Time for a new book - any suggestions?

[yeahman]

about 2/3rds the way through this and it's been awesome. I don't know shit about montana being from the deep south; and the dude's wiriting style is off the charts. orignally reco'ed by Ms. MT who read this when it was relased then devoured everything else he'd written, said the trilogy is pretty good but nothing else come close. YMMV

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...rtender-s-tale

That is a good book. I've been on a Doig kick the past couple years. The first 2 of the trilogy are great (English Creek and Dancing at the Rascal Fair). Those are probably my favorites. I also really liked his memoir, This House of Sky, though it may be more of an acquired taste. I just finished Last Bus to Wisdom a few days ago, which was the last novel he wrote before he died. Not his best but a good read.

[evasive_MT]

I really enjoyed This House of Sky. I have friends with a family hunting cabin up by Grassy Mountain, so I’ve been over that landscape a bit.

I’m currently working my way through David Anthony’s The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. It’s a synthesis of linguistic and archaeological evidence for the spread of Proto Indo-European. It came out about 15 years ago so it predates aDNA studies, but I wanted to reread it before picking up something more current.

[teledad]

I haven't read Doig's more recent books but the English Creek trilogy and This House of Sky were great. I'll have to try Bartender's Tale (and go back and reread the others).

In the same geographical region (but a completely different style) I'll recommend James Crumley, particularly The Wrong Case and The Last Good Kiss. Sort of like Raymond Chandler in Missoula but with more drugs, booze, and general mayhem.

[garyfromterrace]

I didn't know about this book. I read "The Terror" recently which is a fictionalized account of the ill-fated Arctic expedition that wrecked Erebus and Terror.

Cool, I'll check out your book. I think you'll like mine.

[dookeyXXX]

I haven't read Doig's more recent books but the English Creek trilogy and This House of Sky were great. I'll have to try Bartender's Tale (and go back and reread the others).

In the same geographical region (but a completely different style) I'll recommend James Crumley, particularly The Wrong Case and The Last Good Kiss. Sort of like Raymond Chandler in Missoula but with more drugs, booze, and general mayhem.

I read Crumley's The Mexican Tree Duck years ago.
Then learned that it was part of a loose series.
Finally got all of his books a few summers ago. Now just need to read them.
Dunno how much truth there is to this, but I heard stories that Crumley was a notorious boozer and that his publisher would regulate his advances otherwise he would blow the money on drink and never finish writing his novels.

I would add Charles Williford as a like-minded scribe of hardboiled noir, as well.

[yeahman]

but I heard stories that Crumley was a notorious boozer.

Fuck yeah he was. My girlfriend bartended at Charlie B's bar in Missoula, and he was a regular day drinker/drunk. One day I pointed to him and mentioned that guy's a famous author, and she was like "WHAT? Jim? No way." He was just another Charlie's drunk to her, kind of obnoxious and grumpy, but big hearted.

[The AD]

Cool, I'll check out your book. I think you'll like mine.

My only gripe is it's quite a bit longer than it really needs to be.

[evasive_MT]

I just opened this. So far so good.

[spanghew]

Fuck yeah he was. My girlfriend bartended at Charlie B's bar in Missoula, and he was a regular day drinker/drunk. One day I pointed to him and mentioned that guy's a famous author, and she was like "WHAT? Jim? No way." He was just another Charlie's drunk to her, kind of obnoxious and grumpy, but big hearted.

One To Count Cadence was his only real book. And to be a drunk writer in Missoula in his day was to be part of a large moveable feast. The best way to get your adviser to read your new draft was to drop it off at CG's with a little coke. Missoula: A Place. Sort Of.

[yeahman]

Just finished this, liked it a lot. Pretty unvarnished look at life on the rez and the uneasy co-existence of whites and Indians in southeast Montana.

[dunfree]

I haven't read Doig's more recent books but the English Creek trilogy and This House of Sky were great. I'll have to try Bartender's Tale (and go back and reread the others).

In the same geographical region (but a completely different style) I'll recommend James Crumley, particularly The Wrong Case and The Last Good Kiss. Sort of like Raymond Chandler in Missoula but with more drugs, booze, and general mayhem.

Red Harvest is the definitive Montana noir (poisonville is butte)

reading: The Bloody White Baron by James Palmer. Nonfiction account of a nutcase that made himself for a short time ruler of Mongolia 100 years ago. Emphasizes just how different the world was, or at least parts of it.

[Flyoverland Captive]

Very interesting so far.

[Stu Gotz]

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (who wrote Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell).

Like reading a jigsaw puzzle. Amazingly creative. I wasn’t truly sure what was going on but enjoyed the book very much.

