The Hoo-Boy Book Club Fall 2002

[Guest RushNY]

Hey guys i haven't done this for a while so thought it would be fun to see what if anything people have been reading in the last few months or so me i'm at a loose end haven't read anything for a while which is really the reason i'm doing this :-) if this goes on much longer i'm gonna have to go back and read the Dark Materials trilogy again i cant believe they are supposed to be 'kids' books .

[Guest Fin Fang Foom]

I picked up the new Stephen King/Peter Straub collaboration in paperback. It's a piece of shit. Unreadable. I couldn't get past page 30. It pissed me off so much that I threw it in the trash.

 

For those who aren't familiar with how the two of them write it, one writes a chapter, then the other, and so on. Peter Straub (obviously) started the book and I just couldn't get threw it. He wrote one good book, "Ghost Story", over twenty years ago and everything since then has been unreadable. What Stephen likes about the man is beyond me.

 

Literarily yours,

 

FFF

[Guest RushNY]

F3-i would have thought the words Stephen King on a dust jacket would make it BLINDINGLY obvious that the inside book would be unreadable he must be the only guy who still must adhere to the Dickens method of writing getting paid by the word.

[catnip]

"The Hunters" by Claire Messud is really good. It's actually two novellas. Just read it for a long flight, picked it up blind at a bookstore. She's a first-class writer and the characters are well-drawn.

[BuckyXTC]

I recently finished reading a couple of books, one to avoid and one that's pretty good.

 

I'd say take a pass on Reynolds Price's "Noble Norfleet". Definitely not his best effort. Nowhere near as commendable as earlier works like "Roxanna Slade" or "The Promise of Rest".

 

I really liked Mark Spragg's first novel entitled "The Fruit of Stone". It is the story of two men in rural Wyoming who love the same woman. Not a gay theme novel, but a good read and some powerful stuff about friendship and forgiveness. His earlier non-fiction work "Where Rivers Change Direction" is a memoir of his youth and received acclaim in literary circles. Haven't read it yet, but intend to.

 

Just started reading Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel". I had never gotten around to reading this, and so far I'm really impressed.

[Guest Bitchboy]

I'm sort of an eclectic reader - not liking to stick with one genre for any too long. The last few books I've read (and thanks for this topic since it's about time I read something again - have been spending too much time on the net) have been:

 

1. Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections (his "go fuck yourself Oprah" tome. Quite enlightening and perceptive family saga - I'd give it an A-.

 

2. Dirty Poole (Alyson Press) - The Autobiography of a Gay Porn Pioneer. This is not particularly well written, but damn is it interesting. I had no idea that Wakefield Poole was a part of mainstream show biz prior to his breakthrough porn flick - Boys in the Sand. I really enjoyed this one and also give it an A-.

 

3. In the mystery genre, nobody beats P.D. James and I just finished "Death in Holy Orders" - It's a perfect beach read or, in the coming months, an "in-front-of-the-fireplace-after-fucking-my-boyfriend" kind of book. I recommend it B+.

[Guest pshaw]

I've been on an Asian author kick lately. All three of Akira Yoshimura's translated novels (all quite good): On Parole (on which the film The Eel was loosely based), Shipwrecks and One Man's Justice. Hikaru Okuizumi's The Stones Cry Out was chilling. I also liked Su Tong's dark dark novel Rice. Edinburgh by Alexander Chee and Red Poppies by Alai were both pretty good. Augusten Burroughs' Running with Scissors was a hoot.

[larbord]

Just picked up "The Crimson Petal and the White" by Michel Faber. It's about a prostitute in Victorian England, and I am enjoying it immensly. I'm just a sucker for anything about Victorian England, and the book is very Dickensian. A book you can really get lost in this fall.

[Guest pshaw]

D'oh!!

I forgot about Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist - very good. This summer I also enjoyed Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day, Artist in a Floating World, A Pale View of the Hills, and When We Were Orphans.

[Guest Tall Texn]

>Just started reading Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel".

>I had never gotten around to reading this, and so far I'm

>really impressed.

 

One of the absolute very best works I've ever read. A true Giant of literature. After you complete that, continue on to read his other very large novels. I think you'll find it will be a feast you'll always remember.

[Guest jackboy51]

My gay book club just finished reading and discussing "The Notorious Dr. August - His Real Life and Crimes" by Christopher Bram who also wrote "Father of Frankenstein" which was made into the movie "Gods and Monsters." It's a very complicated novel which spans the years between the Civil War and the 1920's, involving a clairvoyant pianist and a love triangle between an ex-slave and a white governess. Some of the guys really liked this one, I kept putting it down and forgetting about it, tho' I loved "Father of Frankenstein." Our last book was "Can't Buy Me Love" by Chris Kenry which is a rather light piece of fiction about getting into the world's oldest profession and could probably provide some insight to various members of this board. (It was also set in our community, so there was quite a bit of talk about who was who, as well as discussions of the author's atributes as he is also a member of our jogging club).I enjoyed this read, perfect for an afternoon at the beach, it was alot like a previous book we read, "Kept Boy" by Robert Rodi. My favorite of the last year was "Before Night Fall" by Reindaldo Arenas which of course was also one of my favorite movies. And I enjoyed Rupert Everett's "Hello Darling, Are You Working?" which I have been told is semi-autobiographical! I am also a fan of the Benjamin Justice mystery novels written by John Morgan Wilson. Christopher Rice (son of Anne) has also written an interesting novel, "A Density of Souls."