Peckerwood Manor

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. &quo

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

Welcome back to The Peckerwood Book Club, the first of 2024! If you're like me, your bookshelves are always near-to-bursting. Me and the hubs have floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in the bedroom, the guest room, the living room, and in what we call the dining room, or dining area, against the wall next to the kitchen table. Too much? Probably, but Elder Cat has plenty of wee areas in the shelves to hop up on and rest, or to leap from (without warning) if he's so inclined.  But when is too many books too many? Is there such a thing? Are you panicking just thinking about this? How do you decide which books to keep and which to pitch? And when? For our part, we moved to a new place last summer, and just after, did a serious inspection of every book in our collection as we unpacked them. We had room for them all - we'd already made sure of that - but knew that our shelves would likely be bursting at the seams (again) in about a year if we didn't take drastic action. And so we d

Welcome, book hors, to another lively edition of The Peckerwood Book Club, because you can't always be prostituting about the manse looking for love in all the wrong places (give it a rest, trick!) (and wash it off!). Sometimes it's nice to look for love between the pages of a good book, don't you think? I'm not necessarily talking about frothy bodice rippers, though they have their place, too, but contemporary, historical, literary and classic romance, from "Pride and Prejudice" to " Tom Lake " and everything iteration in-between.  What are your favorite love stories, or novels that truly made you swoon? For my part, a friend recently recommended "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" by Jan-Philipp Sendker, which was first published in Germany by the former Asian news correspondent-turned-novelist. Once it was translated for English readers, it became an instant best-seller in North America, and after only a few chapters, I understood why.  In

What was your favorite book this year? Something new? Something old which you encountered for the first time? As for what the critics think, I have to laugh whenever I read their year-end "Best Books" lists, because there are not a finite amount of mass-market books released each year (like there are similarly with movies), but scads upon scads of them. So how can anyone rightly pick "the best?" You can't, of course, though the old adage, "the cream rises to the top," has to be taken into account, and this year, the best book according to over 20 reputable "Best Of" lists, is, drumroll, please, " Yellowface " by R.F. Kuang, a novel I'm very much looking forward to digging into over the holiday break, even if I'm slightly wary, as it's yet another navel-gazing scenario which takes place in the publishing world. But, hey, it's the top pick of the year according to big cheese critics everywhere, so it's got to be go

As the winter holidays sneak up, I'm making my lists, making them twice, then making a batch of peanut butter cookies 'cause they're my favorite and it's a good distraction from making lists-lists-lists. But make them I must. I love giving books as gifts - frequently two or three to the same person - especially to my nieces and nephews, who've learned over the years that their Bawdy Foul-Mouthed Uncle™ knows from books and gives really good ones. And, yes, I slip a twenty in between the pages because it's fun (and paper money is so retro). Do you give books as gifts? Do you like giving big, hefty, delightfully oversized tombs (I'm thinking of giving this  to a friend who's into horror)? Or do you prefer giving the latest bestsellers? Personally, I avoid those, if only because you never know if the recipient hasn't already read them. I've also given Kindles in the past, but only if I know that the person will be into it, because many, like me, pre

Greetings Peckerwood Book Hors! Do you have any favorite true-crime novels? Do you love a good 'n' gory serial killer entry, like the classic " Deviant: The Shocking True Story Of Ed Gein " by Harold Schechter? Or an immersive, nail-biting historical tale, like " The Poisoners Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York " by Deborah Blum? There's no wrong answer, of course. And sheesh, there's so many to choose from in a book category rife with sloppy rush jobs (most of which read like dry, extended Wikipedia entries). But when they hit the sweet spot between credible accuracy and shocking, you-can't-make-that-up incidents, there's nothing like them. In fact, I prefer an excellent true-crime novel over an excellent true-crime movie or miniseries. They creep under my skin with more intensity, and stay with me much longer.  One of my favorite, newer true-crime novel's, " Provenance," by Laney Salisbury

Greetings, Peckerwood book lovers! What type of books do you like to read in the fall? Something spooky or scary? An easy bon-bon of a book? Fall is allegedly a time for "serious or important liter-a-chure," or at least that's what the Big Five publishing houses have long decreed. Why release a "feel good" novel like " The Midnight Library " in the fall, their thinking goes, when it can sell like hotcakes in the summer months as a popular, breezy beach read? Sales have born out this marketing strategy, though "serious" and "important" are certainly in the eyes of the beholder. Is " Absolution " important, serious fiction? Let's see: a National Book Award-winning author, a decades-spanning scenario originating in the Vietnam War, pre-publication praise from no less than Ann Patchett. Why, yes, I'd say it qualifies and I look forward to reading it. Are Britney's and Jada's and Stamos' tell-all memoirs &q

