paul secor Posted October 21, 2015 Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 Simenon: The Dancer at the Gai-MoulinOne of the least satisfying Maigrets that I've read. More of a procedural which lacks the psychological aspects of other novels in the series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted October 21, 2015 Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Reading David Halberstam's Teammates about four players on the Red Sox (Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr). Nice baseball book but more a book about four men. Edited October 21, 2015 by Brad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 Reading David Halberstam's Teammates about four players on the Red Sox (Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr). Nice baseball book but more a book about four men.Read the book years ago. You nailed it with your comment: Nice baseball book but more a book about four men. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king ubu Posted October 24, 2015 Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 Still not through with unum cypher's great book, but some things need to be tended to, so this one comes in between ... it's much less closely focussed on the actual music than Gioia, goes in bigger swipes, giving the "big picture" in a sense (also sometimes in a way that I think is not really accurate, but no biggies so far) ... anyway, if I had read this when growing up (and into jazz music at the same time), I'm sure it would have been about as helpful as Berendt's "Jazz Book" proved to be (and in some cases as mis-leading, since it's sometimes difficult to challenge views one has settled on in youth ... or rather, it's difficult to realise which parts of these views should be challenged in the first place). So this is not a full endorsement, but I'm not saying one shouldn't read this either ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted October 24, 2015 Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 Charlotte's book is far more accomplished that sister Emily's "Wuthering Heights," although I miss the sort of cracked intensity that WH exhibits. There are plenty of social, psychological, religious, and sexual ore to be mined here. One of the great lines: "Reader, I married him." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon8 Posted October 24, 2015 Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 Robertson Davies: The Rebel Angels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 Robertson Davies: The Rebel AngelsDefinitely a great trilogy. I don't know when I'll have time to reread them, but I will try some day. I actually saw Robertson Davies on a reading tour at the 92nd Y in New York City. I'm pretty sure he was reading from The Cunning Man.Currently reading the sequel to Three Men in a Boat, Three Men on the Bummel, which is quite good. A few of the jokes are even better than the ones in the original, and I swear the Monty Python folks nicked one of the gags. On deck after this is Michael Ondaatje's The Cat's Table. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 Love Highsmith. Read all the Ripleys, so now on to this - and very good, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 Concerning The Spiritual In Art by Wassily Kandinsky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 Robertson Davies: The Rebel AngelsDefinitely a great trilogy. I don't know when I'll have time to reread them, but I will try some day. I actually saw Robertson Davies on a reading tour at the 92nd Y in New York City. I'm pretty sure he was reading from The Cunning Man.Loved those books when I read them back in the 80s.Hate to think how many books I've read on The Great War but this is as good as any. Covers the entire conflict but instead of writing a normal narrative or analytical history, David takes 100 key days (some obvious like July 1st, 1916, other in places more obscure like Mesopotamia or on the Home Front), contextualises them and uses them to give a sense of the overall conflict. Also weaves in some intriguing family history of his own. Highly recommended as a starter for anyone wanting an overview of WWI (or just as a good read for those familiar). I polished it off in 4 days. Read the Regeneration Trilogy back in the 80s which was grim but excellent. This is shaping up well, based around the Slade art school in 1914. I read Lyn Macdonald's superb oral history when I went on my first school visit to Ypres around 1981. Spending 5 days in the area without kids to look after finally gave me a real sense of the topography and where everything is sited so I've started this overview of 1917. Excellent so far - the Battle of Messines and the military preparations for Third Ypres itself clearly told with excellent first hand quotes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 Robertson Davies: The Rebel AngelsDefinitely a great trilogy. I don't know when I'll have time to reread them, but I will try some day. I actually saw Robertson Davies on a reading tour at the 92nd Y in New York City. I'm pretty sure he was reading from The Cunning Man.Currently reading the sequel to Three Men in a Boat, Three Men on the Bummel, which is quite good. A few of the jokes are even better than the ones in the original, and I swear the Monty Python folks nicked one of the gags. On deck after this is Michael Ondaatje's The Cat's Table.For some reason I read What's Bred In the Bone and The Lyre of Orpheus some years ago and like both books, but not as much as some reviews would have led me to believe. (Actually, the reason why I read them first was that the local library had copies of those two and not The Rebel Angels, and I just grabbed them to read out of curiosity.) I never read The Rebel Angels until now. I enjoyed it so much that I'm rereading the two following books in the trilogy. Already I'm beginning to find what I missed by not reading the books in the order in which they were intended to be read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 17 hours ago, paul secor said: For some reason I read What's Bred In the Bone and The Lyre of Orpheus some years ago and like both books, but not as much as some reviews would have led me to believe. (Actually, the reason why I read them first was that the local library had copies of those two and not The Rebel Angels, and I just grabbed them to read out of curiosity.) I never read The Rebel Angels until now. I enjoyed it so much that I'm rereading the two following books in the trilogy. Already I'm beginning to find what I missed by not reading the books in the order in which they were intended to be read. Davies was my teacher in graduate school at UofT (Toronto, not Texas). Was also my thesis supervisor for several years until I switched topics. I only read 5th Business because I was seeing him every couple of weeks. Was shocked at how good it was. After that I read everything he wrote. The later trilogies (starting with 5th Business are much better than the earlier ones (which