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Books Thread
Moderators: Jonicont, mark lynn, Maluca3, Tequila Cowboy, BigTom, CooleyGirl, olwiggum
Re: Books Thread
Real good so far. I got my goddaughter the first book in the series for Xmas & she was quite happy to get it.
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Re: Books Thread
What bastard wrote Snow White and the 7 ______? SW might as well be carrying a battle flag!
and that pussy Alec Baldwin blew that girl away, and speaking of pussy Steve got it all!
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Re: Books Thread
Silverview is not topnotch John Le Carre, but pretty good Le Carre is still pretty damn good and this is pretty damn good. Very short, even shorter if one considers the extra large type used presumably to pad it out a bit and get it over 200 pages lol. No complaints though, it is a complete story and works fine just the way it is. The disillusionment conveyed throughout the book by multiple characters seems like an appropriate coda for Le Carre's career and our times.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
Re: Books Thread
Chuck Klosterman's new book looks interesting. From reading the NYT write-up, "Self Destructive Zones" could be the soundtrack.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/book ... erman.html
Just the other day in my office, the kiddos were playing a bunch of songs I remembered from High School. Then, I sadly realized that I was listening to "Oldies". I'm much too young to feel this damn old. Wait, fuck...that's an Oldie too.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/book ... erman.html
Just the other day in my office, the kiddos were playing a bunch of songs I remembered from High School. Then, I sadly realized that I was listening to "Oldies". I'm much too young to feel this damn old. Wait, fuck...that's an Oldie too.
Love each other, Motherfuckers!
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Re: Books Thread
I'm not sure what to say about The Serialist by David Gordon except that you should read it. Nominally a mystery, it's really a one of a kind mash up/send up of modern America and multiple literary genres. The first half is quite funny including some parts that had me laughing out loud though the humor becomes less frequent as the book moves on. Here are some quotes from the back cover blurbs for another of his books which apply to this one as well:
"His prose is by turns salacious, uproarious, and happily unhinged. A total delight." - Karen Russell
""Dashiell Hammett divided by Don DeLillo, to the power of Dostoyevsky - yet still pure David Gordon." - Rivka Galchen
"[Gordon] is one of the smartest, most stylish writers I've ever come across, a gifted storyteller whose work perfectly combines an incredibly sharp wit with moments of real transcendent beauty." - Karen Thompson Walker
"Like all great writers, David Gordon somehow synthesizes every part of the human condition - from the sublime to the humiliating - into one whip smart voice." - Jay Caspian Kang
Plus Gordon's thumbnail bio is one of the most, ummm, unusual, I've ever read but I'll let you discover that for yourself.
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"His prose is by turns salacious, uproarious, and happily unhinged. A total delight." - Karen Russell
""Dashiell Hammett divided by Don DeLillo, to the power of Dostoyevsky - yet still pure David Gordon." - Rivka Galchen
"[Gordon] is one of the smartest, most stylish writers I've ever come across, a gifted storyteller whose work perfectly combines an incredibly sharp wit with moments of real transcendent beauty." - Karen Thompson Walker
"Like all great writers, David Gordon somehow synthesizes every part of the human condition - from the sublime to the humiliating - into one whip smart voice." - Jay Caspian Kang
Plus Gordon's thumbnail bio is one of the most, ummm, unusual, I've ever read but I'll let you discover that for yourself.
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What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
- Shakespeare
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Re: Books Thread
catching up
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was curious how his novels compared to something like fargo. answer seems to be roughly the same, both strengths (a captivating and non-linear plot around a solid web of characters pulled together by random events) and weaknesses (bigger picture moralizing that was painfully simplistic at best, empty navel gazey at worst. the rightwing media overlords central to the whole web were particularly lazy satire).
its about a private jet crash and its two survivors. chapters weave from before, during, after for about a dozen characters. books like this have a tendency to flow weird for me because its almost inevitable that a chapter about a lesser character comes at the worst time and kills a bit of momentum just built up, but it never really dragged too much. terrible ending though. just the worst possible way to wrap things up
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Very good. For a while it felt like it was just killing time and not setting up much of a story but it came together in the end and packed quite a punch. Its central scandal is definitely dulled a bit reading it nowadays but still a touching story. The inspiration for the band!
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Haven't read this dude before but this was good trash. Woman hires a hit man to kill her husband, undercover cop flips to her side, etc. Could have done with less softcore porn (don't mind sex in a crime novel obv, this was just a bit much) and the ending was oddly neat (definitely intentionally defying convention based on the classic noirs it references, but it's still weird when these stories end well) but I'll definitely read more of his stuff
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I didn't like this much but once I realized it was a zombie supernatural thing I immediately knew I wouldn't. this publishing imprint is usually grittier reality type crime so that's what I expected here, oops!
