Summer Reading

The Saint and I went for a ride yesterday, just the two of us. The kids are away for Grandchildren's Week, so the Saint and I went out for lunch.

The Saint is working on a massive paper for her summer class, so we ended up going on a book binge at BN. She bought a bunch of stuff by and about the dude from Avon. I bought Barry Eisler's latest paperback release, The Last Assassin (sorry, Barry-- I have all your others in paperback, so I bought TLA in paperback, too).

I also bought J.A. Konrath's Dirty Martini in hardcover (I have Joe's first three in hardcover, and we have the same agents). The Saint and I sipped coffee and read books in Starbuck's for a couple of hours. I was almost halfway through Konrath's book when we left. I finished it last night. Good thing I read all the way to the last page. I'm in the acknowledgments along with a few other people whose names you'll recognize if you read this blog (Thanks, Joe).

Konrath's latest is a great read. Laugh out loud humor with just the right amount of violence.

I'm cruising through Barry Eisler's book now. Can't get enough of Barry's protagonist, John Rain.

Next up, I'm about to re-read To Kill A Mockingbird. Because it's fun to read one of the greatest books ever written, just for the Hell of it, and I learn something new every time I crack it open.

Adam

Courting Controversy

Over on The Outfit, there's a spirited discussion about Political Correctness. Most of you know by now exactly how I feel about that topic.

I'd never deliberately offend anyone, but I'm a writer. I need to be able to choose from all the words in the English language. On the flip side, I'll take the consequences and apologize if I do offend somebody.

I'm particularly appalled at the way colleges and universities censor their students for, basically, not being liberal enough. I thought colleges and universities were supposed to encourage debate, not stifle it.

I'm a good old-fashioned unreconstructed New Deal Liberal Democrat. I also have a rather colorful vocabulary. Everyone who has ever met me has known all of this within 15 seconds. I'm more liberal than many of those so-called liberal professors running around censoring students. As a bonus, I've actually, you know, worked in politics, where none of us are the least bit PC (even the liberals). My point: If I opened my mouth, I'd probably be fired by any college that would hire me in the first place.

That college and university political correctness is seeping over into other communities, particularly the writing community. I've seen it rear its head several times recently.

Back to The Outfit for a minute. They're a bunch of Chicago writers. My high school buddy Kevin Guilfoile is one of the bloggers. Joe Konrath first pointed me in their direction. Seems that Marcus Sakey, writing about one of his author friends, called her a hottie.

That got a couple of feminists up in arms, which sparked a spirited debate on the blog. Apparently, when a male author labels his female author friend a hottie, that's an insult to all women. The female author friend in question, by the way, wrote that Sakey had made her day.

I'm not saying I'd ever comment on another woman's appearance, though what Sakey did was blatantly, obviously, humorous, innocent, and fun, and any rational reader could only interpret his comments that way. Plus, the target of his comment loved it.

But... Might I state something obvious, just for the record? The Saint is a hottie. A funny, smart, sizzling, smoking, gorgeous knockout of a hottie. And I tell her that every day.

I must be a pig.

Enough said.

Adam

Another Great Addition to the Blogosphere

Dave Guarino, former chief political reporter for the Boston Herald (and before that, a reporter at the Lowell Sun, where I first met him), left the Herald a couple of years ago to work as a flak.

Flak, of course, is a term of endearment, since I used to be one-- some would say I still am. Guarino proved to be as skilled a flak as he was a reporter. As a scribe, he was always smart, tough and fair; as a flak, he remembered what he'd learned as a reporter.

One more cool thing about Guarino: He's a Springsteen fan.

And now, he has a blog, full of great politico-journalistic insight. Go check it out... it's worth your time. Guarino's only been up for a few days, and already he has a wealth of terrific analysis.

Thanks to my friend Seth Gitell for, um, heralding Guarino's arrival in the blogosphere.

In more writing news, another friend, author J.A. Konrath, announced on his blog that he has another blog (sort of). Konrath launched The Anonymous Publishing Vent Club, where everything is, well, anonymous. J.A. reiterates that he's just hosting this, not providing the content, though we'll never know because it's anonymous, will we, Joe?

To my Catholic eyes, this is like confession. Without the penance, remorse, or human interaction with the priest. I think all of this is good. The vent club will not be good, but it will be good fun.

