What are you reading the week of May 1, 2011?

[DUgosh]

Star Island by Carl Hiaasen

[Hestia]

1. "Magic Bites" by Ilona Andrews

[fadedrose]

2. THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE by Stieg Larsson

Not quite l/2 way through and enjoying it a lot, especially the part where Salander finds out that Palmgren is alive and goes to see him at the hospital.

All are disappointed because Larsson died. Me too. Does anyone know what he died of? Hardly anyone mentions Reg Keeland, who translated the book from Swedish to English. He did a masterful job - the writing just flows. If there is a 4th book, I hope he gets it to translate so the flavor stays the same.





R



Page 34

[fadedrose]

I'd rate it 5-Star...

[no_hypocrisy]

3. "Trumped! The Inside Story of The Real Donald Trump-His Cunning Rise and

Spectacular Fall" by John R. O'Donnell, Former President, Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino

Published in 1991

Highly recommended.

Very readable, very interesting, and firsthand account of what a shallow, egotistical, selfish POS Donald Trump always has been.

[Sisaruus]

4. In the Wake by Per Petterson

I loved his Out Stealing Horses so I'm trying to read all of his other novels that have been translated to English.

[AngryOldDem]

5. The Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne.

Another title from Alqonquin Press of Chapel Hill, which has so far not let me down at all.

[YankeyMCC]

6. "The Towers of Silence" by Paul Scott

[MaineDem]

7. Still working on David Baldacci's "The Sixth Man"

I'm having a bit of trouble getting into it but I haven't been able to fully concentrate on it. I'm sure it'll be good.

[SheilaT]

8. The Shah by Abbas Milani

about Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the one who was deposed by the Revolution in 1979. It's pretty dense, and a 14 day book at my library, and there are holds on it, so I'll probably get about half way through and then return it and put it back on reserve for myself to finish later on.

I've also started The Postman Always Rings Twice, and I may not finish it. I'm halfway through the second chapter and I'm having a LOT of trouble figuring out what's going on. I seem to be up against slang that is now totally unfathomable nearly seventy years later.

[MaineDem]

10. Is it a biography or a novel?

The Shah book, I mean.

[pscot]

9. Garden of Evil by David Hewson

Police procedural set in Rome. One of a series featuring homicide detective Nick Costa.

[fadedrose]

12. FACELESS KILLERS by Henning Mankell

Only on page 20 or so, and it's starting out good...












No. 35

[fadedrose]

19. It started to drag....

got dreary. Det. Wallander's private life not a pretty one. Drinking because his wife left him, his daughter doesn't contact him, his best friend and colleague is very ill, and no clues to horrific crimes, etc., but as soon I got l/2 way thru and he started really concentrating on solving the murders then the book was pretty good. I'll stick with it through the series.

Surprise to me was the racial prejudice in Sweden. I thought the US was the only place, and we're not....People of everywhere, every color, every everything came to settle (or hide) in Sweden. Too many were thugs.

[fadedrose]

13. About the book in your subject OP..

I know it's almost blasphemy to say I didn't really care for this latest of Hiaasen's books. Reminded me too much of the dizzy blondes who are always in the news either being arrested or sent to rehab, and their greedy handlers. I like Hiassen best in the Everglades with snakes, gators and the occasional creep who needs Skink's "conditioning" before hes permitted to go back to civilization.

I didn't dislike the book, it was good, but not as good as all the others. Hiassen can't write a bad book, so I guess the topic is what I didn't care for.

[DUgosh]

15. It was okay

I am orginally from Florida, I liked Hiaasen's Nature Girl and Skinny Dip better with the more outdoorsy/nature focus. I really liked the teenage books Scat , Flush and most of all Hoot which was made into a movie.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Just finished "Village of the Ghost Bears" by Stan Jones

an Alaska-based writer who writes about a largely Inuit town in the Arctic. Complex mysteries with vivid characters. In this book, part of a series, the crime in question is an arson fire at the town's recreation center that kills eight people, several of whom could have made enemies.

[The Roux Comes First]

16. Just Finished Enjoying Wake (Thanks, Wheezy!) and Am

now moving on to Jance's Dead to Rights

[matt819]

17. A Hard Death, by Jonathan Hayes. . . and

Is it my imagination, or is every medical examiner also a novelist? This is by a medical examiner, and there is lots of medical examiner "stuff," but the character development is what makes this a good read. Not necessarily a page turner of the first order, but I'm enjoying it.

Also, just finished listening to Endurance, by Jack Kilborn and just started listening to "The Cleaner," by someone whose name I can't remember at the moment. Kilborn can certainly keep the tension level on high for extended periods. It's billed as a horror novel, but the horror is, well, it's definitely horrifying, but it's also just plain disgusting. And it plays on just about every Deliverance-style stereotype of Appalachian hillbillies, which is fine as far as it goes. You never seem to read about inbred Oregonians; they all seem to be centered in West Virginia.

The Cleaner's off to a slow start, not sure where it's going.

[DemoTex]

18. Finishing "The Unvanquished" by Wm. Faulkner.

My road book for the drive to Oregon next week will also be in the Civil War vain: March by E.L. Doctorow.

Remind me to post my fire lookout reading list for 2011.

[Dr. Strange]

20. Ringworld, by Lary something or other

[fadedrose]

21. Larry Niven - Sci-Fi

And Amazon has it rated very high. 5 stars - 54 out of 59 people voted.

Did you like it, Dr. Strange?

[Dr. Strange]

22. I tease the Niven.

I'm about half way through it. As much as I like science fiction, I haven't read much of Niven. (Tales of Known Space, the first volume of the Man-Kzin Wars, and Lucifer's Hammer, and that's about it.) But I like the story so far. I've heard that the series goes downhill, so I don't know if I'll read the remainder of the series.