What are you currently reading?

[QualityBookReviews]

An open discussion on what everyone is currently reading. Make recommendations to others, discuss what is new, hot, bestsellers, anything and everything related to books and the authors.

[Joy Calderwood]

Thoroughly enjoyed a reread of Tom Clancy's WITHOUT REMORSE - my 6th read, I think. Clancy's best book, IMO, which means of course that it's the one that best suits my taste. It's set in a bedrock of human emotion, though of course Clancy still gives lots of military maneuvering. I stopped reading after SUM OF ALL FEARS, I think it was, but from that time range, WITHOUT REMORSE stands out as the most emotionally involving.

The reason I read it again was because I picked up the audio version, and it turned out to be abridged. There was so much missing that I couldn't stand it. A good lesson for me: don't buy an audio book unless it says "unabridged," because the only audio books I buy are the ones that are very familiar from rereads.

[Harley Sachs]

I'm told that Tom Clancy gets millions in advances but then farms out the writing of fhe next book to a ghost writer for $500,000. That's good money for a ghost writer, but apparently those books are not up to the original quality or standard. I don't know if this is true. Anybody know?

Audio abridgements can be disappointing. Fourteen of my books ae available on audio. I did the readings at Odregon Public Broadcasting's Golden Hours studio. Audible,com has a few of them, but they are also supposedly distributed by a Canadian audio vendor. One never knows if the vendors are skimming, and the trickle down to the aufhors is... ?

[Joy Calderwood]

Clancy has a couple of series that I know of that he devised and then turned over to co-writers. Net Force and Op-Center are the series, and they give the other writer's name along with Clancy's.

[Don Lee]

The Windowlicker Maker by Danny Hogan, Queenpin by Megan Abbott, River Girl by Charles Williams, and Shabby Street by Orrie Hitt. Just finished Memory by Donald Westlake and Nobody's Angel by Jack Clark. My favorite publisher is Hard Case Crime, though, and I read those as fast as I can get 'em.

[Harley Sachs]

HAd A NICE INTERVIEW ON A LOCA0L RADIO STATION ABOUT MY NEW BOOK. nOW MAYBE ONE OR TWO PEOPLE WILL BUY IT. (OOPS--CAPS LOCK)

[Gaile Hughes]

If you want to be enthralled, captivated and totally engrossed by the first 45 pages of a book, James Patterson’s ‘Don’t Blink’ is a winner. Not a word is wasted, each one in its own right forwarding the story. (how do you do that?)

The main character – a journalist (that should appeal to many) flees from war torn Sudan with bullets pinging around him, travels through eight time zones and headlong into………………… And if that doesn’t entice you, pause a moment when you are hunting for your next book and read the short prologue..

[Kemosabe]

I've never been able to get into Patterson though I hear he blows hot and cold and certainly sells. He has other writers working with and for him and I dont know, that doesnt seem right to me..

[Gaile Hughes]

Correct. Yes hot and cold, yes he sells and yes other writers. This is co-authored with Howard Roughan. However, horses for courses, I don't give a hoot who's writing the book so long as I'm enjoying it. Plus it gives a leg up to other budding writers, I certainly wouldn't knock back the chance. Did you not like his female character Lindsay Boxer?

[Kemosabe]

I've only read one and maybe a half of his books. I liked the first female murder club or whatever and thought that venue had a lot of promise. The second one was just cliched trash and I had to set it aside.

[I. J. Parker]

Dennis Lehane, A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR. Honestly, I don't get the fuss about Lehane. This is my third book by him and none proved to be better than high average. This one is a P.I. thriller. It has the flaws of both genres. For a P.I. novel, it has the tough loner with the gorgeous girl, who happens to be the equally tough female sidekick. As a thriller, it has excessive violence (I'm not opposed to violence!) and highly unlikely scenarios. For either, he steers a perilous route between depicting black inner-city gang warfare and remaining very PC about it all. As for literary qualities, I don't buy the superimposed angst due to memories of an abusive father, and the imagery still limps.

Other than that, it's readable, though I prefer Lee Child for a page turner.

[Kemosabe]

I think Lehane is over rated as well, IJ. Like you say he has his moments but like many in that genre he is irritatingly politically correct. BTW I like tough females and I dont think Child has any in his. Now if he turned his boy Reader into a girl I might be more attracted. :D

[I. J. Parker]

Not sure about that. Many women buy the books because Reacher is male. A loner like that is an irresistable challenge to women.