Constant Reader discussion

December begins as I continue my slow traipse through John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels. I'm currently on the twelfth one, The Long Lavender Look. After the previous one which was set in Mexico, McGee has returned to Florida and has found himself charged with murder in a small town. I do like the Travis McGee novels better when they are set in Florida. I'm also reading Ann Patchett's collection of essays, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage. I really like this book. I like the combination of kindness and direct truth-telling that Patchett brings to her observations about life ... and other writers. That's a balancing act.

Pauper, Brawler, and Slanderer is an excellent short novel from Amos Tutuola. I'm about a third of the way in, but I'm already convinced it's a great accomplishment. From the author who gave us The Palm-Wine Drinkard & My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, it's unique and entirely off the map of what you may be acquainted with in literature.

Am re-posting over here, forgot it was the 1st. :)
I'm reading three at the moment.
The Final Silence, the new Belfast novel by Stuart Neville.

Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon to break the tension of the Neville. I'm about halfway through both of those.

And I happened to receive A Fortunate Life y Robert Vaughn....yes, that Robert Vaughn, the actor. I wish he would write fiction, he has a definite flair for writing, and yes, he wrote it himself, no ghost writer. Quite interesting, with some interesting philosophical entries as well. Not quite finished it.

Read Waiting for Godot (for the first time, finally) this weekend. I found it frustrating. I have a high tolerance for plotlessness and for verbiage and slapstick, but about halfway through I just wanted it to be over.

I just finished Ice, by Anna Kavan, which I quite liked. It mixes up past and present and also various points of view, without any warning or tags or transitions, and yet I found myself staying up to finish it like you do with a more traditional novel/plot. I think there may be a hidden trove of weird 60's and 70's fiction out there just waiting.

I'm also reading Middle C which, so far, I am also really liking. Here's hoping it continues to be good: I'm hoping for a streak.

Geoff wrote: "Read Waiting for Godot (for the first time, finally) this weekend. I found it frustrating. I have a high tolerance for plotlessness and for verbiage and slapstick, but about halfway through I jus..."

Geoff, I've always thought I should read that. Now, maybe not....

Oh, I'm sure I'm wrong; it's a highly respected play. It's possible I'd feel differently if I saw it staged.

Cateline wrote: "Am re-posting over here, forgot it was the 1st. :)
I'm reading three at the moment.
The Final Silence, the new Belfast novel by Stuart Neville.

[book:Lord John and the Private Mat..."

The Vaughn book sounds interesting, Cateline. I've added it.

Geoff wrote: "Read Waiting for Godot (for the first time, finally) this weekend. I found it frustrating. I have a high tolerance for plotlessness and for verbiage and slapstick, but about halfway through I jus..."

I love it.

Gentle reminder that Waiting for Godot is meant to be seen more than read. Sir Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart performed in the play in New York and London recently. I wish I could have gotten tickets.

Sue wrote: "Cateline wrote: "Am re-posting over here, forgot it was the 1st. :)
I'm reading three at the moment.
The Final Silence, the new Belfast novel by Stuart Neville.

[book:Lord John an..."

I think you'll enjoy it, Sue. :)
Here is my full review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Geoff wrote: "Read Waiting for Godot (for the first time, finally) this weekend. I found it frustrating. I have a high tolerance for plotlessness and for verbiage and slapstick, but about halfway through I jus..."

I finally read it about a year ago. It was pointless. I felt I wasted my good reading time, but now, I won't ever have to read it again.

Way back earlier this year Gina posted that she had read Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine.
"message 169: by Gina Apr 25, 2014 02:09PM

I finished When the Emperor Was Divine this morning. I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. The author, Julie Otsuka, didn't name any of the characters, just calling them the father, mother, daughter and son. I think she did this to show that this was generic treatment for all Japanese-American families at that time. Each chapter is told by a different family member and tells the story of the family having to move to an internment camp in Utah for over three years. Unfortunately, I didn't think any of the characters were fully fleshed out. "


I just got this and one of her other books, The Buddha in the Attic from the library to read and charged through the first this morning. I tend to agree with what Gina wrote, but do think her style, of short simple sentences lends to the atmosphere, the sparse physical desert where the woman and her children find themselves interned and to her emotional state as she survives through it, and the vain hope in the dreams of the young boy for the return of their father and having everything back to normal.

Not a great book, but a poignant meshing of what must have been an all too common family story from those times.

Gina wrote: "Geoff wrote: "Read Waiting for Godot (for the first time, finally) this weekend. I found it frustrating. I have a high tolerance for plotlessness and for verbiage and slapstick, but about halfway..."

Pointlessness is the point.

I agree with you, Ruth, and add my own two cents that Samuel Beckett is asking his audience to consider the question, "What if there is no God(ot) to wait for?" Absurdist theater was very popular in the late 60s and early 70s. Howard Pinter is often considered a master of the form. The question is still being asked in literature this year in To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (and many other books that I haven't read, I am sure).

Finished Stuart Neville's newest, The Final Silence, review here. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Also Diana Gabaldon's Lord John and The Private Matter (meh) my review, here.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Portia wrote: "I agree with you, Ruth, and add my own two cents that Samuel Beckett is asking his audience to consider the question, "What if there is no God(ot) to wait for?" Absurdist theater was very popular ..."

