What books are you reading in 2018? Part 2

I am about to start ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL by Sarah Vaughan. It is apparently a #MeToo courtroom thriller.

TANGERINE was just ok, I thought. A bit predictable.

Traveling with Tana French's THE TRESPASSER. Forgot how good her books are.

The NBA longlist is full of surprises this year, some obvious snubs like My year of rest and relaxation or The mars room (previous Kushner's novels were nominated for the NBA and this one is nominated to the Booker).

The great believers made the longlist which makes me wonder if some themes are more easy to digest mainstream if they are written by women than by gay men

Just finished Greer's "Less". Can't imagine why he got the Pulitzer for it, but if Ronan Farrow was awarded the prize, anything is possible.

Now reading Le Carre's A Legacy of Spies. Le Carre's politics are appalling, but his prose and writing style are complete and utter joys. I so thoroughly enjoy him that right after I finished the book, I started reading it again.

Next on the nightstand, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.

99% of my books are Kindle copies from the library. Font embiggening has become critical.

After watching a PBS documentary on Basquiat, I'm now re-reading The Andy Warhol Diaries. He was funny.

R4, how are Le Carre’s politics? I’ve not read anything of his published after 1996.

Tangerine was purchased because I was fooled by the dizzying advertising. The cover blurbs referenced Donna Tartt, Patricia Highsmith, Gillian Flynn and Alfred Hitchcock (thanks Joyce Carol Oates!) and Rindlell described the author as the literary heir to Daphne Du Maurier. If that wasn’t bad enough, the cover picture is of Suzy Parker (MARY!).

So far it is not living up to expectations. AT ALL.

R4: I loved Rules of civility.

Less will be published here in Spain in january of february, i'm not having great expectations because i didn't like The story of a marriage.

There are a good bunch of hyped new novels that are going to be published here by the end of the year, There, there, The house of broken angels, Speak no evil, The miracles of blood, The female persuasion, Sing unburied sing and An american marriage (but i'm still waiting for Christodora, Goodbye vitamin, Reservoir 13 and The Gustav sonata)

SICK by Porochista Khakpour, FEAR by Woodward, War on Peace by Ronan Farrow.

Has anyone read any Nevada Barr?

Anyone a fan of Lee Child? I think the Reacher books are brilliant escape.

Question for anyone who has read Stephen McCauley's complete oeuvre (I saw several posts about him in the last thread but didn't get a chance to post before it filled up). I read The Object of My Affection a year or two after it was first published, and loved it. I eagerly anticipated his next book, The Easy Way Out, and was very disappointed when I read it - it had the same general style as Object but the humor, for me, wasn't as sharp, nor were the characters as engaging. I had the same reaction to his next novel, The Man of the House.

So, my question - has McCauley written anything since that compares to The Object of My Affection, or was that his high point? I've been contemplating reading My Ex-Life, but if he's never gotten back to the level he started off on, I don't know if I want to bother. Thoughts?

Some of his books are much, much better than others, r13. Easy Way Out is one I liked more than most. (I liked Object of My Affection, too.)

R13, I’ve read all his books and I think his newest one is on the same level as The Object of My Affection, which is one of my all-time favorites.

In the middle of Rules of Civility, an excellent, witty, charming read about characters in Manhattan in the 1930s. Towles writing is just like sipping a martini; cool, sophisticated and satisfying.

Another pleasant read if you're in between or at loose ends is J P Delaney's Believe Me. Don't read the reviews or blurbs before you read the book.

I stayed up half the night reading All Our Wrong Todays. Loved it. "Set in a future 2016" is all I will say.

Liane Moriarty’s TRULY MADLY GUILTY.

R17, tried to read Believe Me but just couldn't get through it.

r20 Sounds trashy.

Has anyone read Woodward's Trump tome?

I think The Object of My Affection is McCauley's best book, and that all his succeeding books are variations on that one trope--gay man/straight woman. Wistful hilarity ensues. I like them all, but it's a little like Philip Glass music--if you like one, you'll like them all, but never feel as if there's anything new or particularly challenging. Comfort food--which we all need from time to time. Not damning with faint praise--just describing what specific pleasures he offers. You can't always be rereading The Ambassadors.

Thank you R14, R15, and R23 for your takes on Stephen McCauley. I'm leaning towards giving My Ex-Life a chance, but I'm giving myself permission not to finish it if it feels pallid.

I only made it through three chapters of "My Ex-Life." Much too hetero for me, from an author who, nominally, at least, is not hetero.

I finally red What belongs to you and i like it more than expected. I recognize both characters are difficult to love and after a first part where it's difficult to understand the desire of the narrator, the second one gives you a look inside the past of the character that makes easier to understand him. In my opinion the second and third parts are way better than the first.

The style reminds me of the great spanish writer Rafael Chirbes, who unfortunately died a couple of years ago. His novel Crematorio is amazing, and Paris-Austerlitz is about the AIDS impact on a young spanish architect who travels to France. I think his only novel translated to english is On the shore (everybody says is very good but i didn't read it yet). He was gay (something i didn't knew when i red Crematorio), and curiously he found success in Germany sooner than in Spain. At least he could enjoy the big success of his last novels.

Now i'm reading Laetitia and the end of men (well that's the way it would be translated the spanish title because i think this book is not in english yet) by Ivan Jablonka. Jablonka is not a writer but a social historian, and the book is about the murder of Laetitia Perrais, a case the cause a conmotion on France in 2011. Unlike in other cases Jablonka put all the focus on the victim and not on the assasin, and all the implications of the case (even politic implications because frech president Sarkozy made some speech blaming the judges that make them protest). Till now it's very interesting

I just finished John D. McDonald's "The Executioners" (upon which the "Cape Fear" movie and its remake were based) and it was incredibly good up until the ending. The ending didn't run what came before, but it was anti-climactic to say the least. It was easy to see why that was one thing they changed for the films.

I'm currently reading Joe McGinnis' "Cruel Doubt" a true crime book about the Von Stine murder in NC in 1988. It's very absorbing so far, as are the other two of his I've read, "Fatal Vision" and "Never Enough."

OP, you should’ve included “all of the above.”

I never liked Agatha’s adventure stories as much as her straight mysteries. Have you seen the 80s movie of The Man in the Brown Suit. Bad but watchable.

I am always reading multiple things. Right now I’m reading Counter Clock World by PKD, Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen: The Detective Story World in Japan, It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs by who else?, New X-Men Omnibus by GM, Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Doyle and JDC, and probably others on my Kindle or Audible app or Hoopla or Overdrive, etc.

I love physical books, ebooks, audiobooks, all of it. The last physical books I’ve ordered but haven’t read are The Rise of the West by McNeill, Wired by Bob Woodward about Belushi and coke which caused such a stir I’m curious, The Caine Mutiny, and Berlin: City of Stones (which, along with finally finishing Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, I’m reading to get a glimpse into the supposedly free-wheeling and gay Weimar Republic. I visited Berlin once a few years ago and didn’t like it at all.)

I’m enjoying THE GREAT BELIEVERS and thank DL for the introduction.

Calling all Agatha Christie fans. Has anyone read Thirteen at Dinner? If so, how was it?

Love my Kindle Voyage. I’m currently reading Bob Woodward’s “Fear” on it.

read thru all "the expanse" books. great read

just finishing a run thru William Kent Krueger's boundary waters mysteries. very enjoyable

John Boyne. loved "Heart's", discovered Boyne really ates the catholic church from his "Loneliness"

Gosh, I just started reading LESS yesterday, r4. Should I not bother?

“In Pieces”, new memoir by Sally Field. Love her but she’s kind of an emotional mess. Guess that fuels her acting.

I put it down for the second time today, r33. I just don't care about Arthur Less.

“Russian Roulette” by Michael Isikoff and David Corn. Everything you wanted to know about Trump’s dirty history with Putin and Moscow.

I really loved The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne.

r33 i loved LOVED less. and then read 3 more of his works. go for it. its fun and forget all the naysayers

i read at least 3 books a week, and Heart's Furies is the best thing i;'ve read in ages. so well constructed. great humor, great heart-string tugging. days after i read the book i still find myself thinking about it. LOVED IT, am forcing friends to get it and read.

Agree, R35. The mystery of how that won major award will puzzle scholars well into the 22nd century.

I was able to get through A Little Life, r40. But not Less.

I only use the library. I go at least once a week, and usually twice, for a couple of hours at a time. It's my way of fighting back against the increasing isolation and coldness of our culture. I believe in the concept of the public good, and, although I'm shy, I love to interact with other people, even if it's only for a few moments. I always look forward to seeing my local librarians.

Speaking as a librarian, thank you for your comment R42.

Thank you for doing what you do, R43!

As for what I'm reading, OP: This afternoon I checked out Ficciones by Borges, because I wanted to re-read a short story called "El Sur." I was inspired by a conversation I had with someone this morning about our favorite teachers; mine was the professor who first introduced me to Borges in college (I was a Spanish lit major).

I just read a wonderful new graphic novel called Home After Dark by David Small. Sad and original.

I know someone who loves graphic novels, R45, and I've just passed along your recommendation. Thank you!

Agree that LESS is well worth your time. Don't dive in expecting a Big Book and Pulitzer winner. It's a smart, gentle comedy, and a real gem as far as I'm concerned.

R30, I read it as Lord Edgware Dies. I liked it but it is not one of the better ones. It is also the only one of her books where I guessed who and how.

I have been reading Less for the past weeks and finding it u derwhelming. On the other hand read Commonwealth from Ann Patchett and loved it.

R48: Commonwealth is a great novel

Has anyone read the Radlett and Montdore books by Nancy Mitford? Are they rather like Barbara Pym? I found one of them on Audible read by one of my favourite narrators, Emilia Fox.

I love public libraries. Had I not gone into teaching, I think being a public librarian would have been a rewarding life--I worked in one during high school and college. In grad school, I worked in the university life--not very pleasant and academic librarians are their own particular species of petty, tedious people, as a rule. The few I've liked seem misplaced.

just started "A Little Life" damn! great read. and boy does she tug on the tear ducts. (not in a bad way)

Mitford is not a Pym clone in that Mitford deals with the upper middle classes, and her characters aren't lovable as Pym's often are. But both are worth reading.

Just finished Edmund White's "Our Young Man." Not sure what I think (alternately sad and funny and ultimately confusing) but a great read.

R54 I thought "Our Young Man" was one of White's best books--a nice surprise after some of his more dour recent books, including memoirs where even I felt he overshared. It also made me read "The Married Man," also set in France, and which I think may well be an overlooked great novel about the AIDS epidemic. At moments, it's as if Henry James had moved "The Wings of the Dove" or "The Ambassadors" to late 20th century France, mixing Milly Theale, Kate Croy, Merton Denser, and Lambert Strether in a bathhouse (along with Hans Castorp)--though White has none of James' reserve (in this case, a point in White's favor).

Interesting to imagine Hank Jim in the age of AIDS.

"Descartes' Error" by Damasio.

Thank you, r53. I’m very into the 20s-60s era right now. I have some Patrick Hamilton, Elizabeth Taylor and Elizabeth Bowen on my TBR pile.

What does anyone know of Mary Stewart? I picked up THORNYHOLD second hand, and she seems like a more potboiler combination of Daphne Du Maurier and D.E. Stevenson.

Mary Stewart was ubiquitous in living rooms when I was a kid in the 60s. A darling of the Literary Guild, whose cheaply made versions of best sellers were a poor man's BOMC. I remember owning MOONSPINNERS and NINE COACHES WAITING. Don't recall much about the books, but the comparison to duMaurier I think is apt, but not as sophisticated. Never got to her Arthurian novels.

Can't remember ever seeing it mentioned on DL threads but Sebastian Barry's Days Without End is magnificent.

The first person account of a young man in mid-19th century America who fights in the Indian Wars and then the Civil War alongside his male lover. It's a very primitive uneducated voice but pure poetry, with the gay relationship completely taken for granted. Other surprises that I won't spoil. Also, it's quite violent in descriptions of war, so please know that going in.

Definitely makes me want to read more of Barry.

Unlike the above posters I found The Heart's Invisible Furies completely false and manipulative. Started with such a bang but tipped into implausibility before 100 pages.

r57, Patrick Hamilton's novels are wonderful. I especially love The Slaves of Solitude (don't be put off by the paperback's awful cover art) and Hangover Square. Highly recommended to the DL boys.

He also wrote the plays Rope (made into the Hitchcock film) and Angel Street (which became the film Gaslight).

I also enjoyed Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart. And Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs. Palfrey at the Clarelmont, though I've tried reading a few of Taylor's others without the same enthusiasm.

Just received from Amazon my pre-ordered TRANSCRIPTION by Kate Atkinson, which arrived today. Can't wait to dig in!

And I'm eagerly awaiting Wlliam Boyd's new novel LOVE IS BLIND which comes out in the US in a couple of weeks. I've loved most of his other books, ANY HUMAN HEART, BRAZZAVILLE BEACH, RESTLESS and his last ORDINARY THUNDERSTORMS.

R59 We discussed Days Without End in an earlier thread, but not in detail, and, as far as I'm concerned, we can't mention it too often. I share your enthusiasm for it--I'm ending my freshman honors seminar on young adult dystopias (the course is called Teenage Wastelands) with DWE--as a queer utopia, coming out of an historic dystopia. I hope my students are as gripped by it as I was.

Thanks, r63.

Have you read more Barry? Any recommendations?

In the middle of Tobias Wolff's Old School, published about 12 years ago, about a boys prep school in 1960.

