Now reading...

[Larry Kart]

After this, I will read The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman [a novel about a struggling newspaper in Rome].

Speaking as a former journalist, that's the best novel, maybe the best book period, about journalism I know. Sad, touching, hilarious. Every character in that book is damn close to a person I know or knew.

[ejp626]

After this, I will read The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman [a novel about a struggling newspaper in Rome].

Speaking as a former journalist, that's the best novel, maybe the best book period, about journalism I know. Sad, touching, hilarious. Every character in that book is damn close to a person I know or knew.

Great. Looking forward to it.

In a totally different life I was the managing editor of a poetry magazine (an undergrad one). Very different culture than a newspaper, but yeah there were some characters... I actually managed to climb up to editor in about a semester. Didn't seem so odd at the time, but I imagine there were a few people that were a little put out... I did that for two more years, then quit when the integrity of the editorial board was impugned. Probably not the best response (though I thought maybe some fresh blood wouldn't be a bad thing), but I was also a senior and starting to really fret about what I was going to do for a living...

[BillF]

[A Lark Ascending]

Elijah Wald - Escaping the Delta

Nice bit of restoring a 'legend' to a human scale.

[jazzbo]

[A Lark Ascending]

Thomas Penn - Winter King

Focuses on the last 10 years or so of Henry VII. I've tended to neglect the Tudors, having had a focus on the Stuarts as a student and then as a teacher.

[paul secor]

Penelope Lively: Treasures of Time

[A Lark Ascending]

James M. McPherson - Battle Cry of Freedom

As a kid I recall collecting a set of highly graphic bubble gum cards about the American Civil War. Along with movies of the time it etched that bit of history on my brain.

I studied the historiography of the origins 40 years back and have read more general things about it but fancied something more substantial. A good read so far - nicely balanced between narrative and analysis.

[T.D.]

The Gesualdo Hex by Glenn Watkins.

[BillF]

[paul secor]

Colin Dexter: The Daughters of Cain

[ejp626]

I've just started Sugar Street, the final book in Mahfouz's The Cairo Trilogy. Yea!

After this, I will read The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman [a novel about a struggling newspaper in Rome].

I actually wasn't that crazy about The Imperfectionists. I particularly didn't like the last two stories. I don't think it was solely because the troubles at the paper have piled up and that influences the tone. Maybe I just thought Rachman was trying too hard by the end. Just about the only story that I could really relate to is that of the corrections editor who realizes that this friend who he has looked up to his whole life is kind of an empty shell (though not quite a fraud).

Anyway, I had a lot of time on the bus to and from Seattle, so I read almost all of Mahfouz's Children of Gebelawi (there's actually a competing translation titled Children of the Alley). This is pretty didactic stuff, retelling the stories of Adam, Cain and Abel, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed as lived by villagers on the outskirts of Cairo. It has its moments, but it is definitely a novel I won't be rereading. I should wrap it up today.

But I am looking forward to the next two on the list: Love and Garbage by Ivan Klima and Faulkner's Light in August, which I've never read. And then for the first time ever, I will tackle Proust...

Edited August 3, 2013 by ejp626

[ghost of miles]

Finishing up Paul de Barros' Marian McPartland bio, SHALL WE PLAY THAT ONE TOGETHER?

[Chuck Nessa]

Finishing up Paul de Barros' Marian McPartland bio, SHALL WE PLAY THAT ONE TOGETHER?

Why?

or is this an npr thing?

Edited August 3, 2013 by Chuck Nessa

[Larry Kart]

Finishing up Paul de Barros' Marian McPartland bio, SHALL WE PLAY THAT ONE TOGETHER?

Why?

or is this an npr thing?

Well, it's only by riffling through the book that I discovered that McPartland and Joe Morello were an item when he was her drummer. Vital information.

[Chuck Nessa]

He was blind.

[Larry Kart]

Not THAT blind, at least at that time -- or are you saying that McPartland wasn't that attractive and Joe wouldn't have known it? But, hey, she was good enough for Jimmy, who seems like a man who would have had many options.

[jlhoots]

Gillian Flynn: Sharp Objects

[Royal Oak]

Ordered this from an Amazon recommendation, which doesn't happen often, given the sometimes odd nature of their suggestions. Enjoying it so far.

[BruceH]

James M. McPherson - Battle Cry of Freedom

As a kid I recall collecting a set of highly graphic bubble gum cards about the American Civil War. Along with movies of the time it etched that bit of history on my brain.

I studied the historiography of the origins 40 years back and have read more general things about it but fancied something more substantial. A good read so far - nicely balanced between narrative and analysis.

I read that book, The Battle Cry of Freedom, when it came out. Recently gave my son a copy and he's reading it now. Hope he likes it.

[A Lark Ascending]

Just got 300 pages in and they've just started shooting. Exemplary explanation of the tensions and misunderstandings that led up to the war. I never knew about the early claims on Cuba or the filibuster raids there and on Nicaragua (well I might have done 40 years back!).

[paul secor]

Ordered this from an Amazon recommendation, which doesn't happen often, given the sometimes odd nature of their suggestions. Enjoying it so far.

I read this and I'll be curious what your take is when you finish reading it.

[Royal Oak]

I shall let you know, with pleasure. So far (about 70 pages) I get the feeling it won't really "go anywhere" in the traditional sense of storytelling. I think that may have been the author's intention. I could be wrong.

Edited August 5, 2013 by rdavenport

[B. Goren.]

[alankin]

"Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws who Hacked Ma Bell"