Skip to main content

Recent Purchases - Los Angeles Edition

I was in Los Angeles over the weekend. Partially for business, and partially for pleasure. The Mystery Bookstore was high on my lists of stops.

Principally, I went to get Megan Abbott's first two books. DIE A LITTLE and THE SONG IS YOU. Both books were present but I ended up with only DIE A LITTLE. I wanted both. Will probably regret not getting both. But there were other books to buy and I was keeping myself to a strict three book minimum. Megan has a third book coming in June called QUEENPIN. Awesome title. Noir and written by a female. Plus I am a sucker for cover art this.... lurid. Should be fun.

I ended up with Louis Bayard's, THE PALE BLUE EYE. I nearly didn't get this and it caused me to put down THE SONG IS YOU, but I'm fascinated by MR. TIMOTHY. I need to buy that book soon. THE PALE BLUE EYE is nominated for an Edgar. 1830s, Edgar Allan Poe, West Point. Sign me up.

Finally there was Brad Smith's BUSTED FLUSH. Released in 2005 this was the follow up to ALL HAT. I urge everyone to get ALL HAT. A great book. I searched in desperate vain to find this book in 2005. Glad I remember to look for it.

I could have spent another hour in the store. A great place to buy books. Clean, well organized, friendly staff, close to a donut place, and tons of books I would kill to own. I didn't go with much of plan other than to get the Megan Abbott books. Probably a good thing. I would have just been disappointed by what I could not buy.

And oh yeah I was in LA to go to the Academy Awards Ceremony. Sorry lads no Camera allowed.

Total cost: $77.89 (Airfare, new shirt, and tie not included)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Very Best of Mr. Michael Connelly - Part 2

My August 31 post of The Hungry Detective ranked all the non-Bosch books. This list returns to take on the larger task of Mr. Heironimous Bosch. 9 Dragons made its appearance right before the Indy B'Con, and try as I might... ok I didn't try that hard... I didn't have time to read it for inclusion in these rankings. As a quick aside I don't want to undersell any of the books at the bottom of the list. Mr. Connelly doesn't know how to write a bad book, but in my case there have been occasions where I have not connected with his work. 13. THE NARROWS - 2004 It is because I love THE POET so much that this book is at the end of the list. When Mr. Connelly is at his best his works has the precision of a watchmaker. THE NARROWS just felt forced and not worthy of the intricacy of THE POET. 12. BLACK ICE - 1993 Second book. Third read. I thought the story was pretty flat. It has been well over a decade since I read this book, but the story of Mexican drug runner...
1 comment
Read more

The Very Best of Mr. Dennis Lehane

I thought this post would appear in October. Ya, know when SHUTTER ISLAND: THE MOVIE was supposed to be released. And then it wasn't. Something about Leo not being able to do 'press' for the movie. Doesn't really matter the reason, a February release date has one of those fancy Hollywood meanings: Not Good. Look I'll be honest, I didn't connect with SHUTTER ISLAND. I loved the fifties setting, the haunted house atmosphere, and impending doom of the Hurricane. Even the set-up of the story was intriguing but how it played out just didn't work for me. Some interesting characters, a bunch of great set pieces, but the ending announces itself with an expected, thud that went nowhere. Am I still going to the movie? Its Lehane, Scorsese, Leo, and Ruffalo of course I am. Anyway the list. 8. Prayers for Rain - 1999 The last Kenzie-Gennaro book follows our heroes as they investigate a guy who is terrorizing women into committing suicide. The book played like an episo...
4 comments
Read more

Small Mercies - The Return of Dennis Lehane

 A time honored tradition at The Hungry Detective HQ is to perform the twice annual, and largely ceremonial, 'Dennis Lehane New book 20XX" Google search. Nothing comes up on his long abandoned Website, except notification of the script work for his television and film projects.  Grousing aside, 2022 was a big year for Mr. Lehane. BLACK BIRD, a show he created, played on Apple+ to solid acclaim. The show's star, Paul Walter Hauser, won a Golden Globe. But despite that I have yet to watch it. Not for any other reason than I am a movie person more than a TV person. The TV I do watch is watched in an arcane order that is difficult to decipher and even more baffling to explain. Short story, I need to watch ANDOR [Editor's Note: Slow going on ANDOR despite everyone telling me it is amazing.] And then BLACK BIRD, or maybe SLOW HORSES. I'll get there...  Anyway at the dead end of 2022, I did the search. Found out he wrote a book. SMALL MERCIES . I was excited to hear it. I...
Post a Comment
Read more