Showing posts with label Recommended reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recommended reading. Show all posts

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Recommended reading - The Third Figure, by Collin Wilcox (1968):


The Third Figure

By Collin Wilcox.

Published by Dodd, Mead.
First published 1968.
ASIN: B0006BUJVS

Description:

A mob boss is dead, and his widow wants Drake to help him rest in peace. Dominic Vennezio is found on the floor of his beachside love nest, murdered on a Sunday night. It looks like an ordinary mob hit, part of a routine power struggle with the East Coast Outfit, but Vennezio's widow has other suspicions. Her marriage to the kingpin had been strained ever since he began taking his secretary for weekends at the beach house, but even now, she feels a devotion to him. She wants justice for her husband – not just legal, but cosmic – and for cosmic justice, San Francisco can offer no better sleuth than Stephen Drake. A crime reporter with a clairvoyant streak, Drake's apprehensions about working for the mob are overcome by his sympathy for the noble widow. He starts his investigation in Los Angeles, talking to Vennezio's replacement, and sees immediately that it doesn't take a psychic to figure out that this job could be deadly.

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Recommended reading - Blade Runner: The Inside Story, by Don Shay (2003):


Blade Runner: The Inside Story

By Don Shay.

Published by Titan Books.
Published 2003.
ISBN-10: 1840232102
ISBN-13: 9781840232103

Description:

In 1982, to coincide with Blade Runner's original release, Cinefex, the respected magazine devoted to movie design and special effects devoted an entire, extended issue to Ridley Scott's sci-fi masterpiece. That issue has been out of print since then, but in constant demand – copies now sell on the collector's market for over $100. Titan Books is proud to bring this classic back into print, in a remastered hardcover edition.

Described as 'the single most comprehensive examination of Blade Runner's special effects', this must-have book contains scores of images not available elsewhere, as well as authoritative text, containing in-depth, exclusive interviews with director Ridley Scott and the legendary designer Syd Mead.

Recommended reading - Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, by Paul M. Sammon (2017):


Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner

by Paul M. Sammon (2017).

Revised & Updated Edition.

ISBN-10: 0062699466
ISBN-13: 978-0062699466

Description from back cover:

The ultimate guide to Ridley Scott’s transformative sci-fi classic Blade Runner.

Ridley Scott’s 2007 “Final Cut” confirmed the international film cognoscenti’s judgment: Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick’s brilliant and troubling science fiction masterpiece Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is among the most visually dense, thematically challenging, and influential science fiction films ever made. Future Noir Revised & Updated Edition offers a deeper understanding of this cinematic phenomenon that is storytelling and visual filmmaking at its best.

In this intensive, intimate, and anything-but-glamorous behind-the-scenes account, film insider and cinephile Paul M. Sammon explores how Ridley Scott purposefully used his creative genius to transform the work of science fiction’s most uncompromising author into a critical sensation and cult classic that would reinvent the genre. Sammon reveals how the making of the original Blade Runner was a seven-year odyssey that would test the stamina and the imagination of writers, producers, special effects wizards, and the most innovative art directors and set designers in the industry at the time it was made. This revised and expanded edition of Future Noir includes:

An overview of Blade Runner’s impact on moviemaking and its acknowledged significance in popular culture since the book’s original 1996 publication.

An exploration of the history of Blade Runner: The Final Cut and its theatrical release in 2007.

A look at its long-awaited sequel, Blade Runner 2049.

The longest interview Harrison Ford has ever granted about Blade Runner.

Exclusive new interviews with Rutger Hauer and Sean Young.

A fascinating look at the ever-shifting interface between commerce and art, illustrated with production photos and stills, Future Noir provides an eye-opening and enduring look at modern moviemaking, the business of Hollywood, and one of the greatest films of all time.

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Recommended reading - Beware the Night, by Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool (2001):


Beware the Night

By Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool.

Filmed as Deliver Us from Evil (2014), directed by Scott Derrickson.

Published by St. Martin's Griffin.
Published 2001.
ISBN-10: 1250059496
ISBN-13: 9781250059499

Description:

DEMONIC POSSESSION. EXORCISM. HAUNTED HOUSES. SATANIC RITUALS.

