• Home
    • Recent
    • Calendar
    • Register
    • Login
    Iron Heart Forum
    Iron Heart Forum

    Iron Heart Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview - Now Live

    Books

    Hobbies and Pastimes
    146
    930
    241.5k
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • ?
      Guest
      Joined:

      Jeez G, I haven't read a Vachss  book in years…dark indeed, need to re-visit !

      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • michaeljcrM
        michaeljcr
        Raw and Unwashed
        Joined:

        For all those book fans out there, especially genre fiction, I can send some books out if you like - I work as a fiction buyer for UK retail chain, and have an office full of samples.

        Re: Vachss, he's great, but bleak indeed!  In real life he's run children's correctional facilities and been an advocate for children in need.  All the Burke books I've read are about, or touch upon, child abuse or some kind of sexual crime, so they are pretty hard going.

        If you like him, I'd recommend reading something by Joe R. Lansdale, a good friend of Vachss and a wonderful storyteller.  Mucho Mojo is a good place to start, or one of his one-offs like The Bottoms.

        M.

        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • tobacco and leatherT
          tobacco and leather
          Joined:

          I'm a big fan of philosophy and how it applies to society.. I just picked up "First as Tragedy Then as Farce" should be a really excellent read.

          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • StokelyS
            Stokely
            Joined:

            Awesome thread. Mostly cause books is awesome.

            Jokes is awesome too!

            Anyway.

            Vachss is great.  I can relate because I work with children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders.  In that field you see a lot of really bad shit.  It can be rough.  I've learned how to deal.

            Freedom was great.  Good read.
            Michael Chabon is sort of in the same vein, good as well.

            McCarthy is amazing.  I've read em all.

            I would suggest a number of other authors and/or books….

            On the easier/more page turning side...

            Southern US fiction ala McCarthy...

            Jim Brown- Father and Son.  Plus a number of other titles.  He died recently, was a firefighter in Mississippi.

            Wells Tower- Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned. Collection of short stories. Awesome.

            George Saunders- The Braindead Megaphone.  Plus anything else he's written.  Great.

            Mystery/Crime... a la Vachss

            Joe Landsdale
            George Pelecanos
            Jim Thompson
            And most especially, maybe more visceral and literate would be
            Nelson Algren.  I love that author.  He is the original Iron Heart of the literary world. Sinatra played a heroin addict in a film adaptation of The Man with The Golden Arm.

            Others........I'll provide more if wanted/interested....

            William Faulkner.  Southern Lit.
            Chester Himes.  Black Lit, plus some pretty fucking awesome mystery/crime novels
            Holy shit.  Robert Bolano!!!!!!!!!!! Greatest.  2666 or The Savage Detectives.  Read em!

            Well the above involves a lot of mystery, but a little more involved than previously listed authors.
            All of them are great.

            Also.........
            William Gibson, old school Sci-Fi, but for a modern age.......
            Thomas Pynchon
            Sherman Alexie, Native American writer, pretty badass.
            Junot Diaz, NYC latino.  Again, badass.
            I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez and others as well.

            Again,  I'm nerding out, but awesome thread.

            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • gbougardG
              gbougard
              Raw and Unwashed
              Joined:

              Stokely:

              thank you so much for taking the time to write such a long list of books and authors. Looks like Im a need a second life just to read all the books I NEED to read

              Sly Dunbar bigs up IH on YT
              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t2OM738mKY
              Sly & Robbie A Run Tings
              Gregory Isaacs Liveth 4 I-ver

              Renault: What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?
              Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
              Renault: The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.
              Ric

              last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • hecticH
                hectic
                Joined:

                Hey,

                New Iain M Banks "Culture" novel out fairly recently, its called Surface Detail.

                H

                last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • GeoG
                  Geo
                  Joined:

                  good thread this

                  I'm a voracious reader - pretty much anything that's printed and bound, but my stick out author is Umberto Eco; would recommend Foucalt's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose by him

                  Also Vikram Chandra's Red Earth & Pouring Rain and Sacred Games are top notch

                  Last would second Hectic on the Iain Banks stuff, met him a couple of times - nice guy and a good author

                  Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity

                  last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • hecticH
                    hectic
                    Joined:

                    You guys so need to read Gibson's Zero History - he has some great riffs on the secret histories of denim otaku freakz.

                    last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • michaeljcrM
                      michaeljcr
                      Raw and Unwashed
                      Joined:

                      @hectic:

                      You guys so need to read Gibson's Zero History - he has some great riffs on the secret histories of denim otaku freakz.

                      That's how I found Iron Heart - a Zero History inspired Denim trawl through the web!  Great book, great author.

                      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • STANS
                        STAN
                        Joined:

                        sis got me these lightning mag Vol 203 and this is attach inside the mag.

                        EVERYDAY DENIM

                        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • riffblaster generalR
                          riffblaster general
                          Raw and Unwashed
                          Joined:

                          currently reading "Carrion Comfort" by Dan Simmons.

                          PUT DOWN THAT STARBUCKS, PICK UP THAT GNARBUCKS!!

                          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • J
                            jacoavlu
                            Joined:

                            I just finished True Grit (didn't see either movie) and am starting Lonesome Dove. After that, back to some Cormac McCarthy.

                            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • J
                              Jpo1932
                              Joined:

                              Finished Norwegian wood a bit ago.. Good read.

                              last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • namenessN
                                nameness
                                Joined:

                                ^ Now go read "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World".

                                last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • michaeljcrM
                                  michaeljcr
                                  Raw and Unwashed
                                  Joined:

                                  Recently finished Joe R. lansdale's Vanilla Ride and the much awaited Wise Man's Fear by fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss.

                                  I was talking with someone recently about how much I enjoyed reading Shogun in my teens, so I've now got all the James Clavell's sitting on my desk waiting to be read. It's a big pile of books…

                                  last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • J
                                    jacoavlu
                                    Joined:

                                    Just finished Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell. 7/10. Ending a bit disappointing.

                                    Next: Winter's Bone.

                                    last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • GeoG
                                      Geo
                                      Joined:

                                      just finished this . . .

                                      one of the most even-handed approaches to european history i've read . . . the belgians even get a mention

                                      Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity

                                      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • namenessN
                                        nameness
                                        Joined:

                                        Ahhhhh!  Someone else actually read that book!

                                        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • SeulS
                                          Seul
                                          Joined:

                                          @Geo:

                                          the belgians even get a mention

                                          Last line?.. 'To conclude: the Belgians are the best of all €uros. Especially the bald ones.'

                                          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • GeoG
                                            Geo
                                            Joined:

                                            last line exempting notes, appendices etc is Tremulae sinuantur flamine vestes

                                            the belgians were (foot)noted merely as being named after a tribe of goths

                                            🙂

                                            Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity

                                            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright Iron Heart 2025.