Kris D

Books I've read

Public Notes

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  Michael E says

  Your reviews helped persuade me to acquire or hit up our small rural library for Lacuna and Olive Kitteridge, but I still haven't located Robinson's Home.
  
  I would jump on any Thomas Perry's that you give a great rating on. Haven't kept up with him, but his series with Jane Whiteside, the Seneca "escape" artist, were great fun, the 4 or 5 I snacked on. The Butcher Boy and Metzger's Dog pair seemed both macrabre and zany, but I don't know if he continued that line either.
  
  Follett's Pillars on your shelf I am eyeing (the library has it). You read it, but you didn't rate it. Looks massive, but his knack for telling a good story could lighten the load. (The similarly titled Seven Pillar's of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence is also massive, but it sits there without jumping off the shelf for years)
  
  You have six Scharra covers lined up as read, but they are also unrated. I've only read two of Jeff's (plus the father's), so how I do I know which is the better one? I loved the Mexican War one with Robert E. Lee serving as an engineer.
  
  We agree on Carr's Killing Time as not up to par. Just because his science fiction foray didn't satisfy doesn't mean you should avoid science fiction. ;-) I hope you would try Connie Willis sometime.
  
  Hope Fall holds off awhile in Wisconsin. At your latitiude, and we are needing wood fires at night sometimes, and the blue aasters are saying the door to Fall is near.

  Posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

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  Michael E says

  Hope you are enjoying the Alienist. Such a great ride and satisfying on many levels.
  
  Hope Wisconisn is cool enough for you. We have had a couple of Fall like days and harbinger asters have bloomed early.

  Posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

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  Michael E says

  Larson and Laarson then are fine targets, as well as Handmaid's Tale--thanks!
  
  For other quirky murder mysteries, I would highly recommend "The Alienist" and "Smilla's Sense of Snow". As a case manager who dealt with people with dysfunctions, you might appreciate Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn", the detective protagonist of which suffers from Tourette's, but succeeds as others asume he is ineffectual. Maybe a bit like "I, Claudius", where the Roman Empirer was assumed to be an idiot and thus outsmarts Calligula.

  Posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

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  Michael E says

  As I said, the overlap in taste between us is eerie. (I guess I am not as odd as I thought)
  
  Read 2 of those Robinson ones, but would love to hear about "Home"--just as good?
  
  We both loved the Hosseini's (who doesn't?). What category is that so we can find more equally good reads?--growing up in war-torn society?
  
  We both read Scharra's "Steel Wave". I read "Gone for Soldiers" which covers Robert E. Lee in the Mexican War--loved it! He is almost as good as his more academic father Michael, who also made Lee come alive in "Gods and Generals". You have read "Glorious Cause" (Revolutionary War) and "No Less Than Victory" (WW2). Stockwin and Bernard Cornwell also novelize the former well in my opinion. I love all of Stephen Ambrose for WW2 and Allan Furst for the spy angle. Wouk's "Winds of War" was so fine. I have a special fondness for Len Deighton's "Goodby, Mickey Mouse", about the bomber squads.
  
  You also read his "To the Last Man", which I haven't yet. So few books on World War 1. Am pondering Faulks' "Birdsong" on my shelf. For a history, Barbara Tuchman's "Guns of August" does an outstanding job of putting it all in perspective. Am currently trying Pat Barker's "The Ghost Road", which continues "Regeneration", a fictionalization of shrink who treated Sassoon, who refused to fight.
  
  I read 4 Deavers, different from your two--of these I dug the last 2 the best: "The Cold Moon", "Garden of Beasts", "The Empty Chair", "The Bone Collector" (which was made into a great movie). For other mystery/suspense writers I love Lee Child, James Lee Burke, Michael Connolly, Stuart Woods, and Nelson Demille, James W. Hall, Riddley Pearson, William Bayer, Patricia Cornwell, and Thomas Perry. Any of these align or whet an interest?
  
  I read Haddon's "Spot of Bother" and am now interested in the "Dog in the Night", which has autism theme I learned. I encourage you to do the other--very funny in dead-pan style. Guy thinks he is dying of cancer, so all the usual crises of life take a different cast.
  
  I have all those Atwoods on the shelf, but don't know which might be best if I can't do them all. The Larsson "Dragon Tattoo" I want to read after seeing the movie; ditto for "Running with Scissors". (Are movies ever as good as the book?)
  
  Maybe you could "sell" me a bit on the Walls, Dunant, Erik Larson, and the particular Oates you read ("Blonde").
  
  Sorry to spout so much. Feel free to strech you responses in smaller packets.
  
  Kind regards,

  Posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )