Book reading in 2024

[Frayed Knot]

It doesn't appear that we ever started a book thread back in January ... but we'll need one before the year is out so I'm starting one here eight months late.

Just plowed through ERUPTION in about two days, a recent release and the latest in a series of unfinished Michael Crichton manuscripts that have been completed by a chosen author since Crichton’s 2008 death, in this case by crime novelist James Patterson. Not a great book and I was particularly disappointed in the ending (Patterson?) but mostly fun in the way Crichton novels [Jurassic Park, West World, The Andromeda Strain, Congo] marry real, or at least plausibly real, complex science to manufactured drama. Hard to know what/how much was supplied by Patterson but I've never read anything by him so it's tough to know. This one hinges on a predicted eruption of a major eruption on Hawai’i combining with a nearby secret army hazardous waste storage facility that could threaten not just the island but the entire world. Hijinx ensues.

It’ll be a movie within a few years (already been bought by Sony pictures) one that could certainly go either way depending on how it’s handled and which role ‘The Rock’ gets to play because I don't think there's any way of keeping him out of it. I suspect he gets to play the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but that remains to be seen.

[metirish]

That's funny because Patterson is prolific, but has had for years a team of co-authors that churn out his books with him, he might well be one of the biggest selling authors ever. I really liked his early Alex Cross novels.

I'm currently reading City on Fire by Don Winslow , I really like his work , mobsters and cops etc

[Edgy MD]

Recently read through Jane Austen and found the quality highly varied. Northanger Abbey may be second only to P&P.

Also recently read Andy Weir's Artemis which is less distinctive than Weir's other space travel adventures and more in line with the conventions of sci-fi genre lit. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's gonna get him shelved in genre fiction instead of fiction. Reading Billy Bean's memoir as well, and though he speaks early on of a childhood in which writing was a favorite pastime after baseball, it's not really jumping out at me.

[DocTee]

Am reading a book that many here would probably like, gifted to me by a grad school colleague:

Livin' Just to Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock. by David Hamilton Golland

DHG is a professionally trained historian, and did the research to prove it.

[whippoorwill]

I’ve been reading through a series of books by Jo Nesbo.

The main character is Harry Hole, a detective in Norway. He’s a ‘recovering’ alcoholic which I highly identify with so I suffer with him.

The stories are incredibly good and the translation from Norse? Is excellent.

I recommend!

[metirish]

I've read most of the Nesbo books over the years , excellent indeed , bleak

[whippoorwill]

Yes bleak! I’m reading the Snowman for the second time because I read it out of order at first then went back and started at The Bat

[Frayed Knot]

Also recently read Andy Weir's Artemis which is less distinctive than Weir's other space travel adventures and more in line with the conventions of sci-fi genre lit. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's gonna get him shelved in genre fiction instead of fiction.

ARTEMIS was my least favorite of the three Weir books I've read.
Martian > Project Hail Mary > Artemis

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Am reading a book that many here would probably like, gifted to me by a grad school colleague:

Livin' Just to Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock. by David Hamilton Golland

DHG is a professionally trained historian, and did the research to prove it.

Yeah I'd probably read that

[DocTee]

I'll send it to you when I'm done.

[batmagadanleadoff]

On the way from Amazon.com --- a new Marx Bros. book ...



From the Washington Post:

Marx Brothers lore has it that Zeppo was actually the funniest of the bunch. There is at least anecdotal evidence here that the zaniness gene was strong in him. Bader writes of a gin rummy game at a club during which Zeppo drew gin, but rather than call it, he excused himself to make a phone call. At that point, he rang the club, paged his opponent and called “Gin” over the phone.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/20 ... arx-books/

[Fman99]

I don't read a ton of baseball books but I saw this one while visiting a bookstore in Oneonta over Parents' Weekend and bought it. Really good read.

[whippoorwill]

Anybody else read Dennis LeHane? I absolutely loved The Given Day; probably have read it three times. Had two follow up stories that I also read. Much history in them, along with a great family saga. Early 1900's Boston through, I don't know, maybe 1920's-30's Florida ?

Anyway I tried reading his latest, Small Mercies, another Boston story set in 1970s, and it had so much profanity that I couldn't stomach it. I mean it was BAD. I don't usually mind a bit of it but this was gratuitous and continuous.
I grew up in the 1970s and nobody talked like that, (except my friend Billy M) and certainly not moms and teenaged daughters to each other.

[Frayed Knot]

SMALL MERCIES was my first Lehane read so I don't have anything to compare it with of his.
Set in a lower class Boston neighborhood, I felt the language fit the setting/characters and generally enjoyed the book when I read it maybe two years ago.

[Fman99]

Anybody else read Dennis LeHane? I absolutely loved The Given Day; probably have read it three times. Had two follow up stories that I also read. Much history in them, along with a great family saga. Early 1900's Boston through, I don't know, maybe 1920's-30's Florida ?

Anyway I tried reading his latest, Small Mercies, another Boston story set in 1970s, and it had so much profanity that I couldn't stomach it. I mean it was BAD. I don't usually mind a bit of it but this was gratuitous and continuous.
I grew up in the 1970s and nobody talked like that, (except my friend Billy M) and certainly not moms and teenaged daughters to each other.

I liked Shutter Island

[whippoorwill]

I might try that.

I did read Mystic River and liked that too