Now reading...

[jazzbo]

[BillF]

Back to the old favorites: Raymond Chandler, Three Novels

[jlhoots]

Lorrie Moore: A Gate At The Stairs

[BruceH]

Cop Killer----the penultimate Martin Beck book.

[jazzbo]

[GA Russell]

I'm now reading the latest Dashiell Hammett collection, called Lost Stories. It includes a biography of Hammett which discusses where Hammett was in his life when he wrote each story.

[jazzbo]

Hey GA, that's a new one on me, thanks for the post.

[BillF]

[medjuck]

Just finished "The Cookbook Collector" by Allegra Goodman. Anyone else here read it? Now into Keith Richards' "Life" which I'm sure many of us are.

[ghost of miles]

I'm now reading the latest Dashiell Hammett collection, called Lost Stories. It includes a biography of Hammett which discusses where Hammett was in his life when he wrote each story.

There are still a few uncollected ones--Medjuck and I have been trying to track all of them down over the past several years.

[Jazzmoose]

Still revisting my youth. Finished rereading David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself, which was a strange experience. Apparently he's revised the novel to reflect things that have changed since he first wrote it, which would be completely ridiculous in any other novel, but with this one, it adds to the unreality of it all. Still a ridiculous practice if you ask me; one that shows not even the author takes this stuff seriously. As many times as I've recommended this book in the past, I can no longer do so. But take that as an 'old and cranky' comment.

Now reading Terry Brooks' Sword of Shanarra, or should I say trying to. A couple of hundred pages in, I'm finding this to be somewhat tedious, and the level of Brook's craft is not what I remember. My guess is this one won't be finished.

[paul secor]

Just finished reading John Dufresne's Deep in the Shade of PARADiSE.

From a dialogue between Miranda and Adlai near the end of the novel:

"Miranda says, 'Adlai?'

'What'

She wraps her arm over Adlai's chest, kisses his shoulder. 'Tell me a story, a long, long, long story that you never finish.'

'Can you have a story that never ends?'

'Yes, if you tell it right.'"

I didn't want this story to end. But, like life, I knew it had to.

Edited November 29, 2010 by paul secor

[A Lark Ascending]

Half-way through this. Beautifully written story of a young woman reporter captured by the Vietcong. Superb passages about everything from riding in a military helicopter under fire, being out in the jungle, experiencing South Vietnamese police brutality and just everyday life in a war zone. Very impressed.

[jazzbo]

[BruceH]

Still revisting my youth. Finished rereading David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself, which was a strange experience. Apparently he's revised the novel to reflect things that have changed since he first wrote it, which would be completely ridiculous in any other novel, but with this one, it adds to the unreality of it all. Still a ridiculous practice if you ask me; one that shows not even the author takes this stuff seriously. As many times as I've recommended this book in the past, I can no longer do so. But take that as an 'old and cranky' comment.

What the ever-lovin' Hell? Why on God's green earth would someone "revise" a novel like The Man Who Folded Himself? It sounds remarkably wrongheaded. What are the differences? Does the eponymous time-traveling hero refer to President Bush? Sad to hear that Gerrold would mess up his own book like that.

I reread a good part of the novel about 10 years back. I hadn't read it since I was in 9th grade, so the only thing strange that time was getting a more adult perspective on the old book.

[Jazzmoose]

It's really silly stuff, like mentioning the WTC twin towers 'still standing' at one point, the character 'listening to CDs', and such; stuff that adds absolutely nothing to the book.

[Van Basten II]

Before I get too senile might as well start reading some classics.Think I'll finish it when summer comes along if everything goes well. Edited November 30, 2010 by Van Basten II

[jlhoots]

Before I get too senile might as well start reading some classics.Think I'll finish it when summer comes along if everything goes well.

Good luck.

I just had to read Madame Bovary for our book club.

Drove me crazy.

Happy to get back to contemporary writing.

[Big Al]

Craig Ferguson's BETWEEN THE BRIDGE AND THE RIVER, 2nd attempt at reading this. It's catching on this time around.

[BruceH]

It's really silly stuff, like mentioning the WTC twin towers 'still standing' at one point, the character 'listening to CDs', and such; stuff that adds absolutely nothing to the book.

Sheesh, what's the point? Just seems misguided to me. Too bad.

[ejp626]

Finally finished Narayan's The English Teacher -- I kind of lost steam about 60% in when he starts communicating with dead spirits (and apparently this isn't supposed to be taken ironically, i.e. look how silly he is taken in by these charlatans). Still, it is hard to be too hard on a novel that is essentially a love letter to his recently departed wife (she died very young in real life, just as the character does).

Mahfouz's The Beginning and the End -- a page-turner, practically Dickensian in the way he covers a family's descent into poverty after the unexpected death of the father. Obviously depressing of course.

Am partway through Nabokov's Despair as well. Just am not enjoying Nabokov at any level at all. I'll try to wrap this one up as well as Invitation to a Beheading. If I don't warm up to him (and I don't think I will), I will read Lolita and then get rid of all the rest of the novels (I bought the LoA Nabokov set, but am kind of ruing that now).

Edited November 30, 2010 by ejp626

[Royal Oak]

Jeanette Winterson - Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. I remember watching the TV series about 20 years ago, but never read the book. The mother is portrayed much more sympathetically in the book than on TV (up to now, anyway).

[paul secor]

Jonathan Valin's The Music Lovers - A tale of music/audio obsessives hung over a fairly flimsy mystery plot.

[jlhoots]

Adam Levin: The Instructions

[ejp626]

Adam Levin: The Instructions

How is this? I'm probably going to tackle it next year, but it looks like a book I'd only read once, so I am struggling not to buy it with a 33% off coupon or something.

Anyway, I just wrapped up Mahfouz's The Beginning and the End. Towards the end it looks like it is about to become An American Tragedy set in Egypt, but it doesn't (which is good as I actually didn't care for Dreiser's tale too much) and it goes somewhere darker actually. Quite a good book on the whole, but depressing.

Just thought I would share a rant on Ted Hughes' The Iron Giant. I've known about it for a long time, though I never read it or watched the animated film. Anyway, it looked age-appropriate for my son, so I checked it out. I hated it. I thought so much was wrong with it, including the absurdity of having a star/ship travel from somewhere in the Orion constellation to Earth in a matter of months, and all kinds of other bogus physics, then the sadomasochism and the slave imagery, then the simpering wish fulfillment at the end where the space dragon sings the music of the stars and the people of earth lose their war-like tendencies. In short, I hated everything about it and was heartily sorry I'd picked it up. I do wonder what the movie is like, however, as I simply can't believe they could have been that faithful to the original.