Which LIST book did you just finish? Showing 6,051-6,100 of 10,248

[George P.]

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. He describes Sam Spade as being blond, which was hard to reconcile with the Humphrey Bogart film in my mind :)
Loved the noir mood and entertaining characters, but thought the pacing uneven, the story rushed in places, dragged out in others (the ending).

[Mia]

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

[Liander (The Towering Pile)]

Cphe wrote: "Lianne, as an aside did you read Lady Susan?"

I did not. I've only read her six full-length novels. I do like Austen enough that I probably will check out her other stuff, though.

[Ellinor]

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski. The book made physically sick at times. An absolute must-read though.

[Vikki]

War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. It was a much better read than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed it. Now starting on The Island of Doctor Moreau.

[Tim]

Moll Flanders by Daniel DeFoe

[Diane]

Karen wrote: "Queer by William S. Burroughs
Junky by William S. Burroughs
*Two down, two more to go. Not sure I can stand much more of Burroughs."

"

Those are probably the tamest of the 4, too.

[Diane]

Finished Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges and The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Radetzky is one of my favorite books. Maybe it was the time that I read it, but I thought it was very affecting. Affecting to me, anyway.

[Tim]

Oroonoko, Aphra Behn

[Sean]

I just finished the bizarre but extremely fun The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I feel like I understood it... mostly. But it would take several reads to really get what was trying to be said beyond what was said.

[Tim]

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells - really enjoyed it.

[Sarah]

Finished The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I loved the book. Great story!

[Diane]

Sarah wrote: "Finished The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I loved the book. Great story!"

One of my all-time favorites!

[Diane]

The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge.

[Brian]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

[Colleen]

Just finished 4 of Muriel Spark's novels - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girls of Slender Means, The Driver's Seat, and the Only Problem. "Prime" & "Driver's Seat" were my favorites...but I very much enjoy her writing style & quirky characters. I'm surprised how quickly I get involved in her short novels.
Also, just read Possessing the Secret of Joy. Excellent book...but difficult to read because of the FGM subject matter.
Now...catching up on some from last quarter's list! :-)

[Colleen]

Just finished 4 of Muriel Spark's novels - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girls of Slender Means, The Driver's Seat, and the Only Problem. "Prime" & "Driver's Seat" were my favorites...but I very much enjoy her writing style & quirky characters. I'm surprised how quickly I get involved in her short novels.
Also, just read Possessing the Secret of Joy. Excellent book...but difficult to read because of the FGM subject matter.
Now...catching up on some from last quarter's list! :-)

[Amanda]

Just finished The Golden Bowl by Henry James. What a yawn.

[Carol]

Finished The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing. Liked it very much. Painful read.

[Nicole]

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I listened to the audio version read by Colin Farrell and it was great.

[Tim]

Roxana by Daniel DeFoe

[Diane]

Cphe wrote: "Diane wrote: "The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge."

I bought that one last week. Interested in your thoughts on it."

Great book, but difficult subject matter.

[Diane]

Finished Pavel's Letters by Monika Maron and The Quest by Frederik van Eeden.

[Alice]

Finished The Breast by Philip Roth

[Sean]

Diane wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Finished The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I loved the book. Great story!"

One of my all-time favorites!"

Mine too!!

[Tim]

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

[Karen]

Also finished in December:
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

[Karen]

Alice wrote: "Finished The Breast by Philip Roth"

That was a very strange book!

[Aileen]

Karen wrote: "Alice wrote: "Finished The Breast by Philip Roth"

That was a very strange book!"

Indeed!

[Nocturnalux]

Heavy Wings by Zhang Jie.

I'd heard that this one is a bit boring and I can see why some readers would find it so, personally I found it almost absurdly compelling. Granted, the byzantine complexity of the Chinese Communist Party with its in-fighting, endless sessions of this and that and highly confusing cabinets, committees, ministries and the like, is very difficult to fully understand but that is part of what the novel is criticizing. No wonder so little ever got actually made, with no accountability for wasting resources upon resources and policies that by the early 80's were completely outdated; and all this compounded by having to navigate extremely choppy waters regarding political orthodox.

I was very surprised that this one even got published in China. Makes an interesting companion read to The Four Books (not a list title) if only because they are so different in tackling somewhat similar themes, Lianke's book is deeply allegorical and almost dreamy in its nightmarish portrait of 'reeducation camps' while Heavy Wings sticks to a realist tradition both in terms of content and form and has a wider scope that encompasses much of Chinese society.

[Sean]

Finally finished Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann. It was an amazing and sprawling and detailed piece of work. Loved it.

[Karen]

Nocturnalux wrote: "Heavy Wings by Zhang Jie.

I'd heard that this one is a bit boring and I can see why some readers would find it so, personally I found it almost absurdly compelling. ..."

Both sound interesting. I have been fascinated with this period of China's history since I started the sci-fi trilogy Remembrance of Earth's Past by Liu Cixin. The first book, The Three-Body Problem, is set partly at the beginning of the revolution. The portrayal of the student's trials of their professors was eerie and too relevant to what is happening today at our universities. I'm looking forward to reading both books.

[Brian]

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

[Sean]

I just finished The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. It was really good and fun to read. I can see why this made the list. There are many parallels (along with commentary) between the "evil" empire and our (real-life human) "faults" mostly in socioeconomic issues but some other cultural traditions as well.

[Hubert]

Brian wrote: "Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison"

It's a special text - I read it in h.s.

[George P.]

Nocturnalux wrote: "Heavy Wings by Zhang Jie.

I'd heard that this one is a bit boring and I can see why some readers would find it so, personally I found it almost absurdly compelling. ..."

I liked Lianke's The Four Books a lot. It has a very Asian style.

[Ellinor]

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro and Journey to the Alcarria: Travels through the Spanish Countryside by Camilo José Cela

[Vikki]

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I love Dickens for the most part. This is one I really got into. Loved it for the most part.

[Sean]

Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges was a thought provoking break from heavy novels. Of the 3 parts, I liked the Parables best.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Journey to the End of the Night by Céline. Eh, I don't know...I was kind of up and down about it.

[Tyler]

On Beauty by Zadie Smith.

[Ellinor]

In Parenthesis by David Jones

[Diane]

Germinal by Émile Zola. Wow.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Good ol' Zola. What a barrel of laughs that guy must have been.

[George P.]

Amok Koşucusu ("Amok") a novella by Stefan Zweig of Austria. I also read his (not on the List) novellas "Letter from an Unknown Woman" and "Compulsion". All are melodramatic by modern standards, but were well-written. I liked Amok best of the three.
I'm slowly working through War and Peace (now at 25%) so I won't finish many other List books the next few months, but I'm also reading 3 other List books.

[George P.]

Diane wrote: "Germinal by Émile Zola. Wow."

You just posted yesterday morning that you had started it. It's 600 pages long. Oh my heck!

[Ellinor]

Finally finished Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd. Not sure why this is on the list.

[Ellinor]

Mercier and Camier by Samuel Beckett

[Mia]

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.