BillF Posted December 20, 2010 Report Share Posted December 20, 2010 Back to the classics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted December 21, 2010 Report Share Posted December 21, 2010 Finally got around to finishing "The Terrorists," the final Martin Beck novel. I'd been going slow with it because I didn't want it to end. Great series. Great series. There were a couple of good films based on it. One American (The Laughing Policeman) and one Swedish (Man on the Roof-- based on The Abominable Man). Great read. I'm almost through it. I keep reading reviews that say how great that it's more about music then sex and drugs. Sure there's some stuff about music but not nearly as much as there is about sex and drugs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 I guess this can go here as well as anywhere. I think Stefan Zweig's name has come up a couple of times. Anyway, there are a few days left to hear a radio adaptation of his chess-based novella The Royal Game: Zweig It shares many characteristics with Nabokov's The Defense. Wasn't super crazy about either, but liked Zweig's a bit better. I have started reading Treasure Island to my son, who now seems old enough not to be completely scared of pirates. It should take a week or two. After this, it will be Kidnapped. Hard to believe, but I've never read either up to now. As far as my own reading, I did start Shamsie's Kartography, which seems promising. Somewhere towards the end of the month, I am going to tackle Mahfouz's The Cairo Trilogy. I'm excited but a little daunted. Also I think it is too bulky to take on the train, which would slow me down considerably! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Goren. Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 Heinrich Böll: The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 After this, it will be Kidnapped. Hard to believe, but I've never read either up to now. Read it as a boy and have never forgotten David Balfour's ascent of the stairway. Still, I'll leave it to you ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 Roberto Bolano: The Insufferable Gaucho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikelz777 Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War - Karl Marlantes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted December 24, 2010 Report Share Posted December 24, 2010 James Hanley: Against the Stream A fine writer who seems to fly under the radar - at least in the U.S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GA Russell Posted December 24, 2010 Report Share Posted December 24, 2010 I've learned this week about a website called goodreads.com, which is something of a social website for readers. I've decided to keep track of my books in 2011, so I have started a list which you can see here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4689852 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted December 24, 2010 Report Share Posted December 24, 2010 Jennifer Egan: A Visit From The Goon Squad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Van Basten II Posted December 24, 2010 Report Share Posted December 24, 2010 (edited) Heinrich Böll: The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. Are Criterion making books now, are they as expensive as their DVDs ? Seriously, I guess you could not find an image of the book so you put a picture of the DVD instead. Edited December 24, 2010 by Van Basten II Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavenport Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 Albert Camus - The Plague Enjoying this very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 Lisa Arana: Lima Nights Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Albert Camus - The Plague Enjoying this very much. You know, I picked up a copy of that in '76, and still haven't read it... I guess it was the tail end of my Camus obsession, and I just never got to it. But I transport it from place to place rather than getting rid of it, so I guess there's still hope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elissa Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 = Now on: Part of a great 30s/40s series (they overlap but are not a series or chronological). This one is based in Poland in 1937. Read a few of these, awfully good aren't they. Very romantic, the Polish resistance. Just saw the new Peter Weir film, The Way Back, tonight about a number of fellows, some Poles among them, who escaped from the Gulags in Siberia and WALKED to India. Astounding cinematography even if a lil predictable. It was in a double bill with the new Mike Leigh, Another Year, which I loved. I'm reading Robt Gottlieb's new bio of Sarah Bernhardt now, which is a great read - a christmas gift I've almost polished off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavenport Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Albert Camus - The Plague Enjoying this very much. You know, I picked up a copy of that in '76, and still haven't read it... I guess it was the tail end of my Camus obsession, and I just never got to it. But I transport it from place to place rather than getting rid of it, so I guess there's still hope. It's been on my shelf for months. It's quite apt at the minute, as we are on the verge of a flu epidemic/pandemic (can't remember which) here in England, with a nice little pocket where I live, in the North West. Are you listening Bill? I've only ever read "The Fall" of Camus, and I enjoyed that too. Not so much for the "existential" thing, but his prose, which I find pleasingly spare, yet substantial. I seem to recall some liner notes applying the same sentiments to Monk - compared it to roast beef - much meat, no sauce. May have been the Sonny Rollins meets Monk LP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Albert Camus - The Plague Enjoying this very much. You know, I picked up a copy of that in '76, and still haven't read it... I guess it was the tail end of my Camus obsession, and I just never got to it. But I transport it from place to place rather than getting rid of it, so I guess there's still hope. It's been on my shelf for months. It's quite apt at the minute, as we are on the verge of a flu epidemic/pandemic (can't remember which) here in England, with a nice little pocket where I live, in the North West. Are you listening Bill? Indeed I am - and I got my free anti-flu injection for the over-65s last week! As for Camus, far and away the most significant one for me has always been The Outsider (L'étranger). I've read it twice in English and twice in French - its very short length and plain-statement style made the latter possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 I've never read it in French (it's a crime in the U.S. to know more than one language...), but that was my favorite, followed by The Fall. I read it first as an impressionable teen, so it became a big influence on my thinking, for better or worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 A page turner even though there was more gratuitous violence than I care for; and the characters were cardboard cut-out. None of the depth of Mankell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas I really enjoyed this one. I wasn't that taken with Number9Dream. Haven't read his latest two, but will probably get to them one day. On a bit of a tangent, I am wondering when Murakami's 1Q84 comes out in English. I was somewhere where I actually saw it in Japanese (probably just the first volume), but it would have been pointless and pretentious to have bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted January 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 (edited) Over the past couple of days, these two: Edited January 3, 2011 by ghost of miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) Loved this. See-saws between grim murder mystery and tall, whimsical tale. I think the latter just wins out. A larger than life tale but a fun one. Now on: Leon's books always make me hungry - Inspector Brunetti's wife always makes such wonderful meals! Edited January 4, 2011 by A Lark Ascending Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavenport Posted January 8, 2011 Report Share Posted January 8, 2011 Solzhenitsyn - The First Circle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jostber Posted January 8, 2011 Report Share Posted January 8, 2011 (edited) Norman Lewis - I Came, I Saw Edited January 8, 2011 by jostber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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