A Lark Ascending Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcy62 Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 The Stranger From paradise: A Biography Of William Blake by G. E. Bently Jr. Incredibly fascinating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 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) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sal Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 "Inherent Vice" - Thomas Pynchon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sal Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcy62 Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Robert Wilson - A Small Death in Lisbon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcy62 Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 12, 2009 Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 Tana French: In The Woods Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted September 12, 2009 Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serioza Posted September 12, 2009 Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 Mario Puzo- Sicilian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sal Posted September 13, 2009 Report Share Posted September 13, 2009 (edited) "Now Wait For Last Year" - Philip K. Dick Edited September 13, 2009 by sal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold_Z Posted September 13, 2009 Report Share Posted September 13, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted September 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted September 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2009 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavenport Posted September 15, 2009 Report Share Posted September 15, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted September 15, 2009 Report Share Posted September 15, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavenport Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 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. I think I may well be checking out more Tom Wolfe after this Bill! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldB3 Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 niko - actually, Stella has an entire website devoted to her work, a memorial trust type of thing - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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