Recommended reading - City Primeval & Fire in the Hole, by Elmore Leonard:

City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit
Fire in the Hole: and Other Stories

Both books filmed as the TV series Justified: City Primeval (2023).

City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit

By Elmore Leonard.

Published by Mariner Books.

First published 1980

ISBN-10: 0062191357

ISBN-13: 978-0062191359

Description:

“As gritty and hard-driving a thriller as you’ll find…. The action never stops, the language sings and stings.”

– Washington Post.

Clement Mansell knows how easy it is to get away with murder. The cool killer is already back on the Detroit scene – thanks to some nifty courtroom moves by his lawyer – and he's feeling invincible enough to execute a crooked judge on a whim. Lieutenant Raymond Cruz thinks the “Oklahoma Wildman” crossed the line long before this latest outrage, and he's determined to see that the hayseed psycho meets an end he deserves, with a gun pointed at him. But that means a good cop, having to play somewhat fast and loose with the rules . . . in order to maneuver Mansell into a wild Midwest showdown that he can't walk away from.

Fire in the Hole: and Other Stories

By Elmore Leonard.

Published by Mariner Books.

Published 2012.

ISBN-10: 0062120344

ISBN-13: 9780062120342

Description:

“[Leonard’s] most satisfying book since Out of Sight…. Top-notch work from one of our most gifted and consistently entertaining writers.” – New York Times Book Review.

“Vintage Leonard…. Nine stories with booze and shotguns and lowlifes…and lots of scenes that ought to be in movies.”

– Detroit Free Press.

“If Leonard were a new kid instead of a past master, this fiction collection would make his name.” – People.

“Rummaging through Leonard’s attic via these nine stories revives some fond memories and turns up a couple of forgotten treasures.” – Kirkus Reviews.

“Elmore Leonard’s 39th book ...finds one of America’s most accomplished novelists presenting his most accomplished female characters in years.” – USA Today.

In this superb short fiction collection, Elmore Leonard, “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever” (New York Times Book Review), once again illustrates how the line between the law and the lawbreakers is not as firm as we might think. In the title story, the basis for the hit FX series Justified, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens meets up with an old friend, but they’re now on different sides of the law. Federal marshal Karen Sisco, from Out of Sight, returns in “Karen Makes Out,” once again inadvertently mixing pleasure with business. In “When the Women Come Out to Dance,” Mrs. Mahmood gets more than she bargains for when she conspires with her maid to end her unhappy marriage. These nine stories are the great Elmore Leonard at his vivid, hilarious, and unfailingly human best.

Recommended reading - The Drowning Pool (1950):

The Drowning Pool

By Ross Macdonald.

Crime fiction.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0679768068

ISBN-13: 978-0679768067

Published 1950.

Description:

When a millionaire matriarch is found floating face-down in the family pool, the prime suspects are her good-for-nothing son and his seductive teenage daughter. In The Drowning Pool, Lew Archer takes this case in the L.A. suburbs and encounters a moral wasteland of corporate greed and family hatred – and sufficient motive for a dozen murders.

Recommended reading - The Wages of Fear (1950):

The Wages of Fear

Original title: Le Salaire de la peur.

By Georges Arnaud.

Originally published in 1950.

This English language translation edition was published in 1968.

Paperback.

Avon edition.

ASIN: B000VDT4KS

Description:

Las Piedras, beaching port. There are hundreds of them, coming from who knows where, to forget the impasse of their existence in the tropics. For a handful of dollars, these low-rankers are ready to do anything. Ready to face kilometers of impassable track, behind the wheel of a dilapidated truck, to transport nitroglycerin. At the slightest deviation, at the slightest shock, it is death. An epic of pure anguish...

Book cover artwork from other editions:

Recommended reading – Beeswax Alchemy (2015):

Beeswax Alchemy

How to Make Your Own Soap, Candles, Balms, Creams, and Salves from the Hive

By Petra Ahnert.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1592539793

ISBN-13: 978-1592539796

Published 2015.

Description:

“This is the book I’ve been waiting thirty years for. Excellent instructions. Bountiful information. Beautifully done.”

– Kim Flottum, beekeeper; author of The Backyard Beekeeper, Better Beekeeping, and The Backyard Beekeeper’s Honey Handbook; and editor of Bee Culture magazine.

Create natural beeswax products for health and home.

