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| 25 new of 53 responses total. |
beeswing
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response 8 of 53:
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Jun 29 22:49 UTC 1998 |
I was unaware of a books conf, but it makes sense that there would be one on
Grex. My bad!
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gerund
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response 9 of 53:
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Jun 30 02:45 UTC 1998 |
I'm meandering through a couple of Ayn Rand novels... again.
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rcurl
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response 10 of 53:
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Jun 30 04:07 UTC 1998 |
No bad! It's one of the ways the existence of cfs get notice.
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gerund
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response 11 of 53:
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Jun 30 07:56 UTC 1998 |
Oh, btw, those novels would be _We The Living_ and _The Fountainhead_.
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atticus
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response 12 of 53:
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Jun 30 14:34 UTC 1998 |
I have finished "Lucky You" by Carl Hiaasen. It was sort of
disappointing compared to his other novels.
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beeswing
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response 13 of 53:
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Jul 1 04:22 UTC 1998 |
A lot of people seem to be fans of Tama Janowitz. Why? I have not read any of
her books. Which one would be a good starter?
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tpryan
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response 14 of 53:
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Jul 1 22:11 UTC 1998 |
Anybody read up "A Pirate Looks at Fifty" - Jimmy Buffet's new
book? What do you think?
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beeswing
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response 15 of 53:
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Jul 5 04:33 UTC 1998 |
It may be hard to find, as I have heard it is out of print. But, _The Shrine at
Altamira_ by John L'Hereux is pretty cool and an engaging read. Be forewarned,
though: You will learn more about prison life than you will ever care to know
in 2 million years, although that is only a small segment of the story.
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omni
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response 16 of 53:
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Jul 5 05:49 UTC 1998 |
What was the name again?
I found "Cell 2455 Death Row" by Caryl Chessman to be a very enlightening
book about the ins and outs of death penalty law, and pre-Miranda justice.
It also shows the wisdom of acting as your own lawyer, and why Mark Twain was
right when he said "He who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client".
I'm not going to defend Chessman. He was a criminal, but I don't think he
deserved to die. I think that the state should have been satisfied with life
imprisonment with parole. And I think he should have served at least 2/3s of
the sentence.
I don't think the state proved the kidnap case, and I am really certain that
the LAPD framed him as being the "Red Light Bandit". What I think the LAPD
was is lazy and inefficient.
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hematite
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response 17 of 53:
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Jul 6 03:25 UTC 1998 |
Anyone read "The Count de Bragelonne"(or something like that spelling) by
Alexandre Dumas? I'm debating whether or not to read it, I've already read
the musketeer books and can't decide on this one..Help, anyone?
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tsty
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response 18 of 53:
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Jul 6 09:37 UTC 1998 |
highly recommend _where wizards stay up late_ by hafner & lyon.
oh, yes ... *those* wizards!
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void
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response 19 of 53:
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Jul 8 07:40 UTC 1998 |
recently i re-read _switch bitch_ and _my uncle oswald_ by roald
dahl. currently i'm working on rosemary sutcliff's _sword at sunset_.
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bmoran
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response 20 of 53:
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Jul 8 19:17 UTC 1998 |
My Uncle Oswald is on the shelf over my desk. Great story by a great
writer. Yes, the Chocolate Factory author wrote a few 'adult' books as
well.
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void
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response 21 of 53:
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Jul 9 05:16 UTC 1998 |
you'd probably like _switch bitch_ and _kiss kiss_ too, then,
bmoran. last time i was at barnes & noble i spotted a horror anthology
edited by dahl which looked very intriguing.
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tendo
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response 22 of 53:
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Jul 9 18:13 UTC 1998 |
I sujest Wiz Biz. I liked it, you will too.
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davel
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response 23 of 53:
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Jul 10 12:50 UTC 1998 |
I'm currently reading Dick Francis's first novel, _Dead_Cert_, from around
1962. I'd never read anything of his until my mother gave us, for Christmas,
a bunch of miscellaneous mysteries. Most of them were awful, but Dick
Francis's _Longshot_ was among them, & is **very** good indeed. Grace found
this (actually, 3 bound together, but I'm a slow reader these days) at the
library. It also is very good. Apparently his mysteries are all built around
(or set in) the world of horse racing. For me, this is no attraction, the
reverse if anything; but his writing is compelling. Highly recommended.
