Book Recommendations

I have added four books to this list of books on the top of this page.  I would estimate that for every three books I read, I only add one to the book list.  However, all four of the last four books I read have been added to the list, and to avoid an unwieldly list, I have removed several books which I normally do.  A brief description of the recently added books is as follows:

Kill Shot by Vince Flynn.  I have read most, if not all, of Vince Flynn's books.  His continuing character is Mitch Rapp a U.S. agent/assassin.   Mitch is a stud and all of the bad guys are killed in this book.  If you like the spy/acytion/suspense genre you will like Vince Flynn's books.  His website is http://vinceflynn.com/

Supreme Power by Jeff Shesol.   My good friend David Z from Palm Desert not only recommended this book to me, he lent me his copy as well his his copy of Scorpion.  I have just started reading Scorpion and will add it to my list when I am done.  However, I have read Supreme Power and it is a long but a very interesting and worthwhile read if you are interested in the early Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.  Here is a description from Alan Brinkley of the New York Times Review of Books
(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/books/review/Brinkley-t.html?pagewanted=all)

In 1937, a few months after his landslide re-election to a second term, Franklin Roosevelt set out on one of the boldest and most dangerous courses of his presidency. The conservative Supreme Court had already struck down a series of New Deal programs. Roosevelt feared that the mostly aged justices would go on to destroy the rest of his legislative achievements before he would have a chance to make any new appointments. As a result, he proposed a “reform” of the courts that would, among other things, have added an additional justice to the Supreme Court for every current justice over the age of 70. It became the most controversial proposal of his presidency — so much so that it nearly paralyzed his administration for over a year and destroyed much of the fragile unity of the Democratic coalition.

I am a history buff and the period from 1920 to 1950 is undoubtedly my favorite period to read about.
Our country's current financial problems seem like a rerun of what was going on in the period covered by this book.

The Private Patient by P.D. James.    I have read several books by P.D. James and have enjoyed each of them. She is described on her website http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/index.html
as:

 P. D. James is the author of twenty books, most of which have been filmed and broadcast on television in the United States and other countries. She spent thirty years in various departments of the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law Department of Great Britain's Home Office. She has served as a magistrate and as a governor of the BBC.

The website includes the following description about the Private Patient:

Cheverell Manor is a beautiful old house in Dorset, which its owner, the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell, uses as a private clinic. When the investigative journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, arrives to have a disfiguring facial scar removed, she has every expectation of a successful operation and a peaceful week recuperating. But the clinic houses an implacable enemy and within hours of the operation Rhoda is murdered. Commander Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate a case complicated by old crimes and the dark secrets of the past. But Before Rhoda's murder is solved, a second horrific death adds to the complexities of one of Dalgliesh's most perplexing and fascinating cases.

Night Vision by Randy Wayne White.  Randy Wayne White's continuing character is Doc Ford, a marine biologist/black-ops guy.  The following is a description from the Randy Wayne White website (http://www.randywaynewhite.com/Site2/Welcome%21.html)

Trouble is brewing at a Florida trailer park populated by illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America : the park’s manager, a steroid freak who dabbles in snuff movies, draws his expendable talent from the immigrant population, but he’s managed to offend a drug lord, who isn’t pleased that his female customers are turning up dead. Matters are further complicated when an adolescent girl, Tula , rumored to possess mystical ability, sees the manager feeding a body to his pet gator. Doc Ford, Sanibel Island marine biologist and sometime black-ops agent, is drawn into the trailer-park trauma by his longtime friend Tomlinson, the aging hippie whose own mystical inclinations have brought him into contact with Tula . When the steroid freak kidnaps Tula , Ford is forced to go full commando—night-vision goggles and all—to track down the girl and dispatch the numerous bad guys.

The Lovely Sharon and both love to read.  I enjoy sharing recommendations with friends and receving recommendations.  If you have a suggestion, email me or leave a comment on this blog.