Thursday Thirteen # 75

I've done this a couple of times before.  Here’s a TT of books with two word titles.  The only rule I set myself is that the two words have to be an adjective and a noun (no articles, no adverbs).  I hope you like...

          Thirteen books with two-word titles
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Supreme Courtship  by CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY   I only recently finished this book, by one of my favourite authors.  The President is fed up that two of his nominees to fill a sudden vacancy on the Supreme Court have been rejected by the Senate, so in a fit of mischief making, he nominates the nation’s most popular TV judge.  This is a very funny book.  I devoured it in a couple of days.   Buy it here

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Bella Mafia  by LYNDA LAPLANTE   From the creator of the Prime Suspect TV series, this is a novel of the Mafia.  All the men of one mob family are killed and it is up to the five widows to seek revenge. Gosh!   Buy it here

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Pure Evil  by MAUREEN HARVEY  Twelve years ago, in England, a young man was killed and his girlfriend injured by a road rage attacker.  Or at least that was the story.  The police launched a huge investigation and the man’s parents and  the girlfriend, now out of hospital, appealed to the public for information.  Everyone was shocked, and wanted the police to catch the man responsible.  Then the girlfriend’s story began to unravel, and it turned out that she, a woman who was possessed of a very bad temper, had stabbed her boyfriend to death over some trivial incident, and had then injured herself and fabricated the whole road rage story.  This book is by the victim’s mother and it is subtitled “How Tracie Andrews murdered my son, deceived the nation and sentenced me to a life of pain and misery.”   Buy it here

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Different Seasons  by STEPHEN KING  This book is a collection of four novellas.  They are all very good, from the days when King was on top form.  Two of them were the basis for what are possible the most highly regarded films based on king’s work: The Shawshank Redemption  and  Stand By Me    Buy it here

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Bleak House  by CHARLES DICKENS   They’ve done this at least twice on TV in the last 20 years or so.  This is Dickens’s brilliant story of corrupt lawyers, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, and a host of memorable characters.  They couldn’t be otherwise if it’s Dickens.  When this was published, such was the outrage at the legal corruption that he exposed that there was a change in the law soon afterwards.   Buy it here

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Brief Encounters  by GYLES BRANDRETH  Subtitled “Meetings with remarkable people”  This is a collection of interviews that this writer has conducted over the years.  Most of them were originally published in one of the British Sunday newspapers.  His subjects include Walter Cronkite, Richard Branson, Diana Rigg, Archbishop Tutu and Tony Blair. They are all entertaining, even if you are unfamiliar with who the people are.   Buy it here

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Dark Justice   by JACK HIGGINS  Higgins often likes to bring the same characters into his stories.  Fans of his will be familiar with Sean Dillon, former terrorist now working for a secret department of the British intelligence service. The story starts with a failed assassination attempt on the president of the USA, and continues on both sides of the Atlantic, drawing in British, American, Irish and Russian characters along the way. An easy read.   Buy it here

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Dirty Blonde  by LISA SCOTTOLINE  I rather enjoy the novels of this best selling author.  This one is about a young female judge involved in a sensational trial. She has a guilty secret – she like to trawl bars in the seedy end of town and pick up strange men for one nighters.  Well, no one’s perfect.  Inevitable her secret is revealed and it impacts on the case she is trying, and her whole career.   Buy it here

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Buried Memories  by IRENE PENCE   I had never heard of Betty Lou Beets before I read this book.  I suspect most of you haven’t either.  She is, or rather was, a murderess who bumped off several husbands.  The fact that there is a book about her means, obviously, that she was found out.  The writer of the book obviously loathes here, even as she describes what she got up to, but I didn’t feel any emotional engagement, one way or the other.  A good book for true crime buffs.   Buy it here

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Dead Knock  by  PETER TURNBULL   A woman walks into a police station in Glasgow and informs the police of an upcoming murder – her own.  Two days later she is found dead of a heroin overdose.  That’s the start of this rather entertaining crime novel, which I bought from a remaindered pile a long time ago and only got round to reading last year.   Buy it here

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Forgotten Victory  by GARY SHEFFIELD   Not a girlie book.  The argument of this history book is that while the First World War is engraved on the public consciousness as a series of futile and bloody failures, the reality was that while the war was tragic and costly, it did in the end lead to a series of momentous victories, far from the generally accepted picture of “lions led by donkeys”   Buy it here

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Bad Guys  by ANTHONY BRUNO   An ex-FBI agent is out to avenge a mob murder, while his former partner is left to decide whether to track him down and stop him  or to let him get on with it.  Not that bad as mafia novels go but it’s no Godfather!   Buy it here

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Wyrd Sisters  by TERRY PRATCHETT  This is one from my TBR pile.  You  know, I have never read anything by Terry Pratchett, though I do know how successful his Discworld books have been.  So I’m wondering if anyone can tell me how good this is, or maybe otherwise.   Buy it here
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Comments

[Alice Audrey]

I haven't read Wyrd Sisters, but the Diskworld books are hilarious in an off-the-wall, punster way.