For most people this is the stuff of nightmares, horror movies, folklore, and superstition. For New York City police sergeant Ralph Sarchie, it's as real -- and dangerous -- as midnight patrol...

HELL IS HIS BEAT

A sixteen-year NYPD veteran, Ralph Sarchie works out of the 46th Precinct in New York's South Bronx. But it is his other job that he calls "the Work": investigating cases of demonic possession and assisting in the exorcisms of humanity's most ancient -- and most dangerous -- foes. Now he discloses for the first time his investigations into incredible true crimes and inhuman evil that were never explained, solved, or understood except by Sarchie and his partner. Schooled in the rituals of exorcism, and an eyewitness to the reality of demonic possession, Ralph Sarchie has documented a riveting chronicle of the inexplicable that gives a new shape to the shadows in the dark.

In Beware the Night, he takes readers into the very hierarchy of a hell on earth to expose the grisly rituals of a Palo Mayombe priest; a young girl whose innocence is violated by an incubus; a home invaded by the malevolent spirit of a supposedly murdered nineteenth-century bride; the dark side of a couple who were literally, the neighbors from hell; and more. Ralph Sarchie's NYPD revelations are a powerful and disturbing documented link between the true-crime realities of life and the blood-chilling ice-grip of a supernatural terror.

Monday, June 23, 2025

Recommended reading - Forrest Gump (novel & cookbook):


Forrest Gump

By Winston Groom.

Filmed as Forrest Gump (1994), directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Published by Vintage.
Published 1986.
ISBN-10: 0307947394
ISBN-13: 9780307947390

Description:

Six foot six, 242 pounds, and possessed of a scant IQ of 70, Forrest Gump is the lovable, surprisingly savvy hero of this classic comic tale. His early life may seem inauspicious, but when the University of Alabama’s football team drafts Forrest and makes him a star, it sets him on an unbelievable path that will transform him from Vietnam hero to world-class Ping-Pong player, from wrestler to entrepreneur. With a voice all his own, Forrest is telling all in a madcap romp through three decades of American history.


The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Cookbook:
Recipes and Reflections from FORREST GUMP

By Southern Living Magazine.
Foreword by Winston Groom.

Published by TI Inc. Books.
Published 1994.
ISBN-10: 9780848714796
ISBN-13: 9780848714796
ASIN: 0848714792

Description:

Forrest Gump stepped out of the pages of Winston Groom’s novel, up onto the silver screen, and into the hearts of more than 30 million Americans. If you’re lucky, you count yourself among them.

Now you can open to any page... and just like Forrest’s mama said about life... “You never know what you’re gonna get.” There are shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, shrimp cocktail... over 75 recipes all told, and every mouth-watering one of them heaven-sent.

And speaking of heaven, Forrest wanted to remember his mama with these recipes, and his best friend, Bubba, too. And he didn’t want Li’l Forrest to grow up without knowing the Gump family shrimp secrets. These recipes are so downright delicious, you’ll know that “miracles do happen every day.”

Forrest Gump has never been a man to complicate things... he’s a simple man, but one who “knows what love is.” Try some of the shrimp recipes in this book, and you’ll know what he means.

Forrest’s mama loved the South, and its magazine, Southern Living. “They just have a way with food,” she used to say. Try these shrimp fixings, all tested in the Southern Living kitchens, and you’ll say his mama was right every time. Even if the President of the United States knocks on your door, you’ll have the very thing to put on his plate. Tell him Forrest Gump said to say hello... and to remember his own mama.

Recommended reading - The Firm, by John Grisham (1991):


The Firm

By John Grisham.

Filmed as The Firm (1993), directed by Sydney Pollack.

Published by Vintage.
Published 1991.
ISBN-10: 0440245923
ISBN-13: 9780440245926

Description:

Mitch McDeere has worked hard to get where he is: third in his class at Harvard Law. Aggressively recruited by all the top firms, and initially headed for Wall Street, Mitch surprises everyone by joining Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a very private, very rich tax firm in Memphis. Mitch and his wife, Abby, move to Tennessee and quickly settle into their new life: they’re young, happy, and on the fast track. Or so they think.

