Has anyone mentioned “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein? Outstanding book written from the perspective of a dog. Didn’t think I would like it at first, but couldn’t put it down. Just started reading “The Book Thief” primarily because of several good recommendations from CC.
I recently started the new book by James Wood (New Yorker critic, Harvard English professor), How Fiction Works, and am finding it really interesting and provocative (though I think it might more accurately be titled How Some Fiction Works).
[‘How</a> Fiction Works’ by James Wood - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bk-wood20-2008jul20,0,6922671.story]'How”>'How Fiction Works' by James Wood)
[Amazon.com:</a> How Fiction Works: James Wood: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/How-Fiction-Works-James-Wood/dp/0374173400/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217516435&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/How-Fiction-Works-James-Wood/dp/0374173400/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217516435&sr=1-1)
A Voyage Long and Strange, by Tony Horwitz–about European explorers in America before the conventionally celebrated 17th-century events–really readable, educational, interesting–as entertaining as a good novel and impressively researched.
Re the new Horwitz, I really enjoyed his last book, Confederates in the Attic, a lot (though I found it a bit uneven), and am looking forward to reading this one.
I haven’t been reading much since the start of the Olympics but I picked up a book on the weekend that was recommended to me by one of my Ds. It is Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. It’s a non-fiction examination of Mormon Fundamentalists and the origins of the Mormon faith. I’m about half way through and it alternates between being interesting, fascinating, and utterly disturbing. With the events in Texas earlier this summer, it’s of particular interest even though the book was written about five years ago.
I just finished a wonderful memoir: “Dancing With Rose: Finding Life in the World of Alzheimer’s,” by Lauren Kessler. To write the book, Kessler got a job at an Alzheimer’s care facility in Oregon. The book is horridying and discouraging, but also surprisingly uplifting, presenting a new perspective in understanding Alzheimer’s patients and some ideas for the baby boom generation to consider as it ages toward Alzheimer’s.
As some of you may have seen, the new James Wood book (#422) was the lead review in this week’s NY Times Book Review. Sort of a peculiar review, I thought, particularly for a lead review (where, it seems, one might be expecting something a bit more authoritative sounding and less attitude-driven), but over the last year or two they seem to have been trying (as here) for an “edgier” tone.
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/books/review/Kirn-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=james%20wood&st=cse&oref=login[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/books/review/Kirn-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=james%20wood&st=cse&oref=login</a>
How can it be that folks seem to want to talk more about trash-politics than about stuff that really matters - like, uh (I’m working on my Obama imitation [though I tell you, if he’s elected, it’s going to be a disaster for working comedians), reading - uh, books.
Anyway, if you’re tiring of the din - or even if not - you might want to do what I just did: find someplace quiet and comfortable, and read one of the short stories in The Collected Stories of William Trevor. What Trevor can do in eight or ten pages - well, he’s a quiet magician of language and of the heart. (And, I guarantee, he’ll be remembered long after this week’s political bloggers have all been forgotten.)
[Amazon.com:</a> William Trevor: The Collected Stories: William Trevor: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/William-Trevor-Collected-Stories/dp/0140232451]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/William-Trevor-Collected-Stories/dp/0140232451)
[William</a> Trevor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Trevor]William”>William Trevor - Wikipedia)
I loved “On Chesil Beach” by Ian McEwan, which I read in a few hours. It’s a short, intense novel about a couple’s wedding night and courtship. I’ve often felt that his novels (and many other’s) could use some ruthless editing, — it’s like someone did that to this one. I think it’s one of his best.
Also, “The Maytrees” by Annie Dillard, a beautiful book, also short! (I seem to pick books by length, or rather, by size. I carry them around with me all day, and my shoulder can’t take the weight of some of the tomes.) It made me want to read others of hers. Has anyone else read her books?
For Jane Austen fans, I recommend “Vanity Fair”, by William Thackery, one my all time favorites. (That one, however, is NOT short.) Becky Sharp is one entertaining heroine.
And speaking of entertaining heroines, I’m reading “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, by Anita Loos, which I picked up in a yard sale. It is hilarious, mortifying, jaw-dropping. It’s like being inside Paris Hilton’s head (or what I imagine it would be like.) As a cultural artifact, it’s oddly very contemporary.
Books on art:
Museum of the Missing (Paintings that have been stolen through out history)
The Lost Painting (about a lost painting of Caravaggio) Ok, I had to look up the spelling of his name. Somebody had better read this book now.
Making the Mummies Dance (about the workings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
All nonfiction. All these books are not not not boring!!! (I tend to read on a topic for a year or two)
Alwaysamom: I concur! great book.
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer.
I know we have discussed Sue Monk Kidd’s wonderful The Secret Life of Bees on a book thread here on CC, not sure if it was this current thread, though. In any case, I saw a screening of the film version this weekend. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. I’m always skeptical about film versions of my favorite books but I was so pleased with this movie and highly recommend it when it goes into wide release.
“Last Lecture” is an awesome, very inspiring book. My D & I were rivited, watching his YouTube presentation at CMU. Randy Pausch was truly an amazing professor and accomplished a great deal in his brief life.
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.
And while we’re talking about Richard Yates:
[Amazon.com:</a> The Collected Stories of Richard Yates: Richard Yates, Richard Russo: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stories-Richard-Yates/dp/B0000AZW78/ref=pd_sim_b_3]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stories-Richard-Yates/dp/B0000AZW78/ref=pd_sim_b_3)
Brilliant, often heartbreaking (one of his earlier collections was titled Eleven Kinds of Loneliness), these are the kinds of stories that stay with you long after you’ve finished them.
[Richard</a> Yates (novelist - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Yates_(novelist]Richard">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Yates_(novelist))
I just ordered the William Trevor book (post 428). I’m so excited! Thanks Epistrophy!!
I read “Life of Pi” recently and enjoyed it. Quite a story.
^I’m teaching that in Freshman comp this semester. Absolutely love it.
S didn’t like it, but that might be because he thought it’d be about math!
Which story do you prefer, the one with animals or the one without?
Okay, I admit I didn’t read all 30 pages of this thread, but does anyone else read mystery novels? I’m looking for well-written ones (so many mystery series are not particularly well-written.) I like Robert Crais, Dennis Lehane (the new one comes out later this month!), Thomas Perry, and Michael Connelly.
I have read some really good mysteries/thrillers lately, such as:
Obedience, by Will Lavendar (a convoluted mystery in a university setting)
Child 44, by T.R. Smith (serial murder in the Soviet Union)
Red Leaves, by Thomas H. Cook (an older novel but still good - how a child’s disappearance and the ensuing suspicions tear a family apart)