Lush Life by Richard Price

I picked up Lush Life by Richard Price last week because it was the monthly selection for my public library's book club. It was the first time I had ever heard of Price, who is famous for writing Clockers, the screenplay The Color of Money, and for his work on the TV show The Wire.

This books is about the robbery and shooting in the Lower Eastside of New York City. We follow two detectives as they pursue one wrong lead that leaves them without any suspects for a couple of weeks. We see how it affects the police officers, the family of the victim, and the shooter.

It's not really a mystery novel because we know from the beginning who all of the players are, and you can pretty much guess who the shooter is from the background information Price gives us in the opening chapters of the book. The story is more about the characters and how cops work an investigation than about trying to figure out who did it. I'm a cop show junky though, so I really enjoyed this book. It was actually the first real "crime" novel I've ever read. I've read a lot of John Grisham's books, but I think of those as being more about lawyers than about cops. Does that make sense? Anyway, if you like Law & Order, I think you'd like this book. It was like reading the script of one of my favorite cops shows. Price does a wonderful job of creating the scene and making you understand where his characters are coming from.

There were mixed reviews at the book club meeting, with people being pretty divided over either loving it or hating it. I was obviously one of those who liked reading it. I felt like Price really knew his subject and did a wonderful job of creating memorable dialogue between his characters. I'm looking forward to reading Clockers next. The woman who runs the book club said she like it even better than Lush Life.

Also, on a side note, I know some of you worry about profanity in books. I didn't really notice it so much, but some of the women at the book club were really put off by the swearing in the book. I thought it helped to build credibility of the story. We're supposed to believe these are criminals talking, so I just don't think it would have been believable if they were replacing swear words with stand-ins like "freakin'" and what-not. Just thought I'd give you the heads up.

Oh, two last things: First, Richard Price will be here in Sacramento on March 12 at the Crest Theatre. I will definitely be there to author stalk him if anyone wants to join me. Secondly, I wanted to link you to The New York Times article about Lush Life from last year, in case you'd like a more in-depth look at the book.

Holy Contests Batman!

In case you haven't heard (which, how could you not have?), Lisa over at Books on the Brain is holding a ton of giveaways on her blog to celebrate her 100,000th hit! So, if you love free books (and who doesn't), then hop on over there and show Lisa a little love.

The future of publishing

Many of us who care about the publishing industry have already read hundreds of stories about authors who finally got book deals because they decided to self-publish and managed to become online successes. I think it's fascinating though that some authors have such faith in their work that they self-publish. I'm beginning to wonder if the publishing business model is changing to reject more manuscripts in the hope that the author will self-publish so the publishing houses can measure the book's success before investing in it. It's an interesting development in the publishing world. Anyway, I thought you all might be interested in this story in Time Magazine about this very topic.

Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Although it has taken me forever to get through The Audacity of Hope, I really did enjoy it. Obama's perspective on the future of the United States is very optimistic in this book, especially in comparison to his first book, Dreams of my Father. Obama approaches a number of issues, including health care, race relations, and the Supreme Court. If you're at all interested in politics, I'd suggest reading this book, but be warned that much of it was discussed throughout the campaign. I think the reason it took me so long to get through this book was because I read it after the campaign and had already heard much of what Obama has to say. Still, it was nice to have a longer version of his goals and some clarification on what we can expect from our new president.

Also, for those of you who have a hard time reading nonfiction or political books, a friend of mine told me that the audio version of this book is actually read by Barack Obama and is wonderful. I think if I were to do it again, I'd probably get the audio version myself.