Now reading...

[jlhoots]

Peter Pullman: Wail (bought the paperback)

Gunther Schuller: The Swing Era

[jazzbo]

L. A. Noir: The Struggle For The Soul Of America's Most Seductive City by John Buntin. Story of Mickey Cohen, who was the king mobster in LA, and William Parker, the famous LA Chief of Police. Very good so far, but the whole "struggle for the soul of LA" is, of course, complete bs, but a writer does need a hook to sell a book. It would be nice if LA was not always examined through the glasses of Raymond Chandler.

Or if they'd actually wear the right prescription Chandler glasses.

[paul secor]

Simenon: My Friend Maigret

[jazzbo]

Love Simenon! Was just looking at a few Maigret titles in the book store today and couldn't decipher whether I'd already read them!

[paul secor]

Love Simenon! Was just looking at a few Maigret titles in the book store today and couldn't decipher whether I'd already read them!

Many times I can't remember if I've read a Maigret before until I read a fair number of pages. And by then it doesn't matter. I just end up rereading and enjoying.

[kinuta]

Hospital reading. Two weeks and things have picked up with the Civil War in full throttle.

Tough going, I realised how little I knew about this vital piece of history.

BTW I'm back home now.

Edited December 19, 2012 by kinuta

[Matthew]

Hospital reading. Two weeks and things have picked up with the Civil War in full throttle.

Tough going, I realised how little I knew about this vital piece of history.

BTW I'm back home now.

Best wishes on a full recovery!

[jazzbo]

Glad you're back home!

[paul secor]

Lindsay Faye's Dust and Shadow - Captures the spirit of Conan Doyle and Holmes better than any other contemporary rendition of Sherlock that I've read.

[JSngry]

The Early Earthly Stories Of Mortin And The Mourlins' Last Good Renderin Of The Eye-In-The-Pie-in-the-Stormy-Red-Sky Stories (as told by by Sax O'Gaudhofter)

Best read Alone, which to this pint has not been a problem.

[Jazzmoose]

I really should give Moorcock a try sometime; all I've ever read by him is Behold the Man.

[jazzbo]

I like the Elric stories best; I also like his non-sicence fiction historical novels and fantasies.

Now

"Conversations with Henry Miller," edited by Frank L. Kersnowski and Alice Hughes

Edited December 23, 2012 by jazzbo

[A Lark Ascending]

Just finished. Best thing I've read on the Cuban Missile Crisis - tremendous sense of narrative drive. Seeing things from the eye of the U2 pilot who strayed into Siberia or one of the Soviet nuclear submarine captains gives you a very different perspective. Gives a tremendous sense of just how much was beyond the control of both administrations.

Over half way through - not a riveting read, but someone I wanted to know more about.

A Cambridge Spies "6th man" espionage thriller. Not enjoying it much. A bit cardboard cut-out character wise (it's starting to remind me of the bloody Da Vinci code, without all the symbols).

Edited January 2, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[paul secor]

Simenon: Maigret and the Madwoman

[ejp626]

I like the Elric stories best; I also like his non-sicence fiction historical novels and fantasies.

At one point I had read nearly all the Moorcock series. Elric is probably the most memorable, but I don't know how the more recent additions to the seris stack up. I kind of liked The End of Time series as well.

I know he's written a number of more serious novels like Mother London and Byzantium Endures, which I've been meaning to read, but have not had the time.

Am juggling three books: Madame Bovary (have never read the entire thing) -- it is part of my "infidelity" mini-challenge. Rushdie's Midnight's Children (re-reading this -- I had planned on seeing the movie afterwards but plans changed).

Amado's The War of the Saints

The later two are overly convoluted, esp. the Amado, and just take too long to get to the actual plot. I definitely liked Midnight's Children more in college, when I was generally more receptive to "playfulness" on the part of the author. Now I value taut storytelling much more and have far less patience with postmodern literary games. (It does make me wonder whether I should re-read Tristram Shandy, which is nothing but digressions.) I don't recall other Amado novels being so disjointed, and I wonder if he was responding to Cortazar's Hopscotch or similar fictiones (I am almost positive I wouldn't want to re-read Hopscotch in my current frame of mind).

[erwbol]

Not my favourite Iain M. Banks novel, but regarded as his best by many.

[A Lark Ascending]

Started this last summer - got as far as World War II and then got distracted by Napoleonic sea-going books.

Picked it up again last week and am well into it.

Not what you would call a rip-roaring read but a superbly written and measured bit of historical biography. Gaddis clearly loves his subject (he knew him) but this is no hagiography. It's as much about where Kennan completely missed his mark as the famous point when everyone ran with his ideas.

You probably need to have an outline knowledge of the Cold War to get much from it; but what I'm finding fascinating is the other directions Kennan kept pointing in. Helps make the whole thing more three dimensional. Looking forward to seeing his reaction to Vietnam - the blurb suggest he was highly critical.

He was a guitar player too!

[jlhoots]

Justin Cronin: The Twelve

[Matthew]

New World Coming: The 1920s And The Making Of Modern America by Nathan Miller. A very interesting account of the 1920s, and how the contemporary world was foreshadowed by the events and culture of the 1920s. Enjoying this very much -- recommended if you're interested in this era.

[BillF]

[Head Man]

Just finished this Christmas present. Complete tosh, unfortunately.

[erwbol]

[ejp626]

Should have tried working on the plane this weekend, but just too cramped, so I gave up and read the books I brought instead. I wrapped up Edward Jones' Lost in the City, comprised of short stories set in Washington D.C. After reading several of them, it struck me that the tone was quite similar to Raymond Carver, though the stories were not nearly as tight. Carver often wrote about working class whites, and Jones is writing about Blacks further down the class spectrum, though there are a handful of children who "escape" and live among the ghosts, i.e. in white neighborhoods in D.C. The stories are accomplished, but boy were they depressing. I'm not sure there is a single one with an uplifting ending.

I also read Mordecai Richler's Barney's Version. This was recently made into a movie, though so much of it covers the same territory as Sideways and Paul Giamatti is in it as well, that it seems really redundant. Anyway, it has some amusing moments, but I did feel somewhat manipulated into siding with a guy who was an absolute boor and drunkard, and whom I would avoid in my real life.

Back to my other reading, I am about halfway through Madame Bovary. It certainly has its moments, but I wouldn't call it a page-turner or anything like that.

[BillF]

[A Lark Ascending]

Must read that again. I loved it when I first read it.