Now reading...

[Ken Dryden]

This in depth look at the various weapons, documents and other tools developed by the OSS for use by their agents and also local underground saboteurs is fascinating.

[jlhoots]

Morgan Talty: Fire Exit

[Referentzhunter]

Tolstoy- Anna Karenina

Very boring, unnecessary passages, repetitions, clichés, couldn't connect with any of the characters.

It's simply a cliched soap i couldn't enjoy.

 

Edited July 8, 2024 by Referentzhunter

[Brad]

18 hours ago, Referentzhunter said:

Tolstoy- Anna Karenina

Very boring, unnecessary passages, repetitions, clichés, couldn't connect with any of the characters.

It's simply a cliched soap i couldn't enjoy.

Good thing; it's coherent, orderly

Did you ever read War and Peace?

[Referentzhunter]

9 hours ago, Brad said:

Did you ever read War and Peace?

I am thinking of skipping it. Do you recommend it ? 

[GA Russell]

Very good, but some of the chapters were unnecessarily confusing.

[Brad]

On 6/30/2024 at 6:07 AM, Referentzhunter said:

I am thinking of skipping it. Do you recommend it ? 

Wholeheartedly but it’s very long.

This is a good companion book, Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times, by Andrew Kaufman. Highly recommended. I read it as I read W & P.

7 hours ago, GA Russell said:

Very good, but some of the chapters were unnecessarily confusing.

Terrific book as are all of his espionage books. 

[Referentzhunter]

11 hours ago, Brad said:

Wholeheartedly but it’s very long.

This is a good companion book, Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times, by Andrew Kaufman. Highly recommended. I read it as I read W & P.

I've seen many good movies, listened to tons of interesting music but Tolstoy's way of writing is for me a total waste of time. I am pretty sure.

Tolstoy was a snobbish aristocrate that overestimated himself.

Edited July 2, 2024 by Referentzhunter

[Brad]

3 hours ago, Referentzhunter said:

I've seen many good movies, listened to tons of interesting music but Tolstoy's way of writing is for me a total waste of time. I am pretty sure.

Tolstoy was a snobbish aristocrate that overestimated himself.

W & P is one of the great novels but if you don’t like Tolstoy it’s probably best not to bother.

Since we are speaking about Russians, you might like some Pushkin. 

Here is an article worth reading:

10 Russian Novels to Read Before You Die

 

[GA Russell]

Not too much here.

[Matthew]

8 hours ago, GA Russell said:

Not too much here.

The "Pat Ewing Fix", is the JFK Assignation Conspiracy of the NBA, it's true, the creased edge is the magic bullet of the NBA>

[ghost of miles]

Several underway, all of a historical nature:

 

[Jim Duckworth]

Re-reading this.

[GA Russell]

I'm confident everyone here would enjoy this.  The detective is a jazz LP collector.

[Referentzhunter]

[jlhoots]

Louisa Luna: Tell Me Who You Are

[GA Russell]

Very powerful.  Highly recommended.

[ghost of miles]

[jlhoots]

Chris Chester: Providence Of A Sparrow

[GA Russell]

[ejp626]

Over the weekend, I got through John Fante's West of Rome.  Not too crazy about this, particularly when the narrator goes off on how terrible it will be if his son marries a Black woman and then, gasp, has children...  In my view, Fante's work hasn't aged all that well.

I also got about halfway through The Heptaméron by Marguerite de Navarre.  This was directly inspired by The Decameron, and indeed aspires to be the French Decameron.  Some of the stories are interesting, but there is a cruelty to many of the stories, which is largely, though not entirely, absent in The Decameron.  I definitely prefer Boccaccio.  

Also dipping into Koestler's Darkness at Noon.  This is translated from the recently recovered German manuscript, which was assumed to have been lost during the War.

 

 

[medjuck]

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, which I quite enjoyed in part because of the list of bands who play at one of the character's dance hall: Chick Webb, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Jay McShan, Mario Bauza, Louis Jordan and Mickey Katz. Not sure this is chronologically plausible   since most of it takes place 1925-36.

[jlhoots]

8 hours ago, medjuck said:

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, which I quite enjoyed in part because of the list of bands who play at one of the character's dance hall: Chick Webb, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Jay McShan, Mario Bauza, Louis Jordan and Mickey Katz. Not sure this is chronologically plausible   since most of it takes place 1925-36.

Excellent novel!!

[GA Russell]

Very informative.

[jlhoots]

Percival Everett: James