What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Not yet.

I recommend you do it asap --- provided, of course, there is a really good Finnish translation. The reality it describes is much more gruesome than anything Dostoyevsky ever experienced (and probably ever imagined) but paradoxically the style is gentler, more humorous and humane --- reading it I laughed while crying and viceversa. I don't hesitate to nominate it for the best 20-th century book.

Btw, another firm recommendation is Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate --- sort of a War and Peace set during WWII. A masterpiece as well.

Sometimes I ask myself how come that, while I'm being unabashedly and unapologetically Russophobe when it comes to politics, at the same time I'm being unabashedly and unapologetically Russophile when it comes to music and literature. 

[Karl Henning]

... while I'm being unabashedly and unapologetically Russophobe when it comes to politics....

I (and the Russians in my life) consider that in light of plain good sense.

[Florestan]

I (and the Russians in my life) consider that in light of plain good sense.

Please, send all my best to them. If we ever met in person, I'd be glad to buy the gentlemen a glass of vodka and the ladies a glass of whatever they wish (kvass maybe?). 

[Karl Henning]

Please, send all my best to them. If we ever met in person, I'd be glad to buy the gentlemen a glass of vodka and the ladies a glass of whatever they wish (kvass maybe?). 

A nice cup of tea will do handsomely.

[Florestan]

A nice cup of tea will do handsomely.

Duly noted, Karl. And what would you like? 

[bwv 1080]

Btw, another firm recommendation is Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate --- sort of a War and Peace set during WWII. A masterpiece as well.

Have you seen the Russian 2012 miniseries?  Not perfect, but very watchable and available on Amazon Prime in the US

[Florestan]

Have you seen the Russian 2012 miniseries?  Not perfect, but very watchable and available on Amazon Prime in the US

I haven't.

[NikF]

Replacing a copy I lost as part of the great dividing of goods and chattels that occurred a few years ago.

[asin]2097542026[/asin]

Someone could look at this collection and reduce it to 'portraits featuring heavy burning interspersed with somewhat voyeuristic studies of legs and derrieres'. Actually, they probably wouldn't say that at all. Instead, past form would indicate they'd go on at great length, happy in ignorant belief that their uninformed opinion is automatically a fact carved in stone. In any case, fuck them.
My own opinion is simple. I believe that Sieff loved his subjects for a number of reasons, that he didn't interfere, and was never intimidated by what they had to offer.
In any case, I'm enjoying browsing this right now, post gym with a cheeseburger and fries and a pint of milk.

[SimonNZ]

^ The posture of the guy on the cover made me immediately think of the Robert Mapplethorpe self portrait where he's got a whip up his ass.

[NikF]

^ The posture of the guy on the cover made me immediately think of the Robert Mapplethorpe self portrait where he's got a whip up his ass.

Yeah, suppose it does. One of the cool things about Mapplethorpe is his unashamed, unapologetic efforts to turn people on via what he created. Good stuff.
The model in the Sieff shot is Patrick Dupond who danced with the Paris Opera Ballet in fine company. 

[milk]

I haven't.

If you have a tolerance for BBC-style period dramas, it's pretty fun. But that's very much a taste thing and I wouldn't blame anyone for hating it. I liked it though.

[milk]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72579.Alias_Grace

I think Atwood wrote a thrilling novel. She's quite masterful at the prose and patchwork of historical fiction and she's created a very compelling portrait. This is a masterpiece and one of the very best books of fiction I've read from the last few decades.

[Florestan]

If you have a tolerance for BBC-style period dramas, it's pretty fun. But that's very much a taste thing and I wouldn't blame anyone for hating it. I liked it though.

I'm a bit confused. Is it "Life and Fate" or "War and Peace"?

[milk]

I'm a bit confused. Is it "Life and Fate" or "War and Peace"?

Sorry, I got confused. Carry on

[aligreto]

Renoir's Table





I bought this book recently and I have been browsing through its visual and verbal delights with great relish. It even includes recipes of the dishes displayed and spoken of. The following is courtesy of the Amazon page

This book takes an unusual angle to view one of the masters of Impressionism. We are taken on a visual and culinary tour around late nineteenth-century Paris, and are introduced to the favourite haunts of the Impressionist group, captured in the good-natured festivities of Renoir's painting, "Dejeuner des Canotiers" for example, painted from life in the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou or we are invited to join the diners on the banks of the Seine, evoking the atmosphere of "The Luncheon of the Boating Party". No one knew better than Renoir how to capture the sensuality and relaxation of the open air, the joy of living on a brilliant summers afternoon. Alongside a selection of Renoirs much-loved paintings we have gastronomic portraits; from Bouillabaisse Provengale to Potage Crecy and Firtures de Goujon, Chicken Renoir or Baked Tomatoes Cezanne, made especially by Madame Renoir, for a visit from the artist to her home. Each recipe is taken from an authentic contemporary source, recreating the feel of turn of the century Paris. Also depicted is Renoir's family life, an essential element in his often hectic career, a life which arrived late into his middle age. The Renoir family spent summers in Essoyes, in the eastern French countryside where the bucolic climate and hospitable style of daily life there is portrayed in ninety colour photographs of the region. Towards the end of his life Renoir was enchanted by this rural environment; featuring an abundance of flowers and olive trees framed by azure skies, captured in his later landscapes. The cast of characters in this bohemian, though sometimes harsh life include a list of the most gifted people of the day, Zola, Manet, and Cezanne as well as minor painters, writers, art dealers, society hostesses, cooks, restaurateurs, maids - all are drawn with loving recall; their stories taken from contemporary letters, and especially Jean Renoirs memoirs which invoke the heady, pleasure-seeking lifestyle which epitomises this fascinating era.

[SimonNZ]

Finished:



And only after I finished it do I learn its part of a loosely connected sequence of novels involving the same characters and I haven't read any of the three earlier. Nevertheless I enjoyed this and thought it worked well as a stand alone.

Started:

[stingo]

Comic books. Specifically DC's Rebirth using this reading order.

[LKB]

About 60 pages in, and it's already one of the best science books in my experience.



,

LKB

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72579.Alias_Grace

I think Atwood wrote a thrilling novel. She's quite masterful at the prose and patchwork of historical fiction and she's created a very compelling portrait. This is a masterpiece and one of the very best books of fiction I've read from the last few decades.

This and The Blind Assassin are her masterpieces, I think. I like them much better than her dystrophic books (Maddadam, Handmaid's tale).

[Florestan]

This and The Blind Assassin are her masterpieces, I think. I like them much better than her dystrophic books (Maddadam, Handmaid's tale).

You must have meant dystopian.