I definitely caught all that. It just wasn't an interesting 'wait' for me. I kept wishing for something more like the waiting and pointlessness of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which is both funnier and more serious (and smarter).

Geoff wrote: "Portia wrote: "I agree with you, Ruth, and add my own two cents that Samuel Beckett is asking his audience to consider the question, "What if there is no God(ot) to wait for?" Absurdist theater wa..."

I'm sure you did, Geoff. What I took exception to was calling the play "pointless," which I don't believe you did. And I should get my terms right. Theater of the Absurd is correct.

I was waiting for Godot ... and Lefty showed up. A better result.

Finished Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson but can't help thinking I missed something. The prose was spectacular and I now long to see a Norwegian forest, but I was flummoxed as to why the author put together the particular events of the novel, and unsure about its final import. Is it something more than a rather bitter coming-of-age story?

Larry wrote: "December begins as I continue my slow traipse through John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels. I'm currently on the twelfth one, The Long Lavender Look. After the previous one which w..."

Larry, I have read a few Ann Patchett books, and I've liked her. But when she was on the Diane Rehm show about a month ago discussing this book, I decided I love her. Love how she talks, how she makes jokes, how she thinks.

Tonya

I love that she owns an Indy book store. Been hearing that the big box books stores are starting to waiver but that indies are gaining strength. How wonderful if the trend continues

Not My Father's SonI've started reading. This memoir by the presentor for Masterpiece Mystery, Eli Gold on "The Good Wife", the Toni award winner for the Emcee in "Cabaret". The narrative moves between the abuse inflicted on him when he was a child to scenes from his adult life.

I think this post makes more sense now. I am not a fan of autocorrect.

Tonya and Portia,

I do love Ann Patchett's commitment to reading, which is expressed through her ownership of the bookstore, her own books, and her strong stand against censorship.

Larry

Lives cut short are tragic ... my wife and I both agreed years ago that few losses were as tragic (for readers) as the early and untimely death of Laurie Colwin. I just bought her reissued Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen This review is from her daughter (you can find it on the B&N Review website here http://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/...

'And, of course, there are the books. I need only to crack open my well-worn copies of Home Cooking—complete with an illustrated inscription from my mother, crayon-colored in my 4-year-old hand—and More Home Cooking to see the life we led together as real and as immediate as if those days of warm fires and tussles over chores and Halloween gallivanting and gingerbread-making were still ahead of us. ... Laurie leaps off the pages of her books, and not just in my hot little hands but in kitchens and favorite reading chairs across the country; from bedside tables and shelves holding beloved volumes in France, England, Spain, and Japan. “She’s like the best friend I never met,” people tell me, and I get it, for she was the mother I never fully got to know."

Tonya wrote: "Larry wrote: "December begins as I continue my slow traipse through John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels. I'm currently on the twelfth one, The Long Lavender Look. After the previo..."

This book of essays is the only Patchett I have not read. Next year, I'll buy it for myself. I have just about all her books in hard cover, her early ones in paperback. When Bel Canto first came out, I went to a book signing in Milwaukee before she was really popular. There were only about eight people there, and she was wonderful.

Sherry wrote: "This book of essays is the only Patchett I have not read. Next year, I'll buy it for myself. I have just about all her books in hard cover, her early ones in paperback. When Bel Canto first came out, I went to a book signing in Milwaukee before she was really popular. There were only about eight people there, and she was wonderful. ..."

My wife was excited when, in one of the essays that Patchett included in this book, there was a reference to a reading/book signing at National Cathedral in DC that my wife had attended. And my wife used the word "wonderful" to describe it also.

Cateline wrote: "And I happened to receive A Fortunate Life y Robert Vaughn....yes, that Robert Vaughn, the actor. I wish he would write fiction, he has a definite flair for writing, and yes, he wrote it himself, no ghost writer. Quite interesting, with some interesting philosophical entries as well. Not quite finished it. ..."

Cateline, if you haven't had the pleasure of reading David Niven's four books, the two that are his memoirs are absolutely fabulous. These are The Moon's a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses.

Portia wrote: "Not My Father's SonI've started reading. This memoir by the presentor for Masterpiece Mystery, Eli Gold on "The Good Wife", the Toni award winner for the Emcee in "Cabaret" moves b..."

This is on my Wish List, he is priceless. :)

Larry wrote: Cateline, if you haven't had the pleasure of reading David Niven's four books, the two that are his memoirs are absolutely fabulous. These are The Moon's a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses.

I have read two of Niven's books, and also recently read Niv by Graham Lord, a kind and seemingly accurate bio of Niven. Informative and well written. David Niven has always been a favorite of mine.

Larry wrote: "Lives cut short are tragic ... my wife and I both agreed years ago that few losses were as tragic (for readers) as the early and untimely death of Laurie Colwin. I just bought her reissued [book:Ho..."

Laurie Colwin's books were wonderful. I forgot to list them on my Goodreads list, but I have both of them. I would never ever get rid of these two books - even if I quit cooking.

