Book Report
Still nothing going on worth writing about and what with the couple of weeks of inactivity, I feel as if I need some physical therapy to get back into tinkering shape.
Went through the book purchase rather quickly, along with some additions. Gunman’s Rhapsody by Robert B. Parker was first, and as his other books, a quick read. This one was a little different from his normal fare, being almost a screenplay for the Kurt Russell movie, Tombstone.
The Clone Republic turned out to be the first of a four book series and I had to scramble around to order the others from a used bookstore before I went on to The Clone Elite and the other two. Reasonably entertaining, but missing something. I’ve read a couple of Sci-Fi books that were written from (or for) computer games, and I suspect these may be in that category.
When You are Engulfed in Flames; David Sedaris has been recommended by several people and I began this as a replacement for Me Talk Pretty One Day that was not in stock the day we went to the bookstore. I ordered it from the used bookstore before I began to read Engulfed in Flames.
Mistake.
Halfway through chapter one, it became apparent that Sedaris is a raving queen homosexual and by chapter three was sharing a hell of a lot more about his personal lifestyle than I wanted to know. Sorry, but my redneck upbringing just left me feeling that I needed a shower.
Dick Couch’s Chosen Soldier was next, and in keeping with his other books was a detailed account of military special operations training. So-So read, not quite up to the standards of his books about SEAL/Buds training.
Cobraville by Carsten Stroud was a gamble, as I thought I had read all of his stuff and expected this to be a re-read. (I tend to forget and re-buy books that I have read.) I was pleasantly surprised to find I had missed this one and a little research found another that I hadn’t read, thus adding Lizard Skin to my used book order.
The Voyage was a new direction by Philip Caputo (one of my many favorite authors – I even have an autographed copy of one of his works) and was definitely patterned from the style of Joseph Conrad. Back in the late 60’s and 70’s I read most of Conrad’s works and still have a pretty good collection, but hadn’t read any in a few years. Voyage required almost as much dedication as Conrad’s stuff, and isn’t a “fluff” read, but like his other works, old buddy Phil brought it all home at the end. I’ll hang on to this one.
Read Hungry as the Sea (Wilbur Smith) yesterday. I used to read him but got burned out when he began attempting to rival the Bible with his long tales of twenty generations of Egyptian kings, etc. This was one of his earlier works (I read it – probably when it first came out) and while a decent adventure read, I was surprised at how his characters must all be larger than life. No Steve Buscemi in his books.
