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BOOKS THREAD

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Moderator1, Apr 22, 2005.

  1. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    My sig other bought me The Chicagoan, a loving monument to the short-lived New Yorker knockoff which centered around the City of Wind in the late '20s-early '30s. Excerpts, a ton of covers, the reproduction of one entire issue, etc., etc., etc.
    Anyone here of a certain age who loves the city in question will wonder how they
    ever lived without this volume, after spending about ten minutes with it. Have
    already isolated enough signature lines to last me for the next ten years.
     
  2. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    bird, good suggestions. Waterston has a face that emotes a distinct yet uncertain sadness. Who would play Douglas for an episode? The comely Kate Chase? An arrogant jackass the likes of G. B. McClellan? The series would be a slam dunk.
     
  3. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    One of my resolutions was to read more this year. I have not been good about that. I need to start being good about that.
    That, among many other things.
     
  4. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    Any Cubs or Black Hawks stuff in there?
     
  5. jakewriter82

    jakewriter82 Active Member

    Can anyone suggest a book, or books based on real sporting events with parts that are fictionalized?

    The sporting event itself is based on what really happened, but the fallout from it is fictionalized. Sorta like Phillip Roth's "The Plot Against America".

    I haven't been able to find one, but I'm writing a story in that vein so I'm looking for anything like that to check out.
     
  6. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    "Blue Ruin" from Brendan Boyd -- fiction based on the 1919 World Series -- fits that bill, jake.

    The Robert B. Parker book "Double Play" is based on Jackie Robinson's first season. I paid $5 for it in a Walgreens bin, and it was, umm, worth about that price. But it's easy to get through.

    "The Last Days of Summer," by Steve Kluger, is a much better read. The story's straight fiction, but one of the protagonists is a fictional player on the 1940-41 New York Giants (baseball, not football).

    I highly recommend "The Given Day," by Dennis Lehane, which I just finished reading. It includes a lot of real-life characters, including Babe Ruth, and the first chapter is a fictionalized account of a pickup game between the 1918 Red Sox and Cubs against a group of black ballplayers. Read that first chapter and you might get a good sense of what you're looking for.
     
  7. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    At this stage, I think "easy to get through" should be the review blurb on the cover of everything Parker writes. I usually get the impression that he spent about as much time writing it as I did reading it.
     
  8. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Robert Parker, Chapter 1:

    Hawk came by the office. He sat down. We each had a beer and talked about the case.
    Then we went out. He hit someone. I did, too.
    We had another beer.

    Chapter 2

    Pearl greeted me at Susan's door. She was happy to see me.
    I made a fancy meal. Susan picked at it. We had wine.
    Then we did it with me cracking wise the whole time. Pearl snuggled between us.


    Seriously, aren't they all like that these days? 70 or so chapters per book, along those very lines?
     
  9. Currently reading: 1776, by David McCullough. After I'm done, I think John Adams is up next.
     
  10. Anybody read The Snowball about Warren Buffett? I'm just starting it. He's an interesting character, so I am excited to dive in ... but it's over 800 pages, not sure it will keep my interest the whole time (especially with Lehane in my queue as well).
     
  11. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Chapter 3

    Hawk and I worked out together at a really old school gym. Then we rode in a car with a variety of really tough guys. Hawk and I talked about wine and sang show tunes. Inconceivably, no one in the car questioned the nature our relationship. Then I went home and watched enchantedly as Susan ate a single pea with a knife and fork.
     
  12. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Chapter 4

    Then Quirk knocked on the door.
    Whaddya got, he said?
    Nuthin, I said, lying only a little.
    Then I hammered Susan again. She made little murmur sounds while Pearl spun in circles on the floor.
     
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