Summer's Favorite Reads

 Savages, Don Winslow. The more I read of Winslow, the more I like him. This is a more complicated story than The Dawn Patrol or California Fire & Lifer, but he handles the increased number of moving parts just as well, keeping the reader on the edge of the seat while never allowing the pace to become too hyper. The dry humor helps. Highly recommended, though the movie is eminently missable, even though Winslow has a partial screenwriting credit.

In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead, James Lee Burke. Not Burke’s best but maybe my favorite. I don’t usually go in for books with supernatural elements, especially crime novels, but Burke’s touch is so deft I fell right into it. It doesn’t hurt that this book focuses on New Iberia and the surrounding swamps, which is where Burke always does his best work. Unlike Savages the movie In the Electric Mist is one you ought to find. It’s outstanding, though under-released in this country.

The County Line, Steve Weddle. It’s been quite a while since Weddle’s acclaimed collection of stories Country Hardball came out; The County Line is worth the wait, though let’s hope he doesn’t make a habit of such long intervals. The story of rural criminal gangs set during Franklin Roosevelt’s first year in office, The County Line brings alive the Depression era problems and practicalities and puts the reader right in the thick of them by gradually winding the stories of the main characters ever closer until everything everyone does affects everyone else in a manner that always makes sense.

Trigger Guard, Chris Grall. (Non-fiction.) Outstanding review of firearms, from blunderbusses to M-4s. Grall has an engaging writing style that makes a topic that could be dry as duct flow past the eyes like a river. My plan had been to read a chapter at a time as a palate cleanser between novels, but once I read the first chapter I was hooked and read it straight through.

The Ones You Do, Daniel Woodrell. Book 3 of The Bayou Trilogy, this one focuses on John X. Shade, father of the brothers who carry the first tow books. John X. – he’s never referred to as plain old John – is a pool hustler whose hands are no longer steady enough to support him and bad choices through the years are catching up. He’s a ne’er-do-well piece of shit when you get right down to it, but you can’t help but root for him, as none of the people he’s shit on over the years seem to hold it against him. All the wry humor and bizarre situation that made the first two book such treasure are here in this worthy conclusion to the Shade family saga.

The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson. (Non-fiction) An informal history of the evolution of the English language. By “informal” I mean written in a breezy, engaging manner; the book is meticulously researched. Every page has something a lover of the language will find worth knowing, and Bryson’s easy writing makes the who enterprise a pleasure.

Black Betty, Walter Mosley. Maybe the best of the Easy Rawlins books I’ve read so far, though that could be because it’s freshest in my mind; Devil in a Blue Dress is very good. I’m glad I decided to read them in order, as Mosley’s writing becomes more refined and he keeps finding different ways to make Easy’s life hard.