Beach reads and beyond: July book thread

@UncleVinny I always meant to read Mervyn Peake and have owned various paperback editions, but never actually started. I salute you!

I couldn’t stand Titus Groan when I first read it, and initially gave up on the rest of the series. But some time later (high school I guess) I ran across Boy in Darkness and liked it so much I went back to the other books. It’s been a long time and I don’t remember much about the rest of the trilogy but I remember liking Titus Alone in college.

I’m currently gnawing on The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the the Third World. There are some funny similarities.

Oh, and skimming through Flowers From the Moon and Other Lunacies, but that’s been pretty disappointing so far.

@mossygreen I’m so happy I read TG. It’s hilariously gloomy, packed with nutty and memorable characters who’ll live in my head forever.

I’ve heard that Gormenghast is quite a bit darker, with less leavening jolliness. (Though…I wonder if TG was really meant to be funny? Or am I just a morbid weirdo?)

@somf69
we’ll watch the movie on that XXXX channel that one of the staff folks streams from the dark web

@somf69

Own it.
Haven’t read it yet.

@Cerridwyn @somf69

we’ll watch the movie on that XXXX channel that one of the staff folks streams from the dark web

Stern has kinda gone semi-grown-up and semi-respectable lately.

He’s still an interesting personality. Not gotten boring.

@f00l mmmmmmmm, revolutionary scented mints!

@UncleVinny

It’s a great chewing gum flavor also!

@f00l

Finished this series. Overall liked it. It inspires me to hunt down some bios and histories.

PS the audiobook narrator is a great match for the material.

@mossygreen

V nice. Thanks for mcbain mention

@mossygreen You talked me into it.

@Barney Wow, 1800 pages of zombies and whatever the heck this is for less that a buck. I’m in!

@sammydog01 My kind of prices! I did like the Sasha McCandless book, but don’t tell anyone.

@f00l Picked up the new Robyn Carr book for $2.

It’s #4 in the series (#1 is $3, #2 is $8, #3 is $10) and just launched, so it will be back up to $12-$14 tomorrow. HQ publisher so never on KU.

@f00l I won’t ever remember to cancel it.

@mossygreen

Heyer writes from the common social POV of a person who was a child during the Edwardian era.

So I tend to forgive her “not at all current” stereotyping attitudes somewhat.

Heyer as a writer - I find her to be a total relaxing delight. She is basically the only romance novelist I will read.
Her work is always slightly “tart” and doesn’t go too much into “damaged people finding trust again” or whatever else that’s so common in today’s romance genre, given the book descriptions I sometimes read.

Her protagonists often have to find strength of character (but without vast pages of introspective emotion): always they seem to have to find the wisdom to negotiate the social and emotional world they live in.

The stories move. No getting bogged down.

Sometimes the plots are fantastic or simplistic.
So what. These books are for fun. Not lit class.

She’s a bit similar in emotional approach to Jane Austen (tho far less wordy), and tho not of that weight as a writer, and not in that league in terms of breadth and depth.

But for what Heyer attempts, she’s the best at it. IMHO.

So… I own all the Kindle/Audible Heyer I can get.

I save them up for when I want something quick and fun.

I have not yet read that many. So far, my overwhelming fav is a non-standard one:
An Infamous Army.

Much or most of this book is the Battle of Waterloo and the lead up to it. Her description of this battle is so accurate and thorough that her “slight romance novel” has been used as supplementary reading at Sandhurst and West Point.

@f00l I’ve only read some of her mysteries, but I think she was far better than Christie. I had a friend in high school whose father loved Georgette Heyer romances, but had his wife get them from the library under her name.

Re: growing up with Edwardian attitudes: for all I know, it could have been shocking and progressive for her to even acknowledge the existence of homosexuals so obviously, however stereo-typically.

One of the characters I was definitely visualizing Peter Wyngarde.
/image Peter Wyngarde

@f00l Younger, less obviously fabulous Peter Wyngarde, but this is a great picture. So I’m not reloading my comment.
/image young Peter Wyngarde

@mossygreen

Have not yet read any Heyer mysteries.

Want “better than Christie”, from that era?

Try the exquisite writer, Josephine Tey.

Also, Dorothy Sayers is lots of fun. First, for the upper-class/aristocratic plffle, attitudes and mannerisms; later, for the over-the-top French/English/Latin literary referencing.

Sayers also shows some attitudes that don’t look great by modern standards. But it’s infrequent.

@f00l The only thing I can remember with Sayers was a genteel antisemitism, but it’s probably time for a re-read. To my shame, I have never gotten into Josephine Tey or Ngaio Marsh.

@ruouttaurmind Watchers is one of my all time favorite books. Every few years I read it again. And, yes, I’ll confess that I cried the first time I read it.

The movies suck.

@Barney It’s the only Koontz book I’ve read. Suggestions for any others?

@ruouttaurmind You would probably like Dark Rivers of the Heart. There is a pretty cool dog in it.

I should read that again, too.

@ruouttaurmind The book Odd Thomas was rather interesting. Koontz made it into a series of books with this character. I liked the first book.

Edit: I’ve read so many of his books; I’ve got a whole book shelf (and then some) of them. But I really haven’t followed his later ones. Some of them got really weird. However, there often comes a point when an author seems to start writing just to make more and more money (hand over fist?). Maybe this happened with him. Maybe my reading habits just changed.

