Book Recommendations

[Townhallsavoy]

I think A Confederacy of Dunces is at the top of my list right now.  I'm from New Orleans, and I've heard nothing but great things about it. 

[Snaggletiger]

Anything Tiger Wench publishes.

[Buzz Killington]

Anything Tiger Wench publishes.

^^^This^^^ 
She has a distinct writing talent

[GH2001]

A Confederacy of Dunces - one of my all time favorites

Anything by Joe Lansdale.  I especially recommend The Bottoms as a good tale of the segregated South and the tensions associated therewith.  A great read.

The Quinn Colson series by Auburn man and NYT bestselling author Ace Atkins is set in Mississippi.    Colson is a Ranger who comes home to BFE, Mississippi after his last tour and finds out his uncle, the sheriff, has been murdered.  Book 1 is called The Ranger.  It was nominated for an Edgar award, which is the Oscar of mystery/thriller books.  Book 2 in the series was released this month. 

Ace also published a fictionalized account of the horrible corruption of 1950's Phenix City, AL in a book called Wicked City.  SOmeone in that time referred to Phenix City as the Wickedest City in the country - and he was right.  The story is true, but Ace wrote it as a fiction novel so he could imagine the dialogue in places.  Excellent read about a part of AL history few people know about.

Ace ripped off "The Phenix City" story to be honest (and I like Ace). And yes, that is true. It was a mecca for all the vices that Vegas currently has before anyone knew what Vegas was. It was so crooked that the guy running for Governor was murdered there for running on a platform to clean up the town. The National Guard was called to the town after that happened.

[Tiger Wench]

Anything Tiger Wench publishes.

Smooches, baby.  You too, Buzzie.

Second collection is out June 1st! 

Contact nookie for ordering instructions.  He has my exclusive sales rights. 

[Snaggletiger]

Smooches, baby.  You too, Buzzie.

Second collection is out June 1st! 

Contact nookie for ordering instructions.  He has my exclusive sales rights.

Found in Nookie's locations world wide.

[Tiger Wench]

Ace ripped off "The Phenix City" story to be honest (and I like Ace). And yes, that is true. It was a mecca for all the vices that Vegas currently has before anyone knew what Vegas was. It was so crooked that the guy running for Governor was murdered there for running on a platform to clean up the town. The National Guard was called to the town after that happened.

How was it a rip off?  Did you read it?  He researched that book for years, including getting access to the journals and letters of the Attorney General (the man who was killed) by talking to the man's family, the first time they had ever agreed to be interviewed about it.  In fact, he almost got sued by the corrupt sheriff (police chief??) for libel, but Ace had all the facts right.  He had to fictionalize it so he could insert dialogue - but if you read his notes about it, he says that in a lot of cases, people that were present at certain events told him what was said but because it was technically/legally hearsay, he had to publish as a work of fiction.

[GH2001]

How was it a rip off?  Did you read it?  He researched that book for years, including getting access to the journals and letters of the Attorney General (the man who was killed) by talking to the man's family, the first time they had ever agreed to be interviewed about it.  In fact, he almost got sued by the corrupt sheriff (police chief??) for libel, but Ace had all the facts right.  He had to fictionalize it so he could insert dialogue - but if you read his notes about it, he says that in a lot of cases, people that were present at certain events told him what was said but because it was technically/legally hearsay, he had to publish as a work of fiction.

Ok, maybe ripoff was a strong word for a fine Auburn man like Ace.

Just saying, that book has been written before, its nothing new really plot wise. What was his objective in re-writing it with a few pieces of fiction in it? (honest question, I'm curious) BTW, the movie is pretty good if you haven't seen it. And I agree its a fascinating story.

[Tiger Wench]

Ok, maybe ripoff was a strong word for a fine Auburn man like Ace.

Just saying, that book has been written before, its nothing new really plot wise. What was his objective in re-writing it with a few pieces of fiction in it? (honest question, I'm curious) BTW, the movie is pretty good if you haven't seen it. And I agree its a fascinating story.

As I mentioned - he got the first and only interviews with the family, including the son, and gained access to his personal papers.  Did you know that the man who came to notify the family is the one who had the guy killed?

The wicked city was just a struggling burg on the banks of the Chattahoochee River when Ace Atkins went to high school in nearby Auburn during the 1980s. Then he came across a reference to a 1955 B-movie titled "The Phenix City Story," a semi-documentary about a place that Look magazine called "the wickedest city in America."

A kind of Wild West outpost in the heart of Dixie, right across the bridge from Columbus, Ga., Phenix City was a nest of vice, corruption and organized crime. The sleaze thrived right up to the day in 1954 when Albert Patterson, the reform Democratic nominee for state attorney general, was assassinated there in an alley by his office. Martial law was declared and the National Guard called in to sweep up the place. The deputy sheriff was convicted of murder, but the plot extended to a web of other officials.

Atkins became hooked on the history. One of his grandfathers had helped broker underhanded deals for the governor between the Alabama highway department and local officials around the state, including in Phenix City. His other grandfather was a moonshiner.

Now Atkins has set his latest historical novel, "Wicked City," in the middle of the town at the time of its most notorious crime.

"For me to write a novel, I wanted it to be about something I could be obsessed with and something I knew about," Atkins said. "That was Phenix City."

[chinook]

Found in Nookie's locations world wide.

[Tiger Wench]

I think A Confederacy of Dunces is at the top of my list right now.  I'm from New Orleans, and I've heard nothing but great things about it.

