paul secor Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 The Ensemble is a novel about a classical string quartet over a period of years. I expected and hoped for more, but it was a disappointment in that it ventured into soap opera/chick lit territory and the writing was over explanatory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted March 16, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 (edited) Quite good, entertaining fast read. Edited March 19, 2019 by kinuta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted March 19, 2019 Report Share Posted March 19, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted March 20, 2019 Report Share Posted March 20, 2019 (edited) Finished. A very good book. Recommended. Edited March 23, 2019 by kinuta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted March 21, 2019 Report Share Posted March 21, 2019 About halfway through Mohammed Hanif's Red Birds. Have to admit I don't like it very much for several reasons, but the primary one is that you rotate inside the heads of three characters, including a dog(!), but they all have the same narrative voice. Different perspectives and concerns to be sure, but basically identical vocabularies and pretty similar phrasing. If you're going to do this, do it right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted March 21, 2019 Report Share Posted March 21, 2019 Martin Walker: The Resistance Man My wife and I are reading this for a book discussion at a local library next week. It's the first Bruno, Chief of Police novel that I've read, and I'm not at all impressed. A weak plot (which has little to do with the French resistance) , too many characters, and too much talk about food and wine. I'll pass on reading any other books in the Bruno series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted March 21, 2019 Report Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) Money and Possessions: Interpretation by Walter Brueggemann. A very interesting study of how scripture views money and possessions by Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, and it challenges they way most people views these matter in today's political world. If a person is interested in an alternative way of looking at these topics, this is a good book to look into. Edited March 21, 2019 by Matthew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted March 23, 2019 Report Share Posted March 23, 2019 On 2019年3月21日 at 9:48 AM, ejp626 said: About halfway through Mohammed Hanif's Red Birds. Have to admit I don't like it very much for several reasons, but the primary one is that you rotate inside the heads of three characters, including a dog(!), but they all have the same narrative voice. Different perspectives and concerns to be sure, but basically identical vocabularies and pretty similar phrasing. If you're going to do this, do it right... I read it too but found it a struggle to finish. I was seduced by the blurb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted March 23, 2019 Report Share Posted March 23, 2019 3 hours ago, kinuta said: I read it too but found it a struggle to finish. I was seduced by the blurb. I just finished and found it a total waste of time. Very sorry I started it. (I'm supposed to be getting better at dropping unrewarding books...) At any rate, I am now launching into vol. 2 of Musil's The Man Without Qualities. My goal is to be done by mid-April, though I suspect other things (particularly taxes) will be too much of a distraction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted March 23, 2019 Report Share Posted March 23, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted March 23, 2019 Report Share Posted March 23, 2019 4 hours ago, ejp626 said: I just finished and found it a total waste of time. Very sorry I started it. (I'm supposed to be getting better at dropping unrewarding books...) At any rate, I am now launching into vol. 2 of Musil's The Man Without Qualities. My goal is to be done by mid-April, though I suspect other things (particularly taxes) will be too much of a distraction. New books are a hit and miss gamble more often than not. I'd say one in five are pointless. The trick is to abandon the thing and move on. I sometimes stick it out the the end but usually regret it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted March 23, 2019 Report Share Posted March 23, 2019 (edited) Finished. Great. Extraordinary tale of a remorseless femme fatale and her giant medical scam. Recommended. Edited March 26, 2019 by kinuta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulpope Posted March 23, 2019 Report Share Posted March 23, 2019 On 20.3.2019 at 11:07 PM, kinuta said: Finished. A very good book. Recommended. Looks intriguing .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrdlu Posted March 24, 2019 Report Share Posted March 24, 2019 In case anyone hasn't read it, check out Robin Kelley's bio of Monk. I only became aware of it a year ago. It is the finest bio of a jazz musician I have ever read, though I hasten to add that Diz's book is also outstanding. We all enjoy Monk's recordings, Blue Note, Prestige, etc., but Monk's life (apart from his loving family and friends) was a misery until his Columbia contract in 1962. Of course, that damned Manhattan cabaret card issue is well-known. No need to go into that again here. One sample: Monk was delighted to start recording for Columbia. He found a freshly-tuned piano and some sandwiches at 30th Street. Very nice. Then, he was billed for the tuner and the tuna!! Disgustingly cheap of a huge company that made tens of thousands off his albums. Meanwhile, struggling Blue Note provided free food and Rudy never charged the musicians for tuning his piano. Anyway, get the book. This might have been mentioned before, but I'm not going to go through 292 pages hunting for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted March 26, 2019 Report Share Posted March 26, 2019 (edited) Finished. I can't imagine a more comprehensive account of the scandal. I found the lengthy and detailed descriptions of the multiple aspects of the fraud hard to follow. When the story switched to the post sentencing attempts to retrieve money and compensation of some of the victims , it got very complex and admit a lot of it was too much to take in. It was interesting , especially the character descriptions, the arrest and court case and the sheer scale of the financial damage. Praise due to the author for pulling the incredibly complex strands together. Recommended with a bit of judicious page skipping. Edited March 30, 2019 by kinuta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazztrain Posted March 28, 2019 Report Share Posted March 28, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted March 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2019 Fitzgerald beautifully evokes the magical charge and the vicious, temporal economy of adolescent relations in these stories: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluesnik Posted March 30, 2019 Report Share Posted March 30, 2019 On 07/03/2019 at 3:02 AM, kinuta said: Have you read Keef's biography ? Do you mean his autobiography (Life)? Yes, I've read that and enjoyed it a lot. And about what I said in my former post, I'm only repeating what the book says, though it sounds reasonable to me. But it might be a bit overstated, that's true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted March 30, 2019 Report Share Posted March 30, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted March 31, 2019 Report Share Posted March 31, 2019 The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World by Miroslav Volf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgcim Posted March 31, 2019 Report Share Posted March 31, 2019 The Master and Margerita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted March 31, 2019 Report Share Posted March 31, 2019 15 hours ago, Bluesnik said: Do you mean his autobiography (Life)? Yes, I've read that and enjoyed it a lot. And about what I said in my former post, I'm only repeating what the book says, though it sounds reasonable to me. But it might be a bit overstated, that's true. Yes, that's the one. I don't read many music related biographies but really enjoyed Life. I saw the The Beatles a few times in Sheffield, and quite honestly they weren't all that good. I think they sounded at their best in small clubs, but their rise was so rapid around Love Me Do that they moved to larger gigs never to go back to the small venues. The first Sheffield gig was slated to be at The Black Cat Club, which was a teenage club held every Friday at St Aidan's church hall. The call for tickets was so huge that it was moved to the larger Azena Ballroom. I was only 15 at the time and remember clearly going there with my very first girlfriend. The amplification was puny and we couldn't hear very much for the constant sceaming and shouting. I wasn't impressed but changed my mind after hearing the first album. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted March 31, 2019 Report Share Posted March 31, 2019 9 hours ago, sgcim said: The Master and Margerita Definitely a classic! I try to reread this every 10 years or so... Squeezing in Hoban's Turtle Diary (NYRB) during breaks from the 2nd vol. of Musil's The Man Without Qualities. I'd say Turtle Diary is a bit of an unknown gem, but I'm only about 1/3 through so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted April 1, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2019 Rereading for the first time since I was a teenager: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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