What are you currently reading?

[MN Dave]

I've seen his novels in the Hastings in town, kind of curious to try him.  I look forward to your review.  I should probably see what blog posts I've missed recently.

Thanks, bud.

He's a unique writer among the horror crowd. Either you'll read him and shrug, or devour everything you can get your hands on. You might try The Ignored first.

[DavidW]

Thanks, bud.

He's a unique writer among the horror crowd. Either you'll read him and shrug, or devour everything you can get your hands on. You might try The Ignored first.

Okey doke, I'll give that one a try.

[SonicMan46]

On our recent trip to NYC, we visited many museums, including The Cloisters (below, right) - part of the Met but located in Fort Tryon Park, upper tip of Manhattan (you take the A train of Strayhorn/Ellington fame) - medieval buildings housing all sorts of artworks, including the famous unicorn tapestry.

In the gift shop, I picked up:  Mysteries of the Middle Ages - and the Beginning of the Modern World by Thomas Cahill (liked his 'How the Irish Saved Civilization') published in 2006; enjoyable read w/ a larger font used & some beautiful illustrations; 'mixed' reviews on Amazon HERE - don't really agree w/ the poor ratings, but so far would likely do a 4/5* - but, I love reading about this era and own all of the Teaching Company's DVD series on the Middle Ages - 


 

[Bogey]

On our recent trip to NYC, we visited many museums, including The Cloisters (below, right) - part of the Met but located in Fort Tryon Park, upper tip of Manhattan (you take the A train of Strayhorn/Ellington fame) - medieval buildings housing all sorts of artworks, including the famous unicorn tapestry.

In the gift shop, I picked up:  Mysteries of the Middle Ages - and the Beginning of the Modern World by Thomas Cahill (liked his 'How the Irish Saved Civilization') published in 2006; enjoyable read w/ a larger font used & some beautiful illustrations; 'mixed' reviews on Amazon HERE - don't really agree w/ the poor ratings, but so far would likely do a 4/5* - but, I love reading about this era and own all of the Teaching Company's DVD series on the Middle Ages - 


 

Just browsed the Cahill selection, Dave.  The Irish one looks truly fascinating/  I will see if I can dig up a copy at my local library.

[Bogey]

Update: There is one on the shelf at the library down the street, Dave.

[bwv 1080]

David Glantz is the foremost historian of the war in the East and has had full access to declassified Soviet archives

This is the first volume in a trilogy detailing the opening of Operation Blau up to the Germans reaching the outskirts of Stalingrad

[SonicMan46]

Update: There is one on the shelf at the library down the street, Dave.

Bill - I really enjoyed that book (believe that I donated it to a local charity book sale, otherwise I'd send you my copy) - please let us know what you think - tonight, I just started to watch my DVDs on the middle ages - great stuff!  Dave 

[Bogey]

Bill - I really enjoyed that book (believe that I donated it to a local charity book sale, otherwise I'd send you my copy) - please let us know what you think - tonight, I just started to watch my DVDs on the middle ages - great stuff!  Dave 

Well, went to the library today and was about to grab the one you mentioned, Dave when I got sidetracked by these two:


Think gunfighter, and Wyatt Earp or Billy the Kid may come to mind, but what of Jim Moon? Joel Fowler? Zack Light? A host of other figures helped forge the gunfighter persona, but their stories have been lost to time. In a sequel to his Deadly Dozen, celebrated western historian Robert K. DeArment now offers more biographical portraits of lesser-known gunfighters--men who perhaps weren't glorified in legend or song, but who were rightfully notorious in their day.

and


Before he brilliantly traversed the gritty landscapes of underworld Detroit and Miami, Elmore Leonard wrote breathtaking adventures set in America's nineteenth-century western frontier—elevating a popular genre with his now-trademark twisting plots, rich characterizations, and scalpel-sharp dialogue.

MN Dave, I am guessing that Elmore has been on your reading list more than once.

