Other fiction arranged alphabetically by author, then by title.

Ratings-
5 stars= couldn't put it down
4 stars= good enough to keep me reading
3 stars= an all-right read
2 stars= not great
1 star= a waste of time

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Click on book titles to see the review

Richard Adams

• The Plague Dogs
• Shardik
• Watership Down

Charlotte Bronte

• Jane Eyre

Erskine Caldwell

• God's Little Acre

Michael Chrichton

• Airframe
• Andromeda Strain
• A Case of Need
• Congo
• Eaters of the Dead
• The Great Train Robbery
• Jurassic Park 1990. I really thought this was one of his weakest books despite the popularity of the movie. Dinosaurs have been re-created from DNA and an amusement park is being built to display the creatures. But things get out of hand as you probably know! The movie is a technical marvel with some good suspense, but the plot is thin.
• The Lost World 1995. Sequel to Jurassic Park and a little better than it was. More nasty dinasaurs and a scientific expedition rather than the odd amusement park setting. The movie is a good rendition of the book.
• Sphere 1987. I really liked this one. A strange vessel has been found deep on the ocean floor and the team sent to explore it meets with more than they had bargained for. Great suspense in an unusual setting. The movie was good, but didn't catch on- the clues to what is going on are all there, but probably too subtle for a casual viewing. It is always more difficult to build a believable set than it is to see it in your imagination. Read the book and go rent the movie within a week.
• The Terminal Man 1972. In an effort to tinker with a mentally ill patient the cure proves to be worse for everyone than the illness. One of the more thoughtful of his books. The movie does the book justice.
• Timeline 1999. This is Chrichton at his best! I'm not letting out any secrets to say that it's a variation on the time warp theme. A huge company has been experimenting with quatum foam and teleportation. They create a huge problem in medieval France and send some young graduate students to fix the situation. Believable and throught provoking.

Tom Clancy

• Clear and Present Danger This is my favorite of his; don't really know why. I've read lots more of his. Give me time to get 'em entered here!

Robin Cook

• Coma The first novel to explore the frightening possibilities of organ harvesting. I think it is much more believable than his recent books. I've read lots more of his. Give me time to get 'em entered here!

James Oliver Curwood

• Alaska (1923) Sort of a cross between an adventure book and a romance. The surprisingly modern theme of environmental exploitation of Alaska's resources kept me reading, and the romance doesn't get too sloppy.

Clive Cussler

• Vixen 03 (1978) In 1954 a plane carrying a deadly biological weapon crashes. When it is located in 1988 with several of the canisters missing, Cussler's hero, Dirk Pitt, is on the job to figure it all out. A parallel plot of revolution in Africa seems extraneous, but it all comes together in the end.

John Grisham

• The Chamber Adam Hall, born Alan Cayhall, but ripped from his family's history by a guilt-ridden father, confronts his past and his future as he struggles to stay the execution of his grandfather. A look at the complex and grim skeletons in society's closet with pin-and-needle suspense till the very end. Grisham captures the moods and atmosphere with gripping reality.
• The Firm Probably Grisham's best known work. A brilliant young lawyer, Mitch McDeere accepts an incredible offer from a huge, prestigious law firm. Perhaps he shouldn't have.
• The Partner This one has more twist and turns than a pretzel, and wanders from Grisham's normal southern scenes to South America. Patrick, partner in a law firm, dies and burns in a horrible car wreck. Six weeks later a huge fortune disappears from the firm's account. Patrick is found alive and well in Brazil-- what really did happen?
• The Pelican Brief The book will take you on a roller-coaster ride of intrigue, legal mysteries and violence. Don't judge the book by the movie. If you haven't seen the movie, read the book first to preserve the suspense. The movie had to leave out so much to keep it within the time limit that it ends up being not very believable. The story begins with two Supreme Court justices being murdered. Darby Shaw, a law student prepares a brief containing an outlandish but possible cause. She is about to learn that her amazing brief is too true for her own good.
• A Time to Kill Carl Lee Hailey, a black man, avenges the rape of his daughter by killing the two white men who committed the crime at the very opening of the book. What follows is a tortuous and gripping tale as Jake Brigance, the young lawyer, battles for justice. Grisham's first novel and admittedly somewhat autobiographical. The movie follows the book well.

Victor Hugo

• Les Miserables Don't think that you know this work if you've only seen Les Miz. This is one of my all-time favorites. Jean ValJean's struggle for dignity in the face of continual despair seems a lesson to us all.

Wilson Rawls

• 7/02  Summer of the Monkeys This is a delightful book for young readers about a boy in Oklahoma around 1900. A whole carload of monkeys has escaped from the circus and Jay Berry Lee, his dog Rowdy and his grandpa are determined to recapture them and claim the reward money. Jay Berry wants to buy a rifle and a pony, but his twin sister has a crippled leg which might be fixed by surgury. And those monkeys have no intention of being caught. c. 1976, 283 p.

collections

• Cavalcade of the North edited by George E. Nelson. This is a collection of writing by twenty-six Canadian authors. It includes two entire short novels, excerpts from some longer works, and some short stories. All selections are of high quality, but range from entertaining (such as "The Street that Got Mislaid"), through historical (such as "Dieppe" from The Sixth of June) or thought-provoking (as in "Jalna"), to the frankly disturbing story "The White Mustang".