Reading anything?

[Alex]

One of Peter Haining's anthologies of short horror stories (Dead of Night).

[ER]

A collection of Christina Rossetti's poems.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
6 of 1

Mike Chase
American
How to Become a Federal Criminal :
an Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring Offender
1st book


Elly Griffiths
Brit
award winner
The Stone Circle
11th in the Ruth Galloway series
+4 more in 1 more fiction series + 1 stand alone
Heroine: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: Present


Joe R. Lansdale
American
award winner
The Elephant of Surprise
12th in the Hap and Leonard series
+15 stand alones + 3 short story collections
Heroes: Caucasian and Afro-American
Place: Texas
Time: Present
If you'd rather see it, then read it, there is the TV series Hap and Leonard


Deep Waters :
Murders on the Waves
edited by Martin Edwards
from the intro " . . . sixteen crime stories which are connected one way or the other, with water"
stories published between 1893 and 1975
part of the British Library Crime Classics series


James Runcie
Brit
award winner
The Road to Grantchester
prequel to the the Grantchester Mysteries
10 more fiction
Hero: Brit
Place: Italy and the U.K.
Time: 1938-1951
If you'd rather see it, then read it, there is the TV show Grantchester


Martin Walker
ex-pat Brit
The Body in the Castle Well
13th in the Bruno, Chief of Police series
9 more non-fiction
Hero: French
Place: France
Time: Present


Simon Brett
Brit
award winner
The Killer in the Choir
8th in the Fethering Mystery series
12 more fiction in 2 more series
Heroines: Brits
Place: U.K.
Time: Present

Next time: and a half dozen more

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
and a half dozen more.

Ripley's Believe It or Not :
Beyond the Bizarre!
the 1st Believe It or Not cartoon was published in 1918, and they have been published almost consistently since then.


Chris Nickson
Brit
The Leaden Heart
7th in the Inspector Tom Harper series
7 more fiction in 2 more series
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1890s


S. D. Sykes
Brit
The Bonefire
4th in the Somershill Manor series
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1360s


graphic novel
Ms. Marvel :
Destined
w/ a cameo appearance by Tony (Ironman) Stark
v.1. in a series. v.2. to be published 04/20/20


E. C. R. Lorac
(i.e. Edith Caroline Rivett)
 Brit
Murder by Matchlight
+ a short story by the authoress
intro by Martin Edwards
1st published in 1945
short story published in 1953
both re-published in 2019
Heroes: Brits
Place: U.K.
Time: '40's and '50's


Ann Cleeves
Brit
award winner
The Long Call
1st in the Two Rivers series
16 more fiction in 2 more series
Hero: Brit
Place: Devonshire (U.K.)
Time: Present


Next time: a special report

[pennywise37]

a pretty good book so far about Humphrey Bogart i've had this book for years and honestly i forget where the hell i even got it at all. i'm to lazy right now to look up the author he he, anyways it came out in (1997) and i'm only like 35 pages into it. on where i am into it that i can tell you around 1924 i think back when he was still doing plays. funny enough one thing i did love is when he did his first play he as awful i mean beyond awful and for awhile he was too actually but he was believe it or not a stage manager and  it hard to imagine that he was at all a bad actor ya know?

anyways, through time and patience and watching other actors/actress perform  he slowly became better. but he hasn't even at this moment even went to hollywood. apparently one early job of his in 1920 was a film called "Life' that is now lost where he took a stab at directing it and apparently he was so bad at it he was fired and replaced. funny how no place at all credits him with this film and since the film is now lost apparently one wonders if he was credited at all?

[FatFreddysCat]

Just started:

Face It by Debbie Harry (Blondie)

[pennywise37]

i forgot that was out but the only story that i know of is when she went hitch hiking i think it was the late 70's. i'm not gonna spoil it for you but once you read it you will go HOLY Sh*t! 

[ER]

I'm (re-)re-reading Of Human Bondage. When I first read this novel I was so impressed I thought I'd have a lifelong relationship with Somerset Maugham's writings but so far I haven't found anything else he produced in his long career that moves me like this novel does, though I haven't read The Painted Veil.

Of Human Bondage is one of those novels that makes me feel immersed in another person's lifetime as few other plots have except maybe Helen Hooven Santmyer's ....And Ladies of the Club, which is a much longer work. (ALOTC is so long it makes War and Peace feel like a novella.)

I have had time for a lot of reading lately, and I'm taking advantage of that.

[ER]

While I'm thinking of it, ever read A Canticle for Leibowitz, RC? It's a different sort of sci-fi book and you might like it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

[BoyScoutKevin]

A special report

He does not know when the 1st one was published, but, as of 2014, there were 163 books in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Again, he does not know when the 1st one was published, but, as of 2019, there were 20 books in the Star Wars Canon Universe.
Thus, here are 8 reasons why he prefers the Canon o'er the Expanded.

