Athena February 18, 2020 Share February 18, 2020 People from the book world who have passed on. Discuss them here. 3 Link to comment
cherrypj February 19, 2020 Share February 19, 2020 Asimov. So disappointed that he was such a handsy, condescending creep. I should have totally seen it coming--the clues in his joke books and autobiographies are obvious. His work is outstanding, but I can't read them now, knowing what a DOB he was. 3 Link to comment
Was-MArsenault February 25, 2020 Share February 25, 2020 (edited) Thank you for creating this thread @Athena. Edited February 25, 2020 by MikaelaArsenault Link to comment
Was-MArsenault February 26, 2020 Share February 26, 2020 (edited) Clive Cussler has died. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51644229 Edited February 26, 2020 by MikaelaArsenault Link to comment
peacheslatour February 26, 2020 Share February 26, 2020 1 hour ago, MikaelaArsenault said: Clive Cussler has died. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51644229 Wasn't his son basically writing his books these last few years? He's not anywhere as good as his old man. RIP Dirk Pitt. Link to comment
Ohiopirate02 February 26, 2020 Share February 26, 2020 39 minutes ago, peacheslatour said: Wasn't his son basically writing his books these last few years? He's not anywhere as good as his old man. RIP Dirk Pitt. Clive has had a couple of "co-authors" the last few years for his different series. I strongly suspect that when a long-running book series suddenly has a second author name attached it means the original author is no longer writing the bulk of the book. I do appreciate the transparency though. Link to comment
peacheslatour February 26, 2020 Share February 26, 2020 20 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said: Clive has had a couple of "co-authors" the last few years for his different series. I strongly suspect that when a long-running book series suddenly has a second author name attached it means the original author is no longer writing the bulk of the book. I do appreciate the transparency though. Dirk (teehee) Cussler worked for many years in finance before assisting his father in writing the latest novels in the Dirk Pitt series. -From Wikipedia. I wonder if he will continue? Link to comment
Ohiopirate02 February 26, 2020 Share February 26, 2020 1 hour ago, peacheslatour said: Dirk (teehee) Cussler worked for many years in finance before assisting his father in writing the latest novels in the Dirk Pitt series. -From Wikipedia. I wonder if he will continue? It will for any completed manuscripts. Those are turned into the publisher months before release. He has one book scheduled for release in April and another one slated for October. How many after today is anyone's guess. 1 Link to comment
Calvada March 7, 2020 Share March 7, 2020 I don't read Cussler, but I hate it when they try to find someone to continue a series after an author has died. My first experience with this was the Lawrence Sanders' Archy McNally books. I read one by the new guy (not aware that it wasn't written by Sanders) and it was terrible. In non-fiction, it also was very disappointing when William Manchester suffered a stroke and was unable to finish the final volume of his Churchill biography. Paul Reid was ok, but he wasn't Manchester. It's my great fear about Robert Caro and his amazing work on LBJ. 1 Link to comment
peacheslatour March 7, 2020 Share March 7, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Calvada said: I don't read Cussler, but I hate it when they try to find someone to continue a series after an author has died. My first experience with this was the Lawrence Sanders' Archy McNally books. I read one by the new guy (not aware that it wasn't written by Sanders) and it was terrible. In non-fiction, it also was very disappointing when William Manchester suffered a stroke and was unable to finish the final volume of his Churchill biography. Paul Reid was ok, but he wasn't Manchester. It's my great fear about Robert Caro and his amazing work on LBJ. I didn't like Christopher Tolkien's attempts to continue his father's works. Edited March 7, 2020 by peacheslatour Link to comment
ClassicShowsFan September 18, 2020 Share September 18, 2020 (edited) Fantasy writer Terry Goodkind has died at 72: https://heavy.com/news/2020/09/terry-goodkind-dead/ Forrest Gump author Winston Groom passes away at 77: https://www.al.com/life/2020/09/forrest-gump-author-winston-groom-dead-at-77.html Edited September 18, 2020 by ClassicShowsFan Link to comment
