Killing Floor

Lee Child. Killing Floor: The First Jack Reacher Novel. 1997.

Another lost weekend, starting and finishing a 500-page thriller. The first Jack Reacher novel, set in Georgia. Jack's brother has called him to Margrave in search of Blind Blake. Jack meets Roscoe, a local policewoman, and other residents of the mysteriously clean and well-kept town. Chaos ensues. 

Two Pints

Roddy Doyle. Two Pints. Jonathan Cape/Random, 2012.

Hilarious. Two characters meet daily for a pint, two pints, in a Dublin pub and discuss the latest news, sports, family drama. Told completely in dialogue. 

Sex, Death & Travel

Mona Fertig. Sex, Death & Travel. Oolichan, 1998.

The secondhand copy of this book I found at The Bookman has a beautiful full-colour French-fold cover. The title page identifies the collection as "prose poems" which is a good reminder that prose poems have been published for at least twenty years. I never cracked the code as to why some phrases are in italics although I have faith that there is a reason. I found the Travel section the most accessible. I imagine I have experienced the look and feel of Australia and some islands without ever having been there. The section on Death makes me wonder: are these prose poems non-fiction? It is still never safe to assume. A wonderful gift as I labour at my creative non-fiction course. 

Black & Blue

Ian Rankin. Black & Blue. Orion, 1997.

I still love Rebus, and this is an earlier title I somehow missed. Bible John and Johnny Bible, in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Shetlands, Peterhead, and on the North Sea oil rigs. This is the cover of the secondhand paperback I found, but this is not the actor whose face I see when I read the novels. 

 And Rebus and Siobhan:

The Defiant Mind

February 12, 2017

Ron Smith. The Defiant Mind: Living Inside a  Stroke. Ronsdale, 2016.

A very interesting and beautifully written insider's account of recovery from a stroke. 

Beautiful Losers

Leonard Cohen. Beautiful Losers. Viking, 1966. Bantam, 1967.

How many times have I read this novel trying to figure out some meaning? 

In the Forest

February 4, 2017

Edna O'Brien. In the Forest. Phoenix, 2002.

Ripped from the headlines. 

I suspect, an artist's frantic attempt to create beauty out of ugliness.