Now reading...

[BillF]

Saw the film that was made from this. It wasn't bad, but I imagine the novel is superior.

I've only just found out that there was a film. I've put it on my rental list with Lovefilm. As the beauty of the book lies largely in its verbal felicities, I won't be able to draw direct comparisons between novel and film. I'll watch the film for its own sake.

I'm putting the novel on my to-read list.

Good reading!

Edited October 11, 2013 by BillF

[ejp626]

I've been reading a few books out on Virago lately, or attempting to. I really didn't care for E.H. Young's Chatterton Square and have abandoned it.

I am about 1/3 through Barbara Comyns' Our Spoons Came From Woolworths. It is definitely a curiousity. Comyns has a quirky "voice". In Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, she strikes me as a precursor to Angela Carter. A slightly breezier tone that covers some really dark stuff. Apparently The Vet's Daughter is along similar lines. Our Spoons Came From Woolworths is a bit more grounded in reality, but describes two very young and very feckless artists that marry (I believe this is fairly autobiographical). Reading it, you see that things weren't really different than today, and that the world probably would be better off if you needed a permit in order to reproduce. I find myself pretty alienated from the woman (who is also the narrative voice) as she not only makes mistake after mistake but doesn't seem to even feel the need to go to someone who is more worldly to find out anything -- how to use the bus system for example. Life just happens to her and she sits back and lets it roll over her. Her husband is even worse -- a totally failed artist who won't make any effort to support his growing family. I can't relate to such people and am finding myself annoyed with the book. Fortunately, it is short.

[BillF]

The story of Al Haig by an ex-wife. I had expected a fully organised biography and was surprised and disappointed to find 500 pages of undigested source materials culled from a vast array of sources; e.g. hundreds of verbatim recollections of Haig from people who knew him, arranged into chapters by decade and in alphabetical order of contributor's name.

The book also needed serious attention of a copy editor. There are numerous spelling errors, particularly of people's names ("Harold Maybern") and many meaningless "sentences":

" Al didn't impart like Lou Levy I thought when I found most of the jazz compers chords and feed and play along and sit down and give the piano Al could do that."

Here, failure to divide into two sentences turns jazz history on its head:

"Al Haig was one of the rare white musicians who influenced black musicians twenty years before Frankie Trumbauer influenced Benny Carter and Lester Young."

That said, I was fascinated by the book's revelations about a pianist whose work I love and and an era in jazz that's my favorite.

And, of course, I have no misgivings whatever about the excellent contribution of Mr Allen Lowe on pp. 430-31.

Edited October 10, 2013 by BillF

[jlhoots]

John Sandford: Shock Wave

Great airplane read.

[medjuck]

Hey Alice Munro just won the Nobel Prize for Literature!

[BillF]

Hey Alice Munro just won the Nobel Prize for Literature!

Well deserved! She isn't a giant, but then we don't live in an age of giants.

[jlhoots]

Hey Alice Munro just won the Nobel Prize for Literature!

Well deserved! She isn't a giant, but then we don't live in an age of giants.

I believe it's well deserved too.

Will they ever get around to giving it to Roth or does he have to die first??

[king ubu]

The story of Al Haig by an ex-wife. I had expected a fully organised biography and was surprised and disappointed to find 500 pages of undigested source materials culled from a vast array of sources; e.g. hundreds of verbatim recollections of Haig from people who knew him, arranged into chapters by decade and in alphabetical order of contributor's name.

The book also needed serious attention of a copy editor. There are numerous spelling errors, particularly of people's names ("Harold Maybern") and many meaningless "sentences":

" Al didn't impart like Lou Levy I thought when I found most of the jazz compers chords and feed and play along and sit down and give the piano Al could do that."

Here, failure to divide into two sentences turns jazz history on its head:

"Al Haig was one of the rare white musicians who influenced black musicians twenty years before Frankie Trumbauer influenced Benny Carter and Lester Young."

That said, I was fascinated by the book's revelations about a pianist whose work I love and and an era in jazz that's my favorite.

And, of course, I have no misgivings whatever about the excellent contribution of Mr Allen Lowe on pp. 430-31.

But, but, Mayburn would be a most correct spelling ... there's so many spellings in english that don't make no sense anyway.

[Blue Train]

Hey Alice Munro just won the Nobel Prize for Literature!

Well deserved! She isn't a giant, but then we don't live in an age of giants.

I believe it's well deserved too.

Will they ever get around to giving it to Roth or does he have to die first??

I liked all of her books that I read...and I am glad @ least it wasn't one of their obscure and/or political choices. Only the Peace Prize is more of a joke these days. Speaking of the Peace Prize....what a joke of a pick.

They don't give any Nobel to anyone that dies...and don't hold your breath on an American winning anytime soon.

P.S. There are still giants out there...and like the Oscars, Grammys and similar....you can put together a vastly better list of those that didn't win than those that did.

Edited October 11, 2013 by Blue Train

[B. Goren.]

