What Are You Reading the Week of 20 July 2013?

Hubert Selby, Jr. (23 July 1928 – 26 April 2004) was a 20th-century American writer. His best-known novels are Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964) and Requiem for a Dream (1978), exploring worlds in the New York area. Both novels were adapted later as films, and he appeared in small roles in each.

Selby wrote about a harsh underworld seldom portrayed in literature before then: his first novel was prosecuted for obscenity in Great Britain in 1967, and banned in Italy. His work was defended by leading writers. He has been considered highly influential to more than a generation of writers.

Selby was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Adalin and Hubert Selby, Sr., a merchant seaman and former coal miner from Kentucky. The senior Selby and his wife had settled in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Their boy attended public schools, including the competitive Stuyvesant High School. A lifelong fan of the Chicago Cubs, his childhood nickname, "Cubby," accompanied him through life.

Selby, Jr., dropped out of school, and at the age of 15, persuaded recruiters to let him join the Merchant Marines. (His father had recently rejoined it.) In 1947, while at sea, he was diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis; doctors predicted that he would live less than a year.

He was taken off the ship in Bremen, Germany, and sent back to the United States. For the next three and a half years, Selby was in and out of the Marine Hospital in New York for treatment. Antibiotics were not yet available and TB was widespread.

Selby went through an experimental drug treatment, streptomycin, that later caused some severe complications. During an operation, surgeons removed several of Selby's ribs in order to reach his lungs. One of his lungs collapsed, and doctors removed part of the other. While the surgery saved Selby's life, he had a year-long recuperation and chronic pulmonary problems for the rest of his life. Selby was given painkillers and heroin because of the severity of the surgery, and he became addicted. He struggled with substance abuse for decades after that.

With no qualifications, no work experience aside from the Merchant Marine, and his poor health, he had trouble finding a job. He had married a woman nicknamed Tiny, with whom he had a daughter, Claudia. He raised their daughter while his wife worked in a department store.

For the next ten years, Selby was mostly bedridden. He was frequently hospitalized with a variety of lung-related ailments. The doctors offered a bleak prognosis, suggesting he was unlikely to survive long because he "just didn't have enough lung capacity". Gilbert Sorrentino, a childhood friend who had become a writer, encouraged Selby to write fiction. Unable to have regular work because of his health, he decided, "I know the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer."

He later wrote:

I was sitting at home and had a profound experience. I experienced, in all of my Being, that someday I was going to die, and it wouldn't be like it had been happening, almost dying but somehow staying alive, but I would just die! And two things would happen right before I died: I would regret my entire life; I would want to live it over again. This terrified me. The thought that I would live my entire life, look at it and realize I blew it forced me to do something with my life.

With no formal training, Selby used a raw language to portray the bleak and violent world that was part of his youth. He has said, "I write, in part, by ear. I hear, as well as feel and see, what I am writing. I have always been enamored with the music of the speech in New York."

Little concerned with proper grammar, punctuation, or diction, he used unorthodox techniques in most of his works. He indented his paragraphs with alternating lengths, often by simply dropping down one line when finished with a paragraph. Like Jack Kerouac in his "spontaneous prose," Selby often completed his writing in a fast, stream of consciousness style. He replaced apostrophes with forward slashes "/," which were closer on the typewriter, to avoid interrupting his flow of writing. He did not use quotation marks. He might present a dialogue as a complete paragraph, with no denotion among alternating speakers. His prose was stripped down, bare and blunt.

Aspects of his experiences with longshoremen, the homeless, thugs, pimps, transvestites, prostitutes, homosexuals, addicts and the overall poverty-stricken community, is expressed in Last Exit to Brooklyn.

In 1961, his short story "Tralala" was published in the literary journal, The Provincetown Review. It also appeared in Black Mountain Review and New Directions. His unstructured style and coarse descriptions used in the story supported his portrayal of the seedy life (ridden with violence, theft and mediocre con-artistry) and the gang rape of a prostitute. A number of critics attacked the subjects and harshness of the story. The Provincetown Review editor was arrested for selling pornographic literature to a minor. The journal was used as evidence in an obscenity trial, but the case was later dismissed on appeal.