[Lilas Pastia]

My mother uses that word.  As in, "patates fricassees", meaning "hashbrown potatoes".  Commonly used word by French Canadians. 

Yup. I'm sure there are plenty of regional variants, all with their distinctive flavours. In Quebec term usually describes a weekday meal made from leftovers of the Sunday pork or beef roast: diced meat recooked with chopped onions and savory, then add diced potatoes, cover with broth and serve when potatoes are done. Fresh field Summer tomatoes or cucumbers are the perfect accompaniment. Speedy, economical and tasty.

In French, "fricassée" is often used in a figurative meaning, as in the english term "hodgepodge".

[Scarpia]

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, and it was very good.

[secondwind]

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, and it was very good.

Yes, I liked that one too.

[val]

GEORGES CORM:      "L'Europe et le mythe de l'Occident"  (2009)

A very stimulating book. Georges Corm refuses to see the West as an entity, but only as a concept, containing the myths, not only from the Europeans and Americans but also from the opponents of the West in other continents.
I disagree with some ideas of the author, but there are also some interesting perspectives. He shows that the general concepts and even the values presented by those who hate the West, in the Middle East for example, are molded by the same myth and values of the West created by Eurpeans and Americans.

[MN Dave]

[CD]

[Diletante]

I started reading Albert Camus' L'étranger a couple of days ago. First book I read in French.

[secondwind]

I'm reading The Turn of the Screw, of course!  It is just like the old days--I'm doing my homework at the last possible minute!

[SonicMan46]

Mendelssohn - A Life in Music by R. Larry Todd (published in 2003) - just getting started on this well received HUGE tome.  Todd is a Professor of Music at Duke University in my home state; he is considered the world's Mendelssohn expert - finishing the first 100 pages and Felix is about 10 y/o, so a long way to go! 

I was stimulated to purchase this book after some recent CD orders from Watchorn's site, Musica Omnia - my third Mendelssohn set of discs is on its way!  Todd wrote the notes for these recordings which are excellent, as expected.  So far, just a LOT of information about the music teachers of Felix and Fanny, such Carl Zelter (1758-1832) who was taught by Fasch; this will be much more that a bio of Felix (e.g. Fanny is extensively being discussed) but a story of music during (and before) the early 19th century.

 

[Bogey]

Neat idea, Dave!

[Opus106]

What sort of academic degrees does one need to hold before embarking upon reading a work by Borges?

I ask that question only half-jokingly, since he does seem to assume that the reader is familiar with the works of various literary figures and philosophers. I'm currently reading Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. Philosophy is not a subject I hold very dear -- well, maybe as a face-to-face discussion topic during a lazy afternoon I'll do, but beyond that I'm not a big fan. I have a copy of Labyrinths (Penguin Modern Classics). Does anyone have suggestions for a for-dummies story/essay from this collection? (I mean a dummy who is somewhat interested in the topics covered.)

Incidentally, early this morning, I woke up to a noise or some other disturbance, and in that hazy state whatever I had read in the story till then seemed to make sense. Yes, all was there for me to see for that tiny fraction of a second, before I plunged back into Slumberland. Sometime later, when I was in a less-hazier state I tried to recollect what the key was, and I for the life of me could not do it! I still cannot. (Now, I'm not even sure if I was awake then. )

[Antoine Marchand]

What sort of academic degrees does one need to hold before embarking upon reading a work by Borges?

Hi, Opus. I am a great Borges fan. I have read his complete works, although in Spanish, my mother tongue.

You should not be afraid about all those philosophical and literary references: many of them are only well elaborated literary jokes: "Then Bioy Casares recalled that one of the Heresiarchs of Uqbar had declared that copulation and mirrors are abominable, because they increase the number of men"   [BTW, Bioy Casares was a great argentinian writer, the best friend of Borges and a gentleman rather succesful with the ladies].

I would recommend you to begin with the more realistic stories in that volume: Emma Zunz, Theme of the Traitor and the Hero and Deutches Requiem, after them the more metaphysic stories will appear more natural.