Do you love Yahoo news? I love Yahoo news. Yahoo news is the most unintentionally hilarious thing on the web. Every time I return to the screen there is another world shaking headline waiting for me.
'Science finds new evidence which suggests drinking water may relieve thirst'
'Humans need air, research concludes'
'Government panel releases statement on controversial 'The sun is hot' stand'
One weeps. Yahoo, hire another news editor. My cousin Emily is NOT working out for you.
( Remember Emily, her superfluous body hair, and her brief foray into local newspaper ownerage? As self-appointed news editor, her idea of a hot story was the new door the public library had installed. Yeah.)
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These days when I'm reading at all I'm reading for entertainment. In between overdoing things in the garden I kick back with a grocery store bestseller.. crack a beer, take a hoot off my inhaler and enjoy the good life...let the ol' synapses get nice and sugar coated, yeaaaah.
I'll be damnded if I haven't found a fantastic author-Stephen Hunter!
Now what he writes are pretty standard 'guys' action-thrillers...what I call 'Men's romance' novels, like Clive Cussler (gag, barf) and Eric VonLustbader (ak, barf, retch). The difference is, Stephen Hunter a. knows his subjects b. enjoys his subjects c. can write creatively d. knows his nuts and bolts and can move a narrative along without any discernible cracks and joins. I mean, even the proofreading is good.
The First Hunter novel we read was 'Dirty White Boys'...prison break, southern cops, class war, natural men, tattoos, guns, regional accents and corruption. It kicked ass. The man flat knows his white trash. Next was Hot Springs-organized crime in the South...Black Light-military conspiracy and snipers in the South, and Pale Horse Coming-race relations, prisons and gunplay in the South. He's written a shitpile of books and I plan on reading them all. So far I've only found Pale Horse Coming to be even slightly dismaying, and I think that's more because I'm a girl. The author just got so far into a guy-culture thing that I got left behind. Which is fine...because now my curiosity's up and I get to find out about something new.
So yeah, my tastes in light entertainment tend to run in the 'kung fu, grievous bodily harm, robots and explosions' direction. Stephen Hunter has no robots, no kung fu, but honey, SO many explosions and so much grievous bodily harm; it just warms the cockles of my little heart. Plus I can read it without wanting to find the author and crack him over the head with a baseball bat.
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speaking of robots and explosions:
Do go here.
You heard me.
Go here NOW.
And mind your damn manners, y'all.
There are no robots or explosions. What there is, is some of the best writing on the web. Sopwith Camel is simply excellent.
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I might check him out. I like a bit of popcorn fiction now and then.
ReplyDeleteHe must be better than Dan Brown who opened a chapter of The da Vinci Code with the immortal "It was a dark and stormy night..."
Tit.
What Goes Up is lovely...as well as being the longest blog post ever written by man or beast...
ReplyDeleteMy word, what a charming little excursion through the verdant, badger laden countryside.
ReplyDeleteMind you I wouldn't voluntarily pedal 54 miles unless I was being chased by Velociraptors or a giant wooden badger that was filled with soldiers all ready to jump out and take the castle just after nightfall.
A lovely relaxing road-read but I would rather have needles poked in my eyes than trudge up and down hills on a bike. I would probably take the car and go directly to the first Diner to experience the local homemade specialties..MMMM!
garfy: the apple didn't fall far from the bulwer-lytton tree, did it. god how i HATE the davinci code.
ReplyDeletejunglyjane: oh no, my treatise on care and feeding of the girly parts was longer. the guy is just cool. he has such a righteous life and the way he writes you're almost there.
homoE: tell ya what, i wish i could do it. and in the english countryside in spring?? reading his blog is the closest my asthmatic ass is going to get to that, though.
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ReplyDeleteWell he is on my list of must reads, I read Stephen King. I have a few that I am known to reread. And I agree some of his stuff sucks, but you can't be perfect when you work for $$$.
ReplyDeleteStick to the BBC news website!
ReplyDeleteWhat!!!! no exploding kung fu robots...bugger that for a game of soldiers.
ReplyDeleteI like Lee Child for dick lit , but I shall give this one a go.
**whispers*** I quiet enjoyed the da vinci code
***looks embarrased and runs off***
I read the Sopwith Camel.Thanks for the nod;he's now bookmarked.(That countryside was part of my summer stamping ground.)And if I find time I might give your new find a try.Ahhh,time...
ReplyDeletespeaking of reading:
ReplyDeletei was reading a trashy historical romance novel and low and behold, judith and holfernes people were subjects of pictures.
i read paranormal. sometimes they have romance, but i like vampires, werewolves, and stuff like that.
i also have read the entire harry potter series multiple times. first nations, don't give me that look. i actually prefer the books to the movies. they're better.
*runs and hides*
FN, Thanks for the promo, and thanks to the other visitors, nice to know that some of you can handle a bit more length than is normal.
ReplyDeleteI also hated the Da Vinci code, I listened to it on CD rather than reading it, and I just thought my perception was coloured by having read the scholarly research years earlier, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. But maybe Dan Brown was just under pressure to get a book out for a publisher's deadline and simply did the quickest job he could.
I like my exploding robots to have character, a bit like Marvin and the Frogstar fighters in the offices of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
nice to know that some of you can handle a bit more length than is normal.
ReplyDeleteOh I say , sopwith you are a one
***runs off sniggering****
Nice to see beast is keeping things at the level to which we are all accustomed. I was worried things were going a bit literary, exploding robots notwithstanding.
ReplyDeleteYay Pinky I love the Anne Rice Vampire books....
ReplyDeleteBut werewolves are a bit silly and leave paw prints all over the furniture
I read the first couple of Harry Potter books and liked them. I've even read all the Babysitter Club books! Claudia Kishi rocks!
ReplyDeleteI will draw a curtain discreetly over my opinions on Anne Rice (except Interview With The Vampire and Queen of the Damned; those were just plain good fun all 'round) and Steven King is a fantastic writer trapped in the body of a bestselling hack. I finally broke down and read Hearts in Atlantis and hell; it wasn't horrible. I think you have to know the Gunslinger series in order to get it, though.
Sopwith, we're a rough crew but we have big hearts. in fact Jungle Jane has several; all floating in a jar full of electrolyzed solution on her mantlepiece.