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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 30, 2022 16:35:54 GMT -5
A Little Yellow DogWalter Mosley, 1996  The fifth in the Easy Rawlins series. This one is set in late 1963, less than two years after the events of the preceding book (a bit unusual, as the intervals between the preceding books were usually 4-5 years). Rawlins has a steady job with the LA Board of Education, working as the head of building maintenance and the janitorial service in a high school. He’s satisfied with his work, as it offers him decent pay and benefits, and he’s happy that his adopted children seem to be doing well. So, of course, things take a real left turn. First, he has a steamy, ill-advised tryst in a classroom with an incredibly attractive young math teacher one early morning before school starts, and then she talks him into taking care of her little, rather ill-tempered dog because she has to go out of a town for a few days due to some emergency. Not long after that, the body of a well-dressed gentleman is found in a fenced off part of the school grounds – and he ends up being the brother-in-law of said teacher. And when the cops start investigating the man’s death, suspicion immediately falls on Rawlins, because of his past run-ins with the police. So Rawlins takes to the streets to run his own investigation in order to save not just his job, but possibly also his life - because once he starts looking into the matter, he finds that the whole matter is more complicated than he ever thought, involving some really powerful people in the LA underworld. The case takes its toll on Easy, but also on several people very close to him. The trend of these books getting better continues. This one is tightly plotted and gripping, but – as usual – it has a number of really moving human moments.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 2, 2022 14:27:34 GMT -5
 Fletch's Fortune by Gregory McDonaldFletch is rousted from his cushy life in France when he's blackmailed by the C.I.A. into attending and spying on a convention of journalists in Virginia. Of course when he gets there he becomes embroiled in a murder, because...why wouldn't he? There's a fair bit to like here, but also not a lot that's new or particularly interesting. McDonald's dialogue is as witty as ever, but the story never quite gelled for me. The solution to the murder was terribly hackneyed. And the book came out three years after the formation of the Church Committee and the hearings thereof, so while it feels somewhat timely...it also feels like that would have co-opted a lot of what was allegedly going on in the book. Marginally worth a read, but a fairly weak effort. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 3, 2022 23:19:27 GMT -5
The Princess Bride
by William Goldman
I always say that books are better than the movies that adapt them, or at least most of the time. I think I've changed my mind about that.. it's really all about which one you see first, because then the other one is always a comparsion.
Here, the main plot and action of the book mirrors the movies quite well. Typically, the small bits that a book might have in it are good, and add to the experience. Or, sometimes, they're just not that similar, and you may love them, or you may hate them.
In the Princess Bride, they are simply skippable. Sure, we get a bit more 'origin story' for a couple of the main characters, and the 'Zoo of Death'.... but all the silliness with Goldman's 'legal trouble' and 'abridgement' is just annoying.
He's clearly trying to be funny, but saying things like 'this is before Europe' is just dumb, when you're using Europe as your setting.. the book isn't set in cave man times, after all, it's just the middle ages.
Then, to my surprise, the book ended with almost 100 pages left.. pages filled with utter unreadable nonsense for the most part. I'm all for 'finding a lost story' or 'secret letters' or whatever, alot of good pastiche novels go that route, in the fine tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others.
