Books you're reading in 2022

My Wish List:

Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence

War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The Lady in White by Wilkie Collins

"U Up?" by Catie Disabato.

Was on the 2021 NYT best of list for mystery novels.

Started it this weekend and I'm hooked.

[quote] I'm reading an older novel

OP, your description sounds like you've read it already.

"Set The Night On Fire" by Robby Krieger - tells about his life with Jim Morrison and The Doors these many years later. Good read so far.

Any good gossip on Morrison? I read one years ago that alleged he was very bisexual.

Just finished Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford. It was odd at first, then got interesting, then ended beautifully. I'll read more by and about her now.

R4 he's going to be 76 this January 8th.

R5 He stated that in front of the other members Jim jumped on top of him and pretended that he was humping him, putting all the moves on him. Just joking around - apparently Jim had no boundaries.

Interesting. I wondered how much was bullshit. I don't doubt there's some truth. Thanks!

[quote] The Lady in White by Wilkie Collins

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

Somewhere between a short story and a novella, this small gem of a novel is a heartbreaking story that’s bound to become a modern classic.

I'm liking this thread.

Just started "Less than Zero" by Bret Easton Ellis which I've somehow never read. It's a mood. Despite it's reputation as a quintessential 1980s story, it doesn't feel dated. Read 60 pages this morning before work, I'll get through this one fast.

I just finished Barbarians at the Gate, a very fun and readable account of the last really big LBO of the 80s — the fall of RJR Nabisco.

Now I’m reading “Lord of the Flies,” which I managed to avoid having to read in school, but figured I should read it before I die.

Next up will be Liar’s Poker, because I’m on an 80s finance kick lately.

just finished Kane & Abel. 1st book in a fine family saga. great story telling on Archer's part. on to vol 2....

"4000 Weeks" by Oliver Burkeman- just a wonderful book, highly recommended

Good Behaviour by Molly Keane. It gets better as it goes along, although I want to strangle the Anglo-Irish aristos for being clueless as to how the real world -- outside of hunt balls, shooting parties and horse auctions -- really operates. Which I guess is the point.

Up next: Robertson Davies' The Deptford Trilogy. I read it decades ago and loved it, even though now I remember nothing about it except for a snowball, so I'm looking forward to rediscovering it.

I’m finally reading Mary McCarthy’s THE GROUP after it’s sat on my bookshelf for ten years and I’m simply loving it. The writing and dialogue move so fast and well and I really enjoy her characterizations. Her eye for detail to set a mood is also strong. Fun novel that I’ll probably finish tonight.

Just finished Day of the Locust.

Good Behaviour is high on my list, R17.

Finishing up the Zuleika Dobson, which I thoroughly disliked; all the glowing reviews leave me wondering if we read the same book?

Never read any Vita S-W before, do will try her 1926 travelougue: Passenger to Tehran. From what I've seen of her style, I doubt her novels would be for me.

[quote]facing enormous resistance from the British populace, who felt they won a war only to see their nation invaded by foreigners as the Empire fell.

Humans, eh? I wonder if that populace ever realised that they themselves were the initial invading foreigners in these other people's countries. I bet it was "oh, but that's different!"

Now I'm reading Fires of Autumn by Irene Nemirovksy, stumbling through the French library book and then double-checking with my English copy I never got around to reading. In the first few chapters there was a set piece of a man's death in World War that's devastating. Looking forward to the rest.

OP, I read 'Small Island' a few years ago...it's a fantastic book. I also watched the 2004 BBC mini series with Naomie Harris and Ruth Wilson...also very good. I'm currently read a 'Dial A for Aunties' by Jesse Sutanto...it's about a 20-something woman dealing with her overbearing Asian/Indonesian aunties.

just finishing CLOUD CUCKOO LAND. slow start, but one of the most beautiful books i've read in a long time. such carefully blended tales. well worth reading.

APARTMENT by Teddy Wayne. Could not put it down (literally) and read it in one sitting. Slim novel and great writing and characters.

[quote] the British populace, who felt they won a war only to see their nation invaded by foreigners as the Empire fell.

Well, turnabout is fair play.

Just starting “Leonardo Da Vinci” by Walter Issacson. Looks to be good…

This is great news as an afterlife for Afterparties. It was one of the best short story collections I’ve read in years. It will be interesting to see how they get actors for this though. And hopefully they will lean into the gay characters.

The Brian Cox memoir is pretty funny. He holds nothing back.

I'd like to second recommendations upthread for SMALL ISLAND, GOOD BEHAVIOR and THE GROUP, all wonderful novels I've read in the last few years. And, of course, CLOUD CUCKOO LAND, last year's and pretty much ANY year's best novel ever.

Anyone read this yet? It sounds like a whole hell of a lot is going on here.

Feeling depressed so I needed some easy reading and decided to return to a Ruth Rendell Inspector Wexford mystery, HARM DONE, which I missed when it first appeared in the late 1990s. So good!

The Punishment She Deserves: An Inspector Lynley novel by Elizabeth George. I love her Lynley books but some of the others are not as enjoyable.

Up next is In Cold Blood. I've never read it and am prepared for the gore.

So far I've finished one book: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Next in the queue are:

Anna Karenina (which I've been reading off-and-on for a few years now...it's great, but seemingly endless)

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Libra by Don DeLillo

Runaway by Alice Munro

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

Basically, I want to read all of the books I own and have never read. Between movies and TV shows, it's hard for me to read unless I'm on vacation.

That's a hell of a lot of good reading, r34. Several of my all-time favorites.

I've read Anna Karenina twice (it helps to read it during a snowy winter, at least for me). The second time I skimmed nearly all the Levin chapters. Man, can Tolstoy gas on when he's already made his point about the land and the peasants four times. The rest of the book is a delicious, tragic soap opera. (See also: War and Peace. The battle scenes were interminable to me; everything else fantastic and fascinating.)

Finished [italic]Passenger to Tehran[/italic] by Vita Sackville-West. Worked for its shorter length, but don't think I'd like her fiction.

Great news, r28! I am almost done reading "Afterparties" and have been thoroughly enjoying the stories.

To Paradise: A Novel, by Hanya Yanagihara.

Edmund White said, "It's as good as War and Peace."

All I know is that I can hardly put it down...and I haven't read a book like that in a while.

Really, r39? I just heard a very bad review of it by Maureen Corrigan on NPR and she usually loves everything. But I'm happy to hear you're enjoying it and I'll look forward to more reviews. I was not a fan of A Little Life.

Got it this Christmas: The Strange Order of Things by Antonio Damasio, a Portuguese/American neuroscientist. I have been lazy with my reading but this can be devoured in one day (obviously if you are interested in the subject, like I am). It's just fascinating, very well written and accessible.

R39 I’m about 90% done and I’m frantically reading and dreading what might come. At the moment it seems to be one of the clearer inheritors to 1984 despite all the dystopian literature that has come since. I do have a theory that it should really be read in reverse, the third part first, then the middle and finally the first part.

R36, you’ve identified my main problem with Anna Karenina: The Levin chapters! I don’t even dislike the character, but my bookmark is currently lodged in a chapter where late 19th century farming practices in Russia are being discussed in great detail…for the thousandth time. The Anna-centric chapters just breeze by…

I just started Tropic Moon by Georges Simenon. I'm really liking it so far

Thanks for all your recommendations (for those who didn't just list names and titles). Already bookmarked four of your books. Much appreciated.

The Accidental Plague Diaries by Andrew Duxbury

THE OTHER BLACK GIRL by Zakiya Dalila Harris. Sort of a The Devil Wears Prada meets The Stepford Wives meets GET OUT.

I'm meandering through The Book Of Accidents by Chuck Wendig which is very similar to Wes Craven's Shocker idea wise but is trying to be coy about it. Might walk away.

I've also been working through Thomas Ligotti's short story collection Grimscribe.

Have lately been on a Cynthia Ozick kick: The Messiah of Stockholm, Cannibal Galaxy, The Antiquities.

Have long enjoyed Martha Grimes's Richard Jury mysteries and am rereading Winds of Change and The Grave Maurice.

+ Rennie Airth John Madden mysteries: River of Darkness, The Dead of Winter, The Blood-Dimmed Tide.

+ Mrs. Dalloway, Fall on Your Knees, Station Eleven

I'm now finally starting the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo. I'm curious if it can hold my interest.

I'm taking another stab at The Bible. And I'm having my first go at The Bhagavad Gita. Guess I'm feeling spiritual. The Datalounge makes for an interesting chaser after a reading session.

Upon the suggestion of my eldergay therapist, I'm probably going to read Fun Home, finally.

R52 Still one of the best Graphic Novel memoirs, up there with the Persepolis ones.

About halfway through "Before the Fall" by Noah Hawley. Smart, fast-paced suspense novel that starts with a private jet crashing into the ocean off Martha's Vineyard, then ping-pongs between what led up to it and the fallout.

