If you're in an airport, stay away from this book...

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

I second this recommendation to get Chris Jones' book on the space station. I'm about halfway through and it's a pretty decent read.

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Please, if I ask for book suggestions, would you pick me out a winner like that from Albom? 8)

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Only if airport bookstores carry: 1. Fab Five and 2. Any of his 'Live Albom' books. Otherwise, no thanks.

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

I think you missed my point....

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Parker has been phoning it in for at least 15 years. The one thing that amazes me book to book -- Spenser and Hawk work out together, then hang out talking about wine and singing show tunes... and no one seems to find anything, uh, unusual about that. Parker has created the gayest straight characters in the history of literature. I'd be stunned if he takes more than two weeks to write a Spenser novel these days.

(On a side note, I've had a hard time taking Spenser and Hawk seriously after reading a book on writing by Larry Beinhart, a very good mystery author. Here's an excerpt: "Hawk's the baddest of bad African-American persons. He has a Marvin Hagler head shave and owns lots of expensive consumer items. I've always felt this is a cheap racist contrivance -- the Bwana Seal of Approval. Hero so good that even the darky jungle savage who don' like no white man like him.")

Anyway, airport reading... Carl Hiaasen is entertaining, though his new one is a letdown so far, at least compared to his past work. And yes, Jones' book is tremendous. Michael Connelly is pretty dependable and likely available in any airport.

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

I'll second the vote for Connelly. Former newspaper guy, usually a sure thing. One of his better more recent ones was "The Poet."

Also, John Connolly, Harlan Coben and John Sandford are pretty consistent and usually easy to locate in the airport.

Stay the hell away from anything with James Patterson's name on it. Used to love the guy, but a sure sign of mailing it in is when one of these guys starts churning out about 10 books a year. If I'm not mistaken, Patterson's last book had 140-odd chapters ... and wasn't 400 pages long. That's the very definition of "mailing it in."

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Pick up David Simon's "Homicide."

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Great fucking book, thought you won't be able to finish it on a road trip.

Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire is a great airplane book.

Second whoever said Sandford. The Prey series have been pretty consistently good.

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Why does it say "stay awake" as opposed to "stay away" in the title thread? I'm slow like that.

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

What makes these types of books good, to me, are the conversations between characters. Sandford is probably the best at handling cop dialogue. Connelly would be 1A.

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

The all-time winner for dialogue, at least for me, is "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" by George V. Higgins. It's one of the best crime novels ever written. (Oddly enough, I've never liked anything else by Higgins nearly as much.)

For favorite recent Connelly novel is "The Lincoln Lawyer," which should be easy to find in paperback. I haven't liked his recent Harry Bosch novels as much.

I'll second the Harlan Coben suggestion. His older novels focused on a sports agent are fun, though silly at times. His later stuff is better.

 

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

You're right about Coben. His early books just weren't that great. Easy to read and sometimes fun, but not great. One of his more recent ones, "Tell No One," I think was the name, was much better.