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Post by htmb on Jul 16, 2020 13:42:09 GMT
I wonder if Isabel Allende’s book has been translated into English. Will have to check.
I just finished reading Mary Trump’s book about her uncle. I’ve avoided reading all books about him, but figured I’d support any family member brave enough to write a tell-all. It was about what you’d suspect. Nothing new, but more reinforcement of what we’ve all come to know.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 16, 2020 15:57:49 GMT
Htmb, yes -- the Allende book is available in English as "The Long Petal of the Sea".
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the Mary Trump book doesn't have any shocking revelations, but I'm still childishily disappointed to hear that there was no new dirt.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 17, 2020 15:33:32 GMT
If there had been "new" dirt, the media except for Fox News would have already revealed everything.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 17, 2020 16:40:21 GMT
I am reading two historical novels right now and very much enjoying both of them. I'd say that The Gold Eaters is the better of the two from a strictly literary standard, although both are well-written, thoroughly researched, and with plots that pull in the reader. The Gold Eaters is about the conquest of Peru. It starts with a 12-year-old Peruvian boy living in a fishing village just at the historical moment of the Spaniards' arrival. His decision to leave home and subsequent adventures are presented from his viewpoint and seamlessly interwoven with details from his knowledge of his country. He is a constant throughout the book, but all other characters get fleshed out to the point that as they weave in and out through the story, you never lose track of who they are Parts take place in Spain, again with historical and cultural details wonderfully presented. There is a great deal of adventure, all of it realistically depicted. I think this book would be a real page-turner for any reader, regardless of his/her usual reading tastes. historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-gold-eaters/The other book is The Florios of Sicily, also a story that carries the reader along with historical details and realistic characters. I was drawn to the book not only because it is set in Sicily, but because I actually knew a teeny bit about the Florios, having seen one of their homes when I visited Favignana. I was afraid that the book would be too simplistic and rely too much on romance, rather than facts and characterization, but that is not at all the case, in fact rather the opposite. The characters come to life, their personalities and motivations economically but skillfully drawn, and the settings so crucial to their development feel very true. As the book is set in places & times (Calabria and Sicily, from 1799-1866) not as vivid in the popular imagination as say, the French Revolution, the author puts in some straight history at the beginning of at least one chapter rather than weaving those facts into the novel. That was mildly disconcerting, but didn't lesson my enjoyment & I did need and appreciate the information. historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-florios-of-sicily/
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Post by whatagain on Jul 17, 2020 19:11:15 GMT
I like it here. I will definitely buy Bixa's book. I discovered i can use my book-inist (seller of books... libraire in french) as amazon. If he costs more than Amazon at least he pays taxes. And i can tell my father he neednt buy Mary Trump s book. I stole several Agatha Christies book from my father today. I dont steal too many as i use this as an excuse to visit him. And i love reading Agatha Christie books. I like the atmosphere, i like the plots, i like the suffisance and the french arrogance of Poirot. And his typical belfian intelligence. Superior intelligence. And i read them all in french... reminds me if previous readings and adds a coat of nostalgia.
I read them all as a child. Then once more when teenager. Then once ir twice at university when i was craving to do something other than studying.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 17, 2020 21:02:57 GMT
I love that you combine expanding your reading list with visiting your father, Whatagain. Can I assume that the book I mentioned that you want is the one about Peru? Huckle, yes -- it is the Auci book. I now so much wish I'd featured it here in the ebooks thread when I bought it at a bargain price back in May. The main reason I didn't was because I was afraid it would be a yucky romance book. In the Amazon blurb about the author it says that she is "the author of two popular women's fiction novels for Harlequin Mondadori". As you can imagine, that gave me pause. I see that the book has 461 pages and covers four generations. I must have a good bit left to go, as I'm still reading about the first generation, with the second generation boy barely coming into adulthood. Because of that, I can't give you an unqualified yes, but I'm sure you've surmised that I am quite pleased with the book so far. www.amazon.com/dp/B07VK5S8TP/ref=dp-kindle-redirectThank you for that portrait link! I wasn't familiar with it & love that style. I started to read the information, but quit when I realized it might be a spoiler for parts of the novel I haven't yet read.
