For your reading pleasure ( Or Viewing Pleasure  )

        Books to pass the time with.  Some might only be found in a used book store or library.

   Italy

   The Italians, Luigi Barzini.  Nonfiction.  Written by a man who knows the Italians.  History, politics, culture.  It's all here.

 The Leopard, Guiseppe Di Lampedusa.  Fiction. A classic.  The story revolves around the life of a Sicilian count during the transition from benign control to state control as Italy unites.  Written by a man with a love for Sicily and whose ancestor lived that transition.

Neither Here, Nor There. Travels in Europe, Bill Bryson.  About more than just Italy, but he hits the target on Italy.

    Mystery

Killing Floor, Lee Child.  Not for the squeamish.  Chance curiosity causes ex-military cop Jack Reacher to ask to be let off a bus in a small Southern town.  All he wants is to find a bit of history about an obscure jazz musician. Right off the bat, he's arrested for the murder of two men found not far from where he was let off. Though there is action, puzzles, and ever increasing tension, it's the character of reacher that makes this book.When things get dicey,  Reacher's the man you want on your side.

  Dead Sand, Brendan DuBois. New Hampshire has become the refuge to heal his bruised soul.  But he cannot rest when a murder disturbs this vacation town.  Reminiscent of Travis McGee: a quiet man with deep thoughts, a cynic whose psychic scars may never be healed. Action.  A must read.

The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco.  Seven murders in seven days in an Italian Franciscan abbey in the 14th century.  A keeper.

One for the Money, Janet Evanovich.  This is the first of the series about a Trenton, NJ (yes, people do live there) young woman in need of a job, money, and a life.  She weasels her way into a temporary job looking for bail bond jumpers -- which leads her into the harder areas of Trenton faking it while she gets sporadic OJT on how to stay alive and out of deep trouble.  This is a funny book, but don't be deterred thinking it is just another smart mouthed broad toughing it out.  Not at all.  This could be your best friend from high school with a family that won't let go.   More on Janet Evanovich

Gun Monkeys, Victor Gischler.  This is a raucous story of a bad guy you can't help but like as he careens his way away from those who betrayed him with his taxidermist girlfriend.  This is the novel with the best opening line -- ever. Don't even try to count the bodies left behind in his wake.   (2001)

The Caveman's Valentine, George Dawes Green.  Romulus is a protagonist unlike any you've read before.  A homeless schizophrenic finds a body outside of his cave in NYC park.  You'll be laughing and crying all at once.

Dolores Claiborne, Stephen King.  Dolores, a 65-year-old Little Tall island resident, makes her statement to the police after her elderly employer is found dead at the bottom of a staircase.  Why list another King book and why ;here?  Voice.  And because this one is most unusual.  The story as told by Dolores is funny, sad, and captivating. There are no chapter breaks, and from the start I wanted to know what happened.  And it is as if Dolores speaks directly to you from across the table

Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem.  Brooklyn--and murder, vice, and all the nasties as seen through the eyes of a guy with Tourette's Syndrome.  If you don't know what Tourette's is--you will after reading this not your ordinary book.  (involuntary utterances and movements characterizes Tourette's)  When his anchor in life is murdered, how does a Tourette's Syndrome man handle it and what does he do for justice?  (Jan 2001) .
 

Up Jumps the Devil, Margaret Maron.  Sassy--without an attitude --Deborah Knott is your modern Southerner.  No clichés here.  Development, and the change it brings is this book's theme.  Maron's wit jumps up and grabs you. (Bootlegger's Daughter is the first in the series and for the latest. see;  More on Margaret Maron

American Graveyards, Ray Nayler.  Tightly written, this is the story of a private eyeon possibly his last case, his own.  After twenty or more years he has finally gotten a tip on the location of a former client, one responsible for the death of the woman he. was hired to find.  With a deft hand, Nayler depicts a side of California the tourists don't see. (August 2001)

 In-laws and Outlaws, Barbara Paul.  Idyllic Cape Cod, or so one would think.  Until one death opens old doors.  A sharp eye and wit characterize this book.   More on Barbara Paul

Déjà Dead, Kathy Reichs.  If you've a strong stomach and like forensic investigations this is the book for you.  A witty tongue offsets the tense moments. The author, a forensic archaeologist, writes what she knows.

