Now reading...

[alankin]

Donald E. Westlake as Richard Stark - The Mourner

Edited February 17, 2012 by alankin

[crisp]

I already do enough stuff which bores me, so it's been ditched.

Well put. One shouldn't be afraid of abandoning books one finds dull just because they are highly rated.

Now reading Nelson ALgren's "Man With The Golden Arm"

I liked this one, although it's a little stodgy; it could have done with an edit. If you enjoy it, I recommend you try A Walk on the Wild Side, which is much better.

Edited February 17, 2012 by crisp

[Royal Oak]

I already do enough stuff which bores me, so it's been ditched.

Well put. One shouldn't be afraid of abandoning books one finds dull just because they are highly rated.

Now reading Nelson ALgren's "Man With The Golden Arm"

I liked this one, although it's a little stodgy; it could have done with an edit. If you enjoy it, I recommend you try A Walk on the Wild Side, which is much better.

I ordered them both at the same time. I must say, "Wild Side" was the one I originally searched for, but decided to buy the pair.

[jazzbo]

Alternating between "The LOST Encyclopedia" and the book within the Louis Armstrong "Ambassador of Jazz" box set.

[paul secor]

Ian Rankin: Resurrection Men

Edited February 18, 2012 by paul secor

[TedR]

Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

[Leeway]

[Jazzmoose]

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for the first time since sixth grade. It's better than it has any right to be, but I'm still trying to figure out why H.G. Wells gets credit for starting SF...

[ejp626]

I wrapped up Banville's The Sea. Flashes of Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier towards the end. Not sure I felt they were earned. In general, I wasn't particularly moved or even interested in this book. At least it was short. Pretty inconceivable that it won the Booker.

I am enjoying David Bezmozgis's The Free World considerably more. This is a novel about the movement of Soviet Jews towards other countries in the late 1970s, primarily Israel, U.S. and Canada. The family at the heart of this novel is waiting out their time in Rome until they get clearance to enter Canada. Bezmozgis's own family chose this route (he resides in Toronto), though I don't know if this is lightly fictionalized version of his personal history or he just takes this migration as a starting point for inventing new characters out of whole cloth. I'm leaning towards the latter.

[Morganized]

Just polished off Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, which I loved. Thinking I'll tuck in to another Irish-American novel next: perhaps Tom Kelly's Sandhogs.

Just started this one. So far so good.

[Leeway]

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for the first time since sixth grade. It's better than it has any right to be, but I'm still trying to figure out why H.G. Wells gets credit for starting SF...

I assume you mean why Wells rather than Verne?

[jazzbo]

We all know it was Mary Shelley.

[jlhoots]

Eleanor Henderson: Ten Thousand Saints

[Jazzmoose]

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for the first time since sixth grade. It's better than it has any right to be, but I'm still trying to figure out why H.G. Wells gets credit for starting SF...

I assume you mean why Wells rather than Verne?

Nope. I meant Wells. Verne should get the credit.

As for Shelley, I fall into the 'anti-science fiction' doesn't count camp. Yeah, I know it's a cop out...

[Shawn]

Robert Heinlein - Expanded Universe

[Royal Oak]

Iceberg Slim - Long White Con

[BillF]

Still reading latter-day Le Carré! This one was pretty good.

[jazzbo]

[ejp626]

I wrapped up Banville's The Sea. Flashes of Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier towards the end. Not sure I felt they were earned. In general, I wasn't particularly moved or even interested in this book. At least it was short. Pretty inconceivable that it won the Booker.

I am enjoying David Bezmozgis's The Free World considerably more. This is a novel about the movement of Soviet Jews towards other countries in the late 1970s, primarily Israel, U.S. and Canada. The family at the heart of this novel is waiting out their time in Rome until they get clearance to enter Canada. ...

The Free World ended up being a very solid novel that sort of supplements some of the Soviet fiction I was reading for a while (esp. Vladimir Voynovich). I'll probably go seek out his first book of short stories.

I also brought Banville's The Infinities on the train with me. Unbelievably fey and unmoving (in the sense I actively disliked all the characters), I decided to abandon this after the first chapter. Banville is definitely not my kind of writer. I actually found the same with Nabokov, though there are a remaining few of his novels I will probably force myself to finish.

[A Lark Ascending]

I absolutely loved 'The Sea' when I read it a few years back. I was on the west coast of Ireland at the time, so maybe that influenced me. I really liked his one based loosely round Anthony Blunt and the Cambridge spies too - 'The Untouchable'

Just finished:

Now starting:

[Jazzmoose]

Getting ready for the movie?

[jazzbo]

Yes. Re-reading this, after re-reading A Princess of Mars a few books back.

Edited February 26, 2012 by jazzbo

[Royal Oak]

Nelson Algren - A Wall On The Wild Side

[paul secor]

Nelson Algren - A Wall On The Wild Side

Know what novel you meant, but the title you posted brings a very different scenario to mind.

[Royal Oak]

Nelson Algren - A Wall On The Wild Side

Know what novel you meant, but the title you posted brings a very different scenario to mind.

Oh yes - never noticed that!