What are you reading?

[JCharles]

[QUOTE=Raven;4352]Within the past couple of weeks I’ve wrapped up “Spade and Archer,” the prequel to the Maltese Falcon by Joe Gores,

Raven, I enjoyed Spade and Archer very much, as well. I've been a long time Joe Gores fan and have read almost all of his novels and stories. If you haven't come across them, look up his "Hammett", which is the basis for the eponymous neo-noir, and "Interface", a fast-moving PI novel set in the 70s. His Dan Kearney series is great, also, especially "32 Cadillacs".

[reedphotos]

I took a break from crime stories to try some steampunk. I've resolved to read it, but it's a slow, painful read compared to all the crime and pulp I was reading before this. It's The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Not holding my interest very well.

[Steve-O]

I'm reading "The Big Book of Pulps" which has lots of stories about prohibition (it's interesting to read about that era... written in that time) which gets me thinking about Boardwalk Empire.

Next on my reading list: Keith Richard's Life. It's getting great reviews...

[JCharles]

I'm reading "The Big Book of Pulps" which has lots of stories about prohibition (it's interesting to read about that era... written in that time) which gets me thinking about Boardwalk Empire.

Next on my reading list: Keith Richard's Life. It's getting great reviews...

I agree, The Big Book of Pulps is excellent and an obvious companion volume to The Big Book of Black Mask Stories. In Pulps, I especially liked The Crimes of Richmond City...Frederick Nebel always deserves to be in print. I'm reading the Black Mask volume now, and probably for the rest of the year!

[philsunset]

Interesting topic here. Not noir but I recently finished the definitive biography of musician Kate Bush called "Under the Ivy". Excellent reading for Kate fans. Now reading two film books, the classic The Haunted Screen by Lotte Eisner. And Despite the System by Clinton Heylin, the story of Orson Welles' struggles with the movie industry.

phil

[reedphotos]

I just added The Big Book of Pulps and the Black Mask anthology to my Amazon wish list last night. If you're interested in America during Prohibitiion, over the summer I read Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent. I found it fascinating.

[Hard-Boiled-Rick]

I'm reading "The Big Book of Pulps" which has lots of stories about prohibition (it's interesting to read about that era... written in that time) which gets me thinking about Boardwalk Empire.

Next on my reading list: Keith Richard's Life. It's getting great reviews...

An excellent compilation of pulp for noir addicts:
Like Raymond Chandler’s Red Wind, Cornell Woolrich’s Two Murders, One Crime and Dashiell Hammett’s The Girl with the Silver Eyes

Recently read

• Los Angeles Noir 2
• The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith (highly recommend Notes from a Respectable Coackroach, and Hamsters vs. Websters, and The Middle-Class Housewife)
• Ava Gardner: “Love is Nothing”

[Raven]

"Next on my reading list: Keith Richard's Life. It's getting great reviews... " I wonder who kept track of what happened during his life as I'm sure Keith doesn't have a clue! I'm thinking he's about as coherant as Brian Jones.

[Night Editor]

"Next on my reading list: Keith Richard's Life. It's getting great reviews... " I wonder who kept track of what happened during his life as I'm sure Keith doesn't have a clue! I'm thinking he's about as coherant as Brian Jones.

Terry Gross interviewed Richards for an hour on NPR last evening. He was reasonably coherent, even articulate throughout most of the session.

He seemed indifferent to most of what had happened in his 'Life' (the name of the book), really coming alive only when asked to talk about playing guitar and recording technique.

He's the total opposite of the self-aggrandiizng celebrity. This would be unlike Paul McCartney who has turned into the world's biggest a**hole - if he wasn't all along.

[silhouette]

Just checked out "Dialogues of Plato" as well as a book about the hauntings of the Black Hills. Still working on that newer book on happiness by the Dalai Lama.

[Steve-O]

Seriously considering reading this list on order (I've already breezed through many on the list in my life... from Red Harvest on down to The Ax.)

http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/pages/.../200_noirs.php

[Movie Memories]

Nothing noir or film related. The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood, by Jane Leavy. Interesting reading, but bursting a lot of my childhood hero's bubbles.

[stephan]

I am not much found of reading.... I have a little bit time to reading the book. in My spare time i read Pride and Prejudice book..
Heroine hates the hero in this novel. But whenthe heroine sees him for what he really is and realises (after visiting his enormous house) that she loves him....

[Davidmk]

I am on the second stieg larsson book , The Girl who Played with fire .

[Andrew666]

I'm currently reading the latest in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Browne series - Started Early, Took My Dog - always extremely well written and the character, a private detective, has such an interesting premise. His beloved teenage daughter is killed in a random terrorist bombing and the tragedy and the pointlessless of that haunts him through all his investigations. In that respect, the books have characteristics similar to the great Icelandic mystery writer Arnaldur Indriddason.



I've just finished the latest Peter Lovesey book, Skeleton Hill. Always brilliant, this one involves the murder of a Ukrainian prostitute twenty years ago and the steps that DCI Diamond goes to in order to find the killer, because the girl had no one in the world who cared what happened to her whilst she lived.

Also just finished the latest Frank Tallis Vienna-set at the turn-of-the-last-century mystery, starring Max Liebermann - called Death and the Maiden - and it's then on to the Elmore Leonard book - Up In Honey's Place - that I've been keeping on the shelf for a bit until the time when I wanted to give myself a special treat - and that time is now.

[roger2]

I'm currently reading DEAD IN THE FAMILY written by Charlaine Harris....
DEad in the family presents all the thing in the novel which you want in a good novel...

[Steve-O]

I just finished reading W. R. Burnett's High Sierra now I'm ripping through Tough Without a Gun -- which is fantastic. Did you know: Ida Lupino (who was credited above Bogart in High Sierra) refused to work with Bogart again... After George Raft and Lupino snubbed Bogie... he took a long trip on his boat and refused to appear as a supporting player in a western which got him suspended by WB. Desperate to find someone to appear in their latest thriller, WB realizing that HB was at the end of his suspension --opted for him... to star in The Maltese Falcon.

[Justanotherdame]

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.

Great series!

[Justanotherdame]

Just started http://www.amazon.ca/Cain-His-Brothe...8589570&sr=8-1 Cain His Brother by Anne Perry.

I can't seem to get enough of William Monk. Nineteenth century amnesiac with an attitude and a half.

[Night Editor]

Who likes whom...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011...redirect=false