Now reading...

[kinuta]

I'm enjoying this series about Bell Elkins, small town prosecutor.

Well written and atmospheric. This is the third book.

Edited August 9, 2019 by kinuta

[ejp626]

On 8/9/2019 at 8:05 AM, ejp626 said:

I'm now reading FKA USA by Reed King (a SF road novel taking place after the fragmentation of the US) and will read Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing after that.

I'm bailing on FKA USA, though I'll read it tonight on the train home, as I don't have anything else with me...

It's basically a cynical mash-up of The Wizard of Oz, The Road, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Ready, Player One, and it has just worn me down (the endless footnotes really grate after a while).  It definitely reads as if one eye was on the movie rights, and indeed, it has already been optioned...  While I had quite a few issues with Ready, Player One, that at least feels like it was written by someone who understood and loved video games/puzzle games/quests.  This feels like it was written by someone with only the most cursory understanding of or appreciation for dystopian SF as a genre.

While Thien's book is a bit of a downer, I still think it is more worthy of my time.

Not sure when I will actually get it in my hands, but I'm intrigued by the upcoming novel Quichotte by Salman Rushdie.  (Apparently, it comes out in Sept., and I'm pretty deep on the wait list...)  It sounds as if this would make a good pairing with his previous novel, The Golden House.  I do own that book, but I'll wait to read the two together this fall.

[kinuta]

[jlhoots]

Tea Obreht: Inland

[jazzbo]

Just ordered my Dad's latest book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1083001590

Co-authored in '67 with his Amharic tutor Fisseha Demoze when he was an Assistant Director with the Peace Corps and we lived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The only known translation of numerous Amharic proverbs into English. Now both seniors my Dad and Fisseha worked together to get this polished up and published and it went on sale today.

I'm so proud of my Dad. He has published a biography of my great great great great great grandfather David Tannenberg, colonial organ builder, and four books on Civil War era figures, three of whom he was the first to research in depth, and two books on ministers and ministering. He has one massive biography still to publish, it's completed, but he hasn't yet found a publisher for the 800 page biography of Father Taylor of Boston.

I hope this last one does get published. He's 87 now and its his fondest wish. . . .

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by jazzbo

[danasgoodstuff]

https://www.amazon.com/Parachuting-into-Poland-1944-Retinger/dp/0786474602/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=parachuting+into+poland%2C+1944&qid=1566093577&s=books&sr=1-1

This memoir about my Friend Jan's father's 2nd mission to occupied Poland in WWII was translated by Jan, who is now working on the earlier story.  Fascinating.

[ejp626]

I spent a lot of time on trains yesterday (~9 hours), so I used that to read Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which is basically about the impact of China's Cultural Revolution on a group of musicians and then the impact of the events at Tienanmen Square in 1989 on them and their descendants.  Sad and moving, though also an overwhelming novel.  It did leave me a bit numb.

For a complete change of pace, I'm going to tackle Burroughs' Naked Lunch and Craig Nova's Wetware.  At some point after that Murakami's Men Without Women.

[Brad]

27 minutes ago, ejp626 said:

I spent a lot of time on trains yesterday (~9 hours), so I used that to read Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which is basically about the impact of China's Cultural Revolution on a group of musicians and then the impact of the events at Tienanmen Square in 1989 on them and their descendants.  Sad and moving, though also an overwhelming novel.  It did leave me a bit numb.

For a complete change of pace, I'm going to tackle Burroughs' Naked Lunch and Craig Nova's Wetware.  At some point after that Murakami's Men Without Women.

Are you overseas or traveling from one end of Canada to the other. 

[ejp626]

Just now, Brad said:

Are you overseas or traveling from one end of Canada to the other. 

No, I just went from Toronto to Ottawa and back in the same day.  (If the trains ran a bit better here, this should only be a 6 hour round trip...)

