What Are You Reading Now?

[BigPiney]

Everyone has different tastes, thats what makes life interesting

I finished it tonight.

I liked Devil better. I was disappointed in how this was really only Churchill's first year as prime minister and then it fast forwards though the rest of the war.

I also finished The Haunting of Hill House this afternoon. Not scary, but I enjoyed the writing. [emoji3525] Though now I may watch the Netflix show.

[SeattleUte]

I devoured Walter Kempowski’s “All for Nothing” set before and during the East Bavarian evacuation in 1945. One of the greatest novels I’ve ever read. It’s said to rival The Tin Drum (which I’ve not read). According to James Wood in the linked review, it’s a novel for the ages and possibly the best novel from a German perspective, ever set in the collapse of Nazi Germany and the beginning of the reckoning. And it’s told in this detached, whimsical way that is almost like comedy. Very readable. Guns are booming in the East, and the civilians are wondering, are the Russians really going to break through this time? How can that be? Kempowski himself experienced the evacuation as a youth, and the 14 year old protagonist is loosely autobiographical.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/walter-kempowskis-epic-novel-of-germany-in-collapse

Beware: in this excellent review Wood is not shy about revealing spoilers. The novel has some real suspense, but I suppose he thinks that that’s not the point of it.

I finished the second volume of Proust, In Search of Lost Time. It’s kind of habit forming.

[BigPiney]

I devoured Walter Kempowski’s “All for Nothing” set before and during the East Bavarian evacuation in 1945. One of the greatest novels I’ve ever read. It’s said to rival The Tin Drum (which I’ve not read). According to James Wood in the linked review, it’s a novel for the ages and possibly the best novel from a German perspective, ever set in the collapse of Nazi Germany and the beginning of the reckoning. And it’s told in this detached, whimsical way that is almost like comedy. Very readable. Guns are booming in the East, and the civilians are wondering, are the Russians really going to break through this time? How can that be? Kempowski himself experienced the evacuation as a youth, and the 14 year old protagonist is loosely autobiographical.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/walter-kempowskis-epic-novel-of-germany-in-collapse

Beware: in this excellent review Wood is not shy about revealing spoilers. The novel has some real suspense, but I suppose he thinks that that’s not the point of it.

I finished the second volume of Proust, In Search of Lost Time. It’s kind of habit forming.

Thanks, that looks interesting. And my library had it available! I'll start that once I finish John Banville's Snow that I started yesterday. So far so good on that one.

[SteelBlue]

Thanks, that looks interesting. And my library had it available! I'll start that once I finish John Banville's Snow that I started yesterday. So far so good on that one.

I just picked up John Banville's The Sea in a thrift store the other day.

[BigPiney]

I just picked up John Banville's The Sea in a thrift store the other day.

I got that from the library as well. I'm only half way through Snow, but I like the writing a lot. It is a mystery, but I find myself thinking at times how beautifully written it is.

[SteelBlue]

I devoured Walter Kempowski’s “All for Nothing” set before and during the East Bavarian evacuation in 1945. One of the greatest novels I’ve ever read. It’s said to rival The Tin Drum (which I’ve not read). According to James Wood in the linked review, it’s a novel for the ages and possibly the best novel from a German perspective, ever set in the collapse of Nazi Germany and the beginning of the reckoning. And it’s told in this detached, whimsical way that is almost like comedy. Very readable. Guns are booming in the East, and the civilians are wondering, are the Russians really going to break through this time? How can that be? Kempowski himself experienced the evacuation as a youth, and the 14 year old protagonist is loosely autobiographical.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/walter-kempowskis-epic-novel-of-germany-in-collapse

Beware: in this excellent review Wood is not shy about revealing spoilers. The novel has some real suspense, but I suppose he thinks that that’s not the point of it.

I finished the second volume of Proust, In Search of Lost Time. It’s kind of habit forming.

"All for Nothing" sounds interesting. I'll pick it up.

Re: In Search of Lost Time, I miss being in Proust's head each week. I almost want to start again.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Recently finished Silence by Shusaku Endo. Can't believe it took me so long to read it. I watched the Japanese film version way back in the day at a BYU international cinema even when I was an undergrad. And of course, I watched the Martin Scorsese version. Loved them both. This story really resonates with me as a former missionary. As is often the case, the book is always better. The book ending is deeply moving and powerful and impossible to accurately portray in a movie.

