Since I no longer have cable, I miss C-Spans's Book TV. They always have great author interviews and they covered book festivals all over the country, but my favorite feature was a little doing called "What Are You Reading"...C-Span would query public figures and ask what they were reading these days. The answers were all an eclectic collection of books.
So, I thought I'd ask my readers what they have been reading lately, what they liked and didn't like, and why.
I've been busy with my Kindle e-reader all year. Of late my reading selections have been all over the place. I have been borrowing Ian Fleming's James Bond books and re-visiting the summer of my 16th year when I read all of the Bond books while waiting anxiously for Sean Connery to appear in the next Bond blockbuster in theaters. The books have proven to be fun reads even today.
I've also read David McCullough's "In the Course of Human Events", a fascinating recounting of our founding fathers working their way through firming up a form of government that has lasted for two hundred plus years. McCullough also scored big with "The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris, a fascinating study of famous and not so famous people journeying to Paris in the early 19th century, their impressions of the most civilized and most glorious city on earth.
Bill Bryson has another "non-travel" book out this summer. Titled "One Summer" we have Bryson reminding us of the eventful year of 1927, when Babe Ruth set the Home Run record that some argue still stands, Lindbergh's crossing the Atlantic in The Spirit of St. Louis, as well as other tumultuous events, to include the stock market boom that would come crashing down a couple of years later. Bryson always makes for interesting reading but I'm still waiting for him to get off his aging ass and write another one of those travel books where he's stumbling around the great unknown...he's the only author today who can make me laugh out loud with his humor.
I've also read all three of the Robert B. Parker "legacy authors" who are carrying on with Parker's Spencer and Jesse Stone characters. Most deserving of high praise is Ace Atkins who has nailed Parker's sparkling dialogue and sense of plot.
I also plowed through about a dozen of Amazon's "free" books, some good, none great and a few being a total waste of time.
Just now I am wrapping up another Bond book and will be reading the new Johnny Carson bio by his former financial advisor, Henry Bushkin.
So, what are you reading, folks? Got any recommendations for me?
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