Why am I passionate about this?

The reason I have picked these books is because I have a passion for good reading material. All the books I have chosen have become reading classics in their own way. They are well-written and have plots that go well beyond normal literature in the sense that they unveil the human condition into the realm of the protagonist being up against all odds, where in the end, truth reveals all!       


I wrote

The Ikon: A Greek Island Thriller

By Gary Van Haas,

Book cover of The Ikon: A Greek Island Thriller

What is my book about?

Garth Hanson, a down-on-his-luck artist-detective from San Francisco, is led into a dizzying sphere of international intrigue and murder on…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of L.A. Noir

Gary Van Haas Why did I love this book?

I loved this compelling James Elroy story because it captured the intense mood of the 1960s in Los Angeles.

The misguided spirit of the main character, Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins, focuses all this in his unrelenting search for justice in a violent, murderous, and corrupt city.   

By James Ellroy,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked L.A. Noir as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Three of Ellroy's most compelling novels featuring Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins in one volume. Blood On The Moon: 20 random killings of women are unconnected in police files. But Det. Sgt. Lloyd Hopkins sees a pattern. As he is drawn to the murderer, the two men face a confrontation pitting icy intelligence against white-heated madness. . . Because The Night: Jacob Herzog, hero cop, has disappeared. A multiple murder committed with a pre-Civil War revolver remains unsolved. Are the two cases connected? As Det. Sgt. Lloyd Hopkins pieces the puzzle together he discovers the darker threat of John Haviland, a…


Book cover of The Sheltering Sky

Gary Van Haas Why did I love this book?

I read this fine book when it first came out with all its allusions to free sex and promiscuity. The theme is an elegant allegory about an American married couple who trade civilization for the wilderness of the Sahara.

I like how both were first seduced by the desert's eternal beauty, and in the end, both surrender psychologically and physically to the desert's deep dark undercurrents backdropped by an uncompromising, deeply different culture.  

By Paul Bowles,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Sheltering Sky as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'The Sheltering Sky is a book about people on the edge of an alien space; somewhere where, curiously, they are never alone' Michael Hoffman.

Port and Kit Moresbury, a sophisticated American couple, are finding it more than a little difficult to live with each other. Endeavouring to escape this predicament, they set off for North Africa intending to travel through Algeria - uncertain of exactly where they are heading, but determined to leave the modern world behind. The results of this casually taken decision are both tragic and compelling.


Book cover of Last Man Standing

Gary Van Haas Why did I love this book?

I first read this exciting Baldacci novel when I was on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York. The read was so captivating.

I got caught up in the twisting plot of this book where the main protagonist, Web, tries to put his life back together after incredible challenges, where he has to figure out why he was the only man not killed in a set up that led to a deadly ambush when in eventuality, the story explores the essence of pure survival in itself.  

By David Baldacci,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Last Man Standing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Seven seconds. That's all it took for Web London to lose everything: his friends, his team, his reputation. Point man of the FBI's super-elite Hostage rescue Team, Web roared into a blind alley towards a drug leader's lair, only to meet a high-tech, custom-designed ambush that killed everyone around him. Coping with the blame-filled words of anguished widows and the suspicions of colleagues, Web tries to put his life back together. To do so, he must discover why he was the one man who lived through the ambush - and find the only other person who came out of the…


Book cover of Private Vegas

Gary Van Haas Why did I love this book?

This book was a birthday gift from a good friend and fellow writer at The Guardian. It captured my interest immediately because I enjoy Patterson, and this exciting action thriller explores the seedy life of Las Vegas where love and murder are lost and found for a few quick dollars.

I especially enjoyed this tale's wild twists, in which the main character, Jack Morgan, is continually beaten down and challenged through incredible odds and tribulations.   

By James Patterson, Maxine Paetro,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Private Vegas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

_____________________________
Showgirls. Millionaires. Murder.

Jack Morgan, head of Private Investigations, the global PI agency of the rich and famous, is being pushed to the limit. His car has been firebombed, his ex is dating someone else, and his twin brother is still out to destroy him.

But Private doesn't rest, and nor do its clients: not the LAPD who need Private's help catching two scumbags with diplomatic immunity, and not the client who has just confessed to murdering his wife.

Add to that Jack's best friend being held on a trumped-up charge that could see him locked away for a…


Book cover of The Great Gatsby

Gary Van Haas Why did I love this book?

Everybody loves this book because it has become an international classic of literature and one of the best works F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, which takes the reader on a time-traveling secretive world of the upper-class set in New England life in the 1920s.

In F. Scott's work, we are casually and comfortably introduced to an America where new money met old money and the tender tightrope one had to walk in order to vie for position, marriage, and peer acceptance in a world founded on wealth and prestige.    

By F. Scott Fitzgerald,

Why should I read it?

25 authors picked The Great Gatsby as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As the summer unfolds, Nick is drawn into Gatsby's world of luxury cars, speedboats and extravagant parties. But the more he hears about Gatsby - even from what Gatsby himself tells him - the less he seems to believe. Did he really go to Oxford University? Was Gatsby a hero in the war? Did he once kill a man? Nick recalls how he comes to know Gatsby and how he also enters the world of his cousin Daisy and her wealthy husband Tom. Does their money make them any happier? Do the stories all connect? Shall we come to know…


Don't forget about my Book 😀

The Ikon: A Greek Island Thriller

By Gary Van Haas,

Book cover of The Ikon: A Greek Island Thriller

What is my book about?

Garth Hanson, a down-on-his-luck artist-detective from San Francisco, is led into a dizzying sphere of international intrigue and murder on the hip, jet-set island of Mykonos in the happening 1980s.

At the end of the story, a suspense-filled climax takes place on the nearby island of Tinos, where all the characters converge for one purpose–to steal a sacred Greek gem-studded icon worth $$ millions. The twist is they discover there’s more to the icon than money, for it’s not only the jewels, but they discover something of international importance that could change the course of the world and the history of all mankind!

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Dead Hand

By Valerie Nieman,

Book cover of Dead Hand

Valerie Nieman Author Of In the Lonely Backwater

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer Curiosity Traveler Nemophilist Perseverance

Valerie's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Lourana and Darrick took down the dreaded coal barons in To the Bones, but it seems that the Kavanaghs aren’t done yet. The college-age son of Eamon Kavanagh has unexpectedly inherited not only the family’s business empire but the family itself: generations of Kavanagh men whose spirits persist and who have now taken up residence in Rory’s mind and body.

As Lourana and Darrick try to shape a life together, they are attacked by Eamon through Rory, and flee the life-sucking Kavanaghs across Appalachia and then, in desperation and hope, to Ireland. The reluctant Rory is urged onward in the…

Dead Hand

By Valerie Nieman,

What is this book about?

In this sequel to To the Bones, Lourana and Darrick have taken down Eamon Kavanagh, patriarch of the dreaded coal barons of Redbird, WV, but it seems that the family isn’t done yet. The college-age son Rory has unexpectedly inherited not only the family’s empire but the family itself: generations of Kavanagh men whose spirits persist and who have now taken up residence in Rory’s mind and body.
As Lourana and Darrick try to shape a life together, they are attacked by Eamon through Rory, and flee the life-sucking Kavanaghs across Appalachia and then, in desperation and hope, to Ireland.…


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