Whatcha readin now? (book, books, reading, read) (3 Viewers)

[kupcho1]

Next up: The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford, the 1970 winner. I'm not going to tell you who the author is, I'll let you work that out for yourself.

We've reached the point of your project where I've at least heard of most of the books and their authors but Stafford was someone I'm completely unfamiliar with.

I read a couple of short Internet bios. She led an interesting and rather tragic life including a brief and unhappy marriage to poet Robert Lowell. She quit fiction late and life and wrote children's books and non-fiction. Her short biography of Lee Harvey Oswald's mother was described by Time in 1966 as "the most abrasively unpleasant book in recent years”.

I may have to put that mama Oswald biography on my to be read list.

 

[Eephus]

I may have to put that mama Oswald biography on my to be read list.

It's in the Internet Archive. I found this excerpt more enjoyable when I read it in the voice of Ed Grimley

I had come to Texas to see Mrs. Oswald because she is, as she was frequently to tell me, ‘‘a mother in history,” and while she remains peripheral to the immediate events of the Dallas killings, she is inherent to the evolution of the reasons for them. She is inherent, that is, if we accept (as I do) the premise that her son had something to do with the assassination and accept the further premise that the child is father of the man: we need to know the influences and accidents and loves and antipathies and idiosyncrasies that were the ingredients making up the final compound. I hoped that Mrs. Oswald would be able to tell me what these had been.

Good luck with her short stories.

 

[Sand]

Reading Jade City. It's about gangsters with magic in a 1950s city like Hong Kong. Fascinating setting. Darn good book - highly recommended.

 

[Hastur]

Splitting my reading between Atomic Habits by James Clear and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s court by Mark Twain.

Just started Atomic Habits. 3 chapters in, and I like what I'm reading so far.

 

[beer 30]

Been reading some heavier stuff lately so started a post apocalyptic series called the Catalyst Series by JK Franks, first book Downward Cycle. As pseudo prepper, it appeals to my dark side.

 

[TheBaylorKid]

Finished the original 3 Dragon Lance novels this month, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, and Spring Dawning. It was a good walk down memory lane for me, but I don't plan on reading anymore. The mage Raistlin still holds up as a character you want to know more about, but lots of "this character dies" but "oh here is a magical healing spell to bring you back", flimsy origins, and weak dialogue. I kind of like the mysterious Fizban character where the rules don't apply to him, he just shows up when he wants, supplies information or guidance, and then drops of the face of the planet to only reappear again unexpectedly. Reminds me of Enoch Root in Neal Stephenson's novels or even Melchizedek from the Bible.

Up next, waiting on Midnight In Moscow: a memoir from the front lines of Russia's war against the West, to become available at the library.

 

[kupcho1]

Finished The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford, the 1970 Pulitzer Prize winner.
The short stories were very well written, but almost without exception, they left me cold. The stories were uniformly depressing, the characters were almost always without hope. I don't think there is another book on earth (medical books excepted) with as many references to tuberculosis.
I did like how she broke the stories into 4 groupings (2 of which were references to Mark Twain and Henry James works):

• The Innocents Abroad - stories about ex-pats
• The Bostonians, and other Manifestations of the American Scene - stories set in Boston
• Cowboys and Indians and Magic Mountains - stories set in the West (primarily Colorado); only 1 involves Indians Native Americans (you'll be horrified to know that casual racism is very much a thing at this point in our history)
• Manhattan Island - stories about the Manhattan cocktail. Just kidding; stories set in Manhattan

So, 2/3 of the way there (at least until the Pulitzer is announced; I don't think I can finish before then)
66 done / 33 to go
Next up: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner the 1972 winner (there was no prize awarded in 1971)

 

[Hastur]

Finished the original 3 Dragon Lance novels this month, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, and Spring Dawning. It was a good walk down memory lane for me, but I don't plan on reading anymore. The mage Raistlin still holds up as a character you want to know more about, but lots of "this character dies" but "oh here is a magical healing spell to bring you back", flimsy origins, and weak dialogue. I kind of like the mysterious Fizban character where the rules don't apply to him, he just shows up when he wants, supplies information or guidance, and then drops of the face of the planet to only reappear again unexpectedly. Reminds me of Enoch Root in Neal Stephenson's novels or even Melchizedek from the Bible.

