Now reading...

[Matthew]

What I Stand On: The Collected Essays of Wendell Berry 1969 - 2017. Nice collection that I'm slowly making my way through.

[ejp626]

Dawn Powell's Turn, Magic Wheel.  This is one of her earlier novels and perhaps her first pure satire.  I enjoyed it.  It sets me up to read A Time to Be Born, which I'll probably start towards the end of the week.

I'm about a quarter of the way through A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers.  This is one of the relatively rare cases where I saw the movie (starring Tom Hanks) first.  I can't even remember why I saw the movie in the first place, as I am not a huge Tom Hanks fan or anything.  The theme of the US losing its way, along with its manufacturing base, is pervasive in the novel, even more than in the movie.

I'm also reading some Loren Eiseley - first The Invisible Pyramid and now The Immense Journey.

[Larry Kart]

Dawn Powell is terrific and unique.

[ghost of miles]

2 hours ago, ejp626 said:

Dawn Powell's Turn, Magic Wheel.  This is one of her earlier novels and perhaps her first pure satire.  I enjoyed it.  It sets me up to read A Time to Be Born, which I'll probably start towards the end of the week.

I'll second Larry's opinion, though I've read only Turn, Magic Wheel myself.  I have both Library of America volumes as well as a copy of her published diaries and hope to settle in for more of her work sometime in the future.  Seems as if the LOAs comprise both her NYC-based and Ohio-based novels, correct?

[ejp626]

12 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

I'll second Larry's opinion, though I've read only Turn, Magic Wheel myself.  I have both Library of America volumes as well as a copy of her published diaries and hope to settle in for more of her work sometime in the future.  Seems as if the LOAs comprise both her NYC-based and Ohio-based novels, correct?

I think she actually wrote 15 novels, but the very, very early novels are all completely out of print.  A while back, she came back into vogue and the publisher that published her diaries and short stories also published 10 of her novels (the best of the bunch).  LOA reprints 9 of them, with only The Happy Island left out.  The Happy Island is set in New York, so you might want to see if your library has it if you enjoy your deeper dive into Powell.  It's also one of the first novels to feature homosexual characters without invoking "gay panic" (I mean leaving aside The Satyricon). 

[ghost of miles]

6 minutes ago, ejp626 said:

I think she actually wrote 15 novels, but the very, very early novels are all completely out of print.  A while back, she came back into vogue and the publisher that published her diaries and short stories also published 10 of her novels (the best of the bunch).  LOA reprints 9 of them, with only The Happy Island left out.  The Happy Island is set in New York, so you might want to see if your library has it if you enjoy your deeper dive into Powell.  It's also one of the first novels to feature homosexual characters without invoking "gay panic" (I mean leaving aside The Satyricon). 

Thanks much for the recommendation--I'll try to track down The Happy Island as well.

[HutchFan]

[jlhoots]

Colson Whitehead: Nickel Boys

[ghost of miles]

 for Nate Chinen's Playing Changes.

Beginning this on the heels of her amazing concert Monday night in Detroit:

[Matthew]

The Hours: A Novel by Michael Cunningham

[ghost of miles]

Physical books still outsell e-books, and here's why

[Matthew]

17 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Physical books still outsell e-books, and here's why

I hadn't heard that the JD Salinger estate had okayed his books going digital. I like to read novels and mysteries on my iPad, but other topics, I prefer the physical.

Edited September 20, 2019 by Matthew

[jlhoots]

19 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

 for Nate Chinen's Playing Changes.

Beginning this on the heels of her amazing concert Monday night in Detroit:

Just Kids is very good too.

[ghost of miles]

6 minutes ago, jlhoots said:

Just Kids is very good too.

Agreed!  Read it several years ago, but just now getting around to M Train.

[felser]

[Matthew]

The Long-Legged House by Wendall Berry. Part of the LOA edition of his essays, a long meditation on his house in the woods.

Edited September 22, 2019 by Matthew

[T.D.]

This is extremely interesting, but unfortunately it's rather sloppy and slipshod in many respects.

[ejp626]

About 1/3 through Dawn Powell's A Time to Be Born.  Still quite entertaining, though I think Turn, Magic Wheel is a bit tighter overall.

Should wrap up Morrison's Sula fairly soon as well.

I'm reading Eiseley's books in a somewhat random order.  Finished The Immense Journey yesterday and will launch into The Night Country probably in a week or so.  Also, put a few Wendell Berry essay collections on hold at the library.

[Brad]

Working on this. I know it’s a classic but I’m finding slow going so far. 

I picked this up last week, a history of Latin America told via a few lives about the economy (silver), violence (sword) and religion (stone). 

[Bluesnik]

Today I've finally finished this. It's a fat read (716 pages) wich marks the end of the misadventures of DEA special agent Art Keller in his fight against drugs and finally against the War on Drugs. So as Winslow himself admits, this is a trilogy together with The Power of the Dog and The Cartel, which I've both read. His last novel, The Force, is the one I liked least, perhaps because it changed his familiar terrain of the fight against drugs and cartels to the police force of NYC.

Continued straight away with this:

Jazz in Barcelona 1920-1965. Jordi Pujol is the head of Fresh Sound, so he knows what he's talking about.

[Larry Kart]

My second Jack Parlabane novel from Christopher Brookmyre. A bit too much Scots dialect in the first one, "Country of the Blind," for my taste -- the setting is Glasgow -- but otherwise quite good, excellent political hugger mugger. The second I've tried/am trying is "Dead Girl Walking," which initially has a rock world setting. Parlabane is a semi-scrupulous investigative journalist whose career and life have gone all to hell after a frame up but who still possesses his old skills. Brookmyre, himself a former journalist, has a shrewd sense of what can be gathered from responses in the course of a seemingly normal interview.

[jlhoots]

3 hours ago, Bluesnik said:

Today I've finally finished this. It's a fat read (716 pages) wich marks the end of the misadventures of DEA special agent Art Keller in his fight against drugs and finally against the War on Drugs. So as Winslow himself admits, this is a trilogy together with The Power of the Dog and The Cartel, which I've both read. His last novel, The Force, is the one I liked least, perhaps because it changed his familiar terrain of the fight against drugs and cartels to the police force of NYC.

Continued straight away with this:

Jazz in Barcelona 1920-1965. Jordi Pujol is the head of Fresh Sound, so he knows what he's talking about.

The Border was great.

I don't know about Jazz En Barcelona.

[Bluesnik]

18 hours ago, jlhoots said:

The Border was great.

I have always, since The Power of the Dog, liked Winslow very much. The Power of the Dog was the first of his novels I read.

[Bluesnik]

On 17/07/2019 at 5:04 PM, Brad said:

I need to read his Underground Railroad.

I have it but still haven't read it.

[jlhoots]

28 minutes ago, Bluesnik said:

I have always, since The Power of the Dog, liked Winslow very much. The Power of the Dog was the first of his novels I read.

Power Of The Dog is a great book!!