Goldman takes it 5 steps beyond that, and it's just painful. I am still glad I read this, but mostly so now I never have to again.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 8, 2022 12:42:40 GMT -5
 A Bouquet of Bullets by Eric BeetnerThis is a nice short story collection by one of the better of the new breed of neo-noir writers. Almost all of these would classify as short-shorts, so it's a great collection for getting in and reading a story or two as a palate cleanser between longer works. Unusual in almost any collection, there isn't a single story here that's a dud. While they may not all be home-runs, they are all well worth the short time commitment. Beetner really is becoming a master of the short short and the type of literary "everyman" noir that has been out of style for far too long. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 10, 2022 16:38:52 GMT -5
Gone Fishin’Walter Mosley, 1997  This is the sixth Easy Rawlins novel (and it’s almost short enough to be a novella), but it’s not a mystery/thriller like the other books in the series. Rather, it’s a non-genre story that takes place in 1939, when Easy is 19 years old. It recounts the events surrounding an incident that’s referenced several times in the previous books involving Easy’s friend, Raymond ‘Mouse’ Alexander, and his mean step-father, Reese. Mouse talks Easy into driving him down from Houston to some place out in the boonies of south Texas where he (Mouse) grew up: an informal, ramshackle village in the middle of a vast stretch of swamp-land called Pariah. Mouse says he needs to get some money his step-father has owed him since the death of his mother. None of it bodes well, but Easy lets himself get talked into going because Mouse offers to pay him more than he would make in several weeks working at his job as a gardener. What happens in those few days marks Easy for the rest of his life, and also sort of bonds him forever into his complicated and troubled relationship with Mouse.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 11, 2022 18:46:39 GMT -5
 One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey, 'The Kid', Ungar, The World's Greatest Poker Player by Nolan Dalla & Peter Alson There's always a concern when you read a biography of a celebrity as to what you're going to get. This one was even more of a concern because the book started out with Stuey Ungar's blessing for Nolan Dalla to write about him. When Stuey died, Dalla brought in Alson to assist. Any concerns ended up unwarranted because this is an excellent, no-holds-barred bio of a man who was almost unquestionably the greatest Gin player ever, who was arguably the greatest Poker player ever, and who was one of the greatest Blackjack players of his day. For all that Stu Ungar was near the pinnacle of all-time card players, as Stu's long-time friend Mike Sexton said “In the game of life, Stu Ungar was a loser.” This is a very good bio of a complex and ultimately sad man. A brilliant card-player who was so good at gin that he simply couldn't get anyone to play him even with significant handicaps. Who is the only person to ever win the Main Event at the World Series of Poker three times (Johnny Moss' first "win" was by vote). Who won outright 10 of the thirty high stakes poker tournaments that he entered in his career. Who was so good at blackjack he was largely banned from playing in any casino because he could count a five deck boot without help. And who was a degenerate gambler who blew the millions he made on sports betting, betting on ridiculous golf bets and stuffing the cocaine that eventually killed him up his nose and died in a flop motel worth approximately $800. Ungar fit a few lifetimes in to his 45 years. And Dalla and Alson really don't hold back. They had the assistance of Ungar's ex-wife and daughter, of Ungar's good friend Mike Sexton and of poker luminaries like Doyle Brunson. This is neither hagiography nor muck-racking, but a hard look at a hard life lived by a brilliant man...un-brilliantly. If you've ever had any interest in poker, you need to read this. Ungar was part of the new breed of uber-aggressive poker player a decade before it was the norm. And he is still, probably the best to ever play the game. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 13, 2022 13:52:08 GMT -5
Joe Country
Mick Herron
I'm giving Mick Herron a pass on the crazy coincidence that generates the action of this book (I mean, of all people to witness something that was worth trying blackmail, why Min's son? And they just happen to hire Frank Harkness? c'mon.
Leaving that aside, this is a great book... the good guys disobey the cardinal rule of Dungeons and Dragons.. they split the party, but Herron handles the writing of it flawlessly. Most of the time when that happens, there's a couple parts you want to skip to get to the good ones, but not here... just a crazy ride where all the details contributed to a great story.
I am getting a little concerned about the body count though... they might have to start giving out Red Shirts to the new denizens of Slough House. This novels' new addition seems a bit like a comic book character... which bits in with Jackson Lamb and the rest pretty well.
