What's Everyone Reading?

[Shadows1]

Wife and I already have "Dark Places" on our kindles, she is reading it now> I will read it later since I just started and Galbadon book.

[Felix4067]

Shadows, I do hope this one goes better for you than others I've recommended. ;)

Last night I finished Simple Genius by David Baldacci. Third book in the King & Maxwell series, this one was alternately intense and completely unbelievable. I was certainly not expecting what happened, at least as far as the plot of this particular installment, but was totally expecting what happened in the overall story line (except I thought it would go further). I do enjoy his books...not great literature, but interesting enough with characters I like enough that I am honestly hoping things work out well for them. With every one, Sean and Michelle become more human, and thus more likable, even with all their many faults, because they are honestly good people trying their best.

[Felix4067]

David Baldacci's King & Maxwell series, #s 4 and 5, First Family and The 6th Man. The series progresses, with the relationship between the two partners getting ever more complicated while at the same time they solve the case they're working on. But the last one left everything up in the air (although since there's at least one more book in the series I can make an educated guess as to how it'll turn out). I do enjoy them a great deal, and will pick up the next one next time.

Then I moved on to Hostage by Kay Hooper. Turns out I've read this one before, but it must have been after some surgery or another because I only vaguely remembered it. Her books are the perfect summer beach/bathtub reads: interesting while you're reading them, but requiring little to no thought. She has several series of three books that all deal with the same characters, between a group of FBI and a private organization all of which are psychics, mediums, telepaths, etc. all solving crimes together. And battling evil. And forming lifelong romantic relationships. It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but they're good for mindless entertainment.

Last night I finished John Grisham's Sycamore Row. It was fabulous to reconnect with old friends! This one is the sequel to A Time To Kill, written 25 years later but set three years later. Well-written as almost all his books, interesting, keeping you guessing, and eventually the right side wins (for the most part). I started reading Grisham because his books are set in Mississippi in areas where I used to spend a great deal of time, and I stayed because he's a darn fine writer with characters I care about. I really did feel like I was catching up with friends I hadn't talked to in entirely too long when I started the book.

[Felix4067]

In less than 24 hours, I started and finished The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman. Because once I picked it up I could NOT put it back down. First session lasted from 7pm until 11:15pm, second from 1am to 4am, and I finished it this afternoon from 1:30pm to around 4:00. WOW! This isn't usually a type of book I read, and the main character I suspect is based on Leona Helmsley, but my god was it good! Lillian (nee Malka) is a Russian Jewish child whose family was supposed to emigrate to South Africa but ends up coming to the US instead. Once here, she shortly becomes crippled, then abandoned by her parents and taken in by an Italian family that makes ices and ice cream. It's an incredibly fascinating story, told from her point of view over 70-ish years, with jumps in time as she remembers things or feels the need to explain what happened. I really enjoyed it, although the ending was a bit weak.

[Felix4067]

From the opposite end of the spectrum, a book I read in far less than 24 hours because it's a quick, mindless read: Guilty Wives by James Patterson and David Ellis (or, you know, just David Ellis, because as we know there is NO way JP writes his own books when he cranks one out every five weeks). There were actually some plot twists here that, while heavy-handed, took me mildly by surprise a couple of times. The story line is a little choppy where they tried to do flashbacks to what happened, and the motive was at best vaguely explained. But it held my attention while sitting in the sun, and really that's all I can expect from a JP production. I really only read him to see if his co-authors are worth checking out, and I think this one is a take it or leave it.

[Felix4067]

I had to re-read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal because when I was at the library it had made it onto the shelf again. Still love it. Still love Chris Moore. Still giggled my fool head off more than once, while also understanding there are some social statements to be made that most people (especially devout Christians) will find offensive. If you read through the silliness, CM often actually has something to say, he just doesn't see a reason why you shouldn't have fun while you read it.

[Felix4067]

This afternoon I finished The Accident by Chris Pavone. I'm still not entirely sure I understand what was going on, but it was a really interesting read! I had a little trouble differentiating between some of the characters, and sometimes the time jumps were hard to follow, but it held my attention for the entire book. There were also a couple of surprises that probably I should have seen coming, but I didn't. Definitely worth reading; not necessarily one to make an effort to seek out.

[Felix4067]

The trouble with James Patterson publishing a book every eight minutes is I forget where I am in a series. So I've recently re-read 11th Hour by JP and Maxine Paetro. For the third time. They all run together, but every time I see a JP-stamped book I pick it up because they're good for holding my attention while I read them. Obviously they don't stay in my head, though, or I wouldn't have picked this one up so very many times.

And because I'm a glutton for punishment: Private Down Under (or Private Oz, depending on where it was published) by JP and Michael White. These books are silly. The first Private was good, and I thought it was going to be another series like the Alex Cross or Mike Bennett books, but no. These are all VERY loosely related, with the occasional recurring character and held together by the fact that the same man owns all these PI firms in various countries. They're ridiculous. I keep picking them up hoping they'll be better, and they never are. I think it's his choice of writers, honestly. The ones writing these books so he can take credit for them don't actually deserve any credit. OR... maybe he really does write these, and he needs so many co-authors not because it's impossible for anyone to write this quickly but because he really sucks. Maybe the parts I don't like in all "his" books are the parts he writes. It could happen.

Then I moved on to Live to See Tomorrow by Iris Johansen. It's weird... her books are as completely ridiculous as JP's, and they all follow a formula (international intrigue, beautiful woman in trouble, gorgeous man helping her, sudden, passionate love between two unlikely people that the woman fights against until she finally gives in, riding off into the sunset), but I like them. There are recurring characters that inter-relate throughout all of her books, but almost all of them end up getting their own starring role. They're certainly not great literature, but they're interesting. Kinda like an old-style Harlequin romance mixed with a Mary Higgins Clark mystery.

[Felix4067]

Above, by Isla Morley. I really wanted this to be good, and at times it definitely was. But it's too choppy, too hard to follow, and the second half is too...too. I don't know how else to put it. Blythe is a girl who is kidnapped at 16, and stashed away in a former missile silo by a man who tells her the world has had a meltdown and they're the only ones who can save it. She's down there for 17 years. The 17 years are told in sporadic fashion, hard to figure out what the heck part of her captivity you're reading about, with several chapters being day-by-day, then skipping a few years, then day-by-day, then skipping more than a decade. And then the second half is just weird. The author had a great concept, but it should have been handled by someone with more talent. Or someone more capable of telling a story. Or something.

[Felix4067]

Shadow Dancers by Herbert Lieberman. I really wanted this to be good, but it was tedious. There were some interesting parts, but for me the story line fell flat and there were entirely too many characters that were entirely too similar for me to be really sure I was reading a sub-plot involving the ones I thought I was. Usually I enjoy reading fictional crime stories, but this one felt like it was phoned in, like the author was only writing to pay the bills instead of because he had a story to tell. Meh.

Did You Miss Me? by Karen Rose. I always enjoy reading her books, and there are always plot twists that even though I can sometimes see them coming still take me sort of by surprise when they do. This one has a bit more graphic sex scenes than I remember from previous books, but they were easy enough to skim past to get back into the part of the story that mattered. Definitely engaging, and equally definitely an author I'll continue to read whenever I run across one of her books. Not, however, an author I go out of my way to order.