Bred Any Good Rooks Lately?

Kurben

Grant87 said:

Kurben said:

OK, I went into a bookstore recently and saw Justin Cronins new stand alone novel, The Ferryman. Has anyone here read it? Any good? Needing one more book to take with me for my trip and thinking about this one. I really liked The Passage even if the followup wasn't quite up there compared with the first book. Is this in the same genre?

I'm planning to read it in June, so I can let you know then. It seems to be getting great reviews so far.

I would really appreciate that. Thank you!

Grant87

Kurben said:

Grant87 said:

Kurben said:

OK, I went into a bookstore recently and saw Justin Cronins new stand alone novel, The Ferryman. Has anyone here read it? Any good? Needing one more book to take with me for my trip and thinking about this one. I really liked The Passage even if the followup wasn't quite up there compared with the first book. Is this in the same genre?

I'm planning to read it in June, so I can let you know then. It seems to be getting great reviews so far.

I would really appreciate that. Thank you!

No problem! If anyone wants to read along with me, I'll probably be reading it in mid-June sometime.

Grant87

Here's everything I read in May:

• The Drawing of the Three, Stephen King
• Swan Song, Robert McCammon
• In the Blood, Jack Carr
• Only the Dead, Jack Carr

Only four books in May, but Swan Song is a doorstop. Loved everything I read in May. Swan Song managed to surpass the sky-high expectations I had going in. Just an incredible book. It's the leader in the clubhouse for my Book of the Year. It's gonna be tough to beat.

If you are into action/spy/espionage thrillers even a little bit, then you have to check out Jack Carr's Terminal List series. (The Amazon Prime series is really good, too.) I read the first book last year, and have already devoured the other five books in the series this year. Now I have to wait another year for Book 7.
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My June TBR:

• The Waste Lands, Stephen King
• The Godfather, Mario Puzo
• The Ferryman, Justin Cronin
• The Firm, John Grisham
• Fevre Dream, George R.R. Martin

Hedda Gabler

I go to place a hold on Swamp Story at my library, my sweet sweet Dave Barry’s new book thinking I would be buried deep in the queue. No! First one, no other holds. 

This shocked me and then I thought, uh oh. It must contain a black, trans alligator who needs an abortion because she was raped by her youth pastor daddy. 

Oh woe is me!!!! I may get woke and then what? Nothing. I’m a better person for it. Bring it on Dave.

GNTLGNT

...hell, I want to read your idea!!!......woke away!!.....

Hedda Gabler

Finished The Curator. I loved this. His best book to date. 

GNTLGNT

...I agree, much easier to engage with the characters in this novel.....

Hedda Gabler

DIS MEM BER by Joyce Carol Oates. 

Joyce is a bit hit and miss with me. But when she is good, she is very good. She sets a tone that is very unsettling for me. And those are the best stories. 

Her masterclass was informative, but I don’t think she should read her own work. I always feel the author is the best narrator, but not in her case. 

Hedda Gabler

@BevVincent — how was Becoming the Boogeyman? No Onyx review? It looks like a pretty thick book. 

GNTLGNT

...if it's anything like the first, it'll be a killer....seriously, no punnage intended....

Kurben

Went through some rereads bit also read The Year of The Comet by John Christopher which i had hopes for since reading his The Death Of Grass and a few others but it was a disapointment. Its kind of a thriller set in a dystopic future but is never really convincing. Also the much better The Wind From Nowhere by J.C. Ballard (author of Empire of the sun) which is a disaster novel. Also Alison Weirs historical novel Anne Boleyn: A Kings Obsession which was good. We all know rhe ending but eberything is told from her perspective and it gives an interesting insight in how the character of Anne is shifting as she grows up, first as child, then as a maid of honour in france to the french queen, then the same to Katherine, queen of England and then as queen herself. I read Right Ho, Jeeves by Wodehouse and laughed my silly head off as usual when reading him. Possible some wondered what drugs i was on laughing like that.... I decided on a little project: to see if The Big Four by Agatha Christie is as bad as i remembered it from reading it in my 20,s. Sadly it was, one of extremely few complete fails through Christies career. So i read a few good Christie to get the bad taste out of my mouth. And Then There Were None among them. Also a thriller by Holly Jackson which was so-so. Started on Lord John Grey and The Brotherhood Of Swords by Diana Gabaldon but is far from finished. There was one or two more i think...  Thats my last two weeks.

Hedda Gabler

@GNTLGNT — scott, i am reading Swamp Story by Dave Barry . I think you would absolutely enjoy the humor of this one as it’s about bumbling get rich quick guys tying to fake a Melonhead sighting in the everglades. 

Supposedly this is big in Ohio? Or he made that up. It’s like Sasquatch or Nessie. There is also hidden treasure — so some suspense and lots of humor. 

Quick read, too.

GNTLGNT

..Thanks Deej.....no, the Melonhead "legend" is a real thing.....worth a read as well....

Hedda Gabler

I’ll check into Melonhead. 

