Let's see, this week I've enjoyed Zahra's Paradise, a new graphic novel about the election protests (http://joshuamalbin.com/2011/12/zahras-paradise/). I'm supposed to start Anna Karenina with the book group soon (maybe later today), but actually just at the moment I'm reading the latest installments of the comics Sweet Tooth, Cold War, and Chew, and a compilation of the 1990s classic Milk & Cheese.
I just finished The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides, which I loved and was reviewed by Melissa Chadburn on The Nervous Breakdown: http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/mchadburn/2011/10/the-spookiness-of-w...
Now I am onto an obscure 60s postmodern novel called UP, by Ronald Sukenick, and the best parts of this book remind me quite a bit of Brian Joseph Davis' Miss Radiation
thanks for mentioning this Marcus, what a great review! I will have to check out The Writing of Fiction, as I've been obsessed with Edith Wharton recently
At the moment, I'm reading "The Tin Drum" by Gunter Grass. Pretty hilarious and disturbing at the same time. Up next, "Kafka on the Shore" by Murakami! So excited.
Thomas Hardy, "Far From the Madding Crowd" has become my latest literary companion. I've been in such a funk, reading one good book after another has been a relief, and this book has been a real treat...the sense of humor is such a delight!
All of Gladwell's stuff is worth reading, but this book really provided some fresh insights about the ways in which things can actually change... and the agency of the individual.
that one remains fondly lodged in my cranium... my 2 other favorites are ratner's star, & the names. the names is probably de lillo's masterpiece, tho i have liked everything of his i have read...
just finished distant star, by roberto bolaño, an interesting & mostly successful (& magical-realist, not post-magical-realist, as he always claimed) novel abt the original 9-11, when the cia overthrew chile's democratically elected government & assassinated allende & began throwing peops in detention camps or disappearing them... bolaño constructs a wickedly meta-tale involving death squads & fascist poets & chilean exiles & a whole bunch of unreliable or at least conflicting narratives & their narrators, & most of it works beeyouteafully... some of it is a tad too borges or phil dick for anyone's good, but it manages to encompass a lot of narrative in its 150 pgs, a good deal more than some 300 or 500 pg novels. so far, tho, i do prefer his short fiction.
also, forgot to mention distant star involves a messerschidt used by the chilean air force, sky writing, literary zines of every political stripe, & political zines of every literary stripe...
"Chronicle of a Death Foretold," Gabriel García Márquez (long overdue); "Chinoiserie," Karen Rigby (excellent new poet, worth checking out; and re-watching (just as important) David Lynch's brilliant "Twin Peaks."
The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story by Frank O'Connor - this book is a great discussion of the form, so glad someone at Melville House decided to put it back in print.
Attachment, Trauma and Healing
It is a clinical book about understanding and treating attachment disorder in children (and families). What I am learning is that although it is prettty rarely diagnosed, there are probably a lot more people suffering attachment trauma than I ever thought. We have tried for years to just get our daughter diagnosed with whatever was ailing her and get her help. When I started to read about Reactive Attachment Disorder, I was amazed that nobody had ever suggested this as a diagnosis. She fits (we as a family fit) almost every parameter. I am just sorry we didn't find this information sooner.
Really inspiring essays and often in subconscious ways I believe. It's Bringing the Devil to His Knees - The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life edited by Charles Baxter and Peter Turchi.
Way worthwhile.
I just finished reading Hard Times by Dickens, and picked up an old friend by Virginia Woolf, The Waves, which was conveniently sitting on my nightstand (it's one of my favorites, like comfort food.) I started reading Lynne Tillman's Haunted Houses last night and really like it a lot.
Jean Genet's 'Our Lady of the Flowers' along with Edmund White's excellent Genet biography. Did you know that there are over 400 pages in manuscript of a novel that Genet worked on for years but never completed? And here's a fun fact: Leonard Nimoy was in two different films based on Genet works. Who knew?
I just finished Brandwashed by Martin Lindstorm. It is a very quick read about how marketers can manipulate you into buying their product. He explains how now there is actually a science to it.
"Love and Sex with Robots" by David Levy and "Alone Together" by Sherry Turkle for research (and fun.) "Labyrinths" by Jorge Luis Borges, "Distrust That Particular Flavor" by William Gibson, "Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader" by Mac Montandon, and "Drood" by Dan Simmons.
Two to four books at a time has become standard, although one usually stays by the bed while the others get lugged around. Along with my laptop, and my notebooks, and my pens, and my...
Erik, it's funny you should mention The Idiot. Just the other day, a writer named Steve Aylett mentioned Dostoevky's The Idiot as an inspiration, which caused me to want to read it. Synchronicity is on the move!
Besides edits...
1Q84, good writing, a book that you can enjoy, but one that (though the writing is superb and you can get into the scenes very well) I don't find quite up my alley. I will read it, enjoy it, then forget about it. I'm looking for books that dig deeper than that (to be far I haven't finished it) and make you think, or change your view of the world, if even by a small angle.
Anyone recommend such books? Contemporary that is... I'll be willing to read it, especially if it's yours
cheers
Just finished The Biker by JD Mader- classic good guy versus bad guy fiction. Also just finished Joe Vital's Awakening Course, self help book on staying positive and advancing the consciousness. Always looking to improve myself. And almost finished Cupcake Brown's A Piece of Cake. Really cool story about coming back from abuse and addiction.
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Two to four books at a time has become standard, although one usually stays by the bed while the others get lugged around. Along with my laptop, and my notebooks, and my pens, and my...