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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 36431
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| Posted: 03 August 2025 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | 1
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Book I’m almost done reading: A VERY PUNCHABLE FACE: A MEMOIR by Colin Jost. Entertaining albeit light read. Wish he’d gone deeper and/or been more hilarious. It rides the fence between the two (the chapter on his mother at 9/11 was heartfelt) and I wish he would have picked a lane.
Previous: YOU MIGHT REMEMBER ME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PHIL HARTMAN by Mike Thomas. Excellent. If you’re a fan of him at all, it’s required reading. A deeply complex man who, outwardly, appeared to have it all. I still remember where I was when I heard the devastating news of his murder. It happened not five miles from where I lived at the time.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13027
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| Posted: 04 August 2025 at 1:59am | IP Logged | 2
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The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy, 1) by Rick Atkinson
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James Best
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 938
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| Posted: 04 August 2025 at 2:20am | IP Logged | 3
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Now starting THE RUSSIA HOUSE (1989) by the late John Le Carre', a stand-alone spy thriller novel set just before the Soviet bloc began to crumble and the Cold War came to an end.
Way back in 1990 I saw the film adaptation starring Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Roy Scheider, John Mahoney, and Klaus Maria Brandauer. If I enjoy the novel I may re-watch the movie to see how closely it follows the book.
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Michael Hogan
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2077
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| Posted: 05 August 2025 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | 4
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Finished THE CITY AT WORLD'S END last night. Yes, JB, the
1950s sensibilities smack you within the first few pages
and stick around 'til the end!
As such, I had the types of questions someone who has
read/seen current science fiction might ask, but I tabled
them knowing the book was first published in 1951. That
helped in enjoying the story.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135064
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| Posted: 05 August 2025 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | 5
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My father introduced me to CITY AT WORLD’S END when I was about 14 (1964), so the sensibilities were pretty current for my first reading. Over the years since—I have read it pretty close to annually—I have watched the world change as CITY stayed (ironically?) locked in time. I have been surprised to see some forward thinking in Hamilton’s prose. Eventually, for instance, I realized he probably meant for Jon Arnol to be Black, but didn’t feel comfortable coming right out and saying it. It also took MANY readings to get that the alien Gorr Holl is a BEAR. (Despite the marvelous “teddy bear!” scene with the little girl!) Nowadays, when I reread I allow myself to rewrite, modernizing those antiquated sensibilities.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 31738
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| Posted: 05 August 2025 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | 6
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I had forgotten I had purchased an Edmond Hamilton “megapack” on my
iPad for 99¢ a number of years ago and never started it. I believe I’ll start
CITY… today.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 31738
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| Posted: 15 August 2025 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | 7
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It also took MANY readings to get that the alien Gorr Holl is a BEAR.
*******
I’ve just come upon this character. Perhaps I’m missing some context that
come later, but wouldn’t they recognize him as a bear. They all seem quite
shocked at his alien appearance. (And I’m not suggesting he’s not a bear.
The description sure points in that direction).
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 15 August 2025 at 7:26pm | IP Logged | 8
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It didn’t take the characters much time to peg Gorr Holl as a bear. Consider the “Teddy bear!” moment. I was the dummy, for decades seeing him as apelike.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 31738
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| Posted: 15 August 2025 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | 9
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Yeah, the kids sure loved him. Funny how they recognized it, but he hadn’t
been by the adults. At least not yet.
Really enjoying this so far. I like how Carol is presented in much the same
way Stan would script say, Sue or the Wasp. Kind of a “don’t mind me. I’m
just being a hysterical woman” attitude. I guess that was pretty much the
standard of the time.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 16 August 2025 at 12:47am | IP Logged | 10
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One of my updatings is to lose Carol’s aunt and have Carol herself be a doctor. That would give her more to do without radical alterations to the dynamics.
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James Best
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 938
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| Posted: 16 August 2025 at 1:20am | IP Logged | 11
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Now starting HOTEL UKRAINE by Martin Cruz Smith, but it is starting off on a sad note. Smith passed away last month at the age of eighty-two, just three days after this novel was published. It is the eleventh book in his award-winning mystery series featuring Moscow homicide inspector Arkady Renko who trekked across Russia to solve murder cases even as the Soviet bloc crumbled around him.
Smith often took long breaks from writing about Arkady and managed to crank out some excellent stand-alone thriller novels, the combination of which earned him six nominations for the Edgar Award, the Dagger Award, and the Hammett Prize (winning three times).
Smith kept his health a secret from his publishers and quietly battled Parkinson’s disease during the last decade of his life. He relied on his wife to type his manuscripts when his motor functions began to fail him.
Fifteen of his books are in my permanent library and I encourage my fellow JBF readers to sample his stuff if you haven’t done so already. The first three books in the Renko series (Gorky Park - 1981, Polar Star - 1989, and Red Square - 1992) are a good place to start. Rest in peace, Mr. Smith. You and Arkady will both be missed.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 36431
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| Posted: 16 August 2025 at 1:46am | IP Logged | 12
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Of the few fiction books I read a year (99% of my reading is non-fiction) detective novels take up the last 1%. Thanks for the rec!
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