USVI-On-Line

In preparation for our upcoming trip, I'm studying Feet, Fins & Four-Wheel Drive . Then I'll get started on Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult.

Can't believe this thread is still going! I started it before I changed my screenname to A99 and was looking for some lighthearted or just light reading for vacation. As usual the forum came through! I took the advice of posters here and read the Carl Haissan books...lots of light madcap fun and sometime during the year picked up his golf memoir Downhill Lie. Very amusing for golfers.

I also read The Other Boleyn Girl and enjoyed that so much that I spent the rest of the year reading everything else Phillipa Gregory wrote. Was it Liamsaunt that called it cotten candy historical fiction? That's perfect!

I'm reading World Without End by Ken Follet right now, the sequel (set 200 years later) to Pillars of Earth. I am enjoying it every bit as much as PoE now that the characters have developed some. In the beginning it seemed that the characters were all going to be repeats of the personalities in the first....sort of forumulaic. Not so once it gets going. He is just a fine story teller.

Has anybody read Jimmy Buffett's "A Salty Piece of Land"?

How is it?

Jan&MikeVa wrote: I'm trying to find a good book for Mike (he's not a big reader). He enjoys espionage fiction. Any suggestions???

It was a long time ago, but I really liked "The Ninja" by Eric Van Lustbader...I also devoured all the Crighton books years ago and liked those.

Enjoy "Don't Stop the Carnival"...that is a fun read!

Another book that I really had "fun" with was "The Perfect Storm", not a mystery, but true suspence. I went to High School with several of the characters in the book...in Gloucester Mass...that is an exciting book to read....IMO.

I liked a Perfect Storm. Sad story of course but very interesting.

A Salty Piece of Land is a good beach read, light and easy.

I didn't techically read it but listened to the unabridged version of A Place in Normandy by Nicholas Kilmer (sp?) and loved. It is nonfiction.

The author and his relatives own a farm in Normandy and it is constantly in need of repair.

The book is about his love affair with the house and whether or not he and his wife should buy out the rest of the relative-owners.

Anyone who loves St. John would likely enjoy it. I could really relate to the author's feeling of joy when he returns to the town and goes thru the process of settling in to vacation mode.

Another book that I really had "fun" with was "The Perfect Storm", not a mystery, but true suspence. I went to High School with several of the characters in the book...in Gloucester Mass

Sherban, I think a while back you mentioned that you had lived in Gloucester years ago....I'd forgotten. Gloucester is in mourning again with the loss of two fisherman off Stellwagen Bank last weekened. A young man with a three year old boy and one on the way and his wife's father. Just tragic.

Agent99 wrote:Sherban, I think a while back you mentioned that you had lived in Gloucester years ago....I'd forgotten. Gloucester is in mourning again with the loss of two fisherman off Stellwagen Bank last weekened. A young man with a three year old boy and one on the way and his wife's father. Just tragic.

99- Yeah I had read that in the paper...that's a shame. The Fisherman's Memorial statue down on the Boulevard has seen many men go down to sea in ships. That's a tough profession, to say the least.

Junger's book is good, it sheds some light on this.
http://www.perfectstorm.org/sebast.cfm

Sherban - I liked A Perfect Storm alot and along the same lines of true but morbid, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (sp?) was a good read.

Jan - if you find Grandma Raised the Roof, you have to lend it to me when you are done!

Sherban, I was not a big fan of A Salty Piece of Land. I'm not sure why...it just did not grab me.

The new John Grisham book comes out the day before we leave, so I'm defintely picking that one up.

Right now I am reading Intuition, by Allegra Goodman. A coworker gave it to me. I'm not far enough in to give an opinion on it yet.

nothintolose wrote:Sherban - I liked A Perfect Storm alot ...

The main character of the book (Bobby Shatford) was in my homeroom class in highschool...I hung out with him a little...so that story has a weird/personal feel for me. I saw the movie and it creates an image of Bobby floating out at sea...and I think about the guy in my HR class...weird.

Sherban - that's pretty creepy and sad.

I went back through this entire thread and picked out some titles to read on my upcoming trip. AND, I finally remembered to use the fourm link to Amazon! I always forget about that thing. I didn't know about the itunes one until today either. So, here is what I ended up with:

Lady Macbeth: A Novel, Susan Fraser King
Skinny Dip, Carl Hiaasen
The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific, J. Maarten Troost
An Island Away, Daniel Putkowski
In the Convent of Little Flowers: Stories, Indu Sundaresan
The Temple Dancer: A Novel of India, John Speed
Beside a Burning Sea, John Shors

I'll also pick up the new John Grisham novel.

I finished Intuition and found it fascinating. I recommend it.

sherban wrote:

Agent99 wrote:Sherban, I think a while back you mentioned that you had lived in Gloucester years ago....I'd forgotten. Gloucester is in mourning again with the loss of two fisherman off Stellwagen Bank last weekened. A young man with a three year old boy and one on the way and his wife's father. Just tragic.

99- Yeah I had read that in the paper...that's a shame. The Fisherman's Memorial statue down on the Boulevard has seen many men go down to sea in ships. That's a tough profession, to say the least.

Junger's book is good, it sheds some light on this.
http://www.perfectstorm.org/sebast.cfm

VERY sad story...One of the women I work with (lives in Fall River), her Dad was that man's best friend. Very sad.