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[kinuta]

[ejp626]

On 2/23/2019 at 4:46 PM, kinuta said:

Just finishing up Solaris by Stanislaw Lem....

.............................

Finished. The interminable passages describing the surface conditions of the planet finally had a deadening effect, making it a slog to finish. If I had to choose from the two films and the book, I'd pick the Soderberg version.

Heretic, I know.

I'd largely argee.  I found the book to be fairly disappointing.  If I recall, Lem felt the (original) movie was too sensationalized or that it made its points too clearly or something.  He was going for something a bit more "alienating."  If Tarkovsky had just cut down on the endless shots of rain on the grass bookending the film, I would probably lean toward his epic version.  (On the other hand, if watching at home, I can just fast-forward through them...)

You might like Roadside Picnic, which has humans trying to deal with alien artifacts left behind after a visit (but a visit where the aliens never bothered to make contact).  One of the scientists hypothesizes that the artifacts are the equivalent of trash left behind after a picnic.  It still has that vibe of humans being pointless to alien beings, but there is a bit more narrative drive in the novel.

 

[Brad]

Among other things, reading this. 

 

[paul secor]

A delight. I was turned on to this one by Jeff, who's a longtime Wodehouse fan.

[jlhoots]

Don Winslow: The Border

[ghost of miles]

On 2/23/2019 at 11:02 AM, Brad said:

Excellent.  Any thoughts of buying him the DVD set. I've had it for years and usually watch it once a year. 

After finishing Smiley’s People, I ordered a two-in-one set that bundles it and Tinker, Tailor together. They are the UK original BBC versions (evidently the Acorn Media releases are the edited U.S. versions), making me happy once again that I now have a multi-region DVD/Blu-Ray player.

On 2/23/2019 at 4:46 PM, kinuta said:

Yes, the original BBC dvd's of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People are definitive and endlessly replayable.

It's a shame they never got round to doing The Honourable Schoolboy and completing the trilogy.

 

I read somewhere that BBC skipped over The Honourable Schoolboy because of the prohibitive expenses of filming in Asia.

The concluding pages of Smiley’s People were riveting—hard for me to recall the last time I was so in the grip of a literary spell. What to read next? Well, I’m moving on to this one:

... and also now permitting myself at last to dip into a book I picked up a couple of years ago—a handy skeleton key to le Carre’s complex landscape of characters:

Edited March 3, 2019 by ghost of miles

[Dave James]

On 2/17/2019 at 11:53 PM, kinuta said:

2/3rds through and it's a fair, easy read.

Rather more plot driven than I expected but with predictable tough guy stuff too.

As of now , I'd say it's worth a look.

 

IMO, "61 Hours" is the best of the Reacher series.  If I understand correctly, and if there's a third film, it will be based on this book.

[kinuta]

I thought A Perfect Spy was his best book following the Smiley Trilogy.

It was also serialized for tv and is very much recommended.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092425/

Now reading

[kinuta]

[Brad]

I was having trouble getting into And The Don Flows to the Sea so I decided to put it down for awhile and I'm now reading Joseph Roth's Rebellion.  I've read The Radetzky March and The Emperor's Tomb and those were excellent. If you like Stefan Zweig -- and I've read all his novels and memoir -- you'd probably like Roth. 

[ejp626]

2 hours ago, Brad said:

I was having trouble getting into And The Don Flows to the Sea so I decided to put it down for awhile and I'm now reading Joseph Roth's Rebellion.  I've read The Radetzky March and The Emperor's Tomb and those were excellent. If you like Stefan Zweig -- and I've read all his novels and memoir -- you'd probably like Roth. 

I don't think I've read Rebellion, though I've read several other of his novels and reportage.  My favorite is the fairly early novel, Hotel Savoy. 

[Brad]

1 hour ago, ejp626 said:

I don't think I've read Rebellion, though I've read several other of his novels and reportage.  My favorite is the fairly early novel, Hotel Savoy. 

I will have to check that one out. 

[Bluesnik]

Actually rereading it, because it was written in 1998 and published in 1999. I particularly enjoyed the part about Mary Quant and the start of the Swinging London at the beginning of the 60s. And the first days of Ronny Scotts. Oldham, the Stones first manager, was actually quite fashion conscious before managing the Stones. But it was he who invented that bad boy image for the Stones, as they were middle class or upper middle class made to look like thugs. Whereas the Beatles were thugs from the council estates made into nice boys by Brian Epstein, their higher class manager.

[kinuta]

I don't often reread novels. This one is an exception.

  

Hi Bluesnik 

Are you sure the Beatles were thugs from housing estates ?

Working class kids for sure but I'm not sure the facts support that idea.

Thuggish would imply someone who delights in dishing out violence.

I lived on such a housing estate from 1956 - 1966 and although there were a lot of lads with musical aspirations, none of them were thuggish at all.  I was in Sheffield and we lived very much the same way as people in Liverpool and Manchester.

Anyhow the book looks interesting. Have you read Keef's biography ?

 

 

[ghost of miles]

[Brad]

13 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

You might find the recent book "Say Nothing" by Patrick Keefe, about the abduction and murder of Jean McConville, something you may want to read. It received good reviews. 

[ghost of miles]

On 3/8/2019 at 8:51 AM, Brad said:

You might find the recent book "Say Nothing" by Patrick Keefe, about the abduction and murder of Jean McConville, something you may want to read. It received good reviews. 

Yes, I’m very interested in it, actually, after hearing this interview with the author a few days ago on NPR.

[Brad]

On 3/6/2019 at 5:40 AM, Brad said:

I was having trouble getting into And The Don Flows to the Sea so I decided to put it down for awhile and I'm now reading Joseph Roth's Rebellion.  I've read The Radetzky March and The Emperor's Tomb and those were excellent. If you like Stefan Zweig -- and I've read all his novels and memoir -- you'd probably like Roth. 

A wonderful but pessimistic book: how the state can crush you if you’re not careful. As relevant today as It probably was when first written. 

[JohnS]

[Brad]

4 hours ago, JohnS said:

My favorite of his books is Armageddon. That one was very good. 

[kinuta]

8 hours ago, Brad said:

My favorite of his books is Armageddon. That one was very good. 

Agree. Both Armageddon and All Hell Let Loose are great.

I'd add Nemesis : The Battle For Japan to the short list.

Edited March 10, 2019 by kinuta

[kinuta]

[Brad]

3 hours ago, kinuta said:

Agree. Both Armageddon and All Hell Let Loose are great.

I'd add Nemesis : The Battle For Japan to the short list.

It’s funny but over in the US they have different titles. All Hell Let Loose is titled Inferno and Nemesis is titled Retribution. 

[kinuta]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

It’s funny but over in the US they have different titles. All Hell Let Loose is titled Inferno and Nemesis is titled Retribution. 

I heard that was the case with All Hell Let Loose, but didn't know of the title change of Nemesis.

You would, like me, be at sea here, where book and film titles are more often changed than not. Not just to a directly translated title but something totally different.

Edited March 11, 2019 by kinuta

[kinuta]