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What I'm Reading JUNE 2014
I am finding that I am moving along in My Antonia more quickly than anticipated & look forward to our discussion.
Nicole wrote: "Joan wrote: "This was the first book I'd read by Bowen, but I intend to seek out more."I've read two this year: The House in Paris and The Heat of the Day, and they ha..."
I'm a huge Bowen fan, I think I've read most of hers.
I've been quiet due to Life and a wrist injury, but have been reading. Finished Half the Kingdom: A Novel by Lore Segal, a strange, brief, novel in which everyone over 62 who arrives at the ER of a certain NY hospital develops dementia after getting there. I found it baffling, and then, at the end, illuminating. It's a success. I think. Also read The Daylight Gate, by Jeanette Winterson, a gruesome tale of witches and Papists in the 17th century. A good read, I guess, but not much take-away. Most recently finished Visible City, by Tova Mirvis,about which I have mixed feelings. Strong development of themes and motifs, complex characters, but the inconclusive conclusion didn't seem to take me to new territory (as some inconclusive conclusions do).
Now rereading ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, when I can face it, and reading Jamaica Kincaid's See Now Then: A Novel.
Finally finished A Place of Greater Safety for the group read - long but very worthwhile. Reading quickly through Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity which is gut wrenching but so compelling. Also started #2 in Paul Scott's Raj Quartet: The Day of the Scorpion. I just loaded Emile Zola's complete Rougon - Macquart series on my kindle. I think there are 19 books which I purchased for $1.99. Has anyone read any of these? Thoughts?
Just finished Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life A detailed account of how reservations came into being, the issues of sovereignty, the problems of alcohol, drug use, health and education—a shocking 5% of Indians graduated from college, and the enormous wealth some tribes garner from casinos. Interesting also is the resurgence of Indian culture in pow wows and ceremonies. Personal anecdotes are interspersed for readability, though sections of the book, particularly pertaining to political issues, are somewhat dry.
Joan, I can heartily recommend Navajos Wear Nikes: A Reservation Life by Jim Kristofic. It's about growing up as a white boy on the Navajo reservation. Kristofic moved onto to the reservation right before he began second grade and stayed there for most of his young life. It really captures the poverty and the brutality but brings about the good things about the Navajo life. The book is okay in terms of its writing but great in terms of the stories told. My own son is Principal Investigator for the Dept. of Education for the Navajo Nation, and I'm predisposed to like all things Navajo ... but I also think I'm realistic about the problems both imposed by white culture and society and the ones that are self-created by the Navajos themselves.
Witness by Karen Hesse – 3.5*** A novel in free verse lets eleven residents of a small town in Vermont bear witness to what happens when the Ku Klux Klan arrives in their town in 1924. Evocative and powerful. However, the odd syntax Hesse uses for six-year-old Esther’s voice is really off-putting. I dropped a half-star as a result.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Five stars for Harold Brodkey's Stories in an Almost Classical Mode, though I'm not sure I would recommend it to most of my reading friends. The pieces that seem to be Brodkey at his most essential aren't really stories (or so I think would be the common complaint). "A Story in an Almost Classical Mode," for example, is really a 50-page character sketch of his step-mother--I thought it was brilliant, but there is no plot to speak of at all. (Perhaps the most amazing thing is that the story was originally published in the New Yorker, which tells you how conservative that magazine's fictional tastes have become since 1973.) "The Boys on Their Bikes" is similarly unconcerned with plot: in 32 pages, the boys of the title ride their bikes up one side of a small hill and down the other--no flashbacks, no back story, a few lines of traded dialogue. Even the more traditionally structured stories (for example, "Hofstedt and Jean--and Others," one of my favorites) are way, way more talky and ruminative than most contemporary fiction. I have to thank Christine Schutt for this recommendation.
A question: A lot of folks in this group refer to audiobooks. I have a new iPad. When I go to the iStore and hit the 'books' tab, there is a rather pitiful selection (mostly classics). It's likely that I'm asking a rather dumb question--this is my first Apple device, and in fact I've never owned an MP3 player or a Kindle or even a cell phone--but where do I go to find audiobooks newer than The Scarlet Letter?
