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Books
Sept 19, 2021 15:22:06 GMT
B.E. likes this
Post by Kapitan on Sept 19, 2021 15:22:06 GMT
Looks like some great stuff. I know what you mean about learning about the presidents, too. We get our formal schooling, which (unless you focus on it intentionally) means Washington, Jefferson, maybe Jackson, Lincoln, maybe T. Roosevelt, a little Wilson, a little Hoover just in context of the Depression, F. Roosevelt, Kennedy-Johnson, The End. At least that was roughly what I got, more or less. I suppose the intervening decades have added a bit to the tail end, but probably dropped some of what came before, too. Meanwhile a person could hardly be blamed for not even knowing some of the giants of the founding generation, a la Adams and Madison, to say nothing of the likes of Van Buren, Tyler, Polk, Garfield, and so many more. In the end, presidents maybe somehow both get too much and too little attention (like quarterbacks getting too much credit and too little blame?).
I just began Tolstoy's "Resurrection," which is his last novel (published 1899, 22 years after "Anna Karenina" and 30 years after "War and Peace"). I'm not sure why it doesn't have the reputation of the aforementioned two: so far--100 pages or so--it's tremendous.
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Sept 29, 2021 23:14:13 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Sept 29, 2021 23:14:13 GMT
I just began Tolstoy's "Resurrection," which is his last novel (published 1899, 22 years after "Anna Karenina" and 30 years after "War and Peace"). I'm not sure why it doesn't have the reputation of the aforementioned two: so far--100 pages or so--it's tremendous.
I'm nearing the end--just a few dozen pages to go, so 520 or so behind me--and am astounded this isn't a more well known novel. Not that I'm the first to think of this, but Tolstoy was such a genius. With its investigation of class and the justice system (and reform thereof), it feels timely, or timeless. (I thought the same of Dostoevsky's "Demons" when I reread that earlier this year.)
One thing that does keep throwing me: the translation I'm reading was obviously British (based on the spelling), and the dialogue is also in keeping with that. Meaning when the convicts or peasants talk, the dialogue is written as if it were in a Cockney accent or something. Considering we're dealing with late 19th century Russians, that's a little jarring.
Anyway, I could not recommend this book more highly.
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Books
Oct 19, 2021 19:42:12 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Oct 19, 2021 19:42:12 GMT
Yesterday I finished Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman," her first novel, which later was edited and rewritten into her acclaimed first published novel, the classic "To Kill a Mockingbird." "Watchman" caused quite a hullabaloo when it was published, but I only just got around to it.
I thought it was ... fine.
I know reaction in 2015 was strong because people wanted some brilliant sequel to (what was often) their beloved, favorite coming-of-age story with its almost mythical characters, and instead got an Atticus Finch who was at least somewhat racist. But I have no attachment to "Mockingbird." I read it in 9th grade or thereabouts, and recall watching the movie in that same English class, too. It was good, but wasn't something I closely identified with, being a northern boy some 35 years removed from publication and a few decades longer still from when the plot had been set.
In some ways, "Watchman" was more interesting. After all, both the belligerent and the progressive views on race presented in the book strike a modern reader as at best insulting and backward. To a modern reader, one could say there is no hero to whom to relate. But also in that sense, there is a certain reality to the book. Once you peel away do-no-wrong superheroes, things have a chance of getting really interesting. How does a modern reader react when even the racially progressive characters believe the NAACP was unnecessarily stirring up trouble in its desegregation efforts? Or when they believe that, sure, black people are backward and childlike, but they're still people, after all. Because Scout--Jean Louise, the protagonist of "Watchman"--does indeed believe these things. As does her (shockingly, to readers coming in blind) father, Atticus; and he even more so.
Do you want your books to be moral examples? If so, "Go Set a Watchman" would be a terrible choice. But it is interesting for several reasons, be they to compare and contrast to "Mockingbird"; to better understand the arguments of the time from a young southern woman who had already decamped to New York City; or just as a mid-century American story.
It's pretty light reading and not overly long, either. I'd recommend it, but not strongly.