Really enjoying the writing.

I'm almost finished with Tin Man, by Sarah Winman. It's a story about a bi and a gay and the women in their lives. A nicely-written story, if you can get past the non-sentence sentences, that was ultimately frustrating (unless some deus ex machina sweeps in to redeem it in its final 8%.

Recommended, perhaps, for bis and Irish Irish, for whom the language might be second nature.

Among others I praised DAYS WITHOUT END in earlier threads. I adored it. I haven't read other Barry works, but I want to. It's worth repeating that the hetero Barry wrote DWE as a gift to his gay son. What a gift! All I got from my Dad was a threat to disown me.

Yes, we talked about Days without end (but i still have it on the shelf without giving a try).

r66: I have when god was a rabbit, Sarah's first novel but i didn't read it yet

I'm going to read Asymetry, i have a thing for hyped debut novels

Best recent novel no one has ever heard of:

SYCAMORE by Bryn Chancellor

I never would have read or even noticed this novel from 2017 except my husband noticed the paperback as a "staff recommendation" at a terrific indy book store we happened into in Vermont on a recent vacation.

The book is about the unsolved mystery of a teenage girl in northern Arizona who disappeared one night back in the early 1990s. Chapters alternate between then and now and the large cast of characters who orbited around the girl's life, each beautifully and very plausibly portrayed. Details are revealed very gradually as the tension builds.

There are many raves on the cover pages (though it doesn't appear to have been reviewed by the NY Times) and I see lots of reader 5 star reviews on Amazon. It's heads above so many similar books like The Dry and other mediocre mysteries. I highly recommend it!

Really liked THE DRY.

Anyone read WASHJING

i'm just finishing "A Little Life", this book is draining me (in a good way). the emotions the author can elicit is stunning. i think about this book as i go about my day. many times i've have to lay the book down and recompose my emotions. and often tears roll down my face. sometime i'm actually sobbing. but the scope and depth of this work is amazing.

R71. And I think it's disgusting torture porn written by a woman who seems never to have met a gay man in her life. I hate it more than any other novel I've ever read (to be fair, I've never read Ayn Rand--life is too fucking short)I think the book really polarizes people.

Well, Antoni and Hanya have a Mutual Admiration Club thingy goin’ on...

when i finished reading "Little Life" i was so drained that i called a straight friend of mine and talked everyday life for a bit to sort of "cool" down. at the end of the call i said i had called because i had just finished a book that had "killed me". he asked what it was, and as i tried to tell him about it i started crying all over again. the feels! i fell in love with Willem and Jude. and Andy. couldn't help it.

R74, Mary!

too bad we cannot all be stone hearted like R75

Recently enjoyed:

Calypso by David Sedaris

Tennessee Williams by John Lahr (even if you've read other TW bios)

Mother Finds a Body by Gypsy Rose Lee (though The G-String Murders is better)

Rosemary's Baby anniversary edition by Ira Levin. He was a genius.

On the runway:

Showbiz books - Unmasked by Andrew Lloyd Webber

A Star is Born by Lorna Luft

Mysteries - Thieves Fall Out by Gore Vidal (I read a lot of Hard Case Crime)

Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich

Mr. Moto omnibus - I haven't read any of them - by John P. Marquand

Fiction - Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff - this was a friend's rec

Not so hot:

Shirley I Jest by Cindy Williams, a long magazine article stretched to book length. She sounds really cheap and not too bright, and is too nice about everyone in a way that seems desperate for a job.

Thanks for the heads up on Less. I pick it up in the store and never get it, same with The Marriage Plot (Eugenidies).

r77:

Marriage Plot was a big disappointment to me as well, especially since I consider Middlesex to be one of the best books I've ever read.

I actually worked with Cindy Williams briefly about 20 years ago. As you said, she was not too bright. Perfectly pleasant but....

I am reading anything and everything by Evelyn Waugh.

Thanks, r69, I added [italic]Sycamore[/italic] to my list.

So agree about the Marriage Plot. I couldnt finish it, it was so very uninteresting...

I just finished Look At Me by Anita Brookner. All her books are similar (and very good if yoy like that sort of thing) but this one was particularly strong. Anyone else a fan of her?

Reading Bill Clinton & James Patterson “The President is Missing.” Really good. Lots of interesting tidbits about the Presidency. In the forward he states that Hillary told him “to keep it real.” There is a nice tribute to the protagonists wife - she sounds like Hillary through and through - it is very very lovely. Bill has always said she is incredibly smart, smarter than he for sure. This book is nice like that. Also it is a way to stay in politics of the day with a huge distraction from Grifter. Kind of a Russian version of Showtimes “Sleeper Cell.”

This is on iBooks, I also use Audible and love a hardback if it is a keeper.

R72: A little life is the kind of book that generates polar opposite reactions. Some people love it, some people hate it. I love it some parts, hated others. Yanagihara is really sadistic and knows how to infict pain on the reader, because even i didn't want to i ended caring for the characters. In my opinion she can do exactly the same without all the over the top plot twists.

I didn't read The marriage plot, which is a little strange because i love it The suicide virgins and Middlesex

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Not really a fan of Waters, but it was either that or Indriðason's Reykjavic thrillers.

R83: ‘Yanagihara is really sadistic’?

Well, I never!

[quote]Hanya Yanagihara: ‘A book that made me cry? I haven’t cried since 1995’

I've read a number of Anita Brookner's books over the last 30 years but find them kind of insufferable.

Her put-upon heroines' incapacities to take charge of their lives is always very depressing.

Barbara Pym is the exact opposite.

Matthew Walker 'Why we sleep', an eye-opening book by this guy:

R84: I hated that book (maybe it has a little connection with the fact that my beloved cat dissapeared while i was reading it), it was a big dissapointment specially because i loved Tipping the velvet and Fingersmith

I agree, r88. I think The Little Stranger is one of Sarah Waters' weakest books. Personally, I loved the last The Paying Guests.

I completely understand your point, r86, there are times she irritates me and she always repetead herself (i dont think there is a book where the heroinedoes not decide to go to bed while there’s still light). But I also find her writing very compelling and , like few writers (Patricia Highsmith comed to mind in a completely different way), she creates a very unique universe.

After not really caring for the last couple of books by Sedaris, I decided to give Calypso a chance. It may have been slightly better, but I still came away underwhelmed, with the feeling that he really milks his family experience; the essay on psychics was really interesting, but on the other hand I felt that the one about shopping in Tokyo struck me as downright obnoxious.

I'm almost finished with the audio edition of This Dame For Hire by Sandra Scoppetone. I had read the author's (modern) series featuring a lesbian P I years ago, so decided to try this one featuring a straight female detective in WW II NYC. Initially, I was put off by the snappy patter, but grew used to it, finding the story a really interestingly written adventure, looking forward to the sequel.

A while back I had dropped an audible credit on Alison Arngrim's memoir Confessions of a Prairie B itch. I was never a huge fan of Little House on the Prairie, but she's very good at reading her material as though it's fresh, not straight from text. Also, she seems like a really, really cool person.

More and more I wonder if Sedaris's work should be shelved under fiction. The Japanese shopping piece seemed highly exaggerated. I still find him funny, though, and often touching.

his books are sold in the fiction section. at least they were in the early 2000s

Reading an Anita Brookner novel is like smelling the inside of your grandma's purse.

I work in a bookstore, where his books are shelved either as Essays or Humor.

I just ordered A Little Life to listen to on audiobook CD.

But it's 33 hours long, omg, will it be worth it?

r96 get your kleenix ready

Ask and its given by Abraham Hicks. Yes, novels are superb, but this book is truly life changing.

Sounds like a sequel to The Secret, r98. What is is about?

R96: It depends, some people love it, some people hate it. It's not a difficult novel to read, there are shorter novels that take more time (well, that if you don't fell into a depression)

R98. Didn't Oprah tout that book--it sounds like a New Age variation on Ayn Rand nonsense.

Sad to say but I'm very disappointed in my favorite author Kate Atkinson's latest Transcription. Starts off with a bang but really goes off the rails halfway through. Not quite finished yet so maybe she'll redeem herself in the last 40 pages.

Reading the Durant’s book on the age of Louis XIV at the moment.

Wow, those Durant books are a chore. Used to grace the bookshelves of every supposedly well-read households. And most were unread.

R105 Like many others, I got the Durant series as an introductory deal with Book of the Month Club--a dollar a volume. Then, of course, when I took AP European History in high school, my teacher quickly disabused me of their value as actual scholarship.

LOLITA and THE FOUNTAINHEAD are the two greatest American novels I have ever read. in the last forty years. Of course Rand is misread and slammed for all sorts of nonsense, but the magnificence of the work remains.

Daily dose of Montaigne (Essais) translated in modern French, letters to a young poet by R. M. Rilke, Basil and Josephine Stories by Scott Fitzgerald ( a lot of fun and the elegant prose of Fitz), Poèmes by Cavafy translated in French by Yourcenar (Cavafy wouldn't have dreamt of a better translator, Yourcenar is his litterary soulmate).

R106 LOLITA may be the greatest novel about America written by a European. THE FOUNTAINHEAD isn't writing--it may typing, to steal Capote's line about Kerouac.

For money, it's a toss-up between Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN and Bellow's ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH for best American novel of the second half of the twentieth century. De gustibus....as they say.

Sorry, that should read "For my money," not "For money."

Where is the related thread, Dammit!

Just started the Collapsing Empire. Old school style space opera. It was a finalist for the Hugo but lost to the excellent NK Jemisin

R195: I read the Old man's war novels one per year every summer (i read the lost colony a month ago). And N K Jemisin is fantastic. Instead of changing the race of characters like they want to do with the adaptation of Geralt de Rivia why not chose to adapt novels that had that diversity on the novel like Jemisin ones The third novel will be published here in Spain in january, i hope it'll be as good as the previous ones

R108

[quote] LOLITA may be the greatest novel about America written by a European.

Are you kidding? You mean the pedo book?

No, r108 is not kidding and he/she is absolutely correct...although I'm not sure I would qualify it with the European disclaimer.

And if you really think that LOLITA is a "pedo book," may I respectfully suggest you take a remedial English class and revisit 'metaphor?'

R114 yeah, here he is Mr Harold Bloom trying to cloak a pedo book with the 'respectability' of the 'unquestionable' western canon of literature.

You remind me of the ancient 'masters' in the history of art trying to disguise their homoerotic desires by claiming they were depicting 'San Sebastian' or whichever classical figure struck their fancy.

Enough of this! I am glad we live in a time when we can call a spade a spade. Pedophilia is pedophilia; rape is rape and so on and so forth.

any idea in the form of a fictional work is ok. being introduced to strange ideas is not something to be frightened of. just because someone writes about a topic doesn't mean you have to like it to learn from it. i read murder mysteries, i have no plan to become a participant in such. the dame is true of pedo tales.

R112 I agree I love the diverse characters of Jemisin's novels. Sci-fi and fantasy writers like to pride themselves on building realistic, complex worlds. But I think a nearly universal weakness of all of them is just making societies where race plays no role whatsoever and never has. There is no society in all of human history that worked that way. Race has huge impacts on politics, economics, and every other aspect of life. Jemisin is one of the only writers who seems to get this

Speaking of Lolita

After I read THE GREAT BELIEVERS (thoroughly enjoyed it and think it will probably be a Pulitzer Prize finalist this year), I picked up another 1980s AIDS book that someone had recommended to me called AT DANCETERIA AND OTHER STORIES. It's so unique and is such a fast, fun, and oftentimes, quite sad read. Drugs, sex, celebrities, death, all the highs and lows of a crazy decade. One of the stories reminded me so much of an uncle of mine who died of AIDS in the mid-80s that I could have sworn the author knew him. I highly recommend it for fans of THE GREAT BELIEVERS.

I'm currently reading The Great Believers. I'm enjoying the 1980s gay storyline, but not Mom Goes to Paris to Find Daughter.

Yeah, those were the weaker parts of the novel to me, R120. Still well-written, but I just wasn't as engaged. I always couldn't wait to get back to Yale and his friends.

Almost all the characters in AT DANCETERIA are real celebrities and historical figures which made me think of how they're used in RAGTIME. There's an amazing story about Rock Hudson going to the White House that I especially loved.

Here is the OT, r110.

Anyone read SNAP by Belinda Bauer? A friend recommended it.

R114: Nabokov writing is amazing and the first part of the book is absolutely great, but the second part of the novel is boring as hell

I am reading it, r123, the reviews were great and as the first thriller to ever be nominated to the Booker (long list, but still) I had great expectations. Mixed feelings so far. After a good begging it begins to sag a little but after leaving it a few days i picked it up again and is getting better. It has a style which should be a page turner but is not...

Meanwhile I am reading Skin Deep by Liz Nugent and is surprisingly good.

Artistry can redeem ANY subject matter, r115. And not to belabor the point...however...

It's a work of FICTION. Nobody was raped or abused or defiled. It's a work of the imagination, which, thank God, we're still allowed to have in this country, despite all the bluestockings and Orwellian thought police. But let Nabokov defend himself (and brilliantly):

INTERVIEWER A...critic has said that you “diminish” your characters “to the point where they become ciphers in a cosmic farce.” I disagree; Humbert, while comic, retains a touching and insistent quality—that of the spoiled artist.

NABOKOV I would put it differently: Humbert Humbert is a vain and cruel wretch who manages to appear “touching.” That epithet, in its true, tear-iridized sense, can only apply to my poor little girl. Besides, how can I “diminish” to the level of ciphers, et cetera, characters that I have invented myself? One can “diminish” a biographee, but not an eidolon.

