Enjoyable mystery with a decidedly European feel. The names are a bit distracting to an English ear but the characterizations are strong enough to help overcome this; the period details also pique ones historical curiosity.

** spoiler alert ** A fun installment of the authors Pendergast chronicles. The story moves along swiftly and builds to a pulse-pounding climax. The only drawback is that the tension is ratcheted so high the denouement seems rushed and abbreviated.

A balanced and insightful look at the shameful exploitation of a nations youth. Eerie parallels abound with the current American political environment and the former president's cult of personality - his constant appeals to the youngest voters, his unflagging attempts to undermine all forms of education not supervised by the state and the propaganda calls for 'volunteerism' and 'service years' controlled by the government.

An easier read than Gamesmanship and just as entertaining.          

** spoiler alert ** An easy an enojyable read with an interesting historical prelude, a current events plotline but an underdeveloped enemy that keeps it from being as good as it could have been. A tri-headed evil empire should have either been fleshed out more (and more quickly) or held over to appear in future installments. It ended up feeling rushed and simplified in the end.

An excellent companion to Postman.

A good collection of stories - it introduced me to several authors whose works I will now seek out.          

Direct, simple yet surprisingly thoughtful, uncluttered and enjoyable.

** spoiler alert ** Nice second installment in the new series. The main plot is timely (explored in several other new novels I have read this year) without feeling sensationalized - none of the 'oh my god, how did this happen right under our noses!?!' faux drama attitudes that a lesser author would have beaten readers over the head with. The secondary plot concerning Dance's mother was handled well - it never overshadowed the main story and was used enough not to fall far from memory. The only real puzzler I was le Nice second installment in the new series. The main plot is timely (explored in several other new novels I have read this year) without feeling sensationalized - none of the 'oh my god, how did this happen right under our noses!?!' faux drama attitudes that a lesser author would have beaten readers over the head with. The secondary plot concerning Dance's mother was handled well - it never overshadowed the main story and was used enough not to fall far from memory. The only real puzzler I was left with was the repeated references to a 'J. Doe case'. I don't remember this storyline from The Sleeping Doll and wonder if I missed something (short story?) or if the Alzheimer's is setting in.  

As the second collection I have read by her, it was nice to see an expanded range of topics this time around. All of the stories are enjoyable for their completely human protagonists and the unpredictable nature of the plotting.          

Having read the short story collection that contained the seeds for this already, it was great to see that the idea expanded so well into a full novel. The shifting viewpoints of the main character and the depth and breadth added to the setting from the earlier incarnations made for a compelling story that did not feel like just a stretched out version of the original.

Fast paced, topical and just as much fun as the previous installments. A worthy successor to Michael Crichton when in comes to science-inspired thrillers.          

I don't know how this got on my reading list but I am glad it did. Going in to the story blind I did not know what to expect and was not (could not be?) disappointed. A tale of love and loss set in England between the wars, Waugh draws compelling portraits of every character and has a way with dialogue that most of his contemporaries did not.

This was an interesting take on two familiar superheroes but felt a bit hollow. Anderson did a good job of hitting all of the expected points in a Superman/Batman story but that is exactly what it felt like, like he was running down a checklist of typical situations and making sure to include them all.          

The last of the Sin City books I've read but possibly the best of the lot. Frank Miller's creation is never more vivid nor the characters so moving as in this volume. The best thing I can say is that while the ending is not truly surprising I was so engrossed in the story that it took me by surprise - and left me sorry that it was over.

A collection of his early works that shows the depth and range that he mined later in his career. The introduction mentions that a few of the stories were tweaked to reflect a more modern setting but those minor revisions are now - over twenty years on - outdated themselves.

Poor art made the story difficult and occasionally impossible to follow.

This is a book I have heard about for years and finally spurred myself to read - it did not disappoint. The characters and settings from the stage play and the movie are here but they are far from being central to the stories. The book is like a cross between Hemingway and Cain - a product of its time that surpasses the constraints of time. "The Landing on Kuralei" reads like the first twenty minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" looks, brutal and honest. "Coral Sea" captures the day to day insulation of sailors from the wider scope of war, and "The Strike" takes the same type of random sailors and shows them in the final moments when boredom breaks on the shore of imminent action.

If you expect happy dancing natives, easily resolved love stories and a feel-good lecture on the evils of racism, be forewarned that all of those spring from the mind of Rogers and Hammerstein. Michener's characters are less likable, but ultimately more real. 

"Strays" - the lead-off but not titular story - is the one that led me to this collection (although I wish I knew where the referral came from) and is in my opinion the best story in the book. All of the others contain equally original characters but the stories themselves occasionally dissolve into an orgy of purple prose that - while admittedly picturesque - distracts from the heart of the tale being told.

Another classic Heinlein juvie - In the first eighty pages there is probably more wisdom, advice and humor than in any of the other kids classics. It settles down after that into a more classic adventure/survival tale but the characters ring true still today and the novel could have been just as entertaining at twice the length.