From a thread a while back. Some of my "crime fiction character personal favorites":

 

Agent Pendergast (Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child)

Jack Reacher (Lee Child)

Myron Bolitar (Harlan Coben)

Tess Monaghan (Laura Lippman)

Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs (Jeffery Deaver)

Matthew Scudder (Lawrence Block)

John Keller (Lawrence Block)

Lucas Davenport (John Sandford)

Harry Bosch (Michael Connolly)

Charlie Parker (John Connolly)

The 87th Precinct (Ed McBain)

 

 

Really liking some Harry Bosch lately.

I just finished 'Calico Joe' by John Grisham which was good but for the record I read 'The Racketeer' by Grisham & I thought it was really very good. Vintage Grisham! Thrill, intrigue, fun, serious, deceit, revenge- everything one used to find when Grisham used to be at his peak (Firm, Time to Kill, Pelican Brief, Runaway Jury....). It is pure entertainment -- a page turner, the kind of plot you want to believe but almost cannot. By the midpoint, if you haven't figured out the keystone to the whole thing, it's okay, because the unfolding is great fun. In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I've never read a John Grisham book I didn't like - and over the years I've read all 31 of them. As such, I opened the book on this one fully expecting to be quite satisfied - and I wasn't disappointed.

The Next Accident by Lisa Gardner

Just finished Heart of Darkness: Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. Good read, and pretty interesting for music geeks.

 

Now I'm in the mood for something gritty...

 

I'm thinking I might re-read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, or Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. That, or I'm gonna give Michael Herr's Dispatches or O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home a read. Anyone care to try and sway me one way or another on which I should read?

Just in time for the movie release:

 

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

Now I'm in the mood for something gritty...

 

I'm thinking I might re-read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, or Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. That, or I'm gonna give Michael Herr's Dispatches or O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home a read. Anyone care to try and sway me one way or another on which I should read?

 

Big fan of Tim O'Brien. That one gets my vote.

Just finished Jon Meacham's biography of Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson: the Art of Power. Pretty good. A little tepid, but well researched and sourced which is what I was looking for. Also drove me to buy Rod Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton today.

Big fan of Tim O'Brien. That one gets my vote.

 

I'll go with one of his then. Have you read both?

I'll go with one of his then. Have you read both?

 

Yeah, and there's no doubt that The Things They Carried is his best; it gets all those well-deserved accolades for a reason. But if you haven't read anything else, then read one of the ones you haven't done yet. That memoir is good choice. I'm also a big fan of Going After Cacciato and The Nuclear Age. His other books I'm not as crazy about, but they're still pretty good.

Yeah, and there's no doubt that The Things They Carried is his best; it gets all those well-deserved accolades for a reason. But if you haven't read anything else, then read one of the ones you haven't done yet. That memoir is good choice. I'm also a big fan of Going After Cacciato and The Nuclear Age. His other books I'm not as crazy about, but they're still pretty good.

 

Cool. I'll go with the memoir then.

20 pages into Michael Koryta's "So Cold the River", and I'm hooked. This is one that Rockmom would enjoy. The setting is the hotels in French Lick and West Baden, IN.

20 pages into Michael Koryta's "So Cold the River", and I'm hooked. This is one that Rockmom would enjoy. The setting is the hotels in French Lick and West Baden, IN.

 

Keep us updated on that one.

This weekend I read "Anything For A Vote - Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Campaigns" by Joseph Cummins. Fascinating and easy-to-read. Some campaigns are glossed over; some given much more analysis. Book goes through 2004.

 

Here are the campaigns that rated a "10" on the author's "Sleaze-o-Meter":

 

1800 Jefferson vs. Adams (President running against his own veep)

1876 Hayes vs. Tilden (Florida miraculously swings; it took almost 4 months and a changing of the guard in the SCOTUS to finally take care of business)

1928 Hoover vs. Smith (did you know that the Holland tunnel had a secret passageway to the Vatican?)

1960 Kennedy vs. Nixon (some sneaky stuff going on in Illinois)

1964 Johnson vs. Goldwater (Goldwater was a nut; Johnson had JFK killed)

1972 Nixon vs. McGovern (the term "dirty tricks" comes of age)

1988 Bush vs. Dukakis (Willie Horton, anyone?)

1992 Clinton vs. Bush (opposition research becomes official)

2000 Bush vs. Gore (that pesky state with the panhandle again)

Currently reading "The Outermost House" by Henry Beston.

This weekend I read "Anything For A Vote - Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Campaigns" by Joseph Cummins. Fascinating and easy-to-read. Some campaigns are glossed over; some given much more analysis. Book goes through 2004.

 

Here are the campaigns that rated a "10" on the author's "Sleaze-o-Meter":

 

1800 Jefferson vs. Adams (President running against his own veep)

1876 Hayes vs. Tilden (Florida miraculously swings; it took almost 4 months to get a changing of the guard in the SCOTUS to take care of business)

1928 Hoover vs. Smith (did you know that the Holland tunnel had a secret passageway to the Vatican?)

1960 Kennedy vs. Nixon (some sneaky stuff going on in Illinois)

1964 Johnson vs. Goldwater (Goldwater was a nut; Johnson had JFK killed)

1972 Nixon vs. McGovern (the term "dirty tricks" comes of age)

1988 Bush vs. Dukakis (Willie Horton, anyone?)

1992 Clinton vs. Bush (opposition research becomes official)

2000 Bush vs. Gore (that pesky state with the panhandle again)

 

 

Read that a few years back. Pull it off the bookshelf whenever I hear people act aghast at how nasty politics has become. Could have been about two or three times as long, too.