To Kill a Mockingbird.

I read that once a year. I love that book.

I just got that, Klyd. Harry Bosch equals hairy b*!*& .

The character is actually named for Hieronymus Bosch, the 15th century Dutch painter. If you enjoy crime fiction (and why would you, considering your vocation? ), it's the best detective series going. Hands down.

I read Black Echo and Black Ice. Both were very good if you like the genre, which I do.

I also just read Tell No One by Harlan Coben, one of the best thrillers I've come across in a long time. It's about a doctor who marries his childhood sweetheart, but loses her to a serial killer. Eight years later, he receives an email with a video attachment. The video is of an intersection in an anonymous city, and then his long dead and cremated wife steps out from behind the camera and mouths the words "I'm sorry." If his wife isn't dead, who did his father-in-law identify eight years ago? And where has she been for the last eight years?

"Tell No One" was great, Babe. The French did a decent film version a few years back, if you don't mind subtitles.

And ya gotta love a happy ending .

I get a lot of books via Kindle from my library. It's a great service.

My wife has read a few Harlan Coben books , but i never have. Strange that considering i am such a voracious reader. Will have to read some!!

I just read D-Day by Anthony Beever. He is a great historical writer and i have read a few of his books. This is a great account of D-Day and the battle for Normandy. It's all in here, the bloody beach landings, the attritional slog after that, the horrendous battles at Caen and Falaise. Patton in all his glory and Monty(despite being a British hero) being a complete pain in the behind to all concerned. The suicidal, fanatical bravery of the SS who kept the Germans in the fight a lot longer than they should and last but not least the all consuming arrogance of De Gaulle who insisted on French soldiers liberating Paris even though it was Americans, Brits and Canadians who did all the dying to get there!!!!!

Brilliant book, worth a read!

I think I have the D-Day book around here somewhere but haven't read it. Thanks for the review, Yogi.

No probs Lilo. Beevor has also written superb books about the battles for Stalingrad and Berlin. He doesn't let the narrative get over full of stuffy facts if you know what i mean?

Just wanted some feedback about some books I've downloaded but never read and other books I haven't downloaded or read yet.

Downloaded books that I haven't read yet
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
THE GIRL WHO KICK THE HORNET'S NEST
1984

Books I haven't downloaded or read yet
FAHRENHEIT 451
A CATCHER IN THE RYE

I was riveted by The Girl trilogy, although the first was the best, IMO.

Ok, thanks SB. I saw the movie and thought it was pretty good. I'd watch it again.

I watched the girl with th dragon tatoo (Fincher) then bought and abou to read played with fire. SB would you suggest i read "tatoo" first? I've seen the movie but have a tendency to read thre book first or after i've seen the movie.

Was it the American or Swedish version ? My sister has the 3 Swedish movies but i'd rather read the books first.

Read both, but waste no time reading CATCHER IN THE RYE. I thought this would have been required reading in every high school by now. It's a narrative masterpiece.

I saw the American version, which was good, but I hear the Swedish is better. Camarel, I always like to read the books as inevitably something must be left out to make everything fit into two hours. That's just me, though.

Just read 1776 by David McCullough. Excellent book. My favorite author on historic novels.

I'm reading "Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll. Covers America's involvement with Afghanistan and Pakistan re. terrorism. Talk about "comprehensive": it's as if he couldn't resist covering everyone in both countries' telephone books, plus everyone who ever served in the CIA. Informative, but the level of detail is mind-boggling.

Sorry, I should have clarified: American

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW

So I finally decided to read this series since I believe I've only ever read THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE ages ago. I decided to go in chronological order as there's some debate as to how these stories should be read: by their publication date or chronological order. The only real dispute is in what order THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW and THE HORSE AND HIS BOY should be read but again, I'm for it in order.

These books seem like they're going to be very simple, light and easy books to read. This started out well and was enjoying its simplicity for about halfway through. The second half I didn't quite enjoy as much except for the last few chapters. I think most people's favorite is book 2 (THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE) and it's the one I'm looking forward to the most.

Has anybody else read these? If so, any thoughts?

Just finished DREAM BOOGIE: THE TRIUMPH OF SAM COOKE by Pater Guralnick.

