Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Very much enjoyed this Pushkin Collection of Dostoevsky short stories: I liked that these showcased humour and other softer shades that I don't usually associate with him
A Bad Business

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Chrissie wrote: "Brian and Ce Ce, add to your Stegner list All the Little Live Things and Angle of Repose. I think they are his best. These two I gave five stars..."

My ratings of the Stegners I have read:
1943 - The Big Rock Candy Mountain - 5 stars
1961 - A Shooting Star - 4 stars
1967 - All the Little Live Things - 4 stars
1969 - Angle of Repose - 5 stars
1978 - The Spectator Bird - 4 stars
1987 - Crossing to Safety - 4 stars
(That's the publication date, not the year I read them, I'm old, but not that old!)

It's nice to know that I have several more left to read and that, since it's been 20 years, it is time to consider a reread of Angle of Repose. Now that I think of it, it would also be good to reread TBRCM before picking up Recapitualtion.

Ce Ce, I have to be totally wowed, the book has to seem truly amazing for me to give it five stars. I feel if I a not strict, five stars will mean nothing, and I don't want it to be that way.

Brian, interesting to compare your ratings against mine.

My ratings only reflect how I personally react to a book. I don't think it is at all strange that people rate the same book differently. This is because we each have different experiences and personality types.

Chrissie wrote: "My ratings only reflect how I personally react to a book. I don't think it is at all strange that people rate the same book differently. This is because we each have different experiences and personality types."

I find my rating is influenced by many factors...including what I read just before, just after or simultaneously. If I read it with a group, online or in life, how rewarding was the discussion? Or what is going on in my life or the world. And a slew of little vagaries. ;-p

Yesterday was a gray gloomy day. Spring is coming...but winter is not yet over so we had snow. Not a pretty snow and it's too late in the year to be the majestic wonder it is in December. The news (local to global) is disturbing. I sat in front of the fireplace and read 84, Charing Cross Road. It was the perfect time and setting...the stars aligned. I can also imagine other circumstances where I could experience some impatience with this slender epistolary gem.

Chrissie wrote: "Brian, interesting to compare your ratings against mine..."
The differences are because:
1. You use the whole 5 star spectrum that GR envisions;
2. You are just an old hippie at heart and you liked All the Little Live Things so much because fond memories of the time came pouring out :)

Chrissie wrote: "Brian and Ce Ce, add to your Stegner list All the Little Live Things and Angle of Repose. I think they are his best. These two I gave five stars. You both know I am restr..."

I enjoyed Beyond the 100th Meridian but I had already read some about Powell. Of course, I still have a mammoth biography of him sitting on a shelf.

It seems Stendhal isn't for me. I am glad The Charterhouse of Parma is over. Court intrigues, swooning romances and such are not my cp of tea.

My review: /review/show...

Now I am reading Carry the Wind by Terry C. Johnston. I have never heard if this before, but it has a high rating. I am looking for something different from the last. It is free for Audible-UK-Plus members.

Ce Ce wrote: "I just finished Mrs. Bridge followed by Mr. Bridge by Evan S Connell. Both are character studies built vignette by vignette. No plot. Elegantly and economically writt..."

I loved both of those, Ce Ce! A wonderful pair of books. I enjoyed the movie too. I read Mrs. Bridge first, which I'd recommend to others. Here are my reviews (no spoilers!), if anyone is interested.

5� My review of Mrs Bridge

4.5� My review of Mr Bridge

I also found Mrs. Bridge to be better than Mr. Bridge. I can recommend Son of the Morning Star: General Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. I plan on soon reading The Connoisseur. Some say it is very good.

I look forward to watching the movie, Patty. I completely agree that "Mrs Bridge" should be read first.

Chrissie, "The Connoisseur" looks very tempting. It's going on my tbr list. Thank you.

I have it in my wishlist--from which I choose books..

I very recently read The Power of the Dog. It was my turn to select for my in life book group. I have to admit that the first paragraph is a humdinger. If there was an award for most shocking (or biggest hurdle) paragraphs...this would be hard to beat. There are 8 of us. Three of us loved the writing. Two were polite. Two refused to read it. And one was away on holiday and never mentioned it. It's safe to say it's a love it or hate it experience. I haven't seen Jane Campion's film yet.

I followed with The Sheep Queen. I still appreciated his writing although he scrambles generations in this novel. I started over with that understanding. He also repeated themes from The Power of the Dog.

