BillF Posted May 12, 2017 Report Share Posted May 12, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted May 13, 2017 Report Share Posted May 13, 2017 (edited) On 4/23/2017 at 10:28 PM, ejp626 said: Murakami's 1Q84 I thought it was pretty interesting but at 1/3rd in, it switches from having elements of magic realism and the uncanny to a full-on fantasy novel with supernatural beings involved. At this point, I'll finish it, but I think it was a wrong turning point. (Also, how many times does he need to reference Orwell's 1984? -- it comes up over and over and over.) I just stumbled across Murakami's story "Town of Cats" in The New Yorker, which cleverly edits together some of the key events from 1Q84 and boils down 450 pages into 5 or 6! Now if he had just done that for the second half of the novel! After this, two Canadian novels: Callaghan's The Many Colored Coat and MacLennan's The Watch That Ends the Night. Edited May 13, 2017 by ejp626 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluesnik Posted May 17, 2017 Report Share Posted May 17, 2017 (edited) Kim Gordon's autobiography. An interesting honest and bittersweet memoir recalling sixties California when she was growing up and her time with Sonic Youth. Edited May 17, 2017 by Bluesnik typos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnblitweiler Posted May 17, 2017 Report Share Posted May 17, 2017 On 5/9/2017 at 2:26 PM, rostasi said: This was Art Lange's excellent litmag of the 1970s. Valuable poetry and jazz-musician interviews there, and of course scarce as hen's teeth by now. Two years ago in NYC I saw an issue on sale for $25. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted May 18, 2017 Report Share Posted May 18, 2017 (edited) Someone asked me for a John Cage interview that Art did and so I pulled a few of these issues out and i'm enjoying them again. One of them even has a handwritten letter thatArt was going to send to an "Andrei", but I guess never did. Edited May 18, 2017 by rostasi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted May 26, 2017 Report Share Posted May 26, 2017 I finished 1Q84. It had a few interesting moments, but certainly nothing that justified its length. In many ways, I consider the ending a cop-out. I am almost done with MacLennan's The Watch That Ends the Night. It's quite good. I personally like it far more than his Two Solitudes or Barometer Rising. It's mostly a love triangle with political overtones (one of the parties involved goes off to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War). While it is a very different (and perhaps wiser or more forgiving) book, there are a few interesting parallels to Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier (which I hope to reread this fall). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erwbol Posted May 26, 2017 Report Share Posted May 26, 2017 4 hours ago, ejp626 said: I finished 1Q84. It had a few interesting moments, but certainly nothing that justified its length. In many ways, I consider the ending a cop-out. If you read the English translation it was substantially abridged! Not that you were missing out on much of value imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted May 26, 2017 Report Share Posted May 26, 2017 5 hours ago, erwbol said: If you read the English translation it was substantially abridged! Not that you were missing out on much of value imo. It was already too long, so I don't feel cheated... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted May 26, 2017 Report Share Posted May 26, 2017 Willa Cather: Youth and the Bright Medusa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 26, 2017 Report Share Posted May 26, 2017 On 4/23/2017 at 8:06 AM, BillF said: A best seller of considerable literary merit. ... and another in the same genre: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElginThompson Posted May 26, 2017 Report Share Posted May 26, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted May 28, 2017 Report Share Posted May 28, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted May 28, 2017 Report Share Posted May 28, 2017 Qiu Miaojin Notes of a Crocodile (NYRB) My impressions were very negative. It was a boring, whiny tract, full of self-pity. I really can't understand why this was a cult book, other than she wrote openly about homosexuality at a time her culture was not receptive. And probably also because the author committed suicide, which always generates its own cult followers... Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this at all. I am now launching into Morley Callaghan's The Many Colored Coat. I am cautiously optimistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted May 29, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 29, 2017 Report Share Posted May 29, 2017 Fascinating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted May 30, 2017 Report Share Posted May 30, 2017 (edited) Reed Farrel Coleman: What You Break Edited May 30, 2017 by jlhoots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted June 6, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 Jo Nesbo: The Thirst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erwbol Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 I'm about halfway through China Miéville's October: The Story of the Russian Revolution (Verso). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 Haruki Murakami: The Elephant Vanishes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 8 hours ago, ghost of miles said: Great book, best of the trilogy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted June 12, 2017 Report Share Posted June 12, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted June 12, 2017 Report Share Posted June 12, 2017 A few books on the fantastical side. I'm reading PKD's The Man in the High Castle. Then Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted June 13, 2017 Report Share Posted June 13, 2017 10 hours ago, ejp626 said: A few books on the fantastical side. I'm reading PKD's The Man in the High Castle. For alternative history involving a Nazi WW2 victory, I can also recommend Robert Harris' Fatherland and Len Deighton's SS-GB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKE BBB Posted June 13, 2017 Report Share Posted June 13, 2017 Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster (Jazz Perspectives) by Frank Büchmann-Moller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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