A long time ago I bought a paperback of Tender Is The Night but didn't get past the third chapter. I think I was too young at the time to appreciate it. Maybe I'll dig it out soon and give it a whirl. All I remember about it is the French Riviera.
What Are You Reading?
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A long time ago I bought a paperback of Tender Is The Night but didn't get past the third chapter. I think I was too young at the time to appreciate it. Maybe I'll dig it out soon and give it a whirl. All I remember about it is the French Riviera.
I signed up for our library's summer reading challenge: for each of 8 weeks, choose one of 5 books in that week's genre that I haven't read previously.
This week is summer classics. I'd already read 3 of the 5 choices, so I snagged To The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf).
I've never read any novels by her, so this should be interesting
This week is summer classics. I'd already read 3 of the 5 choices, so I snagged To The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf).
I've never read any novels by her, so this should be interesting
I've read Mrs. Dalloway and The Waves. I have To The Lighthouse stored on my tablet. Of all her books, Orlando was the one that interested me the least. Sounds fun. I hope you share your thoughts and future selections here in this thread.I signed up for our library's summer reading challenge: for each of 8 weeks, choose one of 5 books in that week's genre that I haven't read previously.
This week is summer classics. I'd already read 3 of the 5 choices, so I snagged To The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf).
I've never read any novels by her, so this should be interesting
Thank you, Doc
I will. Now that I think on it, I might have read Mrs. Dalloway as well. I'll have to look at the synopsis to be sure. I know absolutely nothing about this book--it doesn't even have a jacket to give anything away!
Taking a pause on my DT journey re-read (on book 7) to read this month's book club title, Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple, who also wrote Where'd you go, Bernadette? I am really in love with her voice. Should be a good discussion tomorrow night. Then, back to the Tower!
One of the things that I am enjoying in the John D MacDonald book Dead Low Tide is the telling of 1950s land development in Florida. The story involves a construction company and MacDonald describes a housing project the company is working on. This may not be interesting to people that were not born in Florida but I grew up at the end of this era of blatant environmental destruction to develop land. The state encouraged development by allowing people that purchased waterfront property to own property out into the water. So people would create extra land by dredging, filling and building sea walls. in the book, the developer bought 1500 feet of waterfront property and then created "finger islands" to build houses on like this:
"Florida: Finger Islands in St. Petersburg" by Chet Smolski
The developer in the novel is also planting Australian pine trees. Florida was covered in these non native trees and in the last 30 or so years have been removing them and forcing property owners to remove them. These are huge trees that fall over easily and South Florida used to be covered in them. We have all kinds of non native trees that were brought here for various reasons. We have a few varieties of non native trees that were planted to suck up water like these
Melaleuca quinquenervia - An Invasive Tree of Florida
So, aside from being a fantastic story, I am finding the land development aspect interesting too.
"Florida: Finger Islands in St. Petersburg" by Chet Smolski
The developer in the novel is also planting Australian pine trees. Florida was covered in these non native trees and in the last 30 or so years have been removing them and forcing property owners to remove them. These are huge trees that fall over easily and South Florida used to be covered in them. We have all kinds of non native trees that were brought here for various reasons. We have a few varieties of non native trees that were planted to suck up water like these
Melaleuca quinquenervia - An Invasive Tree of Florida
So, aside from being a fantastic story, I am finding the land development aspect interesting too.
That sounds like fun! I've only ever read VW's short stories - but I do like her very much. Keep us posted on what each week's challenge is - maybe I'll join you. I'm wanted by the local library police, so I can't go to our library. A book I turned in at the night drop got wet - I didn't do it! But they say I did and they want $37 for it.I signed up for our library's summer reading challenge: for each of 8 weeks, choose one of 5 books in that week's genre that I haven't read previously.
This week is summer classics. I'd already read 3 of the 5 choices, so I snagged To The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf).
I've never read any novels by her, so this should be interesting
This is exciting! I really enjoyed Bernadette. I'll look for this.
Yeah, I was so into MacDonald for a while I picked up a lot of minutia. Did you know that the McGee books were done as books-on-tape cassettes narrated by Darren McGavin? McGee aficionado's consider them masterpieces. But when the books were done on CD, they redid them and used someone else! McGavin did all but 2 books, I believe. I've considered tracking down the cassettes and transferring them to CD. Of all I've read, I thought "The Green Ripper" was the best.
McGee has fallen in love with a smart independent woman who falls ill, but it turns out she was shot with a dart, and murdered. He eventually tracks her death to a cult, who's duped members, male & female, are younger & generally more fit & better trained than McGee. He's accepted in their group as a useful idiot by pretending to be a lunk-headed fisherman looking for his daughter. Through luck, cunning, and being incredibly pissed off, he manages to take out the entire cult & it's leaders. One of the girls had fallen for him, and that part was pretty sad. Funny, he'd been given a special CIA number to call in case he was able to find the cult. The agents who had before looked at him as sort of a joke, now after seeing the carnage, regarded him warily like they would a dangerous animal. Read this one & there's no going back.
