Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50-Book Challenge 2010

#23 Night Passage - Robert B Parker

Well, having read this I can't say I was surprised to note that the author also has a few westerns to his name. The undertones of High Noon were obvious here. But that didn't put me off as I rather enjoy that whole 'moral hero standing up to the mob' kind of plot.

I really did like this. I think I like Spenser more, but Jesse is close behind him and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Paradise and its inhabitants, too, in future books in the series.

#24 The Spirit Ring - Lois McMaster Bujold

I really liked this. Much better than I did The Hallowed Hunt actually. I'm sensing a recurring theme in the author's work. That of a young woman who is devalued or abused by her family realising - with the help of her true love - that she is worthwhile after all. Again, not a plot theme I have issues with, so I don't mind the repetition.

LabRat

19) A Child Called Noah by Josh Greenfeld
20) A Client Called Noah by Josh Greenfeld
21) A Place For Noah by Josh Greenfeld
22) Boy Alone by Karl Greenfeld

23) Pandemic by Daniel Kalla
24) Resistance by Daniel Kalla
25) The Last Prophecy by John Land


I read A Child Called Noah and A Client Called Noah back in the 1980's. I saw a review of the brother's book Boy Alone and decided to reread the entire series. True story of a boy named Noah with autism and the family's research and work to attempt to cure him. Noah is now in his 40's and remains profoundly handicapped. Interesting but sad.

Pandemic and Resistance are medical thrillers.

The Last Prophecy is a thriller ranging from WWII to the present.

44. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. Hilarious "Nursery Crime" tale of the investigation into the murder of Humpty Dumpty (Humperdinck Jehoshaphat Aloysius Stuyvesant van Dumpty).

"Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Dumpty, minor baronet, lover of women, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. Yes, the big egg is down."

You have to read Fforde to appreciate him - jokes and literary allusions and literary allusion jokes on every page.

For example, introducing the character of Detective Inspector Jack Spratt, who is speaking at a press conference:

"This afternoon the Reading Central Criminal Court found the three pigs not guilty of all charges relating to the first-degree murder of Mr. Wolff...Since the death by scalding of Mr. Wolff following his ill-fated climb down Little Pig C's chimney, we at the Nursery Crime Division have been following inquiries that this was not an act of self-defense but a violent and premeditated murder by three individuals who, far from being the innocent victims of wolf-porcine crime, actually sought confrontation and then acted quite beyond what might be described as reasonable self-defense."

(some questions from the assembled reporters)

"We believed," Jack said, "that boiling Mr. Wolff alive was quite outside the realm of 'reasonable force' and the fact that the large pan of water would have taken at least six hours to reach boiling point strongly indicated premeditation."


And that's just the beginning!

#25 The Godwulf Manuscript - Robert B Parker
#26 God Save The Child - Robert B Parker
#27 Bloodline - Mark Billingham
#28 Sacred - Dennis Lehane

We've had some glorious weather over the past few days and what better way to savour it than blissfully soaking up the sunshine with a cool drink and in the company of some of my favourite detectives. Wonderful stuff all round.

LabRat

26) Betrayal by John Lescroart.

A legal thriller. Slow paced but ended (literally) with a bang. The last sentence of the book gave it all away. I think I'm going to look for more books by John Lescroart.

27) Deep Storm by Lincoln Child
28) The Ninth Dominion By Jon Land

Lincoln Child has a great imagination. And is a good writer. This one wasn't as far fetched as some of his stories. An alien race has placed a matter-antimatter weapons dump under the Earth's mantle and Earth scientists are trying to dig it up thinking it's a very important discovery.

I got behind in listed books.

30. Miss Julia Throws a Wedding Ann B Ross
31. K is For Killer Sue Grafton
32. L is For Lawless Sue Grafton
33. Black Hills Nora Roberts
34. M is For Malice Sue Grafton
35. Split Image Robert B Parker- this book was both a Jesse book and a Sunny book. I know it wasn't meant to, but it did tie up the two series very nicely.
36. Miss Julia Hits the Road Ann B Ross
37. Miss Julia Meets Her Match Ann B Ross
38. Miss Julia's School of Beauty Ann B Ross
39. N Is For Noose Sue Grafton
40. Mistletoe Murder Leslie Meier
41. Trick or Treat Murder Leslie Meier
42. O is For Outlaw Sue Grafton
43. Miss Julia Stands Her Ground Ann B Ross
44. Miss Julia Strikes Back Ann B Ross
45. Right Next Door Debbie Macomber
46. Miss Julia Paints the Town Ann B Ross
47. One Day at a Time Danielle Steel
48. P is for Peril Sue Grafton
49. Miss Julia Delivers the Goods Ann B Ross
50. Plum Pudding Murder Joanne Fluke

Hey, suez, congratulations for completing the 50-Book Challenge!