Soon, though, Mitch senses trouble: two of the partners die in a suspicious diving accident off Grand Cayman; the firm’s management is overly proud of the fact that no one has ever resigned; and security measures at the firm, even for a company with billionaire clients, are more than a little stringent. Then, suddenly, Mitch’s vague suspicions come to life.

The FBI has the lowdown on Mitch’s firm and needs his help. Now Mitch is caught between a rock and a hard place. The FBI will bust him if he doesn’t cooperate, and the firm will kill him if he does. There’s no way out.

Or is there?

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Recommended reading - Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, by Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger (1994):


Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13

By Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger.

Filmed as Apollo 13 (1995), directed by Ron Howard.

Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Published 1994
ISBN-10: 3445323232
ISBN-13: 9783445323231
ASIN: 0395670292

Description:

Out of the seven Apollo expeditions to land on the moon, six of the efforts succeeded outstandingly and one failed. Lost Moon is the story of the failure and the incredible heroism of the three astronauts who brought their crippled vehicle back to earth. This account – written by Jim Lovell, commander of the mission, and his talented coauthor, Jeffrey Kluger – captures the high drama of that unique event and is told in the vernacular of the men in the sky and on the ground who masterminded this triumph of heroism, intellectual brilliance, and raw courage. A thrilling story of a thrilling episode in the history of space exploration.

Recommended reading - The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories (2001):


The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories

Published 2001.
Edited by Herbert Van Thal.
Mammoth Books.

ISBN-10: 0786708867
ISBN-13: 978-0786708864

Anthology of short stories.

Description:

Murder, suspense, mystery – the biggest and best collection ever.

This huge and unique volume contains four anthologies by Herbert Van Thai featuring 35 of the best detective stories ever told. The stories range and style and setting from the mean streets of Raymond Chandler's New York to the classic English whodunnit by Agatha Christie and offer an unmissable treat for detective fans.

Saturday, June 21, 2025

Recommended reading - Night Shadows & East Beach, by Ron Ely:


Night Shadows

By Ron Ely.

Published by Simon & Schuster.
First published 1994.
ISBN-10: 1451613687
ISBN-13: 9781451613681

Description:

Retreating to Santa Barbara to recover from his tragic past, Jake Sands walks away from the murdered body he accidentally finds, until he meets the victim's beautiful widow.


East Beach

By Ron Ely.

Published by Simon & Schuster.
First published 1995.
ISBN-10: 1451613679
ISBN-13: 9781451613674

Description:

In the sequel to Night Shadows, Jake Sands, the fortysomething retiree from the high-action life, reluctantly takes on the ruthless king of the beach after his favorite waitress is found murdered.

Friday, June 20, 2025

Recommended reading - Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s (1997):


Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s

Published by Library of America.
Published 1997.
ISBN-10: 1883011493
ISBN-13: 9781883011499

Description:

Contents: The Killer Inside Me, by Jim Thompson; The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith; Pick-up, by Charless Willeford; Down There, by David Goodis; The Real Cool Killers, by Chester Himes.

This adventurous volume, with its companion devoted to the 1930s and 40s, presents a rich vein of modern American writing. Evolving out of the terse and violent style of the pulp magazines, noir fiction expanded over the decades into a varied, innovative, and profoundly influential body of work. The five novels presented here are authentic underground classics: Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, with its psychotic narrator, a murderous West Texas Sheriff; Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, an astonishing study of the seductiveness of evil and the vagaries of personal identity; Pick-Up, Charles Willeford’s nihilistic love story of two lost souls adrift in San Francisco’s lower depths; David Doodis’ haunted, lyrical Down There (the inspiration for Truffaut’s classic film Shoot the Piano Player); and Chester Himes’ The Real Cool Killers, an explosive and sometimes wildly comic novel featuring Harlem detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. With this Library of America publication, these works are at last being recognized for their powerful literary qualities and their unique, sometimes subversive role in shaping modern American language and culture.

The Library of America, a nonprofit publisher, is dedicated to preserving America’s best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritive texts.

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Recommended reading - A Panorama of American Film Noir (1941-1953), by Raymond Borde & Etienne Chaumeton (2002):


A Panorama of American Film Noir (1941-1953)

By Raymond Borde & Etienne Chaumeton.