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Post by casimira on Jul 22, 2020 13:22:50 GMT
I recently read a review of 3 novels by Leila Slimani in The NY Review of Books and she piqued my curiosity. I gather from the review that she is wildly popular in France and wanted to inquire (BJD?) if she is worth a go. Morocco as a backdrop has always been an allure for me.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 22, 2020 15:40:09 GMT
Casimira, I read The Perfect Nanny because of a the buzz surrounding it and because a friend lent it to me, wondering what I'd think about it.
Well, it turned out we both had the same final feeling about it, which was "what the hell was the point?".
I don't know about Slimani's other books, but based on this one I can say that she tells a good story that carries the reader along. But there were crucial things that didn't hold up, for instance the actions and responses of the parents in the book. It seemed that the author just had them acting in a way that was convenient for her, rather than in any way that was in character for them as she herself described them.
That's my take, anyway. I don't know if anyone else here has read her or not.
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Post by bjd on Jul 22, 2020 18:06:34 GMT
Sorry, Casi, but I have never read Leila Slimani and I must confess the article in the NY Review didn't encourage me to try. I'm not very up to scratch on contemporary French fiction.
I sometimes re-read old Agatha Christie books too, more for the atmosphere of the 1930s than for the stories.
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Post by casimira on Jul 24, 2020 12:16:16 GMT
Thanks Bixa and BJD. I may give The Perfect Nanny a go if I happen to run across it. If only because I worked as an au pair in NYC and then subsequent nanny jobs here and there.
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Post by bjd on Jul 25, 2020 15:51:05 GMT
I just finished a book by a French writer, Jean-Christophe Rufin, which takes place in Mozambique. Not bad: Les Trois Femmes du Consul. And I started a book of short stories by Graham Swift, England and Other Stories. It's alright but I find that just as I get interested in some of them, they end. Glad I got them from the library instead of buying them.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 25, 2020 16:45:00 GMT
Comfort reading recently. Lois McMaster Bujold and Ann McCaffrey. Not necessarily high literature but I found the gentle, uncomplicated science fiction and fantasy novels of these two authors quite soothing.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 25, 2020 17:15:32 GMT
I haven't read Ann McCaffrey in years, but used to be a big fan of her books. I don't know Lois McMaster Bujold at all. Judging by her age, she might not yet have been published when I was going through my major sci fi/fantasy stage in the early 70s. Just looked at her selections on Amazon & am eager to try her books. Thanks!
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 25, 2020 19:20:07 GMT
Just finishing the Challion series...loved them
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 27, 2020 16:37:24 GMT
I just finished Deux Soeurs by the prolific author David Foenkinos. I didn't like it at all. I had not read any of his books before, but he has been very well adapted at the cinema a number of times -- La Délicatesse, Les Souvenirs, Je Vais Mieux and most recently Le Mystère Henri Pick. I am thinking this one will be adapted as well, and I wouldn't want to see the movie except for the fact that they will almost certainly choose two excellent actresses and I will want to see it anyway.
I didn't think that the story would end well, but I didn't expect it to go the same route as Leila Slimani's Chanson Douce which devastated audiences in the last season.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 29, 2020 11:39:20 GMT
I just finished reading Mary Trump’s book about her uncle. I’ve avoided reading all books about him, I watched the interview on YouTube and was impressed to hear how she dealt with the whole sorry story. I can honestly say I thought her a very brave woman. After all you're not talking about just any old wacky member of your family - this bloke is deemed dangerous to say the least.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 17, 2020 12:21:21 GMT
We have had more Power cuts and today the whole electric sub-station blew up. So my post on Anyport died a quick death and I wandered off to find something to read.
I have stacks of books I've never even opened but their appeal has been lost. Then a small book caught my eye squeezed between two large volumes. Oh you darling little book! It was a sidewalk book sale find years ago. It's Len Deighton's strip cookbook called " Ou Est Le Garlic". The author who moved to France and whilst there wrote 'The Ipcress File" . Then followed. 'Funeral In Berlin', 'Billion Dollar Brain' and a host of Spy thrillers (that had to be submitted to The War Office before publication}. And we all know some were made into very successful movies.
