Erik Larson's Blog, page 2
May 6, 2011
On the Road Again
It's that time again--my next book tour. So I've spent some time trying to figure out what books to bring along, and on what stints to bring them. I've got a nice line-up, consisting of the following:
--The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,
by Mary Ann Shaffer, with the posthumous assistance of her niece, Annie Barrows. I've always been curious about the book, but now my wife is making me read it.
--A High Wind in Jamaica, by Richard Hughes.
--And three more of Irish writer Declan Hughes' mysteries. I mentioned in an earlier post how much I liked his City of Lost Girls, featuring his Irish private-eye, Ed Loy. And I believe in reading writers as well as books. So, I'll be bringing as well: The Color of Blood; All the Dead Voices; and The Price of Blood.
And hey, if anyone's interested, I'll be on NPR's Fresh Air May 9, the night before my new book (In the Garden of Beasts) comes out. Terry Gross is an amazing interviewer. At this point, frankly, I think she may know as much about the book as I do.
--The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,
by Mary Ann Shaffer, with the posthumous assistance of her niece, Annie Barrows. I've always been curious about the book, but now my wife is making me read it.
--A High Wind in Jamaica, by Richard Hughes.
--And three more of Irish writer Declan Hughes' mysteries. I mentioned in an earlier post how much I liked his City of Lost Girls, featuring his Irish private-eye, Ed Loy. And I believe in reading writers as well as books. So, I'll be bringing as well: The Color of Blood; All the Dead Voices; and The Price of Blood.
And hey, if anyone's interested, I'll be on NPR's Fresh Air May 9, the night before my new book (In the Garden of Beasts) comes out. Terry Gross is an amazing interviewer. At this point, frankly, I think she may know as much about the book as I do.
April 16, 2011
Swamps and Gators
Finished reading Declan Hughes' City of Lost Girls and loved it. As smooth as Irish whiskey. I definitely plan to read the rest of his novels, but first...
...I find myself immersed in Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. I'm a third of the way through and, though I won't say much about the plot for fear of revealing something crucial, I can say that it's one beautifully written book. Simply on the level of prose, it's fresh and sweetly complex. (Usual caveat: I don't know her, and she hasn't paid me any money, etc.)
Meanwhile, switching planets completely, I happened to speak the other day with a reader who is absolutely passionate about her Kindle. She reads the Sunday New York Times Book Review with her Kindle at hand, so that she can immediately buy books that sound interesting, or at least flag them for later consideration. I found this fascinating, and got to wondering, is this fairly common practice among e-reader devotees? I'd be interested in hearing if indeed that's the case.
Onward.
...I find myself immersed in Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. I'm a third of the way through and, though I won't say much about the plot for fear of revealing something crucial, I can say that it's one beautifully written book. Simply on the level of prose, it's fresh and sweetly complex. (Usual caveat: I don't know her, and she hasn't paid me any money, etc.)
Meanwhile, switching planets completely, I happened to speak the other day with a reader who is absolutely passionate about her Kindle. She reads the Sunday New York Times Book Review with her Kindle at hand, so that she can immediately buy books that sound interesting, or at least flag them for later consideration. I found this fascinating, and got to wondering, is this fairly common practice among e-reader devotees? I'd be interested in hearing if indeed that's the case.
Onward.
April 3, 2011
My New Favorite Detective Is....
I'm three-quarters the way through City of Lost Girls by Declan Hughes, and I think I've found the author I'll be spending the next month with (he's written four other novels, so I'm thinking, hmmm, maybe one a week?). What's so appealing here is the writing. There's an Irish grace to it, no surprise, and a richness that is very unlike the spare prose of my favorite Swedish and Norwegian writers, Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo. Hughes is an Irish Dennis LeHane.
Meanwhile I'm delighted to see that both Mankell and Nesbo have new books out or soon to come out.
I suppose, however, that I really ought to read something other than dark North Atlantic detective novels. So, branching out, next in my line-up--before Hughes no. 2--is Swamplandia, by Karen Russell. Something about the jacket and the feel of that book just made me want to take it home. But then, I've always been partial to alligators.
----------
By the way, I picked up Hughes' book at the Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino, Calif., a lovely bookstore in one of the lovelist towns in the world. My wife and I have gone back to the same inn--the Headlands Inn--and the same room in that inn, since 1982, and are delighted to report we really can't detect much physical change in the landscape, though several empty storefronts suggest the main commercial street got hit pretty hard by the recession of the last couple of years.
