Get THUNDERSTRUCK with a book this weekend

If you can read only one review on Bookgasm.com this week ... then you are really chintzy with your time. I mean, these last five days have seen us tackle such tomes as varied as a Richard Laymon reissue, comics based on Sam Raimi films, old Gothic paperbacks, the latest Joe Gunther mystery from Archer Mayor, a FRANKENSTEIN update from the UK, a Batman tale involving zombies, the history of the game Monopoly, a sci-fi classics anthology, Tim Lucas' would-be DRACULA sequel and the true Hollywood story of B-movie actress Jewel Shepard and her magnificent, paid-the-bills breasts.

Oh, and these four, for your mouse-clicking pleasure:

• THUNDERSTRUCK by Erik Larson – "Three years ago, Erik Larson's THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY was all the rage, winning awards and racking up sales. Being about the most pleasurable kind of non-fiction you could ever hope to read, it deserved every bit of its success. In the book, Larson expertly weaved two true tales of an architect and a serial killer whose paths crossed at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.In his latest, THUNDERSTRUCK, Larson gives another double-jointed historical account of a man of imagination and a murderer. Can lightning strike twice? Indeed."

• COURT TV PRESENTS: MURDER IN ROOM 103 by Harriet Ryan – "The true crime genre sometimes gets a bad rap as the literary equivalent of the made-for-TV-movie. Actually, that comparison is sometimes spot-on. But MURDER IN ROOM 103 is proof that true crime doesn’t have to be crap. ... In true whodunit style, Ryan clearly lays out all the evidence, the suspects, the alibis and the possible motives, then lets the reader play juror."

• GRAVE DESCEND by John Lange (aka Michael Crichton) – "The latest crackerjack thriller from Hard Case Crime, practically writes its own review with a line of dialogue straight from page 24: 'It is, after all, a very good story — bizarre sinking of a luxury yacht, with mysterious beautiful girl on board.' ... DESCEND runs less than 200 pages. With such frugality, this mystery/adventure moves with the speed of a hammerhead shark – which, incidentally, (protagonist) McGregor encounters."

• THE SENSE OF PAPER by Taylor Holden – "I like my fiction to have a subject, a theme as backdrop against which the characters can interact. Purely character-driven studies that have as their only theme an emotional construct – such as coming of age, redemption, facing one’s fears or developing spiritual wisdom – are almost always tedious and boring. But when an author can intertwine emotional development and subject development, having them play off and work against each other, extraordinary fiction can emerge. ... This is an attempt at serious literary fiction even if it comes across as a modern Gothic novel, and sadly, Holden’s skills don’t quite match up to the ambition of the tale."

Postpone your productivity today by visiting Bookgasm to read more. Those spreadsheets can wait 'til Monday.