@Kara,
I read and loved Love in the Time of Cholera.. but have put Hundred Years down for a rest while I work my way through Rabbit is Rich having previously given it a rest and not having read the first two books in the Harry Angstrom - Updike trilogy. Harry, Rabbit, is not the most immediately likable guy I've read about. I've read at least some Updike over the years and have seen his voice change impeccably with the characters.. so I'm not giving up.
@littlek,
I've read about Sandra Cisneros and would like to read that, lilk.
@ossobuco,
Mango Street is interesting. Set, mostly, in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago and based on her life. She writes choppy and fragmented, but with rich characters. They are a series of very short, mostly connected stories.
@Joeblow,
There's also a book with a similar name by Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude, that I had and never read (meant to, of course). I don't think I even opened that one. It got shuffled off when I did my big move and book-letting about five years ago.
@plainoldme,
I remember liking the Spenser - well, the parts I read - and absolutely nothing about it.
@littlek,
I'm sure I've read reviews.. but the key thing I remember about Cisneros is a big hullaballoo she had with her historic district neighborhood association about painting her house (in San Antonio?) a vivid purple..
@ehBeth,
graham mccann : spike & co
" inside the house of fun with milligan , sykes , galton & simpson "
Quote: The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast between May and September 1951, was titled Crazy People; all subsequent series had the title The Goon Show.
The show's chief creator and main writer was Spike Milligan
a must have book for fans of british comedy
@hamburgboy,
great recommendation herr hamburger
@hamburgboy,
interesting, i quite enjoyed all of spike milligan's war memoirs
@plainoldme,
I loved the Fairie Queen and other ancient reads...such as Chaucer and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. But that was back when I was an EM and could read all day and call it classwork! I've thought of working my way through Chaucer again...just to see if I could read the old text....
Then I go out and buy A Reliable Wife, which I saw at my local bookshop....go figure
Last week, I finished the collection of short stories (via audiobook) called
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges by
Nathan Englander.
http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/products/ProductDetail.jsp?productID=BK_RAND_001127&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
What a great book. The mix of the tragic and the comic. It also has the the one great Christmas story that finally tops
David Sedaris' infamously hysterical Macy's Christmas elf story from his
Santaland Diaries collection.
Englander's story is titled
Red Kringle, about the nervous breakdown of a Jewish man who returns every year to work as a department store Santa Claus.
~
This week, I'm working on the audiobook of
Larry Niven's Ringworld. I have to thank Djjd for letting me know a bit back when audible.com had the book for free. I'm finally getting around to listening to it.
So far it's damn good.
@tsarstepan,
I was on edge re Sedaris, as in enough was enough. Now, more?
No, I'm not protecting macy's christmas, just that bludgeoning is boring.
@ossobuco,
The Nathan Englander story (though fiction compared to Sedaris' alleged true autobiographical Christmas story) is pretty funny. I got the story title wrong. It's not
Red Kringle but
Reb Kringle.
http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/products/ProductDetail.jsp?productID=BK_RAND_001130&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
You can get a audio sample of the story here.
I'm currently reading Mitt Romney's No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. As you might predict by its title, the book is full of bromides about patriotism, family anecdotes, hard work, the virtues of small-businesses, and the like. You can see that this is Mitt Romney sticking his toe into the water for the 2012 election. But between these fits of posturing, Romney talks about the specifics of what he did as a businessman and governor, and how he decides what the right decision is. That's where he comes across as a reality-based, pragmatic, grown-up moderate.
Two thirds of my way through the book, my impression is that I wouldn't support Romney over Obama, but consider him a reasonable second-best if Obama loses. I wish him well in the 2012 primaries.
@Thomas,
This all makes me weary, but I'll take note of your read, Thomas.
@Thomas,
any mention of his magic underwear?
