Lucky for us everyone in our group is sensible, polite, and best of all, brave. Our discussion of The Life List required all three characteristics. We were evenly divided - love/hate - no in-between on this one. You already know where I stand, so I won't go into that again. The best part of this night was that those who loved the book stood their ground. Us haters hated vigorously, but when we wrapped things up and moved on to our Academy Awards night fashion commentary, all was forgotten. Our next selection is a collection of short stories called Vampires in the Lemon Grove. I prefer short stories to most other type of reading, and look forward to this oddly named book. Hopefully the discussion will be as jolly as last week's.
One of my frequent drop-in-for-a-random-book-discussion customers has been raving about Clive Cussler for years and this weekend, I gave him a try. Somehow, I got it into my thick head that all Cussler's books take place on submarines during WWII which is not to my liking. But I do like books set in Africa so I grabbed a copy of Sahara. Good choice.
My new book crush, Dirk Pitt, is scrounging around in the Nile hoping to find the remains of a funeral barge. While in Africa, he runs into Dr. Roja who is trying to discover the source of a plague that is threatening to knock out entire villages. She is also in danger of being murdered by a group of extremists from Alexandria. It's all too exciting - filled with death, madness, cannibalism, chase scenes, and yes, romance. All very Indiana Jones-ish.
Of course, the bigger than life characters need a bigger than life conflict, and Cussler provided that alright. Unless the source of the contamination is found and stopped, the entire world is in the path of this environmental terrorism.
This is good stuff. The fast paced action scenes kept me reading at lightening speed, and I always knew that Pitt would be able to take on whatever confronted him - no matter how many swords, knives, or machine guns he had to battle single handedly all at the same time. Escape reading at its best. What a guy. Yup, I have converted and am on my way to the presidnecy of the Clive Cussler fan club. Wanna join?
What am I reading now? This morning NPR had a discussion on fairy tales, so that's where I'm headed next - or at least within the next couple weeks. Then it's back to Hemingway.
Thanks for stopping by.
