What Are You Reading? (2 Viewers)

Just finished Jonathan Letham's The Fortress of Solitude. I love it's evocation of the 70's, 80's and 90's. And his love of music is deep. Great book.
 
I've read these Nabat books, and they're all good:

Bad: The Autobiography of James Carr
Beggars of Life: A Hobo Autobiography
"Yellow Kid" Weil: The Autobiography of America's Master Swindler
You Can't Win
Jack Black
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto Bernard Goldstein
 
Recently bailed out on a thriller by Gillian Flynn, the author of "Gone Girl". It was called "Sharp Objects" and looked like a fun ride when I skimmed the first couple of pages at the bookstore. The trouble is this: Anyone can grab your attention for a page or two with some punchy, hard-boiled prose. But then.... well then comes character development and plot construction - you know the stuff that actual novels are made of. And in my opinion, this woman really sucks at it. All I was looking for was a thriller, but chapter by disappointing chapter, this damned thing turned into what I can only describe as chick-lit.

So I felt like I was suckered into a tavern with the promise of fine single-malt scotch and handed a pint of Thunderbird. How do I slake my thirst now ? James M. Cain maybe ? It's gotta be crime/thriller but can't be Elmore Leonard because I've probably read his entire catalog. Any tips appreciated - thanks.
 
Andrew Vachss wrote some very intense crime novels set in NYC. They aren't for everyone, but I really dug them. First book was called Flood.
There were probably a dozen or so featuring the same protagonist and recurring characters.
 
By the way, after re-reading this thread I wanted to follow up on "The Luminaries" by Eleanor Catton. It was an 829 page commitment that paid off. It was a kind of murder mystery with supernatural elements to it involving 12 distinct characters that are all somehow connected to a prostitute. She's not exactly a "hooker with a heart of gold" but still a sympathetic character. The 12 men in the story all correspond to the 12 signs of the Zodiac but knowledge of astrology is not a requirement to following the story.

Superb writing here that is very much in a 19th-century style, with a narrator that "explains" certain background details to the reader. I don't care for that style usually but I adjusted to it here with no problem. Catton's voice is consistent throughout a thousand plot-twists and resolutions. I would say she very much deserved that Man Booker Prize last year.
Andrew Vachss wrote some very intense crime novels...
Will look into some Vachss. Thanks
 
Recently bailed out on
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You're probably familiar with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler but as far as James M. Cain goes I enjoyed The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. Mildred Pierce is meant to be good but I haven't gotten round to reading it yet. In a similar vein, you might like Horace McCoy's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? All a bit obvious I suppose, but all well worth a read if you haven't already checked them out.
 
@number6horse The Martin Beck Police Mystery by Maj Sowell and Per Wahloo series is great. Written by a Sweedish couple. Start with the 1st, Roseanna. The series of ten were written as "the history of crime". The books start in 1965. The last is, I think, set in 1975.
 
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Have just started that one. Not bad so far, reads easy. Setting reminds me of Richard Yates novels.
 
[... It's gotta be crime/thriller but can't be Elmore Leonard because I've probably read his entire catalog. Any tips appreciated - thanks.
Not big on action but if it's plot and character development then a great series to get your teeth into are the novels by Andreas Camilleri. Set in Sicily, present day. Pure pleasure and escapism with some social commentary/ great parody on Italian politics and bureaucracy.

Or Norwegian Jo Nesbo's books, much darker and really, like Chandler and Hammett, mostly just provide a setting for his deeply flawed, but very lovable protagonist to wrestle with all the big conflicts: struggling against authority, corruption, women and the woes they bring:D and booze.
Would recommend both authors.
[...You're probably familiar with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler....]

Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, I've read just some of their books, but I really admire them too, as men. There are two Dashiell Hammett's books I want to read:
Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett: 1921-1960
Sally Cline's: Dashiell Hammett: Man of Mystery

 
Update: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is very very good! Definitely recommended!

No spoilers, but some of the best written war-scenes in there I've every read. Normally I get bored quickly by war-scenes, but here not so.

Check it out, you are missing something if you don't read this book.
 
