What books are you reading in 2018?

I've downloaded some noir fiction from Amazon to read on the Kindle. For nonfiction, I usually buy a used paper copy of the book, because the reading is more technical.

Books on art, architecture, fashion, anything that is rich visually, I usually go to a real bookstore and buy a brand new copy.

Happy reading!

What noir have you downloaded? I’ve got quite a bit (unread!).

I'm currently reading JD Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy" because of the rumors about him being encouraged to run for the Senate in Ohio, and I wanted to understand the fuss. So far, it is one of the best case studies as to why the deplorables shouldn't be allowed a say in what to have for lunch, let alone a voice in our government.

That said, the poll needed a few more options, like "I download the .mobi for free," which is a fair price for "Hillbilly Elegy."

"Beneath a Scarlet Sky." It is fantastic.

R3, you mind sharing where you DL monos from?

Is reading still a 'thing'

.mobis 📖 not mono! 🤒

"Sea of Glory" by Philbrick about the US Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842, which established Antarctica was a continent.

I'm in the middle of Myra Breckenridge. How timely!. I am actually wrapped up with Myra and moving into Myron. I am glad I'm gay and grew up when I did so I could "get it".

R3 I want to read that as well. will add to list. thanks

I use torrents, R5. I was rather surprised that so many books are available, which I shouldn't have been; it's just another format.

Library is free.

I'm currently reading‎

The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi / Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1) by L.M. Montgomery

Penny Dreadful comics by Krysty Wilson-Cairns / The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini / Skylight by David Hare

Shadow and Bone (The Grishaverse #1) by Leigh Bardugo / The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold / Atonement by Ian McEwan .

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr / The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce / Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth / About A Boy by Nick Hornby

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss

I’m a really slow and lazy reader

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

Simon vs the Homo Sapien Agenda

Fire and Fury

A Gentleman in Moscow

Less: A Novel

The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914

currently reading on my Kindle:

- Call me by your name

-1Q84

-American Gods

Ada, Nabokov -

Yes, the subject matter is controversial, especially today; however, the metaphors, imagery, and imagination are incomparable.

Though Russian was the author's first language, it is his ability to translate such written genius into English, so spectacularly, without diminishing the artistry of his work, is what makes his works incredibly breathtaking.

"Unbelievable" - Katy Tur's story of covering the Trump campaign. Unfortunately, so far it's underwhelming.

The Old Kingdom Series by Garth Nix

also known as Abhorsen in North America

. . . It was only after reading Book 2's Chapter 4 of this novel is when I'd realized this is where Kubrick had plagiarized this novel for the brothel scene in "Eyes Wide Shut."

Reading Level: Advanced / Difficult

OP, a wonderful noir and one of the first in the genre is Dorothy B Hughes' In a Lonely Place. A serial killer on the loose with a wonderful evocation of LA post-WWII.

And I just finished one of her last books The Expendable Man about an innocent young doctor accused of the murder of the teenage girl hitchhiker he picked up. It has an incredibly devilish twist about 1/4 of the way in that you won't see coming, though the rest of the book, which takes place in early 1960s Phoenix, is rather traditional.

Some fiction of the last couple of years I've especially enjoyed:

Christodora by Tim Murphy about a young family and their extended friends in the East Village from the 1980s through the AIDS epidemic into the 2020s.

Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato about the quirky relationship of a mother and her young son.

News of the World by Paulette Jiles about an old codger in post-Civil War Texas assigned to delivering a young girl who was kidnapped by Indians back to her surviving relatives.

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, fictionalized account of the young Louise Brooks and the middle class neighbor lady who chaperones her in NYC when she travels there to study dance with Ruth St. Denis.

Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd, Hitchcockian British thriller about an innocent man convicted of murder.

Are real book stores and real books making a comeback? Sales of ebooks seem to have tapered off.

I love Daphne du Maurier OP.

Just read “The Hearts Invisible Furies” by John Boyne. Excellent.

OP / R2, I have:

The Best American Noir of the Century, edited by James Ellroy

Lead With Your Left by Ed Lacy

A Bullet for Cinderella by John D. MacDonald

Who Killed Bob Teal? by Dashiell Hammett

... plus a bunch of corny Arsene Lupin mysteries by Maurice Leblanc.

... and I second R21's recommendation of Dorothy B. Hughes!

Just read Midwinter Break from Bernard Maclaverty and Kiss Kiss from Roald Dahl. Am reading A Nest of the Gentry by Turgenev.

"West with the Night," Beryl Markham -

Her imagery of Northern Africa/Kenya in the '40's is what 'Isak Denisen' wishes she wrote in her 'novel' about such: incomparable.

The Mill on the Floss. Can't wait to get into it. Middlemarch is my all time fave.

I enjoyed Middlemarch and also Eliot's Daniel Deronda but found The Mill on the Floss, a real slog. Couldn't finish it.

Reading a few prime among them:

Fire and Fury - by Michael Woolfe - pretty much confirms what I knew of the Trump Administration. Elementary Point-Set Topology: A Transition to Advanced Mathematics by Andre Yandl and Adam Bowers - This one comes from watching PBS Infinite Series on YouTube.

If you're going to post a book, maybe include a little blurb of what the book is about?

I am in this book club on Reddit. So I am reading their books, right now it is Ancient Fragments. Think it is called the Quote4.

R11, are private trackers for books or just the regular public torrent sites?

Driftless by david Rhodes.... Tale of a town apparently left behind the march oftime.....

I'm reading Fire and Fury.

Will add Ada and Dorothy Hughes to my reading pile.

Would you recommend "Hillbilly Elegy", R3? It was on my list.

I'm reading "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City". The author follows eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads.

I can't recommend it. Find it depressing and I'm quickly losing interest but determined to finish it since I paid for the book and the audible.

I recently went back to reread the reviews and someone said the book came out in 2016 but the research was done in 2009 during the housing crisis. Many of the properties have since been bulldozed and claims of net worth by one of the landlords exaggerated. I also never want to visit Milwaukee.

I buy good-quality copies from used book stores.

Nearly all my reading is from Overdrive, both in audio and ebook formats. I usually read fiction and listen to non-fiction concurrently. A couple of years ago, it was the other way around. I always make sure it's balanced. Some books are really great to listen to--David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks has 4-5 readers and they are amazing. But within the last year or so I decided I wanted to go back to reading fiction and voicing the characters myself.

OP, thanks, needed some audio fiction (reading a nonfiction book that's not available in audio) and Jamaica Inn is available from one of my library systems. Read My Cousin Rachel in December and enjoyed it. I'm still on the fence on whether Rachel was really a villain.

R21, I love LA-based noir, thanks for the rec. I'll be getting around to it soon.

Free. Download the app called Overdrive. Create an account, find your library, enter your library card number. Free books. You can choose between Amazon Kindle books, which will literally have you log on to your Amazon account to download. Or choose ebooks. Don't have your library card anymore? Go to library and pay them $5 to issue you a new card (or that's what mine charged). Take a picture of your card so you don't lose your number again. Did I say free?

Listening to an Overdrive book as I type this post: Shadows in Bronze, second in the Marcus Didius Falco historical mystery series. My library also has the Gaius Ruso series set in the Roman Empire as well. Each narrator adds a lot to the experience.

Any of you bitches who haven't read (or listened to) Magpie Murders by Anthony Horwitz, hop to it, chop chop! It's that awesome.

i am reading the bio of Malcom X and I am awaiting for the 20 pound bio of Nureyev to arrive

Also The Diary Of Bobby Sands, writings from prison........this is a motherfucker of a read.

i loathe audio books ... they are not books. .....they are Cd's.

they suck

i just can't "listen" to a book

The Master List of 2018 Reading Challenges

I love audiobooks! Should have added them to the poll, damn it. I used to have to drive a 3 hour round trip to university and listened to audiobooks to clear my head from lectures.

Opened 2018 on a strong note with the Egpytian and Hild. Wolf Hall is next and I'm going to read all the Octavia Butler novels I haven't read already.

I am in the middle of listening to Brideshead Revisited and plan to watch the miniseries on Britbox when I've completed the novel.

Loving Edmund White's memoirs, My Lives. He had crazy, tragic parents but the book has a light humor and forgiving attitude toward life that I admire.

I read Vulgar Favors before the premiere ACS: Versace.

Now I am making my way through Ken Follet's century trilogy. A few chapters into "Fall of Giants".

I loved Fall of Giants but never finished the rest of the trilogy. His old England trilogy did more for me. Conquering the last one this summer most likely.

Stephen Fry’s “Mythos” and Simon Sebag-Montefiore’s one on the Romanovs.

Dombey and Son by that Dickens fellow. No one writes with the enormous compassion for humanity like him.

Sebag-Montefiore's book on Jerusalem was rather a slog.

I bought THIRTEEN by Steve Cavanagh because of the tagline: “The serial killer isn’t on trial. He’s on the jury.”

Come on!!!

It turns out it is book 4 in the Eddie Flynn series, about a NY con artist turned lawye and it is very exciting.

I take Kindle books out of the library. Practically everything is available eventually. I don't buy "real" all-text books any more. The type is generally so small, embiggening on my Kindle is a necessity now.

Just started The Seventh Decimate by Stephen R Donaldson

Cory's Ancient Fragments and Tyson's new Physic's book. I read the books at this book club on reddit. Think it is called Quote4.

Just started in on the Patrick Melrose novels.

These two noirs.

I've just finished a Jonathan Coe binge! I read three of his books, starting with his latest, Number 11, then on to an earlier one, The Rain Before It Falls, and finally, one of his earliest, The Rotter's Club. My favorite of his, and his most famous, is The Winshaw Legacy.

They're all wonderfully observed literate satires of British life in the late 20th/early 21st century.

[i]Zuleika Dobson[/i] by Max Beerbohm

and

[i]The Grave's a Fine and Private Place[/i] by Alan Bradley

this week.

I tried reading Zuleika Dobson, it's right up my alley, but didn't get very far. Very disappointing!

But do hope you're enjoying it, r59.

Hey Trollope troll, two weeks ago I befriended an English prof who's big on Victorian fiction. What Trollope and Hardy novels do you recommend for making a complete conquest out of him?

I did see today in a store a NYRB-published paperback collection of essays by Beerbohm. Filed it in the mind for later.

Flavia and Trollope back to back, eh? Her dad and Dogger gave off a Dr. Quest and Race Bannon vibe to me.

I'm going to recommend that you watch The Way We Live Now video starring David Suchet and then read the book. I know that sounds backward, if not downright '"wrong" but in this case it makes sense. I found The Warden dull, but Barchester Towers, with Mrs. Proudie and the Signora Neroni is about as gay as it gets in Victorian lit for your reward after The Warden.

Is the The Way We Live Now video the one with Rob Brydon dissing Mrs Carbury's book? Loved him in it.

Yes, that production although I don't recall his character in it. Dolly had all the machismo of Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly's secret love child.

R3 you're literally wasting your time reading. Hillbilly Elegy. It is not meant to demonstrate that "deplorables" should not be given a vote, you revolting pis-covered mongoloid. Try picture books.

I'm digging into the biography of Patrick Leigh Fermir, who I consider to be the most delicious travel writer of the 20th century, not to mention one of the most fascinating lives of the century too. British public school dropout, backpacking hobo, wartime agent, dashing postwar agent. He's a wonder.

4321 by Paul Auster,

OP, Jamaica Inn is great. A really fun and exciting read. It's reminiscent in its atmosphere (though it is not nearly so complex) of Wuthering Heights, which was Du Maurier's admitted model in writing it.

Enjoy, OP! I loved it. Just reread House on the Strand and Rebecca, myself.

Interesting, R63! I loved the series, I think I’ll read the book now.

[quote] Hey Trollope troll, two weeks ago I befriended an English prof who's big on Victorian fiction. What Trollope and Hardy novels do you recommend for making a complete conquest out of him?

I'm not the Trollope troll, but I am a Victorian lit. professor. The most readable Trollopes are Barchester Towers (which is also his funniest) and Phineas Finn (which is also very funny, and has some incredibly gripping passages--"Sunday in Grosvenor Place" is one of my favorite of all chapters in Victorian fiction). I'm also a big fan of He Knew He Was Right, The Eustace Diamonds, and The Last Chronicle of Barset (which is probably his most profound, although you should read at least one other Barsetshire novel beforehand to know what's going on in it). Orley Farm is also excellent.

For Hardy, I recommend The Return of the Native (my favorite) , The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Far from the Madding Crowd is also great, and has a rare happy ending for Hardy. Jude the Obscure is a masterpiece, but it is one of the darkest and most upsetting novels ever written (the big plot surprise in it is far worse than you could possibly ever imagine). I'm also a fan of his very strange last novel The Well-Beloved (aka The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved).

r72 Thank you, Victorian Lit Prof! Which Wilkie Collins book should I read: [italic]The Woman in White[/italic] or [italic]The Moonstone[/italic]? I've not read Collins before.

The Women in White is very approachable. I recently reread The Moonstone, which didn't work as well second time around. Armadale has major gay vibe.

I read everything online from the library. My apartment is too small for book cases and books and I read a lot.

Right now I'm in a mood to read crime thrillers. I just finished the Harry Bosch crime series on Amazon Prime. He's a Detective. created by Michael Connelly. So right now I'm reading other Michael Connelly mysteries. They're good. I got through January with Walter Moseley, and before him, John Grisham. My favorite mystery writer is Linda Fairstein. But she scares me. Very interesting, well researched and tense. She really knows NYC. The Ann Perry mystery series are good too. I love British mystery writers

r73: The Woman in White and The Moonstone are both terrific, but I give the decided edge to The Woman in White. It is much faster paced, and very gripping.

My favorite Trollopes are The Way We Live Now (his masterpiece), He Knew He Was Right and Orley Farm, which are all stand-alone novels, none are from his Barchester or Palliser series (which I think are somewhat overrated). All three are magnificent but very long so if you're looking for a shorter novel I would recommend The Vicar of Bullhampton or The Belton Estate (also stand-alones).

For Hardy, definitely start with The Mayor of Casterbridge. Wonderfully plotted with twists and turns you won't see coming.

I would also recommend The Woman in White over The Moonstone, though once you've read Trollope and Hardy, Collins is like cheap detective fiction.

And you can't beat Dickens! Great Expectations completely went over my head when I was forced to read it in high school but really resonates now in my late middle age. Also, David Copperfield and Bleak House are incomparable, once you've lived your life and can really appreciate them.