Now I am going to read it in Japanese.

[SteelBlue]

Recently finished Silence by Shusaku Endo. Can't believe it took me so long to read it. I watched the Japanese film version way back in the day at a BYU international cinema even when I was an undergrad. And of course, I watched the Martin Scorsese version. Loved them both. This story really resonates with me as a former missionary. As is often the case, the book is always better. The book ending is deeply moving and powerful and impossible to accurately portray in a movie.

Now I am going to read it in Japanese.

I'm so jealous. Japan has some amazing authors and I'd love to be able to read them as they wrote.

[happyone]

Recently finished Silence by Shusaku Endo. Can't believe it took me so long to read it. I watched the Japanese film version way back in the day at a BYU international cinema even when I was an undergrad. And of course, I watched the Martin Scorsese version. Loved them both. This story really resonates with me as a former missionary. As is often the case, the book is always better. The book ending is deeply moving and powerful and impossible to accurately portray in a movie.

Now I am going to read it in Japanese.

I'm impressed. I couldn't start to read something in Japanese these days.

[SteelBlue]

Recent reads:

Death in Her Hands by Ottesssa Moshfegh. Highly recommend. An elderly widow attempts to solve a mystery. Adventures in unreliable narration.

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli. Not for everyone. Weird but I dug it.

The Hollow Ones by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I was expecting much more from these names. I think the idea would make a cool Netflix series and I'm guessing that's at least a little bit of what this effort was about. Hated the writing and overall a let down for me.

Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes: Read this one on the recs of SU and Piney. I liked it a lot. Thanks for the heads up.

After the Winter by Guadalupe Nettel: I enjoyed this read about death, love and wandering old cemeteries, especially Pere Lachaise. Another one that's not for everyone, but hit on a lot of topics that I find interesting.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones: This one was a gory read. Really different. Four native American friends poach elk from a section of their reservation where only the elders are allowed to hunt. The spirit of one of those elk returns to haunt them a decade later in various mostly violent ways.

The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares: This is one of those I've heard about many times over the years. I loved it. Brilliant plot and slow reveal and lots to think about regarding time, life/death, immortality and consciousness. Highly recommend.

[BigPiney]

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Mix of historical fiction, horror and fantasy as a group of females, mostly, fight the Klan. Short but very different.

[falafel]

Recent reads:

Death in Her Hands by Ottesssa Moshfegh. Highly recommend. An elderly widow attempts to solve a mystery. Adventures in unreliable narration.

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli. Not for everyone. Weird but I dug it.

The Hollow Ones by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I was expecting much more from these names. I think the idea would make a cool Netflix series and I'm guessing that's at least a little bit of what this effort was about. Hated the writing and overall a let down for me.

Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes: Read this one on the recs of SU and Piney. I liked it a lot. Thanks for the heads up.

After the Winter by Guadalupe Nettel: I enjoyed this read about death, love and wandering old cemeteries, especially Pere Lachaise. Another one that's not for everyone, but hit on a lot of topics that I find interesting.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones: This one was a gory read. Really different. Four native American friends poach elk from a section of their reservation where only the elders are allowed to hunt. The spirit of one of those elk returns to haunt them a decade later in various mostly violent ways.

The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares: This is one of those I've heard about many times over the years. I loved it. Brilliant plot and slow reveal and lots to think about regarding time, life/death, immortality and consciousness. Highly recommend.

I read the Invention of Morel in Spanish when I was at BYU. I remember loving it, but now I can’t remember a thing about it.

[Bo Diddley]

I read the Invention of Morel in Spanish when I was at BYU. I remember loving it, but now I can’t remember a thing about it.

I have pretty low retention if I don't purposefully remember something, so there have been several movies that I've seen a second time not knowing how it will turn out--and occasionally not realizing I'd seen it before until towards the end.

[BigFatMeanie]

Just added Midnight in Chernobyl to my Kindle Fire. Anybody read it yet?

[BigPiney]

Just added Midnight in Chernobyl to my Kindle Fire. Anybody read it yet?

I found it really interesting. It was a slow start in my recollection (took 60 pages to really get going), but overall was very good. Russian ineptitude at its finest.