Books for fall reading

I'm reading "The House of Gucci" in preparation for watching the film this fall.

It's not very well written, but it's a great story to hear about the making of the dynasty and how fucked up it was since the original patriarch strongly encouraged his sons to compete with one another for his favor (which always ends in disaster and hard feelings).

I'm taking a long weekend in Oct and picked two books one pure trash and one well regarded. House of Hilton (about how that thristy trash came to be ) and The Season: A Social History of the Debutante.

I keep meaning to read "Mexican Gothic" which got good reviews this summer. has anyone else read it?

Reading some Somerset Maugham short stories

Thanks for the info/advice on RESERVOIR 13 to the poster from the last thread. I'm still enjoying Jon McGregor's SO MANY WAYS TO BEGIN so will check out his latest.

Philip Hoare's Albert and the Whale - a wonderful read.

Also am reading Louise Penny's The Beautiful Mystery - a well written murder mystery taking place in a secluded monastery where the monks are known for their Gregorian chanting.

I've read Mexican Gothic. Guessed the twists early, but it's entertaining.

Any fans of John Banville's novels? His books keep coming up in recommendations so I took out THE BOOK OF EVIDENCE and THE SEA from the library.

I tried reading that Louise Penny mystery about the monks, r6, it was my first.....and last Penny. Started off well but devolved into something ridiculous.

Well I am enjoying Penny's book and recommend it. Some prominent book critics have reviewed it positively.

I am so used to watching videos that I have little patience with books.

However, maybe I'll re-read some old favorites.

r8, Banville tends to overwrite (as I would say Edmund White always does too--their prose is just too florid), but I still have enjoyed his books.

My favorite was The Untouchable, about a Sooviet spy (based on Sir Anthony Blount).

Sit down while reading so you do not fall, gramps.

To whom are you directing your random cuntiness, r12?

All of us?

I'm planning to reread all of Harlan Coben's standalone novels this fall and winter, with other books interspersed as I find them. I started last night with Hold Tight, which takes place in the early days of life online, in which a mother and father have software installed on their 16-year-old fuckup son's computer. His best friend killed himself, and their son is probably on drugs, so they feel it's a morally acceptable thing to do.

And off we go.

Recently read two great 2020 novels by first-time authors:

Luster, by Raven Leilani, a riveting, darkly comic tale of an adrift Black twentysomething who starts an affair with a middle-aged white guy.

These Violent Delights, a stunning riff on Heavenly Creatures—but with teenage boys and set in ‘70s Pittsburgh.

R15, are you familiar with Pittsburgh? If so, I'd love to hear/read your reactions to the sense of place the author created in These Violent Delights.

The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin is fantastic. It is also the first trilogy in which all three books won the Hugo for best novel.

Non fiction suggestions please.

I read a lot of nonfiction, R18.

Have you considered [italic]Nothing to Envy[/ITALIC] by Barbara Demick? Very well regarded story of North Korean escapees.

Mary Beard's [italic]SPQR[/italic] I found great reading, despite some reviewers' issues. Liked her book on Vesuvius/Pompeii as well.

Finally, a lesser-known essay collection: [italic]Nocturne[/italic] by James Attlee. I found the essays consistently engaging rather than a mixed lot.

I enjoyed Elvira's memoir so much that I decided to read "Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi." It's written by her niece, who had access to her aunt's letters and diaries.

The Vampira TV show aired for less than a year, but Maila had quite a life outside it: pregnant with Orson Welles' baby (which was adopted out), confidante and friend of both Marlon Brando and James Dean (the latter of whom was her soulmate, she says), friends with Tony Perkins, who treated her cruelly.

In her latter years, she was living in a garage with no electricity in a gang-infested part of Hollywood and found some acceptance in the punk scene. By the time Vampira was set for rediscovery in the late 1980s, she was too old and frail to capitalize on it.

And she HATES Cassandra Peterson. It's a juicy read.

Thanks r19.

Nonfiction

Spillover - great introduction into how infectious agents in animals get spread to humans

The Great Mortality - delightful account of the plague

The Broken Earth trilogy drove me nuts. It had these great moments and then it would fall apart in massive swirls of illogic .

Second the vote on Nothing to Envy. Compelling and illuminating.

There are a bunch of Little Libraries in my neighborhood, so I just kind of pick up random stuff. Right now I'm rereading Barbara Pym.

R23 - I'm almost finished with Pym's [italic]Quartet in Autumn[/italic], kinda sad.

Quartet in Autumn is Pym's masterpiece. I believe it was the only time she was shortlisted for the Booker but lost it. And I believe she died soon after. She was really never able to fully enjoy her late career rediscovery and success.

R9, please come back when you FINISH the Louise Penny monk mystery and tell us what you thought of it.

R16 I grew up in Pittsburgh, albeit later than when the book is set. It felt pretty authentic to me; set mostly around the East End IIRC.

You want Pittsburgh, I'll give you Pittsburgh: [italic]Emily, Alone[/italic] by Stewart O'Nan.

r26, I found it peculiar that the author referred to "the interstate" instead of the Parkway when the family drove from Squirrel Hill to Mt. Lebanon. And his characterization of Squirrel Hill as a working class neighborhood. Sure, south of Forbes isn't as schmancy as north of Forbes, but it's still upscale overall.

Also, he referred to a "Murray Avenue accent" in the Squirrel Hill characters' vowels. A lot of people there were consciously trying to lose their yinzer accent, with varying degrees of success, but those with yinzer accents in Squirrel Hill didn't sound any different from yinzers from other parts of the city.

Thank you, r27. I read that a number of years ago. I think Emily was a widow living in Highland Park.

I’m excited to read the new Amor Towles and even the new Jonathan Franzen, both coming next month.

I was going to post this as a new thread, but it will probably get a better reception here. Very interesting opinion piece about Forester, but also about a book that came out earlier this year called Alec, which continues the story of Maurice and follows the lovers into WWI. Has anybody read it?

Still making my way through Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels, just finished my 9th of the 20 books: Money (L'Argent), 1891.

Are they any good, r31? What's been the best of them?

I haven't yet read ALEC but I have two different friends (one well-read, one not so much) who both loved it.

Colum Toibin's "The Magician" a novel based on the writer Thomas Mann and his weirdly fascinating dysfunctional family. Hilarious cameos of Isherwood and Auden, two of the cuntinest cunts who ever cunted

Better Davis and Other Stories, the new follow-up to At Danceteria.

r32, I'm loving these books, though it's obvious that Zola got better as he went along; I didn't start reading them in his preferred order (see link), rather the first one I read was La Terre (Earth), then its direct sequel, La Débâcle. These two were excellent: the first a portrait of peasant life in the Beauce region of central France, the second an account of the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of Paris (La Débâcle is also fascinating in that -- whether intentionally or not -- it comes across as a romance between two soldiers). I then jumped to L'Assommoir, a devastating account of alcoholism in the working class districts of Paris, then to Nana, the famous portrait of a courtesan, which I found episodic and not as impressive as the first three I'd read.

Fortunately, I then read Germinal, which is an absolutely mesmerizing portrayal of a coal mining community, the poverty, the pride, the injustice, the dangers; Zola is a master of crowd scenes and suspense, and here he reaches his zenith. With that, I decided to read the rest of the series in his preferred reading order, so I went back to the first book The Fortune of the Rougons, which provides the background for the family tree of the Rougon-Macquarts while also providing a thrilling account of the 1851 coup that Louis Napoleon instituted to make himself master of France, as seen through the reaction in a small town in the south of France. His Excellency Eugene Rougon portrays the inner workings of the politicians surrounding Napoleon III -- it's more interesting for its historical detail than for its dull plot. The Kill is allegedly about the corruption surrounding the Hausmannization of Paris, but is really more interested in the soap opera of a romantic triangle involving a speculator, his new young wife, and his foppish son; L'Argent follows up with the speculator, now trying to create a financial empire through a holding company with illegal actions; written later, its of a higher quality than the preceding novel.

Zola was a journalist before turning to fiction, and did copious research for his novels, so they're often overflowing with detail; his plots tend to melodrama, but in his best books -- Germinal, La Débâcle, Earth, L'Assommoir, L'Argent -- he's able to finesse this with a strong sense of narrative flow. His concepts of hereditary influence on character is now questionable, and can seem a flimsy substitute for deep characterization in his lesser novels. I think he's at his best when he's writing passionately about the plight of the "lower" classes -- miners, soldiers, peasants, washer-women, etc. -- and how often TPTB are determined to keep them in their place, and their own actions/behaviors/choices exacerbate their situation -- which makes the best books universal and timeless.

Honestly the only one that is the least exciting for me is the new Franzen book - Crossroads. I find him to always be a guaranteed worthwhile read. It’s received decent reviews too. Looking forward to digging in.

Otherwise have not read anything decent in months. The Bunny Mellon biography was the most entertaining recently.

Just put Alec on my Amazon wishlist

I was able to read an advance copy of Crossroads by Franzen and it’s excellent. A super engrossing, fat read with a character that will be worshipped by DL- Marion Hildebrandt. Whichever actress scored this part in the inevitable adaptation will rack up the awards. So juicy.

I don't read that many novels, with the latest one I tackled not all that... satisfying: [italic]Swimming Home[/italic] by Deborah Levy.

The Magician (Toibin), Harrow (Joy Willams), Cloud Cuckoo Land (Anthony Doerr), Bewilderment (Richard Powers)

nonfiction: The Soul of an Octopus, Below the Edge of Darkness, The Book of Eels

yeah, I read a lot

The Book of Eels? Have you read Kurlansky's [italic]Cod [/italic], [italic]Salt[/italic], etc. as well?

R42 No, I haven't. . They look interesting. Will add them to my pile. Thanks for the tip.

^^^ As a New Yorker, my favorite in that genre is The Big Oyster and then there is always the seminal Guns, Germs and Steel. These books are usually excellent for people who think they don’t like nonfiction or who think History is boring because they haven’t found it presented in an appealing way.

