What Else Are You Reading

[Patrick]

^ I forget how I came to know of it. Probably a blog post somewhere. And it was available as an ebook in my Scribd / Everand subscription, so I jumped right on it, and was not disappointed.

[Patrick]

Dean McLaughlin, The Man Who Wanted Stars (1965). This starts off with a promising premise: Four years before the first moon landing, McLaughlin anticipated that space travel would have a short life – people would get bored and the government would abandon it, leaving it to one VERY driven man to try to get us back into space.

But the book flies off the rails for a few reasons. The plot development depends on not one but two bits of miracle science (one biological, one chemical) which are both hard to believe in themselves, and the implications of the biological leap are not well handled at all.

McLaughlin also pushes way too hard on the ruthless unlikability of his protagonist – you keep expecting someone to at least TRY to kill him, and it would really be the only way to go: “If you strike at a king, you must kill him.” Although the denouement does not acknowledge this.

I am still confused about the snow buggy passages in Part Three (of five) and would like someone to please explain. Also why that one young woman never seemed to be wearing any clothes…

It really is overall kind of a mess.

[Patrick]

Enthusiastically “getting into” American local color literature lately. Since I love Cape Cod, I took up Joseph C. Lincoln’s Cape Cod Stories (1907), a story cycle about two old coots and their misadventures, and am enjoying it immensely. I also recently finished Phoebe Atwood Taylor’s very entertaining The Cape Cod Mystery (1931), the first in her Asey Mayo series.

[Patrick]

Although I very much enjoy reading Golden Age mysteries, I am hopeless at spotting clues and honestly don’t even really care about solving the mystery, or about the rules of “fair play” (shocking, I know 😏 ). I am there for the characterization, the social milieu, the atmosphere, maybe the prose if I’m lucky. Arthur Rees’ The Shrieking Pit, published at the end of World War I, is an excellent example, set in seaside Norfolk, partly at a creepy inn. Ambience to burn, and well-written too. It also fits very well into my project of reading both non-fiction and fiction about all the English counties.

[Patrick]

I love the fact that there is a subset of Golden Age mystery writers known as the “Humdrums”, even if Julian Symons didn’t mean it to be complimentary when he coined the tag. Critic Curtis Evans and a number of bloggers have championed these authors, who indeed can be rather restful and soothing in their approach, and what’s wrong with that? They are also very readable and professional.

One of the Humdrums is J.S. Fletcher (1863-1935), whom I have not read before, so last night I started The Charing Cross Mystery (1923), and I will report back. It gets off to a good start with an unexpected death on a train; trains are always aces in my book.

[Patrick]

Mystery novelist Dorothy Cameron Disney (1903-1992) is easily confused with her contemporaries Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916-2014) (I’ve read her novel The Clay Hand) and Doris Miles Disney (1907-1976) (haven’t read yet, but plan to). DCD is usually grouped with Mary Roberts Rinehart and Mignon G. Eberhart in the “Had I But Known” school. These books feature female protagonists / narrators who do not see dangers coming, although of course it all becomes clear in retrospect.

There are certainly traces of this approach in DCD’s first novel, Death in the Back Seat (1936), about a nice young couple who find themselves in way over their heads during a home caretaking gig in Connecticut. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and its small town atmosphere. The solution is VERY complicated, you won’t figure it out.

I obtained this book through one of those many “Megapack” / omnibus editions of genre fiction that are all over Amazon. I find that these often represent a very good value.

[Patrick]

Upton Sinclair’s Lanny Budd series, 11 doorstop novels published between 1940 and 1953, are like The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles at a political affairs rather than an adventure level, and are comparable good fun. Lanny, born with the century into a situation of privilege, finds himself part of everything (and I do mean everything) that goes on in the first half of the 20th Century. Although I’ll never forget the young John Gunther Jr. rejecting the series (in Death Be Not Proud) - “I prefer my Superman straight” - still, Lanny is a cool fellow to know, and after being neglected for several decades, the novels seem to be finding new fans through ebook publication.

[Patrick]

I am enjoying the anthology Great Ghost Stories: 101 Terrifying Tales, edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, frustrated by the lack of bibliographic and author information, but I do go and look up all that on my own.

[Adelaide]

Patrick wrote: "Although I very much enjoy reading Golden Age mysteries, I am hopeless at spotting clues and honestly don’t even really care about solving the mystery, or about the rules of “fair play” (shocking, ..."

I also love mysteries of all kinds, but rarely try to solve the mystery! Of course I wanna know who dunnit, but I am happy enough to let the author figure it out for me.

[Adelaide]

Patrick wrote: "Mystery novelist Dorothy Cameron Disney (1903-1992) is easily confused with her contemporaries Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916-2014) (I’ve read her novel The Clay Hand) and Doris Miles Disney (1907-1..."

I like that so many female authors had their full names listed on their books. And yes, it is sunny how this little group all sounds the same.

[Patrick]

Adelaide wrote: "Patrick wrote: "Mystery novelist Dorothy Cameron Disney (1903-1992) is easily confused with her contemporaries Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916-2014) (I’ve read her novel The Clay Hand) and Doris Mile..."

There are so many! I have barely scratched the surface myself.

[Patrick]

Scott Laurence’s Georgia Hotel is an extremely obscure noirish paperback original published by Pyramid in 1958 and re-issued in 1967. No ratings or reviews at Goodreads. There appear to be no other titles under that author name, which may of course be a pseudonym. I bought the 1958 edition attracted by the cover and subject (I love hotel novels). Very good so far. 

[Kelly]

Oh, Cheryl! not sure if you're still in a sci-fi kick, but I can heartily recommend On Basilisk Station by David Weber. It's hard sci-fi, so realistic physics involved, not just 'we got a neat engine that lets us break the whole speed of light limit'. I never thought I would enjoy it, but I actually did. I'm not much of a hardcore sci-fi fan - I like story and character over tech. But I finished that one and was like, man, that was good! Heh, and I like the heroine. It's definitely the most realistic space navy type book I've ever read. I still wonder how on earth I started reading it - I think someone insisted I give it a try. lol

[Cheryl]

Thanks for the info, Kelly!

[Devon]

Not started yet, but I just picked this up as a withdrawn library book for a buck: Borderline. Anyone read this, or this author, Lawrence Block? Will start this before Garbaugust is finished ;)

[Cheryl]

Devon wrote: "Not started yet, but I just picked this up as a withdrawn library book for a buck: Borderline. Anyone read this, or this author, Lawrence Block? Will start this befor..."

Devon,

I have not read Borderline, but I have read a few books fro this author's Matthew Scudder detective series. I thought they were pretty good.