I seem to have worked my way through a number of books since I last posted on books read. At least one was a recommendation from Gary, one was a book that I picked up at a books sale for the strays here, and the rest are all off Sands shelf!!
A Quite Belief In Angles by RJ Ellory is based on the morbid and depressing subject of child deaths in the deep south of the US back in the ’60’s. At first I was unsure, but over time the main character and the story started to grip me. The ending was very well done as well!
Not Dead Enough by Peter James is basically a good old fashioned thriller. Great for the beach or a commute, it has an interesting twist to it.
Relentless by Simon Kernick is a good, fast paced thriller with a slightly unusual background to the story. Another great one for the beach or the commute.
The Opposite Of Fate by Amy Tan is a sort of autobiography but through a series of letters and essays that the authour has had published before. As such I found it repetitive, and felt a little short changed – seemed more of a money making exercise than anything else. She writes well but as I haven’t read any of her books I was a little lost. This book didn’t make me want to read any of her books either!
Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson is a very powerful book based in the 1950’s set against the backdrop of the war, and in particular the lingering prejudices in a small fishing community when a death occurs. A very well thought out and well written book, this is well worth a read and is one to sit down and lose yourself in for an afternoon.
Good to see you got around to trying at least one of the authors (Simon Kernick) I suggested some months back – and enjoyed it.
I have just returned home from a short holiday – just a couple of hours ago – where I devoured a couple of paperbacks while I was away (the first novels I’ve sat down to read since, I think Christmas). One of them just happened to be the “follow-up” to Relentless – Severed. If you enjoyed Relentless (and I did) then you’ll probably also enjoy Severed – it’s cut from the same cloth.
Interesting to see your favourable review of “Snow Falling On Cedars”. I watched the movie two or three years back and rather enjoyed it. Perhaps I’ll pick up the book one of these days.
That will be interesting how he did a ‘follow up’ as it didn’t really lend itself to an extension of the story, and as the main character was an ‘ordinary chap’ he either needs a significant change of direction career wise or is going to be the unluckiest man in the world!!!
Will pick it up when next do a book run on Amazon.
When I said “follow-up”, I didn’t mean that the main character reappeared. Perhaps what I should have really said was something like One of them just happened to be the next book he released after Relentless – Severed.
Having said that, if you read it you will find that Kernick likes to … umm … overlap(?) his books. I find that this can add an additional dimension to his books – at least when reading them in order.
Ah, thanks for that!!! I have been on a bit of a book reading binge recently and have 5 on the shelf to review and a 6th one soon to be finished!!!
Me too (binging). And, by strange coinky-dinky, I’m into my sixth one just now as well! I must say, I’m rather enjoying it too. I think that’s probably two per week at the moment. 🙂 (And there’s another two or three awaiting the magic moment when they’re finally picked up off the to-be-read pile.)
Will be interesting to see your list 🙂 I reckon another couple of days and I will have finished the current one.
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