[quote]And she HATES Cassandra Peterson. It's a juicy read.

Why would she hate Cassandra Peterson? Vampira was modeled on Morticia Addams. It wasn't completely original.

The power of the dog

Currently reading We Others, a short story collection by Steven Millhauser. And like all Mullhauser, it's fabulous.

[quote]Why would she hate Cassandra Peterson? Vampira was modeled on Morticia Addams. It wasn't completely original.

Maila was contacted by KHJ to "consult" on a new version of Vampira. She said she wouldn't appear again as Vampira, but would play Vampira's mother.

At the meeting with executives, they expected Maila to sign away her rights to Vampira for pennies. She refused and left the meeting. KHJ went ahead with rebooting it with Cassandra, down to the same signature walk down a spooky corridor as the opening.

On the first day of shooting, they had to stop when Vampira's lawyers threatened to file suit. They changed the name to Elvira right there and kept shooting.

Maila greatly resented Cassandra's boobs-and-jokes approach, preferring her own beatnik take on a vampire. And clearly she resented Cassandra's fame and money from the character, considering Maila was living in abject poverty.

I've gotten out of the habit of reading fiction so I am dipping my toes back in with short stories. Alice Munro's Open Secrets has been moving so far. I'll read an Italo Calvino collection after.

^"The Jack Randa Hotel" is perfection. My favorite Munro story, and I've read 'em all.

I'm having trouble getting back into the habit of reading as well, r49. Italo Calvino's short stories is a great idea to dip my toes back into fiction. (God, I used to be such a voracious reader!) Tried to read some of my Hermann Hesse's (an old favorite) short stories - his fairy tales - earlier this year, but just found them tedious. Been having much more luck with Angela Carter's feminist reimaginings of short fairy/horror stories.

r30, Alec sounds great! I loved Maurice ("Morriss" in the Merchant Ivory film, lol)

r20, big Elvira fan here too - super stoked to read her new autobio! That Vampira one sounds worth a look-see as well!

Cheers, gents

[quote] I loved Maurice ("Morriss" in the Merchant Ivory film, lol)

That's how E. M. Forster pronounced it, and how they pronounce the name in England where the book is set.

R50, every new one is my new favorite, lol. But Gail is a very special character, I had such a reaction to her letters while I was reading it. R51, I have Angela Carter planned as the next read once I return these to the library.

Lol, r52, I'm posting from Texas - RP English is not widely-spoken here 🤣

Has anyone read House of Leaves? I ordered the book but haven’t started it yet. I wanted to see why it’s reached cult status, but it looks like a lot of work to understand it. Is it trash or the mist frightening book ever?

For those having trouble with getting back to reading fiction, can I recommend 2 truly wonderful short novels by Graham Swift? I mentioned them in the last thread but loved them so much they deserve another mention:

MOTHERING SUNDAY (which has been turned into a film starring Olivia Colman, Josh O'Connor, Glenda Jackson and Colin Firth) about a parlour maid in the 1920s English countryside having an illicit affair with the young scion of another estate.

And HERE WE ARE about a love triangle between 2 young men and a girl, all performers in a dying vaudeville act on the Brighton pier in 1959.

I couldn't put either book down, both under 200 pages.....and I would have been happy to read 400 pages more about all those characters.

[QUOTE] The power of the dog

I’m reading this right now and loving it.

I want to read Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song by Laurence Leamer

I love Pym. She was too good for trendy literary prizes.

R55, House of Leaves is shite. I mean it's cool and sort of intriguing when the house got bigger and bigger, but once it ended I forgot about it. It's certainly nowhere near to being the dark underground horror masterpiece that it thinks it is. A scary book it is not.

Plus I felt like a dumbass turning the book around and around in my hands during that one part where the print goes off in a bunch of different directions.

Mia McKenzie’s Skye Falling. About a black lesbian and it’s moving and hilarious.

Thanx to R29 for reminding me that I haven't read Towles' Eve in Hollywood.

Thanx to R46 for The Power of the Dog.

Thanx to R56 for Swift recommendations.

Thanx to all book thread posters.

I'm going add a reccomendation of [italic]The Observations[/italic] by Jane Harris as a story I feel DL'ers might like. For audio folks, it's one of the few examples of an author narrating their own work well.

I'm amazed at those of you who want to read the new Jonathan Franzen. I got through The Corrections, and it was okay (if you're into family dysfunction); but I found Freedom unreadable and only got halfway through it. the voices of all the characters in it were just like his own: the voice of a sour, crabby, entitled middle-aged white guy.

r64 you make me laugh! I loved The Corrections, but I read it right when I was moving from DC to the Midwest and it tickled me how on the nose he was about some things. I also didn't mind Freedom because, at least back then, I wasn't as affected by entitled middle-aged men as I have been in years since. I could never get through it now. Purity was a head-scratcher for me, but I'm willing to give Crossroads a chance.

On my shelf for almost 27 years, and finally read it this month: Edmund White's magnificent 650+-page biography of Jean Genet.

[quote] the voice of a sour, crabby, entitled middle-aged white guy

aka the "authorial voice" of the DL

R60) I agree that turning the book when reading is more nuisance than intriguing. It’s a lot of work to read so far, sad to hear that it probably won’t be worth the effort. Thanks for the insight.

These are quite stunning. I wonder who she’ll leave her estate to, if she’ll give it to a nonprofit or set up her own foundation? Maybe she’ll make Griffin her literary executor.

Both Thomas Savage's book and Jane Campion's film, The Power of the Dog, are available online for free reading/viewing.

R70 Huh? I’m assuming only illegally?

Just bought Anthony Doerr's latest CLOUD CUCKOO LAND and excited to dig in after I finish my current reading. It's a BIG book, 622 pages of small print. I hope it lives up to ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, one of my favorite novels of all time.

I believe the reviews have been great.....I haven't wanted to look too closely as I don't want to know too much.

The Bench is a genius work of comic.

I think I’m the only person that hated All The Light We Cannot See. I attempted it twice and had to bail each time. Clearly the problem is me since I’m so overwhelmingly in the minority. I’m reading Julianna Margulies’s memoir, Sunshine Girl. She had an interesting, nomadic childhood. It’s decent.

R74 I managed to finish, but I also hated it. I felt it read like a very overhyped YA novel.

Speaking of, Doerr was on CBS Sunday Morning today.

R74, I've shied away from the book having a feeling instinctively that I probably wouldn't like it.

I hate anything that reeks of mawkishness or being manipulated but I LOVED All the Light WE Cannot See. One of the best books I read in the past 25 years and I read about 50 novels a year. Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex would also be on my list if you want to know more about my taste in reading.

But to each his own. Reading tastes are highly subjective, I've always felt that.

"My Indecision is final - The Rise and Fall of Goldcrest Films" by Jake Eberts & Terry Ilott. A true account in the form of a memoir of how to run a film production company from people who actually did it.

I highly recommend it. It's quite enjoyable

Finished “Filthy Animals” by Brandon Taylor and it didn’t really impress me much at all. I would have preferred to just have read a novella based on the interlocking stories instead, and I’m not convinced it wasn’t a novella that he split up to package the whole thing as a short stories collection. I’m now off the waitlist to get “Afterparties” by Anthony Veasna So, and I’m a bit worried it will break my heart, being so wonderful that the fact that there will be no more writing from him will make me very sad.

I'm LOVING Anthony Doerr's latest CLOUD CUCKOO LAND. About 200 pages in. Great storytelling! The book is over 600 pages long and takes place in 3 different time periods, so seemed daunting at first. But most of the chapters are short and the pacing is so swift and engaging, I'm zooming through it faster than most shorter books I've recently read.

Just bought the new Amor Towles, "The Lincoln Highway" which got a nice review in the NYT this week. I loved his first two, "Rules of Civility" and especially, "A Gentleman in Moscow".

The best book I have read all year is Lionel Shriver's "Should We Stay or Should We Go". It came out over the summer. If you are a Shriver fan, this is one of her most fun works. It's a laugh out loud funny yet still has the bite of all her books. She has become one of my all time favorite authors and I love her very practical, almost aspie take on common sense political culture.

LOVED Better Davis and Other Stories. It’s better than At Danceteria but very much in the same vein with the whole celebrities/early days of AIDS angle.

There is a great story about Jim J. Bullock in it as well as one with Natalie Woof that takes place the night she drowned in 1981.

I'm reading David Lee Roth's bio. I like Diamond Dave. I have way more downloaded than time - this site has completely ruined bookstores for me.

My inner Frau just finished "Apples Never Fall", Liane Moriarty's new release (Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers). This has been my least favorite so far although reviewers seem to like it much better than "Nine Perfect Strangers", which I happened to like. It's not a great book, but there is something comfy and nice about Moriarty's basic, upper middle class white suburbia in Australia that feels like curling up in a nice blanket where the biggest tragedies are deserved and everyone is really good deep down. I'll continue to read her books, but this was more of a miss for me.

r86, not that you asked, but the best book I ever read about suburban Australia was Christos Tsiolkas's THE SLAP. It was was also a fabulous Australian mini-series starring the hot young Jonathan La Paglia, Sophie Okenedo and Essie Davis. And then a much watered down American version a few year later.

Huh. I really liked the American version of The Slap. I knew i was an Australian remake, but not a book. I'm going to check it out. Can you tell me how it's watered down? Unless it would spoil an alternate ending?

*Natalie Wood

R85 , e-books? Ewwwww.....

R90 = Ewwwww

Some folks need larger font, as well as the fact that it's easier to carry around an e-reader than a heavy, bulky book - especially when traveling.

STFU and be happy that people are reading, R90.

DataLounge: Birth of Pointless Bitchery

Not really interested in Vita Sackville-West's fiction, but picked up a Kindle copy of her travel narrative "Passenger to Tehran" for $1.99.

