Tell us about "Unquiet Mind" would you Mr. S?
I am reading "Fury" and "The Plain Truth" - with several other books open - which have fallen by the wayside for now...
PS: Anne Rice wrote a book about a castrato opera singer set in Renaissance - or was it later? - Italy - I have it, although I did not quite finish it, but its name escapes me - I think this is where the confusion is coming from.
I always have several books going at one time, depends on my mood.
Presently reading:
Small Wonders-Barbara Kingsolver
The Summons-John Grisham
The Character Of Cats (Origins,Intellignce, Behavior,
and Stratagems of Felis
silvestris catus)
Unweaving The Rainbow-Richard
Dawkins
&
Cat Spitting Mad-Shirley Murphy
Love these books about three cats who learn to speak, but only to a select few.
Welcome, Matsi - with my superhuman intelligence I deduce that you are a cat person, LOL!
You should fit right in here.
A friend of mine has the cat behaviour book, and I shall borrow it from her when she has finished. the last book you mention sounds funny.
dlowan, the Anne Rice book about 18th century castrati is called Cry to Heaven.
I am reading The Foryste Saga in part because it was recently dramatized on PBs and in part because I read it long ago, at age 14. Then, I couldn't understand what all the praise for the book was about, now I think it brilliant.
Love the social satire and the writing.
Welcome to A2K, plainoldme!
I'm halfway thru Forsyte Saga and finding that it's getting better and better.
Hi plainoldme.... Welcome to A2K!
I also like a book with social satire.... thanks for the recommendation.
Thank you for the welcome! I do agree that The Forsyte Saga is getting better but I also like some of the things the writers of the television series did.
For example, when poor June (who did not deserve the treatment Bossiney gave her) went to his rooms after he failed to appear at the trial, Galsworthy presents from inside of her mind, all the things she was thinking and how the situation was finally revealing itself to her. As drama, however, faithfulness to Galsworthy would have involved voice over and may have been precious, even corny. The visual rendering of the scene was masterful.
I also think by eliminated the observation by George Forsyte of Bosinney's unwinding before his death, the teleplay was stronger than Galsworthy's writing...but, then, again, he had to rely on co-incidence to inform the Forsytes of Bosinney's death since Irene wouldn't talk about it even were she not personna non grata.
I did hear (or did I read?) that the teleplay writers did not want Soames to be a monster. In the teleplay, Soames is presented as a man who just doesn't get it. One of my favorite scenes is his encounter of Irene prior to their marriage at ...perhaps a spa? ... a social venue. He watches a couple kiss and flirt and fails to realize that couple are both equally interested. He then makes a fool of himself by elaborately rolling back Irene's glove and kissing her arm, which repulsed and embarrassed her. That developed the scene in the book but developed it well and gave a foretaste of their marriage.
I'm reading Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Slow read, mellowish. Desultory. Warm, perhaps buggy. Fetid streets...very much a book of place and time. Insightful in quick swaths. Glad I bought it.
I just finished The Vision of the Annointed, by Thomas Sowell. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in American politics and culture.
Just read fast the pages of this thread, whew. In no particular order,
I am an unlikely bookclub member, but would like to stop by if I read the book in question. I read my own trail of books that catch my eye.
On Potter, I liked Potter a lot. Didn't know about the book, Potter on Potter.
I also like Fredric Raphael, who wrote Glttering Prizes for tv, and Two for the Road...
Msolga, I like Alice Munro a great deal. Plus William Trevor....the two of them being entirely different short story writers.
Liked Kitchen Confidential.
Back later...
dlowan, thanks for the welcome. I am indeed, a lover of cats. I am both fascinated and intrigued by them.
The Shirley Rousseau Murphy books are a series of "Joe Grey mystery" novels. Joe Grey being a grey cat who is the protagonist. He is helped, along the way, by Dulcie and Kit. They share the ability to speak, read, use the phone and solve crime.
Critics, of course, complain that she is makng cats sentient. To that I say "It's Fiction!". If you like cats and take it as fantasy, it makes for excellent light reading.
