July 2010- Why wont this rain stop and I am reading...

I was just attempting humor. I agree for the most part. Sometimes I enjoy a little popcorn mystery novel that I don't have to think about too hard. All this creative thinking sometimes wears on a fella's head.

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man by Bill Clegg.

During the vacation I read Searching for John Ford, Joseph McBride's remarkable biography of the greatest filmmaker ever. Definitely an unmissable book for anyone interested in the history of cinema and the creation of the American mythology. Ford's life was spectacular as it was : a son of Irish immigrants from Spiddal, he was promoted to Admiral in the U.S. Navy, notably for sending his film crews on all WW2 battlefields, and was adopted by a Navajo tribe, among other feats. McBride gives also a very thorough look at his work, revealing the complexity behind the simplicity of the iconic images. Just to give you an idea, the man directed for example :
Young Mr Lincoln
The Iron Horse
Stagecoach
The Informer
The Grapes of Wrath
How Green Was my Valley
The Battle of Midway (documentary)
My Darling Clementine
Fort Apache
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (my personal favourite)
Wagon Master
Rio Grande
The Quiet Man
The Sun Shines Bright
Mogambo
The Searchers
Sergeant Rutledge
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Then I read the extremely enjoyable Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (by Susanna Clarke). An original fantasy novel set in England in the early 19th century, it combines a coherent magical world to vivid descriptions and a tone both funny and subtle. Highly recommended.

I'm currently reading American Gods (Neil Gaiman), and am disappointed so far.

I loved American Gods!!! Hope you like it Ludwig. Me thinks it deserves a reread soon.

Last Summer I wa sitting outside a bar in galway chatting with John Connolly and he asked me which book I really hated last year. I said Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell. He was disgusted with me. He said it was one of his favourites from last year. My bad, my taste in books is as bad as my taste in women.

Speaking of your taste in books - I think you might like the book Ravens by George Dawes Green. Stephen King put it on one of his Best of... list. I'm about halfway through and I'm really digging the story. It's nothing literary, in fact some of the prose annoys me, but the story makes up for it.

Nice one. I keep meaning to buy this andI think my local bookstore has it. Thanks for the heads up.

Johnathan Strange is one of those books I keep meaning to buy and then I don't. And then I read part of it at the store, and it's okay, but doesn't hook me, but everyone from Neil Gaiman to Ludwig loves it, so I keep meaning to go back.

I actually bought the Historian for the same reason, since it was on sale, but have yet to read it.

I've just finished American Gods. I wasn't floored by its literary merit or anything, but it was a decent, enjoyable read.

I liked American Gods a lot too, it's no masterpiece, but I liked the themes and I think Gaiman has a pretty entertaining way of telling a story. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is one of those books I keep hearing about but I haven't ever picked up. I suppose I will one day

Hater by David Moody

I keep meaning to read that one, everyone keeps telling me how great it is, but I'd like to get through the little tower I currently have at my bedside before I start anything new.

i hadn't even heard of this Strange & Norrell business until the last couple of days when everyone has started posting about it. it's gonna be the next culie trend book. like The Postman always rings... has been, and Beat the Reaper before that, and whatever else.

No, I don't think it will. People have "mentioned" it before, but it never got past that.

well, let's just let them keeping "mentioning" it, shall we?

I'm making a stand: i refuse to read it. there. now, what will be the next cultie trend book?

Let me try and take a guess with a book a haven't read yet, but want to.

Usually (I know there are exceptions), the cultie book has been out for over a year. So I'm going to guess:

If it's going to be a newer book, it will be:

Again - keep in mind that I haven't read either of these. I'm just trying to make a guess.

I'm reading Heartsick by Chelsea Cain, it's decent. There's a Palahniuk blurb on it. It's about this female serial killer, i'm almost halfway through it already.

Also, i love Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, i remember arguing with Derek about it a while back. I wrote a blog about it years ago, maybe i'll try and find it.

I plan on getting the third one soon.

Wow, i had no idea it was a series. Now i need to catch up.

I really want to check out the new Shteyngart novel.

yeah, i have Heartsick here. it was something like 4 bucks at borders one day. they had another sale table the other day when i went to find the books i need for school and it was all mostly crime stuff, and i'm on a huge crime kick at the moment, so it was hard not to buy. i simply didn't have the cash. but there were a few Elmore Leonard novels and a bunch of those Hard Case Crime novels (Christa Faust's Money Shot was one of them). it was like 5 for 20 bucks or something. ugh. i hope it's still stocked up and on sale next week when i have some money again.

Pete, i like the look and title of both of those books. what made you buy them?

We can make that one October's Book Club book?

who is he? i've never heard of him either. i'm out of the loop. or maybe it's an american thing. you promised me an Aussie book at some point to, remember, Pete?