R94 Thanks, that sounds interesting. I might do the same.

@R91

[quote] Why Real Books are Superior to E-Books

i'm reading my way thru Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series. something like 16 books. started in the 70s, and nearly always has at least one gay character (not common for the 70s) . good mysteries, and the character (Matt) goes from raging alcoholic to AA member is such detail i feel like i too have undergone AA training. well worth the journey. and taught me so much about my struggling friends.

Were the Matt Scudder books turned into a film or TV series? Sounds familiar.....

I always revisit Sherlock Holmes and Shirley Jackson in the fall.

R97, I really like Lawrence Block. I follow him on Twitter, too, he seems pretty cool

r98 the book "a walk among the tombstones" was made into a very bad movie. book is set in NYC, but the movie is set in LA, (among other "enhancements")

"Now and Then" by William Corlett

"Christopher Metcalfe returns to his childhood home following the death of his father. Here, he confronts memories of his time at public school and relives the intense, passionate affair he shared with fellow student Stephen Walker. This forces him to come to terms with himself at last."

Read the alchemist,,short read but great wisdom. Moral: each of our lives is a treasure.

Has anybody read this book The City Beautiful? It sounds like a cross between the Alienist and Devil in the White City with Jewish boys in love. I didn’t realize at first it’s YA. But my interest is piqued.

This is interesting.

Sorry to say I'm giving up on THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY after about 100 pages. The writing is so hollow and artificial and the main characters, three 18 year old boys and an 8 year old boy in 1954, all have voices and vocabularies which are far too urbane and precious, all very annoying.

When one of them visits a public library in a small midwestern town on a Sunday morning, I thought WTF - "When has a public library ever in the history of America been open on a Sunday?" This might be considered a minor gaffe, but it drives me nuts in a book that aspires to some literary merit. And how can any purportedly smart author make a mistake of inauthenticity like that and not be corrected by his editors and publisher?

The Prophets is pretty compelling and terrifying in it march to what I fear to be a catastrophic ending that will break my heart, but part of me keeps hoping they get to fly away in the end. I got both the eBook and audiobook, and while I like the reader and hearing the cadence of the language, I wish they would have had a different narrator for each of the characters. If it continues to do well and win prizes I hope they re-record it full cast.

R106

Sunday public library hours dated from long after that, but have been some for quite a while. Mine has suspended that over lack of staff, not specifically budgeting. In the 50's you'd have been lucky if a library had a half-day Saturday.

R98, two of the Matt Scudder novels have been made into movies, A Walk among the Tombstones & 8 Million Ways to Die. I haven't seen either of them, but I don't think they're well-reviewed.

I'd be curious to hear if others grew up in towns with libraries open on Sundays. I'm from a small town in northern NJ and we never had that. And I live in another town in central NJ and we don't have that now. Is it just a Jersey-deprived thing?

[quote] I'd be curious to hear if others grew up in towns with libraries open on Sundays.

I grew up in a small town. On weekends, the library was open Saturday 9-1 and closed on Sunday. It wasn’t until the 1970s that department stores in our area started opening on Sundays. The library? Never on Sunday.

R110: I distinctly recall my library in Morristown, NJ was open Sunday afternoon in the 1990s when I left the area.

Grew up in Central Florida in the 70s and 80s; library was always closed on Sunday.

Librarian here, in flush times with good funding Libraries tend to add hours on a Sunday usually 1:00-5:00. Lots of kids usually don’t do school projects until the last minute and Sunday hours tend to be godsends for that, especially pre internet. But if funding is limited or there are cut backs it’s the first thing to go.

I don’t know about the work mentioned, but some libraries were segregated and there may have been Blacks only hours on certain days. I would imagine that Sunday might be that day for some communities since whites may not have cared as much and Blacks might have a better chance to use them on a usual day off for much of that community.

I can't imagine any midwestern church-going Christian community with library Sunday hours, especially in the 1950s when the Towles book is set.

I find this lengthy discussion of Sunday library hours nearly every bit as thrilling and important as the discussions of Norwegian Catholics in Bay Ridge on the "Mad Men" threads.

Read the story of the bisexual Mr. Zero, over the course of the book he has two husbands and several lovers of both sexes. He has adventures including, murder, entertainment, religion, politics, and the college experience.

It is long, but consists of short chapters, so it is an easy fast-paced novel. It is dedicated to several soap opera writers and creators. So it is a sort of an homage to that genre.

Maybe a little late to the party as I'm just now reading MY POLICEMAN by Bethan Roberts. Enjoying it enough about 50 pages in, but it doesn't have any of the black humor I somehow expected.

The Secrets We Kept, Lara Prescott. Surprisingly interesting read about the CIA's involvement in getting Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago published, Pasternak's 30 year love affair with his secretary, and a couple of CIA typists involved in the love that dare not speak its name.

R119, are the typists men or women?

So I finished MY POLICEMAN and really found it disappointing. Lots of cliched writing of gays as martyrs and victims, written by by a middle aged female author. And the middle aged woman character in the book is perhaps the most unpleasant and pathetic of all the characters.

Don't know why Harry Styles chose to be in the upcoming film as he will be very miscast as the naive blond muscular title character. And Emma Corrin is also horribly miscast (and far too attractive) as the unsympathetic and vindictive woman in love with him.

Frau authors, particularly FTM that have an unkempt front hole between their legs, are laughable when they try to write gay men. It’s quite apparent that they don’t understand men, either gay or straight, at all.

Any unfamiliar author that writes about gay men, I am searching for their picture. If it’s a deranged pussy bearer, I will not buy the book. This policy has saved quite a bit on money in the last year.

Geez, could you sound more hostile towards women? Yeah, sometimes there's a lack of authenticity in female-written gay stuff, but you could say the same for men (both gay and straight) who try to write female characters

true R123

question: of male authors who write from a woman's character/perspective, are gay men better than straight at getting women characters right?

Tolstoy and Balzac seemed to have done ok. for gay writers, I think of Colum Toibin and "Brooklyn"

obsevations, suggestions?

Henry James? Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, et.al.

Right now I'm reading Zola's "The Kill," the second in his Rougon-Macquart cycle. It's an updating of the story of Phaedra set in the Second Empire among the very wealthy, so you can see pretty easily where it's going to end up. It's most fun for all the details of life among the wealthy in mid-19th century Paris.

Finished The Prophets and it has some beautiful passages and an intriguing story, but I’m struggling with the ending. I don’t mind open ended or ambiguous endings, but either there are biblical references that I didn’t get or it ended flatly for me.

[quote] you could say the same for men (both gay and straight) who try to write female characters

Who cares?

Who cares about anyt'ing on dis forum, r128? Who cares if you live or die?

I absolutely LOVE the Jamaican nurse from ABFAB

But she didn’t write make characters and expect that everyone would applaud her for it

That’s for white straight cunts and mentally ill girls who get their hair cut short and call themselves “faggots”

One of the best female protagonists written by a man was Peter Hoeg's Smilla Jaspersen in Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow.

[quote]Non fiction suggestions please.

I got this recommendation here on an earlier book thread, "Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII" by Gareth Russell ,a brilliant biography of the frequently misunderstood life of Catherine Howard. It is sumptuously written, and is so well-researched you go down tons of fascinating rabbit holes of the Tudor era. The writing is so engaging it is a treat. I'm about to finish it and I'm sad already.

Although harrowing and depressing, I also loved "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann about the Osage Indian murders of the 1920s. It reads like pure fiction.

Another nonfiction suggestion: [italic]Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places[/italic] by Colin Dickey. Highly recommended, even if you are turned off by "paranormal stuff"; it's more about being haunted by the past.

When I read She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb, I was shocked he was a male writer because the female protagonist was so realistic. I also thought Matt Haig did a good job in The Midnight Library.

Any idea that men can't write women properly is easily disproved:

Thackeray - Becky Sharp

Flaubert - Madame Bovary

Tolstoy - Anna Karenina

Henry James - Isabel Archer

Hardy - Tess Durbeyfield

Forster - Margaret Schlegel

James Joyce - Molly Bloom

R128, who cares about you?

r136 = Oscar Wilde

I’m curious: how many of those insisting certain male writers can create genuine female characters, how many of you are women?

As a gay man, the only female writer I can think of who came close to capturing a genuine gay male character was Mary Renault. Otherwise, like the poster above, if I see a “gay” novel written by a woman (or appears to be, when the name is abbreviated or obviously made up), I avoid it; been burned too many times.

R126, was that a random selection, or are you reading the Rougon-Macquart series through?

R138 Mary Renault could write gay male characters excellently because she was a sensible lesbian nurse, not some socially unskilled, fat, unfuckable straight woman or a deranged, socially unskilled, fat, and unfuckable FTM tranny.

Enjoying Kazuo Ishiguro's latest KLARA AND THE SUN. No spoilers please if you've read it but what a ride!

R18 Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach is juvenile and disgusting and painfully funny.

R85 Thank you for this. My vision is going also.

R141, isn't it good? I loved it. His Never Let Me Go is one of my favorite novels, love his writing.

I liked her "Spook" R142!

The new Tracey Thorn memoir, which is actually a memoir/bio of her friend.

Some books on Chinese archaeology.

R146- Tracey Thorn has a face only a mother could love… on payday.

R148 Tracey Thorn is a brilliant singer and songwriter, you sad cunt

If anyone here is a fan of gothic-style (paranormal) mystery, I'm going to suggest [italic]A Shadow on the Lens[/italic] by Sam Hurcom. I'm reading the sequel now, but probably better one go in order. It's set in 1905 Wales.

Malibu Rising. I recommend reading the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & the Six before as the author has recurring characters. Hopefully Witherspoon won't wreck DJ&T6 on screen but I doubt it.

Tracey Thorn is lovely. She did have some awkward moments in some photos from younger days but so do we all.

