honestly, vp, i haven't read any of his other stuff..if i did i'd probably start with the familiar, such as washington square, the bostonians, daisy miller, the wings of the dove, the turn of the screw, etc...
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honestly, vp, i haven't read any of his other stuff..if i did i'd probably start with the familiar, such as washington square, the bostonians, daisy miller, the wings of the dove, the turn of the screw, etc...
Just started Hellhound on His Trail, the story of the pursuit of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassin. So far, fascinating. Highly recommended just 15% of the way in.
Just finishing up Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London". Good book, but reads like a first book (which it is). I've resolved that I like Orwell much more as an essayist than as a producer of capital-L Literature. Kinda disappointing as I really love his ideas and aphorisms, but his fiction, I'm looking at you "Animal Farm," often feels heavy-handed and a bit uninspired.
Next up some Kafka.
finally read yann martel's "life of pi" and silas house's "clay's quilt", both of which are beautiful novels, that i took to heart.
"the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" by mark haddon is next on my catching up list..
I am reading a comic book. It is not going well.
I don't get too much time to read, but I do listen to books in the car pretty frequently. I just finished Himalaya by Michael Palin. It was enjoyable, especially when someone recognized him and said how much he loved British comedy, saying, "You know, like Benny Hill."
Reading "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi.
Interesting biopunk science fiction set in 23rd century Thailand. Global warming has raised the levels of world's oceans, carbon fuel sources have become depleted, and manually wound springs are used as energy storage devices. Biotechnology is dominant and mega corporations control food production through 'genehacked' seeds, and use bioterrorism, private armies and economic hitmen to create markets for their products. Frequent catastrophes, such as deadly and widespread plagues and illness, caused by genetically modified crops and mutant pests, ravage entire populations. The natural genetic seed stock of the world's plants has been almost completely supplanted by those that are genetically engineered to be sterile.
Kinda scary.
Virginia Under Charles I and Cromwell by Wilcomb Washburn, a free Kindle book written in 1957 that's much more interesting than the detailed discussion of tobacco prices in the beginning would have indicated.
Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman, interesting look at King Richard and his ill fated crusade.
I just finished, "A Night to Remember" by Walter Lord. A detailed account of the last night on the Titanic taken from interviews with crew and passengers. Read it on my Kindle.
hey vaticanplum..in this week's new yorker, there's an excellent anthony lane review of michael gorra's "portrait of a novel: henry james and the making of an american masterpiece". especially since you just read "the portrait of a lady", you might want to read both lane's piece and the book..
http://sabr.org/research/sabr-bookshelf
The SABR Bookshelf is a listing of books received at the SABR office