IGX

powerlifter54 wrote: Think Randy Wayne White is at least the equal of Burke.

Lots of choices - where to start?

The Ginger Beard Man wrote:Hemingway:
The Sun Also Rises, Old man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, and a bunch of short stories. "A Clean, Well- Lighted Place" is the greatest short story ever written and I have read it more times than I count. .

+1 for "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place", but I think his best was "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber".

I forgot probably my favorites:

Both series by Robert Holdstock

Mythago Wood

Merlin Codex

johno wrote:

powerlifter54 wrote: Think Randy Wayne White is at least the equal of Burke.

Lots of choices - where to start?

Read John D MacDonld's Travis Lee series. Older detective fiction is a lot more Dash Hammet and Raymond Chandler type prototypes like Same Spade and Philip Marlowe. Good stuff but a different era. MacDonald is the transitional author. Spenser is a derivative of Sapde and Marlowe. McGee is the basis of the Doc Ford and Jack Reacher characters, just different directions. Dave Robicheaux is a bit of it all, with some AA and Vietnam Vet issues thrown in.

powerlifter54 wrote:McGee is the basis of the Doc Ford and Jack Reacher characters, just different directions.

McGee is 100% part of the basis for Jack Reacher. McGee is a much more interesting narrator than Reacher, and least thru the first three Reacher books; but MacDonald had already written a zillion books before he tackled McGee, so that's not really a fair comparison.

MacDonald's other books are generally very good. I've probably read about 20 or so of these. He wrote a couple science fiction books in the 50's, which are not bad. He wrote The Girl The Gold Watch And Everything, which shocked me when I discovered it. A very interesting career.

powerlifter54 wrote:

johno wrote:

powerlifter54 wrote: Think Randy Wayne White is at least the equal of Burke.

Lots of choices - where to start?

Read John D MacDonld's Travis Lee series. Older detective fiction is a lot more Dash Hammet and Raymond Chandler type prototypes like Same Spade and Philip Marlowe. Good stuff but a different era. MacDonald is the transitional author. Spenser is a derivative of Sapde and Marlowe. McGee is the basis of the Doc Ford and Jack Reacher characters, just different directions. Dave Robicheaux is a bit of it all, with some AA and Vietnam Vet issues thrown in.

Thanks. Where would you start on RW White? I notice he has several series that feature differing characters.

Since we're discussing mysteries, Ross MacDonald's Archer series is as good as it gets. He's one of the few mystery writers who got better as he got older. The Galton Case and The Underground Man are both good places to start.

johno wrote:

powerlifter54 wrote:

johno wrote:

powerlifter54 wrote: Think Randy Wayne White is at least the equal of Burke.

Lots of choices - where to start?

Read John D MacDonld's Travis Lee series. Older detective fiction is a lot more Dash Hammet and Raymond Chandler type prototypes like Same Spade and Philip Marlowe. Good stuff but a different era. MacDonald is the transitional author. Spenser is a derivative of Sapde and Marlowe. McGee is the basis of the Doc Ford and Jack Reacher characters, just different directions. Dave Robicheaux is a bit of it all, with some AA and Vietnam Vet issues thrown in.

Thanks. Where would you start on RW White? I notice he has several series that feature differing characters.

Doc Ford. Sanibel Flats.

Thanks, Jack.

PS - The Mangrove Coast will have to be my starting point because Kindle doesn't have the first five books of the Doc Ford series.

VOLOKOLAMSK HIGHWAY
by
Aleksandr Bek
(1944)

here short description http://www.sovlit.net/volokolamsk/
i remember how this book shoked me when i read it first time. i was a schoolboy at the time.

...
"Black arrow" by R.L.Stiwenson
"Dune" of course
"Quest for fire"

Bzhov' Ural's tales...

these are those wich comes to memory first :)

Don't know about his best but it certainly is good and probably his most accessible, even Oprah liked it. Blood Meridian is the the one that continues to eat away at me. And I don't know much about edgy. That book is a force of nature that breathes death down the reader's neck. Living in the Southwest for a while and reading that book brought home how even the most mediocre of men then and there must have been like a different species to what we are now. If you are talking McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses is accessible, a good read and won't leave you feeling like you just ate your dog in the middle of the Sonoran desert like Blood Meridian will.

