February, 2011--read any good books lately?

Finished Paul Waters' OF MERCHANTS AND HEROES. He tells a good tale and the era (the decline of the Greeks and rise of Rome) is of great interest to me.

(3 stars out of 5)

Freaking Aussie Open totally ate into my reading time lately. (Worst men's final in decades, god I miss Roger & Rafa.) Still working on The Mill on the Floss.

(touchstones don't seem to work for me since LT went down.)

Have started An Instance of the Fingerpost, and finding it excellent so far.

(Yeah, touchstones are very touchy. They were working yesterday, but not again today...)

ARE YOU A GIRL OR A BOY

I AM A BOY, WHAT ARE YOU

Started The Girl who Played with Fire as my easy read, and I'm halfway through (and really liking) Mario Vargas Llosa's The War of the End of the World.

Cousin bought me a monster mocha yesterday. Over 24 hours, and effects still haven't worn off, so I finished my Cuentos Mexicanos which was quite good, but I'm wondering where the female writers were in the 1800s? & I'm almost done with 47 which is very disappointing, but I'll finish it. Walter Mosley is a great writer, but this book is YA 1st person and the narrator over explains and just doesn't feel quite right. & that's not my only complaint.

After 47, I'm going to read some plays by Derek Walcott.

Finally finished Ulysses! I thought I would be relieved but actually I felt sad when I found out I was at the last page. The last chapter was beautiful and sad, this and the first one are the best in the book IMO.

Having some difficulties starting a "serious" book now, too tired. In the meantime I'm going to finish Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Looks like the touchstones are still not working...

Almost done with Standing at the Crossroads by Charles Davis A wonderful book about book lust set in the bleak desert of a failed African state. Highly recommended. Akin to Savage Detectives since it is a book about books and the power and comfort that literature brings to people.

Currently reading American Adulterer by Jed Mercurio. Excellent.

Finished APEX HIDES THE HURT by Colson Whitehead. Very solid book; short, satiric, literary. Part of it deals with the world of advertising, interesting after having spent 10 days (or so) watching the first season of "Mad Men".

7: I remember feeling very similar when I finished Ulysses. The last chapter is very powerful, it just sweeps you along.

Just finished The Princess Casamassima by Henry James. He continues to astonish with his absolute excellence. Just began Flags in the Dust by William Faulkner. I'm reading this in preparation for The Snopes Trilogy. So far I'm hooked.

10: If you are interested in advertising, check out Ogilvie on Advertising by David Ogilvie It is a classic. A window into what works and what doesn't in the ad world.

About 30 pages into The Good Soldier. It's a slow starter, but well enough written that I trust Ford has something in mind for me.

Ian liked that one, Geoff, but I found it as dull a dishwater. Hope it works for you.

Currently reading a bunch of stuff at once:
Burmese Days because I have not read nearly enough Orwell, a bunch of random Arthur Conan Doyle stories collected on a mystery collection I have downloade to my e-reader, Mark Twain's autobiography (also on the e-reader), and am planning to read a couple of books by Julien Gracq, Chateau d'Argol and The Shape of a City.

Wow, what's up with touchstones?
Argh, I keep getting the title wrong. It's the Shape, not Shadow, of the city. I now have this from the library. Unfortunately C. d'A. is out until the 12th and they only have 1 copy.

12> That book by James was apparently a huge influence on Pynchon.

16: Did someone say Julien Gracq? I found A Balcony in the Forest at a used bookstore. Looks really good. Can't wait to read it.

#15 I wasn't that impressed, chiefly because its two innovations - unlikeable characters, non-linear plot - are pretty ordinary these days.

Sorry, Ian, my mistake. I thought you liked it more than that...

I'm reading Walker and The Ghost Dance: Plays by Derek Walcott. The first play was stunning, of course. Perhaps I'll finish the second one tonight.

>7 FlorenceArt: and > 11

yes

I enjoyed that last chapter of Molly's. "Much more so than that bat-shit stylistic insanity at the waiting room.

Congratulations!

>16 anna_in_pdx:

Orwell is so, so... articulate. I love his work.

Flying back from Halifax I read This Cake Is For The Party, a debut short story collection by Sarah Selecky that was shortlisted for the Giller Prize this past year. A pretty good collection, though I found a few of the stories had a certain sameness that grates on me: emotionally overwrought young women sleeping with the wrong people, etc. But also some very good stories.

So now I've read four of the five shortlist books, which is more attention than I've given a prize in any other year. Three of those four were better than the winner, and the other one won.

Long flight tomorrow, so I stuffed my e-reader with books, plus I borrowed Journey to the end of the night from the library, for take-off and landing and in case they won't let me use th ereader for some reason. You never know. I also have three different magazines and Mythologies.

I finished The Years by Virginia Woolf and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, now I've since moved on to The Mysteries of Winterthurn by Joyce Carol Oates and Journal of a Novel, the East of Eden Letters, John Steinbeck and should wrap those two up fairly quick.

The Mysteries of Winterthurn took an unexpected dip into my hot bath one night when I dozed off (I was VERY tired that night, so tired my mind was making up stuff that wasn't really in the book), but it has recovered from its dip, feeling somewhat bulkier and the pages a bit cockled from the damp, still readable, and now a bit special because of its resilience. And I'm slowly picking away at an e-book version of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace on my bitty mini Dell (Tho' it's a chore reading on a screen, but the e-book does make dealing with the footnotes easier!)

It's early in the month, the TBR pile is beckoning!

Picking away at Stories 2 by Scott McClanahan, a very fine second collection by this up and coming West Virginia author.

I'm reading Moon Tiger and loving it.

About to start The Joy Luck Club , always liked the movie now finally reading the book .

