Read Any Good Books Lately?


 
I'm on the final volume of Ian Toll's WW II trilogy on the Pacific War. I started cautiously, just buying " Pacific Crucible " , which covers the fist 6 months of the war, from Pearl Harbor to Midway. I got about 100 pages in and it was so good, I bought the second two volumes. Its fresh, first volume published in 2012, last volume 2020. I'm looking at that war in ways I never did before.

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My favorite author is W.E.B. Griffin and I've read just about everything he wrote. My favorite series was the Badge of Honor series - 13 book series

All his books are awesome, my second favorite series was The Corps - 10 book series

Someday I hope to read all his books

TITLES IN ORDER OF DATE PUBLISHED
Brotherhood of War Book I: The Lieutenants, 1982.
Brotherhood of War Book II: The Captains, 1982.
Brotherhood of War Book III: The Majors, 1983.
Brotherhood of War Book IV: The Colonels, 1984.
Brotherhood of War Book V: The Berets, 1985.
Men at War Book I: The Last Heroes (As Alex Baldwin), 1985.
Brotherhood of War Book VI: The Generals, 1985.
The Corps Book I: Semper Fi, 1986.
Men at War Book II: The Secret Warriors (As Alex Baldwin), 1986.
Men at War Book III: The Soldier Spies (As Alex Baldwin), 1986.
Brotherhood of War Book VII: The New Breed, 1987.
The Corps Book II: Call to Arms, 1987.
Men at War Book IV: The Fighting Agents (As Alex Baldwin), 1987.
Brotherhood of War Book VIII: The Aviators, 1988.
The Corps Book III: Counterattack, 1990.
Badge of Honor Book I: Men in Blue (As John Kevin Dugan), 1990.
The Corps Book IV: Battleground, 1991.
Badge of Honor Book II: Special Operations (As John Kevin Dugan), 1991.
Badge of Honor Book III: The Victim, 1992.
The Corps Book V: Line of Fire, 1992.
Badge of Honor Book IV: The Witness, 1993.
The Corps VI: Close Combat, 1993.
Badge of Honor Book V: The Assassin, 1994.
Honor Bound Book I: Honor Bound, 1994.
Badge of Honor Book VI: The Murderers, 1995.
The Corps Book VII: Behind the Lines, 1996.
Honor Bound Book II: Blood and Honor, 1997.
Badge of Honor Book VII: The Investigators, 1998.
The Corps Book VIII: In Danger’s Path, 1999.
Honor Bound Book III: Secret Honor, 2000.
Brotherhood of War Book IX: Special Ops, 2001.
The Corps Book IX: Under Fire, 2002.
Badge of Honor Book VIII: Final Justice, 2003.
The Corps Book X: Retreat, Hell!, 2004.
The Presidential Agent Book I: By Order of the President, 2005.
The Presidential Agent Book II: The Hostage, 2006.
Men at War Book V: The Saboteurs, 2006.
The Presidential Agent Book III: The Hunters, 2007.
Men at War Book VI: The Double Agents, 2007.
The Presidential Agent Book IV: The Shooters, 2008.
Honor Bound Book IV: Death & Honor, 2008.
The Presidential Agent Book V: Black Ops, 2009.
Badge of Honor Book IX: The Traffickers, 2009.
Honor Bound Book V: The Honor of Spies, 2009.
Badge of Honor Book X: The Vigilantes, 2010.
The Presidential Agent Book VI: The Outlaws, 2010.
Honor Bound Book VI: Victory And Honor, 2011.
The Presidential Agent Book VII: Covert Warriors, 2011.
Men at War Book VII: The Spymasters, 2012.
Honor Bound Book VII: Empire And Honor, 2012.
Badge of Honor Book XI: The Last Witness, 2013.
The Presidential Agent Book VIII: Hazardous Duty, 2014.
Clandestine Operations Book I: Top Secret, 2014.
Clandestine Operations Book II: The Assassination Option, 2014.
Badge of Honor Book XII: Deadly Assets, 2015.
The Hunting Trip, 2015.
Badge of Honor Book XIII: Broken Trust, 2016.
Clandestine Operations Book III: Curtain of Death, 2016.
Clandestine Operations Book IV: Death at Nuremberg, 2017.
Clandestine Operations Book V: The Enemy of My Enemy, 2018.

Sadly, Griffin died February 2019 and I never got to meet him. What an amazing writer
 
I just finished Joe Abercrombie's The Wisdom of Crowds. Its the third of a trilogy which itself is the 3rd of 3 trilogies set in that world. It's pretty bleak sometimes. It's almost as if Cormac Mccarthy wrote fantasy books. Think George R. R. Martin but even darker and grittier. It's fantasy but there's not a ton of "magic" in it. It's incredible though.
 
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I have eclectic tastes in books. Anything from Tolkien to Stuart Woods, to Carl Hiaasen, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and so on.
At the suggestion of a friend, I've been reading the Stuart Woods Stone Barrington series of stories. They're fun reads. Right now I'm in the middle of "Two Dollar Bill"
 
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I've always been a sci-fi / fantasy fan and really been enjoying this series (Kindle Unlimited where I get them all under the membership)....supposed to grow to be 30 books in the series.

Really love his writing style, and learned so much about how the feudal system and how it functions which I found really an interesting backdrop to the entire storyline.

 
I read about 25-30 books a year, mostly due to the combination of the kindle and public library lending. My tastes are varied but enjoy mostly history and adventure/thriller/mystery. I have read all the Killing series by Bill O'Reilly and the historical books by Brian Kilmeade. I find them especially good because history is presented as a story rather than just cold, boring facts like we were forced to memorize in school.

