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Post by tillystar on Jun 28, 2010 13:41:09 GMT
Well the moon and stars were correctly aligned today, I read this this morning and thought I would really like to read it, then I went to the bookshop for a lunchtime wander and it was right opposite the door on the "recommended" shelf. I am going to need a lot of self-control to finish my current book and not jump on this, it looks great. Thank you!
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Post by ilbonito on Jun 28, 2010 14:24:08 GMT
Wow, what are the chances?
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Post by Jazz on Jul 3, 2010 23:01:13 GMT
Renoir, my father, by Jean Renoir. I think this is one of the finest biographies of a painter that I have ever read. I love Renoir’s paintings and also the films of his son, Jean. This book is in one sense a historical document of Paris and painting from 1841-1919.
Pierre Auguste Renoir lived through powerful historical shifts in Paris. His life is beautifully and simply detailed on a daily basis, through the vivid and loving memories of one of his sons, Jean. I loved the stories, some to do with his painting, some with his models, some with other noted painters of the day... most with the day-to-day of family life ...all of it. His final days were spent in Cagnes-sur-Mer, on a farm with ancient olive trees. Stricken with arthritis, he still painted, with his brush tied to his wrist. It’s well worth reading, even if you do not like Impressionism. This book came from the library, but it was so satisfying that I ordered a used copy from Amazon for 1.96 plus shipping.
Jean Renoir was a brilliant film maker, but I didn’t realize how good a writer he was until I read this book.
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Post by tillystar on Jul 5, 2010 8:50:23 GMT
I am really enjoying The Slap, but goodness, it is a love hate relationship as everyone seems so vile. It really is like looking on in fascinated horror. Although slowly, I am starting to sympathise with some characters and see that maybe this book just gives a voice to that nasty inner voice.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 7, 2010 21:51:49 GMT
I am nearing the end of a book so remarkable, so pertinent, and so filled with lucidly presented information that I wish I could press a copy into everyones hands. Like another excellent non-fiction book, The Orchid Thieves, this one grew out of an article originally published in the New Yorker. But The Golden Spruce is a much deeper, richer, and ultimately more important book, written by a consummate journalist and researcher. Vaillant has the gift of presenting information so deftly that the reader is spellbound and actually retains the great amount of facts and figures woven into this complicated account. His great facility is in knowing when to stop. He delivers a block of necessary background, then, before the reader is overwhelmed, gracefully moves to another aspect of the story. When he picks up the thread of any part later, you find yourself thinking, "Oh yes -- I did want to know that", and gratefully soaking up the new facts. The book covers forestry, logging, vast amounts of history, the indigenous people of the Pacific northwest, the fur trade, and much more. Not only is all of this immensely readable, you find yourself wanting to know more and more. Please click on the large picture of the book for another review and some background And you can click on this small picture to go to an NPR audio presentation and a text excerpt from the book.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2010 2:48:57 GMT
Thanks Bixa,I do remember the New Yorker piece on,I didn't read all of it but I was intrigued by. Let's just hope no one gets a hold of it and does a movie slaughter like they did with Susan Orleans The Orchid Thief. Surely,you recall Adaptation? I'm rereading some Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins at the moment. I hadn't realized that the futuristic setting of it has long since come and gone. Scary...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 8, 2010 3:02:19 GMT
Well, I feel I need to go on about this book because I'm sure it would appeal to so many people on so many levels. It's a frightening look at what humans have done to the planet, but never shrill and intensely interesting. Usually when I'm reading a non-fiction book I'll sort of rest from it by reading some fiction. With this book, I have to force myself to put it down.
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Post by ilbonito on Jul 8, 2010 7:51:35 GMT
I am really enjoying The Slap, but goodness, it is a love hate relationship as everyone seems so vile. It really is like looking on in fascinated horror. Although slowly, I am starting to sympathise with some characters and see that maybe this book just gives a voice to that nasty inner voice. Glad you're enjoying it I realised I had forgotten to warn you about the ahem, strong language. Glad you weren't put off!! I actually really liked the ending, but I won't give anything away ...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2010 14:37:21 GMT
Well, I feel I need to go on about this book because I'm sure it would appeal to so many people on so many levels. It's a frightening look at what humans have done to the planet, but never shrill and intensely interesting. Usually when I'm reading a non-fiction book I'll sort of rest from it by reading some fiction. With this book, I have to force myself to put it down. I think the reason I didn't finish the piece in the New Yorker and why I would postpone reading this, is ,my psyche cannot handle reading in my leisure time, a book that goes into such detail about the havoc mankind has reeked on the planet when I'm being saturated on a daily basis by the same with reference to the oil spill. I want to escape when I read.
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Post by tillystar on Jul 13, 2010 11:13:27 GMT
No, I wasn't put off I liked the ending too, great book. Thanks for recommending.
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Post by ilbonito on Jul 15, 2010 12:07:29 GMT
I liked that several of the loose ends were never tied up, and after all of the squalid insights into the lives of the characters it managed to finish on an upbeat, positive note without being phoney. The cycle starts again, life goes on ....
