Recommended reading - The Best American Noir Of The Century (2011)

 

Best American Noir of the Century (2011).

Edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler.

Paperback.

 
ISBN-10: 0547577443
ISBN-13: 978-0547577449
 
Back cover description:
“Well worth its impressive weight in gold, it would be a crime not to have this seminal masterpiece in your collection.” – New York Journal of Books.

In his introduction to The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, “Noir is the most scrutinized offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction… It’s the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.” Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction.

James Ellroy and Otto Penzler mined the past century to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories, with selections from James M. Cain, Mickey Spillane, Elmore Leonard, Patricia Highsmith, Harlan Ellison, Jeffrey Deaver, Joyce Carol Oates, Dennis Lahane, and many more.

“Delightfully devilish . . . A strange trek through the years that includes stories from household names in the hard-boiled genre to lesser-known authors who nonetheless can hold their own with the legends.” – Associated Press.

James Ellroy is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. trilogy – American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s a Rover – and the L.A. Quartet novels, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. His most recent book is The Hillicker Curse, a memoir.

Otto Penzler is the founder of the Mysterious Bookshop and Mysterious Press, has won two Edgar Allan Poe Awards (most recently for The Lineup), and is series editor of The Best American Mystery Stories.
 
Contents:
 
Foreword by Otto Penzler; Introduction by James Ellroy; Spurs, by Tod Robbins; Pastorale, by James M. Cain; You'll always remember me, by Steve Fisher; Gun crazy, by MacKinlay Kantor; Nothing to worry about, by Day Keene; The homecoming, by Dorothy B. Hughes; Man in the dark, by Howard Browne; The lady says die!, by Mickey Spillane; Professional man, by David Goodis; The hunger, by Charles Beaumont; The gesture, by Gil Brewer; The last spin, by Evan Hunter; Forever after, by Jim Thompson; For the rest of her life, by Cornell Woolrich; The dripping, by David Morrell; Slowly, slowly in the wind, by Patricia Highsmith; Iris, by Stephen Greenleaf; A ticket out, by Brendan DuBois; Since I don't have you, by James Ellroy; Texas city, by James Lee Burke; Mefisto in onyx, by Harlan Ellison; Out there in the darkness, by Ed Gorman; Hot spings, by James Crumley; The weekender, by Jeffery Deaver; Faithless, by Joyce Carol Oates; Poachers, by Tom Franklin; Like a bone in the throat, by Lawrence Block; Crack, by James W. Hall; Running out of dog, by Dennis Lehane; The paperhanger, by William Gay; Midnight emissions, by F.X. Toole; When the women come out to dance, by Elmore Leonard; Controlled burn, by Scott Wolven; All through the house, by Christopher Coake; What she offered, by Thomas H. Cook; Her lord and master, by Andrew Klavan; Stab, by Chris Adrian; The hoarder, by Bradford Morrow; Missing the morning bus, by Lorenzo Carcaterra.

Recommended reading - The Mammoth Book of Pulp Action (2001)

 

The Mammoth Book of Pulp Action (2001)

Edited by Maxim Jakubowski.

Mammoth Books.

 

ISBN-10: 0786709200

ISBN-13: 978-0786709205
 
Contents:

Kid clips a coupon, by Erle Stanley Gardner; Goodbye Hannah, by Steve Fisher; Sinners' paradise, by Raoul Whitfield; Motel, by Evan Hunter aka Ed McBain; Smile, corpse, smile!, by Bruno Fischer; Pulp connection, by Bill Pronzini; Brush Babe's poison pallet, by Bruce Cassiday; Gangsta wore red, by Michael Guinzburg; Caravan to Tarim, by David Goodis; Lady who left her coffin, by Hugh B. Cave; Death at the main, by Frank Gruber; Red goose, by Norbert Davis; First five in line, by Charles Willeford; Where there's a will, there's a slay, by Frederick C. Davis; Ride a white horse, by Lawrence Block; Best man, by Thomas Walsh; Dog life, by Mark Timlin; Don't look behind you, by Fredric Brown; College-cut kill, by John D. MacDonald; Lost coast, by Marcia Muller; Pit, by Joe R. Lansdale; Clean sweep, by Roger Torrey; Eye of the beholder, Ed Gorman.

