Now reading...

[BruceH]

Spent a lot of time traveling and sitting in hospital waiting rooms this week; read three books.

Hope everything's okay.

I started rereading Joe Haldeman's Worlds trilogy this week; I lost one of the books years ago and finally picked it up so I could do so.

One of two authors I've always wanted to try but never seem to find, along with Effinger.

Must admit, I never really "got" Lafferty. Maybe I should give him another chance.

[ghost of miles]

... a really fascinating memoir about working railroad yards in California and the Southwest, probably late 1970s/early 80s, as far as I can tell.

[Shawn]

treasure's abound in the Jazzbo library.

I love the way this guy writes, so incredibly witty. He's quickly become a favorite.

[jazzbo]

Just be careful with it! That's hard to find these days!

Right now, I'm in the third of the trilogy, because I can't stop reading these fascinating (to anyone interested in the Amarna period) long novels.

[aparxa]

[Jazzmoose]

I read the Avon editions of this series when it came out back in the seventies, and found some of the later ones on eBay. Good stuff!

[jlhoots]

Mankell: The Troubled Man

[ejp626]

I just wrapped up Evening Clouds by Junzo Shono and Still Life, a collection of short stories by the same author. I found them fairly tedious to be honest. They are essentially plotless, and are really mostly observations of family life, based on the author's real family. Not recommended.

I am starting another pass through my books to shed a lot of them, mostly working through non-fiction this time. In a few cases, I will read or at least skim them before parting with the books. One is A Hazardous Inquiry: The Rashomon Effect at Love Canal by Allan Mazur. It's pretty interesting, looking at the events surrounding Love Canal from six distinct perspectives. I had no idea it's become so rare, so I guess this one I'll actually try to sell rather than just donate.

At any rate, I am nearly ready to start Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy (finally). Looking forward to that, as well as feeling a bit daunted due to its length.

[A Lark Ascending]

Getting near the end of:

Brilliant book that does the near impossible, summarising 50 years of African history since independence. Although I had a rough idea, the details here are utterly shocking.

[paul secor]

James Lee Burke: Jolie Blon's Bounce

[aparxa]

The Pirate, Walter Scott

[jlhoots]

C.J. Box: Nowhere To Run (A Joe Pickett novel)

[jazzbo]

Walter Mosley: A Red Death (an Easy Rawlins novel).

[paul secor]

Joseph O'Neill: Netherland

Very good read - better than I had expected.

[BruceH]

I read the Avon editions of this series when it came out back in the seventies, and found some of the later ones on eBay. Good stuff!

Agreed, quite a good series.

The "Alpha" series of collections, also edited by Silverberg, was also quite good, especially the first five.

[aparxa]

Just finished:

[jazzbo]

[A Lark Ascending]

Fascinating, especially in the light of recent events.

[Jazzmoose]

The "Alpha" series of collections, also edited by Silverberg, was also quite good, especially the first five.

I'm not familiar with them; I'll keep an eye out!

Rereading a favorite, which for some reason always seems like a good choice:

[ejp626]

Just finished Sermons and Soda-Water, which are three somewhat related novellas by John O'Hara (the narrator is the same in all three). I definitely liked this better than Appointment in Samarra, which I didn't find memorable at all. There are certainly some fine passages, and I think O'Hara is somewhat underrated (like John Fante in that respect). But at the same time, he seems totally sex-obsessed. You wouldn't think there was anything on these people's minds except "hooking up."

Just started The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez by John Rechy. Interesting so far.

[johnlitweiler]

Am in the middle of Anthony Trollope's "The Duke's Children." I've read a lot of Trollope in recent years and have yet to be disappointed. Can't imagine I would have cared for him before I got to about this age.

Also just read the most recent of Lee Childs' Jack Reacher novels, "61 Hours."

I actually read a great deal of Trollope in my early 20s, perhaps a bit too young to fully appreciate it, but I did start to get into the pacing about halfway into Can You Forgive Her? I suspect someday I will read through the Palliser novels again, though I am fairly unlikely to read Powell's Dance to the Music of Time for a second time. I'd really like to read The Way We Live Now, but I have stashed it away in storage, but maybe in a year or two... Curiously, I never read any of the Chronicles of Barsetshire books, so that is something else I have to look forward to.

Am mostly done with Karinthy's Metropole, which successfully conveys the overwhelming, pressing nature of this overcrowded metropolis the narrator has landed in. It actually is making me a bit claustrophobic.

A couple years ago, after Larry mentioned how he liked the Palliser novels, I read The Eustace Diamonds and liked it a lot. Read 3 more with diminishing appreciation - by The Prime Minister it looked like Trollope actually admired his protagonist and had no more sense of irony. Time to return to Dickens and Fred. Engels.

[Larry Kart]

Am in the middle of Anthony Trollope's "The Duke's Children." I've read a lot of Trollope in recent years and have yet to be disappointed. Can't imagine I would have cared for him before I got to about this age.

Also just read the most recent of Lee Childs' Jack Reacher novels, "61 Hours."

I actually read a great deal of Trollope in my early 20s, perhaps a bit too young to fully appreciate it, but I did start to get into the pacing about halfway into Can You Forgive Her? I suspect someday I will read through the Palliser novels again, though I am fairly unlikely to read Powell's Dance to the Music of Time for a second time. I'd really like to read The Way We Live Now, but I have stashed it away in storage, but maybe in a year or two... Curiously, I never read any of the Chronicles of Barsetshire books, so that is something else I have to look forward to.

Am mostly done with Karinthy's Metropole, which successfully conveys the overwhelming, pressing nature of this overcrowded metropolis the narrator has landed in. It actually is making me a bit claustrophobic.

A couple years ago, after Larry mentioned how he liked the Palliser novels, I read The Eustace Diamonds and liked it a lot. Read 3 more with diminishing appreciation - by The Prime Minister it looked like Trollope actually admired his protagonist and had no more sense of irony. Time to return to Dickens and Fred. Engels.

Well, the Plantagenet of "The Prime Minister," while not without a fair number of good qualities, is (it might be said) is a man who is profoundly bewildered by much of life (by his wife Glencora, of course, and also by his own deeply diffident, rather stiff-necked nature, his political-social role, and his fate), and Trollope IMO captures those very ironic strains perfectly. Or do you want Plantagenet to be kicked about a good deal more than he is, just because his title is -- ironic enough, no? -- Duke of Omnium.

I think I know what you mean, though -- I too was was attracted by the at times startling darkness of "The Eustace Diamonds" -- but Trollope is a realist, not a prosecuting attorney.

Am reading and enjoying J.G. Farrell's at times very funny but also very ominous "The Singapore Grip."

[BillF]

[alankin]

Donald E. Westlake - Two Much!

[A Lark Ascending]

Rereading a favorite, which for some reason always seems like a good choice:

I like the look of that!