52 Novels

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Every time I think about The Sunday Salon, Deb Hamel’s terrific group of reader blogs, I’m reminded of the bit in the movie Dances With Wolves when Timmons is driving John Dunbar out to his new post.

Along the way Timmons and Dunbar come across a picked-clean human carcass — presumably that of a post-war pioneer — with a broken arrow in its skull.

Timmons, never missing a thing, says, “I bet someone back east is askin, ‘Now why don’t he write?’”

Not that I’m a significant member of the group (I’m not), but my blog’s listed near the top of the list at The Sunday Salon. Again… it’s not because I’m anyone special. We’re presented alphabetically and those of us with numbers at the beginning of our blogs were put first.

“What does this have to do with anything,” you ask.

Fair question. It has everything to do with the fact that I get a decent amount of traffic from The Sunday Salon — if for no other reason than this joint’s third from the top of the list. As a result, I often wonder if I’m disappointing people who get here from there because there’s, you know, no salon-ness hap’nin when they walk in the 5 to-the 2.

Then again, I also wonder if I’m an arrogant prick for wondering that in the first place.

In any case, a member of a forum I help moderate recently asked the community for non-fiction recommendations.

Despite what you see here — fiction, fiction, and more fiction — I also read a lot of non-fiction over the course of the year. I don’t count those books in the 52 novels because, well, they’re not novels. I suppose if I wanted to pad the resume here, I could include them.

Alas, 52books dot com was already taken and there ain’t no way I’m gonna make the owner an offer for it.

Anyway… here’re a few recent non-fic reads:

THE HARDEST (WORKING) MAN IN SHOW BUSINESS

I picked this up more out of a desire to read Eric Spitznagel’s words than because of any overarching interest in porn. (Disclaimer: I’m a dude and I like porn about the same as the next guy.)

The fact is, Ron Jeremy’s a fascinating guy who’s led an intriguing life. He was a serious actor who stumbled in to porn. He’s legendary in the adult entertainment industry as much for his, you know, as he is for his tireless work ethic and networking. He’s as famous for the brand called “Ron Jeremy” as he is for the on-screen product.

Quite literally, Wayne Gretzgy is the Ron Jeremy of hockey.

Sadly, I didn’t care for this book as much as I’d hoped. It got to be more of the same after the first few chapters: “One time on the set of (movie title), I was (doing some sex act) with the beautiful (female porn star’s name), and (something humorous/serious/endearing) happened.

I will admit, though, that the stories about his family were often rather touching… and the reason I finished reading this one.

STEROID NATION

I really wanted to like this book… and I did like some of it.

But what left me feeling cheated was the way the author, ESPN The Magazine’s Shaun Assael, cobbled together the narrative. We got short vignettes of concurrent history and it made it difficult for me to understand the context. And as soon as I thought I was getting to meat of the vignette, it stopped and moved on to the next.

There’re better ways to tell concurrent histories — see any of Stephen Ambrose’s fine World War II books, for example.

Again, there was good stuff in the book: the changing political priorities and how they affect enforcement policies, how the International Olympic Committee used steroid testing as window dressing for many years, and how many, at the time, virtually unknown players — from Dan Duchaine to Patrick Arnold to Bill Phillips — were instrumental to bringing the drugs into the mainstream.

Still, what I didn’t know seemed far less than what I did know. Combine that with the format and it left me disappointed. Take that for what it’s worth… if you’re not so hip to steroid history, this’ll probably be an enlightening read.

Of course, this isn’t the limit to my non-fic reads in 2008. I’ve also read a number of books as novel-related research: finding missing people, con games, guns, the psychology of killing, and so on. I’ve also been learning a lot about modern American gangs — not for this book, but for maybe the next book. My current non-fic read is THE COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS… and it’s fantastic.

So how ’bout you… what non-fiction have you been reading? Drop a comment and let’s talk books about real people, places and things.

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FOMAC.

