Hello Lazy Lightning Book Club readers. The time has come to vote on our next book. Please vote for your favorite from the list of choices. The winner will be the book club selection for the first quarter of 2012. Alright everyone cast your votes. Happy reading in 2012!
Lazy Lightning 2012Q1 Book Club Selection
- The Affair: A Reacher Novel (52.0%, 11 Votes)
- The Kill Artist (19.0%, 4 Votes)
- True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel (14.0%, 3 Votes)
- The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire Mysteries) (14.0%, 3 Votes)
Total Voters: 21
Loading ...True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel
In True History of the Kelly Gang, the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semiliterate but magically descriptive prose as he flees from the police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary Australians, the bushranger is a hero, defying the authority of the English to direct their lives. Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned saw his first prison cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he was finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlaw tale, made alive by the skill of a great novelist.
The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire Mysteries)
The citizens of the Cowboy State boast a long and bloody history of dispensing rough justice but the last few decades have bred peace between the white and Native American communities. So when Cody Pritchard is found dead near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Sheriff Walt Longmire and the general population of Absaroka County are inclined to think it’s a hunting accident. But two years earlier Cody was one four high school boys convicted of brutally raping Melissa Little Bird, a young Cheyenne girl with fetal alcohol syndrome. The boys were guilty but let off with suspended sentences. Was this a revenge killing? Sheriff Longmire intends to find out.
The Affair: A Reacher Novel
Everything starts somewhere. . . For elite military cop Jack Reacher, that somewhere was Carter Crossing, Mississippi, way back in 1997. A lonely railroad track. A crime scene. A coverup.
A young woman is dead, and solid evidence points to a soldier at a nearby military base. But that soldier has powerful friends in Washington. Reacher is ordered undercover—to find out everything he can, to control the local police, and then to vanish. Reacher is a good soldier. But when he gets to Carter Crossing, he finds layers no one saw coming, and the investigation spins out of control.
The Kill Artist
Gabriel Allon was a key operative in secret Israeli-intelligence missions. When his wife and daughter fell victim to the danger that accompanied him everywhere, Gabriel quit and devoted himself to the work of art restoration– previously a cover for his secret missions. But now Ari Shamron, the head of Israeli intelligence, needs Gabriel’s particular kind of experience to thwart a Palestinian plot to destroy the peace negotiations in the Middle East. The architect of this plot, a Palestinian zealot named Tariq, is a lethal part of Gabriel’s past, and so as the two begin an intercontinental game of hide-and-seek, with life and death as the prizes, the motives are as personal as they are political.
Dakota Complaints Map
Dakota Inmate Dashboard
December 23rd, 2011 at 8:49 am
The voting is off to a great start. Looks like a bit of an early front runner too.
December 23rd, 2011 at 9:50 am
Jack Reacher novels are page turners, I can’t put them down. The Affair was no exception. Other authors that do that for me are Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, and Ken Bruen – and on occasion, William Kent Krueger.
December 23rd, 2011 at 10:20 am
C&V, have you read the latest Harry Bosch, The Drop? I really enjoyed it.
December 23rd, 2011 at 11:18 am
I read the Kelly Gang book years ago, and remember not liking it much. I suppose that may have changed, but not much desire to pick it back up. The Affair was very good, as is usually the case with the Reacher novels.
I just started Farlander for those who read Sci Fi. So far, so good.
December 23rd, 2011 at 11:57 am
Just a quick note: the voting will run through Friday 12/30/11.
December 23rd, 2011 at 11:59 am
Chad, We’re always looking for suggestions for the book club selections. If you have any you’d like to see later next year please let us know.
December 23rd, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Tearitup,
Yes, The Drop was great, two stories in one book and an ending twist I didn’t see coming. Loved it. I devoured it in 2 days.
December 23rd, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Part of the fun of this is discovering new books, so I am not really concerned with you choosing books from my list. I enjoy seeing the books you choose and voting on them. Its a great way to discover new books and authors I think.
