’s best… or worst. Some are better than others but for the most part: Eve acts tough, Rourke acts sexy, they bang, her assistant does the leg work and she “solves” the crime.
My opinion is that Eve Dallas is Norah Lofts’ Mary Sue alternate personality.
Finished Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories , by John Allen Paulos, which I would have liked better if I hadn’t already read much of its examples in other books, magazines, online, etc.
Now I’m reading Till We Have Faces, by C. S. Lewis.