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Lately I've had a hankerin' for all things Seattle, and my jones didn't let up at all once I started reading my latest Earl Emerson novel. Now, in case you've never heard of him, Earl Emerson is a Seattle-based writer (he actually resides in North Bend, Washington, where they filmed Twin Peaks, for all you fans of the quirky out there) and has a day job as a lieutenant with the Seattle Fire Department.
Emerson's the author of two series, the Mac Fontana books and the Thomas Black mystery stories; it's one of his Thomas Black books that won the Shamus award (Poverty Bay was the first novel of the Regan era to deal with the topic of homelessness). Early in 2009, the first Thomas Black book in ten years, Cape Disappointment, is being released.
The book I'm currently reading, though, is the 2002 thriller, Vertical Burn. It's all about life in the world of the modern-day firefighter. Just the information alone is interesting, but Emerson strings along a pretty good story on top of that. Add to that the rush of familiarity you get when he mentions places you've been to, and you end up with a great way to spend a dreary winter weekend.
"The great thing about the dead, they make space. quoted from: Rabbit is Rich, by John Updike). And so it goes. John Updike died today, Jan. 29, 2009, once again, proving himself right. Updike was born in Pennsylvania in 1932; was a Harvard grad who twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest. He is best known for his Rabbit series, as well as his chronicling of suburban adultery in small-town- USA, as seen in novels such as The Witches of Eastwick.But Updike was also a poet, short story writer, art critic and literary critic. Altogether, he wrote 25 novels in his career, while working for The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. In addition to these accomplishments, he was featured in an episode of The Simpsons, and he also enjoyed writing childrens' books.Although Updike had suffered from a skin condition for years, it was lung cancer which determined his final ending.Image from s.matrix.msu.edu
