Now reading...

[BillF]

11 hours ago, Bluesnik said:

Oh, I recently read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which I liked.

Probably Le Carré's best. 

3 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Finally got around to Franzen: Corrections. Liking it.

Rereading it now.

[Rabshakeh]

31 minutes ago, BillF said:

Probably Le Carré's best. 

Have you read The Perfect Spy? 

On 25/11/2021 at 8:02 PM, mjazzg said:

This one perhaps? Very good, written by Bennett and two very good actors in Oldman and Molina

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prick_Up_Your_Ears

I watched this one at school in English class. I remember really enjoying it. 

About three years ago, I remembered it and decided it would be a good film to watch with my wife and mother in law when she was staying with us over the Christmas period. I'm not actually sure that it was such a good film for that purpose.

My mother in law still talks about it. At least it was an education for her too, I guess.

[BillF]

2 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Have you read The Perfect Spy? 

I watched this one at school in English class. I remember really enjoying it. 

About three years ago, I remembered it and decided it would be a good film to watch with my wife and mother in law when she was staying with us over the Christmas period. I'm not actually sure that it was such a good film for that purpose.

My mother in law still talks about it. At least it was an education for her too, I guess.

Yes, I have read The Perfect Spy.

I haven't seen the film version of Prick up Your Ears, but I've read the book. (See above.)

[BillF]

14 hours ago, Bluesnik said:

Oh, I recently read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which I liked.

Le Carré's a master at grabbing the reader's interest with a memorable opening scene. That one with the guy living in a caravan at the end of the school playing fields is unforgettable. Clearly a guy with a history, but we don't know what. Great stuff!

Another favourite opening scene is in The Looking Glass War, which begins with an assassination outside a snowbound airport in northern Europe.

[Ken Dryden]

The Boys, by Ron and Clint Howard, was a fun autobiography.

[Bluesnik]

Hat off to Ghost who hipped me to this. It's an in-depth survey on glam rock and its followers, by Simon Reynolds, one of the most interesting writers on popular culture from the last times. I know his Retromania, Pops obsession with its own past. Turns out he's my age. So he's lived through both glam and post punk. Just as me: the first as a kid, the second in my twens. Glam and Post punk are the two faces of the same coin. And Reynolds has books on both, which I both have.

[Gheorghe]

I like the British author Jeffrey Archer and have some of his books. 

But for fluent reading I read them in romanian language.

this one is the "continuare" of "Kane and Abel" ( Cain și Abel ) and when I´m through with it there will be a third volume , something with "President"....

Edited January 13, 2022 by Gheorghe

[BillF]

[jlhoots]

Jess Walter: The Cold Millions

[Brad]

[mjazzg]

[ghost of miles]

Reprint of a 1964 book penned by a writer who spent several months with the Beatles in late 1963 and early '64... very candid, matter-of-fact account of them navigating Beatlemania:

[ghost of miles]

New book by a friend, fellow Bloomingtonian, and native Southerner about the band the Drive-By Truckers:

[Serioza]

[jlhoots]

1 hour ago, Serioza said:

Great writer - Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel - new novel coming out early April.

Edited January 29, 2022 by jlhoots

[Serioza]

5 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Great writer - Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel - new novel coming out early April.

can't place her entirely as crime fiction writer, Station Eleven is quite baffling..

 

Edited January 30, 2022 by Serioza

[jazzbo]

[BillF]

[ghost of miles]

On 1/8/2022 at 10:29 AM, Bluesnik said:

Hat off to Ghost who hipped me to this. It's an in-depth survey on glam rock and its followers, by Simon Reynolds, one of the most interesting writers on popular culture from the last times. I know his Retromania, Pops obsession with its own past. Turns out he's my age. So he's lived through both glam and post punk. Just as me: the first as a kid, the second in my twens. Glam and Post punk are the two faces of the same coin. And Reynolds has books on both, which I both have.

So glad you’re enjoying it! I picked up Reynolds’ book on rave culture recently, though I’m not sure when I’ll get around to reading it. He’s certainly a writer for whom I like to make time.

Reading this very interesting volume from PM Press right now. They have similar essay collections about both radical sci-fi and depictions of youth culture in 1950s/60s/70s pulp paperbacks. (A world still so prominent when I was a kid, just before the advent of VCRs, cable TV, and the eventual rise of digital tech.) 

[jlhoots]

Charlotte Carter: Rhode Island Red

[Bluesnik]

2 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

I picked up Reynolds’ book on rave culture recently,

I plan on picking this up too. In the near future. Energy Flash it's called, I think. Just as the John Beltran song. I also lived through all that: electronic music in the 90s and the 2000s, so I'm interested in the book.

2 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

depictions of youth culture in 1950s/60s/70s pulp paperbacks

I have a very interesting book called Teenage. The prehistory of youth culture 1875-1945. Though not by him but another Englishman, Jon Savage.

[jlhoots]

Michael Connelly: The Law Of Innocence

[relyles]

Just finished this with my family book club. Good read with a couple of references to Mingus Ah Um and Ornette Coleman. It was not a jazz book, but it hinted that one of the characters was a fan.

[jlhoots]

1 hour ago, relyles said:

Just finished this with my family book club. Good read with a couple of references to Mingus Ah Um and Ornette Coleman. It was not a jazz book, but it hinted that one of the characters was a fan.

[ghost of miles]

12 hours ago, relyles said:

Just finished this with my family book club. Good read with a couple of references to Mingus Ah Um and Ornette Coleman. It was not a jazz book, but it hinted that one of the characters was a fan.

Friend of mine and I have committed to reading this before we meet for lunch next month. 

Right now, a book that’s really fascinating so far: