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Welcome goonlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here.  For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM me. Past Books of the Month [for BOTM before 2015, refer to archives] 2015: January: Italo Calvino -- Invisible Cities February: Karl Ove Knausgaard -- My Struggle: Book 1. March: Knut Hamsun -- Hunger April: Liu Cixin -- 三体 ( The Three-Body Problem) May: John Steinbeck -- Cannery Row June: Truman Capote -- In Cold Blood (Hiatus) August: Ta-Nehisi Coates -- Between the World and Me September: Wilkie Collins -- The Moonstone October:Seth Dickinson -- The Traitor Baru Cormorant November:Svetlana Alexievich -- Voices from Chernobyl December: Michael Chabon -- Gentlemen of the Road 2016: January: Three Men in a Boat (To say nothing of the Dog!) by Jerome K. Jerome February:The March Up Country (The Anabasis) of Xenophon March: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco April: Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling May: Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima June:The Vegetarian by Han Kang July:Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees August: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov September:Siddhartha by Herman Hesse October:Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse November:Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain December: It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis 2017: January: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut February: The Plague by Albert Camus March: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin April: The Conference of the Birds (مقامات الطیور) by Farid ud-Din Attar May: I, Claudius by Robert Graves June: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky July: Ficcionies by Jorge Luis Borges August: My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber September: The Peregrine by J.A. Baker October: Blackwater Vol. I: The Flood by Michael McDowell November: Aquarium by David Vann December: Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight [Author Unknown] 2018 January: Njal's Saga [Author Unknown] February: The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle March: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders April: Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio de Maria May: Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov June: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe July: Warlock by Oakley Hall August: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott September: The Magus by John Fowles Current: I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara  Book available here: https://www.amazon.com/Ill-Be-Gone-Dark-Obsessive/dp/0062319787 About the book: quote:#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California during the 70s and 80s, and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case—which was solved in April 2018. quote:For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area. quote:I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer is a true crime book by Michelle McNamara about the Golden State Killer. The book was released posthumously on February 27, 2018, nearly two years after McNamara's death. About the Author quote:Michelle Eileen McNamara (April 14, 1970 – April 21, 2016) was an American freelance writer and crime blogger.[1][2] She was the author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, a true crime book about the Golden State Killer.[3] The book was released posthumously in February 2018 and is being adapted as an HBO documentary series.[4][5] Themes October means scary, right? Scare you right to DEATH! Pacing Read as thou wilt is the whole of the law. Please post after you read! Please bookmark the thread to encourage discussion. References and Further Reading The original "In the Footsteps of a Killer" article for the Los Angeles Times is here: http://www.lamag.com/longform/in-the-footsteps-of-a-killer/ Final Note: Thanks, and I hope everyone enjoys the book!
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Oct 4, 2018 02:26
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here is a timeline of joseph james deangelo's life plotted against the activities of the Golden State Killer
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Oct 4, 2018 04:54
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Book: "Remember when we played?" Me: This book is already too scary
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Oct 4, 2018 05:07
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I don't think I'd be able to read it if I didn't know they caught the guy
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Oct 5, 2018 15:38
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For those who are ahead: it seems strange to me that they are pursuing the Ransacker charges still since McNamara makes it clear that the two suspects looked nothing alike. I wonder if there's DNA evidence there or something that will come up in the trial.
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Oct 5, 2018 15:40
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Nikita Khrushchev posted:For those who are ahead: it seems strange to me that they are pursuing the Ransacker charges still since McNamara makes it clear that the two suspects looked nothing alike. I wonder if there's DNA evidence there or something that will come up in the trial. yeah as far as i can tell, they haven't said what they have linking him to Visalia. the sketches of the Ransacker do actually resemble JJR at that time fairly closely, though; they're in the timeline I posted
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Oct 5, 2018 18:00
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chernobyl kinsman posted:yeah as far as i can tell, they haven't said what they have linking him to Visalia. the sketches of the Ransacker do actually resemble JJR at that time fairly closely, though; they're in the timeline I posted Oh, I see: I hadn't clicked on that yet. It's wild how much eyewitness testimony can vary. I was mugged once and couldn't possibly describe the muggers, while other people might be able to give a full, accurate description.
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Oct 5, 2018 19:57
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Started this one this morning. It's somewhat out of my wheelhouse, but seems interesting.
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Oct 5, 2018 20:22
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Just past the halfway point now, and I'm kinda wondering if it was all made worse by widely publicizing that the guy had a tiny dong.
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Oct 8, 2018 14:59
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fun to look at deangelo's mugshots or his appearances in court and think "i know for a fact that man has a small penis"
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Oct 8, 2018 22:49
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Nikita Khrushchev posted:Oh, I see: I hadn't clicked on that yet. It's wild how much eyewitness testimony can vary. I was mugged once and couldn't possibly describe the muggers, while other people might be able to give a full, accurate description. I was mugged once and I described the guy with the knife, and the guy who did not have the knife, as total opposites in terms of their clothing. Jaw hit the floor when I saw the surveillance tapes how my brain had flipped the details around. Read this back when it came out and it was outstanding. I will chime in more later in the month when more people are further along. Was a big fan of Michelle.