His wife, Elizabeth Savage, was also a writer. I am just starting her The Last Night at the Ritz.

I finished my re-read of The Thin Man. It is gratifying that my favorite lines in the movie are in the book. So they came from Hammett and not screenwriters.

I've just finished Q's Legacy: A Delightful Account of a Lifelong Love Affair with Books, which I really liked. Thanks for the recommendation!

Just started a bit of enjoyable escapism: Hard Knocks. Roman Clodia recommended this series to me, so it must be respectable. 😉

Published in 1957 and set in Egypt in the 1930s, this book is considered a classic. I did not care for the first two parts but enjoyed the last two:
Justine by Lawrence Durrell - 3* - My Review

I read the whole quartet when I was in college in 1966. It was a fever dream experience. I felt unseen worlds revealed—cosmopolitan pre-WW II Egypt, passion and allure, homosexuality (!), and I loved it. Recalling how much I did, many years later I tried to read it again and was put off right away by what you describe as the "ornate" writing. Funny, one's taste changes. Still, I remember sinking into those four books as one of my greatest literary experiences.

I have meant to read Lawrence Durrell forever. Really do need to bump his work up my TBR mountain...

I've just finished The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton, which I found a bit disappointing - as others have said, I felt it would have been better as a film or TV show, as I really wanted to hear the music that's described.

Opal is a great character, but the format, with multiple interviews and newspaper snippets, keeps her and the other characters a bit distant. Since finishing, I've read some reviews which say the audiobook version is great, so I'm slightly wishing I'd gone for that format on this occasion.

Nobody in my other group liked The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, which makes me wonder how it made the Women’s Prize longlist.

WndyJW wrote: "Nobody in my other group liked The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, which makes me wonder how it made the Women’s Prize longlist."

WndyJW, I've had a look over there and see the comments are quite unenthusiastic, as you say. I have read a couple of interviews with the author which I found interesting even though I struggled to be engaged with the book.

The more I think about it, the more I feel it cries out to be a film rather than a book - maybe it will be filmed in future?

I haven't written many reviews lately, but am just looking back through the books I've read in the last few months and adding reviews for a few, especially where not many other people have reviewed them.

I've just done a review for a long Victorian novel, Whiteladies by Mrs. Oliphant, or Margaret Oliphant as I wish Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ would call her.

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I recently finished Stone Butch Blues. Amongst other things it has, including a lot of loneliness, is connection. This stood out to me on its own merit, but perhaps also I think because just before this I was reading 84, Charing Cross Road. From the blurb I was expecting that to be about a great friendship but there was a dearth of it to my mind. Still, I've only read half of it, perhaps after the other half of it it will have fulfilled it's blurb's promise to "grab your heart and not let go". Ugh!! I really do feel like vomiting now. Soz gentle people.

Anyway, I highly recommend Stone Butch Blues.

I am reading The Enchanted April. There are parts where Lotty and her husband's finances are talked about. The husband advising her to have a savings plan for her money, her paying for her holiday herself, him thinking he would pay her bill as a big treat to her. I might have missed something early on but wouldn't it have been customary for the non working (outside the home for money that is) wife to be supported by her husband after she married him back then?

edit: I think I should have posted this in the Midnight bell thread but don't think I am able to shift it now. Is there a way to shift posts to different threads or is that just a moderator ability?

I really enjoyed Carry the Wind by Terry C. Johnston. Now I understand why it's a proze-winner.

My review: /review/show...

There is an added bonus--it's free for Audible-UK-Plus members, as are the next two books in the series!

I have begun Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer. Why? Because I enjoyed the author's Paradise Postponed. The humor is quite British. Some of the expressions and humor I don't understand. This is a buddy read in the group--but you can read it when you like.

Finished this classic Christie, published in 1926:
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie - 3* - My Review

I found lots to enjoy in a series of essays on queer identity and horror movies It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror

Link to my review:
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I had mixed feelings about a reissue of supernatural fiction from Dorothy K Broster From the Abyss: Weird Fiction, 1907-1940

Link to my review:

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And found myself unexpectedly caught up in a debut novel by Chantal V. Johnson Post-Traumatic

Link to my review:

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I've just read Crickonomics: The Anatomy of Modern Cricket. Of limited appeal to a lot of people, I'm sure - especially our friends across the Atlantic - and even to this lifelong cricket-lover it was rather heavier going than I'd have liked.

If anyone here is interested in cricket, this is my review: /review/show...

My husband loves cricket, Sid. Interesting review.