Funky detail alert: The bookstore happens to be in the groundfloor of a building that appeared in the movie The Russians Are Coming, a family favorite, in the scene where the hero, tied to a telephone operator by Alan Arkin and his crew from a stranded Soviet submarine, ends up tumbling down an exterior stairway, still attached to the operator. Mendocino looks all the world like a New England village and thus was chosen as the setting for the movie, which is supposed to be taking place on a Nantucket-like island in the Atlantic. For the same reason, the house occupied by Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote also is in Mendocino--its called Blair House--and is for sale, according to John, the bartender at the Mendocino Hotel who, by the way, makes a very good Manhattan.
Ten minutes down the coast highway there's another movie landmark, Heritage House, where Same Time Next Year was filmed. Unfortunately, Heritage House too appears to have been a victim of recession, and is closed, and looks forlorn indeed.
Back to Dublin, where tension is mounting....
Meanwhile I'm delighted to see that both Mankell and Nesbo have new books out or soon to come out.
I suppose, however, that I really ought to read something other than dark North Atlantic detective novels. So, branching out, next in my line-up--before Hughes no. 2--is Swamplandia, by Karen Russell. Something about the jacket and the feel of that book just made me want to take it home. But then, I've always been partial to alligators.
----------
By the way, I picked up Hughes' book at the Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino, Calif., a lovely bookstore in one of the lovelist towns in the world. My wife and I have gone back to the same inn--the Headlands Inn--and the same room in that inn, since 1982, and are delighted to report we really can't detect much physical change in the landscape, though several empty storefronts suggest the main commercial street got hit pretty hard by the recession of the last couple of years.
Funky detail alert: The bookstore happens to be in the groundfloor of a building that appeared in the movie The Russians Are Coming, a family favorite, in the scene where the hero, tied to a telephone operator by Alan Arkin and his crew from a stranded Soviet submarine, ends up tumbling down an exterior stairway, still attached to the operator. Mendocino looks all the world like a New England village and thus was chosen as the setting for the movie, which is supposed to be taking place on a Nantucket-like island in the Atlantic. For the same reason, the house occupied by Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote also is in Mendocino--its called Blair House--and is for sale, according to John, the bartender at the Mendocino Hotel who, by the way, makes a very good Manhattan.
Ten minutes down the coast highway there's another movie landmark, Heritage House, where Same Time Next Year was filmed. Unfortunately, Heritage House too appears to have been a victim of recession, and is closed, and looks forlorn indeed.
Back to Dublin, where tension is mounting....
March 23, 2011
Paris, with an Alan Furst book in hand
So I just returned from visiting one of my daughters in Paris, where she was finishing up a college quarter abroad. I brought with me a copy of Alan Furst's Red Gold, one of my favorite of his novels, featuring a lead character who lives in the city during the Nazi occupation and spends his days trying to elude the Gestapo. Well, there's more to it, but why reveal more than one needs to?
First, let me say that I'd forgotten how beautiful Paris truly is, even in the gloom of the closing days of winter. The last time I visited the city was several decades ago, as a pimply high-school kid.
I wasn't actually able to start re-reading Red Gold until I was on the plane back home, but I found now that with images of Paris fresh in my mind the book took on a whole new dimension. One afternoon my daughter led me into the Marais, the historically Jewish quarter, where we walked briefly along the Rue des Blancs-Manteaux, or street of the white hats, an obscure street and one I would have no particular interest in finding except that our hunt for an amazing tea shop took us that way. How strange, then, that very early in Red Gold, Furst makes reference to the very street. It was a lovely, brief moment of resonance that brought back to me a clear, almost tactile image of that day with my daughter.
I had intended to read the book during my stay, but I got caught up in another novel--yes, yet another dark Scandinavian detective story--this the latest Inspector Harry Hole thriller by Norwegian-writer Jo Nesbo, entitled The Devil's Star. I loved his two previous books, The Redbreast and Nemesis, but this may be his best, and darkest. I finished reading it over a glass of brandy, before a cheery wood fire in the 17th-century sitting room of the Hotel d'Aubusson, in the Rue Dauphine (a hotel, by the way, that I very much liked). I loved the setting, loved the book.
I'm delighted to see that Nesbo's got a new Harry Hole novel coming out this spring.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I must say au revoir, and return to Furst's Paris....
First, let me say that I'd forgotten how beautiful Paris truly is, even in the gloom of the closing days of winter. The last time I visited the city was several decades ago, as a pimply high-school kid.
I wasn't actually able to start re-reading Red Gold until I was on the plane back home, but I found now that with images of Paris fresh in my mind the book took on a whole new dimension. One afternoon my daughter led me into the Marais, the historically Jewish quarter, where we walked briefly along the Rue des Blancs-Manteaux, or street of the white hats, an obscure street and one I would have no particular interest in finding except that our hunt for an amazing tea shop took us that way. How strange, then, that very early in Red Gold, Furst makes reference to the very street. It was a lovely, brief moment of resonance that brought back to me a clear, almost tactile image of that day with my daughter.