1. More villain stories with better villains.
2. Fewer typical stories.
3. More interesting stories.
4. Fewer Solo and Skywalker stories.
5. More child characters. (IHHO) the children in the stories being more interesting than the adults. For example: Kanan. More interesting as a teen than as an adult.
6. Emotionally more realistic.
7. Star Wars: the western. Not Star Wars: the horror.
8. And most importantly, quality o'er quantity.

Next time: 6 of 1

[indianasmith]

THE FORGOTTTEN CONSERVATIVE: REDISCOVERING GROVER CLEVELAND by John M. Pafford

   Cleveland is my favorite President of the Gilded Age; a man of rocklike personal honor and integrity who stuck out like a sore thumb during the most corrupt era in American history; a lifelong bachelor who married a 21 year old WHILE he was President, at age 47; and the man who permanently screwed up our count of Presidents by serving two non-consecutive terms, making him the 22nd and 24th President (meaning we have only had 44 Presidents, even though Trump is #45!).  The author is a rock-ribbed conservative of the libertarian stripe, as evinced by his snide comments about later Presidents, but this makes him predictably sympathetic to Cleveland, who was an extremely strict constructionist even by 19th century standards.  There is also an appendix to the book, an essay written by Cleveland himself several years after leaving office, on "The Independence of the Executive."  All in all, a quick and enjoyable read.

Since I have three more Presidential biographies in my queue at the moment, I decided to read a novel in between.  So I reached into one of the sacks of paperbacks my sister periodically sends our way and chose THE LINCOLN MYTH by Steve Berry, a novel in his popular Magellan Billet series.  A Mormon Senator is masterminding a sinister cabal aimed at uncovering a secret document that dates back to America's founding which would shatter the popular historical view of secession and the Civil War.  As a thriller, it was quite entertaining; its take on history was deeply flawed, completely minimizing the role of slavery in causing the war and ignoring a number of public statements by Lincoln himself as well as earlier takes on secession by leaders like Andrew Jackson. However, as long as one doesn't rely on it for accurate history lessons, the book was quite entertaining.  If I meet Mister Berry, I need to set him straight on the Civil War, though!

[Rev. Powell]

Added to the bathroom: PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA (the original "fake religion")

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

David Rose
Brit
They Call me Naughty Lola : Personal Ads from the London Review of Books
edited, and with an introduction, by David Rose
1st book
165 p. 84 LOLs! Yours may differ. The LOLs! Not the p.


Lindsay David
Brit
A Capital Death
7th in the Flavia Albia series
20 more fiction in 1 more series + 8 more stand alones of both fiction and non-fiction
Heroine: Romanized Brit
Place: Italy
Time: AD 89


Ace Atkins
American
The Shameless
9th in the Quinn Colson series
11 more fiction in 2 more series + 4 non-fiction
Hero: American
Place: Mississippi
Time: Present


Matthew Manning
with additional text by Tom DeFalco
Marvel Spider-man : Inside the World of Your Friendly Neighborhood Hero
updated edition


Alexander Freed
American
Star Wars : Alphabet Squadron
+ an excerpt from the graphic novel Star Wars : the Fighter


Jane A. Adams
Brit
The Clockmaker
4th in the Henry Johnston series
17 more fiction in 2 more series
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1920s


Candace Robb
ex-pat Brit
A Conspiracy of Wolves
11th in the Owen Archer series
6 more fiction in 2 more series
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1370s


Next time: and a half dozen of the other

[ER]

The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson. I've found this author to be a completely unpleasant man in real life but he does write good books.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
And a half dozen of the other.


Freeman Wills Croft
Brit
Inspector French and the Sea Mystery
1st published 1928
Republished 2017
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1920s


E. C. R. Lorac
(i.e. Edith Caroline Rivett)
Brit
Murder in the Mill-race :
a Devon Mystrery
with an intro by Martin Edwards
part of the Britisdh Library Crime Classics series
1st published in the 1952
Republished 2019
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1950s


Charles Todd
American
(mother and son writing team)
A Cruel Deception
11th in the Bess Crawford series
22 more fiction in 1 more series + 2 stand alones
Heroine: Brit
Place: France and the U.K.
Time: 1910s


Chris Nickson
Brit
The Hocus Girl
2nd in the Simon Westrow series
13 more fiction in 2 more series
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1820s


Barbara Hambly
American
Lady of Perdition
9th in the Benjamin January series
6 more fiction in 1 more series
Hero: Afro-American
Place: Texas and Louisiana
Time: 1840s


Agatha Christie
edited and intro by Tony Medawar
Murder, She Said :
the Quotable Miss Marple
a sequel to Little Grey Cells : the Quotable Poirot
quotes from a dozen novels published between 1930 and 1970, the last written in the '40s, but published after the writer's death and a score of short stories published between 1927 and 1956.
If you'd rather see it, then read it. Many of the novels and short stories have been made into films and TV shows.


Next time: a special report