Hawley is the creative force behind the "Fargo" TV show and also writes novels. This one sort of reminds me of Stephen King but without the hacky prose and corny boomer taste.

I read Before the Fall. It's disconcerting I have no memory of the plot, the characters and my opinion of the book. I think it's more about my Swiss cheese memory than the book.

No, it’s not just you, R55. I read it a couple of years ago and have zero memory of it whatsoever. Was a pilot doing drugs? I really just don’t remember.

I had *a lot* of issues with The Other Black Girl. The writing is, at times, quite bad (clichés abound and some of the metaphors seemed so bad to be almost a parody). The initial set-up is promising and there is just enough percolating for the first fifty pages to get invested…and then it really goes off the rails. Too many characters, unnecessary flashbacks introducing even more characters (Elroy?) you never learn much about, and then a truly ridiculous ending that seemed to crib from several different movies at once (plot points from Get Out and The Stepford Wives are almost totally lifted). For a book that takes place at a publishing house where the author was making fun of some of the crap books that get published, I was shocked by how UNedited this book was. It’s not a great debut.

A lot of the long passages seem to be a long indictments of the publishing industry and the tyranny of “white spaces” yet there is no plot so, a lot of the times, all you really get are these screeds in the form of internal monologues from the unlikable main character.

Another reader of BEFORE THE FALL that doesn't remember the plot except that it was about a plane crash. But I do remember not liking it much.

I have a vague memory of how Before the Fall ends. But I clearly remember that I read most of it on a long cross-country PLANE FLIGHT.

I’m reading this book from 2014 and really enjoying it. A book about gay men written by a gay man and not a frau. Praise the lord.

I’m reading a book- The Geography Of Nowhere / The Rise And Fall Of America’s Manmade Landscape by James Howard Kunstler.

Finished "Before the Fall" last night, it was well written and fast paced although I didn't really like the way he ended it. Yes, the co-pilot was strung out on drugs and had been stalking the flight attendant, and apparently because of that he decided to send the plane into a death spiral. Mind you these are two characters that you get basically zero information about until the last 30 pages of the book. Felt like a bit of a cheat. Also, the last scene with the main character, Scott, appearing on the news show with the host based on Bill O'Reilly -- somehow seemed simultaneously unrealistic but also not BIG enough. I'd been enjoying the book but ending really soured the whole thing.

Next up, "Kindred" by Octavia Butler.

I always feel betrayed by a bad ending.

R63 How do you feel about unresolved endings? By the way if you don’t like them stay away from To Paradise, because there are three of them.

I just finished Intimacies by Katie kitamura. Talking about unresolved endings.

Tom Wolfe was the worst with disappointing endings. Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full are two brilliant novels with thoroughly disappointing final chapters, like he got bored and couldn't bother to properly finish them.

I just ordered Corey Feldman's book. I don't know why, other than I feel his story is compelling and it deserves a read.

[quote]Good Behaviour by Molly Keane. It gets better as it goes along, although I want to strangle the Anglo-Irish aristos for being clueless as to how the real world -- outside of hunt balls, shooting parties and horse auctions -- really operates. Which I guess is the point.

I'm reading this one at the moment too, R17. I'm enjoying it, up to Chapter 10 currently. Am also finding it dreadfully sad at the same time.

Loved Good Behavior!

I then read a couple more of Molly Keane's books, Time After Time, which I liked but not as much as Good Behavior, and Loving and Giving, which I didn't care for at all. All 3 books are from her comeback in the 1980s.

I finished Good Behaviour in one sitting. I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it. It left me with a sad feeling, though. Everyone in it was so unpleasant, and the victory in the end sort of satisfies you in the moment and then you think about it more and more and wonder if it was such a victory. Excellent book though, and I can see why it was nominated for the Booker. Does the whole unreliable narrator thing very well, and characterises her enough that you can feel sorry for her while also seeing what a pain she can be too.

I borrowed it from my parents, and they also have Time After Time, so I may try that one next.

I finished Tropic Moon. Very good.

I've started [italic]Offshore[/italic] by Penelope Fitzgerald. Interesting novella, but I wouldn't want a full-length book here.

I'm gonna start another Paulo Coelho novel. Still deciding which one.

The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North Americas Wildlands by Jon Billman. Fascinating book about people who go missing while walking/hiking/trail biking/crashing in national parks/forests and the entire search/rescue industry, both volunteer and official. As an avid hiker, the book is both a highly compelling read and a sobering warning about how quickly, efficiently and sometimes mysteriously Nature swallows up the solo trekker.

Ooh, I think I'd like to read that one too, R74.

After reading too many big books in a couple month spread, I dumped Empire of Pain as I had watched Dopesick and seen the HBO documentary and thought I was good. But when it showed up on everyone’s best of the year list I reserved it again at the library. It is incredibly readable, even for me who is so slow, four days in I’m 50% done. And it’s as good as they say, one of those nonfiction book that reads like a gripping novel on par with an Erik Larson book. You will get mad and infuriated at these entitled fucks and want to see them die slow painful deaths likes those who they killed. As a person with an Arts background I’m glad he didn’t skimp on that history and deceit too. These are vile, vile people.

So again, if you are not reading it because of the size don’t let that stop you. The same is true of Cloud Cuckoo Land, I read it much quicker then books half its size. Has anyone read Keefe’s book on the Irish Troubles and can recommend it?

I finally started reading The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst, a book my husband bought in London years ago when it first came out and we were visiting. After he told me it took a serious dip after the first part and the book got less than stellar reviews I decided to pass on it.

But here I am now, reading it. That first part is indeed so wonderful, life at Oxford among gay students in 1940. But, predictably, I'm completely sidelined by the second part which purposely seems to confuse the reader of where we are and who's who. Does it get better? And become clearer? I've loved Hollinghurst's previous novels. Any thoughts?

Sparsholt is good - if not the best of his books. Worthwhile reading. Sometimes just a decent gay book is appreciated. Better than the gay pulp novels of most.

R77, I’m actually halfway through Hollinghurst’s The Swimming-Pool Library which I had never read. I’m enjoying it. I have Sparsholt on my shelf so might go there next.

finishing AFTERPARTY STORIES. how come no one on here told me So was dead at 28 years of age? how sad. what a waste of talent..........................

Agreed with R78 -- Sparsholt starts great, slumps and then finishes pretty well, as I remember. But, to me, the most interesting character -- David Sparsholt -- is the one we never find out much about. Which is probably Hollinghurst's intent, but I wanted more.

I finished "the men from the boys" by William J. Mann are really enjoyed it. Has anyone else read it? Reading the sequel now, which feels a lot trashier, but I'm still into it.

Refreshing to read a book about gay men by a gay man. I tried the new Hanya Yanagihara and it read like frau fanfiction. Couldn't even get thru 50 pages.

Posting to thank whoever recommended C. H. B. Kitchin as an author! I've started the mystery "Death of My Aunt" which is quite well done. Looking forward to his novel "Ten Pollitt Place" which I bought last month.

R83, I only use overdrive as I can't read paper books anymore. Only one kitchin book was available, "crime at Christmas". Added to my wish list. Sounds like it is one of those old fashioned English crime genre books I love.

R80 So good right and a sad back story, I’ve been promoting it since I read it last year and posted up thread that they’re doing a TV series based on it. And for those looking it’s Afterparties.

R84: Death of My Aunt is only 99 cents at Amazon for the Kindle edition. It does introduce the series character well before reading Christmas I feel.

R86, yes, I checked Amazon right after looking at overdrive. Thanks for the tip, I may splurge if it's better to read the books chronologically.

[quote] "The men from the boys" by William J. Mann

This recommendation totally meets my needs as a reader looking for high class literature: Mann is hot!

Roots by Alex Haley

R88 LMAO right? I googled him after finishing the book and was like oh shit - he’s hot. I just wanted something fluffy and gay - it’s actually a but heavy because one of the main characters is dying of AIDS, but there’s also a lot of sex and it’s a quick read.

"The men from the boys" by William J. Mann

this is one book of a 4 book series. characters continue, actually grow and age....

Where the Boys Are

Men Who Love Men

Object of Desire

I started Good Behavior twice but somehow can’t get past the first chapter and the rabbit business.

Having finished the Cazalet Chronicles i found Angela Thirkell. Am reading High Rising after the wonderful Before Lunch. Anyone a fan?

But what i really recommend is The Appeal by Janice Hallett. It is a murder mystery involving an amateur theater group and a fund raising for a child with cancer told solely through emails and texts. It is also very funny.

Angela Thirkell's casual anti-Semitism turned me off. She's not as great a writer as Anthony Trollope, who I can (almost) forgive.

A BACKWARD GLANCE by Edith Wharton.l, her autobiography. It’s almost like the Wharton novel I never got to read.

Love reading it alongside the new DL fave Gilded Age threads.

So far this year I've read:

Michael Cunningham's Flesh and Blood

George Eliot's Silas Marner

And am currently reading Stephen King's Joyland

I tried reading Gore Vidal's Kalki, but just couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll take another stab at it later in the year.

