Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Archived Chit Chat & All That
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What Are You Reading Now?
Terris wrote: "Teri-K wrote: "Interesting discussion on Paradise Lost. I've read it as a strong believer and then not, and it definitely has plenty to think about from both perspectives. I'll confess I prefer his..."I think the dog is the perfect narrator, his voice really makes the book for me. (The vibe is very like Pratchett at his best, I think.) Plus I love mysteries, and there are plenty of them here. I'm thinking I may want to buy a copy to reread regularly.
I just finished Flaubert's Madame Bovary. My first try left me underwhelmed so I put it aside and got back to it to see what I missed. I was completely won over this time.. Here's my review to sharehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Teri-K wrote: "I'm reading A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny"I read that last month and really liked it, such a quirky book.
Ordens Menores by Agustina Bessa-LuísParaíso Perdido by John Milton
Battles Of The Bible: A Military History Of Ancient Israel by Chaim Herzog
Reading the The Devil-Tree of El Dorado by Frank Aubrey (1897), set in the tableland of Mount Roraima, which is a real place.Just realised that it is the same place that inspired arthur conan doyles Lost World. This is earlier though, Lost World was only published in 1912.
In Progress: Raintree County (1948) is a joy to read, and certainly a Great American Novel and monument of Midwestern fiction. I’m tempted to think that the book is more famous than it actually is, because I’ve read John Leggett’s wonderful joint biography of Ross Lockridge and Tom Heggen, and I’m well up on the granular literary history of that period.Put aside all thoughts (if you have any) of the disastrous 1957 film adaptation. That movie was made as if no one involved had read the 1,000+ page book (and indeed, the director admitted that he hadn’t even opened it).
The adaptation was doomed from the beginning because this is a book with a complicated temporal structure and Joycean language in an American tone; it doesn’t scream “Hollywood”. Nonetheless, MGM had awarded Lockridge a hefty prize even before the book’s publication, contingent on some cutting to the huge manuscript, in addition to the excisions that publisher Houghton Mifflin and the Book of the Month Club were already demanding. (The manuscript still exists at Harvard, and I wish the Lockridge family would authorize a published restoration.)
Lockridge felt sullied by all the negotiations and believed he had compromised his creation; he gassed himself just as the novel was hitting the top of the bestseller lists.
The novel was forthrightly and scandalously erotic for the Forties. I give Ross Lockridge enormous credit for that delightful and bounding frankness. As someone once said, none of us got here without a sexual act. 😏
Mod
That sounds good Teri-K. I also have been thinking about reading Zelazny - Z in his name!!
The Cellist
⭐⭐⭐
For first time readers the rating would be 4 stars and above.
For series readers like me this story is Similar to books in the series. Thriller.
Read as a fan of the series and the hero Gabriel Allon.
Series needs some unpredictability to rejuvenate.
My review here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Lynn wrote: "Teri-K wrote: "Interesting discussion on Paradise Lost. I've read it as a strong believer and then not, and it definitely has plenty to think about from both perspectives. I'll confess I prefer his..."This would be a great choice for Z, and perfect for this time of year. Also, it's a quick read, both in length and in how the story moves along. So it would be easy to fit in as the year draws to a close.
The only downside might be getting a physical copy if you want one. My library found a copy for me, there are audio and ebook versions available now. There's a new pb edition due out February 2025, which I have my eye on. There are wonderful illustrations that added a lot of fun to the book.
I’ve read Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s short first novel Falkland twice (many years apart * ) and have been meaning to read more by him. While I was perusing Herbert W. Tompkins’ Highways and Byways in Hertfordshire (1902), I came across an extended reference to the scholar-murderer Eugene Aram and Bulwer’s novel about him. (Tompkins always brings up locally-related literature.) So I picked up the novel at Project Gutenberg and am several chapters in; it’s very promising. EBL gets a bum rap but was a consummately professional writer.*Now that I’m returning to many writers in retirement after long hiatuses, I usually first re-read what I had read by them before, in order to refresh my recollections and old impressions.
Just finished War by Bob WoodwardPossibly one of the most scary books, I have ever read. It turns out that in real world there are sometimes monsters under the bed. An orange orc takes up a lot of room in this book about Biden’s presidency. Whenever Biden was proactive on this or that, or prevented an escalation in the middle east, the question kept coming: What would some other president have done? I had no idea that the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine was that close a call.
I was going to add something for holloween but my ereader needs to be plugged in to update and i couldn't be bothered.So i just looked through what was already on there and i've started Omega: The Last Days of the World by Camille Flammarion (1894) .
The apocalyspse is at least horror adjacent, it'll do :P .