Translated from French by Paul Hammond.
Published by City Lights Publishers.
Published 2002.
ISBN-10: 087286412X
ISBN-13: 9780872864122

Description:

"...the book notes the influence of criminal psychology on film noir and how German Expressionism inspired directors..." – San Francisco Chronicle Book Review.

When it appeared in France in 1955, A Panorama of American Film Noir was the first book ever on the genre: this clairvoyant study of Hollywood film noir is at last available in English translation.

A Panorama of American Film Noir addresses the essential amorality of its subject from a decidedly Surrealist angle, focusing on noir's dreamlike, unwonted, erotic, ambivalent and cruel atmosphere, and setting it in the social context of mid-century America.

Beginning with the first film noir, The Maltese Falcon, and continuing through the post war "glory days," which included such films as Gilda, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and The Lady from Shanghai, Borde and Chaumeton examine the dark sides of American society, film and literature that made film noir possible, even necessary.

A Panorama of American Film Noir includes a film noir chronology, a voluminous filmography, a comprehensive index and a selection of black-and-white production stills.

"Incredibly, this is the first English translation of the very influential 1955 French book that initially identified, described and assessed the Hollywood movies that we now term film noir . . . a seminal work of cinema description and analysis and therefore an essential purchase for most libraries." – From the Starred Review in Library Journal.

Raymond Borde (1920 - 2004), founder of the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, wrote extensively on film history; among his short films is a study of the artist Pierre Molinier.

Etienne Chaumeton was the film critic of the Toulouse newspaper La Dépêche until his death.

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Recommended reading - The Black Door, by Collin Wilcox (1967):


The Black Door

By Collin Wilcox.

ASIN: B0006BQEGW
Published by Dodd, Mead.
First published 1967.
ASIN: B0006BQEGW

Description:

A crime reporter with ESP tackles a double homicide. In a San Francisco apartment building, a young woman is found strangled beside a piano player with a broken neck. He's a nobody – a dreamer with little talent and no future – but she is Roberta Grinnel, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the Bay Area. Stephen Drake, crime reporter for the "Sentinel," feels nothing when he looks at their corpses, and this is a troubling fact. For Drake is a psychic, and when his sixth sense fails him, that means more trouble ahead. As Drake tries to come to grips with his cosmic gift, the mystery of the heiress and the piano player becomes the hottest story in town. To keep his gig at the paper, Drake will call on every source he has – on this plane and the astral one – but knowing danger's lurking doesn't guarantee he can stay out of its way.

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Recommended reading - The Anderson Tapes, by Lawrence Sanders (1970):


The Anderson Tapes

By Lawrence Sanders.

Filmed as The Anderson Tapes (1971), directed by Sidney Lumet.

Published by DELL PUBL CO.
First published 1970.
ISBN-10: 0440102170
ISBN-13: 9780440102175

Description:

With clockwork precision, Lawrence Sanders outlines the inspiration, planning and execution of an ambitious robbery of an apartment building on New York's Upper East Side in The Anderson Tapes, the best-selling thriller that established him as one of the most popular suspense writers of his generation. The premise is clever – the entire story is told in surveillance tape transcripts and reports from law enforcement agencies, each of which seems to be observing some aspect of the situation in which the robbery takes place.

John "Duke" Anderson was recently paroled from Sing Sing, after serving time on a charge of breaking and entering. A rich woman picks him up one evening and takes him back to her apartment, in a small but elegant building on the Upper East Side. Anderson is intrigued by the situation in the building, seeing it as a possible target for a large-scale robbery. He needs backing, though, and he gets it through his contacts with the underworld. What Anderson does not know is that much of what he is already doing is being captured as evidence through electronic surveillance. The catch is that the different entities doing the surveillance are not communicating with each other. The evidence is assembled and the puzzle solved, after the robbery takes place and ends violently, by NYPD Capt. Edward X. Delaney.

The Anderson Tapes marks the first appearance in a Sanders novel of Delaney, a character who will be central to the author's Deadly Sin series of thrillers. Sanders brilliantly unfolds the story in short, fact-filled chapters constructed as police reports and tape transcripts, some of which are tantalizingly garbled. The Anderson Tapes won for Sanders the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar as the Best First Mystery Novel of 1970.

