Finished Th 12/4/14
Although it weighs in at 698 pages, I read every word. I found this novel (Wolfe's first) on the shelf downstairs, and I'm surprised that there is no date on the flyleaf when I last read it. I know I must have read it, or maybe I just saw the movie. But, I find it very hard to imagine Tom Hanks playing Sherman McCoy.
Sherman McCoy (Master of The Universe/ bond trader) is taking his mistress, Maria Ruskin, home from the airport and they get off the expressway, and find themselves lost in the Bronx. He's driving and they notice debris on the street, and think that they are being set up for a robbery. He gets out to move the stuff so that they can proceed, and two black teens ask if they need help. Sherman and Maria think they're about to be robbed, and Maria takes the wheel and Sherman jumps into the passenger seat. She clips one of the kids backing out, and puts him in a coma. This ends 'the good life' for Sherman.
Dozens of well-developed characters, and really examines the truly American issues of Race, Class, Prejudice, and our corrupt legal system.
It was ironic that during the week that I was reading the novel, the craziness in Ferguson, Mo was in the headlines, and the day before I finished the book, a NYC grand jury failed to indict a cop for killing a young black kid for murder after putting him in a deadly choke hold.
Tom Wolfe has a new novel set in the milieu of Miami and I'll probably start this one when I'm done with this month's selection for The Contemporary Book Club (THE HUSBAND'S SECRET)
Wikipedia entry for 'Bonfire of the Vanities'-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonfire_of_the_Vanities
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Friday, November 28, 2014
FREE FALL IN CRIMSON by John D. McDonald
Finished Fr 11/28/14 (The Day After Thanksgiving)
Found this on one of the shelves downstairs and was surprised to learn that I'd never read it. Only took a couple of sessions over a day and a half.
The dark side of the movie industry/hot air balloons/bikers
The usual complex plot with zany philosophical insights, and I can still remember Daren McGavin's voice when I used to listen to these dragging a semi around the state.
Some are better than others, but they are all worth it.
The novel on wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Fall_in_Crimson
Travis McGee at wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_McGee
Found this on one of the shelves downstairs and was surprised to learn that I'd never read it. Only took a couple of sessions over a day and a half.
The dark side of the movie industry/hot air balloons/bikers
The usual complex plot with zany philosophical insights, and I can still remember Daren McGavin's voice when I used to listen to these dragging a semi around the state.
Some are better than others, but they are all worth it.
The novel on wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Fall_in_Crimson
Travis McGee at wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_McGee
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
THE SEVENTH SECRET by Irving Wallace
Finished Tu 11/24/14
Picked this one out of my collection, and finished it in two days. I read most of it the day of the Anderson Construction kitchen countertop remodel.
Emily Ashcroft and her father are writing the definitive biography of Adolf Hitler, and her father is killed in a hit and run in Berlin. She journeys to Berlin to complete the book and gets information that Hitler might have used a double and faked his suicide in April of 1949.
The book is a blend of fiction and fact about Hitler's various secret hideout/bunkers in Germany.
The novel posits that the seventh bunker was a secret one, and was attached to the Fuehrerbunker where Hitler was thought to have taken his own life and then to have been burned by his SS troopers.
In the novel Hitler died of Parkinson's on the same day that Kennedy was shot, 11/22/63. And Eva Braun lived on under the alias Evelyn Hoffman.
Emily is helped by an architect from California, Rex Foster, who is also writing a book. His deals with the architecture of the Third Reich.
Nice read and it kept my interest, but the parts that were not developed were probably the most interesting. Hitler and Eva envisioned a war between the Soviets and the Americans and after they annihilated each other, National Socialism would take over the world.
Worth the half dozen hours I spent reading the book.
Wikipedia entry-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Secret
Irving Wallace wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Wallace
Picked this one out of my collection, and finished it in two days. I read most of it the day of the Anderson Construction kitchen countertop remodel.
Emily Ashcroft and her father are writing the definitive biography of Adolf Hitler, and her father is killed in a hit and run in Berlin. She journeys to Berlin to complete the book and gets information that Hitler might have used a double and faked his suicide in April of 1949.
The book is a blend of fiction and fact about Hitler's various secret hideout/bunkers in Germany.
The novel posits that the seventh bunker was a secret one, and was attached to the Fuehrerbunker where Hitler was thought to have taken his own life and then to have been burned by his SS troopers.
In the novel Hitler died of Parkinson's on the same day that Kennedy was shot, 11/22/63. And Eva Braun lived on under the alias Evelyn Hoffman.
