Classic Returns: Hunter S. Thompson's Rum Diary & Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder Stories
By Mike Rogers Oct 6, 2011Summer is over, thankfully. We survived the usual heat and humidity in New York, plus an earthquake, a hurricane, and flooding. Nature really is a mother, but books can get you through anything, so here are some goodies to help you through the next disaster, be it natural or personal. In fiction, there are thrillers, a marvelous two-volume collection of Harlem Renaissance novels, and a self-published ebook/paperback of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder stories (new and old). Nonfiction is no less rich with travel writings from Paul Bowles, literary autobiography by Agatha Christie, and even desserts! Plus a few audiobooks that are sure to be crowd-pleasers.—Mike Rogers
FICTION | NONFICTION | AUDIOBOOKS
Block, Lawrence. The Night and the Music. Lawrence Block. Oct. 2011. 235p. ISBN 9781937387327. pap. $14.95; eISBN 9781937387310. EPUB. $2.99. MYST
It seems Block is having a hard time retiring; he’s already produced six books this year in his leisure time—thank the maker. This simultaneous ebook/paperback collects nine stories featuring former New York–cop–turned unlicensed PI Matthew Scudder. The majority of these shorts are reprints, but two stories, “Mick Ballou Looks at the Blank Screen” and “One Last Night at Grogan’s,” are new and bring Scudder’s story up to date. Block mixes the traditional procedural whodunits with more contemplative and anecdotal character-driven pieces. In the newer writings, Scudder is older, wiser, married (again), off the booze, and looking at life through more experienced eyes. Couched within the action are commentaries about the then-looming AIDS crisis and the lingering problem of the homeless in New York, so there’s a conscience at work. A quicker, more enjoyable read you won’t find, and veteran Scudder fans will rejoice at sharing his adventures again. May Block—and Scudder—never retire.
Finney, Charles G. The Circus of Dr. Lao. Univ. of Nebraska. 2011. 154p. illus. ISBN 9780803234949. pap. $14.95. F
Released in 1935, Finney's speculative novel is set in the Arizona boonies during the Great Depression. The most notable quality of the town of Abalone is that you could die of boredom-until Dr. Lao's circus arrives bearing a medusa, a sea serpent, a talking sphinx, a mermaid, witches, a werewolf, and other curiosities, each with a story to tell. Their tales reveal the inner lives of the local citizens, and the revelations turn the town on its head. This edition includes the complete original text with a handful of surrealist illustrations by Boris Artzybasheff.
Griffin, Gerald. The Collegians. Atlantic. (Crime Classics). 2011. 478p. ISBN 9781843548553. pap. $12.95. F
Griffin's 1829 novel is based on a court trial held the same year. Set in Ireland, the plot follows Hardress Cregan, a young collegian who is supposed to marry a wealthy woman, but falls for and marries a poor one. But what to do about the rich lass? She'll have to be gotten out of the way. This crime novel was quite popular in its day and now would fit into historic crime collections.
Harlem Renaissance: Five Novels of the 1920s. 867p. ISBN 9781598530995.
Harlem Renaissance: Four Novels of the 1930s. 848p. ISBN 9781598531015.
ea. vol: Library of America. 2011. $35. F
Edited by African American literature scholar Rafia Zafar, the 1920s collection sports Jean Toomer's Cane (1923), Claude Mckay's Home to Harlem (1928), Nella Larsen's Quicksand (1928), Jessie Redmon Fauset's Plum Bun (1928), and Wallace Thurman's The Blacker the Berry (1929). The 1930s volume offers Langston Hughes's Not Without Laughter (1931), George S. Schuyler's Black No More (1931), Rudolph Fisher's The Conjure-Man Dies (1932), and Arna Bontemp's Black Thunder (1936). Like many Library of America volumes, this duo, which also is available as a $70 boxed set (ISBN 9781598531060), thoroughly addresses a literary movement. If your library is lacking in this area, snag these, and you're good to go.
MacLean, Alister. HMS Ulysses. Sterling. 2011. 308p. ISBN 9781402790348. pap. $11.95. F
MacLean's 1955 military thriller portrays the hardship of sailors who fought in the bitter waters of the North Atlantic in World War II. The Ulysses crew is so weary from too many missions that mutiny is near. The ship is promised a relocation to the Caribbean if it completes one last assignment. Unfortunately, it could be the crew's most dangerous voyage. If the enemy doesn't get them, the cold might. MacLean is always a solid page-turning read.
Rayner, Claire. First Blood. MP Pub. Sept. 2011. c.360p. ISBN 9781849821162. pap. $10.95. F
This 1996 novel introduced Dr. George Barnabus, who would return in four additional outings. Never mind her first name, Barnabus is Scotland Yard's first female chief pathologist. For her first assignment, she is given a high-profile case involving a best-selling author's murder. Barnabus is convinced she can solve the crime, although it might prove quite difficult since there's no visible cause of death either inside or outside the body. Rayner's Barnabus series did quite well internationally, so should find readership among medical mystery fans.