As Selby continued to write, his longtime friend Amiri Baraka, the playwright, encouraged him to contact Sterling Lord, then Kerouac's agent. Selby combined "Tralala", a story title "The Queen Is Dead," and four other loosely linked short stories as part of his first novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964). The novel was accepted and published by Grove Press, which had already published works by William S. Burroughs.

The novel was praised by many, including the poet Allen Ginsberg, who predicted that it would "explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years." But, at a time when literature excluded much that was harsh, not everyone wanted to read his detailed depictions of homosexuality and drug addiction, as well as gang rape and other forms of human brutality and cruelty. In 1967, the novel was prosecuted for obscenity in Great Britain. The notable British writer Anthony Burgess was among a number of writers who appeared as witnesses in its defense. The all-male jury's conviction was later reversed on appeal. The novel was also banned in Italy.

In 1967, Selby moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles to try to escape his addictions. That year, Selby met his future second wife, Suzanne, at a bar in West Hollywood. The couple moved in together two days after they met. They married in 1969. For the next decade, they traveled back and forth between Southern California and the East Coast, settling permanently in the Los Angeles area in 1983.

Although he wrote all his work while sober, Selby continued to battle drug addiction. In 1967 he was picked up for heroin possession and served two months in the Los Angeles County jail. After his release, he finally kicked the habit. He stayed clean of drugs and alcohol until his death. He refused morphine on his deathbed, although he was in pain.

Works

Fiction (in chronological order)

Last Exit to Brooklyn (novel, 1964)
The Room (novel, 1971)
The Demon (novel, 1976)
Requiem for a Dream (novel, 1978)
Song of the Silent Snow (short stories, 1986)6
The Willow Tree (novel, 1998)
Waiting Period (novel, 2002)

Spoken word (in chronological order)

Our Fathers Who Aren't in Heaven - Compilation by Henry Rollins. 2xCD set (1990)
Live in Europe 1989 - Spoken word with Henry Rollins. CD. (1995)
Blue Eyes and Exit Wounds - Spoken word with Nick Tosches. CD. (1998)

Filmography (in chronological order)

Jour et Nuit - Screenwriter. France / Switzerland (1986)
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Writer and actor (taxi driver). United States/Germany (1989)
Scotch and Milk - Actor (Cubby). United States (1998)
Requiem for a Dream - Screenwriter and actor (prison guard). United States (2000)
Fear X - Screenwriter. Denmark / UK / Canada (2003)

Documentaries (in chronological order)

Memories, Dreams & Addictions. Interview with Ellen Burstyn. Special feature on Requiem for a Dream- Director's Cut DVD release. (2001)
Hubert Selby, Jr.: 2 Ou 3 Choses... (A Couple of Things About Hubert Selby, Jr.) Documentary film by Ludovic Cantais, France (2000)
HUBERT SELBY JR: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow Documentary film. (2005)

I think I'm going to be able to resist this one, but I do like his assessment of his qualifications, "I know the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer."

I've just finished a re read of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for my RL book club which met today and had wonderful discussions about the book and topics raised. Now I'm about to start Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America. I hope it's as good as it looks.

Thanks for another interesting author biography to start the week, Richard. So many authors seem to have lived such painful lives, but I suppose that's what made them write, and write well.

I am torn between two books at the moment. I was perfectly settling on Onitsha by J. M. G. Le Clezio when hubby happened to mention 84 Charing Cross Road which made me recall that I'd been meaning to re-read Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff, (the same author). Since the first line of Q's Legacy made me smile, I think that will be the winner.

ETA: I am now very happily and comfortably settled with Q's Legacy. It is a re-read, and reading it is like visitng an old friend. *blissful sigh*

I think I will start The Storyteller tonight.

Thanks, Sir Richard, for some more wonderful author education. Much enjoyed!

I am happily sunk into the Uncorrected Proof of How They Spend Their Sundays by Courtney McDermott, which I received, like an excited kid, in my mailbox today. So far it is excellent - contemporary short stories (of varying length - including some "flash" fiction) all set in South Africa and Lesotho.

I've got three on the go at the moment. Pirate by Ted Bell, Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche and Martha's Vine by Sheree Zielke. All very different.

I'm reading Trickster Makes the World which is an odd little piece of nonfiction. It's part autobiography, part literary criticism, part mythology, part modern humanities. Among many things, it includes discussions of the "lucky finds" of John Cage and Pablo Picasso.

