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Picks of the Week

  • Adam Thirlwell: Politics: A Novel (P.S.)

    Adam Thirlwell: Politics: A Novel (P.S.)
    One would think this book is about sex, And while it is, since the characters have so much about it, some of it is kinky, and threesomes play a big role in the narrative. mostly POLITICS is about everything else: the mechanics, the logistics, the emotional minefields, the awkward questions, the moral dilemmas, and, well, the politics of what it is to be with someone you love or someone you don't, and how an act that should be simple is anything but. Thirlwell was disgustingly young when he wrote this but he absolutely understands that to make this book work, there must be an underlying sweetness and sincerity to the entire story. Now I want to see what he's up to more recently. Amazon | Indiebound | B & N | Borders | Powell’s

  • Jennifer Mascia: Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir

    Jennifer Mascia: Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir
    Years ago I was blown away by Mascia's Modern Love piece describing her parents' secret past: her father was a mobbed-up convicted murderer, and her mother not only knew all about it, but aided and abetted her husband when life required being a fugitive, selling drugs, and living at great highs and crushing lows. Mascia's book tells a more whole story about her peripatetic life, and even with every new shocking revelation what remained consistent was how much she loved her parents, no matter how deep those lows went, and how much she misses them now that they are gone. Unconditional love never goes away, no matter if those who receive it deserve it. Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N | Powell’s

  • Juli Zeh: In Free Fall

    Juli Zeh: In Free Fall
    Give me a novel of ideas and if the story is good and the characters are believable and entertain me, I am there. Give me a crime novel of ideas, where two physics professors, friends and rivals, opposites but startlingly similar, do emotional battle on an intellectual canvas, raise the stakes through betrayal, the possible kidnapping of a child, and embroil a romantic-leaning police detective in the complicated machinations of quantum theory, and holy hell, I think I have myself one of my favorite books of the year. Powell’s | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N

  • Simon Lelic: A Thousand Cuts

    Simon Lelic: A Thousand Cuts
    It appears to be a crime with an easy solution: a disgruntled schoolteacher shoots up his place of employment and kills several students in the process. But really, Lelic's novel is about the catastrophic consequences of bullying, and how this act is hardly limited to kids turning on other kids, but burrows deeply into adult relationships as well. He evokes empathy for the killer and sympathy for Lucia, the investigating officer who has to fight for every scrap of dignity as she pieces together the far more complex truth of what really happened at the school. Powell’s | Amazon | Borders | Indiebound | B & N

  • William Lindsay Gresham: Nightmare Alley

    William Lindsay Gresham: Nightmare Alley
    I cannot stop raving about this book to people. The circular narrative structure, the demented feel of a traveling carny troupe, and the extraordinary rise and precipitous fall of Stan Carlisle give off the persistent, raging feeling that hell is always with us, and success is basically a sucker's game. No matter what the biographical evidence on Gresham's state of mind leading up to and after the book's bestseller (and movie basis) status in 1946, I don't think we can really know what demons plagued him to produce this marvelous noir gem. B & N | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | Powell’s

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« Who Knew the British Thriller was in Jeopardy? | Main | Smatterings »

April 21, 2009

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Comments

Graham

The only was this could have been better is if it were hand-written in blood. Not Ellroy's blood; someone else's.

Bill Crider

Probably another book I won't get around to reading.

RhondaL

So, is that also a new model for query letters?? :)

Gordon Harries

Yeah, I was mildly stunned to get a 'Friend Request' from 'The Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction'

Really looking forward to my ARC.

Dana King

If only Ellroy wasn't quite such a self-effacing wallflower.

This book is not going on my TBR list until I know for sure it's not a logical descendent of THE COLD SIX THOUSAND, which doesn't sound promising, based on his own groin-grabbing description.

keith Rawson

Ah, come on, you got to love the groin grabbing discription. Ellroy truly is the last asshole writer in the U.S. He's so over the top he makes you shake your head a little and sigh, but it does make me want to read the final book in the trilogy. And I'll agree with Gordon on this one: Weirdest friend request ever.

I.J.Parker

This turns booksellers on?

Cornelia Read

Words: Me. Failing.

David Thayer

Things have been tough all over since the Rat Pack started the Vietnam War and Sam Giancana iced Che Guevara and those limbo dancing red necks stormed the book store...that was a rush.
Where was I? Oh yeah, good copy.

Nathan Cain

I've been reading Ellroy for a long time, and I'm not sure what to think of him any more. I think he might have turned into the character he was playing.

Gordon Harries

Really, I woulden't want every Author to behave thus, but were people expecting ELLROY to be subdued?

Jake Nantz

Umm...wow.


Just wow.

Sarah Graves

Love it. A new one by Ellroy is a rare treat for me. He's so genuinely himself in that inimitable take-it-or-leave-it way he has. Unapologetic, and so...well. Brave, actually.

tad

When did James Ellroy Bcome Harlan Ellison? Ellroy's blurb, the WAY it's written, & the novel's title BLOOD'S A ROVER, all sound XACTLY like Ellison around 1972. (4 those who missed him, Ellison was a brilliant science-fiction, fantasy & sometimes crime-style/thriller writer who peaked in popularity & creativity in the late '60s/early '70s. BLOOD'S A ROVER was a title Ellison was GOING 2 use 4 a novelization of his popular "Boy and His Dog" stories -- until HE burned-out & got 2 old....)
Ellroy's grabby prose here sounds JUST LIKE JE parodying Ellison at HE's most hyper. So I can only assume Ellroy's bn possessed? Ellroy's pretty brilliant -- but I didn't read BLACK DAHLIA, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL & THE BIG NOWHERE just Bcos they reminded me of some1 ELSE....
Thanx 4 sharing Ellroy's ravings, tho....
-- TAD.

MPJ

I cannot wait until September for this book.

Bill Loehfelm

So James Ellroy writes a bad James Ellroy parody to sell his book. Fine by me. You can do that when you're James Ellroy. I, for one, will buy that mad bitch the day it drops and read the hell out of it.

 John

Nazi writers fuck off...

Peter

Responses almost as entertaining as the original material!
Love to hear readers, writers, reviewers go at each other. The condensing requirement of a brief response forces a combination of poetic quality and comic punchline I really enjoy.
Life would be much less interesting without the likes of Ellroy to push us off balance. Met Ellroy in 1992 - he is all you say, and less.

nella

I was your friend on facebook , dear James...but now I deleted my account for different reasons...but I don't want loose your friendahip....You tell me..love the life, hate the death, and like the dogs...I make all that things..and then we must remain friends!!!!With love and admiration.

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