Monday, June 16, 2025

Recommended reading – Psycho (novel & book of the movie):


Psycho

By Robert Bloch.

Filmed as Psycho (1960), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Published by The Overlook Press.
First published 1959.
ISBN-10: 1590203356
ISBN-13: 9781590203354

Description:

"Psycho all came from Robert Bloch's book." – Alfred Hitchcock.

"Icily terrifying!" – The New York Times.

"Robert Bloch is one of the all-time masters." – Peter Straub.

Norman Bates loves his mother. She has been dead for the past 20 years, or so people think. Norman knows better, though.

Ever since leaving the hospital, he has lived with Mother in the old house up on the hill above the Bates Motel. One night, after a beautiful woman checks into the motel, Norman spies on her as she undresses. Norman can’t help but spy on her.

Mother is there, though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife.

If you love to be scared, or are a fan of classic movies, then you know the story of Norman Bates, his mother, and the dark and frightening Bates Motel. Alfred Hitchcock’s taut, shocking scare-fest starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is a classic movie, as scary today as it was in 1960 when it was first released, and this is the 1959 novel upon which the movie is based.

It was here that the legend of the Bates Motel was born.


Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho

Edited by Richard J. Anobile.

The Film Classics Library.
Published by Universe Books.
First Edition.
Published 1974.
Hardcover.
ISBN-10: 0876631898
ISBN-13: 978-0876631898

Description:

The Film Classics Library present the most accurate and complete reconstruction of a film in book over 1,300 frame blow-up photos shown sequentially and coupled with the complete dialogue from the original soundtrack, allow you to recapture this film classic in its entirety – at your leisure.

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Recommended reading - The Best American Mystery Stories 2001 (2001):


The Best American Mystery Stories 2001

The Best American Series.

Edited by Lawrence Block and Otto Penzler.

Published 2001.
ISBN-10: 0618124918
ISBN-13: 978-0618124916

Contents:

Foreword; Introduction by Lawrence Block; Things that make your heart beat faster, by Jennifer Anderson; Lobster night, by Russell Banks; Prison food, by Michael Downs; In the zone, by Leslie Edgerton; Paperhanger, by William Gay; Book of Kells, by Jeremiah Healy; Erie’s last day, by Steve Hockensmith; Under suspicion, by Clark Howard; Her Hollywood, by Michael Hyde; Family, by Dan Leone; Blood sport, by Thomas Lynch; Carnie, by David Means; Tides, by Kent Nelson; Girl with the blackened eye, by Joyce Carol Oates; Easy street, by T. Jefferson Parker; Big bite, by Bill Pronzini; Missing in action, by Peter Robinson; Face-lift, by Roxana Robinson; Big ranch, by John Salter; Push comes to shove, by Nathan Walpow.

Description:

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected – and most popular – of its kind.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2001 will thrill fans of all reached of the genre. The legendary mystery writer Lawrence Block offer chilling tales from best-selling writers as well as talented up-and-comers. Ranging from traditional detective cases to psychological studies to atmospheric scene-setters, these stories illustrate the variety and scope of styles, plots, and characters Block admires. With Block as guest editor and a stellar roster of suspense veterans and rising stars, the 2001 edition will delight mystery afficionados and all lovers of great fiction.

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Recommended reading - Mastering Black & White Photography, by John Walmsley (2016):


Mastering Black & White Photography

By John Walmsley.

Published by Ammonite Press.
Published 2016.
ISBN-10: 1781450870
ISBN-13: 9781781450871

Description:

Mastering Black & White Photography is the definitive work on how to shoot black & white images on today's sophisticated digital SLR and compact digital cameras and smart phones.

Jargon-busting text, illustrated with the author's own stunning images, explains the theory behind digital photography, along with a guide to the equipment and software needed to take outstanding images. The book explains the basics of exposure and good composition, file types, manipulating captured images using popular software, and applying special effects (such as split toning, simulating film grain, lith prints and using cyanotypes). A printing chapter discusses outputting and displaying images.

Friday, June 13, 2025

Recommended reading - King of the Ants, by Charlie Higson (1992):


King of the Ants

By Charlie Higson.

