Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Series - And Stuff

At long last, I'm giving you the other half of the series that I enjoy reading.  I know many of you have had trouble sleeping while waiting for this list.  I mean, come on.  Who wouldn't?  But before that, let me give you a few miscellaneous pieces of information:

1.  Abraham Verghese, who wrote Cutting for Stone, is coming to Dominican College on Wednesday, April 27, at 7:00.  Joni and I are going along with Donna and Phil, and, maybe, Leslie and Rich.  I made the commitment that if Phil and Donna went, I would read the book beforehand.  I'm halfway through it and am really enjoying it.

2.  Joni and I went to Keplers last Thursday night to see Guy Kawasaki.  He's written 9 books on marketing.  He was part of the Apple team back in the '90's who presented the Macintosh to the world.  He had 2 stints with Apple.  He's a very humble guy but is considered a marketing superstar.  It was very cool to see him.  He was interesting and informative.

3.  I have recommended Keith Thomson's Once A Spy a couple of different times now.  I just finished Twice A Spy and was really disappointed.  It's a sequel but was not nearly as well written as the first one.  If you read the first one, I wouldn't tell you not to read #2, but don't expect to enjoy it nearly as much.

Series (ta da):
David Baldacci - The Camel Club - he writes a number of series and stand-alones, but the Camel Club series is his best work - I highly recommend it
Clive Cussler - all of his Dirk Pitt novels are fun - think Wild, Wild West in the water - his other 3 series are not very good - I do not recommend them at all
Sheldon Siegel - his protagonist, Mike Daley, is a SF attorney - his partner is his ex-wife, Rosie - these are murder mysteries with the courtroom thrown in - plus, Shellie Siegel (okay, just kidding - I call him Mr. Siegel) is the one who had dinner with Rich, Joni, and me - he's a good guy
Lee Child - his Jack Reacher series is a ton of fun - lots of adventure with a very solid hero
Dan Brown - of course, everybody in the universe knows about The DaVinci Code and Robert Langdon - what you may not know is that Angels and Demons was written prior to The DaVinci Code - and now there's The Lost Symbol - they're all very good - just because millions of people read them doesn't make them good - but in this case, they are (unfortunately, the movies are lousy)
Terry Brooks - I'm not a huge fan of fantasy but the Landover series is very entertaining - Rich and Leslie recommended them to me, and I recommended them to Josh - we have both liked them a lot
Stieg Larsson - Dragon Tattoo, et al - need I say more?
Tom Rob Smith - I have highly touted his 2 books - Child 44 and The Secret Speech - there are only 2 in the series, but I really love them - Child 44 is on my list of books for those who don't read much or who only read non-fiction - really, they're both big winners
Sam Eastman - he has written 2 books in his series also - and, like Smith, he writes about the Soviet Union (they take place about 30 years prior to Smith's books) - his protagonist starts by working for the tsar in book #1 and then for Stalin in book #2 - Eastman definitely pulls it off
Keith Thomson - I had him in here after book #1 when I knew he was writing book #2 - he's out - see above

3 comments:

  1. Although I haven't commented lately, I've been enjoying both the info and the responses. Have been finishing both the Larsson books and Freedom while fitting a quick-read by Parker in between. Regarding Freedom: I'm not really sure how I feel about it. The topic is not one that I usually enjoy (the lives of a damaged but sympathic family); but it's insightful, thought-provoking, and well-written. Yet instead of my being drawn in by suspense, I felt myself continuing to read for almost the same reasons that I might continue to watch a particularly effective soap opera (with sprinkles of democratic-bent politics). So, not sure if it's a recommendation; some people would thoroughly enjoy it...others just wouldn't. Happy very late birthday to Joni!

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  2. Thanks for the comments on Freedom. I've had a question mark about it. And now I still do! I'm almost done with Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I like it a lot. I don't love it, but I do think it's very good and would recommend it.

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  3. Well, it's been a while since I finished Freedom, and I still find myself thinking about the Berglund family; it seems that the novel had more of an impact than I first thought. And...the writing is superb.

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