What Are You Reading Now?

[SteelBlue]

I adore Kafka on the Shore, but I love love love Norwegian Wood and have read it several times.


How the heck some of you find time to read I'll never figure out.

Reading After Dark right now and then Kafka on the Shore is up next. Shockingly, the one Murakami book my excellent library does not have is Norwegian Wood, and of course this is the one most highly recommended.

[SteelBlue]

Man Booker fiction winner was announced today. Australian Richard Flanagan wins for The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketc...014-story.html

"The Narrow Road to the Deep North, published in the U.S. in August, was inspired by his father's experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II when he was forced to help build a railway between Burma and Thailand. His father, in his 90s, died as he completed the novel.

[MarkGrace]

An article about the state tax issues related to inversions. Riveting stuff.

[BigPiney]

Man Booker fiction winner was announced today. Australian Richard Flanagan wins for The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketc...014-story.html

Thanks, it has been requested. I am user 6 of 8 of the waiting list.

[SteelBlue]

Thanks, it has been requested. I am user 6 of 8 of the waiting list.

My library doesn't have it yet. Kind of embarassing, but it's on the way.


The National Book Award shortlist came out this morning.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ype=blogs&_r=0

FICTION

Rabih Alameddine, “An Unnecessary Woman,” Grove Press

Mr. Alameddine’s fourth novel, “An Unnecessary Woman,” is narrated by Aaliya Saleh, a reclusive 72-year-old woman in Beirut who translates works by Nabokov, Rilke, Donne and others into Arabic and stashes them away in her apartment without showing them to anyone.

Anthony Doerr, “All the Light We Cannot See,” Scribner

Mr. Doerr’s novel unfolds during World War II in France. A blind girl and her father flee Nazi-occupied Paris and move to a seaside town, taking with them a precious jewel from a natural history museum. The father is arrested by the Germans, and a Nazi treasure hunter tries to track down the jewel.

Phil Klay, “Redeployment,” The Penguin Press

Mr. Klay, a former Marine who fought in Iraq, captures the terror, boredom and occasional humor of war in his debut collection of short stories, some set in the Anbar Province of Iraq and others in America as soldiers struggle to readjust to civilian life after combat.

Emily St. John Mandel, “Station Eleven,” Alfred A. Knopf

“Station Eleven,” a quiet dystopian novel, unfolds in North America after a deadly superflu has wiped out most of humanity; a band of Shakespearean actors travels to scattered camps of survivors to perform plays.

Marilynne Robinson, “Lila,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux

“Lila” — the third in Ms. Robinson’s series of novels set in fictional Gilead, Iowa — centers on Lila, the troubled young woman who marries the elderly Reverend Ames, the conflicted Calvinist minister and narrator of “Gilead.”

I've read 4 of the 5 (I've not yet read an unnecessary woman) and three of those were among the best books I've read this year, reinforcing for me that the NBA tends to be my favorite prize list. I'm really curious to see what happens, especially with Marilynne Robinson's Lila on the list. As much as I loved All the Light We Cannot See and Station Eleven, Robinson's book is on another level, as usual. Lila feels more like a traditional Pulitzer finalist, and if I had to bet on it, the NBA will go to Doerr.

[SCcoug]

The Martian by Andy Weir.

Hard science fiction story set in the near future about the third mars mission. Six days into the month long mission a stronger than expected dust storm forces an emergency abort. During the evacuation one of the astronauts, Mark Watney, gets left behind and presumed dead. The story follows his survival and the rescue efforts.

Pretty good short read. Probably 75% of the story is told through Watney's mission log. It can get pretty technical, the book was very well researched, but generally doesn't get bogged down.

Ridley Scott is directing a movie adaptation that is supposed to be out next year.

[woot]

The Martian by Andy Weir.

Hard science fiction story set in the near future about the third mars mission. Six days into the month long mission a stronger than expected dust storm forces an emergency abort. During the evacuation one of the astronauts, Mark Watney, gets left behind and presumed dead. The story follows his survival and the rescue efforts.

Pretty good short read. Probably 75% of the story is told through Watney's mission log. It can get pretty technical, the book was very well researched, but generally doesn't get bogged down.

Ridley Scott is directing a movie adaptation that is supposed to be out next year.

I've been wanting to read that one. It'll happen when I finally finish the song of ice and fire series.

Even though I hated Gravity, I'm loving the space movies being made in its wake.

[MarkGrace]

I've been wanting to read that one. It'll happen when I finally finish the song of ice and fire series.

Even though I hated Gravity, I'm loving the space movies being made in its wake.

Bet you can't wait for Interstellar.

Remember when Nolan was an interesting director? Seems like ages ago.

[woot]

Bet you can't wait for Interstellar.

Remember when Nolan was an interesting director? Seems like ages ago.

Yeah his spaceship looks like a ring of porta-potties. And The Saturn V is involved somehow I guess. Because that makes sense. Maybe they just grab the one on display at KSC and fire it up. And ride it to Saturn or whatever.

(Also the dark knight is overrated)(and the one after that was worse than Gravity)

[SteelBlue]

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. If I had started with this one, I'd have never read him again. This book is what happens when fame trumps editing.

Edit: Finished it yesterday. There's a cool story in this novel, but it's only about 300 pages worth. This becomes a big problem when you realize the novel is 925 pages long. There are levels of mind numbing redundancy here that become almost insulting.

[SteelBlue]

Just finished Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson. This is an incredible debut novel that I'll be thinking about for some time. There are some novels that seem to actually take you to the places in which the story unfolds, and this one did so perhaps more than any other I've read this year. A lot of those places are dark places, and in the darkest of those I even wondered a time or two why I was wallowing there, but it manages to be a brilliant and beautiful work.

61ksW6tCl3L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

NYT Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/bo...henderson.html

[BigPiney]

Just finished Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson. This is an incredible debut novel that I'll be thinking about for some time. There are some novels that seem to actually take you to the places in which the story unfolds, and this one did so perhaps more than any other I've read this year. A lot of those places are dark places, and in the darkest of those I even wondered a time or two why I was wallowing there, but it manages to be a brilliant and beautiful work.

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NYT Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/bo...henderson.html

I have too many books on my holds list so I'll have to wait a few days to get that one.

I just finished Wool at lunch. For you guys that like sci fi and post apocalyptic stuff, I highly recommend. It is a self published book that really took off and was great.

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I also finished Gilead sometime last week. Enjoyed that as well, I found it very touching.

[SteelBlue]

I have too many books on my holds list so I'll have to wait a few days to get that one.

I just finished Wool at lunch. For you guys that like sci fi and post apocalyptic stuff, I highly recommend. It is a self published book that really took off and was great.

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I also finished Gilead sometime last week. Enjoyed that as well, I found it very touching.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll add it to my to-read list.

Fourth of July Creek went to $1.99 for the Kindle version today for some reason. No idea why or for how long, but that's a steal.

[MarkGrace]

CougarStadium.com

[Jeff Lebowski]

Dang it, I can't keep up with you guys.