(all quotes below from the same poster):

[quote] i'm just finishing "A Little Life", this book is draining me (in a good way). the emotions the author can elicit is stunning. i think about this book as i go about my day. many times i've have to lay the book down and recompose my emotions. and often tears roll down my face. sometime i'm actually sobbing. but the scope and depth of this work is amazing.

[quote] when i finished reading "Little Life" i was so drained that i called a straight friend of mine and talked everyday life for a bit to sort of "cool" down. at the end of the call i said i had called because i had just finished a book that had "killed me". he asked what it was, and as i tried to tell him about it i started crying all over again. the feels! i fell in love with Willem and Jude. and Andy. couldn't help it.

[quote] too bad we cannot all be stone hearted like R75

Too bad we cannot all be emotional self-exhibitionists like r76.

[quote] Enough of this! I am glad we live in a time when we can call a spade a spade.

I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different.

so, a little life was a good book? is that your point r127

To complain that Vladimir Nabokov is somehow endorsing pedophilia in LOLITA would then mean that you also Agatha Christie in THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD and Edgar Allan Poe in "The Tell-tale Heart" are endorsing murder.

If at this age you are so stupid you cannot see that there's a huge difference between an actual person speaking from actual experience and a fictional narrator invented by an author, I simply cannot help you.

I can, however, block you--you clearly have no business bothering the grown-ups while we discuss fiction.

There's hardly a page in the novel [italic]Lolita[/italic] that doesn't make good use of a pun or play on words. Nabokov himself stated [italic]Lolita[/italic] was a love letter to the English language.

I see killjoys on this thread being prissy against anyone who has fun with language: anagrams and puns for example, like the Dickens novel title anagrams or Vladimir Nabokov.

Does the prissiness come from learning to read before Dr. Seuss reached the early childhood market? A joyless childhood with "Dick and Jane" and no Shel Silverstein? Are the literature-loving lesbians the only cunning linguists on this thread?

People having trouble with Lolita should not try The end of Alice. A M Homes really wanted to disgust and annoy the reader when she wrote that novel

I just got A Little Life from the library and I'm almost afraid to start it.

R133. As well you should be.

R99 The secret is a watered down crappy version of the law of attraction. It's just a bunch of "techniques" and pretty words, because of course the author's purpose was to get rich. I actually doubt she knows how to "use" it lol.

But basically Abraham is a consciousness (colective) from idk which dimension, and communicates through Esther Hicks, who then translates these blocks of thought she receives from this consciousness, it isn't really channeling as she never enters a trance state nor is controlled by them. Ask and it's given is an excellent book on the law of attraction, it talks about parallel realities in a different way. How basically everything is vibrational first before materializing. When you desire something, the vibrational version of it instantly materializes in a different dimension and for it to materialize you have to "allow" it, which means stop contradicting it in every way you are.

As an update to "Confessions of a Prarie Bitch" not only was the author's mother the voice of Gumby, Casper, Davey (of D & G), Sweet Polly Purebred and others, but as a kid Alison's pals were actress Beatrice Lillie and "Auntie" Christine Jorgenson - and we haven't even gotten to her time on Little House on the Prairie yet!

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. I’m enjoying it so far.

R101 Lol I don't know who tf that woman is, but trust me this book isn't nonsense.

I quite liked The End of Alice, r132, it was a difficult subject and overwritten but had some good parts. I loved Music for Torching.

AM Homes' Music for Torching is brilliant! Thanks for the reminder, one of my favorite books.

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout. I saw the first 20 minutes of the Oprah-produced TV movie an eon ago so coming across this is a happy accident.

Just read The Absolutist, about a gay-struggling guy before, during and after WWI.

Pretty moving stuff.

just starting the Adrien English Books by Josh Lanyon. gay writer.

Josh Lanyon is the pen name of a STRAIGHT WOMAN!

[quote] just starting the Adrien English Books by Josh Lanyon. gay writer.

Why are you telling us about the books you haven't read yet?

They could be terrible. Seriously, what is the point?

The point is to encourage posts from anyone else who might have read those books, r145.

It's called discussion.

Tana French's new book The Witch Elm dropped today in the US. I'm starting it this morning.

I'm finally reading Station Eleven, a book that has been on my bedside pile for a few years.

I've never been into dystopian fiction but this one is extremely powerful and engaging. And sadly, very easy to believe. Has anyone else enjoyed it?

I really enjoyed Station Eleven. There are some problems though.

ABSOLUTIST is another John Boyne novel. His book are not very deep, but wonderfully readable and entertaining.

I got burned with THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS. I found it abhorrent thought my Jewish then-boss loved it.

R102, didn't know Atkinson had a new book out. Will look it up. A bit fearful that you were disappointed, she's one of my favorites too. I have read everything from her except her debut.

I have [italic]Transcription[/italic] on hold at the library. With luck I'll get it in mid-January :-P.

R148: I loved Station Eleven

And i hated The end of Alice, it's so obvious that Homes really want to upset the reader and it worked with me. The thing is tha when she forgets that she wants to be very very edgy she shows she is a great writer, so i expect to read something else from her. I know she likes difficult themes but in my opinion she went too far in The end of Alice

Another fan of Station Eleven.

I ashamed to admit I have been on a 9 month hiatus from reading. I finished one book in January and only just finished the 2nd book a couple of weeks ago. And that was because the author is a good friend. As soon as I finished it, I downloaded IQ by Joe Ide. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things and had heard IQ is a good one to get into.

The great believers made the shortlist of the National Book Award. And with There there out of competition i think it's one of the favourites to win right now

[quote]I can, however, block you--you clearly have no business bothering the grown-ups while we discuss fiction.

You're going to block someone over something stupid? That's the definition of being a snowflake and the farthest thing from being a grown up.

BTW, the complaints about the book somehow glorifying pedophilia can't be dismissed because whereas the book doesn't endorse it, it doesn't condemn it, either. It allows the reader to get anything they want out of it.

This issue is why the novel has become an apologia for pedophilia, and why most of the people who claim to "love" this book see Lolita as a tragic love story and Humbert as a victim, or why in places like Japan, the novel is even used as a cute euphemism that legitimizes pedophilia as nothing more than a harmless whim. ("Lolita complex").

Below is a testament to the book's negative influence and how it's become used to euphemize pedophilia. It's a forum talking about "Lolita complex." This comment says it all.

[quote]As an otaku, we prefer the term lolicon as Japanese slang which is short for lolita complex and translates to pedophile. I don't like using the term pedophile directly because it makes me sound like a bad person.

I started reading the Mr. Moto series by James Marquand because I enjoy the movies and wanted to read the original. The first two novels were both entertaining but very strange. The Mr. Moto character is nothing like the movie version, and the background to the stories are limited to an extremely specific time in 20th century history (the tensions between Japan and China right before WW2).

I also started reading one of the Arsene Lupin novels, then stopped. I'm back to reading it again.

I read The Lost World, which both impressed and disappointed me at the same time because it was too short and didn't focus enough on the dinosaurs. But reading how good it was it makes totally sense to me now why Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to break out of Sherlock Holmes. He had a very vivid, active imagination.

Gibberish, r157, all of it.

Lolita has about as much to do with pedophilia as, say, A Man For All Seasons is about religion.

I'm reading The miracles of blood and it's entertainning but not as good (not even close) as The glorious heresies

[quote]Gibberish, [R157], all of it.

Oh, you learned a new word in fourth grade today. Good for you.

Picked up THE EXPATRIATES by Janice YK Lee, and yes, I decided to read it because Nicole Kidman optioned it.

I'm not R157 but it's absurd to argue it has "nothing" to do with pedophilia. Pedophilia is not the point of the book. I'd agree with you if that's what you were arguing, but your blanket statements are taking it way farther than that and are not accurate

Erebus: the Story of a Ship, Michael Palin's foray into Franklin Expedition history.

Just heard Michael Palin talking about his new book on NPR, r164. He got me very interested!

I ended The miracles of blood and it was a dissapointment. It's not bad but it's very very far from The glorious heresies

Back with a recommendation for The Witch Elm by Tana French. Finished it within the week. It's maybe her best writing yet. I went into it blind so I was surprised by the choice of narrator but it worked for this story and, as always for T French, it had a wonderful sense of place and setting.

Good to know, r167, i like Tana French but I find her books usually too long, with lots of part thst could/shoul have been edited.

LOLITA is about the destruction of a human soul, something about which Nabokov knew a little, having endured two oppressive regimes, and whose father was mistakenly assassinated by one of them. The destruction of a human soul, i.e. soul-murder, can be accomplished in many ways (totalitarianism, imprisonment, life in a gulag or concentration camp, reading Datalounge) but Nabokov chose pedophilia as his m.o. and metaphor, a most just and fitting means to his literary ends.

If Beale Street Could Talk. Absolutely brilliant.

Read it way back when. Not sure I'd call it brilliant, but I'm looking forward to revisiting the story via the movie.

I just started Woodward's Fear. I started feeling afraid before the end of the prologue.

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

Gay, preppy black kid from Nigeria in St. Alban's/Bethesda circuit. His arch-conservative father finds grindr entries on his phone. All hell breaks loose.

Christmas At The Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan. It was on the book swap table at work.

Don't be jealous haters!

...because it is just as terrible as it sounds.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.

R173: It'll be published in Spain next wee, but i'm very reluctant because it sound like something hard to read (i'll probably will buy it and wait till i'm in the right mood)

I liked Speak No Evil a lot.

Forgive me if I’ve told this story on a previous book thread, but soon after my husband read A LITTLE LIFE, I happened to pocket-dial him at work while I was out walking the dog. He later told me his first thought was that I had fallen in the park, had a heart attack, and was calling him to say goodbye. THAT’S WHAT THAT BOOK DOES TO YOU.

R178. If that had happened to Jude on p. 1, we all would have been saved untold misery.

Anyone read the new Booker winner, Milkman?

not another dark irish book. i read The Black Snow and was sobbing by the end of that downer.

R179: Yanagihara is tricky bitch, the first part of the novel is lighthearted (with some hints of the misery that'll come). And then she goes on full sadist mode

The first part is "light-hearted"? That's really just not accurate at all.

My Pet Goat...

R183: If my memory doesn't fail, the first part of the novel is centered in the four friend and not in Jude. It's about his life in college, there are hints that Jude had problems in the past and he is not comfortable with himself but nothing more

I started reading an old classic: Credo by Melvyn Bragg (also known as the Sword and the Miracle) It's excellent so far!

Reading a charming book out early next year. An novel in the form of letters and emails about a man who wants to raise pigs in Israel. Sounds dumb, but it's not. Called HOLY LANDS.

That premise sounds kind of interesting, R187.

I just finished British author William Boyd's latest novel Love Is Blind. He's a favorite writer of mine but, sadly, this one was somewhat disappointing, especially considering its epic historic sweep (1894-1906 throughout Europe and southeast Asia).

I was also disappointed in another favorite, Kate Atkinson's latest Transcription. It also could have been so much better, considering the setting and subject matter: young innocent woman hired to work for MI5 during WWII.

Not terrible, I mean I did finish them, but both books felt like assignments.

Ah, another bad/meh review of Transcription. I have it on hold at my library. I've read nearly all of her books, I don't want to be disappointed.

just finished Infinite Home by Kathleen Alcott. no gay characters, but a great story of found families.

MY BARE NAKED HEART by David Avery - A freshman discovers lust & love at an all-male Vermont college in the 1950's.

I would not describe this book as pornographic, but Avery leaves NOTHING to the imagination. He is also repetitive, which got on my nerves, but it was still a good read. Plenty of sex & nudity with a sweet little love story, doomed to fail, in the intolerant 50's.

Now I'm reading FINDING JAKE by Bryan Reardon - After a school shooting, a father searches for his missing son who may be a victim or a shooter.

Reminds me of "We Need To Talk About Kevin" but, so far, I like "Jake" better.

Skylight by David Hare

I really didn't care for The Great Believers -had such high hopes for it too. I hope it wins 0 awards

TRANSCRIPTION is the first Kate Atkinson book I’ve finished, so there’s that. I though the ending was great.

I'm enjoying Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture right now. It's about a 100 year old Irish woman and the doctor who is helping her remember her past.

I liked it, too, R196.

I ended Sarah Winman's When God was a rabbit which is fun and sad and has several gay characters.

Now i'm going to read Meg Wolitzer's The wife (but i have the feeling that i'm not going to enjoy it as much as i enjoyed The interestings)

[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.]

huh? ^

R199: Wrong thread

Anyone read Joe Lansdale? Love the Hap and Leonard books.

god yes. love the hap and leonard books. read all. love the gay/straight friendship -- how just assumed it is.

r203, hope you've watched the Sundance H&L series. Terrific. Sad it was cancelled after three seasons.

i did. and yes its a sad decision by sundance. the next year (season 4) would have seen much more of Leonard and his boyfriend,

Except by Book 4 of the series, the boyfriend comes to a bad end.

you mean like the first girlfriends and wife of Hap? the 2 men are the love story, the boy friends and girlfriends are just secondary characters.

I bought The house of broken angels by Luis Alberto Urrea, but right now i'm not on reading mood

not in a reading mood? if i don't have a book at hand to read i start to get "buggy". eaasily read 3 books a week. what a great time retirement is!

R209: Wow, i'm more like one book per week, but sometimes i'm simply not in the mood (generally don't last, fortunately because for me not wanting to read it's not a good sign at all)

You don't exactly write like you're some major reader, to be honest, R210.

