Category Archives: Trainjotting Reader

The Trainjotting Reader: THE TENDER BAR

If you haven’t read J.R. Moehringer’s memoir The Tender Bar, I suggest you do so. It’s funny and heartfelt and exceedingly well written. It’s the story of a boy who is raised as much in a Long Island pub as … Continue reading

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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: Chunkin’ Punkins

OK, this really has nothing to do with trains. I could make some feeble train connection, like, you could trek down to Delaware on Amtrak to check out the flying pumpkins this weekend, but I won’t. And Bridgeville, Delaware isn’t … Continue reading

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The Trainjotting Reader: RUSSELL WILEY IS OUT TO LUNCH

Today’s book excerpt comes from Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch, a workplace satire novel about a guy working at a fictional dying newspaper called the Daily Business Chronicle. It’s written by Richard Hine, a Brit and a veteran of the Wall … Continue reading

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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: Super Sad True Love Story

We’re reading the fairly fun Super Sad True Love Story, by the usually quite clever Gary Shteyngart, a Russian-born young author who’s been in New York for several years. Shteyngart imagines a USA in the not that far off future, … Continue reading

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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: The Big Bam

Seeing as I live about a mile from the Sultan of Swat’s grave, I just finished reading the Babe Ruth biography, The Big Bam. The book, by Leigh Montville, is almost as much about riding trains as it is about baseball. … Continue reading

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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: The Works of Jonathan Lethem

I’ve found myself reading a bit of Jonathan Lethem lately. Lethem is a terrific writer, and has found his niche writing about Brooklyn boys with no mothers. If you think I’m lying about that, the guy even wrote a book … Continue reading

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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: The Given Day

We shared an earlier passage of Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day a few months back–which also had Babe Ruth drinking heavily on a train. It’s a big ol’ 700-pager, but it’s interesting. Lehane of course does those Boston-based crime novels that … Continue reading

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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold”

Gay Talese’s 1966 “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” is often held up as the finest bit of journalism, or at least celebrity journalism, in U.S. history. As the back story goes, Talese, writing for Esquire, was not given access to the … Continue reading

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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: The Given Day

As today marks the release of Scorsese’s Shutter Island, which is based on a book by Dennis Lehane, Trainjotting cracks open Lehane’s most recent novel, The Given Day. TGD is set in 1918, and the Cubs are facing off against … Continue reading

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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: Let the Great World Spin

Aerialist extraordinaire Philippe Petit is well-represented in TJ’s house. Petit of course tight-roped across the Twin Towers for 40-odd minutes in 1974, an insuperable act of bravado that absolutely blew our wee minds at the time (we may have even … Continue reading

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