What are you currently reading?

[Karl Henning]

Landed yesterday:

[asin]0312031874[/asin]

Certainly it's good if you're an Avengers fan . . . .

[Elgarian]

A book that will polarise readers into lovers and haters. I'm in the lovers camp. I was hooked into Niffenegger's world - a strange amalgam of the ordinary with the astounding - within the first few pages. Partly this is because of her ability to capture the reader's sympathy in simple, unpretentious ways, but partly it's because very quickly one recognises the vulnerability of all the characters, and feels for them. Even, please note, though one of them is a ghost. The existence of a ghost in this novel, without any of the usual trappings of the ghost story, but as something that just happens, is one of the most beguiling of her achievements.

It's a tale about polarities and contrasts; about loss, and the necessity of accepting it, and the catastrophic consequences of trying to evade it. I felt that it broke my heart at the end. Not that all the characters end badly. But there was something inevitable about aspects of this. I'm still thinking about it. Still wondering if I should read it again from the beginning.

[DavidW]

Sounds great Elgarian, I'll put it on my to read list!

[Elgarian]

Sounds great Elgarian, I'll put it on my to read list!

Thing is Dave, ... even though I was (and still am) captivated by its characters and quite obsessed by the feel of its strangeness, it's not a novel I could safely recommend across the board. I'd put it, in some ways, in a similar category to Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, in the sense that it deals with an invasion of the mysterious, magical and spooky into the everyday world. Charles Williams's novels have the same sort of quality. All these books are very different, and yet there is this thread linking them which means they'll be dismissed as nonsense by as many people as are inspired by them.

You might like to hear the author herself talking about it? See here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVK-e4eBNLs

And it might also be helpful to consider The Night Circus:
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg577486.html#msg577486

[Karl Henning]

My curiosity is well and truly piqued, though, I'll tell you that, Alan.

[Elgarian]

My curiosity is well and truly piqued, though, I'll tell you that, Alan.

Then I think there's a good chance it's for you, Karl. One thing that I found extraordinary (quite apart from the intrigue of the plot) was the directness of her writing - her ability to convey quite subtle impressions in very few, simple words. So for instance, of the two twin 21-year-old girls in the novel, we're told:

'Valentina didn't feel well that morning, so Julia went to the Tesco Express to buy chicken soup, Ritz crackers and Coke, which the twins considered to be the proper cuisine for invalids.'

That conveyed so much intimate knowledge* about the twins all in one small dollop, that I laughed, immediately felt more affection for them, and found myself going back to read the sentence again several times even after having moved a few pages on.

* I mean knowledge in the connaitre, not the savoir sense.

[Antoine Marchand]

Here is a taste, the same taste that got me to read the book-- his TED talk (also on youtube):

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

BTW, thank you very much for this link, David. TED is a wonderful site. Now I have "attended" several talks there and all of them have been excellent.   

[DavidW]

BTW, thank you very much for this link, David. TED is a wonderful site. Now I have "attended" several talks there and all of them have been excellent. 

Yes those talks are great!  I have an app on my roku box just for ted talks.

[Bogey]

I had laid down the first Martin Beck novel and over the past few days plunged back into it and just finished.  Highly recommended if you enjoy grind out detective novels with a no-nonsense gum shoe. 

I am going to give this one a try next:



Here is a blip from Amazon:
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

My wife Linda in the meantime has been caught up with these two authors:

 


 

She has enjoyed both of these authors and will probably read all they wrote over the next couple of years.

In short, we both love murder mysteries and these have taken over much of our reading time. 

[Bogey]

Anyone read this author.  Here is his upcoming book:



December, 1942. Texas Ranger Virgil Tucker receives a plea for protection from Madeline Kimbell, a terrified young woman who witnessed a crime. Keeping Madeline safe from the men who want to hurt her turns out to be harder than he imagined. When a prominent attorney is murdered, Virgil is drawn into the dangerous world of the New Orleans Mafia as the top mob bosses try to take over  alveston's gambling empire. Chockfull of Southern charm, this book is perfect for fans of historical
mysteries and for anyone who loves Texas.

[Lethevich]

Ali Smith - The Accidental
Redonnet - Forever Valley

So twee "^____^" but not liking either.

(Although Redonnet is a good writer, Smith I have no clue about, I found the book quite hateable.)

[Elgarian]

I posted a few days ago about Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. Here's another of her books:



I first encountered this in 2008, when it was serialised, one page per week, in The Guardian. Within a few weeks it began to haunt me. Despite being someone for whom books have been of supreme importance all my life, I was surprised at its impact. I didn't think 'graphic novels' would be my thing at all. I didn't realise, then, that Audrey Niffenegger had long and deep experience of printmaking as a graphic artist, though I soon became aware that this wasn't just 'some sort of comic'.