(This, his first, has a couple of plot elements I'd quibble with, but England
around 1960 is not my own turf, so I may be wrong. However, in general it's
as well written as the other book.)
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senna
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response 24 of 53:
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Jul 10 22:37 UTC 1998 |
I'm rather happy for the fact that Dick Francis has managed to work past one
of the more notable sports gaffs in the annals with a successful writing
career. Granted, it wasn't his fault (Devon Loch, the horse he was riding,
was the culprit) but still.
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scott
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response 25 of 53:
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Jul 11 12:17 UTC 1998 |
I don't normally contribute to this item...but...
"Nimitz Class", by Patrick Robinson. GRabbed it at the library as more summer
book fodder. Very Tom Clancy-esqe, with liberal bashing, military worship,
etc. Reminds me vaguely of WWII era teen propaganda (See the "Dave Dawson"
series sometime for a laugh), just not quite as extreme. I'm halfway through
and I'm hoping for a twist at the end, but it's hard to see how the author
will get himself out of an obvious, already set-up outcome. And mistakes,
despite all the detail and claimed research! "No, couldn't be sabatage, those
nuclear warheads are *very* hard to get to explode since you need to do [xxx]
just the right way (ignoring the fact that the bomb would have to include the
capability to *do* [xxx] in order to be of any use at all as a weapon), and
also you'd have to have a high level pass to get past multiple guards (whoops,
assuming multiple guards can't be compromised or killed)".
I'd give up on this book normally, but it's like rubbernecking at an auto
accident or perhaps like reading "Dondi" every week.
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janc
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response 26 of 53:
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Jul 13 02:52 UTC 1998 |
I've read all of Dick Francis's books - but I'm not really a 100% fan.
Dick Francis is one of the rare writers who who has been able to
maintain consistant quality book after book after book. Though his
writing style is utterly different, he reminds me of P. G. Wodehouse,
who also wrote hundreds of meticulously-crafted, highly-entertaining
books, which are all so nearly identical that they all blur together in
your memory.
All of Dick Francis's books are set in "the world of racing." Each book
has a new hero (I think only one character appears in more than one
book, and then only in two), always somehow connected to horse-racing
but in many different ways. Part of the charm of each books is
exploring the hero's livelihood - Francis obviously loves researching
these things and sometimes goes a bit overboard in trying to fit all of
his research notes into the plot of mystery.
But although the hero always has a new name and a new profession, it's
plainly always the same guy (I don't think Francis has ever done a
female hero). The hero is basically a fairly ordinary fellow, no genius
or superman, dedicated to his profession, a loner, very tough, extremely
honorable, and almost pathologically independent. He almost always gets
beaten to a pulp by the villians (or stomped on by a race horse), but
being a manly man he just wraps his wounds with duct tape and strives on
ahead. (If someone drags the hero to a hospital while unconscious, he
sneaks out as soon as he regains consciousness.) He never goes to the
police for help (or, if he does, the police turn out to be total
dummies, doing more harm than good.) The hero wins by persistance,
intelligence and toughness.
These books are always hard to put down, the plots are twisty. First
rate entertainment.
Except somehow I always feel a bit guilty about enjoying these books,
because it is such a simple-minded formula: basic male
ego-gratification. A world where the tough guy always wins, without
needing any help from such wimp institutions as police forces and
hospitals and courts and laws. It's a value system that seems much more
admirable in fiction than in the real world.
Still, they are much better than most guy-hero books. For example, Dick
Francis never spends a whole page describing the hero's gun. He's much
more likely to spend a whole page describing an artist's painting
technique (paintings of horses), or details of how the textile
manufacture industry works (I can't remember how that tied to horse
racing). Vastly more intelligent stuff.
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davel
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response 27 of 53:
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Jul 13 11:49 UTC 1998 |
All the ones I have read (3 & a fraction, now) are also first person. That
limits things a bit; yet he does it so *beautifully* that they're a joy to
read.
To an extent Jan's description seems right on target. Yet it could give the
entirely wrong impression. For the ones I've read, anyway, the hero is not
(aside from being a jockey or former jockey, a profession given to
self-starvation, painful injuries, etc.) out there looking to be tough. Not
at all. He's in one way or another pushed into the situation, pretty much.
Agreed that it's more admirable in fiction than reality. We can *see* that
these guys' egos aren't the problem (that's a big distinction between the
heros & some of the bad guys), but that's rather more unlikely in real life.
