Greg’s Comments (group member since Jul 02, 2014)

Greg’s comments from the All About Books group.

I am close to finishing If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin, and it's a wonderful book! 5 stars for sure, unless something goes really wrong with it in the final pages.

I'm also about halfway through the Harlem Renaissance work Cane by Jean Toomer. It's an interesting mixture of poetry & prose, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like the poetry in it. Toomer deserves to be ranked with the other great poets of the movement like Countee Cullen and Claude McKay.

Once I finish the Baldwin book tomorrow, I plan to start Fahrenheit 451 as well. I haven't read that one since I was a teenager!

LauraT wrote: "My husband saw it and said the same. I don't think I could endure "seeing" what I'm reading!!!."

Ha ha, I did have to look between my fingers sometimes. It was genuinely creepy in an unsettling way. Really good though! Maybe I will read the book!

Alannah wrote: "I'm guessing it's to encourage more people to access it. That being said, my local library appears to focus more on infants and supporting young families through reading or sensory sessions. It's lovely for the community but not for me as I don't have children yet.."

Well, if that is the main purpose for my library, maybe it makes me feel a little better? I am not going to have children myself, but it's so important for society as a whole that new generations get all the benefits that come from reading!

And I also think getting more people to use the library is a good thing!

But it's sad to lose libraries as a free repository of literature and cultural learning. I used to use it frequently and was shocked at how many books seem to have been purged now. In the old days, I could find almost any book I wanted at the library. But that seems not to be the case anymore. That makes me a little nostalgic and sad.

I placed a hold at the library for a physical copy, and it's already in transit. I'm looking forward to it as I haven't read this book in many years!

Given this book's reputation and status as a classic, I'm surprised that the entire library system near me (which is huge) has only a couple physical copies, no digital copies, and no audiobooks. I've been a little disappointed with my library system lately. I wonder what the problem is. Maybe they're prioritizing bestsellers to the exclusion of other materials? It seems rare that I can get anything that I want there lately.

LauraT wrote: "Thanks Steve!
I'm reading The Outsider; as usual for this writer, breathtaking."

There was a television series adapted from this book that I thought was wonderfully done Laura: really creepy with a true sense of mystery and at the same time emotionally engaging. I was drawn deeply into the characters' world.

So far in the fiction category I have read Another Country, Giovanni’s Room, and now, If Beale Street Could Talk. All three were wonderful!

But Baldwin does deliberately recreate the sociology/psychology of the time when each was written; so there is some disturbing content. People talk and behave as they did then.

I would say that out of the three I've read, so far Giovanni’s Room is still my favorite, but all three are exquisite! And I do plan to read Go Tell It on the Mountain next.

I think you would like him Laura! If you have time and want to buddy read Go Tell It On the Mountain at some point, let me know.

Thanks for the recommendation Steve!

I've read some of his non-fiction books too, and those are also excellent. But his fiction is really special!

Currently reading If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin. I was expecting the beautiful prose and the psychological depth, but what is taking me by surprise is the humor. The characterizations are so vivid and perfectly done that humor arises in the interactions, despite the circumstances; the father's dialogue in particular has made me laugh multiple times. He has a knack for delivering hard truths to people who need to hear them.

I'm halfway through and really shocked at some of this - the guardianship program and the scale of corruption surrounding it. I guess it shouldn't shock me given the country's historical treatment of Native Americans, but the scale of the corruption is so tremendous that I still feel quite stunned!

I have read nothing for months due to horrible work pressures. But I've picked up a few books, and I'm hoping to start reading again.

Here's my tentative plan:

Definitely:
✔ Cane by Jean Toomer ★★★★ (4.0)
✔ If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin ★★★★★ (5.0)
✔ Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann ★★★★★ (4.5)
✔ A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher ★★★★ (4.5)

Probably:
in progress 45% Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (re-read)
skip Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw (re-read)
delayed Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva

Possibly:
skip The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Unplanned Additions:
✔ Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ★★★★★ (5.0)
in progress 23% Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann

I'm reading this a couple years late, but wow, this is really gripping! It's non-fiction but not written in a dry way at all.