On Cabrini Green, Charles Shafer.  Cops as real people who actually, sometimes, screw-up.  The theft of diamonds begins a wild tale of territorial cops falling all over each other, "wagon men" sluffing off on the job of picking up the bodies, and a thief who doesn't hesitate to kill both targets and cohorts. (December 2000)

   Mystery, Peter Straub  Not your ordinary mystery.  This one is rich with "place", twists and turns, and, well, mystery.

Engineered for Murder, Aileen Schumacher.  Written by an engineer, this and its follow-ons are good reading.  Fascinating in the well described engineering details -- even for one who couldn't get a child's construction set to do anything but fall apart.  And I liked the characters, too.    More on Aileen Schumacher

Sacrifice, Andrew Vachss.  Noir without a doubt.  If injustice involving children steams you, then Vachss's Burke is      the man for you.  Street life as it really is, sharp dialogue -- but the story will tear you up.

Dead Man's Thoughts, Carolyn Wheat.  This is the book for real street talk; Brooklyn as a native knows it, and the court as seen by real criminal defense lawyers.

Down on Ponce, Fred Willard.  A raucous, though at times noir, mystery-caper featuring a "retired" drug dealer and losers hanging about on Atlanta's Ponce de leon Avenue.  "Cracker noir" is how "Down on Ponce" has been characterized. (11/2000)

Run, Douglas E. Winter.  Takes you inside a gun running operation that is only the outside shell of the real game in play.  Fast, dialogue on the nose, and leaves the morality up to you to decide.  Great book.   (July 2000)

 Suspense/Thrillers

 Eye of the Eagle, Global 2000, Gloria Vitanza Basile.  Nuclear war threatens.  This first of the three Global 2000 books begins in Corsica just after World War II.  These books will grab you up and not let go until you've turned the last page of the third book.

Brothers, William Goldman.  Seemingly unrelated violent events begin the action.  The twists will keep you pinned to your chair until the last page.  And that, you won't forget.

The Fraternity of the Stone, David Morrell.  A monastery.  Quiet. Bloody.  A monk's years as a hermit have come to an end.  He must become the hunter of those for whom he was the prey.

Koko, Peter Straub.  This one will have you looking over your shoulder.  Exotic. Scary. Straub surrounds you with the stink, feel, and look of New York, Bangkok, and other places.

 Shibumi, Trevanian.  Immense strength of character deriving from his focus on personal excellence makes this  assassin unforgettable.  Sometimes assassins can be good guys.  His lifestyle is one to be envied.  This is  international intrigue wrapped in an Asian envelope.

 Science Fiction or just over the edge of today's reality.

Transmigration of Souls, William Barton.   Fortress America left Luna in a hurry and has not returned. Nor does it want anyone else going there.  Their fear is discovery of a star gate they should have destroyed, but didn't. The Gate and the Space-Time Juggeernaut that may come and destroy our universe.  A complex novel with many characters, allusions to other scifi fiction, and pondering of life, after-life, and eternal life.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.  A fun book!  Early off-the-wall surrealism.  This will be glued to your hand until finished.  Be warned: people may stare as you guffaw.

Blue Limbo, Terence Green.  What's a cop to do when the system is corrupt?  Clean it up yourself, with the aid of the "barking dog" a gizmo that scans the subject and shocks you when a lie is being told.  This story catches you from the gitgo and, lest you think not, there are things said here to be pondered well after the book is done.

Shadow of Ashland, Terence Green.  Wonderful book.  Canada and Kentucky: then and now.  The arrival of letters sent fifty years ago provokes a search of the past.

