What are you reading the week of October 10, 2015?
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1fredbacon
Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction.
One of five children, Powers was born in Evanston, Illinois. His family later moved a few miles south to Lincolnwood where his father was a local school principal. When Powers was 11 they moved to Bangkok, Thailand, where his father had accepted a position at International School Bangkok, which Powers attended through his freshman year, ending in 1972. During that time outside the U.S. he developed skill in vocal music and proficiency in cello, guitar, saxophone, and clarinet. He also became an avid reader, enjoying nonfiction, primarily, and classics such as the Iliad and the Odyssey.
The family returned to the U.S. when Powers was 16. Following graduation in 1975 from DeKalb High School in DeKalb, Illinois, he enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with a major in physics, which he switched to English literature during his first semester. There he earned the BA in 1978 and the MA in Literature in 1980. He decided not to pursue the PhD partly because of his aversion to strict specialization, which had been one reason for his early transfer from physics to English, and partly because he had observed in graduate students and their professors a lack of pleasure in reading and writing (as portrayed in Galatea 2.2).
For some time Powers worked in Boston, as a computer programmer. Viewing the 1914 photograph "Young Farmers" by August Sander, on a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts, he was inspired to quit his job and spend the next two years writing his first book, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, which was published by William Morrow in 1985. It comprises three alternating threads. The first is a novella featuring the three young men in the photo during World War I. The second features a technology magazine editor who is obsessed with the photo. The third is the author's critical and historical musings, mainly about the mechanics of photography and the life of Henry Ford.
Powers moved to the Netherlands, where he wrote Prisoner's Dilemma, a work that juxtaposes Disney and nuclear warfare. He followed this with what became his best-known work to date, The Gold Bug Variations, a story that ties together genetics, music, and computer science. Powers has said that he moved to the Netherlands to avoid the publicity and attention generated by his first novel.
Operation Wandering Soul (1993), a finalist for the National Book Award, features a young doctor dealing with the ugly realities of a pediatrics ward. It was written mainly during a year's stay at the University of Cambridge and completed when Powers returned to the University of Illinois in 1992 to take up a post as writer-in-residence.
Powers's ninth novel, The Echo Maker (2006), won a National Book Award and was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist. The novel tells the story of a young man whose brain is injured in a truck accident. Although he largely recovers, he has cognitive impairments, including Capgras syndrome, the suspicion that his sister has been replaced by an impostor. Another important character is a consulting neurologist, modeled to some degree on Oliver Sacks and perhaps Gerald Edelman. The novel explores the themes of cognitive construction of reality, and the relationships between memory and emotional bonds between people, and some of the tensions between the beneficial and exploitative aspects of a famous doctor's work. The events occur along the Platte River in Nebraska, near the shrinking migratory refuge of the sandhill cranes. Social frictions in the story arise out of water and land use disputes.
In 2010 and 2013, Powers was a Stein Visiting Writer at Stanford University, during which time he partly assisted in the lab of biochemist Aaron Straight.
Powers's most recent novel, Orfeo, was published January 20, 2014. Peter Els, a retired music composition instructor and avant-garde composer, is mistaken for a bio-terrorist after being discovered with a makeshift genetics lab in his house.
Powers was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1989. He received a Lannan Literary Award in 1999. He currently teaches a graduate course in multimedia authoring, as well as an undergraduate course on the mechanics of narrative, at UIUC, where he is the Swanlund Professor of English.
Reviewer William Deresiewicz has written critically of Powers's oeuvre; in his review of The Echo Maker, he writes of The Gold Bug Variations that "what's missing from the novel is, well, a novel. The characters are idealized, the love stories mawkish and clichéd, the emotions meant to ground the scientific speculations in lived experience announced rather than established. The thinnest of devices are introduced to allow Powers to suspend the plot for dozens of pages at a stretch." But Deresiewicz also noted that his "is hardly the standard view of Powers's work. Over the past two decades, Powers has established himself as one of our most praised as well as one of our most prolific writers of fiction."
