If you're in an airport, stay away from this book...

[jason_whitlock]

Robert B. Parker's "High Profile."

The worst novel I've ever read. Characters were poorly developed, the plot was shallow and stupid.

Could we have a thread on good airport novels? Or bad ones. I just got burned for $25, and would like to see other people avoid it.

I'm flying in six hours. I'll be looking for a book to read. Any suggestions on what I can pick up at the airport?

 

[The Legacy of Mike Lum]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Trash?

 

[slappy4428]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

I'm partial to Tom Clancy and David McCullough myself.

 

[Mayfly]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Tom Clancy is a good option. Maybe if you can find some Mike Lupica, he's always a good read.

 

[jason_whitlock]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Slap, I'm looking for specific books out now, something you've already read and believe is good.

I swear I'd like to slap the smile off Robert B. Parker's face on the back of this book. He knows he just stole $25 from me.

 

[jason_whitlock]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Tom Clancy is a good option. Maybe if you can find some Mike Lupica, he's always a good read.

I used to get all of Lupica's books. Never finished one of 'em and I try to finish every book I start. Hated this Parker book and I still finished it.

 

[slappy4428]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Hang on, let me go look... are you into history? If so, what general era?

 

[jason_whitlock]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

novels that i can pick up at the airport bookstore, slap.

 

[John]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

If Jones' book is available, I highly recommend it.

 

[slappy4428]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

In no particular order, these are what I would grab as airport books...

Tom Clancy, The Bear and the Dragon
Sins of the Father, Ronald Kessler -- bio of Joe Kennedy
No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin -- FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, the homefront in WWII
John Adams, David McCullough
Fighter Boys, Patrick Bishop -- Battle of Britain
Mornings on Horseback, McCullough -- Teddy Roosevelt.

 

[zeke12]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Whitlock --

It's part of a series, so that might be the reason for the lack of character development you noticed.

It was OK, but not one of Parker's best...

 

[Dignan]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Jason, your boy Lupica wrote that Christopher Buckley's "Boomsday" was one of the funniest novels he had read in a long time.

 

[estreetfan75]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

If Jones' book is available, I highly recommend it.

I second this recommendation to get Chris Jones' book on the space station. I'm about halfway through and it's a pretty decent read.

 

[slappy4428]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Jason, your boy Lupica wrote that Christopher Buckley's "Boomsday" was one of the funniest novels he had read in a long time.

Please, if I ask for book suggestions, would you pick me out a winner like that from Albom? 8)

 

[estreetfan75]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Jason, your boy Lupica wrote that Christopher Buckley's "Boomsday" was one of the funniest novels he had read in a long time.

Please, if I ask for book suggestions, would you pick me out a winner like that from Albom? 8)

Only if airport bookstores carry: 1. Fab Five and 2. Any of his 'Live Albom' books. Otherwise, no thanks.

 

[slappy4428]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Jason, your boy Lupica wrote that Christopher Buckley's "Boomsday" was one of the funniest novels he had read in a long time.

Please, if I ask for book suggestions, would you pick me out a winner like that from Albom? 8)

Only if airport bookstores carry: 1. Fab Five and 2. Any of his 'Live Albom' books. Otherwise, no thanks.

I think you missed my point....

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Parker has been phoning it in for at least 15 years. The one thing that amazes me book to book -- Spenser and Hawk work out together, then hang out talking about wine and singing show tunes... and no one seems to find anything, uh, unusual about that. Parker has created the gayest straight characters in the history of literature. I'd be stunned if he takes more than two weeks to write a Spenser novel these days.

(On a side note, I've had a hard time taking Spenser and Hawk seriously after reading a book on writing by Larry Beinhart, a very good mystery author. Here's an excerpt: "Hawk's the baddest of bad African-American persons. He has a Marvin Hagler head shave and owns lots of expensive consumer items. I've always felt this is a cheap racist contrivance -- the Bwana Seal of Approval. Hero so good that even the darky jungle savage who don' like no white man like him.")

Anyway, airport reading... Carl Hiaasen is entertaining, though his new one is a letdown so far, at least compared to his past work. And yes, Jones' book is tremendous. Michael Connelly is pretty dependable and likely available in any airport.

 

[dog428]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

I'll second the vote for Connelly. Former newspaper guy, usually a sure thing. One of his better more recent ones was "The Poet."

Also, John Connolly, Harlan Coben and John Sandford are pretty consistent and usually easy to locate in the airport.

Stay the hell away from anything with James Patterson's name on it. Used to love the guy, but a sure sign of mailing it in is when one of these guys starts churning out about 10 books a year. If I'm not mistaken, Patterson's last book had 140-odd chapters ... and wasn't 400 pages long. That's the very definition of "mailing it in."

 

[Chi City 81]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Pick up David Simon's "Homicide."

 

[zeke12]

Re: If you're in an airport, stay awake from this book...

Pick up David Simon's "Homicide."

Great ****ing book, thought you won't be able to finish it on a road trip.

Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire is a great airplane book.

Second whoever said Sandford. The Prey series have been pretty consistently good.