Just finished the Poisonwood Bible, which was great for the first ?400 pages but I think could well have done without the last ?250. It was not an artistic whole, became bitty, I wanted to skip.
Have just been recommended the da Vinci code by my son, so I'm going to read it next.
I have now quite recently got into the habit of buying The Spectator, weekly magazine, from my local newsstand and reading that, and a quality paper every day, doesn't leave me any waking time to read novels, I find. However I got a couple of books for my recent birthday, which I'm going to attempt...they were requested by me after all. One is called "Trawler", which is an account of a voyage on a fishing trawler in the North Sea, and the other is "Yoga for People who Haven't got the Time" or similar title, which is a book of musings, I'm told, similar to "Zen atao Motorcycle Maintenance". Anyone read any of those?
I just finished reading "A Conspiracy of Paper" by David Liss. It was a historical novel/whodunnit, and wasn't bad at all.
I'm halfway through "From Alexander to Cleopatra" by Dr. Michael Grant. He's one of my favorite historians.
The Short Summer of Anarchy, by Enzensberger. I'd read bits and pieces of it before but I'm now finally reading it in full ... was inspired to by a thread here.
Have just finished Geography, by a young Oz writer, Sophie Cunningham. A sort of autobiographical novel, recollecting & recovering from an obsessive relationship. Not bad for a first novel.
I'm thoroughly engrossed in a talking book/novel by another Oz writer, Tim Winton. Dirt Music. About hopes, dreams, disallusionment, etc. A wonderful sense of place (the wide open spaces of Western Australia) & very credible characters. Two more CDs to go ... I can't wait to see what happens.
Just finished:
An American Requiem by James Carroll--only fair
Son of the Morning by Joyce Carol Oates--flawed but powerful
My Name is Bill by Susan Cheever--adequate but not great bio of Bill Wilson, who cofounded AA
Now reading:
Inventing a Nation by Gore Vidal--excellent study of the Founding Fathers by our greatest writer
Welcome back, larry richette.
Thanks, fbaezer. It's nice to BE back.
The Brethren-John Grisham
Larry!
Nice to see you! A blast from the past!
Hi Larry! Welcome back! I look forward to hearing more of your recommendations and opinions -- in fact, I've already tagged Before Sunset as a film to see. p
Piffka wrote:Hi Larry! Welcome back! I look forward to hearing more of your recommendations and opinions -- in fact, I've already tagged Before Sunset as a film to see. p
We want to see that too, and the first film....is that "Before Sunset"? made about 1995- does anyone know how we could get a copy of that?
Hi McTag! Are you familiar with the website Internet Movie Database or IMDb.com? It has loads of information about films from all over the world and has lots of hot-links. Imdb is set up for American viewers -- for example, by keying in my zipcode, I can find out where a film is playing, including a link to that theater -- but imdb also has information on availability internationally. You can check out "company credits" to find out who owns the public performance rights in your country.
imdb -- Before Sunset
According to imdb, the first film was called
Before Sunrise and is available on DVD from Amazon.
Cheers Piff
Will look into this.
Thanks, Msolga and Piffka! Nice to be welcomed back!
As far as BEFORE SUNRISE, any half-decent video store should be able to rent it to you. Mine did.
Larry, it is great to have you back. I must confess that I have not been around all that much--too busy with other aspects of life I guess.
My own recent reading has been as follows:
A Passage to India--Forester
Women in Love--Lawrence
The Short Stories of John Cheever
The Short Stories of Hemingway
Ireland (Selected Short Stories)--William Trevor (Dark Stuff, most of it)
Selected Stories--Alice Munro
Envy--Joseph Epstein
Next up: Humboldt's Gift--Saul Bellow
Every bit of this has been absorbing reading.
I failed to mention that Mrs. Hazlitt is reading to me from the Da Vinci Code. What an amazing story.
It is possible that I reported this earlier, but a few months ago I went out to my daughter's church to hear my grandson do a cello piece during the service. I noticed in the church program that on Wednesday night of that week they were having a lecture debunking The Di Vinci Code. Not having read the book, and not wanting to be an embarrassment to my daughter, I did not attend; although, I'm sure it would have been an interesting hour.
Larry, Without going too nuts with it, why do you think Vidal is our greatest writer. I've only read a few of his essays, all of which I liked. If I had to pick a favorite, I think it would be Faulkner--except that, in places, he's so hard to read.
I'm finding the da Vinci code a jolly good yarn, although being a fanatic on the word games of A2K I got the first clue at once!! But not really very well written - none of the haunting atmosphere of The Name of the Rose which is a similar sort of tale. Still, as a wannabe author, I admire anyone who can make you turn the page...
