A "NEW" APPROACH

In the last little while I have posted more infrequently than Steve Nash on Dwight Howard. A grevious lack of time is the only excuse I can offer. Perhaps I took on too much, or perhaps I just did not have a wonderful flow of ideas I expected to. Well, in any event I am going to try and post at least once a week with an "AWESOME BOOK" of the week which I will review and write about. These will be books I have read over the course of my life and enjoyed in one way or another. Just a note about my reading habits in case anyone worries they are being left out: I read non-fiction true accounts, history, mystery, thrillers and some horror. I apologize if those are not really your cup of tea...without further ado, here is book #1.

Sahara by Clive Cussler


I decided to start off with a book which hooked me on reading. Now, Clive Cussler does not write the most "realistic" fiction but this book is a staggering achievement. His hero of over twenty thrillers, Dirk Pitt faces just about everything the world can throw at him in this rip-roaring page turner. This is the definition of what a novel should be. It is well written, contains characters who are more than just stock "good guys" and "villians" and at times the suspense is gut wrenching. A quick summary: A red tide out of Africa is threatening to decimate the world's population, Dirk Pitt and longtime confederates Rudy Gunn and Al Giordino agree to ride up a river into Mali and the source of the outbreak. Along the way they have a few run ins with corrupt African dictators, one of the best imagined war standoffs in novel history and a heart shattering conclusion. If you need a beach read, grab this book. It takes you by the throat and refuses to let go for five hundred plus pages. Many will know Clive Cussler only by the moderately entertaining mass market novels he "co-writes" but this way Cussler in his heyday. This book has something for everyone - a love story, action, heroism and a scene in which the intrepid heroes walk across the blazing Sahara desert. Truly, this among all the other novels he wrote remains the gold standard of Dirk Pitt novels. Highly, highly recommended. I was once asked what one novel I would take to a desert island: this is it.