All of the books in this review I read via audio. And in each case not only did I like the book but the reader was perfect. I’ve been home for several weeks working on a new quilt and during the sewing process I love to listen to audio books. When I fell in love with quilting I gave up a lot of my reading time. But, with audio books I can now do both at the same time. Excellent.
I kept hearing students in my classes talking about the books by Stieg Larsson, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”. From what I read, at the rate these books are selling most everyone has already read or is reading this trilogy. So, I decided I’d better check it out. The first book in the series had me captivated. One of the main characters , Mikael Blomkvist, is a journalist at the wrong end of a libel case. He is hired to get to the bottom of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. Mikael meets our other main character, Lisbeth Salander, who is so very different than him. Lisbeth has tattoos, piercings, is very petite and a computer wizard. You will have a hard time putting this book down.
As soon as you finish reading the first book you will want to have the second book in the series in your hands. “The Girl Who Played With Fire”.
And as soon as you finish the second book you’ll want to have the third book in your hands. “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”. Very interesting characters. It is so sad that the author, Stieg Larsson passed away before he saw how appreciated he is as a writer and how well his books have been received.
Onto another author. I do enjoy reading Patricia Cornwell’s book with her character Kay Scarpetta. Scarpetta is a former medical examiner and forensic analyst. In this 17th Scarpetta novel Kay finds herself in a plot that includes a famous actor and the disappearance of a beautiful millionairess. All of our favorite characters from the Scarpetta series are joined again to solve the case.
A book I read years ago that I would like to suggest for your reading enjoyment is “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid”. The author is Bill Bryson. I listened to this book on audio. The author read his own book. I love his dry sense of humor. You will find yourself laughing out loud. The thunderbolt kid was born in the 1950’s when the author was 6 years old and found a mysterious, scratchy green sweater with a thunderbolt across the chest. If you like this book you’ll also want to read, by the same author, “A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail”. Again, you will laugh out loud. Bill Bryson tells about his walk on the trail with a friend. Very, very funny.
I just finished reading Clive Cussler’s book “Corsair”. I think this is the 5th novel by Clive Cussler with this same group of characters. I like books that have that basic good and evil concept but where there are a lot of incidents to make the journey extremely interesting. This book takes us to Libya where the U.S. Secretary of State’s plane crashes and she is kidnapped before making it to the summit meeting. The crew of the Oregon gets caught in some scary places in their rescue attempt.
And my final installment for this book review is one of my very favorites, Janet Evanovich. I am telling you that you might need to wear Depends while reading this as you could pee your pants. We are once again treated to Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, and her crazy family and friends, and hot and sexy menfolk. I don’t know how Janet continues to comes up with these hilarious ideas, but so happy she does. You will love Lula’ss diet!!
I’m off to Midland, Texas this morning and then to Victoria, Texas the middle of next week. I’m sure I’ll have some reading time as I fly and wait in the airports.