This paperback cook book is a complete guide to French cooking right down to the choice of utensils, methods and just a super advice to the home cook . I absolutely love all his hand drawn illustrations of each recipe. Even if you have no intention of making any of the recipes the book is a fun read. I'm sure it's out of print which is a pity. It would make a lovely gift. My copy says first published in 1965 and reprinted in 1967.
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Post by lagatta on Aug 17, 2020 12:42:16 GMT
I'd like to read that Isabel Allende book; already knew the story. BJD, perhaps when you can travel, you might like to do a short refresher course in Spain, as you don't live far away. One always meets interesting people that way. I confess that I'm also sick of Margaret Atwood's dystopian universe books.
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Post by lagatta on Aug 17, 2020 13:00:19 GMT
I'm happy that Largo Petalo de Mar seems to be available in Spanish at a few libraries in the Montréal system. I'm very familiar with the background so don't anticipate any problems reading it.
Many of the young people involved in social movements in the Cono Sur countries were indeed the children or grandchildren of political or "racial" refugees (mainly Jews) from the European fascist countries. I also have a friend and colleague from Mexico whose parents were Spanish republicans.
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Post by casimira on Aug 17, 2020 13:30:31 GMT
I just finished a re-read of Milan Kundera's novella Slowness. It is a narrative of sorts in which several characters are woven in (set in a chateau) and Kundera puts forth a philosophy that combines his take on modernity, technology, memory and sensuality. A mere 150 pages, I read it many years ago and when I read it again this weekend I came away with a much fresher take on what he was trying to convey on these themes.
The Florios of Sicily sounds intriguing Bixa. Having recently read a lengthy piece in the NYer (7/20) about an Italian medical scholar from Bologna, Gianna Pomata, I was fascinated by many historic details that she described about different regions in Italy and how "The Black Death really marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of something else" ("That something was the Renaissance"). She cites other cities and regions in Italy during different eras. Your review of the Sicilian historical novel brought her treatise to mind.
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Post by bjd on Aug 17, 2020 14:43:35 GMT
I tend to read several books at the same time nowadays -- something I didn't use to do. But I can't read big books lying in bed, so that's when I usually read smallish paperbacks. One that I have been slowly reading is another library book, L'enfant du Danube by Janos Székely. It was first published in the States in 1946, called Temptation, under the pen name John Pen. Well, it's about 850 pages long and I have pooped out halfway. It is so depressing -- his upbringing with a bunch of other illegitimate children in a Hungarian village, no school, no warm clothes -- in the 1920s. Eventually he goes to live with his mother in Budapest and works in a fancy hotel but for no salary, has to walk 4 hours to work and home (4 hours each way!) because he can't afford the tramfare. The whole thing is absolutely deadly, so even if it is based on the author's life, I'm surprised he made it to adulthood.
I thought reading about Hungary in the 1920s and '30s would be interesting and so it is, but not in such excruciating detail. I just looked the guy up and although that book is autobiographical, he spent most of his life in Germany and the States where he was a successful screenwriter.
Lagatta -- we are allowed to travel but I don't really want to go to Spain to practice my Spanish. I don't like the accent. I prefer Latin American Spanish. But I could indeed go to Spain for a couple of days just for a change.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 17, 2020 14:52:05 GMT
It has been many moons since I was able to walk into a library and pick out a book. So when I ducked into the small-town library near the lake cottage to pick up our pre-ordered DVDs and saw a display of New Arrivals books, one jumped out at me, another in the series of 25 Doc Ford suspense novels by Sanibel author (and restaurateur) Randy Wayne White, I grabbed it. Perfect summer read.
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Post by whatagain on Aug 19, 2020 9:33:27 GMT
Reading a biography of von Rundstedt. Meh.
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Post by bjd on Aug 19, 2020 9:49:19 GMT
Finally really like a book I took from the library a few weeks ago. I had almost not bothered because I was pretty disappointed with all the others but I'm glad I started it. I'm reading a French translation of Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. The story of a young Irish orphan who is sent from New York to Minnesota with a group of other orphans/street children in 1929, after her family dies in New York. In her 90s, she tells her story to a 17 year-old girl in Maine, who is also being sent to various foster families, as the girl helps her sort through boxes of things in her attic as part of her community work for stealing a book from the local library.
