BOOKS THREAD

I got this in the mail this afternoon and finished it tonight in advance of hearing the author speak later this week.

Jeanne Bishop's sister and brother-in-law -- and their unborn child -- were killed in 1990. This is her story of learning to forgive the man who killed them. It's a pretty powerful read. I don't know if I would be able to do the same if I was in her position.

It was, obviously, a quick read, but I enjoyed it, if that's the right word for a book that's about three murders and the aftermath.

 

Luckiest Girl Alive...
The ending was not what I expected. Without giving away spoilers, I thought there would be more to it, but I enjoyed the story.

 

Obviously not a new book but...a couple weeks ago I picked up Lonesome Dove after a friend called it is his favorite book. Now halfway though, and it's the most enjoyable reading I've done in a while.

 

The sequel, "Streets of Laredo," is good, too, though it gets pretty weird in places.

 

I've been reading Truman Capote and Stephen King lately. In Cold Blood is one that will stick with me for a long time. I watched the PSH movie after I read the book and thought it was a good take on the book and Capote's fascination with Perry Smith. Breakfast at Tiffany's was a quick, fun read. I look forward to watching the Hepburn movie. I've had both books on the shelf for probably a decade and finally decided to take a shot. I may pick up Capote's collection of short stories. He's really good. Anyone recommend his first book Other Voices, Other Rooms?

I'm late to the party on Stephen King, too. I read 11/22/63 a few years ago and while I don't usually like sci-fi/time travel, that book is one of my favorites of all time. Since then, I've read and thoroughly enjoyed some of the non-horror stuff like On Writing, Joyland and Mr. Mercedes -- which reads like a mystery/thriller that I tend to stick to mostly.

A few weeks ago, I knocked out The Dead Zone, which I also really enjoyed. Coco recommended it a few pages back -- very good call. Some have said it was sort of King's precursor to 11/22/63 and I can see that - probably why I enjoyed it so much.

So, with The Dead Zone done, I decided to stick with King and finally dive into the horror side of his writing. Working off the Rolling Stone list of their readers choice Top 10, I decided to tackle "It." For some reason, the plot seems more interesting to me than The Stand, which is regarded by most as his best. I'm about 150 pages in to "It" and I'm hooked at this point. In Cold Blood had me pretty spooked as I read it late at night and I know this one will get there - it has in a few places. But a lot of the beginning is introducing the main characters and setting the stage for what I imagine will be some scary stuff to come.

 

If you're a boxing fan, I strongly recommend "Chuvalo: A Fighter's Life" (Harper Collins, 2013). George Chuvalo, the only man to fight Ali, Frazier and Foreman, was ranked among the world's Top 10 heavyweights from 1961-72 and was never knocked down in 93 fights (7-18-2, 64KOs). But after he retired in 1978, his life fell apart when three sons and his wife died from drug abuse and suicide. Co-written with longtime Canadian boxing journalist Murray Greig, this hard-hitting memoir is both a fascinating inside look at the Golden Age of heavyweight boxing and a poignant chronicle of personal courage.

 

Thanks for stopping by Murray! I keed! I keed! Does sound like a great story. Will plan to check it out.

 

I heard the author of this book on NPR the other day, so I checked out the first book of his I could find at the local library, and it was this one. Pretty entertaining read, though his descriptions of places and objects can be a little over the top sometimes. In real life, the author is a martial arts expert, and the two main characters get in a fight, and the tone of his writing changes as the first-person narrator describes how he fought.

All that being said, Joe Bob says check it out.

 

All the books in that series are great. Gus is right up there with Ignatius J. Reilly for my favorite literary character.

 

Anyone read "All the Light You Cannot See," the Pulitzer winner? Just finished it. I'm pretty sure part of the reason it won was due to its 1.5-page chapters. Definitely kept the momentum going, which is important in our easily distracted age. Just started City on Fire, which earned the debut author a whopping $2.5m advance. Set in the 1970s in NYC. It's like 900-plus pages and I'm glad I only borrowed it from the library and didn't buy it, bc I don't see myself finishing it. It needs more 1.5-page chapters.

 

if you like short chapters, i'm reading a thriller by Carla Norton called What Doesn't Kill Her which benefits from that technique. i'm about a third of the way in and i'd give it four stars out of five so far, but it's readable as heck.