I need some good books to read. I just read Stephen King's "Under the Dome" and "Full Dark No Stars" back to back. I want fiction, the real world has been bumming me out. Nothing real political, because that's what I've been pissed about. I don't mind dark though. Any suggestions will be investigated and I appreciate it.

Nothing real political, because that's what I've been pissed about. I don't mind dark though

readers digest is right up your alley.

are you asking for new stuff?

here:
The Lonely Polygamist Brady Udall
A Visit from the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan
Room Emma Donoghue
Chronic City Jonathan Lethem
Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel Jeannette Walls
Freedom J Franzen

readers digest is right up your alley

That's still around???

are you asking for new stuff?

Yes. Thanks man. I'm looking into those books now with my finger on the Amazon trigger.

The Lonely Polygamist has been purchased. I love the show "Big Love" and this book looks good. Thanks again.

MEMORY by Donald Westlake is a real page-turner. it's dark.

That's still around???



Oh yeah. They even have a large print edition.

It's not new, but Confederacy of Dunces is one of my go-to books if I'm feeling a bit angsty and against the world.

Donald Westlake

I love all of his books. The Parker books under his pseudonym Richard Stark are insanely good. I just started reading these graphic novel adaptations of the Parker novels by an artist named Darwyn Cooke an it's cool to see the stories in this format.

Cole, being from the crooked letter state, are you familiar with regional authors or even just Ms authors like Barry Hannah or Larry Brown?

Confederacy of Dunces



Good stuff

Percy's the moviegoer is my fave NOLA book; all the king's men my fave Louisiana novel

Hell. They are two of my fave books period.

Other NOLA novels: Faulkner's pylon, woolrich's waltz into darkness, gifford's wild at heart, algren's walk on the wild side. All dark, all uneven, all worth reading, sipping port, listening to miles, and eating fancy nuts and sweet apples

Speaking of underrated Westlake, nola's JL Burke walks the same streets as he

Fear by L Ron Hubbard
City of Glass by Paul Auster

Fear by L Ron Hubbard

Your not trying to convert me to Scientology are you?

Cole, being from the crooked letter state, are you familiar with regional authors or even just Ms authors like Barry Hannah or Larry Brown?

Of course! I live about twenty minutes from Oxford, hell I've even heard of that Faulkner guy.

i love willie morris's book re the courting of marcus dupree

2 of my fave Mississippians!

SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY by Gary Shteyngart

Not sad, pretty funny and sort of freaked me out, but in a good way. Satire about technology and love.

The Ice At The Bottom of the World by Mark Richards

Book of short stories by another good and fucked Southerner.

Of course! I live about twenty minutes from Oxford, hell I've even heard of that Faulkner guy.

I'm a good catholic from south of I-10. It used to blow my mind when we would go to shows and parties up your way and meet all these freaks that had no idea what gems lived and worked out of that area. That was a while ago though.

Who the fuck is Faulkner?

just picked up a copy of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s and started with Gresham's Nightmare Alley. good shit.

and speaking of Larry Brown, just finished Fay--crucial.

The Ice at the Bottom of the World is fucking amazing. also check out his novel, Fishboy--based on one of the stories in Ice at the Bottom of the World. also a good read.

well since were talking about geat writers in Oxford, we should mention Barry Hannah, who died earlier this year.

Yeah, their are some crazy stories about Ole Miss writers in residence. I think it was Larry Brown who used to get drunk and demand to sit in(on saxaphone) on the set of whatever band was in town.

I appreciate you guys bringing those guys up. I haven't read any of those guys work in ages and there is alot of it I haven't read at all. I might make a trip to Square Books tomorrow.

Percy's the moviegoer is my fave NOLA book

Second.

barry hannah's death rips me up. i had no idea. or maybe i knew and i repressed it. drank with him twice. airships is iconic. oh my...

Guns of the South - Harry Turtledove
The Alienist - Caleb Carr

uh...I'll think of more...

Percy's the moviegoer is my fave NOLA book

Second.
damn it i was gonna do that, like it much more then dunces

I gotta say this to anyone who hasn't read it:

The Dirt.

It don't matter if you hate non-fiction, a good percentage of this one is probably fiction, but it rules all of literature.

I'm gonna have to check out the Keith Richards book, but it's hard to imagine it coming close to The Dirt in awesomeness.

nah, i just read an article about hanoi rocks, i'm good

by that do you mean that the Keith Richard book sucks, or that you have no interest in reading either The Dirt or the Keith Richards book?

Are You there God, It's Me Margaret is always my first pick when I'm unsure about myself and my place in the world.

