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On 2/17/2020 at 7:39 AM, Brad said:

Having finished Soldiers of Salamis, which was outstanding, I have now begun his latest Lord of All the Dead, about Javier Cercas’ uncle who was killed in the Civil War. 

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I just finished reading Lord of All the Dead. It’s one of the better books I have read about the Spanish Civil War. The title comes from The Odyssey where Achilles says he would rather be a slave of a penniless laborer than lord of all the dead.

Next up is probably this:

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Just wrapping up the stories in The Word of the Speechless.  A bit hit or miss, as many short story collections are, but on the whole pretty interesting pieces from a writer completely new to me (thanks again, NYRB!).

I've decided to take a short detour into contagion literature, so will tackle Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider and Camus's The Plague (I've been remiss and never actually read this previously).  While only a chapter of Ben Cohen's The Hot Hand is about Shakespeare and the plague, this excerpt was intriguing enough for me to put a hold on it at the library: https://slate.com/culture/2020/03/shakespeare-plague-influence-hot-hand-ben-cohen.html

Whenever I am through all this, I will go back to Maxwell's The Château.

 

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3 minutes ago, Brad said:

A flash sale from NYRB Classics.

 

Thanks for the update.  From this list, I've read The Jokers, which was interesting and well-written, and Letter to Survivors, which is kind of a one-joke graphic novel.  (I would definitely recommend borrowing from the library...)  I own, but haven't read, Ride a Cockhorse and The Alteration.  (One of these days...)

I'm nearly done with Pale Horse, Pale Rider and will tackle The Plague next.  I've heard that the newish translation by Robin Buss is the way to go.

Since the libraries are closed here(!), I'll be going through the tall stack of books near my desk.  Maxwell's Château and DeLillo's Cosmopolis and probably Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being and eventually Celine's Journey to the End of the Night (another uplifting tale...).

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I've always loved them and consider them great fun. The earlier the better in some ways, in other ways the later ones are very good. "The Bigger they Come," the first one, is a must. They recently published what would have been the second, "The Knife Slipped," which is interesting to me as it was rejected at the time of writing, not for quality reasons imo. "Spill the Jackpot" is fiun, as is "Fools Die on Friday."

It occurs to me that the series was to be a sort of inverse of the Nero Wolfe series. . . I love those books as well.

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1 hour ago, jazzbo said:

I've always loved them and consider them great fun. The earlier the better in some ways, in other ways the later ones are very good. "The Bigger they Come," the first one, is a must. They recently published what would have been the second, "The Knife Slipped," which is interesting to me as it was rejected at the time of writing, not for quality reasons imo. "Spill the Jackpot" is fiun, as is "Fools Die on Friday."

It occurs to me that the series was to be a sort of inverse of the Nero Wolfe series. . . I love those books as well.

Thanks!  It looks like your recommendations are out of print, but I'll keep my eye out.

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5 hours ago, GA Russell said:

Thanks!  It looks like your recommendations are out of print, but I'll keep my eye out.

Yes I collected these in the 'eighties and read them then though I have re-read a number of them since, they're fun. "The Knife Slipped" is still in print. . . .

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As is "The Count of 9"

 

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On 2/17/2020 at 7:39 AM, Brad said:

I have also picked up Toni Morrison’s Home. This is my first time reading anything by her.

I finished reading Home but found it a bit unsatisfying. It seemed to build a crescendo and then dissipates. One reviewer said it seemed that Morrison got bored with it and brought it to a swift conclusion. 

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Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and the Light

14 hours ago, Brad said:

I finished reading Home but found it a bit unsatisfying. It seemed to build a crescendo and then dissipates. One reviewer said it seemed that Morrison got bored with it and brought it to a swift conclusion. 

Don't let it deter you from trying another at some point.

Maybe 'Sula', 'The Bluest Eye' or 'Beloved'

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