#29 - Trouble in Paradise
#30 Death In Paradise
#31 Stone Cold
#32 Sea Change
#33 High Profile
#34 Stranger in Paradise

All by Robert B Parker. I had a good time with these in the main. As well as the central character of Jesse Stone, I like the other regulars - Molly, Suitcase and Co. There was only one small fly in the ointment and that was Jenn. A character I loathe and despise. I have no clue why Jesse didn't kick her into touch in the first book. I also found the scenes with her and Jesse discussing their relationship problems very repetitive - essentially you read one, you read them all. To the extent that I very quickly progressed to just skipping over them, unread. Didn't seem to miss anything important doing so. Their relationship never seemed to progress in either direction over the series, but just went around in circles.

But that was a minor flaw and I may have noticed it more because I was reading the entire series back to back. It didn't spoil my enjoyment any and I'm sorry there will be no more in the series to read.

#35 Prayers For Rain - Dennis Lehane

I think that Angie Gennaro and Patrick Kenzie are perhaps my favourite detective team. I love the peripheral characters - like Bubba - and the sharp wit that pervades these novels. I still have some more to catch up with. Hopefully soon.

LabRat

Labby, you still have 'Night and Day' and 'Split Image' in the Jesse Stone series. And I know exactly what you are saying about Jenn. In the Sunny series she is the same about her husband.

Night and Day is a Stone novel? I have that! Came in just the other day. I thought it was one of the Spenser novels for some reason. I'll have to check if I have Split Image and order it pronto if I don't.

Thanks for the heads up, Sue! Off to do some more reading then!

LabRat

When you have read the Jesse books. Make sure you look into the Sunny and Holly books. I love the dog in the Holly books.

edit: I'm sorry. The Holly books are by Stuart Woods

There's a dog? Say no more - I'm there.

I'm going to be working my way through the Spenser novels next, then Stone Barrington. Once I've gotten through those, I'll definitely be checking out Sunny and Holly.

LabRat

#36 Night And Day - Robert B Parker
#37 Split Image - Robert B Parker
#38 Swimming to Catalina - Stuart Woods
#39 Worst Fears Realised - Stuart Woods
#40 LA Dead - Stuart Woods
#41 The Short Forever - Stuart Woods
#42 Cold Paradise - Stuart Woods
#43 Dirty Work - Stuart Woods

LabRat

51. Q Is For Quarry Sue Grafton
52. Odds Against Dick Francis
53. Whip Hand Dick Francis
54. Come To Grief Dick Francis
55. Track Of The Cat Nevada Barr
56. Lie By Moonlight Amanda Quick
57. Under Orders Dick Francis
58. Apple Turnover Murder Joanne Fluke

