[speaker001:] I kind of like mysteries like Agatha Christie and that kind of stuff
[speaker002:] oh Agatha Christie how about John D McDonald uh John D McDonald you ever read him
[speaker001:] no I'd actually I plead my ignorance knowledge lack of knowledge I'm not familiar with him what is he is he an American novelist
[speaker002:] oh yeah he's very he uh of course he he's dead now seems like most of the good ones are
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah I know they don't write anything like they used to the classics
[speaker002:] but uh he he was he does quite involved mysteries John D McDonald
[speaker001:] and have you been reading him a long time or
[speaker002:] oh yes since well way back in high school
[speaker001:] that long we won't talk about that
[speaker002:] oh yeah yeah that's matter fact that's one of my favorite hobbies is uh reading
[speaker001:] yeah I'm that's one of mine my husband's a little more inclined toward that but I'm not real uh interested in self-improvement books at all I think everything's too topical nowadays
[speaker002:] yep for when I read I read for enjoyment or escapism and I
[speaker001:] yeah and I like a lot of things that are uh have to do with politics and uh history there was one a few years ago called the Public Palace about what goes on at the Pentagon
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] did you read are you do you interested in stuff like that or
[speaker002:] well I have I have I have been in the military so I'm well aware of the Public Palace yes
[speaker001:] oh okay then you probably know even more than I do
[speaker002:] yeah it it was quite it was quite amusing I used to I was in Viet Nam for a couple of years plus extension
[speaker001:] and I don't know have there been any good books books published on that I know World War two my dad was a uh paratrooper in airborne O hundred and one um but I don't think they have done anything good on Viet Nam
[speaker002:] and uh um-hum they've got several out uh there's one called Embassy House by uh Profit that's quite good I was involved with the Phoenix program and stuff of that that nature
[speaker001:] uh-huh and is it true I mean is it um
[speaker002:] it's fairly facts whoever he talked to knew what uh the had had been in the program uh it was probably factual he's kind of overdone a lot of it but um but you have to do that to make the books
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum I I kind of one of my interests is um I've I'm interested in law and uh I just got a book for Christmas called Law and Order it's the history of the justice system and tracks um the the history of uh crimes and of
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] things that have impacted just the the you know evolution of um how we punish people and why things are um judged the way they are
[speaker002:] um I hadn't heard that one I hadn't uh got too heavy into law and order deal most of mine I'm afraid I go either mysteries or uh action adventure stuff
[speaker001:] oh action adventure I probably you're not talking your Danielle Steele female by any means but on the other hand I won't uh I can't Sidney Sheldon's does come off the shelf for light reading
[speaker002:] he's uh I read those uh actually I think my favorite author really right now is uh William Johnstone
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] he writes the uh action series
[speaker001:] um-hum I've heard again I'm not familiar with reading him but I've heard of him
[speaker002:] he's got about twelve out now and it starts out with uh you know after the big war and everything's blown up and he then he's kind of
[speaker001:] a real positive
[speaker002:] yeah it's kind of it follows his his travels throughout the world
[speaker001:] there's one a book I just got I got it as a gift and I just started it's a little bit heavy but it was kind of interesting it um was on the best seller list for a while there it's called The Closing of the American Mind a little bit heavy about political philosophy
[speaker002:] oh yeah um-hum those I those I can read for a while but I got to stop and go you know walk around something
[speaker001:] that's kind of what's happened it kind of does happen yeah uh I'm trying to think of any self-improvement books I've read
[speaker002:] I've tried to do some of those but after after after after after I read them a while I thought maybe I don't need improvement that bad after all
[speaker001:] yeah that's exactly right it's kind of like all the talk shows I think I got to get
[speaker002:] they kind of drag on did you read that one uh let's see uh that the Arab guy wrote that the Abdul is going to come uh
[speaker001:] oh um no I didn't but I I I have it and I haven't read it
[speaker002:] yeah we got at TI to drive into town and almost buy it undercover at the time they were doing it
[speaker001:] that's exactly what happened to us we were living um in Minneapolis at the time and we were getting ready to come back to Texas um and I went I mean into a Waldon's and stood in line for like six hours it seemed like but I haven't read it there is a good one out though that we've had for a few years that I've actually read more than once it's called The Kingdom of Sound
[speaker002:] oh yeah okay
[speaker001:] and it is really really good about the um Saudis and just tracking their families and the Arabian culture
[speaker002:] I've read that I got uh I got the interested in when Saddam Hussein came to power I got interested in him and started reading some of his some of the books on him the man's
[speaker001:] it's well written actually and I think there're going to be more huh
[speaker002:] oh yes the man's just probably totally insane
[speaker001:] that's too bad that's not the topic I know self-improvement I think is the only one I got something like that when I got I'd been out of school for quite a while I think um back when it was again real topical um
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh women my age about then were maybe having trouble with parents or mothers and a friend of mine bought me something called My Mother and Myself and I tried to read it and I went this is I did the same thing I went this isn't anything
[speaker002:] have you read Tom Clancy
[speaker001:] uh yeah yeah in fact I just started her a friend a friend of ours turned me on to that I always I always looked at spy novels and I went eh military stuff just never really did anything to me unless it was history
[speaker002:] which one did you get
[speaker001:] the um China the red the the I think it was the right author you'll have to help me out here
[speaker002:] Hunt Hunt for Red October
[speaker001:] Hunt for Red October the one I went to see the movie for