Kurben

Reading Rise The Dark by Michael Koryta. Goood! Been too long since i read me some Koryta

Lou_Sytsma

Falling by TJ Newman - if you want a fast paced page turner, summer thriller read, this is it.  Newman is a former airline attendant who has parlayed her experience into writing airplane thrillers.

This is the summary for Falling:

Thirty minutes before a flight to New York, the family of the pilot is kidnapped and in order for them to live, all 143 passengers onboard must die.

Her second and latest book, Drowning is even more intriguing:

When Flight 1421 crashes into the ocean six minutes after take-off, the surviving passengers believe they are the lucky ones until the plane starts to sink to the ocean floor, trapping them inside, and they must wait to be rescued as both air and time runout.

Hedda Gabler

Lou_Sytsma said:

Falling by TJ Newman - if you want a fast paced page turner, summer thriller read, this is it.  Newman is a former airline attendant who has parlayed her experience into writing airplane thrillers.

This is the summary for Falling:

Thirty minutes before a flight to New York, the family of the pilot is kidnapped and in order for them to live, all 143 passengers onboard must die.

Her second and latest book, Drowning is even more intriguing:

When Flight 1421 crashes into the ocean six minutes after take-off, the surviving passengers believe they are the lucky ones until the plane starts to sink to the ocean floor, trapping them inside, and they must wait to be rescued as both air and time runout.

Holy hell, these sound terrifying. 

GNTLGNT

Hedda Gabler said:

Lou_Sytsma said:

Falling by TJ Newman - if you want a fast paced page turner, summer thriller read, this is it.  Newman is a former airline attendant who has parlayed her experience into writing airplane thrillers.

This is the summary for Falling:

Thirty minutes before a flight to New York, the family of the pilot is kidnapped and in order for them to live, all 143 passengers onboard must die.

Her second and latest book, Drowning is even more intriguing:

When Flight 1421 crashes into the ocean six minutes after take-off, the surviving passengers believe they are the lucky ones until the plane starts to sink to the ocean floor, trapping them inside, and they must wait to be rescued as both air and time runout.

Holy hell, these sound terrifying. 

...worse than bare feet intruding into your space from the seat behind?....I think not....

Lou_Sytsma

Finished my re-read of Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo - who is better known for her Shadow and Bone YA series adapted by Netflix.

Ninth House is Harry Potter for adults.  This summary does an excellent job:

"Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive."

Now I'm ready to Book 2 - Hell Bent.

PS - both King and Joe Hill blurbed the book on the back cover.

Highly recommended.

Kurben

Reading Right Ho, Jeeves by Wodehouse. Felt i needed a pick me uper kind of book and Wodehouse never fails in that aspect for me. I have read them multiple times since i was first introduced to them by my father(thank you dad) in my middle teens somewhere. I still laugh out loud and get the kind of laugh attacks that i have to put the book away. 

Kurben

I reflected on something while reading Wodehouse and thats why noone ,as far as i know, has tried to imitate him since his writing style was very successful. I mean there has been funny books but their style isn't close to Wodehouse's style. in other genres you can fairly easily see developing lines through time but Wodehouse seems to begin and end with him. Its interesting. The only faintly resemblance to Wpdehouse i can see is in Dorothy Sayers first Lord Peter mystery. A smarter kind of Wooster who solves mysteries assisted by his faithful assistant that can do anything Jeeves/Bunter. She soon went away from that though in the rest of the books. But i do think that Bunter is clearly influenced by Jeeves. Both is extremely capable and knows exactly what kind of clothes that fit their young gentleman. Sayers was never trying to be funny but the influence is there.

Hedda Gabler

In my Tbr pile and supporting a true PATRIOT and not mentally ill PLAYtriots,

Hold The Line

Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler said:

In my Tbr pile and supporting a true PATRIOT and not mentally ill PLAYtriots,

Hold The Line

Author Michael Fanone. 

Hedda Gabler

I got notice that my autographed Interview With a Vampire has shipped.  Yes, signature sheets were signed before she died. 

This book means a lot to me because of my granddad.  Now, this man was a bona fide genius (unfortunately those brain genes didn’t make it all the way to me but I do okay 😄). 

Anyway, before he died, I had asked him if he could recommend one book I should read, what would it be? Now, I expected him to come back with some really heavy brainiac book, but no. He recommended this story because he knew I was a spooky-loving girl. I adored him. How I wish I could talk to him again. 

Grant87

Hedda Gabler said:

I got notice that my autographed Interview With a Vampire has shipped.  Yes, signature sheets were signed before she died. 

This book means a lot to me because of my granddad.  Now, this man was a bona fide genius (unfortunately those brain genes didn’t make it all the way to me but I do okay 😄). 

Anyway, before he died, I had asked him if he could recommend one book I should read, what would it be? Now, I expected him to come back with some really heavy brainiac book, but no. He recommended this story because he knew I was a spooky-loving girl. I adored him. How I wish I could talk to him again. 

1. I have a feeling the book's value would skyrocket if she'd signed it after she died 

2. I've had that book on my TBR for ages. I need to give it a read.

3. I love that story. Grandpas are the best. I miss both of mine every day. I hung out with my maternal grandfather all the time when I was a kid. I cherish every second I got to spend with him.