I’m reading A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki. A well-wrapped Hello Kitty lunchbox washes up on a Pacific Nortwest beach and is discovered by a novelist named Ruth. It contains a journal, a watch, and some letters, which tell the stories of a 16-year-old Japanese girl and her 104-year-old grandmother, a Buddhist nun. World War II and the recent earthquake and tsunami also figure in the story. The reviews are through the roof, and I loved Ozeki’s All Over Creation so this is very promising.
Finished Black Mischief, by Evelyn Waugh. Rather good but certainly not PC by today’s standards, what with his descriptions of Black Africans. But then he sends up everyone, and his fellow Europeans seem to get the worst of it.
Moving on to the next in my volume of four Evelyn Waugh novels is Scoop (1938), in which he lampoons the field of journalism. It also happens to be #75 on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.
The New Watch showed up on my doorstep yesterday, yay! I’m looking forward to more of the adventures of Anton and friends (other than Tiger Cub :(). Also, since this is a physical book and thus somewhat less portable than the ebooks I favor these days, I picked up the complete Sherlock Holmes for kindle the other day and have been dipping in here and there. Just finished The Adventure of the Six Napoleons; just starting on The Adventure of the Speckled Band.
Are you in the US? Where did you buy it from if you don’t mind my asking?
I am in the US, yes. I actually ordered it from amazon.co.uk.
(I notice there’s now a kindle edition–it wasn’t there when I pre-ordered, as I recall. I wonder if you can get the kindle edition outside of the UK…)
I finished ‘Foul Matter’ - a lovely satirical look at the world of writers, poets and publishing. Though there have been other books and films that have touched on what happens when The Mob meets with writing (Get Shorty, Bullets over Broadway come to mind), I enjoyed this much more than any of the others.
I’m now about a hundred pages into ‘Fluke’ by Christopher Moore, which is a delicious little romp. It reminds me of some of the things I’ve enjoyed about Tom Robbins’ writing. I’ll probably finish it in a couple of days or less, but I’m glad to find an author I’d never encountered before.
Bought, and started How the States Got Their Shapes (book show’s 1st season was based on). Very interesting. BTW, Maryland got hosed!
Finished Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh. Very good.
Next up in the Waugh anthology is The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy (1948), which is actually a comedy and his send-up of the southern-California funeral industry. I remember already reading this maybe 30 years ago, but it’s exceptionally short and I believe worth a revisit.
I’ve started Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. I generally agree with the thesis presented and the book itself is written in a non-technical but intelligent way. However there were a few bits in the introduction that were quite blatantly doublethink.
Finished The Loved One, by Evelyn Waugh. Short but sweet. Waugh based Whispering Glades in the book on the real-life Forest Lawn. Reportedly, his publishers so feared a libel suit that one of a couple of preemptive ploys was to have Waugh persuade his friend Lord Stanley of Alderley to have his lawyers add a codicil to his will instructing that his body, upon death, be shipped to Forest Lawn for buiral, as he understood that cemetery bore some resemblance to the one in The Loved One. The publishers were going to use that as a basis for a defense. “See? We actually drummed up business for you!” After 10 years, it was finally thought safe enough for Lord Stanley to cancel the codicil.
This next week I’ll read the final short novel in the Waugh anthology: The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold: A Conversation Piece (1957). From what I’ve heard, it’s a thinly veiled fictional account of Waughs own breakdown in late middle age.
Finished The White Nile, which was recommended in a previous thread. While I started it mainly because of my interest in the early exploration for the source of the Nile, I thought the parts of the book covering that period were a little dry and light. But it got more interesting with the Sudanese uprising in the 1880s. Overall, I enjoyed it.
I just finished Joe Hill’s NOS4A2. I was so, so pleased with it! It was so much like his dad’s work (even with references to other King books. I caught five, including one to the not-yet-published Dr. Sleep). I was really caught up in this book, thinking about it when I wasn’t able to actually read it. It was a big thick one too. I may have to start buying Joe’s stuff after this. 
