The Night Circus is about a magical circus that appears and disappears from nowhere. It only opens at midnight and is like no other. The story is about how it is put together and involves 2 illusionists who each have children and they are each being trained for a "game" that their fathers have devised. The game takes a twist, don't know what yet. The book is absolutely wonderful and is like watching the whole story evolve. Word pictures are painted for you. I am a fast reader but this is one to savor and one I don't want to end.
Bix, this last year has been very interesting, full of surprises and so busy. I will detail later but finally have time to pick up some of the things that I love to do. More later.
My wonderful hostess in Paris had an incredible library. Unfortunately, 90% were in French. There were about 10 books in English and so, I read my first Bill Bryson book, Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe. Great. He is a very enjoyable and funny travel writer.
What I want to read is Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson. Since returning home, this book has been discussed an incredible amount and I watched 2 interviews with Isaacson. I really want to read this book.
That's my all-time favorite Bill Bryson book. I almost choked to death reading it, I laughed so hard.
I'm reading In the Pond by Ha Jin and really liking it. It's was published in 1998, so the political depiction of China is probably somewhat dated, but his depiction of people and attitudes is fascinating.
Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray. Set in a Catholic boy's school in Dublin that the author tells you right off is not Hogwarts-like. Skippy, a student sub-protagonist, dies in the first chapter and his last days are examined later. Another protagonist is a history teacher who sees the unsavory underbelly faculty and administration. Funny, dark, brilliant, disturbing.
I'm still reading Dashiell Hammett, but have almost finished Hitch 22, a memoir by Christopher Hitchens.
I read Hitch 22 most recently. I really enjoyed it. Most prolific and inspiring,the man knows sooooooo much and has alot to say about it. The one thing I really enjoyed is how much knowledge I took away from his writing about seemingly every topic under the sun,not necessarily his politics but many, many books he has read.* *Actually,upon further thought,after I posted this,I realized that the above refers to another Hitchens book I also read recently,his collection of essays,Arguably. (I did not read all of it,but most.) Pardon.
Recent reads for me that I highly recommend are The Cat's Table,Michael Ondantje's newest novel. Irene Nemerovsky's (Fire in the Blood,Suite Francaise),All our Worldly Goods.
Both highly recommended
I am now deep in a reread of Berlin Diaries,by Marie Vassiltchikov. I had read it when it was first made available sometime in the early 1990's.I suppose after Nemerovsky I somehow got onto a WWII mode. Actual diaries painstakingly written and miraculously preserved of the most harrowing detailed description of day to day life in Berlin and immediate surroundings from 1940-1945.
Casi, I was waiting for Arguably to go down in price. I agree totally that he is extremely well-read and expresses himself extremely well, whether or not one agrees with everything he says. He is certainly convincing though. I also looked up some YouTube videos where he demolishes religion. The man has a sharp tongue!
Speaking of WW2, a few years ago I read the first volume of the wartime diary of Victor Klemperer. Interesting at first, but after a while, I felt like shaking him. His wife who spent all her time being sick and whiny, whereas he was the one who was Jewish, who had lost his teaching position and all his rights.
I liked Suite Française too, don't know about her other writing. I think her daughter just published a book.
I was able to procure Hitchens, Arguably from our local library believe it or not, it being so newly published. It's a hefty tome. I had read a review of it in the NYT's and felt compelled to fetch it. As I noted,many of the essays I skimmed over,some I had read before,some made me bristle as he can make one do very well. I admire his brashness and intellect,wit,wonderful sense of humor in the most irreverent of fashions he goes in for the kill. His fiercest critics,many of whom were former colleagues or friends of his from the UK,when all is said and done,have earned his respect. (he is fiercely criticized by many for what many perceive as having turned his back to "the other side of the pond" so to speak.) I was am fascinated by his accounts of many persons both literary and political over a period of many,many years..He has and seems to travel in some very wide circles of intellectuals and yet finds the time to write about encounters with people in airports,out and about whom he just may have happened to meet for whatever reason. (Although,he really seems to stick to the East and West Coasts....). In particular,his description of how, what,and when Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses came about and all the ramifications drama etc. that ensued is fascinating to read especially in retrospect.(He and Rushdie are great friends). I will scope out the youtube videos you mention. Thank you. I hope you are able to get your hands on Arguably at some point and enjoy as much as I did.
I loved the way he ripped apart the Mother Teresa myth, exposing her for a phony who did little if any good for anyone. I admire him greatly for having the guts to say what others won't - even though they believe it inside.
A good friend of mine did indeed meet him in an airport and bought him several large malts so he could have some one on one time with him.
I'm reading Une année chez les Français by Fouad Laroui, a Moroccan writer now living in Amsterdam. It's about a little boy in a small village sent by his family to the French lycée in Casablanca because they could tell that his destiny was to learn as much as possible. It is an extremely pleasant and descriptive read about the discovery of many things without judging them, from discovering the menu of school lunches to the behaviour of the expat students to the unexpected conversations of the French.
Just beginning Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits. I'm hooked already.
It's a wonderful book Kimby. (there was a movie made from it starring Meryl Streep,Jeremy Lyons and a very young Winona Ryder that's quite good if indeed lengthy)
Flummoxed by "original" as in "original what?" Looking it up would be too easy. Reluctant to interrupt flow of Bins.
I've bin reading A King's Story, 1947, by the Duke of Windsor, and just up to the part where he's sent to France for six months as a teenager. It's a lovely memoir. I feel the DOW was unfairly slimed by "The King's Speech."
I interrupted it because my turn came in library line for Lee Child's The Affair. Maybe it was the unflattering contrast with a gentler time, but I was not wild about this Reacher prequel, so just skimmed it so I could get back to the memoir.
Posted by onlymark on Nov 15, 2011, 5:48pm
Original language, Lola. Ancient Chinese from 400BC. I'm quite fluent in it. It's from spending too long in Chinese restaurants talking to the old guys.
Mick may have also read the Art of Wine Drinking by Oddbins. (sorry, you have to be familiar with the UK to know that one)
OK, so I looked it up. No doubt you are reading the original inscribed bamboo-slips. I've obviously been chatting with the wrong waiters and/or reading the wrong fortune cookies.
Next on my must read list: Bin Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.
spinny, have you read a book called "Into the Forest"? One of its protagonists reads encyclopedias when an apocalyptic event shuts down TV, electricity, etc. indefinitely. I loved the book and have read it twice.
I finally finished the over 1100 pages of Dashiell Hammett and started a book recommended on TT: Eastern Reaches by Fitzroy Maclean. A true story by a man who was in the British Foreign Service, went to the USSR at the age of 25 in the late 1930s, then was in the SAS, was the British liaison with Tito starting in 1943. Great stuff and well written. I am just near the beginning where he tries to sneak off to Central Asia which was closed to foreigners at the time (1936).
I like reading encyclopedias at bedtime...so now I'm very much into 'The Rider Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosopy and Religion'
I do too.
I have the same book,well,it's my husband's, on the table in our bedroom. Another good one I just unearthed is The Encyclopedia of New York City. Chock full of any and everything you might want to know about NYC.
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