What are you currently reading?

[T. D.]

Russian spy ring at the heart of the British Establishment. A well-written, intelligent book. I will recommend it without reservation.

I just read the first 75 pp. free on Google Books, and am sufficiently impressed to order the book on Kindle so I can finish.
Excellent spy story, the only caveat is that Beaumont is by no means a prose stylist. The writing is not bad, but very much in a "just the facts, ma'am" style without elegant flourishes.

It's the first in a series: the second title A Spy at War was published a few weeks ago.

[AnotherSpin]

I just read the first 75 pp. free on Google Books, and am sufficiently impressed to order the book on Kindle so I can finish.
Excellent spy story, the only caveat is that Beaumont is by no means a prose stylist. The writing is not bad, but very much in a "just the facts, ma'am" style without elegant flourishes.

It's the first in a series: the second title A Spy at War was published a few weeks ago.

I came to Beaumont's book immediately after reading Patterson whom I also mentioned earlier in this thread, as well as a few other novels in the genre over the past few weeks. Beaumont's prose struck me as markedly more refined, and his characters far more believable, realistic, even, if one may expect that from a spy thriller. The Russians are portrayed with rare authenticity, which is certainly not always the case. And — without revealing too much — the story and its resolution are refreshingly unconventional, avoiding the tidy conclusions so typical of the genre.

I'm quite looking forward to the next instalment, which, by all indications, may be set partly in Ukraine. One hopes the author brings the same nuance and credibility to that setting.

My flat in Odesa is on the main street, and when I'm there, usually a couple of times a month, I often spot expats or English-speaking visitors at the cafés below, even during these past couple of wartime years. Many of them don't look like typical tourists. Now I find myself wondering whether I might have seen Beaumont among them by chance

[Mandryka]

I remember reading that and thinking the shield must be the size of a Diego Rivera mural.

And that if it could have that level of delicate intricate work you wouldn't want to have it all messed up with one days worth of sword strikes.

I argued that whatever it is, it couldn't be a true and literal description of a shield. So it's an interlude about the power of poetry to create illusion.

That didn't go down well - people said that it's just a magic shield.

[Number Six]

Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson

I was listening to a podcast last night, and this book's author was the guest. I don't know anything about him apart from his appearances in the musical 1776, and he's basically the villain of the piece. So I decided to give him a fair shot and picked this one up on kindle and audible. Don't know when I will get to it, to be honest. 

[ritter]

Skimming through Reynaldo Hahn's Diaries...



No mention whatsoever of Le Dieu bleu... 

[Crudblud]

Thomas Wolfe - Of Time and the River

[AnotherSpin]

"There, at the foot of the Third Tower, I understood everything. My restlessness—on the train, in the various hotels and inns, in the periods between excursions, indeed whenever during the entire journey I had been forced into contact with that collectivity of the lonely, the euphoric Italian collectivity. I shielded my solitariness from them, and from the European future that they represented for me. I felt my solitary happiness threatened by their happiness of the herd, because they were stronger than I was."

Taken from Antal Szerb's The Third Tower, a fine little diary of the author's journey in Italy.

[Mandryka]

I read Donne at school and loved it. I bought Carey's book when it came out but never made the time to read it. It has been sitting on my shelves unopened since 1981. Finally got round to it this week - it's very good and indeed more than that - it's methodologically interesting because of the mapping Carey makes from Donne's values, character and beliefs on the one hand, and his writings on the other.

Donne wasn't a nice chap . . . Ambitious, egotistical, shockingly inhumane sometimes in the sermons especially, deeply troubled by his rejection of catholicism for the English church. In one sermon he says that Christians shouldn't give to beggars because they've probably never been baptised and they're all feckless work-shy sinners. In a letter to a friend who'd suffered a bereavement he basically says that he won't say he's sorry for what's happened because he needs sympathy himself more.

[T. D.]

[AnotherSpin]

What did you think of the book?

[T. D.]

What did you think of the book?

Reading it for the 2nd time. Of course I've read the Gita multiple times.
Got this book for the Sankaracharya commentary, which interprets everything in the Advaita (non-dual) Vedanta framework. Although this is the earliest (extant) and maybe the most famous commentary, it requires decent familiarity with Advaita and is therefore not the most "accessible". I prefer to read Indian commentaries rather than Westernized ones.