Beeswax is truly the miracle of the beehive. Although honeybees use it to build their hives and protect their young, you can use it to make everything from candles to lip balm to decorative fabric.

Regardless of whether you are a veteran beekeeper or someone who just likes the way beeswax looks and smells, you’ll learn from apiarist and entrepreneur Petra Ahnert, who will teach you how to transform this miraculous material into the beautiful, useful, and unexpected.

Inside you’ll find:

An introduction to beeswax’s form and functions.

Tips and techniques for transforming beeswax into useful products for home and health.

Detailed recipes to get you started crafting your own soaps, balms, salves, and more.

Recommended reading - Damon Runyon Omnibus (2019):

Damon Runyon Omnibus

Includes the short story The Old Doll’s House.

Filmed as Midnight Alibi (1934), directed by Alan Crosland.

Published by Must Have Books.

Published 2019.

ISBN-10: 1773236245

ISBN-13: 9781773236247

Description:

A collection of stories by Damon Runyon made about Broadway in New York City. This is a trilogy comprising three books: More than Somewhat, Furthermore, and Take it Easy.

Recommended reading – The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (2007):

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps

The Best crime stories from the pulps during their golden age - the '20s, '30s, & '40s.

Edited by Otto Penzler.

Publisher: Vintage Crime / Black Lizard.

Published 2007.

ISBN-10: 0307280489

ISBN-13: 978-0307280480

Paperback.

Unabridged.

Anthology of short stories.

Back cover description:

The biggest, the boldest, the most comprehensive collection of Pulp writing ever assembled.

Weighing in at over a thousand pages, containing over forty-seven stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train—a bullet couldn’t pass through it. Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes; sultry dames whose looks are as lethal as a dagger to the chest; and gin-soaked hideouts where conversations are just preludes to murder. This is crime fiction at its gritty best.

Including:

Three stories by Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Dashiell Hammett.

Complete novels from Carroll John Daly, the man who invented the hard-boiled detective, and Fredrick Nebel, one of the masters of the form.

A never before published Dashiell Hammett story.

Every other major pulp writer of the time, including Paul Cain, Steve Fisher, James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, and many, many more of whom you’ve probably never heard.

Three deadly sections–The Crimefighters, The Villains, and Dames–with three unstoppable introductions by Harlan Coben, Harlan Ellison, and Laura Lippman.

Featuring:

Plenty of reasons for murder, all of them good.

A kid so smart–he’ll die of it.

A soft-hearted loan shark’s legman learning–the hard way–never to buy a strange blonde a hamburger.

The uncanny “Moon Man” and his mad-money victims.

Contents:

Otto Penzler: Foreword. Part One: The Crimefighers. Harlan Coben: Introduction. Paul Cain: One, Two, Three. Dashiell Hammett: The Creeping Siamese. Erle Stanley Gardner: Honest Money. Horace McCoy: Frost Rides Alone. Thomas Walsh: Double Check. Charles G. Booth: Stag Party. Leslie T. White: The City of Hell! Raymond Chandler: Red Wind. Fredrick Nebel: Wise Guy. George Harmon Coxe: Murder Picture. Norbert Davis: The Price of a Dime. William Rollins, Jr.: Chicago Confetti. Cornell Woolrich: Two Murders, One Crime. Carroll John Daly: The Third Murderer. Part Two: The Villains. Harlan Ellison: Introduction. Erle Stanley Gardner: The Cat Woman. Cornell Woolrich: The Dilemma of the Dead Lady. Richard B. Sale: The House of Kaa. Leslie Charteris: The Invisible Millionaire. Steve Fisher: You’ll Always Remember Me. James M. Cain: Pastorale. Frank Gruber: The Sad Serbian. Dashiell Hammett: Faith. Raymond Chandler: Finger Man. Erle Stanley Gardner: The Monkey Murder. Raoul Whitfield: About Kid Deth. Frederick C. Davis: The Sinister Sphere. Paul Cain: Pigeon Blood. C. S. Montanye: The Perfect Crime. Norbert Davis: You’ll Die Laughing. Frederick Nebel: The Crimes of Richmond City: i) Raw Law. ii) Dog Eat Dog. iii) The Law Laughs Last. iv) Law Without Law. v) Graft. Part Three: The Dames. Laura Lippman: Introduction. Cornell Woolrich: Angel Face. Leslie T. White: Chosen to Die. Eric Taylor: A Pinch of Snuff. Raymond Chandler: Killer in the Rain. Adolphe Barreaux: Sally the Sleuth. C. S. Montanye: A Shock for the Countess. C. B. Yorke: Snowbound. Randolph Barr: The Girl Who Knew Too Much. D. B. McCandless: The Corpse in the Crystal. D. B. McCandless: He Got What He Asked For. P. T. Luman: Gangster’s Brand. Robert Reeves: Dance Macabre. Dashiell Hammett: The Girl with the Silver Eyes. Perry Paul: The Jane from Hell’s Kitchen. Whitman Chambers: The Duchess Pulls a Fast One. Roger Torrey: Mansion of Death. Roger Torrey: Concealed Weapon. Carlos Martinez: The Devil’s Bookkeeper. Lars Anderson: Black Legion. Richard Sale: Three Wise Men of Babylon. Eugene Thomas: The Adventure of the Voodoo Moon. T. T. Flynn: Brother Murder. Stewart Sterling: Kindly Omit Flowers.