But these are very far from being the one-dimensional tough guys
that a capsule summary might suggest.
What Jan said about the heroes' livelihoods is indeed a big part of the
attraction, for me anyway. The first one I read (_Longshot_) involves a
wannabe novelist. He's till now made his living writing survival manuals,
field-testing them first by having his publishers dump him in the arctic or
on a desert island or whatever with minimal equipment. Having decided that
he's got to write a novel instead, he's currently starving for real. Does
that sound unbelievable? It's told so that it's absolutely solid &
believable. I expect to read anything of Francis's that I can get my hands
on, over time.
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chaganti
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response 28 of 53:
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Jul 13 12:21 UTC 1998 |
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davel
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response 29 of 53:
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Jul 14 15:50 UTC 1998 |
Eh?
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janc
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response 30 of 53:
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Jul 17 16:37 UTC 1998 |
Jan's Guide to Mystery:
I'm really more of a Science Fiction fan than a mystery fan, so I like
really good world-building. Most mystery seems like just yet another
detective and yet another dead body. Basically grim stuff. I want an
expertly guided tour though a new world, with likable characters showing
the way, a plot that is more than a throwaway, and not too much
shear nastiness.
- Dick Francis - I'm not sure if I really like his characters - they seem
a bit inhumane to me, like Ayn Rand characters. Otherwise, high scores
on all points.
- Arthur Upfield - Written in the 1930s through 1950s, these have a half-
aborigine police detective solving mysteries in Austrialia's outback.
The hero operates by completely immersing himself in the community where
the crime occurred and observing in detail, looking for the ripples
that must spread from a murder, building up a case from nothing. A
wonderful character, great plots, and an amazing background.
- Ellis Peters - Brother Caedfal is a 13th century monk in a time of war
and intrigue. A loving recreation of a time I didn't previously know
was interesting. Though the stories might appear to be murder mysteries,
they are usually really love stories in disguise.
- Joan Hess - An apathetic police chief watches over her tiny home town
of Maggody, Arkansas, which is populated by numerous eccentrics. The
plots can be a bit contrived, but the humor makes up for it.
Curiously Joan Hess and Ellis Peters each have other series of books which
I find perfectly tedious. Peters and Upfield are sadly deceased, so there
will be no more from my two favorite authors. Too bad.
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krj
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response 31 of 53:
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Jul 17 17:15 UTC 1998 |
I share some of Jan's interest in world-building mysteries, so
I'll pass along a list of some I have enjoyed.
You may have to dig in the used shops for some of these:
Peter Dickinson: his earliest novels all featured the same detective,
whose name escapes me; a man of decidedly average talents who
stumbles into a series of murder cases in bizarre, closed mini-
societies. THE GLASS SIDED ANT'S NEST is set in a tribe of
aboriginal people who have been uprooted and relocated to a
group of London row houses. SLEEP AND HIS BROTHER is set in an
asylum for children suffering from a strange neurological disorder.
The last in the series, ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, begins with the
detective, confined in a nursing home and suffering from dementia,
deciding to end his life; on the way to implement his decision
he stumbles over a corpse...
Dickinson stopped writing series but continues working in odd
worlds. KING & JOKER is set among the British Monarchy in an
alternate history.
James McClure: novels mostly written in the 1970s and set in South
Africa, pairing a white policeman and a black policeman.
Exceptionally high paranoia content.
William Marshall: best known for a series of police procedurals
written in the 70s and 80s (and some in the 90s) set in colonial
Hong Kong, in the fictitious run-down neighborhood of Yellowthread
Street. Marshall's stock story structure intercuts one pretty grim
mystery with a pair of sillier ones; the sillier stories come to
happy endings and the grim story proceeds to its ending in a
cinematic explosion of violence.
Lindsay Davis: has a series featuring a "private investigator" which
is set in Rome, 70 A.D.
Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo: In a series of ten novels they set out to draw
portraits of contemporary Swedish society. I consider the
"Martin Beck" series to be the most artful mystery series I have read.
These should probably be read in order due to the slow-moving changes
in the detectives' lives which stretch through the series.
If you're looking for cheerfulness, the Martin Beck stories may not
be your cup of hemlock; I love the characters but most of the stories
are grim.
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atticus
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response 32 of 53:
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Jul 17 20:28 UTC 1998 |
(How about Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose"?)
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