120 Days of Sodam

[quote] Sodam

Oh Heavenly Fucking Dear

Let’s show Tracy some love

^ TracEy

Malibu Rising was terribly written and a ton of the second half of the book made zero sense. It never evoked the 1980s in a believable, organic way.

It’s strictly frau-ish book club bullshit.

Who else has been reading Franzen's "Crossroads" this month? I'm admittedly a Franzen fanboy (Franzboy?) but he's really at the top of his game here. I still have about 200 pages left so I don't want to say too much right now, but once I finish I might start a Crossroads thread with spoilers.

It's the kind of book where, I find, one really develops opinions about the characters in the way you would about real people in your life. Not many current authors can pull that off.

I’ve just starting reading the second volume of Sedaris’ diaries and it’s delicious! I’m so torn between wanting to rush through it or slowly read and savoring it.

Very eager to hear your thoughts on Franzen's latest (but without too much spoiler content), r158, as I'm eager to buy it but have heard some negative reviews. I'd like some encouragement. I loved Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land, hated Towles' The Lincoln Highway, and need a new book.

Right now I'm reading "The History of the Computer : A techincal and business history"By Stephen J. Marshall. It's a fascinating romp through mankinds brushes with computers from the mechanical right up through the 20th century, then relay based computers like those of Konrad Zuse, and finally into the electronic age first with vacuum tubes and finally the ubiquitous transistor and silicon chips.

Read The Great Believers, a recommendation from a previous DL book thread. A tad annoying initially, but the characters grew on me and the ending was very affecting. I really felt the loss of the characters.

Piranesi was hauntingly beautiful and I didn’t know where exactly it was heading. It has a bit of an ethereal quality that Life of Pi has too.

Thanks for the late coming and scant non-fiction recommends, as obscure as they are.

This should just be the Great Fiction Reads thread.

Sigh.

R164 BookTube each year holds NonFiction November and most people are already flooding their YouTube pages with recommendations to read, so you can get plenty of ideas and recommendations there now and going forward the next few weeks. Some nonfiction I’ve read this last year and enjoyed are Hidden Valley Road, which if you enjoyed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, it is in a very similar vein, Fish Do Not Exist, about one of the foremost taxonomist of fish who had some pretty dark ideas, a history of the Barbizon Hotel, Last Call about a serial killer of gay and closeted men in NYC in the 1990s, and recent biographies on Sylvia Plath, Susan Sontag, Helen Frankethaler and Louise Fitzhugh all amazing woman who hit hard in the last midcentury and transformed their fields, but it came a great personal cost. And humor wise I’m busting a gut reading the next installment of David Sedaris diaries.

I have posted above, R164, that I read a lot of nonfiction, but few mainstream novels. Sorry if what I've written was too "obscure" for you.

Some less-obscure suggestions: not a fan of Bill Bryson generally, but loved his [italic]At Home[/italic]; Mark Kurlansky does books focusing on history through a single-focus theme like Cod, Salt, etc. I found his [italic]Paper[/italic] okay, but would recommend [italic]Ready for a Brand New Beat, the story of the rise and fall of Motown Records[/italic]. For a gay memoir, consider [italic] Like Crazy: Life with My Mother and Her Invisible Friends[/italic] by Dan Mathews.

Those were some off-the-top-of-my-head that I don't believe I've mentioned here before.

R164 It's hard to suggest non-fiction books because the range of topics is so vast; what's of interest to me is probably not of interest to you. For example, I've been on a French Revolution reading binge of late. Of those, I'd recommend the Robespierre biography "Fatal Purity" by Ruth Scurr.

I'll second the recommendations for "Hidden Vally Road," probably the best non-fiction title I've read this year. If the Irish Troubles interest you at all, "Say Nothing" is still the best non-fiction book I've read in probably the last five years.

If you enjoy nature writing and/or exotic travelogues, check out "A Most Remarkable Creature" by Jonathan Meiburg; it starts out as a study of a unique bird species but becomes a globe-and-millennia-hopping overview of evolution and geology.

I got "Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of the Real Housewives", off of the free site mentioned above. It's surprisingly good (for a ho-wife book).

Another recommendation for Hidden Valley Rd - interesting storytelling and educational.

Thank you.

R162, I had similar feelings about The Great Believers. I ended up being roped in by the end on the strength of the characterizations (particularly Yale) but I had some issues. The gay sex scenes were not at all believable. Makkai should have had gay male readers giving that a once-over.

It was similar to how I felt about the (consensual) gay sex scenes in Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life. These were people who had never been fucked up the ass and you could tell.

R171 Straight women and FTMs, who refer to themselves as “fags”, do not write credible gay male characters. I don’t waste my time on authors who have no idea what they’re taking about.

Sylvia, r167, I loved Fatal Purity as well. Have you read Timothy Tackett's books on the French Revolution? His recent The Coming of the Terror is a solid overview (and particularly instructive right now), but When the King Took Flight, about the flight to Varennes and its impact on the course of the Revolution, is more entertaining.

Iris Murdoch and Carson McCullers wrote believably about gay characters in many of their books.

Well, no one’s saying it can’t be done, R174. It’s just a problem that’s popped up in some “celebrated” novels of the past 5-6 years.

R173 No, I haven't! Thanks I'm adding them to my list.

But I don't believe Iris or Carson included any gay sex scenes in their books. That's the difference.

R172, cool, does that mean you don't read books about female characters written by men? And what FTMs are writing gay books?

I'm not willing to tolerate this nonsense that people of one sexuality can't write about people of another sexuality, or of one gender can't write about another, or of one race can't write about another.

That's complete bullshit, and comes only from narrow threatened little minds.

It's writing the sex scenes that's questionable, bitches, not about the character's gender!

[QUOTE] I'm not willing to tolerate this nonsense that people of one sexuality can't write about people of another sexuality, or of one gender can't write about another, or of one race can't write about another. That's complete bullshit, and comes only from narrow threatened little minds.

Yeah, so no one is actually saying that. But way to misread the entire discussion.

[quote] and FTMs, who refer to themselves as “fags”, do not write credible gay male characters.

Get your eyes checked, tranny fucker r178

^ Actually r172 did say that.

R182, way to have a mature discussion! Let us know when you finish the 7th grade.

Where is this famous gay sex scene written by Iris Murdoch?

just finished a short story by Lawrence Block called "The Merciful Angel of Death". featuring his Matt Scudder character, set in a AIDS hospice in NYC in the 90s. made me weep like a lost child in search of mother. very well done. and pulled so many lost-friends emotions to the forefront for me.

R186, where is the short story available? Is it part of a collection?

i found it in an 800 page collection called "the collected mystery stories"

"Cloud Cuckoo Land" and "Crossroads" are two of the best novels I've read in a long time. Forget Franzen's "Freedom" or "Purity". Those were shit. "Crossroads" is his best work since "The Corrections".

"Cloud Cuckoo Land" is amazing. I hope it wins the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. As all the strands begin to tie together, you realize what a superb storyteller Doerr really is.

Thanks so much, r189, as a lover of Cloud Cuckoo Land, you've just sold me on Crossroads.

R189 I couldn’t get through All the Light... Should that stop me from attempting Cloud Cuckoo Land?

If you're in a non-fiction mood, The Atlas of Remote Islands is an interesting read (especially if you're a geography buff)

I like to revisit Ray Bradbury when fall hits. I just reread Something Wicked This Way Comes.

I like this Ray Bradbury short story collection

About 100 pages in and I'm loving Franzen's CROSSROADS. Like bingeing a great mini-series.

I love geography, R192, but the thought of that book gives me agoraphobia (closest term I'd call it).

What is the most DISTURBING book one can recommend that someone can recommend either fiction along the lines of Dennis Cooper or non fiction.

R197 This, by far, is one of the most disturbing books I’ve read. One character is so traumatized that he communicates only in drawings which are part of the book. It’s by playwright Adam Rapp, Anthony’s brother. Oh, and it’s a YA book.

Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series. The Cellist by Daniel Silva is a #1 New York Times Bestseller. I’m reading that right now.

I just finished “The Buried Giant” by Ishiguro, and really loved it.

[quote] What is the most DISTURBING book one can recommend that someone can recommend either fiction along the lines of Dennis Cooper or non fiction.

"Not That Kind of Girl" by Lena Dunham.

I am reading Olivia Laing's [italic]The Lonely City[/italic], which I find interesting, but would still recommend her [italic]The Trip to Echo Spring[/italic] to Dataloungers as the place to start with the author.

Just finished Piranesi (Susanna Clark) and enjoyed it very much.

Loved Piranesi!

Thanks for linking an article to your recommendation, r203. Often enough posters just states author and title but little else. Always appreciate when posters add more to their recommendation, like a one-line synopsis, why they enjoyed the book, or that the writer is a hot piece of meat. Anything really that makes me google more about the book.

The libraries are closed on sundays. Its GOVERNMENT, the uppities dont work on sundays.

Read? I don't read! Stolen elections! There's a revolution a revolution going on!

Just started FIVE DECEMBERS in the Hard Case Crime series, which they are pushing as more than a noir novel. It's a page-turner, engaging, well-written.

By James Kestrel/Jonathan Moore.

Pay no attention to the headline in the NYT link, it applies to another book in the batch reviewed.

R208, I bought that but haven't started it yet. I love Hard Case Crime

Ooooh, sounds great, r208 and r209. Please report back when you finish the book.

Gay South African author Damon Galgut wins the Booker Prize for his novel The Promise. I know the book’s central theme is racism and Apartheid, so I didn’t think it really had a chance to win as coming from a white author, so that’s an impressive achievement in these overly politically correct times. Has anyone read it? Does it have Gay characters in it?

Next up the winners of the National Book Prizes will be announced on the 17th if November

I'm 57, I've lost interest in reading.

I just ordered Bewilderment by Richard Powers. Anyone read it? What is your review and critique?

Chevreuse

by Patrick Modiano

A curiosity from 1947, a novel by a Black author about white criminality: Willard Motley's KNOCK ON ANY DOOR.

