I’ve been away for a while. Yeah, but I had nothing to say. Or show.
Now my head is pumping with my present obsession, and it (he) has a name Don Winslow.
Despite having spent a month in the arid coasts of the South East of Spain, most of my summer reading has been set on some other arid coasts, west.
Arid coasts, my favorite environment, they are what makes me cry when I am in these flat lands oppressed by grey skies. Suppose I feel like a pet tortoise. But didn’t want to post about what makes me feel nostalgic but about how much I like the books I read during August, with the sound of the waves as background.
The first book I read was The Dawn Patrol, which I got just because it was Winslow’s. I know nothing about it…and it was a pleasant surprise.
Completely fell in love with Boone Daniels, but in a veeery laid back way, it sort of happened as I was reading the book, without effort. Although I must admit I got a bit mad at his laid-backness with regards to his love life, however I’ll have to forgive him for being such a cool PI. This book combines surf and crime and it has been tagged as being in the surf noir genre of which /I had never heard before. It is about a group of surfer who meet a dawn to catch some waves.
For me it was the perfect summer choice ticking all the boxes, set in the sun, in the spring and by the sea, near a place where I use to live as a kid.
sad to have finished I went to my electronic book, and found
Sputnik Sweetheart
(the one that Carlos Efron had recommended to me once) and dived into it. I was lucky that this one was set in summer. It is nice to feel the parallelisms, and to feel the same conditions your characters are experiencing. It is set in Japan, as I expected it to be, but then, out of the blue, it takes me to a Greek Island! in the blue Mediterranean! in the same beaches where I see my toes lose their nail varnish. I have unbearable amounts of pleasure reading this book of loneliness and friendship, that leave me a little bit sad but still see the ‘light in the end’. The light of the hot Sun in August, it may be the last sun I get for another year of grey and damp, so I need all the sun I can get. And try to find a book set in the sun, by the sea.
California fire and life, which to my surprise was written in 1993. Have I lived all this time without knowing about it? Bad.Very bad. Anyway. That was a hot book. As was Jack Wade, less charming than Boone but a reliable, honest and faithful tracking dog with great skills in killing the romantic novel. I wouldn’t mind if I was being tracked by him, and found by him.
Don Winslow manages to make insurances companies affairs cool and intriguing, and makes me feel some sort of respect for employees of insurance companies.
California fire and life finished and I only had a few days left, so I went back to what a I knew:
Boone Daniels is growing up man! Plot is set in August! And he keeps taking the wrong decision when it comes to girls. This book is about a group of surfers who meet at about 9 in the morning, after the dawn patrollers. A page turner. I can’t get away from till the end. I know Boone and all the other characters now and feel comfortable with the plot all the way. This sequel to the Dawn Patrol is just as good and I am excited to have read that Don Winslow is planning to do a lunchtime surf and plot (will Boone get a proper job?) and an evening surf and plot books. So perhaps more crime in San Diego the next time I get lucky to get some sun on my bones?
-Huevos Fritos- 