Recently Read (February 2006 - March 2006)

Here's a list of the books I've read in the last two months, (that haven't already been reviewed by me), with an Amazon-style star rating and a few comments. Similar posts: [1] [2] [3] [4]

• In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
  After reading Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, I wanted to try another "non-fiction novel". This was the one that started that genre so it seemed a good choice. I found the pace varied. For parts, I was engrossed. Others dragged. I now though will be looking forward to watching Capote when it comes On Demand on our local cable service.

• The Best A Man Can Get - John O'Farrell
  I checked this out of our local library after recently reading May Contain Nuts and loving it. This was good (and very funny in places), but didn't resonant with me as much. I wonder if I would have felt differently if I'd read them in reverse order.

• L.A. Requiem - Robert Crais
• Stalking The Angel - Robert Crais
• Lullaby Town - Robert Crais
• The Last Detective - Robert Crais
• Indigo Slam - Robert Crais
• Sunset Express - Robert Crais
  I've been on a bit of a Robert Crais binge recently. As many of the P.I. Elvis Cole ("The Worlds Greatest Detective") novels as I can find. Crais does tend to write the same novel over and over, but they are fast paced easy reads, funny and real page-turners (with the body count usually in double figures by the end of the book).

• A Is For Alibi - Sue Grafton
  The first of the "alphabet mysteries" from Grafton (I believe she's up to "S" at the moment). Enjoyable enough to make me want to read some more in the series; especially some more recent ones to see how her writing style has matured.

• Whip Hand - Dick Francis
  Another author who tends to write the same novel over and over again. Some are (much) better than others. This is the one listed in the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century, and is one of his better ones.

• Flash And Filigree - Terry Southern
  About 10-12 years ago, I used to read the USENET newsgroup rec.art.books avidly. At that time, there was a thread on good humorous novels. This book was mentioned. I made a note of it and finally got around to buying it and reading it over the last couple of weeks. When I saw it compared to A Confederacy of Dunces (a book I truly hated), I knew I wasn't going to like it. The humour is dated and I had real problems relating to the main protagonist. I won't be looking for any more Terry Southern books.

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( Mar 28 2006, 08:57:51 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [3]