Temporarily misplaced Clayhanger in my house move, but I'm still reading Beowulf to myself,and I'm reading Alan Garner's excellent collection of essays and lectures, The Voice That Thunders

Finished Burmese Days. Boy, first Hardy then Orwell, I guess I am trying to become suicidal.

29> I hate it when books go hiding!!! Last one, I finally gave up and got a copy out of the library. It showed up when I only had 40 pages left.

30> Anna, just don't read Darkness Visible as a chaser! Perhaps it's time for a Mary Poppins break. ;)

I just finished July's People, speaking of downers, but it was beautifully written and well worth the time. Me review is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/85697/reviews/67649804

Now I'm reading Clay's Ark, which is part of Octavia Butler's Patternmaster series. Mary Poppins won't show up in this one either.

I had to read July's People for college and I never read anything else by N. Gordimer because it was so depressing. I agree that it was beautifully written. That and Ironweed were the saddest things I read in college. (I also had to read Nausea but I thought that self-inflicted sadness was not nearly as sympathetic.)

Enjoying Journey to the end of the night. I think someone said here that pessimism was refreshing. I agree. At least when it comes with a dose of humor :-)

Finished Ken Kalfus' first short story collection, THIRST.

Superb.

33: "Journey" does indeed rock. If one sees the novel as a long Lewis Black routine/rant, then it is quite hilarious. I just finished Death on the Installment Plan and it is also hilarious. The novels take a hard right turn to the douchey, especially his War Trilogy -- Castle to Castle, North, and Rigadoon

The Ringer by Jenny Shank is starting out really well. Interracial tension, domestic drama, and baseball. Shank really captures the flavor of the everyday and the scenes involving police procedural stuff is really well done.

anna> I think I'll avoid Ironweed then. After I finished reading July's People, I thought some of those holocaust stories were less depressing because at least the people stuck together as best they could to support each other. They are about strength in adversity, whereas July's People was about dehumanization.

Speaking of dehumanization, I finished Clay's Ark and can't decide whether or not it fits in the horror genre. It was very good, and very Butler. I don't think she had much faith in humanity.

Now I'm on to Mojo: Conjure Stories and enjoying it quite a bit. The last story I read was by Tananarive Due, complete with the sacrifice of a black cat, but on one level the story could've had no magic at all in it. Spoiler alert: the black cat lives.

Wow - The War at the End of the World was amazing. Shocking and disgusting at times, with a last line that'll stick with me for a long time. Must start reading more Mario...

But for now, some nonfiction with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Saw the author on one of Comedy Central's shows (I forget if it was Stewart or Colbert) and the subject sounded interesting.

Finally finished The Mill on the Floss. Weird ending, and dragged in the middle, but otherwise I liked it.

I am now partaking of the first lady of Canadian letters, Margaret Atwood, in the form of The Blind Assassin. Liking it so far. After Oryx and Crake I was about to give up on her, but I do like her style and some of her other books, so OK, I'll read this one that somehow slipped through the cracks. This kind of catchup is what "woman authors only" year is all about.

Oryx and Crake was not my favorite book by Atwood. The Blind Assassin was the first I read, but I think my favorite is Cat's Eye.

Started Objectivity by Lorraine Daston. A somewhat arduous but rewarding read.

I've got quite a bit of reading done so far this month. I enjoyed Armadale and I actually think that in some ways it is better than Wilkie Collin's more famous works. The Scarlet Letter was ok, but I can certainly understand why generations of school children have hated it.

On Tuesday I finished The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and while I love Fitzgerald's prose, I can't help but feel the story was a little underdeveloped.

I'm now reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which is fantastic.

40> Enjoy The Curious Incident. It's a great book, and there really are kids like that. I've met them.

38-39> I love some of Margaret Atwood's books. Cat's Eye was great. I think it was Lady Oracle that put me off her forever. There was some guy making found art out of road kill in it. Ugh!

Blind Assassin will always be my favorite Atwood, but I like her Oryx and Crake series. She can't write boys well, I'll say that, but her imagined future is kinda fun.

Dear Group,

Just received "Ken Burns" sound track of his Civil War Series, the DVD which I had bought many years ago. I did have the Video Tape but decided to update..

Strangely enough, these "songs", together with

http://www.librarything.com/work/360358/book/38374124

do seem to compliment each other.

Guido.

Although I had forgotten how much I could cry.

Reading Michael Chabon's essays collected in MAPS AND LEGENDS. Enjoying it, my morning non-fiction.

Just starting A World Undone.

Love that "Civil War" soundtrack. The miniseries was first rate.

Just finished reading Transition. Enjoyable although I wouldn't say it was one of his best.
Seems to have a lot of logistical holes. Only minds are supposed to flit between worlds, no physical matter but: the transition pills keep following people around - A box with mysterious properties is given to a currency trader on our world and, most puzzling, two main characters have a romantic tryst in a palace on top of Mount Everest on a world devoid of life due to a gamma ray burst. Into whose bodies did the couple transition?

I just started reading Marian Anderson's autobiography My Lord, What a Morning. Only one chapter in and it is already obvious that she never dreamed that her autobiography would be in print long after she was no longer alive. She doesn't mention any dates! She just says things like "it said I was ten, but I was about eight then."

I'm on John Galt's speech of Atlas Shrugged Hopefully this won't happen:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_izzeM7UKNUc/SbU3uzq5HXI/AAAAAAAAAFI/QIljxCc7skI/s320/P...

This month's reading roster looks pretty short for a group with 430+ members. C'mon, folks, report in! What are you reading? The winners and the dogs...

I'm 2/3 of the way through Richard Russo's second novel THE RISK POOL and I'm loving in. As soon as I finish this post, I'm off to the couch to devour more (I've had a bad cold for the last few days so have taken the opportunity to read and watch a few movies).