As far as the adventure/thriller/mystery theme, I have exhausted Michael Crichton, Dan Brown, Preston & Childs and am currently blowing through the James Rollins books. I have read a ton of James Patterson but got a bit burned out on his Alex Cross series. The two books with Bill Clinton were pretty good though. Harlan Coben is also a good author to check out.
 
I have eclectic tastes in books. Anything from Tolkien to Stuart Woods, to Carl Hiaasen, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and so on.
At the suggestion of a friend, I've been reading the Stuart Woods Stone Barrington series of stories. They're fun reads. Right now I'm in the middle of "Two Dollar Bill"
"The BUTLER did it!!!!" Just joking :LOL: It's been a while since I last read it and don't remember a thing about the book. That is why I had such a good time rereading all the ones I had. I left off with #52. I think there are around 8 or so more books I have to order.

Did you ever read "Chiefs" by Stuart Woods?
 
I've always been a sci-fi / fantasy fan and really been enjoying this series (Kindle Unlimited where I get them all under the membership)....supposed to grow to be 30 books in the series.

Really love his writing style, and learned so much about how the feudal system and how it functions which I found really an interesting backdrop to the entire storyline.

I was into Sci-Fi / Fantasy for the longest time, my favorite author was Piers Anthony. Really enjoyed the Xanth series, I bet there's 50 books in that series, I've probably only read 12, maybe 15. Also really enjoyed the Apprentice Adept series
 
I am a big fan of Stephen King, but rarely have time to read for fun, so I just buy the books as they are published
and put them in the bookcase. During the last month or so, I was able to catch up on 3 of them. I read "Billy Summers" and
really enjoyed that one. It's not as much "horror" as King usually is. I also read "The Institute" and enjoyed that.
Then I read "Sleeping Beauties" which King co-wrote with his son Owen King. Eh... it's kind of strange. Not sure if I really
liked it or not, but I did finish it. And holy cow, that took a while - it's about 700 pages.
 
Hi Brenda, you are much braver than I am. I don't know what is happening, but I can't read/watch anything scary or SF. It is strange what happens to you when you get older (or is it what is happening to our world.) Don't know!!

Oh that cat picture, Gracie (our cat) does that to DH when he tries to read in bed. DH lies on his stomach and the book is laying in front of him on the bed and Gracie comes along and just lays right on top of the book. :giggle:
 
Hi Brenda, you are much braver than I am. I don't know what is happening, but I can't read/watch anything scary or SF.
Not everything from Stephen King is scary. The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and 11/22/63 come to mind. Good reads all. But, like Dean Koontz, his stuff does often go off the rail.
 
"The BUTLER did it!!!!" Just joking :LOL: It's been a while since I last read it and don't remember a thing about the book. That is why I had such a good time rereading all the ones I had. I left off with #52. I think there are around 8 or so more books I have to order.

Did you ever read "Chiefs" by Stuart Woods?
Not yet!
 
Not everything from Stephen King is scary. The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and 11/22/63 come to mind. Good reads all. But, like Dean Koontz, his stuff does often go off the rail.
True. IMO, The Outsider is possibly his scariest book - because it is a real possibilty. A teacher and Little League coach is suspected of a horrible crime against a child. The speed with which his life and reputation are ruined is terrifying. Sometimes "the village" can be worse than any boogeyman. 😕
 
I have had "The Outsider" on my with list for the library but it is never available when I need to borrow a book. I will eventually get to it. My Kindle combined with the library Overdrive feature saves me a fortune in books. Anyone else use it?
 
I have read a ton of James Patterson but got a bit burned out on his Alex Cross series.
I feel like I just got burned by the Alex Cross series. The first two books of the series were good, but then I read the third, "Jack and Jill". It was dreadful. So bad I can't imagine ever reading Patterson again. Clive Cussler had a couple stinkers in one of his series but they were prefaced with the warning they were early works that had been rejected and were only now being published due to demand from fans. Proceed at your own risk.

I can't claim to be a Dan Brown fan. Quite the opposite. I'm one of the few who thought "The Da Vinci Code" was one of the worst written best sellers of all time. I read one other of his and had basically the same opinion. Very interesting ideas, very two-dimensional characters.

I've read a number of the Reacher series by Lee Childs. Not great, but okay. I'll likely continue with the series.

You should give Robert B. Parker a try if you haven't already. I find his writing to be better than most contemporary authors in that genre. Both the Spenser and Jesse Stone series are fairly decent light reading. Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series is fairly decent too.

The Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) Cormoran Strike series is well above average. All of the books would benefit from an aggressive editing to eliminate pointless side stories, but that small quibble aside I've found them to be obviously better written than most contemporary work in the detective/crime genre.
 
Clive Cussler had a couple stinkers in one of his series

I can't claim to be a Dan Brown fan. Quite the opposite. I'm one of the few who thought "The Da Vinci Code" was one of the worst written best sellers of all time.

I've read a number of the Reacher series by Lee Childs. Not great, but okay. I'll likely continue with the series.

You should give a try if you haven't already. . Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series is fairly decent too.
I have read some Clive Cussler and enjoyed them, but have not read him for a while as it seemed to get repetitious.

I read a couple Reacher books. As you said, OK but I would rather read other authors.

Dan Browns "Angels and Demons" was much better than "The Da Vinci Code" as were some of his other books. I hated the last couple he wrote. "Deception Point" and "Digital Fortress" are worth your time.

I am unfamiliar with Robert B. Parker and am putting him on my to try list. Any suggestions for a first read?

Probably my favorite authors are Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs. Have read everything they have written both together and individually. Currently on the 20th book of the Pendergast series that started with "The Relic". Great book-terrible movie rendition.
 

 

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