If you are actually McCarthy fan, and have read Blood Meridian, this is a valid opinion. So is benny's comparing it to Faulkner. I used to listen to people in college drone on about how Blood Meridian was their favorite novel, then you would ask them if Judge Holden was the devil, and they'd look at you like you had nine heads.

Tonka, Holdstock is the shit. Especially if you have any interest in myths or Jung.

johno wrote:Thanks, Jack.

PS - The Mangrove Coast will have to be my starting point because Kindle doesn't have the first five books of the Doc Ford series.

All good.

Blood Meridian is the only McCarthy book I've read more than once. I love that book.

Starship Trooper
Dune
Enders Game
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Infected

tonkadtx wrote:

Don't know about his best but it certainly is good and probably his most accessible, even Oprah liked it. Blood Meridian is the the one that continues to eat away at me. And I don't know much about edgy. That book is a force of nature that breathes death down the reader's neck. Living in the Southwest for a while and reading that book brought home how even the most mediocre of men then and there must have been like a different species to what we are now. If you are talking McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses is accessible, a good read and won't leave you feeling like you just ate your dog in the middle of the Sonoran desert like Blood Meridian will.

If you are actually McCarthy fan, and have read Blood Meridian, this is a valid opinion. So is benny's comparing it to Faulkner. I used to listen to people in college drone on about how Blood Meridian was their favorite novel, then you would ask them if Judge Holden was the devil, and they'd look at you like you had nine heads.

Intelligence is hard to come by in college.

I would say God.

God plays
rough.

And the Joseph Wambaugh "Hollywood" series: Hollywood Station, Hollywood Crows, Hollywood Moon, and Hollywood Hills. Read them in the order they were written.

Wambaugh has a great ear for Cop Talk, and a way of turning the macabre & tragic into bittersweet wisdom.

I don't read books.

buckethead wrote:Goodnight moon

Lulz... read this one a hundred or so times myself. Along with "Little Blue Truck" and "Big Red Barn". My current nightmare is some $3 book off Amazon called "First 100 Words"... it is fuckin terrible. The words chosen aren't easily described by a picture for about half of it, there are repeated words, etc. etc. Kid loves it for some reason. I've read those 100 words 3-4 times in a row several times.

I really like Michael Connelly's stuff, both Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer. Probably read most of the Bosch series and the Amazon series is pretty good too. I also like Dennis Lehane and try to read all his new releases. He went to my high school as well so that's always kind of been a little draw. I started reading James Ellroy's LA Quartet a while ago but still haven't gotten through them. Not a ton of time to read w/ an infant in the house. I really liked the first one and LA Confidential.

I have never, probably will never, read a fictional book more than one time.

Bedlam 0-0-0 wrote:

tonkadtx wrote:

Don't know about his best but it certainly is good and probably his most accessible, even Oprah liked it. Blood Meridian is the the one that continues to eat away at me. And I don't know much about edgy. That book is a force of nature that breathes death down the reader's neck. Living in the Southwest for a while and reading that book brought home how even the most mediocre of men then and there must have been like a different species to what we are now. If you are talking McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses is accessible, a good read and won't leave you feeling like you just ate your dog in the middle of the Sonoran desert like Blood Meridian will.

If you are actually McCarthy fan, and have read Blood Meridian, this is a valid opinion. So is benny's comparing it to Faulkner. I used to listen to people in college drone on about how Blood Meridian was their favorite novel, then you would ask them if Judge Holden was the devil, and they'd look at you like you had nine heads.

Intelligence is hard to come by in college.

I would say God.

God plays
rough.

I don't analyze what I read. I read, enjoy, and go on. But your idea of the Judge as Old Testament GAWD is a great concept. Now I need to read it again.

I don't analyze what I read. I read, enjoy, and go on. But your idea of the Judge as Old Testament GAWD is a great concept. Now I need to read it again.

This going to sound funny with all the spelling mistakes I make, and because I'm back in school for Bio/PA, but I started out as an English Teacher many moons ago. Over-analyzing plot and story structure is my raison d'etre. ;-)