I liked THe Way We Live Now & He Knew He Wa Right, but haven't read the Orley Farm book. I enjoyed The Pallisers, haven't read Barchester .

brand new W magazine

bio of joey Stefano

bio of warren beatty : (good)

FOLLIES OF GOD (Tennessee Williams)

[quote]My favorite mystery writer is Linda Fairstein.

I recently listened to the audiobook about the fashion designer! That was really good. I haven’t like any others in the series as much, though.

I just finished The Sisters, about the Mitford sisters. It was fascinating!

R5:

If you have calibre, you can download ebooks in the epub format (which is more easily found online) and calibre will convert it to Mobi format and put it on your kindle

Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brene Brown. This book delves into the why, how and what, we as a nation of citizens, have been sliding into a polarized abyss. Good read to understand why Americans think the way they do today.

Fire and Fury It's OK, I pretty much knew most of what was in it but did learn about the depth of friction between the Kushner's and Steve Bannon being so toxic. Melania cried on election night and Trump was in disbelief.

Dear OP

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker, Reflections on the French Revolution by Edmund Burke and Citizen by Simon Schama.

Jerusalem by Alan Moore.

R83: Since you mention Calibre, are you familiar with Apprentice Alf? I think the Calibre developer guy is very hot (sadly, married).

R88 I wasn't familiar with this blog at all! Cool stuff so thank you! Do you have a pic of the developer?

TBH, R36, I'm not an avid reader (of books) and the reason I'm reading [italic]Hillbilly Elegy[/italic] is to see why Republicans are so enthralled with Vance, so I don't know whether to recommend it or not. So far (I"m 68% in according to my kindle reader), it reads as a primer on how to escape Appalachia, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and conversely as a requiem of a soon-to-be extinct way of life.

My problem is that it makes my blood boil when, for instance, Vance returns to his hometown to newfound respect from his folk thanks to boot camp; as though he is the first man in America to discover that the military offers poor kids a hand up in exchange for hard work and sacrifice and simultaneously, insults and dismisses everything that he claims to love and spent the first half of the book defending. The passage is perhaps the best rationale and support for using the military as society's equalizer, which is totally antithetical to what Republicans say when Democrats point out that the military is and has been used as society's lever of equality, particularly race equality and more recently with the demise of DADT, for gays.

Particularly amusing was when, having lost 45 pounds and turning his life around, he pondered whether the food he grew up eating and was offered to him upon his first leave had too much saturated fat and sugar; if the words had come out of the mouth of a hipster, Republicans would rightly mock them, but because it demonstrates some sort of deplorable awakening, they are urging him to run for the Senate. It is, to be blunt, white privilege at its finest, just don't say that to Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan. And if it holds true to form, now that Vance is out of the Marines and in civilian life, they'd vote to pull the ladder up behind him and make it so no poor, underprivileged youth could take advantage of the opportunity ever again.

It's an easy read despite the obvious contradictions, hypocrisy and delusional thinking, and when I finish I'll come back to give my honest recommendation. In the meantime, smell Miss Thang at R66!

R89: Google "Kovid Goyal" and look at his images, I think he looks a lot better with glasses.

Mobileread is THE site for all things ebook!

I'm in the middle of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO by George Saunders.

Not sure yet what to make of it! Far more "fantasy" than I was expecting, but it's quick reading and not a long book so I will probably keep going and finish it.

Anyone else read it?

I read it this summer, r92. I liked it very much and found it funny and moving. I very much enjoy Saunders' short stories (especially "Sea Oak").

At some point, E.F. Benson's [italic]Secret Lives[/italic]. A friend mailed me a gift copy today. Yes, my day is made.

LOVED Secret Lives! Even more than the Mapp/Lucia books.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer, about a gay male writer who travels the literary lecture/awards circuit. It's a good read and quite funny in places.

I'm really enjoying The Heirs by Susan Rieger, recently out in paper back.

It's a contemporary satire about a fabulously wealthy and cultured NY family and its 5 grown sons and all of the various characters in their orbit. Family history is challenged when the father dies and a woman comes forth who claims he was the father to her 2 sons. The blurb on the back aptly compares it to some of JD Salinger early short stories. The author has a smart and very witty unique voice.

I'm trying to read "What Happened" by HRC but it's a tough slog. I thought it would be more light-hearted, but it's too verbose and she is really bitter. Don't know if I'll be able to finish it.

R98: Have you read Shattered, or intend to?

Kidnapped by Charles Fox about the Getty kidnapping.

It gets closer to the truth than the book on which the movie is based, which sanitized the mother. All of them were nasty pieces of work--it's just shocking the casual cruelty and unnecessary suffering, especially health-wise, when they had so much money to alleviate it.

This is a great thread, OP, thanks for posting. I'm going to set aside an hour each day to read an actual book instead of just browsing online like I've got into the habit of doing so. I'm reading The Handmaid's tale (Margaret Atwood) at the moment, I'm going to finish that and reread 1984.

Read recently:

CMBYN - book far more intricate and open-ended.

American Gods - Loved the premise, American magic realism.

Currently reading Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr, a trilogy of detective novels taking place in the Third Reich. Fascinating setting and atmosphere with great pacing.

I grew up in a house that was full of books everywhere. At Christmas we all gave each other piles of books. So I’m still into hard copy. Eldergay here. (‘Natch...)

[quote]I grew up in a house that was full of books everywhere. At Christmas we all gave each other piles of books. So I’m still into hard copy. Eldergay here.

Wait 'til you've tried the font-embiggening feature of Kindle a few times. It took me a year or so, but now I can't go back. Eldergay here, too (and you can have all my old all-text books).

Next on list is, How Not To Be A Boy, by Robert Webb. [He's the guy who played Jez, opposite David Mitchell's Mark in Peep Show.]

"Danceateria", by Philip Dean Walker. Got it Saturday and read it in two hours. It's sensational.

I download books from the library to my e-reader but I find the selection very limited. Anything current is wait listed, that's not surprising, but I have a huge list of books/authors published between the 50s - 90s that are not available although the hard copies might be.

Even popular authors, eg someone like Ruth Rendell, only have a handful of books at my library.

Reading now: Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen. Enjoy his irreverent take on Florida politics.

Reading the Inheritance trilogy by NK Jemisin. I have only been reading high fantasy for the last few months since a friend of mine recommended some. But this is the first fantasy series to really capture me. Mixture of dynastic politics, feuding of the gods, and even a murder mystery.

Setting is a world where one dynasty has established a global empire by managing to bind and enslave 4 gods. The gods can warp reality, obliterate armies with a whim and much more. A relative of the family joins the ruler and his heirs at the capital and gets caught up in a massive conspiracy.

An incredible yet mostly forgotten author is British novelist Patrick Hamilton, more well-known for writing the plays Gaslight (called Angel Street on Broadway) and Rope...both of which were made into popular Hollywood films.

But Hamilton's novels, particularly Slaves of Solitude and Hangover Square, are spectacular. Both are very dark, insidious and satirical and deal with fascinating working class Brits in the WWII era.

Just finished Armistead Maupin's LOGICAL FAMILY, Celeste Ng's LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE, and Andrew Morton's WALLIS IN LOVE.

All B plus.

I generally read a lot of new fiction but I just finished Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar and I was blown away that it was written in 1948 - unbelievable! Groundbreaking and courageous but oddly current. Really impressive.

R102

Enjoy the Philip Kerr "Berlin Noir" books. I've read the whole series and am eagerly awaiting his next book, out in a few months. You may enjoy Sam Eastlake and or David Downing series. very similar but IMO, no one is quite as good as Mr. Kerr!

r111 Tendering condolences on your loss of Philip Kerr.

R112

Thank you. I didn't known, when i saw your post, I logged off and googled. I'm devastated. he died very young. He was very talented and gave me so much reading pleasure. I know he has a new book due out very shortly and the article said there is a first draft of another, tentatively due to be issued net year. RIP to a wonderful author..

Borrow kindle book from library - 99%

I’m going to reread A PASSAGE TO INDIA, I think. EM Forster soothes the savage beast.

Looking for Gatsby - Faye Dunaway autobiography

No Bells on Sunday - the Rachel Roberts diaries (Alexander Walker)

Actress: Postcards from the Road - Elizabeth Ashley autobiography

Orhan Pamuk, Red-Haired Woman

Peter Mayles, French Lessons - Adventures with Knife, Fork and Corkscrew

The Sympathizer by Viet Thank Nguyen, about a Vietnamese double agent who comes to the US after the fall of Saigon. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016 so I chose to read it....so far an interesting read from the viewpoint from the other side.

OP, I read a lot of Daphne DuMaurier in high school. Loved Jamaica Inn, she creates a rich romantic atmosphere. My Cousin Rachel is a good read.

I read DO NOT BECOME ALARMED by Maile Melody because some of her short stories were made into a decent Kelly Reichard movie. This book is pretty bad. It is inspired by Richard Hugges’ A HIGH WIBD IN JAMAICA. It is about 2 families who holiday on a cruise ship. During a shore excursion, one of the mothers, a professional victim white girl married to a hot black actor, disappears into the trees to fuck the guide while the children disappear off the beach. Then it turns into a turgid melodrana Of whether the kids will make it back to safety and will the parents forgive each other and will the mom stop lying.

Meddling Kids. A nostalgia filled story of a Scooby Doo gang type group of kids coming into conflict with a real Lovecraftian elder god.

I am reading the books on this book club list. Now, it is on Ancient Roman and Egypt.

Alan Hollinghurst’s latest novel, The Sparsholt Affair. I’m loving it.

"Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America" by Patrick Phillips, all about how Forsyth County Georgia became all-white (hint: it wasn't by accident).

"Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America" by Timothy Egan about how a giant forest fire in Idaho saved the Forest Service.

Same general time frame for both events. Same shithole of a country we have today. One step forward, one step back.

Fire And Fury. I like a good trashy read. And Honey, Trump is the trashiest. After that it's the Michelle McNamara book about The Golden State Killer. I like being scared, too.

Joyce, Exiles.

I've started listening to Paul Theroux's fictional memoir Mother Land. Granted, some of it is the gay voiced (married) narrator, but this is coming across as one G-A-Y story! The (witch with a capital B) mother's favorite kid is the stillborn (or died soon after). Good Times!

R105, a friend of mine received an advanced reviewers copy of Walker’s new book (“Read by Strangers”) because he’s a book reviewer for a gay periodical. He said it was quite different from “At Danceteria” tonally, but just as good. I looked it up on Amazon and it comes out this weekend.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl

"The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfus

"Uprooted" by Naomi Novik

I’m re-reading The World According to Garp (by John Irving) after a couple of decades and, gosh, I’m really enjoying it. Funny, smart, sharp, and unique. Great and strange plots and a very memorable cast of characters.

[quote] The Sympathizer by Viet Thank Nguyen

How did you like it, R118? I've downloaded a sample to my Kindle, but I can't decide whether or not to purchase.

I'm reading a series of Edgar Wallace mysteries, his J.G. Reeder character. The BBC had a television series based on the books. which they do not make available on DVD.

Enigma Variations by Andre Aciman. Quite good.

12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl. The Plantagenets by Dan Jones. Homo Deus and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. Islam by Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz.

r135 what is the Jordan Peterson like? He's quite odd, but all psychologists & psychiatrists are in some way.

Renoir's Dancer-non-fiction bio of Suzanne Valadon an artists' model who became a middling painter in her own right-not well-written and pulled some punches.

The Seabird's Cry by Adam Nicholson about pelagic sea-birds in culture and their current state re: climate change. Excellent so far, and very well-written.

“We Have Always Lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson and “Sombrero Fallout” by Richard Brautigan.

R132, so far, I like it enough to keep reading. The writer captures the mood and atmosphere of the 70's really well in Vietnam and in Southern California. The only thing I don't like are the long paragraphs. It's an ex-captain in the South Vietnam army (and a mole) spying on his former boss and life in the US. The book is written as a long letter to his superiors back home and he doesn't put quotation marks in dialogue between characters, it's like a long ramble of what he said, she said, etc.

So, how is Jamaica Inn? I happen to have a copy I have not read yet, and I am trying to decide to read or donate.

I am not big on thriller/suspense novels, but being currently in need of some escapism I've been working my way through the oeuvre of a British writer named Mark Edwards. He has a deceptively straightforward writing style that doesn't prepare you for how diabolical he is. I started with The Magpies, about a young couple who, having bought their first home in a charming apartment building, seem poised for a bright future together - only to become locked in mortal combat with their psycho neighbors from hell. Tons of tension and twists. I'm now reading Follow You Home, about another young couple who, on a European trip, take a night train and end up having an encounter with a VERY shady couple which leads to them seeing an unspeakable horror in the middle of a Romanian forest. When they return to their home in London, swearing never to talk about what happened, it becomes clear that they aren't going to be able to escape what they saw. Really readable psychological thrillers.

[quote]This is a great thread, OP, thanks for posting. I'm going to set aside an hour each day to read an actual book instead of just browsing online like I've got into the habit of doing so.

I love the internet, but having been on it now for close to 20 years, I'm saddened by how much it has cut into the time I used to spend reading books. I still read, but the number of hours in a day hasn't changed, and when you spend even an hour or two per day reading articles and websites online, it does dampen the desire to spend even more time reading a book, whether in paper or e-book form. I admire anyone who commits to reading more - it does take a discipline now that it didn't used to require, for me.

I listened to Jamaica Inn, read by British actor Trevor Eve, a long time ago probably on cassettes.

Jamaica Inn is pretty great. I loved Rebecca so much as a lovelorn youth that I was scared to read it in case it did not hold up, but it’s gothic and perverse in its own way!

[italic]Fine Feathers[/italic], a collection of E.F. Benson short stories

[italic]Saint Melissa, the Mottled[/italic] and [italic]The Unstrung Harp[/italic] both by Edward Gorey

[italic]The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries[/italic]

One of the best and most entertaining books I’ve ever read is Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket”. It’s a breathtaking potboiler. I read it in one session.

The View From Castle Rock by Alice Munro. Picked it up from charity store for $5! I tend to read short stories slowly. They are dense and require reflection so I guess I won’t be tearing through this one.

My mom is a slow reader, preferring stories to novels.

Netflix has a series, Jamaica Inn. I got bored, better to read the book.

Ditto “The Sparsholt Affair” by Alan Hollingsworth Inspired me to go back and read his first “The Swimming Pool Library” from 1988. Holds up very well.

I have been given Ohio by one Stephen Markley

[quote]The debut of a major talent; a lyrical and emotional novel set in an archetypal small town in northeastern Ohio—a region ravaged by the Great Recession, an opioid crisis, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—depicting one feverish, fateful summer night in 2013 when four former classmates converge on their hometown, each with a mission, all haunted by the ghosts of their shared histories.