So far I remain unconvinced that the Gita is strictly Advaita-based, but I am no expert.

To add a classical music reference, I have this recording of an opera premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music (it is an archetypal "BAM-type" work  )

[AnotherSpin]

Reading it for the 2nd time. Of course I've read the Gita multiple times.
Got this book for the Sankaracharya commentary, which interprets everything in the Advaita (non-dual) Vedanta framework. Although this is the earliest (extant) and maybe the most famous commentary, it requires decent familiarity with Advaita and is therefore not the most "accessible". I prefer to read Indian commentaries rather than Westernized ones.

So far I remain unconvinced that the Gita is strictly Advaita-based, but I am no expert.

To add a classical music reference, I have this recording of an opera premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music (it is an archetypal "BAM-type" work  )

I have several editions of the Gita, also in different translations, but none with Adi Shankara's commentary. It might seem out of place — after all, advaita doesn't appear to need lengthy texts.

My favorite episode in the narrative is the choice of Duryodhana and Arjuna: coming to the sleeping Krishna to ask for his support before the battle, Arjuna humbly sits at his feet, while Duryodhana positions himself at the head of the bed — and when Krishna awakens, he offers one of them his invincible army, and the other, himself, unarmed.

[Mandryka]

I have several editions of the Gita, also in different translations, but none with Adi Shankara's commentary. It might seem out of place — after all, advaita doesn't appear to need lengthy texts.

My favorite episode in the narrative is the choice of Duryodhana and Arjuna: coming to the sleeping Krishna to ask for his support before the battle, Arjuna humbly sits at his feet, while Duryodhana positions himself at the head of the bed — and when Krishna awakens, he offers one of them his invincible army, and the other, himself, unarmed.

Have you seen Peter Brook's Mahabharata?

[AnotherSpin]

Have you seen Peter Brook's Mahabharata?

I don't remember watching it. What was your impression?

[Mandryka]

I don't remember watching it. What was your impression?

It's one of my favourite films. I saw the stage production too. The scene you mentioned with Krishna's offer of his self is in it of course.

[AnotherSpin]

It's one of my favourite films. I saw the stage production too. The scene you mentioned with Krishna's offer of his self is in it of course.

Your recommendation certainly carries weight with me. I shall try to watch when the occasion presents itself, though I must admit I'm not generally inclined toward long, epic narratives. What I've always appreciated about the Gita is its brevity — the text is concise, yet its meaning runs deep. That, to my mind, is far more appealing than the opposite.

[Mandryka]

Your recommendation certainly carries weight with me. I shall try to watch when the occasion presents itself, though I must admit I'm not generally inclined toward long, epic narratives. What I've always appreciated about the Gita is its brevity — the text is concise, yet its meaning runs deep. That, to my mind, is far more appealing than the opposite.

The Bhaghavad Gita section is very short in the film

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155386015800779

I can always upload the film for you if you want to try it.  (Good distraction in times of war!)

[AnotherSpin]

The Bhaghavad Gita section is very short in the film

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155386015800779

I can always upload the film for you if you want to try it.  (Good distraction in times of war!)

Please do.

I was just thinking about how I've liked the episode I mentioned earlier for a long time — well before the war began. But only now, while we've been exchanging comments, did I suddenly notice how closely it echoes the current moment. On one side, there's this seemingly invincible and unstoppable army — a frightening, ruthless force that targets civilians and abducts our children. And on the other side, there's us — with truth and justice on our side.

[San Antone]

Continuing with my journey again through Cormac Mccarthy. Just picked up Blood Meridian, my favorite of his books, and his best, IMO.  Suttree was very good, but his style was still a bit too abstract for my taste. As he progressed his style became more naturalistic and stronger, IMO. But after the Border Trilogy, my interest in his books began to dwindle until with The Road, which I began but dropped early on - I have stopped reading him since.

I also began The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn simultaneously with watching the Ken Burns documentary film on Mark Twain.  I consider Twain among the greatest of American writers, and Huckleberry Finn his best book, and arguably among the top 5 American novels.

[Ganondorf]

The last fifth of Huck Finn is just one big sadistic game played at Jim's expense. I think even Hemingway commented on it. Otherwise it's excellent.