What do Michael Connelly, Lawrence Block and Mother Teresa have in common? I finished their books this past week.
See, it isn't that I haven't been reading. It's that I haven't been blogging about reading. And usually I'm not one of those weirdos who read two or three books concurrently. Circumstances made me do it.
I was reading Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a Personal Portrait, as a nod toward some more appropriate Lenten reading than my usual murder and mayhem books. I was just about finished with it when my mother-in-law showed up. I was really enjoying it, and knew she would it. So, being one of her four favorite son-in-laws, I let her read it while I was going on vacation, in a blatant attempt to move up out of the number three spot on her list.
It's a revealing look at Mother Teresa's life from the first-person view of Father Leo Maasburg who accompanied her on her travels for many years. It soothed my soul and reinforced my belief in prayer. So my "thoughts and prayers"go out to all those who mock those words.
But then I needed a short novel to read on the plane during a trip to whacky Florida. So I chose Block's Coward's Kiss, a splendid tale of murder with more twists than a Disney World roller coast. (And, no, I didn't go to Disney World. Try snorkeling at Key Largo, visiting Hemingway's old home in Key West, with a jaunt up to Fort Meyers and Clearwater for some spring training baseball and beach ogling.)
I gave it a 6+ on the Haugenometer.
Upon my return to the hinterlands, I dug into Void Moon, another top-notch, unique thriller by Connelly, who I'm a late-comer in appreciating and who is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.
It isn't a Harry Bosch novel, which he is most famous for, but features a female burglar with a lot on her mind and a big moral choice to make at the end. It was a most-excellent stand-alone novel.
I gave it a 7+ on the Haugenometer.
Sorry for no links to these books and authors, but I'm feeling lazy tonight. Use your own Google machine for a change.