Check out whether your public library has downloadable books. Also, look into the Audible site.
Geoff, you make me want to read those stories.
Nicole wrote: "Geoff, you make me want to read those stories."Awesome! (Of course that was my hidden hope.) If you look at my review of the book, I've listed my other favorite titles.
John wrote: "Check out whether your public library has downloadable books. Also, look into the Audible site."The library thing is an interesting idea. I just looked at the Audible site, and I don't think I'd use it often enough to get my money's worth out of the $15/month fee.
Just finished World War I: The "Great War" from The Great Courses. The lecturer is Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius from the U of Tennessee. I've been watching these lectures over the last several months, concurrently with other fiction and non-fiction reading I've been doing about this period of U.S. History. As always, I found The Great Courses lectures informative and helpful in my study. The format is standard lecture and although I used DVDs, it would have worked just as well to use the audio CDs. The course guidebook has a wonderful annotated bibliography from which I've added a few books to my TBR list.
Larry wrote: "Joan, I can heartily recommend Navajos Wear Nikes: A Reservation Life by Jim Kristofic. It's about growing up as a white boy on the Navajo reservation. Kristofic moved onto to the re..."Thanks for the recommendations, Larry. I'll certainly look this one up.
I am reading Americanah, I hope others will read it and join in the discussion. It is turning out to be one of the best books I have read so far this year.
Mary,I also have enjoyed some of the Great Courses. Most recently I listened to The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World. http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/co...
I got this one through the library.
Before we went to Italy, we got the course on Renaissance Art. It made visiting museums and churches a lot more interesting. We would happen upon a famous work and say "Bill" (the lecturer) told us about that. Of course, we didn't remember much of what he said, but it still made our encounters with the art a lot more fun.
PS If anyone is buying one of them for the first time, you never ever purchase one unless they are on sale - which happens frequently.
Ann wrote: "Mary,I also have enjoyed some of the Great Courses. Most recently I listened to The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World. http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/co......"
Ann, we are very lucky in that our local library has many of the Great Courses. We've especially enjoyed Bart Ehrmann's religious ones.
I like Ehrmann, but he tends to repeat himself by making essentially the same point slightly differently.
John wrote: "I like Ehrmann, but he tends to repeat himself by making essentially the same point slightly differently."I confess I tend to be grateful for this sort of thing, my memory not being what it once was--or is it that my reading experience is more interrupted and fragmented?
Ann and everyone, I absolutely agree that you never buy The Great Course offerings at full price and library copies are even better. When we lived in CT a wealthy patron had endowed a fund for our local library to stay current with all Great Course offerings so I explored and listened to my hearts content. Unfortunately that's not at all the case with my current local library. So I buy - on sale - from time to time and then lend out to my sisters and friends if they're interested. Eventually I donate to our local Planned Parenthood book sale.
Mary, Larry, and all,I used to have a friend who bought The Great Course lectures on sale and then lent them to me - it made her feel better about spending the money. I listened to a great history of the English language, history of Rome, as well as histories of the U.S. and England. Great stuff.
Feeling bad that I never took physics in high school, I bought a course about physics in everyday life. I listened to a few chapters and then it languished. I'm afraid I lacked the background even for this basic course.
Ann, once when driving cross country alone, I listened to a particle physics course. I didn't understand all of it by a long shot but I felt much less like a stranger in a foreign land by the time I got to the end of it. My high school/college regret, in addition to thinking history courses were boring and a waste of my time, was not pursuing any science courses past chemistry. So now I read both history and science from time to time and derive pleasure from being able to go at my own pace, pursue my own interests, and not have to take tests or write papers.
I've never tried Ehrman, but have enjoyed a couple by Luke Timothy Johnson. I started one on history of (European, I think) art but have not gotten much past the 10th century. It is great, but life keeps intruding.On the other hand, I just finished a re-read of North of Hope by Jon Hassler. Hassler is one of my favorite kind-of-contemporary authors (he died in 2008). His writing is so deceptively simple and beautiful and true.
