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49

#FridayReads, Feb. 1–Kem Nunn’s “Pomona Queen” & Mike Dash in Smithsonian on a Brave Siberian Family

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#FridayReads, Feb. 1–Kem Nunn’s Pomona Queen, an engrossing California novel by the writer dubbed the originator of “surf-noir.” I had earlier read his best-known book “Tapping the Source,” and am glad I’m reading another. His sentence-making is worth savoring, and he creates out of luck characters you tend to care about, despite their dysfunction. Here, his protagonist is Earl Deen, descendant of an orange-growing family that’s seen better days. I see Nunn as a sort of Cormac McCarthy for southern California.Pomona Queen backPomona Queen

Also read and marveled over Mike Dash’s article in Smithsonian, on a Russian family, members of a sect persecuted by Stalin that fled in to Siberia’s vast reaches, and were discovered 40 years later, barely aware of civilization and oblivious to modern history. I blogged about the story earlier in the week, and have been sharing it widely. An amazing story, the kind of true tale I loved publishing in book form when I edited the Kodansha Globe series in the 1990s.

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#FridayReads, Jan. 25–Book Proposals from Prospective Author Clients

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#FridayReads, Jan. 25–I’ll pick up a proper book or two this weekend, but today’s been devoted to reading book proposals by authors I may be working with as their representative under the banner of my company, Philip Turner Book Productions. I’m delighted to have come upon some good really book ideas, with proposals on such topics as 1) a treatable human malady that affects tens of millions and is often misdiagnosed; 2) a comprehensive investigative account of a notorious murder of a journalist, whose author lays knowledge of the crime at the feet of a well-known politician, now deceased; 3) a book about women’s empowerment by a well-credentialed female expert that has appeal to a large audience; 4) an anthology of classic fiction of a sort that’s never before been assembled in this fashion; 5) a graphic memoir by an artist/author with a singular and engrossing story to draw and narrate.

Yes, it’s been a productive and enjoyable day of professional reading.

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#FridayReads, Jan. 18–“God Save the Mark,” Donald E. Westlake and “Going Clear,” Lawrence Wright

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Westlake#FridayReads, Jan. 18–God Save the Mark, a wise-cracking mystery novel by the peerless Donald E. Westlake, featuring a naive young man who inherits a fortune from an uncle he never even knew of, and then tries to keep his hands on it, and away from the lurking no-goodniks who want to fleece him of his windfall. Westlake’s dialogue is street-wise, funny, and real.

Also, just starting to read Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief,Lawrence Wright’s careful dissection and, as the flap copy reads, “deep penetration” of a modern cult. One case Wright reports on is that of Kyle Brennan, a 20-year old whose tragic suicide may have been preceded by his father’s acquiescence to a Scientologist bigwig’s instruction to withhold from the young man medicine prescribed for him by a psychiatrist. The NY Times has already released a review of the book that will appear in this coming Sunday’s Book Review, by Michael Kinsley, who calls it “essential reading.” Should make for revelatory reading this weekend. Going Clear

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#FridayReads, Jan. 11–“Zero” by Collinson Owen & “The Troubled Man” by Henning Mankell

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#FridayReads, Jan. 11–“Zero” by Collinson Owen. Enjoyed this engrossing late-Edwardian (1927) potboiler about a novelist who welcomes the opportunity dealt him by a train wreck that leads his wife and friends to believe he’s been killed. Notwithstanding a new life under a nom de plume that shoots his career as a writer to new heights, he discovers a powerful urge to somehow go home again. It has lots of London publishing and theatre world material. According to the inside, Owen wrote at least 5 other books: The Adventure of Antoine; The Rockingham Diamond; The Battle of London (as “Hugh Addison”); C.O’s Cameos; and Salonica and After, a travel narrative. It’s easy to see why this was a popular entertainment in its day. I (gently as possible) reread my 1927 copy (it’s mostly disbound).Zero insideZero

Have moved on to The Troubled Man, another Kurt Wallander police procedural novel in my recent binge of books by Henning Mankell. This is one of the last of his Wallander novels, with the taciturn detective investigating the inexplicable disappearance of his in-laws. This book also features his daughter Linda, a police captain herself. It is the father and mother of her beau that have gone missing. I know from the sequence of these novels that Wallander is going to retire soon, plagued as he is by diabetes and terminal ennui, a fear that he’s wasting his life in futile pursuit of lawbreakers. I love these books for Mankell’s loyalty to his characters.Troubled ManMankell

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#FridayReads, Dec. 28–“My Friend Dahmer” & “The Fifth Woman,” a Wallander Mystery by Henning Mankell

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#FridayReads, Dec. 28–My Friend Dahmer, a graphic art memoir by Derf Backderf. A powerful book of comic art filled with distressing and dramatic aspects of Jeffrey Dahmer’s adolescence in a suburb near Akron, Ohio, where the future serial killer went to high school with the author. Published by the estimable Abrams Comic Art imprint.

Just finishing the pulsating police procedural The Fifth Woman, a Wallander novel by the Swedish mystery master Henning Mankell. This is the fifth of Mankell’s books I’ve read in the past couple months, and I’ve found each one more compelling and engrossing than the last. As in all the Wallander books, the diabolical plot is gripping, but it is the humanity of the police officers that pulls the reader through the yarn.

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#FridayReads, Dec. 7–“Sidetracked,” a Kurt Wallander novel

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#FridayReads, Dec. 7–Sidetracked, a Kurt Wallander novel by Henning Mankell. In finishing this gripping novel which features a serial killer taking revenge for harm done to his vulnerable sister I’ve completed a binge of three Mankell books read over the past several weeks.

The others were The Dogs of Riga (originally pub’d in 1992, it’s set in Latvia as the Eastern Bloc was on the verge of collapse) and The White Lioness (first out in ’95, it’s set amid the end of apartheid in South Africa, with a terrifyingly plausible plot on the life of Nelson Mandela). The cases become more engrossing and Wallander more believable and sympathetic the deeper you read in to the series. Last year, I read Faceless Killers, One Step Behind, and Firewall, so I think there’s only one I haven’t read, The Fifth Woman.

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#FridayReads, Nov. 30–“The Pot Thief Who Studied Billy the Kid”

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#FridayReads, Nov. 30–Just starting The Pot Thief Who Studied Billy the Kid, by J. Michael Orenduff, manuscript of the latest mystery in the delightful Pot Thief series which I’m representing to publishers as agent. These novels, set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, feature protagonist Hubie Schuze, a pottery geek. Hubie loves digging in the desert for ancient pots and crafting copies of artifacts with his own hands. When not engaged in these activities, he is usually absorbed in reading a book, often a classic. He has a sidekick in sleuthing, Susannah Inchaustigui, a descendant of one of New Mexico’s Basque ranching families. They meet most afternoons at Hermanas Tortilleria, to sip margaritas and discuss their latest puzzler. The books are very funny and deserve a wide readership.

In the new book, Hubie is clandestinely digging for Anasazi pots in ancient cliff dwelling, when he grasps a withered human hand. He was hoping for an artifact, not a handshake and is puzzled by his discovery, since the Anasazi did not bury their dead in their living quarters.

Earlier titles in the series are The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein, The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier, and The Pot Thief Who Studied D.H. Lawrence. While I am working to find Mr. Orenduff a major publisher for his books, the books are in the meantime available and sold at Amazon.com.