In an admiring essay, Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood praised The Echo Maker as "a grand novel—grand in its reach, grand in its themes, grand in its patterning. That it might sometimes stray over the line into the grandiose is perhaps unavoidable: Powers is not a painter of miniatures. Of the two extremes of American mannerist style, the minimalist or Shaker chair (Dickinson, Hemingway, Carver) and the maximalist or Gilded Age (Whitman, James, Jonathan Safran Foer), Powers inclines toward the latter. He gets his effects by repetition, by a Goldberg Variation–like elaboration of motifs, by cranking up the volume and pulling out all the stops".
Bibliography
One of five children, Powers was born in Evanston, Illinois. His family later moved a few miles south to Lincolnwood where his father was a local school principal. When Powers was 11 they moved to Bangkok, Thailand, where his father had accepted a position at International School Bangkok, which Powers attended through his freshman year, ending in 1972. During that time outside the U.S. he developed skill in vocal music and proficiency in cello, guitar, saxophone, and clarinet. He also became an avid reader, enjoying nonfiction, primarily, and classics such as the Iliad and the Odyssey.
The family returned to the U.S. when Powers was 16. Following graduation in 1975 from DeKalb High School in DeKalb, Illinois, he enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with a major in physics, which he switched to English literature during his first semester. There he earned the BA in 1978 and the MA in Literature in 1980. He decided not to pursue the PhD partly because of his aversion to strict specialization, which had been one reason for his early transfer from physics to English, and partly because he had observed in graduate students and their professors a lack of pleasure in reading and writing (as portrayed in Galatea 2.2).
For some time Powers worked in Boston, as a computer programmer. Viewing the 1914 photograph "Young Farmers" by August Sander, on a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts, he was inspired to quit his job and spend the next two years writing his first book, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, which was published by William Morrow in 1985. It comprises three alternating threads. The first is a novella featuring the three young men in the photo during World War I. The second features a technology magazine editor who is obsessed with the photo. The third is the author's critical and historical musings, mainly about the mechanics of photography and the life of Henry Ford.
Powers moved to the Netherlands, where he wrote Prisoner's Dilemma, a work that juxtaposes Disney and nuclear warfare. He followed this with what became his best-known work to date, The Gold Bug Variations, a story that ties together genetics, music, and computer science. Powers has said that he moved to the Netherlands to avoid the publicity and attention generated by his first novel.
Operation Wandering Soul (1993), a finalist for the National Book Award, features a young doctor dealing with the ugly realities of a pediatrics ward. It was written mainly during a year's stay at the University of Cambridge and completed when Powers returned to the University of Illinois in 1992 to take up a post as writer-in-residence.
Powers's ninth novel, The Echo Maker (2006), won a National Book Award and was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist. The novel tells the story of a young man whose brain is injured in a truck accident. Although he largely recovers, he has cognitive impairments, including Capgras syndrome, the suspicion that his sister has been replaced by an impostor. Another important character is a consulting neurologist, modeled to some degree on Oliver Sacks and perhaps Gerald Edelman. The novel explores the themes of cognitive construction of reality, and the relationships between memory and emotional bonds between people, and some of the tensions between the beneficial and exploitative aspects of a famous doctor's work. The events occur along the Platte River in Nebraska, near the shrinking migratory refuge of the sandhill cranes. Social frictions in the story arise out of water and land use disputes.
In 2010 and 2013, Powers was a Stein Visiting Writer at Stanford University, during which time he partly assisted in the lab of biochemist Aaron Straight.
Powers's most recent novel, Orfeo, was published January 20, 2014. Peter Els, a retired music composition instructor and avant-garde composer, is mistaken for a bio-terrorist after being discovered with a makeshift genetics lab in his house.
Powers was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1989. He received a Lannan Literary Award in 1999. He currently teaches a graduate course in multimedia authoring, as well as an undergraduate course on the mechanics of narrative, at UIUC, where he is the Swanlund Professor of English.