Upcoming are:

Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd

Richard Price's Lush Life

Nathaniel West's Miss Lonelyhearts

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

Have you read Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge, r95? It's even better than Far From the Madding Crowd.

[quote]Richard Price's Lush Life

Have you read Ladies' Man? It's probably my favorite of his books, published in 1978, before he went all crime/all the time.

I like fantasy. I’m reading The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron. It’s the 2nd book in The Traitor Son Cycle.

I love Angela Thirkell's books. They really are a brilliant, amusing, satirical look at pre and post WWI society. As for the anti-semitism, it was reflective of the times in this milieu of society. Agatha Christie displayed it in her books as well. That doesn't make it right but I try to enjoy these early 20th century classics; despite the beliefs of the author's, as long as the book is not deliberately/maliciously hateful or vile. I can try to ignore the casual ignorance in these past classics. It makes me a bit sad but I attribute it to the times they lived in and not the way they necessarily would be today, if they wrote now.

^ I thought current editions of Christie's books have these things washed out. Are they not removed?

R100- The publisher removed them/washed them out because she continued to sell books and they wanted her books to be sellable. She is immensely famous. and popular still. Thirkell and some others, while excellent, well known authors are not top selling authors anymore. So their books were not "washed out". That's the difference, at least in my opinion. So I continue to enjoy both of these great early century authors, knowing their works are a painful reflection of prevailing attitudes during their times.

[quote] As for the anti-semitism, it was reflective of the times in this milieu of society.

R99 Books like Thirkill's are exactly how Jew hatred continues to be propagated. Because there's always an audience willing to rationalize it. As you've illustrated.

With titles like Ten Little Ni**ers and it’s so called “improved” title, Ten Little Indians, Christie should have been cancelled long ago.

Disagree, r102. First, it makes a difference if outdated views on things are associated to the overall author's point of view or to characters in the book. Having despicable remarks coming from a character may not reflect the author's. Christie's characters are usually not universally likeable, so adding a dash of nastiness could be intentional. I probably would feel different if Miss Marple or Poirot said something antisemitic. But if the grumpy old major says it, I might be Ok with it.

Second, even if it does reflect the author's opinion and is written in a way that the author wants the reader to follow the - outdated - view on things, it's a good idea to keep it in the book, imo. I don't see a need to universally love or universally hate an author. They are individuals with right opinions and wrong opinions, like everybody else. I see it as a history lesson that shows what different standards were applied in the not-so-good old times. There are exceptions of course, and it's up to you how much nastiness you are willing to tolerate as a reader. But blocking out outdated views altogether seems wrong to me.

As a Jew, it's nevertheless disturbing to come across anti-Semitic remarks, unless the character who spoke them is not called out in some way by another character. And often it's the way the remarks are tossed out so very casually (and unnecessarily) and simply taken for granted that is what's most disturbing.

I imagine if you're not Jewish, it might not matter.

Sophie's Choice by William Styron is an example of a Jew-positive (albeit crushingly sad) book. I remember reading it and feeling amazed by the story. The movie did not do it justice, and the casting of Stingo failed to thrill.

Having just read THE GROUP, I will say that I really enjoyed it but there were quite a few anti-Semitic moments, including a long passage describing how ugly someone’s Jewish baby looks. As it is technically historical fiction (published in the 1960s but taking place in the ‘30s), I took it more as verisimilitude about the character from whose viewpoint we see these remarks, rather than a racist snapshot of the fiction of the period.

But, who knows. Didn’t Mary McCarthy absolutely loathe Lillian Hellman? Was anti-Semitism part of that at all?

I'm reading "Four Stages of Renaissance Style" by Wylie Sypher. Then I'm moving to a rereading of Frank Jewett Mather's "A History of Italian Painting."

Interesting comment about Mary McCarthy, r107.

I happened to read THE GROUP last year and remember those remarks but I think I considered them to be McCarthy's exposure of the character's clearly smug anti-Semitism, not McCarthy herself. Maybe because I find McCarthy's prose and her characters far more complex than Thirkell's.....I'm not sure. Anyway, I gave her a pass.

R96 - No, I never read it. I have read both Tess and Jude, plus a couple of his short stories. (I particularly like "The Three Strangers.") And even though I'm not a much of a fan of poetry, I do love Hardy's poems.

R97- I practically devoured Ladies Man when I read it a few decades ago. Two years ago I decided to revisit it, and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time.

Hardy's THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE is simply a rip-roaring great read, a true page turner.

The Prophets, just amazing.

R99,R105

As a matter of fact, the assumptions that I "rationalize" the subtle and not so subtle anti-Semitic remarks in the books, because I'm not Jewish couldn't be more wrong. I am Jewish but I try to see things objectively. I don't agree with the books statements at all, find them reprehensible but I'm able to read and enjoy the books despite this. Yes, I do see it as reflective of the times these authors lived in. It's very unfortunate and, this anti-Semitism of the early 1900's more than likely contributed to the possibility of the Holocaust. Hate can be stirred up and we see it now. But I still can enjoy these authors and their works. It depends on the extent of it I think. Just my opinion.

[quote]it makes a difference if outdated views on things are associated to the overall author's point of view or to characters in the book. Having despicable remarks coming from a character may not reflect the author's.

R104 "Outdated" views? Uh, no. They are as current now as they were then. Readily understandable, acceptable, and, due to the universality of Jew hatred, easily translable from one language to another. That's exactly how Jew hatred has been fomented and festered for almost two millennia. Migrating from culture to culture like a disease. Because scum like you continue to rationalize the disease atred rather than demanding its cure.

[quote]I am Jewish but I try to see things objectively.

R113 You're a Jew hater's favorite type of "Jew". One that enables his Jew hatred. There's nothing "objective" or "mild" or "casual" about socio-cultural Jew hatred. Or those who disseminate or excuse it.

Erratum R114 easily translatable

Slonim Woods 9 - written by one of the Sarah Lawrence students who got caught up in that bizarre cult.

[quote]It's very unfortunate and, this anti-Semitism of the early 1900's more than likely contributed to the possibility of the Holocaust.

R113 Deplorable ignorance of 1,700 years of Catholic Church fomented Jew hatred and its culmination, the extermination of the Jews of Europe.

Matrix by Lauren Groff about Medieval nun Marie France is a stunningly transcendent novel, like “reading” a Book of Hours illuminations in a story. It seems exceptionally perfect for winter in some way too, like a quiet contemplative time for reading. Anyone who liked the recently mentioned Prophets above would probably find this of interest, and there are lesbians too for those who like a Gay angle.

I found Fates and Furies a bit of a bait and switch, but I’ll try Matrix.

A BIG THANK YOU to those posters who kindly weighed in with their thoughts and opinions on THE SPARSHOLT AFFAIR.

Just finished it last night and absolutely loved it. True, it's very disconcerting when the action, after a sensational set-up in 1940 Oxford, in the second book jumps 25 years and you don't know quite where you are or who everyone is....but I just kept reading and was mightily rewarded down the road. I was so sad to see it end and really wish Alan Hollinghurst wrote new novels more frequently. Even a book like this that may not be his best is still better than most these days.

[quote] OP, your description sounds like you've read it already.

I hadn't.

But even if I had, why would it matter?

Undaunted Courage. About the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Excellent book, R122! I wish someone would make a miniseries based on it (and really spend some money on it). The Ken Burns documentary is very good, but it's largely scenery and engravings, if memory serves. It's a truly incredible story, though. (And I always think, They made it to the Pacific Ocean -- and now they have to go back, yikes.)

I got a rock.

Apropos of the upthread conversation about anti-Semitism in literature, I'm currently reading The Power of the Dog and one of the lead characters, Phil (played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the film), constantly makes unchallenged slurs against Jews, who don't even appear in the pages. Yet I never doubt the author Thomas Savage is creating a brutal and real character and is not necessarily anti-Semitic himself.

I'm loving the book, btw. So much more back story and detail than in the film.

R125, I read the book before I saw the film and I completely agree with you. So much inferiority in those pages that really enriched what I eventually saw on the screen.

I just finished the memoir Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome, which won multiple accolades last year. It’s about him growing up poor, Black and Gay in rural Ohio and his escape to Pittsburgh where he still lives. It’s brutal and he doesn’t pull any punches talking about drugs, sex and his outsider status. A really great read that I hope some of you pick up. Simultaneously, I’m also reading the Secret Lives of Church Ladies that came out about two years ago and is a short story collection from another Pittsburgh writer, Dessha Philyaw. It too was highly awarded including being short listed for the National Book Award and it’s been announced that they are making it into a series for HBO. Both great reads worth checking out.