Up next, waiting on Midnight In Moscow: a memoir from the front lines of Russia's war against the West, to become available at the library.

Tsk tsk...you didn't even mention the comedy relief that is Tasslehoff!

 

[Sand]

For those that like Will Wight he's put his latest series up for free.

The Last Horizon

Visit Amazon's The Last Horizon Page and shop for all The Last Horizon books. Check out pictures, author information, and reviews of The Last Horizon

www.amazon.com

 

[shuke]

The Last Child by John Hart. Not sure if someone here recommended this or I just gave it a shot because I noticed it won an Edgar award for best novel. I found it to be a typical mystery novel. Engaged my interest but I'm sure I'll completely forget about it in a few weeks. I do like coming of age stories, but this was written from a number of different character perspectives, so I don't think the main character was fully fleshed out as well.

 

[Eephus]

It took me forever but I finally finished A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. It's a massive historical novel of the French Revolution with Danton, Robespierre, Desmoulins and a cast of hundreds. Some of the characters and dialog seemed curiously modern to me but she did a good job in bringing 18th century Paris to life. I liked Mantel's writing style and would like to read more from her.

 

[Don Quixote]

It took me forever but I finally finished A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. It's a massive historical novel of the French Revolution with Danton, Robespierre, Desmoulins and a cast of hundreds. Some of the characters and dialog seemed curiously modern to me but she did a good job in bringing 18th century Paris to life. I liked Mantel's writing style and would like to read more from her.

I read that one last year and liked it too.

Since it sounds like you have not read anything else by her, definitely read her Wolf Hall trilogy. It is outstanding.

Season 2 of the Wolf Hall TV series comes to the US next month.

 

[lsutigers]

Finished the original 3 Dragon Lance novels this month, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, and Spring Dawning. It was a good walk down memory lane for me, but I don't plan on reading anymore. The mage Raistlin still holds up as a character you want to know more about, but lots of "this character dies" but "oh here is a magical healing spell to bring you back", flimsy origins, and weak dialogue. I kind of like the mysterious Fizban character where the rules don't apply to him, he just shows up when he wants, supplies information or guidance, and then drops of the face of the planet to only reappear again unexpectedly. Reminds me of Enoch Root in Neal Stephenson's novels or even Melchizedek from the Bible.

On Fizban, right?!? From the Marvel universe, I find Uatu the Watcher to be comparable "can't interfere", *proceeds to interfere all the time* I found the Twins trilogy worthwhile (focusing on Raistlin/Caramon) but you're not missing much by skipping out on the continuation past Spring Dawning.

 

[wazoo11]

My book club this month is reading kitchen confidential, very excited!

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Since it sounds like you have not read anything else by her, definitely read her Wolf Hall trilogy. It is outstanding.

I read the first book. It's really well-written and, as far as I can tell, really well-researched. But, for some reason, I just couldn't get into it. I'm pretty sure it was a "me" problem and not the novel's, as I sometimes have to be in the right frame of mind to connect with a book.

 

[kupcho1]

I just finished Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, the 1972* Pulitzer Prize winner. It's an excellent book, albeit controversial. Perusing Wiki after I finished the book, I learned that:

The novel is directly based on the letters of Mary Hallock Foote, later published as A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West.
Stegner's use of substantial passages from Foote's actual letters as the correspondence of his fictional character Susan Burling Ward was and remains controversial among some scholars. While Stegner's defenders have claimed that he had received permission to use Foote's writings, as the book's acknowledgments page implies, others point out that he secured that permission only after falsely claiming that his novel would not use any direct quotations.

Still, it's a good book even if he lifted the letters under false pretenses. And there are a lot of portions of the book that are letters.

So, 67 down / 32 to go
Next up: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty, the 1973 winner.

* Side note: there's a passage near the end of the book, describing a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants (Lyman's rooting interest) and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Willie Stargell hits a homerun and drives in Roberto Clemente, who would die way too young, shortly after the book was published.

 

[Sand]

On Fizban, right?!? From the Marvel universe, I find Uatu the Watcher to be comparable "can't interfere", *proceeds to interfere all the time* I found the Twins trilogy worthwhile (focusing on Raistlin/Caramon) but you're not missing much by skipping out on the continuation past Spring Dawning.

