Pulp Fiction discussion

People are now writing by-gosh academic disssertations on Jo Nesbo, Stieg Larsson etal? I feel old. But I'm glad you were helped. Please pass on my best wishes to your niece. Where is she matriculated?

Thank you Allen, I will :-) She is doing her M. Phil from our premier University JNU in New Delhi. She said she chose something with which she would be able to stick for 2 years.

If she goes into academia professionally, it sounds like a good area to "stake out." I imagine quite a bit has already been written about Naipaul and other Indian or English authors.

I didn't realize that Nehru had a university named after him! Impressive.

Last night I started reading (nonfiction) Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann.

This story just gets stranger and stranger -- I have this feeling we'll probably be doing takeout tonight so I can finish this book.

Nancy wrote: "This story just gets stranger and stranger -- I have this feeling we'll probably be doing takeout tonight so I can finish this book."

Glad to hear this. My real-life book club picked this one for next year. I'm on the waiting list at the library.

Nancy wrote: "Last night I started reading (nonfiction) Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann."

I'll be listening to the audio of that one next month. I've been looking forward to it for some time.

If anyone wouldn't mind a slightly "loved" copy of the pbk. of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, I still have one that is yours for the asking. It's a wonderful book, but with an interstate move for me looming as a distinct possibility, I don't need to hold onto all of my "good reads."

Contact me at [email protected], my Profile e-mail.

Melki wrote: "Nancy wrote: "This story just gets stranger and stranger -- I have this feeling we'll probably be doing takeout tonight so I can finish this book."

Glad to hear this. My real-life book club picked..."

Melki wrote: "Nancy wrote: "This story just gets stranger and stranger -- I have this feeling we'll probably be doing takeout tonight so I can finish this book."

Glad to hear this. My real-life book club picked..."

It's on my real-world book group's lineup for next year, too. I didn't want to wait that long to read it, so I nominated it for my other GR group's July read and it won.

Tom wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Last night I started reading (nonfiction) Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann."

I'll be listening to the audio of t..."

I think you'll enjoy it, Tom.

Nancy wrote: "Melki wrote: "Nancy wrote: "This story just gets stranger and stranger -- I have this feeling we'll probably be doing takeout tonight so I can finish this book."

Glad to hear this. My real-life bo..."

I always like killing two birds with one stone satisfying two group reads with one book.

:)

same here

Is there a group read for July? I've tried to find information on the sight.

What Mad Universe, by Fredric Brown -- under the heading of "the other pulps."

ALLEN wrote: "If anyone wouldn't mind a slightly "loved" copy of the pbk. of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, I still have one that is yours for the asking. It's a wonderful book, but with an interstate move for me l..."

In the last 20 hours I've had two (2!) acceptances for my offer of David Grann's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, so I'm afraid I can't entertain any more.

Terrific book in my and many others' opinions, so surely the trade pbk is worth the less-than-eleven-bucks Amazon and Barnes & Noble are asking for it? It is still a brisk seller so even a used hardcover at Thrft Books costs more than that.

Nancy, I couldn't find the heading "the other pulps". Sorry.

That's my fault -- it's sort of this month's theme:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/5...

ALLEN wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "If anyone wouldn't mind a slightly "loved" copy of the pbk. of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, I still have one that is yours for the asking. It's a wonderful book, but with an interstate..."

I think it's great you're doing this. I love finding homes for my books. Someone once told me it's like giving away kittens....

Thanks, Nancy. I downloaded it on my Nook last night. Once the discussion starts, how do I become a part of it?

Patty wrote: "Thanks, Nancy. I downloaded it on my Nook last night. Once the discussion starts, how do I become a part of it?"

Someone will post a discussion thread for the book and then you just start talking. I'm giving this one a pass because I'm heading up a discussion in another group at the same time.

Patty wrote: "Thanks, Nancy. I downloaded it on my Nook last night. Once the discussion starts, how do I become a part of it?"

I can answer that one. On July first, I'll be posting that month's book under the Group Reads section. Just scroll down a bit on our home page, and it should be the first book listed. Looking forward to hearing your comments, Patty.

Oh, and I'll also be sending you a link to the poll for voting on August's read.

So much to do . . . I'm glad the first is on a Sunday.

I am just about to finish a book The Achievements of Luther Trant by Edwin Balmer and Andrew MacHarg (1910). Luther Trant is the first ever crime solver who did his thing by way of psychology; if you're familiar with R. Austin Freeman, Trant would be a contemporary of his Dr. Thorndyke. I mention this book here because once you get past the psychology aspects, this book is pure pulp fiction, some having to do with cops, "T-men" etc., but it also runs down the avenue of "the other pulps."