John wrote: "I like Ehrmann, but he tends to repeat himself by making essentially the same point slightly differently."Boy, is that ever true!
I just finished The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. I loved it. So sad and powerful. Has anyone else read this?
Gina, I've just read the description of this book and immediately added it to my TBR list. Thanks so much for pointing it out.
Gina wrote: "I just finished The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. I loved it. So sad and powerful. Has anyone else read this?"I read it awhile back. Here's my review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm enjoying the memoir Perfectly Miserable: Guilt, God and Real Estate in a Small Town, although it would help to be familiar with the Alcotts, which I am definitely not.
I really enjoyed B.J. Novak's witty book called One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories. Novak was a writer and actor for the TV show THE OFFICE - a show I really liked until it outstayed its natural life.Novak's sense of humor - very dry and quirky - won't appeal to everyone. Also, there are two or three pretty crude stories. However, for the most part I read the book with a perpetual smile on my face and some great laugh out loud experiences.
The opening story involves the hare in the didactic fable about the tortoise and the hare. The hare dreams of a rematch. Another favorite of mine was a story about a principal who decides to eliminate arithmetic from the curriculum, and concentrate just on reading and writing in the interests of having a happy student body.
Like I said - not everyone's cup of tea, but the stories are very original and funny for those who share his wry sense of humor.
Finished up Americanah . It was an absorbing book. I finished it in a few days. Now I am on to The Yellow Birds, which many recommended here.
Finished Remembering Poets: Reminiscences and Opinions: Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound Reminiscences of four major poets who Hall, as a young poet and academic, was privileged to know. His take on all four is lucid and revealing. He trailed Dylan Thomas through a series of readings and pub crawls with his most interesting observation being that Thomas remains a minor poet because his “pure poetry” often consisted of interchangeable lyrical lines that, with the exception of a few poems, never evolved into the mature vision of a great poet such as Yeats. He grasped the essential egotism of Frost, who like Hemingway, viewed other poets as rivals to be bested. He credits Frost’s work as containing a humanity rarely expressed in the poet’s personal life. Frost, a master of one-upmanship, was chided by Hall for his false evocation of the simple countryman in order to charm a gullible audience. Hall had a more intimate and admiring vision of Eliot who was an elder statesman to the young poet. His worship of Eliot’s work was undiminished, though that same emotion prevented him from being as close to Eliot as he might have wished. The most interesting subject was Pound whom Hall interviewed for The Paris Review in 1960, well after Pound had been released from St. Elizabeth’s where he’d been confined following a charge of wartime treason. An effort by other poets including Frost, MacLeish and Faulkner resulted in Pound’s eventual release, after which he returned to Italy where he had spent a large part of his life. Aging and infirm at the time of Hall’s interview, Pound was anxious to impress the younger man, anxious to be au courant to his readers, anxious about his diminishing powers and bouts of confusion. Hall confesses to falling under the spell of Pound as a forefather, more than a mentor, and he set about preserving Pound’s reputation which he ultimately realized was in part due to his need for Pound’s approval and affection. It took years for Hall to come to terms with some of Pound’s later works which he had praised, and to admit an actual dislike of some of it. Sadly, Hall became a victim of Pound’s increasing paranoia and he never again saw the poet. Throughout the book, Hall’s tone is open, warm, revelatory, self-deprecating and genuine. He penetrates the lives of these four poets with alacrity and perception shedding light on personalities that time has cast as monumental forms. The book concludes with the Paris Review interviews with Eliot and Pound.
I have apparently become obsessed with Anita Brookner, having just finished a third book of hers, Providence. I don't know what it is about her writing, I just can't stop.
Interesting, as I find a little of her goes a loooong way!
