Now reading...

[Matthew]

Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox by James MacGregor Burns. First of a two volume biography of FDR. Kind of old style in its writing, but it is still a good book where a person gets a feel for the era portrayed.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Matthew

[jlhoots]

Laura Lippman: Lady In The Lake

[ejp626]

I've gotten a bit side-tracked but I will start Don Quixote soon.  I'll probably watch the lecture series on Quixote referenced earlier in the thread, and I also stumbled across Nabokov's Lectures on Don Quixote, which looks pretty interesting.  Apparently he has a somewhat unorthodox take on the novel.

In the meantime, I'm struggling to get through the Collected Writings of Joe Brainard (Library of America).

It's extremely unclear to me why his very random thoughts and often undercooked personal essays would merit such a tome.  Some of his pieces do have the somewhat tossed off feel of something from a poet from the New York School (say Ted Berrigan, who Brainard knew, or Frank O'Hara), but what works in a poem often doesn't work in a longer, supposedly more structured piece.  That's my take anyway.  I'm definitely leaning towards just dropping this and moving on to something that I will enjoy more.

 

[jlhoots]

Yaa Gyasi: Transcendent Kingdom

[Brad]

[Dave James]

The second volume of Volker Ullrich's Hitler duology:  

[Brad]

4 hours ago, Dave James said:

The second volume of Volker Ullrich's Hitler duology:  

I purchased this too and have started it but, right now, with all the hate that seems to be around us, I’m having a hard time reading the book. 

[Dave James]

2 hours ago, Brad said:

I purchased this too and have started it but, right now, with all the hate that seems to be around us, I’m having a hard time reading the book. 

Have you read the first installment?  I've been fascinated by German history between 1918 and 1945 for as long as I can remember., so these two books are right in my wheelhouse.  I know it was an indescribably horrible period in world history, but for me, it's like an accident.  I can't look away. 

[sidewinder]

I can recommend this one - a fascinating and authoritative account of a tragic episode. Currently working my way through it.

Edited September 19, 2020 by sidewinder

[Brad]

6 hours ago, Dave James said:

Have you read the first installment?  I've been fascinated by German history between 1918 and 1945 for as long as I can remember., so these two books are right in my wheelhouse.  I know it was an indescribably horrible period in world history, but for me, it's like an accident.  I can't look away. 

Yes, I have. I’ve been interested in modern German history since high school and have read many books over the years. The ones by Richard Evans are particularly good. 

[jlhoots]

Julia Alvarez: Afterlife

[ghost of miles]

On 9/18/2020 at 3:28 PM, Brad said:

That was the second Hemingway book I ever read, after The Sun Also Rises. An excellent collection that I still have, and iirc some of the previously-unpublished material seemed definitely worthy of the Hemingway oeuvre. 
 

Speaking of Hemingway, the new New York Review of Books takes a look at a new volume of Martha Gellhorn’s correspondence that sounds intriguing.
 

A Moral Witness

Edited September 21, 2020 by ghost of miles

[BillF]

On 19/09/2020 at 1:51 PM, Brad said:

Yes, I have. I’ve been interested in modern German history since high school and have read many books over the years. The ones by Richard Evans are particularly good. 

If you'll permit fiction-based-on-fact in this discussion, this just-published item arrived in the mail today:

[jlhoots]

David Heska Wanbli Weiden: Winter Counts

[GA Russell]

Today I finished Don Maynard's autobiography, You Can't Catch Sunshine.  AFL fans will enjoy it.

Maynard claims to have coined the term "wide receiver" in 1958.  He also introduced the v-neck jersey and the mesh jersey to pro football.

He was a kick returner for the Giants in 1958.  His offensive co-ordinator was Vince Lombardi.  Lombardi's replacement in '59 Allie Sherman cut Maynard, and he joined the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.  Lombardi had left the Giants to coach Green Bay.  He called Maynard to tell him that he had obtained his rights from the Giants, but Maynard turned him down, telling him that he was enjoying playing for the Ticats.

https://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Catch-Sunshine-Maynard/dp/1600783759/

[ghost of miles]

The unabridged UK edition--great book!

[Dave Garrett]

On 10/2/2020 at 2:22 PM, ghost of miles said:

The unabridged UK edition--great book!

You may already be aware of this, but in the event you're not:

Rip It Up and Start Again: The Footnotes

[jlhoots]

Elizabeth Strout: Olive, Again

[ghost of miles]

2 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

You may already be aware of this, but in the event you're not:

Rip It Up and Start Again: The Footnotes

I wasn’t—thanks much! Probably going to seek out Reynolds’ book on glam-rock as well. I really enjoy his writing.

[jlhoots]

Craig Johnson: Next To Last Stand

[ghost of miles]

On 10/6/2020 at 8:51 PM, Dave Garrett said:

You may already be aware of this, but in the event you're not:

Rip It Up and Start Again: The Footnotes

Also didn't realize, till I got to the chapter on the Postcard label, that the book's title comes from the Orange Juice song "Rip It Up."  There's a band I hadn't thought about in quite awhile, but I always liked what I heard of them, which sounded both influenced by early Talking Heads and anticipating the sound of some early Smiths songs as well.  Such an excellent book, sending me back to some artists I hadn't listened to in many years, and inspiring me to check out others that I missed the first time around.

[mjazzg]

1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:

Also didn't realize, till I got to the chapter on the Postcard label, that the book's title comes from the Orange Juice song "Rip It Up."  There's a band I hadn't thought about in quite awhile, but I always liked what I heard of them, which sounded both influenced by early Talking Heads and anticipating the sound of some early Smiths songs as well.  Such an excellent book, sending me back to some artists I hadn't listened to in many years, and inspiring me to check out others that I missed the first time around.

One of my favourite bands at the time. 'Rip It Up' was a constant soundtrack. 

 

[ejp626]

Making very, very slow progress through Don Quixote.  It's not that it's not good, I'm just extremely busy and it's too thick to take to the gym and read there...

In terms of "gym books" I was deeply disappointed in Kiran Desai's Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and abandoned that quickly.  The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis looks more promising, but it's early days still.

[jazzbo]

Re-reading, probably for the second time, Philip K. Dick, "Eye in the Sky" from 1959.

[Bluesnik]

On 9/19/2020 at 2:09 PM, sidewinder said:

a fascinating and authoritative account of a tragic episode.

My mother, who's German (she was just a kid then) remembers the nightly flyovers of the bombers on their way to Berlin and the big cities. But what I'm reading now and what I wanted to post is this:

Greil Marcus - Lipstick traces: A secret History of the Twentieth Century

I missed this the first time around (it's from 1989) but have this 20th anniversary edition, which is from 2009, so it's more like a 30th anniversary edition.

It starts with British punk and then goes all along pop culture. I remember I read in another book (Please kill me) that McLaren had been in NY managing the New York Dolls, and that is where he got the idea of the nascent American punk, which he later took to the UK when he founded the Pistols. Of course who claims that idea is a New Yorker, but I find it totally plausible since in the early 70s NY already had its share of protopunk. But it must be said it wasn't mixed with situationist and May 68 Parisian philosophy as British punk became thanks to Malcolm McLaren, a man who openly said he wanted to make a quick buck through scandal.