Cross Fire by James Patterson

As I was reading this book I felt that the writting style was similar to the previous book I had read, Alex Cross's trial, but I did not think anything of it, and now that I am adding it to this list, I realise that it is the same author. Call me silly.
Anyway, this seems to be a book in a series following a black Washington detective and his stalker killer. Nice enough read, but it does require a very flexible imagination or at least one that will allow reality to be stretched a bit. 4/10

Alex Cross's trial by James Patterson

Deep South 1906. A young lawyer from Washington is sent to investigate reports of lynchings down south. It is an interesting book in showing the attitudes prevalent at the time and well into the rest of the 20th century in parts of the South towards blacks and how cheap their lives were.
A touching book which looks on at the helplesness of the situation.

Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy

Another Jack Ryan novel from Tom Clancy, and although I found it a page turner, I was frustrated at all the gung-ho American nationalism dripping from this book. It seems that an American can shoot a gun in the wrong direction and he will hit a bad guy but the bad guys can be firing hundreds of rounds and the All American hero might get a scratch or two but rarely more. Well, one of the "good" guys does die so there goes my theory.

No, I did like the early Jack Ryan books and I had not read one for a while but this, though riveting, gets a 3 out of 10.

Sons of the Conquerors by Hugh Pope

This is one of those books that you do not go through in a few hours. I have been reading it on and off for the past year and I have found it both entertaining and enlightening. Hugh Pope has a very easy writting style and he weaves a good story. He is/was the Istanbul bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal for 20 odd years so is fluent in Turkish. He has traveled all over Asia and had has visited many Turkik countries. He clearly likes the people and is quite positive of them. The book covers so many aspects of Turkishness that it would be silly of me to go into in this short post. It is a good read for anyone who wants to better understand Turkey, where it is and where it is hopefully heading.

My Horizontal life by Chelsea Handler

Another book that I should have left alone. Clearly there is a wit in there but this collection of one night stands had nothing to offer. I found them dull and honestly boring. Her early life at home is funny but she lost it with the one night stands.
For example. She has a black boyfriend so after its over she has to get another black guy. OK, she drinks non stop and he is a tea totaler, nothing funny there, takes him home and realises he has a huge dick that she will not accomodate so they "make out" a bit and then sleep in her bed only to be woken up by her dad who came home early and the boyfriend has to make his escape out of the window. You see how dull I made it? Well at least you did not have to pay me to read this crap. For such a provocative book, it is sooooo straight and innocent and naive and dull. How the fuck did it make it to the NY times best seller list?

Honestly, I had to stop reading half way through. I just hope that it got better in the second half.

I remember nothing by Nora Ephron

She is the writter of "Sleepless in Seattle", "Harry met Sally" and "Sylkwood" so I thought, why not, let's read it and I did... mistake. Had I paid the $22 asking price rather then borrowing this book then I would be asking for my money back. It was too fluffy and wishy washy with no real substance to it. Apparently she writes blog posts for the Huffington post and this book seems to be a collections of blog posts with a couple of longer autobiographical pieces.

I think part of the reason for this book, apart from an easy $22, was that something made her realise her own mortality so the beggining and the end of the book are about being old, people dropping off, lists and some pet hates. It is a shame she did not continue talking about her career as a journalist other then to say how great things were in those days but avoid discussing todays environment in more detail other then a couple of off the cuff comments that apparently contradict some stuff she has written.

Anyway, altogether a disspointing read so glad it was only 137 pages with lots of white space and it only wasted a few hours.

One shot by Lee child

I have overdosed on Lee Child this last week, but I like his writting. Hard to put down. This is another Jack reacher book and I feel that in the last four books that I read JR is definetely more macho and show off-ish then in the more recent books. Am I right or is it my imagination?

Anyway, in this book, JR drops everything in Miami to come to Indiana and make sure that a former army sniper accused of killing 5 people in the rush hour goes down. But of course this is JR. things are not what they seem and he of course sorts everythnig out.

and here is the official review:

Jack Reacher is working on his tan with a Norwegian blonde on the beach in Miami. The weather is hot and he is so cool you could skate on him. But he doesn't like to stick around. He likes to be on the move. He was in the machine his whole life. Then the machine coughed and spat him out. Now he takes it easy. He's not looking for trouble. But sometimes trouble looks for Reacher.

A lone gunman hides in a parking garage and shoots into a crowd in a public plaza in a small Indiana city. Five random people die in a senseless massacre. The shooter leaves a perfect trail behind him and the police quickly track him down. His name is James Barr. It's a watertight case. After his arrest, James Barr refuses to talk. Then, to his lawyer, he utters a single phrase: "Get Jack Reacher for me." But Reacher's already on his way. What could connect this obvious psychopath with our wandering ex-army cop?

By the time Reacher hits town, Barr's been beaten badly enough to forget everything about the day in question. So Reacher begins to piece together the wealth of evidence; he does the math and comes to a few conclusions of his own.