Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you READING?

Currently reading "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien.

I picked it up after seeing it featured in "Lost" and I'm quite glad I did. It reminds me a good deal of Samuel Beckett's "Molloy" in its absurdist logic... but I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

I read "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Wilde, as well as "A Woman of No Importance" and "Lady Windermere's Fan" (I was on a Wilde short-story/play kick). All were excellent, typical examples of Wilde's incredible wit. And they were all fun too! That's the best part about it. Wilde never once loses his sense of fun and using literary techniques to make his stories even more so.

Jillikers! I didn't realize you were married by now Drake! (I knew you were engaged). Congrats buddy!

Thanks CK! Yeah, we pulled the trigger a month ago When's your happy day?

Actually, on Saturday! (Two days from now). Part of what reminded me to check this thread was when I was going shopping for books to read on the honeymoon, in between, well, you know...

No... I don't know. Please tell me.

Just started, "The Time Traveler's Wife," last night, in prep for the release of the film this winter. Wow. For her debut novel, Audrey Niffenegger has a very engaging prose style. I'm twenty pages in, and already engrossed. I'm really looking forward to getting into this one.

Voltaire's Candide was great. I have problems with many of those older workers keeping my interest. This one did. Voltaire manages to make it funny, witty, interesting and you certainly get the harsh criticism that makes you think as well. Good stuff.

Currently STILL reading Tale of Two Cities. Man the first two books were a bit painful. Finally getting into it.

I took a break from it and read Suite Francais which I I liked but not sure if I recommend. If you want to learn more about France during the Nazi occupation it's great. It has some good parts but it bordered on what I call a chick book/lifetime reading.

An article in the back of a recent issue of Ed Brubakers "Criminal" led me to a paperback imprint called Hard Case Crime. Everything they publish is pulpy, noirish crime fiction, each book a light 200-page or so read. They alternate publishing older materal from the genre's heyday in the 50s and 60s with brand new material written for the imprint. So you'll get some Mickey Spillane, some Max Allen Collins (known for Ms. Tree in comics) mixed with some guys you've never heard of. The covers are all painted and feature an appropriate pulpy image, generally highlighted by a mysterious, sultry woman.

(Stephen King fans might be interested to know that HCC scored a major coup by getting him to write one. It's called "The Colorado Kid".)

Since I enjoy Brubaker's stuff and things like Sin City, I bought a couple of lots of HCC on eBay for a total of 8 books for about $14 including shipping. The lot includes King's entry.

So far, I've read two of the eight: "Fade to Blonde" by Max Phillips and "Little Girl Lost" by Richard Aleas. Both did what a book of this genre should doby providing engaging first-person dialogue from the protagonist, nice twists, engaging mysteries, seedy underbelly characters, moral ambiguity and mysterious women. Here are their covers:



Of the two, I definitely recommend "Little Girl Lost" the most. While I figured out the twist earlier than the one in the other book, the ride getting to it was really enjoyable. The lead is a young P.I., John Blake, whose high school sweetheart is found murdered on the roof of a strip club. The process in which we learned what happened to the girl in the ten years since they stopped dating leading to the murder is really engaging. The stripper who helps John break the case is particularly interesting and written as smart and resourseful without resorting to any cliches. It really left me wanting to read more about those characters.

Oh, neither book has had any really explicit sexual content (i.e. no really graphic X-rated descriptions), but do expect a liberal amount of the f-word and what-not in the realm of colorful expletives!

I'm hooked! I think I'm going to join their book club, so I can get a monthly fix!

Since last I checked in on this thread I've read:

The Quick Red Fox A short but sharp story from John MacDonald about his main character Travis McGee. Didn't draw me in like his other McGee stories, and even though the plot is some what quaint by today's standards (it was written in the 1960s), you can't go wrong with MacDonald. Great characters, dialogue, plots, and consequences.

Silent Prey by John Sandford
I've read four or five of the Prey series and the first one in the series was top notch stuff. I read this one out of sequence so it was kinda spoiled for me. Still not a bad read though, it didn't measure up to the others in the series.