 A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller, Jr.  After the nuclear war.  Mutations; wasteland; strange religions.  Who is the new prophet?  This one will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card.  This is the second of a 4-book series which begins with Ender's Game. The concept of a 'speaker for the dead" is a fascinating one that comes to life at the end of Ender's Game.  "Speaker" is a book about perceptions.  Perceptions of one alien culture about another; perceptions within a  community and perceptions within a family.  Ender comes to this world as an adult having been called as a speaker  for the dead.  "Speaker"  may be read on its own but is more meaningful if read after Ender's Game.

Hyperion, Dan Simmons.  One of the best SF series I've read.  Beware the Shrike, an awesome multi-armed, spiked and bladed, metallic creature found near the Time Tombs on the planet Hyperion. Hyperion, the first of the series, opens with the start of a special pilgrimage to the Tombs by a select group, consisting of a former ambassador, a priest, a scholar whose infant daughter is aging backward (after an earler expedition to the Tombs), a military man, and a dirty old man poet.  Prior pilgrims have ended up dead or on the Tree of Thorns.  Concurrently, there's an intergalactic war going on.  Then there is the question of what part the AI community plays in the events.

 Horror

 Suffer the Children, John Saul.  Children are disappearing.  Just like 100 years ago. The evil is back.

 The Treasure Box, Orson Scott Card.  Mild horror.  After a childhood trauma, he became an introvert.  Now he's married and must deal with not your average inlaws.

 This and that

 Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier.  If you don't know about this book, you soon will. A civil war period piece, full of lush detail and perilous adventure mixed with bits of hard learned philosophy. A story of a wounded soldier's long path towards home and of the woman he's returning to who also is learning what survival means.

The Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger.  Nonfiction.  You no idea what a storm can do or the courage of those who live their lives on the sea until you've read this book.  You'll keep a close eye on the weather report after this.

The Eight, Katherine Neville.  A quest, intermixing Napoleonic France and now with a motif centered around the game of chess.  A computer whiz and a chess nut must solve the mystery before others do.

A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole.  A comedy.  You won't soon forget Ignatius or his pyloric valve.  Or his mother or other folk who inhabit New Orleans

The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks.  A love story.  Sometimes love transcends time, place, and condition.  Okay, some folks think this is smaltzy and lousy writing.  I didn't.

A Short History of a Small Place, T.R. Pearson.  Neely, North Carolina as seen by young Louis Benfield. This is a guffaw producing book.  The voice is wonderful. A sample line: "That was the day Miss Pettigrew stopped being just peculiar."

To Kill The Pope, Thomas Szasc.  Based on extensive research,  by this biographer of Pope John Paul II, and information from within the Vatican, this is a fictionalized detailing of who and what was behind the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1968.  A plausible and fascinating tale.

Books remembered through the years

     Tears are for the Living, Margaret Banister.  A family saga with all the associated stresses, disappointments, and changes that begins at the end of the civil war when the main character is still a child and ends on her hundredth birthday.

     Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand.  Like most of Ayn Rand's books the theme is the individual.  The "doer", versus those who would destroy, through envy or ineptitude.  In The Fountainhead, the hero was Howard Roark, an architect who had a vision he refused to give up. In Atlas Shrugged there are two heroes: John Galt and  Dagny Taggart. When the demands of the takers become too much and the weight of the world grows beyond endurance, will Atlas shrug?

     Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach.  What if the Messiah returned as a biplane pilot, and a mechanic, and said "I quit" to the masses hounding him for solutions?
 

      And for the visual folks:

    Fargo   Noir humor to the extreme.  You won't sleep through this flick.

    Il Postino  1950s Italy, a sad sack part time postman, an exiled poet--> metaphors.  (Eng. subtitles)

    The Man Who Wasn't There.  In line with the character's lifestyle, the movie seems slow in places, but it's power is much evident after the fact as pieces keep returning to mind.  By the producers of Fargo (the Cohn brothers), their unique touch is evident.
 
 

                                                                         ###