Reading Kissinger's last volume of his memoirs. Funny how more acerbic and forthcoming he is after a twenty year hiatus (Volume 2 was published in 1981; Volume 3 in 1999), especially after many of the principles had died. There's even a section on how Saddam Hussein annoyed the Ford Administration, up until the 1980s and the fall of the Shah, then Saddam became our Eternal Ally.

"Death to the eternal enemy of Ocean a. Death! Death! Death! .... And Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia, has it not?"

Gotta love the US tradition of "allies of convenience." Luckily we have Jasmine Revolutions and the power of YouTube.

Finished The Moonstone and The Secret Agent from my "classic" and "mystery" collections on my new Nook.

#51 Isn't that true of all politicians? A few months in office and many of their principles die...

...and speaking of Barack Obama...

What principles? I thought that was part of the mythology the Left dreamt up in their desperation, frustration, and rage? But I think more people are waking up to the reality. Obama is what he always said he is: a corporate centrist. Unfortunately, his fandom is about as bad as Dubya's: addlepated, narrow-minded fanatics allergic to reality and the facts.

I'm about to get into John Galt's Speech in Atlas Shrugged May God have mercy on my soul ...

At least I have a couple Permanent Press books to salve my brain from that literary atrocity. The Ringer by Jenny Shank is pretty great. Highly recommended.

It's true that Obama didn't mislead voters, we definitely mislead ourselves. I looked past the warmongering (remember what he said about Pakistan during the campaign?) and told myself that "reaching across the aisle" was going to be a good thing. What a dumbass I was! Still, it's not like there were any viable alternatives and that's what's really wrong with this country. But don't get me started.

Anyhoo, I'm still slogging through Blind Assassin. It's not bad, it's just not exactly zipping along. And there only seem to be a couple of ways this could end up going, and neither is that interesting. That's my problem with Atwood; her style is engaging, she writes some great set pieces and she knows exactly what she's doing, all of which are admirable, but the plot and characterization, you know, the actual meat of what makes up a novel, are pedestrian at best. It's like a meal with beautiful presentation that ends up tasting like mac & cheese.

I do love how she always manages to shoehorn in some scifi, even when the book isn't strictly in the genre.

Because Cliff begged me to, I'll tell you what reading I'm doing. I just finished The Princess Casamassima. I'm well into Flags in the Dust, and just starting A World Undone. I hate reading two things at the same time, but sometimes I must. I am reading, also, the occasional short story.

56: Although I thought The Handmaid's Tale was really good, I didn't care for The Blind Assassin at all. I just could not get into it. I did read the whole thing but it was a very "meh" experience as the kids say.

58: I had the same reaction to American Gods by Gaiman. I really liked certain volumes of his Sandman series, AG was just "meh." I couldn't get into it. After a fascinating start and a very believable depiction of small-town northern Wisconsin, the middle just dragged on forever.

because there's still no sign of Clayhanger post-move, I've been grappling with The White Goddess, which is so dense with ideas it's making me reel. I've also been reading Cold Calls, part of Christopher Logue's Iliad.

I've tried to read The Blind Assassin a few times, and finally gave up on it last month, giving it to a charity shop.

I should also mention that Cold Calls is very, very good. some parts of it are jarring, certainly, modern phrases and items are thrown in all over, but it's powerful and sparse and retains a sense of the epic even at 40-odd pages. I shall be picking up the other volumes.

Currently reading Goodmorning,Midnight by Jean Rhys,dark,sombre and delicious.

#59 Yeah, American Gods kinda sucked. I have found the only way for me to enjoy Gaiman is to listen to him read his novels. Man has the most expressive voice ever, it makes his rather ho-hum novels seem like genius.

I did read and enjoy The Graveyard Book, tho.

Finished THE RISK POOL. Excellent: a literary novel with a terrific story arc, full-blown characters; first rate from start to finish. One of the best novels I've read in awhile; Richard Russo is a genius.

I've finished Love in the Time of Cholera and have started The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I'm enjoying the latter more than the former.

I loved Blind Assassin, and the end is (in my opinion) the best part. My advice is to stick with it.

Just finished Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August after about 3 months. Don't know why, this book read like molasses. It wasn't bad - parts of it were actually very gripping - but it took me a while to get through. I also tore through Graham Greene's The Human Factor, which was a very good spy novel.

Currently rereading my favorite book of all time, Catch-22, and I plan to start both The Adventures of Augie March and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. An embarassment of riches right now...

Just finished The City & The City. So totally different from the purple prose of Perdido Street Station as if it was written by a different (and better) author.

66: I recently found The Human Factor at a used bookshop. Thanks for the positive endorsement. I'll have to check it out. I also have a couple Peter Ustinov books crying for attention.

59, 63: I loved American Gods, I think it's the only book of Gaiman's that I re-read. The Graveyard book was OK but a bit childish IMO.

Wasn't The Graveyard Book a YA novel?

Definitely.

I, like you, Ian, do not understand the cult of Gaiman. AMERICAN GODS reads like a Stephen King novel (with all the attendant flaws). Gaiman's an OKAY writer but I've never found anything particularly innovative or ground-breaking in his prose or methodology.

Finished Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. All entries are thoughtful and challenging, though some are exceedingly brilliant.

Gaiman's an OKAY writer but I've never found anything particularly innovative or ground-breaking in his prose or methodology.

I think he used up all his innovation on The Doll's House, which was pretty great as a comic book. Another thing working against Gaiman is his background as a comic book writer. American Gods definitely shows that background. Interesting enough characters, sensational action set-pieces, but a lot to be desired regarding narrative plotting and pacing. Since whatever Gaiman writes is equivalent to a publisher printing off money -- and a fandom enamored with his quirks and writing style -- there isn't any financial or personal motivation to innovate. His stuff gets to be like Chuck Berry songs: pretty good stuff, but basically the same. As opposed to, say, Sonic Youth, especially their SYR releases, which make Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" seem like the latest Justin Bieber CD.

