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Post by mich64 on Nov 22, 2021 20:12:00 GMT
I am reading Trinity by Leon Uris, a novel of Ireland. After a recent evening with friends discussing our travels, my friend thought I would enjoy reading a novel about some of the stories we were told and things we learnt on our travels to Northern Ireland a few years ago.
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Post by bjd on Nov 29, 2021 10:32:44 GMT
I have nearly finished a German detective story, called Hungerwinter in German, Les Exfiltrés de Berlin in French, by Harald Gilbers. The main character is a Jewish policeman called Oppenheimer in 1947 Berlin. He discovers Nazis being taken out of Germany to Argentina. Good book, good atmosphere of post-war Berlin.
A little searching tells me that only the first book in the series, Germania has been translated into English so far.
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Post by patricklondon on Nov 29, 2021 13:13:04 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 29, 2021 21:26:23 GMT
Last night I finished a most remarkable novel, one which reassured me that truly monumental writers continue to come along to provide us with real literature. There is nothing gimmicky nor false in the entire book, just a consummate craftsman building a totally believable world peopled with entirely human characters. This is a book I will save to read again. In fact, before I finished it I'd ordered a copy to send to my mother as part of my desire to share this excellent reading experience. The book is The Orchardist, by Amanda Coplin, published 2013. I went through several links trying to find some that didn't give away too much of the plot. Here are two which address the value of the book, which in my opinion deserves to be placed with the best of American literature: (short) www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-orchardist-amanda-coplin/1108939201(longer) www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/7452/the-orchardist
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Post by bjd on Dec 4, 2021 19:03:57 GMT
I just read Jane Austen's Persuasion, not for the first time. Wonderful book.
And from the library this afternoon I got the third volume in the Cay Rademacher trilogy that Patrick mentioned two posts above. It was the only one they have.
Also found a graphic novel about a young Jewish Belgian, Michel Kichka, who moved to Israel at the beginning of the 1970s and talks about life there over the past decades. He is a member of Cartooning for Peace. Really interesting and the drawings are good, of course.
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Post by bjd on Dec 10, 2021 7:15:34 GMT
Patrick, the final scene in the church tower of that Rademacher book made me think it would be a great scene in a black and white movie.
I found a You Tube video of Hamburg in the summer of 1948 and could envisage exactly the scenery of the novel. Except that in the book it rains every day.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 10, 2021 19:17:16 GMT
I just finished Les fruits tombent des arbres by Florent Oiseau, which is centred along bus line 69 in Paris, notably rue de la Roquette and boulevard Voltaire. I was quite disappointed and did not care one bit about the protagonist.
Next up is D'oncle by Rebecca Gisler, a Swiss novel about a very untraditional and dissettling uncle but with redeeming qualities. I hope I find redeeming qualities in the book.
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Post by patricklondon on Dec 10, 2021 20:49:17 GMT
Patrick, the final scene in the church tower of that Rademacher book made me think it would be a great scene in a black and white movie. I found a You Tube video of Hamburg in the summer of 1948 and could envisage exactly the scenery of the novel. Except that in the book it rains every day. I thought it could make for a German/British co-production for TV, but I suppose the cost of re-creating the postwar ruins would be prohibitive
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Post by bjd on Dec 11, 2021 7:37:23 GMT
I thought it could make for a German/British co-production for TV, but I suppose the cost of re-creating the postwar ruins would be prohibitive Not only that -- but comparisons would be immediately drawn to the ferris wheel scene in The Third Man.
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 11, 2021 8:42:03 GMT
Contract out to the Taliban. They'd do it for free.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 11, 2021 12:13:39 GMT
CGI ruins have become very simple to create in recent movies.
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Post by whatagain on Dec 11, 2021 14:02:16 GMT
I finishef the last Donna Lein and left it at the airport. Leh. But if you are a fan and like police advenrures where nothing happen with nice characters involving their family meals at home, like me, it is ok.
Now i am speeding up in tbe Mark Billingam book love something, where DI Tom Horn digs into so called honor crimes in Pakistani families. Very good till now.
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Post by casimira on Dec 16, 2021 17:10:15 GMT
Having lost so many books in the fire I have been slowly replacing some of my favorites.
I had several books by Eudora Welty, an iconic Southern writer whose work I have always enjoyed.