[Brad]

41 minutes ago, ejp626 said:

No, I just went from Toronto to Ottawa and back in the same day.  (If the trains ran a bit better here, this should only be a 6 hour round trip...)

That's a long day. 

[kinuta]

[kinuta]

[kinuta]

[erwbol]

I've been reading mostly non-fiction lately after a spring full of disappointing novels. I thought I'd re-read some fiction instead trying anything new for now.  

[erwbol]

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

Edited August 26, 2019 by erwbol

[Brad]

[ejp626]

I wrapped up Naked Lunch this weekend.  I wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed it, as it is fairly repetitive and maybe even a bit juvenile in its insistence in being shocking.

I'm about 50 pages into Craig Nova's Wetware, but am finding this to be a major disappointment.  Most reviews have said it is a slow burner, and that is true -- the pace is glacial for SF, but I don't find the main characters particularly interesting or even believable.  Worse, the ideas in the book (about the morality of infusing human consciousness into non-human artificial beings) are fairly pedestrian and have been recycled endlessly (well before Blade Runner).  I'll probably read another 25-50 pages but can't actually see finishing this book.  It's a shame, as I liked most of Nova's earlier novels.

Murakami's Men Without Women next.

[erwbol]

I read three of his books (Dutch unabridged translations) and think Murakami is a very overrated.

Edited August 26, 2019 by erwbol

[kinuta]

A surprisingly quick read. Scorsese's film follows the book very closely.

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by kinuta

[ghost of miles]

Late-period Fitzgerald, including the Pat Hobby stories, which I’m always happy to re-read:

[kinuta]

[ghost of miles]

On 3/3/2011 at 9:52 PM, paul secor said:

 

Henry Roth: Mercy of a Rude Stream - Volume One - A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park

Paul—what did you think of this? I just picked up the omnibus edition that includes all four novels and have An American Type (which was assembled after Roth’s death) on order. But I shamefully have to confess that I still haven’t gotten around to Call It Sleep after all these years and feel I should read it first before diving into HR’s “comeback” period.

[Brad]

46 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Paul—what did you think of this? I just picked up the omnibus edition that includes all four novels and have An American Type (which was assembled after Roth’s death) on order. But I shamefully have to confess that I still haven’t gotten around to Call It Sleep after all these years and feel I should read it first before diving into HR’s “comeback” period.

Unfortunately, Paul is no longer with us

[ejp626]

41 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Paul—what did you think of this? I just picked up the omnibus edition that includes all four novels and have An American Type (which was assembled after Roth’s death) on order. But I shamefully have to confess that I still haven’t gotten around to Call It Sleep after all these years and feel I should read it first before diving into HR’s “comeback” period.

Call It Sleep is quite an achievement.  Don't know if I would still like it quite as much these days, but probably so.  I would start there for sure.

I made it through two volumes of Mercy of a Rude Stream and felt that was more than enough.  The whole incest thing was a bit too much, particularly when his sister made it clear she wasn't happy with him publishing the details.  (I'm sure it plays a much smaller role in the later books, if it comes up at all, but the whole enterprise felt pretty tainted by that point.)

[ghost of miles]

16 hours ago, Brad said:

Unfortunately, Paul is no longer with us

Yeah, I forgot about that. 

16 hours ago, ejp626 said:

Call It Sleep is quite an achievement.  Don't know if I would still like it quite as much these days, but probably so.  I would start there for sure.

I made it through two volumes of Mercy of a Rude Stream and felt that was more than enough.  The whole incest thing was a bit too much, particularly when his sister made it clear she wasn't happy with him publishing the details.  (I'm sure it plays a much smaller role in the later books, if it comes up at all, but the whole enterprise felt pretty tainted by that point.)

Thanks for the feedback—it will probably be awhile before I’m able to delve into the Mercy books, but I’ll definitely start with Call It Sleep. I also have Shifting Landscape, which gathers a number of Roth’s essays and short stories together, including what remains of his aborted second novel.