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[paw broon]

("lso like to read while soaking in a hot tub.  Sometimes I get so wrapped up in a book that the water turns cold and I look like a prune by the time I get out.
And then there's my bathroom reading while sitting on the ..uh.. throne.   I can get wrapped up in a book here too, much to the consternation of the Lil' Missus.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard from her one of the following:

1- "Hey, that's not a library in there y' know?!?"

2- "Hey, other people need to use the facilities too, y' know?!?"

3- "Hey, did you die in there?!?")" -  Josemas

Are you sure you're not me?  If you imagine the above with a Scottish accent, it'll sound just like Linda going on at me.  People will start to notice that you and I are never in the same room at the same time.

[narfstar]

Your secret is out. Which one of you is Bruce Wayne and which is Batman?

[josemas]

Your secret is out. Which one of you is Bruce Wayne and which is Batman?

Depends on which one of us has most recently been to the Bat-room!

I got a million of 'em.

Joe

[narfstar]

 

I started a novel. I have not gotten around to many of them lately. It is The Secret Galactics by AE van Vogt.
I have not gotten far but it has started out good. Always important to catch my attention early. It is about the desireabilty of earth women to alien men.

[josemas]

I read and enjoyed a number of Van Vogt's books in my late teens/early twenties but have not revisited him in years.   Maybe time to check him out again.

Best

Joe

[paw broon]

"Depends on which one of us has most recently been to the Bat-room!" - josemas   Ba-Boom!!!!
You should be on the stage - sweeping it.
I cave(d) in with laughter.
You're Robin' me of breath.
What a Joker.
Sorry, I'm being a bit (two) faced about this.

No, I really am sorry, these are awful.


My favourite Van Vogt book was The Weapon Shops of Isher but it's been along time since I read it. That was in an American paperback, I think, and the cover was brilliant.  You've put me in the notion to find and read it again.

[Menticide]

I read and enjoyed a number of Van Vogt's books in my late teens/early twenties but have not revisited him in years.   Maybe time to check him out again.

Best

Joe

I read Slan for the first time last year. Pretty good stuff, I think it probably had a larger influence on the X-Men than anyone at Marvel would be willing to admit.

[paw broon]

Because I'm loaded with the cold and can't stop coughing, I'm taking the easy way out and re-reading stuff I enjoy.  Currently re-savouring "Chindi" by Jack McDevitt.  All 6 of his Hutch stories are well done and he gets over that feeling of an empty universe.  I really feel I'm out there experiencing the vastness and barrenness of space.   

[JVJ]

Anybody know what happened to my avatar? Poof, it's been disappeared.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[narfstar]

Happened to me once before and I am not sure why. Check the site where you originally had it uploaded.

[josemas]

In my most recent Newsweek Susan Cheever has a page on how some authors who's writing she once enjoyed later went stale on her.

She mentions specific authors as David Baldacci, Janet Evanovich, Alan Furst and Stephanie Meyer as being examples of this for her.  She also sites where Michael Connelly was able to avoid this by coming up with two or three different series to write and that has seemed to keep his writing fresh.

Jim and I have mentioned some authors who have gone stale on us after promising starts.  Jim mentioned Robert B. Parker as one (although I found that his switch over to also writing westerns a couple years before his death seemed to reinvigorate his work-ala Cheever's Connelly example) and I mentioned at some point previously how Frank Herbert's Dune series grew increasingly less satisfying to read for me.

Anybody else have some examples of authors who were once great reads for you but later seemed to lose it?

Best

Joe

[josemas]

True Grit by Charles Portis   I had to go back and reread this after watching the Coen Bros. right smart theatrical remake and boy am I glad I did!  I had forgotten just what a corkin' good read it is.  Even if you're not a fan of Westerns I think you'd like this book. 

To America: Personel Reflections of an Historian by Stephen Ambrose  Ambrose was a favorite historian of mine and this was his final book.  In it he reflects on his life as an historian and on a number of the subjects that he has written books on (Lewis and Clark, Richard Nixon, Crazy Horse, George Armstrong Custer, etc...) and a few he has never written much on.   I'll miss his work but am glad that I still have a number of his earlier works that I have yet to read.

Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers   A Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane mystery.  Harriet takes center stage in this Wimsey novel as Lord Peter is pretty much off stage for the first half of the book and only joins her in the second half to help solve a series of vandalisms and attacks taking place at Harriet's Alma Mater- Shrewsbury College.   In addition to trying to solve the mystery, Sayers has Harriet spending a good deal of her time also trying to sort out her feelings about Peter (who had cleared her of a murder charge in a previous novel).

James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights by Richard Labunski   The title sez it all.  Well researched and presented.

Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith  This is the second of Smith's novels about Arkady Renko.  It's set some years after the events in Gorky Park and Arkady is no longer an Inspector or a member of the Communist Party and is now working a lowly job on the Soviet factory ship.  When a fellow crew member's body comes up in a fishing net Arkady, because of bis background, is called on to do a quick simple investigation of her death.  Of course the investigation turns out to be anything but quick and simple.

The Big Bang by Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins  When Mickey Spillane passed away a few years ago he left behind several unfinished manuscripts and a request that his friend and fellow mystery writer, Collins, take a crack at finishing them and getting them published.  This one, the second Collins has finished, was obviously written in the 1960s due to its numerous topical references from that era (Casey Stengel, the Vietnam War, L.S.D. trips, etc...).  Collins deftly mimics Spillane's style with all its violence and verve.  Nothing great but if you like Spillane you likely won't be disappointed.

Best

Joe

[CharlieRock]

Teen Titans #93
They are going up against a demon that is powerful enough to send Superboy reeling through a half-dozen concrete walls.

[josemas]

Jefferson and His Time Vol VI: The Sage of Monticello by Dumas Malone  Malone wraps up his epic length bio of Jefferson (written over four decades) with this volume.  I think in this volume you get your best glimpse at the real Jefferson as he steps away from public life.  While more has come to light on Jefferson in the nearly three decades since Malone finished his work on the man these volumes still stand as the best bio on him.  If they have any fault I think it's that Malone usually tends to give Jefferson the benefit of the doubt in controversial matters (which some of the aforementioned materials that have come to light have shown wasn't always warranted).

Paul Newman: A Life by Shawn Levy  As a kid in the 1960s I didn't much care for Paul Newman.  His movies were too "adult' for me.   By the time I got into my teens though I had begun to appreciate him more.  In the years since I've seen a fair number of his films but had never read much about the man until I picked up this bio.  Levy does a pretty good job of tracking his life.  All of his films (and much of his stage and television work) are gone over to one degree or another as well as his side careers in race cars and food manufacturing (both of which he was quite successful in).  I hadn't realized what a philanthropist he was  (he gave away hundreds of millions to charities) or that he was a functional alcoholic for much of his life (often drinking as much as a case of beer per day).  Newman was a very private man so Levy wasn't able to crack all that made the man tick but he does give us a good look at various aspects of his life.
Now I'm hepped to start checking out some of those DVDs of Newman's films at the library and start watching him again.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three by John Godey (Martin Freedgood)   I first read this back in the 1970s when I was in high school and when I ran across it again at the public library I decided to give it another read.  While some of the material is definitely rooted in the early 1970's period in which it was written it still holds up well as a suspense novel. Adapted as a film three times since it was published. 

Best

Joe

[paw broon]

Terror Keep by Edgar Wallace.  This is a J.G. Reeder, detective to the Public Prosecutors office, story and it's great. I've managed to find a few J.G.Reeder short story volumes as well.  Good stuff.
Also, I bought the newspaper strip version of Terror Keep recently from ADCCC, in England and this was drawn by Jack Monk who, not long after, started the long running Buck Ryan strip. ADCCC have now found another 2 early Buck Ryan strips to add to what's already available.  Sometimes it just keeps getting better.
And to illustrate, p.1 from an ADCCC Buck Ryan reprint A4 size. They have permission to reprint small numbers of newspaper strips for club members:-

and a page from Super Detective Library #174 - Buck Ryan in Island of Refuge, 1960.  This is a pocket (digest) size 64 pager.  A reprint of a newspaper strip resized at times and cut up to fit.  All by Jack Monk.  Might not appeal to any of you out there but I'm a big fan:-

[josemas]

1776 by David McCullough   McCullough's followup to his Pulitzer Prize winning John Adams biography is this look at George Washington as he leads his rag tag army against the much more efficient British army, from 1775, when he takes command of the Continental army, until early 1777, when he manages to win a few victories that give new vigor to the American Revolution.  Very lively history.

