If you have not tried them, I highly recommend the audiobooks. The narrator was uniquely talented at doing voices for every character (including the narration). More like listening to audio dramas than books. Transformed the slogs into cinematic experiences for me.
Same with this one, though I’d also say this is one of the best adaptations of King’s work if you can watch the mini series.
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
8/10
A better than average but not super amazing detective story. I’m not familiar with Jewish culture so there probably a lot that went over my head. I was struggling to read it and I saw the audiobook was on sale for 5 bucks and figured sure I’ll listen to it. I usually don’t like audiobooks for fiction, writers usually don’t write for their words to be narrated, but the narrator, Peter Riegert, flipped it a 180 degrees on me. I couldn’t get enough. Suddenly it clicked, and I enjoyed the rest of it. It turns out the noir-ish syntax made it hard to read but sounds great when spoken. As with noir detective stories the mystery has to be interesting but the material lives and dies on the turn of phrase and this one did it pretty good
The rest of Sitka’s homicides are so-called crimes of passion, which is a shorthand way of expressing the mathematical product of alcohol and firearms.
He is a dealer in entropy and a disbeliever by trade and inclination. To Landsman, heaven is kitsch, God a word, and the soul, at most, the charge on your battery.
Although I’m not a horror fan and had not read any King, I received 11/22/63 as a present. I enjoyed the plot device as well as the subplot about star-crossed love. However, The entire subplot about dealing with bookies seemed pretty silly. It didn’t take me long to wonder why he couldn’t just take a bus/train to an out-of-state track where he could have bet legally on the races.
Finally finished 1491 by Mann. Learned a lot of interesting stuff and got a lot of insight about how the Indians or Natives impacted their land. What bothers me most is that a lot of theories why the Maya disappeared and other cultures disappeared should been a warning sign for us. I mean it didnt only happen in the Americas. Some time ago I watched documentary about some of the early advanced civs in the middle east and mesopotamia collapsed and vanished and one point that often played a role that these civs broke through the boundaries of what their land could sustain. I think one of the problems is that people could easily categorize it as hearsay.
Question is what do I read now: Got a list of a lot of recommendations from this thread. My current audible listening is Red Rising from Pierce Brown. I still got 1984, animal farm and Dune on the shelve. I might do one of those before moving to 1493 or another of my “wild west” books on the list. Its a curse: somehow I got a recommendation on youtube about Comanche/Apache wars and it added few more books to the list. But these history podcasts discussed in the musk thread sound interesting as well.
Read this recently, thanks for the recommendation.
Any chance @Soulman or anyone else who speaks Swedish could help me with the original untranslated edition of Let the Right One In 
Sure, help you how?
Spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen or read Let the Right One In.
How does the original language treat Eli’s body and gender? I am curious whether there are any linguistic or cultural nuances that make the text mean something unique to what it means when translated.
There is a bunch of very niche controversy over the book revealing Eli is not a girl. They are a forced eunuch castrated long long ago.
Throughout the first part of the book, the English text refers to Eli as “she/her.”
The pronouns change to “he/him” when Oskar discovers Eli has a genital scar instead of genitals. As a child, before being turned into a vampire, they were forcibly castrated. They present as a girl as a form of survival. It’s easier to find a caretaker (and victims).
Before then, Eli keeps telling Oskar, “I’m not really a girl.” They ask him, “Would you still feel the same way about me if I weren’t a girl?”
And the reader assumes that is Eli hinting that they are a vampire. A fun genre distinction sure, are vampires still boy, girl, or anything humans associate with gender? It’s a good question in that context.
But the author says no, no, he wrote this as a queer love story between two boys. Eli is a boy. That is his secret. That is what it means to “let the right one in” to the secret of your true nature.
He changed that, however, for the movie so that Eli is far more ambiguous. Do they have a gender? Are they actually a trans woman? The movie’s visuals of their scar and discussion of where it came from leave this deliberately unclear.
A recent stage play, however, went so far as to make Eli explicitly trans by casting a trans woman in the role.
I reached out to the author but you never know if they’ll respond. He seems amenable tho! He is sometimes upset that he sold the rights without realizing there would be adaptations he doesn’t approve of, such as the comic book adaptation.
Is this something you can help me break down? Are there any nuances in the original language or references to gender that don’t translate to English?
I take it you nuances in the Swedish movie production? Or the book?
I was only thinking of the book but would also love if you have insight into the movie as well since that similarly relies on a translation for the captions and the audio dub.
Checking whether you are helping with this (at your leisure) or are you waiting to see whether the check is in the mail 
I found some online discussion where someone from Norway said they completely missed this aspect of Eli’s character, just like a lot of American readers, so I am wondering if this is a limitation of nuance in both languages
Sorry, on vacation with 2 kids tends to not leave a lot of extra time 
Anyway, I don’t have the book nor have I read it. Have watched the movie though (and loved it).
Just finished 11/22/63. Was sad to turn that final page, knowing the story was complete. I want to watch the show, but hesitate in fear of it ruining the images of the characters and settings that I’ve developed in my head.
I bought Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay based on Hip’s suggestion, but it’s sitting on the shelf for now. Picked up 'Salem’s Lot the other day and cracked it open last night. I feel like I won’t get to Kavalier and Clay for a year because my SK queue is so long.
'Salem’s Lot
Duma Key
IT
Pet Sematary
Needful Things
Dark Tower series (this alone is like, what, 5,000 pages?)
Under the Dome
I’m going to die before I finish all of the King books I want to read.
11/22/63 is one of the absolute best adaptations of King’s work. Watch it with confidence. Changes lots of little and big things for the better.
When I read the book I pictured the female lead as a younger Laura Dern.
Just started the JFK king show. One episode in. I like it so far. It’s a James Franco lead so I’m not expecting breaking bad. I just want to be entertained.
I vote for needful things off your list. Love that one.
I’ve been devouring asimov’s foundation universe. If you like sci fi. It’s great. I can see where all these newer sci fi books get their inspiration. The expanse seems to pull a lot from the later novels.
Also reading Pulitzer still
Finished the stone diaries. Wasn’t for me. I understand what it was trying to do. Just feels like a less good rabbit at rest. (Or entire rabbit series)
Wife made me read the vanishing half. I thought it was pretty good but it just felt lacking. Like 25%
Of the story just got left out.
My main mang Jeff Sharlet just liked my tweet
Be somebody! On the nightshift
By the way, if you use a Kindle then ereaderiq.com is great site. You can track books on Amazon and set price alerts and it’ll shoot you an email when the book goes on sale.
