.....and then I notice that Rankin does them as well. Comics er graphic novels, that is. Guess it's more popular than I thought. Or perhaps they just don't need to read anymore, just follow the pretty pictures. Perhaps I'm just a dinosaur. Better ask the grandkids.
The Dinner by Herman Kock (2009) This Dutch novel just made its way into English last year and is apparently creating a small buzz (or so I'm told.) One night a friend in a large gathering nearly begged someone to read it so she'd have someone to discuss it with as it's apparently pretty jarring at its climax. I know that feeling after watching the Greek movie Dogtooth. I needed someone to watch because I needed to talk about it. I picked it up yesterday and read about a third of it in one sitting. I could've easily read straight through but I did need to go to sleep. Hoping I can finish it off tonight. Edit: Oh yeah, here's the basic plot from the jacket: It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse -- the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened. Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths The introductions to the wider world continues apace for my god-daughter with one of the most sumptuously illustrated children's books ever. And the authenticity of the legends themselves is reference-desk worthy. Great great read.
Knots and Crosses '97 Hide and Seek '90 Tooth and Nail '92 Ian Rankin's first 3 Rebus novels. All good reads but if you read them in 3 days then it's just like reading one book of 3 cases. Enjoyed them though and will try the next 3 in the summer some time. I've found in the past when I've been bitten by an author and read too many at one time that one becomes pretty jaded with him/her. I already know when he passes on info that really is a good clue and when he puts out his red (smelly) herrings...
Haven't posted in a while but I just started The Carrion Birds by Urban Waite. It seems like a lighter weight No Country For Old Men so far, but with complete sentences. It's a crime/thriller and has a definite southwest noir feel to it. I had the pleasure of attending a reading by Waite and was able to talk with him for a while (it was sparsely attended since he's still a young, somewhat unknown writer). He was quite nice and we had a nice discussion about fiction in general. His first novel, The Terror Of Living, won some acclaim when it was released and falls between genre and literary fiction. I expect that Birds will also walk that line. Or at least I hope it does.
The latest book of poetry I have been working my way through. Some of them are real stunners. This one is my favourite so far.
“No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as My Ántonia.” – H.L. Mencken
As a teenager who had absolutely no interest in things romantic or otherwise emotional (at least that's what I told myself), I was astonished by how much I loved that novel.
Been a long, long semester and my reading has all been professional for months on end. But over the last week I have been thrilled to make a return to actually reading for pleasure. First up was the typically excellent thirteenth book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, The Thirteen Gun Salute, which finds the duo in the East Indies: And before the next one, a detour into a book organized around oral histories of big wave surfing called The Big Drop.
I know I've said it before but O'Brian has the best art on his covers ever, He really captures those ships and the times. The library has another Rebus story in for me by Ian Rankin. Looks like a nice afternoon to sit out on my deck...!
Halfway through, it's starting to drag a little. But 2d tier Conrad is still better than almost anything else you can read.
Another good read by Rankin. "Strip Jack" his third Rebus novel from back in the 90's. Plenty of twists and turns to keep you reading. I enjoyed it.
Git this out of the library the day after the author died last week... Light My Fire: My Life With the Doors by Ray Manzarek. Pretty good. The guy was a decent writer as well as an inventive keyboardist. Christopher Merrill, The Things of the Hidden God. Merrill, incidently, is the author of the first good book by a native-born American about soccer, The Grass of Another Country (1991). This book covers his various trips to the monasteries of Mt. Athos after a few years covering the Balkan wars. The guy is an outstanding writer who should be better known, but that's what happens if you write about soccer (in 1991), ethnic wars, and monks. Finally... The River Swimmer, two novellas by Jim Harrison. When I finish the title story, I will have read all the novellas he's published in books, all of which I would recommend save "Legends of the Fall," which reads like a 98 page screen treatment of a Brad Pitt movie rather than a short novel/ long short story.
The Wave by Todd Strasser. This was a very interesting read, a vignette of how easily people would give up their individuality for equality. Book description: "This novel dramatizes an incident that took place in a California school in 1969. A teacher creates an experimental movement in his class to help students understand how people could have followed Hitler. The results are astounding. The highly disciplined group, modeled on the principles of the Hilter Youth, has its own salute, chants, and special ways of acting as a unit and sweeps beyond the class and throughout the school, evolving into a society willing to give up freedom for regimentation and blind obedience to their leader. All will learn a lesson that will never be forgotten."
Trying to get back into reading more often especially since I have compiled a large list of books that I want to read. Just scanning through this thread has made the list a lot longer. I just started reading John Adams by David McCullough. I enjoyed reading another book of his entitled 1776, so I'm really looking forward to reading this one.
I just discovered this thread. It is pretty cool. I was wondering if you guys might give out some recommendations for me. I am looking for a good soccer book to read. I just finished Soccernomics and it was a pretty good read.
I tend to read things in groups and my reading focuses in the summers. Right now I have open at some points or another: I'm nearly finished with Elysian Fields by my high school buddy, Mark LaFlaur. I'm well into an incredible and massive (1047 pages) book, best of breed from what I'm told, by the recently deceased Richard Ben Cramer, What it Takes. And, soon to start, The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
Holy Crap! I knew him when he was in grad school at LSU! His writing really wasn't very good back then, but it looks like he kept at it and obviously made it better. His band back then (Fast Wave, IIR) could put on a good show.
To review the novel thus far: I nearly put it down after the first few pages. The main antagonist was primarily described in terms of his obesity. I find that the last 'generally acceptable' prejudice, one that will disappear in the next few years, IMO. But, I trudged on based on loyalty to an old friend. It got much better as I began to realize I was more reading the distaste the protagonist held about the antagonist and other qualities were similarly presented in derogatory terms. Mark also has a blog that is a worthwhile read: Levees Not War. I grew up in LA, Baton Rouge for high school while my mother was attending LSU law school.
Gary Urton, At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky Quechua astronomy, cosmology, meteorology, and agriculture. Interesting, but a bit dry.