Sold 100K copies, filmed in 1949, and then oblivion.

Protoganist Nick Romano is a 16 year-old thug who alternately mugs and fucks older men for money.

R211 thinks white people are victims and never win any prizes. LOL. I'm guessing the only thing you read are Bill O'Reilly books.

I think you are reading a bit too much into 211's brief post, r216. I can only imagine the story you have woven yourself around that one sentence.

R217, I imagine you like to blame the right-wing boogeyman of "political correctness" for stuff you don't like. And think white people are the real victims!

R211: I watched his short Booker prize acceptance speech.

Humble and endearing. But my Gaydar didn’t ping at all!

just picked up Louise Penny's 17th Gamache novel. but she will have to wait as i'm half way thru Tal Bauer's latest series (book 1) of Texas lawmen.

How do you like the Bauer book, r220? I read a football series he's written, and it was not that great.

bauer's "enemies" series is great. loved the characters. great action.. maybe a bit too much sex, but after all the men are young and gay.... so.....

i found the football stories very fun, touching and with a lot of wish fulfillment on someones (author's?) part.

In the Wake of Madness by Joan Druett. Non-fiction, It's about murder and mutiny on a 19th century whaling ship. Really riveting so far.

I just started Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick. It’s about a gay British prince falling in love with an American event planner. Enjoyable so far with lots of Rudnick quips.

^ Cool, he wrote a book about Prince Edward!

just finished Louise Penny's latest Gamache... perhaps not her strongest, but it once again gave me time spent with my favorite character.. Jean-Guy. i have read so many character that i like, enjoy "hanging around with".... but i am absolutely in love with Jean-Guy.

Am nearly finished with Olivia Laing's [italic]The Lonely City[/italic] - nonfiction with a very gay slant to it, indeed! (she was raised by lesbians)

And I'm just nearing the end of Jonathan Franzen's CROSSROADS. While I can somewhat understand some people not enjoying it, perhaps finding the characters "unlikeable", I was thoroughly engaged by them and all the various plot lines. I loved it and can't wait for the next volume in the trilogy.

For me, the 2 greatest new reads of the year were CROSSROADS and Anthony Doerr's CLOUD CUCKOOLAND (and they couldn't be more different). It's rare for me to enjoy new fiction this much. As i posted upthread, I tried Amor Towles' THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY but couldn't get past about 100 pages of the artificiality.

Anyone here ever the novel COMPULSION by Meyer Levin? The play and film of it were mentioned on the Dean Stockwell obit thread mentioned it as he starred in both and now I'm curious.

Another book from my childhood memories, sitting on the family bookshelves with RAINTREE COUNTY, EXODUS, SOMETHING HAPPENED, TEN NORTH FREDERICK, THE NUN'S STORY, PEYTON PLACE, THE CHAPMAN REPORT and THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH.

Gary Shteyngart’s “Our Country Friends,” Chekhov on the Hudson

side note: author was recently profiled in The New Yorker, re. the horrific catastrophe of a botched second circumcision in his 50's to "correct" the first botched circumcision at age 7. He likely will be in excruciating pain for the rest of his life.

just finished Paul Rudnick's PLAYING THE PALACE. cute little story. but was handled so much better by Casey McQuiston in RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE.

I’m 3/4 of the way through “Still Life”by Sarah Winman that deals primarily with a quirky bunch of Brits in Florence, Italy starting with the WWII liberating of the city by a young soldier and an older female art historian. So far climaxing during the horrific flood of 1966, and there’s still a fourth of the novel to go. Just really great characters and sweet humorous escapades and a dollop of heartbreak. There are LGBTQ+ characters and it’s a lovely transportive read of the rebuilding of Europe post WWII and the wonderful community of relationship expats have with the city and Italians, I’m really enjoying it.

Fiction or non-fiction, r233? I'm supposing the former but really not sure...

I'm re-reading "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind. It's much better this time through because the horror plotting aspects (which i focused on the first time I read it more than 30 years ago) are far less interesting than the descriptions of life in 18th century France.

R234 It’s a novel, but now I’m interested if there are any similar memoirs of the same period. I’ve always been fascinated by the flood, having studied Art History and done a summer semester in Florence. I can’t believe even some of the great Italian directors have never made a movie about it. Earlier this year I also read Palace of the Drowned, which is more of a murder mystery, but took place in Venice during the flood. It had some great period details, but ultimately it wasn’t a very satisfying read. Still Life does have a few E. M. Forster reference without exactly trying to be an updated carbon copy of it, but it does love its characters and sense of place like a Forster novel.

I just finished M, the man of providence, the second part of Mussolini's rise and fall written by Antonio Scurati. Very interesting.

It has not dialogues because everything there is verified, there are letters, news and even telephone conversations (that the secret services recorded).

I'm thinking on reading Lydia MIllet's A children's bible

I tried to start a thread about Franzen's "Crossroads" but it flopped.

Anyone else who read it think that Franzen was hinting that the youngest Hildebrandt son, Judson -- who has a small role in the first book but seems likely to be more prominent in the next two, given he's the same age as Franzen -- is gay?

R238 - that post needed a spoiler tag. Not everyone has read the new Franzen.

I'm sorry r239 but I don't really think that qualifies as a spoiler - it's only my speculation about the character, and I could be way off. Just curious if others who read the book picked up on it.

Totally agree about the possibility of Judson as gay. I loved the book. Sorry I missed your thread, r240, I definitely would have replied and if I can find it, I'll try and bump it.

I am reading A children's Bible and it's quite funny (at least the first chapter)

TWO GENTLEMEN SHARING by William Corlett. AMAZINGLY GOOD! French farce set in a small English village. laugh out loud funny episodes in nearly every chapter.

William Corlett ^

I finished Zorrie, by Laird Hunt, which was one of the short listed novels for the National Book Award, but didn’t win. It’s a very quiet, short, meditative book on the life of a woman in mid 20th century Indiana, where not much happens, yet everything is deeply meaningful. A little gem of a book with beautiful heartfelt writing.

R230. I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, so I always heard about Leopold and Loeb. As a precocious eighth grader, I checked out Compulsion from one of the branch libraries and devoured it in a day and a half. I reread it every few years. Something better than a potboiler but not quite “literary fiction.” Still a great read.

R245, that sounds like it may be reminiscent of Mrs. Bridge? Did it remind you of that book? (If you have read Mrs. Bridge. If not, it sounds like you may enjoy it.)

R247 Sorry, I haven’t so I can’t make any comparisons one way or another.

I just read Cloud Cuckooland and LOVED it. What a wonderful ride that was. Highly recommended.

A friend I knew in college just has a book published, a collection of stories about celebrities. I am not Brad Pitt and Other Stories. It's very funny and dark. The first story about a Brad Pitt look alike is really good. He gets into a war with the real Brad. There's also a story about a clutch of celeb vampires (with a very funny and on target guest appearance by Madge) and he takes on the Kardashians as secret lizard people.

The ending of Mrs. Bridge I found unsettling.

R249, have you read Better Davis and Other Stories? Celebrities as main characters. You might like.

I'm finally reading Richard Powers' THE OVERSTORY. Though I'd always heard such great things about the book, it's enormous length and supposed subject matter about the life of trees, always intimidated me and turned me off. But it was at my library so I thought I'd give it a try and quickly and happily read 50 pages last night. Really loving it!

The Secret Life of Addie LaRue. A great read, love the characters.

I meant The INVISIBLE Life of Addie LaRue. Sorry.

I've started KISS MYSELF GOODBYE which I learned about here, I believe. Author mentions kids, seems gay to me, but whatever... The aunt seems like a narcissistic, controlling nutjob. It's a book I do feel Dataloungers would appreciate.

Reading my first Lauren Groff, FATES AND FURIES. Jury still out.

Just started Endurance, about Ernest Shackleton's South Pole expedition

Reading Kiss Myself Goodbye also. Good story. Not brilliant writing but worthwhile story. Given how few books I’ve read lately that I have liked, I would recommend it. Thanks.

R256 I hated it. I will never trust an Obama recomendation after that

Surely you can afford him a single misstep, r259?

To be honest there are worst things. Elif Batuman's The idiot was a Pulitzer's finalist and it's one of the worst novels i read ever (i found two articles recently who praise Batuman's previous novels and both said The idiot is horrid)

Speaking of endurance, I'm putting aside Richard Powers' THE OVERSTORY for now and moving on to OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS by Gary Shteyngart. The former began to feel like hard work after150 pages and the later is quite engaging and delightful though I'm only about 40 pages in..

R258: I'm awed by Uncle Buster's stamina!

I liked "Fates and Furies" but then I tried reading Groff's first, "The Monsters of Templeton," and found it embarrassingly amateurish, even for a first novel. But I am interested in her new book, "The Matrix."

R262 Powers is not an easy writer (and The Overstory is way more easy to connect than Orfeo) but his writting is amazing

Hopefully, I'll get back to The Overstory, r265. What is your favorite Powers novel?

I’m reading THE TESTAMENTS, which has been sitting ignored on my Kindle for years. I’d forgotten what a good storyteller Atwood can be.

R266. Not the previous poster, but I highly recommend THE ECHO MAKER (Capgrad Syndrome) and OPERATION WANDERING SOUL (hospityfor chronically ill children).

I am just finishing Mann's "Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man [The Early Years]," as preparation for reading Toibin's "The Magician." It's a delightful romp that makes some serious points--and I say that as someone who made it through Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, and the novellas. I still have Doctor Faustus to go (I have no illusions about even starting "Joseph and His Brothers"). Next on my list are the new Ishiguro and Powers, with some Conrad thrown in. (Going to reread "Lord Jim" to see if it means more to me than it did in AP English in 1975, and will tackle "Nostromo"). Just finished rereading "The Secret Agent," which is a bitterly ironic "film noir" novel (superior to Hitchcock's "Sabotage," which is enjoyable in its own way).

r269, I couldn't get through that Ishiguro and I read at least 200 pages. I found the storytelling very annoying. I hope if you read it you'll post your thoughts.

