Dave James Posted April 8, 2006 Report Posted April 8, 2006 (edited) Just finished "Praying for Gil Hodges", the focus of which is the Dodgers World Series victory in 1955, but is as much, a story about growing up in the Borough of Brooklyn in the '50's. Just started "An Instance of the Fingerpost", a medieval mystery supposably along the lines of Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose." If it's half as good as "Name", I'll be very pleased. One I read awhile back that I'd highly recommend is "Father Joe, the Man Who Saved My Soul" by Tony Hendra. It's the story of the author's life long relatioship with a Benedictine monk, Father Joseph Warrilow. Some of you may recall Mr. Hendra as one of the original editors of The National Lampoon or as the writer of the Broadway play, "Lemmings" with Chevy Chase and John Belushi. He was also in the movie "Spinal Tap." If you need a lift, look no futher than this book. Up over and out. Edited April 8, 2006 by Dave James Quote
ghost of miles Posted April 30, 2006 Author Report Posted April 30, 2006 William McBrien's Cole Porter biography. Quote
HolyStitt Posted April 30, 2006 Report Posted April 30, 2006 'The Best And The Brightest ' is a true classic and a great work of historical importance. I've read it about three times. Needless to say it's lessons have been totally lost on this numbskull administration. Currently rereading PD James ' Innocent Blood'. Great book! I read it last Fall and had the same reaction. Have either of you folks read the LOA set Reporting Vietnam? Just finished Our Way or the Highway: Inside the Minnehaha Free State by Mary Losure. Now, I am starting The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman Quote
jazzbo Posted April 30, 2006 Report Posted April 30, 2006 Re-read the two K. W. Jeter "Blade Runner" books: The Edge of Human, and Replicant's Night. I'm of a divided mind about these. Some great parts. . . some parts that I just don't think fit. Writing is definitely not PhilDickian to me, but what do I know! Now breezing through the Ashley Kahn book on A Love Supreme. I like it more than its sister book about Kind of Blue. . . . Quote
jlhoots Posted April 30, 2006 Report Posted April 30, 2006 T. Cooper: Lipshitz 6 or Two Angry Blondes Quote
Matthew Posted May 3, 2006 Report Posted May 3, 2006 Eric Ambler: Cause for Alarm. Must say I was rather disappointed with this one; Ambler put together the elements for a great crime novel here: good characters, challenging situation, pre-WWII, but then does nothing with them, they just kind of hang around until the end. Mark this one as a great book missed because Ambler didn't take any chances here, just played it safe. Quote
Matthew Posted May 5, 2006 Report Posted May 5, 2006 (edited) Any Samuel Beckettfans here? Anyone have Samuel Beckett: Grove Centenary Edition, it's a four volume set that has Beckett's works and I'm wondering if I should take the plunge or not. Edited May 5, 2006 by Matthew Quote
paul secor Posted May 15, 2006 Report Posted May 15, 2006 I, Wabenzi by Rafi Zabor - Pretty much a waste of my time. Quote
kinuta Posted May 16, 2006 Report Posted May 16, 2006 Feeling gloomy so something easy to read Harlan Coben - The Final Detail Quote
ejp626 Posted May 16, 2006 Report Posted May 16, 2006 Finished Soldier's Art book 8 of Powell's Dance to the Music of Time. Overall it is a really interesting read, though occasionally Powell is a bit too proud of the structure/plotting of the books. This comes up in book 8 when two people are killed in the London Blitz. One who went to a party and one who stayed home. It is just a bit too much like the joke about the man who bumps into death in Bagdad and tries to outrun death, only to have death catch up with him in Samarra. The overplotting is even stronger in The Kindly Ones where one section ends with Nick's childhood figuratively coming to an end with the announcement of WWI, and the book ending with the beginning of WWI and Nick's decision to become a soldier at a relatively advanced age. Still, I like the series as a whole and should wrap it up in another couple of months. I just started a really interesting novel about life in Occupied France called Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. It's quite a work of art, somewhat overshadowed by the back-story that only 2 parts were completed before the author was taken away to the Nazi internment camps where she died. The book was saved by her young daughter who thought it was simply a diary and didn't have the heart to read it until 10 years or so ago. Quote
brownie Posted May 16, 2006 Report Posted May 16, 2006 Jean Echenoz's 'Ravel' a short, obsessive and intense novelization of Maurice Ravel's final years from the date he traveled to the United States in 1928. Ravel died ten years later. Great work of fiction by one of the current French literary masters. Echenoz is also a jazz connaisseur and has been inspired by the music in previous books. I also like the fact that he has remained true to the venerable Editions de Minuit literary house which have their covers look like Blue Note labels: Quote
ghost of miles Posted May 29, 2006 Author Report Posted May 29, 2006 Nelson Algren, CHICAGO: CITY ON THE MAKE. In some ways it's sort of a non-fiction historical epilogue to THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM. Quote
Matthew Posted May 29, 2006 Report Posted May 29, 2006 Just starting to get into David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest. Scary how the same mistakes are occuring now as in the past. Forward into the past I guess. Also saving two Eric Ambler's for my week vacation in April (waiting in airports and on airplanes): The Light of Day & Passage of Arms. I'm hooked on Ambler for some reason. Finished The Best and the Brightest last night, and it is a very impressive book; a person cannot help but compare it with what's going on now. What I found the saddest part of the book was the concern of advancing one's career with no thought to the human cost. This is a book I'll be reading again. Quote
jazzbo Posted May 29, 2006 Report Posted May 29, 2006 Rereading some Rex Stout, right now "Too Many Cooks." Quote
(BB) Posted May 29, 2006 Report Posted May 29, 2006 (edited) I have just finished Jim Harrison's The Road Home. One of the best books I have read in years. His characters are amazing. It is one of those stories that after I put the book down I have a hard time believing that these people don't actually exist somewhere in the world. I find the love of life and decency in all of his stories deeply inspiring. I can also recommend The Raw and The Cooked, a collection of food writing and The Summer He Didn't Die, A set of novellas. I have just started in on The Beast God Forgot to Invent, also by Harrison. Bill Edited May 29, 2006 by (BB) Quote
Bright Moments Posted May 29, 2006 Report Posted May 29, 2006 Graham Greene - Travels with my Aunt what a great writer! Quote
Harold_Z Posted May 30, 2006 Report Posted May 30, 2006 The Company Of Strangers by Robert Wilson. WWII espionage. I previously read and enjoyed A Small Death In Lisbon by the same author. Similar subject matter. Quote
JohnJ Posted May 30, 2006 Report Posted May 30, 2006 James Ellroy - "Destination Morgue" Definitely not primo Ellroy, but still entertaining if very OTT. Quote
paul secor Posted May 30, 2006 Report Posted May 30, 2006 'A Passion for Films - Henri Langlois and the Cinematheque Francaise' by Richard Roud - with a forward by Francois Truffaut Quote
ejp626 Posted May 30, 2006 Report Posted May 30, 2006 Graham Greene - Travels with my Aunt what a great writer! One of my favorite Greene novels. I also particularly liked Monsignor Quixote. Quote
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