Books I've Read
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It's A Crime
Some accountant goes to jail for fudging the corporate books. Not a BAD book, but the ending was boring. No zinger. Read (lightly) again the next day. I bet this would be funny as a movie. I picture Will being played by the brother on New Adventures Of Old Christine.
Quote:
In one book, a mystery masquerading as science fiction, future humans snatch people from planes about to crash ... -- (pg. 221) Oh, oh, I know this one! Air Raid, by John Varley!Words I Had To Look Up:
Mapback (pg. 12) -- Paperback mystery books published by Dell. Had a map on the back cover.
Mansard (pg. 17) -- A type of roof that has two slopes on each of the four sides. Look it up!
Propitiation (pg. 36) -- Turning away of wrath by an offering.
Banguette (pg. 53) -- An upholstered bench. Used three times in story.
Efflorescence (pg. 76) -- One could say blossoming, instead.
Gravitas (pg. 98) -- Dignity, seriousness.
Alice Paul (pg. 101) -- An American suffragist leader.
Unindicted (pg. 115) -- You don't pronounce the "c".
Thuja (pg. 118) -- A type of coniferous tree.
Cardigan (pg. 141) -- A sweater that fastens down the front. I can never remember that!
Cabriole (pg. 165) -- A very curvy kind of furniture leg.
Poussin (pg. 187) -- The painter, the chicken, or Jenny Poussin the body builder? I don't know.
Placket (pg. 188) -- Refers both to a slit in clothing and to layers of fabric which may be used to conceal such a slit. And yet I'm still not sure what it is!
piquant (pg. 194) -- Engagingly provocative.
porte cochere (pg. 196) -- A roofed structure extending from the entrance of a building over an adjacent driveway to shelter those getting into or out of vehicles.
Big bug (pg. 212) -- A wealthy or important person.
Read:
11/2008
The Devil You Know
Felix, an exorcist in present day, but slightly different, London, has run-ins with white-slavers, ghosts, archivists, and a succubus. All in a day's work.
Words I Had To Look Up::
snood (pg. 4) --
chiff (pg. 34) --
black sugar paper (pg. 61) --
Ken Wolstenholme's voice (pg. 176) --
the last two syllables of which were "bubble" (pg. 321) -- A word he didn't expect Alice to know?
Quote:
This lying thing--once you got into it, it was really a fantastic labor-saving device. (pg 232)Read:
10/2013
The Brainstormers
Subtitled: Humorous tales of ingenious American boys. 20 or so stories, of them familiar to me, such as Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, Beverly Clearly's Henry Huggins, Booth Tarkington's Penrod, Robert McCloskey's Homer Price, Keither Robertson's Henry Reed, and Carolyn Haywood's Little Eddie. Some wonderful and charming stories in here.
Read:
5/2007
The Italian Secretary
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson head to Edinburgh, Scotland, at the request of Mycroft Holmes to investigate two murders at Holyrood Palace.
Read:
11/2013
I am alive and you are dead - A journey into the mind of Philip K. Dick
Batshit crazy. That's what I got out of this. Plus, the man was a genius. Too genius for me. The books related by the author sounded way too complicated and boring. I LOVED the short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, hated the movie Total Recall. I haven't read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, but I loved the movie Blade Runner.
For me too the most important thing I got from Casteneda was finding your spot.
Highly recommend this if you are a Dick fan.
Read:
1/2006
Punk's War
Story of naval aviation in the Persian Gulf.
Read:
4/2002
Arrest-Proof Yourself
Good little manual of how NOT to behave like those shirtless white guys on Cops. Should have read this a couple of years ago. The point that the justice system helps keep the poor, well, POOR, though bail, fines, and lawyer costs, was interesting. And more importantly, learning about requesting a Notice To Appear instead of being arrested seems very useful.
Read:
5/2008
All Fall Down
"An Embassy Row Novel". Going to be a series, maybe? A teen with many problems is sent to live with her grandfather, the ambassador of the United States, in a probably European country. One her many problems is that she witnessed her mother being murdered several years before, but no one will believe her. Everyone says it was just an accident.
Read:
11/2015
Heat Wave
Based on the television series, as a police/action story it is pretty good, but too much smoochie stuff for me.
Read:
11/2019
Black Sand
Good story of Greek art forgers/smugglers. Greek policeman comes to New York to help our guys. Very interesting stuff about scrolls, Alexander.
Read:
5/2001
Chains Of Command
Lt. Matthew Stuart of the N.Y. Police Department finds out who is killing drugs dealers.
Read:
4/2001
Cleopatra Gold
Undercover drug agent hopes to find the woman that murdered his father. Good story.
Read:
5/2001
Exceptional Clearance
Lt. John Vinda tracks a serial killer in New York. I liked the irony when he blew away the doll.
Read:
4/2001
Pigtown, A Novel
Gritty police procedural takes place in the Bronx involving Lt. Matthew Stuart. Very thorough, gritty.
QUOTE:
"How many ladies you dancing with these days?" "Four," Borrelli said proudly. "Doesn't it get complicated?" "Yeah, it does. But the problem is, I love 'em all." "What you gotta do is ask yourself which woman you want to spend the rest of your life cheating on."Read:
4/2001
Suspects
Lt. Tony Scanlon investigates the murders of his cop friend and a candy store owner.
