American on Purpose **

** American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson, 2009

My Tue-Sat morning routine is to grab the iPad and watch the previous nights Late Late Show while I make and eat breakfast. In my humble but accurate opinion, he's the only late night talk show guy worth watching.

So I put his biography on my BoxedUp list and ended up with two copies at Xmas. I rated it as two stars not because it's bad. It's an interesting read and well written, but not a must-read by any stretch. But if you're a CraigyFerg fan, it's worth picking up.

No Way to Treat a First Lady **

** No Way to Treat a First Lady, Christopher Buckley, 2003

Could it be that I'm over Buckley? I have found the last two clever, but no longer engaging. Erudite, sophisticated, but no heart. Well, one must eat the chicken and spit out the bones. I'll keep sampling and see if things change.

BradNotes

The BradNotes email list is for folks who want an email when a new book comes out.

To get on the list, email me: author [at] bradwhittington [dot] com.

The next issue has a link to a free PDF advance reader copy of What Would Jesus Drink?

Woohoo!

eFred

All Christy award winners or finalists, at long last the Fred books are available on Amazon for the Kindle for $2.99 each. That's a ton of Fred for $9!

In the next few weeks we'll also release Nook and iPad versions.

Here are the Kindle links.

If you've ever held a Fred book in your hand, you know that B&H went the extra mile with high-quality covers (Living with Fred has an embossed cover) and graphics in the chapter headings. To preserve the high-quality reading experience even in ebook form, I hired a beKindling gnome to work his otherwordly magic.

We couldn't emboss the covers, of course, but the graphics from the print versions are there, along with some new elements. The books take full advantage of the Kindle navigation tools, including skipping through chapters with the left/right navigation buttons. And of course, as with any Kindle book, you can download a sample before you buy.

You also get extras, such as discussion guides for readers groups, and a peek at three chapters from the next book at the end of each. The end of Escape to Fred has three chapters from my novel-in-progress, Muffin Man, planned for an ebook release in 2012.

And you can still get physical Fred books. Signed print copies make a great gift and are available through SignedByTheAuthor.com. Yep, I really sign them myself. Ha!

Of course, you can always get a used copy on Amazon for a penny plus shipping. At least you can get WtF and LwF for a penny. Looks like right now you'll have to shell out at least #2.91 plus shipping for EfF, which is only fair, since it's the best one. ;-)

I don't get any money from used copies, but I get a new reader, and I'm cool with that. Spread the Fred word.

The Hawkline Monster *

* The Hawkline Monster, Richard Brautigan, 1974

I'll give you the good stuff first. Several good turns of phrase and it was short, so I didn't waste that much time reading it.

I don't remember who recommended this book to me, so I can't hunt them down and thrash them severely about the head and shoulders with it. Plus, it probably wouldn't do any good, anyway since it's a lightweight paperback.

I've been familiar with the name because of the book Trout Fishing in America, but never read any of his stuff. Based on this sampling, I won't read another anytime soon. The cover blurb says The Hawkline Monster is "by far the best-selling of any of Richard Brautigan's books." OK.

While there is the occasional serendipitous turn of phrase, such as "[she] slipped like a grape peeling off her horse and into the arms of the woman," most of the writing was unremarkable. Much more telling than showing. Weird and quirky things seemingly tossed in randomly to artificially inject interest. Development of a whole plot line that is abandoned without explanation. Using the ability of the monster to manipulate thoughts to inject gratuitous, unmotivated sex. Random complications shoehorned in to delay forward momentum, evidently to build suspense, unsuccessfully, in my case.

And, when you come down to it, just a dumb storyline. Perhaps I'm a philistine, but I'm not seeing the genius, here.

BradWhittington.com

Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea.

We interrupt our regular programming to announce a complete redesign of BradWhittington.com with the aesthetic assistance of The Number One Son. I'll be doing minor tweaks in the days and weeks to come, so if you find something broken, let me know.

For those who are interested but as yet uninformed, you can also catch me on Twitter @BradWhitt and also FaceBook.

I'm considering launching another blog with a different focus, probably about the time that What Would Jesus Drink? is released. More on that later.

