false 4 60 59 true 5799744 read 1 true 210177 currently-reading 0 true 210176 to-read 10 false 362344 favebooks http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30518396 to: The South (Hardcover) by Colm Tóibín
Toibin's debut novel stakes out his future literary territory with grace, restraint and power. Many of his future recurring themes are here. A homecoming, parent/child relationships, religion, Spain and, of course, Ireland. It's a sparse, controlled novel with a cumulative power. As much about what people don't say as what they do. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30518264 Schindler's Ark (Paperback) by Thomas Keneally
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24410614 to: Suite Française (Paperback) by Irène Némirovsky
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24410350 to: War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (Paperback) by Louis de Bernières
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20465952 to: Music and Silence (Paperback) by Rose Tremain
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18578800 to: The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (Hardcover) by Alex Ross
As comprehensive and luminously written a survey of 20th C classical music as we're liable to get. Ross is rarely, if ever, dull and his contextualisation of composers with world events and their peers sheds new light upon their works.

If there's any criticism to be levelled it's that there's a clear American bias to the book. I think he makes more of Copland than is right (in my opinion!) and I skipped some pages about the West coast composers and felt others might have benefited from a bit of plug. Bernstein and Puccini are quickly brushed over and Sondheim doesn't register on the scale at all.

But it's still a terrifc read and his final survey of the current musical landscape is sensible and informed. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20203166 to: Life and Times of Michael K (Paperback) by J.M. Coetzee
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18097641 to: Larry's Party (Paperback) by Carol Shields
A sort of companion piece to The Stone Diaries, this time the protagonist whose life is under scrutiny is an ordinary man. Or rather he's ordinary until he gets lost in the maze at Hampton Court and discovers the pleasures of being lost and starting life over again with a real purpose.

If you like Carol Shields you know what you're going to get and it's here in spades. Insight, intelligence, warmth, humour, a touch of tragedy and compassion. Plenty of wonderful characterisation too which never strays into caricature. I used the word 'ordinary' about Larry and it remains Shields' great legacy that she opened our eyes to how extraordinary everyday life can be. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1469.The_Canongate_Books_Advance_Review_Club Doogyjim joined the The Canongate Books Advance Review Club group. ]]>