A new book arrived in the mail yesterday from World of Rare Books. It was a nice surprise as it was supposed to arrive a month ago so I'd kind of thought it was lost in the mail. It's from one of my favorite authors.
New Book
"Lucille Morrow is the happily married second wife of a doctor. But she has terrifying dreams. And you would hardly think that a small parcel, delivered by a shabby little man, would be the signal for her to leave home and vanish. You begin to wonder how Dr. Morrow's first wife died.
In Taste of Fears one of the most convincing crime-writers gives us a psychological thriller of almost agonizing suspense. Lucille's life with her family, and later in a mental hospital, is conveyed with a gradually mounting tension which culminates in an unexpected and horrifying climax."
Author A - Z
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| Anita Rau Badami |
"Set in the dusty seaside town of Toturpuram on the Bay of Bengal, The Hero's Walk traces the terrain of family and forgiveness through the lives of an exuberant cast of characters bewildered by the rapid pace of change in today's India. Each member of the Rao family pits his or her chance at personal fulfillment against the conventions of a crumbling caste and class system."
Rau's other books are -
- Tamarind Mem (1997)
- Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? (2006)
- Tell it to the Trees (2011)
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| David Baldacci |
King and Maxwell are ex - Secret Service agents who join up to form a detective agency. I've read the first two books in the six book series. The books have been high octane and entertaining. My reviews of the books I've read so far are below.
"This is the first King and Maxwell mystery/ thriller, the story where Michelle Maxwell, a Secret Service agent, whose charge, a presidential candidate, is kidnapped from under her nose, meets Sean King a former Secret Service agent, whose candidate was assassinate while under his protection. Both cases seem to be related. It's an action-filled thriller, with many deaths and explosions. King is now a lawyer, who finds his relatively sedate new life turned upside down. There are many suspects in this mystery; although over all, it's probably not that complex. There were some things I found irritating; why, oh why do they always go off by themselves when anybody on their own seems to get killed!! Or just when things get ticklish, someone's cell phone falls off that person's belt and is lost!! But these were relatively minor matters, it was a nice intro to the two intrepid agents. I wonder what the future will hold for them."
"Baldacci throws everything, including the kitchen sink, at you in this action-packed thriller, the 2nd in the King and Maxwell series. A killer stalks Wrightsburg Virginia, imitating infamous serial killers with each murder. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, two ex-Secret Service agents, working now as Private Detectives in the area are called in to help with the investigation by the local police chief. As well, they are working a separate case for a lawyer, defending a break and entering suspect. Are the two situations related? Before they get to the crux of solving this case there will be many murders, almost daily, their lives will be threatened. But they plug on, working to solve the case. It's an easy, exciting read. I wish Maxwell was more than just the physical presence in the partnership, but that's a minor complaint. You have to suspend disbelief somewhat, but that was easy to do. I enjoyed the writing, the pacing and the steady throbbing action. Looking forward to getting into the 3rd book, Simple Genius. (3 stars)"
The remaining books are -
- Simple Genius (2007)
- First Family (2009)
- The Sixth Man (2011)
- King and Maxwell (2013)
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| J.G. Ballard |
"A very strange, but at the same time, compelling/ engrossing story. The basic premise being a group of people who have been involved in car accidents that now equate car accidents with sex. It does sound strange doesn't it. The story focuses on the author, who is in effect, JG Ballard, his wife and a man he meets after his car accident, that being Vaughn. There are also other characters but these three are the main focus. The story starts at the end then with flashback works it's way from the beginning; Ballard's car accident, through a variety of incidents until the start of the story (in effect, the end). There is a lot of sex in this story, it's been described in some reviews as pornographic) and interesting discussion/ comparison with the human body and that of an automobile. The people involved have issues, sex is often only satisfying in automobiles, even in broken automobiles. It's a hard story to describe, but it's so 'out there' that it can draw you in very deeply. David Cronenberg made a movie in 1996 based on this book, starring Holly Hunter, James Spader and Elias Koteas, amongst others and as I recall it, he very successfully captured the mood and strangeness of the story. It can be a graphic story to read, but I found it also very interesting. Did I like it? Like isn't the right word, but I found it hard to put down. (4 stars)"
"A variety of SciFi short stories, highlights JG Ballard's unique imagination. It features 9 stories, all unique, some of my favorites being The 99th Floor and The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista.. Very enjoyable."
"I enjoyed this story very much. I do find that Ballard can be somewhat inaccessible; I'm thinking of The Crystal World and The Day of Creation, which I didn't enjoy all that much, or extremely imaginative and fascinating; The Drowned World, Kingdom Come and High-Rise, which I enjoyed very much. Hello America falls into the latter category. It was very interesting; an expedition from Europe to America, which was destroyed many years ago and evacuated. The expedition ends up in Las Vegas, ruled by a madman, who at the same time has created an amazing place. Definitely worth reading."
"J.G. Ballard is one of the most unique, strange writers I've ever read. The first story of his that I read was The Drowned World, which pictures a world that is sinking under water. He wrote that in 1962 and it was one of his earliest books. I next read, The Wind from Nowhere, which pictures mankind forced to live underground to avoid the ever increasing winds that scour the Earth's surface. Even those stories portray his unique writing style, his moodiness, his ability to describe the settings he is trying to picture.
Since then I've read High-rise, Crash, Hello America, etc. Some of them are somewhat inaccessible; you are an observer in these strange worlds or situations that he is describing. But, even with them, you have to find out what will happen to the people he places in such disturbing surroundings.
Vermillion Sands was written in 1971 and is a collection of Ballard's short stories. They all portray the decaying life of artists and rich people living in the area of Vermillion Sands. It's another strange futuristic world; a desert sea, sand rays, musical sand towers, etc. Fascinating and Ballard sort of enfolds you in the life and setting. Artists make clothing from bio materials that have a life of their own. Poets no longer write their own poetry, but use machines to draw themes and words to create poetry and then set out the parameters for people to read them. Artists soar to the skies to create art from the cumulus clouds that float above them. Rich people sail the sand seas in sail ships.
It's a fascinating scene and the stories that surround these moody settings are also interesting, somewhat emotionless, but still keep you reading to see how they resolve. Another interesting work from Ballard. (4 stars)"
"From the author of ‘Crash’ and ‘Cocaine Nights’ comes an unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control.
Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-story tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on ‘enemy’ floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.
In this visionary tale of urban disillusionment society slips into a violent reverse as the isolated inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, create a dystopian world ruled by the laws of the jungle."
I still have two others sitting on my shelf to check out; Running Wild (1982) and Concrete Island (1974). Ballard is worth checking out.
There you go folks. I hope this gives you some ideas of authors / books to read.
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