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Just finished

Early American vocal groups: 100 years of harmony 1850-1950 - Friedman & Gribin

An interesting read which I found recommended on Unca Marvy's R&B page. No wonder, a lot of the references come from him

Its a little light on history - only 80/90 pages of history. The meat of the book is the Groupography, listing all the groups they can trace, their personnel, location, date, recording activity where known. There's also a discography, which I passed over finding that, not only were the groups in alphabetical order (not unreasonable) but for each group, the songs were in alphabetical order!!!

The most fascinating part of the book for me was that dealing with groups' appearances on the covers of sheet music and postcards. I could have done with more of that. The postcard of The Breakfast Four, who appeared on Westinghouse stations WBZ-WBZA around 1940, showing them sitting around a breakfast table in dressing gowns, is wonderful.

Good bibliography (though Allen Lowe not mentioned) and some nice compilation CDs of old records listed.

Not essential reading, but not uninteresting.

MG

[BillF]

Saw the film that was made from this. It wasn't bad, but I imagine the novel is superior.

I've only just found out that there was a film. I've put it on my rental list with Lovefilm. As the beauty of the book lies largely in its verbal felicities, I won't be able to draw direct comparisons between novel and film. I'll watch the film for its own sake.

I'm putting the novel on my to-read list.

Good reading!

Just watched the film, which I found disappointing. Sentimentality, in which the musical score plays a major part, has replaced the incisive social satire of the novel.

[ejp626]

Have gotten totally sidelined from Proust (to the point I am seriously questioning whether I will finish this). Read Barbara Comyns's The Vet's Daughter, which was also odd, like a precursor to Angela Carter's work. Didn't really like it that much. I think Comyns is an acquired taste.

I have also been reading a lot of poetry: George Bowering (of which my favorite collections have been Delayed Mercy and Vermeer's Light), George Stanley (I liked Vancouver: A poem quite a bit), Constance Urdang, Maureen Seaton and Denise Duhamel.

[Larry Kart]

Rick Atkinson's "The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944"

I thought I knew a fair bit about the Italian campaign, but it was far worse than I'd thought -- one screw up after another, with Anzio and Monte Cassino topping the list so far. Allied generalship was largely execrable, with Churchill doing some unconscionable wishful meddling, German forces were formidable and often brilliantly led, and the whole idea of fighting our way up narrow mountainous Italy virtually squandered the Allied advantage of material superiority -- poor terrain for tanks, etc. Atkinson's previous volume "An Army At Dawn," about the North African campaign was also harrowing.

[Jazzmoose]

Yes, it's the sequel to the book I panned previously. What can I say; I ordered both at the same time, and with my current budget, it's a matter of "damn it, you bought it; you're going to read it!". However, this one is a step up from the first one. I'm about half way through, and I admit, it's entertaining. The Keith Laumer/Harry Harrison comparison still holds, but I'd drop the "not as good as" for this one. Having military experience is probably a big aid to enjoying this, however.

[jlhoots]

Bob Shacochis: The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

[Jerry_L]

Deception Point [Kindle Edition]

Dan Brown (Author)

I'm actually reading a paperback copy someone gave me.

[Guy Berger]

Alan Furst - Night Soldiers

I finally read John LeCarre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which I loved, and naturally jumped to Night Soldiers next. Fantastic. The section in Civil War wracked Spain was particularly amazing. Now onto Dark Star. And it looks like, per Bev's recommendation, I should also check out David Downing.

[A Lark Ascending]

I finally read John LeCarre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which I loved, and naturally jumped to Night Soldiers next. Fantastic. The section in Civil War wracked Spain was particularly amazing. Now onto Dark Star. And it looks like, per Bev's recommendation, I should also check out David Downing.

The Downing books are not as hard-edged as Furst. The main characters - the American journalist, his German girlfriend and half-German son by a previous marriage all pull in your sympathies and provide a slightly sentimental thread through the novels. With Furst you feel the characters are emotionally (and often morally) adrift in an ever-shifting world, forming temporary alliances.

The Downing books are best read in sequence as a story unfolds from one to the next. You can read the Furst books in any order as the did not come out in a chronological sequence.

I've just finished the Orwell bio mentioned earlier - what a strange (and often unlikeable) man he was.

Now on another novel set against the backdrop of mid-20thC Europe:

[Jazzmoose]

This one reminds me of old time SF. It's better at the SF part than the writing part. But then, I'm only about a quarter of the way through, so that's unfair.

Edited October 24, 2013 by Jazzmoose

[Blue Train]

New short story from Haruki Murakami in the New Yorker. It's a variation on Kafka's The Metamorphosis.

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2013/10/28/131028fi_fiction_murakami?currentPage=all

Edited October 27, 2013 by Blue Train

[jlhoots]

Jhumpa Lahiri: The Lowland

[Jerry_L]

This one has some bad reviews, but I'll see how far I can get with it. The topic is timely, but his treatment is dated.

[A Lark Ascending]

Juggling these three:

[BillF]