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Hoofball Reading List 2012

  • 08-01-2012 9:43pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭


    Long time lurker on Boards but going to dip the ole toes in a bit more this year posting wise. I read quite a bit but don't really kept track of what I read so this is a good idea. Starting off with what I've read so far this year (from the 1st):


    1)
    Author: Various Authors

    Title: No Rest for the Dead

    Comment: Enjoyable read but did sometimes feel a bit disjointed as some of the writing styles were quite different.

    Score: 7/10


    2)
    Author: Simon Murray

    Title: Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion

    Comment: Excellent book which gives some insight into the training for the French Foreign Legion and also good background from the ground perspective of some of the fighting the FFL did between 1960-65. It is written in diary format so may feel as if it skips pieces. For some reason the writing (English) also read in places as if it had been translated into English - which it hadn't been. But that is being very picky - cannot recommend this book enough.

    Score: 9/10


    3)
    Author: John Grisham

    Title: Playing for Pizza

    Comment: One of the worst books I have had the misfortune of reading and I have read a lot. Reads like a travel brochure sometimes with describing places/food/etc. No real plot, could see what was going to happen a mile off. It reads like Grisham went on holidays to Italy and knocked this book out while he was there. I only read this as it was on my pile of "to be read" books.

    Score: 2/10


«13

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    4)
    Author: David Rice

    Title: The Pompeii Syndrome

    Comment: Good book, interesting plot but some of it did seem a bit far fetched.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    5)
    Author: Robert Leckie

    Title: A Helmet for my pillow

    Comment: Very good read. You can tell from his writing that he was a journalist and author as his style of writing was different from a lot of other war memoirs. This is an absorbing account of a guy who volunteered for the marines after Pearl Harbour, goes through his training experiences and then his time in the battles on the Pacific front from Guadalcanal to Peleliu.

    Score: 8/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    6)
    Author: Robert Ellis

    Title: City of Fire

    Comment: Good solid crime novel and the plot was not too obvious. Some of the tension in the first part of the book is spoiled once you have read the back cover so I was a bit surprised that they deliberately did that. Will be getting this authors other books for sure.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    7)
    Author: Michael Crichton (& Richard Preston)

    Title: Micro

    Comment: Michael Crichton died in 2008 and this book is based on notes and files that were found on his computer with about a third of a draft completed. I'm not convinced that it was a good idea to take a book that the author clearly hadn't finished even a first draft, never mind polishing it up, and get a second author to finish it off. Having said that, I enjoyed the read even if the plot device has been been used a million times before. There were a few surprises here and there but I got the impression that they were added for their shock value rather than for moving the story along. Overall it is a pity that this is the final book from this author as he has written some fantastic novels.

    Score: 5/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    8)
    Author: Matthew Reilly

    Title: The Five Greatest Warriors

    Comment: This is the last novel in a trilogy. You have to suspend all disbelief when reading this novel and it is a pure "popcorn" read. I enjoyed it even though it is completely unbelievable. This novel finishes off a quest that has spanned three books and features a number of factions all after the same items which leads to plenty of conflicts between them.

    Score: 7/10


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  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    9)
    Author: Michael Marshall

    Title: Killer Move

    Comment: Good solid thriller, kept the suspense and interest going. Although I thought the plot, when revealed towards the end, was a small bit of a stretch.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    10)
    Authors: James Patterson & Mark Sullivan

    Title: Private Games

    Comment: Of all of Pattersons collaborations, the ones with the Private company are up amongst the better of them. Enjoyable story with twists and turns that were not forecast.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    11)
    Author: Howard Gordon

    Title: The Chamber

    Comment: Good second book in this thriller series. Plot is a bit unbelievable at times but moves along at a nice pace. This is written by one of the executive producers of 24 and you can nearly visualise Keifer Sutherland as the main character in the book. Enjoyable read and kept me interested.

    Score: 8/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    12)
    Author: Chris Carter

    Title: The Executioner

    Comment: Excellent thriller, second in the series. Quite gory crime story with an intelligent plot.

    Score: 8/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    13)
    Author: Vince Flynn

    Title: Kill Shot

    Comment: Another good solid read from this author. This is the second book since Vince Flynn went back to the "origins" of his character Mitch Rapp after 10 novels.

    Score: 8/10


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  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    14)
    Author: Mario Reading

    Title: The Nostradamus Prophecies

    Comment: Decent enough thriller, but the plot was a bit weak.

    Score: 6/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    15)
    Author: Ernst Junger

    Title: Storm of Steel

    Comment: It's a long time since I read a WWI book and the difference between WW1 and WW2 stood out again for me. It is very unusual reading of officers in the front line having servants bringing them their dinners and food/drink. Mechanised warfare only really started towards the end of WW1 and it spelt more or less the end of trench warfare. This book was released within a year or so of the end of WW1 and it only speaks to the experiences of the author at the time so you do not get any overall narrative of the war. Really good read for any interested in military history.

    Score: 8/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    16)
    Author: Clive Cussler & Justin Scott

    Title: The Thief

    Comment: This is the fifth book in the Isaac Bell series, about an early 1900's detective agency. These are fairly standard adventure/thriller books but are a good read and are a cut above the rest of these kind of "collaborative" novels.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    17)
    Author: Jonathon Kellerman

    Title: Victims

    Comment: A standard novel from this author. Not much in the way of surprises or twists and I'm not a fan of the main character all of a sudden being called "the crime reader" in the blurbs.

