Books I've Read
Books Listed by Author
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z All
Put a lid on it
Meehan, a thief up on a Federal beef, is recruited by the CREEP to steal some incrimidating materials. LATER: Read it again, still good!
Read:
4/2003Read:
7/2006
Sacred Monster
A very strange recounting of the life of an actor, told in strange flashbacks. The crime is revealed at the end, never fear.
Words I Had To Look Up:
crapen neck (pg. 30) -- Does not seem to be a "real" word. Is crapelike at dictionary.com.
steep hills serving as the only redan against the proles of the Valley (pg. 69) -- A v-shaped projection from a fortification.
Read:
7/2010
Smoke
Freddie gets turned invisible, which has its good points, as he is a burglar, and its bad points, as it freaks out his girlfriend. And then there all those people who want to use him for their own nefarious projects... With a cigarette company playing a central part in this story, one would think there would be some good Smoke Quotes.
Words I Had To Look Up:
Oriel -- A bay window projecting from an upper floor. (pg. 98)
Boniface -- The keeper of an inn, hotel, nightclub, or eating establishment.(pg. 107)
Ferslugginer -- Confounded, darned, wretched.(pg. 118)
Quote:
It was a thirty-gear bike, a virtual thesaurus entry of power and speed, adaptable to any terrain known to man; there was probably a gear for going across ceilings. (pg. 354)Quote:
Around the curve he went, shifted into the good-level-road gear, and hit forty-five without working up a sweat.(pg. 358)Read:
1/2008
The Axe
A downsized-man commits murders to elimate possible job competitors.
Read:
12/2004
The Comedy Is Finished
Published after the author died, but written in the 80s. Radicals kidnap a popular comedian to get prisoners released. Things go wrong.
Read:
7/2012
The Hook
A famous writer without a book with a bad divorce going on runs into an old friend who is a writer with a book and no publisher. Good story.
Read:
3/2001
The Road To Ruin
The Dortmunder Gang tries to steal a collection of valuable cars.
Read:
9/2004
Thieves' Dozen
A collection of Dortmunder tales, mostly. I can't have too much Dortmunder!
Read:
4/2010
Watch you back!
Dortmunder saves the O.J. and tries to burgle a penthouse.
Read:
6/2005
What's So Funny?
Dortmunder steals a gold chess set. Very good.
Words I Had To Look Up:
pied-à-terre -- A secondary or temporary place of lodging.(pg. 247)Read:
1/2008
What's The Worst That Could Happen?
Dortmunder goes to Las Vegas to get his ring back. Very funny! But no cigarette jokes this time!
QUOTE:
...Tiny was in the process of explaining to a panhandler why it had been rude to ask Tiny for money. "You didn't earn this money," Tiny was saying. "You see what I mean?" The way Tiny was holding the panhandler made it impossible for the fellow to nswer questions, but that was okay; Tiny's questions were all rhetorical, anyway. "For instance," he was saying, for instance, "the money I got in my jeans this minute, where do you suppose I got it? Huh? I'll tell you where I got it. I stole it from some people uptown. It was hard work, and there was some risk in it, and I earned it. Did you earn it? Did you risk anything? Did you work hard?" ..."Get a job," he said, "or get a gun. But don't beg. It's rude."Read:
7/1999
Empty
An image of a gas gauge on "E" illustrates the book jacket. Ten years from now the world is running out of petroleum, and this is how it impacts the lives of high school students in a small valley in New York state.
Not great reader reviews on Amazon, and I agree with their points. I was thinking, "No one has heard of solar cell phone chargers?". And some of the tech seems sketchy, especially that wonderful perpetual motion generator.
Read:
2/2011
Listening for lions
An orphaned English girl (who was born in Africa) is forced to impersonate a girl who died of influenza, so the dead girl's parents can get hold of an inheritance. Really good.
Read:
4/2006
The Mouse That Roared
Great story of a little country that declares war on the United States back in the 50s. Peter Sellers played several of the parts in the movie.
Quote:
"But continue, have you other reasons?"
"I have, but I have already been rebuked by your Grace with a reference to the breeding of horses, and do not feel at leave to proceed."
"Oh," said Gloriana. "Oh."
Read:
1/2013
Countdown
Franny is an Air Force kid who lives near Andrews AFB. She is coping with growing up, an uncle with issues from WWI, and the threat of nuclear annihilation in the 60s. Profusely illustrated. It took me until page 276 to realize that Uncle "Otis" was actually spelled Uncle Otts. Ain't old eyes great?