Ashley Audrain's psychological thriller, The Push, caused a lot of stir and I wondered why. I knew there was a worn-out mother with young children, but I expected something more.
3� My review of The Push

Apeirogon, by award-winning Irish writer Colum McCann, is the remarkable and moving true story of two fathers, former enemies, working for peace. One is Israeli, one Palestinian. Both lost young daughters in the conflict. It is unbelievably beautifully done.
5� My review of Apeirogon

I've just started Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. Only on the first chapter but looks interesting so far.

I may have been prescribed it once. But I recognized signs before it got too far. Haven't really known anyone I can think of who was on and got addicted and ruined their life. Although I know many people have.

A big thank you to Nigeyb, who recommended Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, which I've started and absolutely love.

Great news. Thanks Kathleen. Delighted that you are enjoying it too

I only mention books here that I think are exceptional, I just finished Call Me Cassandra. Blending the Greek myth The Iliad with the Cuban intervention in Angola the author tells the story of Rauli, a sensitive, intelligent young man in a machismo culture. Rauli believes that he is Cassandra, like Cassandra he can foretell the future, but no one takes him seriously. Moving from Raul’s childhood and adolescence in Cuba to the military outposts in Angola this tragic, brutal story is beautifully written.

Thanks Wendy, I keep hearing good things about that one - must check it out further.

I have completed and enjoyed Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer. It is a buddy read here in this grop and there is a separate thread for it. I am glad to have read it.

My review: /review/show...

This moring I began Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg. It is one of those short books that begin with an introduction, author's note and translator's preface. Finally, I have gotten to the book itself! I wish the introduction had been placed at the end.

A new favourite Aussie thriller for my bookshelf! If you need more than my enthusiasm, Lee Child called Michael Trant's latest novel, Wild Dogs "Tough, fast and hard � my kind of book." It is also a completely authentic, Aussie outback story. I'm with Lee on this one.
5� My review of Wild Dogs

I wasn't totally convinced by Alejandro Zambra's Chilean Poet

Link to my review:

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Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg was a disappointment for me. I explain why in my review. In one sentence you can say the story is TOLD, while what happens should should have been SHOWN.

My review: /review/show...

After this huge disappointment I wanted to pick something that would most probably be good. So I have chosen A Time to Love and a Time to Die by Erich Maria Remarque. This author has never disappointed me.

Chrissie wrote: "Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg was a disappointment for me."

That's a shame, Chrissie - I have that book, so hope I might have a better experience than you.

I've just read East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity: my review www.goodreads.com/review/show/4658294964

and The Russia House which is one of my least favourite le Carrés: my review www.goodreads.com/review/show/4671892257

I'm about to start our buddy read Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays but probably won't rush it as these essays sound like perfect commute reading next week, and Death of a Red Heroine.

Roman Clodia wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg was a disappointment for me."


That's a shame, Chrissie - I have that book, so hope I might have a better exp..."


I hope you do too.

Roman Clodia wrote: "I've just read East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity: my review www.goodreads.com/review/show/4658294964

and The Russia HouseWe both whi..."

Sand's book we both thought was well written. We both gave it four stars.......so I am curious to see what YOI think of Ginzburg's.

I couldn't resist sharing some of the verse and illustrations after enjoying a re-read of Madeline, the much-loved picture book and poem from 1939 by Ludwig Bemelmans. I can't recite all of it anymore, but I'm surprised how much I remember.

"In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines. . ."
5� My revisit to Paris with Madeline

I finally finished Henry ‘Chips� Channon: The Diaries (Volume 2): 1938-43

I know that some of us, including RC and Nigeyb, read the previous volume, so my review in case anyone is interested: /review/show...

I don't normally post about books I have read, but I finished another that some members may be interested in:

Not Far From Brideshead: Oxford Between the Wars

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Sounds fab Susan

Love that whole era and even a mere whiff of Evelyn Waugh is enough for me to be interested.

My review of [What Could Be Saved] is here: /review/show...

Susan wrote: "I don't normally post about books I have read, but I finished another that some members may be interested in:

Not Far From Brideshead: Oxford Between the Wars"

That does sound rather good, I hope my library gets a copy.

I recently finished Winter Sonata by Dorothy Edwards, sadly it was her only novel, though she does have some short stories published. It was certainly lacking in plot, but I really liked it, lots of descriptions of grey winter days and a rather melancholy feel to it. Not for everyone, but worth tracking down if you like that sort of book.