paul secor Posted October 23, 2011 Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 Interesting article on Haruki Murakami in today's N.Y. Times magazine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted October 23, 2011 Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 Overlong - 700 + pages - took me 5 weeks to get through (10 pages here, ten pages there during a pretty brutal half-term with little room for pleasure reading). But a good tale, interesting setting, nice characters. Now racing through: A send up of heritage industry Britain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted October 24, 2011 Report Share Posted October 24, 2011 Erik Larsen: In The Garden Of Beasts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted October 30, 2011 Report Share Posted October 30, 2011 Lesser known Wells science fiction novel, excellent in parts, though flawed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Van Basten II Posted October 30, 2011 Report Share Posted October 30, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Berger Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 (edited) I've been doing a lot of reading on the train. One book I just finished and loved is Simon Sebag Montefiore's "Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar": I guess I am in an inter-war mood - I am currently about halfway through Kafka's "The Trial", and after that I have Richard Evans's "Rise of the Third Reich" on deck. I love the kindle! Edited November 8, 2011 by Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Fascinating I've stalled on this about halfway. It's great, but it may be time to slip some fiction in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted November 10, 2011 Report Share Posted November 10, 2011 Wow, it's hard to believe that I am holding this in my hands. I never thought it would see publication. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted November 12, 2011 Report Share Posted November 12, 2011 Kate Atkinson: When Will There Be Good News? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedwork Posted November 12, 2011 Report Share Posted November 12, 2011 (edited) on the recommendation of my step-mom: i'm a bit more than halfway through and i'm not enjoying it at all. i actually rather dislike it, as opposed to simply disliking it in a 'disinterested' way, but will finish it out of respect for my step-mom. we'll see what happens. maybe since i've been reading so much non-fiction for the last 5-6 years i just don't like reading fiction much anymore? could be... Edited November 12, 2011 by thedwork Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TedR Posted November 12, 2011 Report Share Posted November 12, 2011 The Civil War of 1812 by Alan Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morganized Posted November 12, 2011 Report Share Posted November 12, 2011 Following recomendation from friend and comments on this board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted November 12, 2011 Report Share Posted November 12, 2011 Excellent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Haruki Murakami: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle One helluva journey! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted November 15, 2011 Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 Marching bravely forward on my Dickens marathon. Now on to: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted November 15, 2011 Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 Recommended for students of Lincoln and the Civil War. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedwork Posted November 15, 2011 Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 on the recommendation of my step-mom: i'm a bit more than halfway through and i'm not enjoying it at all. i actually rather dislike it, as opposed to simply disliking it in a 'disinterested' way, but will finish it out of respect for my step-mom. we'll see what happens. maybe since i've been reading so much non-fiction for the last 5-6 years i just don't like reading fiction much anymore? could be... finished it. not for me, but i see how others would enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Read this after rewatching the film recently. Profound, moving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Alice Hoffman: The Dovekeepers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 on the recommendation of my step-mom: i'm a bit more than halfway through and i'm not enjoying it at all. i actually rather dislike it, as opposed to simply disliking it in a 'disinterested' way, but will finish it out of respect for my step-mom. we'll see what happens. maybe since i've been reading so much non-fiction for the last 5-6 years i just don't like reading fiction much anymore? could be... finished it. not for me, but i see how others would enjoy it. I haven't read this, but I did read Moth Smoke, which had its moments. I will say that of Pakistani novelists, I prefer Kamila Shamsie to Mohsin Hamid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Read this after rewatching the film recently. Profound, moving. That film was relatively new when I was training as a teacher and clips were used as a critique of what was wrong with the education system. I hope we've got much better with most youngsters, but the basic inequalities are still there, the sense of alienation amongst the most disadvantaged too. I'm really enjoying the fourth of David Downing's wartime Berlin based novels, this one set as the Russians close in in April 1945. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 (edited) Read this after rewatching the film recently. Profound, moving. That film was relatively new when I was training as a teacher and clips were used as a critique of what was wrong with the education system. I hope we've got much better with most youngsters, but the basic inequalities are still there, the sense of alienation amongst the most disadvantaged too. In his Afterword to the 1999 edition, Barry Hines noted that the only significant employment opportunity on Kes's territory, mining, had now been killed off. Today, twelve years later, national youth unemployment figures speak for themselves. Edited November 18, 2011 by BillF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin V Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 So I am about halfway through Norman Rush's Mating. It's pretty slow going and I am getting bored with it, so I will probably just stop. It is definitely at least 100 pages too long. Life's too short. I positively hated Donleavy's The Ginger Man. Basically only for those who find intellectual-poseurs and drunkards compelling (as found in Withnail and I). And then to add to that, the main character is a wife-beater who treats all women equally shabbily, basically trying to screw all the women in Dublin. Maybe this was genuinely liberating in the 1950s and early 60s, but it strikes me that the only liberation that mattered was for men. I can't imagine Donleavy remaining in the literary pantheon (in fact he's probably not there now). A poor man's Norman Mailer, basically (not even sure Mailer will be in the pantheon in another 50 years). Ultimately, it was the physical abuse of the women that make me stop reading -- I skipped to the last 25 pages and he was still a complete shitheel, so I tossed the book into a donation box. Life is definitely too short to read books that glamourize violence against women. Starting Kroetsch's Badlands. Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy is around the corner. Boy, that is going to be a tough book to digest. I imagine it will take a month at my current rate of reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 (edited) In his Afterword to the 1999 edition, Barry Hines noted that the only significant employment opportunity on Kes's territory, mining, had now been killed off. Today, twenty-two years later, national youth unemployment figures speak for themselves. I'm a bit south of Hines area and with a little more diversity to pick up on the loss of the coal mines, but still a 'social priority area'. It's starting to get hit hard - we're noticing a renewed attitude of hopelessness in some of the kids. Why bother to work/conform/behave when dad, mum, uncle are out of work or in really low paid jobs? - much more fun to tweak the noses of the teachers. Edited November 18, 2011 by A Lark Ascending Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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