BOOKS THREAD

With your professional background, you'll probably like "The Ghost" which was turned into the film "The Ghost Writer." IIRC, Harris and Roman Polanski collaborated on the screenplay.
Anyway, the book offers insight into actually ghost writing in addition to having a fantastic plot.

 

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson is one of the best non-fiction books I've read. It toggles expertly between individual stories and the big picture of how the Great Migration reshaped the country. It changes the way you see the world and also hits you with the force of a great novel.

 

Sam Knight’s “Premonition Bureau” tells the story of the British doctor, John Barker, who set up a hotline for people to report their premonitions as a scientific study into the phenomenon and opens into a larger discussion of related psychology.

A fantastic read and will have you examining what you believe about the nature of time, phenomena we cannot explain. The more we learn about quantum physics, the more I’m open to people somehow getting glimpses into the future through some quirk in the way our minds take in reality. I’m also open to this all being a simulation and glitches showing certain people glimpses of future events. I’m also open to none of it having any truth to it.

Amazon owns the movie rights and wouldn’t be surprised to see it made.

 

That's 100 percent the best book I've ever read. I'm a big fan of Wilkerson's work.

Quick story that pretty much was the highlight of my life: I was doing a phone interview with Wilkerson prior to her coming to town for a reading and talk. My phone rang at the agreed-upon time. I answered it and she said, "Hello, this is Isabel Wilkerson." I replied with my name, and she said, "I recognize you from social media."

Yep...total highlight. My literary hero knows who I am.

 

Fifth book in The Sportwriter Trilogy due in June:



Richard Ford on ‘The natural attrition of getting old’

 

Enjoying Ben Smith's Traffic, which focuses on Nick Denton and Jonah Peretti, but the font and cover design make me think the title is actually talking about some sicko's desire to quite literally traffic Ben Smith.

 

I loved Lonesome Dove but haven't read anything else by Larry McMurtry. What's the next book of his to go to?

 

Interesting. I loved The Sportswriter and Independence Day, but Lay of the Land was bad. Like, I couldn't get over how poorly it was written, choppy and riddled with unnecessary commas, like a first draft almost. I've read a lot of Ford's stuff, including A Piece of My Heart, and loved it. But I tried reading Lay of the Land several times and was so off put by the diminution of his writing that I never got through it. The lame title of the next one alone -- "Let Me Be Frank" -- steered me away from it completely. Maybe I'm wrong and they bear revisiting, but these haven't turned into the Rabbit Angstrom series, unfortunately.

 

The Last Picture Show, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers and its sequel Some Can Whistle are good places to go after that one.

 

I would add “Horseman, Pass By”, which became Hud on screen.

 

I read the first Joe Pickett book, Open Range. Have to say I found it a little clunky.

I think the setting and the premise of a game warden are solid. I wish the plot was a simple murder instead of a conspiracy. Sometimes less is more.

I figured out what was going on pretty early - not because I’m clever, but it was pretty much the only way it could go. He also laid it on a little thick with the moral failings of the bad guys - they not only chase women, they encourage the protagonist to as well. A little extra, as the kids say.

 

I read that whole trilogy and it's worth it. I think Streets of Laredo is next?