Reviewer William Deresiewicz has written critically of Powers's oeuvre; in his review of The Echo Maker, he writes of The Gold Bug Variations that "what's missing from the novel is, well, a novel. The characters are idealized, the love stories mawkish and clichéd, the emotions meant to ground the scientific speculations in lived experience announced rather than established. The thinnest of devices are introduced to allow Powers to suspend the plot for dozens of pages at a stretch." But Deresiewicz also noted that his "is hardly the standard view of Powers's work. Over the past two decades, Powers has established himself as one of our most praised as well as one of our most prolific writers of fiction."
In an admiring essay, Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood praised The Echo Maker as "a grand novel—grand in its reach, grand in its themes, grand in its patterning. That it might sometimes stray over the line into the grandiose is perhaps unavoidable: Powers is not a painter of miniatures. Of the two extremes of American mannerist style, the minimalist or Shaker chair (Dickinson, Hemingway, Carver) and the maximalist or Gilded Age (Whitman, James, Jonathan Safran Foer), Powers inclines toward the latter. He gets his effects by repetition, by a Goldberg Variation–like elaboration of motifs, by cranking up the volume and pulling out all the stops".
Bibliography
Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, HarperCollins, 1985
Prisoner's Dilemma, McGraw Hill, 1988
The Gold Bug Variations, HarperCollins, 1991
Operation Wandering Soul, HarperCollins, 1993
Galatea 2.2, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1995
Gain, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1998
Plowing the Dark, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000
The Time of Our Singing, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003
The Echo Maker, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006
Generosity: An Enhancement, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009
Orfeo, W. W. Norton & Company, 2014
2fredbacon
I should be finishing up C. V. Wedgwood's The Thirty Years War today. I'll be reading The Cuckoo's Calling after that.
3mollygrace
>1 fredbacon: Thanks for the good start to our week. Two of Richard Powers's books are near the top of my tbr pile -- Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance and Orfeo. I hope to get to them soon.
I've been having trouble settling down to read lately -- not sure why, but I think perhaps I'm getting back to my books now. This morning I was finally able to finish a book I started a couple of weeks ago: Mary Gordon's The Rest of Life -- three novellas that have given me much to think about.
Next: The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir by A. M. Homes
I've been having trouble settling down to read lately -- not sure why, but I think perhaps I'm getting back to my books now. This morning I was finally able to finish a book I started a couple of weeks ago: Mary Gordon's The Rest of Life -- three novellas that have given me much to think about.
Next: The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir by A. M. Homes
4alphaorder
I am in the middle of a number of wonderful books:
Whispers and Shadows is a lovely memoir by WI farmer Jerry Apps.
H is for Hawk Loved the beginning, Bogged down a bit in the middle
Fates and Furies Needed to start it the moment it arrived. But should have waited so I could give it my full attention
Faith versus Fact Heard author on WI radio and wanted to learn more. Makes a good case, in my opinion.
Whispers and Shadows is a lovely memoir by WI farmer Jerry Apps.
H is for Hawk Loved the beginning, Bogged down a bit in the middle
Fates and Furies Needed to start it the moment it arrived. But should have waited so I could give it my full attention
Faith versus Fact Heard author on WI radio and wanted to learn more. Makes a good case, in my opinion.
5alphaorder
>3 mollygrace: I read The Rest of Life when it was published back in 1993. I have fond memories of it.
6browner56
>1 fredbacon: Great choice for Author of the Week! I'm a big fan of Richard Powers' writing and I've read every one of his novels; The Goldbug Variations and The Time of Our Singing are among the best books I've ever read. In fact, this fall semester I'm teaching a course called "Finance, Fiction, and Film" and I've selected Gain as one of the books we'll be studying. So, I'll be re-reading that one in the near future in preparation for having to teach it.
Right now, I'm nearing the conclusion of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, which is an amazing book on so many levels.
Right now, I'm nearing the conclusion of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, which is an amazing book on so many levels.
7Travis1259
Still reading Wars of the Roses by Conn Iggulden and The Genome by Sergi Lukyanenko. Both good reads, one taking place in the 15th century, the other a science fiction tale.