Man, those are some old memories you're dredging up here.

 

[brun]

Usually have at least a couple going. Thought these were worth sharing.

Just finished;
Relics of Dawn: Complete Trilogy of Sci Fi Mystery Books (The Dawn Project Trilogy)
A.W. Davidson
Thought it had an interesting take on climate change, evolution etc.

Almost halfway thru;
PROOF OF MONEY: The Big Idea Behind Bitcoin (What You Don't Know About Why You Need It)
Terence Michael
Unless it falls of a cliff somehow, this is going to go on my recommended list of books related to bitcoin, along with;
The Little Bitcoin Book:,
The Sovereign Individual,
The Fiat Standard,
Bitcoin: Hard Money You Can't F*ck With

 

[Judge Smails]

Let Them by Mel Robbins. It’s a mindset I need right now dealing with estrangement.

 

[kupcho1]

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty, was a quick read (at 180 pages). This was the winner of the 1973 Pulitzer prize; it's best summed up (Wiki):

It concerns a woman named Laurel, who travels to New Orleans to take care of her father, Judge McKelva, after he has surgery for a detached retina. Judge McKelva fails to recover from this surgery, and as he dies slowly in the hospital, Laurel visits and reads to him from Dickens. Her father's second wife, Fay, who is younger than Laurel, is a shrewish outsider from Texas. Her shrill response to the Judge's illness appears to accelerate his demise. Laurel and Fay are thrown together when they return the Judge to his hometown, Mount Salus, Mississippi, where he will be buried. There, Laurel is immersed in the good neighborliness of the friends and family she knew before marrying and moving away to Chicago. Fay, though, has always been unwelcome and leaves for a long weekend, leaving Laurel in the big house full of memories. Laurel encounters her mother's memory, her father's life after he lost his first wife, and the complex emotions surrounding her loss as well as the many memories.

Shrewish doesn't begin to describe the Optimist's (i.e., Judge McKelva's) 2nd wife Fay. The Wiki description doesn't describe Fay's action when the Judge is in the hospital recovering from surgery. He was recuperating for a while and not paying sufficient attention to her, so she basically assaulted him trying to get him out of bed, and he died.

The book is well written, but not one that I'd ever revisit.

Next up ... a little controversy.

Gravity's Rainbow (1974), by Thomas Pynchon.

Although selected by the Pulitzer Prize jury on fiction for the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Pulitzer Advisory Board was offended by its content, some of which was described as "'unreadable', 'turgid', 'overwritten', and in parts 'obscene'

I'm overruling the Pulitzer Advisory Board and restoring Gravity's Rainbow to its rightful place among Pulitzer Prize winners.

Is the book in parts obscene? Well, yes, they're right about that.

But overwrtten? turgid? GTFO. And it's only unreadable insofar as you're up for a challenge. I put it on the same shelf as Ulysses and Infinite Jest. (Finnegan's Wake is another thing entirely.)

Anyway, I've already read Gravity's Rainbow, so next on the list is: The Killer Angels (1975) by Michael Shaara, but I've read that as well. You should too. It's great.

So I'm at 68 down / 31 to go, and I'll be reading the 1976 Pulitzer prize winner: Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow. This one's a little longer, so gimme a minute. I'll get back to you.

 

[shuke]

@kupcho1 how many words do you ready a minute and how many hours do you read a day? I can't fathom this.

 

[kupcho1]

@kupcho1 how many words do you ready a minute and how many hours do you read a day? I can't fathom this.

I don't know why, but I've been on a tear this year. I've finished 9 books and we're 38 days into the year. That's a little over 4 days a book.

They've just been very good for the most part. Last year I was at about 15 days per Pulitzer (with a few others thrown in).

Of course I'm retired and it's freezing here so no golf. Also, not much of interest on TV.

 

[Eephus]

So I'm at 68 down / 31 to go, and I'll be reading the 1976 Pulitzer prize winner: Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow. This one's a little longer, so gimme a minute. I'll get back to you

I read this one about 40 years ago. Don't remember a thing about it.

 

[Eephus]

next on the list is: The Killer Angels (1975) by Michael Shaara, but I've read that as well. You should too. It's great.

I read this one too probably sometime in the late 80s.