The thing is, he reminds me alot of a villain, not a hero.. if he survives, it'll be interesting to see what he does next.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 14, 2022 15:05:09 GMT -5
Bad Boy Brawly BrownWalter Mosley, 2002  The seventh in the Easy Rawlins series, and after the non-genre detour of the preceding book, Gone Fishin’ (see above), we’re now back in mystery/suspense territory. This one is set in 1964 – as I noted in my review for the A Little Yellow Dog (again, just scroll up a bit), the timeline for the Rawlins mysteries is becoming a little tighter as the series progresses - something that apparently continues with the rest of them. In this one, Easy’s life is interrupted when one of his best friends, a former bar-owner named John who’s now running a construction business, asks him to find his girlfriend’s adult son, named Brawly Brown. They have a troubled relationship, and after he abruptly quite working for John and disappeared from the little room they were renting for him, she became worried that he’s fallen in with a bad crowd and may be in trouble. Easy only agrees to do so because it’s for a good friend. As Easy starts looking around, he finds that Brawly is involved with a radical Black revolutionary group that may or may not be stockpiling weapons for some kind of political violence – or just to engage in crime. And a special detail of the LAPD is also sniffing around this ‘communist’ movement. Again, Easy finds himself in the middle of a big, complicated mess, and he has to find a way to get himself, and especially Brawly, out of it without getting killed or thrown into jail. Another excellent book and, unfortunately, the last one in this series I currently have. I do intend to get to the rest of them, I just don’t know when that will be.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 19, 2022 12:51:46 GMT -5
All I Did Was Shoot My ManWalter Mosley, 2012  ( The cover art is misleading: it shows a night-time winter scene in Central Park, but the story takes place in the summer) This is the fourth book in a series centering around a character named Leonid McGill, a successful middle-aged private detective in New York. McGill is quite interesting: he used to be a boxer as a young man, but then began working as a sort of fixer for organized crime groups or other wrong-doers who needed a patsy to take the heat for their crimes. According to the narration in this book, eight years earlier his occupation got him into deep trouble, almost getting him killed in fact, so he decided to go straight, more or less. He still has a lot of enemies, and any number of detectives in the NYPD who would like to take him down. Also, he has an unusual family life: he’s in a basically loveless marriage with three children, two sons and a daughter, ranging in age from early twenties to late teens – only one of whom (the oldest son) is biologically his. His favorite, though, is the second son, who in this book begins working as something of an intern in his detective agency. Anyway, in this book, some of his misdeeds from his sordid past come back to haunt him: he helps a woman, Zella Grisham, he had set up to take the fall for a multi-million dollar heist get out of prison early – she had been arrested for shooting, but not killing, her boyfriend when she caught him in bed with with her best friend (McGill then planted evidence from the heist among her things so the police would find it). She in turn wants him to find the child she gave birth to and then gave up not long after being imprisoned, and also her ex-boyfriend, to apologize to him. At about the same time, some of the people actually involved in said heist start getting killed, as though Grisham’s release from prison triggered some kind of reaction. And since McGill was close to the whole matter, his own life is in danger as well. This is a really tightly plotted, engrossing and suspenseful story – Mosley is a fantastic writer. Now, besides the Easy Rawlins books, I’ll also be on the lookout for other McGill mysteries a well.
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Post by berkley on Feb 20, 2022 2:06:06 GMT -5
All I Did Was Shoot My ManWalter Mosley, 2012 ( The cover art is misleading: it shows a night-time winter scene in Central Park, but the story takes place in the summer) This is the fourth book in a series centering around a character named Leonid McGill, a successful middle-aged private detective in New York. McGill is quite interesting: he used to be a boxer as a young man, but then began working as a sort of fixer for organized crime groups or other wrong-doers who needed a patsy to take the heat for their crimes. According to the narration in this book, eight years earlier his occupation got him into deep trouble, almost getting him killed in fact, so he decided to go straight, more or less. He still has a lot of enemies, and any number of detectives in the NYPD who would like to take him down. Also, he has an unusual family life: he’s in a basically loveless marriage with three children, two sons and a daughter, ranging in age from early twenties to late teens – only one of whom (the oldest son) is biologically his. His favorite, though, is the second son, who in this book begins working as something of an intern in his detective agency. Anyway, in this book, some of his misdeeds from his sordid past come back to haunt him: he helps a woman, Zella Grisham, he had set up to take the fall for a multi-million dollar heist get out of prison early – she had been arrested for shooting, but not killing, her boyfriend when she caught him in bed with with her best friend (McGill then planted evidence from the heist among her things so the police would find it). She in turn wants him to find the child she gave birth to and then gave up not long after being imprisoned, and also her ex-boyfriend, to apologize to him. At about the same time, some of the people actually involved in said heist start getting killed, as though Grisham’s release from prison triggered some kind of reaction. And since McGill was close to the whole matter, his own life is in danger as well. This is a really tightly plotted, engrossing and suspenseful story – Mosley is a fantastic writer. Now, besides the Easy Rawlins books, I’ll also be on the lookout for other McGill mysteries a well.
