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Post by onlyMark on Apr 12, 2020 15:06:16 GMT
Had a new book delivered. Came yesterday. Unless things change, which due to the virus they might, but unless they do, I may well be needing this at the end of the year -
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Post by bjd on Apr 12, 2020 15:22:38 GMT
I have a plane ticket for early June for Sarajevo. I'll find out whether I can use it or get my money back from Lufthansa.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 12, 2020 15:51:11 GMT
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Post by htmb on Apr 12, 2020 16:53:36 GMT
Location of the next post?
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 12, 2020 17:03:17 GMT
Maybe the clue was too easy.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 12, 2020 18:33:18 GMT
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
This is being read on radio 4's 'a book at bedtime' 15 minutes at a time. Obviously abridged so I might try the book proper.
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Post by bjd on Apr 12, 2020 19:17:12 GMT
We'll see. It's not just me but a friend as well and the date was set according to time she was off work. I'll worry about it in a month.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 13, 2020 22:22:58 GMT
Do comics count ? I reread for the 15th time the 50 or so albums of leutenant Blueberry. By Charlier and ? Then their followers. Does anyone read 'cartoons' considered as 7th art here ?
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 13, 2020 23:01:48 GMT
I loved comic books as a kid and as a grown up. I still like the classic kid comics from my childhood, like Donald Duck and Little Lulu, but the geniuses who wrote those are no longer with us. I also used to really like the underground comics from the '70s. I have never been able to get into the picture novels, which I consider distinct from comics.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 14, 2020 0:15:26 GMT
I've definitely read many of the Belgian ligne claire school, but have never thought of them in terms of what are you reading.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 14, 2020 6:14:47 GMT
Did i mention edgar p Jacobs, essential in Herge scenarios and the great la marque jaune is buried within cycling distance of my house ?
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2020 6:43:42 GMT
We have a shelf full of those books, Whatagain. I only bought the Tintins for the children when they were young but others were bought over time. We have at least two Blake and Mortimer. Have you read any Gil Jourdain?
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Post by whatagain on Apr 14, 2020 6:46:58 GMT
Gil Jourdan is fantastic. My fav is sur la piste d un 33 tours. Tillieux was a great scenarist. Some of these scenarios he published with another hero, in black and white... memory will come back. Libellule was allume-gaz in these strips.
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2020 8:32:42 GMT
I actually prefer the earlier ones. We have the whole collection starting with Libellule s'évade. In soft cover so they are a bit worn from being read so many times.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 14, 2020 16:47:45 GMT
This time of Sheltering in Place has reminded me of one of my favorite books, which I have read twice and listened to in audiobook form once, too. If the library wasn’t closed, I would check it out and re-read it again. It’s called Into the Forest, by Jean Hegland, and follows two sisters left to fend for themselves during some kind of societal disruption. This link includes practically the entire first chapter, which was wonderful to read again. books.google.com/books/about/Into_the_Forest.html?id=i4RzEl7r5HoCHere’s when I posted about this book way back in 2011, before anyone had an inkling of a pandemic keeping us all in quarantine while the economy crashes around us: For spinny: www.amazon.com/Into-Forest-Novel-Jean-Hegland/dp/0553379615/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322487295&sr=1-1Set in the near-future, Into the Forest is a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home.
Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. No single event precedes society's fall. There is talk of a war overseas and upheaval in Congress, but it still comes as a shock when the electricity runs out and gas
is nowhere to be found. The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. Their arrival into adulthood, however, forces them to reexamine their place in the world and their relationship to the land and each other.
Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, Into the Forest is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel of hope and despair set in a frighteningly plausible near-future America.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 14, 2020 21:53:13 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 15, 2020 6:52:01 GMT
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Post by bjd on Apr 20, 2020 7:58:33 GMT
I am still mixing old books I find on my shelves -- I'm on the second of John le Carré's Smiley books -- with more recent and more serious stuff. I just read a book by Yanis Varoufakis,the short-lived Greek economics minister in 2015, called "And the poor suffer what they must?" about the failure of the EU's handling of the post-2008 economic crisis, the bailing out of German and French banks by European taxpayers from the poorest countries. All very interesting even though I am not generally interested in economics and financial policy.
