Recent content by Juleeming

For me, the last few Dan Brown books (Origin, Inferno, The Lost Symbol) are among the worst pieces of horse crap I've ever read. Not that he is particularly good, but these turkeys are little more than junk science and glorified powerpoint presentations. But they're kinda like Doritos--they'e...

The Dune series. The first one was great, but the two sequels Herbert wrong went down in quality real fast. I tried reading the ones his won wrote and they were unreadable.

Here's an interesting premise for a crime novel: Who stole the gifts of the magi? That's the premise of Bethlehem Boys, a gripping crime novel set in the early days of Jesus of Nazareth that masterfully mixes humor, memorable characters and razor-sharp pacing while always remaining respectful...

I've just started Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series. I started with a later one, and didn't quite get what was going on (endless number of AA meetings), but I did like it. I've now gone back to the beginning and have read three of the early ones (I can't find the third one in any library). I...

Since I almost always identify a book I want to read, I never care what the cover looks like. But if I were browsing, I might be put off by covers that seem too garish. This is a huge problem with most mystery and crime novels. For example, I love Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles mysteries...

If you want to laugh out loud while reading about crazy anti-hero heroes, I recommend reading the works of Florida's Tim Dorsey. His protagonist, Serge, combines OCD with ADD. He is an obsessive chronicler of Florida's crazy history, and he is a "good" serial killer, only killing those who...

It seems sad to be necroing these dead threads, but I'm a newcomer here. "Spy" was the first Le Carre I read as well, and I loved it. It was so much better than the two previous Smiley books, which were kind of like trial runs. Since that time I've gone through every single one of Le Carre's...

You have to give Michael Connolly credit for generally keeping up the quality of the Harry Bosch novels over the years. Unlike some crime writers (Robert Parker, anyone), he has allowed Bosch to age appropriately. And even the crossover books with Connolly's other main character, lawyer Mickey...

I have a Kindle, and a whole bunch of books on it, but I just can't get myself to use it. I totally get why people prefer them, but for me I need the actual physical sensation of reading a book--holding the book, reading one page than the other, flipping the page, etc. I just can't concentrate...

I'm really enjoying Stella Rimington's Liz Carlyle series. Liz is a member of Britain's counter-intellgence unit (Mi5), and the books usually revolve around her trying to stop terrorists from carrying out their plots. All the books take place in the post 9/11 era.

Ditto on Alan Furst. But I like his novels that actually take place during the war and involve war-related activities more than the ones that take place before the war. And there tends to be a certain sameness about his protagonists that it makes it difficult to distinguish one from another. And...

Maggie O'Dell is a FBI profiler with, naturally, a screwed up childhood, a terrible marriage, and a tendency to put herself into harm's way. There are around 13 books in the series and they almost always involve Maggie trying to catch some crazy serial killer, and ending up getting caught by...

Even though it wasn't the first Spenser I read, I did enjoy The Godwulf Manuscript. It's interesting to compare this first incarnation of Spenser with what he eventually evolved into. It took a few books for the Spenser formula to really gel (I'll argue that The Judas Goat is the first real...

As a new member, I'm kind of sad that this section seems kind of dead. Anyway, I'll try to revive it a bit in case anyone cares. I'm currently going focusing on finishing Le Carre's Smiley's People so I can watch the TV adapation with Alec Guinness to compare. I've currently got about 8...

An awful book. Every Langdon book gets worse and worse, recycling the same old cliches--old professor meets with younger protege gets chased by radical Christian extremists, and all sorts of trash-science mixed in. And this one was a shaggy dog story with no real point since the main "evil...