In the meantime, I encountered a book of hers that I was unfamiliar with. Tell About Night Flowers, Eudora Welty's Gardening Letters 1940-1949.
I have only just begun to read it and am enjoying it immensely.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 16, 2021 18:13:08 GMT
What a find! I also have never heard of this book, so thanks so much for telling about it. Looking up some related matters, I found a picture of Eudora in her garden @1930 and also a list that you should enjoy perusing, casimira. oldhousegardens.com/bestbooks
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Post by bjd on Dec 16, 2021 19:43:08 GMT
I just finished a detective story that takes in Paris, written in the contemporary style of naming every street that the character walks on. "She left the building, walked along Boulevard Henri IV, then turned on rue Sully and at the next corner..." But it's sort of interesting because some of the policemen are in the department that deals with the Seine river -- diving for dead bodies,etc. It's called Quai des Enfers.
Now I'll go back to John Buchan's Prester John for at least the third time.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 17, 2021 1:09:39 GMT
After finishing The Orchardist (#2142 above) I picked up Harvest by Jim Crace. Crace is one of those writers who I feel I'd better like because he's so good -- I know it and everyone else knows it, although he often doesn't grab me beyond making me acknowledge again that he is good. In Harvest the reader is immediately plunked down into an unspecified time and place. I eventually sort of got my bearings because of being a little familiar with the history of * enclosure in England, although I was never sure of the time period. 15th century? Later? At any rate, it's a close look at an isolated rural community and its reaction to a malicious act coupled with change from without. The book has an over-arching sense of dread to it and I never developed enough empathy for the narrator, which I suspect is more my fault than that of the author. Although I sound somewhat lukewarm, this is a book I wouldn't hesitate to suggest it to anyone who appreciates excellent writing and a bracing dip into the past. *for a much more complete look at enclosure: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EnclosureRight now I am reading The Iceweaver, by Margaret Lawrence and am completely caught up in it. Yet again this was a book which initially threw me into a state of confusion. One of the reasons I chose it was because I remember reading the author years ago & enjoying her books, not least because they were about Canada. So why did this book seem so different? Well, it's because Margaret Lawrence (American) and Margaret Laurence (Canadian) are two different people , with American Margaret's reputation almost completely eclipsed by that of Canadian Margaret. To continue the blurring between Canada and America, this book takes place in upstate New York in 1809 and encompasses the border skirmishes and embargoes and how they affected people on the American side. This period is of course the work-up to the war of 1812, although it is the characters in the book occupying most of the attention, with the political situation in the background. (So far anyway. I'm still reading the book.) A most intriguing aspect of the story concerns the consciousness of the Native Americans during that period, with glimpses given through the eyes of a main English/American character who was rescued by Native Americans. There are also touches of mysticism throughout, although nothing forced and nothing that has so far turned off this reader. This is a book I look forward to opening each time, as it is entertaining, insightful, and full of interesting historical detail.
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Post by casimira on Dec 17, 2021 16:46:19 GMT
Thanks for the link and great pic of Eudora Bixa. I would have so much liked to have known her. You would really enjoy this book. I have thought of you many times while reading it.
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Post by bjd on Dec 29, 2021 8:39:09 GMT
I'm reading yet one more detective story set in immediate post-war Berlin, this one written by an Englishman: The Ashes of Berlin by Luke McAllin. Set in Berlin in 1947, it's more "political" than the German books. I think I preferred the German ones too because this one emphasizes the ruins of the city, where I think a lot had been cleared away by 1947.
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Post by bjd on Jan 5, 2022 19:04:25 GMT
I'm halfway through an nth rereading of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and I also picked up at the library a book by Roberto Saviano, the Italian who has been in hiding for years because of his books about Italian organized crime, notably Gomorra.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 5, 2022 20:58:08 GMT
Bjd, I imagine you know that Gomorrah was made into a movie. I sort of wanted to watch it for the Naples setting, but it's apparently extremely violent -- no surpise. A couple of nights ago I started The Golem and the Jinni. This book has gotten a good bit of press & was offered more than once as a daily bargain ebook. Even though I often enjoy reading fantasy, the title sounded too YA, so I kept resisting. Finally, the good reviews by adults tempted me to try it and I was hooked from the first page. I'm not very far into it yet, but can report that Helene Wecker can really write.
