Now reading...

[paul secor]

Tessa Hadley: Bad Dreams and Other Stories

[ejp626]

Just finished Melville's The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade.  It has a certain interest, and is probably not well enough known.  But at the same time, the second half really drags.

Wrapping up my Mitford kick with The Blessing.

Then Faulkner's Flags in the Dust.

[jlhoots]

Ivan Doig: The Whistling Season

[Brad]

I came across this site week, www.hatchards.co.uk, which is probably known to our British members. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, they have a catalogue of their favorite novels of the past 200 years.  It's a very useful list so if you're looking for something to read, there's probably something on this list that you will find worthwhile. 

Edited May 13, 2018 by Brad

[ghost of miles]

The first book of Alan M. Wald's historical trilogy about the literary left:

[mjzee]

Tom Wolfe, famous for works like “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” “The Right Stuff” and “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” passed away in Manhattan on Monday at age 87.

His agent confirmed the news to the New York Times on Tuesday. He had been hospitalized with an infection.

More here: https://pagesix.com/2018/05/15/novelist-tom-wolfe-dead-at-87/

[ghost of miles]

18 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Tom Wolfe, famous for works like “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” “The Right Stuff” and “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” passed away in Manhattan on Monday at age 87.

His agent confirmed the news to the New York Times on Tuesday. He had been hospitalized with an infection.

More here: https://pagesix.com/2018/05/15/novelist-tom-wolfe-dead-at-87/

Whoa!  Hadn't thought about him in awhile, but a significant writer for sure, especially when it comes to New Journalism.  I read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and some of his other writings from the 1960s and 70s many years ago.

[paul secor]

William Trevor: Cheating at Canasta

[BFrank]

The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild, by Hannah Rothschild

Really interesting. Quite a life, even BEFORE she moved to NYC to hang out with the jazz elite. In fact there's very little about Monk, NY, etc in the first 1/2 of the book.

[jlhoots]

Rachel Kushner: The Mars Room

Edited May 19, 2018 by jlhoots

[Matthew]

Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant by Alan Jacobs

Even Alan Jacobs' apologies off his website are witty:

 

Apology

Several times a week, on average, I get an email from someone I don't know asking a favor. Most commonly, a person wants me to read something she has written: an essay or article, a story, even an entire book. Sometimes the writer wants me to visit his blog and make comments there. I am pretty regularly asked to blurb about-to-be-published books or in some other way to promote them (it's often suggested that I assign them to my classes).

High-school students write to solicit my opinion about this or that — well, usually it's not "this or that," it's C. S. Lewis. People want reading recommendations on a range of subjects. I am very often asked, especially by my fellow Christians, about graduate school in English or the humanities more generally.

Sometimes people ask me about Anglicanism, or present me with general theological conundrums. (These I feel absolutely unqualified to address.)

Folks, I just can't keep up with all these requests. I have classes to teach, I have writing commitments, I have work to do at my church, I have a family to care for — and often I get the same kinds of questions from people I know, usually former students, people to whom I think I have some legitimate obligations. There simply are not enough hours in the day for me to answer all these questions.

I have tried for years to keep up, in part because I know that C. S. Lewis, that admirable fellow — who even in the days before email got ten times the requests I get — answered all his mail, even when it took him hours a day to do it. But I have to to wonder how he ever managed to get through all his correspondence, even with a brother willing to serve as secretary. And I even wonder whether he was wise to devote as much time to answering letters as he did.

But in any event, I have too often promised to read something that I ended up not being able to find the time to read, or I have read and commented on strangers' work only to let something essential fall into the cracks as a result. So the only conclusion I can come to is this: if I don't know you, I'm not going to be able to read your manuscript or answer complicated questions at length. Of course, I try to answer all my emails, but I often end up disappointing people by replying briefly on subjects that deserve more detailed scrutiny. I wish I could do better, but I hope you will understand if I don't.

I can't resist adding that Edmund Wilson's version of the above is wittier and more pointed — and also stricter! — than mine:

And one more thing. Dear reader, the statistics I’ve read suggest to me that there's a very good chance you are an extravert. I am not. You may not only like the thought of corresponding with strangers, but think it fun to meet with them as well. For me, that kind of experience is, well, un-fun. If I decline your friendly suggestion that we have lunch or dinner or coffee, please do not take it personally. I would probably decline a comparable offer from Bob Dylan or J. K. Rowling or Pope Francis, at least unless I had a friend to accompany me to lessen the social pressure. I know most of you think of introversion as a disease to be cured, but there's no cure yet. Call me when one is developed — wait, strike that, write me. But don't expect a response right away....

 

Edited May 21, 2018 by Matthew

[erwbol]

After enjoying rereading Robin D.G. Kelley's Thelonious Monk biography, I thought it time to read some of his other books starting with To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans which he edited and wrote the final chapter(s) for. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination also seems worth reading.

[Brad]

That list from Edmund Wilson above reminds me of a letter I received in college from my Mother when I had not written in awhile.  She sent me a checklist on how I was doing, asked me to check off the applicable box and return it. The point was made 

[T.D.]

Latest in one of my favorite thriller series. Unfortunately, Kerr recently passed away, so it's also likely the last.

Guilty pleasure, I suppose, but I've long been a major fan of Estleman. Detroit-themed material, that is; never tried the Westerns and others.

[mr jazz]

Wow, didn't realize Kerr died. Top tier suspense writer in my book. RIP

[Matthew]

Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman's Journey with Depression and Faith by Monica A Coleman.

[erwbol]

On 21/05/2018 at 6:36 PM, erwbol said:

After enjoying rereading Robin D.G. Kelley's Thelonious Monk biography, I thought it time to read some of his other books starting with To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans which he edited and wrote the final chapter(s) for. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination also seems worth reading.

Kelley's (quite expensive) history arrived with substantial damage. Luckily I had not yet paid the Dutch online retailer and was able to return the item free of charge. Why do these retailers even ship a damaged book from their warehouse to begin with? Time-wasters.

[Brad]

[jlhoots]

Hernan Diaz: In The Distance

[ejp626]

On the last story in Alice Munro's Friend of My Youth.  I'd say she's starting to take a more Olympian view of all the various betrayals that men and women inflict on each other.  Not necessarily a bad thing.

Faulkner's The Unvanquished next.

Then Hard Times by Dickens.  I'd meant to read it in closer conjunction with Gaskell's North and South, but just couldn't swing it.

 

[paul secor]

R.B. Kitaj: Confessions of an Old Jewish Painter

[ghost of miles]

Memorial Day reading (started it a couple of weeks ago):

[Brad]

Did you read the first one?  Of the three books in the Liberation Trilogy, that was the best one, in my opinion. 

[erwbol]

[ghost of miles]

22 hours ago, Brad said:

Did you read the first one?  Of the three books in the Liberation Trilogy, that was the best one, in my opinion. 

I did—if there’s a drop-off in quality, at least the first one establishes a great height. I’m only 70 pages or so into this one.