1. IrvingSnodgrass - Aug. 3, 1999 - 7:01 PM PT
Here it is... the place to talk about Books. Many people read more at this time of year... with vacations and more time available. What's on your summer reading list?
2. haynes - Aug. 3, 1999 - 7:19 PM PT
I'm immersed in 'Memoirs of a Geisha', a novel by Arthur Golden. It's a lush, sumptuous insider's revelation into the Japanese inner circle of pleasure and pain. It's great reading.
3. phillipdavid - Aug. 3, 1999 - 7:27 PM PT
I am actually still trying to work through my Summer of '97 Reading List, books which I first heard about in the Fray:
Allan Bloom - The Closing of the American Mind
Bernard Lewis - The Muslim Discovery of Europe
Cleanth Brooks - The Well Wrought Urn
Lord Kinross - Ottoman Centuries
Christopher Ondatjie - Sindh Revisited
Misha Glenny - The Fall of Yugoslavia
E W Hornung - Raffles and Other Stories
GK Chesterston - Four Faultless Felons
Andre Aciman - Out of Egypt
Neal Ascherson - Black Sea
Murcell Gillian - Five Equations That Changed the World
Gretchen Guerzina Johnson - Black London
Marjorie Housepain Popkin - Smyna 1922: Destruction of a City
GK Gladstone Chesterston - Club of Queer Trades
Harold Bloom - Anxiety of Influence
Paul Fussel - The Great War and Modern Memory
Patrick O'Brien - Master and Commander
Roy Jenkins - Gladstone
I am only halfway through that list. Next up will probably be the Gladstone biography.
What has hindered me though is my fondness for light reading. This summer I have gotten sidetracked by a series of history novels written by Bernard Cornwall: Sharpe's Revenge, Sharpe's Gold, Sharpe's Rifles, etc. The library had about 12 of 'em and I read each one, one after the other, sort of like snacking on cookies out of the box.
The Sharpe novels are quite fun. They detail the exploits of one British soldier, Richard Sharpe, through the Napoleanic wars. Each novel is based on a real incident which is recreated with a mixture of real and fictional characters. For example, the Duke of Wellington makes an appearance in quite a few of the novels. These books are the sort for armchair generals, and those who like to learn a little history along the way. Very good entertainment, and enlightening as well.
4. bloodnfire - Aug. 4, 1999 - 1:21 AM PT
I'm reading two books. "Real Boys" by William Pollack, Ph.D., 'Rescuing our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood', and "In God's Country", 'The Patriot Movement and The Pacific Northwest' by David A. Neiwert ('Spudboy') which is presently being discussed and hosted by the author on another thread. I haven't participated in the discussion, because I have only just started reading the book.
Both are very well written imo, but I am so far into 'Real Boys' that I want to finish, and by the time I get through with it and into David's book, the thread will probably be R.I.P.'d :-)
5. glendajean - Aug. 4, 1999 - 7:23 AM PT
After seeing The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction, movies based on his novels, and then after hearing him give a reading, I decided to read Russell Bank's Continental Drift. He wrote it back in the 80s, and the novel is set in the Carter years when the economy was weak. There are two main characters in CN, a New Hampshire oil furnance repairman and a Haitian woman. Their stories are tracked side by side, leading up to a connection in the last pages of the novel. Both are consumed by a dream of better things and both are running from the place where they had spent their whole lives, moving to the promised land of Florida. Both are highly intuitive and ultimately doomed, finding greater degrees of shabbiness and defeat even as their dreams lead them on.
Banks is a powerful writer. A good friend once told me that he thought art should grab you by the throat, and this novel does just that. Instead of looking down on his working class/third world characters, he inhabits them, or rather, they inhabit him.
6. glendajean - Aug. 4, 1999 - 7:24 AM PT
Alas, I'm currently reading two novels at the same time, Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, and Melville's Moby Dick. It's been years since I've read MD, and a trip to Cape Code this summer reminded me that I wanted to read it closely, not skim it as I did in my callow youth.