[quote]Since the turn of the century, a generation has come of age knowing only war, recession, political gridlock, racial hostility, and a simmering fear of environmental calamity. In the country’s forgotten pockets, where industry long ago fled, where foreclosures, Walmarts, and opiates riddle the land, death rates for rural whites have skyrocketed, fueled by suicide, addiction and a rampant sense of marginalization and disillusionment. This is the world the characters in Stephen Markley’s brilliant debut novel, Ohio, inherit. This is New Canaan.

I've read 4 "very uneven and almost very good but subsequently mediocre" debut novels that needed 2 more drafts recently so this had better be better than the last.

I am reading DARKNESS VISIBLE: A MEMOIR OF MADNESS by William Styron. It's the best evocation of depression I have ever read. Seriously, pass a copy around to your family if they don't understand it.

I was in the middle of Andrew Sean Greer’s LESS when it unexpectedly won the Pulitzer Prize last week. I am really enjoying it. At first, I was surprised that it had won the Pulitzer. It’s light and fun and occasionally very funny but didn’t seem to have the gravitas I would expect from a book winning that award. However, as I get further into Arthur Less’s journey, the book has accumulated in meaning and depth. And the main character is a charming vehicle through which to view the world. I’m very happy for the (gay) author who has received such a high honor.

Speaking of gay authors, I also recently picked up Philip Dean Walker’s new short story collection READ BY STRANGERS, based on the Wally Lamb blurb that appears on the front cover (who is a personal favorite author of mine). The stories are very unique and gripping. Unexpected at almost every turn.

I am really excited for Rachel Kushner's new novel, "The Mars Room." It's coming out on May 1st.

I'm listening to the 31-hour classic Nicholas Nickleby. Unlike the dreary boarding school in David Copperfield, at least the chapters set at one here weren't many.

R94 I just finished reading Secret Lives on my Kindle. If you enjoy E.F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia novels you'll certainly enjoy this one as well.

A few weeks back I read The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies. Fifth Business is the best and I also found The World of Wonders good but The Manticore, the middle volume, is a bit of a slog I think unless the reader is interested in Jungian analysis.

I am reading Gold Dust Woman, Stevie Nicks bio. I'm not that far into it, she just ended her affair with Mick Fleetwood and seems like an emotionally stunted bratty little girl. I downloaded it from the Library and not sure if I will be able to finish it. It's not particularly well written and I am kind of turned off by Stevie's behavior. I don't want to not like her anymore.

Another vote for Alan Hollinghurst.

I recently read The Swimming Pool Library and The Line of Beauty.

Now I am almost finished The Stranger's Child.

He writes really well about English gay guys, both in the present day and in the turn of the 20th century era.

After watching "The Terror," I'm on a Franklin expedition kick so am reading this:

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms Trilogy by NK Jemisin

It's a fantasy that takes place in a world where a Greek god like pantheon exists. The world is incredibly detailed and fascinating including the creation story, god hierarchy, the politics of the mortal world, etc. There are many LGBT characters.

At the beginning of the trilogy a single family has taken control of the global government by enslaving 4 of the gods. The main character of the first book is a member of the family who was raised away from them, joining them in their capital. Great books!!

SNOW by Orhan Pamuk

How did you like it, r159?

I was reading The Black Book when my father passed away, and haven’t been able to keep reading.

SNOW one of my all time favorites. Black Book hard to get through

Uncle Mame, biography of Patrick Dennis.

I've never read Breakfast at Tiffany's. Would you recommend it?

no one fucking reads anymore you worthless trogs, LMAO 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

R164 Go take your Lexapro, Kanye

I’m re-reading A Distant Mirror but lately got distracted by Susan Wise Bauer’s pleasantly snarky historical overview of the ancient world, “The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome.”

I may read the medieval and Renaissance ones after that, then get back to Tuchman.

I was underwhelmed R163, but worth reading it.

It’s very short, r163. Find it at your local library and you’ll polish it off in an hour, leaning against the shelves.

Just started Rebecca Makkai’s new book, THE GREAT BELIEVERS, which centers around the AIDS crisis in Chicago circa 1985, particularly in Boystown. I am really enjoying it so far. There seems to be a renaissance of AIDS fiction the past couple of years and I think this book is in the same tradition.

I'm reading Joan Crawford's "My Way of Life."

R169, I just checked on Amazon and that book won't be available until mid June. Darn, I have to wait two more months!

I just finished the new Emily Wilson translation of "The Odyssey" which I really enjoyed. Other older translations had put me off but this one was very contemporary and easy to read. I had never read much classical literature before. It was really interesting understanding the sources of Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, etc. and there is incredible suspense in the tale that builds up as slowly Odysseus plans out the massacre of the 300 suitors with the help of Athena and Telemachus.

I regularly listen the BBC program "A Good Read" and based on their recommendation I have started to reread E.F. Benson's "Mapp and Lucia" (it's funnier this time round) and last week they reviewed Christopher Logue's contemporary update/translation of "The Iliad" which sounds wonderful so I'm going to read that next.

In the meantime, r169, I took out Rebecca Makkai's The Borrower, about a boy named Ian, a compulsive reader, who runs away from home when his mother sends him to pray-the-gay-away camp, and Lucy, the librarian who befriends him.

^ The Borrower, by Rebecca Makkai.

I met Rebecca Makkai at AWP in D.C. last year and she was just lovely.

R171, I was lucky to have received an advance review copy. It’s really good so far.

I got that ARC as well, r169. I will read it alongside you!

I'm reading Champagne Cholly, bio of Cholly Knickerbocker (Maury Paul), chronicler of high society in NYC and gay man about town, written by his female secretary. Published in 1947, it's quite entertaining.

R108 Thanks for the tip on Patrick Hamilton. I looked on my local library's kindle list and there was a copy of Slaves of Solitude and i downloaded it. Read it in two days. Wonderful writing and a great study of the human psyche.

I'm mostly through Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harar. I'm enjoying it well but the mix of actual science with the author's proselytizing gets a bit trying.

I'm an Alan Hollinghurst fan but found THE SPARSHOLT AFFAIR a bit confusing/uninvolving.

Reading THE HOUSE OF IMPOSSIBLE BEAUTIES about the pier queens in the 80s. So far, so good!!

I am very excited about the new Michael Ondaatje, WARLIGHT. I'll buy it as soon as it is out.

I don't even know if I'll get around to reading this in 2018, long as my @toread list is, but I wanted to mention here that I found [italic]Paying Guests[/italic] by E. F. Benson yesterday in a used books store. Maybe for when my mood needs a rocket boost.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Who knew the ancient Greeks were so gay?

The Paying Guests is also the latest novel by the great Sarah Waters. Unsurprisingly, it's about a lesbian affair, but this one is set in the 1920s. Great atmosphere, period detail and tension.

[quote]Who knew the ancient Greeks were so gay?

Everyone silly.

And the Song of Achilles was a fun read, but I was hoping for more. At the end of the day it is still a fairly shallow romance novel, just in an Ancient Greek setting.

The GoT thread inspired me to read the first book in the series.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. God, is it good.

Based on the du Maurier recommendations I've read here, I've just started My Cousin Rachel and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Just finished Iris Apfel: Confessions of a Geriatric Starlet. More of a scrapbook than a book but still fun. She's great.

I finished Nicholas Nickleby. David Copperfield overall better, though this one's less depressing. Nickleby's "love interest" felt a bit forced, whereas he and Smike could be seen as awfully close good friends.

191 posts and only 2 books I haven’t read that appeal to me. DL has made me way too picky - getting too used to having dozens of new relevant threads to read that cater to my monetary whims.

What are the 2 books, r192?

Where else do you go for book recommendations?

I’m enjoying Stephen McCauley’s new novel. He’s always been a favorite of mine.

Yes, R192, which two books?

I’m reading a collection of short stories by Julia Elliott called THE WILDS. It’s quite entertaining and has some supernatural elements.

House of impossible beauties The Heirs

r192, if that's you again at r197, I'm pleased to say I recommended The Heirs upthread. You'll love it, I bet, in spite of the generic title.

Thank you R198 . Enjoyed The Nest - which had a similar theme.

Other good books I’ve read recently: The Dark Flood Rises - One of my favorite books in recent history. Highly recommend - very insightful about aging and life values.

Bettencourt Affair - juicy but well-written expose of the L’Oreal matriarch’s fascinating long term affair with a gay man to whom she left a huge part of her money

West of Eden - snippets of LA history in the 20th century written by daughter of MCA founder who also wrote biography of Edie Sedgwick. (Random side fact: she committed suicide shortly after book was published by jumping out of a window in the same building as Anderson Coppers brother did years ago)

Just finished Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach which has been made into a film with Saorise Ronan, opening any day now.

It is exquisite! Gorgeous writing, very emotional and only about 200 pages. Can't imagine the film can really come close to the power of the novel, though apparently McEwan wrote the screenplay. I've never read anything by McEwan but bought Atonement and will read it next.

I also have Sinclair Lewis' Main Street on my night table, bought it second hand paperback. Always wanted to read him. Any other fans of Lewis?

Oh man, Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair are the Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton of the literary world for me. I can never remember which is which.

Just finished Circe by Madeline Miller and it was AMAZING. she has grown a lot as a writer since Song of Achilles

I download everything for free I'm poor...I've started Ligotti's Conspiracy Against the Human Race.

Robert Hopcke's There Are No Accidents. Some very interesting takes on the nature of synchronicity on different aspects of life,some I could relate very well others less but a good read nonetheless.

Thanks for the tip R202. I was ambivalent about 'Song of Achilles' and wasn't going to bite on 'Circe.' Now I will.

2018? War and Peace.

It's always War and Peace. I'll never get it finished.

Just started Tom Perrotta's MRS. FLETCHER which is now in paperback. I wanted to read something light and comedic. I thought I remembered the reviews as somewhat unenthusiastic but there are dozens of rave blurbs on the covers and first pages.

Fun so far and clearly written to be purchased for its film rights. The leads are a 45 year old MILF and her 18 year dude bro son, who has gone off to college leaving his divorced mom to discover the joys of internet porn and new romance.

Has anyone read any of the Lambda Literary Award winners from last night? I was thinking of checking out HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES.

PUSSY GALORE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by k.d. lang

The new David Sedaris is better than the last few David Sedarises.

Elena Ferrante's "Neapolitan Quartet" finishing the 2nd vol. Great saga, interesting characters.

“I Said Yes to Everything” by Lee Grant.

I know. Late to the party again, and it’s not High Literature. Sue me.

R209, good to know about the Sedaris. Just got it and am one essay in, enjoying it.

R211, I read the Lee Grant book and really enjoyed it. She has great recall of 1950s NYC theater world and the McCarthy era. It's a fascinating book.

I dislike Sedaris reading his own stuff, so am looking forward to reading the print book.

Just started A Month in the Country by JL Carr about a young British WWI veteran who travels to the Northern England countryside to restore a medieval mural in an old church.

It's short, only about 135 pages and I'm quite loving it and don't know where it's headed........

Lonesome Traveler, by Kerouac. Parts are better than others, though the best parts and passages strike me as excellent.

I'm listening to Barchester Towers read by Timothy West (Prunella Scales' husband). Mrs. Proudie's party isn't going so well, thanks (indirectly) to Signora Neroni.

bios: diana Vreeland, diane arbus, patricia Bosworth (25 cents from goodwill), henry darger, and the power broker (the g damned Robert moses who tried to destroy nyc)

I love A MONTH N THE COUNTRY

fab book and movie.

I just finished DOLLY by Anita Brookner.

I'd read a few of Brookner's books in the 1980s when they first appeared, but found them to be mostly dreary affairs about pathetic women who were treated like doormats by their mothers or men. But I was always hoping she'd be more engaging like Barbara Pym who also wrote about single women and spinsters though her characters had spunk.

But I thought I'd give Brookner another chance and DOLLY was one of her final books. I also thought that maybe with age I would appreciate what she was saying about one's lot in life.

Well, DOLLY was disappointing, especially as this book's main character was an intelligent, attractive and well off young woman in the 1970s who had no reason to be so put upon. I guess I've had enough of Brookner.

I read R o s e M's book this year, because one queen here kept bitching about how it was full of lies lies LIES. It turns out she has a very interesting story, poor thing.

I also read an unauthorized biography on poet Ted Hughes. His first wife killed herself, then his fiancée killed herself AND their child.

I'm glad he didn't become a motivational speaker.

I'd recommend Brookner's BRIEF LIVES as the character Julia would be a DL favorite.

Now reading “Wilde in America” about Oscar Wilde.

Interesting read, which causes me to find him less interesting, after all.

[italic]Croaked: an Edgar Rowdey Cape Cod Mystery [/italic] by Carol Verburg

[italic]The Violinist's Thumb[/italic] by Sam Kean

I'm getting ready to start Hamilton by Ron chernow. I just saw the play a couple of months ago and I fell in love with it and the story.

There There by Tommy Orange. It’s getting great reviews and I’m loving it.

I read that one two months ago, r220, it was named Family and Friends and i really liked it, like i like most Brookner. She can be an acquired taste and her stories always have characters you want to shake, but that s part of the charm. Also, I find her sentences exquisite.

I meant A Family Romance, Family and Friends is a different one.

I'm reading a biography of Jim Henson (on Kindle.)

The Word is Murder, novel by Anthony Horowitz. Pleasant enough for a summer afternoon.

Does his inserting himself as a character really work, R230?

"About Face: The Life and Times of Dottie Ponedel, Make-up Artist to the Stars"

I'm reading The Boarding House by William Trevor. Written in the early 1960s, it's a dark comedy about the very quirky middle aged loners residing together in a shabby London boarding house. I thought it was right up my alley but it may prove to be a little too quirky, even for me.

Does anyone know it or any of Trevor's other work?

I have only read his novella "Miss Gomez and the Brethren" which I would describe as quirky also. I am into such things, so will definitely look into The Boarding House - thanks!

Circe. It’s wondeful.

R233 I have read My House In Umbria and his short stories. He’s a great.

Thanks for the Trevor recommendations and encouragement. I've also heard that his short stories are superior to his novels.

DEEP THINKING by Garry Kasparov.

I want to stab OP with a pencil for using the phrase "crack open".

Casebook by Mona Simpson. She's funny and loves her flawed characters. Her first novel, Anywhere by Here was a bestseller and each book is terrific. She's Steve Jobs half sister; each unaware of the others existence. They met before he died and wrote a lovely, touching essay.

The Outsider by Stephen King. First King novel I've really enjoyed in a long while, although I wish he take us inside the monster's head, like he has with some of his other novels.