Like all Niffenegger's books, it concerns the consequences of normal reality being subverted by the strange and mysterious. It explores, visually and in words, the significance of books in the life of Alexandra, a rather vulnerable lover of books. She stumbles one night across a mysterious travelling library that contains all the books she's ever read, and the rest of the graphic novel explores how events unfold from there. I still remember the shock - the sudden clutch at the heart - 'oh no, no, no, not that' - that comes a few pages before the end.

It was subsequently published as a hardback book, and I have one of these (signed by Niffenegger on the title page). I've re-read it maybe half a dozen times. Each time I see more in the visual artwork; each time the story acquires extra depth. When I read it last night, it left me so choked up with emotion that it took me some time to recover afterwards. So I thought it was time I posted it here.

The original version, published in The Guardian, can still be read on their website, though the separate pages are presented inconveniently backwards. See here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/nightbookmobile?page=3

You need to start with no 31 and work backwards (page 1 being the end!) Click on each thumbnail to see the whole page, and then click again to enlarge it.

[Ataraxia]

.[asin]0547577443[/asin]

[Ataraxia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Private_Memoirs_and_Confessions_of_a_Justified_Sinner

[Antoine Marchand]

A book that will polarise readers into lovers and haters. I'm in the lovers camp. I was hooked into Niffenegger's world - a strange amalgam of the ordinary with the astounding - within the first few pages. Partly this is because of her ability to capture the reader's sympathy in simple, unpretentious ways, but partly it's because very quickly one recognises the vulnerability of all the characters, and feels for them. Even, please note, though one of them is a ghost. The existence of a ghost in this novel, without any of the usual trappings of the ghost story, but as something that just happens, is one of the most beguiling of her achievements.

It's a tale about polarities and contrasts; about loss, and the necessity of accepting it, and the catastrophic consequences of trying to evade it. I felt that it broke my heart at the end. Not that all the characters end badly. But there was something inevitable about aspects of this. I'm still thinking about it. Still wondering if I should read it again from the beginning.

Sold!  I read some pages on Amazon (it's available as a Kindle edition) and I immediately was hooked by her style. I don't know if this will be finally true, but Niffenegger's style recalled me to Ethan Canin, a writter who I love from the Emperor of the Air (short stories) and For Kings and Planets (novel).

[DavidW]

Read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:

[asin]B003K16PXC[/asin]

Read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Haven't seen the movie, but the book does a very good job of interweaving the Dresden firebombing, Hiroshima and 9/11. At it's finest it echoes the poignant, resigned introspection and dark humor of Slaughterhouse Five, at it's worst it's sentimental schlock. The experimental visual style of interspersing the main narrative with the grandfather's diary and pictures works very well at elevating the novel, but wouldn't translate at all for film. Also it seems like both the child and the grandfather suffer from Asperger's to such a degree that the sheer insanity of their thoughts are sometimes hard to read. The chronology jumps around in precise imitation of Slaughterhouse Five (but the characters are not unhinged in time). Anyway thumbs up.

[Bogey]

Read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:

[asin]B003K16PXC[/asin]

Read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Haven't seen the movie, but the book does a very good job of interweaving the Dresden firebombing, Hiroshima and 9/11. At it's finest it echoes the poignant, resigned introspection and dark humor of Slaughterhouse Five, at it's worst it's sentimental schlock. The experimental visual style of interspersing the main narrative with the grandfather's diary and pictures works very well at elevating the novel, but wouldn't translate at all for film. Also it seems like both the child and the grandfather suffer from Asperger's to such a degree that the sheer insanity of their thoughts are sometimes hard to read. The chronology jumps around in precise imitation of Slaughterhouse Five (but the characters are not unhinged in time). Anyway thumbs up.

What drew you to this book, David?

[DavidW]

What drew you to this book, David?

I saw the trailer for the movie.  I didn't feel like watching the movie, but liked the idea for the story... which meant that reading the original novel was what I wanted to do.

[Bogey]

I saw the trailer for the movie.  I didn't feel like watching the movie, but liked the idea for the story... which meant that reading the original novel was what I wanted to do.

Cool.

[Henk]

Got to get "Creating capabilities" by Martha Nussbaum. Her book is published in Dutch in March. I think this is an important publication.

Going to read much (all?) of Foucault's work. The history of sexuality, Power and The Courage to Truth.