I want to thank the person upthread (or maybe it was in the previous books thread) who recommended "Now and Then" by William Corlett. I just finished the novel and was deeply moved by the beautiful, lyrical writing and powerful, evocative story.

Thought I'd mention that when Balzac sat down to write Cousin Bette, he may well have had Dataloungers in mind as the target audience.

r271 I KNOW! his other book (which can be hard to find) is a great read too. 2 Gentlemen Sharing

I'm terrible at remembering details of books, and hadn't recognized Corlett's name, but I do recall having like Two Gentlemen Sharing many years ago.

All The Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner.

R273, not sure if you knew that there were plans for a film version of "Now and Then," with Richard Armitage cast as the lead role of the adult Christopher Metcalfe. This article from June 2020 states that the roles of the younger Metcalfe and Stephen Walker hadn't been cast yet.

Is Armitage taking baby steps out of the closet?

I gave up on ALEC, a new book that expands and continues the story of E.M. Forster’s Maurice and Alec, the hunky groundskeeper, making them a happy couple. I found the dialogue anachronistic and the plot quite unbelievable.

i've so enjoyed the Detective William Warwick series by Jeffery Archer ( light fluff, but fun characters) that i've gone back to read The Clifton Chronicles series that tell the family story leading to Choirboy Warwick.

I am reading Rodham, by Curtis Sittenfeld, who I discovered this year and quickly became one of my favorite writers. This one is not as engaging as America Wife. She writes Hillary life in the what if she hadn’t married Bill Clinton. Her short stories are also very good. Any other fans here?

R280- Curtis is one of my favorite writers. I love her all books except her first, Prep which ultimately felt like a slog to me. I admit Rodham wasn’t as compelling as American Wife but it was a still a solid read. Sisterland is wonderful and a bit under the radar as far as her output goes.

R280, Prep and Sisterland are the two I have yet to read. In Rodham, i thought she overplayed the what if scenario and ended up with a less interesting life than real life Hilary. The last part on the campaign trail is too long, but this is mild criticism, i am loving the book. I find her voice to be totally convincing, either writing teenage drama, adult intrigue or the First Ladies. I don’t understand why she’s not better known and recognized.

I meant r281 ^

Is American Wife the one about Laura Bush?

Yes, r284, try it. It’s very good.

I really liked “American Wife” a lot but “Rodham” didn’t quite gel for me. I think r282 is right that it was a less interesting variation on the real Hillary. I also found it weirdly quotidian - what I call the “then I made a sandwich and ate it” school of fiction. I still plan to read “Prep” and “Sisterland.”

I’ve met Curtis a couple times through mutual friends. She’s a really lovely person.

Wow, r286, that is really nice to know. Encourage her to write more, if you have the chance.

Agreed about you comment, there is a lot of daily detail that could’ve been cut off. To a degree I think it can work to make the character more relatable. The strange thing about Rodham, to me, is that I still ended liking the character in American Wife more than Hillary in Rodham, while the former does much more ostensibly arguable choices (not evento speak about politics). Again i think the lack of family life removed that dimension from her.

just picked up Ace Atkin's latest Ranger series called Heathens. such good story telling. (and not a gay in sight) but i still love this series.

I had to give up on the new Gary Shteyngart My Country Friends after reading a little more than half of it. I found most of the characters, especially the men, infantile and insufferable and the book is mostly a character study with very little plot. There were so many possibilities - the first big novel about living through the early days of the pandemic - but it was going nowhere and I'd had enough. Curious if anyone else has read it?

I ended A children's bible and it's an strange but satisfying little book.

Now i'm reading Edmund White's Boy's own story

C.H.B. Kitchin's "CRIME AT CHRISTMAS" (1934). Gay novelist's gay detective, Malcolm Warren, solves a murder while at a posh Christmas house party!

(Currently in print from Faber & Faber).

I bought the Kindles of the first two Kitchin mysteries for 99 cents each - third one, Uncle, doesn't have great reviews.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Has anyone read Colm Toibin's THE MAGICIAN? I'm sorry to say I'm giving up on it after about 100 pages. I loved his fictional bio of Henry James THE MASTER, but this one of Thomas Mann doesn't have the same insight into this writer, it's more like a book report.

[uote]I want to thank the person upthread (or maybe it was in the previous books thread) who recommended "Now and Then" by William Corlett. I just finished the novel and was deeply moved by the beautiful, lyrical writing and powerful, evocative story.

Glad you enjoyed it R271. I was recently introduced to Corlett by an English fb and loved "Now and Then" Looking forward to reading "Two Gentlemen Sharing" recommended above

It seems there is soon going to be a film of N&T, hoping for the best.....but

I just bought Now and then after reading your comments

I did, too!

Recently reread Alan Hollinghurst's "The Folding Star" from 1994, which could probably not be published today.

I thought about all the "pedo" freaks who went ballistic over Aciman's depiction of a 17/24 relationship in CMBYN and imagined the apoplexy they would suffer from the tale of a 33 y.o. teacher obsessing, pursuing, and eventually getting, his 17 y.o. student .

And yet Call Me By Your Name was published. So much for the "This wouldn't get published today!" freaks, they grandstand about "cancel culture" while trying to ban LGBT books and books about racism

Come on, Tampa was published and even praised and the female teacher sleeps with two 13 yo boys.

You have a lot more freedom in literature than in visual arts

Finished Barbara Pym's SWEET DOVE DIED today. Nasty characters all around, including the gay and bi one. Could've been subtititled: tribulations of being a fag hag.

And I ordered a copy of NOW AND THEN today based on numerous recommendations in this thread

And I, who knew nothing of Corlett before being introduced to Now and Then, have ordered "Two Gentlemen Sharing" in hopes it provides as much pleasure as N&T did.

TGS:

From Publishers Weekly If Angela Thirkell's quaint English countryside were invaded by a camp Tom Sharpe, the result would be William Corlett's (Now and Then) second novel. The entire stodgy, gossipy village of Bellingford is curious about the new owners of grand Hall House, "two gentlemen sharing," and what this euphemism implies. London playwright Richard Charteris (called, aptly, "Rich"), doubly blessed with an inheritance and a hit play, Manhattan Boh me, has acquired the stately house as a home for himself and his new young lover, actor-model-nothing-in-particular "Bless" Maynard-- without giving much thought as to what his neighbors might think. When Rich leaves to close a Broadway deal, however, Bless's attempts to fit into village life throw the local reactionaries, eccentrics and busybodies into a collective tizzy. With its gay twist--Bless and Rich aren't the only characters with alternative lifestyles--this casually witty tale expands the boundaries of the typical Home Counties comic novel. Moving along at the brisk pace of a West End farce, the novel also co-opts the stock characters of that genre, featuring country types like Doris Day, a droll charwoman who is much savvier than her dim-witted employers; Bessie Sugar, a meddlesome shopkeeper; and Brigadier Jerrold, a conservative retired brigadier who cross-dresses and passes as his own sister, "Phyllis." Other villagers include Laurence Fielding, a crotchety closeted architect; Maggie Heston, a histrionic and uncensored actress; and a drop-dead gorgeous Italian and his hot-blooded lesbian sister. Assorted slapstick subplots converge on a skinhead-attended road show-turned-brawl and a dance recital, as this breezily light entertainment floats to a happy conclusion. (Oct.)

r301, you're reducing a very fine novel to a wisecrack.

R304: my opinion, to which I'm just as entitled as anyone else, is that I found the book a bit creepy. I have appreciated Pym's canon until this one. Reminds me of liking John Irving's A SON OF THE CIRCUS years ago as the first and only book of his I've read, where his loyal fans decry that they found it an unfortunate exception to his canon.

Fair enough, r305, but the term "fag hag" is offensive.

Should We Stay or Should We Go started out strong, but then fell into Shriver's hellish pit of personal politics. You can plainly see what she thinks of immigrants, and she, as a writer of fiction, did the unforgivable (for me): She referenced herself and her writing IN HER WRITING. She tried to play it off as tongue in cheek, but missed that mark by a country mile.

I think the "creepiness" in DOVE is entirely intentional on Pym's part. I love that book and appreciate the way it contrasts with most of the goodness in her other novels. Her final book QUARTET IN AUTUMN has a melancholy sourness that's also absent from her other work and makes it all the more interesting.

And I love A SON OF THE CIRCUS! The only John Irving book I genuinely liked.

Ugh, Lionel Shriver. No thanks.

QUARTET IN AUTUMN: "melancholy" indeed. All of the quartet are struggling with the last stages of their lives.

I read Quartet before this one, which was sad, though the characters weren't downright unlikeable. I pictured Sian Phillips (Empress Livia) playing the role of Leonora in Dove.

the testaments is written in a thriller genre. It is interesting to read for techique too.

More importantly, who did you picture as the gay men, r305/r311??

Can't wait to start watching the mini-series of one of my favorite novels, STATION ELEVEN which starts later this week! I've read all of Emily St. John Manel's books and love them all.

R314 Here’s the thread, it drops Dec. 16, first three episodes.

That's a tough one, R313. I'm not that up on pretty English boys.

I've started a reread of ONE PAIR OF HANDS by Monica Dickens, which ought to please Dataloungers. As usual, I don't recall most of the details, but retained a strong impression that I like the book a lot, which is confirmed so far.

Oh, I loved that one, r316, it’s the one where she is a posh maid, right.

I am mid 4th volume of the Cazalet Chronicles but making it last as it is so good.

Also reading Joe Country from Mick Heron. Any fans of the slow horses series? It is both dark and very funny, you wouldn’t expect such bitchy one liners in a spy series.

