Summer Reading 2013

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

Blast from the past.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

Winston Niles Rumfoord and his dog Kazak are waiting for you... somewhen.

 

[John Donaghue]

I'm just gonna leave this here...

Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots.

Also Howard Waldorp short stories. "Modern fantasy"? "Magical realism"? I dunno, it's probably easier just to ditch the categories and just call it fiction. The Sawing Boys story is a great starting point.

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

Just started re-reading an old favorite: Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen mysteries. Funny, a bit brutal, with wry humor and a unique anti-hero.

 

[Florida Jim]

Den of Thieves
By James B. Stewart

Barbarians at the Door
By Bryan Burrough and John Heylar

The Informant
By Kurt Eichenwald

All on paper.
NY Times on paper, too.
Best, Jim

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Just started re-reading an old favorite: Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen mysteries. Funny, a bit brutal, with wry humor and a unique anti-hero.

Ian, Jean is likewise a big fan of Aurelio Zen. I don't venture into mystery fiction too often but did see a dramatization of one novel on PBS. Good stuff.

Mark Lipton
P.s. I did read Name of the Rose. -- that's a mystery novel innit?

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

It was Jeanne who introduced me to Zen. The TV production is good, agreed, but books are generically better than video - let's face it - because of their relative convenience, the far greater capacity they offer for plot development, and their recruitment of audience imagination in the creative process. Plus, you miss Dibdin's best turns of phrase in the shows, because they are spoken by the invisible third-person narrator.

Sewell is a bit of a showboat, too, relative to the book character, whose crusty cynicism is a part of the series' character, although he does a very good job in the role as it's cast for him.

Of possible geek interest: one book in the series is based in Piedmont's Barbaresco-producing Langhe communes; Jancis Robinson is named in the acknowledgements.

The Name of the Rose is a kind of Jungian, semioticist vision of the detective mystery, imo. In this case, the screen adaptation pretty much sucked, Sean Connery notwithstanding. I have a French edition and may re-read it, now that you've mentioned it.

Bon lecteur.

 

[Jay Miller]

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Just started re-reading an old favorite: Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen mysteries. Funny, a bit brutal, with wry humor and a unique anti-hero.

Ian, Jean is likewise a big fan of Aurelio Zen. I don't venture into mystery fiction too often but did see a dramatization of one novel on PBS. Good stuff.

Mark Lipton
P.s. I did read Name of the Rose. -- that's a mystery novel innit?

Yes, though personally I greatly preferred Foucault's Pendulum. Never did make it all the way through Island of the Day Before.

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

originally posted by Jay Miller:
[...] Never did make it all the way through Island of the Day Before.

That sounds like the title of a screenplay the House of Representatives has adopted as its manifesto.

 

[vaughn tan]

originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
No, but seriously, for the (amateur) chemically-minded, Oliver Sacks's childhood memoir Uncle Tungsten is a surprisingly nice read. Reprints of Simeon's Maigret books are decent mind-candy.

+1 on uncle tungsten. other nice summer-appropriate books: stuff by iain m. banks (very stylish science fiction), a short history of a small place by t.r. pearson