What are you currently reading?

[SimonNZ]

This.
[asin]B071XN75S1[/asin]

A somewhat odd book. The name comes from a huge apartment block in which lived many Old Bolsheviks and high officials in Russia in 1931. The book is about them, their fate, their mindset. Parts of it drift off into theory, but mostly it's a convincing portrait of a community of True Believers. He likens bolshevism to other millenerian cults, like early Christianity.
It does assume a basic familiarity with the history. The NEP is not explained for example, not even the acronym, and the details of Stalin's rise are assumed, etc.   Overall an outstanding book so far, a little over half way through.

Recommended for Andrei

I was over at a friends place today (to watch the final episode of Ken Burns' Vietnam) and he was raving about this book, saying it was the best thing he'd read over the last year. What was your impression after finishing?

[Ken B]

Simon, I recall mentioning the Holland, which is great.

I very much liked the House of Government. But it comes with caveats. There is some more general theory of millenarian movements he discusses at length, such as early Christianity, and he comes back to it a lot. It also demands as I said some familiarity with the narrative history. But it gives a great insight into the mindset of the first generation or two of bolsheviks. It's unlike any other book on the period I have read too. If you are are interested I recommend it highly.

[Mookalafalas]

Simon, I recall mentioning the Holland, which is great.

I very much liked the House of Government. But it comes with caveats. There is some more general theory of millenarian movements he discusses at length, such as early Christianity, and he comes back to it a lot. It also demands as I said some familiarity with the narrative history. But it gives a great insight into the mindset of the first generation or two of bolsheviks. It's unlike any other book on the period I have read too. If you are are interested I recommend it highly.

thanks for the Recommendation. Just nabbed a copy.

[Ken B]

This
[asin]0393331660[/asin]

Which is based on the oldest manuscript. So it is the original version as it were, without some later stories such as Sinbad. I have the accompanying volume of those tales too.

Certain to offend prudes, SJWs, #MeTooers, and scolds of all stripes.

[Mirror Image]

This:

[asin]0199744645[/asin]

I'm not really reading this from front to back as this isn't one of those kinds of books, but I do pick up this book periodically and read about a Barber work I'm interested in learning about which this particular book provides background history to each composition, when it was written, when it was first premiered, etc.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

And now, arriving in Les Misérables to what is arguably the creepiest part in the book - Marius stalking Cosette. I guess this passed as romantic in the 19th century. Still, it is so very well written...

[André]

[SimonNZ]

[NikF]

[Crudblud]

In an attempt to be more varied and active in my reading I'm going through some history with Rise to Globalism by Ambrose and Brinkley. I'm also looking at Norman Stone's Europe Transformed, 1878-1919. Taking them both very slowly so that I don't get my head stuffed with a bunch of stuff that just disappears the next day.

On my way to meet a friend yesterday I picked up William Gibson's Neuromancer and Joseph Conrad's Nostromo from an Oxfam bookshop. Looking forward to reading those soon. While the shop is reasonably priced I must protest at their use of stickers with segmented flaps, which make it quite a pain to remove them cleanly. I mean, I don't like stickers on books at all; my favourite bookshop, now closed down as of almost a year ago, just used to lightly pencil the price on the inside cover.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Soon, I'm going to re-read The Silmarillion (amazing book, easily my favorite Tolkien work) and then probably read for the first time The book of lost tales. Although I've read that they (along with Unfinished tales) deal mostly with the same material only written a bit differently (IIRC, Melkor is still called Melko in The Book of Lost Tales).

[ritter]

Before embarking on the reading of José Lezama Lima's monumental Paradiso (widely regarded as one of the greatest novels written in Spanish in the 20th century), I've bean leafing through the magazine Orígenes, which the author (along with a group of collaborators) edited in Havana from 1944 to 1956, and which in those years established itself as one of the leading art and literature periodicals in the Spanish speaking world. Apart from Lezama, there are contributions by most relevant Cuban authors of those years, as well as by prestigious authors from Spain (Juan Ramón Jiménez, Luis Cernuda, Vicente Aleixandre), Latin America (Octavio Paz, Gabriela Mistral) and other countries (T.S. Eliot, Paul Valéry, Paul Éluard...).



All the issues were published again in 1992 in facsimile form (in 7 volumes) jointly by publishers Turner from Spain and El Equilibrista from Mexico, with funding from Spain's Fifth Centennial Commission. The set is an object of beauty...

[Moonfish]

These two... 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

These two... 

Great!  Haven't read that Rachmaninov study but anything related to that great composer must be great. As for Buddenbrooks, it is one of my favorite German novels ever.

[vandermolen]

'The President's Hat' by Antoine Laurain. VG

[listener]

From the Score to the Stage: An Illustrated History of Continental Opera Production and Staging

large format, beautiful presentation on opera stagecraft



https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0226035085/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Cato]

Great!  Haven't read that Rachmaninov study but anything related to that great composer must be great.

As for Buddenbrooks, it is one of my favorite German novels ever.

Amen  0:)  and Amen again!  0:)

I am currently near the end of proof-reading my own latest novel:

From the Temples of the Cloud  It is a counterpart, if not exactly a sequel, to an earlier novel from c. 4 years ago, From the Caves of the Cloud.

[Moonfish]

From the Score to the Stage: An Illustrated History of Continental Opera Production and Staging

large format, beautiful presentation on opera stagecraft



https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0226035085/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That looks extremely enticing!!!!!  I think that will end up on my reading list towards the end of the summer thanks to you, Listener! 

[NikF]

On the train today -

[Ken B]

The seven volume The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon, translated from the French. This is the first

[asin]0007491263[/asin]

I have almost finished the second now. Seems like a Florestan kind of book, or Mookalafalas.
And Moonfish too, as an I, Claudius fan.