One Pair of Hands is about her series of temporary cooking jobs, but I can see where you'd recall it as being about a maid. Easily the funniest of her three employment stories (she bluffs her way into situations being clearly not qualified), where her time at a newspaper was okay, if not great, and being a nurse rather grim overall. I intend to get Monica's biography by Anne Wellman after finishing this one.

r317, The Cazalets helped get me through the pandemic. Enjoy!

I thought Ada Ferrer's "Cuba an American History" was going to be turgid pc nonsense, but it's not. She's a wonderful storyteller (and gossip) and what the book lacks in statistics, it makes up for in interesting tidbits.

I’m enjoying Pat Conroy’s South of Broad. It was a bit hard to keep all the characters straight at first, but I’ve finally settled into the groove of the storytelling. Sprawling, multi-decade Southern drama centering on a motley group of friends in Charleston.

For no reason, reading Very Caspary's Laura. What a beautifully written, taut, wicked book! Easily as good as the film. Wondering if any of her other works are worth pursuing?

R8 thank you so much for turning me on to john banville !!!! Read three of his under benjamin black. What a great storytellers ,amazing writer . THANK YOU !

You're welcome, 323. And, ironically, I still haven't read any of his books, including those 2 I mentioned at r8 that I took out of the library. I must have been distracted by other books.

What are the Benjamin Black titles you loved?

R321 That's a novel that i bought inmediately when it was published in my country but never read

Black's SNOW and SECRET GUESTS are the ones I've enjoyed.

R324 the black eyed blonde, vengeance, elegy for april

I'm about 60 pages into The Power of the Dog. It's really good so far.

I quite enjoyed the mystery bestseller THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman. The whodunnit aspect is smart, if not brilliant, but it's the characters and their interactions that are truly wonderful. I believe it's already been sold to film or tv and the sequel is out in hardcover and is supposed to be even better.

Ever the contrarian, I gave up on the Thursday Murder Club fairly early on.

I love knowing how many books DLers have read this year! Mine is lame at 14 but about to finish #15 and might be able to squeeze in an audiobook to get to 16. Share your number bibliophiles!

R331- 75…with 76 on the books (pun intended) shortly.

I usually read a book a week....so probably about 50

About 80 at Goodreads, but a few others that I didn't enter being unremarkable next-in-series (I read a lot of mystery) and some where I just didn't feel like adding them. So, roughly 100 it is. This includes the two I'm in the midst of now; anything else started this month will carry over to next year.

103 at Goodreads. I mostly read during the pandemic.

All the Light We Cannot See. I'm midway into it and enjoying it.

From the start of the first lockdown in 2020 to a year later I did not read a single book. I just couldn’t focus and concentrate at all. I had never not read books for such a long period of time. In March of this year, I started again and I’ve read 43 1/2 books. It’s been a great year for books and I’ve read some magnificent things, so I have been well rewarded for my effort.

I re-listened to a lot of audiobooks in 2020, whole series as distractions, less a matter of reading print.

121, so far, r331, my absolute record. On the other hand i mostly stopped seeing tv.

my library tells me i've saved $3012 this year by checking out books from there. so averaing $30/ book that puts me over 100 just from the library. and Amazon shipped me a stack of books too...

I will have read about 50-55 books this year which is about 10 books down from 2020, an all-time record by far.

At this point in my life (I'm 72) I feel like I've read most of the classic literature (mostly British) that I've wanted to read. Though right now I'm reading Northanger Abbey, my last Jane Austen.

So I've recently been trying to find new fiction and have greatly enjoyed Cloud Cuckoo Land, The Vanishing Half and Crossroads. But I also attempted Klara and the Sun, The Lincoln Highway and Our Country Friends, all well-reviewed bestsellers, and gave up on all three. I'm finding it harder to find stuff I like, both old and new.

R341 have you tried watching Booktubers on YouTube? I stumbled into the rabbits hole and probably watch about 12 of them religiously. It’s a great way to find out about books, both new and classic, and this year I think I’m going to take part in some of their reading prompt challenges, such as Victober, where they read Victorian literature in October, and Nonfiction November, where they read that. My problem has never been reading broadly, but many people tend to read in a narrow area of genres, so it can help open them up to other genres and titles.

Here’s one of my favorite Booktubers, first it’s great that many of them are gay men, as finding gay men who read has been a rare thing all my life. He’s very low key, straightforward, intelligent and like pretty much all of them passionate about reading.

Thanks for that link, r342. I will explore Booktubers!

Booktube is indeed a rabbit hole and there are a lot of channels to love and a lot to avoid. The one linked above is ok. Don't find him particularly discerning or critically acute, but he seems like a good, unpretentious guy–lives in Montana with a husband, two dogs, and (until recently) a foster Native American son. Would make a nice neighbor.

I follow a few gay guys who talk about their reading at Instagram. Some of them laser focus on gay content, which honestly I find a bit limiting.

Lincoln Highway and Cloud Cuckoo Land are both on my mom's reading group list for this winter. From what she's told me, the former seems a lot like (clone of) This Tender Land, which she really liked earlier this year.

Her Christmas present from me will be a copy of "Emily, Alone" by Stewart O'Nan; she read his novella "Last Night at the Lobster" a while ago, which we both really liked - recommended here if you're looking for solid writing without a huge time commitment.

R341: this winter I'll be part of a Goodreads group read (reread for me) of Bleak House.

The other day I finished "Lincoln in the Bardo" which I'm sure has been covered in previous books threads but which I surely cannot recommend highly enough. I wouldn't throw around a term like "masterpiece" lightly, but I think it is one.

That was my 30th book read this year. Last year I got up to 35, but I'm satisfied given I still have a full time job and all that.

I think I have one more in me between now and Jan. 1 -- I'm off work all next week -- so going to read Emily St. John Mandel's "The Glass Hotel." Her book "Station Eleven" was the first thing I read this year so I like closing with her as well.

LIncon in the Bardo is fantastic.

I read about 45 books this year, less than average for me

ditto. If I'm asked about the best book I've read in the last five years ago, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO tops my list. Also listened to the audio version, which is fantastic and helpful with all the characters and footnotes.

Yikes, I'm the outlier here but I really struggled to get through Lincoln in the Bardo. I'm fascinated with Abe's life and the book was not enough biography for me though I realize that was not its aim. Just too many ghosts for me. But I'd like to recommend Louis Bayard's novel of a year or so ago called Courting Mr. Lincoln, which is his fictionalized account of the romance of Mary Todd and Abe and the interference of his young roommate Joshua Speed. I loved it.

And I loved Mandel's The Glass Hotel. As much as I liked Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel was the book that sent me reading all of her earlier novels. Loved them all especially The Singer's Gun. IMHO she writes Patricia Highsmith-style stories better than Highsmith.

I didn’t like Lincoln in the Bardo. Totally failed to understand the obsession. It was ok and well written. But boring and tedious to get through - for me.

I liked Courting Mr. Lincoln as well.

Liked both Lincoln books.

There's a newish DL thread on West Side Story actor David Alvarez and it has a link to a nude scene he did in the Showtime series American Rust. That led me to watching the series (which I love in spite of the inexplicable bad reviews) but it also led me to buying the novel by Philipp Meyer that the series is based on which is brilliant. Highly recommended! I just ordered the paperback of Meyer's second novel The Son, which apparently also has spawned a TV series with Pierce Brosnan.

Anyone know Meyer's books, any fans? I'd never heard of him before the David Alvarez thread.

I offer an offbeat choice, a translation by Beowulf by J. R. R. Tolkien himself. I like it better than even the celebrated Seamus Heaney version. Tolkien somehow manages to be clearer than the other translations yet still very poetic, and it comes with very extensive commentary on the folkways and language of the characters--academic, but fascinating for those interested in what novels were like when they still being invented.

For something new, I recommend Ethan Mordden's novel You Can't Be Too Young or Too Pretty. I missed his crazy tales of gay life while he was busy with his theater books, so this was a vacation. It's half-gay and half-straight, but the main character is an ex-Marine bodybuilder who dates a young college boy who becomes a national star writing an advice column. Sexy fun.

Also gay but with all straight characters is the classic set of Lucia novels by E. F. Benson, just the thing to while away the hours waiting for Omicron to pass (I hope). Only a gay man could have written them and only gays can appreciate them. They're about social rivalry between two divas in an English village, and you can find used copies on Amazon or eBay. There's also a series for TV with the "other" Maggie Smith. I forget her name now, but DLers will know.

[QUOTE] There's also a series for TV with the "other" Maggie Smith. I forget her name now, but DLers will know.

Eileen Atkins?

I read “American Rust” earlier this year without knowing it was going to be a show. I thought it was very good if unrelentingly grim. Will definitely pick up “The Son.”

Doesn't Mapp & Lucia on video star Prunella Scales and Geraldine MacEwan? The actors doing Georgie and Quaint Irene nail those roles as well!

Yes, it's Scales and McEwan. The Irene is a hoot, right off the pages of the novels.

I think Major Benjy is sort of hot in his own way. But the character is so ludicrous. And for all his Indian occupation affections, he is a total stooge when Mapp decides to claim him for her own.

[quote]David Alvarez and a nude scene he did in the Showtime series American Rust.

[italic]Nude[/italic] nude, or just his ass?

Not exactly correct to say there are no gay characters in the Lucia novels. Georgie Pilson is as gay as pink Lux, just entirely closeted.

Meyer's THE SON is terrific. As was the series. Haven't tried AMERICAN RUST yet.

E.F Benson's ghost stories are awesome. I have a collection of his ghost stories called Night Terrors

R360

If you can't spot Quaint Irene as positively lusting after Lucia, then bless your heart!

I finished Power of the Dog. It was excellent

Dancing Past the Light: the Life of Tanaquil LeClercq

R356 I got that novel a few years ago but i didn't read it yet. I loved The son, here in Spain it was published first, so i bought American rust when it was published. I started it a couple of years ago but it wasn't the right moment

To the person upthread who enjoyed Stewart O'Nan: if you read nonfiction, he wrote an amazing book called "The Circus Fire" about a 1944 incident in Hartford. I loved the writing. Like all good nonfiction, it's about more than just the 'main' story. It's also a study in crowd behaviour, a period snapshot, a circus bio, etc.

