I think Guns is the last Ed McBain book I have from that lot of paperbacks I won at the auction. I didn't hold much hope that I'd enjoy it, I had not enjoyed Death of a Nurse very much. Guns wasn't bad though, not nearly as good as the early 87th Precinct books, but not bad at all. You don't like any of the characters very much (maybe at all) but it still made for a fun read.
Dust on the Sea is the second in the Richardson trilogy, the first book Run Silent, Run Deep I read several months back. I don't have a copy of the third book, Cold is the Sea, but I hope to get a copy soon. In some ways I liked Dust on the Sea better than RSRD, but RSRD is a classic for a very good reason, overall it is the better book. For for action and a great description of life aboard a WWII submarine, you cannot beat Dust on the Sea.
I came across Joe Lansdale's work years ago, I don't even remember how now. I suspect I was looking for someone who wrote stories similar to John MacDonald's Travis McGee series. Tough guy mysteries, but the tough guy has a buddy, and they're both deep down good people trying to do the right thing. Corney? Hell yes. Entertaining? Hell yes.
Anyway I took to Lansdale's Hap Collins & Leonard Pine immediately. The mysteries were decent, nothing great but entertaining enough. But the conversations between Hap & Leonard, and the narrative by Hap... that's where these books excelled. I don't laugh out loud at many books, but I've laughed numerous times through everyone of these books. Even when some pretty horrific things were happening. The narration, Hap Collins, is just so damn entertaining.
About 2 weeks ago I found out via Lansdale's website that another book in the series had come out, Vanilla Ride. I put a hold on it at the public library and picked it up a day or two later. The story was probably the worst of the series, but the characters of Hap & Leonard rise above the story, fun as ever. I don't know if there will be any more books in this series but if there are, I'll read them.
This is one of those times where I find I'm reading a book for the second time... part of the whole reason I started this blog. That is, to stop that from happening again, at least on accident. Normally this wouldn't a big deal with a Lew Archer novel as I love these books, but Find a Victim is the rare exception; I don't like this one. Didn't like it the first time, still don't like like it the second time.
Also, it took me a long time to read such a short novel. Not so much because of my feelings towards the book, but because of two different reasons: Vacation is over so I'm back to work, and I bought a guitar and have been trying to learn to play. The guitar is now taking up most of my free time.
When my wife and I were on our honeymoon in August of 2007 in Portugal we came across a small used bookstore in the town of Cascais. This bookstore had tons of 1940's-1960's pulp/detective fiction paperbacks in English. I bought a bunch of books for cheap including 3-5 of the very early 87th Precinct books by Ed McBain. Of course now I have no idea which ones I've read, but today's book was not one of them.
The early 87th Precinct books were great; short and fun, fast paced great reads. I remember one of them I later realized was the basis for an episode of the TV show Alfred Hitchcock presents. I've heard that the later 87th Precinct books are not very good, but I've enjoyed these early ones and The Mugger was no exception.
A few years ago I came across a website discussing a fun take on the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The set up was a couple of cowboys in the old west who like Holmes try to solve mysteries as well. The book sounded fun so off to the library I went and sure enough they had it, the book was titled Holmes on the Range. I'm a sucker for buddy stories and Holmes on the Range was just the kind of book I liked. Since then I've read all of the series as they're published, most recently today's entry The Crack in the Lens.
While I've enjoyed all the books in the series (there are also 4 or 5 short stories that are entertaining as well) the first book and this newest one are by far my favorites. The middle two (The Black Dove & On the Wrong Track) were fun reads but not quite as good as the first and fourth. The author (Hockensmith) also maintains a website that is updated reasonably often, responds to emails quickly, and generally seems like a nice guy. I always look forward to new Holmes on the Range mysteries, the only fiction I buy new are these books.
Another one where I'd seen the movie a zillion times and never even considered it might be based on a book (I don't often pay attention to opening/closing credits). If you can struggle through the first, miserable chapter of this book (it was much better in the movie version with Peter Falk as a grandfather reading to his sick grandson) the book is fantastic. All of the elements from the movie are there, but it is somehow even better in print. I say better, but I guess I really mean this one for me was better having seen the movie first. It was a lot of fun for me to read this imagining Andre the Giant, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, etc as the characters I was reading about. It also helps that the movie is very close, almost word for word, to the book for most of the movie.