Adam

Odds & Ends as the National Holiday Approaches

M.G. Tarquini and Elizabeth Krecker interviewed J.A. Konrath and Barry Eisler for Spinetingler Magazine.

The full interview is located here. Mindy and Elizabeth both posted outtakes from the interview on their blogs. I'm technologically challenged this morning, so I couldn't figure out how to link directly to Mindy's post, but if you click on her link above, it's the Sept. 14th post.

Elizabeth, however, made it easy to link to her outtakes, and if you click here, you'll find her version of events. As a reward for making it so easy to link to her post, I think I'll send Elizabeth some venison jerky.

A reminder that we have a very special guest joining us on Saturday, Sept. 23rd, the National Holiday known as Bruce's Birthday. I don't know what time I'll be posting on Saturday, but tune in and stay a while.

Adam

My All Time Top Five

OK, OK, so this blog is supposed to be about writing... which means reading, too, right? It's Sunday night. I have five days of work left before I'm gone on vacation, and I'm assembling my reading list for the four days the Saint and I will be spending in paradise. (Paradise also includes Cooperstown and Fly Creek, but I'm referring to vacation paradise.)

Yeah, we're bringing the new Barry Eisler in paperback, and I have some of William Kennedy's Albany cycle, and I'll bring along Konrath's latest, and probably the newest Lee Child.

But putting together my reading list got me thinking... I like keeping lists. I have lists for everything. I inherited this love of lists from my mother.

I'm not just talking about groceries, work and laundry. I list favorite movies, favorite songs, favorite singers, favorite writers.

And favorite books.

Here's my top five. They're all novels:

1. Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men
2. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying
4. Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
5. William Kennedy, Legs

The top three, you can find in my blogger profile. But numbers four and five are the main reason I put up this post. They've been on my reading list for many years, at least since I was in high school. I've seen both the movie and the TV remake of In Cold Blood. Legs Diamond has fascinated me for years because he was a famous gangster murdered in Albany.

And over the past month, I finally read Legs and In Cold Blood.

Were they good? You be the judge: They knocked Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers right off the list. They pushed For Whom the Bell Tolls from number 4 to number 6. Those remain two of the best books I've ever read.

Yeah, I know, the list is fluid, but the top 2 haven't moved since 1992, and Lesson has been sitting pretty at number three for six years.

What does that say about me? Well, it opened my eyes. I read mostly thrillers. I write thrillers. But my top five? All literary fiction.

Which is good, I guess. And I admit, this post is self-indulgent, but I have a point (I hope).

What are your favorite books? What are your top three, five, ten?

I'm interested because I learned something about myself simply by compiling my own list. Maybe I'll learn something about you if you post yours.

Go ahead, indulge yourselves.

Adam

Great Guns!

Joe Konrath has a spectacular post about handguns here. I admit, most of my firearm experience is with shotguns and rifles.

Anyway, Joe's post is great on several levels. He shows a real depth of knowledge, but most importantly: He did his homework. Research is key to credible fiction. Joe did his.

I think Barry Eisler would be able to add a few things to Joe's discussion.

Hunters (even occasional hunters like Jamie Ford and former hunters like me) will have still different points of view. A lot of people rounded out the post in the comments section.

Whatever, it was fun, and impressive seeing all those writers who are also gun owners... and gun haters who learned about guns.

Got comments? Fire away!

Adam

Another Boss Fan Found!

Or maybe I should entitle this post Thundercrack! This terrific writer named Paul Guyot posts frequently on Konrath's blog. And we all know that Konrath's blog is the place for new(er) writers. So since Konrath links to everybody who links to him, it was easy to find Paul Guyot's website and his blog.

First piece of good news: the guy can write. He's funny. He has good things to say. Guyot is an LA screenwriter who recently relocated to St. Louis. I've never been to St. Louis, but it's very near and very dear to my heart (the saint I married was born there).

Second (and best) piece of good news: He's a Springsteen fan! Now, have I actually corresponded with him? No. But I know he's a Springsteen fan because the title of every single blog post is also the title of a different Springsteen song... I always love to find new Bruce fans out there.

I've linked to Guyot's blog on the righthand side of this page, and you can also get to his website from there.

