What are you reading the week of August 29, 2010?

[DUgosh]

The Reisling Retribution by Ellen Crosby

[jobycom]

1. "1491" by Charles C Mann, and "Christianity: The First 3000 Years" by Dairmaid McCulloch

I wandered into a non-fiction mood lately.

[Bobbieo]

3. Blue Horizon by Wilbur Smith. Am fascinated with the Courtney family and

Smith's tales of Africa. There are a dozen or more books about the Courtneys which will keep me occupied for most of the fall season.

[Mojambo]

2. "The Company" by KJ Parker and "Absolute Friends" by John LeCarre

[NBachers]

4. "Hollywood Station" by Joseph Wampaugh

and "Sunset Express," again, by Robert Crais

I'm on an LA Noir cop / crook / detective jag.

I'm always on an LA Noir cop / crook / detective jag.

My brother just sent me a promising-looking book called "Robbers" by Christoper Cook. It's got endorsements from James Ellroy and Kinky Friedman.

[abluelady]

5. "Tinkers" by Paul Harding

[hippywife]

6. Bloodroot by Amy Greene

http://www.amazon.com/Bloodroot-Amy-Greene/dp/0307269868/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283097530&sr=1-1

I'm just a little over 100 pages and it's a good book so far. :hi:

[japple]

7. David Anthony Durham's Walk Through Darkness--excellent

writer and very compelling story.

Hippywife, I think you'd like this one as well as his earlier work, Gabriel.

[fadedrose]

8. WORLD WAR Z by David Brooks

Just started it, am on page 4, and don't think I'm the type for this book. Is it a humorous book? Doesn't seem like it. The introduction is not what I expected - no humor at all, altho I detect a little tongue-in-cheek here and there, but not enough to smile at..

I know somebody here read this and liked it - if you're around, please tell me when (and if) it starts to get funny....thanks.

[Jim__]

9. David Brooks or Max Brooks? If it's Max, I don't think it's supposed to be funny.

From a review:

In 2003, Max Brooks published The Zombie Survival Guide, explaining what to do in case of an attack by zombies. It appeared to be a satirical look at books like the Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht's Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook series. Now, Brooks follows it up by publishing World War Z, subtitled "An Oral History of the Zombie Wars." Unlike the previous book, this one is a serious novel.

Brooks uses the format of an oral history to tell the story of the most disastrous world-spanning war the world has ever known. From its beginnings in the remote village of New Dachang, China, his characters chronicle the spread of a strange disease that turns humans into zombies. The only way to stop one is to destroy its brain. The disease, and the threat to humanity, expands exponentially and no place on earth is safe.

While it would have been easy for Brooks to focus on a few areas, such as the United States, his narrative takes him all across the world. Brooks's nameless interviewer travels around the globe ten years after the war has ended, visiting South Africa and Israel, where plans were developed to thwart the disease and invasion, to Canada, where the cold weather exposed a weakness of the Zombies, to the United States and Europe, where there were significant losses.

This decision is one of the strengths of the novel. It gives the book a totally global feel as people remember the way the zombies behaved in warm climates like Canada or tropical places like the tropical island of Manihi. At the same time, Brooks is able to show how different cultures dealt with the zombie menace and how the zombies, who are essentially mindless, react to different environments.

more ...

[fadedrose]

10. Thank you

It sure isn't funny. I quit at page 26 and started RIZZO'S WAR, a so-far really good police detective novel, and in a couple of days will start on Hiaason's new one.

I don't know where I got the idea that ZOMBIE WAR had humor. But it isn't that it's serious, it's the kind of serious. People bite and infect people then the gov comes and "takes care" of them all. Weird.

[fadedrose]

11. Ooops....it's Max Brooks, not David (sorry & thanks again) eom

[fadedrose]

12. RIZZO'S WAR by Lou Manfredo

It's the first in what I think will be a series. 2nd one is due 3/ll.

Started it last night after giving up on the Zombie book and really started to like it. It's about cops in New York, lots of diaglog, old cop, young cop, i.e.

It's the author's first book and I hope it won't be his last if the writing holds up thru this one.

[pscot]

16. Have you read anything by Ross Thomas?

If you want a lighter approach to crime and punishment try Voodoo LTD and or Chinaman's Chance.

[fadedrose]

19. My library carries only AH TREACHERY (1994)

although they have some tapes and CD's....I think I could get other books thru interlibrary loan; I put the treachery book on my list. Can't get it yet because of too many to finish that I have home now. It'll be a couple weeks before I get to it.

Amazon gives it a good writeup, and says that most of Thomas' books are sadly out of print.

Thanks for sharing...

[hippywife]

13. I almost forgot!

I'm also re-reading Caravans by James Michener. Great book about Afghanistan and not one of his usual heavy tomes. :hi:

[azmouse]

14. "Boy's Life" by Robert McCammon

[azmouse]

17. Yet another book I can't finish.

It's very boring. I just can't get into the story.

[pscot]

15. Just starting Assegai by Wilbur Smith

+ War & Remembrance by Wouk, Others as the hold list spits them out.

[northoftheborder]

18. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I was turned off by the movie trailers, but kept reading rave reviews for the book, so have started it. So far, it is a fascinating read, well written, and good plot and character development.

[fadedrose]

20. I reserved it

at the library on July 30; I was No. 57. Am now No. 38. Wonder if I'll live long enough to get it.

[fadedrose]

21. NO COLDER PLACE by S. J. Rozan (eom)

[MaineDem]

22. "Rules of Deception" by Christopher Reich

I've never heard of this series but I have this one and the next, "Rules of Vengeance."

[randr]

23. Just finished Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" trilogy

I was blown away. She connects with many issues we face as a species.

[gauguin57]

24. Just finished "Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan.

Great book ... it imagines the affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick (who both left their spouses and kids to be together at Taliesen in Wisconsin).

I already knew how the story ended (just from knowing the biographical facts of Wright's and Borthwick's lives), but I still bawled like a baby when I finished the last page.

[ChazII]

25. Trojan Odyssey by Clive Clusser.

I have never read a book by this author and was a gift from a co-worker.