Thing was well written but as a horror novel it felt like a goosebumps book with a bit more profanity. kinda hard to take seriously and not sure who it was for really. It's about this kid that can talk to dead people and gets dragged into a police investigation
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Setup here was incredible (guys found dead with a meat skewer through his eye the night of a particular intense group therapy session) and it had a vibe I'm not sure I've seen in a crime novel yet, but overall I didn't care for it much. Plot had plenty of twists and layers but didn't really maintain enough tension as it reached a conclusion. Plus some of it seemed like obscure local history that went over my head.
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reminded me a lot of edwin o'connors the edge of sadness (in its plot focusing on a priest and church politics without being a strictly catholic novel per se) and john williams' stoner (in its generally slow, middle american tone) but ended up a dud unfortunately. not sure if it was due to me not knowing church hierarchy well enough to get a lot of what happened, or a poorly timed lapse in attention while reading made a characters importance later on hard to compute, or just that pretty much nothing did actually happen. really enjoyed the writing but as a narrative it felt always on the brink of actually starting. bit frustrating
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Didn't care for this at all. Flimsy plot (young girl married off to a rich older man) and conflict (has an affair, lives out her life in shame) with no real character development needed to care. Im fine with a plot that feels quaint by today standards, in this case there just wasn't enough given to any of it's characters for any of it to hit on any deep level
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This was great. I hoped for something much easier to read (effi Briest wasn't too challenging but had some insanely dense paragraphs where nothing really happened) and it fit the bill completely. Concerns a public school teacher navigating students, parents, peers over her first semester. Told mostly through short fragments from a variety of perspectives, interspersed with longer letters that served as the primary narrative. Bit gimmicky but flowed well. What I liked most is how universal it felt. Beyond a short bit discussing integration it was all stuff that could have come out of just about any school, just about any year since. Ending perhaps a bit too neat but still real enough imo
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i quite liked both despite not being a huge sci fi guy. maybe because even though some wild supernatural experiment was central to each plot, they unfolded more like a meticulous crime mystery. in walk, two students happen upon their professor burning up in his lab then one of them marries the professors ex-wife. in water, scientist is trying to make a machine to talk to the dead.
running water was the more fully realized work, but walk was cool for the way it was narrated retroactively. you know all along what happened, but not why. lead to a nice bit of tension even though the eventual payoff was pretty goofy.
packaging them together kinda does a disservice to walk though, because the basic plots and characters are so similar its easy to dismiss the lesser one as a draft attempt when you read them back to back, but walk had some unique charms anyway.
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interesting but I didn't really have the focus it deserved so it ended up more something I respected than enjoyed. It's basically a documentary about a woman in mid century Germany, told via interviews with those around her. Lots of interesting pieces (why i stuck with it even after realizing there was no chance I was keeping all the names in order mentally) and it used the time frame in a way that was political without hammering you over the head with it, but definitely something I'd need to come back to to fully appreciate
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rough. crouchs passion for the subject was apparent throughout, he just seemed to lose sight of what the subject actually was too often. Way too many multi page tangents on completely unrelated people and events. A bit of wider context to tell the main story is one thing but this really pushes it. Multiple interludes about figures that barely have any connection to Parker at all (several of them about boxers for some reason) and periodically a bit of editorializing that really sticks out. Just kinda weird. It was cool to see heavyweights like Basie, Hawkins, young play into parkers musical up ringing, but rhapsodizing for several pages about cult local figures or jack Johnson was bizarre. Add the fact that he ends the book just before bird starts to make serious moves onto the scene and it left me wanting a whole lot more. This was basically a history of early 20th century midwest punctuated by interviews with parker's teenage love. overall just not a school of bio writing i care for at all
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This started off very appealing. Whimsical English countryside setting, nice sort of adult fairy tale plot about a dimwitted death forgetting who he's supposed to kill, plenty of colorful characters. Didn't really hold together like I hoped though. Last 75% or so was kinda boring. It had some chapters that played kinda like standalone things, so it was easy to stick with, but ultimately a bit of a letdpwn
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Hadn't read this guy before.this couldn't have taken me more than an hour and definitely could have been fleshed out a bit, but I quite liked it. Starts out at a surreal library full of only unread manuscripts, then becomes an odd romance/travel novel. For a while it was kinda stuck in that sort of purgatory where a story is enjoyable but empty, but the ending was just enough of a twist to give it some weight. Plenty of things very of it's time about it (though the abortion itself wasn't played up for shock value like I kinda expected) but not in a bad way. Enjoyed it
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This one felt like it might be a masterpiece though. First person narrator looking back on events, mostly small and one huge. Still fairly short but much more developed, with narrative jumping back and forth across a few decades. He finished it shortly before his suicide and it is a very melancholy book in every way but also kinda hilarious. I wanted to jump right back in and read it again tbh