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton, catching me up with the series, and West with the night by Beryl Markham.

I enjoyed reading Whitney Otto's Eight Girls Taking Pictures. I've read several books this year which dealt in some way with American and European cultural history in the first half of the 20th Century (although Otto's book goes beyond that period): Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, Atkinson's Life After Life, and particularly important as relates to Otto's book, Lisa Cohen's All We Know: Three Lives. As I read {Eight Girls Taking Pictures I sometimes wished I was reading about the real photographers whose lives inspired Otto in creating her eight fictional characters, but she provides a bibliography which may be the source for further reading. (More books to buy!)

Ever since reading his The Bird Artist many years ago. I have been a fan of author Howard Norman. I'm not sure why his writing so appeals to me, but I have kept him on my list of favorite authors and each of his books has been much anticipated and appreciated. Now I'm reading his latest, a memoir, I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place.

Finished Dead Before Morning and started Blood on the Bones, both by Geraldine Evans.

I just started reading Brave New World by Huxley. I didn't read it or 1984 in high school. So as a forty-something, I've decided to read BNW because of the recent attention (along with 1984) has gotten in the press.

I will post a full review when I finish.

Marion

I just stared Child of Vengeance by David Kirk about sumarai Japan. Early on but I am intrigued. Not something I usually read about so we will see.

I finished and reviewed the awesome How They Spend Their Sundays, stories by Courtney McDermott ... and am now alternating between the short stories in Easy In The Islands by Bob Shacochis and the novel, The Unknowns by Gabriel Roth.

>13 CarolynSchroeder: Wow, Carolyn! You REALLY liked the McDermott! I'll pre-ordered it when Ammy posts it.

I'm in the middle of The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, which is my new LTER book from the June batch. Beautiful writing and very powerful images so far--it certainly represents a clean break from the magic realism style that characterized the best Latin American fiction for so many years.

I'm currently reading Under the Dome

Finished The Cuckoo's Calling today, a thoroughly fun read, and now must return to Foundation which I dropped in favor of finding out what all the hype was about in Cuckoo. Book Club meets Monday evening and I'm only a few pages in.

I finished Anthony Powell's The Valley of Bones, the seventh book of the twelve book A Dance to the Music of Time. I continue to enjoy this series.

Now I'm reading Barbara Pym's The Sweet Dove Died.

I just started A Week in Winter, Maeve Binchy's last book. It's a comfort read that's hitting the spot right now.

I recently finshed the utterly fascinating, Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean by Les Standiford. Since the book began and ended with the Hurricane of 1935, and had quite a few hurricanes in between, it reminded me a lot of Isaac's Storm and, I thought, was just as good.

After finishing a re-read of an old friend, Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff, I've just moved on to the gritty end of the spectrum, Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French. I almost never read true crime, but this one has me intrigued.

Ta-daaaaaaaaa! Finished all 1100+ pages of Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. Mammoth literary opus! Amazing, frustrating, thought-provoking and more. A real test of the reader's beliefs about reality.

Now on to read The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and continuing to listen to And The Mountains Echoed.

Reading The Unknowns by Gabriel Roth and so far the writing is great and the protagonist a pig ... but I was warned about that and apparently he gets less piggish as the novel progresses.

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. A very strange book...

I finished and loved The Mad Scientist's Daughter, and am between books at the moment, although I have a feeling that Eifelheim will be next...

I've reached the Epilogue to War and Peace and am up to Part Two of Sacred Hearts.

Still dipping into Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten 1928-1938.

#21 hemlokgang - I hope you enjoy The Snow Child. I just loved that book.

I'm currently reading and enjoying Flowertown, yet another book I've discovered through Kindle promotions.

Started listening to The Circle by Peter Lovesey, the first book I've had time to read in over a week. I hate packing and moving, though I'm very happy to be where I now am!

Still reading all the articles for the class I am taking and so am devoting less time to Long Ships which is very good. I like the style of this novel. So saga like. This is adventure on the level of the Bartle Bull books. A fun summer read.

I've been on vacation, so I haven't read much for the past couple of weeks. I did manage to finish Psychological Warfare by Paul M. A. Linebarger. I've managed to track down a copy of War Propaganda and the United States which I'm interested to read as a companion to the psychological warfare book.

I'm now reading Death in the Haymarket by James Green.