blackwing September 22, 2020 Share September 22, 2020 On 2/26/2020 at 3:59 PM, Ohiopirate02 said: Clive has had a couple of "co-authors" the last few years for his different series. I strongly suspect that when a long-running book series suddenly has a second author name attached it means the original author is no longer writing the bulk of the book. I do appreciate the transparency though. Yes, I think it was really obvious that Clive hadn't written any of his books for years now. The styles were completely different. Dirk Cussler is a terrible writer. The initial co-authored books were abysmal. The latest Dirk Pitt book wasn't that bad, but still not good like when Clive wrote them. We haven't seen a new Dirk Pitt book in several years now and there doesn't appear to be any on the schedule as of yet. Each of Cussler's non-Pitt series has always had a co-author, and I've always thought the co-author pretty much wrote the book. But you're correct, at least they were always transparent about it. The one that really irritates me is James Patterson, the self-proclaimed "world's most prolific author". Well, that's because he seemingly just slaps his name on books written by other people. I'm convinced that struggling writers approach his Machine, agree to give up, say, 80% of the profits. He reads through the plot summary and agrees and that's his contribution. They put his name on the book, say that "James Patterson" has written yet another book, barely mention the co-author, and he gets another best-seller to his credit. Co-author doesn't care because their measly take is still more than what they would have gotten if they hadn't approached him, which is zero. His name opens doors. I just wish they would be more honest about him taking credit for the book. They could still market the book as written by Jane Smith, from the James Patterson Publishing House. I've been wondering a long time about John Jakes, author of "North and South". He hasn't released a book in years, and I'm assuming he has retired due to his advanced years. But I never found any information about him saying he was actually retiring. I would assume he is still alive, but I am hoping that he has been secretly writing when he can and will release another book at some point and surprise everyone. 2 3 Link to comment
ClassicShowsFan September 23, 2020 Share September 23, 2020 'Guess How Much I Love You' Author Sam McBratney Dies At 77. Link to comment
ClassicShowsFan September 30, 2020 Share September 30, 2020 Anne Stevenson, Poet and Plath Biographer, Is Dead at 87 Link to comment
Hybridcookie November 2, 2020 Share November 2, 2020 Rachel Caine has died Best known for her Morganville Vampires, Weather Wardens, The Great Library and Stillhouse Lake series. Link to comment
WinnieWinkle March 26, 2021 Share March 26, 2021 Beverly Cleary has died Not exactly unexpected given her age (104) but I am still saddened. 2 Link to comment
nodorothyparker March 26, 2021 Share March 26, 2021 Larry McMurtry, Novelist And Screenwriter Of The West, Has Died At Age 84 I somehow missed that in among all of his myth making and busting of the American West he also wrote the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain. And of course Lonesome Dove is one of a handful books that truly qualify as a Great American Novel. I bought my first paperback copy at a small-town drug store with babysitting money after the minseries had concluded and began a lifelong love affair. “They say you’re man of vision...” Link to comment
Spartan Girl March 26, 2021 Share March 26, 2021 51 minutes ago, WinnieWinkle said: Beverly Cleary has died Not exactly unexpected given her age (104) but I am still saddened. I won’t be sad, because 104 is just awesome. I grew up with her books and Ramona was such a big part of my life, as was Socks, Ralph, and Henry Huggins. RIP. 5 Link to comment
catlover79 March 27, 2021 Share March 27, 2021 Beverly Cleary's books helped cement a lifelong love of reading in this little girl. May she always be remembered with love. ❤ 8 Link to comment
tres bien March 28, 2021 Share March 28, 2021 (edited) RIP Larry McMurtry. I've read every book Larry McMurtry wrote. I even have several that I ordered from his bookstore in Texas that he signed. Edited March 28, 2021 by tres bien Link to comment
Spartan Girl September 23, 2022 Share September 23, 2022 (edited) Shit, Hilary Mantel?! 70 isn’t even that old. Terrible, terrible. I did love her Wolf Hall trilogy. Edited September 23, 2022 by Spartan Girl 1 3 Link to comment
Haleth September 24, 2022 Share September 24, 2022 Funny that the Wolf Hall books came up in conversation in the Kindle Deals thread earlier this week. I was sorry to hear she'd died. Link to comment
voiceover September 29, 2022 Share September 29, 2022 Just found out that Hilary Mantel passed. And I’m sitting here, stunned and stupid, at the giant rip in my writerly consciousness. That’s the only way I can describe the grief at this moment. I only read one thing she wrote. It was a piece for Spectator magazine that was part of a collection of their best travel writing. Years ago I stumbled across the book in an archaeologist’s dusty library, in the Middle Eastern city I called home. “Last Months in Al Hamra” was autobiographical, reflecting on her time in Saudi Arabia as an expat oil worker’s wife; more specifically, about her friendship with a local woman who lived in their building (“You know what you have avoided knowing; it is not the country that is foreign, it is not the climate or the people, it is you.