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Post by fumobici on Jan 6, 2022 15:07:10 GMT
I've both read Gomorrah and seen the film treatment. The book is excellent as journalism, the film only OK. Saviano doesn't seem to be as locked down for security reasons as he was around the time the book came out.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 8, 2022 20:22:36 GMT
I am working on a 2000-page book with margins that go to the very bottom of the page or else there woud be far more pages. It is called Journal sexuel d'un garçon d'aujourd'hui and is by a very well known writer/director/photographer etc. -- Arthur Dreyfus. It is not as nasty as I feared even though he seems to have sex about 3 times a day. He is clever, intelligent and writes extremely well. I have no idea if I will finish it, because his life is rather exhausting to me and I have only read about 100 pages so far.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 8, 2022 21:47:48 GMT
Between authors atm...looking for a new (to me) one..while I'm waiting for inspiration I've been wading through the Inspector Wexford books by Ruth Rendell. Comfort reading really
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 9, 2022 0:46:12 GMT
A couple of nights ago I started The Golem and the Jinni. This book has gotten a good bit of press & was offered more than once as a daily bargain ebook. Even though I often enjoy reading fantasy, the title sounded too YA, so I kept resisting. Finally, the good reviews by adults tempted me to try it and I was hooked from the first page. I'm not very far into it yet, but can report that Helene Wecker can really write. Read this one. I am enjoying the heck out of it. It's one of those books that make magic real because the author is so matter of fact about it.
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Post by fumobici on Jan 9, 2022 2:39:37 GMT
I recently bought a book for the first time in a while, How To Build a Car an autobiography by F1 designer Adrian Newey. I'm enjoying it; you probably wouldn't.
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Post by htmb on Jan 10, 2022 4:24:11 GMT
It only took me two years, but I finally finished Carlo Levi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli. I’m glad I read it, am even happier I’m finished, but have surprised myself in thinking I might read it again some day. (Thanks for the recommendation, Huckle and Kerouac).
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Post by bjd on Jan 10, 2022 8:43:52 GMT
I read Carlo Levi's book a long time ago and don't remember it being particularly difficult. Of course the subject is not cheerful, but I thought it was really a good book.
I have started Saviano's book but in fact it's not recent -- originally came out in 2011. Mostly he talks about how he lives, never staying anywhere for more than a day or two, constantly under police protection, the mentality of fear and people afraid to be honest. So to dilute that, I am also re-reading Evelyn Waugh's When the Going Was Good, a series of hilarious memoirs of his travels in the late 1920s and 1930s -- a Mediterranean cruise, a trip to Ethiopia for Haile Selassie's coronation, etc.
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Post by htmb on Jan 10, 2022 11:39:27 GMT
Thanks for the film tip, Huckle. As for the book, the only copy I could get was quite small and it hasn’t been easy for me to read. The print is ok, but holding the book just wasn’t all that easy for me.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 16, 2022 4:15:57 GMT
Speaking of Proust ..................... Earlier today Amazon Mexico asked me if I wanted to write a review of the kitchen shelves I recently purchased. Since I live with the guilt engendered by the number of Amazon reviews I read & rely on, vs the number of reviews I write, I did in fact submit a nice factual review of the shelves, even including two pictures. Naturally I patted myself on the back for this. Not any more. After reading the two posts above, I searched Proust in kindle books. Take a look at this review, the one entitled "Matter and Memory", by Peter Jordan. (it's right under the words "Top reviews from other countries") Dang. Now that is a review!
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Post by bjd on Jan 16, 2022 8:31:17 GMT
Don't compare kitchen shelves with literature, Bixa!
re Proust. It took me several attempts to read Proust. The first few tries, when I was a student, just stopped around page 50. I had the impression that it was all one long sentence and just couldn't get into it. Then about 10 years later, I tried again and ended up reading all 7 volumes at one go.
A few years ago a friend lent me the graphic novel of volume 1 and I enjoyed it, quite impressed at how such a dense book could be compressed into a set of drawings and text right out of the book. I did try again to read the books but just couldn't.
My conclusion is that there is a personal moment for reading certain books and outside that specific time, there is no point in trying.
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