That said, here are a few I would like to see considered, although they are for the most part extremely long books which may not appeal to a large/broad group.
The name of the wind
Patrick Rothfuss
The Drifters
James Michener
Gardens of the Moon
Steven Erikson
Watership Down
Richard Adams
Without Remorse
Tom Clancy
The Appeal
John Grisham
December 23rd, 2011 at 1:52 pm
I have read some of the earlier stuff by Daniel Silva (the Michael Osbourne books, Mark of the Assassin and Marching Season for sure, maybe others) and liked them quite a bit.
So many great books to be read.
December 23rd, 2011 at 2:02 pm
That’s a good list Chad. Thanks for posting it. I’m waiting very impatiently for the third Rothfuss.
C&V, I thought the same thing about The Drop, great book.
December 23rd, 2011 at 8:49 pm
I voted for The Cold Dish, but all look interesting. Can the Reacher novels be read out of order? I’ve never read one.
December 23rd, 2011 at 9:11 pm
CC,
I would say yes. My wife and I both read them out of order and had little trouble following Reachers character development. Lee Child does a great job of filling you in as the story unfolds.
December 23rd, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Thanks C&V! I’ve heard good things about the series, so it’s something I want to try. Given the current voting results I might be starting soon. :-)
December 30th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
The voting is going to be closing soon. Make sure and vote for your favorite. Thanks to everyone who has voted so far!
December 31st, 2011 at 8:19 am
The votes are in and the winner is The Affair by Lee Child. This will be the first Lazy Lightning Book Club selection for 2012. Once we’ve all had a chance to get started reading it we can come back to this thread to discuss it.
Happy reading and Happy New Year!
December 31st, 2011 at 10:47 am
Woot! Should be a great book. I think I’ll also go back at QTR3 and QTR4 and see if there any that didn’t make the club, but might be a good read, which I have missed.
January 25th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Is anyone reading The Affair? Anyone done yet? I really liked it. Getting Reacher’s backstory was interesting.
January 25th, 2012 at 6:55 pm
Been there, done that. Read, and reread… it was a good glimpse of his life, and challenges he was up against.
January 25th, 2012 at 7:10 pm
I just picked it up in the Lucky U. I’ll read it this week.
January 25th, 2012 at 7:21 pm
Although not my usual read, I find myself having read through all of the Sookie Stackhouse books. These are the books that the HBO series True Blood is based on. I’d never read one of them but now I’ve read 10 in the last week or so.
January 26th, 2012 at 7:59 am
I’m about 1/4 of the way through The Affair and I have this nagging feeling I’ve read a similar premiss in a book before. Drifter (fake or not), meets LEO in diner often, works his case, etc.
January 26th, 2012 at 9:30 am
There were similar scenes in another Reacher book if I recall correctly, Nothing to Lose.
January 26th, 2012 at 9:34 am
Glad it wasn’t just me.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:17 am
I thought the Affair was ok. Not his best work, but not bad. There are alot of books, and Reacher is getting old, so some of these flashback books seem to overlap or repeat, and sometimes the “main attributes” dont seem to run quite true, but they are entertaining books for sure.
January 30th, 2012 at 11:33 pm
I finished The Affair earlier tonight. Certainly not my favorite book and when I was about 60 pages from the end I told a friend that while it could surprise me in the end, I didn’t think it was going to end very well.
Well, it half surprised me. It was a better ending than I expected (especially having read the book that I assume picks up where this leaves off) but still most definitely not his best work by any means IMO.
January 31st, 2012 at 8:04 am
IMO, The Affair did a nice job of rounding out Reacher’s origin story. Reading the other books gives some clues about Reacher’s past and this one nicely filled in the blanks.
The characters behavior in the story and reactions to the situation seemed in keeping with who we have come to know. Now we know. Time to move Reacher on to his next ass kicking adventure.