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Post by rikita on Aug 19, 2020 11:17:58 GMT
that one sounds really interesting, might read it one day ... just checked the library site, they have it, but in the german translation ...
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Post by bjd on Aug 19, 2020 12:51:38 GMT
Yes, it's good. I just finished it and it's based on true happenings. Over 200,000 children were sent to Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota... between 1854 and 1929!
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 19, 2020 16:38:53 GMT
I'm reading a French translation of Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. Very interested to know that you like that book, Bjd. I've been back and forth about whether to get it for my mother, since I never send her anything that I wouldn't read. The book violates my tenet of not reading books by authors with three names, plus it uses the plot device off the young woman identifying with/inspired by either an old woman or the possessions of an old woman. This has been done to death as a novelistic device in the past few years. Also, I rely heavily on the 3-star reviews in Amazon, which variously described it as YA, clumsy, cliche, predictable, mediocre, etc. I believe I was offered The Orphan Train as a $1.99 ebook bargain a while back and gave it a pass. The fact that you like it makes me think I might have made a mistake in rejecting it. At the moment I am reading two books, The Gold Eaters, which I reported on earlier, and Island of the Mad. Ordinarily I would have long since finished The Gold Eaters, but it's become my bathroom or occasional book, not because I don't like it, but because I like it so much that I'm trying to make it last. My nighttime book is Island of the Mad. It's important to stress that there are two books by this name, both written by people with the first name of Laurie. The one that I am reading is the one by Laurie Sheck, and a most remarkable book it is. Coming into this thread in order to report on this book, I was interested to see this bit of serendipity from Casimira: Having recently read a lengthy piece in the NYer (7/20) about an Italian medical scholar from Bologna, Gianna Pomata, I was fascinated by many historic details that she described about different regions in Italy and how "The Black Death really marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of something else" ("That something was the Renaissance"). This is pertinent since the bubonic plague in Venice not only figures into Island of the Mad, but Casimira, because of her love of poetry, was one of the people who I was thinking might well become immersed into this particular novel. Huckle, because of her love of opera, was the other person. Having said that, it must be pointed out that the book is not about poetry nor opera, but sensibilities open to those art forms might well also be open to this singular book, which doesn't really have a plot in the usual sense. Its cast of characters, besides the ones created for the book, include Titian, Pontius Pilate (& his dog), a dead & damned character from The Master and Margarita, Dostoevsky and characters from his book The Idiot. It takes place in modern time, but you're alerted fairly early on that strict reality will not be observed. It also harks back to the recent past and to one of the plague attacks on Venice as well as including infinity. The "regular" writing is excellent -- clear and evocative without ever being flowery. The various voices are distinct and very much come to life. As I said, there is no plot in the way we usually understand that, although I keep reading the increasingly dreamlike book to see what happens next. This is one that I believe I'll want to read again in the future. This is very much a love-it or hate-it book. I love it, but here is the Amazon link along with the reviews from Goodreads to help others make up their minds about whether to dive in or not.
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Post by casimira on Aug 19, 2020 17:13:15 GMT
As serendipity would have it, my local used book store found me a copy and I am snatching it up at the end of the week. (It's only available in hardback, and, I can spare $15.00USD right now for the pleasure). I can think of at least two or three friends here who may also enjoy it. I hope it's in the "love it" realm... GRAZIE!!!
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 19, 2020 19:28:43 GMT
Serendipity indeed! Tickled that you're getting it and can't wait to hear what you think. I'm predicting that you will be glad you bought it & didn't borrow it, as I think it's a keeper.
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Post by bjd on Aug 20, 2020 5:07:36 GMT
Bixa, perhaps I enjoyed Orphan Train because I very rarely read US literature so am not so negative about it. If the subject or theme has been done to death, I was not aware of it, so was able to enjoy the book. Although indeed there are some of the things you mention in it, even though there is very little of the young woman's reactions to the old woman's stuff. It really is much more the story of the old woman.
So if you have read other books like it, I won't tell you to, unless you can get it from a library. But I know what you mean about 3-named authors.
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