Speaking of Lee Child...

Speaking of Lee Child...(well, he was mentioned at the October 30 discussion) I have just acquired a copy of "Personal" which is his latest novel, #18 in the Jack Reacher series.  

I know Bill is not a fan (yet), but I have read most of the previous titles in this series.  For anyone else who also reads these thrillers, you may have shared my great disappointment when I learned that Tom Cruise was chosen to play Reacher in the 2012 movie  based on the 2005 novel "One Shot."

I originally felt that Cruise was a bad choice, mainly because of size.  Every book describes Reacher as a big man who is 250 lbs  stands easily 6' 5".  Tom Cruise weighs 170 lbs soaking wet and stands at a mere 5' 7".  It was startling to me when I read that author Child himself had actually approved of the casting on Cruise in the title role.   I guess you could say I was skeptical, but went to see the movie and it would not be a spoiler for me to say that I was wrong.  Cruise sold his role perfectly and made me forget about the height issue completely.  

If you have not read Child yet, I would recommend 2 things:

1) Do NOT read "Never Go Back" the 17th in the series.  It was definitely not "up to snuff" for me.

2) begin with "One Shot."  If you like it,  you will enjoy many of his other installments, prior and post.

I have yet to crack the new one, but will review it when finished.



PS

Just wondering if anyone else is a fan of the thriller genre? 
I find that my reading has been dominated by a few authors,
Michael Connolly
James Lee Burke
Walter Mosley
Daniel Silva
Robert Parker   
  ...to name a few

One of the things these authors have in common is a hero that re-appears in subsequent series.
Why do I prefer these?  So the story doesn't have to end?


Dennis Noonan 

Sunday Afternoon Update

Le Carre Fan

Musical Philosopher

Between the weather and the anticipation of the Patriots' game, it's been a somewhat quiet afternoon in the store today.  While you may be gearing up for Tom versus Peyon XVI, as well, I wanted to make sure you didn't miss a couple of interesting tidbits in the Sunday papers.  First, the Boston Globe Bibliophiles column  interviewed John Cleese about his new memoir, "So Anyway..."  Turns out he's a big John le Carre fan.  Must be his understated English sensibility.  Secondly, Bruce Springsteen is the author of a new picture book called "Outlaw Pete" and is interviewed in the "By the Book" column in the NY Times Book Review where he lays out a most impressive reading syllabus.  He's just finished reading "Moby Dick" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" in parallel.  He riffs on all the major Russian writers as well as Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, and Richard Ford.  I was thinking he would be a great addition to the Book Group when he mentioned Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy" as the book that you might be most surprised to find on his nightstand.  So given the connection, I was thinking maybe Mark could approach him and let him know the next date for the Book Group.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - October 30, 2014

Greatest Living Writer?

John le Carre is 82 years old and still remarkably productive.  He wrote the screenplay adaptation of his book, A Most Wanted Man in Philip Seymour Hoffman's last film.  His most recent book,  A Delicate Truth was one of Wellesley Books' Summer Picks and has sold very well at the store.
  
While these recent articles in The Guardian and the Boston Globe  make the case for le Carre as the greatest writer of his generation, he seems the easy pick for the best spy writer ever.  The only debate seems to be which book is his best.  My favorite, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, is a popular choice.  However, this article in The New Yorker makes the case for A Perfect Spy which I considered for the group but, at 800 pages, deemed impractical.

Thinking of You

Packing priorities

Heading home from a week's worth of rambling on the Pembrokeshire Coast of Wales with a couple of days in London at the end of the trip, I had a chance to swing by a favorite spot,  Cadenhead's Whisky Shop, Scotland's oldest independent bottler.  If you are a fan of single malt, you won't find a more appealing shopfront, with unique single cask bottlings from all your favorite distilleries listed in chalk on big blackboard along with pertinent details.  Though I had to sacrifice some travel clothes and check my bag, I've managed to squirrel away couple of fun bottles for the flight home.  Reason enough to make the next Book Group meeting even if you don't particularly enjoy Tinker, Tailor!

 By the way, while in London, we had the good luck to pick up a couple of returned tickets for the sold out production of Shakespeare's Richard III starring Martin Freeman of Sherlock fame.  The play is set and staged in 1979 Britain (The Winter of Discontent) in a version of Churchill's War Rooms.  Interestingly, the program notes cite the dictatorship of Kim Jong-Il and Le Carre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in the same paragraph as inspirations for the production format.  The relevancy of the Book Group discussions is a gift that never stops giving!

Summer Reading List

Missing the Book Group this Summer?  Here are a few suggestions to help keep you in shape before we meet again on Wednesday, September 10 to discuss The Son by Philipp Meyer.

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy - Ties together our Hemingway/Dog Stars books.
• Blood Meridian  by Cormac McCarthy - His opus.  Would make a great complementary read for The Son.
• The Painter by Peter Heller - Follow up to Dog Stars.  I actually enjoyed this more.
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt - Philosophical musings and comedy from a pair of hired guns in the California Gold Country.  Think Butch Cassidy meets Pulp Fiction.
• Any thing by Charles Portis, one of America's least known, best writers.  You won't go wrong with True Grit (with an excellent intro from Donna Tartt), Norwood, or my personal favorite Gringos.
• Nobody Move by Denis Johnson - The National Book Award winner delivers a really fun and smart Hammett/Chandler style American crime novel.
• Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean - Non-fiction from the author of A River Runs Through It documents the disaster surrounding a group of elite Smokejumpers dropped into a Western wildfire in 1949.

By the way, here's what's on my Summer agenda:

• The Son
• The Road
• The Old Man and the Sea
• Remember Me Like This by Brett Anthony Johnston
• Freaky Deaky by Elmore Leonard
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• Why Does the World Exist?  by Jim Holt
• My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
• Dissident Gardens by Jonathan Lethem

I'm typically a little ambitious and never stay committed to my original plan, but it's a good start.  I'm excited about my choices. While you are here, post a comment below and let us know what you're reading (or planning to read) this Summer.

Wrap Up On Hemingway & The Nick Adams Stories...

Welcome to the inaugural posting for Bill's Book Group (for Guys)!

Loved His Grasshoppers

Slate.com essay on "Big Two-Hearted River" and The Road.

Jennifer Egan on Hemingway and McCarthy

BBGG syllabus of previously read books:

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Cooper's Creek by Alan Moorehead

The New Confessions by William Boyd

A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers

Headlong by Michael Frayn

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway

The Son by Phillipp Meyer

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre 

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

All That Is by James Salter 

Consider the Lobster  by David Foster Wallace

A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr

Lucky Jim  by Kingsley Amis

Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel