OT: Book suggestions for good read.

TigerTony

I would like to thank everyone who commented with their suggestions. You guys are great! It's people like you that make this forum such a great source of information. I have so much useful information that it's a little overwhelming, in a good way. I'll never read them all, I'm way to slow of a reader and couldn't possibly live long enough. But, I'll pick my way through the ones that catch my interest.

Thank you once again!

@nolaegghead -- I looked up Flavia De Luce and read a few reviews. Seems like  the main character is a 11 years old girl. that has a passion for poison  and the vocabulary of an adult, 

Can I trust you on this one?

gdenby

I don't read a tiny fraction of what I once did. Used to read a sci-fi per day. Now, maybe a history once a month. But my younger son is an avid reader, mostly sci-fi like me. For Christmas I'm getting him a couple of volumes of Dashiel Hammett's "Continental Op" stories. (I understand Red Harvest is one of the best American novels of the last century.) I'll have to gently open the books before he gets them. And then a compilation of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlow books, which both I and my wife loved for the prose.

mgillia

I'm currently reading Steven Hunter books which are excellent: 

 

BOB LEE SWAGGER SERIES

 

1.  Point of Impact (1993)

2.  Black Light (1996)

3.  Time to Hunt (1998)

4.  The 47th Samurai (2007)

5.  Night of Thunder (2008)

6.  I, Sniper (2009)

7.  Dead Zero (2010)

8.  The Third Bullet (January 2013)

 

EARL SWAGGER SERIES

 

1.  Hot Springs (2000)

2.  Pale Horse Coming (2001)

3.  Havana (2003)

 

RAY CRUZ

 

1.  Dead Zero (2010)

2.  Soft Target (2011)

 

OTHER NOVELS 

 

The Master Sniper (1980)

The Second Saladin (1982)

Target (film novelization) (1985)

The Spanish Gambit (reissued as Tapestry of Spies) (1985)

The Day Before Midnight (1989)

Dirty White Boys (1994)

 

SHORT STORIES

 

"Casey at the Bat" (2010) (in Agents of Treachery, edited by Otto Penzler)

 

NON-FICTION

 

1995 Violent Screen: A Critic's 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem

2005 Now Playing at the Valencia: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Essays on Movies

2005 American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman and the Shoot-out that Stopped It

 

Hunter's thriller novels include Point of Impact (filmed as Shooter), Black Light and Time to Hunt, which form a trilogy featuring Vietnam War veteran and sniper Bob "the Nailer" Swagger. The story of Bob Lee Swagger continued with The 47th Samurai (2007), Night of Thunder (2008), I, Sniper (2009) and Dead Zero (2010). The series has led to two spin-off series: Hot Springs, Pale Horse Coming, and Havana form another trilogy centered on Bob Swagger's father, Earl Swagger, while Soft Target (2011) focuses on Bob's long-unknown son, Ray Cruz.

 

Hunter has written three non-fiction books: Violent Screen: A Critic's 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem (1995), a collection of essays from his time at The Sun; American Gunfight (2005), an examination of the November 1, 1950 assassination attempt on Harry S. Truman at Blair House in Washington, D.C.; and Now Playing at the Valencia (2005), a collection of pieces from The Washington Post. Hunter has also written a number of non-film-related articles for The Post, including one on Afghanistan: "Dressed To Kill-From Kabul to Kandahar, It's Not Who You Are That Matters, but What You Shoot" (2001).

 

 Mgillia

 

Jeepster47

gdenby said:

... which both I and my wife loved for the prose.

I tried to think about how to describe James Lee Burke's writing and came up short.  He's an amazing read; although not for everybody because he can get really deep.  My reading speed goes down by a third ... some because I love to savor his words and some 'cuz he uses words I've never seen.  Writes mostly about southern Louisiana, centered around New Iberia.

Another mystery writer who focuses on the south (Natchez, Mississippi) is Greg Iles with his Penn Cage character.

nolaegghead

TigerTony said:

I would like to thank everyone who commented with their suggestions. You guys are great! It's people like you that make this forum such a great source of information. I have so much useful information that it's a little overwhelming, in a good way. I'll never read them all, I'm way to slow of a reader and couldn't possibly live long enough. But, I'll pick my way through the ones that catch my interest.

Thank you once again!

@nolaegghead -- I looked up Flavia De Luce and read a few reviews. Seems like  the main character is a 11 years old girl. that has a passion for poison  and the vocabulary of an adult, 

Can I trust you on this one?

Tony, no joke.  The setting is post WWII in the English country side.  These are old fashioned murder mysteries but the protagonist is a precocious 11 year old girl who loves chemistry.  They're brilliant.