LTBC Schedule for the Year 2007

This is the same Norman Maclean who wrote A River Runs Through It. Studying the Missouri River fire of 1949 was his passion for over two decades, and the book is still used as training material in firefighting schools.

In my opinion it is non-fiction prose that is about as good as it gets and once we have read this, we will have read all of the books that he wrote --- two!

"The Friends of Eddie Coyle" by George V. Higgins has
long been one of my favorite books (and movies), but I had held
off because used copies are getting somewhat scarcer. I used to
have several copies myself to loan to friends, but most were never
returned. They are still around, though, and I will try to
replenish my stock as loaners.
I was moved from my position of inertia after reading that it was
one of Elmore Leonard's five favorite
books, and he felt, along with several other previous listers, the
best crime novel. (Tied in some lists with "Crime
and Punishment").
When Higgins wrote this, his first novel, he was a federal prosecutor
for the Boston district, and he apparently
got enough material for a total of over 20 books on mid-level
lawbreakers and enforcement. It is an easy read,
not too long, and is a seminal work in the field.
- Defective Joel

Meeting Date	Host	Selection	Notes
Thursday 25 January 2007	Charlie Palmer (263-4586) host at 131 14th SW (about 1/2 block south of Central ) Going west on I-40, take the 6th/12th exit; then, go south on 12th. Turn right on Central. Turn left on 14th. House is directly across the street from the 12 story Queen Mary. There is no parking on 14th street, use the double driveway to left of house. Call if problems.	Saturday by Ian McEwan 15 February 2003	"Saturday," by Ian McEwan. It is just now out in paperback and is available at Amazon for $10.97. I read it several months ago and thought it was wonderful -- not quite as good as "Atonement," but close. Over 25 copies available in our ABQ Library System. The Club's Reviews
Thursday 22 February 2007	Don Tubesing 41 La Puerta Trail Placitas, NM 87043 505 771-1601 Tubesingda@aol.com (Don will provide driving instructions from the Missouri River).	Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean	This is the same Norman Maclean who wrote A River Runs Through It. Studying the Missouri River fire of 1949 was his passion for over two decades, and the book is still used as training material in firefighting schools. In my opinion it is non-fiction prose that is about as good as it gets and once we have read this, we will have read all of the books that he wrote --- two! (amazon has both paper and hardbound, and both new and used. The Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System has five copies currently available.) The Club's Reviews
Thursday 29 March 2007	Tom Genoni (292-4985) 1616 Catron SE	Ironweed by William Kennedy (P)	An unusual novel, the Viking Press finally agreed to publish Ironweed in 1983 along with Kennedy's two previous novels, which are, like Ironweed, set in Albany, New York. Not only were the reviews enthusiastic, but the novel was awarded the coveted Pulitzer Prize and then the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984. Read more here.
Special April delay: meet on Thursday 3 May 2007	Ron B. ... Loma Linda SE Lead/Coal; between Carlisle and Washington, take Montclaire south	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon	Christopher John Francis Boone says there are 31 copies of this book in the library and that each copy has 240 pages. A little about Mark Haddon. The movie Rain Man and the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time both focus on one character and give the character more autistic traits than are normally seen in one individual. This leads to the notion that autistic conditions are more uniform than they are. Here is quite a bit about Aspergers syndrome na: re,ds
Thursday 31 May 2007	Ed Duff (823-1872) Tanoan area: 9709 Pebble Beach NE (Enter Tanoan onto Tanoan Drive, north off Academy, between Eubank and Ventura. Take 3rd left onto Pebble Beach Drive. 2nd house on right.)		A Question of Loyalty plunges into the seven-week Washington trial of Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell, the hero of the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I and the man who proved in 1921 that planes could sink a battleship. Note: our Albuquerque Library has three books by Douglas Waller, however this latest [2004] work is not among them. One option is to order your book via Campusi.com - should be in the $5 to $7 range (including postage) for a used hardback, a little less for a used paperback. na: re
Thursday 28 June 2007	Rob Easterling (286-8796) East Mountains: 51 Avenida del Sol, Cedar Crest, NM 87008 [Take N14 4.5 mi. N of I-40 (exit 175, Cedar Crest). Turn Left into Ventana del Sol subdivision. Follow keypad instructions.]	Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris	Comprehensive Obituary on Mark Harris
Thursday, 26 July 2007	Keith Gilbert (265-8122) 913 Parkland Circle SE From Wyoming, go West on Zuni to Carlisle; Go South on Carlisle until the median disappears; (or changes drastically); Go East; Keith is on this street, on the North side.		The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien Our Rio Grande Library system has sixteen copies; most are awaiting your check-out. Additional copies can be obtained via Campusi.com or Amazon.com "I think novels, by and large—I mean not one hundred percent, but by and large—come out of a sense of outrage at something. A good novel is not made out of complacency and out of everything being happy and snug and all the children are home in their beds and all of the daddies are well-behaved and all of the mommies are dusting the furniture. Books aren’t made out of that kind of stuff." "What I do for a living is try to make decent sentences, caring about commas and caring about the difference between a proper and a regular noun," he said. "What I think about on a daily basis is language, trying to put sentences down that I can live with. As writers, all we have [is] language and nothing else. We've got these 26 letters of the alphabet and some punctuation marks -- that's it. And out of those 26 letters you can make Ulysses or you can make 'Cosmo.' " Link: Tim O'Brien and Vietnam: timeline