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Post by htmb on Apr 20, 2020 14:06:33 GMT
In my effort to learn more Italian history, I’ve just finished reading Pompeii, by Robert Harris. I visited Sorrento and Naples this past fall, and spent a half day in Pompeii, so this book felt like a welcome addition to information I’d already learned. Plus, I found the explanations of the ancient aqueduct systems fascinating.
My paternal grandparents came from the town of Scafati, which is approximately three miles east of Pompeii, so I’m looking for more, interesting books related to the Campania région if anyone has any suggestions.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 20, 2020 14:11:50 GMT
I am reading a library hand-me-down from Mr. Kimby. When our library shut down for the pandemic, they not only stopped lending out materials, they stopped accepting returned materials, suspended due dates and waived all fines. So I can dig into a large non-fiction tome that might intimidate me otherwise.
The book is DREAMS OF EL DORADO: A History of the American West, by H.W. Brands. It begins with the Louisiana Purchase of lands west of the Mississippi River from a cash-strapped Napoleon in 1803, and continues through the Lewis and Clark expedition, through the fur traders, and the short-lived Republic of Texas, the Oregon Trail, the Gold Rush, the Transcontinental Railroad, homesteading, and concludes with Teddy Roosevelt in the White House. Written in short chapters with plain language and no extra verbiage, I t’s a valuable read, for this adopted Westerner, anyway. But my internet-impaired attention span - along with the lack of a due date - makes it hard for me to read for very long before setting it aside for awhile.
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Post by breeze on Apr 20, 2020 15:13:12 GMT
htmb, how did you like your visit to Pompeii?
The night before we visited Pompeii we couldn't find a campsite, so we spent the night sleeping in our car outside the walls of Pompeii.
Pompeii was the first Robert Harris book I read and I thought it was an enjoyable way to absorb some history.
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Post by bjd on Apr 20, 2020 15:17:40 GMT
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Post by htmb on Apr 20, 2020 15:23:59 GMT
Hi, Breeze! I’m very glad I went to Pompeii, but I have mixed feeling about the scheduling. I was on a tour with 28 other people and we were staying in Sorrento. Our visit to Pompeii was scheduled for 2:00 in the afternoon and we spent the morning doing various activities first. We took the Circumvesuviana train from Sorrento to Pompeii, which was an experience in itself! At Pompeii, we had a local tour guide who filled us in with lots of information, some of which is just now starting to make sense to me. Then, once we were finished with our tour, it was time to leave Pompeii. I would have liked to wander a bit on my own, but was too tired anyway,
Sleeping in your car outside the walls of Pompeii sounds like an adventure! I’m sure you have some stories to tell!
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Post by htmb on Apr 20, 2020 15:24:43 GMT
Many thanks, bjd! I’ll have a look.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 20, 2020 16:10:08 GMT
Do comics count ? I reread for the 15th time the 50 or so albums of leutenant Blueberry. By Charlier and ? Then their followers. Does anyone read 'cartoons' considered as 7th art here ? I have at least 150 graphic art/comic books, including the complete Tintin collection. Actually, cinema is the 7th art. Comics are called the 9th art.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 20, 2020 16:18:30 GMT
While decluttering, I have come across amazing numbers of books piled up in various places. One that I came across and decided to reread was Paris Trance by Geoff Dyer. When I picked it up, I seemed to remember that it was about 2 English guys who become friends working in a book warehouse in Paris, who meet girls and have Parisian adventures in the cusp of the 21st century. I'm about two thirds of the way through now, and I was right about the protagonists, but now I am wondering if I had ever finished it because I don't think I would have forgotten some of the sex scenes.