Emily is helped by an architect from California, Rex Foster, who is also writing a book. His deals with the architecture of the Third Reich.
Nice read and it kept my interest, but the parts that were not developed were probably the most interesting. Hitler and Eva envisioned a war between the Soviets and the Americans and after they annihilated each other, National Socialism would take over the world.
Worth the half dozen hours I spent reading the book.
Wikipedia entry-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Secret
Irving Wallace wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Wallace
Saturday, November 22, 2014
DEMON BOX by Ken Kesey
Mid November 2014
I picked this up at the library when I found the they didn't carry, SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION. This book is just a random series of essays and short stories, and I realy only read/skimmed two of them.
The first is about a young man in Mexico who meets 'an ugly American'. The older man is driving a big motor- home and has a drunk for a wife. The man is referred to as the 'Tranny Man' because he is in the Mexican village trying to have the transmission replaced in his truck.
Kesey's character is named Devlin Deboree. I noticed that this name is used in at least one other essay.
Also I read/skimmed the short essay about Kesey's trip to Egypt and the pyramids.
None of these pieces were bad, but really not worth the effort.
I'll return this one to the library on Monday, 11/24/14. Basically I spent about two hours with this at FitClub and before sleep. His second novel about logging in Oregon I'll order from the library when the Classic Book Club is off for the summer.
I picked this up at the library when I found the they didn't carry, SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION. This book is just a random series of essays and short stories, and I realy only read/skimmed two of them.
The first is about a young man in Mexico who meets 'an ugly American'. The older man is driving a big motor- home and has a drunk for a wife. The man is referred to as the 'Tranny Man' because he is in the Mexican village trying to have the transmission replaced in his truck.
Kesey's character is named Devlin Deboree. I noticed that this name is used in at least one other essay.
Also I read/skimmed the short essay about Kesey's trip to Egypt and the pyramids.
None of these pieces were bad, but really not worth the effort.
I'll return this one to the library on Monday, 11/24/14. Basically I spent about two hours with this at FitClub and before sleep. His second novel about logging in Oregon I'll order from the library when the Classic Book Club is off for the summer.
Friday, November 21, 2014
LAZY BONES by Mark Billingham
Finished Th 11/20/14
I learned of the author because I streamed the film, SLEEPYHEAD which was based on his debut novel.
Both feature Detective Inspector Tom Thorne who is a jaded and cynical London police officer. Divorced and lives alone with a cat named Elvis.
In this novel someone is murdering released sex offenders. The three men are found naked and strangled with blue rope. The men have also been raped annaly.
After the first murder a woman calls the crime scene and claims that she owns a flower shop and was asked to deliver flowers to this number. Tom takes the call and develops a relationship with this woman.
WHAT HAPPENED?
A man's wife is raped and she goes to court and the system makes it appear that she was somehow responsible for the act. Her husband grows to believe the hype, kills her, and then hangs himself. His two children wind up in foster care and lost in the system. Later they strangle the man responsible for the rape (he got off for the crime), but this crime ends up as a 'cold case'. And later target recent rape releases from prison, and these are the crimes that the focus of the novel. The brother has a film company and got access to recent prison releases when he got a contract to make a film about the prison system. The secret is not revealed until the very end, but the brother and sister team capture Tom Thorne, and he is almost killed in the same manner. One of Tom's cop friends goes to visit the woman who had the children in foster care, and she shows him a picture and he recognizes that the children are really the flower owner and her roommate's lover. He arrives at Tom's house just as Eve and Ben are about to murder Tom.
Eve Bloom and Ben Jameson are the brother and sister. Eve rooms with Denise and Denise's boyfriend is Ben.
A fine novel and I'm looking forward to reading more by Billingham.
I learned of the author because I streamed the film, SLEEPYHEAD which was based on his debut novel.
Both feature Detective Inspector Tom Thorne who is a jaded and cynical London police officer. Divorced and lives alone with a cat named Elvis.
In this novel someone is murdering released sex offenders. The three men are found naked and strangled with blue rope. The men have also been raped annaly.
After the first murder a woman calls the crime scene and claims that she owns a flower shop and was asked to deliver flowers to this number. Tom takes the call and develops a relationship with this woman.
WHAT HAPPENED?