Just finished C. H. B. Kitchin's [italic]Death of My Aunt[/italic]. Written in 1930 by a fairly "out" writer (as much as possible then), the young male protagonist has no girlfriend, mentioning no interest in any current females. His keen observations come off as slightly... acerbic, I suppose, but (young) men who've had no girlfriends and seem not likely to acquire one can be that way. The plot struck me as a bit convoluted, but the resolution made sense. Looking forward to the sequel!

I've recommended [italic]Nothing to Envy[/italic], stories of North Korean escapees, for those who want to read more nonfiction. These days, I'm listening to [italic]Stuff Matters[/italic], a science book for those who dread the idea of a science book.

Is that first book a whodunnit, r128?

C.H.B Kitchin used to live with T.S. Eliot for a bit

Yes, R129.

Reading Colson Whitehead's HARLEM SHUFFLE and loving it so far (I'm about 40 pages in),

What do you all think of Curtis Sittenfeld's novels? I read AMERICAN WIFE (about Laura Bush) awhile ago and remember enjoying it. Thinking of reading RODHAM.

Anyone?

R110, did you hang out at the Ninth Circle those days? It was my favorite bar, and it was a hoot seeing it fictionalized in Ladies Man.

Reading The Devil And Miss Prym. It's lovely and has that fairy tale flavor that I love in Paulo Coelho's books.

R133, I loved American Wife and read a lot of Curtis’ other novels, which I enjoyed very much. I liked Rodham as well and can recommend it, though it drags a little in the last section of the book.

Just finished HARLEM SHUFFLE which I loved, though there were a couple of moments about 1/3 through when I almost gave up. My problem then was thinking I just wasn't getting all of the plot and characters straight. But very happy I stuck with it as all is explained as the book goes on. Highly recommend it. It will surely be a great mini-series in a few years. And I've heard Whitehead is considering a sequel.

Big fan of "American Wife" but I didn't like "Rodham." Felt undercooked.

I'm reading "The King's Painter," a biography of Hans Holbein. Very good, and making me want to visit NYC for the Holbein exhibit this spring.

Has anyone read STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman? Trying to decide if I should buy it as it's only still in hardcover and I can't abide kindles.

R140 Still Life was in my top five books of last year and for me it was a comfort read, first and foremost because it acts as a love letter to the city of Florence, which is one of my favorite places. There is also the E. M. Forester connection that is hinted at, but doesn’t arrive until the eleventh hour. There are considerable Gay and Lesbian side characters that gives is a nice entry point and the primary message of the book is that the families we chose are the most important ones. I didn’t read any of Winman’s other books, but I would be interested in reading more based on this. Another top five for me was The Great Circle, both covered decades of the 20th century with sweeping storytelling and cast of intriguing characters, if that helps at all.

Based on a previous Datalounge book thread recommendation I recently finished "Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard" by Gareth Russell about Henry VIII's doomed penultimate wife. I loved it. The author takes all the time needed to introduce the many notable characters of Western Europe circa 1540, and although many detours are undertaken the gorgeous and compelling writing kept me intensely engaged.

If this era of history intrigues you at all, give it a try.

r14 watch the Barbarians HBO movie with James Garner. Was part of the string of Larry Gelbart successes. Great film. Seen it several times.

BATHHAUS from PJ Vernon. Great gay mystery thriller about a young man who decides to cheat on his husband...very much in the vein of GONE GIRL but for gays. Made tons of best of lists last year and I see why. I read it in a day.

This is going to become one of the most popular gay books over the next few years. Has major crossover appeal as well.

R141, thanks for your take on STILL LIFE. Looking forward to reading it now.

Yes, r144. BATH HAUS is highly recommendable.

R25, you recommended Apartment by Teddy Wayne. I started reading, am now at page 63. I gotta say though, I'm not getting into it. There doesn't seem to be any plot other than two roommates living together and trying to figure out who pays for what. I seem to be missing something. What was it that enticed you? Should I keep reading because something is still going to happen, or am I a lost cause for this book?

Listening to "The Devil Finds Work" by James Baldwin, superbly read by Dion Graham. While primarily a story of racism in the movies, he gets in a few blows regarding homophobia as well. Highly recommended!

I’m reading Updike’s Rabbit, Run for the first time. It’s very good and not sure why I put it off this long. I’m also reading Bruce Catton’s Mr. Lincoln’s Army because I’m fascinated by the Civil War and rereading Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. I like to read several books at a time. I just finished The Anomaly by Le Tellier and that was fascinating, Donald Hall’s poetry collection Without and reread Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge. Didn’t care for the 1947 movie version.

Anybody familiar with the author and books below? I’m not much for mysteries, but it sounds intriguing and I like the insurance angle more then true crime plot.

I read those books so long ago that I can't recall the details.

^ Sounds interesting

I remember several good comments about Rebecca Makkai's THE GREAT BELIEVERS 2 or 3 years ago on these DL threads but I never picked up the book because any novel that might be described as an AIDS saga seemed depressing (and the pandemic was depressing enough).

But there it was on my public library shelves so I took it out yesterday and haven't been able to put it down. Such great storytelling with genuine mystery and tension in the plotting. Loving it. Hard to believe it wasn't written by a gay man who lived through it all. Have any Makkai fans here read any of her earlier books?

Reading Imbole Mbue’s “How Beautiful We Were.” Heartbreaking and beautifully crafted.

r150, I liked Joseph Hansen's Dave Brandstetter mysteries enough that I read them all starting in the late '70s. I've always liked reading mysteries, and at that time, a gay series was not something I could pass up. I liked reading them again sometime during the 21st century as well.

R149, I read the whole Rabbit series in the early 2000s and also wondered why I'd not done it earlier. I remember Rabbit, Run being a bit hard (but still good), and the next ones are great, especially Rabbit is Rich. Updike is a fantastic writer and the series is an excellent portrait of middle-class, 20th century American life.

I'm reading the Guns of August (about World War I) which has been on my shelf for at least 30 years. It was highly recommended by one of my professors, and only now am I able to read it without being overwhelmed by people and places I knew nothing of as a young person.

I’m finally reading Don Quixote. It’s boring.

Rabbit is Rich is my favorite out of the series of four.

highly recommend the Hansen series. set in LA in the 50s. deals with homophobia, racism. great reads, great backstory for the detective....

Another big fan of the Rabbit series and "Rabbit Redux" is actually my favorite. I think it's the weirdest one but in an interesting way.

Dangerous Liaisons

Rebecca Makkah is supposed to be a narcissistic monster in real life. I liked The Great Believers quite a lot—especially the parts in the past. The more current-day thread wasn’t as compelling

R 161 Supposedly, Marie Antoinette had it sewn into a Bible cover so that she could secretly read it during chapel without anyone knowing. That alone has always fascinated me and made me want to read it, and I love epistolary novels too. Is there known to be a particularly good translation?

Henry "Chips" Channon's Diaries

I'm up to 1936 in the first one.

He was one of the Great Queens of England

QUEEN OF THE CAYS, a biography of Joe Carstairs, “the fastest woman on earth”, an heiress who wore menswear and was openly lesbian. She raced boats, which is how she became famous. It’s a little slow going, but I’m powering through.

The Russian House by John le Carre

Has anyone read Blood Meridian by Cormack McCarthy? Just finishing it up.

The Brethren by Bob Woodward

R77

[quote] The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst …Does it get better? And become clearer?

Look for his interviews about it. He says he deliberately omitted parts of the narrative. So the reader is forced to 'tread water' in order to stop from drowning.

Everyone I know say it's the least satisfying of his novels but I maintain he's still a genius at prose and finding "le mot juste".

I did indeed finish reading The Sparsholt Affair and loved it. I'm pretty sure I posted again about that upthread, r169, but thanks for your comments. I would even go so far as to say it might be my favorite of all Hollinghurst's great novels.

R162, I know Rebecca professionally and you are correct about what you’ve heard.

I read that one a long time ago, R165. Agree that it's one that might appeal to Datalounge readers.

R167 McCarthy is one of my favorite authors. I read Blood Meridian every few years.

R173 For the first half of the book, I thought it was one of the greatest of all time, but the last half just seemed to meander along...more blood, more senseless killing more meandering. I will reread it again, though.

My TBR on my night table:

WAR AGAINST THE ANIMALS by Paul Russell

LIGHT PERPETUAL by Francis Spufford

MR. KEYNES' REVOLUTION by EJ Barnes

DOG LOGIC by Tom Strelich

Any opinions? I'd provide a little description of each but I haven't read any of them yet. I purchased all of them based on great reader reviews on Amazon.

R175 The blurb for "Mr Keynes' Revolution" tells us it has obviously been sensationalised to turn Keynes's sensible life into fiction.

You must tell us how much fictional sex has been inserted into it.

R175, I've loved everything I've read by Paul Russell. If this is your first time reading him, I hope you'll want to read all the rest. Sea of Tranquility and The Coming Storm are favorites of mine.

It is my first Russell, r177 It was actually this book that had the most interesting reviews on Amazon - at least, for me.

As for the Keynes book, r176, several well-written reviews said that they couldn't have been less interested in Economics yet the story pulled them in....and that caught my eye.

