BOOKS THREAD

I haven't read the Stieg Larsson books, but I'm told this is a pretty good parody.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/07/05/100705sh_shouts_ephron

 

I'm reading the second one now, and yes, it is. Second "mystery" not nearly as compelling as the first. More like an episode of "Law & Order" with lots of issue-oriented exposition aimed at educating the reader about a problem.
And Lisabeth is really starting to get on my nerves. Much like the Ben Stiller character in "Greenberg," we know there is something wrong here, but we don't really know what, and that makes many of her actions impossible to identify with or understand.

 

I read all three of the Larsson books and liked them. I love legal novels (Turow's new book Innocent is great) and television shows. Yeah, the "Girl" series isn't spectacular, but I think Larsson was good with the shit-hitting-the-fan suspense and it keeps the reader coming back.

That's why I'm pumped about Cronin's books ... he's churning out a trilogy. I liked the first and will come back for more.

 

My vacation book this year was Mark Bechtel's "He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back," about the 1979 NASCAR season (the famous Daytona 500 fight, the Petty-Waltrip battle for the season title, Earnhardt's rookie year). Great yarns - the personalities were much bigger back before the sport went corporate.
Gotta find Hoffer's book - "Rome 1960" was my vacation book last year.

 

Agreed. Finally got a chance to read this and it's exactly as advertised.

 

Needed some fun summer reading so I got The Passage based on reviews here. First 100 pages do have a Stephen King feel. Happy so far.

 

Just finished "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson and loved it. Completely charming book with beautifully drawn characters - funny and moving.

 

Needed a good summer read, so I'm currently on Caleb Carr's "The Alienist."

 

Damn, I loooooved that book.

 

Me too. Great read. The sequel, The Angel of Darkness, is damn good too.

 

Like the Alienist a lot; somehow I missed the sequel. I'll have to track it down.

 

TSP and HC:

I'm curious if you still feel this way after finishing The Passage. I'd be surprised if, years from now with a little distance a time, it's still in your Top 5. I thought the first 150-200 pages were excellent, but the middle third was poorly paced and the final third a total mixed bag. I'm not going to knock this book too much, because it was a really cool idea, and I was just pleased to vampires return to something closer to their original form after Stephanie Meyer turned them into chaste emo teens. And Whenever an author can create essentially an entire universe, I'm impressed. But the Colony characters were really thin. I don't think Cronin knew how to develop them at all once the action got going again. Peter, Theo, Sara, Hollis, Alicia -- all of them were about an inch deep. I couldn't even get a picture in my head of what Peter looked like, other than random 20-something male protagonist.

SPOILERS...

The most ridiculous part of the book for me was right after the train getaway, when Jude appeared from a secret compartment below the train to kill Caleb. That was just lazy writing. It made me realize there were a lot of moments like that throughout the book, moments that could have easily been prefaced by "ALL OF A SUDDEN!" and occasionally were prefaced by essentially that phrase. As for Caleb's death, it was unclear why I was even supposed to care. His character was as paper thin as anyone in the book. His defining characteristic was he liked sneakers. Which we know because his nickname was "Hightop."

I thought Wolgast was a great character.

I guess I'd give the book a B-. It's really hard to write a huge epic, much less a trilogy, and I admire Cronin for trying. It was a fun summer read. I would consider reading part two when it comes out. But I don't think it was a great book by any means.