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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2009 11:35:56 GMT
Picked up 2 new reads at the bookstore I work:Witch Grass(previously the Bark Tree) by Raymond Queneau and The Feast of Fools by John David Morley.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 3, 2009 9:55:37 GMT
I have recently read Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller.
She was brought up in Zimbabwe and now lives in the USA.
Her book gives a mesmerizing account of a recent journey she made from Zambia through Zimbabwe and Mozambique in the company of 'K', a white, battled-scarred veteran of the Rhodesian war, a born-again Christian with blood on his hands.
This story gives a glimpse into the lives of men who have killed, tortured and striven to survive in a land haunted by strife.
The author returned to her family after her journey. She is a fearless woman like some on this forum.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2009 12:39:30 GMT
Sounds intriguing. Will look for it at my bookstore.Thanks.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 3, 2009 13:53:11 GMT
Perhaps you'd like to read her book Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood first. In this book she describes, in an engaging way, her formative years as a 'poor white' in Zimbabwe.
Her writing style matures in Scribbling the Cat.
She's a terrific woman and I'll buy anything she writes.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2009 3:40:11 GMT
All I read is posts on Any Port in a Storm....my,my...
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 4, 2009 5:55:59 GMT
Just read a review from a couple of months ago of Marilyn Robinson's new book, "Home". Is anyone else a fan? If ever an author's work sounded like something you wouldn't want to read, it's Robinsons. I doubt I'd have read "Gilead" if a friend had not insisted & pressed the book on me. It was so wonderful that it prompted me to go back & re-read "Housekeeping", a book I'd truly loved. These are internet reviews: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HousekeepingA modern classic, Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. The family house is in the small Far West town of Fingerbone set on a glacial lake, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck, and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transience. Subjects Fiction / General More details By Marilynne Robinson Published by St Martins Pr, 2004 ISBN 0312424094, 9780312424091 219 pages ----------------------------------------------------------------- Gilead2005 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction 2004 National Book Critics Circle Winner In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son. This is also the tale of another remarkable vision--not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten. Gilead is the long-hoped-for second novel by one of our finest writers, a hymn of praise and lamentation to the God-haunted existence that Reverend Ames loves passionately, and from which he will soon part. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004 ISBN 0374153892, 9780374153892 247 pages --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Home: us.macmillan.com/home |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2009 21:54:18 GMT
I just finished a wonderful novel by a young Vietnamese author,Kien Nguyen. It's his first novel,he is the author of THE UNWANTED,a memoir of growing up in Viet Nam which I intend to read.
The novel takes place in turn of the century Viet Nam and is part suspense,history,rich in the culture and mores of the country. Earth,greed,honor,family loyalty,power, love,revenge. Very beautifully written.
Oh, the novel's title : THE TAPESTRIES
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Post by tillystar on Apr 2, 2009 9:04:54 GMT
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Post by spindrift on Apr 2, 2009 21:45:08 GMT
This week I read The Ringmaster's Daughter by Jostein Gaarder. He wrote 'Sophie's World'. I enjoyed The Ringmaster's Daughter much more. It is an interesting and complex book and it kept me engrossed and guessing until the last sentence. I couldn't put it down.
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Post by BigIain on Apr 2, 2009 21:51:31 GMT
I read around a book per week. And since I will read almost any author I reckon I can contribute having found this branch this evening.
For starters, a book from a couple of years ago which I loved, namely The Havana Room by Colin Harrison. I would call it more of a suspense than anything else. I am not one for reviewing and giving away the plot, particularly when the storyline is pleasantly unusual like in this one.
I have gone on to read a couple of his other novels of which Bodies Electric is also an unusual plot and story.
He has a great knack of putting in twists that I just do not see coming.
Its great to come across a new-to-me writer, very refreshing when he produces innovative work.
If you have an open mind towards new authors and like novels that drag you in and become difficult to put down then I reckon you will love it.
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 6:46:38 GMT
Hopefully today I will start reading the Lonely Planet Guide To Vienna.
