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I was kind of bummed that I didn't like this as much as I thought that I would. While Patterson can spin a good yarn and keep the narrative moving like lightning, his writing style is pretty pedestrian. Still, I'm going to give Kiss the Girls another shot later in the year; hopefully, I'll find it at least as interesting this time around as I did when it first hit paperback almost 30 years ago.

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I'm very much looking forward to reading this. I started it probably twenty years ago and got sidetracked to the point that I never finished it. Hopefully, it'll live up to my stalled expectations.

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Finished both parts of Maus. Really good, and whatever reasons for its being banned are ridiculous. Looks like Dark Matter is up next, given how much I enjoyed Crouch's Recursion.

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Started and shelved before finishing two books on gender, Female Masculinity, and Gender Trouble. Both were too academic for me. I want something super contemporary that's easy to read, that takes into account gender history in multiple cultures. Is that too much to ask?!

Just finished Dark Matter. I don't think I've ever blown through a book so quickly! Hard to put down.

Started The Count of Monte Cristo. I think this one'll take me more than three days.

That is a must read for me, because I am 3/4 of the way through 'Recursion' and it is making my head explode - in the best possible way.

Crouch has a new book coming out in July. I'm thinkin' I'll be jumpin' right on that! (hopefully I'll be done with The Count of Monte Cristo by then! )

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Ward's last book - 'The Last House On Needless Street' - was one of the best things I read in 2021, so I have very high expectations for this one.

Just finished I am number 4 last night, not sure I want to continue the series or not as the ending got a little out of hand unbelievable.

Can anyone recommend the series?

Once I got to the prison escape, the rest of the book went very quickly. I read the book when I was supposed to be doing other things.

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I didn't enjoy this book quite as much I had hoped to, but it was still very, very good. It doesn't quite live up to its title as much as Koontz's Intensity does, but parts of it certainly zing along at a very rapid pace.

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This has been sitting on my bookshelf since it first came out, and I've put off reading it long enough. Besides, I'm overdue for some nonfiction, even if said nonfiction is a memoir.

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Curious which version - condensed or not - you read. There seems to be quite a few versions out, and mine claims to be faithful to the original. Last year I saw that my friend's wife has it on her bookshelf. I flipped through it, noticing it was less than 500 pages (or thereabouts). The version I'm reading is 1250, which is why it took me this long to commit to it! But it's moving along well and holding my interest. All the French names are a bit of a slog for me, but I'll survive.

I don't know. I read the version at Project Gutenberg. It doesn't give the number of pages.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184

ETA: I looked it up on Wikipedia. The Gutenberg edition is from 1888, so it's probably the 1846 translation. Not as chopped up as the 1955 version, but modified for Victorian sensibilities. The Wikipedia article says that it downplayed the lesbian relationship, yet I thought it was so obviously lesbian.

The Eiger Sanction by Trevanian. More superspy fallout from the James Bond phenomenon. A college professor, mountain climber, art expert, Don Juan, and collector of stolen paintings is a top assassin. Yes, it is that silly. But it's fun to read, and Trevanian knows how to tell a story. There is a lot of insult humor, which isn't for everyone.

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The Loo Sanction by Trevanian. The second and last book about assassin Jonathan Hemlock is not the fun ride that the first book was. The comic moments are rare and the tone is more bitter. In the first book, Hemlock is in strong physical shape, good emotional shape, and is in command of the situation. In this book, Hemlock is older, angrier, and completely under the thumb of others. When I was a teenager, I liked the heroic froth of the first book but not the desperation of this one. Now that I'm old, I enjoy the dread of the second book too.

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I finished Bruce Lee: A Life and am about 380 pages into Orson Welles: Road to Xanadu but had to take a break on it. So I started Water For Elephants today. The Welles book is fantastic it's just quite heavy