What are you reading?
I think it'd be fun to see what folks are reading right now. I'm a big reader and I love pulp (like the Hard Case Crime series). Right now I'm reading Charles Willeford's Miami Blues. A humorous noir that was eventually made into a surprisingly good movie.
I'm with you on the 'Hard Case' imprint. Can't get enough of 'em.
Right now though: 'Driver' by James Sallis. Literate, 'existential' pulp but still pulp.
In a distinctly NON-Noir vein, I am on an "alternate history" kick, and am currectly reading "West and East," the second book in Harry Turtledove's alternate history of WW II, which is based on the idea that Hitler began the war in 1938 rather than 1939.
Don't wish to sound like a poseur, but I speak Italian and I'm currently reading Giulio Leoni's "La Donna Sulla Luna" (The Woman on The Moon). It's one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It takes place in the ambience of Fritz Lang making his lost masterpiece The Woman on The Moon, which he made soon after The Ring of the Niiebelung, M and Dr Mabuse. The plot focuses on the murder of a female Russian special effects expert on the movie. Meinecke, the house detective, is given the task of investigating the case. As he does so, he untangles a complex web of intrigue involving the Nazis, Rosicrucian-type societies, spys, Italian diplomats, Werner Von Braun, Horbiger, Goebbels, the SA leader Otto Rahn, Lang's wife, muse and scriptwriter Thea Von Harboe, a transexual, Kurt Weill and many others. The atmosphere is full-on noir and I just hope the ending lives up to the build-up - I'm not quite there yet!
Thanks for this. And good for you if you can speak more than one language.Originally Posted by Andrew666
I'm not all that familiar with modern Italian crime fiction but I've certainly enjoyed several of the more noirish writers that I've read recently such as Massimo Carlotto and Giancarlo Carofiglio.
But also, Andrea Camilleri's 'Inspector Montalbano' books, particularly as they've done such a good job on the follow-up television series. There's a beguiling mixture of comic light-heartedness and real despair that strikes me as something that's singularly Italian in character (?).
Last edited by Night Editor; 10-04-2010 at 05:16 PM.
Two new collections well worth purchasing have come out in the past few weeks,' The Best American Noir Of The Century' and ' The Black Lizard Big Book Of Black Mask Stories".
Best American Noir is edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler and starts with 'Spurs' by Tod Robbins from 1923 (which was made into the classic Tod Browning film 'Freaks') and ends with 'Missing The Morning Bus' by Lorenzo Carcaterra from
2007. It looks like a great collection with some interesting choices, including the seldom reprinted 'Gun Crazy', basis for the film of the same name.
Black Mask Stories is edited by Otto Penzler and is a really big book (1116 pages!) of classics from the pulp mag where hard-boiled fiction really got started. It includes the original serialized version of 'The Maltese Falcon' as it first appeared with the original heading illustrations. According to the intro there are 2000 textual differences between this and the later novel version. I can't wait to dive into these!
Currently I'm reading 'The Hilliker Curse' by James Ellroy, and 'The Heart Of Darkness' by Conrad because my wife is creating a high school teaching edition. They're rather complementary in a way.
Reading The Barbed Wire Kiss by friend-of-BAN Wallace Stroby. So far it's excellent. He really has an ear for street lingo...
Brian: Both of those collections sound irresistible.
Man (or woman) does not live by Noir alone.
I just finished an excellent book called "LeMans 1955," which is about the famous crash of Pierre Levegh's Mercedes racing car into the spectators near the pit area at the race. For any of you who read (or used to read) Road & Track, the book is a real trip due to the anecdotes and recollections of racers of the 1950s such as Mike Hawthorn, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jean Behra, Stirling Moss, and all those great drivers of a half-century ago.
