New now reading

[Darkness_Fish]

Celebrated the reopening of the local book cycle by trying to find something esoteric I wouldn't see in a Waterstones or whatever. Think I succeeded.

[Flower]

I recently finished reading Dead Land and was disappointed. When authors write series of books, they usually fill in character details in each book of the series so that if a reader is picking up any book of the series, all the background is explained and makes sense to a new reader. While character back ground was sketchy, the plot was good but not great. Maybe it's just me but the last few V.I. Warshawski books weren't as enjoyable as the previous ones in this series.

[Positive Passion]

What Maisie Knew, by Henry James.

[Darkness_Fish]

Better known as one of The Wire's music critics (and author of the excellent "England's Hidden Reverse" on Coil, Current 93 and NWW), this is his second novel, set in Belfast during The Troubles. Pretty bloody good so far, something of a less puerile Irvine Welsh about it, perhaps even a hint of Roddy Doyle.

[Snarfyguy]

Evelyn Waugh - Vile Bodies

Still funny.

[Jimbo]

Second listening but it still feels fresh. Bernie Gunther flashing back and forth from 1954 to his SS duty in 1941.

[Tactful Cactus]

Few chapters in. Very readable.

[Dr. Baron]

Evelyn Waugh - Vile Bodies

Still funny.

At some point I want to re-read all those funny Waugh books. Still haven’t read Brideshead, which I gather is a different deal.

[Positive Passion]

Evelyn Waugh - Vile Bodies

Still funny.

At some point I want to re-read all those funny Waugh books. Still haven’t read Brideshead, which I gather is a different deal.

But really very good. Elegaic rather than farcical.
I found the Sword of Honour books less engaging, but then I was only about 23 when I read them and maybe didn't understand them.

[Darkness_Fish]

1970s Bombay via a series of opium-riddled disconnected ramblings. Not sure it's for me, to be fair.

[Samoan]

Evelyn Waugh - Vile Bodies

Still funny.

At some point I want to re-read all those funny Waugh books. Still haven’t read Brideshead, which I gather is a different deal.

But really very good. Elegaic rather than farcical.
I found the Sword of Honour books less engaging, but then I was only about 23 when I read them and maybe didn't understand them.

Brideshead is extraordinary and deeply poignant.

A Handful of Dust is also very moving and one heck of a story.

[`]

A Handful of Dust is also very moving and one heck of a story.

Sounds a bit dry for my literary taste.

[Positive Passion]

A Handful of Dust is also very moving and one heck of a story.

Sounds a bit dry for my literary taste.

[Jimbo]

First it was the same author's all-books-in-one series about WWII submarines and now it is tanks. Can't wait to go on a long listening hike. That's when I do my best listening - out for long walks. What a kick!

[Jimbo]

A note not about reading but listening to books. I started a new listen, Armor, a couple of nights ago and what I did was set up the ipod with a small wireless speaker and listen myself to sleep. Frankly I didn't get much of the plot or too many of the details. It's understandable since my goal is to turn off my mind and sleep so I didn't feel like I was rereading when I re-listened to the same part the next night. But then today I took my audiobook to the gym and listened to the same part and beyond while I walked on the treadmill and heard every word and enjoyed the experience very much. I also have more enjoyable listens when I take long walks. So clear was my understanding of the text today I am wondering if I walking and listening couldn't be a study technique. Remember Disney's The Shaggy Dog story about "sleep learning?" Think maybe "walk learning" might be a thing? I might get a language lesson and take it out for a walk. See if that won't finally pound some Japanese into my head.

[echolalia]

Better known as one of The Wire's music critics (and author of the excellent "England's Hidden Reverse" on Coil, Current 93 and NWW), this is his second novel, set in Belfast during The Troubles. Pretty bloody good so far, something of a less puerile Irvine Welsh about it, perhaps even a hint of Roddy Doyle.

I’m reading Keenan’s This Is Memorial Device just now and enjoying it a lot - I'm never going to Airdrie though - so I will get to England’s Hidden Reverse soon I hope.

Next up is



I know nothing about it but am anticipating a feast!

[Minnie the Minx]

I started, and abandoned Midnight's Children. I could see that the language was beautiful, but nothing about any of the characters interested me so I stopped.

I just finished Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio which was a fabulous short read. A pretty earthy book I thought that touched the senses.

On the same day a couple of weeks ago I bought The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard Evans and Laurie Lisle's Portrait of an Artist- A Biography of Georgia O' Keeffe. I started reading Laurie's book first, which suffers a bit from the author's adoration of her subject matter. Every page contains references to the "schoolmarmish appearance hiding an explosive bohemian" and how amazing it was that Georgia could "paint the white snow pink - ah, the courage!" You get the picture. Much more of that and I'm off to the Third Reich!

[Six String]

Last October we visited Marfa, TX on our Southwest road trip and enjoyed our roughly 24hr visit so much we discovered we had failed to take photos. One of the things we discovered was that the movie Giant from 1956 had been filmed there. Many of the actors stayed at the Paisano Hotel where we also stayed so there were lots of poster size b&w photos on the walls of the hotel. I knew very little about the movie but it made me curious. Last week I saw a doc titled The Children Of Giant about the making of the movie and some of the local people who were involved which reminded me I wanted to see the movie but then I decided to read the book first.

Tldr
Giant by Edna Ferber.

[Snarfyguy]

Evelyn Waugh - Vile Bodies

Still funny.

At some point I want to re-read all those funny Waugh books. Still haven’t read Brideshead, which I gather is a different deal.

Yeah (unpopular opinion), I didn't like that one, or any of the others after the first half-dozen. Not to my taste, I guess.

Hope you guys and your extended peeps are doing well. I haven't checked in more than once or twice since this whole thing started. Here, things are vexing, but not dire.

ETA: And I might as well say I'm now reading Ian Fleming's Goldfinger, which on a re-read is kind of amiably ridiculous or laughably quaint at best in a particularly mid-Century way. It would never be published now, and perhaps rightfully so. I read the lot in adolescence and this is the first time I've revisited any of it.

[Flower]

I finished James Lee Burke's most recent novel around six weeks ago.



I had ordered it from the library and since I read all the "Dave" books, I didn't read any reviews. As I started to read the book, I realized that Dave was in a "time warp" of sorts between the time that his second wife died and he married third wife. I guess that it's easier for fifty somethings Dave and Clete to go around beating people up and getting beaten up than for seventy somethings to do the same.

Dave, as always, knows the entire population of Louisiana and all their secrets.

Without giving anything away, the book is sort of the bastard child of James Lee Burke and Stephen King. It was an okay read and not one of my favorite James Lee Burke books.

P.S. Dave only ate one ham and onion sandwich in the entire book.