    Score: 6/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    18)
    Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

    Title: 11th Hour

    Comment: This is the 11th book in the "womens murder club" set of collaborative novels from James Patterson. These are quite easy to read books and the short chapters don't annoy as much as they do in some others of his joint works. Good story but no major twists as such.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    19)
    Author: Jeffrey Deaver

    Title: Carte Blanche

    Comment: This is an official James Bond novel. It seems to be a reboot of sorts as it seems to ignore everything that has already happened to Bond in other novels/films. Story is ok but not very believable. Dialogue is a bit wooden and overdone in places. Would recommend but not for die-hard Bond fans.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    20)
    Author: John Connolly

    Title: The Book of Lost Things

    Comment: This is an unusual diversion from his Charlie Parker series. Most of the characters are fairly one-dimensional and I felt a bit let down by the ending, there wasn't the "pay off" that I was expecting from the theme running through the book. An interesting read but could have benefited from some rewriting or better editing direction.

    Score: 6/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    21)
    Author: John Connolly

    Title: Nocturnes

    Comment: An enjoyable book of short stories from the author of crime novels with a slightly supernatural theme. Interesting to see Connolly stretching his skills and there are some gems amongst these stories. I particularly enjoyed "The Cancer cowboy rides" and "Some Children Wander by Mistake" and also the novella starring his usual protagonist from his novels, Charlie Parker.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    22)
    Author: Alan Glynn

    Title: Limitless

    Comment: I enjoyed this book but it wasn't really a thriller or very fast moving. The pace is quite sedate and I never got a sense of urgency even though there should be one given the premise. I haven't seen the film so that didn't temper my thoughts on the novel. A struggling author finds a muse in the form of a pill from an old friend along with unexpected side affects.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    23)
    Author: Brian Freeman

    Title: Spilled Blood

    Comment: This book was a good read and had a reasonably fast pace. A young girl is accused of murdering a fellow teen and her father comes back to town to help/support her. A couple of side plots are woven into the story as well.

    Score: 7/10


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  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    24)
    Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

    Title: Private: #1 Suspect

    Comment: This is the latest book in the world of the investigation firm "Private", another collaborative novel from James Patterson. Easy to read and a half decent story. Some of the story is very far fetched though and other pieces are glossed over very quickly.

    Score: 6/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    25)
    Author: Ben Kay

    Title: Instinct

    Comment: Good first novel from this author. Enjoyable read even if it was a bit hard to believe. A top secret facility in the jungles of South America comes under threat from the weapons they are making.

    Score: 6/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    26)
    Author: David Baldacci

    Title: The Innocent

    Comment: Solid enough story from Baldacci with this stand-alone novel. An assassins mission to eliminate a US government employee goes badly wrong. He also crosses path with a teen who has killers after her as well. The first part of the book zips along nicely but the second half does become a bit of a stretch plot-wise. Enjoyable overall but nothing special.

    Score: 6/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    27)
    Author: Harlan Coben

    Title: Deal Breaker

    Comment: This is the first in the Myron Bolitar series. Having read one of the newer books I went back and bought all of the previous novels. Bolitar is a sports agent (and former potential basketball star) who also investigates crimes involving his clients. He also has several sidekicks to assist him in these investigations. A lot of this is fairly unbelievable so really does need to be taken at face value and I think Coben has written the books with this approach.

    This novels plot is: "Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback is Myron's prized client. But when Christian gets a phone call from a former girlfriend, a woman who everyone, including the police, believes is dead, the deal starts to go sour."

    Score: 8/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    28)
    Author: Harlan Coben

    Title: Drop Shot

    Comment: This is another good read. A former tennis star is murdered at the US OPEN and Bolitar’s client is the main suspect.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    29)
    Author: Harlan Coben

    Title: Fade Away

    Comment: When a former basketball rival from his college days disappears, Bolitar is given the job of a lifetime: a chance to play professional basketball again. This one was a bit of stretch but still good

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    30)
    Author: Harlan Coben

    Title: Back Spin

    Comment: This novel is based around golf and the son of a potential client has been kidnapped. Bolitar gets involved as a favour to the family of one of his friends.

    Score: 7/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    31)
    Author: Harlan Coben

    Title: One False Move

    Comment: Bolitar is hired to look after an up and coming basketball rookie that is the face of a new proposed womens basketball league. This novel really kicks into gear and is one of the better ones so far.

    Score: 8/10


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    32)
    Author: Harlan Coben

    Title: The Final Detail

    Comment: Following on from what happens in the last novel Bolitar is doing some soul searching. This means that his attention is not on the business and his partner ends up accused of murder. Good story on this one but again needs to be read in the spirit in which I believe it was written - slightly
    over the top.

    Score: 8/10


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  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Hoofball


    33)
    Author: Daniel Silva

    Title: Portrait of a Spy

    Comment: This is a thriller about a "retired" spy and assassin who is called back into action when he tries to foil a suicide bomber in London. Decent thriller and is the 11th in a series although I have not read the others.

    Score: 6.5/10


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