Very interesting book, if not a little heavy going at times. Cooke was a very talented and diverse personality. I might read Guralnick's books about Elvis next......

I've read them all many years ago originally. They are all aimed at children (with one or two winks towards a adult audience) and for me they really didn't age that well. They were as you say light enjoyable reading if that's what you're looking for. The White Witch is a funny character to me and I liked the introduction of her in "The Magician's Nephew" I think.

If you like the author he takes a much more serious and adult (and occasionally tedious) look at the struggle between good and evil in his Space Trilogy (Perelandra) series. The Screwtape Letters was also a good read.

Would you recommend the Space Trilogy? Never heard of it.

I am now reading a book about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. This thirst for knowledge can be a curse sometimes.It's an interesting read though.

So I know The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano isn't particularly reliable, but I was flipping through a copy in a used bookstore, and this is what clinched me buying it.

It's not so much what it is as I never knew of a case where it was in books.

Absolutely. It was written back in the forties so of course the style and format can seem rather stilted to us now. At some points they're more essays than stories. As you probably know, CS Lewis was an intensely religious man. The Trilogy involves the retelling of the battle between good and evil on Mars (first book), Venus(second book) and finally Earth (third book). When I say battle though it's mostly a battle of ideas and words and individual choices, not armies.

The trilogy makes reference to some of Tolkien's work and imo must have been an influence on later writers like Madeleine L'Engle. Each planet is ruled over by a being who is effectively an angel. Our "angel" is bent (evil). Lewis was keen on showing the essential ugliness and banality of evil so he spent a lot of time discussing just that. The final book in some ways foresees our society today, where feminism, rationality and the needs of the many outweigh naturalism, religion and individual choice. Lewis very much thought this would be horrible and ultimately satanic. YMMV on all this of course.

Cool, thanks for the feedback!

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

A simply fantastic book and I dare say it's going to be the best of the serious. I was really impressed how much of this story they utilized in the movie. What's also particularly interesting is that they were able to expand upon the material and I feel make the movie so much better. Usually the books are better than the movies because they're able to provide better detail but this isn't the case here. I'm really impressed how they were able to stay so true to Lewis' original work and expand upon it all at the same time. My only criticism through the first 2 books is Lewis seems to do such a great job building up the story for about half or 3/4 of the book but then just flashes past the ending. It's almost as if he were under sometime of deadline or limit to complete the books.

All the Narnia books are superb. I kept them from my childhood for my kids to read.

I liked this book. It set a pretty fast pace but it wasn't difficult reading. Like many of Grisham's previous works the protagonist is a lawyer.

In The Racketeer the hero is a black man. This man, Malcolm Bannister, narrates most of the story. There are occasional switches back to third person. Bannister is a federal convict. Previously he was an up and coming lawyer at a small black owned law firm.

Bannister briefly did some arms length work for a shady lobbyist and was, according to him, wrongfully accused of money laundering. Insisting on his innocence, he refused a deal and was as surprised as anyone when he was convicted and sent to federal prison. His wife has divorced him. Bannister's father visits him infrequently and seems to believe his son must be guilty because otherwise he wouldn't be in prison. He is a source of shame to his previous partners who hired him when white law firms rejected him.

When a right-wing federal judge is murdered, Bannister is confident that he knows who did it and why. And for the reward money, release from prison, wiping of his record and entry into the Witness Protection Program, Bannister will tell the authorities everything that they need to know.

The FBI is desperate to solve the case. The federal prosecutors are confident that they know the law better than any convicted former attorney and see no issue with making a deal. Leaving prison is only the first part of Bannister's plan. He has plans within plans and nothing but a cold contempt for the system that ruined his life. Although Bannister maintains his innocence the book plays with this for a while. You may come to your own conclusions about this before the story gives the definitive answer. Bannister behaves like an innocent man..most of the time.

Grisham obviously knows a lot about the law. That's evident in the casual references to all sorts of laws and precedents (many real, some fictional) in the story. He also doesn't like bullies, the insane proliferation of federal crimes and the awesome ability of federal prosecutors to convert just about any activity they don't like into a crime, given time and motivation. One character muses it's surprising that more federal judges aren't murdered. There are a lot of twists so if you like the idea of the author (and protagonist) showing that he was smart enough to fool you a few times, you may like this story.