Yeah, Gaiman doesn't blow the doors off the joint but I've always enjoyed reading his books. Should he come out with a new novel, I wouldn't get it in hardback but I'd gladly snag it as soon as it went to paperback.

74: Indeed. For all my criticisms of Gaiman, I'm the one reading Warhammer 40K novels. Not exactly high art, then again one could say the same thing about Evelyn Waugh and Charles Dickens But this is not the thread to open the Pandora's Box of literary vs. commercial fiction.

I'd still rather be reading Gaiman or Dan Abnett to Ayn Rand Unlike Ferdinand Celine and Ezra Pound, she is both a horrible writer and a horrible human being. But this also isn't the thread to open the Pandora's Box of Good Books vs. Good Person. We have a couple of those already up and running.

Even as a comic book writer Gaiman is bested in style and content by people like Alan Moore. I do think he is a better writer than Stephen King and as YA book's go his are better than most. A friend's son is reading American Gods for 9th grade English.

Moore is getting more and more self-indulgent. Warren Ellis continues to churn out good stuff, though.

I read Snooki's novel 'A Shore Thing'.

78: Why? But now you can't make fun of me for reading Atlas Shrugged ;) But we snobs are given to bouts of literary masochism every once in a while.

Finished Mojo: Conjure Stories. A couple of the stories blew me away, especially "The White Trick" but I'll chime in on the Gaiman de-deifying. His story in the collection was amusing, but it didn't stand out. I'll admit though, when I see his name, I expect him to be able to blow everyone else out of the water because of his reputation. When he delivers a clever or decent (but not awe-inspiring) story, I'm disappointed. I'd probably enjoy his stories more if the byline read "anonymous."

I'm still reading My Lord What a Morning. It's a comfort read. I also started my early review book Solitaire. It is triggering my allergy to corporations, but I think the protag will burst out of that world soon.

70: yes, I think The Graveyard Book was YA, but that's no excuse to be childish :-P

He wrote a couple of other YA books (that I read anyway) that were better, from what I can remember.

77: Well, Lost Girls was pretty self-indulgent but it's hard to beat Watchmen.

The Ringer by Jenny Shank is really good. A great novel about people trying to get by in difficult circumstances. What's really great is that it deals with Big Topics (Police brutality, immigration, etc.) but doesn't have a cast populated by caricatures. It also doesn't set the opposing sides -- victim vs. perpetrator -- in an easily digestible good guy vs. bad guy shtick. The families each have their issues and their failings, but that's what makes them convincing and human -- cue Ayn Rand reference about her terrible characterizations.

Das Kapital, Volume 2, continues to be excruciatingly technical and dry, but still a very relevant and useful read. Needless to say, reading about capital turnover isn't all that exciting. But in terms of an intellectual critique of the dehumanizing effects of unregulated industrialization, a very important work. Marx, like Freud, has his shortcomings, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't read him.

79: I work at a library, so I try to read a wide range of books. Also, it was hilarious.

84: A quick personal question: My son is interested in becoming a librarian. He loves books and math. I understand the field is shrinking and very hard to get into. Is this correct? Should I steer him elsewhere?

It depends. There are a lot of library fields that aren't shrinking (like digital archiving), and it's totally possible to get jobs if you're willing to move. Academic libraries are still hiring too.

How old is he? Being a librarian requires a MLS, but there are lots of non-professional library jobs. I think it's a good idea to work in a library and get a feel for how it is.

I finished The Radleys and How I Stole Johnny Depp's Alien Girlfriend, which was better than I expected it to be. Now on to The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.

86: Thanks. He is 18 and just going into college this fall, plans to major in math. I'll suggest he try to get into the college library for work study.

Tell him to get a Masters in Math, go work for Google books, make oodles of money and support you in your old age.

Finished Joe Simpson's TOUCHING THE VOID. What a story--harrowing reading.

I think the role of librarian is vital in a free society where the dissemination of information, for the purposes of shaping opinion and provoking debate, is essential to maintaining a well-informed, literate electorate. It's a noble profession--though, like every profession these days, it's currently being remade by technology, a transformation (I suspect) that will be on-going...

I just finished Einstein: His Life and Universe. It is amazing that this brilliant scientist was considered for the Israel Presidency. Woefully wrong skill set.

Hmm, I wonder what would've happened if instead, he was somewhat physically attractive and good at shooting caribou...

#64: Russo is great. I've lost track of how many times I've read Nobody's Fool and Straight Man. I'm hoping the sequel to Nobody's Fool is half as good. Russo was also editor of the most recent edition of Best American Short Stories

STRAIGHT MAN is, as they say, the shit. The only book of his (Russo) that didn't really work for me was BRIDGE OF SIGHS. That one seemed ponderous, self-consciously literary to me. Should give it another read some day...

I liked Bridge of Sighs, but nearly as much as the others, even Mohawk.

#90> Cliff, I saw the movie adaptation some years back. I agree, it was an amazing story, one I may never forget.

Been busy, so haven't been posting here. Have kept up the reading however, with:

An Instance of the Fingerpost which was marvellous. (Although I wish I'd paid more attention to the "minor" characters in the first section! I had to keep on flicking back to confirm who they were when they became major characters later on. Yeesh, silly me.)

The Small Hand by Susan Hill, which was a nice short atmospheric ghost story.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham, which was a beautiful read (and makes me want to go and read some Virginia Woolf again).

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd, which I was dissatisfied with. I think I read it too close to the original (late last year), and it didn't differ enough from Mary Shelley's plot to make it really interesting to read it so soon afterwards. (I kept on thinking: what's the point of just retelling it?) I'm still looking forward to reading his other books on my stack, though.