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Post by tillystar on Apr 3, 2009 8:58:47 GMT
I love, love, Love Jostein Gaarder. I have read all his books and really hope he will write something more. I get so excited when I see something new by him. Such an amazing storyteller. Vita Brevis is a great book by him that you might like.
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Post by BigIain on Apr 3, 2009 20:13:31 GMT
Gyro, can I just say again... that city means nothing to me!
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 20:14:59 GMT
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah............. Vienna !
baba-badoom !
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 21:47:45 GMT
G, there is a thread on Travel Books if you'd care to expound on Vienna. I personally wouldn't mind hearing some coherent chat about it.
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Post by tillystar on Apr 4, 2009 3:01:41 GMT
Oh Writeon, another one which I couldn't remember the ame of earlier, that is very similiar in style to the Ringmaster's Daughter is The Orange Girl.
I really very rarely re-read books but you have made me want to re-read these ones!
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Post by tillystar on May 29, 2009 14:08:55 GMT
I just read Guernica by Dave Boling.
A bit of a historical fiction (so not for you K) - a family saga over 50 years with the main point being the bombing of Guernica, interwoven with a little of the story of Picasso's painting. I thought it did an amazing job of showing the human cost of a historical event as the writer really draws you in and gets you involved with the characters.
Personally I found it particularly moving as I know and love the towns and villages described in the book. I think it captured the spirit of the people in that area amazingly well.
The back cover says it is a 360 page narrative of the painting "Guernica", we have the picture on our wall at home and it made me really look at it again and notice things I hadn't and see it differently.
***We haven't used this thread for ages, would love some recommendations as I am a bit stuck for what to read next please!!***
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Post by patricklondon on May 29, 2009 17:55:51 GMT
tilly, you might like the (non-fiction) Stalin's Children, by Owen Matthews. It's a family and personal history reflecting the political changes in Russia: how his mother survived being orphaned by the purges (her father was a Party official), how she and his father (as a British diplomat and student in Russia) fell in love and how his father fought for years to marry her and get her out of Soviet Russia, and how he himself, as a journalist, returned to post-Soviet Russia and likewise fell in love with a Russian. I was engrossed.
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Post by bjd on May 30, 2009 19:55:25 GMT
For anyone who enjoyed Alexandra Fuller's books on Zimbabwe (I read the first one), there is also a writer called Peter Godwin who tells of life in Zimbabwe, especially as he goes from the States to visit his parents who remained there after Mugabe came to power. "When a Crocodile Eats the Sun" is quite recent and gives a fascinating description of the country and how it has gone to the dogs under Mugabe's rule.
I just finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson -- an American who has dedicated his life to building schools, especially for girls, in mountain villages in Pakistan. It seems to be getting quite a lot of publicity lately, but it's really worth reading.
I must confess that I was incapable of finishing Sophie's World. I had bought if for my daughter and tried to read it but found it deadly.
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Post by lola on Nov 30, 2010 17:20:01 GMT
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Post by bjd on Nov 30, 2010 18:47:10 GMT
I'm already in line for Richard's Life at the library
It had some good reviews, but I can't get it at the library and refuse to pay a lot of money for it. What I would really like is the huge 40 years of Doonesbury but it costs $100.
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Post by onlymark on Nov 30, 2010 19:00:36 GMT
Doonesbury 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective [Hardcover]
Amazon Fr. = EUR 75,16
Amazon USA = $59.01
Amazon UK = £31.20 Delivered FREE in the UK
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Post by bjd on Nov 30, 2010 19:46:56 GMT
Thanks, Mark. I had read that it cost more. Even so, it's much more expensive in France than elsewhere!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2010 10:29:07 GMT
I just ordered The Alphabet Man, which is hardly new, but it was brought to my attention because it is being published in France for the first time in January 2011. Damn, Amazon added more than 10€ for delivery, though.
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Post by bjd on Dec 24, 2010 14:49:28 GMT
That happens if you order from Amazon in the States. But if you go to Amazon.fr and "books in English", you usually only have to pay 2€99 for shipping from a shop other than Amazon (which is usually more expensive but ships for free).
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2010 17:46:41 GMT
Yes, I did order from Amazon.fr as I always do but the only shipping locations for this book were in the US.
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