Read this one & there's no going back.
So much to like in these books. There are lots of nice little touches. McGee, a total nonconformist who despises change, turns his pop-top beer cans upside down & opens them with a can opener.
The Lonely Silver Rain (1985) was his last book. And apparently McGee was at his most world-weary & jaded. I want to read them all in order from the beginning this summer! It was rumored that he'd finished a last book, A Black Border for McGee -- notice each book is in colors? In which Travis McGee dies. His family denies it, and no trace has been found. He mentioned it in an interview, I think. Maybe it was still in his head.
Yikes! No visits from the Library Politheman, please!!
Let me know what you think, if/when you get a change to read it.
I was promised a pony when I was five. I'm still waiting! Dick? Perry? Do those names ring a bell? Even if you just read a word a day, by now you could've finished it & been halfway thru Answered Prayers!
Started "Gone" from Michael Grant.
Read 130 Pages then i stopped
Was like a mishmash from Under the Dome, IT, Lord of the Fly
Read 130 Pages then i stopped
Was like a mishmash from Under the Dome, IT, Lord of the Fly
JDM does not, perhaps, get the cred he deserves but he still gets more cred, i think, than his namesake and contemporary Ross MacDonald. His Lew Archer novels are really good. The Barbarous coast and The Zebra-striped Hearse are two favorites. Also The Wycherly Woman.... I am a fan of both. To me, those two and Chandler are the holy trinity when it comes to private eye novels. In my view not yet surpassed though many have tried.
I started The Hollow Crown - The War of the Roses and The Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones. Really good so far. Hes starting his story in 1420 with a young Henry V. I'm on Henry VI now and his failure in ruling which caused families that had been rather calm during Henry V to be unruly (with reason you must admit, Henry VI might have made an excellent priest or a friar in an abbey but was a complete failure as a King)
What is your opinion of Hammett? I've read that although Dashiell Hammett was more celebrated in his day than Raymond Chandler, Chandler is today considered the superior writer. Hammett, I suppose got more notoriety partially because he was so cool. He was striking looking, His girlfriend the famous playwright Lillian Hellman wrote worshipfully about him, he lived an interesting life and was acquainted with famous writers of his day like Hemingway and Faulkner, and he had the coolest friggin' name imaginable. Comparatively, Chandler was a guy who knocked out private-eye fiction on a typewriter. I haven't read either one. I saw an online interview with Peter Straub, and when he was asked about John D. McDonald he smiled and said (words to the effect), "I never got Stephen King's fascination with the pulps. I know he considers himself JDM's protégé."
That was a good book. Jones is a solid popular historian ( in that his books are accessible to many who are interested in history, not just to those who are wonks about it
)Hammett is great. He was the first, the one that paved the way for Chandler and the two MacDonald. Without him i have difficulties seeing them since they are so clearly inspired by him. Red Harvest, Maltese Falcon and the Dain Curse are great. I havent read, sadly, The Glass Key or The Thin Man. To my knowledge he never wrote more than these 5 novels but he also wrote lots of short stories which i havent read either. I do think the other three are better but it might be that they are closer in time. I think Hammett was the first to show the possibilities of the genre and wrote some real good books but it reached its peak after him with the three mentioned. I totally understand Kings admiration of Macdonald and are surprised Straub does not get it. As a writer he should see the reasons. The hardboiled style has had talented writers in latter times too, Robert B. Parker comes to mind even if he never, to my mind, reached the heights of Chandler et al when they were at their best. Some other names exist but elude me at the moment.What is your opinion of Hammett? I've read that although Dashiell Hammett was more celebrated in his day than Raymond Chandler, Chandler is today considered the superior writer. Hammett, I suppose got more notoriety partially because he was so cool. He was striking looking, His girlfriend the famous playwright Lillian Hellman wrote worshipfully about him, he lived an interesting life and was acquainted with famous writers of his day like Hemingway and Faulkner, and he had the coolest friggin' name imaginable. Comparatively, Chandler was a guy who knocked out private-eye fiction on a typewriter. I haven't read either one. I saw an online interview with Peter Straub, and when he was asked about John D. McDonald he smiled and said (words to the effect), "I never got Stephen King's fascination with the pulps. I know he considers himself JDM's protégé."
I think he just ignores that genre. He probably hasn't read an entire JDM novel. I read that some believe Straub, due to their collaborations, has made King's work more literary, and that King has made Straub's work more accessible. That might not be correct, as to my thinking, Straub hasn't written anything readable in a decade. He must have read some Chandler or Hammett, his Blue Rose books were right in that wheelhouse. And very good! Straub is as talented as hell. If SK had not been born, the people on this forum would likely be reading a lot of Straub.
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