Beach Noir Book Club

Under the heavy influence of this article, I've decided to form a Beach Noir Book Club.

The rules are simple. Should you decide to join, you just have to read one Noir-ish book every two weeks. The books should come from the list as follows, and ought to be more or less in the same order, otherwise I think it kind of defeats the purpose of a book club.. right? I don't know, I'm not really a clubby person, normally. I'm a lone wolf, like Christopher Marlowe (I guess).

Generally speaking, the list will be heavily left coast, dealing mostly with Los Angeles area beaches and cities. If anyone wants to suggest any East Coast Beach Noir, please feel free! I'd be happy to include it.

After each book is done, I'll invite readers to weigh in with their opinions via this blog. (I'll likely post my thoughts so you can either leave comments, or you can email bourbonandtea [at] gmail [dot] com if you've just thunk a whole lotta thoughts about one particular book or another.... obviously good grammar or even an above-average grasp of the English language is not a requirement to blather on Spinster Aunt, so don't feel intimidated or anything. Seriously. The bar is low here, and surveys show that 99% of this blog's readership is drunk 88% of the time.)

So, here it is, the BEACH NOIR BOOK CLUB READING LIST, and the dates we'll finish each book:

June 8 -- Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister
June 22 -- Ross Macdonald, The Zebra-Striped Hearse
July 6  -- Horace McCoy, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
July 20 -- Leigh Brackett, No Good From A Corpse
August 3 -- Dorothy B. Hughes, In A Lonely Place
August 17 --Kem Nunn, Tapping the Source
August 31 -- Don Winslow, The Dawn Patrol

I'm also going to read Los Angeles Noir, the short story anthology edited by Denise Hamilton, whose article inspired this idea. If anyone out there wants to partake but is too busy to commit to reading seven novels, by all means you can read this anthology and join in for short story discussions if that's easier for you.

And, finally, I am open to cocktail/drink suggestions and pairings for each book. Obviously we'll start with gin gimlets for the Chandler, and then we'll take things as they come.

Happy reading!

SA