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[ejp626]

Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science Paperback

by Werner Heisenberg (Author)

It sounds interesting, but I'm uncertain...

See I'm afraid that I would order it, and it would sit there in the box from Amazon. I wouldn't know whether I had already read it or not until I opened the ---

Ok, I'll stop there.

On a recent trip to Chicago, I read Jedediah Berry's The Manual of Detection. It starts with a lot of promise, but then by the end basically devolves into Inception-lite (even though it came out a year or so ahead of that movie). More than anything it reminds me of a mash-up of Dark City, Borges and Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. Not a bad book, but just beware that you will probably feel a bit let down by the end.

[A Lark Ascending]

WWI novel (give away cover!) but centred on two Australian nurses. I've just reached the arrival at Gallipoli. Very impressive - I recall being overwhelmed by 'Confederates' thirty odd years back.

Finished it last night. Highly recommended. Second half moves to France. Very moving.

[A Lark Ascending]

Nash, Nevinson, Spencer, Gertler, Carrington.

Only just started but I'm fascinated by the depictions of the different experiences of these people in late Victorian London, let alone what is to follow.

Edited October 4, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[mjazzg]

Nash, Nevinson, Spencer, Gertler, Carrington.

Only just started but I'm fascinated by the depictions of the different experiences of these people in late Victorian London, let alone what is to follow.

I didn't realise there was a book. It was/is a very good exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery where I obviously didn't visit the shop on the way out

[ejp626]

Nash, Nevinson, Spencer, Gertler, Carrington.

Only just started but I'm fascinated by the depictions of the different experiences of these people in late Victorian London, let alone what is to follow.

I didn't realise there was a book. It was/is a very good exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery where I obviously didn't visit the shop on the way out

That does sound interesting, though I don't think I'll make the exhibit

There are a bunch of decent books on the Group of 7, but this book is quite interesting for a much later, lesser-known Canadian group, the Painters 11.

(I tend to gravitate towards abstract art, so I was glad to read up on this group.)

Edited September 27, 2013 by ejp626

[paul secor]

J.D. Salinger: Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction

[A Lark Ascending]

Nash, Nevinson, Spencer, Gertler, Carrington.

Only just started but I'm fascinated by the depictions of the different experiences of these people in late Victorian London, let alone what is to follow.

I didn't realise there was a book. It was/is a very good exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery where I obviously didn't visit the shop on the way out

Whereas I didn't know about the exhibition but have had my eye on the book for a while, since the series on British 20thC art on TV earlier in the year.

It seems the exhibition was (at least partly) a follow on from the book. The exhibition catalogue is also available:

[Jazzmoose]

First time reading this author. Kind of a Keith Laumer/Harry Harrison vibe, but not as good.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Got this some months ago, after seeing it had been issued here, but only started reading it this morning.

Hi de ho - the life of Cab Calloway - Alyn Shipton

One of my all-time favourites.

MG

[BruceH]

First time reading this author. Kind of a Keith Laumer/Harry Harrison vibe, but not as good.

"Not as good."----That makes me not want to read him.

[Jazzmoose]

First time reading this author. Kind of a Keith Laumer/Harry Harrison vibe, but not as good.

"Not as good."----That makes me not want to read him.

Yeah. Same here.

[B. Goren.]

[jazzbo]

[paul secor]

Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop

[A Lark Ascending]

Finished this - thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact it reminded me of no end of things I was reading 40 odd years ago from that 1900-39 period - Huxley, Orwell, Maugham, Lawrence etc.

Though I found some of the arty primadonnaism of the individuals involved more than a little irritating at times. Boy could they scratch one another's eyes out.

I've now embarked on:

Edited October 4, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[erwbol]

Bought Unspeakable and Marches On to complement Apes of Wrath which was hilarious with its commentary and glossary:

Evildoer Anyone who is not a frenna freem

Freeman moxy Mercas gif to the wurl

Yurpeen Union Another organisation of evildoers

Edited October 8, 2013 by erwbol

[paul secor]

Arnaldur Indridason: Jar City

[BillF]

Edited October 9, 2013 by BillF

[paul secor]

Saw the film that was made from this. It wasn't bad, but I imagine the novel is superior.

[BillF]

Saw the film that was made from this. It wasn't bad, but I imagine the novel is superior.

I've only just found out that there was a film. I've put it on my rental list with Lovefilm. As the beauty of the book lies largely in its verbal felicities, I won't be able to draw direct comparisons between novel and film. I'll watch the film for its own sake.

[paul secor]

Saw the film that was made from this. It wasn't bad, but I imagine the novel is superior.

I've only just found out that there was a film. I've put it on my rental list with Lovefilm. As the beauty of the book lies largely in its verbal felicities, I won't be able to draw direct comparisons between novel and film. I'll watch the film for its own sake.

I'm putting the novel on my to-read list.

[BillF]

Saw the film that was made from this. It wasn't bad, but I imagine the novel is superior.

I've only just found out that there was a film. I've put it on my rental list with Lovefilm. As the beauty of the book lies largely in its verbal felicities, I won't be able to draw direct comparisons between novel and film. I'll watch the film for its own sake.

I'm putting the novel on my to-read list.

Good reading!

Edited October 11, 2013 by BillF

[ejp626]

I've been reading a few books out on Virago lately, or attempting to. I really didn't care for E.H. Young's Chatterton Square and have abandoned it.

I am about 1/3 through Barbara Comyns' Our Spoons Came From Woolworths. It is definitely a curiousity. Comyns has a quirky "voice". In Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, she strikes me as a precursor to Angela Carter. A slightly breezier tone that covers some really dark stuff. Apparently The Vet's Daughter is along similar lines. Our Spoons Came From Woolworths is a bit more grounded in reality, but describes two very young and very feckless artists that marry (I believe this is fairly autobiographical). Reading it, you see that things weren't really different than today, and that the world probably would be better off if you needed a permit in order to reproduce. I find myself pretty alienated from the woman (who is also the narrative voice) as she not only makes mistake after mistake but doesn't seem to even feel the need to go to someone who is more worldly to find out anything -- how to use the bus system for example. Life just happens to her and she sits back and lets it roll over her. Her husband is even worse -- a totally failed artist who won't make any effort to support his growing family. I can't relate to such people and am finding myself annoyed with the book. Fortunately, it is short.

[BillF]

The story of Al Haig by an ex-wife. I had expected a fully organised biography and was surprised and disappointed to find 500 pages of undigested source materials culled from a vast array of sources; e.g. hundreds of verbatim recollections of Haig from people who knew him, arranged into chapters by decade and in alphabetical order of contributor's name.

The book also needed serious attention of a copy editor. There are numerous spelling errors, particularly of people's names ("Harold Maybern") and many meaningless "sentences":

" Al didn't impart like Lou Levy I thought when I found most of the jazz compers chords and feed and play along and sit down and give the piano Al could do that."

Here, failure to divide into two sentences turns jazz history on its head:

"Al Haig was one of the rare white musicians who influenced black musicians twenty years before Frankie Trumbauer influenced Benny Carter and Lester Young."

That said, I was fascinated by the book's revelations about a pianist whose work I love and and an era in jazz that's my favorite.

And, of course, I have no misgivings whatever about the excellent contribution of Mr Allen Lowe on pp. 430-31.

Edited October 10, 2013 by BillF

[jlhoots]

John Sandford: Shock Wave

Great airplane read.