beach books 2008

In a previous posting I mentioned the Magus, the first summer book I read this year. (by summer books I classify the books I read on the beach or boats/planes in general during holidays)
Two more books I have read on the beach are one of Kundera's first attempt to write and the first novel of a new author who can easily become my role model (an american NY laywer who retired and lives permanently in Myconos)
Kundera's 'Komikoi erwtes' (les amours comiques) is a collection of short stories about love affairs - or people thinking about love affairs - that in their majority ended up in breaking up but the entire approach is witty and contains Kundera's unparallel almost black humour.
The book was written between 1959 and 1968 and are published in 1970 and therefore are considered his second book. It contains seven stories through which Kundera describes seven different states of mind, seven different main personalities who are troubled by issues that he will later explore in his entire work. A must read and if the reading takes place on a chaise longue, cooled by the sea breeze, the experience becomes ever so enjoyable - rating: 5 out of 5
The second book I am mentioning here, Murder in Myconos, is as I said written by Jeffrey Siger, a NY famous lawer who has been coming to Myconos for the last 25 years and has decided to become a permanent resident. Needless to say that it was the title of the book that cought my attention. It is a police book, typical for summer reading - only for summer reading I must add - not the best literary pages I have read as it is extremely poor in giving personality profiles. It does give though a fantastic description of the island of Myconos and it is fun to read. The book is strong in the policy story script as the killer is not obvious until the last page. Publisher is Lalaouni editions (!) as Mr. Siger is a Myconian - hence an athenian - socialite by now. I think it could be an ideal summer movie, of the kind that they have fast police chase, good looking girls and insane killers whose motives are never really revealed as the author does not bother to get too deep. Having said all that, I did stay up reading until 3am to finish it as I wanted to find out who the bloody killer was. I believe that the main characters will return for follow up books (possibly murder in athens or something like that) - rating: 3 out of 5 (and that's mainly because of Myconos)