Posts by Sam Cromartie

Iron House by John Hart is an action-filled thriller about a man trying to escape a life of crime.  Michael is a character with flaws.  At least he could be considered such if you count murder as a sin.  For years he has worked as a hit man for the mob leader who pulled him from…

I began reading The Emperor of all Maladies with reservations.  After all, how entertaining can a book about cancer be?  To my surprise, the author, Siddhartha Mukherjee swept me into his world and kept my attention for the entire book.  The work is intended for lay readers, but it manages to relay a tremendous amount of medical…

In Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Walter Isaacson brings to life one of Americans greatest scholars, scientists, and philosophers.  Franklin was born in Boston in 1706 and died in Philadelphia in 1790, a period of great turbulence in the new world filled with wars and struggles for freedom that culminated in the creation of a new…

Catching Fire and Mockingjay, the second and the third (final) books inSuzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series are both fast reads.  I finished each in one day.  Katniss Everdeen once again has to fight for her life in another set of Gladiator-style games set up for the amusement of the sadistic president of a future empire.  Katniss’s courage…

Mirror Image by Sandra Brown is an old book (1990) with an interesting premise.  What if a woman survives a mass catastrophe and awakens in the hospital ICU with a new identity.  This happens to Avery Daniels when she sustains severe facial fractures, a concussion, burns, and lung damage from smoke inhalation during an airplane…

1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies is a fascinating nonfiction discussion of the maritime accomplishments of Chinese explorers that preceded the era of Columbus.  Menzies describes well-documented voyages by Admiral Zheng He to Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and eastern Africa under orders from Emperor Zhu Di.  Most of the book revolves…

In Livewire Harlan Coben returns to his sports agent and former professional basketball player Myron Bolitar.  Myron agrees to help his pregnant tennis star client Suzze T find her rock-star husband Lex who disappeared after a facebook post declared that he was not the father of the baby.  Myron finds Lex in a nightclub with Kitty Bolitar,…

I just finished reading The Headhunters by Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian author who is filling the Scandinavian void created by the death of Stieg Larsson.  Nesbo’s books are saturated with suspense and unexpected twists that take the reader by surprise.  In this book, you find yourself cheering for a very unsympathetic protagonist who is a self-centered liar,…