“). She had me hooked from that second-paragraph line. I knew her experience, even though it wasn’t precisely mine (I’d never been to Saudi, and I wasn’t a wife). Such is a way a gifted writer can lure you in: yanking at that memory in you, making you see it as a *shared experience, even though you live different lives. There was nothing dramatic in the article. Just a quiet retelling of time spent with English lessons, poetry, and gossip. But the end of their relationship, and the story, led to Mantel blurting out a shocking, uncomfortable truth about Life as a Foreigner: “I’d seen the world as some sort of exchange scheme for my ideals, but the world deserves better than this. When you come across an alien culture you must not automatically respect it. You must sometimes pay it the compliment of hating it.” She switched on a light that forced me to see! but even as I squirmed at the words, I was relieved to read them. It was a bow of sorts, tying together all the worst experiences I’d had during my time overseas. She gave me the SENSE of what I’d been feeling. Much later, I found out that Hilary had won the Shiva Naipaul Award for the story (loved that coincidence, as I’d discovered him in the same collected-essays book & adored his tetchy, Scroogelike attitude toward his fellow man). Much, much later, I taught “Last Months…” (referred to as “Last Morning” in her obit; nice try Spectator! I have the fucking original!) to my college students, as a terrific example of the “Aha!” moment in a successful paper when you reach the conclusion you weren’t expecting. Holy crap, Hilary. Flights of angels! And thanks for changing my life, and my writing, in the best of all possible ways. I carry you with me, always. 1 4 Link to comment
blackwing May 3, 2023 Share May 3, 2023 On 4/13/2023 at 8:50 AM, Hanahope said: Author Anne Perry dies at age 84 Imported from the "Book News" thread. I've never read anything by Anne Perry, even though the historical setting and location seem right up my alley. I just can't reconcile the fact that she helped to murder her friend's mother when she was 15. Judging by her Wikipedia article, she doesn't seem to have expressed any remorse about it. She only seems to regret that she was "found out", and then complains that she had built a life and now all of a sudden she is being treated unfairly because she was only 15 and wasn't allowed to speak at trial. Is that accurate, or did she ever express any other remorse? She did 5 years in prison and got out and got a new name and got to continue her life. Was there ever any restitution to the friend's mother's family (parents or siblings)? I find it particularly distasteful that she went into hiding when she got out of prison. She seems to have been successful at crafting a new identify and having a successful career, until the attention surrounding the movie resulted in her exposure. She seems to think she had "done her time" and that she deserved a new start. 1 Link to comment
sugarbaker design May 4, 2023 Share May 4, 2023 18 hours ago, blackwing said: I've never read anything by Anne Perry, even though the historical setting and location seem right up my alley. I started reading the Monk novels shortly before the story broke, had some qualms about continuing, but after listening to Perry tell her story, I felt comfortable continuing to follow the Monk novels. Thanks to APs work ethic, I'm still reading the novels. 18 hours ago, blackwing said: I just can't reconcile the fact that she helped to murder her friend's mother when she was 15. There were extenuating circumstances, she was 15. She was heavily medicated at the time. Her friend was threatening to commit suicide if they didn't commit the crime. 18 hours ago, blackwing said: Judging by her Wikipedia article, she doesn't seem to have expressed any remorse about it. One can't really judge another by a Wikipedia article. Other more comprehensive sources have Perry quoted as saying about her prison time "It was there that I went down on my knees and repented," "That is how I survived my time while others cracked up. I seemed to be the only one saying, I am guilty and I am where I should be." 18 hours ago, blackwing said: Was there ever any restitution to the friend's mother's family (parents or siblings)? Financial restitution? Is that common in murder cases? 18 hours ago, blackwing said: I find it particularly distasteful that she went into hiding when she got out of prison. She moved to Scotland with her mother and stepfather. I don't know if that qualifies as going into hiding. One of the contingencies of the 5 year sentence for both young women was that they never have contact again. Moving out of the country seemed like a smart move. 18 hours ago, blackwing said: She seems to have been successful at crafting a new identify and having a successful career, until the attention surrounding the movie resulted in her exposure. Her career didn't stop after the movie and subsequent publicity 1995. Her career continued to flourish despite the story breaking. 18 hours ago, blackwing said: She seems to think she had "done her time" and that she deserved a new start. The New Zealand courts felt the same way. 1 Link to comment
Ohiopirate02 June 13, 2023 Share June 13, 2023 The publishing world lost two of its biggest stars in the last few days--Julie Garwood, and Cormac McCarthy. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/kansas-city-mo/julia-garwood-11326777 And insert link to every single news website about Cormac. I'm a bit miffed at the disparity in coverage on this one. I will take comfort between the pages of The Bride, The Wedding, and The Secret. 2 2 2 Link to comment
