Now reading...

[jlhoots]

Michael Connolly: Desert Star

[ejp626]

I just finished up A Hero of Our Time.

Interestingly, there is a contemporary novel by Naben Ruthnum by the same name!  I'll get to it fairly soon, but it isn't the very next thing on my list.

I'm currently halfway through The Decameron.  This is in preparation for Shteyngart's Our Country Friends, which has a similar set up (retreat from the city during a pandemic) but not quite so many bawdy tales. 😜

[JSngry]

On 4/13/2024 at 8:41 AM, Brad said:

To those who are not all that familiar with how enslaved people were treated this will be an eye opener. 

Same for those who are not all that familiar with how enslaving people think...

[rostasi]

[GA Russell]

On 4/6/2024 at 9:57 PM, GA Russell said:

Everyone is entirely credible.  But these guys are not as interesting people as the players from The Glory of Their Times.  Maybe the guys from a hundred years ago were country.

Two-Time World Series-Winning Dodgers Pitcher Dead At 97 (msn.com)

Carl Erskine has died.  RIP.

[GA Russell]

This is a novel, apparently serialized in Black Mask Magazine in 1939.  It reads like it was dictated rather than worked on, but it's pretty good.

Edited April 21, 2024 by GA Russell

[jazzbo]

On 3/26/2024 at 1:00 AM, GA Russell said:

Raymond Chandler was a friend of Erle Stanley Gardner's.  A year ago, I read a collection of Chandler's correspondence.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008TSROHM/

In one letter, he said that he had just finished a story by some new guy named A.A. Fair.  He said that he enjoyed the book, but that Fair's writing was a complete ripoff of Gardner's style and plot devices!

 

I love all the A.A. Fair novels. And Chandler too. Chandler was so envious of how Gardner could create plot after plot with ease; Gardner was in awe of the prose Chandler could write.

 

Now reading

Reading my Uncle Jack's ex-wife Bonnie's book (she'll always be my Aunt Bonnie.)

This is very weird, it's sort of like a Philip K. Dick book or some such. It's hard to believe it all happened or was real. But. . . the writing is good.

Edited April 21, 2024 by jazzbo

[GA Russell]

[JSngry]

4 hours ago, jazzbo said:

I love all the A.A. Fair novels. And Chandler too. Chandler was so envious of how Gardner could create plot after plot with ease; Gardner was in awe of the prose Chandler could write.

 

Now reading

Reading my Uncle Jack's ex-wife Bonnie's book (she'll always be my Aunt Bonnie.)

This is very weird, it's sort of like a Philip K. Dick book or some such. It's hard to believe it all happened or was real. But. . . the writing is good.

Was she related to Molly Ivins? They kinda look alike? Kinda?

[jazzbo]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Was she related to Molly Ivins? They kinda look alike? Kinda?

No.

[Referentzhunter]

[rostasi]

[ghost of miles]

Wish I’d been able to see the actual exhibition, but the catalogue’s the next-best thing:

[soulpope]

9 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

Wish I’d been able to see the actual exhibition, but the catalogue’s the next-best thing:

Interesting .... thnx for the hint 👌 ....

[GA Russell]

[rostasi]

[felser]

[jlhoots]

C.J. Box: Storm Watch 

[Dub Modal]

Just finished Tom O'Neill's 2019 book Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties

Good book and rec'd if the topic is of interest. 

[Brad]

[jlhoots]

Michael Connolly: The Brass Verdict (A Lincoln Lawyer Novel)

[Referentzhunter]

[GA Russell]

Pretty bad.  Amateurish writing.

[ghost of miles]

A recent trip to New York City’s Tenement Museum inspired me to finally get around to reading Mike Gold’s classic novel of Lower East Side life in the early 20th century (Henry Roth’s Call It Sleep, published four years after Gold’s work, is an outstanding book covering roughly the same area and period):

Edited May 11, 2024 by ghost of miles

[JSngry]

On 5/8/2024 at 11:05 AM, Dub Modal said:

Just finished Tom O'Neill's 2019 book Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties

Good book and rec'd if the topic is of interest. 

Going to read this one first and then dive right into that one.

Thanks for the tip!