Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Finished The Hole. I thought it was a poor imitation of Haruki Murakama. The ending is way too abrupt, and the female character (strikes me) as very weak, very unintelligent, and very much lacking in insight.

Sabato would have been next, but I decided to re-read Jonathan Littell (The Fata Morgana Books) next, one I read when it first came out. I enjoy books that are rich and deep, and written in a 'modernist' writing style. Think Proust, Musil, Mann, et al. The book was a critical failure when it came out, but not for me.

I'm still amazed at how an author (Littell) can produce a piece of sci-fi crap at age 21 (?) and then produce a work of maturity and insight (and disgust) with a novel that, if not equal to the thematic content of his father's big novel, is certainly equal in length.

Finished the Littell story collection [The Fata Morgana Books], and it didn't leave much of an impression this second time around, compared to the way it hit me when it first came out. It's heavy on violent, disgusting sex.

I've now started The Tunnel, by Ernesto Sabato. This is a wonderful (so far) short novel of obsession mixed with a narcissistic personality. (You know the type; they are everywhere.)

When I finish this one, I may start on a title by Jon Fosse.

[Dr. Drib]

Finished The Tunnel, by Ernesto Sabato. This was a wonderful short novel of obsessive love told through the mind of a diseased narcissist. Recommended for lovers of literary fiction. And anyone you may know who is intolerable to be around.

Now reading Sardonicus, by Ray Russell. (This is the novella only and not the collection of stories of the same title.) This is a gothic horror story. Read this description of Sardonicus, who has "[...An] affliction that caused his lips to be pulled perpetually apart from each other, baring his teeth in a continuous ghastly smile." Lovers of horror can't ignore that! It reminds me of the classic silent film, The Man Who Laughs. I'll finish Russell's story today.

My next two reads will be by Domenico Starnone, an important Italian writer of literary fiction. I previously read four of his novels and loved them, so I just now purchased two that I plan to read after Russell: The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan, and then The House on Via Gemito. By the way, that last title is currently on sale from Amazon for $2.99 !!

When I finish those two, I'll settle on a short novel by Nobel winner Jon Fosse. I don't know which one; I'm in no hurry.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters. My most recent purchase. I couldn't resist the combination of an SF apocalypse and a police procedural at £0.80.

And it was very good indeed. So much so that I went onto the next one, Countdown City, which was also very good. I'll save the third one for another time.

And then I read a recent purchase from BookBale, Her Majesty's Wizard by Christopher Stasheff. I'm sure I read this long ago, but it was worth a re-read.

And now I'm onto the next one in the series, The Oathbound Wizard.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And then I read a recent purchase from BookBale, Her Majesty's Wizard by Christopher Stasheff. I'm sure I read this long ago, but it was worth a re-read.

And now I'm onto the next one in the series, The Oathbound Wizard.

Ah, thanks for that. I've been looking for good uses of my BookBale credits. These should be fun.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Ah, thanks for that. I've been looking for good uses of my BookBale credits. These should be fun.

I bought all the Christopher Stasheff novels they had (except those I already had). Their ebook store contains duplicate entries and it's quite hard to manage to add them all with no duplicates. I managed to buy three of them twice - the store actually lets you buy two copies of the same book.

Great idea, less than ideal implementation, so far.

[SeaBookGuy]

Since there was a Libby copy available, I checked out Wordhunter by Stella Sands. Linguistic savant works with authorities analyzing text messages to solve crimes. I'm not liking it as much as I feel I should, but would probably read a sequel.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I bought all the Christopher Stasheff novels they had (except those I already had). Their ebook store contains duplicate entries and it's quite hard to manage to add them all with no duplicates. I managed to buy three of them twice - the store actually lets you buy two copies of the same book.

Great idea, less than ideal implementation, so far.

I'd agree. I have hopes for it, but it needs to get past that start-up hump to be a viable long term solution.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I dropped both King and Tesh so this is what I'm left with:

Audio:
Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe by Robert Matzen. I've been listening to Karina Longworth's old Hollywood podcast "You Must Remember This" for decades. This season, she is doing directors and she started with Capra. This biography is built around Stewart's war service and subsequent PTSD that gave him fits while he and Capra were filming It's a Wonderful Life. Very interesting pairing.

Kobo:
In-between. Planning to start Arnold Bennett's The Grand Babylon Hotel.

Paperback:
The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry.

I finished the Stewart bio and The Bright Ages. Now I have:

Audio: The Midnight News by Jo Baker

Kobo: Metal From Heaven by August Clarke (from my challenge to read books my wife pick's for me)

Hardcover: When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe by Maureen Quilligan. I'm reading this and read The Bright Ages at the suggestion of author Ada Palmer who's book Inventing the Renaissance is out in March. I wanted a bit of a prequel and refresher on the period.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm onto the next one in the series, The Oathbound Wizard.

Which was also good fun.

Next up: World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters. The third in his Last Policeman trilogy.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which was also good fun.

Next up: World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters. The third in his Last Policeman trilogy.

Which was as good an ending as was possible in an apocalyptic trilogy.

Next up: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. A book club selection, and the first bought from Kobo for a long while, at a delightful (39%*) discount over the price at Amazon. I won't get to try out their price matching mechanism on this one!


* VIP 10% and another 30% from save30 code.

[Dr. Drib]

Just finished reading The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan, by Domenico Starnone.

This book is about two obsessions - at least that's how I see it - and how, as we continue to age, the 'obsession' we had for someone in our youth continues to haunt us; that is, until something traumatic happens in our life that forces us to grow up and to recognize the obsession for what it is/was and why it impacted our life. I won't say anymore. This novella is full of many Truths about life and, as one can probably construe from this brief paragraph, the reading was extremely rewarding. But then, I love the way Starnone interrogates his characters through narrative and incident. This is, of course, a literary novel.

My next read was going to be Starnone's The House on Via Gemito one that has garnered many awards, but I'm going to save that for a bit later.

Instead, I just now started I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman. This is a 'philosophical' dystopian novel that is nevertheless a literary novel. Forty women are kept in an underground bunker and yet one woman is different than the others. It is her difference, curiosity, and determination that sets the pace for the novel - so far - because I've only read 9 pages.

After that I look forward to re-reading, after 40 years, The Lover, by Marguerite Duras. This novel was so incredible when I first discovered it that I'm getting antsy about re-reading it. I can't wait! I thoroughly enjoyed the way she breaks down the concepts of death, desire, memory, and even fantasy. I discovered her through my readings of the Nouveau Roman writers, most notably Claude Simon and Nathalie Sarraute.

Happy reading you Borg Cubes! (That includes me.)