Friday, June 21, 2013

Scott Phillips and Sara Gran Arrive to Cure Your Summer Blues

Fiction

Rake by Scott Phillips.  American actor goes to Paris when his soap Opera hits big in France.  Much trouble ensues.  This novel released in France first.  Phillips made a book trailer.




Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway by Sara Gran.  Private Investigator Claire DeWitt follows the investigative philosopy of the enigmatic Jacques Silette and follows clues that mean nothing to anyone else.  Including you, the reader.  Good stuff.


The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg.  Hard driving FBI Special Agent is forced to team up with the con man she has been trying to arrest for years.  Drama, adventure, and romantic shenanigans ensue.

Goldberg has been promoting this like crazy.  I'm annoyed CBS nixed him from this interview.  I'm more interested in Goldberg's comments than Evanovich's, you can hear her anytime.  Try out Goldberg's King City.



Large Print

Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.  I was reading the first few pages when the power was just out.

Silken Prey by John Sandford.  Minnesota murder.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Astronauts and Large Print

NonFiction

Astronaut Wives Club: a true story by Lily Koppel.  Lives of the astronauts wive in the 1950s through 1970s.  Page 142 says, "Someone kept a flow of coffee on the burner and the emptied the ashtray filled by the chain-smoking artiste."

Large Print

Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers.  Page 314 says, "He unbuttoned her shirt."

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.  Page 159 says, "It weighed on me."

Benediction by Kent Haruf.  Page 10 says, "I'll call her."

A Delicate Truth by John Le Carre.  Page 329 says, "Toby did."

Zero Hour by Clive Cussler.  Page 283 says, "The flare only lasted another ten seconds, but Joe had also found a flashlight."

David the Page Went on a Processing Tear

Fiction

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan.  I hope this guy doesn't have a middle name beginning with K.  Big-time summer novel with lots of press. Comedy with "superrich, pedigreed Chinese families."  I expected Kwan to have gooped up, spiky hair in his author photo.  Nope.

Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.  Time traveling serial killer hunts really smart young women.  A would be victim escapes and figures out what is happening.  Beukes does not have spiky hair either.  She lives in Cape Town, I wonder if she knows Roger Smith.  Smith has written some excellent novels.

9th Girl by Tami Hoag.  Serial killer murder mystery that starts in Minneapolis by an author that lives in Florida.

Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.  178 pages?  Probably took Gaiman two days for the whole thing.  Gaiman used to live in Wisconsin.  Over near Minneapolis, I think.  Gaiman's hair is not spiky, it's just messy.

The Son by Philipp Meyer.  1849 Texas and a kid is kidnapped and raised by Comanches.  When the Indian Wars end the adult has no place to be.  Who was the real guy who was kidnapped and became a Comanche chief?    Or am I getting confused about Quanah Parker whose mother was kidnapped as a child and Quanah became a chief?

Revenge Wears Prada: the devil returns by Lauren Weisenberger.  Nice author photo but after looking at a website showing fashion photoshopping I am very suspicious.  Which is not fair to Weisenberger because even if the photo is all touched up it looks like she didn't need any.  Now I sound like a suck-up.

Flat Water Tuesday by Ron Irwin.  Competitive rowing at boarding school and the blue-collar kid with a rowing scholarship.  Hey!  Irwin also lives in Cape Town.  Maybe Irwin, Beueks and Smith should meet for coffee.

The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan.  Another big summer novel.  Sullivan lives in Brooklyn along with a boatload of other writers.  I think Megan Abbott lives there.

Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky.  Some novel.

Sparta by Roxana Robinson.  Iraq War veteran returns to New York state.  "Something has gone wrong, though things should be fine: he hasn't been shot or wounded; he's never had psychological troubles."

The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo.  More Norwegian crime to make author Anthony Neil Smith all giggly with anticipation.  Nesbo has a shaved head.  During winter I see dudes with shaved heads and without hats.  Man, during winter I wear a hat when I'm inside.  Heck, there are a couple guys around town who wear shorts in January.

Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.  Science Fiction with an impenetrable summary on the flyleaf. Pratchett and Baxter both live in England.  Pratchett and Baxter are both bald. 

Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow.  Rich Manhattan family finds out the attorney dad ran things on empty bank accounts.  Dad dies and family is in trouble.