What are you currently reading?

[MN Dave]

I read your excellent review, Dave. Sounds interesting... BUT - there is so much I still have to read and, yes, to write...

Thanks for the kind words on my review, Johan. And, yes, there is much to read and write! I'm currently rethinking my approach to novel-writing. I've yet to complete one (without a collaborator).

[Harpo]

Has anyone read the mysteries of James Lee Burke? My brother says he's a superb writer.

[MN Dave]

Has anyone read the mysteries of James Lee Burke? My brother says he's a superb writer.

Yes. Do not hesitate.

[MN Dave]

Excellent.

[Valentino]

But, en anglais there is no note H . . . .

And still you can write music! Fantastic, isn't it? 

[Ten thumbs]

I have finished 'The Wild Irish Girl', which is quite a good story. In parts it is perhaps a little overloaded with Irish history but then it is a political novel. Lady Morgan equates the natural with the national Irishman and thus lays the foundations for Irish nationalism. This is a good introduction to my next author, de Staël, who with her emphasis on 'nationalité' laid the bedrock for a 'science of nations'. This is the age of Beethoven and it is interesting to reflect that at that time de Staël was far more famous and influential than he. However, I suppose most of us here prefer music to history.
I am therefore beginning 'Corinne, or italy'; en anglaise of course.

[MN Dave]

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

I like her writing style but this one is oh so bleak...

[Scarpia]

I like her writing style but this one is oh so bleak...

Bleak, but very short and concise.  A very strikingly drawn tableau.

[MN Dave]

Bleak, but very short and concise.  A very strikingly drawn tableau.

Agreed.

[MN Dave]

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

[CD]

What is Amvend (other than an anagram for MNdave)?

[MN Dave]

What is Amvend (other than an anagram for MNdave)?

Dunno. American Vendors?

[Bogey]

What is Amvend (other than an anagram for MNdave)?

AMVend is a proprietary video file format, produced for MP4 players, as well as S1 MP3 players with video playback that has come to a conclusion.

[Diletante]

I finished Julio Cortázar's Las armas secretas a few days ago. Very nice short stories, although the last one stumped me. Anyone else like Cortázar?

Then I read Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author . I didn't like it. I found the plot banal and weak, and the whole "characters searching for an author" thing didn't grab my attention. Maybe I didn't 'get' it.

[Scarpia]

I finished Julio Cortázar's Las armas secretas a few days ago. Very nice short stories, although the last one stumped me. Anyone else like Cortázar?

Then I read Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author . I didn't like it. I found the plot banal and weak, and the whole "characters searching for an author" thing didn't grab my attention. Maybe I didn't 'get' it.

Had the same reaction when reading a different work of Pirandello. 

[karlhenning]

Revisiting Brideshead Revisited;  and there are spooky aspects to that.

And, Why Begins With W has arrived just now!

[karlhenning]

And, Why Begins With W has arrived just now!

Began reading that yesterday afternoon, and although work tended to interfere, I had finished it before retiring for the night.  Great fun!  I enjoyed it, and I am well past the 'target age group'.

[MN Dave]

I read your excellent review, Dave. Sounds interesting... BUT - there is so much I still have to read and, yes, to write...

The author wrote me a nice Facebook letter.

[MN Dave]

For review:

[SonicMan46]

Well, I'm into my American Revolution mode - currently reading the book below:

Almost A Miracle:  The American Victory in the War of Independence (2007) by John Ferling - just getting started; nearly 600 pages, so will take me a while (since I often read 3-4 books at a time); so far, quite well done w/ much detail - don't expect a quick & easy read of this one!