Wreade1872 wrote: "I was going to add something for holloween but my ereader needs to be plugged in to update and i couldn't be bothered.So i just looked through what was already on there and i've started [book:Omeg..."
Thank you. added.
I'm reading The Lighted Heart, a memoir by the author Elizabeth Yates. I'm half way through and loving it! It's so nature focused, which I really like, but also includes real details about their lives that are touching and inspiring. I devoured it yesterday afternoon, then made myself stop because I didn't want to finish it so quickly. Also, I had put Our Mutual Friend on hold because life was getting stressed and I didn't feel like I could really appreciate it. I've picked it up again, and it's so good - it may turn out to be my favorite Dickens.
For nonfiction I just started The Plantagenets by Dan Brown. I loved Powers and Thrones so much I can't wait to read another by him. I wish he wrote more books that aren't solely focused on Great Britain, though.
I'm currently wrapping up Wurthering Heights for the first time. I'll soon start on Oliver Twist and The Mill and the Floss.
Mod
So i just looked through what was already on there and i've started [book:Omeg..."
I think Apocalypse is horror.
I'm on Harry Potter and the Chambers of Secrets. I'm re-reading the series.
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier was a real surprise for me.Rebecca is one of my favorites but this also taps into the dark side of love, too. I just reviewed it here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just started Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac, aka ECR Lorac. A group of people who don't all know each other have gone skiing in Austria while back in London a robbery/murder is unfolding. Both story lines are intiguing and fun to read.I got this through an ILL, and I'm sure wishing I had my own copy because I'm itching to mark up the book so I can track the clues and red herrings. Instead I've resorted to writing them down on a big bookmark, which isn't quite so satisfying. I've read a few other books by Lorac and some of them were excellent, but this is my first in the Carnac series. I also love the cover from the British Library Crime Classics edition.
Currently reading Crime and Punishment ! So good but so long. I have never read anything with such an eloquent writing style. Can't wait to finish.
Finished a reread of
The Wind in the Willows. The last run for this edition. Its pretty much disolving, not many pages still connected to the spine.It was found in a box of books that were being thrown out, presumably by a teacher given that they all have questions written on them in ink, like someone planning a test.
Anyway it had a decent run, i'll look out for a new (or rather old) copy at the second hand bookshop.
Georgia wrote: "My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier was a real surprise for me.Rebecca is one of my favorites but this also taps into the dark side of love, too. I just reviewed it here
https://www.goodreads.co..."
whisper it quietly but I prefer MCR to Rebecca :oO
I finished Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac. It was a very, very good mystery set in a ski resort. Written in 1952 it reminded me of a good WWII mystery/espionage story. The characters were sell drawn, with good descriptions, too. I did catch who the baddie was due to a couple of clear clues, but I didn't connect all the dots. Lots of fun!I'm almost exactly halfway through Our Mutual Friend. The threads are winding around each other and complications are increasing.
Teri-K wrote: "I just started Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac, aka ECR Lorac. A group of people who don't all know each other have gone skiing in Austria while back in London a robbe..."ah, this one is on my TBR list; has been there for a while. I could not resist buying an English mystery with my hometown on the cover ;-), but still have to read it.
sabagrey wrote: "Teri-K wrote: "I just started Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac, aka ECR Lorac. A group of people who don't all know each other have gone skiing in Austria while back in..."I hope you like it as much as I did!
I just finished Cartography of Inner Worlds: A Journey to Deepen the Meaning of our Lives. Such a powerful and inspiring book to reconnect to ourselves and the world.Highly recommended. Do you have any other suggestion related to future-thinking?
La Steppe Rouge by Joseph Kessel (1898-1979) French journalist/novelist born in Argentina and was fluent in Russian. These are short stories about private lives caught up in the Russian Revolution.
Joseph Kessel
I finished Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2. I really don't like it much - but then I don't care for Falstaff. I just find him obnoxious, not funny or entertaining. There's a theory that Shakespeare wrote this one because Falstaff was such a big hit in the previous play he knew people would love to see one mostly about him. Clearly, I'm not the intended audience. lol
However, Henry V is coming soon! And I can't wait for the Dan Jones book of same name to arrive in paperback so I can buy it and read it, too.
I finished The Lighted Heart and loved it.
I started reading Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer recently, which is a memoir/first person account from a young English woman who won a 1000km horse race in Mongolia in 2013.Last year I watched a documentary about the race written about in this book, which is called the Mongolian Derby. I didn’t realize when I bought this book that it was written about the same year of the race featured in the documentary.