Recommended reading - Silent Mystery and Detective Movies: A Comprehensive Filmography (2009):

Silent Mystery and Detective Movies:
A Comprehensive Filmography

By Ken Wlaschin.

ISBN-10: 0786443502

ISBN-13: 978-0786443505

Published 2009.

Description:

The silent film era was known in part for its cliffhanger serials and air of suspense that kept audiences returning to theaters week after week. Icons such as Douglas Fairbanks, Laurel and Hardy, Lon Chaney and Harry Houdini were among those who graced the dark and shadowy screen. This reference guide to silent films with mystery and detective content lists more than 1,500 titles in one of entertainment’s most popular and enduring genres. While most of the films examined are from North America, mystery films from around the world are included.

The late Ken Wlaschin was former director of creative affairs at the American Film Institute, headed the Institute’s National Film Theater and founded its Los Angeles film festival. He previously directed the British Film Institute’s National Film Theater and London film festival for 14 years. Wlaschin, the author of three other McFarland books, lived in Palm Springs, California.

Recommended reading - The So Blue Marble, by Dorothy B. Hughes (1940):

The So Blue Marble

By Dorothy B. Hughes.

Introduction by Otto Penzler.

Published by American Mystery Classics.

First published 1940.

ISBN-10: 1613161050

ISBN-13: 9781613161050

Description:

The debut by one of the great American suspense writers will suck you in even as it makes you keep asking, "Did I just read that?" – Kirkus.

Nonstop action, with menace and daring exploits bursting through the smooth veneer of upper-class life.. Readers new to this forgotten classic are in for a treat. – Publishers Weekly.

You will have to read [The So Blue Marble] for yourself, and if you wake up in the night screaming with terror, don’t say we didn’t warn you. – The New York Times Book Review.

Extraordinary . . . [Hughes’s] brilliant descriptive powers make and unmake reality. – The New Yorker.

The society pages announce it before she even arrives: Griselda Satterlee, daughter of the princess of Rome, has left her career as an actress behind and is traveling to Manhattan to reinvent herself as a fashion designer. They also announce the return of the dashing Montefierrow twins to New York after a twelve-year sojourn in Europe. But there is more to this story than what’s reported, which becomes clear when the three meet one evening during a walk, and their polite conversation quickly takes a menacing turn. The twins are seeking a rare and powerful gem and they believe it’s stashed in the unused apartment where Griselda is staying. Baffled by the request, she pushes them away, but they won’t take no for an answer. When they return, accompanied by Griselda’s long-estranged younger sister, the murders begin...

Drenched in the glamour and luxury of the New York elite, The So Blue Marble is a perfectly Art Deco suspense novel in which nothing is quite as it seems. While different in style from her later books, Dorothy B. Hughes’s debut highlights her greatest strengths as an author, rendered with both the poetic language and the psychology of fear for which she is known today.

Recommended reading - The Moving Target / aka Harper (1949):

The Moving Target

aka Harper.

By Ross MacDonald.

ISBN-10: 037570146X

ISBN-13: 978-0375701467

Published 1949.

Back cover description:

CRIME FICTION

“Ross Macdonald remains the grandmaster, taking the crime novel to new heights by imbuing it with psychological resonance, complexity of story, and richness of style that remain awe-inspiring. Those of us in his wake owe a debt that can never be paid. – Jonathan Kellerman.

