Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Who here loves CJ Box?

I really like the Pickett series books. Tried watching the shows and kept hoping they’d get better but was very disappointed!
 
Entertaining. I wish my library would carry more.

I feel like the show Longmire is somewhat similar too. My dad watches that.
 
I enjoy his books and just started reading them a couple months ago. Haven’t watched any of the TV shows. Just started Breaking Point.
 
I couldn't watch the TV show. They made him a P%$@Y. I couldn't stand it. The books just take me to all those places I know.
 
Really liked the first 10 or so, seemed to fall into repetition for the most recent 10. Still work my way through each, but get closer to dropping this as a must read series.
 
In all seriousness, although I've never read a CJ Box novel and almost certainly never will (I'm more into authors long dead), I respect any guy (or gal) who gets rich writing "cookie cutter" fiction. I also won't dis a person who spends their riches and free time in exactly the way I imagine I would, even including living in the same valley I would.
 
I've read most everything by him, and really enjoy his depiction of the region. He does a far better (and more accurate) job of portraying the culture than other people who write the kind of formula fic that he does; that's what keeps me coming back.

There are some cliches to the genre that he can't escape (deus ex machina being his worse habit: anytime things seem dire, Nate shows up with his .454 Casull and saves the day with some absurdly long shot. Every. Single. Time. It gets old). Regardless, they are fun, and watching the characters grow has also been enjoyable.

Much better than the Walt Longmire series, which amplifies the cultural cliches, and introduced the world to a cringy mispronunciation of "Absaroka."
 
I've read most everything by him, and really enjoy his depiction of the region. He does a far better (and more accurate) job of portraying the culture than other people who write the kind of formula fic that he does; that's what keeps me coming back.

There are some cliches to the genre that he can't escape (deus ex machina being his worse habit: anytime things seem dire, Nate shows up with his .454 Casull and saves the day with some absurdly long shot. Every. Single. Time. It gets old). Regardless, they are fun, and watching the characters grow has also been enjoyable.

Much better than the Walt Longmire series, which amplifies the cultural cliches, and introduced the world to a cringy mispronunciation of "Absaroka."
Longmire books >>>> Joe Pickett books. Could care less about the TV series.
 
Longmire books >>>> Joe Pickett books. Could care less about the TV series.

As a fellow (former) Helenan, I suggest reading CJ Box's The Highway Series, which takes place mostly in MT, and does a very good job of accurately depicting the area.

The Longmire TV show is better than the Pickett TV show, just from a quality and acting standpoint. But the author of the Longmire series isn't from the west, and it shows in both the show and his books. He relies heavily on stereotypes and cliches that are often inaccurate, or even offensive.

CJ Box is local, understands the people and the culture, and really gets it right.

Both writers rely on the conventions of the genre (to my last post), which is unavoidable. But the reason I keep coming back to CJ Box and abandoned the Longmire series was because of the above fact.
 

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