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Post by htmb on Apr 20, 2020 16:31:47 GMT
Of the list in the link bjd posted, Naples '44 gets a frequent reread by me. If you're looking for a lighthearted detective series based in Naples, there are two written by Maurizio de Giovanni. One takes place in the fascist era and the other is contemporary. I like both. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurizio_de_GiovanniThanks, Huckle. I appreciate the recommendations!
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 20, 2020 22:13:26 GMT
Of the list in the link bjd posted, Naples '44 gets a frequent reread by me. If you're looking for a lighthearted detective series based in Naples, there are two written by Maurizio de Giovanni. One takes place in the fascist era and the other is contemporary. I like both. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurizio_de_GiovanniNaples '44 is a remarkable book. I read it when it came out in the late 70s and I don't think it's ever been out of print since then. I recently found out that a sort of documentary had been made from it in 2017. It doesn't get the highest reviews, but this short clip made me curious to see it. I watched the clip before reading the Rotten Tomatoes review & thought that the first scene in the clip looked more like a scene from a move than news footage from the war. The RT review reveals that is indeed the case, with such scenes interspersed throughout the film. I looked up the de Giovanni books, as they sounded familiar in the sense that I think they're sometimes offered in my bargain Kindle book emails. That's how I found out that there is a tv series based on his books. It's Italian, but subtitled, & called The Bastards of Pizzofalcone. There are some clips & trailers on youtube. I recently finished a Brother Caedfael mystery without ever getting truly engaged in it. Right now I'm reading The Promise, by Robert Crais, who is always enjoyable to read.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 1, 2020 16:27:26 GMT
I finally finished Paris Trance. Normally, it doesn't take me too long to finish a book, but certain books are reserved for reading only when I am sitting on the toilet, and that was one of them.
The writing style was appealing, but I never became fascinated with the characters, and the ending was pretty much WTF. Unfortunately, during my decluttering, I actually came across another book by Geoff Dyer, this time titled Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. It is also in the toilet and I am only about 3 pages into it, so I have no opinion about it yet.
I don't really know from where these books came, but I suspect that they were bought on a whim, not necessarily at the same time, when browsing at Foyles in London. And of course I am a sucker for any novel that promises some sort of travel experience in the title.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 1, 2020 20:43:53 GMT
I'm reading two books right now. That's because one of them is on the Kindle app on my phone & I was wanting to charge the phone one night as I got into bed. While it was charging I picked up a book from the pile on the chest of drawers & was quickly pulled into it. The book on the phone is American Woman by Susan Choi. It is fiction, but an obvious take-off on the "intersection of the radical activist Wendy Yoshimura with the fugitive Patty Hearst" *. Choi writes really well and fluidly, with effective scene settings and character descriptions. She allows her main character internal flights of memory, soul-searching, & philosophical musing, but does so economically and realistically. So much of the rhetoric and general feel of the '70s comes flooding back as I read this. I can't say too much, as there is much I haven't read yet, but here is a *review which seems good, but which I've only scanned for fear of spoilers. The other book, which has really grabbed me, is The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd. Okay, there are automatic problems for me with this kind of book. First of all, I avoid books written by women with three names as they're all too often what is sometimes euphemistically and annoyingly called "women's fiction". Nowadays that seems to mean some chick who inherits a house or goes to work for some elderly eccentric and always discovers something with which she becomes obsessed (<-- favorite chick blog word). It then transpires that she's a natural detective besides being able to recruit people to her cause & to have the right stuff turn up at the right time. Sorry, I digress. I had read Kidd's first book, the bestselling Secret Life of Bees, and found it quite readable despite the number of Black/White/Civil Rights Era tropes in it. However it was a good story and not nearly as precious as I'd feared. Kidd is a good story-teller and The Invention of Wings moves right along. It takes place in South Carolina in the early 18th century and involves the lives both free and slave at the home of a prominent Charleston family. The grinding fact of slavery is an integral part of the story but it manages to impart the horrors without descending into the cruelty porn featured in some other books on the subject. I'm probably about 2/3 of the way through, but even so feel safe in recommending this book to you all. www.indiebound.org/book/9780670024780
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