Enduring Love begins with a powerful scene: a yuppie couple, he a science journalist and she a Keats scholar, are opening a bottle of wine in a park when they see a hot air ballon having some trouble. Others in the countryside park see it too, and soon several men are running to help the ballon. McEwan tells this opening story very clearly, and the image of it sears through the main character, the journalist. It also sets up the obsession of one of the other rescuers as he begins to stalk the journalist.
The journalist has a physics ph.d., but after making bad choices, ends up writing popular articles explaining science. Feeling second rate for not doing real research, he floats through several different scientific perspectives and theories as he writes his articles.
7. judithathome - Aug. 4, 1999 - 7:36 AM PT
haynes:
I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha, too. Having lived in Japan, it is very easy for me to visualize much of what is described in the book.
I saw on the news this weekend that they are discontinuing the longest running stage revue of the Geishas lives in Tokyo due to lack of interest in modern Japan. Sad...this subject is endlessly fascinating, in my opinion. I suppose I might feel differently were I Japanese.
8. glendajean - Aug. 4, 1999 - 7:40 AM PT
Judith, my partner read Geisha and loved it. He is currently wrapped up in the Harry Potter children books.
9. judithathome - Aug. 4, 1999 - 7:44 AM PT
I'm also reading "If You're Talking To Me, Your Career Must Be In Trouble" by Joe Queenan. Last month, I re-read his "Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon". He is such a wickedly adept wit... he is our Oscar Wilde.
10. theDiva - Aug. 4, 1999 - 7:54 AM PT
In the past two months, I've finished two Tom Clancy novels - 'Exectuive Orders' and 'Patriot Games'. Though his politics are a bit, well...anyway....he does tell a very good story and his characters are generally rather engaging, even the bad guys.
I'm currently reading Ted Gioia's excellent and intelligent 'History of Jazz', St. Teresa of Avila's 'The Interior Castle', PG Wodehouse's 'The Code of the Woosters', and our county's Strategic Plan.
11. bubbaette - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:02 AM PT
This summer I finished
Diary of Bridget Jones
A Man in Full
Cold Mountain
I'm currently reading
Angela's Ashes
Evening Star
In God's Country
I read most of "She's Come Undone", but put it down as too damned depressing to finish.
12. theDiva - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:04 AM PT
Bubb
I am *dying* to read 'A Man in Full'. I've been a Tom Wolfe fan since I was 12. Is it out in paperback yet?
And how do you like 'Angela's Ashes'? I loved it, even though I wanted to slap the father and shake some sense into that mother.
13. marjoribanks - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:05 AM PT
Two Monsoons: The Life and Death of Europeans in India
Primitive Art: Douglas Fraser
The Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy
14. theDiva - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:11 AM PT
Banks
You might also want to get going on that kid's lit refresher course you're going to need. I recommend 'Goodnight, Moon' for starters. Babies love repetition.
Oh, and Dr. Spock's Guide to Baby and Child Care.
Oh, and 'How To Deflect (With Good Humor and Grace) Unsolicited And Well-Meaning Advice From Busybody Frayentas'. A classic.
15. bubbaette - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:12 AM PT
Diva
You can have my copy of Man in Full. I very rarely read a book twice.
WRT Angela's ashes, I'm only as far as where they leave for Ireland.
16. theDiva - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:14 AM PT
Bubb
ACK! You mean it?!?!?!
thankyouthankyouthankyou! xoxoxoxoxoxo
and I promise to keep my mouth shut about AA. I don't want to be a spoiler.
17. marjoribanks - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:15 AM PT
I've already invested in a complete hardcover set of Dr. Seuss, Diva. Of course, I did this two years ago - more for my own pleasure than anything else. I _love_ 'Green Eggs and Ham' and the rest.
18. theDiva - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:17 AM PT
Banks
You're going to be a fine father.....anyone who buys kids books for themselves is on the right track.
I think my favorite Seuss has to be "There's A Wocket In My Pocket".
19. bubbaette - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:17 AM PT
Marjori
Don't forget Madeline LEngle and C.S. Lewis.
