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The Max by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr (52 Books, 36 Down, 16 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on November 18, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

When I started reading The Max I didn’t realize that it was the concluding volume in a trilogy. It turns out it’s not a big deal. It can be read separately, without any knowledge of the prior volumes. In The Max we follow Max Fisher as he goes off to jail, and his former lover Angela Petrakos on her journey from Greece back to the United States to weasel some money out of Max. What follows is a wildly irreverent ride, the type I would expect from a book imprint called Hard Case Crime. Ken Bruen and Jason Starr have composed a very funny and surprisingly meta story. I don’t think I have ever read a mystery that is nearly so self-reflexive to the genre as The Max is. Highly recommended.

New David Mitchell Novel Due In June 2010

Published
by
Chris
on November 11, 2009
in Books
. 0 Comments

At long last, Amazon has a listing for the new David Mitchell novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet:. I seems like every other Mitchell book (Ghostwritten
, Cloud Atlas) blows me away, so I’m due.

Exit Music by Ian Rankin (52 Books, 35 Down, 17 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on November 1, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

Exit Music is Ian Rankin’s seventeenth, and likely final, Inspector Rebus book. After having dipped in and out of Rebus (mostly in) for the past year, the sense of loss that I feel knowing there will likely be no more Rebus books is negated by the way Rankin chose to end the series. Rankin is a true master who transcends the mystery genre and Exit Music may be his finest moment. Rankin sticks to his usual m.o. of tying the story into current events, as Russian oligarchs looking to invest in Scotland may be tied into the murder of a Russian poet. It’s a somewhat slimmer book than Rankin’s previous few, mainly due to the streamlined storyline (there aren’t several story threads being woven together this time around). Simply put, a novelist at the height of his powers.

Grave Descend by John Lange (52 Books, 34 Down, 18 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on November 1, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 3 Comments

More from the Hard Case Crime series….Grave Descend is an older novel that Hard Case had unearthed and republished. It was nominated for an Edgar award back in 1971, which surprises me. While these Hard Case Crime books are fun, they really aren’t to the level of something that is nominated for an Edgar. It wasn’t until I had finished the book that I found out the John Lange is a pseudonym for Michael Crichton and that this was published two years before he published a novel under hos own name. Apparently Cricihton did a revision of ths text before his death. I’ve read a few Crichton books in the past and, well, let’s just say I am not looking to read anything of his these days. That said, these Hard Crime books are a fun way to pass an afternoon.

The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins (52 Books, 33 Down, 19 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on November 1, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

I picked up a huge stack og these Hard Case Crime books early this year for two reasons. One, I wanted to start reading some pulp. The second is that I couldn’t resist the covers. Max Allan Collins The Last Quarry is the first of them that I have read and I am pleasantly surprised. These aren’t great works of art or anything, but are a fun way to spend a few hours. I had no knowledge of Collins’ Quarry series before starting this, and, as the title implies, this is to be the last Quarry book. Basically, the professional hitman Quarry comes out of retirement for one last hit.
The Last Quarry has obviously been a hit for Collins and Hard Case because he has since written The First Quarry and Quarry In The Middle, both of which I’ll be keeping my eye out for.

The Naming Of The Dead by Ian Rankin (52 Books, 32 Down, 20 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on November 1, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

The Naming of the Dead is the sixteenth in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series. Like many of Rankin’s other Rebus novels, this one centers on contemporary events, namely the G8 summit just outside of Edinburgh. Like his last few novels, this one is quite a tome, weighing in at nearly 600 pages. Despite the length, it doesn’t have the bloated feeling that the last couple of books had. Rankin is actually quite spot on, balancing events at the summit with that of a serial killer who is killing former sexual offenders.

