Just finished Dennis Lehane's "Live by Night".

I wasn't too crazy about his last two books and was sadly thinking that he'd lost the magic, but I was wrong. This is without question the very best gangster novel I've read; I'd put it in the top five crime fiction, and possibly my top twenty novels of any kind. Really extraordinary. Not for the faint of heart - it's very violent - but if that doesn't bother you do yourself a favour and give it try. The story is a basic gangster story - violence and betrayal - but my goodness can that man write.

Reading 'To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

It has my full interest now. It was a bit boring in the beginning, but not anymore. It is long and it is one tough cracker, but I am set on eating that cracker fully, metaphorically speaking.

Also, takes the numero uno spot in my mind.


This book won it for me. Kudos to

He is the TRUE main character in my eyes.

I'm reading one of the best books on the American Civil War. Its title is " Freedom" by William Safire. It's a mixture of fiction and historical facts and really very interesting.

ren asked me to put something in Bookworms about my Auntie Nina Bawden.
Firstly - she died in August this year - aged 87
She wrote @48 novels and used to write one adult novel then a children's novel. Probably her most well known novel was Carries War which tells a tale of my father and Nina when they were evacuated to Shropshire in WW11. It has been made into TV series and a couple of years ago a Westend play. She was shorlisted for the booker prize in 1987 for Circles of Deceit - a complicated family yarn.
Nina and Austen (uncle) were both in the Potters Bar train crash - Nina badly injured and Austen killed. Nina's last novel was Dear Austen - written as a letter to Austen outlining Nina's ongoing fight for justice with the railways. A fight she ultimately won.
She was a lovely Aunt with a wicked sense of humour and great warmth. Missed by us.

I'v just started 'Stranger In A Strange Land', by Robert A. Heinlein, and 50 pages in, i'm hooked.
Normally i'm not reader of science fiction, but since reading an article about the top ten science fiction books of all time, i decided to pick this book out of the bunch and give it a go.
If his other books are as good as this one is turning out to be, why did i wait so long?

That one's a little dated in some ways - I find it difficult to read, now. Some of his other stuff held up a little better. So, if you're happy now, you're in for a treat - he wrote a lot, and most of it was good.

Thanks Trangie, that makes interesting reading. I am going to start a new thread dealing with Authors we may have met. Its a good subject I think.

I agree there. Heinlein is a brilliant author and he makes Science Fiction accessible to the masses and not just its fans. He has many good books with underlying themes that are still relevant today.

I remember reading Carrie's War many years ago, and the successful TV programme. She was a talented writer trangie, thanks for the memories

Reading Alfie My story by Alfie Boe,Britains best Tenor tells his story so far and what a wide and various career he has had prior to becoming a opera/west end star.

As biographies go this is informative at times funny and also sad, i am finding it very intresting is a good read, some things i am trying to check the validity of where he claims to have recorded a demo of 2 queen songs in abbey road studio as a sound check for Queens engineers, one person who worked with freddie mercury and queen says he cant recall, another says that queen and their engineers never used abbey road studios. But am sure Alfie Boe has not lied as he has nothing to gain from it.

This is one biography i recommend throughly.

I just started "Daughters-in-Law" by Joanna Trollope. Sounded interesting, but for some reason (perhaps being distracted at the time) I couldn't quite get into it. Will keep it and try again later tonight or tomorrow.

It tels the story of what happens when a headstrong woman becomes the in-law of a couple who are used to running their sons--and their sons' wives--lives.

I've been reading a whole stack of John D MacDonald paperback originals from the fifties and early sixties. He churned out this stuff at an enormous rate in those years, and they were never meant to be deathless prose. They're what we used to call "Men's stories" - lots of violence and as much sex as he could get away with. The novelistic equivalent of those magazines like "Argosy". And it's amazing how class will out - it's cheap dreck, but it's good cheap dreck, because he couldn't help being a good writer no matter what he was writing. I've been enjoying myself immensely, and also enjoying the looks on the faces of other people when they see the front covers of what I'm reading, in restaurants and doctor's offices - they're pretty sensational.

Oooh Yes, Agony! Travis McGee- Ladies in distress, lost treasure and brutal villains!
Yu might start a new trend!

I was relieved to finish “Daughters-in-Law,” which is one of those books that, if you stop reading, you wonder what would have happened. And I was somewhat disappointed by the ending, as it leaves the reader hanging (fine for readers who don’t mind that sort of thing, but I do). I did rather enjoy the place descriptions, though.

I’m now reading “Killing Kate” by Julie Kramer. More what I’m interested in reading
*Love* those mystery and suspense stories!

I'm reading a book called "Girl in Translation," about a girl and her mother who emigrate to America from HongKong. So far, it's very interesting.

"The Friends of Eddie Coyle" which is apparently the best crime book several authors like Elmore Leonard and Dennis Lehane ever read, even though I'd never heard of it. I'm not very far in, but beginning to see what they meant.

I wish there was some rule that you could not get a book published unless you could write really really well. Unfortunately, sometimes it seems the opposite is true. Somebody like Dan Brown is a millionaire, and nobody's heard of George V. Higgins.

‘The Mischief of the Mistletoe: a Pink Carnation Christmas,’ by Lauren Wellig. A very entertaining book about the exploits of rstudents at an Academy for Girls, the new Junior Instructress, some other characters, and hilarious incidents involving Christmas puddings.

Finished "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" and it really is pretty remarkable. It reads so easy - it's like sitting on a bar stool listening to the guys talking - that you hardly notice that there is some very skillful subtle writing going on. If you like gritty crime novels, check this one out. Don't read the intro until after you've finished the book.

Also just finished another slice of low life, this one purportedly true - "Full Service" the memoirs of Scotty Bowers, who apparently slept with everyone in Los Angeles from 1946 until well into the eighties. Viewed one way, it's an amazing social document; viewed another, it is simply appalling - he quite cheerfully tells us all about the pedophilic prostitution ring he ran at the age of twelve, for example. A boy's gotta make money somehow during the Depression, and the paper route wasn't cutting it.

And (wasn't kidding when I said I read more than one book at a time) also just finished Dickens' "Hard Times". Just loved it, and am amazed at how topical it is.

Now reading "How Children Succeed" from Paul Tough, about some newish research into the effects of noncognitive skills on success, especially for disadvantaged children.

And the new Harlen Coben - Myron Bolitar again, yay!

"Port Mortuary" by Patricia Cornwell

I just started "The Lost Years" by Mary Higgins Clark. I like this one more so far, than most of the others I've read by her (who knows, though--it's early yet, and the way some of her characters are portrayed is a turn-off.)

One example I can give right off the top of my head of a book by her I disliked almost from the start was "I'll Walk Alone." I was outraged by how that woman's *friends* viewed her once their friendship was tested.

She's like John Grisham to me - an author I'll read if there isn't anything else around. Like eating at Denny's.

I just finished "me again" by Keith Cronin. It's told in first person about a man who awakes from being in a coma for six years. The story is really enlightening about how stroke victims can feel while going through recovery and coping with their new limitations to their bodies and minds. I hated for the story to end.

Still working on "The Last Years," and I've reached the point where I have to keep reading or I'll always wonder how it ended--but there's definetly a level of predictability here: I figured out who the killer was long ago, and in the one chapter I was able to predict what was about to happen.

I'm pleased to report that, not only have I finished, but I was wrong

Just finished "The Monster in the Box" by Ruth Rendell. It's one of the later Inspector Wexford novels, and, I hate to say it, but I think this series has run its course. I enjoyed seeing back into Wexford's past, but the basic story of this one is pretty silly, and the side plot about the young Muslim girl defies belief. Too bad, I've always liked this series and the books that came out during the 80s and 90s were really excellent. Read the very latest in the series, "The Vault" a few weeks ago, and it suffered from the same problems. Well, Wexford has retired now, so that's probably that.

Despite the flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed the BBC's recent mini series "The Paradise", or at least the idea of it, so I borrowed Emile Zola's "Au Bonheur des Dames" (on which the series is based) from a friend. It's a great read (even though I am discovering just how lacking I am in French "literary" vocabulary). It reminds me of The Coral Island with its long descriptive prose, where each word is carefully chosen to convey just the atmosphere the author wants to create. I think there are various versions available in English, but I'm not sure I'll read any of them as the original is so rich itself that I risk being disappointed in a translation. It's definitely a style of writing which is dated, but for me it's so much more satisfying to read than more modern stuff, that I'm perfectly happy to bury my head between the covers of the book any time I have even just five minutes to spare.

Oh Gosh, Toni, I read it, so many years ago
I think I struggled then, even while living in France and exposed to French all day so probably would even more so now.

I'm not struggling, exactly, but I'm certainly losing out on the detail. I refuse to get out my dictionary for every single word that I don't understand or know, when I am getting the sense of the meaning, as it would slow me down too much and become extremely frustrating. So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying the read in any case.

In my rereading of old John D MacDonald novels, one which stands out is 1962's "Flash of Green". Its depiction of the clash between dirty politics and environmentalism are depressingly modern for a fifty year old book. There's a great passage in it that practically defines the tension between tourism and natural beauty that I'm going to quote here, as it is still highly relevant:

I'm reading the Peter Townshend autobiography "Who I am". I find it very difficult to follow and very poorly written. It's disconnected, doesn't flow at all and seems to be snippets of information placed one after another in chronological order with no transitions. General themes keep recurring to try and create a theme or transition, but as someone who knows next to nothing about The Who, it is not at all informative or easy to follow because it is so disconnected.

I guess when I read a biography I need more structure, especially if I'm not familiar with the subject/content/person. I'm about half way through it, so I'll finish it up, but unless you are a diehard Who or Pete fanatic, I'd avoid it.