Book Notes in Brief

Back in March I posted a list of the 26 books I'd read so far this year. Here's a brief run down of some of those titles.

Havana - Stephen Hunter
The written equivalent of a Chow Yun Fat movie, this is Hunter's third novel featuring the formidable Earl Swagger: Marine veteran, Arkansas state policeman, and 20th century gunfighter. Havana is damn entertaining reading, ideal for rainy days, airports, or beach reading.

The Pepperdogs - Bing West
The Pepperdogs is best described as a 'techno-thriller,' along the lines of what Tom Clancy writes. But frankly I found this more engaging than anything Clancy has penned of late. A very fast-paced read (I worked through it in one evening) about a Marine Recon team that defies orders to rescue a captured comrade.

The Winter Soldiers - Gary Douglas Kilworth
Historical fiction very similar to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, The Winter Soldiers is one of a series relating the exploits of one Sgt. 'Fancy Jack' Crossman during the Crimean War. A solid read - but it didn't leave me with a burning desire to seek out the other titles in the series.

The Biggest Game in Town - A. Alvarez
A. Alvarez is a noted poet, critic and novelist, an intimate of such literary lights as Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. He is also an avid poker player. The Biggest Game is his account of the 1983 World Series of Poker, held annually in Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas, and considered by many to be a classic , one of the best books written on poker (as opposed to books written on how to play poker). Most, if not all, of the material in this book originally appeared in The New Yorker, and Alvarez's depictions of the world of poker and the distinctive characters like Doyle 'Texas Dolly' Brunson that inhabit it, put me in mind of another New Yorker writer: Joseph Mitchell and his pieces of some of New York's oddballs.