megustaleer Posted November 12, 2007 Report Share Posted November 12, 2007 How good to see you back here after such a long break, Revony. I hope it is the start of a longer stay this time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hungry hippo Posted November 13, 2007 Report Share Posted November 13, 2007 I've just started reading The echo maker by Richard Powers. Haven't had time to really get into it yet but it looks promising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowRain Posted November 13, 2007 Report Share Posted November 13, 2007 When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny_Shovel Posted November 13, 2007 Report Share Posted November 13, 2007 Next up: Not sure. Possibly 'garden, ashes' by Danilo Kis, possibly 'A Hero of Our Time' by Mikhail Lermontov, or possibly something else altogether... Ended up with something else: Â Wonderful Fool by Shusaku Endo. So far, one of my best reads this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minxminnie Posted November 13, 2007 Report Share Posted November 13, 2007 Hi Minxminnie, the files can be saved onto a PC as mp3 files and then presumably put onto an MP3 player, although I don't have anything like that. Â I think the simplest way to do it is: ... Â Thanks, Bea! Seems so obvious looking at your instructions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest John Self Posted November 13, 2007 Report Share Posted November 13, 2007 On Colyngbourne's recommendation, I am currently reading... Â Le Bal by Irene Nemirovsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flingo Posted November 13, 2007 Report Share Posted November 13, 2007 Good luck. Jacobson is an undoubtedly clever writer but I regret I couldn't finish this novel. I'll be interested to see how you get on with it. Neither could I - I got to page 35 before the meeting, and then I gave up. Of the 5 of us at book club none had got more than a 1/3rd of the way through, one member has since nearly finished it. We wondered if you have to Jewish to appreciate it? Â Had a couple of lighter reads since - and now have to evaluate a sho-jo manga book thats name escapes me. This will be an interesting experience as I have to read it backwards.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest John Self Posted November 13, 2007 Report Share Posted November 13, 2007 I take it we're talking Kalooki Nights here? (Went back a couple of pages but couldn't see chuntzy's original post.) Â It's not a good place to start with Howard Jacobson. I consider myself a fan of his novels and couldn't get more than a third of the way through. He is a taste worth acquiring though. Try No More Mister Nice Guy - dirty but very funny - or Who's Sorry Now? Just don't come running to me when you discover he can't do plots. More of my thoughts on his books here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flingo Posted November 13, 2007 Report Share Posted November 13, 2007 I take it we're talking Kalooki Nights here? (Went back a couple of pages but couldn't see chuntzy's original post.)Â It's not a good place to start with Howard Jacobson. I consider myself a fan of his novels and couldn't get more than a third of the way through. He is a taste worth acquiring though. Try No More Mister Nice Guy - dirty but very funny - or Who's Sorry Now? Just don't come running to me when you discover he can't do plots. More of my thoughts on his books here. Yup - that was the one (sorry, the post was rather a long time ago). I'm not sure Jacobson is really my kind of read anyway, but I will pass on your recommendation to my book club pals who persevered! Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shellybelly Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 Just started Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grammath Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 We wondered if you have to Jewish to appreciate it? [Howard Jacobson's novels]. Â Sorry, can't say. Never read one. It would make him the English Philip Roth if its true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightphoebus Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 Sorry, can't say. Never read one. It would make him the English Philip Roth if its true.Well, I have tried to read several and failed each time so the Jewish test doesn't hold up for me. And I'm from Manchester, same as him. Definitely NOT the English Philip Roth in my book! Â Male and Jewish might do the trick. However, how many books did you say you had on your TBR shelves, G? I would read them all first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megustaleer Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 Just finished Roth's Everyman. Have yet to pick its successor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grammath Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 Well, I have tried to read several and failed each time so the Jewish test doesn't hold up for me. And I'm from Manchester, same as him. Definitely NOT the English Philip Roth in my book!  Male and Jewish might do the trick. However, how many books did you say you had on your TBR shelves, G? I would read them all first  . I'm trying, but there's just so much I want to read, and I have a congenital inability to walk past a bookshop without entering it!  My Mum's family are all Mancunian, and much more orthodox and religious than I am, plus I went to uni there, so I have some understanding what the city's Jewish community is like.  From what I know, I believe Jacobson is generally regarded as a humorous writer, which Roth largely is not. What I meant is from the Roth I've read (which includes "Everyman", one of my favourite reads this year) his sensibilities are very Jewish, even if his characters aren't, and I can see how this might alienate non-Jewish readers.  