Now reading...

[ghost of miles]

Just finished Shirer's The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich. Mammoth, but essential to any student of that era.

Reading Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Excellent, excellent, excellent.

You people have good taste in books.

MusicalMarine, did you catch the piece on Maugham in a recent issue of the New Yorker? I'll see if I can find it online... I've read only THE RAZOR'S EDGE, but the NY article reawakened my interest.

I should give RISE & FALL a whirl, but I haven't even made it through THE WORLD AT WAR DVD set yet. As far as military histories, I'm hoping to find Beevor's FALL OF BERLIN 1945 at a good/used price one of these days--liked his STALINGRAD book quite a bit.

[Jim Alfredson]

I got this for Christmas from my mother-in-law (smart lady)...

[Jim Alfredson]

And I just finished this last week. Great book!

[alankin]

Some recent reading:

Larry Kart's JAZZ IN SEARCH OF ITSELF

Dan Morgenstern, LIVING WITH JAZZ

Also reading those two.

Just finished Richard Russo's "Empire Falls."

And just started Jeffrey Magee's The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz (Oxford University Press)

[Dmitry]

Isaac Bashevis Singer - THE SLAVE

What a book! Unbelievable.

I haven't read Singer since college and forgot his juicy, sometimes wildly humorous, sometimes terrifying way of writing.

..A Jew named Jacob is taken captive by the Bogdan Chmielnicki-led Cossacks in the great massacre of the Jews in Poland and Ukraine in the 1640s when 300,000 Jews were killed in most horrible ways. His two young children and wife are murdered by the Cossacks, he himself is sold as a slave to a Polish farmer. Slowly, he falls in love with his master's widowed daughter Wanda. After years of captivity, he is bought out by the fellow surviving Jews of his shtetl...

The language of the book has many Jewish overtones, turns, stops, and u-turns; no wonder Singer wrote all his books in Yiddish.

His prose is reminiscent of Babel, but none of Babel's novellas reach the depth of Singer's novel, and Sholom-Aleihem, to which he was an equal in many ways.

[jazzbo]

I am a big fan of Maugham; I think he wrote some brilliant novels!

I finished reading Sue Mingus' book, and then read Doc Cheatam's autobiography, and now I'm reading the Morganstern book.

[Brandon Burke]

Harry Mathews - The Conversions

Edited January 1, 2005 by Brandon Burke

[Brad]

I'm reading a whole bunch of things:

Larry Kart's book

Dan Morgenstern Living with Jazz

The new annotated Sherlock Holmes collection

John Le Carre's Absolute Friends

Max Hasting's Armageddon. This is a continuation of Overlord, about D Day and looks at the war against Germany, 1944-1945. If you're at all interested in WWII, you should read this.

[nmorin]

Around the beginning of 2004 I began re-reading chronologically all Philip K. Dick's novels, and I am a little ways into UBIK now. I am having fun with my new head.

[alankin]

Around the beginning of 2004 I began re-reading chronologically all Philip K. Dick's novels, and I am a little ways into UBIK now. I am having fun with my new head.

Sounds good, but wasn't "Fun With Your New Head" by Thomas M. Disch?

[pryan]

Currently, I'm reading Larry Kart's wonderful book. After I finish it (probably today), it's on to John Litweiler's THE FREEDOM PRINICIPLE: JAZZ AFTER 1958.

[nmorin]

Around the beginning of 2004 I began re-reading chronologically all Philip K. Dick's novels, and I am a little ways into UBIK now.  I am having fun with my new head.

Sounds good, but wasn't "Fun With Your New Head" by Thomas M. Disch?

Indeed it is a Disch novel (who is a favorite of mine)--but "fun with my new head" is how I feel after reading nearly 30 PKD novels in a row.

[alankin]

Around the beginning of 2004 I began re-reading chronologically all Philip K. Dick's novels, and I am a little ways into UBIK now.  I am having fun with my new head.

Sounds good, but wasn't "Fun With Your New Head" by Thomas M. Disch?

Indeed it is a Disch novel (who is a favorite of mine)--but "fun with my new head" is how I feel after reading nearly 30 PKD novels in a row.

I would imagine. It's sure going to feel weird when you're done and have to leave your high castle.

[jazzbo]

Yes it's no fun out here in the black iron prison. . . .

[ghost of miles]

John P. Marquand, THANK YOU, MR. MOTO. I'd like to see the 1937 film version of this that starred Peter Lorre; supposedly it influenced the cinematography of CITIZEN KANE.

[medjuck]

Around the beginning of 2004 I began re-reading chronologically all Philip K. Dick's novels, and I am a little ways into UBIK now. I am having fun with my new head.

Ubik was the first Dick novel I read. I did so because Jean-Pierre Gorin (Godard's erstwhile partner) was trying to make a movie from it. He never did, but it least introduced me to a great writer.

[jazzbo]

The first Dick novel I read was The Zap Gun; I bought it when I was 12 in the only English language bookstore in Addis Ababa. It was the Pyramid paperback with a cover of a guy with a big gun . . . . I didn't really "get" the book, but it was entertaining, and it led to me eventually buying all his books and his warping my mind. . . I write to Phil shortly before he died and told him of my journey getting and reading and digesting his books that began in Ethiopia; he said he felt that novel wasn't much, but I really think it's a great novel that had a LOT to say about the Cold War and arms races and the roots of war.

[Christiern]

I am half finished with "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," a fascinating book by Lynne Truss. You wouldn't think that a book about misplaced punctuation could be funny--much less, absorbing, but it is.

Anyone else read or heard of this book?

[MartyJazz]

I am half finished with "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," a fascinating book by Lynne Truss. You wouldn't think that a book about misplaced punctuation could be funny--much less, absorbing, but it is.

Anyone else read or heard of this book?

My sister, coincidentally also named Lynne, has been recommending this book. I guess I'll pick it up rather soon.

[jazzbo]

Now reading "Living Jazz," by Dan Morganstern. Going to develop some muscles hauling this around!

[alankin]

I am half finished with "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," a fascinating book by Lynne Truss. You wouldn't think that a book about misplaced punctuation could be funny--much less, absorbing, but it is.

Anyone else read or heard of this book?

I read a review of it that basically said her knowledge of grammer was below average. The review was amusing; haven't read the book.

[sidewinder]

Have been having a good jaugh at Philip Larkin's 'All What Jazz - A Record Diary'.

Some pretty obscure stuff managed to get reviewed in this one, including Earl Anderza 'Outa Sight' and Ronnie Ross's 'Cleopatra's Needle'. Good entertainment !

[Christiern]

I read a review of it that basically said her knowledge of grammer was below average. The review was amusing; haven't read the book.

I don't know much about grammer, but I thought her grammar was excellent.

[frank m]

CHRISTIERN-- Sorry to go off topic like this but I asked you re a post on another topic what Jazz Corner had done to end up on your shit list?????If you replied, I missed it.

[paul secor]

Scott Phillips' The Ice Storm - Every character in this novel (with the exception of a little girl) is a total dirtbag, with no redeeming qualities. Maybe I'm abnormal, but I usually like to feel some connection with some character in a novel. (I guess if I were a total dirtbag, I might have felt some connection here.) I kept reading this because I wanted to find out what was going to happen. I finished reading it, found out what happened, and I'm sure I'll never open this book again.