Now reading...

[Matthew]

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Never read any book in the series, and I liked this one so much, I went ahead and bought all the books. Very enjoyable read.

[GA Russell]

[jlhoots]

Ingrid Rojas Contreras: Fruit Of The Drunken Tree

Edited February 2, 2024 by jlhoots

[GA Russell]

This book is a pep talk for women who are miserable.  She focuses on getting rid of everything you own which does not spark joy.  She thinks that a tidy home will help eliminate your constipation problem.  And she doubles down on talking to inanimate objects like your apartment and your socks, as if they are people to whom you should be grateful.

[Referentzhunter]

[Brad]

[ghost of miles]

An underrated Kerouac, trippy and steeped in his childhood:

[Referentzhunter]

59 minutes ago, Referentzhunter said:

I am disappointed in this 'Classic'. Some improbabilities ...

[Stompin at the Savoy]

There is an old adage that a good story involves getting the hero up in a tree, adding some people throwing rocks at him and then managing to get him back down again.  Leigh Brackett was a master of establishing a tense narrative within a few pages and drawing you into the conflict.

This book is very expensive.  I managed to score the other two volumes of her short stories in this series but this one is usually two or three hundred bucks.  Thankfully, all the stories appear to be public domain and can be found on either Gutenberg.org or the Internet Archive digitized volumes of Thrilling Wonder Stories.  Below is the table of contents with where to find the stories. G = Gutenberg.org

-Foreword- by Ray Bradbury
-Introduction- by Harry Turtledove

G -The Blue Behemoth- (Planet Stories, May '43)
G -Thralls of the Endless Night- (Planet Stories, Fll '43)
G -The Jewel of Bas- (Planet Stories, Spr '44)
  -The Veil of Astellar- (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Spr '44)
  https://archive.org/details/Thrilling_Wonder_Stories_v25n03_1944-Spring/page/n49/mode/2up?view=theater  (On a pc, press f11 after you get there for full screen)
G -Terror Out of Space- (Planet Stories, Sum '44)
G -The Vanishing Venusians- (Planet Stories, Spr '45)
G -Lorelei of the Red Mist- (with Ray Bradbury) (Planet Stories, Sum '46)
G -The Moon That Vanished (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Oct '48)
G -The Beast-Jewel of Mars- (Planet Stories, Win '48)
  - Quest of the Starhope- (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Apr '49)
    https://archive.org/details/Thrilling_Wonder_Stories_v34n01_1949-04/page/n43/mode/2up?view=theater
  -The Lake of the Gone Forever- (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Oct '49)
   https://archive.org/details/ThrillingWonderStoriesV35N01194910/page/n61/mode/2up?view=theater
 -The Dancing Girl of Ganymede- (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Feb '50)
   https://archive.org/details/Thrilling_Wonder_Stories_v35n03_1950-02/page/n61/mode/2up?view=theater

-The Science-Fiction Field- by Leigh Brackett (Writer's Digest, Jul '44)

 

Edited February 11, 2024 by Stompin at the Savoy

[soulpope]

Reread ....

[jazzbo]

Powerful. I have in-laws that would probably burn this one.

[jlhoots]

Amanda Peters: The Berry Pickers

[GA Russell]

This was a comic book I always saw on the rack, but was never tempted to pick up.  Did anyone here like this one?

[jazzbo]

Oh yes, this was Kirby before he created the Fantastic Four for Marvel, and the final third of this series under Kirby was inked by Wally Wood, a great combination. (Kirby and Wood did a newspaper strip together previously). 

I didn't buy these off the rack originally (I was too young) but picked them up in the early 'eighties in reprints because. . . Kirby and Wood. I wasn't collecting comics then but . . .Kirby and Wood caused me to pick them up. I now have the edition pictured.

[ghost of miles]

One of the books I seem to inevitably reread every few years:

[ejp626]

I just read Tim O'Brien's America Fantastica while on the bus to and from Buffalo.  I liked it a lot, though he has a very sour, jaded take on Americans, particularly those of the MAGA-variety.  (I felt he sometimes was trying to channel Hunter S. Thompson, though this wasn't quite so gonzo.)  Indeed, the book is set in the waning years of the previous president, and COVID does make an appearance at the end.  Everyone in the book, with the possible exception of two characters, is a grifter or an outright thief.   

[GA Russell]

On 2/16/2024 at 1:17 PM, jazzbo said:

Oh yes, this was Kirby before he created the Fantastic Four for Marvel, and the final third of this series under Kirby was inked by Wally Wood, a great combination. (Kirby and Wood did a newspaper strip together previously). 

I didn't buy these off the rack originally (I was too young) but picked them up in the early 'eighties in reprints because. . . Kirby and Wood. I wasn't collecting comics then but . . .Kirby and Wood caused me to pick them up. I now have the edition pictured.

Lon, I can see that you are a comic book connoisseur!

For many years (decades) I have wanted to read the stories of Black Mask and Dime Detective.

A few years ago, an attorney obtained as payment for services rendered the rights to the Black Mask catalogue.  He re-published many of the stories.  Apparently the sales were good, because now we are seeing the Dime Detective stories re-published as well.

Radio Archives is also re-releasing many pulp magazines as eBooks.

[jazzbo]

Cool! Those old pulps are fun. I haven't read too much. . . Shadow. . . Doc Savage. . . and quite a bit of fantasy and science fiction . . . all in book form, not pulp mag form. I don't yet do any ebooks.

Edited February 18, 2024 by jazzbo

[soulpope]

10 hours ago, GA Russell said:

 

Hard boiled stuff .... 

[Referentzhunter]

William Wilson & Story of the Rough Mountains

[Referentzhunter]

[mjazzg]

Len Deighton - Berlin Game

interspersed with selections from,

The Translations Of Seamus Heaney

[ejp626]

I got about 2/3 of the way through East of Eden on a very long bus ride.  Will wrap it up in next few days.  I haven't decided whether to watch the movie, which only covers a relatively small chunk of the novel.

[soulpope]

On 2/23/2024 at 1:18 PM, Referentzhunter said:

Definitely changing reader's view on professional cooking ....

[GA Russell]

Anyone here a ham?  My dad was.  This is a glorified advertisement for having a portable ham radio.