That’s fancy talk for Fan of Max Allan Collins.

Really, who wouldn’t be? After all he’s been in the crime fiction game longer than just about everyone else—except for maybe Elmore Leonard—and he’s done as much as anyone can do:

• Comic books and graphic novels (ROAD TO PERDITION)
• TV tie-ins (CSI, BONES, CRIMINAL MINDS)
• Awesome series novels (Nate Heller, Quarry, Nolan)
• Revive Dick Tracy
• Made movies (MOMMY, MOMMY’S DAY)
• He’s even taken up Mickey Spillane’s unfinished Mike Hammer novels, with Mickey’s and Mrs. Spillane’s blessing.

Plus there’s his female PI comics hero, Ms. Michael Tree… better known as Ms. Tree (mystery, get it?). She was born from MAC’s love of classic comics and fashioned as a female version of Mike Hammer. She’s tough, tough talkin, fast on her feet, and deadly with the rod.

Plus, she won’t touch the domestic stuff. No divorce or cheating spouse cases for this ex Chicago cop.

She’s also the hero in today’s Sunday Salon, DEADLY BELOVED.

Ms. Tree is presently working out the demons that haunt her in the wake of her husband’s murder. As she sits with her shrink, she outlines what’s led her to have the nightmares that feature her as his killer. The thing reads like a comic strip: little snatches that reveal the mystery that’re punctuated by great story questions.

It might be considered a little hackneyed. But that’s the comics influencing the work. To be honest, though, it’s really effing good, and I’m certain that MAC could write this stuff in his sleep. And I mean that as a compliment. Collins is masterful and there’s no better word to describe him.

So far, DEADLY BELOVED is top shelf.

The 52N PDQ UPD on the TBR

Just a few words on the 52 Novels to-be-read list for 2008… as in years past I’ve gone into this reading season with a number of titles in mind.

The problem is that publishers keep releasing more books and I can’t keep up. As a result, the list I make of things to read stays somewhat static. I have a slew of Ed McBain stuff from two years ago that I keep meaning to get to but haven’t touched.

There’s also the small cache of Matt Helm books, as well as a couple of Greg Iles’s fantastic stand alone thrillers I’ve been meaning to read. And, Marcus Sakey’s second novel—AT THE CITY’S EDGE—is a must.

I’ve also lined up the Harry Potters. And Adrian McKinty’s DEAD trilogy. And there’re a few Michael Connelly’s and George Pelecanos’s to get through.

I also decided to add in a few non-fiction works as part of the project—namely David Simon’s HOMICIDE and Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s ON KILLING—if for no other reason than because they’ll better inform my own writing.

I also thought about reading Stephen King’s DARK TOWER series from front to back again. And I’d like to polish off a couple of Neil Gaiman books, too.

For added challenge, I picked up Robert Littell’s THE COMPANY and Neal Stephenson’s CRYPTONOMICON. But I’m not sure I’m going to get through them this year.

If you take a look at last year’s books, I fell six short of the 52. I’m not disappointed… mostly because I wrote more (from a personal standpoint) than I’ve ever written before. I’ll gladly make that read-less-write-more trade again.

But I figured there was was a way around it: read more audio books.

I know from experience there will be books that take longer than the week. Assuming another 46 books this year, if I get through an audio book a month as well, that’s 58 books I’ll get through in 2008.

Time will tell if I can pull it off.

There’s my story. What’s your 2008 in books gonna look like?

(PSSST… use the handy comments feature to join in.)

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Currently, I’ve got my ears and nose inside a couple of books: BOOMSDAY, by Christopher Buckley, and SLIDE, by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr.

I have to admit that I’m not sold yet on BOOMSDAY. Granted, it’s the audio version so I’m not sure whether it’s the story itself or the reader, Janeane Garofalo. She’s just okay, mostly because she doesn’t do voices and parts very well. When she reads, all the characters tend to sound exactly alike… although that’s not what she’s going for.

