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[jazzbo]

Philip K Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Another great Dick title!

I re-read that book for the first time at the end of the seventies right after the relationship with the first woman I'd lived with turned sour and ended. It was really helpful to me somehow.

[Jimmer]

I have both Bierce books now and am enjoying them, but I want to correct a mistake I made in my first post about them. I was wrong about the number of stories they have in common. In the Dover a number of stories are grouped under headings like “The Way of Ghosts,” and in the table of contents only these headings appear, which make them seem like the titles to stories. Looking at the table of contents on Amazon, then, did not reveal how many of the same stories are also in the Penguin. Twenty-two of the stories are the same. In total, the Dover has thirty-seven stories and the Penguin thirty-six, so there are fifteen different ones in the Dover and fourteen in the Penguin. If you like Bierce, I think they’re both worth owning, but the Dover might be the better buy because it has the celebrated “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” while the Penguin doesn’t.

[porcy62]

Uki Goni : The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina.

[sidewinder]

John Kruth 'Bright Moments - The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk'

Uki Goni : The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina.

Via KLM? Heard a good BBC radio documentary on that a year or so back.

[A Lark Ascending]

Must be about book number eight.

This one is set in Paris in late 1938/early 1939, revolving around the anti-fascist Italian emigre community and the attempts by Mussolini's secret service to silence them. As gripping and atmospheric as ever.

Edited August 29, 2009 by Bev Stapleton

[porcy62]

John Kruth 'Bright Moments - The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk'

Uki Goni : The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina.

Via KLM? Heard a good BBC radio documentary on that a year or so back.

Via KLM, Red Cross, Switzerland, Vatican, Spain, Italy, ecc. Lots of roads for the ratline.

It is "fascinating" how the Cold War suddenly upgraded all those war criminals up to anticommunists and freedom fighters. It seems that being responsable of the deportation and death of thousands worths less then being a commie's hater.

Though there were some valid arguments for it, from a pure strategical point of view, I think they call it "real politik".

What shocked more the author is the fact that some countries like Argentina, Vatican, UK and Switzerland destroyed the archives or still denied access to the documents.

In this way our US friends with the FOIA are still a step ahead in the scale of information's democracy.

[Matthew]

The Stranger From paradise: A Biography Of William Blake by G. E. Bently Jr. Incredibly fascinating!

[Niko]

just finished (in english had read it in german before)

Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

the state of "English magic" is funnily reminiscent of the state of jazz, it has, so to say, become a domain of bearded collectors ("theoretical magicians" who cannot do any magic and say they do not want to), discussions about the whether it would be desirable to perform magic again, endless discussions about at what point exactly things started to go downhill, whether the raven king deserves a central position in the history of magic... of the over 1000 pages, 400 could be missing imho (notably everything which is not situated in england or is too closely related to world history, napoleon and all) but still i like it a lot; is wynton marsalis one of the bearded collectors? (was shocked to find out that at work i'm counted as one of those with a beard, will have to shave more regularly)

[sal]

"Inherent Vice" - Thomas Pynchon

[sal]

"Memories of My Melancholy Whores" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

[porcy62]

Robert Wilson - A Small Death in Lisbon

[A Lark Ascending]

Robert Wilson - A Small Death in Lisbon

An excellent thriller writer. I've been through all the Falcon novels, apart from the most recent which is sat on a shelf, waiting to be read soon.

[porcy62]

Robert Wilson - A Small Death in Lisbon

An excellent thriller writer. I've been through all the Falcon novels, apart from the most recent which is sat on a shelf, waiting to be read soon.

Indeed! This is the first Wilson's book I read, last week I was on holyday in a remote Sicily's island and I was short of books, so I grabbed this one in the tiny bookstore of the town.

[jlhoots]

Tana French: In The Woods

[A Lark Ascending]

Robert Wilson - A Small Death in Lisbon

An excellent thriller writer. I've been through all the Falcon novels, apart from the most recent which is sat on a shelf, waiting to be read soon.

Indeed! This is the first Wilson's book I read, last week I was on holyday in a remote Sicily's island and I was short of books, so I grabbed this one in the tiny bookstore of the town.