My reading pace varies wildly. Sometimes a book a week sometimes one a month. But My yearly average is probably right around 30-35

R211: Well i read between 50-60 books per year, i'm way ahead the average in my country but all depends when you are comparing me

Has anyone read any Charles Baxter?

I just read the latest in the mystery series from Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling). It’s fine but twice as long as it needed to be, at 650 pages.

論語。

i agree! ^

謝謝你的同意，r217.

you're welcome! ^

Are any of those Robert Galbraith mysteries worth reading??

R220, they’re enjoyable for what they are, but don’t expect a great deal of depth.

I am loving Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere.

Under Tiberius by Nick Tosches

a profane and profound retelling of the origin story of Jesus.

Just started a Sara Gran novel. She seems to have a following.

The Fionavar Tapestry

Bridegroom cherry. by Jeff Kincaid

WHITE HOUSES...gave up on it after 30 pages, just couldn't get into it (plus I generally don't like first-person narratives).

Plan on starting Barry's DAYS WITHOUT END, based on the recommendations in this thread...

Almost done with BROADWAY TO MAIN STREET, a history of how musical theatre songs were disseminated into the market place via sheet music, recordings, etc. I've enjoyed it and even learned a coupla things.....

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

The Sibyl in Her Grave by Sarah Caudwell

On the other hand, R211, you most definitely sound like a total asshole.

I'm currently reading House of Stairs by Ruth Rendell. I am a big fan of hers, especially the books written under the name Barbara Vine. Also just finished Eleanor Ollyphant and enjoyed it. It wasn't great but it was an enjoyable read.

Non Fiction Nerd Alert!

I have given up on Fear, Woodward's book on Trump, moving on to "The Long Hangover" explaining Putin's rise in Russia. So far, pretty good, if grim.

That is a great book, r230, i ve read it 3 or 4 times. The only one from Barbara Vine that is better is A Dark Adapted Eye. Fatal Inversion is also very good. Curiously, her 3 first books as BV are the best, though of course there are some nice ones along the way.

This fall I've be getting into Edith Wharton for the first time. I finished The House of Mirth yesterday and have moved on to The Custom of the Country. Once I've finished that book, The Age of Innocence will be next. I saw the movie (the one with Daniel Day-Lewis) but don't remember much about it except for the fact that the upper reaches of Manhattan were still considered to be in the sticks at the time the novel was set.

R233, The Custom of the Country features one of the biggest cunts in American literature - Undine Spragg. I love that book.

Radiance of Tomorrow by Ishmael Beah. novel of sierra leone in the aftermath of civil war and corp. decimation of the country. makes my 1st world problems seem a bit trivial, to say the least.

I was going to have a go at Tartt's The Goldfinch, but the book's so big/heavy, I was afraid I'd get a broken nose from the book falling on my face, if I inadvertently dozed off. Instead, I went for The Secret History, surprisingly intelligent and well written. Takes a bit of getting into; I was just about to give it away, when it grabbed and held on with its mix of scholarship and lives I've never experienced.

I've been reading Barbara Vine (and Ruth Rendell) since the early 1980s.

The best Vines IMHO are A Dark-Adapted Eye, A Fatal Inversion and The Chimney Sweeper's Boy.

And some of the best Rendell books are the early Inspector Wexford novels, too numerous to mention.

Currently alternating between "The Letters of Sylvia Plath" ; "In Cold Blood"; and "Fire And Fury".

My fave Rendell is A Judgement in Stone, with its unforgettable first line. Filmed twice, in English and in French.

Curious if anyone here is familiar with the British mystery writer Julian Symons? I read a lot of his stuff in the 1980s and 90s (though he began writing in the 1950s). His books often reminded me of the best of Alfred Hitchcock movies.

They're probably not so easy to find in the US now, except in used editions. The Colour of Murder, The Progress of a Murder, The Belting Inheritance and The Blackheath Poisonings are all excellent and great fun reads.

A Judgement in Stone is a perfect book, r239. Is there an english movie? i only know the Chabrol one, which I enjoyed though Eunice Parchment was totally miscast...

Yes, r241. A 1986 British version. With Rita Tushingham. Very good, as I recall.

I started There, there but since the change of weather my reading mood is on a slump

Just finished Less by AS Greer. There was indeed some hilarity , esp. the Berlin episode but overall , not that great . Took two months on waitlist at public library. It started to fall apart towards the end and the ending didn't work for me at all

I’m surprised his editor allowed him to get away with that ending, R244.

I find it very curious, i use to follow a forum that predicts the Pulitzer. Less was the only book of this year that was on the prediction (it was number ten) the nominees weren't there. Even with that was a bit of a surprise. But i didn't find negative opinions there, the people who read to book liked it, maybe weren't the favourite to win but the like it. In fact there was way more discussion about being a deserving winner with The Goldfinch and with All the light we can not see.

Of course winning an awards doens't make you inmune to readers bad reviews. I just read a bad review of Sing, unburied, sing from i blog i follow

Less will be published here in Spain in january or february. I'm curious because i didn't like the other Sean Greer novel that i read (Story of a marriage)

R246 I tried to plow thru Story of A Marriage and did not finish. I was determined to make it through Less due to the Pulitzer.

Ins't life too short to force yourself to continue reading a book you actively dislike?

R248 is correct. There are so many good books out there. Reading shouldn’t be a chore.

"marriage" was a good read. lots of plot twists. and lots of heartaches. but i'm glad i read it. gave a whole new slant to down low men.

Tana French’s newest, The Witch Elm. I’m loving it.

I didn't care for Less' superficial character through most if the novel, but I was won over by the ending, even if it seemed a little sudden.

I’m reading IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK by James Baldwin so I can pontificate about the movie.

I picked up READ BY STRANGERS by Philip Dean Walker based on a review in The Gay & Lesbian Review that ran this month that said it was emblematic of the “current American zeitgeist” which intrigued me. It is a very unique, occasionally funny, but rather dark collection of short stories filled with diverse character studies. Highly recommended.

Reading "The Golden Bowl" I realized when picking it up partway through "I'm forcing myself to finish this." At that point, I made a decision that such was a signal to abandon a book, then and in future.

In recent years (in my 50s) I've ploughed through as much as 200+ pages of a book to see if I like it. Perhaps it's because I finally starting reading great Victorian literature (Dickens, Trollope, Elliot, Hardy, et. al.) which sometimes requires a bit more patience.

But even 200+ pages of Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea didn't convince me to continue. Same for The Red and the Black by Stendhal.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

r257: I read a lot of the earlier Murakami books and Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was my favorite. If you only read one of Murakami's books, that's probably the one to read. It's long but really worth it. Murakami does the same thing over and over again, so I got tired of him after reading Kafka on the Shore, which is very similar to WUB Chronicle in the over-the-top magic realism, but not as good. Norwegian Wood is a more realistic, earlier novel. It was so popular in Japan that young girls would rush him every time he was out in public, so he moved to the US for a few years.

I liked "The Sea, The Sea" - different strokes for different folks!

I am going to try to give Murakami another try. I read Tokio Blues (i know it's not exactly his trademark book but here it's his most popular by far) and had a very indiferent reaction (Murakami seems to be adored or hated equaly, i didn't get any of those reactions). But i'm going with After Dark, i'm not on the mood for a long novel (and most of his novels are very long)

I thought The Sea, the Sea had a huge payoff. I would recommend sticking with it.

Short of Gravity's Rainbow and Finnegans Wake, The Golden Bowl must be the most difficult novel in English. If there had been a Classics Illustrated version, it would have soothed the anxieties of many a Ph.D candidate in English lit.

The movie's good, though.

Oh you're all convincing me to get back to The Sea, The Sea! I was just at the point when the hero apparently "kidnaps" his old girlfriend.

Maybe I will give it a second chance and if I do I'll report back.

r256 I remember wanting to give up on _The Sea, The Sea_ as the narrator/protagonist was being too stupid/obsessed for me, but I didn't give up, and I don't regret reading it through .

I LOVE Haruki Murakami. I've read all his books except Norwegian Wood. Wind-up Bird Chronicle is good but my favorite is actually 1Q84

Has anyone read the recent British novel The Party by Elizabeth Day?

I was just in London and picked it up at Waterstone's. It's great so far.

Between Foyle's, Daunt and Waterstone's, the UK has the best book shop chains. It all feels very beautifully curtaed and makes buying new books very tempting and fun.

Anyone tackle 11/22/63? Has great feedback, but still unsure about trying it myself. Thanks!

Has anyone read Small Fry, a memoir by Steve Jobs' daughter?

11/22/63 is great fun, but like most of King's works, overlong. But if you have any affection for that time period (or lived through it!), it's definitely worth it. And what an ending!

R269: Yes, for a man known for spoiling it at the very end 11/22/63 has a very beautiful end.

I liked Joyland too. I have the Stand waiting for the moment i really feel in the mood to read such mastodon (but i still have great memories from It)

Thanks, guys! I'm a bit of a Kennedy assassination buff - made the pilgrimage to Depository and Grassy Knoll. If I liked Theroux's 23-hour pseudo-memoir Motherland, I think I can handle the "overlong" aspect of this one.

I read The Party, but it irritated me enoumously , r266. The main character is insufferable (well, all are) but you simply do not believe people behave in the wY they do in the novel...

Murakami’s ‘Kafka on the Shore’ is actually one of his most accessible novels.

Kafka on the Shore is a good read, but it is too similar to Wind Up Bird Chronicle, which IMO is a better novel.

Re: Murakami

My introduction was Wild Sheep Chase and it's sequel Dance, Dance, Dance. Couldn't get into Kafka on the Shore.

And, r267, avoid the made-for-TV series with James Franco. It's not bad, but the book is so much better.

I love Kafka on the Shore but found 1Q84 the most accessible. Wild Sheep Chase is a hidden lesser known gem. It's his novels that inspired me to get a cat lol

For someone who has never read Murakami, who would you compare his books to? And which book might be best to start with?

I haven't read widely enough to compare Murakami's books to anyone else's. I agree with earlier replies that _Kafka on the Shore_ or _The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle_ might be best to start with. I've read six Murakami novels, _IQ84_ revealed to me I might not be a big Murakami fan as I thought, but I enjoyed _Kafka on the Shore_ and _The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle_ much more than _A Wild Sheep Chase_, _After Dark_, _Norwegian Wood_ and _IQ84_.

Where should I start with Henry Jame?

Washington Squares or Portraits of Ladies, r280.

Not Daisies Miller?

R278 I started with the Wind Up Bird Chronicle. That one is pretty popular and contains all the usual basic elements of his work. If you like that, read 1Q84 then Kafka on the Shore in that order. Then whatever else you want.

His writing is surrealism. Mundane situations evolving into supernatural ones. But it's also very melancholic and slowly paced. Matt Ruff is similar if you've read him.

Are his other books better than Norwegian Wood?

R284 Better or worse is in the eye of the beholder but they are all very different from Norwegian Wood.

The others are not primarily romances and also all have supernatural elements. I like everything of his but Norwegian Wood.

r283 I've read three by Matt Ruff (_Bad Monkeys_, _Set This House in Order_, _Lovecraft Country_) and Murakami's works, which I had read five - nine years earlier, did not come to mind at any point.

R286 Fool on a Hill was what I was specifically referencing. It's similar in tone and in a setting that is seemingly the regular world, but with much more going on beneath the surface

As a side note, Lovecraft Country was one of my favorite novels of the last few years

I've listened to Murakami's stuff as audiobooks, where Rupert Degas does a killer job narrating them.

James also wrote the shorter, more approachable(?) "What Maisie Knew" as well.

R284: Nowegian Wood simply doesn't have the usual elements that are in the rest of his work. In Spain is his most popular book by far (and he has plenty books that are very popular here)

For James, TURN OF THE SCREW, then watch the brilliant movie with Deborah Kerr.

after hearing about 1Q84 here, i decided to try it. no one said it is 1100 pages long. it better be a good read!

R291 It's a good read but absolutely could have been at least 200 pages shorter

I love the novella THE EUROPEANS by Henry James, as well as RODERICK HUDSON, his first novel, in which practically all his themes and concerns are laid out and resonate in the future works. Also try his marvelous short stories, like THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE and THE FIGURE IN THE CARPET, as well as his travel writing collections (his observations on Florence, et al are beautifully rendered).

I'm finishing There, there and i know it's a good debut and a good novel but i feel dissapointed. I get almost the same feeling when i red Homegoing.

It seems for critics is more important the theme than the execution. Yes, there's fine writing (and i will read his next novel like i will read Gyasi's next) but in my opinion in both cases both try way more than they are able to handle

Who is going to win the National Book Award? I would love it if Jamel Brinkley did.

Of the big favourite only Makkai and Groff made the final, so my bet is in any of the other three (the last two years won the favourite so this year they'll go with a surprise).

By the way, i hope new Groff's book is better than Fate and furies, probably the most overrated book in recent years

R296, I'm not sure what you mean in your post. What is "the favourite"?

R297: Of the longlist the books with more hype where clearly There, There, An american marriage (both out of the short list), the great believers and Florida

I think the weak "present day" half of The Great Believers might prevent it from winning. The section taking place in 1980s Chicago is much stronger. The other half feels tacked on.

I just finished "The Rainy Season" by James P. Blaylock, which I enjoyed a lot. He's a horror/fantasy or "fabulist" writer, Rainy Season is part of a 3 book series of ghost stories. The first one "Night Relics" is also well-reviewed and I can't wait to read it.