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Post by imec on Jul 16, 2010 1:55:20 GMT
Magazines pilfered from the Air Canada lounge.
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Post by spindrift on Jul 17, 2010 11:24:59 GMT
Today the postman delivered a book called SUM ~ Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman (neuroscientist). The Observer critic writes 'SUM has the unaccountable jaw-dropping quality of genius'....I wonder whether I'll agree with him.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2010 19:52:05 GMT
I am reading Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 18, 2010 2:18:52 GMT
I am reading a book I need to discuss passionately with another person or persons. And no, that first sentence is not bad syntax -- it means the book requires passionate discussion. Please, if there is someone else who has read Home by Marilynne Robinson, let me know. Maybe we could start a book discussion on it -- something with a big warning of spoilers for those who haven't read it. Here is the Amazon link which I have not read. I've had the pleasure of too many books marred lately by stupid reviewers who give too much away.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 31, 2010 5:39:42 GMT
Ilbonito & Tilly ~~ did you all see that The Slap is on the Booker long list? www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/thisyear/longlistThere are a bunch of things there I'm dying to read. I'm thrilled that Rose Tremain made the list. Did anyone read her Sacred Country? Difficult subject, excellent book. The Swimming Pool Season was the first thing I read by her, and remains a re-readable favorite. The book on the list for which I am most panting is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which looks to have everything I want in a book.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 31, 2010 19:52:22 GMT
I just finished the most marvelous book, one of those that makes you sorry to reach the last page. The critics are almost unanimously enthusiastic over this beautifully written book that is also a suspenseful page turner. Here is the cover of the edition I read -------> Every superlative is deserved, including the ones on the back from MacLeans's, the Calgary Herald, the Toronto Star, and the Globe and Mail. The only back-cover blurb with which I have a quibble is that from Nuvo Magazine: Mary Boulton is one of the most memorable characters in Canadian literature in years. You could take the word "Canadian" out of that sentence to more fully give the character her due. This review should whet your appetite to seek out the book, and doesn't reveal too much of the plot: www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741755039Here is the opening paragraph. You'll be pulled in and kept there until the very last word: It was night, and the dogs came through the trees, unleashed and howling. They burst from the cover of the woods and their shadows swam across a moonlit field. For a moment, it was as if her scent had torn like a cobweb and blown on the wind, shreds of it here and there, useless. The dogs faltered and broke apart, yearning. Walking now, stiff-legged, they ploughed the grass with their heavy snouts.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 2, 2010 22:41:23 GMT
Just finished The Zookeeper's Wife, reading in a tent all day on a rainy day in Idaho's usually rain-free Sawtooth Mountains. Liked it very much.
Now Mr. Kimby has started it, but being a worker bee, it will be a long time before he finishes it, and will probably have to start from the beginning when he does get back to it.
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Post by lola on Aug 5, 2010 22:41:48 GMT
I read Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping recently, based on Bixa's recommendation, and just loved it. I'll see if I can find Home, after I finish Anna Karenina.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 5, 2010 23:53:40 GMT
Kimby, I'm interested that you really liked The Zookeeper's Wife. You may want to look at the top of the page here for my reaction to it. A little light reading, eh, Lola? Much as I'm panting to have someone with whom to discuss Home, in fairness to a fellow reader I feel I have to suggest Gilead as your next Robinson book. Some of the characters are the same in both Gilead and Home, but that's not the reason for my recommendation. Gilead in fact was written first, and is a far easier book to love, which is not to say it's facile -- far from it. Home is making me crazy because of the way it affected me and because I suspect that is because of a deep lesson in detached compassion the author might be teaching .... or maybe not!
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Post by cristina on Aug 6, 2010 1:46:57 GMT
In my quest to find a cheap copy of Huck Finn for youngest daughter's required novel reading for the upcoming year (it seems I have bought this book at least 4 times already ), I found that Half Price Books has opened a store near me. While picking up the $2 Huck Finn, I found a $3 Garcia Márquez - Living to Tell the Tale. A non-fiction telling of his childhood. I haven't started yet but have high hopes.
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Post by bjd on Aug 6, 2010 7:43:06 GMT
I'm reading a book in English I found at my local library: it's called Sea Room by Adam Nicholson. It's by an Englishman whose father bequeathed him 3 small islands off the coast of Scotland: the Shiants, more or less part of the Hebrides. He has been going there for years and when his own son turns 21, he will hand them over to him (it has probably happened, the book was written a few years ago).
He describes the islands, the thousands of sea birds nesting there, especially puffins, as well the history of the place because he invited archaeologists to come and dig there to find out about when the islands were inhabited -- until the end of the 18th century. Now they are rented for sheep farming.