It’s not much of a surprise that Rankin isn’t a more popular writer in the United States than he is. He is definitely too cerebral for most American sensibilities. Works like this transcend mere genre fiction and are truly works of art. Just one more Rebus to go…

Watching Baseball: Discovering The Game Within The Game by Jerry Remy (52 Books,31 Down, 21 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 29, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

Jerry Remy’s Watching Baseball was a summer long project for me. I am a baseball fanatic and it probably shows in my reading output for the year thus far. I recorded and watched every game played by the local team, the Texas Rangers, as well as the nationally broadcast games of the team I grew up following, the Boston Red Sox. All in all, I estimate I watched about 190 games this past baseball season….so much so that I am a little burnt out and am a bit ambivalent about the World Series. I’ve been watching baseball now since I was a kid, played it in high school (.613 average one year…ok it was against small towns but still…) but still don’t have a full grasp of all the little strategies. Remy’s book has helped fill in a lot of the gaps, especially when it comes to the National League, which I almost never watch. I would highly recommend this book to both baseball newbies and seasoned veterans. Both will gain some knowledge. Pick up the most recent edition though…I’ve been reading an earlier edition and many of the players that Remy discusses aren’t even in the game anymore. Here’s to listening to Alex Rodriguez’s muppet voice in the World Series postgame shows.

Preacher

Published
by
Matthew
on October 26, 2009
in Books and Comics
. 0 Comments

I pretty much checked out of the comic book scene in the early 90’s. This owes as much to Rob Leifeld’s inexplicable success during that decade and the absurd glut of mutant “X” titles as it does to my adolescent discovery of “real” literature.

This is too bad for me, because I missed out on some great stuff back then. I’ve started to play catch up thanks to collected trade paperbacks, most recently Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s brilliant Preacher series.

To briefly summarize the plot, a celestial accident occurs in Heaven, which wipes out small town Texas preacher Jesse Custer’s entire parish and grants him some serious powers thanks to an immature, yet supremely powerful, being called Genesis which inhabits him and grants him the Word, i.e. a power that allows him to make anyone do anything he says whenever he feels like it.

With his newfound power, his gal Tulip, and an Irish vampire named Cassidy, Jesse decides to track down God, who has checked out of the day-to-day oversight of His creation, get face to face with him, and hold him accountable for all the evils of the world.

What ensues is terrific drama, action, violence, gore, hilarity, and a cast of characters that includes God, the Devil, inbred hillbillies, the ultimate badass Saint of Killers, a pathetic Kurt Cobain wannabe who goes by the name “Arseface”, and John fucking Wayne.

I can’t recommend this book enough.

Incidentally, while reading it I thought to myself “what an amazing cable series this would make”. Sure enough, it was in development for HBO a few years ago, but was ultimately scrapped. Too bad, because the Arseface makeup tests are tremendous:

Fleshmarket Alley by Ian Rankin (52 Books, 30 Down, 22 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 23, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

Fleshmarket Alley, also known as Fleshmarket Close in the U.K. edition, is the fifteenth in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series. It’s another fine addition to the Rebus canon, but, like the previous volume, is over 550 pages and suffers a bit from bloat. There are no less than four storylines, intricately entwined. Much of the book has to do with Scotland and it’s treatment of immigrants. Rebus’ protege, Siobhan Clarke, continues to have a prominent presence as Rebus nears retirement. His nemesis, Morris Cafferty is also taking up more of a presence, leading one to think that, with two books left, the final showdown is going to be a big one.

A Good Hanging by Ian Rankin (52 Books, 29 Down, 23 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 14, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

A Good Hanging is not strictly part of Ian Rankin’s Rebus series. Rather it is a collection of short stories involving Rebus that take place in the universe of the first several Rebus novels. In the introduction, Rankin claims he was a short story writer first. Thankfully for us, he is now primarily a novelist. This collection is absolutely inessential for Rebus fans. Most seem like ideas for novels that didn’t quite work out. The only story of any interest is “Sunday,” in which we see Rebus at home the morning after he has killed someone in self defense. I read this to delay the swiftly approaching end of Rebus, but the experience was less than satisfying.

A Question Of Blood by Ian Rankin (52 Books, 28 Down, 24 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 14, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

A Question of Blood is the fourteenth in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series. Rankin’s plots often mirror issues in society and this novel is no exception, dealing with a school shooting. Overall, it’s not a bad effort, but not as well paced as his other recent books. Each successive Rebus novel has been longer than the previous, and this one weighs in at nearly 550 pages. It’s an enjoyable read but probably could have used a bit of editing. Over the past few books Siobhan Clarke has taken a more prominent role, almost to the point of being Rebus’ equal, and that is true here as well. It wouldn’t be a Rankin novel if there weren’t three or four plotlines going at a time and Clarke is prominent in them all. Recommended, with the minor reservation over it’s length.