Thursday, 30 August 2007	Jack Ferrell 17 Sunset Blvd Placitas, NM I-25 Exit 242 East on NM 165. Right at the 5-mile marker onto Tunnel Springs Road. Right onto Quail Meadow Road (first street on right - 0.2 mile) Right onto Leah Lane (first street on right-0.4 mile) HARD right onto Sunset Blvd (100 yards) 17 Sunset Blvd is the third drive/house on the left. The 17 is in small gold numbers near the ground, near road.	The Castle by Franz Kafka	They are perhaps the most famous literary instructions never followed: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread...." Thankfully, Max Brod did not honor his friend Franz Kafka's final wishes. Instead, he did everything within his power to ensure that Kafka's work would find publication--including making some sweeping changes in the original texts. Until recently, the world has known only Brod's version of Kafka, with its altered punctuation, word order, and chapter divisions. Restoring much of what had previously been expunged, as well as the fluid, oral quality of Kafka's original German, Mark Harman's new translation of The Castle is a major literary event. Note: Our Albuquerque Library System has 11 copies of this book, however it appears to be the 1954 publication as translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. Jack recommends the new translation by the Kafka scholar, Mark Harman, who, according to the The New York Times, has "made it more faithful to Kafka's dreamlike style." Published in 1998 by Schoken Books, it is available from Amazon for less than $14., even less through used version at Campusi.com
Thursday 27 September 2007	Ken Gillen (797-8956) 331 White Oaks Dr. NE (From Tramway and Live Oak Rd [one block N. of Paseo del Norte], go EAST 0.6 mi on Live Oak, then SOUTH 0.3 mi on White Oaks Dr. to last house on right. Pay no attention to most of the house numbers.).	Deliverance by James Dickey	Note: our Albuquerque Library has but one (1) copy of this excellent book. One option is to purchase a copy through Campusi.com
Special Oct delay: meet on Thursday 1 November 2007	Joel Nash 884-5064 7508 Dellwood Road NE Between Candelaria and Comanche go West off Pennsylvania; 2nd house from Pennsylvania, south side.	The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins	"The Friends of Eddie Coyle" by George V. Higgins has long been one of my favorite books (and movies), but I had held off because used copies are getting somewhat scarcer. I used to have several copies myself to loan to friends, but most were never returned. They are still around, though, and I will try to replenish my stock as loaners. I was moved from my position of inertia after reading that it was one of Elmore Leonard's five favorite books, and he felt, along with several other previous listers, the best crime novel. (Tied in some lists with "Crime and Punishment"). When Higgins wrote this, his first novel, he was a federal prosecutor for the Boston district, and he apparently got enough material for a total of over 20 books on mid-level lawbreakers and enforcement. It is an easy read, not too long, and is a seminal work in the field. - Defective Joel George V. Higgins was a lawyer, journalist, teacher, and the author of 29 books, including Bomber's Law, Trust , and Kennedy for the Defense. Availability: Just checking Amazon, despite the scary prices on the initial pages, going through Amazon "used books" there are 30 copies from $1.47. [This is good because like Deliverance, our local Library System retains but one copy of this book.]
[5th] Thursday: 29 November 2007 [Thursday after Thanksgiving]	Dave Southwick 2 Calle Pinon Placitas, NM 771-8576 From I-25 take the Bernalillo Exit (#242) and go East on NM 165. 2.2 mi, then N on Tierra Madre (which changes to Camino Barranca) 1.4 mi, then left onto Calle Pinon. Google map	That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx	Stating that "nothing of the original prairie remain[s]," Proulx presents the Texas Panhandle through the eyes of 25-year-old Bob Dollar, a newcomer arriving by car, who sees railroad tracks, grain elevators, drive-in restaurants, "welcome to" signs with mottoes, a plywood Jesus, irrigation rigs, condensation tanks, fences, "the raw material of human use," and not incidentally, long, gray hog farms, with their effluent lagoons in the rear, the stench overpowering the grasslands for miles around. Annie Proulx is the acclaimed author of The Shipping News and two other novels, Postcards and Accordion Crimes, and the story collections Heart Songs and Close Range. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, two O. Henry Prizes, and a PEN/Faulkner, she lives in Wyoming and Newfoundland. Our local Library System retains 17 copies of this 2003 book and all are available to you now!
Special December (Christmas Season) Delay! Meet Thursday 3 January 2008	Charlie Palmer (243-4962) Hosting will occur at Charlie's rental house. See the 2008 schedule for details.	Terrorist by John Updike	This book has received excellent reviews. See the 2008 Schedule for details.