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Post by bookboy007 on May 26, 2015 2:24:46 GMT
Port this discussion over here since we have a good music thread - might as well bring the books over here.
henry: The difference between McCarthy and McEwan is sort of what I mean when I say McEwan is very much an English writer. For the most part, he's not the kind of author who induces that Prize Winner slog. Nevertheless, Solar might be a better starting point because it's a funnier book. Still complex and interesting, and I think it's been mis-read by a lot of public critics, it's also funny and occasionally morbid. McEwan's also known for writing great set-pieces, and criticized for building a novel by stringing them together. There are a couple of those pieces in Solar that I enjoyed.
Funny that henry mentions Carver, Fletch Wolff. One of my areas of expertise was short story, and they, along with Mavis Gallant, were my upper echelon favorites. Read _In Pharoah's Army_, Wolff's second memoir. Carver's cathedral is a great book - god how I wish he had a) lived to follow that one up and b) not wasted so much time writing that vapid poetry. Mavis Gallant is a different type of talent, but some of her fiction about WWII and after, especially focusing on ex-pats, is as good as anything...ever.
Just finished Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy - loved it until about the last 50 pages and then was just ready for it to end. Now reading Le Carre's Smiley trilogy. One of those things I always meant to get around to that I'm finally getting around to. I've been keeping it relatively light for a while now - well, in terms of great, sprawling, dense prose epics like Absolom, Absolom or The Secret Agent or something equally excellent at the level of the prose and slow as death at the level of plot.
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Post by Fletcher on May 26, 2015 13:28:04 GMT
Well, I'm no Tobias Wolfe expert, but I read 'This Boy's Life' probably something like 20 years ago for a class, and then 'Old School' about a month ago. Let me know what your favorites are from Wolfe, as I really enjoyed Old School.
And Book, you could probably tell me about the Syracuse connection, but growing up, my family was friends with the McInerney's when Jay McInerney wrote 'Bright Lights, Big City'. That's when I first heard of Tobias Wolfe, through some Syracuse connection. I'll admit to just googling that to make sure I had it right and saw that Raymond Carver was part of that circle too. Interesting.
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Post by UtahGetMeTwo on May 26, 2015 14:07:51 GMT
Ender's Game and the Mayan Secrets. Any book or any artistic fantasy brought to the public by the name of Orson has to be pretty good right. Originally printed in 1985, made it into my hands on a recommendation. Can't put it down, has a chilly "Boys from Brazil" feel to it.
The Mayan Secrets is "The Deep" on dry land. So why not picture the wife of the treasure hunting team as Jacqueline Bisset running around chasing treasure in the jungles wearing a wet t-shirt. Sick F$&@! that I am. Always like the treasuring seaking books only to find that the two main characters locate a pile of dust and a note "Ha Ha we already made a fortune on the black market!"
Back to fiction after these two are done.
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Post by 50belowzero on May 26, 2015 14:10:20 GMT
Ender's Game and the Mayan Secrets. Any book or any artistic fantasy brought to the public by the name of Orson has to be pretty good right. Originally printed in 1985, made it into my hands on a recommendation. Can't put it down, has a chilly "Boys from Brazil" feel to it. The Mayan Secrets is "The Deep" on dry land. So why not picture the wife of the treasure hunting team as Jacqueline Bisset running around chasing treasure in the jungles wearing a wet t-shirt. Sick F$&@! that I am. Always like the treasuring seaking books only to find that the two main characters locate a pile of dust and a note "Ha Ha we already made a fortune on the black market!" Back to fiction after these two are done. Wasn't there just a movie out based on this book,or am i thinking of a different movie?
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Post by UtahGetMeTwo on May 26, 2015 14:26:03 GMT
Haven't seen it but I heard it was not that great. Waiting for it to his cable.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 15:50:22 GMT
Well, I'm no Tobias Wolfe expert, but I read 'This Boy's Life' probably something like 20 years ago for a class, and then 'Old School' about a month ago. Let me know what your favorites are from Wolfe, as I really enjoyed Old School. And Book, you could probably tell me about the Syracuse connection, but growing up, my family was friends with the McInerney's when Jay McInerney wrote 'Bright Lights, Big City'. That's when I first heard of Tobias Wolfe, through some Syracuse connection. I'll admit to just googling that to make sure I had it right and saw that Raymond Carver was part of that circle too. Interesting. He's one of the best around for short stories, I've been meaning to get around to "In Pharoah's Army." "Hunters in the Snow" and "Bullet in the Brain" are two of the best short stories you'll find anywhere.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 15:53:56 GMT
Port this discussion over here since we have a good music thread - might as well bring the books over here.
henry: The difference between McCarthy and McEwan is sort of what I mean when I say McEwan is very much an English writer. For the most part, he's not the kind of author who induces that Prize Winner slog. Nevertheless, Solar might be a better starting point because it's a funnier book. Still complex and interesting, and I think it's been mis-read by a lot of public critics, it's also funny and occasionally morbid. McEwan's also known for writing great set-pieces, and criticized for building a novel by stringing them together. There are a couple of those pieces in Solar that I enjoyed.