There have been many second generation authors but the handover of the Shaara family business to Jeff was remarkably seamless.

 

[Eephus]

I've been doing all my reading on a Kindle for about a decade. Last night I tried reading a regular book because it's not available in e-book format (Simon Schama's Citizens). Holy crap, who shrunk the print? When did that happen? There's no way I could make it though 900 pages of squinting.

 

[kupcho1]

I've been doing all my reading on a Kindle for about a decade. Last night I tried reading a regular book because it's not available in e-book format (Simon Schama's Citizens). Holy crap, who shrunk the print? When did that happen? There's no way I could make it though 900 pages of squinting.

 

[Sand]

I've been doing all my reading on a Kindle for about a decade. Last night I tried reading a regular book because it's not available in e-book format (Simon Schama's Citizens). Holy crap, who shrunk the print? When did that happen? There's no way I could make it though 900 pages of squinting.

My wife complains that on the Kindle I use font size 2 and she can't see it.

 

[kupcho1]

Yikes, it took me 4 days to finish Humboldt's Gift, the 1976 Pulitzer Prize winner.


Seriously, though, this book is not an easy read. But it was a very good book. It's very well written, but challenging at times.
I'd never read Bellow before, and as I was reading the book, the impression I got was a little bit Philip Roth, a little bit John Updike. But that's only because I'd read those guys and hadn't read Bellow before. Dude stands on his own for sure: 3 National Book Awards, this Pulitzer and the Nobel Prize in Literature (also 1976).

Here's a pretty good summary from Wiki:

The novel, which Bellow initially intended to be a short story, is a roman à clef about Bellow's friendship with the poet Delmore Schwartz. It explores the changing relationship of art and power in a materialist America. This theme is addressed through the contrasting careers of two writers, Von Humboldt Fleisher (to some degree a version of Schwartz) and his protégé Charlie Citrine (to some degree a version of Bellow himself). Fleisher yearns to lift American society through art, but dies a failure. By contrast, Charlie Citrine makes a lot of money through his writing, especially from a Broadway play and a movie about a character named Von Trenck – a character modeled after Fleisher.

Another notable character in the book is Rinaldo Cantabile, a wannabe Chicago gangster, who tries to bully Citrine into being friends. Because his career advice to Citrine is commercially fixated, it is directly opposed to advice from Citrine's former mentor, Humboldt Fleisher, who prioritizes artistic integrity.

I've seen it described as a comic novel. Sure, there are a few laugh out loud moments, but it also has some very serious themes.
Anyway, this is a book I enjoyed reading, would recommend and might result in my reading more Bellow (should I ever get through all of the Pultizers).

69 down / 30 to go

No Pulitzer awarded in 1977 (the 8th time - 9th if you exclude Gravity's Rainbow from the winner's circle - that no award was given since its inception in 1918).
Next up: 1978's Elbow Room, a collection of short stories by James Alan McPherson

 

[rockaction]

Anyway, this is a book I enjoyed reading, would recommend and might result in my reading more Bellow

Bellow is a great, great writer. He wrote Ravelstein, which was a fictional account of his friendship with Allan Bloom of "The Closing of the American Mind" fame. In the introduction or opening pages, he uses a literary device that is just pyrotechnics. I use the technique in my own writing at times when I have the excuse to do so (I don't do it here because I simply converse here). Anyway, I just remember the jolt I got from it. Same jolt I got from reading the opening to Nabakov's Pnin. Just a different planet these fellows are on.

 

[rockaction]

I put it on the same shelf as Ulysses and Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest was not a hard book to read if you weren't trying to have it all come together neatly. Ulysses wasn't hard to read either, but it didn't interest me. Gravity's Rainbow is just difficult, although I do love the opening line. I just can't seem to get into the story after that. Perhaps I'll try again.

 

[rockaction]

Here's the opening to Ravelstein. I thought it was brilliant as a twenty-six year-old. The transition from footnote to the apartment was audacious and let you realize that the author had been prattling on about everything heady under the sun except for the sun and it was time to get to the story.

I hope this link works. Page One of Ravelstein

 

[Don Quixote]

I put it on the same shelf as Ulysses and Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest was not a hard book to read if you weren't trying to have it all come together neatly. Ulysses wasn't hard to read either, but it didn't interest me. Gravity's Rainbow is just difficult, although I do love the opening line. I just can't seem to get into the story after that. Perhaps I'll try again.