My friend Kelly Malloy is also a huge Bruce fan. The bonus is that her husband Tim is a huge Johnny Cash fan. It means that we're always guaranteed an interesting conversation or two when we get together, if the conversations about teaching (Kelly and the saint I married both teach), kids (Kelly and Tim have two, the saint and I have 3), writing (I may have mentioned that Kelly and I both write) or cooking (I love to cook; Kelly makes fantastic chocolate truffles).

Since these are Random Thoughts: One of my agents is also a giant Springsteen fan. My friend Eugena Pilek (I sat next to her for four years of high school English, and her novel, Cooperstown, is in bookstores now) is a moderate Bruce fan. Not a fanatic, but she fell in love with Nebraska, so she gets bonus points. She's also a Nick Alicino disciple (see my A rock star, 2 outlaws and an English teacher post below).

My friend Kevin Guilfoile, 2 years ahead of me in high school: Another Nick disciple. Another giant Bruce fan. He once wrote an article proving his Bruce bona fides: He's seen Springsteen perform in 3 different states, including New Jersey. I get partial credit under that scenario: I've seen him in 3 states as well, and I've also made the pilgrimage to the Stone Pony, in Asbury Park. The Pony is famous for a lot of things, but all of them involve Springsteen.

My whole Random Thought(s) pattern is in overdrive tonight: All these writers, who are also Springsteen fans. Or maybe we're all Springsteen fans who are also writers. Why do I find this cool? It's more self-explanatory than anything else.

Which also leads to another Random Thought: Dennis Lehane, another of my favorite writers-- another big Springsteen fan.

By the way, I hate all these colons and double dashes, too, but whatever.

I'd love to know which writers out there are also big Springsteen fans.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all of you out here in blog land.

Adam

Favorite Fiction Characters

I was compiling this list and it made me laugh, because most of the characters on it are named Jack.

For instance, I love Jack Flynn, Brian McGrory's political reporter-protagonist in The Incumbent, The Nominee and Deadline. Check McGrory's website at www.brianmcgrory.com for more details. You can also link to it on the right.

I also love J.A. Konrath's Jack Daniels. No, not Jack Daniel's, the Tennessee Whiskey (though I love that, too). Konrath's Jack Daniels is a woman, Lt. Jacqueline Daniels of the Chicago Police Department. One of the best new characters out there. An insomniac detective. Konrath has an amazing website, particularly helpful to new readers. I've linked to it, but you can also click here: www.jakonrath.com.

Jeremiah Healy has not a Jack, but its precursor, John. Healy's John Francis Cuddy is a terrific fictional private investigator. Healy writes the best Private Eye books on the planet. I've also linked to him on the right, but you can click www.jeremiahhealy.com.

Healy's John Francis Cuddy is a real treat if you think you've seen everything. If you've read the Cuddy series but it's been a while, go back and read a few titles again. You'll be amazed at Healy's prose, and at the complexity of his most famous character.

My favorite Jack in current fiction is Lee Child's incomparable Jack Reacher. There's not much I need to add. Go to www.leechild.com for more information. Reacher is a serious, serious badass... I dare you to read just one of Child's books.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention perhaps the best character in the thriller genre, by the amazing David Morrell: John Rambo. I don't mean the guy Stallone played. Well, I do mean that guy, but the guy in Morrell's book, not the guy in the movie. They're very different, and as usual, the book is better.

Deviating a little from popular and current fiction, we'll round out today's post with my two most favorite characters in all of literature.

Number 2 on the list is not Jack or John, but Atticus. Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird might be the best lawyer ever created. He's certainly one of the most compassionate protagonists we'll ever see. Harper Lee created an absolute masterpiece of a book, with stunning characters in Scout, Jem, and Boo Radley, but Atticus is the noblest of all. There's a reason why Mockingbird still outsells every book in this country except the Bible.

Last on the list, my favorite, from my favorite book, back to Jack: Jack Burden from All the King's Men. As flawed a main character as any author has ever created. This guy is seriously tormented. If it's been a while since you've read a classic, if you like politics, or if you enjoy reading about the seedy underside of human nature, grab Robert Penn Warren's classic, considered by many to be the greatest American novel.

Feel free to add your own favorites in the comment section.

Adam