Anyway a very fun read that I highly recommend, again if you can stomach that introductory chapter.
I don't care if he's not the real author and instead his story is written by a ghost writer. To Hell and Back is an amazing story, Audie Murphy was a real life bad ass, and I can only imagine how many thousands of kids must have enlisted in the Army because of this book.
I'd seen the movie before so I knew the basic story, but it just doesn't matter. The movie, no matter how good it is, cannot do justice to this book and the story behind it. The day to day horrors these kids went through, and the insane bravery Murphy shows is just too amazing for words. It is well known now what a tough time Murphy had with what used to be labeled battle fatigue; If you read this book you'll know why.
I could read Lew Archer books all day. The mysteries in these things are not what keep me reading them (and they very well may be fine mysteries). It's the characters, Lew Archer firstly, and all the other wiseguys (and gals), cops (crooked and honest), LA and the other cities/states Archer has to visit, etc. The dialog is just fantastic. I lose myself in these books every time I pick one up. They're not huge books, but even if they were I'd still finish them in a day. Give these books to someone who loves action movies but doesn't like reading and you'll have a reader for life.
Continuing my WW2 reading I just finished Baa Baa Black Sheep. My only knowledge of this story before was the TV show of the same name (later changed to Black Sheep Squadron) with Robert Conrad. I never really liked that show, and I didn't love the book either.
It's a strange book, it doesn't read like a book, more like Boyington was just talking into a tape recorder and someone transcribed it. It certainly could have used more editing. In fact there isn't very much in the book about aerial combat or the Black Sheep, instead it's the story of how Boyington ended up where he did in life: highly decorated, a fighter ace, a drunk, and a POW survivor.
For all the faults of this book (and they were numerous) it did keep me reading. The guy had a hell of a life, I bet hearing him tell these stories would have been much more entertaining then reading his words about them.
This is probably the last Wyndham novel I'll read in quite some time, in fact I had not expected to read it this soon at all. When I returned the last batch of books to the library I had my eye on a few others to borrow from the list in my cell phone. But I stopped by the Wyndham section and happened upon this, and thought "what the hell?"
It was a decent book, a lot more humor than I expected for a story of murderous children. I'm not sure I've ever seen either of the movies based on the story (Village of the Damned) but will probably watch the original soon. Anyway a quick read, not nearly as good as the three apocalyptic novels from the Omnibus, but fun all the same.
Too early to say I'm back, but just maybe. This is now the second novel I've read this year. I've had this book for a long time though, it's a huge detective novel. If it has any claim to fame certainly the size of the book is a part of it.
I won't lie though, there are only two reasons I bought this books: 1, there is a Sinatra movie based on the book, and I wanted to read it before I rented the move; 2, the sequel to this book, titled "Nothing Lasts Forever" is the book the movie Die Hard is based on... I love Die Hard.
So I bought Nothing Lasts Forever just today, my library only had one copy and it's missing. Damn book was expensive, barely any used holdings anywhere (it's out of print), cheapest copy I could find still set me back $20.
So about The Detective: I started this book several times over the last year, but finally it stuck. read it reasonably quickly for a big book. It jumps around the time line a lot but wraps everything up pretty neatly at the end (as neatly as possible anyway). Lots of sexual hangups in the book, but it was interesting enough to keep me up most nights trying to get closer to the end.
Up next is The Day Of The Triffids... I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic novels.
Six months? Seriously? I haven't read a book in six months? That's just hard to believe... where has the winter gone? Well I hope this book will spur me on to pick up the habit once more, hard to find the time for a good book these days but I sure do love reading.
So Watchmen. I liked it, I'm not going to become a comic book fanboy but I really enjoyed it. I had read about Watchmen so I knew the basic plot (not any specifics) and I knew about the comic-within-a-comic device. I thought I'd hate that part of it the most, but as it turns out it was my favorite part. I thought the blending of the main story with the meta-comic story was great.
This has made me a little more excited about seeing the recent movie version, I'll probably wait until it's on video though.
Up next? Not sure, I hope the warmer weather means more lazy days outside in the sun where I'm more likely to read a book. I'll have to head to the public library to see if any books catch my attention.
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