What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Giovanni Boccacio - The Decameron

Just love his style. Oh, and it goes very well with the music of Jacopo da Bologna and Francesco Landino. 

[Karl Henning]

That snippet at FB certainly made me add that to my wishlist.

It's great fun.  One of his titles was published with a foreword by P.G. Wodehouse, expressing warm admiration.  Naturally, this caught my attention   

[North Star]

It's great fun.  One of his titles was published with a foreword by P.G. Wodehouse, expressing warm admiration.  Naturally, this caught my attention   

Aye. 

[Ken B]

Giovanni Boccacio - The Decameron

Just love his style. Oh, and it goes very well with the music of Jacopo da Bologna and Francesco Landino. 

That's my favourite book.

[listener]

from Kevin Kwan, author of CRAZY RICH ASIANS
CHINA RICH GIRLFRIEND
more of the same (not an adverse comment), great summer read here.

[Karl Henning]

On the bus ride home yesterday, the first essay, "Mozart as Mid-Cult";  roughly equal parts no sympathy with Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (or, with the film thereof, mostly), and an engaging argument for the Ken Russell film on Tchaikovsky:

[asin]1555532187[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

I don't share Horowitz's tendency to wring his hands over the demise of Classical Music, of course;  and in places where we come close to agreement, he is often the more fastidious of us two.  I have to thank him for pointing out (what I ought to have been able to observe myself) that Salieri's preoccupation (in Shaffer's Amadeus) with the "ghosts of the Future" is rather an anachronism (though we might argue that the whole exercise of the play/movie is Romantification Rampant).

[Drasko]

Faulkner - Wild Palms / Old Man

[ritter]

Playright René Peter, a childhood friend of Marcel Proust's, recalls--40 years after they took place--the convesrations the two men had over 5 months in 1906, when they were both staying in Versailles. An engaging memoir of Proust before he was a celebrity. The book has a short chapter on Debussy (I haven't reached it yet)...

[Artem]

Great autobiography. Very straightforward and open talk from Herbie Hancock.


This was my second book from this Icelandic writer, Sjon, who has a very interesting writing style.

[Florestan]

Playright René Peter, a childhood friend of Marcel Proust's, recalls--40 years after they took place--the convesrations the two men had over 5 months in 1906, when they were both staying in Versailles. An engaging memoir of Proust before he was a celebrity. The book has a short chapter on Debussy (I haven't reached it yet)...

Very interesting.

[Karl Henning]

Re-reading (for I know not what^th time) Evelyn Waugh's Decline & Fall.

[aligreto]

Re-reading (for I know not what^th time) Evelyn Waugh's Decline & Fall.

Waugh was a wonderful author and I do not think that his works lose anything with a re-read. Enjoy.....again.

[Ken B]

Thumbprint, translation of Wachtmeister Studer
Friedrich Glauser

[Wakefield]

Tonight I have started this one:

[asin]B007EDOLJ2[/asin]

... translated into Spanish:

[asin]B00JXTEXKW[/asin]

Physical book, not Kindle.

It's a thick book of more than 1,000 pages in which I was interested after watching an Andrew Solomon's TED talk titled "Love, no matter what":

https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_solomon_love_no_matter_what

It's one of the most moving and deep talks that I have heard the last time.

So much that I bought and started this book about parents and children being a single man without children! 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

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.

Sorry for bringing up such an old quote but this roused my interest since I am going to re read tale of two cities one of these days. I never saw tale of two cities as that black and white, since a) the villainess of the novel, Madame Defarge, has one hell of an freudian excuse, even though her bloodthirstiness is still alarming. And b) The author clearly has grudging admiration towards her, praising her intellect, firmness, beauty and dedication to her cause. She is kind of Lady Macbeth of Dickens's oeuvre, having certain type of grandness about her. This quote from the book in particular seems pretty clear admiration to me (horror inducing admiration but still):

"There were many women at that time, upon whom the time laid a dreadfully disfiguring hand; but, there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and animosity, but to strike into others an instinctive recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have heaved her up, under any circumstances."

There is also Gaspard (who murders certain heartless Marquis who run over his son and mocked his grief by tossing him a gold coin as compensation) and repenting grave robber Jerry Cruncher. Dickens clearly intends us to see Sydney Carton as a flawed character because of his wasted life, but much like Pip in Great Expectations, he never does anything bad. And he actually commits the most noble act in the book. It is interesting how Dickens invites sympathy for the oppressed but is alarmed when the oppressed become oppressors themselves.

I agree though about the lack of humor. Other than Jerry Cruncher's antics, this book doesn't have that much of comedy. However, I think it brings refreshing change, differing from his earlier satirical works.

Now reading: William Berger, Wagner without fear. Very enjoyable, similar to his Verdi with a vengeance. By the way, this book's full title (Wagner without fear: learning to love - and even enjoy - opera's most demanding genius) reminds me of Dr Strangelove. Possibly intentional?

[Bogey]

Sorry for bringing up such an old quote but this roused my interest since I am going to re read tale of two cities one of these days. I never saw tale of two cities as that black and white, since a) the villainess of the novel, Madame Defarge, has one hell of an freudian excuse, even though her bloodthirstiness is still alarming. And b) The author clearly has grudging admiration towards her, praising her intellect, firmness, beauty and dedication to her cause. She is kind of Lady Macbeth of Dickens's oeuvre, having certain type of grandness about her. This quote from the book in particular seems pretty clear admiration to me (horror inducing admiration but still):

"There were many women at that time, upon whom the time laid a dreadfully disfiguring hand; but, there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and animosity, but to strike into others an instinctive recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have heaved her up, under any circumstances."

There is also Gaspard (who murders certain heartless Marquis who run over his son and mocked his grief by tossing him a gold coin as compensation) and repenting grave robber Jerry Cruncher. Dickens clearly intends us to see Sydney Carton as a flawed character because of his wasted life, but much like Pip in Great Expectations, he never does anything bad. And he actually commits the most noble act in the book. It is interesting how Dickens invites sympathy for the oppressed but is alarmed when the oppressed become oppressors themselves.

I agree though about the lack of humor. Other than Jerry Cruncher's antics, this book doesn't have that much of comedy. However, I think it brings refreshing change, differing from his earlier satirical works.

Incredible book.  As far as the character Sydney Carton, I did not know Dickens "had it in him" to to put together such a complex character.  Most of the time he has many characters to fill many roles.  I would like to delve into the reviews of this as it came out in its weekly installments and how it was perceived by the general public. 

[Karl Henning]

I need to finish Pickwick, so that I can re-read Tale of Two Cities 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Incredible book.  As far as the character Sydney Carton, I did not know Dickens "had it in him" to to put together such a complex character.  Most of the time he has many characters to fill many roles.  I would like to delve into the reviews of this as it came out in its weekly installments and how it was perceived by the general public.

It is often said that in this book Dickens focused more on plot than in characterization but I actually find characters much stronger than the plot since the only reason Sydney Carton is able to make his magnificent rescue of Darnay at the end is the unbelievable coincidence that they just happen to run into Miss Pross's long lost evil brother, whom Carton can blackmail. Plot was never Dickens's strongest point but damn, that's almost on Nickleby level of poor plot handling.

[Bogey]

I need to finish Pickwick, so that I can re-read Tale of Two Cities 

With caution, Karl.  You never know what someone might be knitting.