If you're looking for great crime novels to absorb you during reading time, here's a gold mine of suggestions. It's a list compiled and maintained by the owners of Partners & Crime Mystery Booksellers, a store in New York City that's sadly closing September 20, 2012. I've printed the list for future reference, and here describe my first three picks.
Category: Classics
A Vietnam War novel from 1984
This is the kind of novel I would've stumbled on in an independent bookstore, if only those wonderful, passionate indie booksellers still dominated the brick-and-mortar landscape. Instead, I discovered "Fragments" by Jack Fuller online, while looking into a 1962 Vietnam pocket guide reissued by Oxford's Bodleian Libraries. Here's how the discovery happened.
Notes from a secret Paris
Here's an atmospheric, seductive journey into what the author says is "a secret city" of Paris. Written during the mid-20th century, these short essays are far from travelogue and more visual nostalgia. The book runs less than 200 pages, even less reading pages because it's a bilingual edition, with French on one page and the English translation on the other. My trip to Paris many years ago took me off the beaten tourist path. But it was nothing like this.
18th century greed and utopia
In 1992, Michael Ondaatje won Britain's top literary prize, the Booker, for "The English Patient." But he didn't win it alone -- he shared the prize with Barry Unsworth's "Sacred Hunger," an involving novel about the British slave trade in the 1700s. The author's death last week brought the epic to my attention for the first time, a masterpiece likely unknown to many of us. Here's what we've been missing.
J. D. Salinger’s noble opposition
The paperback edition of Kenneth Slawenski's biography of America's iconic literary recluse was released the beginning of this year. I read it, curious about the many things I probably didn't know about the man who wrote "The Catcher in the Rye." One of my biggest surprises was learning Salinger fought in some of World War II's most difficult battles. I also came to know Salinger as less of a bizarre eccentric and more of a person whose experiences influenced his behavior.
Radical book adventures in NYC
I've never read nor intend to read "Steal This Book" by the Sixties anti-establishment icon Abbie Hoffman, but that didn't get in the way of my wanting the book. Not any edition, rather a first edition paperback, signed by the activist, for sale at last weekend's New York Antiquarian Book Fair. Here's the tale of that brief love affair between me and the book, plus a look at Terry Bisson's new novel that takes place during Hoffman's busiest protesting years, "Any Day Now."
Ah, Grendel! You’ve come back
John Gardner published "Grendel" in 1971, eleven years before his tragic death at age 49 in a motorcycle accident. The story is a spin-off taken from the medieval epic poem "Beowulf," giving us the viewpoint of the monster Grendel, whom the Scandinavian hero Beowulf slays. A rare acquisition of the book's ARC brought Gardner's novel to my attention again.
Frankly, my dear, nobody gave a damn
Timing is everything, and for Caroline Gordon that was particularly true for her novel about the American Civil War. Had she published "None Shall Look Back" prior to 1936, some believe her Southern war story would've trumped Margaret Mitchell's classic. I wanted to read Gordon's novel and find out for myself. Here's the outcome.
A book list and a control measure
I discovered these six books via review publications. I think they offer the promise of good reading and thought I'd share what I've learned. Brief descriptions and links to more information included. Ficion and non-fiction.
Meet the Lasts, Downton Abbey’s future
Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" for years has been a favorite of mine, not just the book but also the PBS series that starred Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. Yet so many say this well-known novel is not Waugh's most accomplished work, and now I agree.
Some didn’t believe, some kept flying
Peter Sis' new book, "The Conference of the Birds," is based on an allegory about the search for divine truth written in the 12th century by a Sufi poet. It's richly illustrated and provides an encouraging story for the determined traveler.
Shopping Brooklyn bookstores
It's that time of year when New York City teems with holiday lights and traffic jams surrounding the department stores, Rockefeller Center and Times Square. On a recent visit, I avoided the crowds and headed to Brooklyn, where I found a small herd of that endangered species, the independent bookstore.
Obsession of a modern-day Ahab
When Ohio artist Matt Kish got the idea to illustrate the Signet Classic paperback of Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick," he decided to produce an illustration for every page. (The Signet Classic runs north of 500 pages.) He completed the project in 543 days. Here's the story of how that happened, and illustrations from the beautiful book that's published by Tin House Books.
Adventures in vintage drug paperbacks
I attended Pulpfest 2011 with a list in hand of 36 colorful book titles that included "I Am a Teen-Age Dope Addict," "The Marijuana Mob" and "Reefer Girl." Here's why, and what I learned about the books, plus photos of some that came home with me.
The Longest Chapter 