24) Locus Award Winners - various (pub. 2004). Lots of interesting S/F here, from the late 60's up to the publication date.
25) Thyme of Death
26) Witches' Brew by Susan Wittig Albert. Interesting mysteries, but not really my cup of tea.
27) Chapter and Hearse by Catherine Aird. Short mysteries with several sets of recurring characters solving crimes after they're committed, sometimes without leaving one's desk. Very Brit-Scot in tone, long on deduction and necessarily short on character due to the short length of the stories.
28) After the Downfall by Harry Turtledove. A WW2 German combat officer is suddenly and magically transported to an alien world where he has to face his Nazi ethics instead of just blindly adhering to them.
29) Say Goodnight, Gracie by Cheryl Blythe and Susan Sackett. A fond look at the shared careers of George Burns and Gracie Allen. Fun read.
30) The Wrong Reflection by Gillian Bradshaw. The book suffers from a glacial pace and the distracting tendency of the author to hop from head to head inside scenes, but it was an interesting story.
31) The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murders by Joanne Fluke. The copy I read also included the novella "Candy for Christmas," which was both cute and heart-warming. If you can get past the idea that any law enforcement officer would, without any real protest, allow his sister-in-law (whose main qualifications seem to be her ability to run a cookie shop and talk to everyone in town) to trample all over an active murder investigation, the story works. The many included recipes are nice, too.
32) T2: The Future War by J. M. Stirling. Conclusion to a trilogy exploring what might have happened after the movie "Terminator 2" and ignoring the third movie. In my humble opinion, it is superior to the trite and occasionally silly third movie.
33) Good Blood by Aaron Elkins. Part of a series mystery involving a forensic pathologist and, despite its title, having nothing to do with vampires. A little slow, but still interesting.
34) The Big Over Easy
35) The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde. It's got to be hard work putting that many bad jokes and puns and nursery rhyme characters in a novel. And I'll never look at Shrek's Gingerbread Man in quite the same way.
36) Split Image by Robert B. Parker.
37) The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War by Phillip Jennings. A Vietnam vet who attacks the common perception of the US/Vietnam war with facts, figures, and lots of footnotes.
38) The Hotel Dick by Axel Brand. A murder in 1948 Milwaukee committed by a man identified as Spencer Tracy.
39) The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Thursday Next, a LitraTec operative, repairs the damage to "Jane Eyre" and defeats an apparently unstoppable foe. Similar to the Nursery Crimes books but grittier in tone.
40) The Big Book of New American Humor by William Novack and Moshe Waldoks (pub. 1990). A collection of cartoons, jokes, stories, and profiles, most of which are mildly humorous to laugh-out-loud funny.

#44 Show of Evil - William Diehl

This one was a re-read. I'd only read it once before, a couple of years back and I've set myself the goal of checking out all the novels sitting on my shelves which match that criteria again. I enjoyed this one so much second time around that I bought the first and third books in the trilogy.

#45 Mortal Stakes
#46 Promised Land
#47 The Judas Goat
#48 Looking for Rachel Wallace
#49 Early Autumn
#50 A Savage Place
#51 Ceremony
#52 The Widening Gyre
#53 Valediction
#54 A Catskill Eagle

All by Robert B. Parker and all, of course, Spenser novels. I've been having a whale of a time working my way through this series. So far, I haven't found a turkey in the bunch. Just two complaints - first is how short some of these older novels are, which means I'm getting through most of them in a couple of hours.

Secondly, I started to get irked by Susan in Valediction and really loathed her in ACE - her behaviour in both novels was outrageous! Thankfully, she's back on track in the next novel, which I'm almost done with, so she's slowly working her way back into my good books.

One of the things I'm enjoying with this series is that minor characters re-appear in later books - I enjoy that continuity.

Still a lot to get through, so looking forward to some happy hours.

LabRat

I'm back, with more books!

14. Opening Atlantis: A Novel of Alternate History by Harry Turtledove
15. The United States of Atlantis: A Novel of Alternate History by Harry Turtledove

The two books above weren't all that great, in my opinion. I picked them up while I was browsing through the library's audio book section last month.

All Turtledove really does is retell the discovery (in Opening) and independence (in United States) of America, only he sets it in Atlantis, which in this series is somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, between what we call America (Terra Nova to the characters in the books) and England.

Turtledove could've made it so much more interesting than just having some weird species of flora and fauna unique to Atlantis, but he didn't.

I'm not even going to try and get my hands on the third book of the trilogy, which will probably cover an alternate version of the Civil War, because the first two books were so boring.

16. Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber
17. By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber
18. By Heresies Distressed by David Weber
19. A Mighty Fortress by David Weber

Technically, I haven't even finished #18, but I'm going to within the next couple days, and then I'll be going straight through #19, so I figured I'd put them on now so I don't forget later.

I also picked up Off Armageddon Reef when I was on my browsing trip in the library's audio section, and saved it for last when I listened to the audio books I'd checked out. Considering the disappointment of Harry Turtledove's Atlantis series, I'm glad I did.

Of course, I already loved the Honor Harrington series (I'm still eagerly awaiting the release of Mission of Honor in June), so I had some good expectations for Safehold, and I haven't been disappointed yet.