Killing Castro by Lawrence Block   One of Block's earliest novels is now back in print- a half century half it's initial publication.  A very quick read about five disparate Americans who are recruited to assassinate Fidel Castro.  Mixes pretty well researched historical background information about Castro with scenes of sex and violence.  I believe that Block originally published this under a pseudonym for one of those sweat book publishing firms that were around in those days.  Now-a-days the risque stuff and violence in it seems pretty mainstream.

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary   Well researched and very readable.  The first two/thirds of the book is pretty much an account of Islam's rise (and occasional fall) where it had little contact with the western world.  The final third covers the last five hundred years as the Islamic world became more and more embroiled with the west and a world very different from their own.  Recommended.

Best

Joe

[narfstar]

Paw you should know by now this stuff is of interest to this group.
Killing Castro and Destiny seem like interesting reads. I am always interested in the other point of view whether I agree with it or not.

[bowers]

Great stuff, indeed, Paw. Also, a good point by Narf about other points of view. Cheers, Bowers

[paw broon]

Just to bring the tone back down, I've nearly finished "The Owl meets the Devil" by Bryan Rodney.  This is one of a short series of books with The Owl as main hero/protagnist, from 1950's.  A British, good guy safecracker with an owl mask who rights wrongs and gives the proceeds of his robberies to charity.  The usual Scotland Yard detective type (a la Saint) on his trail.   I have a notion to read more of this entertaining, low brow stuff and the next will be a Silk story - and, yes, you've guessed it, this is a masked character, acting for good, outside the law.  A few years ago I read " The Crimson Clown" and "Thunderbolt" stories by Johnston McCulley and I'm putting them back on the reading pile.  This has also put me in the notion for Bulldog Drummond (by Sapper) and for those who don't know, "The Black Gang" features a group of hooded, robed, masked crimefighters, led by Drummond.  Fast, exciting writing, if you can get around the extremely non-pc  stuff that was prevalent at the time.

I understand narfstar's comment and I also try to see the other person's point of view but it becomes more difficult as I get older.  Listening to the litany of disaster, war, murders and the dire state of our economy every morning on Radio Scotland, really puts a strain on my ability to accept those other lifestyles and views.  That's why a heavy dose of action packed pulp fiction is one of the great antidotes.
We've got elections for the Scottish Parliament next week and it's going to be very interesting to see how the SNP (they're the nationalists, going for independence) do, as it looks as if they might just get a majority.  Interested to follow it?

[josemas]

Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard  Leonard often writes about criminals and this book is no exception.  I always find it kinda fascinating that he can make me take an interest in the sort of people who I would normally never associate with in real life.   

The Long-Legged Fly by James Sallis   Read a piece on Sallis in our local paper a while back (he lives here in the Phoenix area) and have been meaning to read one of his novels ever since.  This is the first in his Lew Griffin series.  I'm not sure what to make of it. Lew's, more or less, a black PI working out of New Orleans in this short book that mostly centers around several "missing person" cases he looks into over the decades (from the 1960s to the 1990s).  It's just that loose theme that sorta ties it all together as follow Lew and his relationships with various people throughout this period.  Just interesting enough to make me want to check out another.

Hollywood Hills by Joseph Wambaugh   Wambaugh's fourth book in his Hollywood Station series is another winner.  Wambaugh's contacts with the LA Police Dpt keep supplying him with enough interesting true-to-life incidents (from incredibly sad to absolutely hilarious) which he peppers throughout these novels, that they always have an authentic feel to them.

Best

Joe

[josemas]

