Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

A very fitting poem to mark her passing, John.

John wrote: "I am making my way through the 550 pages of Zadie Smith’s The Fraud.

The literary critics like Ron Charles of the Washington Post, and other assorted published critics, like this ..."

John, when I read about the book, I immediately thought that the story in it would have made a good eight page article in a literary magazine. I know that tastes are subjective, but I have no interest in this book.

There's a pattern here of people posting about books that are 550 pages long! :-)

John wrote: "This book might make for an interesting Book of the Month. It is just out and I find the idea of it timely.

Reasons Not to Worry: How to Be Stoic in Chaotic Times"

John, that looks pretty good. Please consider nominating it in November as the December Book of the Month - Member's Choice.

John wrote: "I noticed a nice rundown of recently released non-fiction books:

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2..."

John, this is great. I was totally unaware of it. I do look at LitHub's Bookmarks reviews. Go here: https://bookmarks.reviews/category/no...

Generally speaking, I have been disappointed for years at both the New York Times and the Washington Post for discovering good new nonfiction. Their end of year Best Books lists do usually turn up most of the best nonfiction books, but both miss so many really good works.

The following quote is from the GoodReads description of When We Cease to Understand the World. It is especially rare for a book about science and mathematics to be nominated for the Booker Prize. I had bought the book back in April 2022 and had set it aside. With the recent publication of his biography of John von Neumann, The Maniac, I planned to read that biography first and then turn my attention back to the earlier book. Now I'll go with the books in order of publication. Von Neumann has always fascinated me ... some say that he was the smartest man of the 20th century ... I think he definitely was in the top ten ... and yet he never learned how to tie his shoes. The mind is a stange thing indeed.

"Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature

A fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining.

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction.

Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger—these are some of luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the reader, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear."

Nope, you’re not the only one interested … I hereby declare it the winner! And I’ll read it, too.

No nominations could have been caused by my tardiness in making this folder more visible. Oh well, there is always next month! Unless ... someone has a brilliant book to suggest now!

I had never heard of Jon Fosse. I'm not sure that I've ever said that a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature was unworthy of the award and I won't start now. The selection of relative unknowns sometimes (and there are a number of both well known and relatively unknown authors over the history of the award) is a sword that cuts two ways. It serves to bring to attention authors who deserve more attention ... and it overlooks the better known authors who may deserve the award more. Awards stimulate a lot of arguments. Often too many arguments.

Ron, I would be especially interested in what he says in the Prologue of the YA edition. It could be quite different than the adult edition's Prologue.

John wrote: "Larry wrote: "John wrote: "I have always liked reading Barney Hoskyns ever since I read his book [book:Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, B..."

John, there are an incredible number of videos that I have never seen in that two part video. I actually subscribed to MGM when I saw that they had a San Francisco Sound two part series that came out about two months ago. One of my friends was an advisor to that series.

She is always stunning good!

John wrote: "I have always liked reading Barney Hoskyns ever since I read his book [book:Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, th..."

John, if you have access to the MGM video channels (it's relatively new and I don't think it's very popular yet ... but I subscribe through YouTube TV as an add-on channel) there's a two part series on Laurel Canyon and all the musicians who lived there. I watch the first part yesterday. So many memories flooded back.

John wrote: "I noted the latest New Yorker has a piece regarding music recorded at Parchman Farm, a prison in Mississippi. I hope to get to it this week and I expect it will be an interesting story. I believe S..."

I'll want to read that for sure.

Ron wrote: "That's an interesting statement, Larry. Thanks for sharing.

My copy doesn't arrive until late tomorrow so I'll be starting on Weds.

Now FYI, I'll be doing a back-to-back read. I have to read the YA edition for a class assignment so I'll be doing that one as well as hopefully keeping up with the regular edition. ..."

That's brilliant, Ron. And sharing comparison that in the form of a paper for your class could be brilliant also.

Dear Patrick & Cristina,

A much belated welcome to both of you!

Larry

Thank you, Thomas, for those encouraging words!

I read the prologue yesterday ... a deeply felt statement about Wounded Knee and how Native Americans need to move on in some sense ... as survivors of a wounded but surviving culture and civilization.

The nominations process and voting are open to all members ... I only ask that you nominate and/or vote for a book that you think you may read.

I would hope that the person who nominates a book that is chosen will actively participate in the discussion. You don’t have to lead that discussion, but if you do, that’s great.

Beginning on October 1, I will call for nominations for the Monthly Reading - Members’ Choice for November. On October 11, I will call for votes among the books nominated from any and all members. (Please remember to vote on the book you nominate! Unless you want to vote on a book nominated by another member. Yeah, that can happen!) On October 21, I will announce the winner. That book will be the November Members’ Choice Book of the Month. In case of ties, I will choose the winner.

Use this thread to nominate a book ... and then later (beginning on October 11) to vote for the book of your choice.

This thread is for discussion of Indonesia, Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation by Elizabeth Pisani.

An important book from 2014 about an important nation that often escapes being reported on.

"How do you make 260 million people on 6,000 islands feel like they are all the same nation? Elizabeth Pisani takes a look at post-independence Indonesia ... This is a country of between 13,500 and 17,000 islands, depending on whose figures you believe. About 6,000 of them are inhabited, and they stretch over 5,200km, from Sumatra in the north-west to Papua in the south-east. These host hundreds of different languages, five recognised religions (plus many unrecognised ones) and dozens of ethnicities. Indonesian, a form of Malay, is the lingua franca, which has consolidated its position in the last two decades thanks to the spread of television and the popularity of local sinetrons, or soap operas. ... while this book is low on dates, statistics and historical analysis, it does give a vivid sense of what Indonesia feels, smells, and tastes like. ... she decodes the peculiar bonds of family, clan, village and island that the Indonesians have developed over centuries, and which have mutated in an independent state."

SOURCE: The Guardian, 24 July 2014.