Just finished Time's Arrow by Martin Amis. It's been a very long time since I last read Amis. I almost forgot how good he is and the fact that I've already read about 7 of his other books. TA is excellent. The story goes backwards. Technically it is so well done and hard to explain without giving too much away. And it's short so the technical flourishes are reasonable and not overwhelming or annoying.
 
I was going through an old box of books, and found some Edward Bunker novels. If anyone is interested in a great L.A. crime novel (which is semi-autobiographical and was the basis for the movie Straight Time), No Beast So Fierce can't be beat. Great Book.
 
Just blew through Bill Janovitz's Rocks Off 50 Songs by the Stones. Brilliant and it renewed an interest in some of their more obscure tunes.
 
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Considered the first "Beat novel" ever, even before "On the Road", if I understand it correctly. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Cassady, Burroughs are all in there, under different aliases.

Find it only mildly interesting, so far. Also not too well written. Everybody running around looking for marihuana all the time and screwing each other, horrible. This youth in search of "kicks", the world will end very soon.
 
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I learned that Norman Mailer drank a lot, smoked a lot of dope, was mentally unstable, liked to beat up people and to indulge in orgies together with his wife.

Interesting and reads easy. I liked it more than anything I've ever read by Norman Mailer.
 
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First of Bolaño I've ever read and rather disappointing so far.

All about writers talking about writing to other writers who talk about writing, running around, writing each other letters about writing, teaching creative writing.
Reminds me of Bukowskis "THE POET" bit where all the poet ever writes about is THE POET!

Only a couple of stories in yet, maybe some good ones coming. I hope so.

What I like is that everybody seems very lonely in this book. Otherwise I don't get it, no humor, nor irony, seems terribly flat. Such a big name, Bolaño, and such dry stuff. Maybe I don't get something you should get, maybe the German translation?

Any Bolaño fans around here?
 
I'm a huge fan of 2666, and I liked the Savage Detectives. His short stories can feel tedious and repetitive, though. He was also a fairly prolific poet, which I haven't read much of.
 
I bought 2666, they sent me the skating rink instead by Bolano. Then, they sent me the right book free, which was nice. I started the skating rink twice and couldn't get into it. I'll try again.

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Read this one as a teenager once, didn't understand much then. Now rereading. Some very powerful passages in this book. Sometimes an almost unbearable loneliness. Reminds me a lot of Kafka in many ways, also the lifes were somewhat similar.

Pessoa was a little anonymous clerk all his life who published one book during his lifetime and was virtually unknown to everybody. He left a huge wooden trunk of unpublished work after his death, over 25.000 pages. The Book of Disquiet comes out of this trunk.
 
Our 13 year old dog Joe has liver cancer and is on his way out, so I've been spending a lot of time in the house trying to make him as comfortable as possible. It helps that I'm currently unemployed.

So, I have a bunch of books on the go...

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I may give up on The Master, but I'm enjoying the others.
 
Tried 'Dubliners' by Joyce (finally after wanting to read it for years), the stories are hit & miss but when the hits do occur, they are a little interesting.

Currently reading The Shining by Stephen King.
I saw the film adaptation of this and felt it was a letdown. I thought the story idea a good one, except for the Shining aspect of it.

I learned that Norman Mailer drank a lot, smoked a lot of dope, was mentally unstable, liked to beat up people and to indulge in orgies together with his wife.
Didn't Mailer stab his wife?

Our 13 year old dog Joe has liver cancer and is on his way out, so I've been spending a lot of time in the house trying to make him as comfortable as possible. It helps that I'm currently unemployed.

So, I have a bunch of books on the go...

I may give up on The Master, but I'm enjoying the others.
Sorry to hear about your dog. Saw the cover of a book with Chet Baker on it. I love his music on this album.
ir
 
Just finished The Dog of The South -- really great!
Just in to Love With a Few Hairs -- so far so good.
Will probably re-read The Milagro Beanfield War next, as I've wanted to for years and finally dug out the copy.
 
After Visiting Friends, Michael Hainey's memoir about the mysterious death of his father, famed Chicago newspaperman of the 60's. Michael was 6 and his father's heatrattack occured neither near his home, nor his work and in the middle of the night. The descrepancies in the different obits haunted Michael and sent him on a lifelong journey requiring all his investigative skills as a journalist and deputy editor of GQ. Good stuff.
 

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