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Oct 22, 2021 21:52:06 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Oct 22, 2021 21:52:06 GMT
I finally got from the library--I've been waiting months--linguist John McWhorter's newest book, "Nine Nasty Words." It is about profanity in general, but through the lens of (you guessed it) nine words. It discusses the changes in what people have considered to be English-language profanity through the centuries, going through "three main eras--when the worst you could say was about religion, when the worst you could say was about the body, and when the worst you could say was about groups of people."
Being a connoisseur of profanity like Ralphie's dad in A Christmas Story, I'm already tickled pink in the dozen-page introduction. Oh yeah, I do love me some swearing.
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Books
May 5, 2022 12:43:18 GMT
Post by Kapitan on May 5, 2022 12:43:18 GMT
I've just finished one and am almost finished with another novel that I thought I'd throw out in case anyone might be looking for something to read. Both coincidentally take place mostly in the early 1900s.
"A Gentleman in Moscow," by Amor Towles, is about a minor member of Russian aristocracy who is made a "former person" and confined to the Metropol Hotel in Moscow after the revolution. It spans decades of his remaining life, which takes place almost entirely within its walls.
"The Museum of Extraordinary Things," by Alice Hoffman, is two increasingly related NYC-based stories about a young girl who grows up the daughter of the aforementioned museum, and a boy who leaves his widowed father while he's still a young boy to live an interesting life as a kind of drifter who is first a kind of assistant to a gangster of sorts, then a photographer. It all comes together.
Both of them are really good, which is quite lucky for me in that they were both larks picked up in Little Free Libraries in the neighborhood. (I'd read and enjoyed one Hoffman novel before so that wasn't as surprising.)
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Jun 27, 2022 12:49:32 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Jun 27, 2022 12:49:32 GMT
I just heard on the radio that yesterday was the 25th anniversary of one of the most successful book series of all time, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. Twenty-five years! As with many things from that era, I still think of them as more or less current.
I have to admit, I never even bothered reading any of them (and only saw one movie, about which I was ambivalent). But I was a huge fan of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien books when I was a boy, so I can understand how kids must have felt with these books. (I never did quite understand adults who swear by them, though.)
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Jun 27, 2022 12:57:24 GMT
Post by kds on Jun 27, 2022 12:57:24 GMT
I just heard on the radio that yesterday was the 25th anniversary of one of the most successful book series of all time, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. Twenty-five years! As with many things from that era, I still think of them as more or less current.
I have to admit, I never even bothered reading any of them (and only saw one movie, about which I was ambivalent). But I was a huge fan of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien books when I was a boy, so I can understand how kids must have felt with these books. (I never did quite understand adults who swear by them, though.)
Wow, I actually thought the books were older for some reason. I think the first movie came out in 2000 or 2001, so for some reason, I thought the books had been making their rounds for a little longer before the movie franchise began. I've seen bits and pieces of a couple of the movies. There are some great actors involved, and the movies seem very well made, but the whole concept has never been my cup of tea.
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Aug 6, 2022 21:30:06 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 6, 2022 21:30:06 GMT
I saw this 1985 interview with my favorite author, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Anthony Burgess. It's remarkable to listen to these brilliant people, and I am struggling to imagine what a modern equivalent would be. The two discuss religion in some depth, with allusions to classical literature, history, scripture...
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Aug 7, 2022 19:16:39 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 7, 2022 19:16:39 GMT
I'm nearing the end of Louise Erdrich's novel "The Beet Queen," and it's the third of hers I've really enjoyed ... and that's out of three I've read. The others I've read are "The Roundhouse" and "Future Home of the Living God." It's possible (ok, probable) that her being a Minnesotan gives me a little extra affection, or at least helps me relate to her work, but she's truly a great writer. And I'd say the Pulitzer and National Book Awards she's won (among numerous other honors) back me up on that.