Funny that henry mentions Carver, Fletch Wolff. One of my areas of expertise was short story, and they, along with Mavis Gallant, were my upper echelon favorites. Read _In Pharoah's Army_, Wolff's second memoir. Carver's cathedral is a great book - god how I wish he had a) lived to follow that one up and b) not wasted so much time writing that vapid poetry. Mavis Gallant is a different type of talent, but some of her fiction about WWII and after, especially focusing on ex-pats, is as good as anything...ever.
Just finished Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy - loved it until about the last 50 pages and then was just ready for it to end. Now reading Le Carre's Smiley trilogy. One of those things I always meant to get around to that I'm finally getting around to. I've been keeping it relatively light for a while now - well, in terms of great, sprawling, dense prose epics like Absolom, Absolom or The Secret Agent or something equally excellent at the level of the prose and slow as death at the level of plot. I've read two of his story collections, "Cathedral" is a classic. Maybe he got roped into writing poetry because of his second wife? I know Updike wrote a lot of poetry that was so so, but he was so prolific that it didn't matter. "American Tabloid" from Ellroy has been in the back of my mind for awhile. The funny thing about "boring" literary books, it took me about two weeks to get through "Deliverance," then yesterday I picked up "Dead Solid Perfect" to read at the beach, and I'm practically halfway through it. I read "Blood Meridian" over the course of five weeks, close reading and rereading anything I missed. My next book was Terry Ryan's memoir, and I swear I finished it in 45 minutes.
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Post by bookboy007 on May 26, 2015 16:52:21 GMT
Haven't seen it but I heard it was not that great. Waiting for it to his cable. Good plan. There was a movie. It was...meh.
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Post by bookboy007 on May 26, 2015 17:02:38 GMT
In the Garden of North American Martyr's, Back in the World, and The Night in Question are all excellent from Wolff; In Pharoah's Army is fantastic. Carver's poetry was, I think, a by-product of the ruthlessness of his fiction - it's like a waste product of the productive mind.
If you commit to American Tabloid, you might as well do the whole trilogy - The Cold Six Thousand and Blood's a Rover. Like I said, I enjoyed them right up to the last 50 pages. Absolutely brutal, though, both in language and content, so it's not for the faint of heart.
I have the same funny thing about beach reading. I love Faulkner on the beach, or Conrad, even some of Toni Morrison. Sprawlapalooza.
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Post by jmwalters on May 26, 2015 17:09:47 GMT
Just finishing Virgil's Hannibal's War. Too many proselytizing fake speeches
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Post by walktheline on May 26, 2015 17:38:05 GMT
At least half of what I read is historical stuff, often involving either of the world wars but can be almost anything. Some of this stuff can be pretty heavy on the academic side but not always. For lighter reading I often go with mysteries or historical fiction. But I'll read The Great Gatsby about every 2 years.
I’ll read some Wolff very soon. I had to read some of his short stories back in college and loved it. Thanks for mentioning him.
Here’s some of what I’ve read most recently.
Dead Wake by Erik Larson. Excellent reading here. Not too academic but it does go into some of the lesser known details regarding the sinking of the Lusitania including the more recent perspective of historians.
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel. A collection of 10 short stories, a few of which are very good and a few are so-so. A couple of them I didn’t like. But I love short stories in general – In some ways they are harder to pull off than a novel and I have a deep appreciation for an author when they succeed at it.
So, Anyway… by John Cleese. Autobiographical mish-mash by a Python. I don’t ever read books by or about celebs but I think anyone from Monty Python deserves to be exempt from that rule. However, it was just okay. I enjoyed parts of it but was a bit disappointed overall. I think I expected it to be funnier. I did learn that his family’s name was originally Cheese and he wishes they hadn’t changed it. Of course.
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. He’s known for the Maltese Falcon and the Thin Man stuff but this is a lesser known work. I think it’s as good as any of his other stuff. This book is the inspiration for 3 films including Clint Eastwood’s A Fistful of Dollars and Kurasawa’s Yojimbo. Not too shabby.
Washington’s Spies by Alexander Rose. Very good book on the Culper Ring which was a spy network in and around British occupied New York City that was extremely helpful to George Washington during the revolution. They even used invisible ink! Very well researched and doesn’t make any fictional leaps.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Not a new book by him by any means but I have read other things by him and had never read this one. As with everything I’ve read from Bryson this was informative and entertaining. The man can write about anything and keep the reader engaged.
Ashenden (or the British Agent) by W. Somerset Maugham. Got this from a used book store and it’s very old (1929,I think). Not a first edition so not worth anything. Decent read, though. A series of short stories, all with the same main character (Ashenden) and based on Maugham’s own experience working for British Intelligence.
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Post by kelvana33 on May 26, 2015 17:56:19 GMT
I cannot read a book that isn't about sports. I have the attention span of a carrot.
Not proud of it, but so true.
I'm going to change that this summer. It's my goal.
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Post by walktheline on May 26, 2015 18:17:00 GMT
I cannot read a book that isn't about sports. I have the attention span of a carrot. Not proud of it, but so true. I'm going to change that this summer. It's my goal. LOL!