[speaker002:] yeah yeah that was good uh he's got
[speaker001:] I was a little bit bored with it compared to some of the other stuff that I've heard he'd done
[speaker002:] he's uh that's one of the better ones uh I've got I think my favorite that he's done is is A Clear and Present Danger
[speaker001:] uh-huh yes that one I've we actually have that one my husband's read that it that one seems like it might be a little more interesting
[speaker002:] it's pretty factual he's got one out I'm trying to remember what it's called it has to do with with airplanes
[speaker001:] uh boy
[speaker002:] and I started in reading it a friend friend of mine whose a pilot gave it to me he said uh he said it's a wonderful book you'll love it I started reading it and he went of course he goes into such great detail
[speaker001:] uh-hu h that's what I I was impressed with how much documenting he does
[speaker002:] you know and I and it lost me
[speaker001:] how much how much um he's so much like Michener he's not as bad in terms of going into so much depth but he he's I like the way he writes and if it's not something that moves with me in the first two or three chapters something like that I just won't keep it you know
[speaker002:] I can't uh I can't stay with it too long either but that that I I read about fifty pages and then I just said I can't take it
[speaker001:] that's
[speaker002:] I just I can't keep all these buttons you know knobs and dials and gauges that are supposed to mean anything I don't want to I can't understand them
[speaker001:] and his action anecdotes weren't very good at all he he had he jumps around he in that particular book I don't know how his other ones are but in that one he jumped around a little bit
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] in terms of subways and just just the general transition and I mean it I didn't you know I really you have to be interested in the subject too I think that was part of my problem
[speaker002:] yeah oh yeah it's there was just too much detail there for the for the neophyte
[speaker001:] anything to be real interesting yeah well it's good to talk to somebody I don't read as much as I used to um my husband's a TIer and I'm in journalism so I do a lot of writing um during the normal course of my job and it's kind of um sad when you find out the you know I thought I would get more toward reading and I'm getting less
[speaker002:] yeah it's well there's so many authors out now though of course I've got several favorites that I collect uh Eric Van Lustbader Lustbader
[speaker001:] any of all years um-hum
[speaker002:] he's got several out that I like and uh matter fact
[speaker001:] and what line does he write under what title does he
[speaker002:] he's got uh he's kind of um mystic oriental
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] he has one called The Ninja
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and then then Michael The Siren Black Heart then there's uh yeah I think uh I think you'll enjoy him
[speaker001:] oh that might be kind of interesting is it
[speaker002:] uh The Ninja is of course The Ninja and the Michael are you know one and two of the volumes and then he went off and wrote uh The Gem Zero and The French Kiss and several others and The White Ninja has just hit paperback I understand
[speaker001:] um-hum and does he uh in terms of their in terms of their practices and and their culture I mean does he document it or is it strictly
[speaker002:] oh yeah oh no he no he's he's heavy into Japanese culture
[speaker001:] oh okay
[speaker002:] he's heavy into Japanese culture uh along with uh the Ninja the arts of Ninja and all all the various uh martial arts
[speaker001:] does he tell it in narrative form or in third person how does he present it
[speaker002:] it's uh it fluctuates you kind of get flashbacks uh you get some flashbacks but you can really tell it's a flashback because the print goes to italic
[speaker001:] uh-huh and then you still get information too
[speaker002:] and then you get information too and it's kind of in a flashback and it it's told uh more or less third person singular
[speaker001:] and what's his name again
[speaker002:] Eric Van Lustbader
[speaker001:] Van Lustbader okay
[speaker002:] yeah spelled as you would expect
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] it it's you know Van and then Lustbader B A D E R
[speaker001:] Lustbader I'm going to write that one down yeah because
[speaker002:] he's he's very interesting I think I think you'll enjoy him
[speaker001:] looking for something different yeah it's you know you walk into a store and you just like you said you're overwhelmed by how much there is and you just I don't know if you're like me you you you're much more voracious in terms of how much reading you're doing obviously but I go in and I like
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] to me it's like being in a bakery but then I just don't find anything I like I pick up like eighteen things and then I'm not sure so I walk out
[speaker002:] do you like do you like kind of like the historical western or something of that nature
[speaker001:] uh no that's more no that's not I do actually I like Asian cultures that why I was that's funny that you mentioned that
[speaker002:] uh you'll then you'll like O'Leary he's he's he's quite good at it I've got into one that I didn't think I would it's a I'm not it's a kind of a historical Indian novel thing by Donald Colesmith
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] called The Trail of the Spanish Bit and it's called The Spanish Bit Saga
[speaker001:] I thought that was uh do you like Michener at all
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] he's good did you ever read he wrote Texas a few years ago
[speaker002:] yeah I read that one uh-huh
[speaker001:] that was good and Poland yeah and I've done some of those yeah I like I like things that are those are a few of the ones I can take of his I like it when they actually are giving you information in a novel format I guess would be the
[speaker002:] you might try Colesmith try and find his uh Spanish Bit Saga it's called the it's called The Trail of the Spanish Bit is the first yeah by by Donald Colesmith he's a he's a
[speaker001:] Trail of the Spanish Bit okay yeah
[speaker002:] professor of of English in Emporia Kansas and uh he he's been a doctor and a gunsmith and
[speaker001:] um-hum oh my
[speaker002:] all kinds of stuff and uh he he writes it's history from the Indians point of view starting back when they first got the horse when they first captured the Spaniards
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and it just kind of follows forward and I got I got hooked on it and there's like about sixteen or eighteen