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A fascinating tale of a famous set of stories told from a different side of the fence.

I think we're living in a golden age for popular history. It's great to see so many books around with real narrative drive.

Finished this - highly recommended if you like an exciting telling of the story of Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes and the collision with Athens and Sparta. The author looks very young, almost punkish and his style can be a bit breathless and and tabloid-ish with lots of use of contemporary terms to describe these events (part of his aim - to indicate the relevance of these events to our world). I imagine lovers of 'fine writing' will be outraged and immediately turn to their Herodotus but everyone else is promised a good time.

Edited by Bev Stapleton
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I imagine lovers of 'fine writing' will be outraged and immediately turn to their Herodotus but everyone else is promised a good time.

You know, that one sentence is enough to qualify as a great review for me; I'll add it to my list! :lol:

Currently reading Crunch by Jared Bernstein. I was hoping for something along the lines of Levitt and Dubner's Freakonomics (which is kind of like James Burke's Connections, but on economics), but this isn't it. It's a book on economics written for those clueless about economics. I have to admit that it's interesting to read a book written right before things went batshit that warns that things are worse than we think and could very well go batshit...

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Gabriel Garcia Marquez - "Chronicle of a Death Foretold"

The only other Marquez I've read is "100 Years of Solitude", which I absolutely loved. I'm hoping his other works are, including the one I'm reading now, somewhat comparable.

Edited by sal
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Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter Of Maladies

I thought this collection definitely had its moments, but felt that her novel The Namesake was almost a quantum leap above this in terms of the themes and characters. So if you like Interpreter, you will definitely like The Namesake. She has a new novel, which I haven't gotten yet, but will get around to fairly soon.

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Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter Of Maladies

I thought this collection definitely had its moments, but felt that her novel The Namesake was almost a quantum leap above this in terms of the themes and characters. So if you like Interpreter, you will definitely like The Namesake. She has a new novel, which I haven't gotten yet, but will get around to fairly soon.

I'm going "backwards".

Already read her new collection of stories, Unaccustomed Earth (excellent BTW), & The Namesake.

Since Interpreter Of Maladies won the Pulitzer, I thought I should read it too.

I'm through the 1st 3 stories - so far, so good.

Saw her recently in person do a reading & an interview. A class act for sure.

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Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter Of Maladies

I thought this collection definitely had its moments, but felt that her novel The Namesake was almost a quantum leap above this in terms of the themes and characters. So if you like Interpreter, you will definitely like The Namesake. She has a new novel, which I haven't gotten yet, but will get around to fairly soon.

I'm going "backwards".

Already read her new collection of stories, Unaccustomed Earth (excellent BTW), & The Namesake.

Since Interpreter Of Maladies won the Pulitzer, I thought I should read it too.

I'm through the 1st 3 stories - so far, so good.

Saw her recently in person do a reading & an interview. A class act for sure.

I have "Interpreter of Maladies" but have yet to read it yet. Heard many good things about it.

I'm starting "Martian Time Slip" by Philip K. Dick today.

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About 90 pages in and it's hooked me.

I finally finished the first three books ( my son gave me the boxed edition where they're in one volume and the last two books each get their own volume) but read a couple of other things at the same time: Mordecai Richler's "Barney's Version" and Alan Furst's "Night Soldiers."

Anyone else here into Furst?

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Anyone else here into Furst?

A while since I read one and think I'm two behind, but the first 5 or six are excellent. Takes you to parts of the pre-War/WWII world you don't usually think about (e.g. the Balkans). 30 years ago these would have been ripe for BBC serialisation.

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Anyone else here into Furst?

A while since I read one and think I'm two behind, but the first 5 or six are excellent. Takes you to parts of the pre-War/WWII world you don't usually think about (e.g. the Balkans). 30 years ago these would have been ripe for BBC serialisation.

Wait, who's on Furst?

Edited by ejp626
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I'm reading some of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, as I don't want to jump into a new novel quite yet. Chuck Palahniuk's "Pygmy" comes out this week and I'd like to read that as soon as I can get a copy of it.

This morning, I read the story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". Wonderful!

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I'm reading some of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, as I don't want to jump into a new novel quite yet.

the sun also rises is one of my favorite books and i've read it quite a few times - strangely i never made through more than 50 pages of any of the others....

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I'm reading some of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, as I don't want to jump into a new novel quite yet.

the sun also rises is one of my favorite books and i've read it quite a few times - strangely i never made through more than 50 pages of any of the others....

You're ahead of me; all I've read of Hemingway is short stories.

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I'm reading some of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, as I don't want to jump into a new novel quite yet.

the sun also rises is one of my favorite books and i've read it quite a few times - strangely i never made through more than 50 pages of any of the others....

You're ahead of me; all I've read of Hemingway is short stories.

Time you gave A Farewell to Arms a try!

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