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Great book.

The Penguin edition includes a map for a walking tour of Barcelona which takes you to various places mentioned in the book. Unfortunately I read the book shortly after returning from Barcelona this past Spring. I wish I'd read it before we went-- ot=r better yet while we were there. However I did discover that the hotel in which we stayed seems to have been the location for the home of the character Nuria Monfort. My kids stayed in the room which what I think would have been hers.

Posted

I'm about to start Jacobson's Kalooki Nights, which is apparently about a Jewish cartoonist who focuses on the Holocaust. I wonder what Art Spiegelman would have to say about this.

I am not enjoying Kalooki Nights much. It is about a Jewish cartoonist from Manchester who has a complicated relationship with Jews. His father was an atheist, and he appears to wrestle with faith. But most of the novel focuses on him and his ex-wives, who are not only Gentiles, but Jew-hating Gentiles (along with a side story about a childhood friend obsessed with the Holocaust who literally gassed his own parents to death). So there is a lot of anger and self-loathing, and basically just too much of the same thing over and over. I'd say the book is three times as long as it should be, given what I have gotten from it. I have a hundred pages to go and should just drop it. I guess I won't because I'm a bit of a masochist myself and feel obligated to finish books I have started.

Probably the last novel I will read in Jan. is Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which is about Biafra's fight for independence in Nigeria and the impact that has on the central characters. It has started well, and it seems to be getting largely positive reviews. If I end up disappointed with this as well (4 for 4), I think I will just stop reading contemporary fiction for a while and focus on other things.

Posted

shadow-of-the-wind-605.jpg

Great book.

The Penguin edition includes a map for a walking tour of Barcelona which takes you to various places mentioned in the book. Unfortunately I read the book shortly after returning from Barcelona this past Spring. I wish I'd read it before we went-- ot=r better yet while we were there.

I think it's a good reason to visit Bercelona again.

Posted

shadow-of-the-wind-605.jpg

Great book.

The Penguin edition includes a map for a walking tour of Barcelona which takes you to various places mentioned in the book. Unfortunately I read the book shortly after returning from Barcelona this past Spring. I wish I'd read it before we went-- ot=r better yet while we were there.

I think it's a good reason to visit Bercelona again.

shadow was an excellent read!

i am half-way through anita o'day's biography "high times, hard times" - enjoyable and informative!

Posted (edited)

Reading a book I've been interested in for a long time: Siegfried Sassoon: The Memoirs of George Sherston. Really a fascinating read, a whole world that has just disappeared forever. Still on Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Sassoon writing of his country life, WW I hasn't even started yet. For some reason, I was caught off-guard by the style of writing, it's very good in its descriptive character, and it'll be interesting to read how he handles the war. I lucked out at a used bookstore and bought a 1937 edition for $8.00. Highly recommended. I'll have to reread Fussell's chapter on Sassoon in The Great War and Modern Memory after finishing the book.

Edited by Matthew
Posted

I thought I was thte only reader of jazzbeat. Anybody else out there----?

Yep - but I've only got one edition from 2006, after N.O was affected by the hurricane. Still waiting for the other quarterly issues. :mellow:

Been reading lots of komic books - mostly reprints of strips from the early/earlier 20th century (Krazy & Ignatz, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, Popeye etc).

Posted (edited)

Now reading -The Dangling Man : Saul Bellow

Just finished Kill all the Lawyers: Paul Levine

not the first in the Solomon/Lord series

but a funny read, I have not read the first

two of the series.

0440242754.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V56507701_.jpg

Edited by gslade
Posted

Anybody picked up Spy: the Funny Years yet? I was quite a fan, back in the day.

I was a fan too (up until about 1991 or '92 that is.)

When I first heard about this, I was hoping for an anthology of the choicest bits from the magazine's best years. According to the reviews I've seen, while it does reprint some old stuff, much of the book is taken up with "behind the scenes" memoirs of the magazine in those days. Before I take the plunge I'll have to give it a look the next time I hit a bookstore.

Posted

Anybody picked up Spy: the Funny Years yet? I was quite a fan, back in the day.

I was a fan too (up until about 1991 or '92 that is.)

When I first heard about this, I was hoping for an anthology of the choicest bits from the magazine's best years. According to the reviews I've seen, while it does reprint some old stuff, much of the book is taken up with "behind the scenes" memoirs of the magazine in those days. Before I take the plunge I'll have to give it a look the next time I hit a bookstore.

Same here.

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