I need to give Gravity’s Rainbow another go. I remember bringing it on a beach read for my honeymoon, and, well, it did not work for that and only got about halfway through before putting it down because realized I was not retaining anything going on. I think need to try it with a different mood. I did love Ulysses, and did find that one easier to follow, but maybe where I was and mood played into that.

 

[kupcho1]

I need to give Gravity’s Rainbow another go. I remember bringing it on a beach read for my honeymoon

I cannot imagine a more inappropriate book for a honeymoon. Vollmann's The Royal Family, maybe?

I put it on the same shelf as Ulysses and Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest was not a hard book to read if you weren't trying to have it all come together neatly. Ulysses wasn't hard to read either, but it didn't interest me. Gravity's Rainbow is just difficult, although I do love the opening line. I just can't seem to get into the story after that. Perhaps I'll try again.

I think a lot of people find Infinite Jest difficult because of the footnotes (not to mention most people do want it to come together neatly; I'm ok with the open-endedness of it). Not everyone is going to read 96 pages of Notes and Errata. And if you don't, you're missing out. Seriously.

As far as ease of reading, Gravity's Rainbow would be my choice for most difficult of the three. I'm surprised you didn't find Ulysses worthwhile. What Joyce does in the book is astounding.

 

[rockaction]

I'm surprised you didn't find Ulysses worthwhile

I admire Joyce greatly. He's certainly worthwhile; I just don't think that his concerns are mine. There's a corny cliché about "speaking to" a person. In my late twenties it was Foster Wallace. His concerns and temperament—and his style—suited me perfectly (I did not skip those footnotes and devoured them because they were such a treat). Melville's short stories and James Salter's short stories and novel Light Years spoke to me in my thirties. My forties I spent online, really. I don't read in Southern California, I guess. But to the point: Joyce is worthwhile, but he doesn't speak to me, you know?

I should really just slog through the book and see if it gets any more relatable. I did read almost all of the damn book you mention (I remember laughing about it on this board), The Royal Family, so it would only seem fair to give Ulysses a third spin around the block.

 

[kupcho1]

Just finished Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson, the 1978 Pulitzer Prize winner. The blurb on the book states" twelve rich, provocative stories that explore the borderline between black and white America." This is really only true for the last story, Elbow Room, which provides the title of the collection. It's also the best of the bunch.

Rather, most of the stories seem to explore the distinctions between black and black America. What I mean by that is how long ago did a particular black family leave the South? I was never aware that much weight was put on how early one arrived in the North (if that indeed was the case in the 1970s). But, based on McPherson's short stories, that was very much the case.

Anyway, it is a good, not great collection of stories.

70 down / 29 to go

The Stories of John Cheever would be next up but I read those years ago.
Next up: The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, the 1980 winner.

 

[kupcho1]

OK, so that's The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer's 1980 Pultizer winner over and done with.
Two observations:
(1) I have no idea why this book is considered fiction. It does not seem to be a novel to me.
(2) Mailer - at least in this book - is repititious. I have no interest in reading any of his other works to see if this is a trademark or not.

71 down / 28 to go

I've already read 1981's A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (super highly recommend) and 1982's Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (3rd of the Rabbit Angstrom tetralogy).
Next up: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the 1983 winner.

 

[Eephus]

OK, so that's The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer's 1980 Pultizer winner over and done with.
Two observations:
(1) I have no idea why this book is considered fiction. It does not seem to be a novel to me.
(2) Mailer - at least in this book - is repititious. I have no interest in reading any of his other works to see if this is a trademark or not.

71 down / 28 to go

I've already read 1981's A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (super highly recommend) and 1982's Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (3rd of the Rabbit Angstrom tetralogy).
Next up: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the 1983 winner.

Did you really finish The Executioner's song in five days? It's over 1000 pages.

 

[kupcho1]

OK, so that's The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer's 1980 Pultizer winner over and done with.
Two observations:
(1) I have no idea why this book is considered fiction. It does not seem to be a novel to me.
(2) Mailer - at least in this book - is repititious. I have no interest in reading any of his other works to see if this is a trademark or not.