I dunno why there aren't more Beverly Cleary books made into movies. Reading=tedious, dammit!

Ramona and Beezus is pretty rad, yo!

just picked up a copy of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s and started with Gresham's Nightmare Alley. good shit.



Just read my first Raymond Chandler book, The Big Sleep, and I've decided these novels are the best escape for me. Love em.

Are You there God, It's Me Margaret


I've never heard of it but I purchased it without even seeing what it was about. Thanks Tommy, Since your an English teacher I take all your recommendations in literature very seriously. I can't wait to read it. I bet it's the best book in this thread.

Good work, Cole. I gave it to my dad for his birthday. He said it was the most profound theological work he's read in thirty years.

If you like Margaret, you might also enjoy Then Again Maybe I Won't.

I bet it's the best book in this thread.


few things on this or any thread are better than all the king's men

I gave it to my dad for his birthday. He said it was the most profound theological work he's read in thirty years.

What! Your dad digs it? It's an old man book? It's about theology? Did Joel Osteen write It?

I thought it was probably about a young Christian woman who cries out to God in her time of trouble and nothing happens. She turns away from the church and to casual oral and anal sex to fill the void. She ends up a junkie and then kills herself.

ORDER CANCELLED.

I gave it to my dad for his birthday. He said it was the most profound theological work he's read in thirty years.
yr dad would LOVE this then

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_There_God%3F_It%27s_Me,_Jesus

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

While googling that book I found this debate between Mr. Dawkins and a Mr. Lennox. I've watched about 10 minutes of it and its cool. It's in Alabama too. I'm going to watch all of it.

http://www.fixed-point.org/index.php/video/35-full-length/164-the-dawk ins-lennox-debate

It's a great book.

Also, if you like mystery/detective books, Robert Crais is great. Start with "The Monkey's Raincoat", and if you like it, read them all. Great characters.

Get Terry Southern's Red Dirt Marijuana and Other Tales. He was a southerner who went north. 60s counter-culture guy/one of the original writers for SNL. Great cynical/dark humor and southern stories. There's a hipster jazzbo take down story that's incredible, loosely based on Michael Baker's attempt to score smack.

I also like William Vollman sometimes. Weirdo post-modern writer. I think they teach the Rainbow Stories in most English 101 classes but I also like You Bright and Written Angels (insects vs. electricity) and the Butterfly Stories (about fucking whores in Vietnam)

ORDER CANCELLED.


Your loss, Dude; your loss.

You're gonna be fucked when Aunt Flo comes to town.
That is all.

I knew what that book was Tommy.

Me and you had a great conversation about literature in Oxford over beers one night and if you seriously told me something was great, I'd buy it in a second.

I know, Cole; I'm just goofin'. I don't REALLY think you're going to get your first period soon.

Have you read Life of Pi? It's a few years old now, but if you haven't read it, it's a treat.

Also, the Stieg Larsson Trilogy was also a LOT of fun. The first one was VERY slow at the beginning; however, it picks up. I seriously couldn't put the second one down.

Right now I'm reading a book that Carrie bought for me when we were in Oxford. It's called We Bought A Zoo. It's an autobiographical account of a normal family who buy a dilapidated zoo in France. Rumor has it that Cameron Crowe is turning it into his next flick.

Have fun, mang!

I know, Cole; I'm just goofin'. I don't REALLY think you're going to get your first period soon.


It's still fucked up that you and your dad bonded over it.

We Bought A Zoo

Now that sounds cool.

Cole, my dad was being facetious.

But you gotta admit, giving an extremely well-read 65 year-old man that book for his birthday was pretty funny.

Great cynical/dark humor and southern stories.
not counter culture at all but then again so much better tahn southern I(i like the idea of him rather than his production) that it's not funny is Carson McCullers.

top notch. but not funny, unless you laugh when psyches are disemboweled

"Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" by Wells Tower

Killer offbeat short stories

http://www.slate.com/id/2277103/?from=rss


that sex addict book looks great

and that book on carpenter's movie

Nathaniel West came up in conversation a few nights ago, and I realized it's been a long time since I read Miss Lonelyhearts, or Day of The Locust. I feel like they might be worth a revisit. My memory is that they are both singular and modern reads (accusations of plagiarism aside). There's a current biography of him and his wife that looks promising as well.

Right now I'm rereading "Extraordinary Popular Dilusions and the Madness of Crowds". Written in the 1840's by Charles MacKay. Fascinating and reccommended.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Essential.