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Oct 9, 2018 01:55
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And I finished. My favorite part was probably the line that they'd definitely ruled out Tom Hanks. While I'm not really a true crime guy, the look at how and why McNamara went about investigating as a hobbyist was really interesting. It's definitely the sort of thing I could see getting obsessed about.
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Oct 9, 2018 18:46
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My school library actually had this one! Also it was on the reshelve cart so OP picked a popular book?? I scared myself a lot as a kid borrowing my mom's Stephen King; this may end up being a book she'd love.
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Oct 11, 2018 23:51
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i finished it and now my girlfriend's reading it and it's scaring her and she wants me to buy a gun
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Oct 12, 2018 06:13
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I read this in the summer and it was excellent. I echo an earlier poster that if I didn't know they had deangelo it would have been really horrific to read through. Amazing to think that Michelle's work is going to/might lead to closure for so many people.
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Oct 12, 2018 08:22
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chernobyl kinsman posted:i finished it and now my girlfriend's reading it and it's scaring her and she wants me to buy a gun wont help, he's already snuck in and emptied the clip
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Oct 12, 2018 13:19
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chernobyl kinsman posted:i finished it and now my girlfriend's reading it and it's scaring her and she wants me to buy a gun In a sense, this is my biggest problem with the book. All the comments about "Why didn't the call the police when they heard a dog bark or thought they heard something in the back yard." Like in all these new subdivisions gone up next to the walnut and orange orchards there aren't possums or racoons or whatever. I feel like it really promoted kneejerk police calling and sort of an active fear of everything.
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Oct 12, 2018 15:41
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Ben Nevis posted:In a sense, this is my biggest problem with the book. All the comments about "Why didn't the call the police when they heard a dog bark or thought they heard something in the back yard." Like in all these new subdivisions gone up next to the walnut and orange orchards there aren't possums or racoons or whatever. I feel like it really promoted kneejerk police calling and sort of an active fear of everything. to be fair dude a bunch of people straight up saw the guy scrambling over rooftops or crawling through backyards and watching like 13 year olds through the bedroom windows and thought "nah this probably doesnt need to involve the police"
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Oct 13, 2018 04:57
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I really wanted to read this with tou guys but it’s making me cringe too much to read about terrible things when they happened to real people. I’ll have to join you all next month.
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Oct 13, 2018 06:28
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Applewhite posted:I really wanted to read this with tou guys but it’s making me cringe too much to read about terrible things when they happened to real people. I’ll have to join you all next month. If anyone's having a hard time with this one and needs a break, the BoTM thread from August, for All Creatures Great and Small, is still active, is also nonfiction (well, fictionalized but based on true events) and is basically the exact polar opposite of this subject in every possible way.
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Oct 13, 2018 15:01
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I guess this one made everybody scared! Suggestions for next month?
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Oct 21, 2018 05:03
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I guess this one made everybody scared! Do you have any theme in particular or guidelines for choosing?
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Oct 21, 2018 05:41
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Nikita Khrushchev posted:Do you have any theme in particular or guidelines for choosing? I generally try to aim for a work that is accessible (ebook, clear prose style), off the beaten path for the forum (that is, not Dresden Files), and has artistic or intellectual merit. A good candidate has two of those three, a great one all three. If I'm out of ideas I just look at bookshelves till I get inspired. October and December are usually the only months I go for seasonal themes.
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Oct 21, 2018 05:51
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Hmm, then looking at my bookshelves I would like to suggest Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel or Herodotus' The Histories.
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Oct 23, 2018 04:48
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I'm about half way through and I'm struck by the story that emerges from the mosaic of individual encounters; the escalation from burglary, the numerous near apprehensions, etc. I wasn't expecting so many people to have seen him, chase, nearly catch him. The way the author pieces together a portrait "crowd sourced" from dozens of individual interactions as this ghost winds his way through the lives he destroys.
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Oct 23, 2018 12:36
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Jack B Nimble posted:I'm about half way through and I'm struck by the story that emerges from the mosaic of individual encounters; the escalation from burglary, the numerous near apprehensions, etc. I wasn't expecting so many people to have seen him, chase, nearly catch him. The way the author pieces together a portrait "crowd sourced" from dozens of individual interactions as this ghost winds his way through the lives he destroys. That really surprised me too. He was seen by a lot of victims & families before during and after, neighbors, police, etc - I was amazed he was never caught. He literally vanished dozens of times. Even today except in the presence of DNA evidence the various jurisdictions do not agree on which cases are or are not his. It really shows how significant MO is in relation to the current methods of law enforcement investigation and criminalistics.
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Oct 23, 2018 14:54
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I guess this one made everybody scared! This is what happens when you dont drop some McDowell in the October slot so really it's your own fault #shouldabeenelementals
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Oct 24, 2018 17:38
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do the elementals for november
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Oct 24, 2018 21:55
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November isnt spooky!!
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Oct 24, 2018 23:36
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is too
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Oct 24, 2018 23:53
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November is turkeys and leafs, everyone knows that
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Oct 24, 2018 23:57
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Hey turkeys and leaves can be scary, believe me. No I won’t explain how, use your imagination. And thanks for recommending a book I plan to check out.
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Oct 26, 2018 05:55
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:November is turkeys and leafs, everyone knows that “I will honour Halloween in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." -Charles Dickens, A Halloween Carol
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Oct 26, 2018 18:34
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Vote for next month's BOTM! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3872997
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Nov 1, 2018 16:10
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