Because I’m a lit nerd I love gossip about writers, especially novelists, like the tea posted above about Rebecca Makkai. This could be its own thread but if you know or have heard stories about authors, post it here!

I’ve posted previously in one of these threads that I’ve been in social settings a few times with Curtis Sittenfeld and she is lovely. I also know someone (not Curtis) who’s met Jonathan Franzen a few times and says that, despite his prickly reputation, he’s actually quite considerate and likable in person.

What is it about Rebecca Makkai that makes her so difficult or unpleasant?

THE GREAT BELIEVERS packs such an emotional wallop, and to my mind, a very sincere and honest and smart wallop, it's hard to imagine its author as harsh or insensitive.

Rebecca wields a bit too much power in the literary community at the moment to get super-specific, R180. I think some people are afraid of her for this reason.

I suggest you watch the first five minutes of the next “in conversation with” Zoom event she does with an author. She’ll find several ways to make it all about herself, so much so that you might even forget that the other author and their new book (not hers) is the one being highlighted.

I say these things as a The Great Believers fan.

Hanya Yanagihara is really nice in person and very cool.

R77, R169, R170

I think it's a dangerous path to take.

Benjamin Britten tried to go further to make more 'artistic' and 'more profound' works but I reckon his music from the last 20 years of his life is unlistenable.

I'm glad Hanya Y is a nice and cool person, but I still hated A Little Life more than any other novel I can remember. Just proves the old adage: trust the tale, not the teller.

Close Up

I went to the thrift store today and picked up

- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

-Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

-The 10th Victim by Robert Sheckley (I like the movie)

I've thought of "In My Brother's Shadow: A Life and Death in the SS" by Uwe Timm often in the past few days, as the Ukraine city of Kharkiv is in the news now and played a role in the book.

I'll probably go back and read it again.

Please do not waste your time with To Paradise. 600 pages of absolute eye-crossing dullness. The first story is the most engaging of the novel - even though it ends with no resolution. The second story just goes on and on and by the time I got to the third part of the book I just switched out of it and moved to the next book on my Kindle. I couldn't finish it. It's excruciating.

I just discovered the wonderful Daunt Bookshop in Marylebone, London has a great Instagram account with lots of fantastic recommendations, fiction and non-fiction. One of my favorite places to visit when I'm in that city.

Home Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen. The Weimar Republic from Captivating History. Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert.

Today is the second day of a group reading I've joined of BLEAK HOUSE at the rate of one chapter per day.

Loved the great believers - she must have done a ton of research for that book.

Didn’t have an interest in her other books though.

From the above ^^^^^

I loved THE GREAT BELIEVERS, BLEAK HOUSE and CROSSROADS!

Three very different excellent books For serious readers only though. Those books require a little concentration.

BLEAK HOUSE is so bleak.

I don't want to pick it up.

I finished the William J Mann trilogy of gay fiction and really liked it.

It’s trashy but he’s a good writer and it’s refreshing to read gay trashy fiction by a gay man. What a concept.

Voyagers of the Titanic

(Inspired to check out some Titanic books by the "Gays and Titanic" thread)

Just picked this one up from the used book store.

R190, what is a group reading? Is it exactly what it sounds like?

I found the sister/mother/daughter story in the great believers grating at times. I wasn't entirely sold on how it tied in with the gay storyline either. But there were very affecting parts of the book, especially the end for the main male character. By the end of the book, I was very forgiving of some parts of the book because I really cared about the characters.

R197

The group administrator put together highlights/discussion points for each chapter of Bleak House over the past several months as a project. She posts them each morning (her time in Europe), and we read those after reading that day's chapter, commenting on her items, as well as others we have noticed, don't understand, etc.

I did a "buddy read" recently with two other people (at a different Goodreads group) of Penelope Fitzgerald's THE BOOKSHOP, where we all agreed we had a great time.

While the sister/mother/daughter story line in THE GREAT BELIEVERS might not have been as compelling as the main 1980s AIDS story line, I still found it engaging because it was ultimately about how we choose who is our family and who is not. Fiona was so overwhelmed by the caretaking she gave to her brother and his friends, she had nothing left for her baby daughter and her daughter has chosen not to allow her into her adult life. And Nora, the old lady with the art collection, was still more attached to her French lover and his artist circle than her own family, even decades later. Makkai brilliantly tied all the strands of the story together for me thematically by the end.

I read it a few years ago and honestly forgot all the frau stuff (except someone’s sister took care of all the dying men right?) but the gay male characters and descriptions of boystown in Chicago stayed with me.

Yeah, Rebecca’s assistants did a great job of mapping out 80s/90s Boystown for her.

You guys are giving me FOMO. My husband (who isn't even a reader!) loved The Great Believers. I started it during Covid and couldn't get into it, but now I'm thinking I didn't give it enough of a chance.

There are so many characters introduced at the beginning of THE GREAT BELIEVERS I think it can be a little challenging to get into. Understanding the relationships, history, etc. But stick with it, it's worth it. The last hundred pagers are truly haunting, unforgettable.

My of my New Years Resolutions was to read a book every month as I love reading.

I've got lined up: Mother of Sorrows - Richard McCann Razorblade Tears - S.A. Crosby Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann The Only Good Indians - Stephen Jones

I don't know which one to start with!

Killers of the Flower Moon was really good.

[quote]Mother of Sorrows - Richard McCann

One of my favorite books of stories of all time. I liked his writing even more than I liked Andrew Holleran's or Paul Russell's. I chose Mother of Sorrows to be the first book I bought on my Kindle back in 2011. Unfortunately, Richard passed away last year. Here's a page of remembrances from those who knew him at American University, where he taught in their Creative Writing program.

If you want to read a chatty, but extensive overview of the history of the Academy Awards before they come up, Best Picks: A Journey through Film History and the Academy Awards by three Brit podcasters was a nice read looking at each decade as an overview and then the individual winners. It’s not scholarly, but far above something People Magazine would publish and very enjoyable.

[QUOTE] One of my favorite books of stories of all time. I liked his writing even more than I liked Andrew Holleran's or Paul Russell's. I chose Mother of Sorrows to be the first book I bought on my Kindle back in 2011. Unfortunately, Richard passed away last year. Here's a page of remembrances from those who knew him at American University, where he taught in their Creative Writing program.

Richard McCann’s MOTHER OF SORROWS was described by Michael Cunningham as “unbearably beautiful” and I could not agree more. A gay classic by an author lost far too soon.

Andrew Holleran taught alongside Richard in the MFA program at American. Stephanie Grant, who is now the director of the program, dedicated her new memoir (DISGUST) to Richard when it came out last fall. He also features as himself in her book. A student of all three McCann, Holleran, and Grant in the MFA program named Philip Dean Walker (AT DANCETERIA) published his new collection BETTER DAVIS AND OTHER STORIES last fall as well and also dedicated it to Richard.

Holleran has a new novel coming out later this year. I’m curious to see if he dedicates it to Richard as well.

It’s clear that he had a profound effect on those who knew him both personally and professionally.

Reading “mother of sorrows” now - my god. So fucking beautiful. Thank you for the recommendation. It’s making me weep.

(MARY!! But seriously - thank you)

R205 here---Guess I'm starting with Mother of Sorrows then ! Thanks for the feedback!

The chapter in Mother of Sorrows about his brother Davis was STUNNING.

One of the characters in BETTER DAVIS is apparently based on Richard McCann himself. It’s in a review/interview with the author.

[QUOTE] Richard was a huge mentor for me in grad school and became a very good friend. I still can't believe he's even gone, such is Richard's behemoth. I cannot say enough about the fearlessness, the zest for friendship and life, the pure honesty of writing — all of that Richard inspired in me. Richard was one of the finest writers of our time and his loss is a profound one. He was so charismatic and generous. One of the characters in Better Davis is loosely based on Richard, something I was able to share with him before his unexpected death.

just finished SQUEEZE ME by Carl Hiaasen.

sharp, knife point satire of a recent Prez with ties to southern FLA.. laugh out loud fun!

"The Only Good Indians" was okay, not great. Didn't live up to it's early promise. Agreed about "The Killers of the Flower Moon" - what's interesting is that the story wasn't necessarily even exceptional - there were numerous instances of the native Americans being killed for their oil rights. Recently read "The Best Land Under Heaven" about the Donner party & early attempts to Make America Great. Even though everyone knows it ends badly for them, it was still a compelling book

I have a feeling it's going to be a long, hot summer; any recommendations on long, immersive books? Last summer I read "War & Peace" and that was a great escape from the real world.

Maybe Paul Scott's Raj Quartet, R214? Or John Galworthy's Forsyte Saga.

R214 If you are one for biographies, Red Comet about Sylvia Plath is a doorstop of a book, but exceptional in its scholarship and a game changer overall for biographies.