I think we'll do Sad True Love Story for October. I have no idea who the guy is haha. But I've just been hearing good things about the book.

Matt recommend a November book - a good Aussie author. But one we'll be able to get here in the States.

oh, true. i have to keep in mind that it has to be something that's on amazon, so you guys can get it. hmmm. leave it with me. does it have to be a new release, or even a in-the-last-year release?

Totally up to you Matt.

Just keep in mind that you want to pick something a majority of people will be able to get into.

yeah. so it has to be badass! got it.

if so many people hadn't already read Candy by Luke Davies, i'd be all over mentioning that. but maybe his book God of Speed? i haven't read it, but it it's anything like his other two novels it will be amazing. and i think it's about a guy holed up in a hotel room drinking and drugging or something. he's an ex-aviator or something. not sure. sounds cool.

I've been meaning to read Candy for years. He's an Australian author? I didn't know that.

That sounds like a good recommendation. But I'll let you stew on it and be happy with your decision. And then I will expect you to be the discussion leader.

of course i'll be the discussion leader! although, i'm not sure what i have to do. just pose questions for people to discuss?

I think God of Speed will be a no-go. looks like it'll be hard for you guys to get, unless it's a kindle edition. which is a shame. but maybe we could do Candy? even if a couple of people have read it, it's still well worth a discussion thread. it's badass.

i'll keep looking at who we could do.

something by Tim Winton could be good. although i'm not sure that he'd be badass enough for the cult. he writes a lot about families, and coming-of-age type stuff.

i really wish we could do God of Speed. the description:

I will fly at last. I will unfold my wings. I will unpack my head. I will step back outside. One day I may even make love again. But one thing at a time. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
It's a summer night in 1973, and holed up in his hotel penthouse in London, Howard Hughes can't sleep. Tomorrow he takes control of an airplane for the first time in more than fifteen years. As the reclusive, drug-addled billionaire waits for the dawn, the shape and preoccupations of the times emerge from his ruined psyche; a world of oil, flight, money, movies, drugs, sex, power, greed, fear, yearning - America.
Blackly funny, muscular and rhythmic, transcendent and debauched, God of Speed is a fever dream, a giant and extraordinary leap of the imagination into the fractured mind of a man who was both great, and greatly fallen.

Candy by Luke Davies is one of my favourite books!!!!!

But the book does sound awesome. That sucks.

How does it compare?

i knew it was one of your favourites, Derek. you were one of the culties i was referring to when i said that some have already read it. would you read it again and discuss it's awesomeness?

and, Pete, the movie is amazing! it's one of my favourite book to movie adaptions. along with fight club and 25th hour. the book is slightly different. there's some pretty cool shit that goes on in the book that doesn't in the movie, and there's some pretty awful shit that happens too. plus, the end is a bit different in the book.

you've seen the movie?

Yeah I've seen the movie.

But it annoyed me a little bit. Sometimes watching drug movies get to me. I think because I've seen people there and I've experienced a lot of that.

Helen Garner. heard of her? I sent her first novel, Monkey Grip (it came out in the 70s) to Lady Chaos for the may gift exchange and she loved it. her latest work of fiction The Spare Room was beautiful. emotional. great language. but i'm not sure if it's a cult book.

I will reread it but only after i read Isabella the navigator by him first. I keep meaning to but I will save it for a long weekend so I can appreciate it.

Im gonna get slated here but I HATED the movie. Not to worry Im not all that much a movie person anyways.

Has he a thrid book Mathew?

You should all read one of the most beautifully written, heartbreaking books I know: Blank Gaze (in the UK), also known as The Implacable Order of Things in the US. I'll be doing the audiobook version myself. I'll be the reader. It was published ten years ago and it's become one of the major Portuguese novels of the recent past.

I mean, there's no real plot to the novel, and it's not a light read. It's depressing and moving and gorgeously written. Some of you will hate it; but some, I have no doubt that you will treasure it.

We are considering Book Club books for November. So you have a while before you have to reread it Derek.

Count me in then! I will surely do that. Hell I will even try watching the movie again!

Isabelle was gorgeous. i loved that book. but i don't think it's very cultish book.

his other novel is God of Speed, Derek. i posted the description just above. sounds great. i have it here, just haven't read it yet.

yes!!

That's four months worth planned!

I've gotten more done this morning that I have in a long time! haha

What are the other two? That way I can order them in advance?

so good! i'm stoked for you and for the book club. it's gonna be awesome.

so do we wanna do Candy for November? americans can buy it off amazon easy enough.

i'm looking forward to the Blank Gaze. sounds great.

September: Transubstantiate by Richard Thomas

October: Super Sad True Love Story: a novel by Gary Shteyngart

November: Candy by Luke Davies

December: Blank Gaze by Jose Luis Piexoto

Thanks Peter. I will have the lot by then.