Carl Hiaasen has retired from his job writing columns at the Miami Herald. Here is his final one.
There are books of collections of his columns. He is rightly better known for his humorous crime novels. He always works environmental issues into his books
I have seen him several times read from his books and answer questions. Here are videos of him.
This site has several posts on the time authors John Cheever and Raymond Carver spent drinking while in residence at the University of Iowa.
My favorite lines:
Because Cheever had no car, Carver provided transportation on their twice-weekly booze runs. They liked to arrive at the liquor store just as the clerk was unlocking for the day.
Now that’s alcoholism.
They were both excellent writers. Carver wrote great stories. I haven’t read his poems. Cheever wrote novels and stories. I would start with his stories.
Collections by both are part of the Library of America
Raymond Carver | Library of America (loa.org)
John Cheever | Library of America (loa.org)
This is a great column from 1986 by Carl Hiaasen who started out writing for newspapers but has become an excellent novelist.
“Etiquette at a Crime Scene” is also in his collection Kick Ass.
An example from the column which is written as Q and A:
Q. What about souvenirs?
A. Usually it’s unwise to try to collect souvenirs from a crime scene. Bullet fragments, shell casings, hair samples, ski masks, money satchels, bloody clothing—sure, the stuff would look swell in the rec room next to your bowling trophies. But, please, the crime lab gets first dibs.
Roger Angell, longtime fiction editor at the New Yorker, also wrote excellent books about baseball. He just turned 100.
update: Roger Angell passed away in 2022
Some of his work:
Big Star was one of the best bands of the 1970s. Unfortunately, many of us (including me) didn’t know about them because of record label distribution problems. I first became aware of them from an import CD in the 1980s.
Keep An Eye On The Sky is a four CD set from Rhino.
A Man Called Destruction is a fine book about Alex Chilton, the most prominent member of Big Star.
From Stax Records:
Jody Stephens, legendary drummer and CEO of Ardent Studios, spends 30 minutes with host, Tom DeSavia. Jody shares what he’s up to right now and reflects on early days with Memphis’ legendary rock band Big Star. From upcoming new music, to his appreciation of the recent Craft Big Star reissues, Jody’s grace and gratitude solidify his standing as the undisputed nicest guy in rock ‘n’ roll.
There’s a book about their second album.
Toni Morrison was one of America’s greatest authors. I haven’t read all of her books but of the ones I have read, I would start with Sula or Jazz. Song of Solomon is great, too.
This is the trailer for an excellent film about Morrison. It’s on DVD. She is surprisingly funny and very entertaining. She looks right into the camera – it’s like she’s talking to us. Highly recommended,
I got to see Elmore Leonard several times in bookstores in Washington, DC. One time, I barely made it there before the event finished because I had rushed from Baltimore. I told this to Leonard and he said I should have been there at his event in Baltimore earlier that day (which I didn’t know about). It was not well attended. I told him Baltimore’s slogan was “The city that reads”. He told me it must be a new slogan. The next time I saw him at a bookstore, I gave him a “The City that reads” bookmark.
At one point, when Baltimore was #1 in teen pregnancy, some folks said our slogan should be “The city that breeds”.
Leonard wrote so many excellent books. If you haven’t read them, I would start with Tishomingo Blues or Freaky Deaky. He is best known for crime novels which are written with a rambling, unpredictable plot and a great sense of humor. A three volume set of 12 crime novels is available from the Library of America.
They added a volume of his westerns in 2018.
There are several excellent films based on Leonard books:
Jackie Brown (based on Rum Punch – major changes from the book)
updates 10/11/21
I recently read Fear by Bob Woodward on the early part of the Trump administration. Woodward is excellent at digging out information and presenting it clearly. His prose is bland but that’s fine – the book is about the subject, the writing. It’s news writing prose, not fiction.
There’s lots of scary stuff – Trump is sure he is right even when presented with facts that contradict his opinion. For example, he was insistent that Iran was in violation of the nuclear deal when they weren’t. It sounds like it’s impossible to get him to change long-held beliefs.
The administration comes across as very disorganized. I worked in the federal government (at much lower levels) for decades and we never had this kind of infighting and chaos.
Sad! 