What’cha Reading?

[bounty]

i look forward to hearing how it goes. if it helps you to visualize the characters, in the movie, Lincoln rhyme is played by denzel Washington and amelia sachs is played my Angelina jolie.

meanwhile, I was surprised to find out that about half my I am legend book was actually short stories, so the story itself is pretty short. and there have been three movie versions of the book.

I hopped into a western that im really enjoying, reckoning at rimbow by Norman fox.

[Sancho]

Just now starting The Bone Collector, by Jeffrey Deaver.

The book I just finished, Twilight Territory, is a stand-out novel. It takes place over about a ten-year period of Vietnam’s history from the early 40s to the early 50s and it’s told mainly from the perspective of a young Vietnamese woman, Tuyet. It’s probably the first time I ever got a sense for the oppression endured by a colonized people. During the time of the novel, the Vietnamese are ruled by the French then occupied by the Japanese army then sort of recolonized by the French and at times brutalized by the resistance, the Vietminh. All the while the huge juggernaut of China is waiting on the doorstep. The book is poetic at times, spiritual at times, and brutally direct at other times. The story ends with an introspective moment for Tuyet and I can’t help but to be hopeful for her, but I know what is coming. At any rate, it’s a good book and I can recommend it without reservation.

[bounty]

i'll keep my eyes peeled for twilight territory. sometimes I find one of the nifty things about life is it that something gets mentioned, and then in the not too distant future, the thing appears.

I flew through reckoning at rimbow and thoroughly enjoyed it. unfortunately its the only book I have by that author.

right after that I started voyage to the bottom of the sea by theodore sturgeon. I love the story, but I really dislike the telling and wouldn't recommend the book at all! ive been skipping all sorts of sections and im looking forward to it being over.

I hope you'll love deaver and I look forward to hearing...

[Sancho]

Oh yeah, Deaver’s book is going swimmingly so far. I’m 3 or 4 chapters in and already I’ve learned a few things about the tribulations a quadriplegic endures day in and day out. It’s smoothly written and fun to read. Also … I wanna know what’s going to happen next. (And then…)


I highlighted this metafictional moment. Lincoln Rhyme and Thom, his assistant, are bantering with police detective, Sellitto about whether or not Rhyme reads newspapers:

“I only read literature now,” Rhyme said pompously, and falsely.

Thom added, “*‘Literature is news that stays news.’*”

Rhyme ignored him.

More to come I’m sure on how these three men interact with each other.

[bounty]

am glad to hear.

i had forgotten about thom---he's an important and enjoyable character in the stories.

this is the first book of 16 where Lincoln and amelia sachs exist---on the topic of "whats going to happen next" from a macro perspective, its interesting to see how their relationship grows.

[Sancho]

Currently reading The Hunter, by Tana French.

I’ve read all her books, starting with In The Woods. Most of them are detective novels set in Dublin, but in the last couple she’s moved to rural, western Ireland. I’m so tuned into her style by now that when I sat down and started reading this one, it was like sitting down with a friend I haven’t seen in a while and sliding right back into an old conversation.

Here’s a sample of her writing. She’s describing Cal’s (one of the main characters) dog:

He’s half beagle, with a beagle’s sweet face and a beagle’s haphazard patches of black and tan and white, but Cal hasn’t worked out the other half. He suspects wolverine.

I once had a dog like that.

[bounty]

heyyyyyyy, whats the thumbs up or down on Lincoln rhyme?

on the topic of "dog description" have you seen this fellow on YouTube?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bPq_Q...?feature=share

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ul0Xt...?feature=share

a lot of his clips are of how different breeds react to various life situations (beagles are often in the mix) he makes me laugh out loud.

[Sancho]

I enjoyed The Bone Collector. Thanks for the rec. I particularly liked the science-y stuff. The twist/hook at the end seemed highly improbable, but I’ll have to read the next one to see if starts to make sense or if if was just a wild coincidence. Maybe that’s the point — get Sancho to read the next one, and then another, and another, and so forth and so on. Anyway I’m sure Deaver will continue to develop his characters — Rhyme, Sachs, Thom, Sellito, Banks, and even Dellray. I was happy none of them fell into clichéd stereotypes. Dellray was heading that way, (an all dick-balls-and-no-forehead federal agent) but he managed to become a real dude after they switched the case back to the NYPD. Yay!

At any rate I’ll probably read the next one, but not right away. Gonna take my time with the Tana French book because I enjoy her style so much. After The Hunter I’m thinking a sci-fi novel. Maybe Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Donno.

BTW good video clips. Film and literature is full of anthropomorphism, but not a lot of animalmorphism(?) zoomorphism(?), donno. People going the other way, werewolves and such, I suppose.

[bounty]

its been so long since ive read the book and seen the movie I don't remember the ending, but im glad deaver turned out successfully and that maybe you'll return to him someday.

meanwhile, the dog loving guy continues to make me laugh out loud.