20. theDiva - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:18 AM PT
And Beatrix Potter. I feel fairly certain that a baby Banks would rather quickly discover old Bea's subversive sense of humor .
21. bubbaette - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:21 AM PT
And all the Mary Poppins, A.A. Milne, Henry Huggins, Ramona et al. Now there are some books that I read more than once.
22. marjoribanks - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:27 AM PT
As a child, I read indiscriminately whetever fell into my hands, "girl" books, "boy" books whatever. Prominent among my favorites were the hundreds of books written by Britain's Enid Blyton. Later on, politicized and more astute, I returned to those books and found them horrifyingly racist and sexist. I mean, one of my favorites was "The Three Golliwogs", a tale of a trio of buffoons.
23. glendajean - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:32 AM PT
As a child, I read the most sentimental books and I loved reading them over and over, "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew," "Little Women," "Little Men," "Black Beauty," "Elsie Dinsmore."
24. theDiva - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:33 AM PT
I love re-reading childhood favorites. The books have a different dimension to them, often I find things I missed as a kid. My favorite book when I was pre-pubescent was 'Gone With The Wind'. I re-read it recently and was rather horrified. I am also ashamed to admit that 'Love Story' was right there at the top of the list.
25. CalGal - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:40 AM PT
Go Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman.
I spent much of my early years in search of that dog party.
Also by P.D., and also a favorite: A Fly Went By.
A Fish out of Water is also terrific, although he only illustrated.
Best Seuss is Green Eggs and Ham, with the Cat in the Hats a close second, and One Fish Two Fish right behind.
26. CalGal - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:42 AM PT
I read all of Enid Blyton too--The Secret Seven, the Five, the Four. The Four, with Fatty, was my favorite. Can't remember the adjective.
Also the St. Clare series, with the twins.
27. bubbaette - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:42 AM PT
I read the C.S. Lewis, Lion Witch and Wardrobe series and the Madeline L'Engle trilogy first as an adult and loved them. I loved all the Beverly Cleary books and all those biographies of famous folks books.
When I was an adolescent I read that J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy several times.
28. glendajean - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:46 AM PT
When I was very small, my mother would read to me "The Velveteen Rabbit." We would both cry.
29. bubbaette - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:49 AM PT
Glendajean
I loved the Little Women and Little Men books too. I think that Little Men was my favorite of the two because it was more active.
30. Adrianne - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:50 AM PT
Big A, little A, what begins with A?
Aunt Annie's Alligator, A A A
Big B, little B, what begins with B?
Barber, baby, bubble and a bumblebee!
Big C, little C, what begins with C?
Camel on the ceiling, C C C
and so on.
"In the great green room there was a telephone
and a red balloon,
and a picture of
a cow jumping over the moon.
And there were three little bears, sitting on chairs..."
Marj, soon you too will be able to recite Goodnight Moon and Dr. Seuss at will. Yee-haw!
31. marjoribanks - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:50 AM PT
I loved and re-read and re-read Little Women, Little Men and Black Beauty as well. And P.G. Wodehouse, whose catalog I went through methodically until I'd exhausted it at about fourteen.
Other favorites:
The Jungle Books
The Biggles series (fighter-pilot stuff from WW I)
The Jennings series ( English schoolboy capers)
The Billy Bunter series (ditto)
The G.A. Henty books (colonialist exploits)
The Mahabharata and Ramayana: R. K. Narayan's rendition.
The Henty books were particularly curious, an extremely old-fashioned but enjoyable set with titles like "With Kitchener in the Sudan." My grandfather, who pressed them on me, felt I should read them to give me perspective of the time when he was a young boy. Very few other people my age have read them, in fact I've never met anyone else - but seventy or so years ago they were apparently extremely popular.
32. cllrdr - Aug. 4, 1999 - 8:56 AM PT
I'm reading "Safe As Houses," a novel by Alex Jeffers.
I just finished two newly-published Joe Orton volumes. One consists of two early plays: "Fred and Madge" and "The Visitors." The other is an amzing comic novel, "Between Us Girls." The latter was written in 1957, and returned to Orton from a publisher -- unopened -- five days after he sent it.