 

Description:
 
Furious action, unbridled passion, seedy lowlife and beautiful women …
 

Crooked cops and ruthless bigshots, breathless chases, cheating molls and gun-toting villains – they’re all here in this great new volume of pulp fiction stories, featuring classic noir and hard-boiled crime authors from eight decades of crime writing.

 

In these enlightened times we know that, far from being a lower form of literature, pulp fiction is the term for what the best storytelling provides – hugely enjoyable pyrotechnic thrills and shocks galore.

 

This great new collection from popular literature’s best pulp writers includes such talents as: Charles Willeford, Ed Mcbain, Bill Pronzini, Ed Gorman, Lawrence Block, John D. MacDonald, Bruno Fischer, Mark Timlin, Joe R. Lansdale, Michael Guinzburg, Erle Stanley Gardner, Frederic Brown and many more.

Recommended reading - The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain (1934)

The Postman Always Rings Twice

by James M. Cain.

 

Description:

“A good, swift, violent story.” – Dashiell Hammett. 

An amoral young tramp. A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband. A problem that has only one grisly solution — a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve.

First published in 1934, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic of the roman noir. It established James M. Cain as a major novelist with an unsparing vision of America's bleak underside and was acknowledged by Albert Camus as the model for The Stranger.

“I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called. I merely try to write as the character would write, and I never forget that the average man … has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent.” – James M. Cain.

On this day in music history - Not That Kind, by Anastacia (2000)

Not That Kind

by Anastacia

was released June 16, 2000.

Recommended reading - Kubrick: The Definitive Edition, by Michel Ciment (2001):

Kubrick: The Definitive Edition

by Michel Ciment (2001).

Description:

If Stanley Kubrick had made only 2001: A Space Odyssey or Dr. Strangelove, his cinematic legacy would have been assured. But from his first feature film, Fear and Desire, to the posthumously released Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick created an accomplished body of work unique in its scope, diversity, and artistry, and by turns both lauded and controversial.

In this fully revised and definitive edition of his now classic study, film critic Michel Ciment provides an insightful examination of Kubrick's thirteen films --- including such favorites as Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, and Full Metal Jacket --- alongside an assemblage of more than four hundred photographs that form a complementary photo essay. Rounding out this unique work are a short biography of Kubrick; rare interviews that were held with the usually reticent director, as well as with cast and crew members, including Malcolm McDowell, Shelley Duvall, and Jack Nicholson; and a detailed filmography and bibliography.

Meshed with masterful integrity, the book's text and illustrations pay homage to one of the most visionary, original, and demanding filmmakers of our time.

On this day in movie history - The Little Prince (2015)

The Little Prince

directed by Mark Osborne,

written by Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti,

based on the novel Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,

was released at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 22, 2015.

Music by Richard Harvey and Hans Zimmer.

One sees clearly only with the heart.

Anything essential is invisible to the eye.

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince.

Cast:

Jeff Bridges, Mackenzie Foy, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Riley Osborne, James Franco, Bud Cort, Benicio Del Toro, Ricky Gervais, Albert Brooks, Paul Rudd, Paul Giamatti, Jeffy Branion, Jacquie Barnbrook, Marcel Bridges, André Dussollier, Florence Foresti, Vincent Cassel, Guillaume Gallienne, Laurent Lafitte, Vincent Lindon, Guillaume Canet, Pascal Légitimus, Achille Orsoni, Clara Poincaré, Andrea Santamaría, Bernard Tiphaine, Veronica J. Valentini.

Recommended reading - Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain (2013):

 

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

by Susan Cain (2013).

Description:

The book that started The Quiet Revolution.

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts — Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak — that we owe many of the great contributions to society.

In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts — from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, impeccably researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.