Before handing over the islands to his son, he wanted to learn as much as possible about the history of the place.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 6, 2010 20:10:12 GMT
Kimby, I'm interested that you really liked The Zookeeper's Wife. You may want to look at the top of the page here for my reaction to it. Well, you've got to realize that I was reading in a tent on a rainy day, and if I hadn't had that book I would have been reading the care labels on our sleeping bags by the time the rain stopped! Perhaps it was that I had no distractions to divert my attention from her "purple" prose, or perhaps it's because the author and I both have naturalist training, or perhaps it's just another example of "it takes all kinds" because I did enjoy it. It filled in a rather large gap in my knowledge of history, though I agree that the information she offered was often sketchy. To me the way it was presented sort of mirrored the chaos that living through 5 years of occupation must have been. BTW, I was hoping someone would point me to previous comments on the book which I suspected were somewhere in this thread, but beyond my time to search out. Thanks for the link. I remember reading your comments at the time, but when when my neighbor (walking partner and book-reading friend) offered me her copy, I grabbed it without remembering that bixa hated it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 7, 2010 1:52:36 GMT
All's well that ends well! The book got great reviews and I was eager to read it, it just frustrated me horribly. I think I must be the odd reader out on this one. It's not the first time, and surely won't be the last.
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Post by Jazz on Aug 9, 2010 16:09:48 GMT
I just finished L'Arc de Triomphe, by Erich Maria Remarque. It was an absorbing read, set in Paris of 1939. The hero is a German refugee without papers, a doctor who practices illegally. It is the story of a refugee, of a love affair and of Paris in the time just prior to the Nazi occupation. He lives in a cheap hotel with other refugees and paid to have installed his own shower. The landlady is proud and brings visitors to see this fine innovation when he’s out and about. Remarque is a great writer, certainly one of the finest German writers of the 20th century. He is most famous for his anti-war novel, All’s Quiet on the Western Front. The book reminded me somewhat of Alan Furst’s The World at Night and of The Horizontal Woman, by one of our own members.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2010 10:45:02 GMT
I'm not familiar with this Remarque novel Jazz. It does sound intriguing. And, being a rabid Furst fan it sounds like something I would enjoy. I love the historical detail in these types of novels.(I have read everything of Fursts). Who among us is the brilliant writer you refer to? I am stumped on this. Please enlighten me/us. I am still deep in my non fiction phase,many books on beekeeping that have been referred to me or have sought out on recommendations. The fiction in my life is mostly short stories from The New Yorker and a fair amount of poetry. I did read a couple of reviews in this Sunday's NY Times Book Review that sounded interesting.
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Post by Jazz on Aug 10, 2010 14:00:08 GMT
You'd love it, Casi. Remarque isn't a suspense writer (as are the others), more 'literature'. He spent time himself in Paris, fleeing Germany and the Nazi's. I'll ask 'our' author if I can post his name. I haven't read the most recent Furst, what did you think? remarque.org/about_remarque.html
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2010 19:54:58 GMT
Well, the most recent is fabulous,I posted on it in the Allen Furst thread... Spies of the Balkans.But,I like all his stuff,so, am biased. I will look for the Remarque,I'm getting a little tired of reading about bees ;)I feel like I could turn into a bee sometimes. I just went to the library yesterday though...
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Post by Jazz on Aug 10, 2010 20:42:58 GMT
Good to hear, can't wait! In the depth of winter, I read The Horizontal Woman, by David Brierley. He is our 'Bazfaz' and is an excellent writer. No insult intended Baz, but I simply wasn’t prepared for it to be so good! My chosen way of reading great books…I read it essentially in one long read, with glasses of red wine, as the snowstorm raged outside. It goes far beyond being an absorbing and well written suspense novel. Baz’s writing is in the league of Alan Furst and John le Carre and far above most bestselling writers of predictable drivel in this genre. Although, Baz's 'genre' is elusive...suspense, a human story, acute historical sense, love, philosophy and a great sensuality... …...'In 1994 in Wroclaw, Poland. Artist Tadeusz Lipski confesses to a murder, claiming his crime was committed for love. He shares his cell with Miler, a man also born in Wroclaw, and while awaiting trial, they exchange memories of living in a country overwhelmed by oppression, corruption, and the legacy of German occupation. Miler’s life has revolved around the black market; he is one of the “true artists”of crime. Tadeusz’s crime has been to live the life of an artist. He found love with the beautiful Zuzanna, who seduced him as he immortalized her in his painting “The Horizontal Woman”—but Tadeusz also found deceit, political intrigue, and murder. The Horizontal Woman is a novel not only about Poland, from Hitler to Solidarity, but about love—of country, of art, and of a woman'..... Thank you Baz! This book is part of a trilogy and Baz has written several others, which I intend to read. Here are a few sites to give you some mini-reviews and access online: 1. www.amazon.com/Horizontal-Woman-David-Brierley/dp/07515199792. www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/david-brierley/horizontal-woman.htm3. www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780751519976/David+Brierley/Horizontal+Woman/Caution: Another author began writing AFTER Baz and had the gall to take the same name without even a middle initial to differentiate! He writes mediocre thrillers set in financial circles.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2010 2:00:44 GMT
Thank you for that Jazz,and am honored to know we have an author among us. I am grateful to Baz for enlightening me about Allen Furst,and here, he is a novelist of note himself. I will definitely check this out. Thanks again!
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