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Very good. Struck a delicate balance of being very explicitly based around a specific conflict (early 90s Yugoslavia) without necessarily needing the reader to know the exact political background. Starts out with a reporter doing a puff piece on a tabloid murder suspect, then gets tangled in a bunch of corruption and general nihilism. Not really all that thrilling, but it did a lot of things really well and I'd definitely like to read more by her. Trying to add a bit more modern stuff to the mix lately
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got around 100 pages in over the course of the week and i like it and want to see where it goes, but its one of those 19th century mysteries thats just so quaint in its scandal, yet written so long and wordy, i kinda hit a wall. couldnt see myself sitting with this thing for hours at a time and felt like if i focused solely on this i wouldnt finish anything at all for weeks so i think ill try reading it in addition to other novels despite typically avoiding that. remains to be seen if ia ctually finish it
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three of the eight books he wrote for quick cash a few decades before jurassic park and all that. wouldnt call them great by any means but it was a fun couple hours. drug of choice kinda sucked from about the quarter mark on though, just way too much of a dystopian sci fi vibe i can never really get into. the other two were flimsy plots but played out like a good cheap action flick just real enough to buy into. solid 3 out of 5 stuff. bits and pieces of each hinted at stuff hed ride to the big bucks eventually. im not even a huge jurassic park fan but it was neat to see
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Was really curious about this, as it's regarded as one of the first jazz novel. Published in 1938, so not quite the infancy of jazz, but early enough I wondered what type of story it could tell without the pop culture footprint available for a bebop type character. Answer was a pretty good, if basic one. It is a jazz novel but not necessarily a novel for jazzheads only. She writes about the music of course, but not academically. The only thing I'd say kept this from being more than just a jazz story is the story itself, which was a pretty standard rise and fall type tale. It's jazz setting was the hook, so it's audience felt limited right off the bat. Bit of a shame
I thought it did some interesting things racially, even if like almost any Woke Book from the time it had plenty of language that did not age well. The main character is a white trumpeter (inspired by but not really based on bix Beiderbecke) with some questionable, if mostly passive, views early on, but he falls (platonically) for a black drummer and that becomes the emotional core of the book. He still says and thinks some clunky things after that point, but he's embraced by the black jazz community, while baker (who was white) seems to somewhat deliberately cast the other white characters as either entirely ignorant of the race of the musicians they tried to copy, or outwardly racist in their aim to ride the black musicians' wave to bigger success. I wouldn't say it totally stuck the landing on all this, but points for at least trying to say something about the questionable racial politics behind some of Jazz's biggest pop stars then and since
So I liked it overall. Would have appreciated more length given to the downfall portion (there really wasn't a ton there. Some booze but not really a drug and scandal type downfall. Dude just muffed a solo in a sideman gig and took it hard) but even that had some interesting layers to it (everyone in studio noticed it, but only one guy recognized it as a physically impossible note to hit). Mostly a neat time capsule but plenty of solid writing overall
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Overall didn't care much for it, but short stories typically leave me cold so I didn't expect to love the whole thing here. There was enough in here I enjoyed to make it worthwhile, but nothing that changed my mind on short fiction in general
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This was great. started out as a fairly lukewarm family drama and gradually kicked it up several notches with some truly wild twists towards the end. Centers around a pair of teen sisters in the aftermath of their mothers suicide attempt. Used multiple perspectives nicely throughout. Not sure the ending totally worked for me but still impressive stuff
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I tried in cold blood many years ago but didn't get very far. Also haven't seen the movie so I went into this pretty all around fresh, classic shakes
Loved it. Didn't really care for the three 20ish page stories tacked on at the end,but breakfast itself was the perfect length and vibe. Left plenty of angles uncovered but didn't feel incomplete at all. No wonder at all that it left such a legacy
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Cannot believe how good this ended up being. its dense as heck but yet feels like nothing ever happens. It's an absolute mess (by design, but even within that framework it could have been edited down easily) and takes place almost entirely within the inner monologue of a completely irredeemable asshole, but I never once felt like tapping out. The guy sucks, but heller doesn't really glorify him. Doesn't really condemn him either, he just kinda is. Granted, look at the bad man isn't a genre we really need anymore,but this was as often deeply hilarious as it was problematic, and
as a slice of American middle class day to day nothing it was bleakly perfect. Big time a serious man vibes in so many ways and easily the most ive ever enjoyed a stream of consciousness work.
i havent even read catch 22, lol.
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was curious how his novels compared to something like fargo. answer seems to be roughly the same, both strengths (a captivating and non-linear plot around a solid web of characters pulled together by random events) and weaknesses (bigger picture moralizing that was painfully simplistic at best, empty navel gazey at worst. the rightwing media overlords central to the whole web were particularly lazy satire).
its about a private jet crash and its two survivors. chapters weave from before, during, after for about a dozen characters. books like this have a tendency to flow weird for me because its almost inevitable that a chapter about a lesser character comes at the worst time and kills a bit of momentum just built up, but it never really dragged too much. terrible ending though. just the worst possible way to wrap things up
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Very good. For a while it felt like it was just killing time and not setting up much of a story but it came together in the end and packed quite a punch. Its central scandal is definitely dulled a bit reading it nowadays but still a touching story. The inspiration for the band!
