[salem]

I had only ever read one Stephen King book, Misery, so I decided it was time for another. I loved Misery, a truly terrific book.

The one I chose was 'Salem's Lot'

Have to say I really enjoyed it. Of course the made-for-tv miniseries from the late 1970's takes one or two mliberties, but is actually a pretty faithful representation. It starts off slow, woth King setting the scene over a long period (he seems to like to flesh out every minor character of a small town in intimate detail) but once the story gets going it is unputdownable!

Brilliant. Very bleak though, a sense of pervading hopelessness seems to dog the last 100 pages. However, excellently written and extremely enjoyable.

[homevintner]

An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Antarctic Survivor by Michael Smith. The man who went on three of the four great British expeditions with Scott and Shackleton, and made a 36 mile solo trek across the Ross Ice Shelf in 18 hrs to get help for a pair or comrades.
The Dead and Those about to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach by John C. McManus.
Gray Tide in the East by Andrew J. Heller. An alternate history of the First World War where the Kaiser attacks Russia and not France via Belgium.

[salem]

I don't know how familiar anyone on here is with the Bernard Cornwell 'Sharpe' novels, but I recently read 'Sharpe's Havoc' a novel which depicts Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and his merry band of riflemen helping to send Marshall Soult's French army packing from Portugal.

The Cornwell 'Sharpe' series really are an excellent read, highly recommended. They are meticulously researched and move along at a breakneck pace.

The novels themselves have a chronological order, but aren't written that way. Indeed the first novel Chronologically was written AFTER the novel that takes place LAST chronologically!

The novels (chronologically) begin with a young Sharpe in India and go through his act of bravery which promotes him from the ranks through fighting at Trafalgar, Portugal, Spain and Waterloo. The last novel chronologically to feature Sharpe takes place a few years after Waterloo and features Napoleon.

[pedonbio]

I don't know how familiar anyone on here is with the Bernard Cornwell 'Sharpe' novels, but I recently read 'Sharpe's Havoc' a novel which depicts Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and his merry band of riflemen helping to send Marshall Soult's French army packing from Portugal.

The Cornwell 'Sharpe' series really are an excellent read, highly recommended. They are meticulously researched and move along at a breakneck pace.

The novels themselves have a chronological order, but aren't written that way. Indeed the first novel Chronologically was written AFTER the novel that takes place LAST chronologically!

The novels (chronologically) begin with a young Sharpe in India and go through his act of bravery which promotes him from the ranks through fighting at Trafalgar, Portugal, Spain and Waterloo. The last novel chronologically to feature Sharpe takes place a few years after Waterloo and features Napoleon.

I was introduced to his work thru a series of television shows about 20 years ago... Great programs. I can't recall if they were BBC or U.S. grown.

---------------------

Scorpions by Noah Feldman is an interesting kind of literature, a group biography. He took four of Franklin Roosevelt's SCOTUS appointees--Frankfurter, Black, Douglas, and Jackson--and followed their intellectual development, and the emergence of comprehensive constitutional thought from 1935 to 1955 or so. It's a good read, but it is the story of complex inter-relationships, and a mere 400 pages isn't enough.

[Robin_K2]

I've been re-re-reading all the Sherlock Holmes short stories. Every single one, and I'm almost done. I'd forgotten how wonderful they are. It's not the mysteries so much as the style of writing and the atmosphere Conan Doyle creates.

[pedonbio]

I've been re-re-reading all the Sherlock Holmes short stories. Every single one, and I'm almost done. I'd forgotten how wonderful they are. It's not the mysteries so much as the style of writing and the atmosphere Conan Doyle creates.

Yes! I thought I was the only person who did that.

[salem]

Yes! I thought I was the only person who did that.

I have them all, but have read surprisingly few. I suppose it's a bit like me with Stephen King, Bernard Cornwell, Michael Crichton and James Herbert, I like the thought of reading them occasionally so I can always look forward to reading something really good for a long time to come.

[pedonbio]

The really good stuff is just as good with subsequent readings.

[salem]

That is certainly true. Timeline is my favourite book, I read it every year. I think it may be time to give the old Sherlock tales a try.

[Robin_K2]

Last night I started another book that I've read many times: H.G. Wells "Outline of History," in two volumes.

It's fascinating. Wonderful, unique views throughout -- considered generalizations and conclusions about major periods of time, with special consideration to countries and continents whose histories usually do not figure in American school texts.

Some of it is rather dated. But that the opinions are Wells' opinions makes up for that. He was both ahead of his time and a product of his time.

[homevintner]

Beat the Last Drum-The Siege of Yorktown by Thomas Fleming
South Pacific Cauldron-Word War II's great Forgotten Battlegrounds by Alan Rems
Boston 1775 by Francis Russell

[pedonbio]

Last night I started another book that I've read many times: H.G. Wells "Outline of History," in two volumes.

It's fascinating. Wonderful, unique views throughout -- considered generalizations and conclusions about major periods of time, with special consideration to countries and continents whose histories usually do not figure in American school texts.

Some of it is rather dated. But that the opinions are Wells' opinions makes up for that. He was both ahead of his time and a product of his time.

Yep. Other people may have invented The Bomb, but he came up with the idea and the name.

[gOOber]

 

[Palomine]

My esteemed colleague Prof. M. (Holmes' nemesis) recently recommended Andy Weir's "The Martian" to me and I read it in two sittings. It was entertaining and reality-based (for SF).

[rtpoe]

Mars Girl by Jeff Garrity

The United States’ first attempt at colonizing Mars is in big trouble. The lander has been damaged – somehow – and is drifting off course. Worse, sixteen of the seventeen people aboard are dead, leaving only a teenaged girl alive.

Will she land safely? Will she be able to make it to the prefab, pre-landed restaurant/shelter? Will a rescue mission be able to reach her in time? How will the corporate sponsors of the mission be able to profit from this? How will the news network with exclusive coverage of the landing keep people glued to their screens, and keep the merchandise moving? How will the government spin this disaster to their advantage?

Can our intrepid...er, hero, the ace reporter Ray Barker, find a big enough story while stuck in a small lakeside town in Michigan to keep his name and face on the news?

It's fast-paced and action packed, and the scenes shift rapidly from Okinisee, Michigan to the White House to the headquarters of MASSnews, "the USA’s best choice for contemporary news hits." Garrity manages to keep it all under control; using chapters shorter than those of James Patterson helps with the rapid shifts. The tone is light; he never gets in your face with satire or social commentary. You can, if you choose to do so, read it as a rollicking good sci-fi action yarn instead of biting social satire, and still enjoy the heck out of it.