Swan Song, by Robert McCammon

• Title:  Swan Song
• Author:  Robert McCammon
• Purchased from used bookstore in Ocean City, MD
• Started:  1/9/2011
• Finished 1/23/2011

 
My never-ending quest for post apocalyptic novels always produced hits on this book, Swan Song.  I liked the title (also the title of one of the greatest Columbo episodes ever, featuring Johnny Cash as the bad guy) but my library didn't have it and I was always looking for a cheap purchase.  Well I found it at a used book store in ocean city, great condition paperback, just a few dollars. 
 
I should have let them keep the money.  Really disliked this book, not because it was too disturbing (it was a 5 on a disturbing scale of 10, I'd say) or too preachy (it was way too preachy), but none of it grabbed me.  I didn't find any of the characters likeable, believable, or even fun to read about.  I read the whole damn thing, albeit slowly, but one of my least favorite PA novels to date.

Ten Plus One (87th Precinct Mystery), by Ed McBain

• Title:  Ten Plus One
• Author:  Ed McBain
• Purchased from used bookstore in Ocean City, MD
• Started:  1/8/2011
• Finished:  18/2011

 
I've read a good number of the early 87th Precinct books and like them a lot.  This one was no exception, a good procedural.

So Brave, Young and Handsome, by Leif Enger

• Title:  So Brave, Young and Handsome
• Author:  Leif Enger
• Received from Paperback Swap
• Started:  12/30/2010
• Finished:  1/5/2010

 
Sometime back in 2008 I read Leif Enger's Peace Like a River and loved it.  I passed the book along to my mother, an asthmatic, who also loved it.  Not only for the story, but b/c she said it was the best description of what it feels like to be an asthma sufferer.  Like I said I loved PLaR, but for no good reason I never picked up Enger's second book, the subject of this post.

So Brave, Young and Handsome is kind of a western, something like a Charles Portis western maybe.  Humorous at times, sad or poignant at others.  I loved the book.  Some chapters are just a page or two long, parts of the story stretch belief, but I don't care.  I hated putting this book down each night, and thought about how I'd get to continue reading all the next day.
 

The Border Legion, by Zane Grey

• Title:  The Border Legion
• Author:  Zane Grey
• Purchased from used bookstore in Ocean City, MD
• Started:  11/24/2010
• Finished:  11/30/2010

 
I'm way behind on updating this site, but I've only read a few books so it's not a huge deal.  I like westerns, or at least thought I did, but I'd never read any Zane Grey.  I was always curious about his book so when I came across this one in a used book store for next to nothing, I picked it up.  I hated it.  Boring, melodramatic, it felt phoned-in.
 
I feel like I should give his big breakthrough book a chance, Riders of the Purple Sage, and I probably will.  But not anytime soon.