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.
Congratulations on Conspiracy being released:) And thanks for the update on Angels and Demons...I'm going to purchase it soon, so it's good to have an idea of what to expect:)
I thoroughly enjoyed The Davinci Code, but Brown is repeating himself by again using a scary assasin in Angels and Demons as he did in the previous book, Brown uses the same gimmicks in all his books. It's a formula and it means that he really has only one book that he keeps writing over and over again with different twists. Angels and Demons again is about the church and its arch enemies. I guess Brown had a lost of research, done laudably, and is using it again. Hemingway was accused by some critics of having only one basic story: a man loses his integrity and may get it back but will die in the process. Hemingway's books lead to a loss of consciousness. I'm glad that none of my books are alike. Even the Mystery Club series stories, set in the same retirement home with the same elderly ladies, are very unlike each other. then there's the science fiction and the collections of short stories. I've written on scores of topics as a newspaper columnist and trade journalist, so am not afraid to enter new waters. I can't fault Brown for being a huge financial success, but maybe that's a criticism of his readers as much as it is of his writing. A wannabe writer can learn much from the pacing of Brown's books and his meticulous research, but that's about it. We're almost all of us in the literary equivalent of fast junk food which does have its place. If not, nobody would go to MacDonald's.
Hi my name is Penny. I just joined a few days ago. I look forward to meeting new friends here and finding new authors to read. I finished "Shadow Prey" by John Sandford a few days ago and started "The Murder Book" by Johnathan Kellerman. I also have the first four books of Robert Crais's Elvis Cole series coming in the mail.
Thanks for the good wishes. Now back to reading Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan. I am reading it for review so you won't find it in the library or stores as yet but it is a good book.
I've started "Kate Shugak V," PLAY WITH FIRE. When I read this book the first time, in 1995, I thought it was the indication that the series was starting the inevitable downturn, but it was a might short downturn -- one book. I'm giving it a new chance now as I reread the series, and it's making a good start.
The horrible fundamentalist sect was the main reason I had trouble with it, I'm sure of that. Now I have to read around the sect to pick up this segment of Kate's life. Come to think of it, it's quite possible this is the point where Dana Stabenow and her publisher realized the books were popular enough that she could work in some of her opinions, that add such dimension to the series.
I'm currently bouncing between Gordon Aalborg's Dining with Devils (on the laptop in PDF Format), and Paddy Richardson's A Year to Learn a Woman - which frankly is frightening the whatsit out of me! Next Up is Ivana Hruba's A Decent Ransom probably.