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Haven't read this dude before but this was good trash. Woman hires a hit man to kill her husband, undercover cop flips to her side, etc. Could have done with less softcore porn (don't mind sex in a crime novel obv, this was just a bit much) and the ending was oddly neat (definitely intentionally defying convention based on the classic noirs it references, but it's still weird when these stories end well) but I'll definitely read more of his stuff
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I didn't like this much but once I realized it was a zombie supernatural thing I immediately knew I wouldn't. this publishing imprint is usually grittier reality type crime so that's what I expected here, oops!
Thing was well written but as a horror novel it felt like a goosebumps book with a bit more profanity. kinda hard to take seriously and not sure who it was for really. It's about this kid that can talk to dead people and gets dragged into a police investigation
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Setup here was incredible (guys found dead with a meat skewer through his eye the night of a particular intense group therapy session) and it had a vibe I'm not sure I've seen in a crime novel yet, but overall I didn't care for it much. Plot had plenty of twists and layers but didn't really maintain enough tension as it reached a conclusion. Plus some of it seemed like obscure local history that went over my head.
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reminded me a lot of edwin o'connors the edge of sadness (in its plot focusing on a priest and church politics without being a strictly catholic novel per se) and john williams' stoner (in its generally slow, middle american tone) but ended up a dud unfortunately. not sure if it was due to me not knowing church hierarchy well enough to get a lot of what happened, or a poorly timed lapse in attention while reading made a characters importance later on hard to compute, or just that pretty much nothing did actually happen. really enjoyed the writing but as a narrative it felt always on the brink of actually starting. bit frustrating
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Didn't care for this at all. Flimsy plot (young girl married off to a rich older man) and conflict (has an affair, lives out her life in shame) with no real character development needed to care. Im fine with a plot that feels quaint by today standards, in this case there just wasn't enough given to any of it's characters for any of it to hit on any deep level
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This was great. I hoped for something much easier to read (effi Briest wasn't too challenging but had some insanely dense paragraphs where nothing really happened) and it fit the bill completely. Concerns a public school teacher navigating students, parents, peers over her first semester. Told mostly through short fragments from a variety of perspectives, interspersed with longer letters that served as the primary narrative. Bit gimmicky but flowed well. What I liked most is how universal it felt. Beyond a short bit discussing integration it was all stuff that could have come out of just about any school, just about any year since. Ending perhaps a bit too neat but still real enough imo
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i quite liked both despite not being a huge sci fi guy. maybe because even though some wild supernatural experiment was central to each plot, they unfolded more like a meticulous crime mystery. in walk, two students happen upon their professor burning up in his lab then one of them marries the professors ex-wife. in water, scientist is trying to make a machine to talk to the dead.
running water was the more fully realized work, but walk was cool for the way it was narrated retroactively. you know all along what happened, but not why. lead to a nice bit of tension even though the eventual payoff was pretty goofy.
packaging them together kinda does a disservice to walk though, because the basic plots and characters are so similar its easy to dismiss the lesser one as a draft attempt when you read them back to back, but walk had some unique charms anyway.
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interesting but I didn't really have the focus it deserved so it ended up more something I respected than enjoyed. It's basically a documentary about a woman in mid century Germany, told via interviews with those around her. Lots of interesting pieces (why i stuck with it even after realizing there was no chance I was keeping all the names in order mentally) and it used the time frame in a way that was political without hammering you over the head with it, but definitely something I'd need to come back to to fully appreciate
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rough. crouchs passion for the subject was apparent throughout, he just seemed to lose sight of what the subject actually was too often. Way too many multi page tangents on completely unrelated people and events. A bit of wider context to tell the main story is one thing but this really pushes it. Multiple interludes about figures that barely have any connection to Parker at all (several of them about boxers for some reason) and periodically a bit of editorializing that really sticks out. Just kinda weird. It was cool to see heavyweights like Basie, Hawkins, young play into parkers musical up ringing, but rhapsodizing for several pages about cult local figures or jack Johnson was bizarre. Add the fact that he ends the book just before bird starts to make serious moves onto the scene and it left me wanting a whole lot more. This was basically a history of early 20th century midwest punctuated by interviews with parker's teenage love. overall just not a school of bio writing i care for at all
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This started off very appealing. Whimsical English countryside setting, nice sort of adult fairy tale plot about a dimwitted death forgetting who he's supposed to kill, plenty of colorful characters. Didn't really hold together like I hoped though. Last 75% or so was kinda boring. It had some chapters that played kinda like standalone things, so it was easy to stick with, but ultimately a bit of a letdpwn