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll check out these books

I've been reading To Paradise. I finished the first book, which takes place in 1893. I moved on to the second book, but so far have only finished Part One. If I continue reading, will I find out what happens to David and Edward, whose story was dropped, unresolved, at the end of the first book?

R214: I concur with R215's suggestions of Scott and Galsworthy and would add Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy (WWI) and Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy (WW2). ALL have fantastic characters. (Manning's books were filmed as the Fortunes of War miniseries with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson in 1987; sadly, it doesn't appear to be streaming or on DVD.)

I'm reading Oxford novels. I finished reading Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm, and am now well into Sinister Street by Compton McKenzie.

R218 - you will not. And bad news- Parts 2 and 3 both suck, each progressively worse. Hated that book.

[quote] I've been reading To Paradise.

But I've never been reading To Me.

R218 All three books have unresolved endings, which seems to have ticked many people off. I guess lots of people needs things tied up in a neat little bow, but life isn’t like that. Book two seems to be the one most people struggle with and feel is too long, much of it takes place in Hawaii. Book three has echoes of 1984, and for my money is the strongest and most harrowing, but not harrowing in the ALL way, just terrifying because of it’s likelihood of happening (or is happening now?). Given my chance, I wish I would have read them in descending order, Books 3-2-1, I think it would have made an even greater impact and a bigger emotional impact then it had.

Just started The Promise by Damon Galgut.

Not bad so far. Anyone else read it? Won the Booker Prize.

R224 It’s very good, worthy of the prize and somewhat heartbreaking. Galgut is Gay and I would like to read some of his other work, especially if it features contemporary Gay men in South Africa.

Oh I'm really glad to hear that R225 - it's actually due at the library in 3 days so I'm going to try to plow through it.

R220 - wow, I haven't given Sinister Street a thought since I read it in college. It was always being mentioned by the authors of the '20s, which is why I read it.

I read Zuleika Dobson recently - hated it!

For those who lean more towards reading nonfiction, this list might be of interest. I’ve heard great things about Lost and Found, but even long time fans of Klosterman seem to be disappointed by this one.

R218. No. That story is never resolved. The whole book is like that, each section just goes on and on with no payoff. Very disappointing and meandering book.

Thanks, r230 r223 and r221. I read parts of books 2 and 3, but returned the kindle file to the library this morning. I really wanted to find out what happened to David & Edward. Unresolved endings were interesting for a moment in the 1970s; not so much today.

The long list for the Women’s Prize was announced today and with quite a few surprises, many titles, even by those in the know, came out of nowhere and were unknown. Other leading contenders like To Paradise and Matrix were surprisingly absent. I’m happy that Great Circle is in the running, and there were a few other known and unknown ones that I’m drawn too. The short list will be announced at the end of April and the prize will be awarded in July.

R225 I remember how it was news when Hollinghurst won the Booker, a gay man winning british biggest literary prize was huge (and in some ways made reading gay fiction respectable and mainstream). Curiously in the last seven year three gay men won the prize. It's good that being gay and winning a big prize is not news anymore

R225 I like Galgut a lot. Arctic Summer is a wonderful imagining of E.M. Forster's time in Alexandria and India and his romances/passionate friendships there. Writing is quite beautiful. In a Strange Room is also quite good, but I didn't love it as much as Arctic Dreams. I haven't read The Promise yet.

Maybe I'm a cretin but I couldn't get into Zuleika Dobson or The Balkan Trilogy (tried reading that one twice).

If you want a deep dive into a glorious period saga, nothing beats Anthony Trollope's THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.

I've never been much of a fan of his more popular Barsetshire and Palliser series of books, but TWWLN is a stand-alone multi-character novel that crosses through all levels of British society in the 1870s. It started me on my love affair with Victorian literature but still remains my favorite. I also loved another of his stand-alone novels HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.

For the past few weeks, my mother had been reading the book [italic]Cloud Cuckoo Land[/italic] for her monthly discussion group. I was surprised that she had been saying that she found it quite interesting, as I'd have thought she'd dislike it.

Upon arrival, it seemed that they were discussing the recent novel by Anthony Doerr, where she had read the book of the same name by Louise Shadling, having to do with South African apartheid. She found the comments from the solid majority of group members who loathed Doerr's story entertaining.

^^^ That sounds like the old chestnut of the high school student who read H.G. Wells and not Ralph Ellison.

Did anyone read The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr? His writing is compared to Toni Morrison, and I’m reminded again that I hate her writing style. I find it wildly confusing and I’m left to translate and hope that I’m getting the gist. Anyone read and love? Hate?

I'm 2/3 of the way through The Prophets. I absolutely love it--the language, the plot, the characters--the whole thing. But I also like lots (not all) of Morrison.

BTW, despite the pan in the Times by a critic I've never heard of, a friend of mine who is herself a successful novelist (won the PEN/Hemingway, a book chosen by Oprah, etc.), says Booth by Karen Joy Fowler is magnificent. Washington Post gave it a rave too. I liked We Are All Beside Ourselves, very much, so I have high hopes for this one.

R240, can't you tell us the friend's name? I want to know.

R240, I've read KJF's first 2 novels and completely forgotten about them. Your post prompted me to look her up and I realized not only had I read her books but enjoyed them. Especially WAABO, but damn, I barely remember it. The Jane austen one? No memory of it. I guess it means I reread them.

Just getting into the serio-comic new novel THE FAMILY CHAO about a contemporary dysfunctional Chinese working class family with 3 grown sons and their restaurant in Wisconsin. The author Lan Samantha Chang has a really fresh original voice.

I loved We are completely beside ourselves, that's the only Fowler novel that i read

MBS. About the fascinatingly evil leader of Saudi Arabia.

To the posters who also loved “The Promise” - what are some of your other favorite books? I’m hoping we have similar taste and I can get some new titles.

R246 My current favorite author is Colm Toibin, who is Gay, but doesn’t always write about Gay subject matter, best know for the novel Brooklyn, which was made into a movie a few years back. In the Master, about Henry James, and last year’s the Magician, about Thomas Mann, he writes biographical novels, but also explores their complex inner lives dealing with their sexuality.

Literary fiction wise this past year some of my favorites have been epic decade long stories like The Great Circle and Still Life, both of which have LGBT content. Quiet small novels like Small Things Like These and Zorrie. Short story collections Afterparties and Gordo, two Gay Central Valley California writers who could not have lived more different lives from each other, and have given me insight into unknown worlds. And The Prophets, Piranesi and Matrix, which all have a quasi spiritual, ethereal quality to them.

Thanks R247!

We must be operating on a similar wavelength r149 because I recently read Tuchman’s Stilwell and the American Experience in China. I’ve always been curious about that period because of the failure there was used as an excuse by Red-baiting Americans during the McCarthy period.

I loved Toibin's BROOKLYN and THE MASTER but haven't been able to get into any of his other novels. I thought THE MAGICIAN was very dull. like an academic book report about Thomas Mann.

R250 I found the life stories about his kids so fascinating and spent time looking to see what was real and what wasn’t, most of it was. And then the yearning for the boy on the beach on vacation and the hotel bellhop at the end we’re powerful.

Anyways, check out Blackwater Lightship, one of his earliest books and I think one of the best portraying the complicated nature of family relationships with a son/grandson/brother dying of AIDS. It was also made into a movie with Angela Lansbury and Diane Weist. It’s heartbreaking.

I couldn’t read The Magician because I’d just read a Mann biography the year before. Toibin’s novel read like it was lifted from a biography, if that makes sense. I’ve recently finished reading Mann’s Stories of Three Decades and that was wonderful for the most part. Disorder and Early Sorrow, Mario and the Magician, Felix Krull were great and it was good rereading Death in Venice.

As an Irish American gay man, I really want to like Toibin. But the stories just don’t engage me. The writing is fine - good even - but the stories just don’t hit home.

Currently reading "Union Atlantic" by Adam Haslett. Came out about 10 years ago and is a pretty entertaining social novel about the period between 9/11 and the financial crisis. Very Franzen-esque. Haslett is gay and the novel has a gay storyline. His prose feels a bit oddly labored at times, and the plot is in large part driven by a series of unlikely connections between its characters, but I still like it overall. Most likely I'll pick up his more recent novel, "Imagine Me Gone," yet this year.

Recently finished "On Foot to Canterbury" by Ken Haigh, story of a pilgrimage he made in honor of his father. Not particularly religious content, I found the book better travel narrative than Bill Bryson.

For those more interested in gay travel writing, I've recently picked up "Brazil" by John Malathronas again, which I'd sent aside (indefinitely) a while ago.

R254 I prefer Union Atlantic over Imagine me gone.

I had a problem with Toibin's Brooklyn, i'm generally not into love stories but i loved the main couple of Brooklyn only to Toibin spoil all that in the last part of the book

Imagine Me Gone was a total miss for me. Overwrought language and just a very annoying central character. I didn’t care about what happened to him.

I wanted to like Brooklyn but found the main character so colorless.

