Showing posts with label Janet Fitch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Janet Fitch. Show all posts

Friday, July 12, 2019

More Books in Heaven and Earth

Do you read the kind of books that you write or do you tend to read books that are the opposite or different – and why?

by Paul D. Marks

These days I’m lucky to find the time to read anything. I don’t know where the time goes, but it goes. A lot of it is spent on writing and related tasks. Writing is a major time suck, but a good one. I also get asked to read a lot of books to blurb or for similar reasons, so that limits the amount of totally discretionary reading I have time for, though I’m trying to take a break from that so I have more time for pleasure reading, not that some of those books aren’t pleasurable. Plus, writing short stories I try to read as many of them as possible, too.

As to what I read, I read everything, though not as much of anything as I used to. Leisure time seems at a premium.

First, since the question asks in part “Do you read the kind of books that you write?” let’s start with what I write. I write various kinds of (mostly) crime fiction, from noir to traditional-hardboiled and even satire, with a crime-y bent. Nothing like having an audience laugh hard and hearty when you’re reading a story that you hope and pray is funny and find out others think it is, too. One of my best memories of this was reading a section of my story Continental Tilt to an audience and having them laugh uproariously. That was a good feeling.


I even write a series, the Ghosts of Bunker Hill stories, that has a paranormal element to it. So I’m all over the place. I’ve also written some mainstream, dare I say literary fiction, such as my story Terminal Island, published in Weber: The Contemporary West, and Endless Vacation, which garnered honorable mentions at both Glimmer Train and the Lorian Hemingway International Short Story Competition.

Before I get to directly responding to the question, let me turn it around and say that I write books and stories that I like and that I would want to read. So now that I’ve talked about what I write, let me talk about what I read.

I do read mostly in my genre these days, though not necessarily only the types of books that I write. But I like to read outside the genre too. I like to read mainstream fiction and non-fiction. I don’t like to mention names of people I know because inevitably someone is left out and feelings get hurt so let me mention some well-known faves in the genre: Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Michael Connelly, Walter Mosley, James Ellroy, Carol O’Connell, Harlan Coben, Robert Crais, David Goodis and others.


On the other hand, I also read out of the genre. And, as I’ve also mentioned before my favorite book is far from a mystery-thriller type of book. It’s The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham, for a lot of reasons I won’t go into here. Other faves outside the genre include The Tartar Steppe (Dino Buzzati), Monte Walsh (Jack Schaefer), Journey to the End of the Night (Louis-Ferdinand Celine), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (Milan Kundera), World’s Fair (E.L. Doctorow), Paint it Black (Janet Fitch), Bright Lights, Big City (Jay McInerney) and so many others, like Jonathan Franzen, Anne Tyler and John Irving.

I also like to read non-fiction. I recently read High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn Frankel. I’m fascinated by the blacklist, red scare and that whole era and this book hit that nail square on. I go through phases where I’ll read a lot about one particular subject. For example, a long time ago I read several books on the French and Russian revolutions and the Spanish Civil War. I’ve always loved history. My tastes run the gamut from reading about Los Angeles history and historical landmarks to Coney Island on the “other” coast. And I love reading rock history, especially the Beatles. Sometimes I’ll read about the history of the movie business—hell, I even made it into a book about the biz: MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot.


One of my current interests is in World War I, not so much the war itself but the aftermath and lasting effects and cultural changes that sprang from it.

And I would like to give John D. Macdonald a try again. I’ve read a couple of his books a long time ago and I’m afraid to say I wasn’t enthralled. But I’m up for another go.

So I read a wide variety of things. And even if I read a lot of different things from what I write, I think it influences my writing. My characters don't live in a one dimensional world of murder and crime, so I don't want to either. Like Shakespeare said there are more things in heaven and Earth.... Like pizza.

So, what about you—do you read the kind of books that you write or something else?

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

My story Past is Prologue is out in the new July/August issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Available now at bookstores and newstands as well as online at: https://www.alfredhitchcockmysterymagazine.com/. Hope you'll check it out.




Also, check out Broken Windows, the sequel to my Shamus Award-winning novel, White Heat.