71 down / 28 to go

I've already read 1981's A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (super highly recommend) and 1982's Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (3rd of the Rabbit Angstrom tetralogy).
Next up: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the 1983 winner.

Did you really finish The Executioner's song in five days? It's over 1000 pages.

Yes. Even the Afterword.

 

[shuke]

OK, so that's The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer's 1980 Pultizer winner over and done with.
Two observations:
(1) I have no idea why this book is considered fiction. It does not seem to be a novel to me.
(2) Mailer - at least in this book - is repititious. I have no interest in reading any of his other works to see if this is a trademark or not.

71 down / 28 to go

I've already read 1981's A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (super highly recommend) and 1982's Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (3rd of the Rabbit Angstrom tetralogy).
Next up: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the 1983 winner.

Did you really finish The Executioner's song in five days? It's over 1000 pages.

This guy is an animal.

 

[kupcho1]

This guy is an animal.

Obligatory response.

 

[kupcho1]

Here I am think how perfectly I'd timed the availability of my next book to when I'd finished the last.
Son of a ***** was I wrong.
Instead of The Color Purple, I got a book with a bunch of essays on it.
I want to read them all in order, but I think I'll have to skip to the next one. It's not like I'm reading them all in order anyway, since I'm skipping the ones I've alread read.

So, skipping (for now) and moving on to Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie, the 1985 winner (since I've already read Ironweek, the 1984 winner by William Kennedy.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SofaKings]

Reading The Caine Mutiny in anticipation...

 

[kupcho1]

I finished Foreign Affairs last night. As you'd expect it's well written, but the story didn't do much for me. It is set up as alternating chapters with Vinnie (Virginia) and Fred, two professors from a "well know university" named Corinth that are in London on academic research grants. I believe I think less of the book because of the title. Vinnie and Fred are Americans in London who have affairs. Just terrible. The book did have one interesting conceit in "Fido", Vinnie's invisible dog that follow her around. Fido represents Vinnie's self-pity and varies in size depending on how much it is at any one time.

Anyway, 72 down / 27 to go

The Color Purple is still in transit, so on to A Summons to Memphis, the 1987 Pulitzer winner by Peter Taylor. ETA: I've already read Lonesome Dove (1986 winner) by Larry McMurtry. It's great, go read it.

(OK, a last thought on Foreign Affairs. Vinnie describes herself as plain looking, but has a rich fantasy life wherein she has affairs with famous authors, one of whom is Peter Taylor.)

 

[BeTheMatch]

I'm looking for some recommendations for some other series to add to my list. A few of my regular series have ended apparently and I'm running low. I don't have enough anymore to always have a book I'm reading.

So here are some of my favorite authors and series. If you haven't read any of these, I would recommend. And if anyone else knows and likes these, I'd appreciate any recommendations for me based on this list:

Active favorites:
C.J. Box - Joe Pickett series
John Sandford - Lucas Davenport series, Virgil Flowers series
Nelson DeMille - John Corey series
William Kent Krueger - Cork O'Connor series

If you haven't read any of the above, I urge you to do so immediately.

Other active:
Vince Flynn (and now others in his place) - Mitch Rapp series (these have dropped off quite a bit since Flynn died)
Greg Hurwitz - Orphan X series
John Vernon - Dave Gurney series
Jeff Carson - David Wolff series (these aren't that great)

Discontinued favorites (highly recommend):
John Lescroart - Dismas Hardy series
Keith McCafferty - Sean Stranahan series
Ace Atkins - Quinn Colson series

 

[kupcho1]

I'm looking for some recommendations for some other series to add to my list.

Mick Herron's Slough House series is great.

Publication Order of Slough House Books
Slow Horses (2010)
Dead Lions (2013)
The List (2015)
Real Tigers (2016)
Spook Street (2017)
London Rules (2018)
The Marylebone Drop / The Drop (2018)
Joe Country (2019)
The Catch (2020)
Slough House (2021)
Bad Actors (2022)
Standing by the Wall (2022)
Clown Town (2025)

 

[BeTheMatch]

I'm looking for some recommendations for some other series to add to my list.

Mick Herron's Slough House series is great.