Laura Holt June 15, 2023 Share June 15, 2023 I don't know if anyone here ever read Karen of With Love From Karen, but these were two books I read and re-read back in the day - they were about the Killilea family and dealing with Karen having cerebral palsy. Anyway Karen died in 2020, her older sister, Marie died in 2021 and I just heard that Rory, the only brother died a few months ago. Of course it should not be surprising that people now in their late 70s/early 80s have died but for me they will always be the children I read about and loved. 2 Link to comment
babyhouseman June 16, 2023 Share June 16, 2023 https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/new-york-ny/carol-clark-11332811 Carol Higgins Clark died. Her mother was Mary Higgins Clark. Carol wrote a light, fun mystery series. 5 Link to comment
Shelbie June 16, 2023 Share June 16, 2023 I’ve read quite a few of Carol Higgins Clark’s books. Highly recommend if you’re in the mood for a fast and fun read. 2 Link to comment
Laura Holt June 18, 2023 Share June 18, 2023 On 6/15/2023 at 9:29 PM, Shelbie said: I’ve read quite a few of Carol Higgins Clark’s books. Highly recommend if you’re in the mood for a fast and fun read. I read a few of hers as my mother was a big fan of Mary Higgins Clark and moved on from her to Carol Higgins Clark. 66 may not be young but it's too young to die 😧. 5 Link to comment
sugarbaker design June 19, 2023 Share June 19, 2023 22 hours ago, Laura Holt said: I read a few of hers as my mother was a big fan of Mary Higgins Clark and moved on from her to Carol Higgins Clark. 66 may not be young but it's too young to die 😧. Her mother only died 3 years ago at 92. 2 Link to comment
SusieQ June 22, 2023 Share June 22, 2023 Hope this works. Here's a gift link to the New York Times article about Julie Garwood. I am unfamiliar with her work, but many of you loved her so I thought you might like to read this. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/books/julie-garwood-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=ym2bjqfxtI8noDQG8SEXY_OeODgYE0il7AfkTa_6JCGZu7nBeXb8GgMJA9pkXYp8PUEaZzlq50e-GLbMqYt6TgRN-PJtROj9_iB245Bg4_IKXgeJ3R1_Ll6ImAmSGNqLCaqSq1U429nthOlgG2UBulk0ZQz-OKyj2kvrxUHrjopsvcC-dAAMLyKyNx4lEk0XXz0OT1_7EGIXK11GLbOOwxHKtIGMx0ggslSBUuv5YP-dk6aezt5-mhDNIsR2MbQGeuqS_D__48NShlkN_mXxoLByf67Bda_lOK0Y08YWyG2-BV7ofnIFKmhl8HYlDFYjnjlXeG-_PlfOtw&smid=url-share 2 Link to comment
blackwing May 23 Share May 23 It's sad when your favourite authors die. John Jakes, author of "North and South" and other historical fiction, died a year ago in March 2023 at the age of 90. His last book was published in 2006. In the intervening years, I always assumed he had retired but was always secretly hoping he would finally have written the third book in the Crown Family Saga series. C.J. Sansom, author of the celebrated Matthew Shardlake books (of which the first book has been adapted as a series on Disney Plus) died a few weeks ago of cancer. Very sad because fans have been hoping for the in-progress eighth book, which will never be finished by him. 1 1 Link to comment
Dimity July 7 Share July 7 (edited) Jill Churchill (cozy mystery author) died last year Another thread here got me thinking about Jill Churchill and I googled and, sadly, discovered that she has died. She stopped writing, or at least anyway stopped being published, some time ago but hers was one of the first cozy mystery series I got into back in the day (Jane Jeffry's) and enjoyed her second series (Grace and Favor) even more. I had always hoped to see another book in that series show up. Edited July 7 by Dimity 6 Link to comment
Spartan Girl July 30 Share July 30 (edited) Francine Pascal dies at 92 Well, this is the end of an era. The Sweet Valley books were the first real teen series I ever read. Got into them when I was in sixth grade. Yes, I know they were trashy and soapy but they were addictive nonetheless. Edited July 30 by Spartan Girl 2 6 Link to comment
andromeda331 July 31 Share July 31 18 hours ago, Spartan Girl said: Francine Pascal dies at 92 Well, this is the end of an era. The Sweet Valley books were the first real teen series I ever read. Got into them when I was in sixth grade. Yes, I know they were trashy and soapy but they were addictive nonetheless. I loved Sweet Valley books. Started with Sweet Valley High very soap opera and I loved soap operas. I read most of the spin offs except for the Senior Year, Adult series and the weird one where Elizabeth becomes a scully maid. I was completely addicted. I had posters and the board game. It's probably why I got into soaps and romance books later. 2 Link to comment
Dimity July 31 Share July 31 On 7/30/2024 at 9:24 AM, Spartan Girl said: Francine Pascal dies at 92 Well, this is the end of an era. The Sweet Valley books were the first real teen series I ever read. Got into them when I was in sixth grade. Yes, I know they were trashy and soapy but they were addictive nonetheless. The only book of hers that I ever read was "Hanging Out With Cici" which had a time travel twist that I loved. Looking it up I've just found there were two sequels so now I'm thinking I need to get all three and read them. 3 Link to comment
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