Please join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paul.d.marks and check out my website  www.PaulDMarks.com

Friday, November 11, 2016

Book 'Em

This is the time of year when thoughts turn to gift-giving. Could you suggest four books that would be ideal for "x" type of person - you get to define "x", or a book for each of four different types of person...again, your choice of types.

by Paul D. Marks


Before I get to this week’s question, I just want to salute all of our veterans today, Veterans Day, and every day. And Happy Birthday to the USMC: Semper fi, even for those who weren’t/aren’t Marines.



Now to the question at hand, which I think I misunderstood. So I listed a lot more books than I probably should have. But you know what they say, you can't have too many books, so:

I guess we all have various types of people in our lives. So I’ve picked out four types rather than four specific people. And since it is appropriate to have the right book for the right type of person here goes:


For that friend who likes to lurk in dark corners, wearing a fedora and trenchcoat (watch that trenchcoat…): how ’bout American Noir from Library of America. Two volumes of pretty good noir. Volume 1) Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s & 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy, Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson, The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing, Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham, I Married a Dead Man by Cornell Woolrich.  Volume 2) Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, Pick-Up by Charles Willeford, Down There by David Goodis, The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes. — I’ve actually given this to a couple of people (hope you liked it if you’re reading this post) and I have it myself. Though the version I have was before this cool version in a slipcover. I bought each volume individually. But I wish I’d waited ‘cause l love the double volume and the artwork on the slipcover.


For the narcissist in your life: Well, let’s see. How ’bout we start with Toxic Parents, co-written by pal Craig Faustus Buck, with Susan Forward. Or The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists: Coping with the One-Way Relationship in Work, Love, and Family by Eleanor Payson, or Narcissists
Exposed, 75 Things Narcissists Don't Want You to Know by Drew Keys. Books on narcissism also work for friends who talk too much about themselves, agents and editors who don’t respond (yeah, sure, they’re just busy). And nieces and nephews who never send thank you notes. Hell, they’re good for almost everyone.


For the jerks who give you bad reviews: Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior by Judith Martin and Gloria Kamen, Etiquette For Dummies by Sue Fox, Emily Post's Etiquette, 18th Edition by Peggy Post, Anna Post, Lizzie Post, Daniel Post Senning, or any one of a million other etiquette books. And don’t forget what your mother said, if you can’t say something nice about someone keep your damn mouth shut. These also work for the jerks who talk on their cells in restaurants, elevators, doctor’s offices. But a .45 works even better.


For the crazy ex: HowDunit – The Book of Poisons, by Serita Stevens and Anne Bannon, Strangling Your Husband Is Not an Option: A Practical Guide to Dramatically Improving Your Marriage, by Merrilee Browne Boyack, How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You (The Oatmeal) by The Oatmeal and Matthew Inman. This one might work for people too, I’m not sure. I also didn’t know that oatmeal could write, but hey, anything’s possible. So, try it, with your oatmeal. And, of course, there’s this:

VIDEO REMOVED



And for you, my friends: Well, it depends on who you are, of course, but here’s some of my favorite books and authors that I would give to people I actually like: Pretty much anything by Chandler or Ross Macdonald, James Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz). Pretty much anything by Carol O’Connell, though I do love her Mallory character. Down There/Shoot the Piano Player by David Goodis. The double Noir volume mentioned above. The Poet by Michael Connelly, Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn. (I liked this one so much when I first read it I tried to buy the movie rights to it. Unfortunately, they were already taken. Too bad nobody’s done anything with it.) Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins books. And getting away from the mystery/thriller genre: Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer, The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati, Chronicles Vol 1 by Bob Dylan (Hey, Bob, when the hell is Vol 2 coming out?), Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years by Mark Lewisohn, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. (The greatest revenge story of all time…and I love revenge.). Paint it Black by Janet Fitch, Ask the Dust by John Fante. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera. Neon Noir by Woody Haut. And The Razor’s Edge, by Somerset Maugham, my favorite book of all time, because I relate to it on so many levels. — I’d give any of these to any of you because I think they’re all good and you might enjoy them.

And oh so many more.

And for anyone with taste, high and especially low: White Heat, Vortex, LA Late @ Night and various magazines and anthologies where my stories reside.


*Disclaimer: I haven’t read all the books mentioned here, especially those in the narcissists, crazy ex and jerk graphs. So I don’t vouch for them. But I do vouch for the titles of those books – I like them. That’s why I chose them. Though, on the other hand, I have read some of them…

***

Check out Akashic's St. Louis Noir anthology with my short story Deserted Cities of the Heart.

www.PaulDMarks.com

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