Read:
10/2010
Each Little Bird That Sings
Comfort's family lives in a large house that is also a funeral home, so she is familiar with dealing with death. Except when it's too close.
Read:
12/2008
Love, Ruby Lavender
Ruby lives in a very small town in Mississippi. She love her grandmother, and she loves the chickens they rescued. But she hates Melba Jane. Dealing with a death in the family seems to be a theme of the author.
Read:
12/2008
The Aurora County All-Stars
House Jackson is trying to get his arm back in shape for pitching the annual (and only) baseball game against the kids from the neighboring county, but a Pageant is scheduled for the same time. Ruby wants to be catcher (No Girls!), and even Comfort makes a cameo. And of course, someone dies.
Read:
12/2009
Care Of Wooden Floors
An un-named fellow goes to a distant un-named city in an un-named country to house-sit for his college friend Oskar. Stuff goes wrong. Blurb on the back from the Daily Telegraph says "Fawlty Towers crossed with Freud." Well, shit gets real on page 90, but I didn't guffaw till page 221. All that blood!
Lou Reed Sunday Morning mention on page 14, always a plus.
Read:
2/2013
Mirrorscape
In a world where the privilege to use color must be purchased as a "Pleasure" (and there are many other "Pleasures" one must purchase, too), a young apprentice artists discovers a secret world in paintings that he can enter into. First of a series, good stuff!
Read:
1/2011
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Alcott] [Alexander - Andreae] [Angelou - Atkinson] [Atkinson - Ballard] [Balliett - Barnard] [Barnard - Barnhill] [Barr - Barr] [Barrows - Bear] [Bear - Beaton] [Beaton - Beattie] [Beattie, editor - Black] [Black - Block] [Block - Borchert] [Bosch - Brennert] [Brillant - Bryson] [Bryson - Bujold] [Bujold - Card] [Card - Card] [Card - Chabon] [Chabon - Clancy] [Clancy - Cline] [Coakley - Cohen] [Cohen - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Constantine] [Constantine - Corin] [Cornwell - Crais] [Crais - Crider] [Crime - Cushman] [Cussler - Dashner] [Dashner - Dexter] [DiCamillo - Doig] [Doig - Drake] [Drake - Eland] [Elkins - Emerson] [Emerson - Fairbanks] [Fairstein - Feder] [Fenner - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flint] [Flint - Fournier] [Fournier - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Frey] [Friedman - Garcia] [Gardner - Giff] [Gillin - Gores] [Gormley - Granger] [Grann - Greenleaf] [Greenleaf - Grisham] [Grisham - Haddix] [Haddix - Hall] [Hall - Hannigan] [Hannigan - Hebden] [Hebden - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Henry] [Henry - Herriot] [Herriot - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Hillerman] [Hillerman - Holling] [Holm - Huff] [Huff - Jemisin] [Jemisin - Jones] [Jones - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Khoury] [Kidd - Kingsbury] [Kingsolver - Konrath] [Konrath - Lahiri] [Lamott - Lawrence] [Lawrence - LeGuin] [Lehman - Levine] [Levine - Lockhart] [London - Luttrell] [Lutz - MacPherson] [Macy - Marcinko] [Marsden - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McBain - McCrumb] [McCrumb - McNally] [McSwigan - Mikaelsen] [Miles - Moon] [Moon - Moskowitz] [Mosley - Napoli] [Napoli - Northcutt] [Norton - O'Brian] [O'Brian - O'Connor] [O'Dell - Paretsky] [Paretsky - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Paterson] [Patrick - Paulsen] [Paulsen - Pennac] [Penney - Pickard] [Picoult - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pronzini] [Pronzini - Rawlings] [Read - Reynolds] [Rhodes - Robinson] [Robinson - Rowling] [Rowling - Russo] [Russo - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Schmitz] [Schonborg - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Shames] [Shames - Sijie] [Silverberg - Smith] [Smith - Spinelli] [Spinelli - Steel] [Steinbeck - Stowell] [Stracher - Strout] [Strunk - Taylor] [Taylor - Turner] [Turner - Vachss] [Vachss - Vande Velde] [Vanderpool - Wasdin] [Watkins - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Wilks] [Williams-Garcia - Woodruff] [Woods - Zusak]