The Career Novelist ***

*** The Career Novelist, Donald Maass, 1996

There are two things wrong with this book, and they both have to do with the date at the end of the above line.

The first, and main one, is how long it took me to read it. If I had read it when it came out, it would have been a lot better. I would have had a better understanding of the industry (which was surprisingly hard to come by in the last century) and would have annoyed fewer people. Perhaps.

The other thing is that I'm no longer looking to scale the mountain of traditional publishing. This is the year of the indie author. It's the year when electronic publishing, the hype dream of the last few decades, finally pushed its way to the front of the line, with more sales of e-books than p-books.

As a result, while the advice in the book is good, most of it no longer applies to me. Alas and alack. But if you're looking to get traditionally published, this book is definitely worth your time to read, no question.

The Art Of Detection & A Grave Talent

The Art of Detection, Laurie R. King, 2006

I couldn't finish it. This doesn't happen very often. Honest. And I'm a huge fan of Ms. King's Mary Russell series. I read The Beekeeper's Apprentice and have been waiting to read the rest until I have them all so there are no gaps in my enjoyment. But I thought I'd check out the Kate Martinelli series and what better place to start than with a Holmes-related story.

I just couldn't hang with it. For my taste, the setup took too long, with way too much detail about practically everything, which bogged down the pace. After 100 pages I set it aside to finish my Connelly project. When I came back to it, I read another 40 pages and gave up. My apologies to Ms. King. I really wanted to like it. If it's any consolation, I'm raring to go on the Mary Russell books.

So, a few months later I decided to give the Casey Martinelli series one more go, this time starting at the beginning with A Grave Talent. This moved at a much more satisfactory pace, but I didn't find myself itching to get back to it. In fact, I found myself doing other things to avoid reading it. When at page 140 out of 340 I thought I had figured out the big reveal, I skipped to the back and read a chapter or so to confirm it. I was half right. I'd figured out who the murderer was, just not who he was posing as. So, I figured no need to keep reading Martinelli. I'll stick with the Mary Russell series. Of course, YMMV.

Sanctified and Chicken Fried ***

*** The Portable Landsdale: Sanctified and Chicken Fried, Joe R. Lansdale, 2009

I'm only four books into his large body of work, but one thing is clear about Joe R. Lansdale. He's a brilliant writer. Vivid images, trenchant metaphors, visceral writing, penetrating characters, outrageous circumstances, sardonic humor.

I've read one title in the Hap and Leonard series, Mucho Mojo. It's well-paced, clever, touching, compelling. A Fine Dark Line is an excellent coming of age story.

Then there is Freezer Burn, where I documented some of his more clever constructions, and now Sanctified and Chicken Fried, a collection of shorter works.

All brilliantly written. So what's not to like?

The latter two books illustrate where Mr. Lansdale and I part ways. Perhaps my background, my childhood, sets me up to look for the better angels of our nature, to find hope or redemption. Whatever the case may be, stories that chronicle the depravity of man don't resonate with me. And in these last two books are impressively written stories that, for the most part, depict man at his worst, stories that seem say: This is what we are. This is what is.

I don't deny that such is the reality for some segments of the population. I have no way of knowing the percentages. Are there more like Joe or more like me? Don't know and it doesn't really matter. But I have to question how much time I want to spend dogpaddling in the muck, regardless of the brilliance.

I'll read the Lansdale books I have now and focus on the Hap and Leonard series and see where it takes me. Proceed at your own advisement. YMMV.

A Fine Dark Line ***

*** A Fine Dark Line, Joe R. Lansdale, 2003

The other Lansdale novels I've read have been a little wacky. This one was serious, a coming of age story, and very nicely done. Set in the late 50s in a small East Texas town. Lansdale has a way with a phrase, although this book as not as chockfull of the catchy little zingers as the others I've read.

This book pegged the Elliptical Test. I was usually surprised that the 40 minutes had passed and sat down with the book during my cool down to finish the chapter. That tells you something right there.

Lansdale has been writing for decades and has over 30 books out. And he's dang good. And he's a Texan. And I just heard about him last year. How does that happen?