Now reading...

[Brad]

13 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

😯 I just reread TSAR last summer (in the new LOA edition) and think I remember seeing a reference around that time to this particular book. 
 

Getting ready to start this newly-arrived NYRB Classic:

Wonderful book. 

[Bluesnik]

On 10/9/2021 at 10:01 PM, BillF said:

Joe Orton appeared (characterized by some actor) in a movie I once saw. I just don't remember which movie. He was living in Tangier in the early 60s, when a lot of beats lived there. And Bowles, of course. And that life in Tangier appeared in the movie. I still have the image of him and his partner lying in the sun on a rooftop in my mind.

[mjazzg]

This one perhaps? Very good, written by Bennett and two very good actors in Oldman and Molina

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prick_Up_Your_Ears

In the 80s I worked in the public library department where he and Halliwell had defaced the book sleeves. Ironically they'd become the prizes of the collection

 

[BillF]

58 minutes ago, Bluesnik said:

Joe Orton appeared (characterized by some actor) in a movie I once saw. I just don't remember which movie. He was living in Tangier in the early 60s, when a lot of beats lived there. And Bowles, of course. And that life in Tangier appeared in the movie. I still have the image of him and his partner lying in the sun on a rooftop in my mind.

Yes, there's a photo in the biography of Orton, his partner (and later, murderer) Kenneth Halliwell and British actor Kenneth Williams.

Here it is (l to r: Orton, Williams, Halliwell):

 

[Bluesnik]

Oh, great. Thanks. I didn't know he'd been murdered by his partner. Though it sure is in the movie. But I remember it very hazily. Probably long ago.

3 hours ago, mjazzg said:

This one perhaps? Very good, written by Bennett and two very good actors in Oldman and Molina

Yes it was that one. Sure. For some reason I mixed it up with My beautiful launderette and thought it was something else.

[jlhoots]

Edith Wharton: The Age Of Innocence - for our book club.

[BillF]

[BillF]

[ghost of miles]

I’ve read four of Kevin Starr’s California history volumes—the ones covering the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 1950-1963—but never realized until a phone conversation with a friend several nights ago that there was a second 1930s entry that serves as an interstitial piece in Starr’s narrative. Now eagerly diving into it, as I’ve greatly enjoyed the four that I already read in the early aughts:

[BillF]

[sidewinder]

Oxfam find - interesting read, compiling their judgement on key recordings by the decade.

[jlhoots]

Louise Erdrich: The Sentence

[jlhoots]

Jill McCorkle: Hieroglyphics

[BillF]

[mjazzg]

1 hour ago, BillF said:

Any good?  I never enjoy McEwan novels as much as all the hype suggests I should but always willing to give him another shot

[BillF]

7 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Any good?  I never enjoy McEwan novels as much as all the hype suggests I should but always willing to give him another shot

 

Well, who's better in this country today? Dwarfed, though, I'd say, by the likes of Jonathan Franzen and Richard Ford, but they're American. 

As in jazz, a shortage of giants today IMHO.

[Gheorghe]

I usually order my books by Romanian online libraries. I

This one is very fine. 

Sure I "could" read it in english, but that would take to much time, I might have to use the dictionary quite often......

[mjazzg]

On 18/12/2021 at 7:08 PM, BillF said:

Well, who's better in this country today?

Benjamin Myers would get my vote but then again I'm no huge McEwan fan as I said

Edited December 20, 2021 by mjazzg

[mjazzg]

Xmas gift

[Rabshakeh]

46 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Xmas gift

Wow. Looks good.

On 18/12/2021 at 6:53 PM, mjazzg said:

Any good?  I never enjoy McEwan novels as much as all the hype suggests I should but always willing to give him another shot

I'm with you on the first. I find that he tends to meet expectations at best.

[BillF]

[ghost of miles]

One of several books in progress right now:

[BillF]

[Bluesnik]

On 12/13/2021 at 9:30 AM, BillF said:

Oh, I recently read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which I liked.

Edited January 7, 2022 by Bluesnik

[jlhoots]

Finally got around to Franzen: Corrections. Liking it.