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Ed McBain has prolly been around as long, but the guy who started the new wave in police stories in movies and TV was Joseph Wambaugh, with books like The Blue Knight, The New Centurions, The Choirboys, The Onion Field, and The Black Marble.

No problem, I like tidy and can't believe I missed the original thread! Speculations on this new movie: will Depp reprise as HST?

How long ago did you start it? Sorry, but I didn't see it on what appeared to be a short list ... I've not read Rum diaries or anything more recent than TGSH ... and that was long ago. I think his affinity with Ernest Hemingway was unhealthy, to say the least!

Hunter Thompson Appreciation thread We really are remiss in not acknowledging the work of the recently departed guru of Gonzo. Thompson was the master of the rant and took exaggeration to artistics heights. It's been awhile since I read The Great Shark Hunt, a large collection of his collected...

I think there's a disconnect in teaching literature (there's a loaded word, too) that ignores the genres where great writing is equal to the writing in the so-called classics. The usual Eng lit "classic" is "teachable" ... you don't have to explain away fantasy elements (or mystery elements for...

:rolleyes: I guess Sky Captain isn't for everyone. Too bad you missed a great laugh at the end of the movie. As much as I love the beauty of the 40s film noir sci-fi aspects of the movie, what really made it all work was the chemistry of Paltrow and Law, epitomized by the final line: "Lens cap?"...

Bumping a good thread with a comment on reading the new V. I. Warshawski novel, Blacklist, by Sara Paretsky. Besides the fact that the local flavor does influence my interest, Paretsky has created a wonderful character and has great talent for spinning a hard-boilded mystery. In Blacklist, she's...

Just saw this on Yahoo: 75th Anniversary of The Maltese Faclon Comments you would expect of the creator of "The Thin Man" ... ;)

Good idea!

Yah, I have fewer reservations about the list now that I've read the Sarantine Mosaic: Guy G. Kay is a very good storyteller and I will be looking for more of his work.

It looks promising. The odd thing about the Jessica A casting is exactly that she's a dark-haired beauty and her character, Sue Storm, is blond and that cannot be changed. I think the idea is to remove the "dark beauty" aspect of JA, so people won't think that "Dark Angel" chick ... It would...

The Shining: page after page of "the lazy brown fox jumped over the log" sequence Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: every single frame is amazing! Roxanne: Steve Martin's "swordfight" with tennis players on sidewalk Monty Python and the Holy Grail: confrontation with the Frenchman...

Bill Bryson hasn't been mentioned so far. His travelogues are quite funny. The classic is A Walk in the Woods. Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels can be very funny as well as suspenseful. In particular, his recent Bad Business is an excellent example of his clever dialogue and handling of a...

I tested out as Aragorn despite liking mushrooms and disliking horses! But I do like Aragorn alot. Also liked Tom Bombadill. Eowyn was by far my favorite female character.

I like how Stephen King once described what the horror writer does. He takes you into a room where there's a table. On the table is a body covered with a sheet. His job is to take you over to the table and guide your hand to explore what is under the sheet. He doesn't pull the sheet off, he...

A lot of SK's Dreamcatcher is located in Maine woods. Ditto with Tommyknockers if I recall correctly.

I do that to my son (he is twenty-three) and he thanks me. He's on the third book of Fire and Ice and I had to break the news that number 4 is nearly a year late ... and that 5 and 6 are planned .... I couldn't hope to wait for Donaldson to finish three more Covenant books!! Hell, I always...

Enjoy! But be sure to make The Thin Man your next read!

I believe he meant SPHERE ... ;) I wholeheartedly recommend anything Crichton writes. Don't let the movies turn you away from the Jurassic Park books. They comprise a cautionary tale, not so much about genetics, but about "the progress of science" and especially about extinction. I found...

They also have written separately, and the results have been very good. I think Mount Dragon and The Ice Limit are the other standalones, where you don't have crossover characters. For any who have read the latter ... well, yeah! [Didn't want to go too far into spoiler territory!]