Beer Leg Book Club

James Lee Burke

> I read "The Road" having read your review. I didn't care much for the story but liked McCarthy's style enough to try "Blood Meridian".

I'm frankly a bit shocked that McKinley Morgenfield isn't recommending the novels of James Lee Burke built around the character of Dave Robicheaux. Sure, Burke spends part of the year at his place in Montana, but he always comes back to Louisiana, presumably for material for the next book.

Hey Hannibal....I mean Robby.
As said before, I sort of connected to The Road on a certain level. I found it disturbing and gripping. The style was very interesting. As a father to a soon to be 8 yr old, it hit home on certain levels to me.
I did rent the film recently on demand and viewed it by myself.(swmbo did not want to watch with me)
I knew that they would have to "lighten" it up a little and they did. But the screenwriter did a very honest job. They did add Charlize Theiron as the Mom for a few flashbacks sequences. The scenes/scenery were very true to the book also.Amazingly so. They filmed at Mt. St Helens and New Orleans/Louisiana to capture devastation.
To me they dropped 2 scenes on the floor for the final film. One I was looking forward to and was surprised it was not in the final film, but on the whole it was the most accurate of book to film movie that I ever saw which is never the case. Uncanny even though they did a slight addendum at the ending.
really beautiful soundtrack by Nick Cave also surprised and delighted me too.

For McCarthy, I read "No Country for Old Men recently also. It was OK.

Kent:
I did not know that you were a Burke fan because I recently gave away/traded most of his novels., some of which were signed. Dave Robichaux as the debauched New Orleans detective is a little silly to me. Mystery is really not my genre.
The only modern mystery writer that I can say that I enjoy was the late Dick Francis.
I have read all of his books. I understand his son us continuing his work, but I do not understand how it could be of the same quality to me..

> I did not know that you were a Burke fan because I recently gave away/traded most of his novels., some of which were signed. Dave Robichaux as the debauched New Orleans detective is a little silly to me. Mystery is really not my genre.

Well, I'm not sure that I'd call myself a "fan" of Burke's novels. I mean all Burke is doing is just recording everyday life in Louisiana, right? :> It has been quite an accomplishment to wring as much print out of Dave Robicheaux as Burke has. I think of him as the successor to John D. McDonald's character Travis McGee.

I've started on a reading project to go through the books I was assigned to read in junior high school and high school. First I had to remember what books they were. Considering I graduated from high school 37 years ago that was no easy feat. So far the list includes:

Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler (read)
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway (read)
A Seperate Peace - John Knowles (read)
The Stranger - Albert Camus
The Unvanquished - William Faulkner
The Good Earth - Pearl Buck

There has to be more but for the life of me I cannot remember them. These books left an impression on me so they must be the best of the list.

It is amazing how much different a book reads when you are in your mid fifties versus a teenager.

Peter Lazio

I gave a nephew a copy of Lord of the Flies recently. It was HS reading for me.
He told me that he appreciated it.
Then I gave him a copy of the fairly recent novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I think that it is a fine book for young and old alike.

> I've started on a reading project to go through the books I was assigned to read in junior high school and high school. First I had to remember what books they were. Considering I graduated from high school 37 years ago that was no easy feat. So far the list includes:
>
> Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler (read)
> The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway (read)
> A Seperate Peace - John Knowles (read)
> The Stranger - Albert Camus
> The Unvanquished - William Faulkner
> The Good Earth - Pearl Buck

Hmmm. Some of the books I recall being assigned to read in junior high and high school included:

"To Kill a Mockingbird",
"Grapes of Wrath",
"The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test", and
"Don Quixote",

The rest were books we got to choose and report on, as I recall. Come to think of it, probably the Tom Wolfe book wasn't assigned reading.

that was a good one Kent, "The electric kool-aid acid test" was required reading in HS of course, JUST NOT ASSIGNED!!! hahaha

Have you read any Mark Helprin? I've enjoyed his novels, "Memoir in Antproof Case' and " A Soldier of the Great War" were great reads, and anyhting by Annie Proulx...