Now reading “Bloodlands Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.” Amazing history of geographical area between Germany and Russia, including Ukraine, which has been the site of much slaughter for about a century. Many historic details I wasn’t aware of.

Next up: “White Guard” by Mikhail Bulgakov about conflicted family in Kiev during Revolutionary civil war. Basis for classic play, “Days of the Turbins.”

P.S. “Bloodlands “ is by Timothy Snyder.

I also want to read the Harvey Fierstein book.

[quote]My current favorite author is Colm Toibin, who is Gay, but doesn’t always write about Gay subject matter, best know for the novel Brooklyn, which was made into a movie a few years back.

Ah, I love Toibin too! Loved Brooklyn, Nora Webster was okay - felt like the story was a first draft for Brooklyn, but also liked House of Names. I'll have to check out The Master. It got kind of mixed reviews at the time and I think some of his best writing is when he talks about people try to live their lives in the stifling irish culture.

I forgot The Testament of Mary - and the audible version is read by DL favorite Meryl Streep!

R260 Tim Snyder's "The Red Prince," too.

It's about Wilhelm Von Habsburg, an aristocrat who wore the uniform of the Austrian officer, the court regalia of a Habsburg archduke, the simple suit of a Parisian exile, the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and, every so often, a dress.

I've added that to my buy list, R263. Thanks for the recommendation.

I had dinner with Toibin a number of years ago when he was a speaker at our college. Lovely, bright man--sexy in his own way. David Rakoff had just died and we talked about what a bright light he had been, and Toibin revealed that, years ago, they had "gone together," as he called it. I asked if Rakoff was as much of a mensh as he seemed on paper. Toibin got a faraway look in his eyes, a slight smile, and said, "He was a lovely man." A moment out of one of his novels.

Oh wow love that R265.

I was a fan of Rakoff.

I'm reading The Topeka school by Ben Lerner

Do you like it, r268? I think Lerner is crazy talented.

I’m finding the great circle a bit slow - does it pick up?

Same, r270. I gave up.

Mistake?

I loved the Great Circle as an epic tale of a family in the same way I loved East of Eden. There are also Gay and Lesbian characters that emerge after the midway point.

I'm just about to read Helter Skelter for the first time.

[quote] I'm just about to read Helter Skelter for the first time.

You won’t be able to sleep without the light on for a month.

I loved Lan Samantha Chang's THE FAMILY CHAO. Nifty story of a working class immigrant family (tyrannical dad, subservient mom and 3 grown sons) who run a Chinese restaurant in small town very white Wisconsin. And one of them is murdered! Whodunnit?

Really enjoying Paul Russell's WAR AGAINST THE ANIMALS, maybe recommended upthread? I love how he's able to create the 2 very different worlds of affluent gay men and white trash locals colliding with each other in upstate NY, each with very distinctive voices.

R273, I read Helter Skelter as an adolescent and it still haunts me.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a book on World War I (non-fiction)? I'm coming to the end of The Guns of August and am realizing it's indeed only about the first month.

A graphic novel called Idle Days, a horror story set in rural Canada during WWII. Kind of a haunted house thing.

I just finished listening to actress Sarah Polley’s nonfiction essay collection Run Towards the Danger, which is basically a trauma memoir in essays. It is fantastic if your into these kinds of deep dives and she is very smart and self reflective with each essay being over a hour plus. Definitely if you’ve seen and enjoyed her documentary about her family you will find this fascinating. I have always found her to be an amazing actress with her role in the Sweet Hereafter stunning and one of the best performances on film.

[quote] Does anyone have a recommendation for a book on World War I (non-fiction)?

You might like The First World War by Martin Gilbert.

R277 Not a book, but I highly recommend checking out Peter Jackson’s documentary They Shall Not Grow Old where WWI film footage has been completely restored, colorized and has had sound and dialog, expertly researched and matched, to the film. It gives you a whole other sense of what it was like and is an amazing technical accomplishment of film history.

Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War. He's very good at going into the motivations behind the participating powers.

Thanks for the recommendations. Just ordered the Martin Gilbert and have bookmarked the other two.

Regarding World War 1 books, I thought this one was interesting:

R277: I really enjoyed The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund. It draws on the journals and letters of 20 people from across Europe, mostly average men and women -- soldier, surgeons, nurses, pilots, a schoolgirl, civil servant, etc. A completely different type of narrative history. I was glued to it.

Guns of August and the series by Barbara Tuchman around it are great histories of WWI. Dense but lively reading. You see how the world just kinda fell into it day by day. Scarily similar conditions that exist now in terms of technology, changing societal mores and globalism. Cause, effect and reaction makes the whole thing seem unavoidable.

White Fang by Jack London

Finally read The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett and it was a stellar read. Just a great, absorbing, engrossing novel that rarely seems to be written anymore. I’m late to the party here, but run, don’t walk.

Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy is also a great look at World War I from a different angle

I found those Pat Barker WWI books very dull.

Though it's not a book about WWI, per se, MR. KEYNES' REVOLUTION is a wonderful fictionalized account of John Maynard Keynes, famed British economist and homosexual member of the scandalous Bloomsbury Group in the years following The Great War. What I mostly loved about the novel was its depiction of all the various Bloomsbury characters like Vanessa Bell, her sister Virginia Woolf, painter Duncan Grant and on and on. It sent me down quite a rabbit hole, including watching an interesting, if uneven British miniseries called LIFE IN SQUARES about those characters and their highly unorthodox sex lives, including DL Fave James Norton as Duncan Grant (with some lovely nude homo scenes). Keynes ultimately renounced men and married a famous Russian ballerina and apparently lived happily ever after with her for several decades.

If anyone can recommend other books about the Bloomsbury Group, I'd be most appreciative.

R291, read the Lytton Strachey biography by Michael Holroyd. Also, lighter, the biography of Lady Ottoline Morrel.

"Algiers Hotel" by Adam Nossiter. He is such a lovely man, and I haven't seen his byline since the days when he was Kabul bureau chief of the NYT and the Taliban too over. I hope he is still around.

My brother gave a coffee-table book at Christmas: Bollywood Kitchen by Sri Rao. The openly gay author does an outstanding job pairing meal suggestions with recipes and a specific Indian film for each. There's enough background text, among all of the gorgeous photos (including loads of eye candy), to say one has "read" it. Highly recommended (yes, there is a specifically "gay" chapter focusing on the movie "Kapoor & Son").

I’m coming very late to this and after so much hype that it’s likely anyone reading it would feel let down, but I just finished Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and I’m feeling very frustrated and with lots of questions.

First, I did it as an audiobook read by the author and was very shocked that he repeatedly says “axe” for “ask” and there was obviously no move to correct his pronunciation.

He states repeatedly that he’s an atheist, but then goes on repeatedly to call Howard University Mecca so many times hammering it into the ground. To use this metaphor as a non religious person makes no sense to me.

He went to Howard University for five years and never graduated? What’s that about, was he thrown out? I did dip back into his earlier book, a memoir, where he admits that his father work there and he attended for free. This contradicts a lot of the imagery of being poor and downtrodden that he makes throughout the book. Having access to a free college education at a prestigious college is a level of privilege a very large majority of people don’t have access to. It makes me question about if he was granted entrance by merit or nepotism, if he was abusing the system by continuing classes after four years, and this weird reverence (calling it Mecca) he has for the university, but then he doesn’t respect it enough to finish his degree and graduate?

He describes meeting his son’s mother the first time while drinking beer and passing a joint, obviously in college, and possibly underaged. I just can conceive of presenting this information about it being all right in abusing illegal drugs to your fifteen year old child. He also mentions he was an unplanned accident, so obviously he’s not even practicing safe sex or adequate birth control.

He goes off on these rifts of talking the Dreamers, which I guess he trying to make a connection between these children of immigrants and the struggles of African Americans, but he never really delves into why he’s talking about them as a group and though repeating it frequently never really follows through.

I don’t know what the travelogue part about visiting France was all about in the middle of this book.

I wished he would have integrated the part at the end about visiting his dead classmate’s mother into the body of the story where’s he’s already talking about him earlier instead out isolating it at the end. It didn’t make for a cohesive ending.

That said, I did find his writing quite beautiful and poetic, but in need of editing and cohesion. Some of his imagery was quite striking too. Has anyone read it and have similar thought, questions or answers?

Reading this one called A Secret Between Gentlemen. It's non-fiction, about a (hushed-up) gay scandal in Edwardian England, involving a bunch of V.I.Ps.

So far it's really good, you'll enjoy it if you like reading about gay history

Non fiction

101 Diarrhea Jokes

Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler is tedious……

Joyful Living by Helen Madden

Betty White's memoir [italic]Here We Go Again[/italic].

OP, I watched the movie based on Small Island and wasn't impressed. Perhaps the book was better?

Then novel SMALL ISLAND is magnificent. Do yourself a favor and read it, r302. I also recently saw the National Theater (of London) production/adaptation of the novel which was also magnificent, truly what live theater is all about. Yet, I can see how a film of the same material might actually come off as a bit soap opera-ish.