R231, I gave up on the book last night. It just floated away into piffle. It's an interesting conceit inserting himself into the book but ultimately it's just a gimmick.

Horowitz is a writer I want to like but he's just too much of a lightweight.

I didn't care for House of Silk, and this one doesn't sound up to it, so Magpie Murders was a One Hit Wonder, I guess?

Anthony Horowitz comes off as a bit of a hack as a novelist yet his writing and producing for British television is of the highest order. Foyle's War about a detective solving crimes in a WWII seaside town is one of the smartest and stylish mystery series ever created, and the 2009 TV film Collision, about the intersecting lives of motorists involved in a large scale highway accident was truly brilliant.

I liked Magpie Murders enough but it was ultimately just a slick trick. I didn't care for House of Silk much at all.

I kind of hate Anthony Horowitz for Midsomer Murders. Though admittedly I am sweet on Neal Dudgeon.

Re: the author putting himself into the narrative. Martin Amis did it in 'Money', and for me it didn't work. He hinted he did it so that readers wouldn't think he had too much in common with his grotesque main character John Self.

But for me it broke the spell of his heightened prose, and seemed both a post-modern trick, and egotistical. It was enough that Amis was on the cover. Maybe I'll give it a re-read one day.

To answer OP: 'Balancing Acts', by Nicholas Hytner, about his time running the National Theatre. It's entirely fascinating - very well-written, droll, and sharply insightful.

Circe was indeed wonderful.

Now I'm reading 14 by Peter Clines. Lovecraftian horror novel based around a thirty something protagonist with a dead end job in LA. Great cast of characters. I found myself wishing I lived in his apartment building

Thanks to a rave review in WSJ, I'm reading VARINA, by Charles Frazier. Ficyional bio of the wife of Jefferson Davis. Only just started, but so far so good.

Anyone know Damon Galgut? A South African. Just finished THE GOOD DOCTOR and enjoyed it. But loved his ARCTIC WINTER, about E. M. Forster. He was twice short-listed for the Booker.

And Sebastian Barry? Highly recommend DAYS WITHOUT END, about a gay relationship in the Wild West of the 19th century.

Finally, Sara Baume's SPILL SIMMER FALTER WITHER. A must for dog lovers, if you don't mind getting too depressed.

[quote]But loved his ARCTIC WINTER, about E. M. Forster.

Ah! I have that book! I bought it about 5 years ago based on the description, because I am a Forster fan, but forgot about it entirely. It lies in a box, somewhere, unread.

Thanks all for the recommendations on Mona Simpson, Arctic Winter and Days Without End. I'll check each of them out.

Right now I'm loving Jennifer Egan's latest Manhattan Beach. Such a pleasure to read new fiction that is intelligently written and seems very true on historical details. I hope I'm not disappointed. I never read her Pulitzer-winning A Visit for the Geek Squad as the subject matter, the rock music world, didn't interest me, but maybe I'll give it a try.

Couldn't get through GEEK SQUAD, but think I might like MANHATTAN BEACH.

For something light, but wildly entertaining is John Fraser's memoir, CLOSE UP. He was a gorgeous minor film and stage actor in the 50s and 60s and the book is a well-written look at backstage and behind-the-scenes goings-on with lots of dish. He loathed Bette Davis, and his account of his affair with Nureyev just about singes the pages. I first heard about it from a list of James Ivory's 10 Favorite Books. I devoured it.

Thanks, r251, that sounds like a great memoir.

[quote] Mrs. Proudie's party isn't going so well, thanks (indirectly) to Signora Neroni.

"UNHAND ME, SIR!"

Mrs. Proudie's party is one of the funniest set-pieces in all of literature.

"Papa, she ain't got no legs!"

CMBYN

So I just finished Manhattan Beach and I was enormously disappointed!

The book begins so promising with a 1934 NY Depression setting. Lots of great historical details, very well-researched and the mood of a Hollywood gangster movie. It quickly moves to the beginning of WWII and the Brooklyn Navy Yard where our heroine works and hopes to become a diver repairing battleships and you're fooled into thinking there will be lots of espionage.

But no. It's actually a very shallow and melodramatic family story with every cliche imaginable. What's so weird is that Egan is clearly a great writer and her research is impeccable. But it all adds up to a very ordinary and far too long story. I can't imagine how this got such rave reviews or why her editors didn't push her further.

Now I'm on to Olivia Manning's The BalkanTrilogy, 3 books written in the early 1960s and made into a BBC mini-series in the late 1980s with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson (which I don't remember). It also takes place during WWII (throughout Europe), which is a period that fascinates me.

Loved the Balkan Trilogy. Devoured them about 20 years ago, long enough for me to want to revisit them. Liked the mini-series too.

Try Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell. Memoir of a guy running a small shop in a Scottish town. Dry and hilarious. Published here in September. I grabbed a UK copy months ago.

Can anyone recommend a juicy biography of an artist that would be interesting for a person with little art history knowledge to follow?

Thanks R257! My library has four copies on order from the publisher at present, and I'm second in the hold queue, so should get a copy as soon as the books arrive.

Reading an old classic now.

Aztec by Greg Jennings.

I'm not that deep in yet but the opening was excellent!

My last readings were Facing North by Tony Peake, Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory, Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler, How to behave in a crowd by Camille Bordas and The two Mrs Grenvilles by Dominick Dunne. Now i'm reading Story of a marriage by Andrew Sean Greer (Less is not published her in Spain) and La sostanza del male by Luca D'Andrea, who is an italian writer, this novel was his debut novel and it was a big hit here last year (a thriller about a documentalist obsessed with a 1985 crime in the Alpes)

I'm a little embarrassed to admit I haven't read (or accurately, finished) a book since January. I got as far as one book for my 2018 reading challenge and the 6 months have flown by. Too much internet noodling and also getting back into music. I guess the latter isn't so bad but listening to music does cut into audio book time and even reading. If I'm reading, I can't have music on.

I loved Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, but just couldn't get into Jamaica Inn. This was the book I was half-heartedly listening to when this book reading slump started.

R262 here , forgot to add, I'm hoping reading this thread will get me back into the swing of things.

I'm a voracious reader myself, but my completed books total so far this year is fairly lackluster.

R262 again, I read 30 books last year. Set that goal for this year too...not gonna get there...

I bought "Educated" by Tara Westover (her origins in a cuckoo fundie family to a doctorate from Oxford) for a summer group read. Wish me luck!

I'm reading "Famous Father Girl" by Leonard Bernstein's daughter Jamie.

Jenny Uglow's biography of Edward Lear. I'm just under half-way in, and not too sure about it. There are temporal jumps she makes that stop the flow, and she doesn't evoke the era for me. She also almost infantilizes his love for animals, and the natural history element is lacking. She does mention that he's gay, but only in general terms not as part of the narrative (although in fairness I'm only half-way through).

r259, it's a great book. I enjoyed going on-line to read his facebook page and find all the areas and places he talked about throughout the book. I would love to spend a day in his shop, perusing rare books with his fat cat beside me. (Mary! I know)

r268 and r259, be sure to check out Dwight Garner's article in The Times yesterday. He was able to be a small bookshop owner for a day in Scotland (as can anyone who pays for the privilege). He also talk of spending time with Bythell, whose store is nearby.

(And if that is what it takes to get a MARY!, count me in.)

I just ordered Arctic Summer. Thanks for the recommendation. I've read all of Forster's fiction. I hope to read his political essays one day. He might have something to say to a modern audience.

Finished VARINA. Highly recommended. Should make a terrific film.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. I like her essays about California.

get your books at Barnes & Noble, folks.

I would love to buy ebooks from B&N but the nook is shit. Otherwise I only buy from used bookstores

I'm going to read Eleonor Ollyphant is completely fine. Yes, i have a thing for overhyped debut novels

Sick by Porochista Khakpour

I borrow the ebook from the library or buy it from Amazon if they don't have it or the waiting list is too long.

"Less" by Andrew Sean Greer, won Pulitzer, gay guy turns 50

Speaking of Pulitzers, reminder that Ronan Farrow just won a Pulitzer for his MeToo expose of Harvey Weinstein, and meanwhile he has been liking photos of serial sexual harasser Andy Cohen on Instagram.

Meaning, they're buddies? Or Farrow has Cohen in his sites?

R280 My guess is since Farrow is gay, 1) He’s probably a Bravo fan and a starfucker like Andy is; 2) they’ve likely met by now, I’d imagine in the Hamptons, etc.; and 3) my guess is that Farrow, as seems to be the case with everyone else, excuses Cohen’s behaviors as innocent and charming and not worth taking seriously and chooses to let it go just as everyone else did with Weinstein and Spacey and continues to do with Bryan Singer.

R280 Not to mention that Cohen would be wise to get cozy with Farrow since Cohen has been accused by Kathy Griffin of unprofessional conduct and he has overtly crossed the line many times on camera. If he and Farrow are friends and if he does Farrow favors with his connections, then Farrow will protect him the way Hollywood protected Weinstein.

Can you kindly take this insipid talk to the Andy Cohen hate threads that abound so we can get back to books? Thanks. Another vote for The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. Just a stellar story that is epic in scope and quite the gay Bildungsroman. Perfect page turning beach read.

There has been a spate of new “AIDS fiction” in the past couple of years. The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine (Lambda Literary winner), Christodora by Tim Murphy (really good, traverses several years and characters through the early days of the plague up through the near future), The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (the early days of AIDS in gay Chicago - just released last month).

Can anyone suggest any others?

r275 I've read it. I rated it three stars. It's a fast, funny read, and if you read it fast enough you can likely overlook the story's inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

I haven't read either, but I conflate (get mixed up) Eleanor Olyphant and Where'd You Go, Bernadette? whenever one of them is mentioned. They just *seem* like the same thing to me.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette--so highly recommended and so crap.

The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester

He's getting older, so it's a bit more rambly, but still very good. It's about precision engineers, and how they contributed to the advancement of society.

I've got Richard Rhodes' new book on the history of energy in the queue next. I loved his books on the atomic and hydrogen bomb development. If anyone's read it, is it any good? I didn't see a lot of advance press for either book, so I always assume that means it's terrible.

To the poster who mentioned Eleanor Oliphant .... I read it and it's good. Thought it was going to be sacharine and twee but it turned out to be laugh-out-loud funny.

284: Yes, there's a clear resurgence of AIDS novels. Probably because novels set in the 80's are on fashion right now and of course gay themes became more mainstream (a success like What belongs to you would be impossible a bunch of years ago)

I started Eleanor Oliphant today, as i say i have a thing for hyped debut novels (The girls, City on fire, Sweetbitter, Homegoing, soon Conversations with friends). I was not very optimistic but till now is very funny

I loved CHRISTODORA. Brilliant novel .

So sad how books like these come out and get stellar reviews and some prizes but then seem to disappear without much lasting buzz. I hope it's been bought for the movies or Netflix or HBO or some cable series. It could be spectacular.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Thanks for all the spoilers, r293. Now I can skip the book. :)

I , too, read Eleonor Olyphant, it was better than I thought and uplifting in its way. I liked it while I was reading but felt meh when I finished. The twist was obvious and unnecessary and there were, as said above, inconsistencies and unbelievqble parts.

Did you like Conversation with Friends, r291? Ibought but have not yet read it.

I usually go to the bookstore closest to me, Barnes & Nobles. I will browse, then usually end up buying a few that further interest me. I will buy certain magazines at pharmacies and supermarkets.

I miss the old-time newsstands full of major newspapers from major cities across the country. They carried a lot of paperbacks and a host of specialty magazines.

Just started Jamie Bernstein's memory about her father, Leonard. So far so good.

So far, really loving Circe. Wasn't too thrilled with The Magpies, and I hated the author's attempts to write sexual passages, they were just annoying. Won't be reading his other book.

Who wrote those, r298?

E299: I think Circe is the new Madeline Miller's novel (the author of The song of Achilles)

MAGPIES is by Mark Eden. Not great, but a fun breezy read for a hot summer afternoon.

Just finished CAKES AND ALE by Somerset Maugham, I think suggested way upthread.

Very charming story about a 1920s novelist who is asked to recollect about an acclaimed and recently deceased notorious Victorian author who he knew in his youth. All good except for the occasional bits of anti-Semitism, racism and veiled homosexuality.

I have Cakes and Ale on my to-read pile, but leery as many say it's rough going.

Oh r303, I would never call Cakes and Ale rough going. The first couple of chapters, setting the place and time might be a little tedious but once you're into the 1880s flashback it's quite engaging and never palls. I read it in 2 days which is unusual for me.

Glad you're enjoying Circe r298 one of my top two books I've read this year

Just finished The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Epic novel about AIDS in Chicago in the mid 80s to early 90s, with alternating chapters set in contemporary Paris. I haven't been do powerfully affected by a novel in quite some time.

Any Penelope Lively fans out there?

I'm reading How It All Began, one of her more recent efforts, and its delightful.

"Marlborough's America" about how the first British empire became the playtoy of the professionalized miiltary caste under Queen Anne and the Hanoverians.

Glad your loving Circe R298

I love Lively, too. Haven't read her in a while, though. Remember liking Passing On and Moon Tiger. Any recommendations among her latest books, r307? She really churns them out.

Love Penelope Lively too. Last week I finished Amonites and Leeping Fish. It is a memory and is great, especiay the first chapter on old age.

Earlier in the year read Spiderweb and Passing On. Both are great too.

I ended Grow up by Ben Brooks and just started The power by Naomi Alderman

R284, I would also add "At Danceteria and Other Stories" by Philip Dean Walker to your list of recent AIDS fiction. It's also pretty short. I plowed through it in a single day.

I've been rereading a book I first read in 2009. The Long Emergency: The Converging Catastrophes of The 21st Century. By James Howard Kunstler.

I'm juggling between Dancer from the Dance, Play It As It Lays, and Mrs. Fletcher. DftD gripped me the most. Damn that book is beautifully written. The first two are ebooks and Mrs. Fletcher is a physical copy that my friend let me borrow. I think I like ebooks the most because of how simple it is to annotate and built in dictionaries make it a cinch to just highlight a word and have the definition automatically populate.

315- Have you read Andrew Holleran's The Beauty Of Men? Depressingly good.

R313: The best part of John Irving's In one person deal with the AIDS crisis too.

R315: I'm tempted to read Mrs Fletcher but my other experience with Tom Perrotta (the abstinence teacher) was a bit so so

I'm awaiting delivery of a couple of new Robert M. Price books, 'Holy Fable Volume Three: The Epistles and the Apocalypse Undistorted by Faith,' and 'Bart Ehrman Interpreted.'

r316 it's my first Holleran title, but I'm definitely going to check out his other work. r315 I've only gotten one chapter in so I can't form an opinion yet. My friend loved it so I'll give it a chance.