I had intended to read the book during my stay, but I got caught up in another novel--yes, yet another dark Scandinavian detective story--this the latest Inspector Harry Hole thriller by Norwegian-writer Jo Nesbo, entitled The Devil's Star. I loved his two previous books, The Redbreast and Nemesis, but this may be his best, and darkest. I finished reading it over a glass of brandy, before a cheery wood fire in the 17th-century sitting room of the Hotel d'Aubusson, in the Rue Dauphine (a hotel, by the way, that I very much liked). I loved the setting, loved the book.
I'm delighted to see that Nesbo's got a new Harry Hole novel coming out this spring.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I must say au revoir, and return to Furst's Paris....
February 27, 2011
Horror of horrors
It's a windy, cold, spooky day in Seattle at this particular moment. The sun is setting, the bare limbs of trees are moving oddly, and some random limb is scraping the side of my house. Perfect, actually, because I'm about to start reading John Ajvide Lindqvist's new book, Handling the Undead. I bought it because I loved his novel, Let the Right One In, a terrifying and strangely moving work. And I'm a sucker for well-done terrifying books.
What is it about these Scandinavian writers, and their dark, evocative books? It seems that lately that's mostly what I've been reading, with the exception last week of Anita Shreve's Testimony (very good, very depressing). I recently finished reading Norwegian-writer Jo Nesbo's Nemesis, which was terrific and complex, and the other day I started re-reading Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers, one of his best Inspector Wallander books (I've read them all, and loved them--though my least favorite was The Dogs of Riga). And of course I've read Stieg Larsson's trilogy--though I find the author's story so sad: He turns in three novels, then boom, dies of a heart attack before knowing that his books will enthrall the globe. So tragic. And, somehow, so Swedish.
Anyone who craves more dark Swedish winters and deeply contemplative detectives should try out the books of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, who together--back in the 1960s--wrote a series of novels featuring Inspector Martin Beck and his colleagues. The books are quietly satisfying and for the most part have aged well, provided you can put aside temporarily the fact that no one in the books has a cell phone. My favorite: Roseanna.
I feel somehow that I should run out now and buy a bottle of aquavit and maybe a jar of herring before I settle down for my new Lindqvist book. Or maybe some lefsa and a little lutefiske.
Actually, like any sane human being, I'll take a pass on the lutefiske. Here's the best way to prepare it: Buy a jar, remove the fish, then eat the jar.
Onward.
What is it about these Scandinavian writers, and their dark, evocative books? It seems that lately that's mostly what I've been reading, with the exception last week of Anita Shreve's Testimony (very good, very depressing). I recently finished reading Norwegian-writer Jo Nesbo's Nemesis, which was terrific and complex, and the other day I started re-reading Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers, one of his best Inspector Wallander books (I've read them all, and loved them--though my least favorite was The Dogs of Riga). And of course I've read Stieg Larsson's trilogy--though I find the author's story so sad: He turns in three novels, then boom, dies of a heart attack before knowing that his books will enthrall the globe. So tragic. And, somehow, so Swedish.
Anyone who craves more dark Swedish winters and deeply contemplative detectives should try out the books of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, who together--back in the 1960s--wrote a series of novels featuring Inspector Martin Beck and his colleagues. The books are quietly satisfying and for the most part have aged well, provided you can put aside temporarily the fact that no one in the books has a cell phone. My favorite: Roseanna.
I feel somehow that I should run out now and buy a bottle of aquavit and maybe a jar of herring before I settle down for my new Lindqvist book. Or maybe some lefsa and a little lutefiske.
Actually, like any sane human being, I'll take a pass on the lutefiske. Here's the best way to prepare it: Buy a jar, remove the fish, then eat the jar.
Onward.
February 19, 2011
Brand new at this
Ah, books. Need to leave the planet for a few hours? Get a book and start reading. Does anything else (legal) have quite that power of personal transport?
I'm very new to this site, so apologies to anyone who has tried to make contact. I really have no idea how to make contact back, as yet, but I'm on the learning curve. I think. What I love is this sense that there are a lot of smart people in this community reading a lot of smart books, a notion that is both energizing and comforting.
So, anyway, I'm going to plunge back in now and try to get all this figured out. I'm reading Testament by Anita Shreve at the moment, and enjoying it quite a bit. And people say I write dark things!
E.
I'm very new to this site, so apologies to anyone who has tried to make contact. I really have no idea how to make contact back, as yet, but I'm on the learning curve. I think. What I love is this sense that there are a lot of smart people in this community reading a lot of smart books, a notion that is both energizing and comforting.
So, anyway, I'm going to plunge back in now and try to get all this figured out. I'm reading Testament by Anita Shreve at the moment, and enjoying it quite a bit. And people say I write dark things!
E.