The historical facts make me frustrated and angry, but I'm glad that the author helped to preserve these events in the public imagination, both the specific events affecting the Osage and the larger backdrop of the history of the government's dealings with the Native Americans overall.

I wish I had found the time to read this back when it was a group read!

Alannah wrote: "Raw, intimate, and beautifully written, this novel is a must-read for anyone who appreciates powerful storytelling and lyrical language."

I love your description of this Alannah, and I agree completely!

And Kat, I agree with everything you say too! He is sometimes a little krass, but even the krassness somehow adds to the lyricism for me. Maybe because it makes it feel so "real"? His depictions aren't idealized at all, but there is so much love in it nevertheless.

I started this today, and the writing is extraordinary, so beautiful!

I like the way that Vuong portrays the mother too; despite the (view spoiler)[brutal abuse brought on by his mother's PTSD and traumatic history, the strength of the love he feels for her comes across in every sentence (hide spoiler)]. He understands and accepts her for who she is, without romanticizing her at all. The characterization and especially the lyrical prose are exquisite!

It's fascinating his definition of "monster": a "hybrid signal," a signal that points in mutliple directions. He says monsters are both a "shelter" and a "warning," both nurturing and dangerous I guess. He compares his mother to a creature of mythology, to a Centaur . . . something human that yet also has something of the feral power of a beast. As a "freak" or "fairy," he says that he also identifies with that double-nature that his mother inhabits. He takes that insult of being considered a monster, and he turns it into something else. It's interesting that he wears his mother's dress. Both of them exist in multiple worlds, without feeling fully settled in any of those worlds. They are larger than their circumstances.

I love his way of seeing her and his way of seeing himself.

But Laura, I understand what you mean. I imagine that this would be a very difficult book to translate and also a quite difficult book to read in a second language. It definitely reads like poetry.

So much of what he says is expressed in metaphorical terms, like using the migration of the Monarchs to refer to the mother's migration (and to generations of immigrants in general). And he often mixes timelines and jumps from incident to incident without clear transitions. Even with English as my first language, I do find myself taking extra time with the text to savor it in the way I do with poetry.

I have a whole quarter page of notes written down, and I'm only 15 pages into the book!

I'll be starting soon too!

Here's my tentative plan:

Finish up from last month:
in progress 81% Ice by Anna Kavan
✔ The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham ★★★ (3.0)

Definitely:
in progress 7% On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xóchitl González

Probably:
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin

Possibly:
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Goth by Otsuichi
Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Spare Room by Helen Garner

Unplanned:
✔ Songs from the Slums by Toyohiko Kagawa ★★ (2.5)

Finish up someday (maybe this month, maybe another):
in progress 28% Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
in progress 36% The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

Delayed from Prior Months, Get to Someday:
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
The Quest For Tanelorn by Michael Moorcock
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

What are you planning to read in April?

I started this yesterday, and it's not anything philosophically deep yet, but it's immensely entertaining!

I'd like to nominate Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. I have not read it in a very long time.

Have we read Stoner as a group yet? If not, I nominate Stoner by John Williams.

LauraT wrote: "I'm really LOVING it. Has anyone started it yet?
Loving this coming and going along space and time line, looking into the lives of all these different people... Really looking forward seeing how th..."

I'm enjoying it too Laura - the stories in all the timelines are very engaging. Great storytelling!

Here's my tentative plan:

Finish up from last month:
✔ Augustus by John Williams ★★★★★ (4.5)
in progress 18% There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
✔ The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North ★★★ (3.0)
✔ Piranesi by Susanna Clarke ★★★★ (4.5)

Definitely:
✔ Greek Lessons by Han Kang ★★★★ (3.5)
✔ Excellent Women by Barbara Pym ★★★★ (3.5)

Probably:
Revelator by Daryl Gregory

Possibly:
Curtain by Agatha Christie
(re-read) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Unplanned:
in progress 15% Ice by Anna Kavan


Finish up someday (maybe this month, maybe another):
in progress 28% Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
in progress 36% The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

Delayed from Prior Months, Get to Someday:
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
The Quest For Tanelorn by Michael Moorcock
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr