Now reading...

[paul secor]

Ross Macdonald: The Chill

[BruceH]

David Simon - Homicide

I read this back in '97 or '98, and liked it. Interesting to compare it to the series.

[paul secor]

Simenon: The Friend of Madame Maigret

[ejp626]

Finished Atwood's Lady Oracle. Definitely more entertaining than I was expecting, though goodness knows the main character made a bunch of strange and sometimes outright foolish decisions. There are some interesting parallels to Cat's Eye.

Another Canadian novel for the time being Powning's The Sea Captain's Wife (and then Malone's Handling Sin after that):

[Serioza]

The Best Short Stories of O. Henry

[T.D.]

Once a year, I splurge on some chess books, with a preference to annotated game collections. Bought four really nice ones this late winter, have been dipping into them, all are excellent. The latter two are older, I finally broke down and purchased them...

Aron Nimzowitsch: On the Road to Chess Mastery, 1886-1924, by Per Skjoldager and Jørn Erik Nielsen

The Stress of Chess..., by Walter Browne

Victor Bologan: Selected Games 1985-2004; Victor Bologan

My One Hundred Best Games; Alexey Dreev

[Simon8]

Lydia Davis' Collected Stories : I read two dozens of them, mostly from her first and last collection, and I'm... perplex: she comes highly recommended to say the least; I found her stories to be OK at best, almost always missing something (style, perspective, humor, emotion...). I realize I'm in the minority !

Before: Denis Johnson's "Angels". Johnson sometimes wallows in his characters' miseries and the book can be a little depressing...but still, an exceptional writer and some the most vivid prose out there !

Edited February 19, 2013 by Simon8

[Larry Kart]

Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend"

Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me.

[niels]

Almost finished with Haruki Murakami - 1Q84

For some reason I just have a soft spot for Murakami. Always a pleasure to read his books, and great reading material for commuting.

[Jazzmoose]

Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend"

Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me.

Until about ten years ago, I could never get more than a few pages into any Dickens book. Apparently, as I got older, someone changed the content of the books as I enjoy them now...

[paul secor]

Penelope Lively: Judgement Day

[A Lark Ascending]

Third of Bruce's Cambridge (the proper one) based crime novels.

Not brilliantly written - basically a fan's account relying mainly on interviews with musicians, journalists and fans. But it tells the tale without attempting to relate Colosseum to the dialectics of post-capitalist disfunctionalism.

Saw this referred to above and it was on sale for sixpence next to the eggs in Sainsbury's.

[BillF]

Third of Bruce's Cambridge (the proper one) based crime novels.

Not brilliantly written - basically a fan's account relying mainly on interviews with musicians, journalists and fans. But it tells the tale without attempting to relate Colosseum to the dialectics of post-capitalist disfunctionalism.

Saw this referred to above and it was on sale for sixpence next to the eggs in Sainsbury's.

I think you'll find it's all it's cracked up to be.

[A Lark Ascending]

Cut the yolks, Bill

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

How much of that derives from Cheikh Anta Diop, Jazzbo? Never read a more disorganised writer than Diop.

MG

[Larry Kart]

Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend"

Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me.

Until about ten years ago, I could never get more than a few pages into any Dickens book. Apparently, as I got older, someone changed the content of the books as I enjoy them now...

Same thing happened with me about eight years ago with Trollope. Beginning with "The Eustace Diamonds" -- a lucky choice because the central figure, Lizzie Eustace, is such a fascinatingly detailed and psychologically plausible (by any standard) "monstrous" character that the notion that Trollope was complacent or a fuddy-duddy was instantly erased. Since then I've read a lot of Trollope with unfailing pleasure; he's one of the greats IMO. I'd read "Barchester Towers' in college because I had to and had no clue at the time; Trollope's probably not for guys in their early 20s.

BTW, if anyone thinks of Trollope as too genteel to deal with the rougher/uglier sides of human life, the Lucinda Roanoke-Sir Griffin Tewitt subplot in "The Eustace Diamonds" is an eye-opener. Roanoke, a very athletic, somewhat mannish young American woman of means whose aunt is trying to marry her off to a titled Englishman, attracts the attentions of the seemingly eligible (by the aunt's standards) but brutish Tewitt, who is well aware that Roanoke, who detests most men, detests him in particular. But this is just the sauce that Tewitt's emotional-sexual tastes require -- well aware of Roanoke's feelings toward him, what he most wants to do is to dominate and figuratively, legally (even literally if it comes to that) rape her. And Trollope doesn't flinch in the telling or the resolution.

[ejp626]

Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend"

Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me.

Until about ten years ago, I could never get more than a few pages into any Dickens book. Apparently, as I got older, someone changed the content of the books as I enjoy them now...

Same thing happened with me about eight years ago with Trollope. Beginning with "The Eustace Diamonds" -- a lucky choice because the central figure, Lizzie Eustace, is such a fascinatingly detailed and psychologically plausible (by any standard) "monstrous" character that the notion that Trollope was complacent or a fuddy-duddy was instantly erased. Since then I've read a lot of Trollope with unfailing pleasure; he's one of the greats IMO. I'd read "Barchester Towers' in college because I had to and had no clue at the time; Trollope's probably not for guys in their early 20s.

I think Trollope is almost criminally overlooked. I find that it takes a week or so to really adjust to Trollope's rythmes. Probably a slightly harder adjustment than Dickens. I basically read the Palliser series and one or two others. I do hope in a year or two to go through the others that I own (Barsetshire Chronicles, The Three Clerks, He Knew He Was Right, The Way We Live Now and a few others) and then maybe will be ready to reread the Pallisers (I did read them in my 20s and would pick up on very different aspects of the books now).

[BillF]

I think Lanchester gets into his stride with Capital and hadn't got it together with this earlier novel.

[A Lark Ascending]

I think Lanchester gets into his stride with Capital and hadn't got it together with this earlier novel.

I didn't think I was going to enjoy 'Capital' after a few chapters - not keen on books where the tale almost starts again chapter after a chapter as new characters appear. But I'm gripped now. Really want to see Roger and Amanda get their come-uppance!

[Jazzmoose]

Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend"

Never got into Dickens before, but this one is doing it for me.

Until about ten years ago, I could never get more than a few pages into any Dickens book. Apparently, as I got older, someone changed the content of the books as I enjoy them now...

Same thing happened with me about eight years ago with Trollope. Beginning with "The Eustace Diamonds" -- a lucky choice because the central figure, Lizzie Eustace, is such a fascinatingly detailed and psychologically plausible (by any standard) "monstrous" character that the notion that Trollope was complacent or a fuddy-duddy was instantly erased. Since then I've read a lot of Trollope with unfailing pleasure; he's one of the greats IMO. I'd read "Barchester Towers' in college because I had to and had no clue at the time; Trollope's probably not for guys in their early 20s.

BTW, if anyone thinks of Trollope as too genteel to deal with the rougher/uglier sides of human life, the Lucinda Roanoke-Sir Griffin Tewitt subplot in "The Eustace Diamonds" is an eye-opener. Roanoke, a very athletic, somewhat mannish young American woman of means whose aunt is trying to marry her off to a titled Englishman, attracts the attentions of the seemingly eligible (by the aunt's standards) but brutish Tewitt, who is well aware that Roanoke, who detests most men, detests him in particular. But this is just the sauce that Tewitt's emotional-sexual tastes require -- well aware of Roanoke's feelings toward him, what he most wants to do is to dominate and figuratively, legally (even literally if it comes to that) rape her. And Trollope doesn't flinch in the telling or the resolution.

Hmmm. And free for Kindle. Guess I'll have to subject my eyes to the strain once again...

[Head Man]

Re-read this after listening to the wonderful adaption on BBC radio.

Just finshed this but found it a great disappointment. The only book by him that I've not enjoyed...and I've read them all.

[BillF]

I think Lanchester gets into his stride with Capital and hadn't got it together with this earlier novel.

I didn't think I was going to enjoy 'Capital' after a few chapters - not keen on books where the tale almost starts again chapter after a chapter as new characters appear. But I'm gripped now. Really want to see Roger and Amanda get their come-uppance!

I don't think you'll be disappointed!

[BillF]

Just read this review of a novel based on the lives of Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro:

http://www.guardian....-martell-review

Edited February 24, 2013 by BillF

[paul secor]

Just read this review of a novel based on the lives of Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro:

http://www.guardian....-martell-review

Anything you might add to The Guardian review?

[BillF]

Just read this review of a novel based on the lives of Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro:

http://www.guardian....-martell-review

Anything you might add to The Guardian review?

Well, I haven't read the novel. Looks like another one from that uneasy territory where biography and fiction intermingle.