8jnwelch
Finished and reviewed the excellent "absurdist noir" Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov. Next up is The Art of Killing Well by Marco Malvaldi, and I'm continuing with another in the Poldark series, The Black Moon.
9seitherin
Still working on Wintersmith and Rising Tide. Hit a bit of a reading slump so spent yesterday watching videos.
10richardderus
COUNTDOWN CITY has me very deeply in its coils.
11mollygrace
>5 alphaorder: I purchased Mary Gordon's book back in 1993, but for some reason allowed it to languish on the shelf for 22 years. I'm not sure why I let it go for so long, but I must say the novellas have been very meaningful to me at this stage of my life, so perhaps things turned out for the best. On the other hand, who knows what they might have meant back then?
12ahef1963
I'm reading a first novel, called Invisible City by Julia Dahl.
13NarratorLady
Planning to crack open Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl this weekend.
14rocketjk
I'm still enjoying the espionage thriller The Cleaner by Brett Battles.
16hemlokgang
Hi Richard!
I finished the phenomenal The Physics of Sorrow, and I am about to start reading The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. She is the upcoming speaker at the Rochester Arts &Lecture series.
I finished the phenomenal The Physics of Sorrow, and I am about to start reading The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. She is the upcoming speaker at the Rochester Arts &Lecture series.
17snash
Finished Object Lessons by Anna Quiniden. It was okay but i liked Blessings by the same author better.
18JackieCarroll
>2 fredbacon: I got the audiobook version of The Cuckoo's Calling when it first came out and enjoyed it a lot. I saw that Kobo had the ebook on sale yesterday. I think it was either $1.99 or $2.99. If it's still on sale today it's mine. :)
I'm getting caught up on my ARCs this week. I'm halfway through Practical Sins for Cold Climates by Shelley Costa and Kraken Rising by Greig Beck. I'm not enjoying Kraken Rising as much as I would if I wasn't so opposed to superhuman protagonists. Practical Sins is a better than average cozy. If I finish those, I've got Paint the Town Dead by Nancy Bell, which I think is a silly cozy. I also have an early reader book from LT that I don't remember asking for, but since I've got it, I'll read it. I don't remember the title. It will probably be next week before I get to it.
ETA: Yes! Cuckoo is still on sale so I got it. I bought the next book, The Silkworm, in hardcover when it first came out. That was a huge waste of money because I don't know when I'll get around to reading it. If it isn't already on the markdown table, it will be before I crack it open.
Note to self: wait until you are ready to read before buying newly published books.
I'm getting caught up on my ARCs this week. I'm halfway through Practical Sins for Cold Climates by Shelley Costa and Kraken Rising by Greig Beck. I'm not enjoying Kraken Rising as much as I would if I wasn't so opposed to superhuman protagonists. Practical Sins is a better than average cozy. If I finish those, I've got Paint the Town Dead by Nancy Bell, which I think is a silly cozy. I also have an early reader book from LT that I don't remember asking for, but since I've got it, I'll read it. I don't remember the title. It will probably be next week before I get to it.
ETA: Yes! Cuckoo is still on sale so I got it. I bought the next book, The Silkworm, in hardcover when it first came out. That was a huge waste of money because I don't know when I'll get around to reading it. If it isn't already on the markdown table, it will be before I crack it open.
Note to self: wait until you are ready to read before buying newly published books.
19richardderus
>16 hemlokgang: Hi HG!
I read almost 200pp (of 320pp) before I could sleep last night. COUNTDOWN CITY gets better...
I read almost 200pp (of 320pp) before I could sleep last night. COUNTDOWN CITY gets better...
20mollygrace
I thoroughly enjoyed The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir by A. M. Homes. Now I'm reading A Soldier's Embrace: Stories by Nadine Gordimer.
21Copperskye
I just finished Krakauer's Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town. Harrowing read.
