BOOKS THREAD

An excellent choice. Agree with your sentiment. It's also been optioned for a movie.

Art of Fielding I really liked as well. It is rather ridiculous in many parts, but I loved the writing and the relationship between the two main characters was great. I'll bet someday Harbach will deliver an MVP-caliber book which makes this feel minor leagues.

Justin Cronin's new book The Twelve is due out next Tuesday, which means you can get it this weekend at Barnes & Noble. Will definitely read it. Just not sure how excited I am for it. The first book would have been my favorite novel of all time if it continued on like the first 140 pages. It completely fizzled out after that. I worry the sequel will be more of the same.

 

I think we talked about The Passage before, TSP. Agree on the first 140 pages. The opening was really awesome. Literature, I'd argue. They rest of it was really readable, but it felt like a different book, or different author even. I felt like, when it shifted to the compound stuff 30 years later (or whatever) it was like I was reading a Vampire Novel of Redwall.

A part of me wonders, though, if the second novel might be better simply because he probably wrote it all with a better understanding of his own voice and direction for the book. The Passage sometimes read like something written for a bit, then put down for two years, then finished.

Again, it wasn't a bad book, it just set a high bar it couldn't live up to.

 

Yes, I agree with you. The beginning section reminded me of the first half of Gone Girl. That one changed in tone halfway through, though I enjoyed the remainder much more than I did The Passage. Maybe it was you who said it, but someone posited that perhaps his publisher or editor or whoever would be the decision maker only read part of The Passage and told him he had a hit and to turn it into a trilogy. Therefore the tone changed and it was padded.

I got that sense from the recent NYT article about him that this might very well be the case:

The Twelve is not getting flattering reviews.

 

Oh, and speaking of getting it early, DD, The Passage was sitting on my library holds shelf when I went to lunch. I'll be able to give a report soon!

 

On to Lehane's "Live By Night."

 

I adored "The Passage" and will read "The Twelve" no matter what reviewers have to say. Cronin gets bogged down in his plotlines, but he's still a great writer. Read reviews in the Washington Post and USA Today, and both reviewers thought it was off the mark compared to first book.

Reading and enjoying "Broken Harbor" by Tara French right now.

 

"The Extra 2 Percent."

There was some interesting stuff in there about the history of baseball in Tampa Bay/St. Pete, certainly about Joe Maddon, and about some of the ways in which baseball organizations are run. However, it just didn't get as deep as "Moneyball," because of the lack of access. It seemed like a lot of times, I was just asked to accept on fate that Friedman, et al., are geniuses. Which I can tell from the results.

I actually liked it more than I seem to be indicating. I just wish that when the author tells us, for example, that arcane rules of baseball prevent this or that, he would have found a way to explain those arcane rules and make it interesting and readable instead of just breezing past it.

 

Here's a terrific piece on self publishing in the LA Review of Books.

http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=364&fulltext=1

Self publishing has taken off but it still has a stigma attached to it---often deservedly so

Most major media outlets such as the NYT and Washington Post do not review them but what's most disturbing is a that major trade journal, Kirkus Reviews charges anywhere from $475 and up for a review.

I'm old school. There's a reason book publishers exist, mainly to separate the publishable from the unreadable

 

Yeah, but these days most publishers are simply picking the sellable - whether readable or not - leaving a lot of readable and publishable wanting

 

Publishers have always picked the saleable.

They may not have as long term view as they used to have however.

It's turned into the film industry. Everyone wants the next blockbuster

 

Finished "The Twelve" in a few days. It was a good read, but there seemed to be a lot of coincidental relationships. Of course, Cronin, through one of the characters, addresses that, so at least he was aware of it. At first read I liked "The Passage" better, but "The Twelve" isn't bad.

 

I'm 180 pages in. It's OK. There's a 60% chance I finish.