What are you currently reading?

[NikF]

Saturday morning waiting for a bench in the busy gym will mean rereading 'Among Women Only' from this collection.

[ritter]

Saturday morning waiting for a bench in the busy gym will mean rereading 'Among Women Only' from this collection.

Great stuff. I read Pavese with pleasure many years ago, and should revisit him sometime soon.

Antonioni's film adaptation of Tra Donne sole, Le amiche (one of his early films) is most enjoyable as well.

[NikF]

Great stuff. I read Pavese with pleasure many years ago, and should revisit him sometime soon.

Antonioni's film adaptation of Tra Donne sole, Le amiche (one of his early films) is most enjoyable as well.

Cool. Yeah, the Antonioni might be where the name of Pavese was first brought to my attention, back when I was studying the work of cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo - 8 1/2, Le mani sula cita, La notte etc.
Anyway, I keep meaning to read The moon and the bonfires/la luna e falo. You familiar with that one?

[Karl Henning]

A bleak outlook

Is journalism's 'pivot to dust' arriving?
https://wapo.st/2FOSsgR

[ritter]

Cool. Yeah, the Antonioni might be where the name of Pavese was first brought to my attention, back when I was studying the work of cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo - 8 1/2, Le mani sula cita, La notte etc.
Anyway, I keep meaning to read The moon and the bonfires/la luna e falo. You familiar with that one?

I too got to Pavese vía Antonioni. I have rarely had such a strong impression of a work in any medium as La notte had on me in my late teens, and this led me to explore as much as possible about the Italian director (which at the time wasn't that easy, as this was way before the advent of DVDs). The name of Pavese came up in some book, and I read The Beautiful Summer.  It was only much later that I got to watch Le amiche.

I haven't read La luna.... It's in my Italian Pléiade edition of all of Pavese's novels and novellas, so you've given me an idea...

[NikF]

I too got to Pavese vía Antonioni. I have rarely had such a strong impression of a work in any medium as La notte had on me in my late teens, and this led me to explore as much as possible about the Italian director (which at the time wasn't that easy, as this was way before the advent of DVDs). The name of Pavese came up in some book, and I read The Beautiful Summer.  It was only much later that I got to watch Le amiche.

I haven't read La luna.... It's in my Italian Pléiade edition of all of Pavese's novels and novellas, so you've given me an idea...

Yeah, I can imagine La notte making such an impression. It is still capable of creating an impact. And true, before DVD it was difficult to explore a filmography, whereas now it is (almost) all out there, often available even on a whim. But your journey was interesting. 
I'll pick up a copy of La luna when I'm next in town. Do enjoy your own reading of it.

[Florestan]

I must have noticed this book in my parents' library some 35 years ago, yet somehow I never managed to read it:



(La luna e i falò & Tra donne sole in Romanian translation, part of a literature collection titled Biblioteca pentru toți, ie A Library for All)

Is it high time to rectify it?

[ritter]

I must have noticed this book in my parents' library some 35 years ago, yet somehow I never managed to read it:



(La luna e i falò & Tra donne sole in Romanian translation, part of a literature collection titled Biblioteca pentru toți, ie A Library for All)

Is it high time to rectify it?

I couldn't tell. The novellas in The Beautiful Summer are very much of the "coming of age" type—as I understand is most of Pavese output—, but beautifully written as I remember. So, for a young man, they were really touching and made a strong impression. Now that I'm not that young anymore, I don't know what effect they'd have on me. That's why I think tackling The Moon and the Bonfires sometime soon could be a good idea.

[JBS]

https://deadspin.com/hate-the-patriots-for-the-right-reason-1832130758/amp

[aligreto]

I occasionally read some of my daughter's books which she has long grown out of. She had good taste in reading when she was a teenager and her choices were always interesting.
I was looking for some light reading recently and I have just finished reading these two


   


Recommended good reads for early teens.

[listener]

Geoff DYER    BROADWAY CALLING DANNY BOY
a scene-by-scene companion to the Hollywood vision of WWII as shown in the movie "Where Eagles Dare".
I've not seen that film, but this read makes it sound like a hilarious romp.  116 pages probably can be read in a shorter time than seeing the 158 minute-long film.
[asin]0141987626[/asin]

[Artem]

Reread two more Sebald's novels from my collection, The Rings of Saturn and Austerlitz, both of which were great. Also read The Order of the Day by Éric Vuillard that won 2017 Goncourt Prize and Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. The last one left me with mixed feelings.

[Mandryka]

I'm not sure if it's just pornography or something else, I'm only up to page 100. Neither am I sure if it's imaginative fiction or biography. She certainly liked to fuck when she was a teenager.

[SimonNZ]

Geoff DYER    BROADWAY CALLING DANNY BOY
a scene-by-scene companion to the Hollywood vision of WWII as shown in the movie "Where Eagles Dare".
I've not seen that film, but this read makes it sound like a hilarious romp.  116 pages probably can be read in a shorter time than seeing the 158 minute-long film.

This is unusual because Geoff Dyer has previously deliverately never written a full book on the same subject twice, and has already published a shot by shot study of Tarkovsky's Stalker called "Zona"

I want to add a comment about going from the sublime to the ridiculous, but I haven't seen Where Eagles Dare since I was a kid and there may be a lot more there than I realize.


TD: 3/4 through both of these:



The Roosevelt biography - volume 2 of 3, this one covering the presidency - is as good as I'd heard and easily recommended. The one on Svetlana Alliluyeva much less so as the first third covering her childhood just reiterates her own autobiography with little on the Stalin era more generally, the second section on surviving in Russia after his death is better, but the book doesn't really become worthy until it gets to her defection and publishing.

[Ken B]

I'm not sure if it's just pornography or something else, I'm only up to page 100. Neither am I sure if it's imaginative fiction or biography. She certainly liked to fuck when she was a teenager.

So, judging from the photo, did her partners!

[aligreto]

Hemingway: Men Without Women





I have always liked Hemingway's short stories. A good many of them are real moments in time.

[NikF]

Hemingway: Men Without Women





I have always liked Hemingway's short stories. A good many of them are real moments in time.

Indeed.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place - perhaps the short story I've read most from this collection -



(photo taken years ago by my then girlfriend, who when first getting behind a camera went through the 'I'm going to shoot everything with wide open primes' newbie phase using my work lenses. I held the reflectors. )

[Ken B]

Indeed.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place - perhaps the short story I've read most from this collection -



(photo taken years ago by my then girlfriend, who when first getting behind a camera went through the 'I'm going to shoot everything with wide open primes' newbie phase using my work lenses. I held the reflectors. )

I need to re read those. The ones I remember best are that one, The Killers, and Hills Like White Elephants, which is a perfect example of the caught instant.
The library has a copy of his collected stories, but there is a waiting list!

[NikF]

I need to re read those. The ones I remember best are that one, The Killers, and Hills Like White Elephants, which is a perfect example of the caught instant.
The library has a copy of his collected stories, but there is a waiting list!

Not sure if I should be surprised to hear that.

[LKB]

 John Cleese's " So, Anyway... "

About 2/3 finished, and there have been no slow or dull portions.

Recommended,

LKB