I loved Andrew Holleran's short story collection In September the Light Changes. Devastating. I believe that's the one where one character describes AIDS in the '80s as "a dinner party where every so often someone is taken from the table and shot outside." I always thought that was brilliant.

To bring some of these posts together, Holleran blurbed "At Danceteria."

R317, that section of "In One Person" is so well written. That book really did feel like vintage John Irving.

I consider DANCER one of the great gay novels ever written. I also recommend Holleran's GRIEF. A beautiful short novel.

Perrotta's MRS. FLETCHER is a sweet beach read but not much more than that. It felt like he wrote it specifically to sell to the movies or cable TV.

And I enjoyed Lively's HOW IT ALL BEGAN, though it would have been better in the hands of a wittier writer like David Lodge.

Any other fans of Lodge out there? I loved all his books (SMALL WORLD, CHANGING PLACES, THERAPY, NICE WORK, etc.) though found the last 1 or 2 wanting.....sadly, he must be quite old and past it now.

I'm an Urban Fantasy fan enjoying "The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant" by Drew Hayes. It's funny without trying to be a knee-slapper, and the main character remains the same sort of sad-sack that he was in life rather than the glittery, suave and sexy monster as portrayed in media, much to the character's displeasure.

I loved the early Lodge books, but haven't picked one up in years.

I am reading Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (no not that one) about a young man who befriends an elderly lady who lives in a kind of London hotel for retirees. I saw the film with Rupert Friend and Joan Plowright some years ago.

ANGEL by Taylor is also wonderful, as are most of her novels.

History of Violence by Édouard Louis. I have liked both books I’ve read by this young French writer.

R327: His novels are interesting but i'm waiting for a good fiction novel from him. He is only 25 and there was just too much drama in his life. Right now he is very busy having fights with Macrom

Ma'am, Darling, a biography of Princess Margaret told in a series of anecdotes.

She was a cunt. It's a great read.

Well at least this time Anderson avoid the break in his first serve of the set

R330: Sorry, wrong thread

I'm about to start The ninth hour by Alice McDermott. I loved Someone

I liked The Ninth Hour a lot, R331. My favorite of her books is still At Weddings and Wakes.

I'm enjoying William Trevor's Love and Summer right now, about a small town in Ireland in the late 1950s and several of its lonely inhabitants. It makes me want to go to Ireland for a little vacation.

[quote]It was only after reading Book 2's Chapter 4 of this novel is when I'd realized this is where Kubrick had plagiarized this novel for the brothel scene in "Eyes Wide Shut."

No. The same scenario appears in any number of illuminati novels. I can’t remember if it crops up in Colin Wilson’s God Of The Labyrinth, but I can remember watching the scene and thinking “How many times have I read this?”

The Magus is another one perhaps.

Finished Invisible Furies and found it very satisfying. Not deep, but eminently readable and nicely sentimental.

[quote]Can anyone recommend a juicy biography of an artist that would be interesting for a person with little art history knowledge to follow?

Two by ultra minor artists.

Serious Pleasures by Philip Hoare. From the base material of an indulged lazy English aristocrat who accomplished almost nothing, Hoare fashions a minor masterpiece of a book.

And an autobiography: High Diver by Michael Wishart. It’s a hypersophiticated memior by a rich bisexual English painter who just sort of idled his way through life sustained by endless money.

I have a teeny detail I hope DL can help me with. I just started Rebecca Makkai's THE GREAT BELIEVERS. In the very early pages of the book, she makes all kinds of specific Chicago references: Halsted, Boystown, Little Jim's...however, on p 11, she refers to the baths as "Man's World." IIRC, isn't the correct name "Man's Country?" The scene is in 1985 - was it ever called "Man's World" back then, or was it always "Man's Country?"

I know this sounds petty, but little errors in books drive me nuts. Help me, Chicago, DLers!

I remember a chain called Man's Country, nothing named Man's World. But I left Chi in 1978.

There was a Man's World in Chicago--a less popular venue (maybe because of location) than MC. I never went to either.

Finished THE GREAT BELIEVERS yesterday. I found it pretty overblown, nearly treacly in parts. Despite all the (evidently carefully researched) details of gay life in Chicago in the mid to late 80s, it became clear to me that this was written by a person who did not actually live through that era. The dual storyline was very distracting and I did not care about the female character's plot line at all. Toward the end, details were stuffed into the narrative strictly for emotional manipulation and political correctness, which I found contrived and phony.

VERY disappointing.

Dear r331, thank you for recommending Alice McDermott's SOMEONE. Gorgeous writing!

Reminds me a bit of Annie Proulx and The Shipping News, both novelists who are able to write simple and unadorned sentences and dialogue spoken by ordinary people that are still so highly evocative and poetic.

I'm about ready to start [italic]Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy[/italic]. It's on my "To Read in 2018" list -- I think it's a good time to start.

Reading the Leonard Bernstein bio now. It moves along quickly and is better than I thought it would be. Started it last night while TCM was showing YOUNG PEOPLE'S CONCERTS on TV!

I have to say that i prefered Someone over The ninth hour by far (too many nuns for my taste), it's a good novel but i loved Someone so my expectations were maybe too high (it happened to me with Eleanor Catton and Rachel Kushner, i loved their first novels and when i read the second ones, that received way more praise, i was a bit dissapointed). Now i'm going to read The obelisk gate by N K Jemisin

After reading and loving Someone I went to my library yesterday to pick out another McDermott. I settled on Charming Billy but couldn't help but notice all of her books seemed to be about Irish-American Catholic families with wayward brothers and sisters. I hope there isn't to much sameness to her books. It's what put me off of Anne Tyler many years ago.

r325 upthread, thanks so much for recommending Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. I'm about 1/2 way through it and love it!

I've just placed several of Taylor's other books on my Amazon Wish List to remind me of her. A View from the Harbour sounded the most promising.

R347, I got into Elizabeth Taylor when I saw the fabulously camp Francois Ozon adaptation of ANGEL with Romola Garai, and when Sarah Waters named her as an influence for her WWII book Night Watch.

I love Elizabth Taylor. Her short stories are very good as well. As for the novels, other than the ones mentioned Blaming is great. I did not enjoy A View of the Harbour very much though.

Elizabeth Bowen is another great Brit who deserves a readership.

Read by Strangers by Philip Dean Walker, a collection of short stories. Equal parts thrilling and horrific. One of the stories gave me a literal nightmare. I loved the prose and some of the characters are pretty unforgettable.

The main characters are mostly straight women although there are some gay stories sprinkled throughout.

I borrowed today [italic]Dodo Wonders[/italic], a 1921 edition, so it has that lovely vanilla old-book scent. Yay!

I'm reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. It's very well written. After that I want to read some fiction with WW 2 as a backdrop, or maybe some historic fiction.

I suffer from persistent extreme headache and eye problems having to stare nonstop at computer screen at work. I want no more screen - even phone - when I'm resting.

Paper books all the way. I have germ problem with borrowed books. I would have no problem devouring books at the library and clean my hands afterwards - but it's far or doesn't always have what I want at the specific moment and most importantly I don't have time to go there.

I'm an extremely quick reader. I sometimes love to very quickly peruse at the barnes&nobles type bookstores who don't mind and actually encourage people to read.

Sometimes I print out pdfs too.

I just read the Obama Biden mystery Hope Never Dies and it was a lot more fun than I expected!

r353, did you read ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE? A lot of WWII in that book.

Thanks R356. I will put that on my list.

Some of you need to consider audio books. You can rent them from the library online, too.

I highly recommend In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson. It's a true story, about our mild mannered, history professor ambassador to Germany on the eve of WW2, as Hitler is taking power. Absolutely riveting.

In the Garden of Beasts is an incredible read. I couldn't put it down and have thought back to it frequently, especially as we descend into fascism in our own country. Love the descriptions of his daughter being wild and fucking Nazis. That would make a great film.

All the Light We Cannot See is one of the best novels I've ever read!

I hope Hollywood doesn't ruin it.

I’m about halfway through The Great Believers and I’m underwhelmed by it. I liked Christadora much better.

Christadora was amazing. Highly recommended!

I’m finally about to read Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. I’ve read great things about it.

Anyone read Megan Abbott? I'm on DARE ME right now.

Whoever dissed Elizabeth Taylor's A View from the Harbour above, I wished I'd heard you before I bought the book. The tone and style were so different from the wonderful Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and I couldn't get past a dozen pages.

Just found her The Wedding Group at the library. I'll give her another try with this one and, at least, didn't spend any money on it.

I also checked out Circe and Eleanor Olyphant, also mentioned, mostly favorably upthread.

Christodora is the superior novel. The Great Believers isn't bad, but its quality does not match the hype.

Has anyone read The House of Impossible Beauties? The author refers to an HIV test in 1983-4 (something which didn't even exist yet). Will make you appreciate the research that went into the other two novels.

Martin Amis's new collection of essays, 'The Rub Of Time.' Excellent.

[quote]Some of you need to consider audio books.

Why? I hate being read to. It puts me to sleep.

Where The Suckers Moon by Randall Rothenberg. Interesting if detailed look at the construction of a doomed advertising campaign for Subaru in the early 1990s.

The girl from Kathmandu

Freshwater by a emezi

She rides shotgun by jordan harper

American wolf

R365: Surprised with that mistake because that novel was hyped before the publication

[quote]Has anyone read The House of Impossible Beauties?

Given the description, I think I can hold off: "transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s and ’90s, inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza"

I read The House of Impossible Beauties and thought it was uneven, but with enough passages of power and "realness" of voice to sustain my interest. I, too, noticed the anachronism of the HIV test--the author should have caught it, and, if not, a good editor--which seems to be the equivalent of a unicorn today. Still worth a read and I'm assigning it in my AIDS novels class this fall ( and will alert students to the historical error). I liked Christodora and The Great Beauties and will assign them too--I agree that Christodora is the better written novel, but I think The Great Beauties is a solid novel--and as someone who came out at Northwestern during that period, it was good to see a representation of the Chicago AIDS movement from that era. My partner at the time was a playwright with Lionheart, the queer company that produced original plays.

Sorry, that should be Great Believers not Great Beauties. I also strongly recommend The Angel of History, about a gay Arab man fluting the AIDS crisis in San Francisco. Rahib Alameddine is the best of the writers and the novel, while denser, is extraordinary.

[quote]My partner at the time was a playwright with Lionheart, the queer company that produced original plays.

Really? They called it "queer"?

What is "fluting"?

R374 I suspect they called it Gay and Lesbian back then. But I think most of the people involved in it were comfortable with the word "queer" to describe themselves and their aesthetics. There was also an LGBT community theatre group (and, yes, it had T performers and characters in the plays) that typically did already-written plays (though a few originals), called "Speak Its Name" (its detractors called it "Shriek Its Name").

R372, would you mind sharing the syllabus for your AIDS novels class? I would love some new recommendations. Just ordered The Angel of History.

At Danceteria and Other Stories might be a good addition to your list. It takes on the AIDS plague in the 1980s through the lens of celebrity.

The angel of history was not published here in Spain yet. I have An unnecessary woman at home but i didn't read it yet.

I think my next novel it'll be The nix by Nathan Hill

r377. It's actually more broadly about AIDS and the Arts and I'm still agonizing over how to narrow it (since I need to devote some time to visual and performing arts, including theatre and film). The absolute must-includes are Sontag's AIDS and Its Metaphors and Arthur Frank's The Wounded Storyteller (the latter not specifically about AIDS, but useful to frame the course) for theory; Paul Monette's Borrowed Time and Abraham Verghese's My Own Country for memoir; The Normal Heart and Angels in America for drama. Films drawn from: Philadelphia, Parting Glances, How to Survive a Plague, Longtime Companion; Dallas Buyers Club, Common Threads, Silverlake Life, Zero Patience, Rent (I'm having them read Sarah Schulman's take-down of it, too). Poetry by a number of writers, including Mark Doty, Essex Hemphill, Thom Gunn, and the recent volume by the young queer black HIV+ poet Danez Smith. Short stories by Sontag, Allen Barnett, Adam Mars-Jones, David Leavitt. Novels: probably Edmund White's The Married Man, maybe Bellow's Ravelstein, maybe Cunningham's The Hours (only a third of it involves AIDS). Definitely The Angel of History, The House of Incredible Beauties, Christodora, The Great Believers. If I had time I'd include some African novels, like Welcome to Our Hillbrow and The Reactive and a Chinese novel Dream of Deng Village. Also wish I had time for such great British writers like Alan Hollinghurst (The Line of Beauty--but 400 pages and AIDS doesn't really become central until 200+ pages in) and Irish writers like the magnificent Colm Toibin (The Blackwater Lighthouse) and Anne Enright (The Green Road). Also spending a day leading them through the misuse of Gaetan Dugas by Randy Shilts and mass media--there's an excellent new scholarly book called Patient Sero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic. Will have them listen to some AIDS-inspired music like Corigliano's Symphony and some disco (Sylvester) and visual arts from Keith Haring to Hugh Steer. I'd love to take them on a field trip to the Whitney to see the David W. exhibit, but I'm too old to arrange such a venture (I'm four hours from NYC--will probably go to it on my own). I'm thinking of doing a scholarly project on AIDS novels written after the advent of protease inhibitors. Why such a resurgence of cultural interest in AIDS these days? Does it feel like "history," rather than "current events"? (Not for those still living with it, those still struggling to get accessible treatment, or the newly infected, I suspect).

r379, the return key to make new paragraphs is your friend.

Close to the Knives, r379. They'll find images of David Woj on their own, but I'm reading it now and it's incredible. No matter what I think of his art, I realize that it's a lesser consideration than his voice and influence. It also doesn't shirk the sexuality aspect that I feel a lot of other books do, Monette excepted.

I am trying to get his bio, too.

R381 Thanks for the reminder--I'm going to give them an excerpt from Close to the Knives. I don't think I have time to do the whole book with them (and I think it would take a lot of unpacking), but they need some connection with his work.

[quote]I'm four hours from NYC

r379 DC?

No, upstate NY

I'm reading DJ Taylor's DERBY DAY, an intricate Victorian mystery very much in the style of Dickens and Trollope. So far, so good. It's intelligently written and researched and was nominated for the Man Booker Prize.

r382 I definitely agree with selecting an excerpt. It's really intense and I imagine that's an already overwhelming syllabus in a lot of ways. And another recommendation for Danez Smith, too. I just read two of his poems yesterday and I didn't know he was +, that's sad. That explains the low key melancholy.