1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance by Gavin Menzies  I had been wanting to read this book by Menzies (as well as his previous book 1421 -about a round the world voyage by the Chinese supposedly made that year) for a while now.  Both were bestsellers and apparently addressed an aspect of history that I hadn't heard much about. 
Well as I was reading it I began to realize that Menzies seemed to be making a lot of jumps to conclusions based on small amounts of evidence which bothered me some.  So upon finishing it I did a bit of online research- checking out what the historians were saying about his theories and also found and watched a 2 part documentary on DVD (1421: The Year China Discovered America?) that looked at and examined the thesis of his earlier book as well.
It turns out that most historians were very critical of his research and methods and gave a lot of examples regarding aspects where he had shortcomings.
My feelings after digesting it all was that it was certain that the Chinese had sailed up and down the east coast of Africa establishing contacts with Muslims and other indigenous people there.  It also seemed quite probable that they had sailed up the east coast of Asia and over and down parts of the west coast of the Americas but there wasn't nearly enough evidence (at least at this time) to support Menzies' theories that they sailed all around the world and thoroughly mapped it. 
The evidence of their fleet sailing to Italy and igniting the Renaissance seemed scanty too although I think it very likely that books like the Nong Shu (1313) from China quite likely made their way to Italy either via trading with the Muslim world or in some other method as the contents of Chinese books like this seems to have exploded on the scene in Italy in such as short period in the 15th century that it seems too big a coincidence that so much of the same material in books like the Nong Shu could have been invented separately, similarly and so quickly elsewhere.
If nothing else Menzies has prodded more people into looking into inspirations beyond the usual Greco-Roman influences that have usually been sited as the inspiration for the Renaissance.

Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card   Card's sequel  to Ender's Game is every bit as good as EG and maybe better!   
I was listening to an audio interview with Card after reading the book and he mentions that he conceived of this sequel first and had actually started EG as sort of a short prequel to SFtD and it grew into a book that overshadowed SFtD with its popularity.  Card considers SFtD the better of the two although admits that he still very much likes EG.

Best

Joe

[Menticide]

1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance by Gavin Menzies  I had been wanting to read this book by Menzies (as well as his previous book 1421 -about a round the world voyage by the Chinese supposedly made that year) for a while now.  Both were bestsellers and apparently addressed an aspect of history that I hadn't heard much about. 
Well as I was reading it I began to realize that Menzies seemed to be making a lot of jumps to conclusions based on small amounts of evidence which bothered me some.  So upon finishing it I did a bit of online research- checking out what the historians were saying about his theories and also found and watched a 2 part documentary on DVD (1421: The Year China Discovered America?) that looked at and examined the thesis of his earlier book as well.
It turns out that most historians were very critical of his research and methods and gave a lot of examples regarding aspects where he had shortcomings.
My feelings after digesting it all was that it was certain that the Chinese had sailed up and down the east coast of Africa establishing contacts with Muslims and other indigenous people there.  It also seemed quite probable that they had sailed up the east coast of Asia and over and down parts of the west coast of the Americas but there wasn't nearly enough evidence (at least at this time) to support Menzies' theories that they sailed all around the world and thoroughly mapped it. 

1421 is among a list of books that I am looking to getting around to reading. Another alternative history book that I've been meaning to get my hands on is Scott F. Wolter's the Hooked X. That one deals with the possible origins of the Kensington Runestone and a possible Templar connection, not only to the origin of the Runestone, but also a Templar connection to Christopher Columbus too. There was a fascinating documentary made around the ideas presented in Wolter's book called the Holy Grail in America, it airs fairly regularly on the History Channel.

Plus, the book that I am currently reading has a slight connection to the Hooked X, it is called the Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar: Solving the Oak Island Mystery by Steven Sora. Interesting read...

[josemas]

The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis   New, relatively concise (hey its a big subject!) look back at the Cold War era with historian Gaddis doing a nice job of putting everything in perspective using all the info that has come to light since then.

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie  Well Henry's enthusiasm for the film adaptation of this Christie novel sent me to the library looking for a DVD of that.  They didn't have it.   Rats!!! So I settled for the book and am glad I did as it was a reliably fine Poirot mystery.

The Pyramid and Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries by Henning Mankell   I mentioned to someone that I had liked Swedish author Steig Larsson's mysteries and they recommended I try some of Mankell's (another Swedish writer) police procedurals featuring his character Inspector Kurt Wallander.  This was not Mankell's earliest Wallander book but it turned out to be a good one to start with as this collection of shorter works features Wallander in events that all precede his adventures in Mankell's other (all full length) novels of the Inspector.   Looking forward to sampling those.

Best

Joe

[paw broon]

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, for the second time, 'cos it's excellent and funny.

[Geo (R.I.P.)]

I've been reading Pyramid by Tom Martin. I waiting till it came out in paper back, took awhile too since it was originally released in 2007. And yes it's the UK version and not available yet in the US. It's an interesting read, plays on lots of myths, but not the best writing I'm sorry to say. I'm spoiled by reading books by UK writer Andy McDermott. Hard to match up. But I still like to try new authors.

Geo