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Hadn't read this guy before.this couldn't have taken me more than an hour and definitely could have been fleshed out a bit, but I quite liked it. Starts out at a surreal library full of only unread manuscripts, then becomes an odd romance/travel novel. For a while it was kinda stuck in that sort of purgatory where a story is enjoyable but empty, but the ending was just enough of a twist to give it some weight. Plenty of things very of it's time about it (though the abortion itself wasn't played up for shock value like I kinda expected) but not in a bad way. Enjoyed it
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This one felt like it might be a masterpiece though. First person narrator looking back on events, mostly small and one huge. Still fairly short but much more developed, with narrative jumping back and forth across a few decades. He finished it shortly before his suicide and it is a very melancholy book in every way but also kinda hilarious. I wanted to jump right back in and read it again tbh
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Very good. Struck a delicate balance of being very explicitly based around a specific conflict (early 90s Yugoslavia) without necessarily needing the reader to know the exact political background. Starts out with a reporter doing a puff piece on a tabloid murder suspect, then gets tangled in a bunch of corruption and general nihilism. Not really all that thrilling, but it did a lot of things really well and I'd definitely like to read more by her. Trying to add a bit more modern stuff to the mix lately
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got around 100 pages in over the course of the week and i like it and want to see where it goes, but its one of those 19th century mysteries thats just so quaint in its scandal, yet written so long and wordy, i kinda hit a wall. couldnt see myself sitting with this thing for hours at a time and felt like if i focused solely on this i wouldnt finish anything at all for weeks so i think ill try reading it in addition to other novels despite typically avoiding that. remains to be seen if ia ctually finish it
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three of the eight books he wrote for quick cash a few decades before jurassic park and all that. wouldnt call them great by any means but it was a fun couple hours. drug of choice kinda sucked from about the quarter mark on though, just way too much of a dystopian sci fi vibe i can never really get into. the other two were flimsy plots but played out like a good cheap action flick just real enough to buy into. solid 3 out of 5 stuff. bits and pieces of each hinted at stuff hed ride to the big bucks eventually. im not even a huge jurassic park fan but it was neat to see
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Was really curious about this, as it's regarded as one of the first jazz novel. Published in 1938, so not quite the infancy of jazz, but early enough I wondered what type of story it could tell without the pop culture footprint available for a bebop type character. Answer was a pretty good, if basic one. It is a jazz novel but not necessarily a novel for jazzheads only. She writes about the music of course, but not academically. The only thing I'd say kept this from being more than just a jazz story is the story itself, which was a pretty standard rise and fall type tale. It's jazz setting was the hook, so it's audience felt limited right off the bat. Bit of a shame
I thought it did some interesting things racially, even if like almost any Woke Book from the time it had plenty of language that did not age well. The main character is a white trumpeter (inspired by but not really based on bix Beiderbecke) with some questionable, if mostly passive, views early on, but he falls (platonically) for a black drummer and that becomes the emotional core of the book. He still says and thinks some clunky things after that point, but he's embraced by the black jazz community, while baker (who was white) seems to somewhat deliberately cast the other white characters as either entirely ignorant of the race of the musicians they tried to copy, or outwardly racist in their aim to ride the black musicians' wave to bigger success. I wouldn't say it totally stuck the landing on all this, but points for at least trying to say something about the questionable racial politics behind some of Jazz's biggest pop stars then and since
So I liked it overall. Would have appreciated more length given to the downfall portion (there really wasn't a ton there. Some booze but not really a drug and scandal type downfall. Dude just muffed a solo in a sideman gig and took it hard) but even that had some interesting layers to it (everyone in studio noticed it, but only one guy recognized it as a physically impossible note to hit). Mostly a neat time capsule but plenty of solid writing overall
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Overall didn't care much for it, but short stories typically leave me cold so I didn't expect to love the whole thing here. There was enough in here I enjoyed to make it worthwhile, but nothing that changed my mind on short fiction in general
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This was great. started out as a fairly lukewarm family drama and gradually kicked it up several notches with some truly wild twists towards the end. Centers around a pair of teen sisters in the aftermath of their mothers suicide attempt. Used multiple perspectives nicely throughout. Not sure the ending totally worked for me but still impressive stuff
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I tried in cold blood many years ago but didn't get very far. Also haven't seen the movie so I went into this pretty all around fresh, classic shakes
Loved it. Didn't really care for the three 20ish page stories tacked on at the end,but breakfast itself was the perfect length and vibe. Left plenty of angles uncovered but didn't feel incomplete at all. No wonder at all that it left such a legacy
Cannot believe how good this ended up being. its dense as heck but yet feels like nothing ever happens. It's an absolute mess (by design, but even within that framework it could have been edited down easily) and takes place almost entirely within the inner monologue of a completely irredeemable asshole, but I never once felt like tapping out. The guy sucks, but heller doesn't really glorify him. Doesn't really condemn him either, he just kinda is. Granted, look at the bad man isn't a genre we really need anymore,but this was as often deeply hilarious as it was problematic, and
as a slice of American middle class day to day nothing it was bleakly perfect. Big time a serious man vibes in so many ways and easily the most ive ever enjoyed a stream of consciousness work.
i havent even read catch 22, lol.
