Read any good books lately?

[Searambler]

I finished 'Hawke' and 'Assassin' by Ted Bell, still have to pick up the 3rd, 'Pirate', which just came out a couple of months ago. Excellent action/adventure stories, interesting characters, usually a couple of different plot lines going at once - I highly recommend these if you like Cussler or Dirgo or Iles.

Now I'm reading 'Impossible Odds', a King's Blades story by Dave Duncan. Pure sword-n-sorcery fantasy, this is the 5th in the series. If you like this genre they are excellent stories with an unusual take on 'loyalty to the King'. Also in this genre, I very highly recommend Peter David's hilarious series that started with 'Sir Apropos of Nothing', then 'The Woad to Wuin' and 'Tong Lashing'. Completely original tales about the ne'er-do-well son of a tavern wench and a knight. Very, very good reading.....!

How 'bout you - read anything good lately?

Paul

[fristil]

Don't know if I can say it's good but I've read Oracle Fundamentals II B-)
and it's not a novel ;-)

Cheers,
Mike

[crimbocop]

LA Confidential, by James Ellroy. Better than the movie, spans almost 20 years in the tale of the cops and the Night Owl case that would just not close, or they would not let close.

More graffic, brutal, gritty and honest than the movie. 72 chapters though, but most are very short.

Got through it in two nights! :-!

[Searambler]

Someone on another forum also mentioned LA Confidential. Is it based on a true story or is it fiction?

Oh yeah, and I just remembered another book, one that is non-fiction: Shadow Divers. True story of a couple of salvage divers off the New Jersey coast who discover a WW2 German U-boat wreck in 1991. They spend parts of the next 6 or 7 years diving on it and trying to identify it, as the US Navy and the German Navy have no record of a boat being sunk where this one was found. Fascinating story, especially if one is in to diving and that type of thing. And they are making it into a movie! Another one I highly recommend.

Paul

[crimbocop]

LA Confidential I think was loosly based on several true crime incidents, pieced together to make one great story.

[JohnF]

The Mitrokhin Archives, vol. I & II.

Mitrokhin was the head KGB archivist and when he defected they brought out not only him and his family, but also three containers of archive materials. Three whole containers.

The history of the cold war has to be re-written...

[badgerred]

I'm reading Doris K. Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" about Lincoln and the people who also where contenders for the 1860 Republican nomination and how Lincoln brought them into his Cabinet. It's a long book of about 760 pages that I got from the library. I hope I can finish it before it is due back in 4 weeks.

For diversion, I'm also reading part of an "English Cozy" mystery series by Carola Dunn starrring Daisy Dalrymple.

[andy turner]

hi,paul just finished reading 'the greatest adventure' around the world trip by
hot air balloon.bertrand piccard & brian jones.fab book.
i like the sound of 'shadow divers'
cheers,andy. :-!

[DaveOBrien]

Anything by Jack Higgins. Author Caleb Carr is writing the further adventures of Sherlock Holmes (very good writer check it out) "The Italian Secretary". Also if you have never read H Rider Haggard (King Soloman's Mines") he is smashing good fun. Can you see where my tastes are? Clive Cussler of course.
and just read a bio of Teddy Roosevelt after his presidency and a bio of Ben Franklin.
Cheers
Dave

[john wilson]

I CAN'T READ!!! John Wilson.

[Searambler]

Dave - I really enjoyed Carr's 'Killing Time' and have always wanted to read 'The Alienist' but just never got around to it.

John - they DO have audio books-on-tape or CD.......... :-D

Paul

[Sjors]

I CAN'T READ!!! John Wilson.

Well, I have about the same problem. I am a bit dyslectic and large portions of texts kill me, or at least dazzle me. I love to read Bike and Music gear magazines, because it has my intrests and the pieces of text are surveyable. I think the only international known book I have read was Lolita from Nabokov. I olso have read many books of the Dutch neo-realistic writer/preformer Jules Deelder. That man can write about his favorite soccer club Sparta (I actually don't even like soccer) that you can hear the public shout and smell the grass!

Not tried an audio book yet. I'm also a bit hyperactive (ADHD), so I think I can sit one book out...

Cheers,

Sjors

[Troy]

Once and Eagle by Anton Myrer

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

[cdnwatchguy]

but I am nearly finished the DiVinci Code. Not a bad read, but I am finding I am ahead of the characters in figuring things out.

As far as favourite authors, most of mine are now dead. Am I getting older?

[bart]

Last few have been Hemingway. Finishing up For Whom the Bell Tolls right now. I think my favorite was Garden of Eden, though it was not highly reviewed by many Hemingway fans.

Also reading The Know It All: One Man's Quest To Become the Smartest Man In The World by AJ Jacobs right now - pretty funny.

I am more into the classics, as well.

[citjet]

This one was pretty good. Now its on to Buzz Aldrin's book.

[Zidane]

I finished the classic "The Counte of Monte Cristo" last week. Its one of my favorites.

[cotopaxi]

I have several books on the fire right now but did finish one
The Last Templar- this is one of the new fiction genre: the next da vinci code and the "lets rake templars over the coals now"
though it is currently a bestseller, I would pass on the hardcover and get it in paperback.

currently reading
The Templar Legacy-Steve Berry. I know it is tragic, another templar novel going over the same landscape as the others, this one is at least giving me some interesting nights reading.
the Master Plan- this is a history of the Ahnenerbe, Himmler's "research institute" founded to find the ancestors of the aryan race. Fascinating and disturbing to say the least, if not frightening as well.
The Adventures of Vin Fiz-Clive Cussler. Light,fun kids book.
Lord of Misrule-the autobiography of Christopher Lee. Wow, my respect for this man has grown. this is a well written and in some spots quite funny story of an extraordinary life. He is truly the last of his eras "master of horror" and more.

john

[Troy]

One Man's Wilderness by Dick Proenneke

Anthem by Ayn Rand

[Eduard Lerman]

Read The Red Mafia: How The Russian Mob Invaded America, by Robert I. Friedman.

Some very scary information in this book, and some familiar faces. I actually used to know some of these guys when I was growing up on Brighton Beach.

[JohnT]

I have just read "A Man on the Moon" By Andrew Chaikin, it covers all the voyages of the Apollo astronauts .... it is superbly written and very well researched.

After reading this book for the first time I had a new respect for what was achieved by these courageous men.