And second, is anyone familiar with the "Yesterday's Faces" series of books? They are a multi-volume set and are all about the characters that have shown up in numerous pulp mags over the years. I bought one (Volume 2) and if it's good I'll pick up the whole set.

(book one):
https://www.amazon.com/Yesterdays-Fac...

Allen, I'm 116 pages into Killers of the Flower Moon. There's been a lot of killing and racism.

Patty wrote: "Allen, I'm 116 pages into Killers of the Flower Moon. There's been a lot of killing and racism."

Considering the time and cultural attitudes, I think racism is a given.

Nancy, sadly, not
Much has changed.

Patty wrote: "Nancy, sadly, not
Much has changed."

But what I like about Grann's approach is that he does not condemn the "bad guys" when he introduces them, but lets their evil deeds speak for themselves.

It's a frequently painful book, of that there can be no doubt. But not the same kind as in, say, Columbine, which I am also reading.

HAVE things improved in the last ninety-five years? That's something I'd like to talk about after the book has been discussed. Right now we're kind of vamping for time waiting for you and other nice people to join in:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

or here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I just finished these two terrific books:


The Blue Room by Georges Simenon
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

Just finished Last Call for the Living .

Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

"Brighton Rock" by Graham Greene - just started this morning

Algernon wrote: ""Brighton Rock" by Graham Greene - just started this morning"

I have that one. I need to get to it at some point.

I loved Brighton Rock! I need to read his earlier book A Gun For Sale; in it, we meet the character Pinkie.

Algernon wrote: ""Brighton Rock" by Graham Greene - just started this morning"

excellent choice. One of my all-time favorites.

Patty wrote: "I loved Brighton Rock! I need to read his earlier book A Gun For Sale; in it, we meet the character Pinkie."

I saw the movie version of "This Gun For Sale" and I remember it was quite good

I am reading Fifty to One by Charles Ardai

I'm reading The Usual Santas: A Soho Crime Holiday Anthology. The first 2 stories have been OK.

Paul wrote: "I've just finished reading Righteous, quite as good as it's predecessor, IQ. Reminiscent of Joe R. Lansdale's 'H..."

Freakin' lovin' Righteous. Loved IQ.

Joe Ide is the Chandler for the 21st century, There. I'm bloody well saying it!

Geoff wrote: "Paul wrote: "I've just finished reading Righteous, quite as good as it's predecessor, IQ. Reminiscent of Joe R. ..."

Lansdale? Chandler? Holy crap! It's a wonder Ide hasn't won a Nobel prize yet.

All I'm sayin' is that Ide smashes out similes like no-one else.

"More curves than a scenic railway"? That kind of thing?

a pauchy white guy inhis forties with a face like an unbaked biscuit...

Love that - could be me (ahem)

or

An Asian girl was on the DJ stand, held in a column of vaporous light like Scotty had just beamed her down to work on the turntables...

That kind of thing.

Nice!

I finished these:


The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


IQ by Joe Ide
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finally got time to comment on the three early scientific detective books I read, two of them with definite pulp overtones:

http://www.crimesegments.com/2018/07/...

Just started The Case of the Velvet Claws and hoping I can find the episode from the Perry Mason series as well.

Larry Brown's Dirty Work is one of the best country noir, and anti-war novels, I have read, right up there with _All Quiet on the Western Front_ and _Johnny got His Gun_. Two characters, both rural Mississippians grievously wounded in Vietnam, lie in adjoining beds in a military hospital. Both find peace, and lean what comradeship and sacrifice really mean, far different that what they have been trained to believe. My review is at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Jay wrote: "Larry Brown's Dirty Work is one of the best country noir, and anti-war novels, I have read, right up there with _All Quiet on the Western Front_ and _Johnny got His Gun_. Two characters, both rural..."

Interesting Jay. I'll have to check that one out. I've heard a lot about Larry Brown but never have had a chance to sit down and read his works.

Larry Brown wrote a lot of good short stories, and the novel Joe, in which a truck driver and a boy in flight from his predatory father (a fascinating character in himself) drive through rural Mississippi. One critic said "The boy's family makes the Snopes family look like the Cleavers."

'Joe' is very good. Read 'Father and Son', also by LB quite recently. Also excellent. I have both 'Dirty Work' and 'Fay', the follow-up to Joe, which i'm looking forward to reading at some point.