The Hidden Assassins (2006), his last but one novel with a strong theme based around contemporary terrorism, is especially gripping. I also particularly enjoyed 'The Company of Strangers'. Like Alan Furst, Wilson his a real feel for the 30s and 40s.

I'm reading the first of these and will then progress onto something very similar:

The first is a lovely, funny, nostalgic read, telling the story of the LP from its original appearance in the late 40s up to the recent past. Great chapter on mood music LPs (Mantovani etc...the ones whose covers are forever turning up here in those album cover threads).

Edited September 13, 2009 by Bev Stapleton

[Serioza]

Mario Puzo- Sicilian

[sal]

"Now Wait For Last Year" - Philip K. Dick

Edited September 13, 2009 by sal

[Harold_Z]

Robert Wilson - A Small Death in Lisbon

I read that some years ago and really enjoyed it - it's due for a revisit soon. In the same vein is Wilson's The Company Of Strangers. Also very enjoyable.

I'm currently reading Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives. Bolano is great. This is the second book I'm reading (2666 was the first) by him and all the accolades I've read about Bolano are merited. He was a major writer.

[ghost of miles]

This MIT Press book looks really interesting (and haunting):

Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals

...with a foreword by Oliver Sacks, an adaptation of which appears in the new NY Review of Books. The bulk of the book apparently consists of photographs that Christopher Payne took inside shut-down, abandoned state mental hospitals across the country.

Here in Indiana I've always been drawn to the former state mental hospital in Madison (way down in the southeastern corner of the state, on some bluffs overlooking the Ohio River...the town, btw, where they filmed the movie version of SOME CAME RUNNING). It, too, is a beautiful but somewhat spooky place. I think it's still open as a facility, though I'm not sure it's associated with the state anymore.

[ghost of miles]

This MIT Press book looks really interesting (and haunting):

Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals

...with a foreword by Oliver Sacks, an adaptation of which appears in the new NY Review of Books. The bulk of the book apparently consists of photographs that Christopher Payne took inside shut-down, abandoned state mental hospitals across the country.

Here in Indiana I've always been drawn to the former state mental hospital in Madison (way down in the southeastern corner of the state, on some bluffs overlooking the Ohio River...the town, btw, where they filmed the movie version of SOME CAME RUNNING). It, too, is a beautiful but somewhat spooky place. I think it's still open as a facility, though I'm not sure it's associated with the state anymore.

This blog post has links to some of Payne's photos--including a pretty amazing gallery of abandoned-asylum photos on his personal website.

Edited September 13, 2009 by ghost of miles

[Jazzmoose]

I've been reading early Michael Connelly books, to see how they hold up. After all, if they don't bear rereading, I'm sure the used book store, which rarely has them in stock, will give me trade credit for them.

The verdict? I wonder what I'll get in trade...

[BillF]

Just finished reading M J Hyland's three novels - How the Light Gets In, Carry Me Down and This Is How - because she's a friend of my daughter's.

[BillF]

Just read the first couple of chapters of Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire Of The Vanities". I don't really know why, but I absolutely love this so far.

With you on that, Richard! Supposed to be an eighties novel, but I only read it a couple of years ago and thought it was great! Also liked Wolfe's A Man in Full and I Am Charlotte Simmons.

[AllenLowe]

The Last Marlin, thanks to Niko, who mentioned that there is a bit of Tony Fruscella in it - excellent book, Fruscella comes off as a sad and self-destructive junkie, not surprisingly.

[Niko]

The Last Marlin, thanks to Niko, who mentioned that there is a bit of Tony Fruscella in it - excellent book, Fruscella comes off as a sad and self-destructive junkie, not surprisingly.

glad you like it! a tiny bit more about stella waitzkin and tony fruscella is in this book, didn't check exactly between this and the last marlin, but upon first sight there's not much additional information in there but some pictures of her art (it does say though that some of her glass pieces were molten from fruscella's liquor bottles)

http://books.google.com/books?id=3CdgUwZBN...kin&f=false

(it's called "Sublime spaces & visionary worlds: built environments of vernacular artists" by Leslie Umberger, Erika Lee Doss)

Edited September 16, 2009 by Niko