Publication Order of Slough House Books
Slow Horses (2010)
Dead Lions (2013)
The List (2015)
Real Tigers (2016)
Spook Street (2017)
London Rules (2018)
The Marylebone Drop / The Drop (2018)
Joe Country (2019)
The Catch (2020)
Slough House (2021)
Bad Actors (2022)
Standing by the Wall (2022)
Clown Town (2025)

I've watched the show. That going to spoil anything for me?

 

[kupcho1]

I'm looking for some recommendations for some other series to add to my list.

Mick Herron's Slough House series is great.

Publication Order of Slough House Books
Slow Horses (2010)
Dead Lions (2013)
The List (2015)
Real Tigers (2016)
Spook Street (2017)
London Rules (2018)
The Marylebone Drop / The Drop (2018)
Joe Country (2019)
The Catch (2020)
Slough House (2021)
Bad Actors (2022)
Standing by the Wall (2022)
Clown Town (2025)

I've watched the show. That going to spoil anything for me?

I haven't seen the show so ...
Books are almost always better, though, so I think it's worth reading.

 

[timschochet]

I'm looking for some recommendations for some other series to add to my list. A few of my regular series have ended apparently and I'm running low. I don't have enough anymore to always have a book I'm reading.

So here are some of my favorite authors and series. If you haven't read any of these, I would recommend. And if anyone else knows and likes these, I'd appreciate any recommendations for me based on this list:

Active favorites:
C.J. Box - Joe Pickett series
John Sandford - Lucas Davenport series, Virgil Flowers series
Nelson DeMille - John Corey series
William Kent Krueger - Cork O'Connor series

If you haven't read any of the above, I urge you to do so immediately.

Other active:
Vince Flynn (and now others in his place) - Mitch Rapp series (these have dropped off quite a bit since Flynn died)
Greg Hurwitz - Orphan X series
John Vernon - Dave Gurney series
Jeff Carson - David Wolff series (these aren't that great)

Discontinued favorites (highly recommend):
John Lescroart - Dismas Hardy series
Keith McCafferty - Sean Stranahan series
Ace Atkins - Quinn Colson series

As good as Nelson De Mille’s Corey series is, his solo efforts are even better, particularly these 5:

Cathedral
By the Rivers of Babylon
Word of Honor
The Charm School
Spencerville

These novels are among the best thriller books I have ever read.

 

[kupcho1]

I'm giving A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor a solid "meh." Per Wiki, the 1987 Pulitzer winner is

a rumination on the responsibilities of parents, friendships between men, the relationship between the "old" and "new" south, the nature of revenge and the possibility of forgiveness.

I suppose. But really it's a story of how George Carver (father of the narrator, Phillip) is ruined by his business partner and chooses to relocate the family from Nashville to Memphis. I think the author wants us to believe that this ruination and move caused the patriarch to be a richard with a capital D, but that's just an excuse. The father prevents both daughters from marrying, travels to Phillips beloved home to induce her family to send her to South America to stop them from marrying. Also, the narrator states several times that the oldest son volunteered for WWII just to get away from the family. Of course he dies at the start of D-Day.
73 down / 26 to go

Next up: 1983 winner The Color Purple by Alice Walker (assuming I get the book and not a collection of essays on the book this time )

 

[kupcho1]

Picked up The Color Purple yesterday, finished it this evening. It's a quick, easy read once you get used to the ebonics. It is a good story. I have never seen the movie, but I was aware of who played who in it, and, unfortunately, that colored (no pun intended) my view as I was reading it. The protaganist, Celie, is described as ugly in the book. Whoopi Goldberg was a no-brainer. Anyway, the color purple in the book is described in Alice Walker's preface as "always a surprise but is found everywhere in nature." True. It's also a color associated with royalty, but that isn't really present here. I guess it is also the color of a bruise; Celie gets beaten. A lot.

74 down / 25 to go

I have the next 3 on order, but only the 1st is at the library right now. It's supposed to be nice tomorrow, so I'll probably walk over and pick up the 1988 winner Beloved by Toni Morrison.
When I picked up The Color Purple yesterday, I saw that one library patron had no fewer than 8 books on hold ready to be picked up (they just put them on a reserve shelf in the library). Well that changes everything. Once these next 3 are finished, and I start plowing through the 1990s, I'm going to reserve 7 books to take me through 1999 inclusive (I've already read two 1990s winners).