Just finished-
The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring-Gould. Published in 1865 one of the first studies of Lycanthropy. Also has tons of stories of other cannibalistic acts perpetrated by people with mental disorders, including the original French "bluebeard" who murdered 800 children back in the 1400's. The author has an interesting almost Jungian analysis of Lycanthropy and does not believe that people transform into wolves. Picked it up for a dollar. Definitely worth it.

Louie Louie- Dick Peterson. Written by the drummer of the Kingsmen. I needed a mindless book to get through some stressful times and this was perfect. The whole story of the Kingsmen's first years. Very innocent. And I always thought they played like that because they were drunk! The FBI pursued them for 2 years before dropping the obscenity case based around the lyrics of Louie Louie. Cool read if you can get through nearly 400 pages about the Kingsmen.

While googling that book I found this debate between Mr. Dawkins and a Mr. Lennox.

I watched a little of this. It seemed like Dawkins was not doing so great and crowd support was definitely with Lennox. Interesting that the church set up the debate nonetheless.

the original French "bluebeard" who murdered 800 children back in the 1400's.


I think that guy was covered in "Extraordinary Popular..." in the alchemy section. Wasn't that the guy who was royalty from, I think, Normandy, that blew through all his riches, so he started sacrificing children in an attempt to conjure up Satan thinking that Satan was going to show him how to do alchemy?

I watched a little of this. It seemed like Dawkins was not doing so great and crowd support was definitely with Lennox. Interesting that the church set up the debate nonetheless.

Yeah, again it was in Alabama. Dawkins had no chance of crowd support.

the original French "bluebeard" who murdered 800 children back in the 1400's.

the marechel de rays

the marechel de rays

That's the guy. I hadn't heard about the alchemy part. It wasn't mentioned in the book. I'll have to check out that book you mention....sounds interesting.

I've been reading Shirley Jackson lately. Maybe try the LOA edition?

That's the guy. I hadn't heard about the alchemy part. It wasn't mentioned in the book.


That's odd. I meantion a book that has the marechel de rays in it, then right after, you unknowingly meantion a book that has the marechel de rays in it. Maybe his spirit is channelling the goner board somehow from beyond.

please update...got a nook color and need some new reads
just finished Butcher's Crossing...

Just finished 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' by Jennifer Egan and i really like it.

i'm reading that bestseller about NYC in the early 70's, "Great World Spin". It's kind of petering out now but the first half was pretty darn good. Those micks can write alright.

Chicken Soup for your Boner.

Fall on your knees

goddammit! I just realized it is an Oprah book club book, but its good.

I've been reading a lot of the old Sherlock Holmes stories. Love 'em. Fuck that Robert Downey Jr movie shit.

I must highly recommend The Wanderer, the autobio of Sterling Hayden. Read a lot of books this year and this one sticks in my mind.

The new Mark Twain Autobiography is a great read but it is a tome. I've still got 200 pages to go but it has been fascinating. Mr. Clemens talks shit freely about the standing president, publishers and friends without fear of retribution. He also dwells on his absolute disgust for both political parties often, so that might be a deal breaker for you.

The new Mark Twain Autobiography

I finally just cracked this after getting it for xmas. Got lost in the intro and put it down for a few months but am happily back in the midst of it. Have to say that 'Roughin' It' is my favorite of all time. Probably not the tome that Cole would want to tackle now.

Cole, did you ever read 'Blood Meridian'? Another Barry Hannah-ish writer who totally tries to steal 'Blood Meridian' is Tom Franklin, with 'Smonk'. In fact, I believe he is from/was from Oxford.

Smonk sounds really good. I'm getting that book. Thanks for the heads up.

As for Twain. I read that on my Kindle. I love Twain. I'm always bugging my kids to read, and gave my 12 year old "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", my favorite book as a kid. He was shocked by all the racist language. He said he felt like he shouldn't be reading it. A sign of how times have changed in the South, I guess. He finished it though and dug it.

Anyone use e-readers? I got a kindle but don't really use it much. It just doesn't feel right. Anyone like Audiobooks? I love 'em.

Back to Tom Franklin....I've been researching him.....how have I missed this dude?

just got the patti smith book, yesterday, have only read a few pages so far and i'm not digging it. we'll see

Anyone use e-readers?
yeah, i was just given a Nook color, and it's pretty cool. Loaded kindle software on there too. Still getting used to the whole 'reading a screen' thing. It's nice not adding a bunch of books to those boxes that are gathering dust in the attic because we've got no space for them. Also finding a bunch of out of print stuff that you can download for free.

Of course, some real books must still be bought:

GTO

Just got a copy of American Tabloid by James Ellroy, probbably will never read it.

..of Mormon is a great read, and it's true!