New GNR book club

[jplpool]

Are audio books any good? Never really saw the appeal, myself.

I re-read some books ocassionally, usually when I'm done with all the other books on my 'to read' list. You often pick up on things you never noticed before (forshadowing in particular), which is especially the case in long and deep books like those of Mr. Kingg (just to give one example.)

Oh, I'm not knocking re-reading a novel [I say "novel" because it's probably shit to debate whether one should re-read that maths book again  ] I've done it many-a-time.

Are audio books any good? Are you fuckin' kidding me?

Nah, it depends on the narrator. I'm currently listening to The Dark Tower It is narrated awesomely, the guy [can't recall his name  ] Has to voice everybody. His Roland is good, his Eddie is amazing, his Susannah is passable and his Jake, wow, his Jake....I love Jake like a son now.   

This might sound gay, but audio books are also great for bedtime. 

[jplpool]

The Dark Tower IV Wizard And Glass. [audiobook]

A lot of people don't like this. I can understand that, the quest for the Dark Tower is addictive, and I myself found myself getting impatient when the story shifted back in time. However it is an integral part of the tale and once the pace builds and the novel draws to a close, King has you [well me anyway] gripped. 

[Faxl]

King - Everything's Eventual

Only realised it was a collection of short stories when I actually started reading it. Not that that's a bad thing; rather, it's akin to a box of chocolates where the chocs are replaced with pieces of immensley masticatable (New word! Huzzah) meat.

Basically, it's really bloody good. I read the story of the boy meeting the devil incarnate in some (Maine, natch) woods: the description of the devil was the best one I've heard/read yet, reminding me of the G-Man from Half-Life. But  here he has flaming orange eyes and...reeks of burning sulphur, as if he's on fire on the inside. For some reason, this stuck with me enough to ramble on about it.

[jplpool]

King - Everything's Eventual

Only realised it was a collection of short stories when I actually started reading it. Not that that's a bad thing; rather, it's akin to a box of chocolates where the chocs are replaced with pieces of immensley masticatable (New word! Huzzah) meat.

Basically, it's really bloody good. I read the story of the boy meeting the devil incarnate in some (Maine, natch) woods: the description of the devil was the best one I've heard/read yet, reminding me of the G-Man from Half-Life. But  here he has flaming orange eyes and...reeks of burning sulphur, as if he's on fire on the inside. For some reason, this stuck with me enough to ramble on about it.

Excellent stuff.

The Litle Sisters Of Eluria from Everything's Eventual is a short prequel to The Dark Tower series, btw.

[seely]

I have his 'Skeleton Key' collection of short stories I need to read soon, so far only read 'Survivor Type' (Which is great, might I add)...really need to read 'The Mist', as that's part of it and by all accounts sounds great...shall post a fitting review soon

[jplpool]

I have his 'Skeleton Key' collection of short stories I need to read soon, so far only read 'Survivor Type' (Which is great, might I add)...really need to read 'The Mist', as that's part of it and by all accounts sounds great...shall post a fitting review soon

The Mist is excellent, it's a novella as opposed to being a short story, about 100 pages long if I remember rightly, so it ventures into themes. The main theme of the story is how different people will react in times of shock, trauma or irrational crisis; some will get pissed, some will be natural leaders, others will begin to behave irrationally, etc.

Well worth a read, even for the casual reader who just wants a bit of fright-adrenaline.

[jplpool]

In keeping with the 'book club' theme, I'm re-reading Everything's Eventual; the story The Death Of Jack Hamilton is a beacon. The story of 'the dillinger gang' it screams for a prequel and a sequel. i.e A FUCKIN NOVEL BOUT THE DILLINGER GANG.

[Menelaos]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment".

A desperate young man murders an old pawnbroker for whom no one is going to grieve. Based on his innovative idea that his act does not constitute a crime, he firmly believes that his actions are justified pursuant to broader interests and moral purposes; Raskolnikov plans to use the money to make a new start, help his poor mother and sister get rid of their tyrants and benefit the whole society by wiping off a "parasite". Moral and philosophical dilemmas are perfectly mixed with the new-founded doctrines of psychoanalysis and add up to a real masterpiece in the global history of literature.

[Catcher88]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment".

A desperate young man murders an old pawnbroker for whom no one is going to grieve. Based on his innovative idea that his act does not constitute a crime, he firmly believes that his actions are justified pursuant to broader interests and moral purposes; Raskolnikov plans to use the money to make a new start, help his poor mother and sister get rid of their tyrants and benefit the whole society by wiping off a "parasite". Moral and philosophical dilemmas are perfectly mixed with the new-founded doctrines of psychoanalysis and add up to a real masterpiece in the global history of literature.

