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

Greg’s comments from the All About Books group.

I nominate The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa

Alannah wrote: "There has been a lot of talk about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with the movie trailer being released. I bought the book when it was released and still haven't gotten around t..."

Ah I see, it's a prequel - that could be fun.

Best of luck with your busy May Alannah - I hope everything goes well!

Leslie wrote: "If needed, I will be finishing up Kindred and A Tale of a Tub.

I probably will be rereading Captain Blood as it is a group read in another group (and I lo..."

Leslie, I loved both Ender’s Game and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Someday I want to read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit as I read it one or even two decades ago! I liked Sea of Tranquility when I read it recently too; I'll certainly participate in the discussions, even though I probably won't re-read it since it hasn't been long.

Funny about Captain Blood - I didn't even know that movie was based upon a book. I bet it's fun!

My plans for May:

finish up from last month:
✔ 1. The Library at Mount Char (Scott Hawkins) ★★★★ (4.0)

very likely:
✔ 1. Exhalation (Ted Chiang) ★★★★★ (4.5)
✔ 2. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (Edgar Allan Poe) ★★★ (2.5)
in progress 25% 3. Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)
✔ 4. The Nickel Boys (Colson Whitehead) ★★★ (3.5)

probably:
in progress 13% 1. Ruth (Elizabeth Gaskell)
✔ 2. I Who Have Never Known Men (Jacqueline Harpman) ★★★ (3.5)
✔ 3. The Moon Is Down (John Steinbeck) ★★★★ (3.5)

possibly:
1. Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
2. Queen of Sorcery (David Eddings)
3. Daisy Jones & The Six (Taylor Jenkins Reid)
✔ 4. The Bitch (Pilar Quintana) ★★★★ (4.0)
5. The Weird of the White Wolf (Michael Moorcock)
6. Wives and Daughters (Elizabeth Gaskell)
✔ 7. The Last Astronaut (David Wellington) ★★★ (2.5)

unplanned:
✔ 1. Push (Sapphire) ★★★ (3.5)
✔ 2. Separating (John Updike) ★★★ (3.5)
✔ 3. How I Met My Husband (Alice Munro) ★★★★ (4.0)
✔ 4. Cathedral (Raymond Carver) ★★★★ (4.0)

What are you planning to read in May? Anything you're looking forward to?

Thanks Phrynne!

Quick question for mystery readers out there: I quite liked The Daughter of Time, but I've never read anything else by Tey. There's a deal on Audible right now where I can get 6 Inspector Grant novels for 1 credit. I'm tempted, but I don't know what they're like. Has anyone read them, and did you like them?

Tweedledum wrote: "Ah yes Outlander of course , certainly not sci fi. Thanks Leslie for clarifying why some time travel books qualify as sci fi and some don’t… still that would suggest Kindred should not be sci fi … ..."

Some good questions Tweedledum! Butler sometimes writes pure sci-fi and other times books like this that are hard to classify.

But I agree Leslie, it's a good way to explore how modern identity dissolves under the pressures of that historical period and also just to visit it from a modern perspective, while stepping inside those events.

Glad you both liked it! I also liked it when I read it pre-Goodreads.

Nidhi wrote: "I will join."

Great Nidhi! I just ordered my copy.

Alannah wrote: "I am but may be closer to June before I start it due to my final essay."

Sounds good Alannah and Leslie, and good luck on your final essay Alannah!

I'll definitely join in on this one. Anyone else planning to read it?

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "I loved her debut, Freshwater but didn't care for The Death of Vivek Oji (although many did). She is an unusual writer, for sure. Did you write a review for this one?."

Not yet Patty, and yes, unusual for sure!

Tumbleweed Words wrote: "what an opening"

Indeed!

Tumbleweed Words wrote: "Eliot wasn't my favorite but I love prufrock. William Carlos Williams is fun, Allen Ginsberg blew my mind when young"

I very much enjoyed Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems by William Carlos Williams! It's among my favorites.

And I still think Howl and Other Poems is wonderful - so moving and angry and ecstatic. I have friends that dislike it, but the crassness is used to good effect I think. It's at the same time a howl of almost mystical ecstasy and a howl of frustration at the world's injustice and cruelty.

Leslie wrote: "I was surprised by how much I liked Eliot's poetry when I first experienced it! Prufock was one of my favorites"

Me too Leslie! Despite finding the protagonist of the poem a bit creepy and stalkerish, the poem itself is so extraordinary that it rises above all of that. It's breathtaking, from the beginning fog-cat to the gorgeous conclusion in the dark combed waves

Leslie wrote: "Yeah, despair was the vibe I got from the library description which is why I decided to pass on it. Thanks for the examples Greg - I can see why it is considered an important work but not at all th..."

I totally get that Leslie!

It isn't in my usual wheelhouse either, though I'm still astounded at the year it was written. He was off on a path of his own, way ahead of his time.

Tumbleweed Words wrote: "t s Eliot is pretty solid"

Some of Eliot's poetry can be a bit obscure, but it's also extraordinarily beautiful! The ending of Prufrock is among the loveliest and most evocative lines of poetry I've ever read.

And Dickenson is wonderful!

Alannah wrote: "Thank you all for taking part everyone! I'm pleased to announce the final total for this readathon is 75,087 pages.

Well done everyone!"

Yes, impressive everyone!!

Just finished Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi. It's gorgeously written; the perspective is truly weird, fierce and fearless . . . sometimes revelatory and other times perhaps mad, but never boring. What a strange and thought provoking, beautiful mess!

I am almost done now with the "Flowers of Evil" section of Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies : A Dual-Language Book (Dover Foreign Language Study Guides). In the second half of Flowers of Evil there is a whole sequence of poems describing his tortured spiritual state, in which he feels trapped within himself, unredeemable, and lost, and in which he yearns for an impossible escape. These poems strike me as remarkable for the era and quite affecting.

I like this from "L'Irremediable / The Irremediable":

"Somber clear dialogue
Of a heart which has become its own mirror!
Well of Truth, clear and black,
Where a pale star trembles

An ironic, infernal beacon,
Torch of satanic grace, . . ."

And he expresses it even more clearly and succintly in another poem "L'Heautontimoroumenos / Heautontimoroumenos":

"I am the vampire of my own heart"

Although I can't quite understand his psychological or spiritual state, I can feel the pain in it and I can empathize with it. To write what he did in 1857, he must have been incredibly brave.