read any good books lately...

Inside Laurel Canyon (a web book) subsequently released as Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream.  Ahem, a most interesting read, more interesting than a LeCarre spy thriller. ;) Wonder if there's a prog rock/70s equivalent of this book (which pertains to the mid 60s as the title indicates) because it seems to have been going on since the beginning of time.  Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

dr wu23 wrote:   Is it about the lifestyle of the rich and drugged....?

dr wu23 wrote: rogerthat wrote: dr wu23 wrote:   Is it about the lifestyle of the rich and drugged....? That's kind of touched upon but it's incidental.  More to do with the illustrious lineage of these bleeding heart 'peacenicks' who all gathered in Laurel Canyon for some reason at the time and created a music scene where there was none before.   Sounds interesting.....I assume people like the Eagles, CSNY, Joni Mitchell, etc are the focus...? I might have to ck it out. I cked out the book....https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Scenes-Inside-Canyon-Laurel/dp/1909394122 definitely will pick that one up.....I listened to most of those bands back in the day.

We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory.  This is a great book if you're a fan of horror or darker fantasy.  It's relatively easy to read (about 180 pages), and it received a Nebula Award.  I haven't read anything else by Gregory yet, but I loved this!

Thomas Pynchon- The Crying of Lot 49

Currently working my way through a list of about 200 books in areas of modern British history, modern Russian history and WWI for my qualifying exams in September. So the answer is, read too many good books lately. Would love to spend some time with some trashy novel for a change.

thwok wrote: We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory.  This is a great book if you're a fan of horror or darker fantasy.  It's relatively easy to read (about 180 pages), and it received a Nebula Award.  I haven't read anything else by Gregory yet, but I loved this!

^ I should reread that Pynchon novel....been a long time....I enjoyed V also but never managed to finish Gravity's Rainbow....nor tried any of the later ones.

Guy Guden wrote: dr wu23 wrote: ^ I should reread that Pynchon novel....been a long time....I enjoyed V also but never managed to finish Gravity's Rainbow....nor tried any of the later ones.   My first Pynchon book was Mason & Dixon when it came out new.  I read Bleeding Edge when it came out after that.  The Crying of Lot 49 is only my third work of his.  I always have mixed feelings in each book.

I really loved the V-shape of "V". The two narrative strands first deal with characters that are marginal to Benny Profane and Herbert Stencil, then with more central characters, then with Profane and Stencil themselves, and finally they meet. Just like the two lines of a "V" getting closer and closer until they meet.


Edited by BaldFriede - June 15 2016 at 06:54