And now I'm currently failing to read The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea for bookgroup, and being in danger of doing myself some physical harm by lugging around Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (but it is rather fun).

wookie> Well, take care to switch Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell from hand to hand so your muscles grow evenly, and think of it this way. You're now armed and dangerous. ;) I'm still planning on reading that book, but when! The sheer # of pages seems like a huge commitment, like saying I do or something to a book.

#96> You're now armed and dangerous. ;)

Yep, it's a hand-to-hand fighting book. Beware all grumpy commuters in Sydney, I have a weapon now.

I was aiming to read some more "chunksters" this year, An Instance of the Fingerpost and now Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are the first to make the cut. (I haven't quite made the commitment to Infinite Jest as yet. One day. rsn.)

I found Jonathan Strange a bit slow going at first but it got going about half way through. That's a lot pages before it gets going though.

JONATHAN STRANGE just didn't work for me. It was overlong, seemingly devoid of incident and the "finale" was about as suspenseful as a tub of margarine. The book seemed literate, the world and time frame well created; a setting but no compelling story or characters that struck me as memorable.

After the excellent American Adulterer, I read... People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks (somewhat melodramatic historical novel following the history of a haggadah from 15th century Moorish Spain to 1990s Bosnia, with a linking narrative of an Australian manuscript expert with mother issues); A Far Sunset, Edmund Cooper (one of by British sf masterworks, see here); Empress of Outer space, A Bertram Chandler (shit 1960s sf; why do I continue to read Chandler?); To Open the Sky, Robert Silverberg (dated and forgettable Agberg from 1967); The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill (see an astonishing act of prestidigitation in which the Marvellous Magician Alan Moore disappears up his own fundament); and Winterstrike, Liz Williams (the second book of this year's reading challenge, see here).

Currently reading Stretto, the final part of the L Timmel Duchamp's Marq'ssan quintet.

Reading Oldest Chicago via Early Reviewers. A fun travel guide of all the "oldest" places in Chicago. A few pre-Great Fire buildings are really fascinating, plus the understory of city change and dislocation either by disaster (the Fire) or development (Dan Ryan, Eisenhower, and Kennedy Expressways; gangs and gentrification). A really enjoyable read.

#97 - I've read An Instance of the Fingerpost, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell as am now about 80% of the way through Infinite Jest. I'm not sure that enjoying the first two is any indication if you're going to like Infinite Jest as it is VERY different. However, let me make a different recommendation, if you're looking for other similar doorstoppers - The Quincunx. I have a feeling that most people who like the Pears and the Clarke books probably enjoy the Palliser too.

Just finished my early review novel late last night. Good thing it's a holiday of sorts in the US today! My review for Solitaire is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/153714/reviews/70178087 I thought it was very well done and an intense read.

I'm searching around for my next book. I tried Harlem Redux but had the intense urge to edit it, so it's going to go back to the library unread. No point in editing a book that's already been published! I think Disgrace will be the next book.

After I get through Atlas Shrugged -- "Hey, John Galt is speaking ... why doesn't he shut up? Seriously, it seems like he has a mental condition." -- it's a toss-up between JR or Against the Day After every chapter, I feel like Lady Macbeth washing her hands. "Get it off! Get it off!"

#103 I just scored a copy of that for 99p in a charity shop on the weekend. The original Eos edition, of course. I've read Eskridge's short fiction, and thought it very good so I'm looking forward to reading the novel. I wasn't aware it was a YA, though. Or have they re-positioned it as YA for this new release?

105# It makes sense that it would've originally been released as an adult novel. In the US, YA is middle school kids or in otherwords precocious 4th graders to 8th graders. 14 years old is the upper end of most YA readers. After that the kids are reading adult books. The other rule of thumb is that the protagonist is two years older than the target audience. The protag of Solitaire is 23 or 29 depending on how you want to count. IMHO, I wouldn't hesitate at giving a kid a book with a lesbian protag, sex and beer in it unless I thought the parent would come down on me, but I wouldn't think a 14 year old would like this book simply because the attitudes toward work and also toward personal relationships runs on a more sophisticated level than your average young teen's attitudes. This one is definitely 15 and up.

Strange, I never thought of Jonathan Strange or the Fingerpost as especially huge... that made me take a good look at my bookshelves (what I can see of them), and I suppose I do read a lot of chunky books. Jonathan Strange is certainly no bigger than any of my Tad Williams books. Not to mention Neal Stephenson's baroque cycle, but those were printed with larger type than the cheap paperbacks I usually buy, so maybe that's an illusion...

Still reading Journey to the end of the night, but I forgot it this morning and had to listen to podcasts on the train. One of them was about Céline and the small turmoil about his non-celebration.

#106: I would disagree that 14 years is the upper end of most YA readers. Most of my friends who are 15+ read primarily YA books.

107: Journey to the End of the Night is a great book, as is the companion volume, Death on the Installment Plan It is his later books where Celine become more explicitly pro-Nazi and Anti-Semitic (although his views on the Jews aren't too different from TS Eliot)

106, 108> I have to agree with Susie - I think YA isn't so much about the age, but the topic and themes. Consider that adolescence generally goes through age 24, according to psychology (iirc), and YA is generally aimed at adolescents. Though I think a lot of stuff is labeled YA simply because it's not inappropriate for teenagers, which limits the audience. It's kind of strange, sometimes, to hear of classics being called YA books (like "Jane Eyre" or "As I Lay Dying"). I guess that might be because they're often taught in high school?

Most recently, I've seen Jasper Fforde's books labeled as YA.

At any rate, I read both YA and "regular" fiction, though I tend to gravitate towards YA because it's often shorter, and it's usually easier to avoid books with content that I know I won't like.

