Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[Scepticalscribe]

I read these a long time ago - but seeing as today is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz I would recommend just about anything by Primo Levi.

While his writing is profound as individual works - if they're read in order it makes them even more moving and memorable. Start with If this a Man - then read what of the others you want but finish with The Drowned and the Saved.

Brilliant suggestion.

I cannot recommend the writings of Primo Levi highly enough, beautifully written, elegiac, bitter sweet, wise, horrifying, heart-breaking, understated, insightful and deeply, profoundly moving.

And I agree completely with jeremy h's suggestion about the order in which they should be read, in that Primo Levi's writings should be read in the order in which they were published, as this makes the experience of reading them svn more moving, more memorable and more profound: Start with 'If This Is A Man' , read the others (such as The Truce, Moments of Reprieve, The Periodic Table), but, above all, I beseech you, I entreat of you, read the extraordinarily powerful and deeply profound 'The Drowned And The Saved' last of all.

 

[AustinIllini]

75% done with this.

Not particularly soppy. I like it a lot.

Finished the book. It's definitely not soppy in a romantic or overdramatic sense, but the book runs the gamut of emotions

Moving on to something a bit...weirder

 

[0387274]

Ass Goblins of Auschwitz by Cameron Pierce.

 

[LadyX]

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Re-reading both 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring Up the Bodies', both by Hilary Mantel.

 

[LadyX]

Re-reading both 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring Up the Bodies', both by Hilary Mantel.

I heard the sequel (Bring Up the Bodies) is much better.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I heard the sequel (Bring Up the Bodies) is much better.

To be honest, the first 50-70 pages of 'Wolf Hall' can be hard going - the disjointed and time-shifting narrative structure, the multi-layered, nuanced, dense material, plus Hilary Mantel's tendency to write of Thomas Cromwell in the third person (for much of 'Wolf Hall', Thomas Cromwell is referred to as 'he', something she makes clearer on the subsequent book, when it is amended to 'he, Thomas Cromwell'), can make it somewhat difficult to focus on.

Then, suddenly, it falls into place. I re-read 'Wolf Hall' when 'Bring Up The Bodies' came out, and then found them both excellent. I was fortunate too, in that I had taught Renaissance and Reformation history for a number of years and so knew the wider area pretty well.

Mind you, it helps to pay close attention, otherwise you can miss something important - a grace note - awfully easily. Now, neither the books, nor the plays (which I saw last autumn in London, a brilliant and spell-binding adaptation by the RSC), nor, indeed, for that matter, the excellent BBC TV adaptation currently being broadcast, make it easy - this is prose, theatre and TV where you have to concentrate to find out what is young on, even though the outlines of the actual story are well known.

The books make little concession to the reader, you are expected to work for your reward, but, once you do get into them, they are excellent.

Granted, 'Bring Up the Bodies' is an easier read than 'Wolf Hall'. For one thing, the book covers a single year, rather than decades, and lacks the need to supply backstories and flashbacks as well. For another, you are already somewhat familiar with most of the characters in the story that is told.

Here, I will say that the interrogation scenes (in 'Bring Up the Bodies') are superb, and chilling - they would not be out of place in a modern police state; and by that stage, the story is on a roll and is gripping.

However, I recommend them both highly, and indeed, recommend that they be read together.

 

[a.guillermo]

Just discovered Haruki Murakami this past week with the book, "South of the Border, West of the Sun." I'm looking forward to reading the last few chapters after work today, but I can say that I've found a new author that I find to be very enthralling!!

I'm very excited to select a new book by him from the library

 

[JamesMike]

Just started another Department Q book, 'The Purity of Vengeance', the author Jussi Adler-Olsen has a good sense of humor.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

'Collapse - How Societies Choose To Succeed Or Fail' by Jared Diamond.

 

[LizKat]

In honor of the snow day we're having in the northeast today, and since I'm a fan of snow, I'm re-reading a Caldecott Honor book titled exactly that. Snow, by Uri Shulevitz. I just love that book, always get copies for the nextgens in my family as they turn up.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

In honor of the snow day we're having in the northeast today, and since I'm a fan of snow, I'm re-reading a Caldecott Honor book titled exactly that. Snow, by Uri Shulevitz. I just love that book, always get copies for the nextgens in my family as they turn up.

If you are a fan of snow, did you ever perchance read "Snow Falls On Cedars" by David Guterson? It is a very well written and thought-proovoking book about a very interesting period in relatively recent US history.

 

[LizKat]

If you are a fan of snow, did you ever perchance read "Snow Falls On Cedars" by David Guterson? It is a very well written and thought-proovoking book about a very interesting period in relatively recent US history.

Yes, I loved Snow Falling on Cedars -- especially the technique of unwrapping events by retelling from other points of view and in other time frames -- and liked the movie as well. Such a moving story. I keep meaning to get the digital version of the film because mine was on VHS and is long gone.