I'm about one-fifth of the way through The Goldfinch. It's a long book, so my opinion could change I'm sure, but so far I'm happily reminded of how important good writing is. In terms of the subject matter I knew about ahead of time, adolescent boys and art are two things that generally make me yawn and turn away, and yet I'm completely absorbed, as it's just well written. Is there a prior discussion of this novel, for when I finish it? I searched on Constant Reader, didn't see an upcoming or past one, but have vague recollection of a discussion happening at some point.
I also read The Light Between Oceans awhile back, and do remember that it was okay, but sad, and I agree a bit with Ruth's review.
Nicole wrote: "I have apparently become obsessed with Anita Brookner, having just finished a third book of hers, Providence. I don't know what it is about her writing, I just can't stop."She seems a little light to me. I've more or less decided to give her a pass.
The GoldfinchI don't think there's been an official discussion, Lyn. I enjoyed the book, although I have to admit that I got bogged down in the middle Las Vegas section. It was very absorbing and kept me up late reading to see what happened next. That doesn't happen too much any more.
I used to like Anita Brookner. I think she writes well, but after awhile I just felt that all of her books were such downers that I gave up. Shallow of me, I know.
Lyn wrote: "I'm about one-fifth of the way through The Goldfinch. It's a long book, so my opinion could change I'm sure, but so far I'm happily reminded of how important good writing is. In t..."It was a Reading List book not long ago. Here's the discussion:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Ruth wrote: "Lyn wrote: "I'm about one-fifth of the way through The Goldfinch. It's a long book, so my opinion could change I'm sure, but so far I'm happily reminded of how important good writi..."It wasn't an official book on the Reading List, but a side discussion.
I could not let The Yellow Birds alone. It is a beautiful book written about an ugly subject. You can tell the author is a poet. I was overwhelmed by the words.
Carol wrote: "I could not let The Yellow Birds alone. It is a beautiful book written about an ugly subject. You can tell the author is a poet. I was overwhelmed by the words."I felt exactly the same way.
Ann wrote: "I used to like Anita Brookner. I think she writes well, but after awhile I just felt that all of her books were such downers that I gave up. Shallow of me, I know."They are kind of downers, yet I don't feel depressed reading her. It's really weird.
Also, I don't think that's shallow. I'm never reading another Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book again after Half a Yellow Sun for pretty much the same reason. Or maybe it is shallow, and we both are.
Nicole wrote: "Ann wrote: "I used to like Anita Brookner. I think she writes well, but after awhile I just felt that all of her books were such downers that I gave up. Shallow of me, I know."They are kind of d..."
I've read a couple Anita Brookner. I didn't find them shallow, and though they're somewhat depressing, I don't think that bothered me. But I got a kind of claustrophobic feeling from them, and longed for more interaction between characters. Her style is too perfectly controlled for me, perhaps.
Still enmeshed in stressful family matters and an injured wrist and I absolutely cannot make myself go back to ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Instead I'm reading something called Squeeze Play: A Novel by Jane Leavy, a comic and obscene baseball novel. I can't recommend it, but at least I can read it.
Also, I don't think that's shallow. I'm never reading another Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book again after Half a Yellow Sun for pretty much the same reason. Or maybe it is shallow, and we both are. Nicole,
Perhaps we both are :-)
I understand what you are saying about Half a Yellow Sun, although I really liked it. For the record, I did not find Americanah depressing.
Kat, I think you expressed what I feel about Brookner's novels better than I did when I said they got to be downers. I did like her the first time I read her.
I have joined our local library Adult Summer reading plan. I have started off reading Debbie Macomber books, trying to read them all. Then they require us to write a short review so I am adding them to my Goodreads list. So far, I'm loving them.
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I did years ago ... I loved it. When it was published, it was pushed as "The novel of its generation ... the modern equivalent THE NAKED AND THE DEAD, etc." I guess publishers have to do this kind of thing, but I think it did a disservice to all involved. It is a raw and I believe, accurate look at what it meant to be a Marine in the Vietnam War ... and then back in the United States. As good as this book was as a first novel, Webb's writing just got better and better. His last two published novels, The Emperor's General and Lost Soldiers are my favorites by far.