What are you currently reading?

[rubio]

Any comment on this one? It's waiting in my bookshelf 


I'm about halfway through and enjoying it.  It's very readable, which for me is kind of a key requirement, no matter how worthy the book.

The author is attempting an updated version of War and Peace, set against a background of the Battle of Stalingrad.  He follows the events which befall a number of groups of Russians - in a German KZ, in a Soviet work camp, Muscovites evacuated to the Ukraine, a family behind the lines in Kazan, as well as battle groups in and around Stalingrad.  The narrative is in short sections, some no more than a page, and doesn't follow a linear track, though it does continually intersect and connect e.g. one of the prisoners in the Gulag is the first husband of a woman in Kazan whose son has just fallen in battle.

The author doesn't preach, but equally he doesn't flinch from saying it the way he saw it (as a war journalist "embedded" with the Red Army) so it's not hard to see why it took such a struggle to get it published.  I've no doubt it's a major work.  If you've read And Quiet Flows The Don by Sholokhov, this is kind of similar, but significantly better, in my view.  For one thing, there's not an ounce of sentimentality anywhere in it, but neither is it cynical.  Sympathetic but bitingly analytical, and powerfully written.

Thank you very much for your detailed comment! And Quiet Flows The Don by Sholokhov is also on my list of books to read, but for sure I will read Life and Fate first. It will be a nice read for this autumn and winter to come.

[Mn Dave]

.[asin]0142004308[/asin]
Cracking.

[DavidW]

I reread A Tale of Two Cities.  That was a favorite back in high school, it still holds up but is not my favorite Dickens novel by far anymore.  I guess my problem is that it doesn't have enough of the Dickensian humor and quirky characters, and everything is too black and white.

[karlhenning]

Yes, it's an unusually drive-to-the-end novel for Dickens.

[ibanezmonster]

It's good (possibly the best book on the subject), but as easy to understand as an advanced book on philosophy.

I know part of that has to do with the nature of multithreading (which is a matter not of simply typing something and seeing results, but mainly just theoretical good and bad practices), but I'm going to have to look into other stuff that makes comprehending certain stuff a bit easier (if I can find a book that can pull that off).

[SonicMan46]

Boy, I've not posted here in a while, but I have been reading a lot of books! 

Currently, Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild (2010) by Lee Sandlin - great reviews & ratings on Amazon HERE - reading the book off my iPad2 - using an app called Overdrive which allows borrowing from various libraries, so out on a 2 week loan - enjoying this e-reading -

[ibanezmonster]

I don't know if I posted this already...

Read up to page 92/256 of How to Kill a Mockingbird. I read it based on its reputation. I know I'll upset a few people, but I have to ask... does this get any better? If not, how is this even considered a great work of art? I feel like I'm reading a kids' movie.

Maybe there's something at the end that will totally amaze and shock me? 

[DavidW]

Greg you can't judge a novel until you have finished reading it. If you can't finish that short read then you will have failed where millions of ninth graders have succeeded (including me).   The main character is a child, but the issue of racism is a mature topic handled seriously.

[JerryS]

I don't know if I posted this already...

Read up to page 92/256 of How to Kill a Mockingbird. I read it based on its reputation. I know I'll upset a few people, but I have to ask... does this get any better? If not, how is this even considered a great work of art? I feel like I'm reading a kids' movie.

Maybe there's something at the end that will totally amaze and shock me? 

You might find this discussion helpful:

http://www.neabigread.org/books/mockingbird/radioshow.php

Don't expect any huge shocks, but there is some fearful business toward the end and a satisfying catharsis.

Oh, and by the way, this isn't a "How to" book.   

[ibanezmonster]

Okay, I'll have to finish it, then. 

[Bogey]

[Bogey]

I don't know if I posted this already...

Read up to page 92/256 of How to Kill a Mockingbird. I read it based on its reputation. I know I'll upset a few people, but I have to ask... does this get any better? If not, how is this even considered a great work of art? I feel like I'm reading a kids' movie.

Maybe there's something at the end that will totally amaze and shock me? 

My favorite novel of all time (or tied with LOTR).

[Mn Dave]

New Wolfe.
[asin]0765328186[/asin]

[Coco]

[Mn Dave]

How is it?

[Mn Dave]

.[asin]0765360268[/asin]

[Mn Dave]

,[asin]085768325X[/asin]

[karlhenning]

Re-reading this tasty sucker:

The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War

[asin]0385520603[/asin]

[Brahmsian]

After reading Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamazov and Crime & Punishment, what should be next to read in the Dostoevsky catalogue?

Please and thank you.   

Should The Idiot be next?

[karlhenning]

Should The Idiot be next?

Да.