What are you currently reading?

[Karl Henning]

A chat with the 2016 Giller Finalist author of Yiddish for Pirates.

[NikF]

The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazán.


[asin]0141392959[/asin]

[lisa needs braces]

Well, this looks interesting!!!

https://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-Music-Conversations-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0385354347

[Karl Henning]

Not for the squeamish (all verbal content): A real-life horror story.

Man who dissolved in boiling Yellowstone hot spring slipped while checking temperature to take bath

[NikF]

The Opposing Shore by Julien Gracq.


[asin]1846559294[/asin]

[Jaakko Keskinen]

The reading of Faust part two being well on it's way I also have started to reread Little Dorrit, but this time in charming 1920s Finnish translation instead of English which I did previous times.

I didn't quite finish Moby Dick yet.

[Artem]

The Opposing Shore by Julien Gracq.

Gracq is a very interesting writer.

[NikF]

Gracq is a very interesting writer.

You have a favourite work of his? I've only read 'Balcony in the Forest' before this and I found it had a potent and almost dreamlike quality that has stayed with me since. And I've also a copy of 'Château d'Argol' which I've never got around to reading yet.

[Bogey]

More classic "pulp" crime:



Had to grab the original print as the cover was from Mitchell Hooks, a favorite cover artist of mine.

[Mahlerian]

The biography part is not all that interesting after the glimpses of Boulez's early life and development, after which it becomes an endless succession of "then he did this, conducted this ensemble, and wrote this piece, etc. etc."  The author obviously reveres his subject, though this doesn't stop him from the occasional criticism of Boulez's character (sometimes authoritarian) or his pronouncements (sometimes too sweeping).  The analyses at the back of the book, however, while not especially in-depth on a technical level, serve well to orient the listener towards Boulez's often elusive music.

[ritter]

The biography part is not all that interesting after the glimpses of Boulez's early life and development, after which it becomes an endless succession of "then he did this, conducted this ensemble, and wrote this piece, etc. etc."  The author obviously reveres his subject, though this doesn't stop him from the occasional criticism of Boulez's character (sometimes authoritarian) or his pronouncements (sometimes too sweeping).  The analyses at the back of the book, however, while not especially in-depth on a technical level, serve well to orient the listener towards Boulez's often elusive music.

The book has the merit of being (as the Harvard University Pree blurb says) the first "thorough" biography of Boulez, but it originally appeared in French in the mid-80s, so the last 30+ years of the composer's life (and work) are not covered. It also is vastly superior to the gossipy book by Joan Peyser, and compared to, for instance, the--much earlier-- book by Antoine Goléa, it's almost exemplary in its impartiality  . Most of the later literature on Boulez is mainly in the form of books of conversations with him, or technical analyses of his compositions (the latter not being really suitable for the wider public--in which I include myself).

I suppose a really complete (and detached) biography is still outstanding, but is bound to appear sometime in the future (as the subject matter--the man and his art--is fasciniating IMHO).

[Mahlerian]

The book has the merit of being (as the Harvard University Pree blurb says) the first "thorough" biography of Boulez, but it originally appeared in French in the mid-80s, so the last 30+ years of the composer's life (and work) are not covered. It also is vastly superior to the gossipy book by Joan Peyser, and compared to, for instance, the--much earlier-- book by Antoine Goléa, it's almost exemplary in its impartiality  . Most of the later literature on Boulez is mainly in the form of books of conversations with him, or technical analyses of his compositions (the latter not being really suitable for the wider public--in which I include myself).

I suppose a really complete (and detached) biography is still outstanding, but is bound to appear sometime in the future (as the subject matter--the man and his art--is fasciniating IMHO).

I have access to Peyser's book, but everything I knew about it led me to avoid it.  As someone who can understand extremely technical analyses of serial compositions, I can say that they usually aren't all that enlightening, as they more often focus on minutiae than on the actual functioning of those details within a larger context.

[Karl Henning]

I once owned (and read at least part of) the Peyser . . . I do not much remember what I did read . . . .

[NikF]

The Lover by Marguerite Duras.

[Bogey]

Another from Donald Westlake.

[Bogey]

Wow, that looks great.

A bit slow to start, but then it grinds into pulpy crime squalor with no sap running from the pages.  Only 120 plus pages for this one, but I am looking into Rabe's next book in his Daniel Port series.  You can get the first three (including this one) here for $0.79 plus shipping:



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933586656/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1933586656&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2

Donald Westlake and W. R. Burnett are right now my favorites for this genre, but I can see Rabe moving up.

[NikF]

Harpo Speaks!


[asin]0879100362[/asin]


Rereading.

[aligreto]

Just began to read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho....

[ritter]

Letters by Marcel Proust to the duc de Valentinois (later to be Prince Pierre of Monaco), recently released by the Monaco palace, scrupulously edited by Jean-Marc Quaranta, and lovingly prefaced by Jean-Yves Tadié.

[Kontrapunctus]

http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426804837l/25177983.jpg