I eventually went back and read). On 10/21/2015, 5:10:03, ejp626 said: I'm just starting Alice Munro's Who Do You Think You Are? Her first two collections have a complicated, but largely positive view of growing up in rural Ontario. That's oversimplifying, but I was shocked when I came to "Privilege" where she is describing the situation in the rural school Rose attends. Munro makes this sound like some Hobbesian nightmare where the teacher turns a blind eye to all the terrors that the older kids inflict on the younger kids - and the younger kids inflict on each other. It's practically Lord of the Flies set in Hanratty, Ontario (she was actually writing about Wingham, Ont.). The relationship between Rose and her step-mother Flo isn't much better. It looks like the whole collection will be pretty dark. I love that book. I think it's a perfect Canadian title but in the States they called it "The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose". I guess that sense of you're not supposed to rise above your station doesn't resonate in the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 I'm enjoying The Cat's Table. It is the story of 3 boys from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) taking an ocean liner to England to rejoin their families or to be foisted off on other relations. They get into a number of odd situations (Narayan's Swami and Friends is an obvious reference) but they also begin learning about the adult world during this topsy-turvy voyage. It actually makes me want to reread Katherine Ann Porter's Ship of Fools, but I think I'll leave that where it is on the TBR pile. Somewhat coincidentally the next book I plan to read is Narayan's Mr Sampath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 Henry Townsend: A Blues Life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 Have never read Edna O'Brien before, which is surprising as her books have been around for half a century. This one inspires me to read the rest of the trilogy (in the wrong order). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 8 hours ago, BillF said: Have never read Edna O'Brien before, which is surprising as her books have been around for half a century. This one inspires me to read the rest of the trilogy (in the wrong order). I read several of those many years ago. Remember enjoying them greatly...a picture of an Ireland that was probably still hanging on when I read them but is unrecognisable now. My mother grew up in that Ireland about a decade or two before they are set; it affected her outlook on life profoundly. Have you read Colm Tóibín's 'Brooklyn' ? From a similar world. It's just come out as a film (as I imagine you'd know). ******************************* Still working through the Shakespeare bio (lots of interruptions) and into the final stages of Passchendaele (brilliant book). But after seeing 'Suffragette' the other day I had to start this: I've taught the topic to younger kids (13-14) and bumped into it a lot because my colleagues used to teach it on the other side of the A Level course we did (I did Civil Rights and Korea/Vietnam, boys stuff!!!!!). But have never read anything beyond school textbooks. Really enjoying this. First hundred pages are about the background in the Manchester radical scene of the late-19thC. It's no hagiography - Pugh tries to to deal with all the Pankhursts (including Adela who I'd never even heard of) and points out the contradictions and vanities in their characters. Just got to the founding of the WSPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 25 minutes ago, A Lark Ascending said: I read several of those many years ago. Remember enjoying them greatly...a picture of an Ireland that was probably still hanging on when I read them but is unrecognisable now. My mother grew up in that Ireland about a decade or two before they are set; it affected her outlook on life profoundly. Have you read Colm Tóibín's 'Brooklyn' ? From a similar world. It's just come out as a film (as I imagine you'd know). * Haven't read the book, but have a ticket for the film on Thursday. Re films, this afternoon's was quite something: http://homemcr.org/film/lasa-eta-zabala/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 31 minutes ago, BillF said: Haven't read the book, but have a ticket for the film on Thursday. Re films, this afternoon's was quite something: http://homemcr.org/film/lasa-eta-zabala/ Thanks, Bill. Looks interesting. I'll keep my eye out at the Sheffield Showroom. I hope to see Brooklyn some time next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 Percival Everett: Half an Inch of Water One of my favorite writers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 I put a fair amount of time into reading Charlotte Bronte's "Villette" (1853) and at the end I can't say for sure whether I like it or not. I liked some of it for sure. It has some nicely quirky parts to it, and the narrator, Lucy Snowe," is quite interesting. But I never got the sense that these parts really added up to a whole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niels Posted November 11, 2015 Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 Orhan Pamuk - A Strangeness in my Mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjazzg Posted November 11, 2015 Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 On 08/11/2015, 19:06:50, A Lark Ascending said: Thanks, Bill. Looks interesting. I'll keep my eye out at the Sheffield Showroom. I hope to see Brooklyn some time next week. Brooklyn is a great read as are most of Toibin's novels. He addresses some big themes often in a seemingly gentle way. Real craftsman of language Another contemporary Irish author who's a must-read for me is Sebastian Barry. About time for another novel from him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted November 11, 2015 Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 3 hours ago, mjazzg said: Brooklyn is a great read as are most of Toibin's novels. He addresses some big themes often in a seemingly gentle way. Real craftsman of language Another contemporary Irish author who's a must-read for me is Sebastian Barry. About time for another novel from him I was especially moved by "The Blackwater Lightship". John Banville and John McGahern are anothe couple of more recent Irish writers I've enjoyed. The only Barry I've read is A Long Long Way (my macabre taste for endless WWI books!). Will have to correct that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted November 12, 2015 Report Share Posted November 12, 2015 AGNES GRAY - Anne Bronte. 1847. Continuing my tour of the works of the Bronte sisters. Agnes/Anne give the comeuppance to the rich and arrogant who made Agnes/Anne's life as a governess miserable. Some wonderfully bitter scenes of the rich and vulgar, and their dreadful children. In the process, Agnes/Anne does come off at times as a bit of a prig herself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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