Books I've Read
Books Listed by Author
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McNally's Risk
Archy McNally, #3. Archy meets a woman with a butterfly tattoo. Also, he has new (his first?) cellular phone now.
Quote:
Why, the man was a veritable polymath, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if my next interviewee claimed that Hector was a master bialy maker. -- Sure could use him in THIS burg! Quote:
I had never been tempted to visit since the idea of sipping an overpriced aperitif while a naked young woman gyrated on my table seemed to me a betrayal of Western Civilization.Quote:
a jeroboam of annelids -- What an unpleasant image. Quote:
When I saw the muzzle I realized it wasn't a .38; it was the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.Read:
5/2025
McNally's Secret
Archy McNally, #1. Archy works for his lawyer father in the "discreet inquiries" department. A client had her rare stamps stolen. Archy figures out what's what and just who is who. Good story, I MUST have these back in the 90s, before I started keeping track.
Quote:
A Palm Beach music critic wrote of one of our recitals, "Words fail me." You couldn't ask for a better review than that.Quote:
Lady Cynthia had two built-in saunas, dry and wet (if you're going to do it, do it right),Read:
5/2025
McNally's Trial
Archy McNally, #5.
An awful lot of caskets are being shipped north from Florida. And it takes Archy an awful long time to figure out what is in them.
Quote:
I had many sharp, jagged impressions of that MTV evening -- What does that even mean? Quote:
No f&g with Sunny Fogarty on Friday night. No f&g with Connie Garcia on Saturday night. -- What does THAT even mean?? Quote:
"Kissy," she said. -- I may have teared up a little here. Quote:
"Yeah," she said determinedly. "I've got to keep thinking better times are coming. Thanks, Arky." -- Yeah, she's gonna die--in 41 pages. Quote:
"You must eat your oatmeal," I admonished.Read:
6/2025
The Case Of The Missing Books
A Mobile Library Mystery. I wasn't much interested in this book, except for the library stuff, but as things proceeded to an end I found myself pleased with the ending. Rather witty in parts. I shall have to find the next book.
Quote:
Sometimes it felt good to be a librarian.Read:
9/2007
Miles From Nowhere
One of my favorite books, I actually PURCHASED after reading twice from the library so I could share it with others. Barbara and her husband bicycle around the world. Read--several times and more to come.
Read:
No dateRead:
5/2006Read:
10/2016
The Moon Bridge
Ruthie makes a new friend at school. They become best friends, then Mitzi and her family are sent away because it's World War II and they are Japanese-American. A really good story, I liked it very much.
Read:
10/2014
Roller Skates
Lucinda is a ten-year-old living in "orphanage" with her aunts while her parents are in Italy for a year because of her mother's health issues. Lucinda is quite outgoing, and reminded me much of Anne Shirley. She loves to meet people, and is totally unconscious of "class". I thought this would be a "nice" story, but there were two deaths that came as quite a shock. Awarded the Newbery in 1937.
Words I Had To Look Up:
story of Diamond (pg. 21) -- the quote in the book is from At The Back Of The North Wind, by George MacDonald, a children's book published in 1871.
Anton Seidl (pg. 92) -- Hugarian-born conductor who became conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1891. He died in 1898.
Robert Ingersoll (pg. 92) -- Lucinda notes that Aunt Emily said he didn't believe in God. Lucinda wonders "a great deal" why, but never finds out. A very interesting Wikipedia article I perused said he was a great orator and spoke on many topics, including agnosticism.
guimp (pg. 142) -- A narrow flat braid used for trimming. Also spelled gimp.
Cornelius Nepos (pg. 131) -- A Roman biographer.
gertrude (pg. 178) -- A type of clothing for infants. More information is online in The Care Of The Baby, by J. P. Crozer Griffith, published 1900.
Smoke Quote:
The princess brought out a lacquered box, and out of this some cigarettes. She lighted one, lay back on the cushions, and smoked. Lucinda had never seen, had never dreamed it even possible that a woman could smoke. It only made the whole ending of that day appear more unbelievable. (pg. 100)
Read:
3/2009
Agent to the stars
An alien race of Jello-like creatures decide they need an agent to fix up their image before revealing themselves to humans. Very good.
Read:
3/2006Factoid:
This book is available on the author's website as a free download.
Fuzzy Nation
I'm sure I read H. Beam Piper's book back in the 60s, but I don't remember it. I'll have to find it! This one was pretty good, I liked it much more than Redshirts, even though I didn't weep at this one.
Read:
7/2014Read Again:
9/2017Read:
5/2021
Head On
Very readable, I couldn't put it down. A sequel to Lock In. Lots of snappy repartee.
Quote:
"But then again I self-medicate." -- pg. 57Read:
5/2018
Lock In
A new FBI agent's first day on the job. I really enjoyed this one!
Read:
11/2014
Old man's war
A 75 year old man joins the Colonial Defense Force, gets a new body. I was in tears by the top of the third page. I really enjoyed this book, very Heinelinesque, couldn't put it down. EDIT 20016: This time around I cried a lot more.
Read:
3/2006Read Again:
3/2016
Redshirts
I was pretty ho-hum til the codas started, then it was all laughter and tears.
