BOOKS THREAD

It's why his "The Mist" in "Skeleton Crew" is my favorite story... ever. Loved the non-conclusive ending. It had my imagination running wild as a kid when I read it the first time.

 

Starting American Tabloid

 

Tremendous book. Have you read much Ellroy? If not, it might take a couple chapters to get used to his style. Earlier this year I read the second of his underworld trilogy, The Cold Six Thousand, which I also loved, and I have Blood's A Rover, the final book in queue.

His LA noir quartet -- Black Dahlia, Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz -- can keep you entertained for a while, too.

 

I made it through the entire trilogy, but my brain was fried by the end.

 

I sometimes enjoy reading authors chronologically and one book after another but I need to space out Ellroy books.

 

my first Ellroy and its based on the tips I read in this thread. How similar is Ellroy to Elmore LEonard?

 

Ellroy is darker, way more involved and frenetic. He's also got a style -- staccato cadence, all short declaritive sentences and in his own sort of shorthand -- that can be difficult to get used to. A lot of period cop and street slang, too.

I like Leonard, too, even his western stuff.

 

Ellroy is more than a little crazy. Elmore Leonard is sane.

I like everything Leonard has written, too. And he's the master of writing conversations. A lot of the time he moves his plots forward simply through long but concise conversations. Brilliant writing.

 

Might have to get some 'za and swing by Arbs before picking this one up, you guys.

 

Read "The Tender Bar" as a result of some reviews on here.

I liked it a lot, too. I think we are initially interested, and relate to it throughout, just because it's written by a former reporter, and that helps. But it's well-written and an easy read in which you come to care about the people in the book and winds up standing up well as a good autobiographical story all on its own.

 

Just read "The Echoing Green," about Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca, the 1951 homer, the Giants using a telescope to steal signs, and Branca and Thomson's complicated, evolving relationship since that day. If you're a baseball freak like me, it's an excellent read.

 

Finally got around to reading "West By West -- My Charmed and Tormented Life."

I found Jerry West's autobiography, co-written with Jonathan Coleman, to be pretty typical fare for this type of book, although I was pleased that West seemed very open for the most part.

Some stuff could have been delved into more -- say, the alleged physical abuse at the hands of his father, and his relationships with ex-wife Jane (particularly post-marriage, perhaps especially with regard to their sons) and with Kobe Bryant and Oscar Robertson.

The abuse issue was what earned the book most of the ink it got in reviews and newspaper articles at the time it came out a couple years ago. But I actually thought the immediate-family info was a bit scarce to have raised such serious allegations and that interviews with family members could and should have been more fleshed out.

The book is a good read for anyone who was ever a fan or a follower of West and his career, though, and he is open and interesting -- a complex person who I think worked hard to explain and expose himself in a genuine way.

Given my very limited previous personal experience with West, I wasn't surprised at this, and the tone he took and the type of man he seems to be, and apparently strives to be, was right on point with my expectations. I was happy about that and really appreciated it.

He has long struck me as a really intelligent, honest and intense person whom I would have liked to have had the privilege to know better on a more personal basis. I came away from this book still feeling the same way, only more so.

For review purposes, I wouldn't say it was a great, must-read book, but I enjoyed it, and, I'd love to have a sit-down and a good conversation with West about it.