I agree that Groff’s Fates and Furies was overrated. I didn’t find the “twist” that critics raved about shocking, and it was a slog to get through at points.

I just finished The Woman in the Window. It was an enjoyable thriller, but I don’t understand the hype. It was a combination of Girl on the Train and The Woman in Cabin 10. Very predictable. I’m getting tired of the drunken/drugged unreliable narrator framework in many recent mysteries.

Sigrid Nunez won the National Book Award tonight.

R234 I just finished The Custom of the Country and you're right about the cuntiness of Undine Spragg. I kept hoping she'd get her comeuppance.

How can you not see that Undine got her comeuppance at the end of the novel, r303? I suppose you could call it sort of a happy ending for her but, oh, how the mighty had fallen.

I love that novel. Why hasn't it ever been made into a film?

Everyone who mentioned The Custom Of The Country has inspired me to read it starting tonight.

Cuntiness ahoy!

r304, said the same thing upthread. It seems ideal for a film. Meryl would have been perfect in her younger days.

Anyone read the NBA winner, THE FRIEND?

Listening to the novel version of Dear Evan Hansen.

R307 Just checked it out from the library--will report back when I get a chance!

I love scouring used book shops and just came up with what look to be a few winners:

Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum (it seems she also wrote the screenplay for MGM so I'm very curious about the original source)

Diary of a Dormouse, a late in life memoir by John Mortimer (one of my favorite novelists)

Criminals by Margot Livesey, a suspenseful Scottish thriller from the 1990s. I'm 70 pages in and enjoying it.

At the Lippincotes by Elizabeth Taylor, who seems to have some fans on this thread.

I ended There, There and my opinon stays. It's a good novel but far from being the amazing novel that critics praise. But maybe it's me not being on the right mood because it seems everybody love the novel.

My next one will be After that by Haruki Murakami. I was quite indiferent to Tokio Blues (and i didn't like the style that much) but i want to give him another try

R310; I loved Paradise postponed, a novel that gives you way more than you expect

Paradise Postponed (by John Mortimer) is one of my favorite novels of all time. I've read it twice (when it first came out in the 1980s and then about 10 years later). Must read it again soon.

But oddly, I've never been able to get into his Rumpole series.

Hey, r310, I just bought Grand Hotel, too, as I'm a big fan of the movie and the multiple-lives-become-entwined-in-a-group-situation genre. I even started writing one when I was a kid and was gonna call it FEDERAL BUILDING (where my mother worked).

Let us know what you think of Grand Hotel!

I took out from the library A Little Life but then returned it unread after reading some user reviews and some comments here.

R315, try making up your own mind. I thought it was a great read.

R304 So Undine screws up her husband's chances of being appointed ambassador because she's a divorcee ? Undine deserves to be taken down and taken down hard ! Maybe her son will take his revenge ?

R311. I'm teaching There There to my college freshmen in about two weeks. I'll let you know how it goes over.

I'm two and a half books into Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) and thorooughly bored (how many pages devoted to describing Martian geology can one read?), but now I've got to finish.

R319: They are tough novels. I read the first two and you need to be interested in the theme and in the right mood. I find them satisfying in the end but i can't say i love them when i was reading them.

Currently reading the delicious A Curious Friendship, about the relationship between Bright Young Thing Rex Whistler and Edith Olivier. I never want to leave Britain between the wars.

Just learned of a fictional account of C.P. Cavafy, WHAT'S LEFT OF THE NIGHT. WSJ raved. Anyone read it?

OK, who has read the Elena Ferrante books? Now that the seriesis on HBO all my friends are recommending the books But I trust you people more.

Is it ChickLit or something better?

Why would it be Chick Lit?

My favourite of hers is DAYS OF ABANDONMENT.

R323, I read the first two books quickly (out of 4) and thoroughly enjoyed them. I couldn't wait to get to #3, but a little less than 1/2 through it, I abandoned the book. I just lost all interest and it took me awhile to figure out why but I just got fed up with the main characters. Fascinating at first but annoying after awhile. I couldn't bear to spend any more time with them. That was over a year ago, maybe with some time off, I can now go back to them and finish off the series. Honestly, though, the interest is still not there.

I'm reading Woodward's Fear and not that it's badly written, but I find it a hard slog. It's difficult because it means I'm spending time with people, namely Trump, who I loathe. I already hate the time I spend on him and his administration in current news and now they have my discretionary reading time too.

I volunteer at a charity bookstore and wait on lots of people of differing tastes. The Ferrante books have a passionate following, but also a lot of detractors of all genders. I haven't read them, but feel I should. Now that the series is on, I may just watch the episodes as a substitute. There are lots of other books to get to.

It's not chick lit for sure. The novels are violent and show the poor during a difficult time on Italy. I know a lot of people focus on the friendship but the director of the tv show thinks the most important part is the education, and it's true, Lenu progresses trhough education (even with some parental reluctance).

I was not in love with the first novel, i found it entertaining and well written but that's all, but i have to recognize Ferrante knows how to keep the reader hooked, and that end makes you want to read the second book

Fates and Furies. I'm enjoying it so far.

R328: I hated it, and i have a friend that blames Obama for her waste of time with that book. I suppose it's one of those books some people love and some hate

R329, granted I'm only 25 pages in...

R323 I read the entire Ferrante Naples quartet. I enjoyed the first volume, but found myself less engaged with each successive volume. By the fourth book I felt obligated to finish because I'd committed so much time already, and hoped the mystery alluded to at the beginning would be solved.

lately have gotten on a T Jefferson Parker kick. great story teller.

R321 Are you familiar with In Search of Rex Whistler: His Life & His Work by Hugh and Mirabel Cecil ? It's a sumptuously illustrated book. I bought it in 2012 as a Christmas gift to myself.

It seems like most of you like novels with contemporary settings with out any fantastical elements.

Not judging or anything, just pointing it out

R334: To be honest, i like most genres and i don't even mind when the genres are mixed

Funny you should mention fantastical elements, as I'm considering rereading Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles" in the near future.

i just slooooogged thru 1Q48 because it was highly praised here. 1162 pages of a love story that didn'e even let the lovers meet until page 1120! wow, just wow (and not in a good way)

I am reading Dennis Cooper's The Sluts. It is hardcore. Anybody ever read it?

I felt conned after reading [italic]1Q84[/italic], r337. I might read [italic]Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World[/italic] (世界の終りとハードボイルド・ワンダーランド (Sekai no owari to hādo-boirudo wandārando) only because it's sat unread on my shelf, but likely won't read Murakami fiction published after [italic]1Q84[/italic].

The new John Boyne is good breezy fun, but pretty shallow and hard to swallow. The Gore Vidal chapter is excellent, though.

I HATE fantastical elements.

I ended Murakami's After Dark and i liked way more than Tokio blues.

now i'm reading Sándor Márai. Probably after that i would try some noir, probably Pierre Lamaitre

If you like fantastical elements, try [italic]the Watchmaker of Filigree Street[/italic]. A Whitehall telegraph clerk in late Victorian London comes home to find an intricate watch on his pillow.

Heading now to THE BOOK OF DUST and THE HUSBAND HUNTERS, about Gilded Age babes who traveled to England to marry royalty. The Meghan Markles of their day.

Has anyone read Mrs Gaskell?

I'm about to crack open North and South.

I suppose my next read will be Luis Alberto Urrea the house of broken angels

Just started ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. Only a few pages in, but 'tis gripping.

You're in for an amazing read, r347. I can't wait to read it again and I don't say that about many books.

I'm the above poster that found Grand Hotel in a used book shop. What a terrific read!

Don't think I've seen the MGM film in many years, so the material is only vaguely familiar. Vicki Baum's writing (and this translation) make the story of interconnecting lives at the Grand Hotel in 1929 Berlin so vivid and sexy and fresh.

I see now how the MGM casting was so spot-on, except possibly for John Barrymore, who's character The Baron, is only in his late 20s and physically muscular in the book (many loving descriptions of his body). The Garbo character, Grusinskaya, an aging ballerina, constantly repeats how much "she wants to be alone."

My edition is one of those great recent NYRB paper backs, very lovingly produced. Highly recommended!

That sounds wonderful, R349. Does it have a dust jacket? Could you point us to a picture?

R333, yes I have that book on Rex Whistler. Finished A Curious Friendship, such a sad and tragic ending which, of course, I knew was coming but heartbreaking nonetheless. Rex was such a talent.

Just started the new bio of Edward Gorey. The writer's insufferable but I'm a Goreyphile.

I saw a Gorey play once. Something to do with QRV.

But all I've ever heard about Edward Gorey is what a dull and routine life he led on Cape Cod with his cats, eating breakfast at the same diner every morning of his life. And regularly attending the NYCBallet (where he behaved himself). He was purportedly asexual.

Does this new bio reveal more? I'm a huge fan of his brilliant art.

C.J. Verburg's Edgar Rowdey mysteries honor the late Mr. Gorey, even having Mr. Rowdey eat breakfast at the same Cape Cod diner every morning. A friend of mine sat near him during a NYC Ballet about a half-century ago. I read [italic]Croaked[/italic] and yesterday with my $5.00 soon-to-expire Kindle credit downloaded a purchased (more like leased) copy of [italic]Zapped[/italic].

i learned, not from the bio but from Ms. Verburg herself, that Mr Gorey had a room dedicated to mysteries, a framed letter from Dame Agatha Christie, and his favorite mystery writer was Edmund Crispin.

Not r349, r350, but I have the same copy (see below--that whole NYRB series is superb, by the way). I've also been on a Vicki Baum kick--have Berlin Hotel, Shanghai '37 and Love and Death on Bali on my reading table. Recently read Back Stage (about the opera world) and found it wanting.

I started a new(ish?) John Le Carre novel, but it was too British. Next, Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone detective series that takes place in San Francisco, a few of which I've already read, but which didn't really grab me, maybe because i never lived in SF.

Gorey's life was fairly dull but I'm enjoying reading about that dullness. Right now he's at Harvard, where he struck up a friendship with Frank O'Hara. They were roommates. Gorey seemed to live so much of his life internally and through reading, and yes, as an audience for ballet, movies, theater, etc. Throw in his lack of romantic partners and it doesn't make for a scintillating read.

You've summed it up well, R354. Unless you're really moved to read it, I'd stick to Gorey's own works.

Just digging into Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood's take on The Tempest.

There are some author's who are so good, I would trust them on any journey. Who would be yours?

An author who knows how to punctuate correctly.

"Danubia" by Simon Winder - history and travel narrative hybrid of the Hapsburg's Holy Roman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Snarky fun!

R108 It's interesting that Nabokov should have written the most entertaining and true to life novel about American academia in his novel Pnin. Burgess comes close in one of his Enderby novels but Nabokov is still the funniest IMHO. While reading Pnin I kept thinking about that great sit-com Third Rock from the Sun.

I just finished reading The Beetle by Richard Marsh. It was written in 1897, the same year as Dracula, and out sold it. A creepy and lurid book. If you have a phobia for large bugs with evil intent crawling up your naked flesh please avoid this book. It was made into a movie in 1919 and nothing since. Surely it merits a screen version.

Just ordered Pnin on your recommendation, r362!

Thanks.

I have finally gotten around to reading John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman. It is now one of my favorite all-time books.

I visited my cousin in Boston this Fall and we went to Concord and saw all the historical sites, including Louisa May Alcott family's Orchard House , so as a result I am now reading Little Women. Delightful book! I am 61 yr old male.

Andrew Sean Greer identifies Pnin as one of the books that inspired Less.

You're probably aware, r365, that the Fowles was inspired by THE AGE OF INNOCENCE.

Is it? How?!

Dan Quayle didn’t do much of anything, but you’ve got the trifecta of evil there in the other three, r404. I can’t decide which one I hate the most, they’re equally evil.

The love triangle, the Victorian milieu, the woman of scandal, the multiple endings that Wharton entertained, r369...

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

I just completed a mini Wharton marathon : The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth and The Reef in order of enjoyment. The Reef started out well , but I have to admit that the several chapters in which Anne vacillates over marrying George challenged my concentration.

Interesting that you enjoyed Custom of the Country the most, r373, as it's sort of Wharton's most comedic novel. I would agree with you.

I also began The Reef years ago but gave up on it, too, though I can't remember now exactly why.

I loved Wharton's final (and unfinished novel) The Buccaneers, about the fate of rich young American heiresses in the 1870s, trying to land European princes. It's like the forerunner of Rona Jaffe's The Best of Everything and all those other books and films about "Three Smart Girls". There's a fun PBS film of it with Mira Sorvino, Allison Elliott and Carla Gugino.

Just finished THE REEF. It's considered the most Jamesian of her novels—lots of interior monologues and soul-searching, which makes it a bit of a slog. Almost could have been a novella. The intro in my edition said it was her most autobiographical. But I enjoyed it. Even second-rate Wharton is better than so many other writers' work.

The Custon of the Country would make an excellent film or miniseries. Maybe Terrence Davies (who directed the brilliant The House of Mirth) could attempt it.

R356 I wish NYRB would reprint Bradford Ropes' novel 42ND STREET (the basis for the film, which was then turned into a stage musical).

R349 R356 Thanks to this thread , I'm now reading Grand Hotel. I'll have to make sure to see the classic movie. I'm reading the NYRB edition on my Kindle. A good complement to Grand Hotel is Berlin Alexanderplatz in the new NYRB edition. It deals with working class folks and ex-cons in 1929 Berlin.