He originally didn't want to write it, but was compelled by the story. IIRC, he was researching it re: a background for fiction.

Thanks for the info - I'll add it to my towering TBR pile!

Philipp Meyer is a hot bear. But I think he's straight, sadly.

[R199] I agree. Just finished “The Cellist” by Daniel Silva. I’ve read all of his Gabriel Allon books. Fantastic.

I also read The Power of the Dog after I saw the movie. I would highly recommend it--it explains many things the movie did not (for example, Rose's first husband--Peter's dad--committed suicide after being humiliated publicly by Phil, but neither Rose nor Phil knew about it). It made me admire Campion's work all the more knowing how she had cut down the story to the absolute bone.

Has anyone checked out the podcast from earlier this year, "Once Upon a Time ... at Bennington College"? It's about the lives and careers of, and the relationships between, the novelists Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt and Jonathan Lethem, who were all members of the class of 1986 at the infamously unconventional private school in Vermont.

If you're a literary nerd and/or you enjoy the work of any of those writers, you'll probably enjoy it. I've only listened to the first two episodes so far, but the host teases in the first episode that she'll eventually reveal untold details of the life of Tartt, well-known to be reclusive.

I'm enjoying it so far. It's very well-reported, but I must say the narration is ... quite overwrought. Like the second episode, about Ellis growing up in southern California, really triples down on its use classic LA tropes (sun-baked decadence, the moral emptiness of the entertainment industry etc) in a way that honestly verges on parody. It's like she's a 12-year-old who just read her first Joan Didion essay.

just finishing the last (9th) book in the Expanse series. nice wrap up. i will miss these characters. especially Amos...

Recent reads include two essay collections: Funny Weather by Olivia Laing & The Necessity of Empty Places by Paul Gruchow.

I enjoyed Laing because I thought the writing was good, and even though I strongly disagreed with a lot of her viewpoints, I didn't feel patronized or hectored. They had an impassioned bias rather than a toxic dogmatism.

Gruchow was a writer concerned about the destruction of the natural world long before it became centre stage with the climate crisis. He writes about the need for "empty" places, or parts of nature not developed or used for a set purpose by humans. I loved his descriptions. He basically remained a regional writer until his suicide. It's too bad he didn't live to write on current events-I think he would've had a much wider audience.

I was waiting for a new book to arrive in the mail yesterday and wanted something to read so picked up David Leavitt's first collection of short stories FAMILY DANCING. Only read a few but they're so good! And a lens back into being young and gay in the early 1980s. What a shame he hasn't written anything very worthwhile in so many years.

[QUOTE] What a shame he hasn't written anything very worthwhile in so many years.

But he has, R374! I’m currently reading Leavitt’s latest, SHELTER IN PLACE, and really enjoying it so far. It explores the beginning days of the Trump admin through the eyes of a circle of characters in NYC. Very funny at times and great writing. There’s also a real estate drama that reminds me a lot of THE LOST LANGUAGE OF CRANES.

Agree that Leavitt has written a great deal of value. He just has lost the attention of the general reading public.

I read "Family Dancing" and "Equal Affections" and "Arkansas" and maybe one or two other of his earlier works years back but kind of lost track of Leavitt after that though I know he's continued to publish.

To r375 or r376, do you have a favorite or two of his work from the last two decades or so?

I thought I remember Leavitt's SHELTER IN PLACE getting bad reviews.....or maybe so little attention......that I never bothered looking into it. But I will on your recommendation, r375.

I think his career was derailed a bit when he was accused of plagiarism with his WHILE ENGLAND SLEEPS; had to revise some of it for a later edition. I'd suggest the Alan Turing bio and THE INDIAN CLERK, although I'll confess it's been a while.

The indian clerk is not bad but it's incredibly cold, it's difficult to feel for the characters. He had good reviews ofr the Two hotel Franckforts, i really enjoyed 2/3 of the novel but i hated the end. To be honest i'm not a fan of The lost languages of the cranes neither

Now i'm reading Cloud cuckoo land

I'm enjoying Richard Osman's THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE the sequel to his THURSDAY MURDER CLUB but even better, at least, so far. Great light reading for these highly depressing times.

Leavitt's "The Lost Language Of Cranes" is probably his best novel.

A must read!

My first read of the new year is "Babbitt" by Sinclair Lewis. Great piece about its 100th anniversary at the link.

Once you catch on with the leisurely tempo of Lewis's prose, it's a great read! Very dry satire of the artifice and hypocrisy of the American business class.

Anyone read “A Gentleman in Moscow”? About 50 pages in. Writing is beautiful if a little verbose. Just not very interesting yet. Does it pick up? Admittedly I’m a slow reader and enjoy faster paced thrillers and mysteries. Have only heard great things about AGIM. Just curious.

R386- dude, you are in for a slog. Get out now.

I liked AGIM, but it was indeed too long. Not so with his RULES OF CIVILITY.

I found AGIM the PERFECT book for Covid. A guy trapped in a small room in a hotel for years - who makes the best of it and lives a full, happy life. A little slow and not a page Turner but a fulfilling book that I thoroughly enjoyed in 2020. Showed how losing the freedom of outdoors and the abundance of options you once had doesn’t have to make you sad or miserable.

r386, if you're not loving AGIM after 50 pages you're not going to enjoy the book. It's really just more of the same, basically a character study of that one character.

Anyone try Towles' new one, LINCOLN HIGHWAY?

I'm reading "Zuleika Dobson" by Max Beerbohm, which appears on the list of 100 best fiction of the 20th Century. The brilliant satire eludes me, so it's proving rather a slog.

I read about 100 pages of The Lincoln Highway but found it very artificial and shallow and gave up. The portrayals of the younger brother and friends of the lead character seemed very false to me. I enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow but had issues with Rules of Civility and didn't finish it, also finding it artificial. After reading Moscow I was going to return to Rules, but then after Lincoln Highway, I've decided I won't.

I also tried reading Zuleika Dobson a few years ago. Very disappointing though I can't remember now precisely why. Another one I gave up on.

Any thriller/mystery recommendations? Thanks in advance :-)

r394, have you looked into the The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman? And the sequel The Man Who Died Twice is even better. They're about 4 elderly (yet very sharp) people at an old folks home in the English countryside who solve local murders.....not as twee as it sounds....great fun and very smart.

They may have been mentioned earlier, but I enjoyed the Benjamin Black mysteries, SNOW and THE SECRET GUESTS, which are set in the 40s and 50s. Also Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels. And the Lynne Truss novels, featuring Constable Twitten, set in Brighton in the late 50s are comic and charming. If you're looking for something gritter, check out Tana French or Denise Mina.

Three thrillers I would recommend:

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Crosby

For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon

Best thriller I’ve read in the past few years was The Silent Patient by Alex Michaleleides (sp?). Can’t wait to read the Maidens.

R385, I loved Babbitt and have enjoyed many of Lewis' works. Main Street is excellent, and a lot of his lesser stuff is just smart and enjoyable. I was able to download several for free from Project Gutenberg.

My impression is that Lewis was a garbage human being by most measures.

So I've been reading one of the Benjamin Black Quirke mysteries (recommended upthread) EVEN THE DEAD, which may be the most recent one and I'm not sure I'm fully appreciating it. First of all, it keeps making annoying references to past events which may or may not have been plots in earlier books in the series. But what's most annoying is these events don't seem to have much bearing on the current murder case.

And I can't remember reading a book in which the characters smoked cigarettes so much - it's constantly being mentioned. But solid spare evocative writing otherwise. Anyway, I'll continue to the end as I want to find out whodunnit.

This thread should move the conversation over to the books 2022 thread as fall is long over at this point.

"Anthem" by Noah Hawley is amazing. Like Stephen King on acid.

Not sure if it was on this Book thread or another recent one, but thank you to whoever recommended William Trevor's MISS GOMEZ AND THE BRETHREN to me. Ordered it from an online 2nd hand bookseller and just finished it. The very quirky story of a young Jamaican woman who leaves her home to come to late 1960s London and gets into all sorts of trouble. Very unlike Trevor's later work this 1971 novel probably couldn't be told today by a white man, though there are several prominent white characters in it.

Haven't read that Trevor, but recently read his early THE CHILDREN OF DYNMOUTH. Loved it.

That one is also fairly atypical of Trevor, r404. Another early one. HIs later books and short stories are wonderful but less quirky.

Recommended by DL Fave journalist James Longman

Loved it too, as well as Wolf Hall. The third of the series so far is a slow go for me though. (Why is Longman a DL fave?)

Oh. Just Googled him. Got it.

R407, bring up the bodies was the best of the trilogy. The last one was good, though the end, Cromwell's end seemed rushed. But good pales in comparison to the first two books, which of course, are spectacular. Tellingly, they won booker awards while the last one wasn't even in the running.

R409 The last one was nominated but it didn't made the shortlist

R410, thanks. Initially I wrote it did not make the short list. I was too lazy to confirm it so I went with a fuzzier statement . I knew it didn't win.

I'm going to read Savage season by Joe R Landsdale

Love Lansdale. His Hap and Leonard novels are terrific, and I loved his off-series novel, The Thicket.

I'm reading Groff's Matrix. Splendid. And a nice surprise, since I had mixed feelings about Fates and Furies.

I’m liking the Hana Yanagihara. Doesn’t have the twisted intensity of ALL, at least not yet, and I’m through the first of the three sections, but the plots and (gay) main character are holding my interest.

R414- it is downhill from Part 1 which is fantastic. The first half of part 2 is really good and then… hoo boy. Slog city. Hated the second half of part 2 and getting thru part 3 was a test of the human spirit.