Habitual Reader Profiles - Page 1

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	Name: Richard Brawer
	City & State: Ocean, New Jersey
	Vocation / Avocation: Retired

Why I'm a Habitual Reader:

How did someone who got D's in English in college become an avid reader and writer? I liked to read mystery books. In the 1970's we vacationed in the Caribbean. I would go through three or four Mickey Spilane and Bret Halliday books in eight days. Not an easy feat while tending to the playful needs of two young daughters. At the time Communism was raising its ugly head in South America, spread by Castro and Che. Sitting on the beach, I wondered what would happen if Communist rebels invaded the island. The result of my pondering was a really bad book. But I was hooked on writing. I widened my reading and took courses at the community college. My first mystery, "The Nurse Wore Black" was published in 1994. My second mystery, "Diamonds Are For Stealing" was published in 2001.

Because I also had taken up reading historical fiction set in the era of post Civil War to The Great Depression, I wanted to write a book that would instill in my daughters their family heritage. I went back to Paterson, NJ where I was born for lectures about the city's founding and its rich history of immigrant labor. Armed with my own knowledge of the textile industry where I had worked for thirty-five years, the many vignettes I had heard about my grandfather's adventures from the time he left Latvia at age 13, and my newly learned knowledge about Paterson I realized there was a great novel to be written. The result is "Silk Legacy", a novel that is receiving rave reviews from all who read it.

My List of Ten: Mystery Thrillers

1. Triggerfish Twist
Author: Tim Dorsey
Great characters, very funny

2. Gone For Good
Author: Harlan Coben
Great suspense

3. Inca Gold
Author: Clive Cussler
Great action scenes. I think his best book.

4. Clea's Moon
Author: Edward Wright
Historical mystery set in post WWII Hollywood.

5. The Charm Club
Author: Nelson DeMille
Great Suspense.

6. Crusader's Cross
Author: James Lee Burke
The last one by him I read. All his books are great. Impossible to choose the best one.

7. Skinny Dip
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Funny. Again, the last one by him I read. All his books are great.

8. Skeleton Man
Author: Tony Hillerman
Again, the last one I read by him. All his books are great

9. Derailed
Author: James Siegel
Nail biting suspense. The movie didn't do it justice.

10. Cat and Mouse
Author: James Paterson
Just one of his many great books

Have you read any of these titles? Review one now.

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