33. tmachine - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:07 AM PT
I just read Memoirs of a Geisha too! an excellent read though not a work of genius. Golden (the author) has an amazing talent for painlessly stuffing tons of information about prewar Japan into the reader. and the main character v. simpatica.
Also just read Regeneration by Pat Barker, about various real (e.g., Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen et al.) and fictional First World War figures, very well done, now moving on to the second book of three, The Eye in the Door. Tried to read that Ya-Yas book, couldn't get into it, the contemporary parts seemed ickily new-age-feministy and self-indulgent.
I was an Enid Blyton addict! marj, did you ever read her girls' public school Malory Towers series? Jolly hockey sticks, Miss Smithers! Let's play a prank on Mamzelle tomorrow! aaaaargh!
34. thoughtful - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:10 AM PT
Favorite childhood books, in addition to the usual Dr. Seuss and at the risk of showing my age, The Little Engine that Could, Charlotte's Web, all of "The Goops", most of the Little House on the Prairie series, and books on riddles and puns, and anything to do with horses, especially the Black Stallion. Later came Nancy Drew. Oh yes, the one about the puppy -- the stuffy puppy? the fluffy puppy? (My mental disk seems to have encountered a bad sector!)
Having little time to read for fun, I've been hitting the books on tape for my commute. I'm in the middle of Grisham's Rainmaker and just finished Saki short stories.
35. tmachine - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:12 AM PT
it's the Pokey Little Puppy
36. thoughtful - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:14 AM PT
Thanks, tmac -- figures you'd know it. How's the new job?
37. tmachine - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:19 AM PT
totally enjoyable and interesting, thanks, doing stuff for teenagers is a lot of fun and much more rewarding than some might think. thanks for asking
38. Jenerator - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:29 AM PT
One book I just finished is _Four Modern Prophets_ by William Ramsey. In it, the author attempts to establish the modern criteria of prophethood and then display how each of the four persons he discusses is a modern prophet. The four persons are Gustavo Guittierez, Rosemary Ruether, Rauschenbusch, and Martin Luther King Jr. Of the four, I believe only King Jr. qualifies as a modern prophet. It's a good little book to pick up of you're interested in reading a brief biography of the activists he's mentioned.
39. marjoribanks - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:32 AM PT
"I was an Enid Blyton addict! marj, did you ever read her girls' public school Malory Towers series? Jolly hockey sticks, Miss Smithers! Let's play a prank on Mamzelle tomorrow! aaaaargh!"
I'm sorry to say that I read all of those avidly. The part I cringe about the most in retrospect is the treatment of class and wealth. There's always a girl who goes overboard in gifts, and in sharing her "tuck". And that girl is always found out to be "horrifyingly" poor and guilty of petty thievery to support this bluff. That girl then always disappears in the next story. Horrible stuff. I feel guilty for having devoured it all with so much interest.
40. tmachine - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:43 AM PT
you're absolutely right, marj--I'd forgotten the simply creepy attitude to money and class--interesting in itself because in theory in England the class thing isn't supposed to be dependent on money, hence the concept of "shabby gentry." it's always notable in Blyton books that whatever the children's implied financial status, they always go to private boarding schools--state schools don't even exist as a concept for the "horrifyingly poor" ones!
41. CalGal - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:46 AM PT
Was Mamzelle in Mallory Towers? I thought she was St. Clare.
42. CalGal - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:47 AM PT
Of course, her books always had the American--who always drawled.
43. judithathome - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:48 AM PT
Has anyone heard of "In A Dark Garden"? My mother owned this book and would never allow me to read it. Later in life, I recalled it and searched her house from top to bottom for it, with no luck. I don't know the author but would love to find it and see what she was protecting me from...probably a "Forever Amber"-ish type thing.
She would've died had she checked up on waht I WAS reading at 13: D H Lawrence and H. Somerset Maughm.
44. CalGal - Aug. 4, 1999 - 9:55 AM PT
Francis H. Burnett: The Secret Garden, The Little Princess.