"A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies, and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment' by John Preston about the gay scandal with Jeremy Thorpe in the 60s.

the book adapted into a streaming series with Ben Whishaw and Hugh Grant.

About to start Conscience of a King by Alfred Duggan. About the first saxon king in Britain. A classic

Weird request, I guess: can anyone recommend any Georgette Heyer?

I've read a couple of Heyer's work, and I need to be in the right mood to feel their dazzle. One that I hear named often as one of her best is The Grand Sophy.

I’m in that mood right now. I read an MC Beaton Regency romance (a zippy social comedy, really) and it was zany enough to make me wonder about Georgette.

I'm reading "Days Without End," as recommended upthread, and having very mixed feelings about it.

R393 Can you describe what is "mixed" about your feelings? I liked it a lot, but I can say it gained power and emotion for me as it went along.

Agree, r394. Think it would make an excellent film.

[r394] I find the story compelling enough, though I’m a little iffy on the transvestitism. (Add in the “wedding” and adopted daughter and it borders on Tumblresque, IMO.)

My issues with the book are mainly stylistic choices that the author made. They always advise writers to “show, don’t tell,” but this novel is 100% telling. There are barely even any stretches of dialog between the characters, which for me keeps all of the characters but the narrator at a distance and prevents me from feeling involved in the goings-on. Also, it felt as if the narrative voice changed somewhere near the middle of the novel. It shifted from melodious and literate, easy to imagine being spoken in an Irish lilt, to choppy blocks of sentence fragments. Example:

“She’s took a horse from the field. Must have left in the small hours. Can’t be but six hours ahead. I’ll catch them.”

What started out as one man’s carefully-told reminiscences turned into this stream-of-consciousness style. I’m sure the author had his reasons but it’s a pain in the ass to read for pages on end.

I’m making it sound as if I dislike the book more than I do. I agree it'd be an interesting film.

The World as It Is by Ben Rhodes.

There is definitely a touch of magic realism in DAYS WITHOUT END, but I didn't mind and rather liked that their homosexuality was just blended into the narrative, never discussed or challenged. It just was. I think I read somewhere that Barry is straight and wrote the book for his gay son.

Warlight Michael Ondaatje Just started reading. Seems good so far.

R398 Yes, that's right--and John Irving did the same thing for his gay son with "In One Person." Nice to see dads showing this kind of support for their gay sons. Irving and Edmund White are also close friends.

Clever and kind readers, please help me decide which of these Charles Dickens novels I should read in 2018:

TIRED HAMS

LESBIAN CHICK ONLY

HAKE BLOUSE

OILY TUSH ORTHOPEDICS

RANDY BUGBEAR

FOUL RUM URINATED

BANNED SODOMY

I've already read SOVIET TWIRL, APE EXCRETING TOAST and SCROTAL CHARISMA.

[quote] Weird request, I guess: can anyone recommend any Georgette Heyer?

The best ones I've read have been the aforementioned "The Grand Sophy," "Cotillion" (you'll swear the main male character is gay, and maybe he is!), "Venetia," and "The Nonesuch." "The Corinthian" is also very good.

Just finished, Song of Achilles...good, gay retelling of the Greek tale.

I’m reading the first Hamish Macbeth book, Death Of A Gossip, by M.C. Beaton. It’s about the murder of a society columnist at a Highlands fishing school. Made me want to visit Scotland, stat, and to cook up some fresh trout.

All great fiction is like a brilliantly written mystery.

There may not be a murderer to be revealed but the author creates a tension that makes you constantly want to turn the page to discover what happens next.

And bye, bye, r401. I've banished you from my life and I'll be all the better for it.

I didn't ever think someone would be bothered by novel title anagrams, yet here we are.

R404- The early Hamish books are so much fun. They started going downhill around #25. The characters are all so delightfully bitchy to each other!

"The Day Man Lost: Hiroshima 1945"

Japanese book on the atomic bomb.

R403: To be fair the original was pretty gay too, even Homero's prudity can't hide that

R400: That's true, both novels are dedicated to their gay sons but there's a big difference, for Barry is a totally new theme, in fact a good bunch of booktubers were angry with the way Days without end was promoted (skipping all gay content). For Irving, gay and bisexual characters are nothing new, it's part of the big ensemble of recurrent themes of Irving's books (bisexuality, transexuals, old lady - young man couples, car accidents, circus, bears). In fact even old Irving's novels have very modern themes.

I have some reservations about Days without end, in fact i skipped a book club because i was not in the mood. For some reason i'm more cautious with novels with gay themes, it's like i fear the dissapointment. Right now i'm waiting for the moment to read Days without end and Ross Raisin's A natural (novel wich had a lot of trouble to be published, curiously more than the gay main character was the fact that it's a novel about soccer and publishers thought that would not be interesting for women readers)

Is Days Without End one of Barry's better books? Or has it come up here more because of the gay content?

I've been interested in trying him out and wondering what the best of his books might be.

R401 RANDY BUGBEAR might be an interesting choice--it is unlike almost all other novels by Dickens, in that it is a historical novel (like A Tale of Two Cities) and features a spectrum-ish title character and a pet raven. And you get bragging rights, since probably only some scholars and/or Dickens competists ever read it.

I liked Days Without End quite a bit. The transvestism (I won't say more, to avoid spoiling) seemed to me a kind of nod to transgender history--the probability that people lived across genders before Stonewall, for complicated reasons. And the whole end situation seemed to me an attempt to imagine a utopia--a world that could have existed at some time in the past. So, I didn't worry about the probability of the novel's outcome, but I understand the resistance to or criticism of it on those terms.

Yes, Irving has been moving along complicated gender lines at least as far back as Garp (the first of his novels I read--I didn't read the earlier ones). I wonder if the wrestling culture was part of what led him along those lines--all those male bodies entangled with each other? I run hot and cold on him as a writer--at his best, I am overwhelmed by a large, generous narrative vision, and then there are times when it just doesn't work for me. I think Barry is a more consistently gifted stylist--but they are both worth reading, for different reasons.

Books are back.

R410: Days without end is his last novel, and received a lot of praise (there's even movie plans). Of course Barry is considered one of the best irish authors, so i don't know if it's better or worse than the previous ones (i only have Days without end and i didn't read it yet) but it received pretty much the same attention than his previous work.

All That Man Is by David Szalay -- nine unconnected stories about European men from college age to old age. As one of the blurbs said, it's "bracingly unsentimental about male desire and male failure." And re: male desire, there's no homo, although I've still got a couple of stories to go.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai.

Excellent.

Speaking of Chicago, can anyone recommend a bookstore there? Is there a Strand or a Powell's there that I'm unaware of?

Unabridged is a great store with an extensive gay section. It does not sell used books, but has a great discount/remaindered gay section. If you can get to Hyde Park, there's a Powell's on 57th Street (one on north Lincoln near Andersonville).

Someone said that a bathhouse was misnamed in The Great Believers. I like my gay verisimilitude. Can anyone confirm?

Looking forward to reading it.

Thanks, r418. Appreciate it.

R419. I think people were referring to the novel mentioning Man's World, when Man's Country was the better known, but I do believe there was a lesser place called Man's World as wel.

My LT friend mailed me a copy of [italic]My Search for Warren Harding[/italic] by Robert Plunket. I remember seeing this in W.H. Smith when it came out and hoped someone would buy it for me for Christmas. I thought I'd share as this is the only BBS/forum where I've seen discussion of and approval for the book. I need humour in my life right now.

The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst.

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje.

I am loving The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne. Thank you to all who recommended it upthread!

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America by Alissa Quart, which is basically about the fall of the American middle class. An important but obviously at times disheartening read. Between the pregnancy discrimination faced by so many women and the adjunct college professor with a doctorate who's on food stamps and living in a trailer park, I need a drink.

r422, also recommended highly is Plunkett's Love Junkie. Could make a terrific movie. Wonder what happened to Plunkett.

Some recent reads:

All Families Are Psychotic by Douglas Copeland. Loved this book. The premise is bombastic, but I felt a lot of what it was trying to say about family.

Boy Erased by Garrard Conley. I wanted to read this before the film adaptation.

Read by Strangers by Philip Dean Walker. Intense and oftentimes shocking collection. Beautiful writing. Some of the characters are rather awful people.

Because They Wanted To by Mary Gaitskill. There's a short story in this collection about a man on a plane who reveals to his seatmate that, years ago, he participated in a gang rape. Quite disturbing, but very well written.

Also reading The Sparsholt Affair here. It's a quicker read than I was expecting it to be.

The Woman in the Window. James Pattersonesque screenplay written in prose. Very short chapters. Abusively abundant Hitchcock references. If you apply the basics of thriller plotting, you'll figure it out. 3 out of 5 stars.

The author, AJ Finn, is actually a man. Not in a trans way. He took AJ Finn as his nom-de-plume to suggest an authorial kinship with Gillian Flynn and other such writers of our moment. But he's a guy. Kind of good-looking.

I largely enjoyed The Sparsholt Affair but was irritated that the most interesting character was kept offstage for the vast majority of the book. Perhaps that was the point, but I wanted to know more about him.

MY SEARCH FOR WARREN HARDING is one of my all time faves!! I liked LOVE JUNKIE too. Glad to see some appreciation for them on this thread.

And thanks to whoever recommended Mimi Pond's OVER EASY and THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG - loved these!

[QUOTE]And thanks to whoever recommended Mimi Pond's OVER EASY and THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG - loved these!

That was me and you're most welcome! Such fun reads.

My faves this year were The Nix by Nathan Hill and Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory

I enjoyed Spoonbenders earlier this year enough to recommend it on DL.

What's Over Easy and The Customer Is Always Right about? Can you give us just a little more encouragement?

Utopia's Debris-Essays by Gary Indiana

One of the last of the legendary, NYC liberal, old art guard. They're almost all gone now--Albert Murray, Hentoff, Wojnarowicz, etc. Did anyone ever replace them, or are we fucked? Seriously. I know I sound like a Mary!, and maybe I am, but I don't see a new generation. I'm living in a foreign cow town, so maybe I just missed it.

[quote]That someone can be a shit in private and one of the world's most formidable writers, concert pianists, philosophers or anything else in public is one of the many contradictions we have to live with...

Not anymore. Try floating that opinion today and see how far you get. *sigh* I'm only a junior e-gay, but I'm still too old for this shit.

They are graphic novels by Mimi Pond, recalling her years working as a waitress in the early 70s in Oakland CA while aspiring to become a cartoonist. Replete with wonderful characters, and very evocative of that period. I had never really read a graphic novel before, other than the complete DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR, but they are easy to follow and you really get into them.

I have never read any James Baldwin. Where should I start?

Just finished reading Bad Blood by John Carreyrou and currently reading The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston. Both are well written and great reads.

If you're interested in a well-written gay memoir, try "Insomniac City" by Bill Hayes. Being Oliver Sacks' partner (widower) is central to the story, but he doesn't use that fact as a hook to shill his work; it's his story in its own right.

Regarding William Trevor ... I really liked Miss Gomez and the Brethren, as well as The Boarding-House. So, I have "Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel" out from the library to start later this month.

Just finished Paul Theroux's "Deep South" for a group read online. I came into the book with low expectations of fearing he would be a confrontational curmudgeon, but he was fairly polite, respectful and inquisitive throughout the entire trip; I feel I learned a lot from the book.

R392 - are those the M C Beaton Regency stories where each book is told from the viewpoint of a different character? That series was great!

r483, the obvious choice is GIOVANNI'S ROOM, which is short and powerful and about a gay relationship. Beyond that, I think ANOTHER COUNTRY I think received his best (fiction) reviews. But IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK is forthcoming as a film, directed by the MOONLIGHT guy, Barry Jenkins, so that novel could be a good beginner, too.

r441 meant r438.

Yes, thanks r442. Morning dyslexia.

Baldwin's collected essays are good, too. I'd read Giovanni's Room and wade into the essay collection.

If you like eclectic AA writers, John Edgar Wideman is interesting, as is Edwidge Danticat, although I've only read her non-fiction memoirs.

Danticat's story collection, Kric-Krac and her novel The Dew Breaker (semi-autobiographical) are also excellent.

I'm just about halfway through "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" which I like so far, despite the revelations so far of her grim past, and aspects of a not so upbeat present (possibly near future as well). Author is gifted as using others' interactions with her to contrast Eleanor's self-perception.

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future...and our end.

R446: I found Eleanor Olyphant entertaining and that's all. I understand why some people like the novel that much, and i understand why it sold so well, but i found it as cheating as Gone girl (in a totally different way). It's true that there are parts that are very funny, and Honeyman didn't put the trauma front and center (which i appreciate) but for such i hyped novel i expected some more.

But i like hyped novels, and given the lack of american hyped novels published here (my absolute darling was not published here yet), i think i'm going to try the other british hyped novel, Sally Rooney's Conversations with friends.

I want to read Imagine me gone this summer too, i bought it a year ago and it's time to give it a try

Anyone read Penelope Fitzgerald's At Freddie's, about an eccentric elderly woman who runs a drama school for children in London in the 1960s? Or any of her other novels?

I'm struggling with her even though she would seem to be right up my alley.

r449, I totally agree. I've finished only one of her novels (At Freddie's) but tried several others, including The Blue Flower, supposedly her best, So far I haven't found any of them worth the effort. But I really want to like her, given the reviews she's received.

I went through all, or at least most of, Fitzgerald's work in a binge phase probably a decade ago now. Doesn't really mean much, but the title Golden Child seems to stick it out in my dim memory as the one I found the most outstanding?

Golden Child was her first. Haven't tried that one.

There's a film coming out of Fitzgerald's The Bookshop (is that the title the novel had?)

[quote]The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Excellent.

I'm about 100 pages in and really like it so far. You don't need to know Chicago to enjoy it, but there are lots of 80s-era reference points if you're familiar with the city.

Looking for suggestions, has anyone read The Flight Attendant or Woman In The Window? Or are they just copies of the Gone Girl structure? Or on the sci-fi front, 14 or Blackfish City?

Read WOMAN and it was better than average. Not great, but pretty much kept me guessing. Expecting it will make a better film than novel. Doesn't use multiple narrators a la GONE GIRL, but the narrator is indeed unreliable.

Vulture listed the faves in Real Crime of several big mystery writers. Laura Lippmann suggested EVIDENCE OF LOVE, wherein a Texas housewife slaughters with an ax one of her best friends. Enjoying it a lot.

Lately, I've been choosing books that have recently received *starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and they have been really excellent.