However, your point about being male might actually be the key one, certainly in Roth's case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 I'm currently reading The Castle Of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino but I expect to finish it on the way home. After that it's The Redemption Of Elsdon Bird by Noel Virtue. Â Adrian, as our token New Zealander, have you read it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Colyngbourne Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 Just started Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks  Oh, that's one of the very few books I love to hate. But I know of people who adore it.  I'm reading Dr Haggard's Disease - Patrick McGrath,  and avidly re-reading Parade's End - Ford Madox Ford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightphoebus Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 . However, your point about being male might actually be the key one, certainly in Roth's case. Oh, but Roth is my favourite writer by a mile at the moment, so none of this analysis holds up! I love Bellow, too. But not Jacobson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny_Shovel Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 Just Finished: Wonderful Fool by Shusaku Endo. Kind-hearted French simpleton travels through the seedy, morally corrupt, side of 1950's Japan, effecting all those he meets. Similar themes to his later novel Silence, and just as brilliant. Challenges Bleak House for my best book of the year. I'll review it in full on my blog later. Â Next Up: The Trial by Franz Fafka. My contribution to the Penguin Classics review blog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grammath Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 Oh, but Roth is my favourite writer by a mile at the moment, so none of this analysis holds up! I love Bellow, too. But not Jacobson. Â LOL. I can't abide Bellow, so what do I know?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radders Posted November 14, 2007 Report Share Posted November 14, 2007 I am just about to start The Story Of My Face by Kathy Page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowRain Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 ...Roth is my favourite writer by a mile at the moment... Perhaps this isn't the best place, but could you give me a few recommendations. I've only read The Human Stain and The Plot Against America, but I really enjoyed both of them. I'm holding off on American Pastoral for now as I usually like to read what's being touted as any author's magnus opus until after I've read most of their others first. Seeing as I'm in Taiwan, and Roth doesn't release his novels as ebooks, I'm limited in my selection. I think my local bookstores have My Life as a Man and I Married a Communist (I'd have to go up to Taipei for any others). Have you read either of them? How are they? How do they rank in his oeuvre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy DEagle Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 I've just finished book one of Trudi Canavans 'Magicians' trilogy. It was superb and very refreshing to have a fantasy story that is held within a trilogy as opposed to a ridiculous, dragged out, never end series (I'm looking at you Jordan (RIP) and Goodkind!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamletbb Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 LOVELL, Mary S.: "The Mitford Girls - The Biography Of An Extraordinary Family" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightphoebus Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 Perhaps this isn't the best place, but could you give me a few recommendations. I've only read The Human Stain and The Plot Against America, but I really enjoyed both of them. I'm holding off on American Pastoral for now as I usually like to read what's being touted as any author's magnus opus until after I've read most of their others first. Seeing as I'm in Taiwan, and Roth doesn't release his novels as ebooks, I'm limited in my selection. I think my local bookstores have My Life as a Man and I Married a Communist (I'd have to go up to Taipei for any others). Have you read either of them? How are they? How do they rank in his oeuvre.SlowRain, I haven't read My Life as a Man and have not seen it recommended as one of his better books. I did read I Married a Communist and wouldn't rate that a one of his best, but you might like it if you enjoyed The Human Stain and it is generally seen as part of a trilogy with American Pastoral. The best one to start with would be Portnoy's Complaint as long as you don't have a delicate stomach and do have a sense of humour! I loved Goodbye Columbus when I read it many years ago but it may seem dated now and its probably out of print. Try the Zuckerman trilogy The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman Unbound and The Anatomy Lesson. However, I would plunge right in to American Pastoral after the early books because it is Roth at his magnificant best. Reading that it gets you on to his wavelength and then the other books become immediately more accessible. If you are interested in the concept of mortality then Everyman is marvellous, though I'm not sure how much this book will speak to the younger reader. It was preceded by The Dying Animal which also contains some fine writing.  Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest John Self Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 I've read the first two of the Zuckerman trilogy along with the latest Exit Ghost - see my blog - and am looking forward to The Anatomy Lesson and other Zuckermans like The Counterlife which I have in my TBR pile. I used to hate Roth, or at least not get him, and I must admit it was American Pastoral which won me over completely. SlowRain, there's always the danger if you keep putting it off that it will gain such high expectations in your mind that it's bound to disappoint! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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