Read:
5/2001
Summerland
A charming fantasy of baseball, airships, and faerie-myth. But mostly baseball. Two weeps. There is a 300 word sentence on pages 254-255 that I enjoyed very much, and read out loud to an unappreciative audience. There is a lot of reading here, and it's a 500 page book. Took me a couple weeks! Includes a map.
Quote:
"Oh, you always have a choice." Coyote said. "That's another little fun feature of life you can put down to me, if you like."Read:
12/2007
Telegraph Avenue
A couple of guys who run a used record store in Oakland are being threatened by a mega-store owned by a former football star who owns a
zeppelin.
Read:
8/2013
Yiddish Policemen's Union
Odd that I can't come up with a smoke quote from this book, since smoking is so prevalent in the story. So, does he get the girl?
Read:
12/2007
The School Of Good And Evil
Book one of a trilogy, two girls are kidnapped by The Schoolmaster to be students at his school. One girl is assigned to Good, and the other to Evil. Both girls think they are in the wrong group. A long (488 p.) book that didn't really ever catch my interest, although it has a great deal of love on Goodreads, and quite possibly will be a movie.
Read:
1/2016
Postcards From No Man's Land
Jacob travels to Amsterdam to visit the grave of his grandfather who died in World War 2. A very interesting and reflective book with observations on homosexuality, love, assisted suicide, and family relationships. The last line was cracked me up.
Words I Had To Look Up:
rekening (pg. 44) -- The bill
prockled Dutch over his head (pg. 111) -- No relevant defintions. To proke (poke) a wart? I think not! Maybe they "poked" Dutch above his head while he ate.
chunder (pg. 131) -- To puke or vomit. Whst's the difference?
amotopian fantasy (pg. 199) -- Can't find a definition, but I think it means "utopian".
vrede forever (pg. 204) -- Peace.
kaneel stroop pannenkoeken (pg. 205) -- Cinnamon, syrup, pancakes. As explained in the text.
panini (pg. 247) -- Sandwiches. By the way, "panera" means bread box in Spanish.
mijn hele leven zocht ik jou om eindelijk gevonden te weten wat eenzaam is (pg. 272) -- Babelfish.com says it means my whole life I searched for you finally found what lonely
lacrioso (pg. 272) -- Sadly, tearfully.
Read:
3/2009
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Akers, pseud.] [Akers, pseud. - Anderson] [Anderson - Ashcraft] [Asimov - Babbit] [Bacigalupi - Baldacci] [Baldacci - Barnard] [Barnard - Barnes] [Barnes - Barr] [Barr - Beanton] [Beanton - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Bester] [Bingle - Block] [Block - Bond] [Bond - Box] [Box - Brucker] [Bruère - Bujold] [Bujold - Bujold] [Bujold - Card] [Card - Card] [Carey - Chambers] [Chambers - Clancy] [Clancy - Coakley] [Coben - Cohen] [Cole - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Constantine] [Constantine - Corder] [Corey - Crais] [Crais - Crew] [Crichton - Crusie] [Crusie - Cussler] [Cussler - Davidson] [Davies - Dilloway] [Dilloway - Dorsey] [Dorsey - Draper] [Duane - Elkins] [Elkins - Evanovich] [Evanovich - Fairstein] [Fairstein - Ferris] [Ferris - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flint] [Flynn - Fournier] [Fournier - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Friedman] [Funke - Gardner] [Gardner - Gillin] [Gilman - Gores] [Gores - Granger] [Granger - Greenleaf] [Greenleaf - Grisham] [Grisham - Haddix] [Haddix - Hall] [Hall - Halpern] [Hannah - Haynes] [Hayter - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Heller - Herman] [Herrera - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Highsmith] [Hillerman - Hobbs] [Hobbs - Horowitz] [Horowitz - Hyman] [Ibbotson - Jerome] [Jocelyn - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Keene] [Keith - Kienzle] [Kienzle - Klass] [Klein - Korman] [Kostyal - Lahiri] [Lamott - Lawrence] [Lawrence - Lee] [Lee - Lescroart] [Lescroart - Lindsay] [Lindsay - Lowry] [Lowry - Lynn] [M.W. - Maguire] [Maguire - Martin] [Martin - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McCaffrey - McCrumb] [McCrumb - Medwed] [Meier - Miller] [Modesitt Jr. - Moon] [Moon - Mosley] [Moss - Neville] [Neville - Norton] [Norton - O'Brian] [O'Brian - O'Brien] [O'Connell - Palacio] [Paolini - Park] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Paulsen] [Paulsen - Pease] [Peck - Peyton] [Pfeffer - Porter] [Portis - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pronzini] [Pronzini - Pullman] [Pullman - Reeve] [Reeve - Riggs] [Ringo - Robinson] [Robinson - Rowling] [Rowling - Rust] [Ryan - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Schmitz] [Schonborg - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Shames] [Shames - Sijie] [Silverberg - Smith] [Smith - Spiegelman] [Spinelli - Stasheff] [Stead - Stewart] [Stewart - Stross] [Stross - Tapply] [Tapply - Thorp] [Thurber - Turtledove] [Turtledove - Van Draanen] [Van Draanen - Veglahn] [Villasenor - Weber] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Weyn] [Wheeler - Wister] [Wodehouse - Woods] [Wouk - Zimmerman] [Zusak - Zusak]