Filmed as King of the Ants (2003), directed by Stuart Gordon.

Published by Abacus.
First published 1992.
ISBN-10: 0349144877
ISBN-13: 9780349144870

Description:

Charlie Higson's thrillers are major events. – Mark Billingham.

Funny, very tough and full of action – Patricia Highsmith.

A brave, abrasive, alarmingly realistic debut. – Daily Mail.

Uncoils with wit and imagination. – Time Out.

It seemed straightforward enough. Sean had now consumed so much alcohol that everything seemed perfectly reasonable. He'd started planning the job already. The first problem was how to do it. Thirteen thousand pounds in an envelope seems a fair price for a man's life. Particularly if you don't know the man, he seems a nonentity, and you quite fancy his wife. And there's no chance of being caught. Sean is a drifter, working as a building labourer and waiting for something to happen. When Sean is offered easy money to tail someone and even more easy money to dispose of him, it's all more tempting than you might think. Except when you realize that you've been led up the garden path the whole way...

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Recommended reading: The Diary, by Anne Frank (1948):


The Diary

By Anne Frank.

Published by Turtleback Books.
First published 1948.
ISBN-10: 1417643099
ISBN-13: 9781417643097

Description:

Anne Frank’s extraordinary diary, written in the Amsterdam attic where she and her family hid from the Nazis for two years, has become a world classic and a timeless testament to the human spirit. Now, in a new edition enriched by many passages originally withheld by her father, we meet an Anne more real, more human, and more vital than ever. Here she is first and foremost a teenage girl – stubbornly honest, touchingly vulnerable, in love with life. She imparts her deeply secret world of soul-searching and hungering for affection, rebellious clashes with her mother, romance and newly discovered sexuality, and wry, candid observations of her companions. Facing hunger, fear of discovery and death, and the petty frustrations of such confined quarters, Anne writes with adult wisdom and views beyond her years. Her story is that of every teenager, lived out in conditions few teenagers have ever known.

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Recommended reading - True Grit, by Charles Portis (1968):


True Grit

By Charles Portis.

Filmed as True Grit (1969), directed by Henry Hathaway.

Published by The Overlook Press.
First published 1968.
ISBN-10: 159020459X
ISBN-13: 9781590204597

Description:

“Quite simply, an American masterpiece.” – Boston Globe.

“Charles Portis had a wonderful talent—original, quirky, exciting.” – Larry McMurtry.

Charles Portis has long been acclaimed as one of America’s most enduring and incomparable literary voices, and his novels have left an indelible mark on the American canon. True Grit, his most famous novel, was first published in 1968, and has garnered critical acclaim as well as enthusiastic praise from countless passionate fans for more than 50 years.

True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just 14 when the coward Tom Chaney shoots her father in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash. Filled with an unwavering urge to avenge her father’s blood, Mattie finds and, after some tenacious finagling, enlists one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available US Marshal, as her partner in pursuit, and they head off into Indian Territory after the killer.

True Grit is essential reading. Not just a classic Western, but an undeniable classic of American literature as eccentric, cool, funny, and unflinching as Mattie Ross herself. For fans of either the John Wayne classic or the Coen brothers’ movie, it’s a chance to relive the story of Mattie and Rooster and experience their story as it was originally told. For fans of taut, funny storytelling, it will be a joy to experience in its original form.

This edition includes an afterword by bestselling author Donna Tartt (The Secret History and The Goldfinch) and a reading group guide.

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Recommended reading - The Ferguson Affair, by Ross Macdonald (1960):


The Ferguson Affair

By Ross Macdonald.

Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
First published 1960.
ISBN-10:030774079X
ISBN-13: 9780307740793

Description:

It was a long way from the million-dollar Foothill Club to Pelly Street, where grudges were settled in blood and Spanish and a stolen diamond ring landed a girl in jail.  Defense lawyer Bill Gunnarson was making the trip – fast.  He already knew a kidnapping at the club was tied to the girl's hot rock, and he suspected that a missing Hollywood starlet was the key to a busy crime ring.  But while Gunnarson made his way through a storm of deception, money, drugs, and passions, he couldn't guess how some big shots and small-timers would all end up with murder in common...