The Book Thread...for readers and wanna be readers

[Hotsauce]

On 5/25/2021 at 10:02 AM, Captroop said:

If you're looking for good vacation reads, I really enjoyed both Camino Island by John Grisham, and the Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille. Both are just delightfully brisk and fun island heist vacation thrillers. Both are written by extremely polished veteran writers and compelling storytellers.

Camino Island is just a straight up indulgence, clearly written by Grisham while he was on vacation. On it's surface, it's an investigation into a theft of a historic manuscript by an eccentric book thief; think the Thomas Crown Affair set in a lazy beach town. But really it's just an excuse to hang out with interesting side characters, and fantasize about the laid back life of semi-retirement among the elite of the literary world.

The Cuban Affair has a little more meat on the bones. The story hangs on a heist to try to smuggle several million dollars out of Cuba, but again is more of an excuse to day dream about sailing, sex, fishing, and enjoying cold cocktails on hot days on the playa. But that's backed up by genuine suspense, paranoia, intrigue, and some extremely compelling action sequences that played out so vividly that when I think back on them, I feel like I saw them in a movie.

If you're headed to the shore for Memorial Day weekend, both would be great reads to knock out while you're there.

Thank you. I read this over the last week. It was great and got me further interested in reading in my spare time. I’ll pick up Camino Island next, per your recommendation. Cheers man
 

[Captroop]

6 minutes ago, Hotsauce said:

Thank you. I read this over the last week. It was great and got me further interested in reading in my spare time. I’ll pick up Camino Island next, per your recommendation. Cheers man
 

Glad you enjoyed it! That boat chase at the end got my pulse pounding more than I can ever remember from reading a book.

[Anybodyhome]

I've got a few going right now:

For Whom the Bell Tolls- Hemingway; Sitting Duck- Jim Milstead (written by an Ocean Isle Beach neighbor who served on river boats in Viet Nam); The Tarboro Three: Rape, Race and Secrecy- Brian Lampkin (Eastern NC history lesson) and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a fug- Mark Manson.

Always try to keep an old classic in the rotation.