I've read a lot of Nabokov (years ago) and PNIN was always my favorite. It' quite short and just hilariously, touchingly funny. Have read it twice.

Eldergays? What's is this "Book" thing?

something an educated person finds enjoyment in r380. nothing you need to worry your little brain over.

Michael Ondaatje 'Anil's Ghost'

just finished Revolutions by Felix Gilman. scifi. good story.

Good one, r377!

r223 if you like Tosches, read his non-fiction, particularly his bios of Dean Martin (Dino) and Sonny Liston (The Devil & Sonny Liston).

I love his style. He's a true original, and one of the old NYC lifers I'll mourn when he goes. (Mary! I know)

Stupid question but did Nabokov write his books in Russian and have translators? And if so, who are his better translators?

R385, nothing Mary about your post. Tosches' hypermasculine writing, real or reachable only through typewriter keys I have no idea, is the anti-Mary. Like his writing style but find him to be smoke and mirrors. Remember the article on searching for an opium den?

Nabokov wrote early on in Russian, then in English once an expat.

The fact that Nabokov wrote so brilliantly in English is part of why he is considered such a genius. He had an English governess in his early childhood, so he was essentially bilingual as a writer (spoke fluent French and possibly German as well since he lived in Berlin and I think Paris in his 20s and French Switzerland in his old age). His English vocabulary is astoundingly vast (much moreso than many monolingual English writers). His son, Dmitri Nabokov, was the co-translator (along with VN) of his early Russian works, which are now all available in English since probably the 70s and 80s.

If you want to read his most elaborate and floridly eloquent book, it's probably Ada, which was written in the late 60s IIRC. I read it so long ago that I have trouble remembering much beyond the central story, a touching lifelong love affair of what turn out to be siblings. It's a very long book but I loved it when I read it.

Another interesting fact about him--he was a noted lepidopterist (butterfly nut), and is the discoverer of several unknown species. Ada is named after his favorite butterfly (and is a pun on the word "ardor" when pronounced in the British way).

If you get a chance, read a biography. There have been many. I read one by a guy named Burroughs--it was a long time ago though and I think there have been many more since then. I also read a great book about his wife, who was a model of the literary wife and the soul of devotion. Anyway, he had a fascinating life and was a great character--brilliantly learned and charming and also a scornfully elitist crank. Pnin is probably the easiest to start with--his funniest novel by far.

r389 here: Brian Boyd was the biographer's name. I knew there was a B.

R389, thanks for the spoiler about Ada

I'm sorry to have spoiled that but they start out as barely pubescent teenage first cousins at the beginning anyway. "Ada" is not really very plot driven. So I'm not really giving much away. It's much more about the lushness of the language and the fable-like settings. You have to like his alliterative, pun-laden, writing style in this book to even want to read it at all. If you like the style, you won't feel cheated (I hope). If you don't like it, you'll put the book down and won't want to read it anyway. I will say that as I recall, it's very funny, which is why I liked it so much.

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock. I’m starting to love historical fiction.

Just don't give anything away, r392. The rest of your post is fine.

Pale Fire might be the most Nabokovian novel of all, because it has so many writer's tricks in it.

The main one is that it consists of a poem and notes on the poem.

The "other" main one is that, after a while, you realize that the person writing the notes is completely insane and is using the poem to invent his own crazy story. It's mesmerizing.

"I was the shadow of the waxwing slain by the false azure in the windowpane..."

THE STREET by Ann Petry, about a young black mother raising her son in Harlem in the 1940s.

This is a novel I've meant to read for a long time. There was an article about the author in the NY Times a few weeks ago that reminded me about it and then, quite fortuitously, I came across it in a used book store I frequent.

just finishing the 5th book of the Adrien English series. lots of hate here for the STR8 woman who wrote the series, but damn is it a fun read.

I enjoyed Tangerine. Currently reading Melmoth which is surprisingly good. Barkskins is a slog, I almost finished it then gave up.

You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Yes, I'm only reading it to beat the David E. Kelly adaptation to screen.

What do you all think of Louise Erdrich?

Just finished Fates and Furies. I had some big problems with it, particularly in the “Furies” section which largely doesn’t work.

R400, she’s fantastic. I haven’t read nearly all her books, but I loved the ones I have read, such as Love Medicine, The Round House, and LaRose.

LaRose was a wonderful book.

R400: I liked The round house and loved The plague of doves

Am I alone in thinking Fates and Furies was really not all that?

R405: Fates and furies is one of the biggest blufs in recent years. Of course it's not at the level of Exit West.

I still don't understand how Exit West end in so many best of the year list and it was nominated for a good bunch of big awards too. In my opinion that novel fails in almost everything, curiously i found that reaction in a good bunch of booktubers but not on critics

I wasn’t impressed with Fates and Furies either. It was a slog to get through.

I also attempted to read Barkskins and didn't finish it.

Loved The Shipping News and was really looking forward to what Annie Proulx would do with a big epic multi-generational family saga. It starts off with a bang with 2 young characters who will be the forefathers of many generations, but then she goes through succeeding characters so disposably and quickly that as a reader, I had no investment. And I read about 1/2 of it so I certainly gave it a fair chance.

Has anyone ever read Raintree County? It was a huge bestseller in its day (1950s) and was made into a highly-anticipated, if disappointing, film. It's one of those Book of the Month Club books I grew up with in our family bookshelves so I've always been curious.

I think the young author Ross Lockridge committed suicide soon after its publication.

In how many of her books did Annie Proulx have a gay character murdered?

A recent article about RAINTREE COUNTY made an argument for it being a much better book than its reputation would suggest. If you do read it, let us know.

Ooooh. I'll look for the article, r411.

Thanks.

Anyone here read Nabokov's lectures on literature?

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith/ JK Rowling. It is just too big, the first death occurs at page 300 or so and there is just too many unnecessary scenes. That said, it is one of the few detective series where the romantic life of the detectives is interesting...the murders are almost a background for a prolonged romance.

just finished Lee Child's latest Reacher. (forever ruined by Tom C trying to fill those huge shoes). not his best try. called "Past Tense". Reacher is unaccountable smug and self-satisfied in this one. and the kids in peril take waaaaay too long to make me care about them.

Nabokov's lectures on literature (there is also a separate volume of his lectures on Russian literature) are amusing and well-written. His main criticism is always that he didn't write the book he's discussing.

I've also read them, r413. I love the minutiae he focuses on, like the house plan of Mansfield Park (I think that's the one) and the entomology of Gregor Samsa's transformation. Love that stuff.

I've tried to read many of them, but I find the majority of current novels trite, puny and phony, full of television-sized themes and plots, or agenda-driven screeds. Where are the sublime novels that shatter the senses, that aspire to the cosmic and transcendent, that when you've finished reading them, you're either left a drained and sobbing wreck or know that you've been fucked good and hard? That's the experience I'm looking for in literature, past and present, and I've haven't read one comparable since SOPHIE'S CHOICE.

A Little Life fucked me hard, r418, if not necessarily good.

R418 Which books had such an effect on you?

Yes, please let us know, r418 and perhaps we can guide you. Have you read All the Light There Is to See or Christodora by any chance?

I tried twice to read All the Light There Is to See. It just wouldn't go in.

Loved Christadora.

Maybe Garth Risk Hallberg's City on Fire would be big enough, sweeping enough for r418. I could not put it down, but I don't think it was quite as perfect as he might be seeking.

I'm halfway through The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters. Which Spellcheck wants to change into The Fabulous "Bouncier" Sisters.

They weren't. Sister Lee is still alive and was interviewed by the authors, so doubtless she comes off looking better than her sister, but Jesus, Jackie was one cold bitch. People always said she was like that because Jack fucked around on her all the time. No. She was a piece of work long before she met him. As was Lee. They were both trained by their mother Janet - who traded in their father for a much richer husband when they were kids - to go for the gold and they certainly did: Lee married a Polish prince the first time around and Jackie married a future President. She also stole Onassis from her sister who got there first but then got elbowed out of the way when Jackie showed up on his yacht. Even though she was a kind of questionable Princess (Polish royalty isn't what it used to be, I guess), Jackie was the Queen of America and her sister, all through her life, played the role of her Lady-in-Waiting and for the most part appears to have kept any well-deserved animosity towards her big sister to herself. Her thanks? Jackie, who died leaving millions, left her nothing in the will, much to Lee's surprise and embarrassment.

The rich (and famous and beautiful and very, very thin) ARE different from you and me. Just not in the ways we might have thought.

r418 here. Have just started ALL THE LIGHT...so I can't comment on it.

Some novels that have left me a trembling wreck (each for different reasons) are LOLITA, THE FOUNTAINHEAD. MADAME BOVARY (Marmur translation), ABSALOM! ABSALOM! A SEPARATE PEACE, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, MY NAME IS ASHER LEV, ANDERSONVILLE, ANCIENT EVENINGS (only--and I mean ONLY--the first hundred pages)….there are others, but this will do....

Looking the list over, I guess if there's any common theme among all of these, it's that of transgression, for what it's worth.

I am about 2/3 through The Witch Elm by Tana French. Really good book, I have barely put it down.

Sorry, but just reading the synopses of CITY ON FIRE and CHRISTODORA bored me to tears.

I shall make no further recommendations, r427.

I hate A Little Life..I couldn't get into it. I read All the Light, gave up and then went back in and was glad I did.

LINCOLN IN THE BARDO knocked me for a loop, but only after absorbing through the incredibly entertaining audio version.

Reading each chapter of Lincoln in the Bardo was like taking spoonfuls of cod liver oil. I can't believe I finished it.

Has anyone read Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad? Hair-raising tale of slaves escaping the South, it makes Gone With the Wind sound like Dick and Jane Play Ball.

I was very disappointed with Underground Railroad. Paper-thin characters. Plus, I've come to accept that "magical realism" just isn't my thing.

I picked it up in a Free Little Library, so obviously somebody agreed with me despite the book's hype.

You can give away or donate a book you love, r432.

For fans of Tim Murphy’s wonderful, you might want to check out Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers, Rabih Alameddine’s The Angel of History and Philip Dean Walker’s At Danceteria and Other Stories. All great 1980s AIDS fiction. There seems to be kind of a renaissance in the genre. Andrew Holleran, a master of the genre, blurbs Danceteria.

I suppose so, but it seems much less likely, don't you think R433?

Fates and Furies magically has the same “the wife cleaned up her husband’s literary efforts” twist as Meg Wolitzer’s The Wife had. Those two books came out within a decade of each other. You might have though Lauren Groff wouldn’t have blatantly copied that plot point.

just started Kafka on the Shore. very strange, but soooo much better that 1Q84

I've read most of the major Dickens works. Anyone know if Martin Chuzzlewitt is any good?

Chuzzlewit has an anti-American section based on the author's initial impression of our country. He later regretted that, but the book became to popular to re-issue it by then.

Martin Chuzzlewit is one of my favourite Dickens novels. It has a great cast of grotesque characters : Sairey Gamp the night nurse and her frenemy Betsy Prig the day nurse, the sham architect Mr. Pecksniff and his daughters Cherry and Merry, the con artist Tigg Montague a.k.a Montague Tigg and a whole bunch of dubious American types. It also features a sympathetic gay character Pol Sweedlepipe, a bird-fancier and hair-dresser, who is Sairey Gamp's landlord. It sold poorly when first released as a serial - readers found the first few pages boring ( it's a genealogy of the Chuzzlewit family) so sales of the subsequent issues fell off. Dickens himself was pleased with it and was disappointed with the lukewarm response. Poor Martin gets lost in the shuffle though when his sinister cousin Jonas Chuzzlewit takes over the plot. The BBC adaptation is very good I think. Tom Wilkinson is great as Pecksniff.

Thanks so much for the Chuzzlewit comments. I'll be saving it for my time off during the holidays.

A year ago I was reading Dombey and Son and loved it. Don't know why it hasn't gotten more attention over the years.

If you like Nabokov, I highly recommend the novels by Raymond Queneau, especially Zazie in the Metro (which, like Lolita, has a smart-assed little girl as its main character), and The Blue Flowers, which is about a XXth Century Parisian bohemian, who keeps dreaming the life of a XVIIth Century Duke, who is involved in "faking" the ancient cave paintings in the south of France. Both books are simultaneously deadly serious and hilarious, like Lolita. Pale Fire is another of Nabokov's great books, one of the craziest novels of all time.

Little Reef and Other Stories by Michael Carroll (Edmund White's husband).

I finished [italic]The Sibyl in Her Grave[/italic] a few days ago. The fourth and final Professor Hilary Tamar mystery, it has a May-October romantic relationship between a vicar and a carpenter, female impersonation, and a protagonist whose gender is never revealed (I admit that in each of the novels I read, I heard and saw Sandi Toksvig as the sleuthing Oxford don). I liked it enough to recommend.

Picked up something today called The Waiter, by Matias Faldbakken. Never heard of him but the cover's fab and the synopsis sounds intriguing. Has anyone read it?

R442 20 pages in, I just gave up on Pnin by Nabokov. Maybe I'll try your suggestions.

Funny about that, r446! I ordered a used copy of Pnin from Amazon based on recommendations here and it finally arrived yesterday. 20 pages in and I think I'm giving up as well.

I'm enjoying an early novel (1967) of Michael Frayn's called Towards the End of the Morning, about Fleet Street reporters, one of whom has ambitions to get into TV.

Big fan of Frayn and this one's satirical bent is not quite as sharp as his later work but still great fun.