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Re: Books Thread
Try this:Shakespeare wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:42 pm
Was really curious about this, as it's regarded as one of the first jazz novel. Published in 1938, so not quite the infancy of jazz, but early enough I wondered what type of story it could tell without the pop culture footprint available for a bebop type character. Answer was a pretty good, if basic one. It is a jazz novel but not necessarily a novel for jazzheads only. She writes about the music of course, but not academically. The only thing I'd say kept this from being more than just a jazz story is the story itself, which was a pretty standard rise and fall type tale. It's jazz setting was the hook, so it's audience felt limited right off the bat. Bit of a shame
I thought it did some interesting things racially, even if like almost any Woke Book from the time it had plenty of language that did not age well. The main character is a white trumpeter (inspired by but not really based on bix Beiderbecke) with some questionable, if mostly passive, views early on, but he falls (platonically) for a black drummer and that becomes the emotional core of the book. He still says and thinks some clunky things after that point, but he's embraced by the black jazz community, while baker (who was white) seems to somewhat deliberately cast the other white characters as either entirely ignorant of the race of the musicians they tried to copy, or outwardly racist in their aim to ride the black musicians' wave to bigger success. I wouldn't say it totally stuck the landing on all this, but points for at least trying to say something about the questionable racial politics behind some of Jazz's biggest pop stars then and since
So I liked it overall. Would have appreciated more length given to the downfall portion (there really wasn't a ton there. Some booze but not really a drug and scandal type downfall. Dude just muffed a solo in a sideman gig and took it hard) but even that had some interesting layers to it (everyone in studio noticed it, but only one guy recognized it as a physically impossible note to hit). Mostly a neat time capsule but plenty of solid writing overall
![Image](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41BlWB53E-L._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be
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Re: Books Thread
Stefan Zweig - beware of pity
Mixed feelings about this. On the plus side it had a great plot. Dude somehow lands an invite to some rich guys party, hits it off well, then asks rich guys daughter to dance without realizing she's paralyzed. Proceeds to try and make it up and just digs a deeper and deeper hole. It's a perfect farcical storyline but it's hardly played for comedy which made it even funnier somehow for me, even as it headed towards its inevitable tragic conclusion
On the other hand it wasn't that long (350 pages) but felt three times as long as it needed to be. So many passages that just went on and on for no reason. Bit of a grind to finish
Mixed feelings about this. On the plus side it had a great plot. Dude somehow lands an invite to some rich guys party, hits it off well, then asks rich guys daughter to dance without realizing she's paralyzed. Proceeds to try and make it up and just digs a deeper and deeper hole. It's a perfect farcical storyline but it's hardly played for comedy which made it even funnier somehow for me, even as it headed towards its inevitable tragic conclusion
On the other hand it wasn't that long (350 pages) but felt three times as long as it needed to be. So many passages that just went on and on for no reason. Bit of a grind to finish
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Re: Books Thread
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this guys got a few books id really like to read but this is the only one my libraries have. i liked it enough to still want to read some more, but it was unfinished and showed. good protagonist and decent set up for a political thriller (not necessarily my bag, as crime writing goes), but didnt really set up many characters enough to care about the tangled web
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kinda same story here, but this one was technically finished, just not published in his lifetime. nothing wrong with it, but it was very much a sketch. i liked the sudden dramatic ending but there was really no investment in any character or relationship so it didnt hit like it could have. even though ive only read breakfast at tiffanys, theres a pretty obvious line from this to that. in a way it makes me wish he had fleshed this one out, but then again theyre so similar theres not really a need for both.
Re: Books Thread
I just finished The Gunslinger by Stephen King. I read SK obsessively in the 90’s, but this is probably the first that I’ve read since then.
The Gunslinger defied all of my expectations and was very different than the SK novels of my younger days.
The Gunslinger defied all of my expectations and was very different than the SK novels of my younger days.
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Re: Books Thread
I can't remember the last time I read a book or magazine or the last time I put pen to paper. It is not been until just recently that I even listened to an album in its entirety. I've been told by others that this is somehow tied to the pandemic. I bought Stephen Deusner's Where the Devil Don't Stay when it was first published hoping that would help break the spell but it's still sitting there collecting dust. The last reading spurt I had was a big and significant one. I was in the middle of reading Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock n' Roll when something led me to Carson McCullers. During that same time frame I had been digging into other Southern writers such as Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty so exploring that path is likely where Carson's name came up. At any rate, I immediately sought out The Member of the Wedding, which I couldn't put down. When I tried returning to Guralnick's book I was unsuccessful. I then proceeded to seek out every book by Carson that I could find. I feel she also had an impact on my writing. Perhaps this voraciousness for reading will return at some point, as well as my desire to write, paint, and draw.