Like many Southern California millionaires, Ralph Sampson keeps odd company. There’s the sun-worshipping holy man whom Sampson once gave his very own mountain; the fading actress with sidelines in astrology and S&M. Now one of Sampson’s friends may have arranged his kidnapping. And as Lew Archer follows the clues from the canyon sanctuaries of the megarich to jazz joints where you get beaten up between sets, The Moving Target blends sex, greed, and family hatred into an explosively readable crime novel.

“Macdonald is one of a handful of writers in the [mystery] genre whose worth and quality surpass the limitations of the form.” – Los Angeles Times.

If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it was Ross Macdonald. Between the later 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his predecessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience whop walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.

VINTAGE CRIME / BLACK LIZARD

Recommended reading - Barbie: The Screenplay, by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach (2023):

Barbie: The Screenplay

By Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach.

Published by Faber & Faber.

Published 2023.

ISBN-10: 0571390137

ISBN-13: 9780571390137

Description:

"A riotously entertaining candy-colored feminist fable." – Guardian.

"A near-miraculous achievement." – Independent.

"Painfully funny." – Empire.

"Greta Gerwig's bold and inventive Barbie breaks the mold." – BBC Culture.

"Brilliant, beautiful, and fun as hell." – The New Yorker.

Nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

She's everything. He's just Ken. The exclusive screenplay of the film phenomenon by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach.

Featuring an exclusive introduction by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and 8 pages of full-color photos from the film.

For the first time, the BARBIE screenplay is now available in print. Anarchically hilarious and unexpectedly emotional, BARBIE is a magical cinematic confection of absurdity, heart, and Technicolor musicals. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach have created a deeply personal and idiosyncratic film from the icon that is the Barbie doll. The movie celebrates the perfection of imperfection, and affirms that everyone, even Allan, is Kenough.

Recommended reading - The Backyard Beekeeper (2024):

The Backyard Beekeeper

An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden

By Kim Flottum.

Revised and Updated.

Published 2024.
5th Edition.

ISBN-10: 0760385823
ISBN-13: 978-0760385821

Description:

Enjoy the time-honored tradition of beekeeping in your own backyard or urban rooftop with this accessible resource for beekeepers of all skill levels, now in its 5th edition.

More than a guide to beekeeping, The Backyard Beekeeper features expert advice for:

Setting up and caring for your own colonies

Selecting the best location to place your new bee colonies for their safety and yours

The most practical and nontoxic ways to care for your bees

Swarm control

Using top bar hives

Harvesting the products of a beehive and collecting and using honey

Bee problems and treatments

New in this edition:

Natural beekeeping techniques like insulating hives for the winter to mimic the advantages of bee homes in the wild

Important new treatments for and updated info on the battle with Varroa mites

How to deal with the new antibiotic recommendations for American foulbrood

Introduction to new recordkeeping technology to consider

In addition to content updates to reflect the most recent research and technology in beekeeping, the book features a new design with larger, easier-to-read text, many new photos, and a more easily navigable structure.

With this complete reference and the expert advice of Bee Culture editor emeritus Kim Flottum, your bees will be healthy, happy, and more productive.

Recommended reading - Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze (2000):

Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist’s Maze

by Thomas Allen Nelson.

New and Expanded Edition.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0253213908

ISBN-13: 978-0253213907

Published 2000.

Description:

Stanley Kubrick ranks among the most important American film makers of his generation, but his work is often misunderstood because it is widely diverse in subject matter and seems to lack thematic and tonal consistency. Thomas Nelson’s perceptive and comprehensive study of Kubrick rescues him from the hostility of auteurist critics and discovers the roots of a Kubrickian aesthetic, which Nelson defines as the “aesthetics of contingency.” After analyzing how this aesthetic develops and manifests itself in the early works, Nelson devotes individual chapters to Lolita, Dr. Stangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining. For this expanded edition, Nelson has added chapters on Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, and, in the wake of the director’s death, reconsidered his body of work as a whole. By placing Kubrick in a historical and theoretical context, this study is a reliable guide into – and out of – Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic maze.

Recommended reading - The Mammoth Book of Pulp Action (2001):

The Mammoth Book of Pulp Action

Edited by Maxim Jakubowski.

Mammoth Books.

ISBN-10: 0786709200

ISBN-13: 978-0786709205

Published 2001.