A man's wife is raped and she goes to court and the system makes it appear that she was somehow responsible for the act. Her husband grows to believe the hype, kills her, and then hangs himself. His two children wind up in foster care and lost in the system. Later they strangle the man responsible for the rape (he got off for the crime), but this crime ends up as a 'cold case'. And later target recent rape releases from prison, and these are the crimes that the focus of the novel. The brother has a film company and got access to recent prison releases when he got a contract to make a film about the prison system. The secret is not revealed until the very end, but the brother and sister team capture Tom Thorne, and he is almost killed in the same manner. One of Tom's cop friends goes to visit the woman who had the children in foster care, and she shows him a picture and he recognizes that the children are really the flower owner and her roommate's lover. He arrives at Tom's house just as Eve and Ben are about to murder Tom.
Eve Bloom and Ben Jameson are the brother and sister. Eve rooms with Denise and Denise's boyfriend is Ben.
A fine novel and I'm looking forward to reading more by Billingham.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
FURIOUS COOL- RICHARD PRYOR AND THE WORLD THAT MADE HIM by David Henry and Joe Henry
Finished Tu 11/18/14
I found out about this book when I was reading material about the Joe Henry CD, BLOOD FROM STARS. In Henry's Wikipedia entry it mentioned that he had written a book about Richard Pryor with his brother, David. The library had it, and the rest is history.
A terrific read about a local hero- Pryor was born and raised in Peoria. I read through it in a couple of days.
A comic genius and a tortured artist with drug, alcohol, and women problems.
A funny quote attributed to Mickey Rooney. He said that he liked to get married in the early morning so that if it didn't work out, he hadn't shot the whole day.
Pryor's wikipedia entry-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor
I found out about this book when I was reading material about the Joe Henry CD, BLOOD FROM STARS. In Henry's Wikipedia entry it mentioned that he had written a book about Richard Pryor with his brother, David. The library had it, and the rest is history.
A terrific read about a local hero- Pryor was born and raised in Peoria. I read through it in a couple of days.
A comic genius and a tortured artist with drug, alcohol, and women problems.
A funny quote attributed to Mickey Rooney. He said that he liked to get married in the early morning so that if it didn't work out, he hadn't shot the whole day.
Pryor's wikipedia entry-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor
Monday, November 17, 2014
LEFT NEGLECTED by Lisa Genova
Finished Mo 11/17/14
The November selection for the Contemporary Book Club
Bob and Sarah Nickerson. They live in Wellmont, a Boston suburb.
Charlie, Lucy, and Linus
Martha- Sarah's mother who has a house on Cape Cod. They were estranged because Sarah's brother, Nate drowned when they were children and Martha was crippled by depression and ignored Sarah as she grew up.
Berkley- Placement firm that Sarah worked for
Heidi- A neighbor of Sarah's. They are acquaintances who met when they dropped their children off at school. She becomes Sarah's therapist at Baldwin.
Mike Green- the snowboard instructor in the mountain lodge in Vermont. NEHSA New England Handicapped Sports Association
Lisa Genova—whose novel Still Alice is soon to be a major motion picture starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth, and Kristen Stewart
Learn to live simpler and deeper.
Reconnect to people;
Visits the office after four months on medical leave, and although she makes a positive impression on the boss and co-workers, this is when and where she realizes that it would be a mistake to come back. She has learned from her inactivity that she really wasn't 'doing nothing', and that really her hyperactive life offered a very limited payback.
Gratitude vs. Attitude Sarah misreads this very important theme of the novel when she was in the hospital at Baldwin.
The November selection for the Contemporary Book Club
Bob and Sarah Nickerson. They live in Wellmont, a Boston suburb.
Charlie, Lucy, and Linus
Martha- Sarah's mother who has a house on Cape Cod. They were estranged because Sarah's brother, Nate drowned when they were children and Martha was crippled by depression and ignored Sarah as she grew up.
Berkley- Placement firm that Sarah worked for
Heidi- A neighbor of Sarah's. They are acquaintances who met when they dropped their children off at school. She becomes Sarah's therapist at Baldwin.
Mike Green- the snowboard instructor in the mountain lodge in Vermont. NEHSA New England Handicapped Sports Association
Lisa Genova—whose novel Still Alice is soon to be a major motion picture starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth, and Kristen Stewart
Learn to live simpler and deeper.
Reconnect to people;
Visits the office after four months on medical leave, and although she makes a positive impression on the boss and co-workers, this is when and where she realizes that it would be a mistake to come back. She has learned from her inactivity that she really wasn't 'doing nothing', and that really her hyperactive life offered a very limited payback.
Gratitude vs. Attitude Sarah misreads this very important theme of the novel when she was in the hospital at Baldwin.
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