I'm rereading Pnin--first read it in 1981! I'm enjoying it more than ever--though living in Ithaca since 1988 may have contributed to my pleasure.

If you want to get a weird new perspective of how the US got into the mess it's in, read Ayn Rand's hideous "The Virtue of Selfishness" and Anton Szandor LaVey's "Satanic Bible" (there are several free pdfs online). LaVey's work is derivative.

Ayn Rand is a beacon of light to many of the people who are purposely destroying the country. LaVey just rebranded her philosophy.

I think you, like most people. r450, misread and misunderstand Rand's philosophy completely. It's hardly about self-serving egomania (given your adjective of "hideous") but rather, like Joseph Campbell's mantra, following one's bliss and realizing one's potential to the fullest. But that requires knowing oneself and having strong ego resources to get the job done, and most people are simply not up to the task.

R451 that's an interesting and warped perspective.

I enjoyed reading Pnin although I admit that some familiarity with the absurdity of modern Academia enhances the reader's pleasure. I thought it funnier than Lucky Jim or the David Lodge trilogy.

Right now I'm half way through Ada but will suspend judgment until I've finished it.

Have enjoyed catching up with this thread. I recently read Days Without End based on the recommendations upthread, and loved it. Barry is a beautiful writer, the love story was quite touching - I will read more of his work for sure.

Also recently read The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford, a NYRB repub of a novel from the 1940s. I loved it and don't really want to say much about the plot but anyone who liked "Days" would probably like this too - it's got a wild, scary quality that I loved.

A few other favorites from my year in reading: Tartt's The Goldfinch, Darryl Pinckney's Black Deutschland, Bellow's Henderson the Rain King, Hernan Diaz's In the Distance, Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty, Richard Ford's Canada. Also read Lolita and admired it quite a bit (it's hard to love of course) - was my first Nabokov and will definitely read more.

I also read Fates and Furies and had a mixed reaction: Groff is a beautiful writer and she kept the pages turning, but I found the "twist" somewhat contrived. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner was OK but didn't compare to her previous, The Flamethrowers, in my opinion.

Biggest disappointments this year were Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday, seemingly beloved by critics, but I found it tedious and couldn't help think she only got it published because everyone knew she was writing about her affair with Phillip Roth. Another big critical hit from a couple years that I didn't like was In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman - sexist, long-winded and too caught up in its own structure.

Now reading: The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth, a young (at the time) journalist who traveled with the Stones in the period following the death of Brian Jones and the Altamont concert. It's a bit self-consciously "new journalism" at times, but there's also some lovely writing and a ton of good first- and second-hand gossip.

That'll be my 25th book of 2019, which I think is a new personal high. I very much admire those of you who get to 50-60 books a year. I'll be traveling a lot for work in 2019 so I hope to at least hit 30 next year.

I don't know why, but despite the beautiful writing, I could not get past the first chapter of DAYS WITHOUT END. Is it just a Western, basically, or does it have more going for it (like the romance mentioned above) that I should give a second shot? Having the same problem with ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE...I appreciate the writing, but don't find the story compelling (yet). Should I keep on keeping on with either? Both?

Both.

I read Make Way for Ducklings. It was good. I liked it a lot.

I can't imagine anyone with a heart not being moved by ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE and/or DAYS WITHOUT END.

Sorry, r455. What books have moved you?

Also. the homosexuality in Barry's book is not particularly present. It's taken for granted in the best way.

Well, I have a heart and I thought All the Light We Cannot See was over-rated dross, disability and holocaust porn combined as Pulitzer bait. I loved Days without End, though.

[446] I don't know why you gave up on Pnin - maybe you found it boring, it's kind of an "academic" novel, in fact it's really a parody of an academic novel. Pale Fire is not like anything else ever written. It's main character is pretty plainly insane. It's a commentary on a 999-line poem, written by the other main character, a poet who has been assassinated. You may find it irritating. It's very very complicated. I think it's a great book, one of the best of the last 100 years.

i just finished IQ by Joe Ide. loved it. and he has 2 more with IQ as the protagonist. cannot wait to get on to those.

I just met Joe Ide about a week or two ago. He is a client of my trainer's in Santa Monica. I had never heard of him when my trainer told me his name (he lives near there--on border of SM and Pacific Palisades). So then I read Joe's story online and was fascinated that he came so late to writing. I love good crime novels (big Michael Connelly fan). My trainer says he's an extremely nice man. Maybe I'll start with IQ--is that the first one?

R460 Or IS the poem written by "another" poet (John Shade)? Some might argue it was actually written by that exiled genius, Charles Kinbote...

yes r462 IQ is 1st. then Righteous and then Wrecked.

thanks R460 . I just renewed Pnin from the library. but I had to put it down and may try again in a bit. I have two older siblings that are professors at respected universities, so I should "get "it.

I so hope that someone is making a film of DAYS WITHOUT END.

Just finished The Great Believers last night through many tears. A beautifully realized, often devastating novel.

Is it me or is that the weirdest thing ever that R461 posts about an obscure writer and R462 has a connection to him? Sometimes I really love Datalounge.

I love John Boyne. Last year The Heart's Invisible Furies was one of my favorites, and this year A Ladder to the Sky knocked me out as well.

Thanks, r469. The Heart's Invisible Furies is probably the best book I read this year. So I ordered A Ladder to the Sky a couple of minutes ago.

The Quest for Queen Mary.

The Art of Biblical Narrative.

Down on Your Knees, Aaron.

Has anyone read Tom Barbash's The Dakota Winters yet? Looks quite interesting.

I've got it on my bedside table, R472, but haven't gotten to it yet. Must confess I bought it for the cover.

Yes, r473. I usually read my books on Kindle, but I splurged for this one and bought the real book. I'm a lover of that cover.

it can't happen here by Sinclair Lewis, and Just speed read Fear by Bob Woodward.

I am so depressed now.

30 pages in, I gave up on ALL THE CLEAR LIGHT WE WANT TO SEE, or whatever it's called. I just didn't give a damn, despite the encomiums above. Oh, well....

R466 Yes, it's been optioned and Barry is working on the script. A perfect film for Lucas Hedges and Timothee Chalamet!

It will be interesting to see how the film of Days Without End handles the early section where the 2 boys make a living disguised as girls in the saloon, dancing with cow pokes. When I read the book I wasn't sure if the men who hired them were aware that they were boys and didn't mind or if their disguises were more successful.

And didn't one of the boys continue to wear women's clothing in later situations in their partnership? Who would play the femme role.....Timothee or Lucas?

R478 I must read this book.

I thought the crossdressing aspect of 'Days Without End' was off-putting. Especially because the Irish one did essentially choose to live as a woman later on. Reminded me of gay fiction written by frauen, in which one of the men is for all intents and purposes a woman.

'All The Light We Cannot See' felt like mismarketed YA fiction to me.

What the correct procedure for this thread as we approach 2019? Begin a new thread or let this one reach 600 posts first?

I thought the first chapter of DWE is a near-perfect short story in and of itself. Magical.

I just picked up "Sister Carrie" for $1 at the Library book sale. SO far so good but I inadvertently read a spoiler on Wikipedia, but will continue on!

Never read Dreiser but eager to try Sister Carrie or An American Tragedy. Let us know what you think, r482.

I think i'm at the end of my reading crisis. The fact that some of the books i tried were a dissapointment didn't help.

I can't understand the hype on There there, Orange is talented for sure but the story doesn't work in my opinion and the end is not well solved.

Now i'm trying The house of broken angels and it's funny but i found difficult to get into the story (but i blame my bad reading mood and not the book).

I suppose i should try something light till i'm eager to read again

R454: It seems we have opposite tastes. I loved asymetry and The flamthrowers was a big dissapointment for me (because i loved loved loved Telex from Cuba)

r484, I think if you're an avid reader like me, constantly reading, you know you have to mix up new books with classics and bestsellers from years ago. There aren't enough really good books being published each year.

My new thing is buying used paperbacks from Amazon. I love the feel of a slightly worn paperback and most books I've bought on the site are under $5.00 so if I don't like them, I don't feel I've wasted much money.

r486 if you're looking for bargain reading, try your local $1 store. i find lots of titles in mine, have read lots of authors i'd never have tried, but for a buck what can go wrong. many of these new authors (to me) have caused me to head for the library and find more titles by these authors. win-win.

I just feel so much of contemporary fiction (and playwriting) is so trite and small, small, small. Where are the larger-than-life characterizations, plots and themes?

R488 I couldn't agree more

Just started Stevie Smith's Novel on Yellow Paper. It keeps edging toward twee but just escapes.

Forty pages in it looks like a plot is starting to happen.

R488, try Lynn Nottage's play Fabulation. It is full of outsided characters and big contemporary themes.

Plus, the main character is named after the heroine of The Custom of the Country. And is just as cunty.

R480. Off-putting you may find it, but it has its basis in history (I read up on it as prep for teaching). The nen knew they were boys, but treated them like ladies.

I love Sister Carrie, but could never make it through An American Tragedy (and I Iive not far from where it took place).

Is there anyone else who after a while just doesn't remember the plots of most books? As an example, I have read Bleak House twice now, and all I can remember afterwards is that Esther had smallpox, and that Mrs. Jellyby is a comic figure. Instead, I retain a strong sense of whether I liked a book or not.

These days, I'm making my way through Julia Baird's biography of Queen Victoria (21 hours as an audiobook). Also reading gay writer John Malathronas' tales of his travels through Brazil.

remembering plots? what about not even remembering that you've read a book. i am reading City on Fire. or i mean re-reading. i was 150 pages in before i recognized any of the plot. and at 550 pages i'm still not remembering the ending. and that book is only 3 years old!

I read Bleak House for a college English course --nobody probably ever reads Victorian novels in college these days. What I remember is that the central theme is the never-ending unsettled inheritance case, Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce and all the various side plots of the book turn on that infernal case, which was going on for generations at the beginning of the book. It helps that I've seen probably several TV and/or film versions of it--though it's all sort of a blur at this point. I probably would never have read it had it not been required since it's so long, but I remember being enthralled with it at the time.

I think American Tragedy might have been the only Dreiser I've read. Very verbose maybe, but I believe I finished it because you want to know what happens to Clyde, the main character. If you don't want to read it, see "A Place in the Sun"--one of the great 50s melodramas with Monty, Liz and Shelly Winters, based on the book.

Bleak house is the best Dickens, imo.

John Boyne - just discovered and I LOVE. Gay themes, great stories, well written. Hearts Invisible Furies, Ladder to,the Sky. Better than Less or most of the books I’ve read this year.

I also loved The Heart's Invisible Furies, but, other than the fact that both gay content, it seems to me odd to compare it yo Less. The former is an almost tragic modern day class saga, like some of Hollinghurst; the latter more a rueful comedy of manners. I thought they were both excellent, but in very different spheres.

Less won Pulitzer - and it was half the book that Hearts Invisible Furies is. I’m upset that Furies did not get better coverage and awards. I thought it was the best book - and the most deeply and personally affecting book - I’ve read in a long time. History of gay liberation, Ireland,. Humor, sorrow, insight, and addresses the deepest meaning of life. It really should have been recognized more. Especially when comparing to the inferior Less.

Well, if you're suggesting that FURIES should have won the Pulitzer, it wasn't eligible, being a book by an Irish writer. And I agree with r498, compaaring them is apples and oranges. I think that Boyne keeps his plots moving agreeably, but Greer is a far far better writer.

Fair point on Pulitzer R500. But think Boyne is a better writer and more interesting storyteller than Greer. To each his own, but I don’t get the hype for Less.

I only read Boyne's most famous novel and always impressed me how different are all his novels. Instead of repeat the same formula again and again, he is always looking for new and different stories.

He is vastly underrated, probably because The boy in the stripped pyjamas was a teen adult smash, one of those books impossible to avoid because they are everywhere.

And he has several novels with gay themes and characters

Books are back.

[quote]Greer is a far far better writer.

Yet I could not get any further than page 50 in "Less." Twice.

Same. I have the same problem with most hyped contemporary fiction, I just find them so lacking.

I'm reading:

Your Soul's Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born Robert Schwartz, Scott R. Smith

that sounds too whooo whooo for me to even think about ^

Just finished The Great Believers and thought it was excellent. I was pretty much sobbing for the last third of the book.

Could anyone else recommend any other recent 1980s AIDS fiction? I’d like to have a list to choose from for upcoming book club selections for the year.

r508, have you read CHRISTODORA by Tim Murphy? One of the best novels, aids-related or otherwise, of the last decade for sure.

Have never forgotten reading Allan Gurganus' novel, Plays Well With Others, a long and very moving novel from 1997 about the AIDS years--when he lived in New York and lost many, many friends (although apparently he survived and has moved back to North Carolina, where he was from). He's most famous for his first book, "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow."

The Angel of Hisstor by Rabih Alameddine, while dense and sometimes challenging (it helps to have read The Master and Margarita) is the best of them all.

r511 What bearing does The Master and Margarita have on The Angel of Hisstor?

R512. Dialogues between Satan and Death and a cat named Behemoth--is that enough for you?

it's Angel of History (as in the Benjamin essay)-- my typo.

[quote]is that enough for you?

I think it's one I can skip, r513, but The Angel of History sounds at least passable. Is it Satanful, too?

I am the only person who found 'Master and Margarita' execrable and exhausting? What a mess of a book.

r507 you can only learn and make decisions by what others may know or have to say. One does not have to believe in all or any of someone else's beliefs but you can only find out what you do believe by listening/reading what others have to say. I do happen to believe in this and have for over 40 years but there are some things I don't agree with or feel that they are wrong. The most important thing though is that if I am/they are right then I may be ahead of the game. One can never learn too much.....

