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Joan, if you're reading this . . .
Thank you for the recommendation of We Begin at the End. I just finished it. Duchess is one of the most memorable characters I've run across lately.
The book is heartbreaking. Right now I'm still processing.
Thanks again.
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Whoa! I look back to 2005 when I first started this thread and took a look at what I was reading back then! And some of the rest of you as well.
I just finished 'GOODBYE, COLUMBUS' by Philip Roth. This book, (and the subsequent 1969 film of the book), left a very strong impression on me which hasn't diminished in all those decades. I haven't read the book since High School and reading it now was...I can't exactly describe it...as if I were back in my old English Class once again. The characters in the book were like old friends and reading it again seemed to wash away 50 years since I last held the book in my hands.
It remains my most favorite Roth novel, and one of my top 25 novels. Most others would give the book 'short shrift', but not me.
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Posted: |
Nov 30, 2021 - 12:32 AM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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I’m reading A Man Called Ove, by Fredrick Backman. Very funny and moving.
Tall Guy, I loved that book. FYI, there is a Swedish movie of this novel that was fairly good. Also, Tom Hanks is making an American version of this film. Not sure that will work.
Also, if you like Ove, I would recommend that you read Beartown by the same author.
Joan (and others) - saw the Swedish film recently, gave it top marks on the appropriate thread. It was done perfectly in my opinion, laugh out loud moments with make-you-cry parts, and some modern film-making tropes I didn’t expect to see in a domestic comedy/drama.
I’ve since read Backman’s “Anxious People”, which had some great characters and more than a few entertaining twists and turns.
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In October I finished what I consider to be my favorite Historical Biography, 'ALEXANDER THE GREAT - His Life and Mysterious Death', by Anthony Everitt. Everitt excels at what he does, his 'The Rise of Athens' was also extraordinary and for me, incredibly accessible, readable.
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Since I've been viewing the films of Elia Kazan on The Criterion Channel, I've become interested in the man's life. All I really knew about him were some of his films and of course, his 'naming names' during the blacklisting period in American Politics. So, I acquired his autobiography, 'A LIFE', by Elia Kazan. 800+ pages, it's a little difficult to hold while reading it in bed, but I'm a lover of the hardbound book, and am not complaining. What surprised me was during the first few pages, in fact, the first page, wherein he's describing his face when looking in a mirror - and seeing his aged father. These first pages in which he relates his emotionally cold relationship with his Father, and his protective and loving relationship with his Mother, really hit very close to home for me. And the sex! The man was a marvel, I think. I've only read through about 38 pages, but I'm loving the way he writes. The book will take quite some time for me to finish, but it's also a book that when I see it laying there on the table, I want to pick it up, open it again and continue. This book is not a chore, in spite of its length.
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Currently re-reading Murakami’s ever-so-slightly self-conscious “Dance Dance Dance”, the sequel to “A Wild Sheep Chase”. His greatest achievements for me are “Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World” and “IQ84” (I’ve cooled a little on “Wind Up Bird Chronicles” but will go back to it one day).
Then it’s Crime and Punishment, god help me!
Having read Brothers Karamazov earlier this year, I’m actually curious about Crime and Punishment myself.
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Just read
Viktor Frankl: Trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen (Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager) (English: Man's Search for Meaning)
Brandon McMillan: Lucky Dog Lessons
Currently reading:
Tim Harford: How To Make The World Add Up
In between re-reading:
Aaron Copland: What to listen for in Music (The most personally influential book on the subject I have read. It opened many pieces of music to me when I first read it many years ago.)
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Slow Horses by Mick Herron.
First in a series of contemporary British spy novels.
London settings, grimy, a lot of behind the scenes. Le Carre territory.
This book is extremely well written.
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Posted: |
Jul 3, 2022 - 7:58 AM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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Currently re-reading Murakami’s ever-so-slightly self-conscious “Dance Dance Dance”, the sequel to “A Wild Sheep Chase”. His greatest achievements for me are “Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World” and “IQ84” (I’ve cooled a little on “Wind Up Bird Chronicles” but will go back to it one day).
Then it’s Crime and Punishment, god help me!
Having read Brothers Karamazov earlier this year, I’m actually curious about Crime and Punishment myself.
I’ve got to the age where I want to catch up with these reputedly impenetrable novels. I’ve beaten Moby Dick (loved it), and The Master & Margarita is an in alloyed joy that I allow myself every two years or so. I’m hoping C&P will be a similarly pleasant surprise.
Update!
I did enjoy C&P, despite a slight struggle remembering who was whom amongst some of the supporting cast. If we ever get another cat, I’m going to lobby (probably unsuccessfully) to call it Raskolnikov. I also bought the Blu-ray of the 1935 version with Peter Lorre, which excised all the byways and extrania (is that a word?) to boil it down to its essentials - a good adaptation but not as significant a film as the calibre of the novel demands.
Having started a book about the films of Christopher Nolan, I put it to one side to take The Brothers Karamazov on holiday, and I’m still not quite 40% through it. I’m finding it harder going, but still enjoyable and in places downright hilarious, and the characters are giving me less grief to remember who they all are. For those familiar with the book, I’m a little past Ivan’s “Grand Inquisitor” diatribe - one paragraph, ten pages long! I suspect that will turn out to be the heart of the book, in which case Dostoyevsky could have just published that and saved 990 other pages!
This stretch of being slightly bogged down in The Bros K is unusual for me, but work is especially busy, so I’m falling into bed dog tired and mentally fatigued and not always ready to struggle with the dense writing of one of THE literary greats. Things are easing up now for a while and I’m sure I’ll get my second wind.
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The Mission - Garden Of Delights
Book about the rock group The Mission.
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