I didn't like Brave New World. It was too cold and clinical for my taste. I have started Middle Passage by Charles Johnson and have been entertained so far considering its a novel about slavery and the Middle Passage. Not a subject that has cause for entertainment. Pleasantly surprised so far.

Marion

#23: Enjoy the ride, I loved Gone Girl. Finished it in a day.

I am more than halfway through with Hotel on the corner of Bitter and Sweet, which I am liking, but not loving, thus far.

I thought The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was more like a concept of a good book rather than being a good book in itself. I thought it was a rather simplistic introduction to the subject of the American internment of Japanese. The Buddha in the Attic is, I think, kind of the book Hotel is trying to be.

I finished Howard Norman's memoir, I Hate to Leave this Beautiful Place -- a quietly powerful book which deepened my admiration for this author. I'm only sad that now I have to go back to "waiting for the next Howard Norman book" mode. Perhaps it's time to start rereading the early books, and I definitely feel as though I'll be reading this memoir again soon.

Next up: Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban

I have to check that one out mollygrace, thank you for the nod.

I finished The Unknowns by Gabriel Roth into the wee hours last night, and despite a so-so start, I ended up really liking it. It is more thought-provoking than I expected - one of the concepts being what if the first person you fell in love with said she was abused (via repressed memories apparently surfacing in college - when repressed memory therapy was all the rage) and you really did not believe that it happened? It's very artfully done, that whole quandary, and also the language and story is a very fun, easy read. Not something I'm usually into, but I liked it!

Now on to News From Heaven: the Bakerton Stories by Jennifer Haigh on recommendation of my Mom.

>CarolynSchroeder - I loved News From Heaven and felt it was under appreciated. I hope you enjoy it!

Finished Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach (funny, fascinating, and slightly disgusting!), along with Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (despite the controversy, I found this to be an insightful and worthwhile book).

Currently reading Offspring by Jack Ketchum, which I'm likely to finish today or tomorrow - it's an extremely fast read. I'm not sure when the EXTREME gore is going to kick in, but I know it's coming. Also working through The Passage, which I'm enjoying very much, but it's taking me awhile to get through it.

Am new so bear with me!! Had to experiment with the touchstones..
Am trying to read Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements and Agatha Christie by Laura Thompson.
Finding the Agatha book heavy weather ..and have only read a few pages of each.

And that author above so reminds me of Roald Dahl in appearance.

My Library doesn't have News From Heaven but it does have Baker Towers on e-audio, so I'll give it a try.

Welcome RuthieD! It took me a while to learn touchstones, too, as it probably does almost everyone. If you enlose a title in brackets, like this , not forgetting the closing bracket, it will create a touchstone for the title. enclose an author's name in a double set, like this , again, not forgetting the closing brackets. I hope that was clear enough! There should be an example, just to the right of the text field. See how Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen are surrounded by brackets?

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I've just started Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf. It's far too soon to tell how it will go, but it looks good.

#33: I agree with you. I read The Buddha in the Attic too, and though it's been a while, I remember liking it. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is rather simplistic and took a while for me to get into. It is enjoyable, but not something that's sustaining all my attention.

I'm reading If Jack's In Love by Stephen Wetta for my book club. I like it so far but I usually enjoy a good coming of age story.

Finished Blood on the Bones and started Dying For You by Geraldine Evans.

I finished listening to The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett and was rather disappointed in it. I have been reading for years that the Nick and Nora movies were so good, and that Hammett is the godfather of crime noir, but frankly, with this book I just didn't see it. While the plot was good, the characters were all silly. I also didn't like the reader in this recording. He over pronounced his words and made all the women sound insipid and whispy. However, I still want to see the movies, as people tell me they are quite good. I wonder what was done to the plot of the book to turn it into a good screenplay?

I finished and REVIEWED Barbara Pym's The Sweet Dove Died.

Now I'm reading The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker.

Hello again, everyone! I've been reading up a storm this past week and here is my reading list so far! :)

First up, I finished reading Best Friends Forever: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner on Thursday, July 18th! This was an easy reading page turner for me.

I immediately started reading A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein, finishing that book on Saturday, July 20th! :) My goodness, what a terrific book!