@Barney

start writing just to make more and more money

Stephen King‘s mantra. “The only bad literature is literature you didn’t get paid for.”

I’ve seen the Odd Thomas film. It was pretty engaging, and I appreciated the premise. I’ll have to check out the book. Thank you for your recommendations!

@ruouttaurmind Well, if you’ve seen the Odd Thomas film, that kinda ruins the plot of the first book. I don’t think I would want to read it after that, but that’s just me.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@ruouttaurmind Stephen King has described himself as having “diarrhea of the mouth”. He’s right.

@Barney Films are often very different from the book, so maybe it’s an entirely different experience? I could list dozens of titles I’ve read and watched and in nearly every case it’s almost like a different story. Examples include my recent completion Patriot Games as well as the current read Watchers, all the Jackson/JRRT stories, Ready Player One, The Girl With All The Gifts, all the David Wong John Dies stories Silver Linings Playbook…

I’m trying to think of a work of fiction where the (recent era) film was mostly true to the book and I’m coming up empty.

@ruouttaurmind I’m not a big movie goer. Given a choice between reading the book and going to its movie, I will take the book every time. A movie can never compare with my imagination.

There is one movie, just off hand, that did not disappoint me after reading the book, and that was Gone with the Wind. Yeah, I know, it surprised me, too.

Edit: (All Stephen King movies suck and I haven’t seen a Dean Koontz movie I liked either. And yes, I do go to movies when I am properly motivated.)

@Barney In those days I don’t think it occurred to the studio system that they could actually change the story with the reckless abandon studios do now. Films from 50+ years ago stuck to the original story pretty closely. Another example is TKAM. Very close to Harper Lee’s vision.

@ruouttaurmind Yes, I loved that movie, too. Maybe I just live in the wrong time and place.

@Barney I just finished Watchers. It had been so long since I last read it, it was almost like a whole new story. I couldn’t remember how it ended and what ultimately became of Einstein right up until the last chapter.

Great book.

@ruouttaurmind It is a great book. And, yes, I cried about Einstein.

@RiotDemon, I told you I would send you the paperback, but I never got around to it. I will do it, I promise, if you would like to read it.

I think you would really like it.

@Barney no rush. I can’t promise that I’d get around to reading it any time soon, but I would definitely read it.

@Barney I’m trying to not buy impulse stuff. Is the series worth four bucks?

@sammydog01 I haven’t read any of it, but there are LOTS of reviews and they’re pretty good.

@sammydog01 Look at it this way, buy them and you’ll stash them in your Kindle. It’s not like you’re gonna trip over them in your hallway.

@Barney @sammydog01 I checked out the whole series for my Kindle Unlimited free 90 day trial. Y’all remind me on October 16th to cancel my subscription won’t you? Too bad the Audible versions are so expensive.

@sammydog01 @therealjrn Uh, nope.

@Barney @sammydog01 That’s OK Barn, I’ve got Alexa now to remind me.

@sammydog01 @therealjrn Isn’t she kind of busy playing with @mfladd?

@Barney @mfladd @sammydog01 She should be done with him by 8 AM don’t you think? Should I make it 9?

@mfladd @sammydog01 @therealjrn I have no idea what her, um, arrangements are with mfladd and I don’t want to know. Keep me out of it.

@llangley I saw so many commercials for that move while watching Veronica Mars on Hulu, and each one just looked faker and faker. So it’s a real thing and not an elaborate practical joke?

@mossygreen I’m not sure how to answer since the book is fiction? AFAIK it’s a real movie.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@llangley It just felt like a movie parody from an episode of 30 Rock or SNL. Even the cast. Lily Kane from Veronica Mars and what’s-his-face from Heroes? And then the dog narrator? Voiced by Kevin Costner? I mean, if 20 years ago you told me about a movie starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley with a baby narrator voiced by Bruce Willis, I would absolutely have been THAT IS NOT A REAL MOVIE. YOU ARE LYING. So take what I say with a grain of salt, because I would have been wrong.

@mossygreen I did.

@mossygreen @therealjrn Looks like really good reviews.

@Barney @mossygreen @therealjrn I did too.

@Barney @sammydog01 @therealjrn OK fine, I did too!

@Barney @mossygreen @sammydog01 @therealjrn

Did.

@Barney Got it, I have some digital credit to “burn” up. Get it? Didja get it?

@Barney Looks like I got it for free in August 2013.

@sammydog01 One of those memorable forgettable books, huh?

@Barney I didn’t actually read it. Back then I searched free and bought them all. ALL OF THEM!

@Barney I may have to buy a bomb shelter if I actually read these books. But I’ll probably just buy them and forget I did. Keep posting!

Wow, there are a lot of free pornographic cowboy books out there. I guess it’s a thing?

@sammydog01 “Ghost Dick Monster”? I’m in.

@ruouttaurmind

Much thx.

Google books and Chirpbooks also seem to have audiobooks on sale every day. No subscription needed.

@f00l Google has a bunch of free audiobooks right now. Hmm… but I seem to have misplaced the link. Digging around…

@f00l I saw this listed in Amazon Savings & Sales last night and was tempted. The Prime Day deal with the free Dot wasn’t really for me. But $100/yr is more my speed. Thank you for posting!

@Barney Thanks, but I’ve already read The Stand…

Under a buck though, that’s a lot of pages for $1