I'm currently reading Los Angeles Noir. It is one book out of a series that feature Noir stories from different cities, even venturing into different countries such as Mumbai, Dublin, Moscow, etc. Each book is an anthology featuring roughly eighteen stories. For more information please go to: http://www.akashicbooks.com/noirseries.htm
"Expensive, eh?" -Tony Comante to Johnny Lovo
Not noir - but certainly with a noirish feel. I'm currently reading Frank Tallis' "Deadly Communion", the latest in the series of mysteries featuring Vienna detective-psychoanalyst Max Liebermann. Set in Vienna around about 1910, the books also have passing cameos from people such as Freud. There are ongoing sub-plots that help to round out the characters but the books can be easily read out of sequence. Meticulous attention to detail, strong twisting plots and great characterisation make these books a real joy to read. The real mystery is why these books haven't so far been picked up for TV or film.
I'm a fan of Camilleri and Taibo.
Just finished reading Ken Bruen's London Boulevard (reviewed at my book blog) and just started The Best American Noir of the Century. The intro is worth the cost of the book alone.
Last edited by Guy Savage; 10-04-2010 at 03:56 PM.
"Don't give me that love stuff."
I just got my copy of the Black Mask collection and read the Nebel story and one by Whitfield, both great pulpsters. There's plenty of good stuff in there, including the serial Rainbow Diamonds, written by Whitfield under his alter ego, Ramon DaColta. He writes about a Phillipine detective named Jo Gar. Anyone who enjoys the TV noir, China Smith will dig that one.
I recently finished re-reading Chandler's Lady In the Lake, I always come back to something by him at least once a year. I also finished a Gold Medal paperback original by Robert Edmond Alter, Swamp Sister, which can be classified as Gator Noir.
Last edited by JCharles; 10-04-2010 at 10:19 PM. Reason: Corrected story title
I've been on a crime book mad tear lately. The Blonde by Duane Swierczynski, Gun Monkeys by Victor Gischler, The Extraordiinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc, and I just started Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont.
I have a copy of The Blonde that I haven't gotten to yet. How did you like it?
Fast-paced out of the gate. Once I started it was difficult to put down. A really fun read.
Thanks reed, the faster the better. I'll move it up on my "to read" list.
In the past couple weeks I've started the Black Mask Collection, Jonathan Franzen's
'Freedom', and a couple books on Al Pacino who I saw in 'The Merchant Of Venice' last night
(and was fortunate enough to shake hands with at the stage door after the show).
I tend to read several books at once, which takes longer but keeps things a bit more
interesting for me.
Within the past couple of weeks I’ve wrapped up “Spade and Archer,” the prequel to the Maltese Falcon by Joe Gores, a second reading of “The Killer Inside Me” as my own personal prequel to watching the film (with I did earlier this week) and just started on a selection of short stories called “San Francisco Noir 2.”
My copy of the “The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories,” which came to me via our pal and frequent NOTW’er Guy Savage, keeps calling me, but it’s so massive I keep running and hiding from it.
Half-way through Paul Cain's Seven Slayers, his book of Black Mask short stories, which I picked up in a charity shop for 60p - probably the best deal I ever made in my life. The style is iconic, but the narrative so sparse, it's sometimes difficult to follow the plot and motivation of the characters - a great read though. I keep seing how three of the stories could be woven into one using the same PI and I'm thinking about writing a script around that........when those two magic words appear - free time.
Also reading Boris Akunin's 'She Lover of Death'. The man is an absolute genius, and Erast Fandorin already a legendary character. If you haven't read any from the series beefore though, I would recommend starting with the first - "The Winter Queen"
[QUOTE=Andrew666;4353]Half-way through Paul Cain's Seven Slayers, his book of Black Mask short stories, which I picked up in a charity shop for 60p - probably the best deal I ever made in my life. The style is iconic, but the narrative so sparse, it's sometimes difficult to follow the plot and motivation of the characters - a great read though. I keep seing how three of the stories could be woven into one using the same PI and I'm thinking about writing a script around that........when those two magic words appear - free time.
Andrew, it's great to hear from someone who has discovered Paul Cain, one of my personal favorites. Have you read his one hardboiled novel Fast One? It's actually five Black Mask stories put together with a few central characters. If you haven't read it, don't miss it, a surefire classic. Paul Cain also was a screenwriter under the name Peter Ruric. He wrote the Karloff-Lugosi vehicle, The Black Cat and a pretty good crime film, Grand Central Murder.
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