First time submitter to this thread, so I’m hoping a magazine article counts.
(snicker - yeah, a magazine…those things…snicker, snicker)
I’m really big on eccentric architects and bombastic “big concept” artists, and in the Aug. 29th New Yorker, there’s an awesome article on crazy-ass earthworks artist Robert Heizer, whose gargantuan-as-all-get-out “City” is pretty-well complete.
Written by Dana Goodyear (who’s written other great NY’er articles that annoyingly elude me currently), there’s fun glimpses into RH’s somewhat douchey personality.
The neurotic east coaster relocated out near Area 51 in the late 60’s, acclimated (acclimatized?), and then in '72, began working on “City” - a mile-and-a-half long “sculpture”, for lack of a better word, composed of rocks, sand and concrete, the bulk of which the artist (and incomprehensibly patient assistants and labourers) extracted from the site.
I wished the article would’ve mentioned something about colleague Robert Smithson’s reaction (if any) to Hiezer’s petty, paranoid disowning of him. (Or maybe Heizer’s weird-on over Smithson didn’t really come to the fore until after Smithson’s death in '73?)
The guy sure provides colourful quotes! (which you’ll have to read to find out).
We’re letting Eddie the Horrible in here with a magazine? Harrumph!
I just finished Michael Koryta’s Rise the Dark, which was good but not one of his best. Situations resolved themselves more easily than I had expected. Still, Koryta is one of my must-read authors and I look forward to the next in the series.
Oh I’ve gotten a bit of a start with Edmund Wilson, Dostoyevsky, Paul Bowles,
Greg Turkington, Koestler, Waugh, Jerzy Kosinski, and I could really go off on that, but for some reason I’ve gotten completely lazy, and for the past couple decades this fossil has been content with Harper’s, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. Actually dropped the Atlantic about ten years ago - found it starting to get too slipshod in ways that bum me out too much to expound on. Harper’s…aaaaaI’m not even gonna go there (obviously some of the best periodical writing around, without question, but…) So now I’ve really lazily defaulted to just the New Yorker lately.
Thinking maybe of getting a Daivd Sedaris book, and always been meaning to get around to de Maupassant, D.H. Lawrence…
Also sorta Collette-curious lately.
Do it, but make sure it’s an audiobook - his delivery is at least half the fun. I’d suggest starting with his early short-story collections Barrel Fever, Naked or Me Talk Pretty One Day. Great stuff!
The Winner’s Curse, by Marie Rutkoski. Really enjoyable non-magical YA fantasy (it’s weird how easy it is to label this fantasy). Strong romance element, so not for anyone who hates that. But the characters are smart! Smart characters! Wow!
The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman. The charming continuous adventures of plucky Mrs. Pollifax.
Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Also pretty charming. It’s a very Austen-esque fantasy. Heavy on Austen. Lots of magic, but it’s not really all that important.
The Selection, by Kiera Cass. It’s readable dystopian YA fiction but it’s stupid as hell.
Murder With Peacocks, by Donna Andrews. Dippy cozy mystery with a doormat protagonist, but it’s pretty fun and funny.
Scandal in Fair Haven, by Carolyn Hart. Second in the Henrie O cozy series. I like these books.
I just wanted to note that I just downloaded the latest and newest Longmire book, An Obvious Fact by Craig Johnson. Can’t wait to get to it and hope it measures up to the other eleven.
I gave up on James Ellroy’s Perfidia after a hundred pages. His staccato style was annoying, I didn’t buy that several characters would act the way that they did, and the relentless bigotry expressed by his LAPD detective characters - probably accurate for 1941, I will concede - became tiresome.
I’m sorry you didn’t like it. His entire Underworld Trilogy USA was in that same style, and he plans to link trilogies and a quartet to make one long narrative. LA Confidential is included in the quartet – I haven’t read it but wonder if the style is the same.
I finished The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes, in a rush tonight because I had my cousin’s wedding reception and I didn’t want to be reading it there PRIORITIES!!
Loved the book and I’m going to curl up with the next in the series soon as I get the dinner dishes bussed and the dog off my pillow.
Just finished Wedding Night, by Sophie Kinsella. I’d never read anything by her. Very silly, though it made me laugh a few times.
I started Maledicte, by Lane Robins. It was just creeping me out, but I was tired, so I might give it another shot. Instead, for now I’m rereading The Scarlet Pimpernel for the umpteenth time.
I just finished reading “The Mysteries of Udolpho” by Ann Radcliffe. It had a certain Hardy Boys/Scooby Doo kind of charm, but it just felt way, way too long. I don’t need to read about how Emily went to her room and burst into tears for the 50th time. And such a small portion of the story takes place in Castle Udolpho that it seemed like an odd name for it.
I’m not sure who recommended this series but I’ve just finished the first two and loved them. Thank you. Walt’s tendency (thus far) to fall for women immediately and have it reciprocated is a little tiresome though.
She’s just adorable.