How Buildings Learn - Stewart Brand
25 Kites You Can Make And Fly
Frommer's Guide to Budapest
plainoldme wrote:I did hear (or did I read?) that the teleplay writers did not want Soames to be a monster. In the teleplay, Soames is presented as a man who just doesn't get it.
Plainoldme - my copy of the first three books of "The Forsyte Saga" (the ones dramatised in the recent PBS production - there are six more) has a foreword by Galsworthy in which he makes it clear that HE did not intend Soames to be a monster - I think this production, as did an earlier, more comprehensive BBC production, brought this out exceedingly well.
One aches and cringes for Soames,does one not?
In Cuba I was a German Shepherd - Ana Menendez
Longitudes and Attitudes - Thomas Friedman
Haiku Antology -
The Quest For Paradise
366 Readings from Taoism and Confusianism
Nicholas Nickleby
still have those two books in the car Im just not sure Ill ever get back to
I've snipped this out of a book reading guide:
"For years, Kay Redfield Jamison led a double life. An international authority on manic-depressive illness, and one of the few women who have achieved the status of full professor of medicine at an American university, Jamison was harboring a secret: she herself suffered from manic-depression. A mercurial, emotional child and adolescent, Jamison suffered her first severe attack of the disease at seventeen; a decade later, shortly after she joined the UCLA faculty, her mood swings had developed into full-blown psychosis.
"In her memoir, An Unquiet Mind, Jamison tells of her battle with the illness: the joy of the manic highs, which gave her an omnipotent feeling of cosmic connectedness, and the terrifying depressions, when she wanted only to die. Though she responded to lithium, Jamison, like many patients, became addicted to the highs of mania and resisted taking it. It was only after the disease had destroyed her first marriage and very nearly her life that she accepted the "rather bittersweet exchange of a comfortable and settled present existence for a troubled but intensely lived past"[p. 211]. An Unquiet Mind tells of how Kay Redfield Jamison used her zeal and intensity, and her impressive intellectual gifts, to bring the complexities of manic-depressive illness to the world's attention. Her work has helped save countless lives".
My wife gobbled it down and I'm just up to the second part - a reversal of the usual state of affairs. It is very well written, with none of of self-pity that can turn up in the same books by 'celebrities'.
I knocked off 'The Third Champanzee', couple of points that I didn't agree with, but well-written and researched. One of the chapters is a neat summation of the themes that Diamond would turn into 'Guns, germs and steel'. Dipping into a couple of handyman books for some projects in the garden and yards, just about to start 'Eight little piggies' by Stephen Jay Gould. Let you know how it goes.
Just finished The Structure of Evolutionary Theory-Gould. A massive self congratulatory text. Too bad this great mans last work was a giant self inflicted Pat on The Back. Its a great text for a grad course but its got some sacred Gould Cows that will need slaying with more evidence
Also finished Everythings Eventual-Stephen King. I like his short stories best and this I loved. Its been a hard wait since D Claiborne, most of his recent stuff is too derivative
The Story Of American Photography- Sandler Mostly a history of the great Western Expeditions of the late 19th century and all the crap that photographers would carry around
Started T Rex(the president, not the dinosaur). I havent gotten far enough in to have an opinion other than that it seems like a giant news dispatch than a book. I think its gonna be one of those "trivia freek" books about Teddy
The Geology of Pennsylvania-A great big uuuge reference book on as much of Pa geology that you can cram into 1000 pages. Its an absolute treasure of what we know. its been edited by the Pittsburgh Geological Society and is printed by the Coomonwealth. Its also quite useful if you wish to put your budgie down.
I'm having lots of fun reading 'A Cook's Tour in Search of the Perfect Meal' by Anthony Bourdain. It is fascinating. Some of the stuff he ate during this tour is just unbelievable. Many things sound so very interesting... Great book!
matsi, I will have to look for Joe Grey! That sounds exactly like my kind of book, being a cat person also, as you might guess.