Next, I started reading Twins by Roxanne Pulitzer - finished this book yesterday - Monday, July 22nd! Not really the sort of book that I typically read, but it was surprisingly enjoyable nevertheless. The writing reminded me slightly of Jackie Collins.

I'm currently reading A Crime of Honor by Giovanni Arpino - in English of course - and I have roughly 40 or so pages to go, so I imagine I'll finish this book up tonight. Such a good book! :)

Only 50 pages into Blue Plate Special, but looking forward to reading more!

Loved reading the profile of Hubert Selby Jr. His books are sometimes difficult to read because of the style in which he wrote, but once you settle into them, they have a fluidity that is its own kind of beauty.

I'm determined to finish The Golden Notebook finally - I'm only about 100 pages out from the end at this point. I also started Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.

I'm well into Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf, and am enjoying it immenseley. It is a historical novel of the Islamic world in the late 15th and early 16th Centuries. It has great elements - history, travel, and a bit of Arabian Nights. Good stuff.

#36/coppers ~ I loved News From Heaven: The Bakerton Stories by Jennifer Haigh. You are right, it is very underrated (or like, undercirculated - this one does not seem to be on the pulse of modern short story collections to be read). I put up a review to raise a little bit of awareness. I was sorry to see the town, and its folks, go.

Now the fun part of choosing a novel! I am still reading Easy In The Islands for my continuing SS collections reads, but these days like to have both going, a work of short stories and full length book (NF or Fiction). Sometimes the feel of the SSs are similar and it is nice to intersperse them with something else.

>46 benitastrnad: The movies star William Powell and Myrna Loy--they could read the phone book and be entertaining, but the scripts are great too. And then there's Asta, too. . . .

I still haven't made it to the library, because I tore my hamstring, so I'm propped up on the sofa reading The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. In re #46, this might be one of those books that's better after you've seen the films.

I finished the lovely, poignant The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. Now on to Kangaroo by D.H. Lawrence.

#53
Asta? The dog that Nick pets occasionally? That's all the dog did in the book. At least everybody has me curious about the movies. I will have to watch just to see the difference between book and script.

After the insipidness of The Thin Man I am listening to The Trudeau Vector and am liking every minute of it. I have had this book in my collection since 2005 when I got a used copy because the reviews were good and it has set on my shelves all this time. Earlier this spring at the big used book store in Birmingham I found a used copy of the recorded version and decided that now was the time to get this book off the shelf and read. The recording is very good, and I like the characters. Reading about the Arctic in the dog days of summer is really cool!

>53 rockinrhombus:, >56 benitastrnad:: You've both piqued my interest in The Thin Man, book and movie. I almost picked up The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett at the library over the weekend. I'll have to see if they have The Thin Man.

Finished Close My Eyes by Sophie McKenzie and A Name To Die For by Richard Kelley. Both were great reads!

>52 CarolynSchroeder: Carolyn, I'm happy to see News From Heaven has another fan! If you haven't read Baker Towers, I highly recommend it.

Thanks Coppers! I will give that a gander. I am now reading Frances and Bernard which I just plucked off the new fiction shelves at my library.

Finally, reading Dan Brown's, Angels & Demons. I received it as a gift at Christmas. When I saw the movie before Christmas, I felt I needed to read the book.

Finished listening to the somewhat disappointing And The Mountains Echoed. Just started listening to The Last Judgement by Iain Pears.

Right now, am trying to finish up a ROOT title: Letter Perfect, as well as (finally) The Omnivore's Dilemma. Have finished and reviewed Last Night I Dreamed of Peace (very enlightening) and Legend (popcorn: compulsive but unsatisfying)

>30 fredbacon:: You've got me intrigued by this book Psychological Warfare, which our local library doesn't have, but Chapters/Indigo does. They also have a copy of the hot new Thich Nhat Hanh title: Joyfully Together, which my sangha is reading as a group. I hope whoever puts my order together has a sense of humour!

I finished Eifelheim and was kind of disappointed. The idea of first contact with aliens in fourteenth century Germany being discovered by a twenty-first century cliometric historian and a theoretical physicist sounds so cool, but the writer was so annoying... Ah well, on to a writer I know I love, Stephen Fry, with his novel The Liar.