You, an educator of young minds, HAVE NEVER READ THIS BOOK?!?!?!?

Damn, man.  This is a classic.  Unreal good.

For pure escapist fiction that is very very well written, and with you being a NOLA man, you should read the Dave Robicheaux detective novels by James Lee Burke.  He lives part time in New Iberia Parish, so he really GETS IT in terms of Louisiana attitudes and accents and habits and those little idiosyncracies that make the Acadian parishes like no place on earth.  I put Burke with Chandler and Parker and McBain and McDonald in the pantheon of great detective/cop writers.

[GH2001]

As I mentioned - he got the first and only interviews with the family, including the son, and gained access to his personal papers.  Did you know that the man who came to notify the family is the one who had the guy killed?

Ahhhh, so he had a personal connection to it. Did not know that. Makes more sense now why he wanted to do it.

I'm literally sitting about a mile from that alley where Patterson was shot. In fact, I rode right by it this morning. It is still there and unchanged since that time. Occasionally I look down it and think of what happened there some 60 years ago. Kind of surreal.

[wesfau2]

You, an educator of young minds, HAVE NEVER READ THIS BOOK?!?!?!?

Damn, man.  This is a classic.  Unreal good.

For pure escapist fiction that is very very well written, and with you being a NOLA man, you should read the Dave Robicheaux detective novels by James Lee Burke.  He lives part time in New Iberia Parish, so he really GETS IT in terms of Louisiana attitudes and accents and habits and those little idiosyncracies that make the Acadian parishes like no place on earth.  I put Burke with Chandler and Parker and McBain and McDonald in the pantheon of great detective/cop writers.

I'm not sure that I've ever said this, but I agree with every word of TW's post.

[Shug Dye]

I'm not sure that I've ever said this, but I agree with every word of TW's post.

I am 100% sure. Look at you, evolving.

[Kaos]

For pure escapist fiction that is very very well written, and with you being a NOLA man, you should read the Dave Robicheaux detective novels by James Lee Burke.  He lives part time in New Iberia Parish, so he really GETS IT in terms of Louisiana attitudes and accents and habits and those little idiosyncracies that make the Acadian parishes like no place on earth.  I put Burke with Chandler and Parker and McBain and McDonald in the pantheon of great detective/cop writers.

Read Purple Cane Road a while back.  Did not like.  At all.

Poorly told, full of contrivances and impossible situations. Loaded with implausible denouements and motives/motivations that did not ring true.  Characters were caricatures and none behaved in a manner I found reasonably human. 

Sorry, but just my opinion.  Won't go back to his stuff.

[AU_Tiger_2000]

I'm 27.  That age group. 

This isn't about my kids.  Their books are already assigned to them by the ALL KNOWING STATE. 

I've been thinking about reading Faulkner.  Never have except for the Barn Burning short story.

OK.  If you want to try Faulkner I would start with As I Lay Dying.  I managed to get through Sound and the Fury but a lot of his stuff is like Garman's alpha anus, impenetrable.

[Tiger Wench]

Read Purple Cane Road a while back.  Did not like.  At all.

Poorly told, full of contrivances and impossible situations. Loaded with implausible denouements and motives/motivations that did not ring true.  Characters were caricatures and none behaved in a manner I found reasonably human. 

Sorry, but just my opinion.  Won't go back to his stuff.

You can't just randomly read Burke's stuff.  The Robicheaux character is one that has gone through an incredible evolution since the first book - and there are around 20 of them now.  You probably didn't get the character motivations because you didn't have a clue about the serious backstory that goes with nearly every character.  The fact that many of the characters ARE somewhat of a caricature is a hallmark of his writing.  But I say this in defense of that style of writing - it works for Louisiana.  The residents of New Iberia parish and much of south Louisiana are so unique and their culture is so full of rich, flavorful over the top behavior with subtle nuances of weirdness that what seems a caricature to you actually allows anyone who has spent any time there, or who has dealt with anyone from there, to say "Yeah, I know someone JUST LIKE THAT." 

On the other hand, you seldom give positive reviews of anything, and your opinions, once made, are cemented in concrete and covered in Super Glue, so I won't bore you with any further explanation. 

[Kaos]

You can't just randomly read Burke's stuff.  The Robicheaux character is one that has gone through an incredible evolution since the first book - and there are around 20 of them now.  You probably didn't get the character motivations because you didn't have a clue about the serious backstory that goes with nearly every character.  The fact that many of the characters ARE somewhat of a caricature is a hallmark of his writing.  But I say this in defense of that style of writing - it works for Louisiana.  The residents of New Iberia parish and much of south Louisiana are so unique and their culture is so full of rich, flavorful over the top behavior with subtle nuances of weirdness that what seems a caricature to you actually allows anyone who has spent any time there, or who has dealt with anyone from there, to say "Yeah, I know someone JUST LIKE THAT." 

On the other hand, you seldom give positive reviews of anything, and your opinions, once made, are cemented in concrete and covered in Super Glue, so I won't bore you with any further explanation.

Eh.

I know what I like.  It didn't work for me.  Not saying that all his stuff would be that way, but I'm not going to wade through 20 books to get some nuance. 

There are things that Stephen King writes (Buick 8, Cell) that I think are potboiler trash and others (The Stand, Salem's Lot) that are quite magnificent. 

I like the stuff Vince Flynn writes about Mitch Rapp. Some of that is implausible and the last one wrapped up too succinctly but it does work for me.  Burke just didn't.  I didn't care for his style.  So I'll read something else.