Last Book That You Read- Fiction

The spelunking sections of Shibumi may be heavy going for some people, but outside of that, it's a terrific novel. With the exception of TSoK, Trevanian's best, IMO.

Used book store had a “buy 2 get 1 free” deal day I was there so I grabbed Shibumi as well along with Incident at Twenty-Mile.

I've got Incident at Twenty-Mile, but have yet to read it. Need to rectify that.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

I've got Incident at Twenty-Mile, but have yet to read it. Need to rectify that.

20-Mile is the only one I haven't reread, but I remember it as a solid (if slow) book.

THE MAIN is probably in a near-tie with KATYA for me; not sure why, but I really feel like it almost (mystic?) transports me back to the 70s and to a land I've never visited, whenever I crack open that 4-in-1 Trevanian hardcover (and I do mean 'crack' because those books fall apart if you sneeze near them, I've gone though about 6 in the last 35 years.)

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty

I haven't been reading enough lately (the price of having young children) so I picked up a few easy reads to help me get back into it. I seem to remember a TV series was made of this one although I never watched it, but it seems written specifically for the purpose of becoming a TV adaptation. Most of the 'twists' were unfortunately well signposted along the way so not at all shocking or surprising but the book does describe well some of the conflicts that come with being a supposedly intelligent, educated and successful woman in a world still transitioning into acceptance of the same.

I am also slightly out of practice reading fiction. So to get the gears greased I pulled down a book called Mind Over Magic by William Rabkin. It’s part of a series of books commissioned for the (former) USA Network show Psych, which I used to love. Friend of mine who I’ve lost track of now sadly recommended it to me over a decade ago. Wish I could tell him I finally read it (and enjoyed it). Author never really captures the essence of the characters but it was fun and humorous and flew by.

Then I moved on to...



...which is the second book by the author I’ve ever read, first being The Third Bullet. Like that book (which deals with the Kennedy assassination) Hunter seems to have done extensive research and constructed a story to tell around his own theories of events, only this time with Jack the Ripper.

I found the first half of the book fairly nasty business, and I’m not usually one to flinch on the violence. Maybe it was just being put via first person narrative into the mind of the most notorious serial killer in history. I dunno. But the back half of the book was more interested in tying together the research stuff, and for some reason (probably owing to needing some sense of resolution to the “can’t look away” nature of the first half) I took to that more so and the pages seemed to flow easier.

Some interesting choice made in terms of corralling various historical threads and personas together. The Ripper aside you’ve also got elements of Jekyll/Hyde, Pygmalion, Sherlock Holmes, Bernard Shaw, and yellow journalism. Thought it all worked in practice better than it would have if I’d had the pitch beforehand.

This one’ll go on the shelf but undecided if I’d ever re-read it.

THE WINDCHIME LEGACY by Andre W. Mykel.
Spy novel from the early 80s that I read when it was relatively new. I loved it back then, and when I found it again (a used copy), I wanted to see if it held up. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I had also forgotten most of the story, so it felt like a fresh experience. The book is of course dated, but that is not such a bad thing.

I think that Mykel guy only wrote a couple of novels, but as I recall, WINDCHIME was really something else! I was addicted to the early NOVEMBER MAN novels, but this one felt like a jolt of lightning way back when outclassing the Gardner non-Bonds by far. Will have to give it another go. The ending is very much like the conclusion of Harlan Ellison's unproduced OUR MAN FLINT series teleplay, which I read around the same time. Great minds think alike ...

Just FYI ... there is a spy novel called FALLBACK, also early 1980s, by a journalist who died shortly after writing a sequel. I found the original to be quite good, but it has a plot twist halfway through that loses nearly all of its readership, so embark at your own peril. Still, thinking of WINDCHIME made me think of this one, plus two others from the early 80s, THE HAMLET WARNING and THE HAMLET ULTIMATUM. Might just have to make a deep dive into that stretch of the past this year ...

Started Horowitz's With A Mind To Kill recently. Probably the continuation author who 'gets' Fleming's Bond the most.

trevanian wrote:

I think that Mykel guy only wrote a couple of novels, but as I recall, WINDCHIME was really something else! I was addicted to the early NOVEMBER MAN novels, but this one felt like a jolt of lightning way back when outclassing the Gardner non-Bonds by far. Will have to give it another go. The ending is very much like the conclusion of Harlan Ellison's unproduced OUR MAN FLINT series teleplay, which I read around the same time. Great minds think alike ...

Just FYI ... there is a spy novel called FALLBACK, also early 1980s, by a journalist who died shortly after writing a sequel. I found the original to be quite good, but it has a plot twist halfway through that loses nearly all of its readership, so embark at your own peril. Still, thinking of WINDCHIME made me think of this one, plus two others from the early 80s, THE HAMLET WARNING and THE HAMLET ULTIMATUM. Might just have to make a deep dive into that stretch of the past this year ...

Thanks for the recommendations. I am not really into spy fiction anymore. but there are some exceptions.

Started reading the Jonas Fjeld series by Øvre Richter Frich, 21 books originally published 1911-1917. I have read Frich before, but nothing from this series. Great stuff!

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

What a coincidence, PK, I'm about halfway through that at the moment. Just finished the chapter where Jim meets Ben Gunn.

That is a coincidence. And I'm now reading Kidnapped. For Christmas I got Treasure Island and Kidnapped twinned in a single volume. The book was presented to a young bloke on Christmas of 1926, and is in pristine condition. That makes it a special thing. And both novels are true page-turners. I wonder what Fleming thought of them?

He must've regarded them? I just checked and the Andrew Lycett bio makes reference to him having read Stevenson as a child (seems Fleming read everything) but as a Navy man and someone who loved the tropics and even to write something like LALD...he must've loved them.

My copy is also by way of a Christmas gift (card). I tend to buy my books second hand but when a gift card comes along I usually spend it on a nice edition. I'm sure not as nice as yours from the 20s. Finding ones that old but in excellent health is the best.

Mine didn't have Kidnapped included though I do have that stashed in the library somewhere.

I also got Treasure Island as a Christmas present by my Grandmother as a child. A luxury edition that I regret not holding onto.

so that's what all the cool kids have been doing

Nothing cooler than traveling the seven seas in a brig under full sail, giving Long John Silver a taste of your Toledo steel, and digging up a treasure.

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest!
Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil did for the rest!
Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum!

I understand. If I want escapism I prefer the childlike, well written, intellectual enough and without agenda.

I was enjoying your exchange on the topic.

THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA by Friedrich Nietzche

English language edition. I have read it before some 30 years ago, back then in my own language.
Nietzche was a philosopher, but I see him most of all as a great poet. Both require deep thinking, so the connection is perhaps natural.

This. A complete slog, but necessary for a book project I'm researching.

I hate when it's so dry they don't even both with the cover.

Probably a penny-pinching decision there. Unless we're talking about textbooks, academic publications make little to no money, and one as unapproachable as this particular work, probably made even less so.

Rereading what is perhaps my favourite trilogy of all time. THE HISTORY OF BESTIALITY by Norwegian genius author Jens Bjørneboe. It consists of MOMENT OF FREEDOM (Frihetens øyeblikk, 1966), POWDERHOUSE (Kruttårnet, 1969) and THE SILENCE (Stillheten, 1973). They can all be read separately.

Got hold of all the Alex Raymond Sunday strips for Flash Gordon 1934-1944, collected in three books. Could not find them in the original language, but German will do.

Fun fact: Olivia de Havilland was the inpiration for Dale Arden.