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[ejp626]

3 hours ago, paul secor said:

J.L. Carr: A Month in the Country

What do you think so far?  I've heard good things about it, and expect to get to it in Sept.

[Brad]

Just started this a few days ago.  Stopped watching the series with Colin Firth until I've finished the book. 

[paul secor]

3 hours ago, ejp626 said:

What do you think so far?  I've heard good things about it, and expect to get to it in Sept.

I recommend it highly - a quiet classic. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

[kinuta]

[BillF]

Came back to this after some years. Slightly put off by the postmodern cleverness, but sufficiently enjoyable for me to be reading another of her novels soon.

[jlhoots]

Meg Gardiner: Unsub

[ejp626]

On 8/9/2017 at 3:13 AM, BillF said:

Came back to this after some years. Slightly put off by the postmodern cleverness, but sufficiently enjoyable for me to be reading another of her novels soon.

Unless is Shields' last completed novel.  It is a fairly straight-forward tale about a family in crisis with some allusions to Bellow's Herzog (the narrator also writes long (sometimes imaginary) letters to notable public figures).

[BillF]

7 hours ago, ejp626 said:

Unless is Shields' last completed novel.  It is a fairly straight-forward tale about a family in crisis with some allusions to Bellow's Herzog (the narrator also writes long (sometimes imaginary) letters to notable public figures).

I have read that and was thinking of returning to it sometime soon.

[Bluesnik]

Penguin by design by Phil Baines. Published in 2005 at its 70 birthday, this is a narration of the story of this imprint's design lead life, being one of the first in concentrating on paperbacks. It has taken me more than ten years to read this but its worth every bit.

[kinuta]

[ejp626]

Just wrapped up The Sound and the Fury.  Even though I read it before and knew broadly what happened, it was a challenge.  While Benjy's thoughts are completely jumbled, Quentin's (in the 2nd section) jump around nearly as much.  It is only the second half where there is a more linear narrative.

Also Camara Laye's The Radiance of the King, which in many ways is an African-version of Kafka's The Castle.  Oddly one review claims that The Radiance of the King starts off with an epigraph from Kafka, though certainly not in my edition (Vintage).  If I can borrow it from the library I'll try to get the NYRB edition to check out Toni Morrison's introduction.

Gide's The Vatican Cellars next and then Fontane.  I have to decide whether to go with the NYRB translation of Irretrievable or No Way Back (on Penguin).

 

[jlhoots]

Steve Hamilton: Exit Strategy

[kinuta]

[BillF]

1 hour ago, kinuta said:

[T.D.]

[paul secor]

Michael Gray: Hand Me Down My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell

[ejp626]

Slight detour into Bowles's The Sheltering Sky.  Many, many years ago I got a few chapters in and set it aside for some reason.  I should wrap it up this afternoon and then Gide's The Vatican Cellars.

Probably Lucky Jim after that.  Hard to believe, but I never got around to this one before.

[BillF]

3 hours ago, ejp626 said:

Slight detour into Bowles's The Sheltering Sky.  Many, many years ago I got a few chapters in and set it aside for some reason.  I should wrap it up this afternoon and then Gide's The Vatican Cellars.

Probably Lucky Jim after that.  Hard to believe, but I never got around to this one before.

Lucky Jim! One of the very few books that's made me laugh out loud. Don't know if I would today, though, or whether 1950's humor still works. You'll let me know.

[ejp626]

4 hours ago, BillF said:

Lucky Jim! One of the very few books that's made me laugh out loud. Don't know if I would today, though, or whether 1950's humor still works. You'll let me know.

Humor dates quickly, that's for sure.  I found J.P. Donleavy unbearable.  I have somewhat higher hopes for Amis. 

Thinking back, I did find Murdoch's Under the Net quite amusing.  I think I am slightly more in tune with her, but not with Muriel Spark, whose work I just don't enjoy.

[jlhoots]

Daniel Silva: House Of Spies

[alankin]

20 hours ago, T.D. said:

 

How was this one?

[HutchFan]

Just finished this:

Jazz Lives: Portraits in Words and Pictures by Michael Ullman

[kinuta]

[BillF]

4 hours ago, kinuta said:

[T.D.]

On 8/19/2017 at 1:42 PM, alankin said:

How was this one?

Sorry for the delay.

It's pretty good. I've read a lot of science bios and "popular science" books (incl. Von Neumann and Turing bios, various works touching on the Institute for Advanced Study [IAS], Los Alamos, Teller, the ENIAC, etc) , so much of the material was not new to me. But the weaving in of the IAS and hardware/software development was new and interesting. There's also lots of good info on significant figures who have been neglected in many historical accounts, for instance Nicholas Metropolis, who decades ago co-authored the "Metropolis-Hastings algorithm" now practically ubiquitous in Bayesian statistics as "Markov Chain Monte Carlo". Worthwhile reading IMO.

[Added: Also, I've long been an admirer of Freeman Dyson, so found it pretty cool to read a book authored by his son.]

Edited August 23, 2017 by T.D.