Contents:

Kid clips a coupon, by Erle Stanley Gardner; Goodbye Hannah, by Steve Fisher; Sinners' paradise, by Raoul Whitfield; Motel, by Evan Hunter aka Ed McBain; Smile, corpse, smile!, by Bruno Fischer; Pulp connection, by Bill Pronzini; Brush Babe's poison pallet, by Bruce Cassiday; Gangsta wore red, by Michael Guinzburg; Caravan to Tarim, by David Goodis; Lady who left her coffin, by Hugh B. Cave; Death at the main, by Frank Gruber; Red goose, by Norbert Davis; First five in line, by Charles Willeford; Where there's a will, there's a slay, by Frederick C. Davis; Ride a white horse, by Lawrence Block; Best man, by Thomas Walsh; Dog life, by Mark Timlin; Don't look behind you, by Fredric Brown; College-cut kill, by John D. MacDonald; Lost coast, by Marcia Muller; Pit, by Joe R. Lansdale; Clean sweep, by Roger Torrey; Eye of the beholder, Ed Gorman.

Description:

Furious action, unbridled passion, seedy lowlife and beautiful women …

Crooked cops and ruthless bigshots, breathless chases, cheating molls and gun-toting villains – they’re all here in this great new volume of pulp fiction stories, featuring classic noir and hard-boiled crime authors from eight decades of crime writing.

In these enlightened times we know that, far from being a lower form of literature, pulp fiction is the term for what the best storytelling provides – hugely enjoyable pyrotechnic thrills and shocks galore.

This great new collection from popular literature’s best pulp writers includes such talents as: Charles Willeford, Ed Mcbain, Bill Pronzini, Ed Gorman, Lawrence Block, John D. MacDonald, Bruno Fischer, Mark Timlin, Joe R. Lansdale, Michael Guinzburg, Erle Stanley Gardner, Frederic Brown and many more.

Recommended reading - Backyard Homesteading: A Back-to-Basics Guide to Self-Sufficiency (2011):

Backyard Homesteading: A Back-to-Basics Guide to Self-Sufficiency

by David Toht.

Grow and preserve your own vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries, keep chickens, goats, and bees.
Make Beer, Wine, and Cider.

Published 2011.

ISBN-10: 1580115217
ISBN-13: 978-1580115216
Creative Homeowner

Back cover description:

BACKYARD HOMESTEADING

GETTING STARTED

Benefits of pure food
Family recreation
Local regulations
Potential yields and savings

RAISING VEGETABLES AND HERBS

Garden planning/layout
Structures/irrigation
Vegetable profiles
Planting techniques
Composting/healthy soil
Seasonal gardening

GROWING FRUITS, BERRIES, AND NUTS

Planting fruit trees and bushes
Fruit profiles
Organic pest control
Grafting and pruning
Harvesting methods

RAISING CHICKENS

The joy of chickens
Collecting eggs
Care and feeding tips
Other small animals

RAISING GOATS

Benefits of goat milk
Structures/fencing
Care and feeding tips
Other large animals

BEEKEEPING

Benefits of beekeeping
Care and harvesting
Building hives
Collecting honey

HARVEST HOME

Canning/drying/freezing
Making beer, wine, cider
Making jerky, sausage
Making jams, jellies
Pickling/salting/smoking
Building root cellars

Recommended reading - Somebody Up There Likes Me, by Rocky Graziano and Rowland Barber (1954):

Somebody Up There Likes Me

By Rocky Graziano with Rowland Barber.

Filmed as Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), directed by Robert Wise.

Published by Ecco Press.

Published 1954.

ISBN 13: 9780880013932

ISBN 10: 0880013931

ASIN: 0880013931

Paperback.

Description:

The blood-soaked autobiography of a fist-happy hoodlum…

Rocky’s right hand saw him through three stretches in reform school, four man-size prisons, the middle-weight championship of the world, and a career as a television comedian with Martha Raye.

We get a view of what it’s like to be on the lam from truant officers, probation officers, goons, cops, and creeps too stupid to be anything but legitimate. What it’s like to hit first or get hit! – Saturday Review.

Recommended reading - Double Indemnity (novel & screenplay):

Double Indemnity

By James M. Cain.

Filmed as:

Double Indemnity (1944), directed by Billy Wilder.

Double Indemnity (1973), directed by Jack Smight.

Published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

Published 1943.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 9780679723226

ISBN-13: 9780679723226

Description:

“An American masterpiece.” – Ross Macdonald.

“No one has ever stopped reading in the middle of one of Jim Cain’s books.” – Saturday Review of Literature.

