What are you currently reading?

[SimonNZ]

Has anyone here read Tolstoy's Resurrection?

Does it really deserve its relative neglect?

[AnotherSpin]

Has anyone here read Tolstoy's Resurrection?

Does it really deserve its relative neglect?

I read it several decades ago, in Russian, of course. So, I have no idea about the quality of the translation. As with all of Tolstoy's works, it's very powerful. If you've already read War and Peace and Anna Karenina, then Resurrection is worth reading. It's his last completed novel, in which the author's religious and philosophical views are strongly reflected.

[Florestan]

Has anyone here read Tolstoy's Resurrection?

Does it really deserve its relative neglect?

I have, and concur with AS's assessment.

[San Antone]

Could be my favorite book. McCarthy has been a favorite writer of mine for decades, but his late works have not been for me.  Blood Meridian, though, I find simply masterful and I never tire of re-reading it.  Just did so earlier this year, which I do most years.

Enjoy!   

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Has anyone here read Tolstoy's Resurrection?

Does it really deserve its relative neglect?

My favorite among Tolstoy's works. The description of social problems and dysfunction in the book is a little too much, but the core (love) story is very artistic.

Tolstoy was one of my favorite authors when I was a teenager. Interestingly he is not anymore.

[AnotherSpin]

My favorite among Tolstoy's works. The description of social problems and dysfunction in the book is a little too much, but the core (love) story is very artistic.

Tolstoy was one of my favorite authors when I was a teenager. Interestingly he is not anymore.

I'm not sure Tolstoy wrote his novels for teenagers. However, not all teenagers are the same.

[Henk79]

Tolstoy was one of my favorite authors when I was a teenager. Interestingly he is not anymore.

+1

[Henk79]

Preparing myself to read:

[Spotted Horses]

Recently read Small Mercies, a potboiler from Dennis Lehane, the author of Mystic River. Before that, The Man in my Basement, by Walter Mosely (a black man who owns a large house without the resources to maintain it gets an offer from a wealthy white man who wants to be secluded in the basement to contemplate and perhaps atone for his sins). Before that Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald (a story about the BBC broadcasting house during WWII)

[ShineyMcShineShine]

(a black man who owns a large house without the resources to maintain it gets an offer from a wealthy white man who wants to be secluded in the basement to contemplate and perhaps atone for his sins).

Sounds like the premise for a low-budget horror movie.

[DavidW]

Recently read Small Mercies, a potboiler from Dennis Lehane, the author of Mystic River. Before that, The Man in my Basement, by Walter Mosely (a black man who owns a large house without the resources to maintain it gets an offer from a wealthy white man who wants to be secluded in the basement to contemplate and perhaps atone for his sins). Before that Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald (a story about the BBC broadcasting house during WWII)

I like Dennis Lehane. I've only read Mystic River and Shutter Island though.

I read The Murder of Roger Akroyd, one of the most satisfying mysteries I've ever read. What makes it so good would not work on TV or film. (I know it has been adapted; that is not my point).

I read the public domain version, which was free of any interference from the sensitivity readers the publisher employed for Agatha Christie (that is factually true, not paranoia on my part).

[JBS]

I like Dennis Lehane. I've only read Mystic River and Shutter Island though.

I read The Murder of Roger Akroyd, one of the most satisfying mysteries I've ever read. What makes it so good would not work on TV or film. (I know it has been adapted; that is not my point).

I read the public domain version, which was free of any interference from the sensitivity readers the publisher employed for Agatha Christie (that is factually true, not paranoia on my part).

When I read it, I was not impressed. The plot device Christie used was a novelty then, and impressed lots of readers,  but it is not a novelty now.

I admit I read it quite a long time ago, but I don't remember anything that might set off any sensitivities.

[DavidW]

I admit I read it quite a long time ago, but I don't remember anything that might set off any sensitivities.

I think you might have misunderstood. A sensitivity reader is not overly sensitive; they are a professional editor who rewrites passages of older books for a modern audience.  Please see the wiki:

A sensitivity reader is someone who reads a literary work, looking for perceived offensive content, stereotypes and bias, creating a report for an author or publisher with suggested changes.[1][2] The use of sensitivity readers has attracted criticism from some authors and members of the public, particularly with respect to edits to re-editions of previously published works of literature.

[JBS]

I think you might have misunderstood. A sensitivity reader is not overly sensitive; they are a professional editor who rewrites passages of older books for a modern audience.  Please see the wiki:

A sensitivity reader is someone who reads a literary work, looking for perceived offensive content, stereotypes and bias, creating a report for an author or publisher with suggested changes.[1][2] The use of sensitivity readers has attracted criticism from some authors and members of the public, particularly with respect to edits to re-editions of previously published works of literature.

No I understood. But my (admittedly hazy) memory recalls nothing in that book that would raise those concerns. (There are other Christie books like Death On The Nile that might trigger that kind of editing.)

[Papy Oli]

finished Alice's Adventures in wonderland last night. Will do Through The Looking-glass later on.

Now starting Peter Pan.

[Florestan]

I think you might have misunderstood. A sensitivity reader is not overly sensitive; they are a professional editor who rewrites passages of older books for a modern audience.  Please see the wiki:

A sensitivity reader is someone who reads a literary work, looking for perceived offensive content, stereotypes and bias, creating a report for an author or publisher with suggested changes.[1][2] The use of sensitivity readers has attracted criticism from some authors and members of the public, particularly with respect to edits to re-editions of previously published works of literature.

Sounds like an euphemism for censorship to me. 

[Spotted Horses]

I like Dennis Lehane. I've only read Mystic River and Shutter Island though.

I read The Murder of Roger Akroyd, one of the most satisfying mysteries I've ever read. What makes it so good would not work on TV or film. (I know it has been adapted; that is not my point).

I read the public domain version, which was free of any interference from the sensitivity readers the publisher employed for Agatha Christie (that is factually true, not paranoia on my part).

I seem to remember that the modification of Christie's texts happened in the most recent editions, but I'm not clear when that happened. Going back to the public domain versions (project Gutenberg?) sound like a safe bet. I remember reading that they corrected archaic usage and punctuation, which is half the fun of reading an old book. I remember that stodgy English characters would frequently disparage "foreigners" (including Poirot himself) and maybe they thought they should tone that down as well...

Some mention of it here:

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/agatha-christie-novels-edited-offensive-language-gbr-intl-scli/index.html#

[ShineyMcShineShine]

Some mention of it here:

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/agatha-christie-novels-edited-offensive-language-gbr-intl-scli/index.html#

For example, Poirot's description of another character as "a Jew, of course" in Christie's debut novel, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," has been stripped out of the new version.

Throughout the revised version of the short story collection "Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories," the word "native" has been replaced with "local," The Telegraph reports.

A passage describing a servant as "black" and "grinning" has been revised and the character is now simply referred to as "nodding," with no reference to his race.

And in the 1937 novel "Death on the Nile," references to "Nubian people" have been removed throughout.

Those sensitivity readers are quite sensitive, aren't they? I guess they have to be: they wouldn't get paid if they didn't change anything.

[Florestan]

Those sensitivity readers are quite sensitive, aren't they? I guess they have to be: they wouldn't get paid if they didn't change anything.

As I said: censorship.

[ShineyMcShineShine]

As I said: censorship.

"Winston's greatest pleasure in life was in his work. Most of it was a tedious routine, but included in it there were also jobs so difficult and intricate that you could lose yourself in them as in the depths of a mathematical problem—delicate pieces of forgery in which you had nothing to guide you except your knowledge of the principles of Ingsoc and your estimate of what the Party wanted you to say. Winston was good at this kind of thing."