Welcome book sloots, to another edition of The Peckerwood Book Club! It's that time once again. What books have you been reading? Tell-tell-tell. Which ones did you love? And which ones made you throw them across the room and exclaim, "Drek!" For my part, I'm always busy enjoying the outdoors in the summer, and while I still keep active in the fall and winter, reading is my absolute favorite pastime during the cold weather months. It's when my Guilt Pile™ of books is hungrily devoured - one after another - and with such speed that I'm usually left wanting around early January. So I'm hoping that I'll find plenty of good recommendations in the comments, and not just for me. I can't be the only one who's a wintertime reading omnivore.  Remember, reading a great, or even just decent, book is  a hell of a lot better for your soul than doom-scrolling when you can't get to sleep at night . For me, r eading before bed cleanses my emotional palette...

Salutations, book sloots! It's time for another edition of The Peckerwood Book Club, a place where you can recommended new or older books that you simply j'adore , and maybe warn us off a few that just weren't up to snuff. So let 'er rip. What'cha been reading? Tellustellustellus! Meanwhile, I'm at a point in my life where I'll give a book 30 pages or so, and if I'm not fully engrossed or intrigued, it gets tossed aside, even if its a big-name author. 30 pages is enough, I think, and I don't believe I'm being too quick to judge in the manner of those raised on Fuckbook or TackyTwat or what have you. I saw one video in which someone said they'll give a book just 5 pages. Now that, I'd argue, is too little. Speaking of tossing things aside, when someone these days recommends a book with vampires, I almost immediately shut down. Is there a more shopworn, done-to-death sub-genre of horror? I thought we'd reached peak disposable vampire bo...

Welcome book sluts, to another meeting of The Peckerwood Book Club, where we can share our thoughts about the books we've been reading, what books we're looking forward to - and just as crucial, what we indulge in snack-wise while doing so. By the way, if you dare tell us that you never nosh while reading a book, we won't believe you, so don't even try.  Since it's summer, I find myself pursuing easy beach reads, and in some cases, revisiting old favorites.  One of them is " The Comfort Of Strangers ," my favorite Ian McEwan novel, which remains shockingly potent despite the poky 1990 Harold Pinter/Paul Schrader movie adaptation, which feels all too listless in comparison to McEwan's chilling examination of brutality, dominance and subservience in modern day relationships. At just over 120 pages, it streaks past like a deadly snake poised to strike.  The same might be said of another favorite, " Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ," a collection of early Pa...

Welcome, sloots, to another edition of The Peckerwood Book Club, where we can all share what we've been reading lately and what we wholeheartedly recommend. Don't forget to tell us all about your favs in the comments.  In the meantime, summer approaches, which means publishers are already releasing what they deem to be "Great Summer Reads" or "Great Beach Reads." But what does this actually mean? Are summer reads strictly trash, or can they be literary? Must they involve murders or mysteries? Or are they ultimately just any book which Nicole Kidman will star in once the TV mini-series is made?  Personally, I like murder stories all year round, while in the summer, I enjoy a little trippiness since I regularly pop gummies at the beach (doesn’t everyone?). Plus there's the sound of the waves, the warm, relaxing breeze, the sand between my tootsies. It's the perfect setting to read a good book. Trippiness is a broad term, I know, but I recently read a w...

Welcome, fellow book hors, to another edition of The Peckerwood Book Club, where we all share what we're reading, what we like, and yes, what you eat when we read. Lately, I've been noshing on baby carrot sticks while I read, which is certainly an improvement from my usual potato chips (my hands get greasy, making it hard to turn the page without making nasty greasy pages). Do you nibble any snicky-snacks when you're reading? What are your favorites? And let's talk about mysteries, or more specifically, trends in mystery novels. In classical terms, a mystery, for example, starts like this: a young couple are eating at a nice restaurant when a bomb suddenly explodes beneath the table, killing them both. "Who planted the bomb and why?" becomes the mystery. Mystery is different from suspense, because in suspense, we're explicitly told that a bomb is ticking beneath the couple's table, sometimes even by who, the suspense arising from whether or not they...

Welcome, trollops, to the latest edition of the Peckerwood Book Club, where we can giggle and share our favorite books we've been reading - and giggle some more. Today, let's chat about Patricia Highsmith, the inimitable author of unputdownable suspense novels whose reputation has only grown since her death in 1995. Whenever a Highsmith virgin asks which of her novels to start with, I first ask if they've seen any movie or TV version of " The Talented Mr. Ripley ." If they haven't, I cry out, "Lucky you!" and recommend that they read it immediately -  since it's a masterpiece, yes, but also because it's best to have Highsmith's unadulterated "Ripley" foremost in your mind before you approach the many big and small screen incantations. None of them have equalled his jeweled, sometimes elegant, evil in this first of five "Ripley" novels. If they have seen screen versions of "Ripley," I usually recommend they st...

