Today, May 8, is the birthday of Thomas Pynchon, a hugely favorite author, so in honor of that someone dreamed up Pynchon in Public Day. This is quite funny because the author himself is pretty much of a recluse.
This year in the LA Times
2011 – good site
Here I am at the Bakersfield Airport.
The Thief
by Fuminori Nakamura
2012 / 211 pages
read by Charlie Thurston – 4h 1m
Nakamura’s first novel to be translated into English is a very dark tale, gritty and graphic, about a pick-pocket in Tokyo. The first person narrator (unnamed until page 53 – Nishimura) is well dressed and groomed. He fits in where rich people congregate so he can lift wallets and watches and whatever because that’s what he is – a pick-pocket – and he loves his job. >>>>MORE>>>>
Cocaine Blues
by Kerry Greenwood (Australia)
1989 / 175 pages
read by Stephanie Daniel / 5h 50m
rating: C-
Well I’ve been wanting to try a Phryne Fisher book and at the moment I found I could use a book set in Australia as well as one with a color in the title. (‘Blues” is a color, right?) Also this book has Phryne traveling by ship from London to Australia, the country of her birth, to become a “prefect lady detective. She’s wearing a dress with an oriental pattern of green and gold. As she was standing on deck waiting for “the green flash she’d never seen.” Finally, >>>>MORE>>>>
End Zone
by Don DeLillo
1972 / 242 pages
read by Fleet Cooper / 6h. 38m
rating: 5 (liked parts of it)
Good thing I’m already so in love with DeLillo that I can overlook a dud (to me). I’m neither a war-story fan nor a sports fan and although there’s certainly more to the book than that, those are basic parts and the main theme itself is the relationship between contact sports (especially football) and war.
On the good side there’s really quite a lot >>>> MORE >>>>
The Stranger
by Camilla Lackberg
2006 (2011)/ 384 pages
read by Simon Vance 11h 24m
rating: A
Very interesting 4th book in Lackberg’s popular Fielbacha series. In the background Patrik and Erica continue to make a home for their daughter, Maia. Erica’s sister begins to recover from killing her abusive husband (book 3). Patrik has a new partner, a woman named Hannah. And >>>>MORE>>>>
The Year of the Hare
by Arto Paasilinna
1975 / 194 pages
rating: 9.0
One day whilst on vacation a middle-aged man named Kaarlo Vaatenen and his photographer buddy (who was driving) ran over a hare in the road. The hare was injured so Kaarlo got out to find it. His friend waited, called, >>>> MORE >>>>
Black Fridays
by Michael Sears
2012 / 352 pages
read by Erik Bergmann 11h 1m
Rating: A-
This great book has a couple of major problems and that’s really a shame because there is so much to enjoy.
Jason Stafford used to be one of those highly paid stock trackers who lived like it, now he’s an ex con doing some research on some difficulties another brokerage was having. He’s definitely on the up-and-up, but still loves his party-girl ex-wife, >>>> MORE >>>>
Angel
by Elizabeth Taylor
2012 by NYRB Classics 272 pages / orig. 1957
Rating: 9
Although Angel is an interesting book, I was somewhat disappointed because I really enjoyed Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and had read that this was Taylor’s best work – maybe it meant best known – or best seller? It wasn’t as nearly as thematically rich or subtle. I did enjoy it in spite of that – >>>> MORE >>>>
The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business
by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen
2013/336 pages
read by Roger Wayne 10h 48m
Rating: 8.5
This book is not about the future of gadgetry – although there is a bit of that. This book will not tell you how to upgrade to the latest operating system or coming apps (much less use them). Neither will this book will tell you how to hack anything, find your homework online, do business on eBay, or design your home (but it talks in very general terms about all of that. In addition to technology, >>>>MORE>>>>
Canada
by Richard Ford
2012 / 432 pages
rating: 8
“FIRST, I’LL TELL ABOUT THE ROBBERY OUR PARENTS committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.” (Kindle Locations 122-124)
Now if that’s not enough to hook a reader of fiction into it, I honestly can’t think of what would be. >>>>MORE>>>>
Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh
1944 / 432 pages
read by Jeremy Irons 11h. 33m.
rating: (cs)
How did I ever miss (or avoid) this? I not only missed the book but I missed all the movies and mini-series and whatever else was out there. And at this point it sits in paperback format on the tbr shelf and in audio format in the iPod. Finally, it got selected (via my nomination) for the 20th century group >>>>MORE>>>>
Learning to Swim
by Sara J. Henry
2011 / 304 pages
read by Suzanne Torin 11h 1m
rating: A+
This was highly recommended so always in search of a juicy crime novel (procedural, cozy, legal, whatever) I listened to and enjoyed the sample so I kept in on my wish list at Audible for awhile. Then it came up on a good sale – and how can I pass on that? >>>>MORE>>>>
House of Earth
by Woodie Guthrie
2013 (written in 1947) 288 pages
read by Will Patton 6h 36m
rating: 8.5
A long introduction written by Johnny Depp and Douglas Brinkley (also read by them) prefaces the actual novel. It’s an excellent intro – no spoilers, just background – concerning the origins, meaning, discovery, publication issues etc. of Guthrie’s only completed novel, ” …a powerful portrait of dust bowl America >>>> MORE >>>>
The Dead
by James Joyce
1914? / 40 pages
rating 10 (reread)
Another group chose this for their reading selection and although I wasn’t going to reread it I got tempted and pulled Dubliners off the shelf and started in. Then I found it online in hyperlinked format and since I was very familiar with the story anyway, I used that. The links are really only brief annotations and the work is a classic, from a very >>>>MORE>>>>
Suspect
by Robert Crais
2012 / 320 pages
read by MacLeod Andrews 8h 30m
rating: C-
I think Crais wrote this one as an honorarium to the Canine units and their dogs – just the way it feels at about 1/4 though.
Scott James is a wounded man – physically and emotionally >>>>MORE>>>>
The Mercy Rule (#5 of Dismas Hardy)
by John Lescroart
1998 – 640 pages
read by David Colacci 18h 3m
rating – B+
I was smitten by the reviews of another group member and wanted to get back to the Dismas Hardy books. I’m reading them in order but it’s taking a long time – so far it’s been #s 1-4 plus one in the middle somewhere (my starter). This is #5 out of 13 so far. >>>>MORE>>>>
The Falls
by Joyce Carol Oates
2004 / 481 pages
rating: 7.5
I’ve not read a whole lot in the oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates – she’s so prolific and what few I have read have not really totally satisfied. Don’t get me wrong – they’re good, they’re really quite good – they’re just not quite what tickles my fancy. >>>> MORE >>>>
Becky's Books - 