Bowles, Paul. Travels: Collected Writings, 1950–1993. Ecco: HarperCollins. 2011. 508p. photogs. ISBN 9780062067630. pap. $16.99. TRAV
Bowles wrote numerous travel pieces throughout his distinguished career, but this is the first time they've been collected in a single volume. Reflecting his travels, more than 40 essays range as far as Paris, Ceylon, Thailand, Kenya, and Morocco. Of course, his novelist's eye captures tremendous detail. The book also features the author's pictures from his adventures as well as an intro by Paul Theroux and a chronology of his travels by scholar Dan Halpern. A beauty.
Christie, Agatha. An Autobiography. Harper. Dec. 2011. 542p. illus. index. ISBN 9780062073594. $25.99 with audio CD. LIT
Despite being as famous as she was for so long, Christie shunned interviews and managed to keep her life very private, even vanishing for a while. She began writing these memoirs in 1950 and worked on them off and on for the next 15 years. An Autobiography was published just after her death in 1976. Beginning with her childhood, she unfurls her life and gives insight into the writing regimen that turned her into the world's most widely read author (bested only by the Bible and Shakespeare), her World War II volunteer work, and more. There's nothing like a dame; a solid choice for literature and biography collections. The audio CD contains Christie's readings of selections from the book.
Crane, Stephen. Complete Poems. Library of America. (American Poets Project). 2011. 166p. illus. index. ISBN 9781598530933. $20. POETRY
The Library of America is on a roll, baby! Although most immediately think prose when considering Crane, he also was a prolific poet. This collection gathers the poems published in The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895) and War Is Kind (1899), plus numerous uncollected pieces. Crane didn't pull his punches, and despite the time of their original publications, there's nothing Victorian about these brief pieces (he's not exactly a cheery guy). With budgets being what they are and the public's reading tastes skewing toward other genres, libraries probably aren't buying much poetry, but this is worth having.
Dieterly, Lois. Sinfully Vegan. Da Capo. 2011. 306p. index. ISBN 9780738214887. pap. $18. COOKING
Since this book's 2003 debut, many more Americans have stopped stuffing burgers into their kissers and adopted a vegan lifestyle, or at least excluded meat and dairy from their menus a few times a week. Dieterly goes right for most people's weak spot by offering more than 160 recipes (including 20 new) for desserts. Instead of traditional ingredients, she uses instant coffee, liquid egg replacements, and vegan milk, etc. Eating healthy doesn't mean you have to deny your sweet tooth, so jump on this one.
Talbot, William Henry Fox. The Pencil of Nature. KWS Pub. 2011. 150p. illus. ISBN 9780981773667. $150. PHOTOG
Talbot was a pioneering photography enthusiast who created many of the methods for developing negatives that were used for years. He published this in six parts between 1844 and 1846. It was the first publication ever to feature pictures, but it didn't find an audience, and this forced Talbot to abandon additional volumes. The reprint features 24 photos with accompanying chapters in which he explains minutely how the images were taken, developed, and printed. Talbot made his chemistry from scratch and experimented mightily until landing on methods that produced even exposures. The price, alas, is probably a stumbling block for most, but it's nice for history of photography collections if you can afford it.
Fiction
Thomspon, Hunter S. The Rum Diary. 4 CDs. retail ed. abridged. 4 hrs. S. & S. Audio. 2011. ISBN 9781442346451. $14.99. F
Pre-gonzo era Thompson started this novel in 1959 when he was 22 years old. A pretty good start, as it became a national best seller. Set in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the 1950s, the plot follows a journalist who meets a mysterious woman who leads him into the city's steamy underbelly (don't mysterious women always do that in books?). Note that the novel has been morphed into a forthcoming film starring Johnny Depp, who played Thompson (they were friends) in Terry Gilliam's big-screen adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The film likely will spur interest in this packaged tie-in.
Nonfiction
Pileggi, Nicholas. Wiseguy. 3 CDs. retail ed. unabridged. 3 hrs. S. & S. Audio. 2011. ISBN 9781442345423. $14.99. TRUE CRIME
This is the 25th anniversary edition of the story that brought the name Henry Hill to prominence, both here and in director Martin Scorsese's film version, Goodfellas, the best mob film ever made ("I took care of that thing for you"). Hill was a New York Mafioso who turned federal informant. He provided the most detailed portrait of life inside the mob, spilling on countless crimes from arson to hijacking, including the $6 million Lufthansa heist, which remains the largest cash robbery in U.S. history. This short title is a must-listen for mob heads.
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