YA also smacks me as a pure invention of marketing (akin to "Sweetest Day"). Great writing transcends time and age demographic. Something you can get different things at different times when you read it. To Kill A Mockingbird is a stereotypical staple of High School reading lists. But it is also a great book. Compare the film to, say, "Master of Disguise", Dana Carvey's cinematic atrocity. It's downright horrible because it speaks down to kids, as opposed to "Mockingbird", that lets the kids reading it parse out the various explosive issues involved. Too often, especially in American culture with its idolatry of everything "kid-friendly" or "family-friendly" (read: condescending, inoffensive, and generally godawful dreck), we want to surround our progeny in Intellectual Nerf. It's one thing to get rid of sharp metal points in toys, it's another thing to make their cultural entertainment akin to a rancid spongecake. Add to this the Cult of Lowered Expectations, where no one loses but everyone is gloriously average (see The Incredibles), it becomes a beast far worse than New Math. The fact that Creationism is still a topic of contention in American education, rather than being simply laughed of as a cult espoused by a fringe group of microcephalic extremist morons, makes for a dangerous combination.

Life is offensive, dangerous, sensational, and filled with cuss-words. The sooner we owe up to the fact to our kids, the better off we'll be. We've replaced the Bomb Shelters of the Fifties by turing our kids into a mental equivalent of The Boy in the Bubble "Jeez, lighten up, you sound paranoid," said Howard Hughes

Currently reading The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington. It's medieval noir, wherein this pair of repugnant siblings seems unable to avoid the more violent and disgusting aspects of their era, whether voluntarily or otherwise. Still early on so I haven't discerned the overall theme, other than blood and other fluids spewing about in an erudite style. But it's fun stuff.

I consider YA books to be those that are written with a teenage audience in mind (and after a while of reading these, I've realized the huge, and usually not negative, difference between the writing styles and content of YA and adult fiction), and I appreciate that many bookstores and publishers now offer YA sections because it gives teen readers their own place between books for younger kids and books for adults.

My family and I go to a lot of historical sites, and I always wish the gift shops there had YA sections. Often the stores will have decent historical fiction selections, but they rarely offer much for readers that are between picture and elementary school books and adult fiction. It doesn't matter as much to me now because I'm actually interested in the nonfiction, too, but good YA historical fiction would still be really appreciated.

I was just stating the general marketing guidelines for YA, which of course are constantly changing. I'd agree that generally, YA are those written with a teenage audience in mind. I'd also include they generally have a young protagonist, 23 is on the upper end. That said, many adults are reading YA and I've met many YA authors who say they write what they write. Then the editor decides if it is YA or not. Lots of gray areas! There is perhaps no one definition that will always work.

Finished The Ringer by Jenny Shank Highly recommended.

Started reading The Lime-works by Thomas Bernhard On page 3, the beginning of the book-long paragraph / rant / monologue. The date of the original work is 1970, pre-Gravity's Rainbow I'll see how Bernhard fits into the larger picture in terms of culture and literary movements.

115:

I just started Bernhard's The Loser this afternoon. Does your edition have the translator's note explaining Bernhard's use of punctuation and formatting? A very useful introduction.

Finished Archibald MacLeish's "verse play for radio", FALL OF THE CITY. In-teresting. Definitely see the shadow of World War II, peoples willing to give up their liberties to a demagogue. Heard the play being performed (with Orson Welles playing the part of Announcer) on an Old Tyme radio site. Still resonates.

Just started Michael Chabon's collection of essays MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS (The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son). Find myself nodding along as I read it. A LOT.

#117 Fall of the city sounds interesting. Orson Welles had the coolest voice.

As for Disgrace, why did none of you warn me!!! There's no way I would ever like that book. It's not a bad book. Matter of fact, some people would say it's a great book. I'm just not a suitable reader for it. My reason, that verged into a rant is #74 on this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/104358

I'm going to read Zora Neale Hurston now. I trust she won't let me down.

You might find Welles doing "Fall of the City" here:

http://www.archive.org/details/OrsonWellesOnTheColumbiaWorkshop

or here:

http://www.mp3gangster.com/mp3/id416d96

116: No intro in the edition of The Lime-works I'm reading. The few paragraphs I've read have piqued my interest. Initial reaction: "This is gossipy and strange and mysterious." Can't wait to dive head first into this one. I've been jonesing for a Bernhard fix for quite a while now.

Translator's Note:

"For English-speaking readers approaching a novel by Thomas Bernhard for the first time, a word about his somewhat peculiar orthography and punctuation may be in order. Bernhard's sentences are very long, even for a German reader accustomed to extended, complex sentence constructions. Further, the logical transitions between clauses ("but," "although," "whereas,") are often missing or contradictory, and the verb tenses are rarely in agreement. Bernhard's frequent and unpredictable underlining also defies conventional usage Sometimes he italicizes the title of Bach's compositions, sometimes he treats them like a common noun. On the other hand, he often gives the names of restaurants, towns, pianos and people an emphasis that conventional German and English orthography exclude. These and similar oddities have been rigorously maintained in the present translation as the reflection of Bernhard's characteristic voice"

Jack Dawson.

Vintage International edition. This cover - to clarify what the Vintage editions of Bernhard's work look like.

121: My version is a Vintage International as well.

On the same note, I have a paperback edition of Savage Detectives It has a lengthy Translator's Introduction. The hardcover does not have this.

Even with that, the Latin and French passages of "Savage Detectives" remain untranslated.

#102> No, I'm not expecting ANY similarity between An Instance of the Fingerpost / Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Infinite Jest, apart from sheer size. I'm just trying to get myself away from short books (and my pathological need to be reading something "new" every few days) and lose myself in one book for a week, two, maybe more.

