Books

Hutch…did you know about this one
Who Killed Mister Moonlight?

I did just enjoy this book
Sellout by Paul Beatty

The david j bauhaus focused autobiography?  Yah read it last year.

Polymath-hatch🍺 wrote:
I did just enjoy this book
Sellout by Paul Beatty

Its rare a book make you laugh out loud repeatedly but that one did. Really enjoyed it.

This summer I've read:
Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow : my second time through this one (last time was ten+ years ago). Holds up well.
Chuck Klosterman - X : good essay collection
Donna Tartt - The Little Friend : probably her weakest of her three novels but still pretty good.
Edif Batuman - The Idiot: I loved this book. A bravura work, and very funny.
Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart: a run of the mill book by him. Not his best but not his worst.
Han King - The Vegetarian: very good, short novel. I think it was originally three short stories.

Currently reading: Adam Johnson's Orphan Master's Son. I hope to finish this and get through Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad before September when College Football starts up and all my productivity goes out the window.

Has anyone read the Johnny Marr autobiography Set the Boy Free?

Really enjoyed Paul Auster's 4 3 2 1.  Four bildungsromans in one, as you're taken on four distinctly separate life journeys with the main character (Archie).  It reads like historical fiction, at times, especially when Archie encounters Mark Rudd and the campus unrest at Columbia University in 1968…  Somewhat verbose but very well done.

Emma Cline- the Girls is another good recent contemporary fiction choice. It deals with a Charlie Manson like cult and the main character's decision to hang with them or not.


Drew Magary's The Hike (2016).  He's a local Maryland writer.  This was a fun alternate reality type novel.  The protagonist begins a normal hike and winds up in a wacky fantasy world.

martinrob wrote:
Has anyone read the Johnny Marr autobiography Set the Boy Free?

I have it on my Kindle, hoping to read it on vacation in Oct.

Is there a US release date for England is Mine?

I, never realized that Piers Anthony was a borderline, pedophile.  My childhood, is now ruined.

Short list entries are out for the Man Booker Prize.  Loved the Auster book.  Anyone read the others?        http://themanbookerprize.com/news/man-booker-prize-announces-2017-shortlist ;                                                                                                

Have not yet read Lincoln in the Bardo, but my husband did and said it's one of the best books he's read since The Road.

K8teebug wrote:
Have not yet read Lincoln in the Bardo, but my husband did and said it's one of the best books he's read since The Road.

He's correct. Its excellent.

Kazuo Ishiguro wins Nobel

hutch wrote:
Kazuo Ishiguro wins Nobel

I really loved Never Let Me Go.  Never got around to reading Remains of the Day.  I have a collection of his short stories on my bookshelf.  I'll have to jump into that.

6.5/10

I wanted to like this book much more than I did.  Fairly or unfairly, Egan cannot escape the high expectations she set with Goon Squad.  It will forever be a foil to whatever else she pens and Manhattan Beach just doesn't measure up.  The book is a generally well written page turner that nicely captures the era (NYC before and during WWII) in which it is set.  The main characters are well-crafted and the protagonist is likeable and relatable, although I never felt a deep connection.  There are flashes of truly brilliant prose, but those shine because other times the writing really falls flat or feels like it was lifted from some Harlequin bodice-ripper.  Outside of the main characters, the others are underdeveloped.  But my biggest criticism is that whatever merits are earned by the writing, the story ends up sagging under the weight of its many contrivances.  Some plot developments are just too predictable and the unpredictable ones feel forced or far-fetched.  All that being said, if someone who had never read Goon Squad were to ask me if I've read any good historical novels lately, I could, in good conscience, recommend this one. 

Thank you for this review. LOVED goon squad. Perhaps will skip this one.

K8teebug wrote:
Thank you for this review. LOVED goon squad. Perhaps will skip this one.

One tepid review from a random guy on an internet message board makes you want to skip a book?

I bought that but have to finish the new Eugindies first. Looking forward to it. Goon Squad is a hard bar to replicate.

Space wrote:

K8teebug wrote:
Thank you for this review. LOVED goon squad. Perhaps will skip this one.

One tepid review from a random guy on an internet message board makes you want to skip a book?

I have a bunch of books in my pile right now. Will wait to hear what some of my friends think before just buying it. Is that better?

Bagley wrote:
Short list entries are out for the Man Booker Prize.  Loved the Auster book.  Anyone read the others?        http://themanbookerprize.com/news/man-booker-prize-announces-2017-shortlist                                                                                               

Just finished Exit West.  I liked it a great deal - 8.5/10.  I am a fan of Hamid's writing style.  He's got this sort of sparse but elegant stream-of-consciousness thing going on.  Just like he did in the Reluctant Fundamentalist, he's able to take a really heavy topic and spin a very intimate, relatable yarn around it.  I think magical realism has become an overused device in recent years, but it works in this book.

ggw wrote:

Bagley wrote:
Short list entries are out for the Man Booker Prize.  Loved the Auster book.  Anyone read the others?        http://themanbookerprize.com/news/man-booker-prize-announces-2017-shortlist                                                                                               

Just finished Exit West.  I liked it a great deal - 8.5/10.  I am a fan of Hamid's writing style.  He's got this sort of sparse but elegant stream-of-consciousness thing going on.  Just like he did in the Reluctant Fundamentalist, he's able to take a really heavy topic and spin a very intimate, relatable yarn around it.  I think magical realism has become an overused device in recent years, but it works in this book.

Thanks, I'll check my local library for that one

Really powerful, I highly recommend this one. Patty's story isn't easy to digest, but it's about as compelling as they come. The Hit So Hard documentary was great, but this really details the grip and destructive nature of her addiction and how she managed to survive it. Major respect to her, not just for her drumming but for her courage.