Thanks, R303. I'll try the book; didn't know it was also a staged production. It's interesting to learn the different adaptations of an original work.

The Beautiful Side of Evil by Johanna Michaelson

Talk about a frightening read!

I tried reading Small Island a few years ago before it became hip and found it so boring, I gave up early on.

I finished Ali Smith's Spring. Great book

the two-part BB1 "Small Island" from 2004, with Bendict Cummer Bitch was quite good. Also like the NTL production. Never read the book

Reading Monica Ali's BRICK LANE now which was a best seller in England about 20 years ago though I don't think it found much of an audience here. It's about a young Bangladeshi girl in a forced marriage to an older Bangladeshi man in London. Loving it.

R309 No, I read it at the time, there was a flourish of Anglo/ India sub continent authors for awhile and it was very good. Then she seemed to have disappeared at least in the US, but she just now has a new book with a big push out called Love Marriage. Apparently, there is a movie or series of Brick Lane I would like to hunt down.

R309, I also liked Brick Lane. Very much a traditional, sweeping, family-story novel.

Just read an advance copy of Nell Zink's novel "Avalon" which comes out in May and was very enjoyable. Zink has published six novels in the last seven years and I think many of this thread's regulars would like her work -- she's very funny, extremely erudite and is a great prose stylist. I'd suggest starting with "Mislaid" which is set in the late '60s and is about a lesbian who marries a gay man.

She's also got a great backstory -- she didn't publish her first novel until age 50. She was "discovered" after she sent Jonathan Franzen a letter about birdwatching, and he was so charmed by it that they struck up a correspondence. He liked her writing so much that he connected her with a small publisher that put out her first novel, "The Wallcreeper."

A lesbian who marries a gay man.....The Will and Jada Story?

Tits for beads: my life of mardi gras style fun on the streets

I cannot wait for Emily St. John Mandel's new book SEA OF TRANQUILITY to come out later this week!

As much as I loved her most famous STATION ELEVEN, I've thoroughly enjoyed all of her books from the most recent THE GLASS HOTEL to one of her earliest THE SINGER'S GUN. She's comparable to Patricia Highsmith....only so much better!

Me too, r315! Loved Station Eleven and thought The Glass Hotel was even better! Need to pick up her older titles and very excited for the new one, which sounds like a trip.

What Belongs To You

R317 Ugh, thank you for posting this! Last year I read Swimming In the Dark and the repressive Eastern Block setting kept reminding me of this novel that I had read earlier, but I could never pull up the title in my mind. “Belongs” got a phenomenal launch and coverage when it came out and I think I saw an NPR piece even before pub date and was intrigued. I liked it a lot and thought it was a very strong first novel. If you liked it I highly recommend “Dark,” each of them have quite strong literary ambitions and for the most part do great jobs without overreaching.

I guess Greenwell wrote another novel since Belongs calked Cleaness, has anyone read that?

I’ve read both Garth Grenwell novels. Meh. Better than many - and I always enjoy a gay theme - but just ok IMO.

Gary Indiana - I can give you everything but love. I love his outlook on life. Writing and story are maybe 6-7 out of 10. But his perspective on life is unique and one that is oddly fitting with mine. Old school eldergay - but the kind who lives in a hovel and hires whores in Cuba on his poverty level income rather than retiring to Wilton Manors with a $2 million 401K.

Cleanness, also by Garth Greenwell, confessions of sex addict. nine somewhat related stories, one "The Little Saint" is one of the most erotic things I ever read.

I’ve read Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04 and he’s great, I love his mixed up narratives and the “found” stories the narrator has to share.

I love Ben Lerner too. His most recent, The Topeka School, is also very good. A little more conventional than his first two, and an interesting exploration of the way teenage boys are raised in this country to be toxic men.

Cock for beads

Has anyone read this yet?

I’m listening to THE YEARLING (much easier than trying to read all that dialect). The fawn’s gonna die, ain’t it, Paw?

101 Ways to be a bitch to people

^ The Marjorie Taylor Greene Story?

I never knew there was a MAGA genre of books...

So far this year, I've only ready Rickie Lee Jones' memoir, which was fascinating, though I think you have to be familiar with her work to really appreciate it.

Three books I re-read on a regular basis: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," "Under the Volcano" and "Lincoln in the Bardo."

The first is just, well, really interesting. The other two I find emotionally moving. While "Lincoln in the Bardo" is pretty new, I found it really gives you a case of the "feels," almost like grief.

Just getting around to reading World War Z, after that probably Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

I’m rereading Welcome to the Goon Squad in preparation for reading Candy House, and it is just so hilariously good, because of the vignettes jumping around in time I didn’t have a clear memory of it, but I remembered I enjoyed it and it’s definitely worth the reread.

^^^Ugh, sorry meant A Visit from the Goon Squad, when you read eBooks and don’t stare at the cover all the time it’s easy to slip up on the names of books!

The story “Out of Body” about the 90’s closeted gay from VISIT TO THE GOON SQUAD is one of my favorite short stories in the last couple decades. So beautiful.

R332 I’m planning on doing the same thing!!

R88 And you're rather handsome yourself.

I loved A visit from the goon squad. It was funny that Egan only needed to write a more conventional novel like Manhattan Beach to be a bestseller (anyway Manhattan Beach is pretty good).

I'm reading Thomas Savage's The power of the dog

Reading Pachinko and really enjoying it.

R337, I loved The Power of the Dog. Read it in December

I read The Power of the Dog in October and also really liked it.

Power of the Dog was great and it got me to read a Western and really like it. I’ve heard great things about Lonesome Dove, maybe I’ll tackle that some day?

Power of the Dog is so much better than the film and I wish I'd read it before seeing the film so I didn't have to picture Cumberbatch and Plemons as the brothers.

Loved Pachinko but I'm finding the new mini-series on Apple challenging. I hate the dubbing in the earlier period - is there a way to avoid that and just have subtitles?

Manhattan Beach was a spectacular read until about 2/3 through when it felt to me like Egan just gave up or lost interest in her characters. Very weak ending.

Reading pachinko too. Yep, very good so far. I'm only about 100 pages in. I want to make a smart aleck remark to Sunja, but it may be a spoiler.

I’m on to Candy House and loving it, I think to truly savor it fully you really need to revisit Goon Squad to enjoy all the wonderful nuances.

I’m just finishing up a re-read of Crooked House and then I’m going to re-read Goon Squad before I start The Candy House which I am SO excited to read. Goon Squad is one of the only books I’ve read multiple times. I think it’s one of the best of that decade.

"Twelve Who Ruled," about the Committee of Public Safety in the French Revolution. Written in 1941 before historians decided that narrative was beneath them, the author has a great style.

I'm loving Jonathan Coe's MIDDLE ENGLAND, which was a big bestseller in the UK last year and is now out in paperback (at least over there - I bought it on a London visit last week). It's a sequel to his THE CLOSED CIRCLE which was a sequel to THE ROTTER'S CLUB, and follows up on the young school boys of 70s England of the first book as they hit their 50s in the 2010s of the current volume.

I've read most of his books over the years and find him to be uneven but this one is quite engaging.

Colm Toibin reading some of his poems from the collection about to be released.

Well done article, by the by, he means it’s middle class in that he’s coming from the lower class, not being dismissive from an elitist point of view.

Thanks for posting that, R349. I didn't know Stuart had a new book on the way. Shuggie Bain was fantastic, grim but also funny.

Thoughts on Penelope Fitzgerald? I've tried a couple of times to like her novels but can't quite get into her quirky style. But I've just started another one INNOCENCE and so far, so good.

Candy House was so good, five star! And that’s StoryGraph five star, not GoodReads five star!

R351

I did a "buddy read" of THE BOOKSHOP with two others recently, where we found quite a bit to discuss. I had read OFFSHORE on my own before that, which I wouldn't particularly recommend. One of the others went on to read THE GOLDEN CHILD, which she liked. I recall having enjoyed it years ago, and plan to reread that one.

I finished Betty White's autobiography "Here We Go Again!" yesterday. Am posting here very specifically as she gushes over Dinah Shore and Burt Reynolds as the love of each others' lives. Am I mistaken in always assuming that was a double-beard? If so, is Betty being disingenuous, or Rose-like naive?

I'm going to start a new thread for summer reading, everyone. I'll post a link to it here.

Here's the link to the new thread:

Any Dan Chaon fans here? He's adopted and one of themes in his work is the oddball looking for connection. His novels range from wistful and heartfelt ("You Remind Me of Me") to creepy and disturbing ("Ill Will").

Currently reading "Sleepwalk" which is the first thing I've read in a while that keeps internet distractions at bay.

I read “Sleepwalk” last month and really enjoyed it. It’s my first Chaon. I think someone on DL recommended him.

Tales From The Gas Station 2, And In The End, Hell Of A Book right now.