R457: Generally their reviews are accurate but of course they gave a star to The girl on the train which is dreadful (even for a summer read).

I ended a noir from the spanish writer Toni HIll (i don't know if he is translated to other languages) and i was pleasantly surprised again (it's the second novel on a series). It's addictive, with an unexpected killer (but not out of the blue) and even had a gay character who is not a cliche. After disspointments from critic loved authors (Benjamin Black, Jo Nesbo, Fred Vargas) it's good to get a positive surprise on the genre from time to time

I like that Kirkus doesn't play the "scared cows" game and isn't afraid to give a negative review to something like the latest John Irving. They're quite sparing and persnickety with their stars. Some of their reviews can be quite brutal.

The Girl on the Train was awful. But I agree with their star for Gone Girl.

They went completely apeshit over A Little Life, awarding it their $50K Kirkus Prize for Fiction. I am a huge fan of the novel so that made me happy.

R458, what's the second novel called?

R459: Gone girl is a very cheating novel, but it has characters with charisma, a very dark sense of humor, and addictive plot and a nice mix of genres.

The gilr on the train is a dull novel with a completely predictable plot (and the quality of the writting is not the same either).

Ah, A little life, that novel can be perfect for debate of hours and hours. It's such masochistic exercise that i can perfectly understand the people who love it and the people who hated it (i came a little in the middle).

In the case of A little life the disparity of oppinions is easy to understand but it amazed me that in my book forum it happened the same with Shotgun love songs which is probably the less controversial novel in recent years, but half of the people who read it love it and think it's a great novel about male friendship and the other half that novel is pure crap (and that's my case)

R460: Well i found that in fact that some of his novels are translated. This is a series about inspector Salgado, the first one is The summer of the dead toys, the second The good suicides and the third The hiroshima lovers.

The summer of the dead toys was a surprise hit some years ago. I read it last summer and i love it, and decide to read it one every summer (like i used to do with Gyllian Flynn, till i ended all her novels).

I only read the first two ones (i ended the second today) and both are addictive, with a good plot (and several subplots) and good resolution. They are not masterpieces but great summer reads

Age of Myth. Epic fantasy for those who like that.

About a person who murders a god, and the war than ensues. Simple plot but compelling characters and thoughtful dialogue

I picked up "Read by Strangers" recently, a collection of short stories, and could not put it down. Dark, crazy, sometimes funny with fascinatingly real characters and some very original plots. It's a mix of women on the verge and gay men involved in rough trade. The final story imagines what a Holocaust for gays might look like in the beginning days and was extremely eerie. Highly recommended.

I just checked and it also received the Kirkus Star.

r456, I remember reading the true crime Evidence of Love years ago when it first came out and absolutely loving it. A true page-turner. I think it was made into a less-than-great TV movie.

Penelope Fitzgerald's Golden Child: another novel that in description sounds like my perfect book and yet I've tried reading it about 3 times, never passing about 30 pages. Her sentences are very....elliptical. Maybe more enjoyable if you're British.

I wondered if EVIDENCE was made into a movie of some type. I'll search for it. Thanks!

A few hugely popular recent novels that I just couldn't get into because IMHO the author's voice doesn't have the ring of truth; the characters don't really behave like real people:

A Little Life

The Nix

Eleanor Olyphant

The Heart's Invisible Furies

I'm reading Eleanor Oliphant now - of course she doesn't behave like a real person as she had a very damaging, traumatic past.

r467, three of those novels you mention were among my favorites of the last several years. "Ring of truth" is not something I insist on in my reading; I get plenty of "truth" in real life.

R467 I could not get through The Nix, and wish I hadn't finished A Little Life, for pretty much the reason you cite. That author didn't know anything about being gay. I shall continue to ignore the other two on your list.

If I recall correctly, Hanya Yanagihara asked a gay male couple (with whom she was friends) if she could watch them have sex while perched on a fire escape outside their apartment. I'm pretty sure she told this story during a Q&A I went to when A Little Life first became popular.

The gay sex in A Little Life was just not convincing.

For those who have read The Great Believers, does the gay sex in that book have verisimilitude? IS there any sex?

[quote]"scared cows"

Not going to 'Oh dear' R459 because it's such a sweet typo.

I loved The Nix, one of my faves this year.

A little life is a hit or miss, it's an over the top melodrama, it's an exercise of pure masochism. There are a lot of people who hate the novel, but for sure there are even more that love it.

I was surprised when i read an article claiming it was the great american gay novel of our time when it's obvious that it's not (and she doesn't pretend it to be either). First, everything happens on a bubble, there's nothing that indicates the years they are living, no historical facts. But of course i read a similar article bashing The art of fielding, The emperor's children and The interesting for failing on being the great american gay novel, when it was pretty obvious the authors only wanted to include gay characters but that was all.

I started today Imagine me gone. I bought it last year and expected to read back to back with Ann Patchett's Commonwealth but then i wasn't in the mood for that kind of story. I liked Union Atlantic so i expect to like Imagine me gone too

I thought Imagine Me Gone had A LOT of problems and was just not a successful novel at all. I was surprised as I really enjoyed Haslett's short story collection years ago.

[QUOTE]I was surprised when i read an article claiming it was the great american gay novel of our time when it's obvious that it's not (and she doesn't pretend it to be either).

The article you reference was written by Garth Greenwell. I know his What Belongs to You has a ton of fans, but I wasn't one of them. It seemed like a very thinly-veiled autobiographical account of the author's unrequited love for a prostitute, a story I've read better many times before.

R474: What belongs to you will be published here next month.

Yanagihara and him are good friends but not even with that is understable to define A little life as a great american gay novel. It's more a novel about abuse (and torture, and pain) than any other thing

Greenwell was projecting big time in that article about the great gay American novel (I think it was in the Atlantic?) He was really trying to say that his OWN book should hold that title.

I actually don't care much about gay or straight sex scenes in novels

When i think about "a great american gay novel" i think in something more on Christodora vein. Something historically relevant and with some development over time (i'm talking simply by the plot because unfortunately Christodora was not publised here yet).

A little life is a story that lives in a bubble, Yanagahira really has a talent to inflict suffering in her readers, the novel is excessive (as she wanted it to be) but it has no connection with gay reality.

What belongs to you can't be considered a great americna novel when a big part of the story happens on Bulgaria.

I don't care that much about sex scenes, i'm not prude and i don't care that a novel has a lot of sex scenes but even great writers like Phillip Roth fail miserably describing sex scenes most of the time. But i liked the sex scene on At swim two boys (i loved that novel)

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME has brilliant sex scenes.

R479: I hated Call me by your name sex scenes, but to be fair i hated the novel as a whole too

I loved Christodora and I'm the poster who listed the 4 novels that didn't do it for me if you need a frame of reference for my taste. I also loved All the Light We Cannot See.

And Middl sex from the last decade.

I’m friends with Tim Murphy, the author of Christodora, and he just announced that he has a new novel coming out in 2019!

Reading Stephen McCauley's "My Ex-Life." About as light as a meringue. Very enjoyable summer reading (and just like all his other books if you've read any of them).

I hope Christodora will be published here in Spain soon (that and Reservoir 13 and The Gustav sonat)

Christodora would make an excellent miniseries.

Am I the only one who doesn't care for Sedaris reading his own stuff? His latest book is available from my local library via their popular book non-reservable, two week non-renewable checkout program at a couple of branches.

I hope McCaulay's book doesn't have the couple trying het sex again. If so, tell us now please!

I started reading McCauley's My Ex-Life this summer, but didn't finish it. It seemed so heterosexual, I forgot the main character was gay.

Right now I'm finding EF Benson's Lucia in London is giving me great solace in these disheartening last days of summer.

[quote]DL poll: How do you read most of your new books?

Kindle via my library. I clicked "get from library."

I'm still obsessed with the Franklin Expedition since watching 'The Terror' on AMC this spring. Now I'm reading "Captain Francis Crozier: Last Man Standing?"

Puzzlingly, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN recently was adapted to the stage in Britain!

It’s kind of terrible. I do get the Gillian Flynn hype, though. She is a better writer, (albeit not really as a “crime” writer, per se) and her characters are bitter and and very real. She’s funny too.

I added SUCCESS: THREE YEARS IN THE LIFE OF A PROVINCE by Lion Feuchtwanger to my abebooks cart in 2010 and it sat there purchased long ago by someone else for. I was clearing out my account and saw the book for $20 and bought it.

I had to google what the book was. It was published in 1930, about an art gallery curator arrested on trumped up charges the rise of Nazis (called “True Germans”) in Bavaria. Hitler is fictionalised in the setting of the Beer Hall Putsch.

I had to buy a delicate and feeble copy the first edition of the English translation because it has long been out of print, I have no idea where the book was recommended to me, but I can’t wait to crack into it.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le GuinGuin.

Its fucking great.

Ursula Le GuinGuin, so nice they named her twice.

Has anyone read Crazy Rich Asians?

I'm always tempted to buy it but now that the movie is out (and has gotten raves) maybe I'll pass.

I started it recently and thought it seemed rather wanly written, very much a beach read. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just nothing stylish or witty. Not sure if I'll return to it, especially, as r495 says, the movie will do most of the work for me.

Algren: A Life by Mary Wisniewski. It is a much better biography than the one that came out a few decades ago. At the same time, I am also reading Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F., written by Stefan Aust. I believe it's topical, as people of today are "taking to the streets" to not only protest, but force change (such as the removal of statues). This book examines how far people are willing to go and how they justify it. Much like the activists of today, the people who went on to bomb army bases and kidnap a government official came from middle class homes and had a good education. I would really recommend this one.

Just started reading “The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West”. I’m only a couple of chapters into the book and was already familiar with a few of the topics the author brought up so it feels like a rehash of events so far. I bought the audible to listen while in my car or on the treadmill at the gym but the narrator sounds like Agent Smith from The Matrix.

Having just seen the film of Crazy Rich Asians I REALLY have no interest in reading the book. Its screenplay is one of the worst aspects of this awful film.

'Francis Bacon In Your Blood' by Michael Peppiatt.

Bacon's best biographer has quite recently published the above more personal memoir about as a student becoming Bacon's confidante.

It's riveting about the milieu of 60s Soho bohemia, and Bacon's magnetic character. Well-written, insightful, and an absorbing read.

I'm going to start Conversations with friends (i have a think for hyped debut novels)

R501: A thing

I'm zipping through some of J.A. Jance's novels, the second half of the J.P. Beaumont series. I'm depressed, and I find these comforting. I used to live in Seattle, where they take place.

Just found an advance copy of a new (fat!) bio of Edward Gorey. Can't wait.

I'm looking forward to new books by two of my favorite novelists this fall: Kate Atkinson and William Boyd.

Anyone here from the UK? Have they already appeared in bookstores there?

Jeffrey Archer’s first volume of prison diaries. Surprisingly (for me, never read him before) well written and interesting.

It is fortunate he seems to be an extreme extrovert who enjoys talking to anyone, and takes relatively little office when being insulted.

Just finished an interesting book called CARELESS PEOPLE: Murder, Mayhem and the invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell. Deconstructs GG chapter by chapter and compares it to events in Fitzgerald's life and a highly publicized New Jersey murder case that may have afforded some plot details. Interesting stuff.

I love THE GREAT GATSBY and try to reread it every summer.

Thought the Nix, A little Life and Less were hugely over-rated. I couldn't even get through A little Life. I loved The Song of Achilles, A Gentleman in Moscow, Bettyville, All the Light We Cannot See, IMHO all deserving of praise. I am reading Leonardo Da Vinci now, it's pretty good.

R508: Curiously i think All the light we cannot see is one of the weakest Pulitzers in recent years. I enjoyed the book, the characters were nice, but the truth is that i forget them once i ended the novel. It's a great bestseller but not an amazing literary novel.

The song of Achilees is a nice retelling but i was not that impressed either. I didn't read A gentelman in Moscow (it was not published here yet) but i loved Rules of civility

I started "The Interpreter" by Suki Kim, which I wasn't sure I could get into, but am hooked.

"Bettyville" was terrific!

Ned Rorem's Diary, "Lies: 1986-1999." Picked it up at a used bookstore. Read The Paris and New York Diaries decades ago, when I was a gaying in my first serious relationship with a theatre critic who gave me the books and who clearly wanted to be Rorem. Rorem can be a bit of an egotist, but his writing is excellent. I gather the last third is harrowing, as it covers the death of his partner Jim Holmes. Edmund White wrote the introduction--which is even more twee and full of itself than Rorem's writing, if that's imaginable.

Fun fact: Rorem and I share the same birthday (NOT the same year, I might add).

R509 I think the short chapters kept All the Light... From achieving depth. Of course, many readers love it because you can read a chapter between tweets. I've been told his short stories are much better.

I started All the Light but didn't finish it. I don't remember why it didn't catch, but it didn't.

I thought that 'All The Light..." read like a YA novel. A better-than-normal YA novel, but a YA novel nonetheless.

I love Rose Tremain too, The Gustav Sonata and The Road Home are both excellent. Read a Gentleman in Moscow it is wonderful.

House of Mirth thanks to a recommendation here

Something to listen to as you read, OP.

R514 I think that's a very smart way to describe it. And, had it been marketed it as such, I can see it winning the Printz (the Newbery equivalent for YA novels) or even the Newbery. But I want something written for adult readers for the Pulitzer--that does not mean ponderous--I was happy to see "Less" win, for example. There is a lightness to it that still has resonance for many adult readers (I realize not everyone liked it).

I felt the same way about "Less" as you did, R518. I thought the novel accumulated in meaning as Arthur progressed through his itinerary. Although, I really did think the ending was ridiculous and unnecessary.

[QUOTE]Curiously i think All the light we cannot see is one of the weakest Pulitzers I have to agree with this as well. Someone said that you forgot most of it the second you were finished and that was definitely my experience. Like, I think there was a blind girl and that's almost all I remember at this point.

I'm a writer myself who's friends with certain writers who might be in the mix this year. Let's just say that the author of a popular novel that has been discussed here thinks that they are almost assured to be nominated for a Pulitzer this year. I have a new book out myself and would never think it would be on that type of radar. But this writer is quite confident about it!

I felt the same way about "Less" as you did, R518. I thought that the novel accumulated in meaning as Arthur progressed through his travel itinerary. Although, I really did think the ending was ridiculous and unnecessary.

Curiously i think All the light we cannot see is one of the weakest Pulitzers

I have to agree with this as well. Someone said that you forgot most of it the second you were finished and that was definitely my experience. Like, I think there was a blind girl and that's almost all I remember at this point.

