Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 9.2k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Posted
12 minutes ago, Matthew said:

Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville by David S. Reynolds

51P1D0949ML._SX306_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

He’s written some interesting books. 

Posted
2 hours ago, Brad said:

He’s written some interesting books. 

I really like his Walt Whitman's America, and I want to read soon his book on John Brown, as that is a figure I've always been fascinated with, I have even toyed with the idea of reading Russell Banks novel Cloudsplitter, despite divergent reviews of the book I've read.

Posted
24 minutes ago, Matthew said:

I really like his Walt Whitman's America, and I want to read soon his book on John Brown, as that is a figure I've always been fascinated with, I have even toyed with the idea of reading Russell Banks novel Cloudsplitter, despite divergent reviews of the book I've read.

His one on Harriet Beecher Stowe was pretty good as was his one on early American history. 

Posted

In yet another example of how tastes change, I am somewhat more interested in Toni Morrison's Sula (than I remember being as a callow youth), but I am not enjoying Tar Baby at all.  She introduces a lot of minor characters, who clutter up the main plot, and the main incident that allows the plot to continue strikes me as so outlandishly improbable that it has put a huge damper on the book.  I'm very doubtful I'll actually manage to finish this.  It would be one thing if this was supposed to be read as a fable (or even fairy tale, like much of Angela Carter's work), but Tar Baby is predominantly in the realist mode.

I'm skipping around in Wendell Berry's The World-Ending Fire (a compilation of selected essays).  While there is much that is interesting and admirable, I am more in tune with Loren Eiseley's world view and preoccupations.

Also reading through Teju Cole's Known and Strange Things, which is interesting so far.

Posted
10 hours ago, sidewinder said:

9780241972137.jpg

An excellent read !

Looks interesting - probably a very good accompaniment to the Mosaic set.

There are many references to the Mosaic set - but £42.80! (groan) :(

Posted (edited)
25 minutes ago, BillF said:

There are many references to the Mosaic set - but £42.80! (groan) :(

There seems to be an extra tax put on jazz books. Twas ever thus !

Been trying to find the Dameron bio at reasonable price but £26 for a paperback is also too much.

Edited by sidewinder
Posted (edited)

When Prophecy Still Had A Voice: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Robert Lax. Merton and Lax (an influential poet) had an almost life long friendship, and the book is off to a rollicking start, with the letters starting in early 1938. Merton and Lax, at this point, are callow young men (Merton even dropping F bombs and bragging about his sex life) but the intelligence is plain to see in both of them. They must have been interesting people to know -- I have come to the conclusion that Merton missed his true calling of being a writer for The New Yorker.

61Qd0FcgqAL.jpg

Edited by Matthew

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   1 member


×
×
  • Create New...