45. glendajean - Aug. 4, 1999 - 11:21 AM PT
Most of those 19th century novels were strong on storytelling, quite sentimental, and often moral. Authority figures were either cold or strong but caring.
It's been a hundred years since I've looked at them, but I am curious about how they would read now.
46. tmachine - Aug. 4, 1999 - 12:57 PM PT
I adored the Secret Garden myself, and read it to my sons when they were about 8 and 11--I thought we would get through it more easily than if they had to try to decipher the Yorkshire dialect a lot of it's written in--and they were simply gripped. One of the excellent things about it is that the adult figures are minor. it's the kids who are really important, which I think makes it much more satisfying to children reading it.
47. CalGal - Aug. 4, 1999 - 1:26 PM PT
The movie made of it in 1992 or so was superb, btw. My son was quite young and he loved it. The movie version of The Little Princess back a couple years was great, too.
The other wonderful thing about The Secret Garden is that Mary is tough and unpleasant when the situation calls for it.
48. thoughtful - Aug. 4, 1999 - 7:24 PM PT
JudithAH, amazon lists the book you seek, by Frank Gill Slaughter. It's special order and there's no review, but books by topic are the Regency Romances and Romance Adult. I'm sure it's full of heaving bosoms, fulsome lips and moist, hot breath.
49. ranheim - Aug. 5, 1999 - 5:50 AM PT
HELP!
50 years ago I read a series of at least a dozen books situated in the Klondike. The main characters were a gold miner (who had already made it) and the owner of an eating place/tavern.
They were always foiling dastardly plots by bad guys in most unusual ways. On several occasions, I have tried to go back and re-read. But, have always drawn a blank stare (from the librarian; the card catalog; search engines). Have any of you any idea where I could re-start my search?
50. PincherMartin - Aug. 6, 1999 - 3:52 PM PT
Has anybody else read the new _Hannibal_ novel? I don't know how they are going to turn this one into a watchable movie?
51. PincherMartin - Aug. 6, 1999 - 3:53 PM PT
My second sentence should be a statement, not a question.
52. ScottLoar - Aug. 6, 1999 - 4:19 PM PT
Read the first ("Silence of the Lambs") but am dissuaded from reading the second by a 14 year-old critic who disqualifies it as unworthy of the first.
53. PincherMartin - Aug. 6, 1999 - 4:26 PM PT
Your fourteen year-old has a precocious critical ability.
BTW, A book that I think you would like very much is _The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt_ by Edmund Morris.
TR has the quality of mixing a tremendous energy for physical labor (whether it is branding cattle, hunting, or sumo wrestling) with an equally tremendous energy for learning. For some reason, I think you would find this combination appealing, and Morris's well-written book, a joy
54. ScottLoar - Aug. 6, 1999 - 4:33 PM PT
I take your comment and recommendation to heart. My own father was named after Teddy, typical of the early 20's by parents who were enthralled by the man past his death.
55. judithathome - Aug. 7, 1999 - 1:40 PM PT
thoughtful:
re # 48:
Thanks....I just read your response. I think I'll pass on tracking it down; I was afraid it was *one of those*. My mom read a lot of what I call Bodice Rippers. I once told her she read "Quivering Thighs" books and she was rather offended so I modified it to BodRip.
I tried to tell her DH Lawrence and Thomas Hardy were much better and hot, too. But she kept reading the ones with Fabio-like he-men ravishing raven haired Barbies on the covers.
56. CalGal - Aug. 7, 1999 - 2:27 PM PT
Actually, Silence of the Lambs is the second book, not the first. Red Dragon is the first and extremely unpleasant reading it is. Silence of the Lambs is a great book and made a great movie. I've read up on the third one and it doesn't look very good. One piece of info in particular has made me decide to skip it.
57. phillipdavid - Aug. 7, 1999 - 3:40 PM PT
There is a very insightful and intelligent discussion of Dante's Inferno going on in TT's Book thread. Also very short -- only 26 messages. A very nice little read if you have any interest in or knowledge of Dante's works.
