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[jlhoots]

David Fulmer: The Iron Angel

[BillF]

Long time since I read it, but I recall it as one of the best of the Greenes

I just started, but there's from the get-go that understated scene and character-setting mastery that really impressed me in The End of the Affair (the only other Greene novel I read).

Yes, I like End of the Affair too. I've read almost all of his stuff, but the other ones I go back to are Gun for Sale, Confidential Agent and Ministry of Fear and from a later period, The Quiet American.

[paul secor]

Long time since I read it, but I recall it as one of the best of the Greenes

I just started, but there's from the get-go that understated scene and character-setting mastery that really impressed me in The End of the Affair (the only other Greene novel I read).

Yes, I like End of the Affair too. I've read almost all of his stuff, but the other ones I go back to are Gun for Sale, Confidential Agent and Ministry of Fear and from a later period, The Quiet American.

I liked the book, but it's not a favorite.

My Goodreads review: "Duty, duty, duty. It will do you in."

[A Lark Ascending]

The 10 best independent bookshops in the world – readers recommend

The only one I've been to is Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Never even knew about the one in Bath...though there is another excellent independent there as an alternative to Waterstones (http://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/)

Love the idea of the bookshop 'somewhere on the London canals'.

Where I just can't be bothered with record CD/shops these days I still love a long browse in a book shop.

Edited June 19, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

Polished this off in a week. Very good analysis of the way the 'scandal' was manipulated by the press. The writer is a toff himself and assumes that any opposition to extreme inequitable wealth must be based on envy...but otherwise, very impressive.

Excellent Vietnam based novel by someone who was there. Stumbled on his Profumo era recent novel a few weeks back. If you like Cold War era thrillers, worth a go.

Still on the Blake book but that is proving tough going. Somewhat formulaic with every publication getting a brief description, explanation of the engraving and list of the price of sale at various points and number of copies surviving. Not that analytical on Blake's view of the world....that may come later.

[johnblitweiler]

The 10 best independent bookshops in the world – readers recommend

The only one I've been to is Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Never even knew about the one in Bath...though there is another excellent independent there as an alternative to Waterstones (http://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/)

Love the idea of the bookshop 'somewhere on the London canals'.

Where I just can't be bothered with record CD/shops these days I still love a long browse in a book shop.

I love a good long browse too but browse less these days because of the temptation to actually buy books and read them at home. Re the Guardian article, I've been to 3 of those stores: Strand (I'll go back when I'm in NY next month), Shakespeare & Co. (a purportedly American literary bookstore that [shock!] didn't have WC Williams' Collected Poems) (it has been said that there's a superior English-language bookstore elsewhere in Paris), and City Lights, a disappointment, a tourist trap. As compensation, not far away, there's a very good second-hand bookstore in mid-Berkeley, don't recall the name.

New Yorkers - are any bookstores that specialize in poetry trucked away somewhere in some of the boroughs? How about second-hand bookstores that have a lot of good old noir / hard-boiled / golden-age sf paperbacks?

[ejp626]

The 10 best independent bookshops in the world – readers recommend

The only one I've been to is Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Never even knew about the one in Bath...though there is another excellent independent there as an alternative to Waterstones (http://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/)

Love the idea of the bookshop 'somewhere on the London canals'.

Where I just can't be bothered with record CD/shops these days I still love a long browse in a book shop.

I love a good long browse too but browse less these days because of the temptation to actually buy books and read them at home. Re the Guardian article, I've been to 3 of those stores: Strand (I'll go back when I'm in NY next month), Shakespeare & Co. (a purportedly American literary bookstore that [shock!] didn't have WC Williams' Collected Poems) (it has been said that there's a superior English-language bookstore elsewhere in Paris), and City Lights, a disappointment, a tourist trap. As compensation, not far away, there's a very good second-hand bookstore in mid-Berkeley, don't recall the name.

New Yorkers - are any bookstores that specialize in poetry trucked away somewhere in some of the boroughs? How about second-hand bookstores that have a lot of good old noir / hard-boiled / golden-age sf paperbacks?

I wonder if the Berkeley book store was Moe's or Pegasus. To be honest, I usually only go into Half Price Books, which is right near the campus, but I can browse for a long time when in the mood.

It looks like Mercer St. Books is still there in Greenwich Village (206 Mercer), but I haven't been in there in ages, so I don't know if it still holds up. It used to be my 2nd favorite bookstore in New York after the Strand.

[paul secor]

The 10 best independent bookshops in the world – readers recommend

The only one I've been to is Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Never even knew about the one in Bath...though there is another excellent independent there as an alternative to Waterstones (http://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/)

Love the idea of the bookshop 'somewhere on the London canals'.

Where I just can't be bothered with record CD/shops these days I still love a long browse in a book shop.

I love a good long browse too but browse less these days because of the temptation to actually buy books and read them at home. Re the Guardian article, I've been to 3 of those stores: Strand (I'll go back when I'm in NY next month), Shakespeare & Co. (a purportedly American literary bookstore that [shock!] didn't have WC Williams' Collected Poems) (it has been said that there's a superior English-language bookstore elsewhere in Paris), and City Lights, a disappointment, a tourist trap. As compensation, not far away, there's a very good second-hand bookstore in mid-Berkeley, don't recall the name.

New Yorkers - are any bookstores that specialize in poetry trucked away somewhere in some of the boroughs? How about second-hand bookstores that have a lot of good old noir / hard-boiled / golden-age sf paperbacks?

I wonder if the Berkeley book store was Moe's or Pegasus. To be honest, I usually only go into Half Price Books, which is right near the campus, but I can browse for a long time when in the mood.

It looks like Mercer St. Books is still there in Greenwich Village (206 Mercer), but I haven't been in there in ages, so I don't know if it still holds up. It used to be my 2nd favorite bookstore in New York after the Strand.