I'm nearly 25% through now with The Luminaries, and it has taken great patience to withstand the long-windedness of it (and I am hoping hard that there is some payoff for my time investment!). Not caring much about any of the characters, except maybe Joseph the chemist a bit.

Saw Molly Gloss at a reading at our local university recently and she was great. I loved her Jump-Off Creek and Hearts of Horses, and learned that she writes short stories of science fiction (on her website, she said; I need to check those out).

Gina wrote: "Laurie Colwin's books were wonderful. I forgot to list them on my Goodreads list, but I have both of them. I would never ever get rid of these two books - even if I quit cooking...."

Gina, I haven't quite finished Ann Patchett's This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, but I noticed that the essay I was reading last night was one that originally appeared in GOURMET, just as so many of the pieces that make up the Laurie Colwin books on cooking. My wife and I like BON APPETIT, but we both really miss the quality of the writing that was pretty much the standard for GOURMET.

I finished Julie Otsuka's second book The Buddha in the Attic this morning. Riveting, spellbinding, could not put it down! Much better than her first book When the Emperor Was Divine . She clearly has matured her style. I reviewed it on my blog .

Has anyone read Rose Tremain's short story collection The American Lover yet? The waiting list in my library is so long I am still waiting patiently.

Sheila, I haven't read anything by Rose Tremain and hadn't heard of these stories but their description is tantalizing. My library owns four of her novels but doesn't have this collection.

Barb, I'm number 37 on my libraries list so its going to be a long wait :( I read her historical novel Restoration which I loved although I didn't write anything up about it :(

Sheila wrote: "Barb, I'm number 37 on my libraries list so its going to be a long wait :( I read her historical novel Restoration which I loved although I didn't write anything up about it :("

I think you've introduced me to a new author, Sheila. The descriptions of her books and reviews sound very intriguing.

Barbara wrote: "Sheila wrote: "Barb, I'm number 37 on my libraries list so its going to be a long wait :( I read her historical novel Restoration which I loved although I didn't write anything up abo..."

I used to read every novel Rose Tremain wrote. I slowed down after Music and Silence, which somehow didn't do it for me. Restoration is my favorite, I love the feeling of transcendence at the end. But I like many of her other novels as well. She's an interesting writer because she likes trying different things in different novels, and you never know what one of her books is going to be like.

I've only read one of Tremain's books, Trespass, which I liked and I've intended to return to her other books. Thanks for the reminder.

Barbara wrote: "Sheila, I haven't read anything by Rose Tremain and hadn't heard of these stories but their description is tantalizing. My library owns four of her novels but doesn't have this collection."

I've very much enjoyed what I've read of Rose Tremain. I need to get back to her too!

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn – 4****
On a fictitious island nation off the coast of South Carolina, the people pride themselves on their literacy and writing. A monument in the center of town immortalizes the pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” in ceramic tiles. But when one of the letter tiles falls off and breaks, the Council decrees that the letter should no longer be used. It’s just one letter. But then another falls… and another. This is a wonderful little satire on the use/abuse of power, but it is also a love letter to all of us who love and cherish words.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Barbara wrote: "Sheila wrote: "Barb, I'm number 37 on my libraries list so its going to be a long wait :( I read her historical novel Restoration which I loved although I didn't write anything up abo..."

Barb one of the delights of CR the giving and receiving of good recommendations :)

I agree, Sheila. I've never been at a loss for the next book since I discovered CR. The problem is choosing one of the many on my long TBR list. And, that is a very nice problem to have.

Barbara wrote: "I agree, Sheila. I've never been at a loss for the next book since I discovered CR. The problem is choosing one of the many on my long TBR list. And, that is a very nice problem to have."

Have to agree with you both, Sheila and Barb. I will never run out of things to read---and never need to make do, either.

I finished Malice by Keigo Higashino the other day, but was unable to gather my thoughts sufficiently to write anything about it. It's a mindbender. Seemingly simple......but far from it.
My review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've started When We Were Orphans.

Orchard by Larry Watson – 4****
What a gem of a novel. This is a character-driven story involving two couples: Sonja and Henry House who live and work on the House orchards that Henry's family has farmed for generations, and Henrietta and Ned Weaver, a wealthy and famous painter and his long-suffering wife. When Sonja begins to pose for Weaver jealousies flare. Beautifully written, and so evocative of time and place. Of course, I know Wisconsin's Door County Penninsula very well, so I'm sure that helps.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished When We Were Orphans. Understated, and wonderful. My review, here. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished The Luminaries. If you haven't read it yet but plan to, save yourself!!! You will never get that time back, and all the careful attention needed to keep details straight in that 800 page glorified paperweight is not in my opinion rewarded. Good thing it was a library copy or I would have thrown it against a wall.

Lyn wrote: "Finished The Luminaries. If you haven't read it yet but plan to, save yourself!!! You will never get that time back, and all the careful attention needed to keep details straight i..."

Ha,
. I'm only a few pages in and already questioning my decision to read it.

I'm 18% in and enjoying it.

I'm at 38% and feel like she tried to do too many plot lines but the writing is good so I think it's worth reading so far.