Now reading...

[BillF]

 

A best seller of considerable literary merit.

[paul secor]

Ann Beattie: Picturing Will

[paul secor]

Denis Theriault: The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman

[alankin]

Philip Kerr – March Violets [first volume in the Bernie Gunther Berlin Noir trilogy] 

Edited April 25, 2017 by alankin

[paul secor]

Nat Hentoff: Boston Boy

[paul secor]

The Daily Telegraph Book of Obituaries

[ghost of miles]

Getting ready to start this: 

[sonnyhill]

On 3/24/2017 at 3:05 PM, erwbol said:

Daniel C. Dennett From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds

How was this one?

[erwbol]

On 5/8/2017 at 11:12 PM, sonnyhill said:

How was this one?

I still haven't finished this, but not because it isn't good. I got distracted by several fiction books that did a better job of holding my attention. I also usually read two or more non-fiction books at the same time.

Dennett does take his time to get to his explanation of consciousness, however. A lot of groundwork in the first half. I never read Consciousness Explained, so I can't compare, but his ideas have evolved, so if you never read any Dennett, this latest book is probably the best pick. Hopefully the later chapters will deliver. My mind isn't blown yet.

Edited May 9, 2017 by erwbol

[sonnyhill]

16 hours ago, erwbol said:

I still haven't finished this, but not because it isn't good. I got distracted by several fiction books that did a better job of holding my attention. I also usually read two or more non-fiction books at the same time.

Dennett does take his time to get to his explanation of consciousness, however. A lot of groundwork in the first half. I never read Consciousness Explained, so I can't compare, but his ideas have evolved, so if you never read any Dennett, this latest book is probably the best pick. Hopefully the later chapters will deliver. My mind isn't blown yet.

Thanks erwbol.  I am always looking for interesting science/technology non-fiction. 

I just finished I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong; I liked it.  I generally only read one book at a time and usually alternate between fiction and non-fiction.  The Dennett looks interesting for my next non-fiction selection.

Can anyone recommend a well-written mystery novel published in the last five to seven years?   The last mystery novel I read was Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley.

 

Edited May 10, 2017 by sonnyhill

[BillF]

[ejp626]

On 4/23/2017 at 10:28 PM, ejp626 said:

Murakami's 1Q84

I thought it was pretty interesting but at 1/3rd in, it switches from having elements of magic realism and the uncanny to a full-on fantasy novel with supernatural beings involved.  At this point, I'll finish it, but I think it was a wrong turning point.  (Also, how many times does he need to reference Orwell's 1984? -- it comes up over and over and over.)

I just stumbled across Murakami's story "Town of Cats" in The New Yorker, which cleverly edits together some of the key events from 1Q84 and boils down 450 pages into 5 or 6!  Now if he had just done that for the second half of the novel!

After this, two Canadian novels: Callaghan's The Many Colored Coat and MacLennan's The Watch That Ends the Night.

Edited May 13, 2017 by ejp626

[Bluesnik]

Kim Gordon's autobiography. An interesting honest and bittersweet memoir recalling sixties California when she was growing up and her time with Sonic Youth.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Bluesnik
typos

[johnblitweiler]

On 5/9/2017 at 2:26 PM, rostasi said:

This was Art Lange's excellent litmag of the 1970s. Valuable poetry and jazz-musician interviews there, and of course scarce as hen's teeth by now. Two years ago in NYC I saw an issue on sale for $25. 

[ejp626]

I finished 1Q84.  It had a few interesting moments, but certainly nothing that justified its length.  In many ways, I consider the ending a cop-out.

I am almost done with MacLennan's The Watch That Ends the Night.  It's quite good.  I personally like it far more than his Two Solitudes or Barometer Rising.  It's mostly a love triangle with political overtones (one of the parties involved goes off to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War).  While it is a very different (and perhaps wiser or more forgiving) book, there are a few interesting parallels to Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier (which I hope to reread this fall).

[erwbol]

4 hours ago, ejp626 said:

I finished 1Q84.  It had a few interesting moments, but certainly nothing that justified its length.  In many ways, I consider the ending a cop-out.

If you read the English translation it was substantially abridged! Not that you were missing out on much of value imo.

[ejp626]

5 hours ago, erwbol said:

If you read the English translation it was substantially abridged! Not that you were missing out on much of value imo.

It was already too long, so I don't feel cheated...

[paul secor]

Willa Cather: Youth and the Bright Medusa

[BillF]

On 4/23/2017 at 8:06 AM, BillF said:

 

A best seller of considerable literary merit.

... and another in the same genre:

[ElginThompson]

[ejp626]

Qiu Miaojin Notes of a Crocodile (NYRB)  My impressions were very negative.  It was a boring, whiny tract, full of self-pity.  I really can't understand why this was a cult book, other than she wrote openly about homosexuality at a time her culture was not receptive.  And probably also because the author committed suicide, which always generates its own cult followers...  Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this at all.

I am now launching into Morley Callaghan's The Many Colored Coat.  I am cautiously optimistic.

 

[ghost of miles]

[BillF]

Fascinating! 

 

[jlhoots]

Reed Farrel Coleman: What You Break

Edited May 30, 2017 by jlhoots

[ghost of miles]