22sebago
Started The Assassin by Clive Cussler/Justin Scott last night - I like the Issac Bell series so much (After Dirk Pitt of course!). Happy Monday all (especially for those of us that are off from work.. YAY!)
23jnwelch
Finished the enjoyable Art of Killing Well, an Italian mystery, and am near the end of The Black Swan, the further adventures of Ross and Demelza Poldark. Up next is Bud, Not Buddy.
24grkmwk
Pausing on A God in Ruins; just wasn't grabbing my interest. Still doing my real-time reread of A Discovery of Witches, and over the weekend started Gaudy Night for book club.
25richardderus
I've finished and reviewed the second Hank Palace mystery, COUNTDOWN CITY. It was very exciting and twisty-turny.
27seitherin
Finished Rising Tide by Rajan Khanna. Slow start but kick in the stomach ending.
Reading my AUP of Fathomless by Anne M. Pillsworth. Liked the first book, Summoned, in the series. Also reading Malice by John Gwynne.
Reading my AUP of Fathomless by Anne M. Pillsworth. Liked the first book, Summoned, in the series. Also reading Malice by John Gwynne.
28framboise
Still reading The Bees.
Yesterday I saw "The Martian". What an amazing movie. I remember when people on here were reading the book. For those who have read and seen it, what do you think? Were you blown away by either? I immediately put the book on my tbr list.
Yesterday I saw "The Martian". What an amazing movie. I remember when people on here were reading the book. For those who have read and seen it, what do you think? Were you blown away by either? I immediately put the book on my tbr list.
29richardderus
>28 framboise: I looooved the book, and can't wait to see the movie. Matt Damon strikes me as the perfect choice for the role.
30Tara1Reads
>28 framboise: I loved the Martian book too. I haven't gotten to see the movie yet.
31framboise
#29 richardderus: Matt Damon was absolutely amazing in it. First movie of his that made me think he's a great actor. Now I can't wait to read the book.
32Limelite
No Martians in my life, but a real good Chinese detective from the 18th C. who does his investigating at the foot of Jade Dragon Mountain was a hit with me, a reader who avoids murder mysteries.
Just opened Circling the Sun and began reading. Seems a bit too descriptive and romantic immediately, which distills to overwritten. While I read McLain's The Paris Wife, I didn't think it broke any bounds of the ordinary.
Resolved to read Special Topics in Calamity Physics that I bought from a local privately owned bookstore where used hardcovers are sold cheaply.
My reading life is thoroughly scheduled.
Just opened Circling the Sun and began reading. Seems a bit too descriptive and romantic immediately, which distills to overwritten. While I read McLain's The Paris Wife, I didn't think it broke any bounds of the ordinary.
Resolved to read Special Topics in Calamity Physics that I bought from a local privately owned bookstore where used hardcovers are sold cheaply.
My reading life is thoroughly scheduled.
33TooBusyReading
>28 framboise: I read the book a few months ago, even though it's not a genre I usually read, and I loved it. I saw the movie a couple of nights ago, and thought it was great as well. The book, of course, has a lot more detail but I was not disappointed in the least by the movie.
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Martian by Andy Weir
34bell7
I'm reading The Hawley Book of the Dead and Between the World and Me, plus listening to The Queen of the Tearling.
I haven't read/seen The Martian, but I'm hoping to soon.
I haven't read/seen The Martian, but I'm hoping to soon.
35framboise
#33 TooBusyReading: Thanks for the input. It's on my list and I can't wait to read it now.
36Iudita
#33 TooBusyReading- Re: The Martian - my thoughts exactly. Movie was good, book is better. All the detail that makes the book interesting would have bogged the movie down.
37Zumbanista
Finished up Allegient (meh) quick intermezzo with Return to Peyton Place (okay), and now back to Allegient so I can be down with this somewhat unsatisfying (to me) YA trilogy.
Now thanks to >32 Limelite: I have Jade Dragon Mountain on my TBR as well as The Martian thanks to the rest of the group here.
Now thanks to >32 Limelite: I have Jade Dragon Mountain on my TBR as well as The Martian thanks to the rest of the group here.
