paul secor Posted June 30, 2016 Report Share Posted June 30, 2016 6 hours ago, BillF said: I can recommend this excellent biography of Fitzgerald: That's on my to read list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 (edited) On 6/28/2016 at 11:09 PM, BillF said: Finally got round to reading Carol/The Price of Salt and I found it a fine book - a plot that prepares the way for her mature style and attention to detail and description that the older Highsmith was to perfect. I guess I'll have to figure out which book of hers I've read. Maybe it was the wrong period...I kept getting visions of Emily Dickinson trying to write for mystery pulps. Edited July 1, 2016 by Jazzmoose double post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 Walter Mosley: Charcoal Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 Nearly done with Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett. It's in the good but not great category. I should wrap it up this weekend. I'm then going to launch into In Between Dreams by Iman Verjee. (She has her 2nd novel dropping in August, though it may already be available in the States. The Kindle version is already out. I want to see what I think of her first novel.) Then the library is sending me Han Kang's The Vegetarian, which won the Booker International Prize. Still slowly making my way through The Voyage of the Beagle. I'm just about at the chapter covering the Galapagos Islands (finally!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted July 3, 2016 Report Share Posted July 3, 2016 (edited) On 7/1/2016 at 1:50 PM, ejp626 said: Nearly done with Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett. It's in the good but not great category. I should wrap it up this weekend. I'm then going to launch into In Between Dreams by Iman Verjee. (She has her 2nd novel dropping in August, though it may already be available in the States. The Kindle version is already out. I want to see what I think of her first novel.) Then the library is sending me Han Kang's The Vegetarian, which won the Booker International Prize. Still slowly making my way through The Voyage of the Beagle. I'm just about at the chapter covering the Galapagos Islands (finally!). I didn't really care for the ending of Blackass. Also, the morals of the main character just get worse and worse as the novel progresses, sort of like The White Tiger, though in that case you knew from the beginning that the narrator was amoral. I got just a few pages into In Between Dreams and found out it crossed one of my thick red lines (that cause me to abandon novels). There are some things I simply am not willing to read. I guess I'm glad I found out right away without wasting any more time. Of course, now I have no idea whether I will read her second novel, though I am certainly leaning against it. Anyway, Darwin has finally reached the Galapagos, so I'll just try to wrap that up. Edited July 3, 2016 by ejp626 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted July 3, 2016 Report Share Posted July 3, 2016 Exquisite little book with the concentration and intensity of poetry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted July 3, 2016 Report Share Posted July 3, 2016 Robertson Davies: Fifth Business Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted July 5, 2016 Report Share Posted July 5, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted July 5, 2016 Report Share Posted July 5, 2016 Cline: The Girls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted July 11, 2016 Report Share Posted July 11, 2016 Has to be the definitive account of Verdum. Compulsively well written and a must read for anyone interested in The Great War. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 Chris Pavone: The Expats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 Just wading into this.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted July 15, 2016 Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 Woolf's first novel; a beautiful book with the seeds of her later, more experimental fiction already noticeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted July 15, 2016 Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 Annie Proulx: Barkskins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Sixth of Hill's Serrailler series of detective novels set in an imaginary cathedral town (with nearby modern town with sink estate etc) in central England. Good plots, likeable characters (and unlikable villains) but often with sub-plots revolving around the medical profession. Much of this one revolves around care homes and the issue of assisted suicide. Warm book revolving round the lives (and deaths) of characters in the the west Cornwall villages of Morvah and Pendeen, near St. Just. Quick survey of music from the Middle Ages to the Baroque. Lots on the revival of the mid-20thC. Now: Glad to see the main characters are as bad tempered as ever. No room for Tom Hiddleston here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Helen DeWitt: The Last Samurai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Been shifting my bedtime reading between these two books: Dante Gabriel Rossetti -- Collected Poetry and Prose: Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson I'm enjoying them both a great deal. I'm starting to come around on the Victorian writers, I have to admit that I pretty much gave them a dismissive blow-off for most of my life... a serious mistake on my part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 13 hours ago, Matthew said: Been shifting my bedtime reading between these two books: Dante Gabriel Rossetti -- Collected Poetry and Prose: Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson I'm enjoying them both a great deal. I'm starting to come around on the Victorian writers, I have to admit that I pretty much gave them a dismissive blow-off for most of my life... a serious mistake on my part. Some High Victorian pics - of Manchester Town Hall - to accompany your reading: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 I've finished Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle. I've collected my thoughts on it here if interested: http://erics-hangout.blogspot.ca/2016/07/darwins-voyage-at-end.html I'm nearly done with Han Kang's The Vegetarian. It's kind of interesting, but I have to say I think it won the Booker International more for its shock value than any lasting literary legacy. Definitely one to borrow or rent rather than buy... Next up are Aravind Adiga's Last Man in Tower and Willa Cather's My Antonia. (A bit of strange pairing to be sure.) After that, for something completely different - Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted July 18, 2016 Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 I post on https://www.goodreads.com/. Today, when I logged on, there was a recommendation posted for me - by Goodreads, not by an individual. It read: Because you enjoyed For the End of Time - The Story of the Messiaen Quartet You might enjoy: At first I thought, wtf. But then I thought I probably might enjoy reading it. I just wondered where the recommendation came from. I doubt that a human being was behind it, so that leaves a computer. Are they developing computers with senses of humor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted July 18, 2016 Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MODERN ART - Katharine Kuh (finished and edited by Avis Berman). The reminiscences and reflections of an art dealer, curator and critic. Enjoyable and interesting behind- the -scenes accounts of modern artists and the art world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted July 18, 2016 Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 1 hour ago, Leeway said: MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MODERN ART - Katharine Kuh (finished and edited by Avis Berman). The reminiscences and reflections of an art dealer, curator and critic. Enjoyable and interesting behind- the -scenes accounts of modern artists and the art world. Is the art biz as nasty as the music biz? I would imagine so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted July 18, 2016 Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 On July 16, 2016 at 6:03 AM, paul secor said: Helen DeWitt: The Last Samurai There's an article about her in the current issue of New York Magazine. Sounds like a challenging book & a complex person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted July 18, 2016 Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 2 hours ago, Leeway said: MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MODERN ART - Katharine Kuh (finished and edited by Avis Berman). The reminiscences and reflections of an art dealer, curator and critic. Enjoyable and interesting behind- the -scenes accounts of modern artists and the art world. Sounds interesting. The cover picture, Fernand Léger's Le mécanicien, is very familiar. I bought a postcard of it in Paris in the 50s (groan, groan) and still often display it on my bookshelf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted July 18, 2016 Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 3 hours ago, paul secor said: Is the art biz as nasty as the music biz? I would imagine so. Rest assured it is. 2 hours ago, BillF said: Sounds interesting. The cover picture, Fernand Léger's Le mécanicien, is very familiar. I bought a postcard of it in Paris in the 50s (groan, groan) and still often display it on my bookshelf. Kuh was a fan of Leger, and there is a good chapter on Leger in the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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