Read:
7/2014
Starter Villain
Super villain story with cats and dolphins. Snappy patter. I liked it!
Quote:
"We're on Google Maps, Charlie. There is only so clandestine we can be..." Quote:
"We're going to have a talk, you and I," I said to my cat.Read:
3/2024
The Android's Dream
I've heard of sheeple, but this is ridiculous! Good story, interesting to me, quotable quotes, and moves right along.
Read:
12/2013
The B-Team
Human Division #1. e-ISBN 978-1-4668-3051-6
I really really like this story very much. The good ship Clarke is sent on an important diplomatic mission that must not fail!
Read:
1/2023
The Collapsing Empire
Book One of a series, the name of which I don't know. Some snappy repartee, several memorable characters. My immediate favorite character gets killed pretty early, so I am VERY displeased by that. I just KNOW I am not going to remember any of the story or characters by the time the next book comes out. I rate this: A Promising OK.
Read:
5/2017
The Consuming Fire
I guess this is book two in the Interdependency Sequence. The author should maybe include a Glossary, I was unfamiliar with some of the words used, especially that one that started with "F"... Who talks like that? Well, except for my friend. Good story as I got more engaged with it in the second half. Laughed out loud a couple of times, even. Hope I remember the story when the next one comes out!
Read:
4/2019
The End Of All Things
I find that in a series I often forget what went on in previous volumes. So to with this one, but I still enjoyed it about 75%.
Read:
9/2015Read Again:
3/2016
The Ghost Brigades
I really should have read these in order. I laughed out loud a couple or times, which was odd of me, even though I am such a funny guy. I also cried a couple of times. So this is the story of Jared Dirac, who becomes a Special Forces soldier in Jane Sagan's unit. Good stuff.
Read:
7/2009Read Again:
5/2016
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Addison] [Addison - Alexander] [Alexander - Anderson] [Anderson - Asimov] [Asimov - Bacigalupi] [Bacigalupi - Baldacci] [Baldree - Barnard] [Barnard - Barnes] [Barnes - Barr] [Barr - Bear] [Bear - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Beck] [Bedard - Blackmore] [Blackwood - Block] [Block - Bodeen] [Bodeen - Bova] [Bova - Brin] [Brin - Bryson] [Bryson - Bujold] [Bujold - Burgess] [Burroughs - Card] [Card - Card] [Card - Chabon] [Chabon - Child] [Childress - Clark] [Clark - Coben] [Coben - Colfer] [Colfer - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Connelly] [Connelly - Cook] [Cooper - Cornish] [Cornwell - Crais] [Crais - Crew] [Crew - Crusie] [Crusie - Cussler] [Cussler - Davidson] [Davidson - Dickinson] [Dickinson - Dorsey] [Dorsey - Dorsey] [Dorsey - Draper] [Draper - Elkins] [Elkins - England] [Ephron - Fairbanks] [Fairstein - Farmer] [Feder - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flint] [Flint - Foster] [Foster - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Frank - Gailey] [Gailey - Garmus] [Garrigue - Gladwell] [Gladwell - Gores] [Gores - Granger] [Granger - Greenleaf] [Greenleaf - Grimes] [Grimes - Grisham] [Grisham - Haddix] [Haig - Hall] [Hall - Hammett] [Hannah - Hautman] [Hautman - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Heller - Herbert] [Herman - Hess] [Hess - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Hines] [Hines - Holm] [Holm - Hosseini.] [Hough - Ibbotson] [Ibbotson - Jerome] [Jerome - Kaaberbøl] [Kaaberbøl - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Kidd] [Kidder - Kingfisher] [Kingfisher - Koch] [Kollin - Kratman] [Kraus - Larson] [Larson - Lebbon] [Leblanc - Lefcourt] [Lefcourt - Lescroart] [Lescroart - Lindsay] [Lindsay - Long] [Lord - Lowry] [Lu - MacDonald] [Mackintosh - Mallios] [Malzberg - Martin] [Martin - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McBain - McCrumb] [McCrumb - McInerny] [McInerny - Michaelides] [Miéville - Moody] [Moody - Moore] [Morden - Mull] [Mullane - Nicholson] [Nicholson - Norton] [Norton - O'Brian] [O'Brian - O'Brien] [O'Brien - Osman] [Osman - Paretsky] [Paretsky - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Paterson] [Paterson - Paulsen] [Paulsen - Peck] [Peck - Phelan] [Philbrick - Portis] [Portis - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pronzini] [Pronzini - Quinn] [Quinn - Read] [Readers Digest - Rhodes] [Rich - Roanhorse] [Roberts - Rose] [Rose - Rushdie] [Russell - Saberhagen] [Sachar - Sanders] [Sanders - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Scieszka] [Scieszka - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Shea] [Sheinkin - Silverberg] [Silverberg - Smith] [Smith - Spinelli] [Spinelli - Stead] [Stead - Stewart] [Stockett - Stross] [Stross - Swanson] [Swee - Teague] [Telsep - Turner] [Turner - Ursu] [Vachss - Vande Velde] [Vande Velde - Walter] [Wambaugh - Weber] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Westlake] [Westlake - Willis] [Willis - Wodehouse] [Wodehouse - Yelchin] [Yep - Zusak]