38hemlokgang
Liked The Martian, seeing the movie Friday!
Finished listening to The Son, and thought it one of the best suspense novels I've ever read.
Next up for my listening pleasure is Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King.
Finished listening to The Son, and thought it one of the best suspense novels I've ever read.
Next up for my listening pleasure is Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King.
39ahef1963
I'm reading The Pyramid by Henning Mankell to honour Mr. Mankell's death last week. It's a collection of novellas and short stories, and is very good. I'm still not reconciled to his passing.
We've booked two weeks' vacation in Puerto Rico in January, and am reading Frommer's EasyGuide to Puerto Rico as part of the trip preparation. I'm brushing up on my Spanish as well, using a Rosetta Stone programme, and reading Easy Spanish Reader, which is a well-designed teaching tool.
We've booked two weeks' vacation in Puerto Rico in January, and am reading Frommer's EasyGuide to Puerto Rico as part of the trip preparation. I'm brushing up on my Spanish as well, using a Rosetta Stone programme, and reading Easy Spanish Reader, which is a well-designed teaching tool.
40jnwelch
>132 Our daughter LOVED Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Limelite, and is a fan of the author. I've been impressed with her writing skill in that one and Night FIlm, but I'm still a doubter. She's got loads of talent, but she hasn't grabbed my heart yet.
I've started Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, and Reamde by Neal Stephenson.
I've started Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, and Reamde by Neal Stephenson.
41sebago
28framboise I read the book The Martian and saw the movie. Loved both! Matt Damon was perfect for the lead. :)
43TooBusyReading
Yes, Matt Damon is the perfect Martian.
>40 jnwelch: I loved Special Topics in Calamity Physics even though my brain has deleted the details. However, I gave the book to two people I thought would like it, and neither of them could get past the first few pages. Our different tastes keep things interesting.
>40 jnwelch: I loved Special Topics in Calamity Physics even though my brain has deleted the details. However, I gave the book to two people I thought would like it, and neither of them could get past the first few pages. Our different tastes keep things interesting.
44Limelite
>37 Zumbanista:
I believe you will become a Li Du fan -- "Jade" is beautifully written and historically fascinating. Honestly, I felt like one of the court help, slipping unnoticed into the background, observing all around me, and snickering up my sleeve at the madly ambitious-for-power characters.
>40 jnwelch:
Pessl appears to be another of these frighteningly precocious female writers who turn out masterpieces while still in their twenties, a la Eleanor Catton. I hope this isn't a book only young people highly versed in Pop Culture "get." My Pop Culture IQ is zero. But I liked the book's premise and willing to take the plunge.
>43 TooBusyReading:
Oh, dear! Now you've got me worried about "Calamity Physics." It's one I selected to get write with god -- the reading god, that is. Joined the ROOTs group on the hope they'd encourage me to read my own books, which "Calamity" is. I'd hate not to be able to count it toward my goal, and I'd hate worse confirmation of my own bad taste in book purchases!
I believe you will become a Li Du fan -- "Jade" is beautifully written and historically fascinating. Honestly, I felt like one of the court help, slipping unnoticed into the background, observing all around me, and snickering up my sleeve at the madly ambitious-for-power characters.
>40 jnwelch:
Pessl appears to be another of these frighteningly precocious female writers who turn out masterpieces while still in their twenties, a la Eleanor Catton. I hope this isn't a book only young people highly versed in Pop Culture "get." My Pop Culture IQ is zero. But I liked the book's premise and willing to take the plunge.
>43 TooBusyReading:
Oh, dear! Now you've got me worried about "Calamity Physics." It's one I selected to get write with god -- the reading god, that is. Joined the ROOTs group on the hope they'd encourage me to read my own books, which "Calamity" is. I'd hate not to be able to count it toward my goal, and I'd hate worse confirmation of my own bad taste in book purchases!
45jnwelch
>44 Limelite: Can't wait to hear your reaction to Special Topics. I don't think a low Pop Culture IQ will be any impediment.