Ghostwalker by Erik Scott di Bie
A stand alone Forgotten Realms novel in the "Fighters" series. Decent enough fantasy tale with enough twists to put it above standard fantasy tales.

Legacy of the Force: Invincible by Troy Denning
A rather terse novel for the epic LotF storyline. Since I read the first eight in the series I guess I was "in for a pound" as the metaphor goes that is. Kinda felt like the page quota was met and the story had to be ended. Definitely left wanting at the end of this one and not in the good way.

Broke down and picked up Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants by Lee Goldberg
I had a gift certificate to use and since I enjoy the TV series I figured what the heck. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I giggled most of the way through it and even though the killer is easy to figure out, a nice twist is supplied that takes the book in a totally unexpected direction. I highly recommend this book, but only for those that are already Monk fans.

Also read A Clash of Kings by George rr Martin
Second in an epically detailed fantasy series that is just tough to put down.

And I read Slay and Rescue by John Moore
Another really enjoyable read. Best tongue in cheek author that I've read.

Minesurfer...I just recently finished all the available ASOIAF books. Truely epic fantasy done the right way. The story just continues to get better as it advances. Martin is still writing book 5 however with no end in sight

Meanwhile I'm currently reading "Reaper's Gale" by Steven Erikson, another epic fantasy writer. its book 7 in his Malazan series. Thus far it is an excellent and engrossing read, with many of the characters and threads from previous novels starting to come together.

Lardy, there’s a great article today in USA Today on Max Collins completing the final Mike Hammer novels for Mickey Spillane. It definitely peaked my curiousity (along with your previous comments), and I may check out a Spillane novel or two, since I love the genre but largely have not ventured into it outside of comics and movies.

Were they specifically mentioned to be published by Hard Case Crime, Des?

Like you, I don't really have a background reading this genre, but I'm really enjoying them. I may be subscribing to HCC's book-of-the-month club if I enjoy the rest of the lot as I haven't had time to start the other six since I wrote that post. Since I read the first two, I've been catching up on TPBs and my monthly comics. But I'm gonna read another two later this month.

I have yet to read any Spillane but did read a Max Allan Collins book a decade or so ago, so I know I'll like his HCC stuff. Max has had several books published by HCC already, and the samples I've read on the website are really good! I definitely will buy Max's HCC books eventually, and having a passing familiarity with Mike Hammer, I'm pretty excited about those.

Exploring the HCC website, I was excited to see that they've published another Richard Aleas book featuring John Blake of "Little Girl Lost". Yes, Richard Aleas is an obvious pen name, and if memory serves, the writer behind the pen name is one of HCC's founders/execs. I enjoyed his other work, so I'm excited to see he's continuing with the characters.

I'll reemphasize that HCC books are only around 200 pages apiece, so they're a pretty light read. Personally, I don't think that's a bad thing in this genre. And the HCC covers are GREAT!

Anyhow, Des, let me know if you pick up anything!

I'm reading the third volume of Moomin, the collected edition of Tove Jansson's comic strips. At the rate they're being collected, there will probably be 14 to 18 volumes before all of the strips are published in the hardcover format.

That cover on Little Girl Lost looks vaguely familiar. It's similar to a very famous pose by a harem girl by who? Perhaps Deliquix (sp?)

I recently read a children's book, 'The Island of Aunts' which was fun, full of baby krakens, seilkies. mermaids and aunts.

I love kids books ~ there's more story and a lot less blood and sex!

I caught up on McCaffery and son's Dragon books, which weren't all that great and bought the latest Terry Pratchett books.

If I were at home I'd give you the titles!
One is 'Thud!', I think, and the other is about a Postman/con-man.
Pratchett can make me lol AND he can surprise me, too. Neither of those things happen to me very often when I read.

I read the Bible, too and related commentaries.
Currently, I'm reading the Gospel of Luke because I'm interested in Mary's point of view.

Congrats on your marriage Cobalt!
Gosh, everybody just keeps growing up!