#107> You're kidding me. My copy of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell clocks in at 1000 pages. By any definition of the word "chunkster", it's a chunkster. :) An Instance of the Fingerpost was not as long (over 700 pages in my copy), but was a nice long, dense read. Not the sort of book I could rush. So it's in a slightly different "chunkster" category, one where the density of the words counteracts the "lack" of pages.

But, having said all that, I've had to put aside Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell for Started Early, Took my Dog which I suddenly realised was due back at the library this weekend. Enjoying it immensely, I really like the Jackson Brodie series.

Finished Stretto, so that's Duchamp's Marq'ssan Cycle done and dusted. Superior thoughtful sf, although five books of it is a bit heavy. It does what proper sf is supposed to do: makes you think about the world around you.

Now reading Nocturnes, a book of shorts by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I've finished The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, which ended up being surprisingly depressing. Now I'm reading one of those many YA dystopias that are coming out this year, The Iron Thorn, and also King Lear for my British Lit class.

The Lime-Works by Thomas Bernhard. So good ... ***drools*** Like some crazy mash-up of Beckett's Molloy, David Lynch creepiness, and the gossipy "town as narrator" trope from "A Rose for Emily." The plot is pretty basic: insurance investigator goes to small Austrian town to investigate a murder. But there's also a "bleak yet hilarious" vibe reminscent of Ferdinand Celine

Gotta get me some Bernhard...

118: Yuck! I am never going to read that book - thanks for warning me off.

I just received an early reviewer book, 23 Things they don't tell you about capitalism. So far so good, I am not an economist and I have learned some stuff already. It is written in a very, very nonacademic layman style, even more so than the Krugman Return of Depression Economics that I just read a few months ago.

I'm also still plowing through The Autobiography of Mark Twain which is getting better and better. I'm at this part where he's eviscerating the US military for slaughtering a bunch of Filipinos and acting like it was a "battle".

Still also working on Chateau d'Argol, The Shape of the City and A World Undone with the Salon.

I'm a little overwhelmed by reading so many books at once and all but one of them nonfiction to boot!

I'm now reading Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson and enjoying it exceedingly. Thanks, Cliff, or more accurately, Mrs. Cliff, for the recommendation.

Yeah, Sherron's a big fan of Nalo's. And if you like her, mebbe Octavia Butler?

129&130 I'll second the Butler recommendation.

128 You're welcome! & I think I'll have to put Twain's autobiography on my list. He was a fascinating man, cynical and idealistic all at the same time.

Just finished Journey to the end of the night. Great book. It reminded me of Houellebecq (though it should probably be the other way around, but I read Houellebecq first), but with more poetry.

109: as I understand it, the problem was not Céline's novels but his pamphlets. The worst of them cannot be legally found in France, I understand, which I take to mean that it must deny that the holocaust happened, which is against the law in France, not that I agree with that kind of censorship but there you have it. He wasn't just your ordinary casual antisemite like many of his contemporaries. And after the war he not only persisted in his ideas but claimed he was the one being persecuted. I'm not sure I want to learn more about him, at least not before I've read at least a few of his books. If I know too much about him I probably won't feel like reading them.

123: hey, you're right, my Jonathan Strange is about 1000 pages too! Right on top of it is A Feast for Crows: 978 pages without the after-word and appendix. I guess reading fantasy books has made me used to this kind of thing.

His pamphlets do require so digging ... or at least fluency in French. The Wikipedia page has a link to Bagatelles for a Massacre, available as a PDF (copyright pending, natch). It is an incredibly ugly work, all the more ugly since Celine was an obviously talented writer. Then again, Leni Riefenstahl was an amazingly talented director and actress, who made the influential Triumph of the Will

The French are predictably conflicted about WW 2. One has to be fair about this assessment since the US (the good guys) had: segregated armed forces, put the Japanese in internment camps, and had Stalin (that model of human rights) as an ally. It's easy to make black-and-white moral assessments 60 years later, but the more one digs, the more one finds that the Good War had a lot of muddy gray areas.

another book community I frequent is nuts about Bernhard, so I'll have to check him out sometime...

Loving Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. Vargas Llosa can do fun, light entertainment just as well as the horrendous, apocalyptically gory War of the End of the World. I definitely plan to read a lot more of his stuff in the months to come...

Polished off Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro yesterday. It's subtitled "Five stories of Music and Nightfall", although it should have been subtitled "Five Stories of Ishiguro's usual self-deluded narrators in stories which are vaguely about music and some parts of which might or might not take place after nightfall". Ishiguro's characters are like X-Factor auditionees. He does "elegiac" pretty well, and his dialogue has improved vastly since the tin ear he displayed in A Pale View of Hills. But his plots still feel like slingshots that just dribble away when they should be catapulting you off somewhere...

The only Ishiguro I've read is NEVER LET ME GO and it left me flat. Dully written spec fic, with wooden characters and, yup, not exactly crackling great dialogue. Does Ishiguro TALK to people very much, live around them?

Reading biographies lately: Ray Monk Wittgenstein and Walter Kauffman's Nietzsche. I also borrowed the second volulme ofBrian Boyd's Nabokov because I wanted to compare his view of Lolita with that of Alfred Appel's
Annotated Lolita The interest in Wittgenstein and Nietzsche comes from my scouting for my favorite store in Daytona. He has a continous order for any good philosophy and I sometimes have time to read some of them before I sell or trade them. I am also still working on Bernhard and the Annotated Lolita. recently I came across, while sorting trough some books, Mirsky's bio of Pushkin.

I read a wonderful assessment of Lolita in The War on Cliche by Martin Amis, before Amis became a contemptible git.

Walter Kaufman has written some fascinating philosophy too, especially his Philosophy of Religion

Cliff, Ishiguro can pull out some lovely writing when he wants to, but his narrators tend to be plonkers, and he doesn't exactly hurry through his plot. I quite liked Never Let Me go, although I thought it a bit old-fashioned sf-wise. Remains of the Day is better, as is When We Were Orphans.