46seitherin
Finished Wintersmith and started I Shall Wear Midnight.
47grkmwk
>28 framboise: I read The Martian last month--it was fabulous! I'm seeing the movie tonight. :)
Finished Mary Oliver's poetry collection A Thousand Mornings. Not yet sure what poetry collection I'll start next...
Finished Mary Oliver's poetry collection A Thousand Mornings. Not yet sure what poetry collection I'll start next...
48mollygrace
>32 Limelite: I loved Special Topics in Calamity Physics, though by the end I was a bit weary of the author's way of storytelling (the very thing I'd loved so much through most of the book). Still, I heartily recommend the book -- I found it very refreshing, joyous, a real departure from the everyday. I like authors who take chances and show us something new.
>39 ahef1963: I enjoyed the stories in The Pyramid. One of them helped me solve a little mystery of my own. The Branagh TV series -- and my subsequent reading of some of the novels -- evoked images from what I was sure was a Wallander story. They seemed so vivid I was sure I'd seen the story on television, but nothing in the Branagh films or in the novels seemed to mesh with my memory. Finally, in reading the title story in this collection I realized that the scenes I'd remembered most clearly were those between Wallander and his mentor, Rydberg. The TV production was an earlier Swedish adaptation of the story. I know most fans would disagree, but I love these earlier stories and the first of the novels, Faceless Killers, better than I like the later novels. The character was just developing then and I liked watching that process, liked that Wallander better, I suppose.
>39 ahef1963: I enjoyed the stories in The Pyramid. One of them helped me solve a little mystery of my own. The Branagh TV series -- and my subsequent reading of some of the novels -- evoked images from what I was sure was a Wallander story. They seemed so vivid I was sure I'd seen the story on television, but nothing in the Branagh films or in the novels seemed to mesh with my memory. Finally, in reading the title story in this collection I realized that the scenes I'd remembered most clearly were those between Wallander and his mentor, Rydberg. The TV production was an earlier Swedish adaptation of the story. I know most fans would disagree, but I love these earlier stories and the first of the novels, Faceless Killers, better than I like the later novels. The character was just developing then and I liked watching that process, liked that Wallander better, I suppose.
50richardderus
Could barely bring myself to finish Special Topics in Calamity Physics, found it unspeakably precious and titanically self-absorbed.
Am NOT hating Europe in Autumn, however, richly ironic, and generally wryly amusing while being Furst-ishly suspenseful.
Am NOT hating Europe in Autumn, however, richly ironic, and generally wryly amusing while being Furst-ishly suspenseful.
51Iudita
I am reading The Lake House by Kate Morton and really enjoying the story. It is great escape reading. Not too heavy but easy to get lost in. I am also reading The Fishermen and enjoying that as well. Good reading week!
52streamsong
I should be finishing Fahrenheit 451 this week as well as the audio of Shadow of the Wind. I'm enjoying both.
But the star this week is the Narrative non-fiction I'm reading for my book club - Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark. This is history that reads like an adventure novel.
But the star this week is the Narrative non-fiction I'm reading for my book club - Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark. This is history that reads like an adventure novel.
53jnwelch
Bud, Not Buddy was a good one, making me want to read more by Christopher Paul Curtis.
I've started Bone Clocks and I'm enjoying it so far.
I've started Bone Clocks and I'm enjoying it so far.
54grkmwk
>50 richardderus: I finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics, but regretted doing so. I read it 8 or so years ago, when I still naively believed that I had to finish every book I started, especially those that received high praise.
55richardderus
>54 grkmwk: Well, that's an illusion shattered. What a hot mess that book was.
56rocketjk
I finished The Cleaner by Brett Battles. It was a lot of fun. A nicely written espionage thriller. It's the first in a series, and I've definitely place the second book on my short list.
Next up for me will be The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville. It's a crime novel set in, well, Belfast. My wife just read this book and she was very much taken with it. She's a tough critic, so this book immediately went to the top of the list.
