Ben O'Connell

I need to finish that. I’ve read one every 18 months or so for the last few years. They’re great. Think I’m due to read the seventh book next.

I’ve spent my morning alternating between laying on the couch while reading Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and shoveling snow while listening to the audio adaptation of John Langan’s The Fisherman. Pretty much a perfect snow day, so far.

Poster for One Battle After Another

Now this is a movie

Oh, good! I’m only 50 pages in, but I love it, so far.

I’d only read Kindred before now, and that was a while ago. Butler’s talent for capturing a character in a sentence is quite something.

“He believes in what he sees, and no matter what’s in front of him, he doesn’t see much.”—Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

I enjoyed Choosing Death. And happy birthday!

One of the all-time best covers. I blasted this and their cover of The Byrds's "Eight Miles High" over and over again in my dorm room. (apologies, roomies)

Bet you can’t do four concerts you’ve seen with a male drummer

I really oughta read Deighton at some point.

The Running Man

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s fine. Perfectly serviceable, even.

Phil Rickman came to my attention when someone mentioned his rocknroll horror novel, DECEMBER.

Many of the older (pre-'90s) books came from Grady Hendrix's PAPERBACKS FROM HELL and Will Erickson's ongoing Too Much Horror blog. toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com The later stuff, I've just stumbled on here and there.

Your instinct to have your phone hidden away makes sense. You are the werewolf asking to be locked up before the full moon rises.

I occasionally experience the same feeling. But then one in ten classics I read come through for me.

You were remarkably productive for someone who had taken a sleeping pill. It almost seems “sleeping pill” is a misnomer.

CURFEW by Phil Rickman

CURFEW (1993) by Phil Rickman: A music mogul’s plans to turn a Welsh border town into a New Age Disneyland reawaken an ancient evil. Rickman occasionally trims enough excess for the reader to enjoy the tight folk horror novel lurking within.

It is pink outside in DC right now. My camera isn’t doing it justice.

I owe Hansen for introducing me to Carlo Gesualdo’s late madrigals. Dave Brandstetter, the PI protagonist, mentioned them in the same breath as Messiaen and Schoenberg.

I had the house to myself for a couple hours this afternoon and put on Steven Soderbergh’s PRESENCE. What a gutpunch of a movie.

It does! All book talk is a welcome reprieve. Especially with folks like you.

Fascinating. Thanks!

I look forward to reading the article very curious about its subject. Almost seems like Bisson.

Eh. It was easy enough to figure out.

I am familiar with his son because of my work. I knew nothing about this story, though. Fascinating. Thanks for sharing it.

I spent two days in Missouri with Gephardt in 2002. One online publication said the result was the most riveting documentary since Warhol’s SLEEP.

JOSEPH HANSEN’S FADEOUT

Joseph Hansen’s Fadeout (1970) is a fascinating cultural artifact. Hansen’s protagonist, a gay insurance investigator whose life partner recently died, feels at least two decades ahead of its time. Story-wise, it’s a paler shade of Ross Macdonald.

January: Loitering With Intent by Muriel Spark (Cousin Book Club) February: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (Old Friends Book Club) Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (Dads Book Club) March: The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino (Cousin Book Club) April: The Castle by Franz Kafka (Dads Book Club) May.: In Dead Air by William Hazelgrove (Cousin Book Club) June: Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Dads Book Club)

July.: Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser (Cousin Book Club) August: Magic Mountain By Thomas Mann (Dads Book Club) September: Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold (Cousin Book Club) October: ??? by Nietzsche (Dads Book Club) November: What We Can Know by lan McEwan (Cousin Book Club) December: East of Eden by John Steinbeck (Dads Book Club)

My book clubs have set most of their reading for the year. Old Friends are sure to add a title or two. I’ve italicized books I’ve already read.

The cover of Bill Janovitz’s THE CARS: LET THE STORIES BE TOLD

I enjoyed Bill Janovitz’s biography of The Cars. The absence of contemporary interviews with Benjamin Orr and Ric Ocasek or any interviews with either of Ocasek’s first two wives are noticeable, but Janovitz still manages to give the book convincing depth.

We'll never know who got laid by Ols!