58. CIGARLAW - Aug. 8, 1999 - 12:02 AM PT
CYRTANOMICON
59. CIGARLAW - Aug. 8, 1999 - 12:03 AM PT
CRYPTANOMICON
60. CalGal - Aug. 8, 1999 - 8:54 AM PT
The Neil Stephenson book? I like Neil, particularly Snow Crash. The guy has a problem with the last third of his books. His Stephen Bury books (which he writes with his uncle, I just found out) have less blazing originality, but are tighter and more cleanly finished.
61. cigarlaw - Aug. 8, 1999 - 6:25 PM PT
i hope he maintains for the full 950 pages. a fun read about crytanalysis? i figured out the book itself is a code. 300+ pages in and, had i not read a review, i still would be wondering what the hell it was about, but still enjoyiong it immensely.
even the 3 pages devoted to calculating how far alan turing can ride a bicycle w/a faulty chain and a broken spoke or sprocket that knocks the chain lose when they are at n= 0.
62. CalGal - Aug. 8, 1999 - 8:30 PM PT
Cigar,
Have you read his other books? Snowcrash, in particular, is a kick. Look for the book to fall apart a bit in the last third; they usually do. But the read is always worth it.
63. uzmakk - Aug. 9, 1999 - 1:13 PM PT
I took Snowcrash out of the library on an early fray recommendation and never got around to reading it. Someday.
64. pellenilsson - Aug. 9, 1999 - 1:32 PM PT
uzmakk
I am a little bit disappointed that you are not doing more to plug our joint venture as described here. (NOTE: Opens in new window).
65. uzmakk - Aug. 9, 1999 - 2:11 PM PT
Pelle, pelle, I am sorry. I missed the post. What fun. I will get right to work, and plug the Haysweep treatise at every post. It is, ofcourse best to let these things percolate for a while, but I will whip something up in the way of design this very evening. What I recall about the haysweep was that it was a contraption that took a considerable amount of skill to operate. Ofcourse the complete text of the Complete Haysweep Treatise would help me, along with any of your own ideas concerning design.
66. allaneq - Aug. 9, 1999 - 5:10 PM PT
Existing Fraygrants;
We would like to invite you to try the new Fray, currently available in beta here. You should notice some significant changes, and we encourage you to read the FAQ available in the Fray Beta thread, if you have any questions. Over the long-term, Slate is working to provide a way let our readers provide feedback to the editors, and to build more of a sense of community among our readers. We hope that the newly redesigned Fray is a step in that direction.
You'll notice that the new Fray is structured around Slate itself, with a thread per department. After the beta is complete, you will be able to easily post feedback to an article, using a simple link at the bottom of each page. As the reader comment is added to each department's thread, we will select the best posts from each thread in the Fray and posting links to them at the bottom of the article itself, for other Slate readers to peruse and comment on. We have also made a Tech Support thread available here, and during the beta test, you can post your comments, complaints, or bug reports in our beta test thread, available here. Take a look around, test the waters, and let us know what you think.
Thanks,
Wes Miller
Program Manager
Slate Magazine
67. theDiva - Aug. 10, 1999 - 1:44 PM PT
phooey
68. glendajean - Aug. 11, 1999 - 12:46 PM PT
I finally finished reading Ian McEwan's Enduring Love. Well constructed novel (I've already posted about the opening scene, the man falling from a balloon).
One of the witnesses of the accident becomes obsessed with the Joe Rose, science writer and frustrated ex-academic. The obsession moves into stalking and erotic obsession. Every word and sign from Joe becomes a personal message of love to Jed Parry, the stalker. All is interpreted by Jed as a sign or message spent directly to him from his new found love.
Until its ending, the tensions caused by Joe being unable to convince anybody that he has a dangerous new friend reverberate through Joe's relationship with his wife Clarissa as well as Joe's own sense of sanity.
In Moby Dick, I finally got past the damn sermon and am on to Ishmael and Queequeg in their "own heart's honeymoon" ... " a cosy, loving pair."