Next up for me will be The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville. It's a crime novel set in, well, Belfast. My wife just read this book and she was very much taken with it. She's a tough critic, so this book immediately went to the top of the list.
57terriks
I'm still reading Trinity by Leon Uris - stopped for a couple of days to race through The Martian, which I loved! (Looking forward to seeing the movie, too - happy that no one seems to have panned it.)
I'm torn with Trinity, but being 3/4 of the way in, I'm determined to finish it. It has its highs and lows.
I'm torn with Trinity, but being 3/4 of the way in, I'm determined to finish it. It has its highs and lows.
58berlacton
I sort of bond with places. I've spent the last few months on a Mediterranean places theme, mainly Turkey, Florence/Tuscany, Morocco.
Just finished "The Spider's House" (Morocco) often called Paul Bowles' best novel, set in Fez during a 1954 uprising against the French colonial powers. Suspenseful, strong characterizations and insights, the plot at times a puzzle.
Now, past halfway through Iris Origo's very readable history "The Merchant of Prato" of a powerful Florentine merchant of the late 1300's who left many hundreds of thousands of letters, accounts, records, and other scraps that reveal his daily life and connections in high-definition detail (they were discovered late 1800s). As usual, truth is at times stranger, more amusing, insightful, and revealing than fiction.
Some memorable past readings in this region: "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk (an early Ottoman Empire murder mystery -- I give this one 5 stars, a masterpiece), "Birds Without Wings" by Louis de Bernieres, "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides (both set in Turkey/Greece during the end of WW1) and of course "The Magus" by John Fowles (Crete).
Just finished "The Spider's House" (Morocco) often called Paul Bowles' best novel, set in Fez during a 1954 uprising against the French colonial powers. Suspenseful, strong characterizations and insights, the plot at times a puzzle.
Now, past halfway through Iris Origo's very readable history "The Merchant of Prato" of a powerful Florentine merchant of the late 1300's who left many hundreds of thousands of letters, accounts, records, and other scraps that reveal his daily life and connections in high-definition detail (they were discovered late 1800s). As usual, truth is at times stranger, more amusing, insightful, and revealing than fiction.
Some memorable past readings in this region: "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk (an early Ottoman Empire murder mystery -- I give this one 5 stars, a masterpiece), "Birds Without Wings" by Louis de Bernieres, "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides (both set in Turkey/Greece during the end of WW1) and of course "The Magus" by John Fowles (Crete).
59nrmay
Finished The Grotesque by Patrick McGrath for my Holloween read. :(
Now reading and enjoying Tilt-a-Whirl by Chris Grabenstein, first in the John Ceepak series.
Now reading and enjoying Tilt-a-Whirl by Chris Grabenstein, first in the John Ceepak series.
61jnwelch
>60 princessgarnet: Looks good!
62mollygrace
I finished Nadine Gordimer's story collection, A Soldier's Embrace. Each story is a finely crafted gem.
Now I'm reading Three Farmers on their Way to a Dance by Richard Powers. I'm also reading Daniel Mendelsohn's essay collection, Waiting for the Barbarians, and Lisel Mueller's Pulitzer Prize-winning (in 1997) book of poetry, Alive Together. I also continue to read Elizabeth Hardwick's Seduction and Betrayal: Women and Literature.
Now I'm reading Three Farmers on their Way to a Dance by Richard Powers. I'm also reading Daniel Mendelsohn's essay collection, Waiting for the Barbarians, and Lisel Mueller's Pulitzer Prize-winning (in 1997) book of poetry, Alive Together. I also continue to read Elizabeth Hardwick's Seduction and Betrayal: Women and Literature.
63Heduanna
>58 berlacton: berlacton My Name is Red sounds fascinating, I just put it on hold at the library.
And suspended the hold, as a pile already came in.
Am currently starting Your Brain at Work, & so far it doesn't feel like work to read it.
And suspended the hold, as a pile already came in.
Am currently starting Your Brain at Work, & so far it doesn't feel like work to read it.
