So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[FredH]

Just knocked off King & Straub’s The Talisman and Black House, in preparation for the third book (Other Worlds Than These) coming out later this year. I admit that the title of that last obviously being related to the Dark Tower series, which I liked a good deal, was the impetus.

Funny thing about King (or King & Straub?) — any given novel can wobble back and forth between nobody-talks-like-that airport novel dialogue, and absolutely beautiful literary writing.

 

[Greg Cox]

Yep. Thorne Smith was indeed once a very big deal: a bestselling author known for writing mildly racy (for the time) supernatural comedies.

Remember reading "Night Life of the Gods" back in the day, and seen a couple of the "Topper" movies, including the classic original with Cary Grant and much later tv-version with Kate Jackson.

 

[bdub76]

Good news. A lot of his stuff is in public domain and GrannyGrump over at MobileReads has made epub versions. This poster does a great job laying out epubs.

Link removed by moderator

 

[Avro Arrow]

Good news. A lot of his stuff is in public domain and GrannyGrump over at MobileReads has made epub versions. This poster does a great job laying out epubs.

Link removed by moderator

OK, my apologies, but I have no reasonable way of confirming that all the books at that link are all public domain, so I have removed the link because of our no piracy rule.

 

[Steve Roby]

Yep. Thorne Smith was indeed once a very big deal: a bestselling author known for writing mildly racy (for the time) supernatural comedies.

Remember reading "Night Life of the Gods" back in the day, and seen a couple of the "Topper" movies, including the classic original with Cary Grant and much later tv-version with Kate Jackson.

I'd forgotten about the Kate Jackson movie. I don't think I've seen that one. So that's four Topper movies, then.

I discovered Thorne Smith through the run of novels Del Rey reprinted in the mid-1980s, and came across a few old hardcovers of books they hadn't reprinted, and went on from there. I've been saving Dreams End for a rainy day but I've read everything else.

 

[KRAD]

My favorite run on Doctor Strange was Roger Stern's -- with a variety of artists, including Marshall Rogers, Dan Green, and Paul Smith, with fill-ins by folks like Steve Leialoha and Mark Badger and Bret Blevins. But Stern absolutely nailed the feel better than anyone since Lee and Ditko, even more than Englehart.

 

[bdub76]

OK, my apologies, but I have no reasonable way of confirming that all the books at that link are all public domain, so I have removed the link because of our no piracy rule.

No worries. That site has a policy of author's life plus 70 years. The author we were discussing died over 90 years ago, so their books were available there. And they are in public domain. The book finished by Matson is not there, and it's not in public domain. It's not a shadow library.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Just started a "guilty pleasure": Cogswell & Spano's Spock, Messiah!

I will note that this is the book that has Kirk re-reading (or trying to re-read, in the face of constant interruptions) Xenophon's Anabasis. And I'm getting the urge to track down a copy thereof myself. I suddenly find myself wondering if I'll find that Cogswell & Spano cribbed elements of that book.
--
JHHL

 

[Greg Cox]

Just finished Marion by Leah Rowan.

A real page-turner, full of unexpected twists and surprise. The book is riffing off Psycho, with "Marion Cage" running afoul of "Norm Billings" at the "Billings Motel," but the author has too much fun playing with reader's expectations, so that every time you think you know where this seemingly-familiar story is going . . . nope, you don't.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

When I first saw the title, I immediately thought of Ms. Ravenwood, from the Indiana Jones franchise.

 

[bdub76]

Finished up the first two parts of East of Eden.

This book hits you over the head with what it's trying to do, but I keep reading it.

Almost finished with Mansfield Park.

The main character is like a neglected gen x woman without the right to vote that's being stalked by John Cusack in Say Anything. It gets a bit dark.

 

[Greg Cox]

In the Woods by Tana French.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

My favorite run on Doctor Strange was Roger Stern's -- with a variety of artists, including Marshall Rogers, Dan Green, and Paul Smith, with fill-ins by folks like Steve Leialoha and Mark Badger and Bret Blevins. But Stern absolutely nailed the feel better than anyone since Lee and Ditko, even more than Englehart.

Let's not forget Stern's graphic novel with Mike Mignola, Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment here. Doom and Strange team up and descend into Hell on a mission to free the soul of Doom's mother from Mephisto's clutches. It works well as a Strange story and as a Doom story, and the early Mignola artwork is delightfully moody.

If I were Kevin Feige -- and I am very much not -- I'd adapt this as the third Doctor Strange film. Cumberbatch and Downey... and maybe Jonny Lee Miller as Mephisto?

 

[Brendan Moody]

In the Woods by Tana French.

I’ve been on a Tana French kick the past few months after owning her books for years and not getting around to them. Finished the last Dublin Murder Squad book a couple weeks ago and starting The Witch Elm soon.

This morning I finished Gordon Wood’s The Radicalism of the American Revolution and started rereading Jo Baker’s Longbourn.

 

[Greg Cox]

I’ve been on a Tana French kick the past few months after owning her books for years and not getting around to them. Finished the last Dublin Murder Squad book a couple weeks ago and starting The Witch Elm soon.

I'm also starting The Witch Elm next.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I've just started Christopher Abbott and Michael Jan Friedman's Sherlock Holmes novel, The Southwark Stigmata. The first section of the book reads well -- the Watson voice feels generally accurate -- and I have no idea where this is going.

This morning I finished Gordon Wood’s The Radicalism of the American Revolution

That has been on my bookshelf -- it's literally right behind me as I type this, above my right shoulder -- for about ten years, and it has yet to rise to the top of my TBR pile. I've read other books on the Revolution in that span, including two books on the Loyalists. I think I keep forgetting it's here.

 

[Greg Cox]

If I were Kevin Feige -- and I am very much not -- I'd adapt this as the third Doctor Strange film. Cumberbatch and Downey... and maybe Jonny Lee Miller as Mephisto?

Don't forget: Sacha Baron Cohen was already cast as Mephisto in IRONHEART.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Don't forget: Sacha Baron Cohen was already cast as Mephisto in IRONHEART.

Which went right out of my mind...

I was thinking of a movie where three Sherlocks play off of each other. I don't know if Cumberbatch will be in Avengers; Doomsday, but if he is there will be three Sherlock Holmes in the film -- RDJ, McKellan, and Bandersnatch.

 

[Christopher]

Don't forget, James D'Arcy (Edwin Jarvis) played Sherlock Holmes once.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Personally, I prefer the late Basil Rathbone.

Meanwhile, i finished Spocck, Messiah!, and I'm thinking of maybe reading another "guilty pleasure," like maybe Black Fire.