Re: Books Thread
I feel you Kudzu. The last five years have really changed my reading habits. Historically, I read anywhere from a book a month to a book a week, but something has changed. Pandemic, family, stressful politics, I don't know. I too plowed through the first few chapters of Deusner's book and was excited to continue, but it's mixed in a stack of 10+ other partially read books on my nightstand. Like many, I'd expect, I read a LOT more news than I used to, but sure seems like there is a lot more to pay attention to these days.Kudzu Guillotine wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 11:57 amI can't remember the last time I read a book or magazine or the last time I put pen to paper. It is not been until just recently that I even listened to an album in its entirety. I've been told by others that this is somehow tied to the pandemic. I bought Stephen Deusner's Where the Devil Don't Stay when it was first published hoping that would help break the spell but it's still sitting there collecting dust. The last reading spurt I had was a big and significant one. I was in the middle of reading Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock n' Roll when something led me to Carson McCullers. During that same time frame I had been digging into other Southern writers such as Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty so exploring that path is likely where Carson's name came up. At any rate, I immediately sought out The Member of the Wedding, which I couldn't put down. When I tried returning to Guralnick's book I was unsuccessful. I then proceeded to seek out every book by Carson that I could find. I feel she also had an impact on my writing. Perhaps this voraciousness for reading will return at some point, as well as my desire to write, paint, and draw.
How 'bout you and i have a pact to finish Deusner's book prior to Homecoming?
Love each other, Motherfuckers!
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Re: Books Thread
I'd love to answer in the affirmative but it's doubtful that's going to happen. I've even purchased a few magazines in hopes they would help break the spell, especially Oxford American's annual Southern music issue. At least the CD that came with it became the first full length album I'd listened to in two years which, in turn, led to more. I also recently attended my first live show (Lilly Hiatt) in over two years which was also therapeutic. Not just the show but seeing friends and returning to Raleigh for the first time since I left nearly two years ago. One step at a time but I'm sure I'll get there slowly but surely.
Re: Books Thread
It was ok but I wasn't overly impressed. Too much stuff about the author, not enough about the band especially some periods.Kudzu Guillotine wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 11:57 amI can't remember the last time I read a book or magazine or the last time I put pen to paper. It is not been until just recently that I even listened to an album in its entirety. I've been told by others that this is somehow tied to the pandemic. I bought Stephen Deusner's Where the Devil Don't Stay when it was first published hoping that would help break the spell but it's still sitting there collecting dust. The last reading spurt I had was a big and significant one. I was in the middle of reading Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock n' Roll when something led me to Carson McCullers. During that same time frame I had been digging into other Southern writers such as Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty so exploring that path is likely where Carson's name came up. At any rate, I immediately sought out The Member of the Wedding, which I couldn't put down. When I tried returning to Guralnick's book I was unsuccessful. I then proceeded to seek out every book by Carson that I could find. I feel she also had an impact on my writing. Perhaps this voraciousness for reading will return at some point, as well as my desire to write, paint, and draw.
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Re: Books Thread
I very much enjoyed it as well, though not as much as All the Light... I initially found the time shifts disconcerting but it worked well once I got into the rhythm of it. Corralling all the various strands into a single whole is an impressive tour de force of writing skill and imagination.Flea wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:39 pmbeantownbubba wrote: ↑Wed Nov 17, 2021 11:45 pmThis is his new one, right? I loved All the Light... and am eager to check this one out. What do ya think?
I very much enjoyed it. It takes place in 3 times/locations: Middle Ages Constantinople, modern Idaho, and on a spaceship in the future traveling to a distant star system. To say more would be an injustice. Thought it would be a sci-fi novel, but I was wrong; it's quite good.
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Re: Books Thread
Brooklyn Supreme by Robert Reuland. It's filed as a mystery at my library but that's not really what it is though it does involve cops, robbers, lawyers, judges and politicians. This may be a great novel but I'm not sure lol. The dialog is fantastic. The depiction of Brooklyn in all its glory and shame is terrific if not exactly complimentary but it seems a bit anachronistic as the Brooklyn he describes is at least 20 to 30 years out of date, though I'm sure the politics are still pretty accurate. Some of the scenes take place in neighborhoods adjacent to my own, so I know, or knew, them a little bit and he nails them. There's a bit of Bonfire of the Vanities about it but it's no copy or rip off. The final big reveal is terrific; I'm still not sure whether I should have seen it coming but it really hit hard and explained a lot that had been naggingly ambiguous. The cynicism at the heart of the book can be overwhelming at times.
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Re: Books Thread
Oddly enough, Shoot the Moonlight Out by William Boyle is remarkably similar to Brooklyn Supreme. Three weeks ago I hadn't heard of either book or author and then there they were, one right after the other, delving deep into Brooklyn, neighborhoods, ethnicities, characters, dialect and all the rest. Shoot isn't as good as Supreme but it's still pretty good plus you gotta love an author who gets his title from a Garland Jeffreys (from Brooklyn) song and gives a big shout out to Willy Vlautin and a smaller one to Lydia Loveless in the acknowledgements. He's written several previous books and I will definitely check them out.