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Aug 12, 2022 20:42:09 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 12, 2022 20:42:09 GMT
Not sure if this is where to say it, but I just wanted to note how awful it is that author Salman Rushdie was attacked (apparently stabbed multiple times, including in the neck) on stage today as he was giving a lecture. Rushdie had a bounty put on his head by the Grand Ayatollah of Iran back in the late '80s for perceived blasphemy in his book The Satanic Verses, and eventually it reached well over $3 million being offered for him. While we don't know (as far as I know) the motivation of the attacker, that seems like a likely guess.
I've actually never read Rushdie, though I think I've got a copy of the aforementioned book, picked up used years ago. But no matter what the book may say, it should go without saying that murder (or any violence) isn't an appropriate reaction, and anyone calling for that is a coward who is afraid of the power of words.
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Post by jk on Aug 12, 2022 21:35:31 GMT
Not sure if this is where to say it, but I just wanted to note how awful it is that author Salman Rushdie was attacked (apparently stabbed multiple times, including in the neck) on stage today as he was giving a lecture. Rushdie had a bounty put on his head by the Grand Ayatollah of Iran back in the late '80s for perceived blasphemy in his book The Satanic Verses, and eventually it reached well over $3 million being offered for him. While we don't know (as far as I know) the motivation of the attacker, that seems like a likely guess.
I've actually never read Rushdie, though I think I've got a copy of the aforementioned book, picked up used years ago. But no matter what the book may say, it should go without saying that murder (or any violence) isn't an appropriate reaction, and anyone calling for that is a coward who is afraid of the power of words.
Hear, hear. I pray Mr Rushdie survives this appalling attack.
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Aug 13, 2022 7:34:33 GMT
Post by jk on Aug 13, 2022 7:34:33 GMT
And now I'm back to it, after a long break, not least due to health reasons (all good now). I've finished part one, "Buxtehude's World", and have just embarked on "Buxtehude's Compositions" (the third and last part is "Studies Pertaining to Buxtehude's Music"). All in all, it gives a fascinating perspective on a fascinating composer (in a fascinating age).
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Aug 14, 2022 12:07:54 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 14, 2022 12:07:54 GMT
I'm relieved to learn that Rushdie is apparently going to live, and has been taken off the ventilator he was on. However, his attacker left him with a damaged liver, severed nerves in his arm and eye (the latter of which he is reportedly likely to lose), and neck wounds.
The attacker is being hailed as a hero in certain circles online.
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Aug 26, 2022 19:24:04 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 26, 2022 19:24:04 GMT
I finished Brady Udall's "The Lonely Polygamist" (2010) late last week. It is a massive, somewhat sprawling, hilarious novel about man and his very large, Mormon splinter-group family/ies of four wives and 28 children. The plot obviously can't include all of those people in any detail, but focuses on the man; the youngest of his wives; and one of the other wives' children, an 11-12 year old boy.
Personally, I found the parts focused on the young boy the best. While he was a very troubled preadolescent, he was unbelievably funny in a very particular, preadolescent-boy kind of way. Highly recommended. And I should say, while it's a very funny novel and includes obviously nontraditional families and lifestyles, it's not disrespectful to the Utah/southwestern Mormons, either. I believe Udall actually comes from them, or his family does. It isn't mean at all, even when pointing out the obviously hilarious parts.
Now I have begun Joseph Skibell's "A Curable Romantic" (also 2010). I had previously read his "A Blessing on the Moon," which I very much liked, but this is a massive undertaking, a 600-pager set around the turn of the last century and--another comedic novel--thus far about a potential love triangle involving our protagonist, a young woman, and none other than a youngish Dr. Sigmund Freud. I'm just just over 10% through it so far, but it's very good, too.
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Aug 29, 2022 12:54:59 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 29, 2022 12:54:59 GMT
The library on the corner had a book sale this weekend. For a grand total of $8, I got an Alice Hoffman novel, a 2-volume hardcover memoir about the Nazi Germany years from a Jewish man, a hardcover history of Russia "Tsarist and Communist," and Chevalier's 19th century account of American culture, a kind of companion to De Tocqueville's more famous one.
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