I allways thought of this book as one of the best I've ever read  ! The story is great and hasn't aged a bit, the characters are interesting and the whole scene of the 19th century St. Petersburgh even increases the tension and the depressive atmosphere.

[Menelaos]

I allways thought of this book as one of the best I've ever read  ! The story is great and hasn't aged a bit, the characters are interesting and the whole scene of the 19th century St. Petersburgh even increases the tension and the depressive atmosphere.

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

[Johan!]

Just finished The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. After the Shadow of the Wind, yet another great book, basically a prequel, also in Barcelona, but more in the twenties and thirties.

[abaraxas]

Just reread Nuggets 50th anniversary golden gusher issue-fucken top read, the classifieds really did the job for me.

[SoulMonster]

Reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel right now before I will return to novels.

[Max_Power]

Starting a storm of swords!

[jplpool]

Stephen King - 11/22/63: 6/10

John Grisham - Playing For Pizza: 4/10

John Grisham - The Innocent Man: 9/10. Amazing, absolutely amazing. If it wasn't a true story, then it could easily be fiction. 

Ron Williamson has returned to his hometown of Ada, Oklahoma after multiple failed attempts to play for various minor league baseball teams, including the Fort Lauderdale Yankees and two farm teams owned by the Oakland A's. His failures lead to, or aggravate, his depression and problem drinking.

Early in the morning of December 8, 1982, the body of Debra Sue Carter, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress, was found in the bedroom of her garage apartment in Ada. She had been beaten, raped and suffocated. After five years of false starts and shoddy police work by the Ada police department, Williamson--along with his "drinking buddy", Dennis Fritz--were charged, tried and convicted of the rape and murder charges in 1988. Williamson was sentenced to death. Fritz was given a life sentence. Fritz's wife had been murdered seven years earlier in 1975 and he was raising their only daughter when he was arrested.

Grisham's book describes the aggressive and misguided mission of the Ada police department and Pontotoc County District Attorney Bill Peterson to solve the mystery of Carter's murder. The police and prosecutor used forced "dream" confessions, unreliable witnesses, and flimsy evidence to convict Williamson and Fritz. Since a death penalty conviction automatically sets in motion a series of appeals, the Innocence Project aided Williamson's attorney, Mark Barrett, in exposing several glaring holes in the prosecution's case and the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses. Frank H. Seay, a U.S. District Court judge, ordered a retrial.

After suffering through a conviction and 11 years on Death Row, Williamson and Fritz were exonerated by DNA evidence and released on April 15, 1999. Williamson was the 78th inmate released from Death Row since 1973.[1][2][3]

Ron Williamson suffered deep and irreversible psychological damage during his incarceration and eventual stay on death row. For example, on September 22, 1994, he was five days away from being executed when the execution was stayed by the court, following the filing of a habeas corpus petition).[4][5][6] He was intermittently treated for manic depression, personality disorders, alcoholism and mild schizophrenia. It was later proven that he was indeed mentally ill and therefore was unfit to have been tried or sentenced to death in the first place. The State of Oklahoma, the city of Ada, and Pontotoc County officials never admitted any errors and threatened to re-arrest him.

Another criminal from Ada, Glen Gore, was eventually convicted of the original crime on June 24, 2003. He was sentenced to death[5] but his sentence was overturned in August 2005.[7] He was convicted at a second trial on June 21, 2006 and sentenced by Judge Landrith to life in prison without parole. This was required by law due to a jury deadlock on sentencing.[8][9]

Williamson and Fritz sued and won a settlement for wrongful conviction of $500,000 in 2003 from the City of Ada, and an out-of-court settlement with the State of Oklahoma for an undisclosed amount. By 2004, Williamson was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and died soon after on December 4, 2004 in a Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, nursing home. Fritz returned to Kansas City, where he lives with his daughter, Elizabeth as of 2006[update]. In 2006, Fritz published his own account of being wrongly convicted in his book titled Journey toward Justice.[10]

The book includes accounts (as subplots) of the false conviction, trial and sentencing of Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot in the abduction, rape, and purported murder of Denice Haraway, as well as the false conviction of Greg Wilhoit in the rape and murder of his estranged wife, Kathy. At one time, all the men were, incarcerated in the same Death Row. About two decades before Grisham's book, Ward and Fontenot's wrongful convictions were detailed in a book published in 1987 called The Dreams of Ada by Robert Mayer.[11]