I finished Dombey and Son and I really liked it. I actually enjoyed a Dickens novel from beginning to end! I know, I’m as shocked as you are. I used to haaaaate Dickens, especially his female characters. All the female characters in D&S, though, had really good reasons to act the way they do. I think it may have earned a spot on the bookshelf.
I just finished it too, and it had the same effect. Part of it was timing – the kidnapped women in Cleveland being found, and then Mother’s Day.
What Wayne went through – not the same as those three, of course – but how easy it is to give in to power, to give up, and how difficult it is to fight – Joe got that right.
Yeah, you should read Joe’s stuff. I liked this book better than his other two, but I still like his short stories best. Pop Art is amazing.
I recently finished Joyce Carol Oates’s latest, The Accursed: strange afflictions strike Princeton, NJ, in 1905-6, soon revealed as supernatural. The novel follows several points of view, including those of Woodrow Wilson (then President of Princeton University), Upton Sinclair, and several members of the main afflicted family. Thick book, quite a good read, and opens very many interesting questions about literature, history, and socialism. Recommended (for people with time on their hands!).
I also finished a slew of Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache mysteries, and am now reading the fifth, The Brutal Telling. I really like those, although the solutions to her puzzles are sometimes a bit far-fetched, I think. Still, recommended.
Finally, a couple of World War II books. I had Max Hasting’s All Hell Let Loose on the Kindle and finished that during the week. A truly excellent, no-holds-barred one-volume history of World War II. Hastings doesn’t spare anybody (least of all the reader): we get devastating criticism of American and British strategic and tactical ineptitude, for example, which sits well with the more usual “Russians could only use frontal attacks” stuff. Well done! Also, John Prados’s Islands of Destiny is an excellent analysis (slightly short, for my taste) of the Solomons Islands campaign from 1942-43. Prados very neatly sets the individual battles and campaigns into a greater narrative, and highlights some very interesting aspects especially on the Japanese side. Also recommended.
[QUOTE=SpazCat;16247563[Peace Like a River]
(Peace Like a River by Leif Enger | Goodreads), Lief Enger. Also like this book very much. I had a bit of a moment yesterday when I realized I was reading the book while listening to the song “Peace Like a River” by Paul Simon.
[/QUOTE]
I’ll be starting this soon for my book club.
Right now I’m working on This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers. It’s a YA book about zombies. So far (about halfway) so good. Up next is Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. I like to read Hemingway around Memorial Day. It’s become a tradition for me.
You might like The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman - a fun, mind-bending homage to Papa.
I am possibly repeating myself, but bear with me.
A few fun recent reads –
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, which was generally fun, about what happens when a renaissance secret society meets google. This was a very quick, light-hearted read and I thought it was nicely enjoyable.
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, a novel that tells two interrelated stories in tandem, one about an aspiring Hollywood starlet in Italy in the 60s, and then another set in the present day where a Hollywood producer tries to track her down. This was good, but one of those books where I feel I will forget the details very quickly.
The Wreck of The River of Stars by Michael Flynn, which is one of those books that isn’t really my thing, but given that, it was okay. Space drama about a damaged spaceship and how the crew responds to the situation. It was one of those books where the story itself wasn’t that compelling to me, but I liked the authorial voice. Makes me think Michael Flynn would be a fun guy to talk with.
You by Austin Grossman, which I liked A LOT. It’s a novel about the early days of computer gaming. I feel like this book is destined to be a love or hate it thing, I thought it was great but have a hard time articulating why it stands out so much. The writing was really sharp.
Right now I am starting Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle again – I got about 1/2 though once, but never got around to finishing even though I liked it. It seems like the kind of situation where enough time has passed that I have to start at the beginning again.
I’ve just started “Empire of Liberty.” I figured there’s really nothing better for an unemployed history major to do than to go through the Oxford History of the United States.
I’m giving up on Rosemary’s Baby. It’s a little too disturbing. Joseph Andrews is more my style right now.