ElginThompson Posted February 3, 2013 Report Share Posted February 3, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 George Orwell: A Collection of Essays Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted February 7, 2013 Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 Finally wrapped up Midnight's Children. Just didn't do that much for me this time around -- too many digressions and simply too long. I doubt I'll read it a third time. I am somewhat curious how the movie turned out (that was at least part of the reason for tackling this again). I have been struggling through Amado's The War of the Saints. Finally made it to the halfway mark and he is introducing even more plot complications. But I find that I am completely uninterested in any of the characters and their problems. Time to bail on this. I really don't understand as I liked most of his other novels, but this was a very late novel and perhaps he was trying to hard to do something "literary." But I did enjoy Greene's Travels with my Aunt. The narrator, Henry, is the straightest of straight men observing the madcap adventures of his 75-year old aunt. Ripped through this in 3-4 days (just so glad to be back to something fun). About to tackle Atwood's Lady Oracle. Certainly not expecting it to be as fun as the Greene but hopefully not as dire as some of the other books I have read recently. It too appears to be a bit too long for its own good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 7, 2013 Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted February 8, 2013 Report Share Posted February 8, 2013 Ross Macdonald: The Chill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted February 8, 2013 Report Share Posted February 8, 2013 David Simon - Homicide I read this back in '97 or '98, and liked it. Interesting to compare it to the series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Simenon: The Friend of Madame Maigret Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Finished Atwood's Lady Oracle. Definitely more entertaining than I was expecting, though goodness knows the main character made a bunch of strange and sometimes outright foolish decisions. There are some interesting parallels to Cat's Eye. Another Canadian novel for the time being Powning's The Sea Captain's Wife (and then Malone's Handling Sin after that): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serioza Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 The Best Short Stories of O. Henry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.D. Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Once a year, I splurge on some chess books, with a preference to annotated game collections. Bought four really nice ones this late winter, have been dipping into them, all are excellent. The latter two are older, I finally broke down and purchased them... Aron Nimzowitsch: On the Road to Chess Mastery, 1886-1924, by Per Skjoldager and Jørn Erik Nielsen The Stress of Chess..., by Walter Browne Victor Bologan: Selected Games 1985-2004; Victor Bologan My One Hundred Best Games; Alexey Dreev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon8 Posted February 19, 2013 Report Share Posted February 19, 2013 (edited) Lydia Davis' Collected Stories : I read two dozens of them, mostly from her first and last collection, and I'm... perplex: she comes highly recommended to say the least; I found her stories to be OK at best, almost always missing something (style, perspective, humor, emotion...). I realize I'm in the minority ! Before: Denis Johnson's "Angels". Johnson sometimes wallows in his characters' miseries and the book can be a little depressing...but still, an exceptional writer and some the most vivid prose out there ! Edited February 19, 2013 by Simon8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 19, 2013 Report Share Posted February 19, 2013 Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niels Posted February 19, 2013 Report Share Posted February 19, 2013 Almost finished with Haruki Murakami - 1Q84 For some reason I just have a soft spot for Murakami. Always a pleasure to read his books, and great reading material for commuting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted February 19, 2013 Report Share Posted February 19, 2013 Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me. Until about ten years ago, I could never get more than a few pages into any Dickens book. Apparently, as I got older, someone changed the content of the books as I enjoy them now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 Penelope Lively: Judgement Day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 Third of Bruce's Cambridge (the proper one) based crime novels. Not brilliantly written - basically a fan's account relying mainly on interviews with musicians, journalists and fans. But it tells the tale without attempting to relate Colosseum to the dialectics of post-capitalist disfunctionalism. Saw this referred to above and it was on sale for sixpence next to the eggs in Sainsbury's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 Third of Bruce's Cambridge (the proper one) based crime novels. Not brilliantly written - basically a fan's account relying mainly on interviews with musicians, journalists and fans. But it tells the tale without attempting to relate Colosseum to the dialectics of post-capitalist disfunctionalism. Saw this referred to above and it was on sale for sixpence next to the eggs in Sainsbury's. I think you'll find it's all it's cracked up to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 Cut the yolks, Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted February 22, 2013 Report Share Posted February 22, 2013 How much of that derives from Cheikh Anta Diop, Jazzbo? Never read a more disorganised writer than Diop. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 22, 2013 Report Share Posted February 22, 2013 Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me. Until about ten years ago, I could never get more than a few pages into any Dickens book. Apparently, as I got older, someone changed the content of the books as I enjoy them now... Same thing happened with me about eight years ago with Trollope. Beginning with "The Eustace Diamonds" -- a lucky choice because the central figure, Lizzie Eustace, is such a fascinatingly detailed and psychologically plausible (by any standard) "monstrous" character that the notion that Trollope was complacent or a fuddy-duddy was instantly erased. Since then I've read a lot of Trollope with unfailing pleasure; he's one of the greats IMO. I'd read "Barchester Towers' in college because I had to and had no clue at the time; Trollope's probably not for guys in their early 20s. BTW, if anyone thinks of Trollope as too genteel to deal with the rougher/uglier sides of human life, the Lucinda Roanoke-Sir Griffin Tewitt subplot in "The Eustace Diamonds" is an eye-opener. Roanoke, a very athletic, somewhat mannish young American woman of means whose aunt is trying to marry her off to a titled Englishman, attracts the attentions of the seemingly eligible (by the aunt's standards) but brutish Tewitt, who is well aware that Roanoke, who detests most men, detests him in particular. But this is just the sauce that Tewitt's emotional-sexual tastes require -- well aware of Roanoke's feelings toward him, what he most wants to do is to dominate and figuratively, legally (even literally if it comes to that) rape her. And Trollope doesn't flinch in the telling or the resolution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted February 22, 2013 Report Share Posted February 22, 2013 Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me. Until about ten years ago, I could never get more than a few pages into any Dickens book. Apparently, as I got older, someone changed the content of the books as I enjoy them now... Same thing happened with me about eight years ago with Trollope. Beginning with "The Eustace Diamonds" -- a lucky choice because the central figure, Lizzie Eustace, is such a fascinatingly detailed and psychologically plausible (by any standard) "monstrous" character that the notion that Trollope was complacent or a fuddy-duddy was instantly erased. Since then I've read a lot of Trollope with unfailing pleasure; he's one of the greats IMO. I'd read "Barchester Towers' in college because I had to and had no clue at the time; Trollope's probably not for guys in their early 20s. I think Trollope is almost criminally overlooked. I find that it takes a week or so to really adjust to Trollope's rythmes. Probably a slightly harder adjustment than Dickens. I basically read the Palliser series and one or two others. I do hope in a year or two to go through the others that I own (Barsetshire Chronicles, The Three Clerks, He Knew He Was Right, The Way We Live Now and a few others) and then maybe will be ready to reread the Pallisers (I did read them in my 20s and would pick up on very different aspects of the books now). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 I think Lanchester gets into his stride with Capital and hadn't got it together with this earlier novel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 I think Lanchester gets into his stride with Capital and hadn't got it together with this earlier novel. I didn't think I was going to enjoy 'Capital' after a few chapters - not keen on books where the tale almost starts again chapter after a chapter as new characters appear. But I'm gripped now. Really want to see Roger and Amanda get their come-uppance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted February 24, 2013 Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me. Until about ten years ago, I could never get more than a few pages into any Dickens book. Apparently, as I got older, someone changed the content of the books as I enjoy them now... Same thing happened with me about eight years ago with Trollope. Beginning with "The Eustace Diamonds" -- a lucky choice because the central figure, Lizzie Eustace, is such a fascinatingly detailed and psychologically plausible (by any standard) "monstrous" character that the notion that Trollope was complacent or a fuddy-duddy was instantly erased. Since then I've read a lot of Trollope with unfailing pleasure; he's one of the greats IMO. I'd read "Barchester Towers' in college because I had to and had no clue at the time; Trollope's probably not for guys in their early 20s. BTW, if anyone thinks of Trollope as too genteel to deal with the rougher/uglier sides of human life, the Lucinda Roanoke-Sir Griffin Tewitt subplot in "The Eustace Diamonds" is an eye-opener. Roanoke, a very athletic, somewhat mannish young American woman of means whose aunt is trying to marry her off to a titled Englishman, attracts the attentions of the seemingly eligible (by the aunt's standards) but brutish Tewitt, who is well aware that Roanoke, who detests most men, detests him in particular. But this is just the sauce that Tewitt's emotional-sexual tastes require -- well aware of Roanoke's feelings toward him, what he most wants to do is to dominate and figuratively, legally (even literally if it comes to that) rape her. And Trollope doesn't flinch in the telling or the resolution. Hmmm. And free for Kindle. Guess I'll have to subject my eyes to the strain once again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Head Man Posted February 24, 2013 Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 Re-read this after listening to the wonderful adaption on BBC radio. Just finshed this but found it a great disappointment. The only book by him that I've not enjoyed...and I've read them all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.