I'm a writer myself who's friends with certain writers who might be in the mix this year. Let's just say that the author of a popular novel that has been discussed here thinks that they are almost assured to be nominated for a Pulitzer this year. I have a new book out myself and would never think it would be on that type of radar. But this writer is quite confident about it!

I couldn't get through A Gentleman in Moscow. Wanted to like it but put it down halfway through. It just didn't catch on for me.

Thought it was too long, but loved Rules of Civility.

Someone lent me Rules of Civility years ago and I never read it. I need to revisit now after all these recommendations.

We are reading "At Bertram's Hotel" by Agatha Christie.

Currently reading "Boy Erased." I'm enjoying it so far and it's well written.

I’m having trouble keeping the time periods distinct in CHRISTODORO. But I’m really enjoying THE HISTORIAN, which handles four timelines (so far; I’m halfway through) in a clear and suspenseful way.

I recently read the classic gay memoir "My Father and Myself" by J.R. Ackerley. It's about the relationship between the openly gay English writer Ackerley (born in 1896) and his secretive father who grew up in the mid-Victorian era. It is astoundingly truthful about the connection between father and son (and the failure to connect). We think that olden days were calmer, less complex and more virtuous than today but Ackerley shows otherwise. Also somewhat shocking is his portrayal of organized gay life in the first half of the 20th century. Highly recommended.

[quote]I’m having trouble keeping the time periods distinct in CHRISTODORO.

I need to read this again. I know I liked it, but at this point, I no longer recall different time periods.

Done. Ordered. Two books ahead of it.

Another Rose Tremain fan here!

It saddens me to read all the dissing here of All the Light We Cannot See. I loved it and remember the characters vividly.

Same R530 but there is no accounting for taste. Granted, a Pulitzer doesn't mean shit nowadays. Less? Puhlease.

Not remembering a book I didn't finish isn't "dissing" it.

Vanessa and Her Sister is fantastic. The prose is beautiful. If you are interested about the Bloomsbury Group with the literary Virginia Woolf/EM Forster clique then this book is for you.

Ackerly's MY Dog Tulip is also recommended, especially for dog lovers.

Some books work well for many readers, but others can't get into them. Marilynne Robinson's "Housekeeping" is beautifully written, but I remained frustrated that it was so interior-focused that not much actually "happens"!

I believe there is no art more subjective than popular fiction.

[quote]I believe there is no art more subjective than popular fiction.

And I am glad for that. There's lots of room.

So far this summer:

A Man Called Ove - borrowed from a friend and hated it. Wanted to see what the fuss was about. Depressing nationalist frau crap.

Just Kids by Patti Smith. So beautifully written. Very touching. She is walking history.

M Train by Patti Smith. My mind wandered but still a beautiful read.

On to Less now.

Just finished My Way Of Life by Joan Crawford. Amazing! I've started reading The Misfortune of Marion Palm? Has anyone read it? I'm 50 pages in but am curious if the writing style gets old after a while.

I think not finishing a book is equal to dissing (dismissing?) it. Which is fine if you didn't like the book.

"Dissing" = "disrespecting." I did not disrespect it. I just didn't finish it. I may still read it someday.

In fact, I just put it on hold at the library, so I'll try again.

A college literature professor told us that if a book hadn't grabbed you by page 50 (or maybe 100, depending on the length) then it was OK to put it down and move on to something. You may pick it up again years later and be engrossed by it. Or not. It's neither the author's nor your fault.

And slightly off-topic, re R533, anyone interested in the Bloomsbury Group should seek out the British miniseries Life In Squares. I should have done a quick Wikipedia refresher on the Group before I watched it, but the visuals are nice, especially if you like to see DL fave James Norton (as Duncan Grant) kissing lots of men.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, R542. A friend mentions the Bloomsberries incessantly. I hope he will watch Life in Squares, to which I have now sent him a link.

R530: Don't get me wrong, i liked All the light we can not see, i think it's a good novel, but while i loved the story and the characters while i was reading the book the truth is the novel barely came to my mind after i finished it. On the other side i had a rocky relationship with Salvage the bones, i loved one chapter and hated the next, and i was very far from being in love with Ward's writing style but the novel and its characters came to my mind a lot of times (i'm curious about Sing unburied sing which will be published in Spain next month, to see if i have a similar reaction).

I'm thinking on reading the tsar of love and techno, i loved A constellation of vital phenomena so i want to give Marra another try

And i'm going to read soon The miracles of blood, i just loved The glorious heresies so i want to know what happened with the characters

Has anyone read A SUITABLE BOY? The length is putting me off.

The Patrick Melrose books are engaging and well written. Some better than others but I enjoyed.

R545: I always was interested in A suitable boy but the length (and the fact that here is Spain is quite expensive even the cheaper version) made me buy An equal music first. Unfortunately i didn't read it yet, but if i like it i would try a suitable boy (the plot looks very interesting)

R546: My fave was Mother's milk but i have to recognize that i was a little dissapointed with Lost for words, some parts are very funny but in my opinion the novel waste it's potential. St Aubyn prose is really fantastic anyway

I understand that Seth is working on a similarly long sequel to SUITABLE BOY. Might be SUITABLE GIRL, but I'm not sure.

Has anyone read At Danceteria?

That was short stories, right, r550? If so, I read it. Didn't make much of an impression.

I am reading 'Journey to the end of Night, by L.F. Celine currently. Last month I was reading a lot of Baldwin, he was an incredible writer - I read mainly novels but planning to read his essays once I am done with Celine.

To practice my Spanish, I am reading "Final de Partida" ("Endgame"), by Ana Romero, about the scandals and last years on the throne of King Juan Carlos I. It's quite juicy. Turns out it was a free download with Amazon Prime membership.

Next, in the same vein, will be "La Soledad de la Reina" ("The Loneliness of the Queen"), by Pilar Eyre, about poor ex-Queen Sofia of Spain, whose husband has treated her like a brute, from what I have read thus far.

I know, I know ... before someone says it: "MARY!"

No, r553: MARIA!

I read the first 200 pages or so of A Suitable Boy and was enjoying it but ultimately gave up because I felt too under-educated about Indian politics and also because the paperback was too heavy and cumbersome to carry around with me in NYC.

I do hope to return to it eventually when I'm old and retired.

But I'm surprised Bollywood hasn't turned it into a mini-series.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks, where I abandon them after an hour, unless I've been warned the book is worth it after a slow start.

Marion Palm, unfortunately, seems to be frau-ish.

R550, I’ve read it and liked it. My favorite story was the opener which is about Halston, Liza, and Andy Warhol attending a JCPenney fashion show.

"I started reading McCauley's My Ex-Life this summer, but didn't finish it. It seemed so heterosexual, I forgot the main character was gay."

I just finished it and I'm done with McCauley. The plotting in the book gets lazy and the deux-ex-machina at the end involving an SF real estate agent's change of heart was beyond unbelievable.

My main issue with McCauley is that it's clear from his books that he believes the only lasting and genuine relationships are between men and women, even if the man is gay and the woman straight. He's basically the literary answer to Will & Grace. The lead character in this books is a 50-something gay man who's never had a lasting relationship with a man and re-connects with his ex-wife to help her sort out her life and help her daughter get into college. There's a very brief dalliance with a local gay man but it doesn't go anywhere due to a misunderstanding.

I get the feeling that characters like this are projections of McCauley himself and that he just can't manage a long-term same-sex relationship (there's no mention of a partner/husband in the book flap bio).

McCaulay has a partner. I tried reading that guy's book, but gave up early on.

R549. Seth Rudetsky is rioting another novel? CAN'T WAIT!!! I'm sure it will be ah-mahzing!!!!

Kisses.

I might try An Equal Music before A Suitable Boy.

Speaking of India, has anyone read Rohinton Mistry?

Yes, I read Mistry heads ago; he's quite a good author.

"heads ago"?

r562, are you Jeffrey Dahmer?

[quote] [R549]. Seth Rudetsky is rioting another novel?

We're all having a little trouble with Autocorrect tonight, aren't we?

Sorry, years ago.

The Quest For Queen Mary. Non fiction. Gay biographer interviews aged courtiers & wacky minor royals in search of his subject. It begs for dramatisation. “Don’t put it in the book... socialists you know!” begs one old dear when he confides that in her widowhood in 1950s, Queen Mary was living with over 60 servants!!!

Now I'm waiting for Tolkien's The Fall of Gondolin. Out soon.

R564. Yes, that was me. In my haste to post, I didn't proofread for Autocorrect. But it also seems like the kind of thing SR would say.

Turn off Autocorrect or stop whining about it.

Agreed on McCauley's My Ex-Life, R558. It started off fine for a summer read, but then he lost the plot (literally). The best/funniest characters (or caricatures) were the tertiary ones. Also, he's been writing variations on the same book since The Object of My Affections. I want to like his work more, but if I'm going to read a repetitive novelist, well, there's Miss Austen and you can't beat her. (Full disclosure: I met McCauley once at a party a zillion years ago in Cambridge, Mass. He was very nice, if perhaps a bit socially awkward.)

R566: More tidbits about Queen Mary, please. It's a tempting buy.

I'm reading a really good book right now.

Reading Avid Reader, Robert Gottlieb's memoir, which was mentioned on the Bette Davis/Katherine (sic) Hepburn thread.

It's kind of disappointing. The early sections about the publishing world of Simon & Schuster are interesting but, I mean, he's known practically everyone famous in the 20th century and he's rather reluctant to dish.

Gottlieb's book is hilarious when you count the number of times when he writes, "my dear friend," "my longtime pal," "one of my closest confidants," etc.

What is it, R571?

There there and Speak no evil are going to be published here by the end of the year (which is very soon given both novels were published this year in the USA).

I read a lot of positive things about There there. Not so much about Speak no evil (that plot doesn't promise a lot of fun either)

R575 Speak No Evil, by Uzodinma Iweala, is now available. I just ordered it. Thank you.

N OR M by Agatha Christie. Getting my Tommy and Tuppence fix. It’s a spy story, in which our dashing duo go undercover at a Bournemouth hotel to uncover a pair of Fifth Columnists!

I'm reading FIRE IN THE BELLY, the biography of David Wojnarowicz by Cynthia Carr. I'm 200 pages in and so far it's been a fascinating read. He was a very interesting man (there are excerpts from his diaries in the book), very observant and thoughtful, and insanely talented (he had no formal art education). There is a lot about Peter Hujar in the book too, and so you get a sense of the downtown art scene in the 70s and 80s, the good and the bad.

And David and Peter were very different as artists and people. It's interesting to learn two different points of view on success and commercialization of art (Hujar was very rigid in that regard).

I'm at the point in the book where AIDS was hardly in the news and there was very little known about it publicly.

I'm reading FIRE IN THE BELLY, the biography of David Wojnarowicz by Cynthia Carr. I'm 200 pages in and so far it's been a fascinating read. He was a very interesting man (there are excerpts from his diaries in the book), very observant and thoughtful, and insanely talented (he had no formal art education). There is a lot about Peter Hujar in the book too, and so you get a sense of the downtown art scene in the 70s and 80s, the good and the bad.

And David and Peter were very different as artists and people. It's interesting to learn two different points of view on success and commercialization of art (Hujar was very rigid in that regard).

I'm at the point in the book where AIDS was hardly in the news and there was very little known about it publicly.

I just read Conversations with friends and frankly i don't get the hype. Yes, she has style and probably will write really good novels in the future but that's an ok debut and not a great one.

Of course i could say the same of Sweetbitter or Eleanor Olyphant is completely fine.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Homegoing but in my opinion is a vastly superior novel.

It's curious that lately the overhyped debut novels are coming from UK and Ireland instead of the USA

What belongs to you will be published here next week. I was very curious from the beginning. I knew Greenwell as critic and i liked his style but when i read the plot of the novel i thought that i just read and watched that plot a thousand times (the 90's where very prolific in main characters relationships with prostitutes both straight and gay versions) and surprised me a lot that it got mainstream appeal. I know gay writers and novels with gay characters are more and more common and it got way more attention outside of the niche but it was nominated to some of the big awards. Of course that doesn't really mean a thing, Exit West received similar kind of attention and i hate that novel with passion

I liked but didn't exactly love What Belongs to You. It's on the grim side, and I kept telling the narrator, "No, no, just walk away, this can't end well."

Just about 50 pages into Annie Proulx's epic French Canadian tale BARKSKINS and loving it.

Just finished Ned Rorem's "Lies: A Diary." The last 100 pages chronicles the death of his partner Jim Holmes from AIDS. Some of the most harrowing, moving writing on the subject I've ever read.

[quote]Just about 50 pages into Annie Proulx's epic French Canadian tale BARKSKINS

Any tire irons?

Gottlieb peppers his conversations with that "my dear friend," too.

Then, when one of them breaks off relations (as sometimes happens among these spirited personalities of the great world), that phrase changes to "the dread.

So you know when Gottlieb and Katharine Hepburn stopped speaking: she became "Kate the dread" all of a sudden.

And there were others.

I'm reading The trouble with goats and sheep by Joanna Cannon

I'm looking forward to Sarah Schulman's new novel next week, Maggie Terry.

Well, i'm ending witht eh goats and the sheep (i like the novel way more than i was expecting) and i think i will try My brilliant friend by Elena Ferrante

One of my faves this year is North facing by Tony Peake, about a young boy wanting to be accepted by the cool guys in the South Africa of the 60's, on the verge of Mandela's trial and with the menage of the Cuban misile crisis. Very moving

Which books are people bandying around for a Pulitzer this year? I know that Rebecca Makkai fully expects to make the shortlist for The Great Believers.

Depending on how it is received, I would think Gary Shteyngart's (sp?) new novel might show up on lists of award-contenders. Does Oates have a book of fiction that might be considered? I suspect she may be the Glenn Close of writers of fiction.

I’ve been on an Ian Rankin detective mysteries kick and find them evocative but not very challenging... what to read next?

Can anyone recommend any good short story collections that have come out recently?

R590: I think it's too soon for the Pulitzer but i expect The mars room, There there and My year of rest and relaxation (i have to say that i was not a fan of Eileen). The great believers seen to be other favourite to get the nomination.

But NBA generally bring some surprises

What is NBA?

R594: I wanted to say that i expected those books being nominated to the National Book Award

r593, not recent, but if you haven't read stories by the recently deceased William Trevor, you should. Also I hear good things about the stories of the aforementioned Ottessa Moshfegh, HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD.

Oates was not always the bridesmaid. She won the NBA for THEM, way way back.

Re Oates: I meant for the Pulitzer and Nobel.

Can't see her EVER winning the Nobel.