[Anthony north]

I think there's a Higgins one there I haven't read! As for Different Seasons, the first real flowering of King NOT as a horror writer.

[Lori]

Another list of books I've never read! (LOL)
Bella Mafia sounds like it would make an interesting movie.

[Adelle Laudan]

Nope,can't say I've read any of them. Clever list. Happy Holidays!

[Carol]

Okay, I tried to get Supreme Courtship from PBS just now, but it's not available. I put it on my wish list. Sounds like one I'd enjoy!

Merry Christmas from She Lives!

[colleen]

I see you have Dickens. Here is a link that talks about A Chrismas Carol being self-published http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/11/28/ST2008112801604.html

I can't make out the image behind the heroin needle. Maybe I don't want to know.

[perpstu]

What a diverse list of books! I have read a few and put the others on a list to check out later!

Have a great TT

[Ann Bruce]

I just added Bella Mafia to my TBR. I'm a sucker for revenge tales.

[FickleMinded]

I have to wait for a while to read another SK book. the last book I read from him gave me so much nightmares.
btw, are you gonna post abt the books with the word Christmas on their title? :D

[bernie]

I just went through my reading list and noticed that almost all of my reading titles are four words or more, such as Bernard Lewis' "The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror", or "Tokyo Now & Then".

Dead knock reminds me of a Monk episode on TV.

[jayedee]

boy oh boy! another list of books to read! you keep me jumping, that's for sure! happy tt!

[Thea @ I'm a Drama Mama]

I keep reading your lists in the hope that one of these days I'll recognize one of the titles... : )

[Debbie]

Interesting list.

[Nina Pierce]

Wow, nice list.

[Celticlibrarian]

I haven't read any of these, but now I'm intrigued by Brief Encounters and Supreme Courtship.

Merry Christmas and Happy TT!

[Chelle Y.]

I am always impressed by how much you read. You remind me of my history professor in college. That man was a walking library! :)

[Di]

I'm going to take a leap here and guess that Forgotten Victory is NOT written by Gary Sheffield the baseball slugger!

[Heather]

Clever list! I've read the Scottoline - in fact, everything by her except the last - but have not heard of most the other authors.

[Phils Grill]

I have not read any of those books. They look interesting.

[Geriatric Nurse]

Interesting list of books. I will have to try them out.
Thanks for stopping by my blog.

[bellamocha]

Bella Mafia (Aaah! what a great title!) and Dirty Blonde are now on my Christmas list. Good thing The Husband's out there right now, doing the Christmas shopping.
I agree with Lori- Bella Mafia would make a fantastic movie, and it's not often I can say that without knowing anything about it. I could even play the lead myself.....:)
Great T13 Nicholas!
bella :) (of course....)

[bellamocha]

Bella Mafia (Aaah! what a great title!) and Dirty Blonde are now on my Christmas list. Good thing The Husband's out there right now, doing the Christmas shopping.
I agree with Lori- Bella Mafia would make a fantastic movie, and it's not often I can say that without knowing anything about it. I could even play the lead myself.....:)
Great T13 Nicholas!
bella :) (of course....)

[Thorne]

Hiya Nicholas!! Yay for book lists! Glad you found a Stephen King to include (*wink) and yes, these are some GREAT stories! As for the Terry Pratchett- I know a lot of people who enjoy him, but I do not. I admittedly have only had one experience with his writing; "Good Omens" which was co-written with Neil Gaiman. I adore Neil, and nonetheless simply could not make it through the book. TP seems to depend rather heavily on puns and IMO doesn't do them near the justice that say... Piers Anthony does them in his over the top Xanth series.

[Mark]

Interesting list, particularly the first world war book. I will look into picking that up. I've also read 'Forgotten Voices' which I see you are currently reading. All of the Forgotten Voices series are excellent.

[The Bumbles]

Hmm - how about Falling Man (which I hated actually - wouldn't recommend), or Red Dragon, or Little Women? Is Wuthering an adjective? If so I also nominate Wuthering Heights. Thanks for visiting our T13 (backyard rink) as always!