[tgapp]

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (who wrote Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell).

Like reading a jigsaw puzzle. Amazingly creative. I wasn’t truly sure what was going on but enjoyed the book very much.

Love Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Will definitely look up Piranesi.

I just read The Overstory by Richard Powers. Probably the best book I've read in ten years. Achingly beautiful.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

[evasive_MT]

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (who wrote Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell).

Like reading a jigsaw puzzle. Amazingly creative. I wasn’t truly sure what was going on but enjoyed the book very much.

I loved that book. During my first read, a friend asked me what I thought so far, and I said “the first 250 pages were a little slow, but it’s really starting to pick up now.” That sounds ludicrous, but it’s so engrossing. I’m planning to buy Piranesi, too.

I’m reading this at the moment, and really enjoying it:

[dookeyXXX]

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (who wrote Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell).

Like reading a jigsaw puzzle. Amazingly creative. I wasn’t truly sure what was going on but enjoyed the book very much.

Are you a lit crit?
Just curious how you managed to snag a copy and read it so quickly when it just came out on this Tuesday, Sept. 15th...

I only learned about the book this past Sat via this article:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ace-by-illness

[schindlerpiste]

Midnight Sun
by Stephenie Meyer

New Twilight book

[Stu Gotz]

Are you a lit crit?
Just curious how you managed to snag a copy and read it so quickly when it just came out on this Tuesday, Sept. 15th...

I only learned about the book this past Sat via this article:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ace-by-illness

It's 272 pages. Got it yesterday morning on Kindle and finished it up by dinner time. It's one of the best books I've read.

[dookeyXXX]

It's 272 pages. Got it yesterday morning on Kindle and finished it up by dinner time. It's one of the best books I've read.

(I am a literary luddite who still reads paper based novels, so didn't even figure in the electronic edition...)

[Stu Gotz]

(I am a literary luddite who still reads paper based novels, so didn't even figure in the electronic edition...)

If you do get it and read it, please post your opinion of it. I’m just amazed at the originality of it.

[evasive_MT]

Are you a lit crit?
Just curious how you managed to snag a copy and read it so quickly when it just came out on this Tuesday, Sept. 15th...

I only learned about the book this past Sat via this article:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ace-by-illness

The New Yorker had an article, too:


Labyrinths https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...d-of-interiors

[dookeyXXX]

If you do get it and read it, please post your opinion of it. I’m just amazed at the originality of it.

Will do!

BTW, is it at all necessary for me to have read Clarke's debut novel?
I have read that she is influenced by Neil Gaiman (of whose output I have read quite a few and have enjoyed for the most part) and a few others, but have not read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell...


In regards to recommendations, I picked this up at a local Goodwill some years ago for a buck and given that the film has been in the news recently I figured I'd finally give it a go.
I spent Monday digging through boxes to find it. Then on Tuesday I dusted it off and dug into it.
Finished it this morning (for those doing the math, I read it in roughly 2.5 days, give or take). It was quite different from what I remember of the film (which I have not seen in years, but am about to re-watch in the next few days to compare), but the humor is the same: snarky and sly.
Immediate takeaway is that Lemony Snicket totally cribbed his style from S. Morgenstern...
Definitely has me interested in tracking down some more of Goldman's work, specifically Marathon Man and No Way To Treat A Lady and possibly Heat.

[babybear]

(I am a literary luddite who still reads paper based novels, so didn't even figure in the electronic edition...)

I get my best reading time done in the middle of the night. The kindle allows you to read on even when you can’t (or it would be rude) to have the light on.
I wouldn’t get half my books finished if it weren’t for night reading.

[dookeyXXX]

Have had a good run of solid reads over the past week:

THE HOT ROCK (1970) - Donald E. Westlake
Have seen the Robert Redford starring film a few times, but the source material is way more absurd and brilliant.

TIETAM BROWN (2003) - Mick Foley
Former wrestling superstar's first novel is a fantastic coming-of-age drama teeming with eccentric touches and some dark undertones. Foley's easy going writing style reminds me of Willy Vlautin.

GOLDEN STATE (2019) - Ben H. Winters
A dystopian tech noir owing debts to Orwell, Dick, Pynchon, and Ellison.

SAVAGE NIGHT (1953) - Jim Thompson
A psychotic paranoir that ticks off all the standard pulp fiction bullet points ( femme fatales, shady gangsters, violence, etc), but tosses in plenty of wicked happenings and a deranged protagonist/antagonist for good measure.

[evasive_MT]

I’m looking forward to opening this for a change of pace: