What Are You Currently Reading? Vol. 5

[campy]

Last night I started Camino Island by John Grisham.

[campy]

I have moved on to Fall of Giants, a 2010 novel by Ken Follett. Start of a trilogy of nice long historical novels that should occupy the reader for a good while.

[campy]

I'm 43% of the way through Fall of Giants. It's a pretty good story so far; I'm glad I found it. I'd only ever read The Pillars of the Earth from Follett before; I will definitely borrow some more.

[campy]

Well, the library informed me that the new novel I had on reserve was ready for me, so I'm taking a break from Fall of Giants to read A Safe House, the newest Stone Barrington book from author Stuart Woods.

Since this is an election year, Woods and his publisher have plotted this tome with the usual subtlety and nuance of the loyal Democratic party operative: there's a corrupt Republican senator from Texas who's a wife beater (and-by-the-way-he's-also-a-Russian-spy! Kinda makes you wonder about that Republican who'll be running in a state near you this November, dear voter, don't it?) as the villain. Honestly, could it be any more tiresome? The romance and jet-set lifestyle one reads Stone Barrington books for are still present, at least.

[campy]

I'm back to reading the Ken Follett epic after returning the Stuart Woods book.

I considered keeping A Safe House for the full loan period so as few readers as possible would be exposed to the political propaganda, but I decided it was so crude and heavy-handed that other readers would likely share my reaction to it and it would backfire on the Democrats.

[campy]

I've started reading The Rooster Bar, a 2014 novel by John Grisham.

[campy]

Last night I began Winter of the World, Ken Follet's sequel to Fall of Giants.

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm reading some light, escapist fare: Mighty Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four, Vol. 2. It contains color reprints of F.F. issues 11-20 and Annual #1, first published February to November, 1963. I've already got Vol. 1 somewhere; I just forgot where I put it just now.

[campy]

Pausing Follett to read The Missing Piece, a 2022 novel by John Lescroart. It's the 19^th novel in a series about San Francisco defense attorney Dismas Hardy. The series began in 1989 with Dead Irish.

[campy]

I finished the Lescroart novel and have returned to Winter of the World. I'm at the halfway point; World War II is under way.