When you say books about sports does that include fiction like Shoeless Joe (aka Field of Dreams as a movie)?
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Post by kelvana33 on May 26, 2015 18:26:07 GMT
I cannot read a book that isn't about sports. I have the attention span of a carrot. Not proud of it, but so true. I'm going to change that this summer. It's my goal. LOL!
When you say books about sports does that include fiction like Shoeless Joe (aka Field of Dreams as a movie)?
I cannot read fiction. I cannot watch science fiction movies either.
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Post by walktheline on May 26, 2015 18:36:33 GMT
LOL!
When you say books about sports does that include fiction like Shoeless Joe (aka Field of Dreams as a movie)?
I cannot read fiction. I cannot watch science fiction movies either. So, I'm thinking a short novel that is about sports is a good place to start. www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/sports-fiction
Sci Fi, movies or books, is tough for me, too because so much of it is total crap. I'm okay with the bizzaro concepts and willing to suspend reality for a couple of hours it's just that much of it either goes waaaay too far into the dork forest or is just so poorly done that I can't stand it.
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Post by bookboy007 on May 26, 2015 19:57:10 GMT
Just finishing Virgil's Hannibal's War. Too many proselytizing fake speeches Better or worse than Thucydides?
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Post by jmwalters on May 26, 2015 20:05:08 GMT
Just finishing Virgil's Hannibal's War. Too many proselytizing fake speeches Better or worse than Thucydides? Much worse. Virgil is writing centuries after the fact and during the Augustan age so the fake speeches are more or less veiled attempts at displaying how superior strong leaders and dictators are to republican ideals. Kind of nauseating after a while. That plus many references to the Roman Empire when it was still technically a republic. Much propaganda to behold....shades of Fox News.
At least Thucydides was an active participant in some of the events he chronicled.
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Post by bookboy007 on May 26, 2015 20:17:05 GMT
Better or worse than Thucydides? Much worse. Virgil is writing centuries after the fact and during the Augustan age so the fake speeches are more or less veiled attempts at displaying how superior strong leaders and dictators are to republican ideals. Kind of nauseating after a while. That plus many references to the Roman Empire when it was still technically a republic. Much propaganda to behold....shades of Fox News.
At least Thucydides was an active participant in some of the events he chronicled.
My favorite thing is that he impassively chronicles his own exile after losing a battle. Brian Williams, take note!
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Post by jmwalters on May 26, 2015 20:23:11 GMT
Much worse. Virgil is writing centuries after the fact and during the Augustan age so the fake speeches are more or less veiled attempts at displaying how superior strong leaders and dictators are to republican ideals. Kind of nauseating after a while. That plus many references to the Roman Empire when it was still technically a republic. Much propaganda to behold....shades of Fox News.
At least Thucydides was an active participant in some of the events he chronicled.
My favorite thing is that he impassively chronicles his own exile after losing a battle. Brian Williams, take note! haha...so true.
But if you really want the closest thing to an impartial take on the Punic Wars then Polybius it is. Virgil has many talents but accuracy is not one of them. Of course I am sure his prose is beautiful in the original Latin.
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Post by bookboy007 on May 26, 2015 20:37:26 GMT
My favorite thing is that he impassively chronicles his own exile after losing a battle. Brian Williams, take note! haha...so true.
But if you really want the closest thing to an impartial take on the Punic Wars then Polybius it is. Virgil has many talents but accuracy is not one of them. Of course I am sure his prose is beautiful in the original Latin.
Yup. Turns out, actually, that when Dante thought he was getting the guided tour of Hell, it was really just downtown Detroit.
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Post by jmwalters on May 26, 2015 20:42:44 GMT
haha...so true.
But if you really want the closest thing to an impartial take on the Punic Wars then Polybius it is. Virgil has many talents but accuracy is not one of them. Of course I am sure his prose is beautiful in the original Latin.
Yup. Turns out, actually, that when Dante thought he was getting the guided tour of Hell, it was really just downtown Detroit. Should Dante have expected anything different with him being in hell and all
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Post by UtahGetMeTwo on May 26, 2015 20:55:58 GMT
"It was the Elephants I tell yah, the Elephants!"
Pretty much all Hannibal needed to say.
PS. Seriously though over the Alps twice Hannibal ?
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Post by jmwalters on May 26, 2015 21:04:00 GMT
"It was the Elephants I tell yah, the Elephants!" Pretty much all Hannibal needed to say. PS. Seriously though over the Alps twice Hannibal ? Only someone from Africa would presume elephants would survive in the alps. I mean, have you ever seen them?
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Post by Fletcher on May 26, 2015 21:24:57 GMT
Yikes. Things have kicked a few notches out of my range now.
I think Polybius...is
Um.
I like books.
(running back to the Bruins Board)
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Post by jmwalters on May 26, 2015 21:41:38 GMT
Yikes. Things have kicked a few notches out of my range now. I think Polybius...is Um. I like books. (running back to the Bruins Board) Sorry Fletch. We will save it for the convention.
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