Welcome back, Manor Hors, to The Peckerwood Book Club, a periodic dispatch where we joyfully recommend the books we love, new or old, favorite authors we can't get enough of, dead or alive, and other urgent book-minded minutia! Meanwhile, do you have a favorite book genre? And do you sometimes hop to other kinds of books on occasion just to mix things up? For my part, I love literary fiction, but sometimes after half a year of them, for example. I need to take a break. One time I hopped to trashy murder-mystery novels - or "airport novels" as they're sometimes called, since you can read them on a long flight - and explored the works of Lee Child, Elin Hilderbrand and James Patterson. That lasted maybe three months, and it was definitely funzi (I mean that in a good way), but I can't take a diet of cotton candy for long. Another time, I explored memoirs, including books by Christopher Hitchens, Mariah Carey and George M. Johnson. That lasted a bit longer than trash...

Welcome, reading floozies, to another edition of "The Peckerwood Book Club," a place to discuss what your currently reading, what you recommend, along with other book-loving minutia.  Speaking of minutia, how do you read a book? When I was in college a mere two or three years ago - ride with me on that, won't you? - I always had a yellow highlighter in my paws, and found that highlighting key phrases or sentences helped me better remember the book's contents, even though I'd seldom go back and re-read any of it. Just the act of highlighting, I think, help burn important portions in my brain.  I can't seem to break the habit. Though I always have a highlighter handy for material I read for work, I sometimes find myself highlighting books I read for pleasure, things like character names or other story elements I think I might forget. This is helpful when I have to stop reading a book for whatever reason - life intervenes! Elder Cat demands attention! - enabling ...

Greetings, Manor hors, and welcome to another edition of the Peckerwood Book Club, a place where we can giggle, gab and exchange suggestions about the books we've been reading, which ones we've enjoyed, and which ones we'd very much like to set aflame or use for target practice. Hopefully it's not too much of the later! Meanwhile, have you ever picked up a book, read a few chapters and thought, "Meh," then tossed it aside, picked it up later and found it compelling? This has happened to me a few times, once with Kazuo Ishiguro's " Never Let Me Go ," which made me shrug and think, "So what? Who cares?" after the first two or three chapters. I tried again several months later and found it riveting. And, no, I have no explanation for this, other than maybe I wasn't in the mood for it the first time around, or maybe I didn't think there would be anything more to the story once I understood the premise, which at first seemed like a p...

Greetings, Peckerwood Book hors! Summertime's a fun time to catch up on your Guilt Pile™ - or that stack of novels on your nightstand that you have yet to read. Plus, there's always time for more, isn't there? As for literary novels, I have a major pet peeve: the pretentious style of dialogue formatting wherein the open-and-close quote marks are not used. Confused? Me, too. Normally, dialogue formatting goes like this:  "Trump is a cunt," said Fiona, a charming Scottish lass. "He started out as a bit of a numptie, but now - aye! - he can just piss off and eat me dick." Callum nodded his head, for he, too, found Trump intolerable.  "Bet he smells, too."  Easy to read, right? But blowhard literary types do this:  Trump is a cunt, said Fiona, a charming Scottish lass. He started out as a bit of a numptie, but now - aye! - he can just piss off and eat me dick. Callum nodded his head, for he, too, found Trump intolerable. Bet he smells, too.  Witho...

Welcome back, fellow readers, to The Peckerwood Book Club, where we chit-chat about what you've been reading, what you recommend and what you're looking forward to. In the meantime... ...remember lending your books to friends and family members? I say "remember," because if you're like me, you've been burned far too many times. Plus, the few times you bothered to ask for your book back, you invariably got responses like, "Really? Did you lend that to me? Gosh, I don't remember" or "I'm sure I'll find it somewhere" or "I think I lent that to someone else." Look, I'm not a scold (You: "Coulda fooled me!"), and by that I mean, if it's a paperback, I truly don't care if you keep it, lose it or feed it to your dog, but if it was something I cared enough to buy in hardback, then yes, actually, I want it back. One time a friend gave me back a book with various sentences marked in yellow highlighter. ...

Welcome, fellow book sluts, to the latest edition of "The Peckerwood Book Club!" Let's get right into it: who's your favorite trashy author? Or your favorite trashy books, the ones you can't resist, no matter how scorned they may be by friends or reviewers? Dearly departed critic Pauline Kael was once asked the same question and responded that she only read non-fiction and literary novels, since "movies more than satisfy my craving for trash." I believe her. I also believe that my craving for trash is not as easily sated as hers was. How else do I explain my teen devotion to "Lucky Santangelo," the sexy, gutsy-as-all-get-out heroine of ten compelling Jackie Collins novels? Ten! Or my ravenous consumption of Ken Follett thrillers or anything by Sidney Sheldon? And I could go on forever about the irresistible Dominick Dunne. I think I've read "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" at least four times over the years. And yes, I much prefer his wo...