So while I am trying to read the 5 books I am in the middle of, my mother goes to a church book sale and gets me all 4 of the volumes of The Gulag Archipelago. Um, no, I am not going to be reading THAT anytime soon.

>138 kswolff: - I think you'll find that Amis junior has always been a contempible git - still doesn't (didn't?) stop him producing some good writing though.

Cliff, I'm with Ian regards Ishiguro. I had to read The Remains of the Day and was dreading it but it was excellent.

Ishiguro has cornered the market on the unreliable, self-deceptive narrator. Remains of the Day has all that, is a wonderful novel and deeply sad.

I once read a piece about Celine where someone asked him how he could resolve the contradiction of his WWII fascism with his post-war Maoism. He replied that he was for whatever ideology killed the most people.

He replied that he was for whatever ideology killed the most people Sounds like what's written beneath the Bush Family Crest ... as seen in Decision Points

#140 Oh Anna, I think The Gulag Archipelago would make Disgrace look like cheerful fluff. Has your mother read any of it?

No. But Chris has! He said he gave up partway through Vol. 3.

#145 We read about 20 pages in high school, and I still shudder at the thought. Anyone who got to Vol. 3 has a strong stomach.

I read all three volumes of Gulag. Makes Ferdinand Celine and Thomas Bernhard sound like Hello Kitty characters. But it is highly recommended, especially for those with the time and the psychological fortitude.

The Lime-works continues to astonish. I'd have to say that characterizing Bernhard's book's as single-paragraph rants is a superficial assessment. "Lime-works" is told from the perspective of gossipy townsfolk relating things to an insurance investigator. It's like a catalog of grievances and eccentricities comprised of hearsay and gossip, uttered with the perseverance and fanaticism of someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The constant flood of language lies in stark contrast to Konrad, the protagonist, who wanted to work in monk-like on a highly intellectual project -- shades of Wittgenstein -- while the insurance investigator tries to tear down the barriers Konrad throws up (making the limeworks invisible and out of earshot from the town). The intentional hiding of his project reminds of what the Nazis did to hide their crimes in the concentration camps -- building the operations out of view of the populace, keeping everything secret, etc. Lest we forget, Bernhard is Austrian, just like Hitler. And in 1970, West Germany and Austria were coming to terms with the Nazi past, especially when the kids came of age and asked what daddy did during the War.

I quite liked Ivan Denisovich, and I have a copy of The First Circle waiting for me, but I don't think I'll be doing Gulag Archipelago any time soon.

Gonna start 2666 soon!

I read The First Circle several years ago. It is quite good. It should be noted that another edition, expanded and including previously censored chapters, has been recently released: In The First Circle FYI.

After Bernhard, I want to dive into The Savage Detectives I also have 2666, but I think I want to read SD first.

I finally read the Mockingjay. Good YA read!

Decision Points by George W. Bush

FAIL. The title thread says "good books".

:-)

151: Review?

Here's a trailer for next years Oscar flick starring Mike Tyson and George W. Bush:

Tyler Perry's The President's Speech

http://humor.gunaxin.com/sir-mike-tyson-and-george-bush-in-the-presidents-speech...

Speaking of speeches: I'm midway through John Galt's Speech in Atlas Shrugged (read: 30ish pages). Blecch! Where to begin? Overlong, vaguely racist, unsupported by evidence, abstract, and reeks of poorly edited agitprop. I mean, if her philosophy is Made of Awesome, wouldn't Rand be able to cite examples from the real world or from the world of her invention? All this talk of "savages" and "cannibals" and "mystics of the spirit" and "mystics of muscle." In the words of Seinfeld: "Who are these people?" The vagueness is just pissing me off. Even credible philosophers cite evidence in their philosophical proofs. Rand is a crackpot, nothing more. I'd rather read Ezra Pound's prose or Sade Even Sade's despicable characters cite real-world examples in their very long speeches.

In summary: Epic fail.

This bit of dialogue from Addams Family Values sums it up perfectly:

Wednesday: I don't want to be in the pageant.

Gary: Don't you want to help me realize my vision?

Wednesday: Your work is puerile and under-dramatized. You lack any sense of structure, character and the Aristotelian unities.

Gary: Young lady, I am getting just a tad tired of your attitude problem.

153> It's a weird book. I did a review on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/143787947

Interesting. You were very kind.

155: So I guess you're not going to be seeing the movie when it comes out then?

158: If it doesn't go straight to video two days after its release. Did you see the trailer? Looks like they hired the same non-union production crew that made those silly Left Behind movies. I'll wait until the RiffTrax guys have a hand at it.

159: Judging by the production values and acting in the trailer, it looks like it would be a bad movie even if Rand was as fantastic as they make her out to be.

I have to admit I haven't actually read Atlas Shrugged, Anthem was enough for me - at least that was mercifully short.

I read The Fountainhead when I was in high school. It was OK. I digged the individualism stuff. Then I discovered Neuromancer and dropped Rand like a bad habit. The only reason I'm reading this towering inferno of keeeeeeeeeeeeeee-rapppp!!! is due to the rise of the Tea Party, their adoration of Rand (despite her strident atheism), and the ongoing economic collapse. What's all the fuss about? John Galt's Speech is overlong, overhyped, racist, and dumb. Seriously, Rand, cite evidence. It's agitprop wrapped up in vagueness. The literary equivalent of the KFC Famous Bowl.

There are Left Behind movies??? Do they show them on radio? ;)

They show them on religious channels, which is about the same as radio.

http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1137

#162: You didn't know there were Left Behind movies, starring the great Kirk Cameron as "Buck" Williams? You don't know what you're missing.

Ai! Ai! Ai! Life is too short!