Now reading...

[kinuta]

[aparxa]

Hervé Bazin - Un feu dévore un autre feu.

[ghost of miles]

A certain gent of literary repute interviews novelist Jonathan Lethem.

[jazzbo]

[porcy62]

Lately:

Good stuff

The greatest literature I read in the last years

[ghost of miles]

[A Lark Ascending]

[ejp626]

Combination of Board software and my computer conspired to eat my last message, which is really annoying. I'll try to repeat the gist of it.

Agree Grossman's Life and Fate is a keeper. Unfortunately, I only got 100 pages in when I had to return the library copy. Ordered my own and may read it this fall when I am on my own for a few months in Vancouver (probably Proust as well).

Just read John Rechy's The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez. Rechy is best known for City of Night, but this is an interesting read.

In general, this is very much a book in the "the city is hell" vein. I particularly like this passage:

"She worried because she had overheard some women on the bus say that the governor was going to shut down many of those clincas. Where would the women go? Thank God she and her children were healthy. Perhaps the Blessed Mother would ask for a clinic instead of a chapel.

Rosario might have said that, but she had gone too far in thinking it. She might have to confess it. The Blessed Mother always asked for a chapel. Who was she to question eternal mysteries?

Next up is Moth Smoke by Moshin Hamid.

Edited May 28, 2011 by ejp626

[jazzbo]

I'm finding this book fascinating.

[jlhoots]

Max Evans: The Hi Lo Country

[alankin]

Janwillem Van De Wetering - Outsider in Amsterdam (the first in the Grijpstra & de Gier "Amsterdam Cops" series)

Edited May 30, 2011 by alankin

[A Lark Ascending]

Just started two totally contrasting reads:

[jlhoots]

Daniel Silva: The Defector

[A Lark Ascending]

Statue of Larwood from the centre of Kirkby-in-Ashfield where I work. Bill Voce also came from here.

When I first moved here in 1978 one of the houses at the School was named after Larwood (it vanished in an 80s reorganisation).

I'm no cricket buff but am aware of the controversy of the Bodyline Tour of Australia in the early 1930s.

There's even a pub in Nottingham itself called the Larwood and Voce:

http://www.molefacepubcompany.co.uk/the-larwood-and-voce1.html

[BillF]

Amazing how he's balancing that lamp standard on his left elbow! (Should have taken the photo yourself, Bev!)

[sidewinder]

Statue of Larwood from the centre of Kirkby-in-Ashfield where I work. Bill Voce also came from here.

When I first moved here in 1978 one of the houses at the School was named after Larwood (it vanished in an 80s reorganisation).

I'm no cricket buff but am aware of the controversy of the Bodyline Tour of Australia in the early 1930s.

There's even a pub in Nottingham itself called the Larwood and Voce:

http://www.molefacepubcompany.co.uk/the-larwood-and-voce1.html

Somewhere I've still got, I think, the autograph of his old front line fast bowling partner from Yorkshire, Bill Bowes.

He was a pretty old chap when that autograph was done (umpiring I think).

Edited May 31, 2011 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

Amazing how he's balancing that lamp standard on his left elbow! (Should have taken the photo yourself, Bev!)

Ha!

Actually, the photo is very flattering of the pedestrianised precinct. In reality it's mainly boarded up shops and kids on skateboards. Mixture of the death of the mines and hosiery and the migration of trade to the supermarkets and retail parks. Larwood and Voce wouldn't recognise it - they lived in a vibrant mining community.

[medjuck]

"My Life in E-Flat". Chan Parker's autobiography.

[Dave James]

While the body counts mount in Afghanistan and Iraq, another military tally, less wrenching and tragic but poignant nonetheless, quietly proceeds. Every day more than 700 veterans of World War II die, and with each one goes a story, or dozens of them. Laura Hillenbrand reached Louis Zamperini just in the nick of time — he was in his mid-80s when she found him, and 93 now— and it’s an excellent thing, for his is surely one of the most extraordinary war stories of all.

[A Lark Ascending]

Funny you should use the word "vibrant" - the chapters in the book detailing Larwood's early life in mining make it sound utterly grim. Nice pic btw.

Yeah, I'm probably romanticising.

[mellowT]

Just started this last night: The BIG Black Lie: How I Learned The Truth About The Democrat Party by Kevin Jackson

[aparxa]

[paul secor]

Keith Oatley: Therefore Choose

Picked up this novel in Canada last fall and just got around to reading it. It's primarily a novel of ideas, not something that usually grabs me. The ideas are ok - three individuals - two German and one English - who come together before WW 2, are separated by the war, and meet after the end of the war. Interesting concept, but unfortunately there's a lot of philosophical talk that doesn't ring true as dialogue. And the most interesting character - a free spirited Irish female psychiatrist - is dropped near the novel's conclusion. I expected more from this and didn't get it.

[BillF]

[ejp626]

Miyuki Miyabe "all she was worth"

I picked this up since it was pretty cheap and I thought the cover was cool. It is sort of a police procedural set in Tokyo with several side trips to Osaka, and indeed the ending may too literally follow these conventions since it ends rather too abruptly for my taste. It dfeinitely picks up around page 50, then there are some other interesting twists and turns. However, the last 50 pages adds in one twist too many where the story becomes too unbelievable for me and thus boring. Another major problem is that it reads like a hybrid mystery/lecture on the evils of easy credit, sort of like someone had been given the task of popularizing a civics text book! Hard to believe it won so many awards in Japan. On the whole, I wouldn't recommend it.

Just started Julia Glass's Three Junes. Not bad.