I've never been to Mercer St. Books, but their Facebook page is fairly current, so it seems they're still in business. Looks like a very good and interesting (in the best sense of that word) bookstore.

[jeffcrom]

I visited Mercer St. Books last week. I would have been happy spending a few hours there, but I had a tired wife with me, so I kept the visit short. I walked out with the two-volume Berger/Berger/Patrick biography and discography of Benny Carter and the 1948 edition of Charles Delauney's Hot Discography.

Patti Smith had apparently recently sold them some books - they had a table of books "from Patti's Smith's library."

[A Lark Ascending]

(it has been said that there's a superior English-language bookstore elsewhere in Paris)

The last time I saw Paris there was a WH Smith that was a million times better than your average WH Smith in the UK (W.H. Smith is the main stationary/newspaper/book shop you find in nearly every British town).

It seems to still be there, not far from the Louvre.

http://www.whsmith.fr/

I suspect there are other independents.

One of the best places I've been to for English language books outside English speaking countries is Sweden. Every book shop had a large English section. Didn't have to worry about using up my holiday reads.

Edited June 21, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[alankin]

Alan Furst - Blood of Victory

 

[paul secor]

Colin Dexter: The Riddle of the Third Mile

[jlhoots]

Szwed's Billie Holiday book

[alankin]

Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark – The Blackbird

[Head Man]

Just finished this. An interesting story but I found the writing style rather uninvolving...something lost in translation, maybe?

 

[ejp626]

I have wrapped up The Restless Supermarket.  It is quite an interesting achievement.  I would definitely recommend it for fans of word play.  It doesn't quite rise to the level of Nabokov or Joyce, but not too far off.  However, it is somewhat difficult to stomach the main character (a retired proof-reader of all things) who is a very conservative stick-in-the-mud, who is fairly racist as well.

Curiously, the novel I've just started is Gabrielle Roy's The Cashier, which stars a man in his late middle ages, who largely disapproves of society and modernity in particular.

It's like they are both contenders in the get-off-my-lawn derby.  Nonetheless, it is a useful corrective, as I have been a bit crankier than usual of late (moving will do that to you!) and this is a reminder that it is not a characteristic that is particularly appealing to others.

[rdavenport]

I went to the Lowry Museum last Sunday. As well as the Lowry art, there was a collection of photographs of the Salford slums of the early 20th century, complete with quotes from a Robert Roberts. So inspired was I, I ordered a copy of this. Really enjoying it so far. 

Edited June 26, 2015 by rdavenport

[ejp626]

I went to the Lowry Museum last Sunday. As well as the Lowry art, there was a collection of photographs of the Salford slums of the early 20th century, complete with quotes from a Robert Roberts. So inspired was I, I ordered a copy of this. Really enjoying it so far. 

 

I've been there!  I made a trip to Manchester more or less solely so that I could then make a side trip to Salford to see that museum.

[A Lark Ascending]

I went to the Lowry Museum last Sunday. As well as the Lowry art, there was a collection of photographs of the Salford slums of the early 20th century, complete with quotes from a Robert Roberts. So inspired was I, I ordered a copy of this. Really enjoying it so far. 

The 'Classic' Slum! They don't make slums like they used to. Though, I imagine IDS has plans. 

Vaguely recall seeing it in the days when I spent time in university bookshops.  

[Leeway]

 

MAURICE GUEST - (1908) - Henry Handel Richardson (nom de plume of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson.

Set in the last years of the 19th century in the music city of Leipzig, Germany, the novel tells the story of "nice guy" Maurice Guest, a music student, who falls into erotic obsession over femme fatale, Louise. Aside from the grim downward spiral of Maurice and Louise, the novel offers many interesting glimpses of the music life of the students who flock to the town. Perhaps not the masterpiece some have deemed it, it is still a very accomplished novel in the great realist tradition. If one enjoys Arnold Bennett, one would probably like this novel. Interestingly, Richardson and Iris Murdoch were related. 

Edited June 27, 2015 by Leeway

[BillF]

Extraordinarily precious and urbane. Influenced according to a review by Ronald Firbank, whom I think I recall reading about 40 years ago, but never again! But I did get to the end, though at 120 pages that wasn't a great achievement.

 

Edited June 29, 2015 by BillF

[A Lark Ascending]

The second Waters I've read. Enjoyed 'The Little Stranger' very much and this is very engaging. Reminds me in style of someone like Daphne du Maurier (though far more sexually explicit) - that same feeling of discomfort with and anxiety for the main characters. 

Gives a vivid picture of London just after World War I with the war haunting everything, new thoughts and ideas stirring but not daring to burst forth beyond the curtains. 

[Leeway]

Extraordinarily precious and urbane. Influenced according to a review by Ronald Firbank, whom I think I recall reading about 40 yeras ago, but never again! But I did get to the end, though at 120 pages that wasn't a great achievement.

 

"Precious and urbane," I like that. Brophy was a big admirer of Firbank, and wrote critical essays praising him. 

Just finished Flesh (1962). The story of Nancy, who is good at sex, and Marcus, who is good at nothing much. They marry, and live an elliptical life, precious and urbane you might say. The themes of the story, which is more fable than novel, are Jewishness, obesity, Rubens.  By the end of the story, Marcus has become a "Rubens woman." Hard to say if this story is a satire by Brophy of her own marriage, or a "coded" work on straight and gay sex. Interestingly, the work is dedicated to Iris Murdoch, Brophy's friend and lover. 

[page]

"Soleil de nuit" - Jacques Prévert and "De mooiste van Jacquest Prévert" - Jacques Prévert

[kinuta]

 

 

An absorbing, compulsive page turner. She writes beautifully. Very highly recommended.