Now reading...

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

My 'ol beat-up copy from '54. Some fine short stories by O. Henry, Joe Alsop, Ring Lardener, Irvin Cobb, C.S. Forester, Faulkner, Joe Hergesheimer (anyone here ever read Hergesheimer's 'Java Head'?). Includes various cover reprints spanning the decades. The March 6,1948 one by Rockwell ('Gossip') is a hoot. A great collection that you can get for a song over at Amazon. 1 cent!

[jlhoots]

Richard Powers: The Time Of Our Singing

[Matthew]

Richard Powers: The Time Of Our Singing

How is that? I went through a lot of Powers' books, then I just got tired of all the erudition, which started to come off as know-it-allism to me.

[jostber]

Gilles Tremlett - Ghosts of Spain, Travels Through Spain And It's Silent Past

Edited March 8, 2010 by jostber

[jlhoots]

Richard Powers: The Time Of Our Singing

How is that? I went through a lot of Powers' books, then I just got tired of all the erudition, which started to come off as know-it-allism to me.

First one of his I've tried.

So far I like it.

Erudite for sure, but the concept of this one intrigued me.

[BruceH]

C.J. Cherryh: Serpent's Reach

I'm not sure how I missed her works before, but she writes excellent SF.

As I recall, back in the 70's, she, Joan D. Vinge, and of course Ursula K. LeGuin were considered the Big Three women SF writers.

[Jazzmoose]

Well, I think the main problem is that Cherryh was published mainly by DAW books, and for some reason, I had this impression of DAW as some cheap garbage publisher back in the seventies and early eighties, and so avoided their books completely. I missed out on a lot of good SF with this misguided approach; I'm trying to make up for it now.

[jazzbo]

I read a lot of her stuff then. Good stuff.

[paul secor]

Read a number of poems from August Kleinzahler's The Strange Hours Travelers Keep while walking this morning.

Edited March 12, 2010 by paul secor

[Matthew]

The Miles Davis Reader: Interviews and Features From Downbeat Magazine. Very nice collection of the articles in Downbeat.

[BillF]

Alice Munro, The Love of a Good Woman

Superb short story writer

[Matthew]

Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis by Jack Chambers. I've always liked this one, lots of information. I now have numerous books, more than I dare count, at various stages of completion, about Miles cluttering my desk and tables in my home.

[Joe]

Just finished Nathalie Sarraute's TROPISMS.

Now I'm flipping through James Wagner's THE FALSE SUN RECORDINGS (for all you readers of contemporary American poetry.)

[Matthew]

The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry In Northwestern Europe, 1944 - 1945 by Paul Fussell. Interesting take by Fussell, trying to convey the reality of the infantryman's life in Europe. Not too many pages, just 165, but an interesting read. I might try his memoirs next.

[ejp626]

Well, my plans have been shot to hell, but I've still read some interesting things. I wrapped up Divided Cities. It's pretty good actually, for an academic book.

I finished Buffalo by Sidney Blair (it's been my cardio workout book).

Not to be confused with The Night Buffalo by Guillermo Arriaga, which is also on my reading list.

I've continued my detour into Soviet literature and am about 1/3 through Alexander Kaletski's Metro.

I'll probably wrap up The Burn by Vassily Aksyonov by the end of March and get back to my master plan of Mahfouz, Narayan and Nabokov.

[BillF]

Asimov, Foundation & Empire

[Royal Oak]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Edited March 23, 2010 by rdavenport

[jazzbo]

Try Edgar Pangborn's "The Judment of Eve." In some ways lighter weight than the others, but not the worse for it.

Edited March 23, 2010 by jazzbo

[BillF]

Asimov, The Complete Stories Vol 2

[Jazzmoose]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

I don't know how dystopian you want to go, but you might try Brian Aldiss' Greybeard, though be warned, the premise that launches the story is definitely sf. I hope.

[Royal Oak]

Thanks Jazzbo/Jazzmoose, I'll look into those.

[BillF]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

[Royal Oak]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Ta Bill. Funnily enough, a couple of days ago a colleague of my wife was telling her that he found "The Road" an almost life-changing experience.

[A Lark Ascending]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

The two highlighted immediately sprang to my mind. Both are in a world not that disimilar to ours but where rather unpleasant things have gone several stages too far.

I'm enjoying:

Suits my taste for books that question orthodox mythologies. Interesting to read how the anti-modernist bias of some of the early collectors helped shape at least one dominant interpretation of the music; and how similar it is to how many of the English collectors reacted in pursuit of 'authentic' folk music.

[BruceH]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

"334" by Thomas Disch. Hardly sf at all.

Also "The Space Merchants" by Pohl & Kornbluth. Might be too "sci-fi" for you though, as it presents a nightmare future in which corporations and manipulative advertising have taken over society, and we all know that couldn't happen, right?

Then there's that OTHER Edgar Pangborn post-apocolyptic novel, "Davy," which is so light and happy that it hardly qualifies as dystopian, despite the setting. It almost makes you wish you could be lucky enough to live in such a world.