Also on the subject of Japanese Americans and how some of them fared here initially and during WWII, recently I was reading a couple of novels by Julie Otsuka, When the Emperor was Divine and The Buddha in the Attic and enjoyed them both. The latter is unusual not least for having been written largely in the first person plural, interspersed with individuating remarks, often a first person singular recollection, or a memory of a mother-daughter admonition, put in second person singular. So the book was presented as about “us” but also about individuals speaking as their unique selves and remembering events and lessons of their distinct past lives. I was just awestruck most of the time while reading it, and I don’t mean to make that sound like the mechanics were obtrusive.

I first ran into Julie Otsuka’s work in a short story collection I’d borrowed from the Kindle library (Best American Short Stories 2012, and liked the one I read, “Diem Perdidi” which was originally printed in some issue of Granta. That story evokes so well the swirl of feelings in seeing someone descend into either Alzheimer’s or ordinary senility, with a perfect recollection of learnings from long ago juxtaposed with abject or sometimes insouciant inability to remember this morning. Hence “I have lost the day” as the title translates. When I finished that story, I put down the collection, went looking for more of her work and found the novels.

 

[JamesMike]

Finished the Department Q book, a good read. Starting 'Murdering Lawyers' by Larry Fine, it the first time reading him. Any opinions on this writer?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

'Elantris' by Brandon Sanderson.

 

[pachyderm]

Finished the book. It's definitely not soppy in a romantic or overdramatic sense, but the book runs the gamut of emotions

Moving on to something a bit...weirder

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one of my faves. have you read any others?

i just started...

 

[AustinIllini]

one of my faves. have you read any others?

i just started...

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Never read any of his stuff

 

[pachyderm]

Never read any of his stuff

player piano, mother night, cat's cradle, Slaughterhouse Five in any order...

 

[yg17]

Going Clear. Figured I'd read it before the documentary comes out. Scientology is one ****ed up religion cult.

 

[AVBeatMan]

Have a trip to Berlin in a few weeks so reading Antony Beevor's "Berlin. The Downfall 1945"

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Have a trip to Berlin in a few weeks so reading Antony Beevor's "Berlin. The Downfall 1945"

Over the years, I have read quite a bit about the Third Reich, and indeed, quite a few books detailing the story of the final death throes of that regime and the fall of Berlin, but not, as it happens, Anthony Beevor's book.

Please let us know how you find it, - I'd be interested to know whether you think it is worth reading - and I hope you enjoy reading it.

 

[LadyX]

My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August Pullman wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things. He eats ice cream. He plays on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside.

But Auggie is far from ordinary. Ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go.

Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life, in an attempt to protect him from the cruelty of the outside world. Now, for the first time, he's being sent to a real school - and he's dreading it. All he wants is to be accepted - but can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?

Narrated by Auggie and the people around him whose lives he touches forever, Wonder is a funny, frank, astonishingly moving debut to read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page.

 

[Don't panic]

just finished
A constellation of vital phenomena

a peek into the intertwined lives of a few interesting characters during the recent chechen-russian conflict.
soulful, dark, occasionally funny and beautifully written.


very, very good book.

Scepticalscribe, have you read this one? it seems right up your alley

 

[Don't panic]

some other books i have read recently:

station eleven, be Emily st john mandel
a different and fresh take on the post-apocalyptic genre, with some memorable characters.
very nice.

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Neuromancer, by William Gibson.
A modern classic. the book that started cyberpunk. for some reason i never got around to read it.
it didn't disappoint. a was surprised how well it aged, considering the subject.

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The bone clocks, by Dave Mitchell
interesting, original and well crafted, maybe a bit too ambitious in parts (and/or unbalanced), but overall i liked it

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What if?, by Randal Munroe. a selection from the the Xkcd guy. pretty hilarious if you are into science/geeekness/weird stuff in general.
the webcomic is not to be missed

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Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.
Absolutely brilliant. i suppose it helped that this book was apparently written specifically for me, but i enjoyed it immensely.
it hit ALL the soft spots of my youth (sci-fi? check. fantasy? check. role playing? check. early video games? check. quests and puzzles? check. eighties pop culture? check) and i could cite/remember/relate to almost every single bit of the book.
if this rings a bell, than you HAVE to read this book, if not maybe your reaction will be (a lot) less enthusiastic than mine

 

[LadyX]

some other books i have read recently:

station eleven, be Emily st john mandel

a different and fresh take on the post-apocalyptic genre, with some memorable characters.

very nice.

Image

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What if?, by Randal Munroe. a selection from the the Xkcd guy. pretty hilarious if you are into science/geeekness/weird stuff in general.

the webcomic is not to be missed

Image

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Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.

Absolutely brilliant. i suppose it helped that this book was apparently written specifically for me, but i enjoyed it immensely.

it hit ALL the soft spots of my youth (sci-fi? check. fantasy? check. role playing? check. early video games? check. quests and puzzles? check. eighties pop culture? check) and i could cite/remember/relate to almost every single bit of the book.

if this rings a bell, than you HAVE to read this book, if not maybe your reaction will be (a lot) less enthusiastic than mine

Image

I read Station Eleven recently. I felt it ended with quite a few unanswered questions. But I did like it.

I have What If? on my list. Haven't bought it yet. I did check out the webcomic a few times.

I immensely enjoyed Ready Player One. It was a very entertaining read. I loved all the pop culture references even though I did not recognize some of them since they were mostly from the 80's and I was born in the 90s.