2004 Reading

Stone Cold by Robert B Parker. In the fourth Jesse Stone novel, Jesse deals with a drinking problem, an ex-wife problem, a pair of very twisted serial killers, and three high school rapists and their victim. I see Kevin Spacey in this role.

Small Town by Lawrence Block. A big book following the intertwining lives of a number of characters in post-September 11 New York City, including a mass-murderer driven nuts at the loss of his family. Block is a craftsman, and I'm sure he did exactly what he wanted to do here. But where's the DNA testing? (Either do it, or explain why you didn't do it.) Oh, and it's extremely dirty: nobody under 40, or over 60, should read this book.

My Father's Footprints by Colin McEnroe. A family memoir by a vastly underrated humorist. Although this is extremely unfunny in spots.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Historical fiction isn't my cup of tea, but I decided to give this a try. It's still not my cup of tea, but I guess this is about as good as historical fiction can be.

Twice Shy by Dick Francis. This is top-of-form Francis, unusual in that the first half of the book has one protagonist, the second set fourteen years later with his younger brother taking over as the main character.

The Frumious Bandersnatch by Ed McBain. My yearly McBain, catching up on what my favorite cops are up to. A very grim outcome.

Bad Business by Robert B. Parker. My yearly Spenser outing. Great fun as always.

Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity by David Foster Wallace. A broad, fast history of the parts of mathematics involving the infinite and infinitesimals. DFW's writing style applied to a techincal topic is fun to watch, although who knows how much it helps the reader in understanding what's going on.

The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton. Poor Alex McKnight gets sucked into looking for a girl by one of his old teammates. The moral: don't let one of your old teammates suck you into looking for a girl.

Trunk Music by Michael Connelly. Connelly's Harry Bosch continues his struggle to be a good police detective, while trying to whip his disastrous personal life into shape. An engaging story, but Bosch takes a long time to recover from an early detecting mistake. Tsk.

M is for Malice by Sue Grafton. Above-average outing for Kinsey Millhone.

Blood Work by Michael Connelly. I read the book after seeing the movie. Fortunately, the plots didn't exactly track, so there were still some surprises here. Connelly's usual good stuff.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Reading real literature for a change? Not intentionally, I assure you. My son has to read this for school, and I borrowed it when I was temporarily out of reading material of my own. For literature, it's wonderful compelling reading. Anything I would say about the plot would unecessarily spoil it. (Jeez, don't even look at the cover--it gives too much away.)

Therapy by Jonathan Kellerman. This is the first time I've read Kellerman's work. As with the book immediately above, I needed to leech off someone else for reading material, this time the victim was my wife. (She's a huge Kellerman fan.) Anyway, this was a good read, Although (at least here) the protagonist doesn't seem too interesting himself, he has a sharp observant eye on those he meets.

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker. A pretty good explanation and refutation of various assumptions about "human nature" made by lefties. In contrast to his past books, Pinker ranges far from his core field of cognitive psychology, veering into art criticism and child-rearing. His argugments may seem a little glib at times, but that doesn't necessarily make them incorrect; often he's dealing with book-length topics in a couple of paragraphs.

Hard as Nails by Dan Simmons. The third entry in the Joe Kurtz series, which seems to be kind of a parody of hard-boiled crime fiction. The ludicrous plot seems to take as many cliches of this sub-genre as possible and taking them right over the top: not just a shootout, but a mini-war; the crazed serial killer is really crazy; the protagonist doesn't just get beat up, he gets shot, beat up, beat up some more, and some more again. Still very readable, though. A lot of references herein to the previous books, so not a good entry point to the series.

Double Play by Robert B. Parker. A couple years back, Parker did a historical novel about the Old West; here he does late-40's New York. The hero is Burke, shot up in the war, Dear-John'ed by his wife; after abortive stabs at boxing, a loan shark's knee-breaker, and minding a politician's wild daughter, he's hired as Jackie Robinson's bodyguard. Since it's a Parker novel, there's a lot of manly interaction as they validate each other's honor. Redemption at the end. Very enjoyable.

Prime Obsession by John Derbyshire. A book about the Riemann Hypothesis by a math fan. It's quirky, chatty, shot through with yarns about the author and his family. This might annoy some, but I liked it. The difficulty level of the book varies widely, with some very basic stuff mixed in with high-level stuff. Which is good, because I actually learned something.

The Danger by Dick Francis. Yet another immensely enjoyable read from Mr. Francis.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. Big long book about two Jewish kids in New York City who start creating comic books. There's lots of humor and horror and everything in between.

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen. One of the few authors I buy in hardback, Mr. Hiaasen does not disappoint me this time. Even though his politics are predictably tedious, his characters are creatively bizarre, plots inventive, the dialog is laugh-out-loud funny. Oh, and Skink makes a couple cameos. Casting the film: Jenna Elfman as Joey (the damsel in distress); Ted Levine as Stranahan (her ex-cop rescuer); Mark Ruffalo as Chaz (her sleazoid biologist husband); William Hurt as Rolvaag (the non-ex-cop investigating all this). Unfortunately, since Striptease, no more Hiaasen books are likely to make it to film.

The Instant Enemy by Ross MacDonald. A Lew Archer mystery; they're all very good and this is above average. Assuming you can keep the characters straight.

Proof by Dick Francis. My third rereading of my favorite Dick Francis book, one of my favorite mysteries.

Angels Flight by Michael Connelly. His protagonist, Bosch, isn't the most interesting character I've seen. But he struggles mightily to get his personal life out of the toilet, and solves cases against truly daunting odds.

A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell. Dr. Sowell describes his contentious life. One of my heroes.

Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov. Revisiting one of my favorite authors when I was a kid. I can't really call this a great book, but it's still fun.

The Illusions of Egalitarianism by John Kekes. A devastating attack on many different forms of egalitarianism by a leading conservative intellectual. What Kekes does to the late John Rawls isn't pretty. The chapter on Marta Nussbaum is even better, or worse, depending on how you feel about this sort of thing. Kekes' arguments are facile at times, but mostly plausible.

The Horse Latitudes by Robert Ferrigno. Nasty but well-written noir yarn about an ex-drug dealer trying to go straight, complicated by the fact that his ex-wife is missing from her blood-soaked house. "I hate it when that happens." Lots of colorful characters, some of whom remain alive at the end of the book.

Peace Kills by P. J. O'Rourke. A short collection of previously-published articles by New Hampshire's own sage.

The Wake-Up by Robert Ferrigno. The latest book (as I type) from Mr. Ferrigno is about a guy who is let go from a shady government law-enforcement group after accidentally getting his team killed. He decides to freelance to make up for his mistake; he also decides to teach a hard-charging slimeball a lesson. These two threads intertwine in interesting ways, and the payoff is satisfactory.

Hark! by Ed McBain. The Deaf Man is back. Fat Ollie continues his long journey toward being a decent human being. Carella's mother and sister get married. Bert Kling screws up another relationship. Genero gets stupider with each book. Very enjoyable read.

The Last Dark Place by Stuart Kaminsky. My first book by Kaminsky, not my last.

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson.

That's 33 books read in 2004, I think.

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