What books are you reading right now?

Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart

 

I'm down to the last 100 pages of Drood by Dan Simmons, and I'm at the point of hoping that Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins quit pissing around and kill each other already. Overall it's an interesting read, a combination of historical novel & horror fiction, but this 771 page novel could've easily been edited down. Simmons indulges himself in frequent and lengthy conversations between the characters regarding the stories and plays of Dickens and Collins (he could've/should've written these as separate academic essays), introduces too many peripheral characters, and goes into great detail about situations unimportant to the plot. Given what I've seen in Drood, I won't be reading any of Simmons SciFi works any time soon.

 

The Boy Kings Of Texas by Domingo Martinez. This a memoir about Martinez' childhood in a small border town in Texas' Rio Grande Valley.

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A couple of cool thrift store finds:

Human Sexual Response by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson. It's HBwDJ 1st edition (woo hoo!). It'll be interesting to read since the info was published in 1966.

Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore. Illustrated by Mead Schaeffer, published in 1930. Definately collectible, but not particularly valuable.

 

I recently finished Wild Ginger by Anchee Min. Although the title might suggest otherwise, it's not erotica/porn.

 

The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789.

Ellis makes the case that four men - Washington, Hamilton, Jay, Madison - manipulated the public and pushed the newly independent colonies into creating a strong central government against the far more popular public support for the continuation of a more loosely structured confederation of states.

 

Human Sexual Response by Masters & Johnson, 1966 1st edition. Rather dry and clearly not written for the layperson, but interesting reading.

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

 

The Death of Innocents by Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking which I've read.

 

The Yanks are Starving: A Novel of the Bonus Army.

An infamous event in US history when an "army" of 40,000+ WW I vets and family camped in Washington, DC to demand their service bonus pay were driven out by Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur, with infantry, cavalry and tanks, at the order of President Hoover.

 

I'm going to look for this. I saw a documentary on PBS--can't remember the name--that covered the Bonus Army protests. It is shameful how the US Govt tried to renege on the promise to pay the soldiers, and how it responded to the protests.

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The Death of Innocents didn't change my mind about the death penalty (there's a thread here if anyone wants to find & read it), just as Dead Man Walking (book & film) didn't. It did open my eyes as to how many states, with Texas in the lead, and the Supreme Court, put up roadblocks to appeals. In brief, if you're poor and your court appointed counsel sucks, you're screwed.

 

The Great Deluge (Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast) by Douglas Brinkley. With hurricane season here, and the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaching, this seemed like a logical choice.

 

I picked up a compilation Three Complete Novels (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce) by James M. Cain. All of the titles are familiar, but I've never read any of them, or saw any of the movies all the way through.

 

I never cared much for Mildred Pierce, but I thought The Postman Always Rings Twice was wonderful, and Double Indemnity damn near perfect in its stark noir hardboiledness.

 

How does Cain's writing compare to Raymond Chandler? I ask because I recently finished a compilation of four 'Philip Marlowe' novels.

 

Different, but it compares well, I think. I find him more similar to Hammett than to Chandler, less in style per se than in tone and characterization. But in terms of artistry, I think Cain stacks up.

 

Un Lun Dun by China Melville

Very cool book that takes the whole kid hero coming to the magic land and having to follow the prophecies, only things don't work out quite right.

 

Don't bother with David Goodis. Some people like his dark writing about the slimy underbelly of life, but I find his writing "incomplete," too many loose ends and WTF?s. Although his novel Dark Passage was made into a very popular movie. Courtesey of Wikipedia (yes, I know that Wikipedia isn't the most reliable source for unbiased info):

"...
His big break came in 1946 when his novel Dark Passage was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, published by Julian Messner and filmed for Warner Bros. with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall heading the cast. Delmer Daves directed what is now regarded as a classic film noir, and a first edition of the 1946 hardcover is valued at more than $800.
..."