Resurrection Men By Ian Rankin (52 Books, 27 Down, 25 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 14, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments


Resurrection Men is the thirteenth in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series. I’m a few books ahead of the posts, and am just starting the final volume. So, taking the final novel out of it, I’d have to argue that this is the strongest and most polished of all the Rebus books, and deservedly won the Edgar award for the year it was released. Rebus, after throwing a cup of tea at a superior, is sent back to the Scottish Police College for retraining. As part of his retraining, Rebus and several other detectives that are also being retrained, are asked to look into a cold case. As it turns out, everyone involved (Rebus included) has a prior connection to the case. Rankin deftly handles several plot threads in this masterful performance.

When ratings fail you….

Published
by
Chris
on October 11, 2009
in Television
. 0 Comments

I watched the first couple episodes of Heroes when it came out…people were talking about it at work…the fact that I watched only a couple of episodes should tell you what I thought about it. I hear the ratings have been failing, so what better time than to advertise an episode with the lesbian kiss.

Cities XL Footage

Published
by
Chris
on October 1, 2009
in Video Games
. 0 Comments

It’s too bad my couple-of-years-old computer can’t handle the specs of this game. Looks impressive and addictive.

The Falls by Ian Rankin (52 Books, 26 Down, 26 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on September 27, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

The Falls is yet another very solid outing from Rankin. As usual, Rankin has several story lines going at the same time. In this book, DC Siobhan Clarke starts to become more of a significant character as Rankin needs a detective who can handle the technological stuff as Rebus is still fumbling with text messaging. In this novel the tech stuff takes a bit of center stage as a young woman’s disappearance may tie in to an internet game she was playing.
Rankin continues to work at the height of his powers in his twelfth Rebus novel, but I am continuing to feel a growing sense of dread as I know the series is rapidly coming to it’s conclusion.

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (52 Books, 25 Down, 27 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on September 27, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

Who would have figured that Pynchon would deliver a book a mere couple of years after his last doorstop. Inherent Vice isn’t exactly a doorstop itself. It is, rather, a relatively easy read (for Pynchon) though I’m not quite sure it’s the “beach read” it’s publishers claim. Set in the surf rock sixties Los Angeles, private investigator Larry “Doc” Sportello is on the hunt for a missing real estate developer. But as with any Pynchon novel, there is so much more going on. In the small selection of books that Pynchon has published, this is a fairly minor, although still entertaining novel. It’s probably not a great place to start, if you haven’t read any Pynchon. I hate it when Pynchon newbies ask me where to start with the condition that they don’t want to start with Gravity’s Rainbow. If you start with something like this, it’s just going to give you the wrong idea about Pynchon as a whole. If you’ve read Pynchon before, it’s definitely recommended.

A Truly Colorful Inherent Vice Review

Published
by
Chris
on September 8, 2009
in Books
. 0 Comments

The B&N Review has a unique review of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice by Ward Sutton (via JeFF Vandermeer’s Ecstatic Days).

James Patterson attempts to destroy the world’s forests

Published
by
Chris
on September 8, 2009
in Books
. 0 Comments

James Patterson signs a three year, seventeen book deal. Think of the trees. There should be a carbon tax on his books. The funny thing is, working in a bookstore and seeing new titles of his pop up every six to eight weeks, I think the guy might be slowing down.

Set In Darkness by Ian Rankin (52 books, 24 Down, 28 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on September 5, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

Set in Darkness is the 11th Inspector Rebus novel (out of 17…I’m on the back half now…). As far as I am concerned, Rankin has been solid throughout the whole Rebus series thus far, peaking with Black and Blue (the 8th Rebus novel). The last few books, while good, haven’t quite risen to the promise of that book. That all changes with Set In Darkness. As I am writing this, I am actually a few Rebus novels beyond this one and I can say with certainty that this is where Rankin comes into his own. The novels gets more complex, more nuanced, better researched. This is where Rankin truly proves himself as a master of the crime procedural.
Huzzah!

RIP, Jim Dickinson

Published
by
Chris
on August 16, 2009
in Deaths and Music
. 0 Comments


Legendary musician and producer, Jim worked on some of my favorite music, from playing piano on The Rolling Stones “Wild Horses” to production and piano work on The Replacement’s “Pleased To Meet Me” to piano work on Slobberbone’s “Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today” to just a huge amount of ridiculously good shit. You will certainly be missed.