Now reading...

[Jazzmoose]

Okay, I may have to spring for that one...

[sidewinder]

Okay, I may have to spring for that one...

The author was on the TV here the other night - in a 'return to the Falklands' programme, where he was a prominent war reporter for the task force. He had some good insights on the whole thing, amazing to think it was 30 years ago. Must pick up a copy of that '39-45' title myself...

[A Lark Ascending]

Just finished:

No. 8 of the series that I've been working through since Xmas.

Now:

and:

[BruceH]

Jack Vance - "Lyonesse".

Anyone else here like Vance?

Off and on. Seems like for years he was one of those SF authors that I was SUPPOSED to like more than I actually did. I've enjoyed a few of his stories, others not so much, read The Dying Earth when I was a teen and thought it was...okay, but somehow it didn't knock my socks off. Every time I've picked up one of his novels since then I would put it down part way through and never seem to get back to it. Maybe my problem is that his SF has a distinct fantasy flavor. Oh, now that I think of it, I also read Big Planet way back when, and liked it, but never felt like reading it again.

[jlhoots]

Timothy Hallinan: The Queen Of Patpong

4th in his series of Bangkok novels, hope he writes another one.

[BillF]

A fascinating read!

[BillF]

[paul secor]

Paul Auster's novel, Sunset Park

[NaturalSoul]

The Great American Novel by Philip Roth

Because baseball season just started and all..

[paul secor]

Beautiful Souls by Eyal Press - A book discussing conscience and conformity which relates the tales of a number of individuals who acted according to their consciences and the repercussions and retributions that occurred from their actions.

Highly recommended to everyone.

[jlhoots]

John Sayles: A Moment In The Sun

Amazing tour de force IMO. Warning - 955 pages.

[ejp626]

Wrapped up Kroetsch's The Puppeteer. Maybe his worst novel. Didn't enjoy much of it at all.

Not sure what I'll read next. I have a bit more of Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. After that? I might stick with the Canadiana and return to MacLennan's Barometer Rising and/or Callaghan's A Fine and Private Place. But I keep thinking I'll return to Mahfouz and Narayan (that was my program last year but I got totally derailed).

[Jazzmoose]

Well, I meant to order All Hell Let Loose, but messed up and got Inferno instead, so that's what I'm reading...

Edited April 18, 2012 by Jazzmoose

[T.D.]

I may live to regret this (the first 200 pp. have been good enough, but have scarcely made a dent in the total): recently started a one-volume (not just a brick, more like a cinder-block) edition of Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet.

[BillF]

A lesser known 1960s Le Carré, but sound.

[BillF]

[A Lark Ascending]

Enjoyed his first two so much I've put off reading this for 18 monthseven though it's been on my shelves that long. Now the 1974-9 sequel is upon us + a TV documentary so I thought I'd better pull my finger out.:

First 100 pages whizzed by. As always, he's very good at placing the politics in a social context; also at bringing out the continuities between eras where standard accounts tend to exaggerate change. He most definitely does not like Tony Benn (though generally quite detached, his right of centre sympathies seep through).

A pity he's chosen one of the eras most annoying records to title the sequel:

Edited April 22, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[aparxa]

Making my way through the third volume of Mémoires d'outre-tombe of Chateaubriand. A real delight to read. Superb passages in the first two volumes about his youth and Napoleon's life.

[Head Man]

Having read all her earlier books in the 70s & 80s I've now finally got around to reading this one from 1984.

She's a lovely writer from America's school of 'gritty realism' and this is turning out to be a really good read.

[B. Goren.]

Still under the influence of a wonderful trip of 10 days in Italy ....

[paul secor]

John Litweiler's Mojo Snake Minuet

[jlhoots]

Ann Beattie: The New Yorker Stories

[ejp626]

I decided to start with Barometer Rising. Not enjoying it very much. I'm having a lot of trouble entering the mindset of characters from WWI. It's completely scandalous that this woman is having dinner with a known drinker, etc. The novel was actually written in the late 1940s but portrays this earlier period.

But I am also generally stressed about things and maybe it wouldn't matter that much what I read, i.e. I would generally not be satisfied, so maybe it is the right time to go through a bunch of books that are only marginally of interest to me.

[king ubu]

very nice one!

[kinuta]

Enjoyed his first two so much I've put off reading this for 18 monthseven though it's been on my shelves that long. Now the 1974-9 sequel is upon us + a TV documentary so I thought I'd better pull my finger out.:

First 100 pages whizzed by. As always, he's very good at placing the politics in a social context; also at bringing out the continuities between eras where standard accounts tend to exaggerate change. He most definitely does not like Tony Benn (though generally quite detached, his right of centre sympathies seep through).

A pity he's chosen one of the eras most annoying records to title the sequel:

How much does this add to the currently running four part tv series ?