The story itself, that of a pissed off blogger/congressional aide who tries to take back the Social Security system (and thereby triggering a class war between baby boomers and Gen X/Y/Z-ers), is laugh-out-loud funny in points. That’s a good thing, considering Buckley’s a, you know, satirist.

But I can’t help think that, if I had the print book instead, it wouldn’t pass the 100-page test.

On the other had, SLIDE is exactly what I’d hoped it’d be. It’s an excellent follow-up to Bruen’s and Starr’s fantastic first collaboration for Hard Case Crime, called BUST. If you don’t know either Bruen or Starr’s writing, they’re both masters of thinking up the most degenerate shit to put people through and then getting it on the page.

Somehow they manage to top themselves each time, whether it’s a solo book or one of these co-written novels. These guys are among the reigning kings of the darkest of dark noir. And it’s not just because they’re so twisted… they really do tell a damn fine story.

It just happens that this one’s about a computer networks salesman (turned crack dealer) from New York, a kidnapping/serial killing sociopath from Ireland, and the kink-loving, sex addicted woman they have in common.

And in other news…

I changed the theme again. I liked the one that debuted on January 2, but it required too much tweaking and customizing to get it the way I wanted it. I just didn’t have the patience.

On the other hand, the one I’m using now—The Journalist, by Lucian Marin—puts the focus on the content (like I like) while making customizations simpler to implement. Except for, that is, a small issue on the Downloads page.

There’re still a couple things left to do, but they’re mostly minor. At any rate, like I did the last time, I’d appreciate it if you could offer some feedback.

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about THE CONCRETE MAZE, by Steven Torres. Yesterday, Steven spent some time Googling himself and found the post.

He was kind and generous enough to make the following offer:

If any of your readers are interested, I’d be happy to mail them out a copy as long as supplies last – which isn’t too long.

If you’re on the fence at all, please consider the following two things:

1. Here’s what I had to say about THE CONCRETE MAZE:
   
   “It’s absolute noir, with enough hardboiled mixed in to keep everything dissonant and honest. What’s more, Torres’s prose is tight as a gnat’s ass, quite frankly.”
2. Free books are always good

If you want a copy, just leave me a comment in this post, making sure to use a valid e-mail address when you fill out the form. After a few days, I’ll contact people directly (via the valid e-mail addy) to get mailing addresses. Once I have those I’ll forward the info along to Steven.

Please remember that supplies are limited—and Steven’s offer is first-come, first served. Once the free copies of THE CONCRETE MAZE are gone, they’re gone.

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Hard to believe it was a week ago that I last posted. The previous seven days flew by like… well, let’s just say it was fast.

I haven’t been taking a break from 52 Novels. In fact, I’ve been working on the project a lot:

• I finished THE CONCRETE MAZE a few days ago and moved on to one of Donald Hamilton’s Matt Helm books, THE SILENCERS.
• I’m currently reading books forty-five (the one I can’t seem to finish) and forty-six (THE SILENCERS), which means ol’ Slowpokey McSlowpokerson here’s gotta hustle to finish 52-in-52 for 2007.

I’ve also been thinking about a retool for this place:

• I’ve got a new theme picked out, but it’ll require some tweaking before it goes live.
• There’ll be regular weekly and monthly feature sort of stuff.
• Plus, I’m reworking some pages, and actively looking for new goodies for the downloads page.

Meanwhile, there’re now eight or so reviews left to write I’ve blown off for now, and about four unfinished posts in my drafts queue. And I’m still writing my book, closing in on eight thousand words (at my current pace, I should be finished by June of 2049!).

So what does all this mean to you, Dear Subscribers and Loyal Readers who honor me by dialing me up to hear me wax poetic pathetic?

Probably not Jack Diddly Spit. Still, I say “Thanks… and stay tuned.”

If you’ll excuse me now, it’s time for me to go watch Brett Favre and the Packers run roughshod over my St. Louis Rams. Please pray for me.

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