Books I have read over the last month or so...

Torin's Mum Number of posts: 1379 Registration date: 2008-05-28

I like being alone.....

I just read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'......

I read the first half in two weeks on the train, and the second half yesterday.....

I wondered what a cynical person might think of all the moralising.....I suppose they would think it's stupid.....

It's the kind of book I like.....full of home-truths, wisdom and humour

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Your builders outdo your destroyers - Isaiah 49 - 17

Gender: Number of posts: 154 Registration date: 2009-08-23

The Call of the Wild and White Fang - Jack London.

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow by Adam Zamoyski (HarperCollins, 2004).

Latest and by far the best study of one of the world's most appalling military and humantiarian catastrophes. "Best" because it incorporates many personal accounts of the disaster from every nationality and every rank and social stratum into the narrative flow. The understated prose acts as a startling counter-point to the terrible nature of the events described.

The number of pregnant women who gave birth in the course of the Retreat from Moscow comes as a surprise; so, too, do the women who strangled their own children after kissing them goodbye and then committed suicide, accurately identifying the hopelessness of their position with absolute precision.

The entire retreating French Army was infested with body lice, Napoleon not excluded.

And Napoleon's final judgement on the Campaign?: "From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step...The health of His Majesty has never been better..."

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Closed 3:00-3:15pm Gender: Number of posts: 3997 Registration date: 2008-04-28

Err, Ive read quite a few recently. With the most recent being 'The Island' by someone Hislop.

Number of posts: 11 Registration date: 2009-09-01

2666 by Roberto Bolano

A vast apocalyptical book, very dark and very violent. Bolano was racing against time to finish this as he was dying , and the darkness in it at times is unrelenting. Still, its a brillant acheivement. Locations include Santa Teresa in Mexico (based on the murders of young girls in Ciudad juarez), Translyvania, moscow and Berlin. Its set in 5 parts, and each is loosely linked.

It is a difficult book and there were times when I wasn't sure if I would return to it, but I always did. It's hard to give a summation of this book because it contains so many themes, characters and storylines. The language is beautiful, even in translation (bolano was a poet). It loosely concerns the unsolved murders of young girls in Saint Teresa and the search for an elusive writer over 80 or so years.

Storylines aren't tied up. Any discoveries or revelations seem to unearth even more. Its certainly not a traditional book in the sense of a linear storyline, but its all the better for it. "Power and greed and corruptible seed, seem to be all that there is" sang Dylan, and I guess that's as close as I can get in terms to a summation.

I'm off to read it again, and will hopefully give a better review next time around.

Torin's Mum Number of posts: 1379 Registration date: 2008-05-28

wow...that sounds good - I might read that if it's in teh library.....thanks Po'boy Smile

they only have 'Assassin Whores' in Spanish.....

.....(I'm assuming that Putas Asesinas means that)....

I'll see if I can buy it.....

great - Angus & Robertson has it - this is what they say

The epic novel that defined one of Latin America's greatest writers and
his unique vision of the 20th century. Santa Teresa, on the Mexico-US
border, is an urban sprawl that draws in lost souls. Among them are
three academics on the trail of a reclusive German author; a New York
reporter on his first Mexican assignment; a widowed philosopher; and a
police detective in love with an elusive older woman. But there is
darker side still to the town. It is an emblem of corruption, violence
and decadence, and one from which, over the course of a decade,
hundreds of women have mysteriously, often brutally, disappeared...
Conceived on an astonishing scale, and - in the last years of Roberto
Bolano's life - with burning, visionary commitment, 2666 has been
greeted around the world as his masterpiece, surpassing even his
previous work in inventiveness, imagination, beauty and scope.

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Your builders outdo your destroyers - Isaiah 49 - 17

Torin's Mum Number of posts: 1379 Registration date: 2008-05-28

it's $25 on the website and $38 in teh shop.....heheheheh......

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Your builders outdo your destroyers - Isaiah 49 - 17

Number of posts: 11 Registration date: 2009-09-01

ISN wrote:

it's $25 on the website and $38 in teh shop.....heheheheh......

Thats a wee bit pricey ISN. I just checked out Amazon, they sell a lot of books 'used
and new'. They have it from £4 plus p & p.

Torin's Mum Number of posts: 1379 Registration date: 2008-05-28

I would never buy a 'used' book.....

hehehehe.......

OTOH - I might check out their new ones to see if they're cheaper than Angus & Robertson.....

I just looked on Amazon.co.uk and it's 5 squid - wow!!! I'll order it tomorrow - thanks Po'boy Smile

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Your builders outdo your destroyers - Isaiah 49 - 17

Gender: Number of posts: 154 Registration date: 2009-08-23

My Antonia by Willa Cather.

Incredible, I can barely muster a bit of criticism for this novel.

Head Wankee Gender: Number of posts: 1569 Registration date: 2008-06-09

It's been so long, I can't remember how long, since I read Willia Cather's "Good Neighbor Rosickey" - what a wonderful old man, with triangular eyes and a back like a turtle. The things that stay with you.

Gender: Number of posts: 154 Registration date: 2009-08-23

John McLaughlin wrote:

It's been so long, I can't remember how long, since I read Willia Cather's "Good Neighbor Rosickey" - what a wonderful old man, with triangular eyes and a back like a turtle. The things that stay with you.

My copy of "My Antonia" is annotated and informs me that a man named John Pavelka was the prototype for the title character in "Neighbour Rosicky". In real life, John Pavelka married the woman who was the prototype for Antonia and he is also the basis for her husband's character in the story.

Closed 3:00-3:15pm Gender: Number of posts: 3997 Registration date: 2008-04-28

'My Antonia' is great.

The Boss Gender: Number of posts: 990 Registration date: 2008-04-28

The Castle by Kafka. It's cool, though he never finished it which is annoying.

Schrödinger's Hepcat Number of posts: 4486 Registration date: 2008-04-28

LaRue wrote:

The Castle by Kafka. It's cool, though he never finished it which is annoying.

It's hard to tell whether a Kafka novel is finished or not, since he never reaches a resolution anyway.

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I don't do it for the money, babe. I do it to entertain people.-- Susan Boyle