Salutations and consensual gropes, Peckerwood Bookworms! Have you read anything good lately? Or more to the point of this particular post, have you read a good literary novel these days? This is a marketing category which can cover a lot, of course, from mesmerizing work by Michael Ondaatje - "In The Skin of A Lion" is one of my favorites - to works that are allegedly literary, but are generally awful. You know, the ones set in Brooklyn about struggling bro-writers musing on life's ironies in dilapidated, yet absurdly kewl, cafes. Let's not go there, m'k? Today, I'm beyond thrilled to recommend a near-unputdownable literary novel, " Victory City " the latest by Salman Rushdie (completed before that horrific attack). If you haven't read Rushdie before, this is an excellent, and delightful, place to start. Hold tight, because reality and magic blend seamlessly in this fantastical tale of Pampa, a young girl who’s given the spell-casting abilities

Greetings, fellow Peckerwood Book Clubbers! What are you reading lately - or looking forward to reading? For my part, I'm very much eager to read the upcoming " North Woods " by Daniel Mason, the author of "Cloud Atlas," and " The Maniac " by Benjamin Labatut, both of which sound riveting, and just as important, original.  Do you make lists for upcoming books you might want to read? Every month or so, I browse future releases on Amazon and add the ones that intrigue me to my "Save For Later" cart. That way, when they come out, I can either order them or go to my local library site and put them on hold. As a rule, I don't troll GoodReads - I don't trust their reader reviews, most of which are too catty or obvious publisher plants - though I know a lot of people who like it.  Today, I'm happy to recommend a very funny and moving memoir by Michelle Zauner, a singer and guitarist with the American alternative pop band, "Japanese

Hola , reading hors! I say, hola , because as a gringo, I'm trying to sound all  espanol- like (and failing miserably). Regardless, I've read many Latin-American sagas over the years - I heartily recommend "How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez - and it's a literary sub-genre which continues to illuminate what it means to be American (no matter your heritage), how our past informs our future and how cultures can clash in both wonderful and sometimes violent ways. In other words, I'm all in, since the more specific these stories are about their characters and their plights, the more intense their emotional impact. If you want to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes," as they say, start by reading a book.  Today, I'm thrilled to recommend Gabriela Garcia's first novel, "Of Women And Salt," an engrossing, near un-put-downable scenario which charts the interweaving lives of Jeanette, a Cuban-American drug-addict

Greetings, fellow Bookworm Peckers! Sometimes there's so many books to read, and in so many different genres, that I get overwhelmed. Sound familiar? This is especially the case with science-fiction, a genre which whipsaws like no other from literary to outright junk more than any fiction category (I said what I said and cannot be convinced otherwise). Or to put it another way, there always seems to be a half-finished sci-fi book on my bedside Guilt Pile™, most of which get so bogged down in world building or technical mumbo-jumbo that my eyes just glaze ever. That said, when a sci-fi book hits the bullseye, it's truly euphoric.  At my local West Hollywood library, I recently asked my favorite librarian - an Elder Ghey with impeccable taste - to recommend a new sci-fi that would knock my socks off. Kids, he did not disappoint. "The Endless Vessel" by Charles Soule charts the astonishing, near hallucinatory adventures of Lily, a British engineer, and Peter, an American

Welcome, Manor Hors, to the inaugural "Peckerwood Book Club" post, a periodic dispatch where we can all joyfully share and recommend the books we love, favorite authors we can't get enough of (dead or alive), and, yes, even the best ways to read a book.  For my part, I prefer being propped up by two pillows in bed with the actual book book, not a Kindle or such like, with Elder Cat on one side (or on my tummy, which is where he usually ends up), and a bowl of snicky-snacks on the other side (I'm partial to Lay's Chile Limon chips), along with a glass of water precariously balanced on another book aside me. I'm daring that way! A book I'm happy to recommend is Jesse Q. Sutano's "I'm Not Done With You Yet," a thriller which the publisher and the book's blurbs are comparing to "Gone Girl." But this is actually doing the book, and its author, a disservice, since it's very much its own (very vicious) rollercoaster ride.  Whe