Walter Huff was an insurance salesman with an unfailing instinct for clients who might be in trouble, and his instinct led him to Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis wanted to buy an accident policy on her husband. Then she wanted her husband to have an accident. Walter wanted Phyllis. To get her, he would arrange the perfect murder and betray everything he had ever lived for.

Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1935, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.

Double Indemnity: The Complete Screenplay

By Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler, Jeffrey Meyers.

Published by University of California Press.

Published 2000.

ISBN-10: 0520218485

ISBN-13: 9780520218482

Description:

On every level -- writing, direction, acting -- Double Indemnity (1944) is a triumph and stands as one of the greatest achievements in Billy Wilder's career. Adapted from the James M. Cain novel by director Wilder and novelist Raymond Chandler, it tells the story of an insurance salesman, played by Fred MacMurray, who is lured into a murder-for-insurance plot by Barbara Stanwyck, in an archetypal femme fatale role. From its grim story to its dark, atmospheric lighting, Double Indemnity is a definitive example of World War II-era film noir. Wilder's approach is everywhere evident: in the brutal cynicism the film displays, the moral complexity, and in the empathy we feel for the killers. The film received almost unanimous critical success, garnering seven Academy Award nominations. More than fifty years later, most critics agree that this classic is one of the best films of all time. The collaboration between Wilder and Raymond Chandler produced a masterful script and some of the most memorable dialogue ever spoken in a movie.

This facsimile edition of Double Indemnity contains Wilder and Chandler's original -- and quite different -- ending, published here for the first time. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction contextualizes the screenplay, providing hilarious anecdotes about the turbulent collaboration, as well as background information about Wilder and the film's casting and production.

Recommended reading: The Great Escape, by Paul Brickhill (1950):

The Great Escape

By Paul Brickhill.

Filmed as The Great Escape (1963), directed by John Sturges.

Published by W. W. Norton & Company.

Published 1950.

ISBN-10: 0393325792

ISBN-13: 9780393325799

Description:

"One of the great true stories of the war, and one of the greatest escape narratives of all time." – San Francisco Chronicle.

"Absorbing... spine-tingling... puts the average war book so far in the shadow it's not even funny." – Dallas Times Herald.

"For sheer suspense, puts the fictioneers to shame." – Boston Globe.

"A tense, thrilling, fabulous tale." – Philadelphia Inquirer.

They were American and British air force officers in a German prison camp. With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, forged passports, faked weapons, and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes. They developed a fantastic security system to protect themselves from German surveillance.

It was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than six hundred men – every one of them, every minute, every hour, every day and night for more than a year.

Made into the classic 1963 war film of the same name starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough.

16 pages of photographs.

Recommended reading - A Coffin for Dimitrios, by Eric Ambler (1939):

A Coffin for Dimitrios

By Eric Ambler.

Filmed as The Mask of Dimitrios (1944), directed by Jean Negulesco.

Published by Vintage Crime / Black Lizard.

Published 1939.

ISBN-10: 0375726713

ISBN-13: 9780375726712

Description:

"Our greatest thriller writer." – Graham Greene.

"Anyone who hasn't read Ambler is in for a real treat." – The Washington Post Book World.

A chance encounter with a Turkish colonel with a penchant for British crime novels leads mystery writer Charles Latimer into a world of sinister political and criminal maneuvers throughout the Balkans in the years between the world wars. Hoping that the career of the notorious Dimitrios, whose body has been identified in an Istanbul morgue, will inspire a plot for his next novel, Latimer soon finds himself caught up in a shadowy web of assassination, espionage, drugs, and treachery.

Recommended reading - The Stars in Their Courses, by Harry Brown (1966):

The Stars in Their Courses

By Harry Brown.

Filmed as El Dorado (1966), directed by Howard Hawks.

ASIN: B0011N3WI2
Published by Jonathan Cape.
Published 1960.

Description:

The epic novel of the old west, a living legend of lust, doom, death, of tall strong men, golden women and towering passions!

Recommended reading - The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943):

The Little Prince

by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943).

ISBN-10: 0156012197

ISBN-13: 978-0156012195

Description:

A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. “Please,” asks the stranger, “draw me a sheep.” And the pilot realizes that when life’s events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper…. And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.

Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince, presented here in a stunning new translation with carefully restored artwork.

The definitive edition of a worldwide classic, it will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.