Jerry_L Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 (edited) Always heart-warming to re-read this. Edited January 15, 2014 by Jerry_L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niels Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 Just finished reading Mikhail Lermontov - Geroj Nasjego Vremeni (A Hero of Our Time), 1840 This book is considered to be the first psychological novel in Russian literature, and boy I enjoyed this one (on par with the other great hero's of Russian literature like Dostoevsky, Tolstoj, Gogol, Toergenjev, etc)! Too bad this is the only novel he wrote in his life, because he died at the age of 27 in an old fashioned duel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 Some fascinating insights into the British jazz scene in this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil. I have to admit I didn't really think much of this novel. It is totally disorganized, with the point of view skipping around from the clients in this opium den, to the owner, to some of the employees and back. I'm truly astounded that it was shortlisted for the Booker. Anyway, to complement this, I am finally reading de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. This version goes back to the original, punchier 1821 version but then has long sections from the 1856 revision printed at the back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry_L Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Final Reckonings (Complete Stories of Robert Bloch, Volume 1) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted January 24, 2014 Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 Finally reading a book I've wanted to read for almost forty years. I won't say it was worth the wait; I'd rather have found it back in the seventies, but it is enjoyable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted January 24, 2014 Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 Finally reading a book I've wanted to read for almost forty years. (Effinger) I don't think I've read this one, though I read a fair bit of his other work. Have you read When Gravity Fails, and then the rest of that Trilogy? I remember liking the first one a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Wish I could say yes, but this is the first book I've read by Effinger. There are a few authors that slipped through the cracks for me, and he's one. Lafferty is another. Just never seemed to spot their books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 Wish I could say yes, but this is the first book I've read by Effinger. There are a few authors that slipped through the cracks for me, and he's one. Lafferty is another. Just never seemed to spot their books. Quite a few of his books have a humorous twist to them, esp. Maureen Birnbaum: Barbarian Swordsperson. I'd say When Gravity Fails et. al. is his most serious series, which sort of tapped into the whole Neuromancer/Snowcrash cyberpunk world. I might actually save them for last, as I think they are probably his highest achievement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alankin Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 Good bio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 W.P. Kinsells: Scars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 Good bio. Agreed. Informative and intelligent on both the artist and the various "scenes" he became a part of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 W.P. Kinsells: Scars Interesting. I haven't read anything by Kinsella in years. I have to admit, I've kind of forgotten about him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted January 27, 2014 Report Share Posted January 27, 2014 James McBride: The Good Lord Bird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Road Dogs - Elmore Leonard Really fun book. Finally reading a book I've wanted to read for almost forty years. I won't say it was worth the wait; I'd rather have found it back in the seventies, but it is enjoyable. I remember noticing this title back in the 70s, when sf was the main thing I read. I didn't get around to it, either, but the title is one of those that sticks in your head. I vaguely recall reading some stories by Effinger that didn't do a lot for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Head Man Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Every story a gem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 I remember noticing this title back in the 70s, when sf was the main thing I read. I didn't get around to it, either, but the title is one of those that sticks in your head. I vaguely recall reading some stories by Effinger that didn't do a lot for me. It is extremely seventies, if that makes any sense. Heavy on the metafiction, at times bordering on silly. A child of the New Wave... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 I remember noticing this title back in the 70s, when sf was the main thing I read. I didn't get around to it, either, but the title is one of those that sticks in your head. I vaguely recall reading some stories by Effinger that didn't do a lot for me. It is extremely seventies, if that makes any sense. Heavy on the metafiction, at times bordering on silly. A child of the New Wave... Effinger struck me as very much a product of the New Wave, and not always in a good way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 (edited) I won't be surprised if I feel the same way, if the next book I read by him is similar. However, I do have a weakness for many new wave works. Except Ellison's At the Mouse Circus. What an overrated piece of crap. But then, that's a common reaction for me to Ellison's writing... Edited January 30, 2014 by Jazzmoose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niels Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Laurent Binet - HhhH (Himmlers hersens heten Heydrich / Himmlers brains are called Heydrich) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry_L Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Mysteries of the Worm: Early Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (Call of Cthulhu Fiction)Paperback – August 30, 2009 by Robert Bloch (Author) , Robert Price (Editor) , Steven Gilberts (Illustrator) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niels Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Starting with this stone cold classic today: Ivan Turgenev - Ottsy i Deti (Fathers and Sons) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtSalt Posted February 1, 2014 Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 I've the Noel Coward diaries on the go at the moment, he comes across as quite a stoic patriot, despite his tax exile status in the Caribbean. There's also no bitchiness in any of his character observations, which are engaging and full of empathy. The diary is much more mature and interesting than the first part of his autobiography Present Indicative which I find trite and shallow. After this I will probably read Future Indefinite which covers the war years. He didn't dig bebop though, in one of the posts just after the war, a young starlet takes him out clubbing in Chicago and they end up in a jazz club and he has to leave, as he can't stand the cacophony any longer. Back at the hotel his diary entry states that he realises he is 47 years of age, but quite sane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 Finished Entropy, and I've got to say, I was impressed. I knew that it was nominated for a Nebula, so I looked up the list to see what beat it: Asimov with The Gods Themselves. I want a recount. (Don't take that as a knock on the Asimov; i like it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnblitweiler Posted February 4, 2014 Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 finally read Dream of Fair to Middling Women - 25-year-old Beckett with lot of very Joyceish jesting and more jesting rather like Beckett got to later in Watt and the 2 great plays. It's a sort of autobiographical novel about the loutish Belacqua (Beckett's alias) and his lady loves, whom he describes savagely. Light, mostly fun, concluding with a hilarious dinner party scene. Great, masterful writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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