[Sancho]

***SPOILER ALERT***

The psycho killer, the bone collector, I more-or-less figured out. He was playing the cops with a specific target in mind — Rhyme. In a parallel story, there's actionable intel that someone is planning a terrorist attack at the big hoopla they're having at the United Nations building that week, and that someone will be coming in to Kennedy airport. Hence the plussed-up FBI presence in town. Well, one of the bone collector's victims, who is rescued by Rhyme's team, turns out to be the terrorist. Hmmm. Uh-huh. It's the hook for the next book.

Speaking of dogs, and how they work on our emotions, and how we humans probably don't deserve their good-natured affection, there is such a dog in my preset read - The Hunter. The dog's name is Banjo (good name) and he is the companion of the young girl, Trey. At one point the chief villain backhands Trey and stomps on Banjo's paw causing injury to both. Ooo, burn, payback is a B. And I'm going to enjoy it when it comes around. Don't deny me that, Ms French.

[bounty]

my deaver reading, as much as I like him, has been so far between that I cant remember how much the books are tied together.

ive seen some YouTube shorts where this particular dog guy (and some others too) decry or even punish screen writers for having dogs die.

there was one god/angel one where john wick is about to be sent to hell but when it comes out that all his killings were motivated by revenge for the bag guys killing his puppy, he's forgiven.

one guy gets in such a huff that he immediately leaves the house, goes to an airport, buys a ticket, flies to where the writer is, confronts him and whaps him.

[Sancho]

Ya know, I think that’s a valid defense for murder in some states:

Judge — Why’d you do it?
Defendant — He killed my dog, your honor.
Judge — You’re free to go, sir.

I’m aware that there are people who don’t much care for dogs, but I don’t socialize those folks. They’re missing something deep down in their psyche, some sort of genetic defect, maybe a recessive gene, something, and I prefer to keep my distance from them. I can’t imagine living without dogs.

There is of course a downside. One of our pups is a year-old Springer named Ruby. We recently switched her food and now Ruby has some sort of gastrointestinal brouhaha rumbling around in there. She can clear the room. There ain’t nothing in the world that can move at the speed of fart stink. Persistence too. The other day we walked back into a recently vacated room and my señora did a quick sniff check — “Oh damn, that one had some hang-time!”

^ Could’a posted that on the sports or the metaphor thread.

[bounty]

one of the ones in question: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dtVau...?feature=share

poor ruby!

[Sancho]

Hey, I read Marley and Me a while back. Enjoyed it. At the time we had a dog named Molly, so for me the book was Molly and Me.

Gotta say, I totally enjoyed The Hunter. It’s a who-done-it, but it’s so much more. One of the running gags in this book and the last in the series concerns rooks. We don’t really have rooks in North America, but they’re crow-like birds and highly intelligent. Cal, a retired Chicago police detective, has moved to a small Irish town and into a place that already has a vibrant population of rooks about it. He begrudgingly tries to get along with the birds rather than trying to eradicate them. (Wise move, Cal) At any rate the rooks act as a sort of peanut gallery to the action at Cal’s house.

In this chapter Cal and Lena (his lady friend) are having a light lunch on Cal’s back porch, and discussing whether or not to get involved in a recent development in town:

“Not much else I can do, right now,” Cal says. He pulls a chunk of crust off his sandwich, avoiding the mustard, and throws it to the rooks. Two of them get into a tug-of-war over it. “If something does come up, I want to be there to catch it.”

The heavy discussion goes on. Meanwhile:

The two rooks are still fighting over Cal’s sandwich crust. A third one sneaks up on them, gets within a couple of feet, and lets loose an explosion of barking. The first two shoot into the air, and the third one grabs the chunk of crust and heads for the hills. Lena and Cal both burst out laughing.

Later in the novel, a Dublin detective and a local uniformed policeman show up at Cal’s house as part of a murder investigation:

The uniform is sitting up very straight in the driver’s seat with his hands ready on the wheel, resolutely ignoring the rooks, who, delighted to have a fresh target, are jeering down at him and dropping acorns on the car.

The questioning goes on for a while between Cal and Nealon (the detective). All the while the policeman stays in the car:

Nealon watches the rooks, who have worked their way up to jumping up and down on the roof of his car. Cal finds himself kind of flattered: the rooks may give him sh*t, but they won’t permit anyone else to take liberties. The uniform bangs on the roof, and they scatter.

Finally, right before they depart, the rooks have gotten bolder and in a rook sort of way, one of them bids the cops adieu:

One of the rooks lands on the hood, looks the uniform in the eye, and takes a sh*t.

Later in book when Nealon returns to Cal’s house, he parks his car down the road. (Smart guy)
The score: Rooks - 1, Po-Po - zip.

Currently reading:

The Moor’s Account, by Laila Lalami

[Danik 2016]

Love these animal stories stories! Never read the book, but saw the movie Marley and Me years ago.Cute story but with a sad end,