Thanks Shady!

I'm fighting 'growing up' every step of the way

Ya, me too.
The 6th graders I'm working with are always looking at me in confusion!
I love it.

Ummm, the title for the kids book was 'Island of the Aunts' instead of . . .
If it matters.
sigh

I just finished the Gilgamesh translation from the clay tablets.
It has some interesting spots but it's no Genesis!

Started a novel today about one of Thomas Jeffersons' daughter with Sally Hemings, his slave.

I've been reading the Supergirl Showcase. I want to point out some of the campiness and super-dickery there.

In the Bizarro baby story, I think we see some repressed rage in Kara over being stuck in the orphanage. When she & Superman discover Bizarro's son (who looks normal) has superpowers. Kara imediately suggests turning him over to the authorities. However Superman nixes that idea saying "No, Supergirl! Just think! Being a boy, he could grow up to be my successor some day!" Something else else SuperGIRL could never be, I guess. At the end of the same story, both Superman and Supergirl show a callous indifference to the death of the Bizarro Supergirl.

One of the last stories has Superman telling Supergirl that he will reveal her to the world after he and Krypto get back from a trip to another dimension. While they are gone a cloud of Kryptonite dust encircles Earth. Supergirl finds refuge in Atlantis with Lori Lemaris and Jerro. The criminal world, thinking Superman is either dead or incapacitated, embark of a crime spree. Supergirl, remotely from under the ocean, is able to foil several of these crimes. Everyone thinks it is Superman though. When Superman comes back, he is ready to introduce Kara to the world. However Kara has suddenly lost her powers. And because she is no longer a Supergirl, Superman refuses to tell people about her and her super-deeds.

And boy the people wanting to adopt orphans were incredible shallow back then. Oh her dress is torn, she must be lazy. I don't want her for a daughter! And the people running the orphanage would just let any couple take an orphan. No background check, no home study. Heck, a pair of robots got to adopt a baby right away.

That really sounds kind of sad. I don't remember the stories being that awful to Supergirl. Talk about negative programming. Maybe the robots were better parents than the Silver Age humans.

The robot parents get destroyed after they get baby Bizarro away from the orphanage.

Another aspect of the stories is the use of the Linda Lee robot. It is kept in a hollow tree. Supergirl has the robot take her place at the orphanage if she is going to be away for an extended period. The robot is all "yes mistress". While reading the stories, I got to thinking about the poor robot. She gets moments of freedom and then pow it's back to the hollow tree for days and weeks on end no doubt.

And then, in one story, Supergirl give the robot a new dress so that people won't suspect something from seeing the robot in the same outfit (despite the fact that Linda herself is always wearing the same outfit) So Supergirl give the robot the dress and says "put it on". The robot replies with the standard "yes mistress" After the new dress is on, Supergirl says "You look lovely in your new dress, Robot -- Now take my place as Linda Lee at the orphanage while I romp with Krypto!" The robot replies " I... shall obey Supergirl!" The hesitation, the switch from "mistress" to "Supergirl". If this was written today, I am sure the story would be about the robot becoming self-aware and sentient.

I love the early Supergirl stories!

I actually think the orphanage setting was far more interesting than... well, anything I've seen done with the character since then.

True, the orphanage setting wasn't bad in itself. But the rationale given (foster parents might discover that you are super and thus you'll cease to be my secret weapon) is flimsy. And the cruel way Superman treated Kara (telling her that she had to stay in the orphanage) just seems wrong. However, I could even take the weird adoption procedures as quaint.

In those days a lot of prejudice against girls was just accepted, even in the futuristic Legion.

Remember when some of the Legionnaires were in the prison and Brainy didn't want the girls to involve themselves in the breakout?
At least they were shown fighting back.

Kara usually had pretty poor writing.
Most of her adventures involved a boy or trying to get a girl for her cousin.

The robot story you pointed out Quislet, was sad, especially if they never followed up on her breakthough.

Well, that story was towards the end off the volume. It is possible that it was followed up. But I would say most likely it wasn't.