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Re: Books Thread
Leave the gun, take the cannoli by Mark Seal is a very good, very readable history of the making of The Godfather including interesting portraits of many of the main "characters." It's a light read and if you care at all about the movie you'll enjoy it. There are enough citations and weighing of competing versions of stories that the reader has a good degree of confidence that the author is getting it right and that his versions of events may become the standard ones. If nothing else, it's laugh out loud funny on multiple occasions.
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Re: Books Thread
I normally don't post about books until I finish them, but I'm really enjoying the early pages of Xochitl Gonzalez's Olga Dies Dreaming. And then there's this:
"He fucked with his socks on, yet it surprised Olga how little she cared." Loses a little out of context, but still...
"He fucked with his socks on, yet it surprised Olga how little she cared." Loses a little out of context, but still...
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Re: Books Thread
Yet another book aimed directly at my nostalgic Brooklyn heart.beantownbubba wrote: ↑Tue Apr 12, 2022 12:53 pmI normally don't post about books until I finish them, but I'm really enjoying the early pages of Xochitl Gonzalez's Olga Dies Dreaming. And then there's this:
"He fucked with his socks on, yet it surprised Olga how little she cared." Loses a little out of context, but still...
I absolutely loved the first 2/3 of the book but the last 1/3 didn't quite bring it home. Still, highly recommended and a welcome new voice. Also, her newsletter, available in full to Atlantic subscribers and in part for free to anyone who signs up for it is a gem.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
- Kudzu Guillotine
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Re: Books Thread
Marissa R. Moss' new book Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be is out today.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anniereute ... 072cc03fc5
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anniereute ... 072cc03fc5
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Re: Books Thread
Currently reading The Heathens by Ace Atkins. Just sayin'. So far no references to or quotes from the song even though a couple of the charaacters would fit quite comfortably in it.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
Re: Books Thread
I'm reading the latest Jack Reacher book. Kind of mediocre. For the same thing but much better check out the Van Shaw books by Glen Erick Hamilton. There's 6 books & they're set in Seattle mostly. This guy was born in Seattle but lives in California now. He nails Seattle & is very accurate taking a few liberties for fiction. He talks about the area of Seattle I've lived in most of my life (West Seattle) a lot & actually a bit about my specific neighborhood. Good stuff, on a par with the early Reacher books.
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Thanks for the reminder. I started this series a while back and enjoyed it, but for whatever reason didn't get all the way through. Will remedy that.
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Re: Books Thread
From p. 382: "Damn near taking Gina piece by piece until there was barely nothing left." Remind anyone of anything?beantownbubba wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 2:41 pmCurrently reading The Heathens by Ace Atkins. Just sayin'. So far no references to or quotes from the song even though a couple of the charaacters would fit quite comfortably in it.
Also, mentions of Lucero, Margo Price and other 3DD favorites scattered throughout.
Man, I'd love to hear Patterson's and Cooley's different takes on the character TJ Byrd a la "Pauline Hawkins." TJ is DBT through and through.
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Re: Books Thread
I'm just glad it's not a memoir.
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Re: Books Thread
She: "...I read books. Watch movies. I know there's some investigative reporter thing I want to know if that's you. What it is."
He: "What it is. What it means - there's this song -"
She: "Drive By Truckers, yeah, that doesn't tell me about you..."
From This Train by James Grady, p. 100. Grady is the author of Six Days of the Condor, the source for the film Three Days of the Condork starring Robert Redford and a number of other well regarded and awarded books and stories.
Cross posted in DBT Goes Literary in the DBT forum.
He: "What it is. What it means - there's this song -"
She: "Drive By Truckers, yeah, that doesn't tell me about you..."
From This Train by James Grady, p. 100. Grady is the author of Six Days of the Condor, the source for the film Three Days of the Condork starring Robert Redford and a number of other well regarded and awarded books and stories.
Cross posted in DBT Goes Literary in the DBT forum.
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Re: Books Thread
DBT gets a thank you in the acknowledgements as well, along w/ Springsteen, the Stones and a number of other notables.
An interesting but hard to "crack" book. I found the style/rhythm very difficult to follow but once I did things improved tremendously. Also, not really a thriller as billed, so the book was better and easier to understand once I realized that.
An interesting but hard to "crack" book. I found the style/rhythm very difficult to follow but once I did things improved tremendously. Also, not really a thriller as billed, so the book was better and easier to understand once I realized that.
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Re: Books Thread
Turtles all the Way Down-John Green
The title immediately made me think of Sturgell Simpson.
The book was great, and although I think the intended audience may have been teenage girls, this middle aged man truly enjoyed. My wife picked up the book from the library, but I started reading and was more captivated than I have by been by a book in quite a while.
The title immediately made me think of Sturgell Simpson.
The book was great, and although I think the intended audience may have been teenage girls, this middle aged man truly enjoyed. My wife picked up the book from the library, but I started reading and was more captivated than I have by been by a book in quite a while.