Don't think I knew that Mosley had another series besides the Rawlins one. I like the sounds of this one, will certainly be avinga ook for it.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 20, 2022 3:59:46 GMT -5
Don't think I knew that Mosley had another series besides the Rawlins one. I like the sounds of this one, will certainly be avinga ook for it.
He also has two shorter series featuring a recurring characters: Fearless Jones and Socrates Fortlow (three books each). I haven't read any of the latter, but I have read the third Fearless Jones book, Fear of the Dark - actually the first book by Mosley I'd ever read. The Fearless books are, like the Easy Rawlins series, set in LA, all in the 1950s, but they have a somewhat lighter tone than the either the Rawlins or McGill books. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 20, 2022 18:34:11 GMT -5
Great Science Fiction Stories by the World's Greatest Scientists
edited by Asimov, Greenberg and Waugh
Our wonderful local librarian hooked me up with the book when it was being discarded... always good to have friends in the high places.
While there are a few of the usual suspects, such as Arthur Clarke and Asimov himself, who were writers first, then others who were scientists first, and wrote just a bit of fiction.
In general, it's a great collection. It definitely lives up to it's billing as science based fiction, and spans alot of different topics.
Asimov's entry, The Winnowing, is fantastic, as is a great alternate look at evolution from Chad Oliver titled 'Transfusion'. I suspect David Weber read this.. it could very easily fit as the prelude to the 'Safehold' universe. "Learning Theory' is a stand out on an old theme as well... very few stinkers here... very glad to have been able to read it
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Post by berkley on Feb 21, 2022 9:45:48 GMT -5
Great Science Fiction Stories by the World's Greatest Scientists edited by Asimov, Greenberg and Waugh Our wonderful local librarian hooked me up with the book when it was being discarded... always good to have friends in the high places. While there are a few of the usual suspects, such as Arthur Clarke and Asimov himself, who were writers first, then others who were scientists first, and wrote just a bit of fiction. In general, it's a great collection. It definitely lives up to it's billing as science based fiction, and spans alot of different topics. Asimov's entry, The Winnowing, is fantastic, as is a great alternate look at evolution from Chad Oliver titled 'Transfusion'. I suspect David Weber read this.. it could very easily fit as the prelude to the 'Safehold' universe. "Learning Theory' is a stand out on an old theme as well... very few stinkers here... very glad to have been able to read it I remember another collection along these lines, Great Science Fiction by Scientists, edited by Groff Conklin. Been decades since I read it but I know I liked it at the time. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 22, 2022 10:15:56 GMT -5
 The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge - Harry HarrisonSo...this is my second "Did not finish" of the year. Which is incredibly rare. I mostly read stuff that's well in my wheelhouse so it's quite unusual to not finish a book. And I could have finished this one...I just didn't really want to because I didn't care one bit what happened. I guess we can safely that after thinking the first book was merely okay and not managing to be arsed to finish this one that The Stainless Steel Rat just isn't my cuppa. The book was just painfully slow through at leas the first half. And even by the time it started to pick up I just no longer was interested enough to find out how it ended. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2022 11:31:29 GMT -5
Yeah I had a DNF this year too, The Chinese Parrot by Earl Derr Biggers, the first in the Charlie Chan mystery series. I had about 100 pages left and found I just didn't care about the case or any of the characters. It was so convoluted and unnecessarily drawn out that all life was simply drained out of the story. Even worse, it put me in a prose reading funk where nothing prose wise has been appealing to me that last few months. I finally broke out of it this weekend, and am about halfway through a novel, but man most of Jan and Feb was brutal and me not wanting to read prose fiction. I read a ton of comics, some rpg books and dabbled with some art books instead, but nothing prose was doing it for me.
-M
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