What are you reading?

[lawyerdad]



I started The Shipping News by Annie Proulx last night. I'm about 30 pages in so far.

I enjoyed that when I read it years ago. Her writing seemed to go off a cliff and fall into the Sea of Pretentious Unsufferability after that, but obviously it's possible that has more to do with my tastes and mindset than her writing. Haven't read any of her recent stuff because I so hated the one or two things I did read after Shipping News that I stopped paying any attention.

 

[VaderDave]



I enjoyed that when I read it years ago. Her writing seemed to go off a cliff and fall into the Sea of Pretentious Unsufferability after that, but obviously it's possible that has more to do with my tastes and mindset than her writing. Haven't read any of her recent stuff because I so hated the one or two things I did read after Shipping News that I stopped paying any attention.

I happened to read an interview with her on the NYT website a couple of days ago and she did seem a little pretentious to me, but perhaps I'm just too much of a rube to appreciate her obscure literary tastes. But I like TSN so far.

 

[lawyerdad]



I happened to read an interview with her on the NYT website a couple of days ago and she did seem a little pretentious to me, but perhaps I'm just too much of a rube to appreciate her obscure literary tastes. But I like TSN so far.

Cool. As I said, I liked TSN.
She has some book with accordians in the title. Accordian Crimes, I think. Anyway, it was awful. You've been warned

 

[The Ernesto]

I really enjoyed The Shipping News.

 

[Joffrey]



Can't tell if this is a slow burn or I just haven't been able to focus on it. It's been weeks since purchasing and I'm only in chapter 5 (about 60 pages).

This has picked up considerably and I'm nearly done. However, this came in the mail a few days ago...

 

[dragon8]

Just finished reading Red Notice. Very interesting book.

 

[dragon8]

Finished reading "the Search for the Man in the Iron Mask."

Very hard read as the size of the letters could have been bigger instead of all crammed in.

 

[ballmouse]

Just read Fast One by Paul Cain. Pulp fiction hero gets pulled into a few double crosses and a few femme fatales who might not be who they appear to be. Surprised this was never made to film as it reads like what we would nowadays consider an action film.

 

[ballmouse]

Finished Thomas Thompson's true crime novel Blood and Money. It read like a combination of the JFK assassination and The Thin Blue Line. A Houston socialite's bizarre death and subsequent suspicion of foul play sparks a chain of events among a her ambitious doting oil baron father, adulterous aloof widower, and a cast of Texans that read so vividly you'd think the entire story could have been a season of Dallas.

 

[VaderDave]



I really enjoyed The Shipping News.

I finished it last night. I really enjoyed it as well.

At the end of the e-book was the first chapter of Barkskins, AP's most recent novel. I liked the first chapter, so I downloaded the whole book and am about 50 pages in now. So far so good.

 

[SirReveller]

Not great but he wasn't in Hue either. Def a solid vacay read. Turns out this was the competent Lt. in HBO's miniseries on the Iraq invasion "Generation Kill" so if you're looking for a reason to (re)watch that..

 

[dragon8]

Just finished reading "Full Circle." a memoir of Erin Callan, the former CFO of Lehman Brothers.

 

[SirReveller]

Good?

 

[ballmouse]

Finished 2 true crime novels: Blood and Money by Thomas Thompson and Till Death Us Do Part by Vincent Bugliosi.

Both are set in the late 60s and early 70s. Blood and Money in Houston and Till Death Us Do Part in LA. Both are pretty much about alleged murderers who have a good deal of circumstantial evidence to cause suspicion of their responsibility of the murder. And both alleged murderers are two of the oddest characters I've ever read about. I guess they're almost so odd they have to be real.

The rest of the characters in Blood and Money are just larger than life Texas characters that would satirize Texans were they fictional. It's just a conspiracy of murders one after another after an oil baron's only daughter marries a doctor who loves spending money (but doesn't have any).

In the other novel, it's almost like reading about a real life Double Indemnity and Strangers on a Train and the insurance-related murders appear to be stimulated by lust, greed, and a calculated psychopath. Just really bizarre.

I found both novels to be interesting, although both seemed to become laborious to read by the final few chapters. They seem to tie up the story, but I would say no fiction writer would ever drag out the end like the way these 2 novels finished.

 

[dragon8]



Good?

Yes, its pretty good. Talks about her career and how she got to LB and how they made her the "fall guy."