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I just finished Michael Connelly's latest Harry Bosch book last night, "The Other Side Of Goodbye". It was one of his better efforts. It was not easy to figure out who the criminal was this time. One complaint is his continuing pushing of Grace Kelly as some great Jazz musician, especially since he continues to push her as a saxophonist. She's really become a singer who occasionally plays a sax solo.

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3 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

I just finished Michael Connelly's latest Harry Bosch book last night, "The Other Side Of Goodbye". It was one of his better efforts. It was not easy to figure out who the criminal was this time. One complaint is his continuing pushing of Grace Kelly as some great Jazz musician, especially since he continues to push her as a saxophonist. She's really become a singer who occasionally plays a sax solo.

A good Bosch. Agree about Grace Kelly. Before that Bosch was pushing Frank Morgan, who often struck me as something of a con man both on and off the stand.

My Frank Morgan story, which I think I've told before. He was at the Jazz Showcase when he made his comeback, playing with one of the usual high-level Chicago rhythm sections of the time, Willie Pickens, maybe Dan Shapera on bass, and Wilbur Campbell. After the first set Frank starts to berate the rhythm section for not playing some of the tunes properly, in terms of following certain routines, which was a bit bewildering because the set consisted of familiar jazz lines and standards which are played in much the same ay by virtually everyone, and the group, as usual for the venue when there was a visiting soloist, did not rehearse beforehand and thus could not be expected to handle them in special, Morgan-preferred ways, in case there were any such. Morgan was both irate and insulting, especially toward Campbell, which kind of stunned me a) because Wilbur was a great drummer and a great guy who played with everybody who came into the Showcase under just those conditions and b) because I could hear no particular glitches between Frank and the rhythm section during the set. Audible to all, this tirade went on for a while, much to Wilber's displeasure, until the normally mild-mannered  Pickens intervened and told Frank to sit down and shut up, which he did. Don't recall if I then asked Willie what that was all about, but in any case he volunteered that he grew up with Frank in Milwaukee, and that this is what he always was like -- mostly, he thought, because Frank was so damn insecure about his own abilities. 

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20 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

A good Bosch. Agree about Grace Kelly. Before that Bosch was pushing Frank Morgan, who often struck me as something of a con man both on and off the stand.

My Frank Morgan story, which I think I've told before. He was at the Jazz Showcase when he made his comeback, playing with one of the usual high-level Chicago rhythm sections of the time, Willie Pickens, maybe Dan Shapera on bass, and Wilbur Campbell. After the first set Frank starts to berate the rhythm section for not playing some of the tunes properly, in terms of following certain routines, which was a bit bewildering because the set consisted of familiar jazz lines and standards which are played in much the same ay by virtually everyone, and the group, as usual for the venue when there was a visiting soloist, did not rehearse beforehand and thus could not be expected to handle them in special, Morgan-preferred ways, in case there were any such. Morgan was both irate and insulting, especially toward Campbell, which kind of stunned me a) because Wilbur was a great drummer and a great guy who played with everybody who came into the Showcase under just those conditions and b) because I could hear no particular glitches between Frank and the rhythm section during the set. Audible to all, this tirade went on for a while, much to Wilber's displeasure, until the normally mild-mannered  Pickens intervened and told Frank to sit down and shut up, which he did. Don't recall if I then asked Willie what that was all about, but in any case he volunteered that he grew up with Frank in Milwaukee, and that this is what he always was like -- mostly, he thought, because Frank was so damn insecure about his own abilities. 

Connelly/Bosch did turn me onto one of Art Pepper's recent Widow's Taste releases in one of his last books, so he does have some good recommendations. :)

Edited by Kevin Bresnahan
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1 hour ago, Ted O'Reilly said:

I'm about a third of the way through the latest in Mick Herron's 'Slough House' books...  A rare thing:  the series improves with each volume!  There's also his Oxford series -- almost as good.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/101326-slough-house

Ted, I picked up Slow Horses a while back.  I suppose I should read it before the football season starts!

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On ‎22‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 2:54 PM, GA Russell said:

Ted, I picked up Slow Horses a while back.  I suppose I should read it before the football season starts!

You should, and I'd suggest reading them sequentially, and don't leave a lot of time between books...

Jackson Lamb is one of the great current characters in mystery books.  When the film (or even better, a HBO-type series), turns up I hope they cast Timothy Spall in the role.

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On 3/22/2017 at 2:32 PM, Ted O'Reilly said:

I'm about a third of the way through the latest in Mick Herron's 'Slough House' books...  A rare thing:  the series improves with each volume!  There's also his Oxford series -- almost as good.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/101326-slough-house

My brother strongly recommended Herron's "Slough House" books a couple of years ago. I instead read Down Cemetery Road (because it was available @ local bookshop), wasn't overwhelmed, and left it at that. Will have to look for Slow Horses.

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I've just finished Queneau's Zazie in the Metro.  What a wild book.  Still sort of fascinating that they even attempted to translate into English.  I'm aware of the film version, but haven't decided if I will get around to watching it or not.

Still reading quite a few short story collections with a few more on the way.

Juan Rulfo's The Plain in Flames was good but I got a little tired of all the machismo of men killing other men, generally over no reason at all.  It's the sort of book that if written by anybody else would cause tut-tuttings of how can you write about Mexicans in such a stereotypical manner...

David Bezgozmis's Natasha and Other Stories.  Worth a look.  I thought the title story was excellent. 

I'm about to start Guy Vanderhaege's Daddy Lenin and Greg Hollingshead's The Roaring Girl.

 

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4 hours ago, ejp626 said:

I've just finished Queneau's Zazie in the Metro.  What a wild book.  Still sort of fascinating that they even attempted to translate into English.  I'm aware of the film version, but haven't decided if I will get around to watching it or not.

 

 

Had mixed fortunes with the movie. Loved it when I saw it on release c.1960 - thought it hip and amusing, but found it tedious when I had a second look at it a few years ago. Perhaps I'm old and jaded, or perhaps it just belonged to its time and place.

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2 hours ago, BillF said:

Had mixed fortunes with the movie. Loved it when I saw it on release c.1960 - thought it hip and amusing, but found it tedious when I had a second look at it a few years ago. Perhaps I'm old and jaded, or perhaps it just belonged to its time and place.

It's got a great poster. 

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1 hour ago, paul secor said:

41A7OGqZ5-L._SY374_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

 

 

Arnold Wesker: The Journalists

 

That's a Wesker play I don't know. The Wesker Trilogy was very influential in my youth. Recalling its idealism is particularly ironic today as English xenophia triumphs :-(

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1 hour ago, BillF said:

That's a Wesker play I don't know. The Wesker Trilogy was very influential in my youth. Recalling its idealism is particularly ironic today as English xenophia triumphs :-(

I don't want to get into politics on these forums, but youthful idealism is something that shouldn't be forgotten - especially these days.

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Reading two books that are loosely linked through the hotel/motel theme: the epic I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita and Rick Moody's Hotels of North America.  The latter is much shorter and is quite interesting in how the book is built up of reviews of hotels (or motels) where the reviewer stayed.  The reviewer is an over-sharer, which is putting it mildly.

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