R515 Exhausting, yes; execrable, no. I do feel like I need to read it a second time.

I've started BETTYVILLE, the DL recommended memoir by George Hodgson about taking care of his 90 year old mother, but fear it will only lead to tragedy in spite of the "laugh-out-loud" blurbs on the cover. I'm about 30 pages in.

The most tragic aspect of the book for me concerns a section on all the friends he's lost to AIDS. I wouldn't have been one of the ones recommending it if I had thought it was a real downer of a story; laugh out loud definitely does not fit my recollection though.

Bettyville isn’t that great. Passes the time but nothing great.

What was the last book you finished in 2018?

Mine is likely to have been "The unexpected education of Emily Dean" set in WW II Australia. There is a lesbian element to the story.

just finishing the wind-up bird. 3rd murakami i've read in the last 2 months. weird and great at the same time

[quote] What was the last book you finished in 2018?

'Magnus' by George Mackay Brown. Very poetic short novel set in the Orkney islands.

[quote]What was the last book you finished in 2018?

Mine will be 'The Dorito Effect', about the flavor in the food most of us eat in the 21st century.

Mine it will be The house of broken angels by Luis Alberto Urrea

Mine will be The Song of Achilles.

Mine will be Sister Carrie, based on a recommendation on this thread (or maybe it was the best screen adaptation). About 150 pages in and quite enjoying it as it's easy reading with it's soap opera-ish plotting. The occasional anti-Semitism is a bit alarming though.

My last for 2018 will be Paying Guests by E.F. Benson who I know is a DL favourite. I just finished reading Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone and enjoyed it a lot.

R528 I read Moonstone last summer . Just very enjoyable!

R527 I found Sister Carrie intriguing. You cant speed read it , however, as embedded in the dialogue can be pertinent plot twists or sudden time leaps.

I just embarked on The Absolutist by John Boyne , also based on recommendation on this thread.

For Wilkie Collins fans, his story Armadale is incredibly homoerotic. It's almost impossible to suspend disbelief that the main characters aren't lovers, except to take in account times were different then.

Sinatra: The Voice by James Kaplan

Agreed, r531, there are actually sulks and fits of jealousy between the men. And it has one of the more marvelous woman villains ever in Miss Lydia Gwilt...I also enjoyed the lesser known No Name.

I liked No Name a lot, too! I brought up Armadale as No Name isn't as "literary" but more of a fun read with the race between hero and villain.

PS: don't know how I could have forgotten my favorite Collins book - Poor Miss Finch! The audio book is available for free at LibriVox, but is so terrific that I would gladly pay for a copy if necessary. As a special feature, the narrator is blind herself!

One Hundred Years of Solitude. I’m loving it.

Ugh, I have yet to be able to make it thru a LibraVox reading. They always sound like autotuned robots.

I should add I read (and still own) BASIL years ago but only remember it vaguely from the Jared Leto movie.

Just started [italic]Hotel California[/italic].

Eighty-Sixed by Daniel B. Feinberg

The Brothers Karamazov. Translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky.

I started reading 'The Witch Elm' due to recommendations from this thread but so far I feel pretty iffy about it. The central character is obnoxious and there are pages and pages of unnecessary minutiae but I don't feel as if the plot has kicked it yet.

^^ kicked IN

reading the 2nd Joe Ide book. righteous.

R531 In The Moonstone there is a strong attraction between two female characters: Rosanna Spearman and Limping Lucy. Also, Franklin Blake and Ezra Jennings have a close affectional bond.

Isn't the young female character Marian Halcombe in Wilkie's The Woman in White also supposed to be perceived as a lesbian?

I enjoyed The Woman in White but it never piqued my inyerest to read any more of Wilkie Collins.

Was I wrong? Should I read The Moonstone? How does it stack up against The Woman in White?

I’ve never read The Woman in White, but I *loved* The Moonstone.

Has anyone read What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli (Simon vs. The Homosapien Agenda)? I want something gay and fun to end the year. However, I read the sample and there is a flash mob in the second chapter, and I don't know if I want something that "fun."

R547 I've read both The Woman in White and The Moonstone and prefer the latter. However The Woman in White does have a great schemer in the person of Count Fosco. R546 I agree that Miss Halcombe does have a lesbianic vibe.

I'll likely try more Collins based on the previous recommendations. Armadale sounds intriguing.

I tried rereading the Moonstone a while back, and it didn't work for me much at all. By the way, after I read Armadale a literature professor friend of mine read it, finding the story homoerotic as well.

R543 - I would have accepted "kicked it" as a variant with which I was unfamiliar and moved on.

In the bio of Queen Victoria that I'm currently reading, I didn't realize that Victorian prudishness was Albert's influence, not her idea (originally). Moreover, I hadn't realized that there were those who suspected he might have been gay, or at least bi, himself.

Has anyone here read the Alain Locke biography by Jeffrey C. Stewart?

I will try Poor Miss Finch, thanks r531.

Last year I read Armadale and No Name. (Am reserving the more famous ones for last) I loved both but actually I think I prefer the latter, which is slightly less over the top. Collins has great, complex, female characters and a villain is never completely evil. In No Name the heroine does terrible things for pure revenge and one of the villains is a maid that is morally right.

On the other hand, I read The Haunted Hotel and didn’t like it at all.

Eighty-Sixed is by David Feinberg.

I knew him, and while he did have an amusingly mordant wit, he was very difficult to get along with, because he was always on the attack, even of whomever he was with at the time.

Once, he showed me his collection of what he called "drop dead letters." Written to him, not by him.

Re-reading Dune.

I want to read w/e Louise Penny Book R220 from this thread was talking about D:< !

Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit is a beautiful book. I'm looking forward to reading it again this year.

A Tale of Two Cities must be the only major Dickens I haven't read. I don't know why I've avoided it.

I adore Dickens and find TWO CITIES a crashing bore.

Is anyone else ever bothered by the lack of sex in Victorian literature? I mean, you know it's there, but the author isn't allowed to talk about it and it would often explain so much more about a character's motivations and inner psychology.

I'm watching the movie of LITTLE DORRIT with Claire Foy, r557 and r558. Does that count?

R560. Actually, I find the absence of explicit sex scenes in Victorian novels part of the appeal--as you say, it's implied and I don't need a description of it. In more modern writers, explicit descriptions of sex are often the weakest parts--Lawrence has greatness in his novels, but his description of men and women having sex is not what gives them their power. The male-female dynamic in Sons and Lovers and between men in Women in Love is communicated with an acknowledgment of physical acts of sex, but when he tries to describe the mechanics (as in Lady Chattely), his writing is wooden and unerotic.

Sorry, Chatterly

The Necessity of Empty Places by Paul Gruchow

Excellent book on nature, and our place in it. His descriptors are excellent, involve all the senses, and aren't forced. It's depressing, but he's a good writer. He ended up committing suicide due to clinical depression and despair over the state of the world. I'm also depressive, so probably not the greatest choice of reading material, but it's worth it for the images he evokes.

I've been waiting for John Lewis-Stempel's nature books to be published in Canada. He's had a few excellent ones, particularly Where Poppies Blow, I've wanted to read. They've been recommended on numerous UK blogs/book IGs.

i started the year as lazy as i ended the last one.

Now i'm trying to choose between Jeanette Winterson's Orange are not the only fruit and Chloe Benjamin's Teh inmortalists

Winterson's book was an easy read for me and not so heavy that I wanted to slit my wrists afterward. I enjoyed it, but your mileage may vary.

Oranges is the better book, but The (or Teh) Immortalists is a more fun read.

R567: Thank you. I started Winterson's book. I liked the other book of hers i red, and this is short (i'm still in the middle of my reading crisis)

I read Furies and liked it but felt is could have been wrapped up a lot sooner. Then again, I think everything is too long. I am loving Days Without End. Whoever initially recommended it, thank you! I also loved A Gentleman in Moscow.

I expect to read A gentleman in Moscow this year, i loved Rules of civility

Loved RULES, but only liked MOSCOW. Thought it about 100 pages too long.

"Dangerous Curves Above Hollywood Heels" by Michael Ankerich. It's about doomed ladies of the Silver Screen from the early days of Hollywood and how difficult it is to survive there.

"From every corner of the earth they come and across the Seven Seas -- borne on the tireless wings of youthful optimism. Pathetic pilgrims these, struggling on to ultimate disillusion. In most cases their assets, generally considered, amount to a one-way ticket to Hollywood (the savings of their young lives), an inadequate wardrobe, a still less adequate bank-roll, a terrifying determination to break into the movies, and (most disastrous) the rather appalling knowledge that in their old home town they were considered to be good looking." (Frank Butler, an actor in Sennett comedies)

Just picked up a used copy of LUST by Geoff Ryman who wrote WAS. Looks like a fun fable of a young British guy who invents something that allows him to have sex with anyone he wants from Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan to Pablo Picasso to his.....hot young (straight) trainer.

Anyone know it?

half way thru "Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies". god damn is this a hard read. ugly crying in almost every page i read. but, also so filled with love.

Loving Martin Chuzzlewit, though it started off kind of rocky with some overly verbose (even for Dickens) background info and character descriptions. His books are so wonderfully humane but you do need the patience and time that come with maturity to just sit back and enjoy them.

[quote] Excellent book on nature, and our place in it. His descriptors are excellent, involve all the senses, and aren't forced. It's depressing, but he's a good writer. He ended up committing suicide due to clinical depression and despair over the state of the world. I'm also depressive, so probably not the greatest choice of reading material, but it's worth it for the images he evokes.

Paul Gruchow was a family friend back in Minnesota. He had a lot of psychological problems towards the end beyond just clinical depression.

He was a wonderful writer, though.

I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, by Rene Girard.

Death in Western Thought.

Lick Boot, Kiss Foot.

Could anyone recommend some short pieces of writing, not short stories but perhaps novellas? I'm an eldergay and my concentration is not what it used to be. As an English major in college I could whip through a 500 page book in no time flat and now it takes me ages just to get through an issue of The New Yorker. I'd be most grateful and thank you in advance.

(Ardent Anglophile here, lover of witty writing, mysteries, anything intriguing.)

r578, have a look at some of Michael Frayn's early novels on Amazon (they're not always easy to get in the US). All "witty and intriguing" and often with a bit of mystery attached. 200-300 pages long so maybe not as short as you'd ideally like.

Thank you, R579. I'll definitely explore your recommendation. So many of these modern novels are (to me) insurmountable. Started The Goldfinch and it felt like climbing Machu Pichu. Alas, I fall asleep after the third sentence of an audio book. Thanks again.

R578. I feel your pain. I'm reading Little Dorrit, in part because I never have (and friends always speak of it a truly great novel) and in part as a kind of discipline (in a good way--rebuilding muscles of concentration). I am genuinely enjoying the novel, but am aware that, in my salad days, I would have read it four or five days--now it will take me three weeks.

Might I suggest that you also novels consisting of connected stories, like "Olive Kittredge" and "A visit from the Goon Squad" or novels that episodic, but not epic in scope, such as "Less." They are more manageable than some of the huge recent books (like "A Little Life," which,IMO, isn't worth the effort anyway). Each story or chapter has a sense of narrative wholeness, but you still get to follow characters through a developing arc.

Try some of Edith Whaton's novellas, like Ethan Frome or Summer.

r578, try Giorgio Bassani's novella, THE GOLD-RIMMED SPECTACLES, from the author of THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS. As an eldergay, I think you will appreciate it.

Many thanks to all. These sound like wonderful recommendations and I'll research each. Very kind of you to help an old guy. Reading has always been a source of comfort, relaxation, education and, weirdly, succor and to see it slipping through my grasp breaks my heart. I'm much heartened by this thread and read it religiously to discover your insightful critiques and opinions. Makes me very happy to know younger generations are discovering the world through reading and reading good and challenging books. Please don't let this thread die. I bid you good evening.

You're very sweet, r584!

What have been some of your favorite books of recent years? Might help us come up with more recommedations shortter fiction.

R578, I like the idea of you checking out some interconnected short story collections. Someone upthread asked for recommendation for contemporary AIDS fiction set in the 1980s. Besides the excellent suggestions of The Great Believers and Christodora, I would also recommend the collection At Danceteria and Other Stories. The stories are connected thematically and none of them are more than 10-15 pages (with some as short as three pages). As an eldergay, I think you might appreciate the milieu portrayed in its pages.

Thanks to everyone talking about Little Dorrit, I'm going to pick it up at the library this week.

Picked up a copy of HOLD TIGHT by Christopher Bram - worth seeking out if you've never read it - WWII novel with gay hustler spies fighting Nazis. Really.

I think HOLD TIGHT is, along with FATHER OF FRANKENSTEIN (now often published as GODS AND MONSTERS, after the title of the film), Bram's best novels. Some of his stuff is clunky, in my opinion, but he's often very good when writing historical fiction.

I'd also suggest Tom Rachman's THE IMPERFECTIONISTS, a novel made up of a number of short stories, each concerning someone associated with an English-language newspaper in Rome. They are separate stories, but weave together nicely. A wonderful book.

Looks like there's a new BOOK thread for 2019!

Congrats to everyone here for keeping this one going and Happy New Year!

Sorry, don't know how to link the new thread but perhaps someone smarter than me will.

Bad form to start the 2019 thread and not provide a link here. Just not cricket.