Personally, I am really enjoying her poetic and incisive writing style and some of her reflections and topics. I also find it interesting to think about writing a memoir centered on an event from about 7 years in the past, and trying to analyze one’s own ideas and behavior almost from another lens after the fact. In this case, the race and some of her words and behaviors appear in the documentary and news clips, so she had the choice of going back to give some kind of context or explanation from her perspective. I also find it interesting to see the kinds of context or knowledge about Mongolia and the culture that she adds which she didn’t know at the time and gained later on.
The Amazon description says it’s “for fans of Helen MacDonald’s H is for Hawk,” which I guess is a connection because Macdonald enfolds references to T.S. White’s The Goshawk. In Rough Magic, the author makes several references to The Tempest. When I finish the book I will be better able to evaluate what I think about the connections she was making between her story and the Tempest, but so far I found the inclusion of those references interesting and relevant.
On a wintery snow theme, I finished Dead Men Don't Ski, a really good mystery at a ski resort, am now rereading a Middle Grade book, Snowed Up, about three children stranded in an empty house during a snow storm. And I've just began Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm, a collection of short stories, only a few about Christmas, it appears.I've also started Shakespeare's Cymbeline. I haven't read or seen this one before and it's not one of my favorite story lines, I'm afraid. But the cover fits the season, at least! lol
I have read and just reviewed Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench.I found this book at the local library,. So those who do not want to buy another book may find it there.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Cynda wrote: "I have read and just reviewed Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench.I found this book at the local library,. So those who do not want to buy anothe..."
Lovely! This is on my TBR for 2025, I'll be getting it from my library. Obviously I haven't read it yet, but I agree with the idea that actors and directors can shed fascinating light on the plays in different ways from academics.
I’m thinking about starting Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I need a title that starts with P for the A-Z challenge.
I just finished several long books and I have Christmas reading up next, so I'm taking a break with shorter books that are just plain entertainment, no big commitment needed.First I reread Christie's The Clocks. I think it's an underrated book by her. I really like Colin's voice as a narrator, and I enjoy watching all the different threads wind together at the end. Plus, Poirot is bored so he's reading a lot of older mysteries, and you get a peek at Christie's opinions of her fellow Golden Age authors. Fun!
Last night was our first really cold one, so I curled up on the sofa in front of the electric fireplace with some hot tea and started Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart. It's been so long since I read this one that I barely remember it. But I'll take a trip to some exotic location, this time the Isle of Skye, with Stewart any time. Murder, adventure, hiking, and love - all in a couple hundred pages.
I am a little bit intimidated by y'all's reading habits. But I keep plugging along. I am happy some of you are reading The Chosen. I discovered that book and read more of the series, plus other books by Chaim Potok a few years ago. I just finish Honey in the Horn by H.L. Davis, the Pulitzer Prize winner for 1936.
Teri-K wrote: "I just started Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac, aka ECR Lorac. A group of people who don't all know each other have gone skiing in Austria while back in London a robbe..."I have started reading the British Library Crime Classics so that I will add this next. I read on my iPad, with which I can take notes on the book, (view spoiler)
Teri-K wrote: "I just started Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac, aka ECR Lorac. A group of people who don't all know each other have gone skiing in Austria while back in London a robbe..."A free version is available for download PDF or ePub at https://archive.org/details/carol-car...
Pam wrote: "I’m thinking about starting Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I need a title that starts with P for the A-Z challenge."Pam some of us read as buddy read Parable of the Sower on March or April of 2023--or thereabouts. You can look over our comments if you would like.
I finished another Carol Carnac/ECr Lorac for a group read - Impact of Evidence. It was very, very good! Rural folks are snowed in and with warmer weather comes flooding that cuts them off from the rest of the world. When a car accident leads to a murder investigation it's not easy for help to get to them.There is so much to like about this book, I'm really becoming surprised that her stories went out of print for so long!
Thanks Cynda. I will ck out the thread after finishing the book. I also plan to start The Name of the Rose this month.
Ringworld (Larry Niven) --- About half way through, the comedy is a surprise.Measure for Measure (William Shakespeare) --- A second read.
Good Pam. See you at Name of the Rose thread :)
Currently reading Three Men in a Boat, a Robinson Crusoe with weird bits tale, Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins and i'm rereadingOrlando
by Virginia Woolf. I decided on a hardcopy this time and got this from the library.Now i don't remember snails playing a significant role in the book, but its been a while since it read it. Even if they do, this is still a terrible cover... i mean who on earth would want to own this one :P . Really dislike looking at that cover.
I agree Wreade; that cover is weird! I've read Orlando twice, and I don't remember any particularly relevant snails either. I guess maybe it's because most snails are hermaphrodites? Quite a stretch, but I can't think of any other plausible reason.
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
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Teri-K, I just finished "Lonesome October"! You're right, it is a fun one (I love the dog narrator!) and perfect for the season :)