This week, Saturday the 27th, Jay Lake will hold the Jay Wake. It's the best idea I've ever heard, hosting your own funeral! Think of all the things you've said at the funeral of a friend, things you wish you'd had the chance, and the permission, to say while they were yet breathing. Well, here it is. Opportunity meeting motivation. I've gotten motivated to say my piece about the reading pleasure I've found in Lake's books.

I've reviewed TRIAL OF FLOWERS at Shelf Inflicted, the group blog. It's a fantasy novel.

I read a fantasy novel.

There, I said it.

I not only read it, I enjoyed it. BUT DON'T FOR GAWD'S SAKE TELL ANYONE. I will swear an oath that you're lying and that you must be the one who hacked my account and wrote a glowing heap of praise for a book with dwarves, an ancient city declining under an empty throne, a reluctant hero...well, you see my predicament. I can't admit out loud that I liked this kind of guff. "The city is," runs the motto Lake gives the City Imperishable. Yeeesh, really?

Really. And really worth your time.

Finished Dying For You and started Up in Flames, both by Geraldine Evans.

Just finished Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music which was an engaging book about a person and the music he created. Even though it sometimes bogged down in detail about particular pieces of music or his daunting schedule of performances, it never lost my attention. I think because the force of his decent, brilliant, child-like, and vulnerable personality shown throughout.

Had to Pearl Rule Frances and Bernard (which I realize is a literary and even reader darling of sorts) @ p. 30-ish due to the fact that I could not read one more word of drivel (beautifully written though they were) from these self-important blowhards. Seriously. Ugh. I did not care about their thoughts on well, anything. Fall in love, don't fall in love, go back to the monestary, writers' workshops and make fun of everyone, whatever, I don't care. It was really boring to boot. That said, Bauer can write exceptionally well!

So when I dread picking it up, I know it's time to go back down the library return shute.

Kind of sad, as I do really usually enjoy a good epistolary novel.

I was on an awesomeness-in-fiction streak. I full expected it would end soon!

#61 - callmejacx - I just read A&D for the first time too, about a month ago. Not the best writing I've ever read, but definitely entertaining. I still like the Da Vinci Code better, although I haven't read his other two yet.

Finished Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, and that was a hell of an emotional wallop. A fantastic book, and I found myself compulsively turning pages way past my bedtime. Part of this was because the book brought back a lot of unpleasant memories from high school and I didn't want to relive those for too long, but this was just an insanely suspenseful and compelling story.

About to finish Offspring, and I'm still making my way through The Passage. I'm thinking of reading something less dark for a change - I'm thinking The Night Circus, Practical Magic, or Chocolat, all of which I've already read and adored.

>68 CarolynSchroeder: Oh dear. That's a sad end to a streak!

I'm loving Desert Gothic, if that's any guide....

I'm just starting on a re-read of another very old friend - The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. I'm only just at about pg. 20, and already I'm loving it. It has been many long years since I've read this, but it is just as enchanting as ever. Somehow, even more so than The Lord of the Rings for me, since it first introduced The Middle Earth and all of its wonderful inhabitants. It's also less dark. Not that LOTR isn't also sublime.

I finished and REVIEWED Gerbrand Bakker's haunting novel The Twin.

Next up: Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being

Okay, I've got to try to keep up over here. The 75 Group sucks up all my time. I finished the outstanding A Fine Balance. If you have not read this modern masterpiece: Do so now!
I also just finished NOS4A2. If you haven't read an excellent horror story in ages, look no further. I am nearly halfway done with Transatlantic. McCann is amazing.

Bonnie- I have had A Tale for the Time Being high on my WL for months now. This might be the nudge I need.

I am starting The White Princess next. I finished The White Queen yesterday and am putting it in the mail to a friend today.... Books are meant for sharing!! Have a great weekend all.
:)

Binocular Vision unfortunately was, for me, just meh, but I'm nearing the end of the very good Life After Life.

The new thread is up!

I must admit I'm enjoying Middle Passage by Charles Johnson quite a bit. It's a philosophical, intellectual page-turner that deals with slavery in a tough but humorous way. I'm surprised at the amount of humor in the novel and it's different then what I've expected in this sub-genre of literary fiction.

I will post a full review when I'm finished.

Marion

Read and thoroughly enjoyed The Cuckoo's Calling. I haven't read a detective novel in a while. Any recommendations now that my appetite has been whetted?

#78 I really like John Lescroart and his Dismas Hardy novels.