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Post by nutsberryfarm 🏜 on Jul 6, 2020 12:07:20 GMT
this was fun: I've read all of his novels, I think, and most of his journalism, but not that. Or indeed his first memoir, Palimpsest, which I've owned for at least a decade. One of these days... haven't read that memoir, i suppose i should. thanks.
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mmexis
Sophomore
@mmexis
Posts: 860
Likes: 732
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Post by mmexis on Jul 7, 2020 8:17:44 GMT
Still reading for White Pine (we read about 60 books in 10 months - it becomes more a chore than a pleasure). But also reading "so you want to talk about race" for our staff book club. This arose out of the BLM movement and comments made by our black and brown teachers here. An easy and approachable read to the whole issue.
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Post by jackspicer on Jul 8, 2020 5:05:01 GMT
This is based on true stories about the Danish resistance in Nazi-occupied Denmark in the earlier part of WWII. Apparently several different real-life events were combined to make a coherent story around fictional characters.
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Post by Archelaus on Jul 9, 2020 22:58:43 GMT
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
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Post by Vassaggo on Jul 9, 2020 23:03:05 GMT
Have 2 books going right now. Last Book on the Left Stories of Murder by Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks and Henry Zebrowski (the guys who do Last Podcast on the Left) non-fiction on serial killers and James Patterson's Criss Cross.
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Post by Zos on Jul 10, 2020 11:15:21 GMT
Country singer Allison Moorer's tale of the murder/suicide of her parents outside the trailer where she and her sister and fellow country star Shelby Lynn were sleeping as children. A very well written and told story of trying to understand such an event.
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Post by Nalkarj on Jul 10, 2020 19:13:06 GMT
Reading Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle ( Dream Story), translation by Margret Schaefer—largely because I was so captivated and disturbed by Eyes Wide Shut, which was based on it. It’s good—but the writing’s a bit off, shall we say, if that makes sense. Not because it’s opaque—on the contrary, opaqueness would make sense for this kind of story—but because it’s too clear, too on-the-nose. Take this sentence: “The people he had left behind up there, the living as well as the dead, seemed equally unreal and ghostlike.” At the risk of trotting out the oldest writing cliché in the book, I don’t want to be told that the people were ghostlike, I want to see that they are, to feel that they are. For a book about dreams and unreality, the prose is a bit too, well, prosaic. But here’s the problem: Is that author Schnitzler’s doing or translator Schaefer’s? That’s the eternal, gnawing problem with reading books in translation, and I wish I knew enough German to read and evaluate Traumnovelle as Schnitzler wrote it. That said, the novella is remarkably close to the movie so far, and even when a screenplay element was original, you can almost tell what Stanley Kubrick and co-screenwriter Frederic Raphael based it on from the book. I had the same experience while reading Stephen King’s The Shining after seeing the Kubrick movie (King describes elevator doors as resembling a gaping mouth, and I could imagine Kubrick reading that sentence and filing it away in his mind: elevators, how to use elevators in this story…). Not as disturbing as the movie so far, which (I guess! ) I welcome. The comparisons are just particularly fascinating.
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Post by darknessfish on Jul 14, 2020 11:41:36 GMT
I have to say, I was very surprised to see the most popular review on goodreads.com was from Bill Gates.
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Post by Vassaggo on Jul 15, 2020 10:01:22 GMT
Just started Dean Koontz's Devoted. The Quotes page has 5 quotes about dogs. Koontz has been in a rut lately I am going to make some predictions:
1. There will be a loving dog that is some how other worldly. 2. There will be a gun enthusiast that is fed up with the government that has sequestered themselves somehow and will be integral to the plot. 3. There will be a sociopathic killer that has some thoughts of grandeur like he is becoming a god. 4. There will be a character that represents nature or God over science. 5. There will be a evil corporist. 6. Almost everyone in power or part of the government is evil or corrupt.
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Post by Vassaggo on Jul 17, 2020 4:42:57 GMT
Just started Dean Koontz's Devoted. The Quotes page has 5 quotes about dogs. Koontz has been in a rut lately I am going to make some predictions: 1. There will be a loving dog that is some how other worldly. CHECK 2. There will be a gun enthusiast that is fed up with the government that has sequestered themselves somehow and will be integral to the plot. HALF CHECK SO FAR BECAUSE OF THE MOM 3. There will be a sociopathic killer that has some thoughts of grandeur like he is becoming a god. CHECK 4. There will be a character that represents nature or God over science. EH NOT REALLY SO FAR ALTHOUGH KIPS FIRST CARETAKER SEEMS LIKE A CANADATE 5. There will be a evil corporist. THE MAIN SOCIOPATHIC KILLER MIGHT FIT, BUT HE DOES HAVE A BOSS 6. Almost everyone in power or part of the government is evil or corrupt. SO FAR YES SO HALF CHECK
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Post by Carl LaFong on Jul 17, 2020 16:31:41 GMT
Really enjoying it so far.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Jul 19, 2020 18:04:38 GMT
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Post by Vassaggo on Jul 21, 2020 7:50:56 GMT
Ok so I finished Devoted by Dean Koontz and I kind of wonder why I read Koontz anymore. If he isn't being predictable in plot points then he is rehashing the same Society is Bad. Good people need to retreat from it. Government is always evil. Science will always be trumped by Faith, etc etc As for my specific predictions 1. There will be a loving dog that is some how other worldly. CHECK, yup mystical loving dog 2. There will be a gun enthusiast that is fed up with the government that has sequestered themselves somehow and will be integral to the plot. CHECK, the Mom retreated from society, hates it, sleeps with a gun in her hand 3. There will be a sociopathic killer that has some thoughts of grandeur like he is becoming a god. CHECK yup to the tee and he thought he was becoming a god through science 4. There will be a character that represents nature or God over science. HALF CHECK. It wasn't explicitly in it's allegory but Woody does become the innocent Messiah with Kipp that will usher in the new age. 5. There will be a evil corporist. CHECK. Big check on this one. Dorian is a childish billionaire hell bent on Trans-Humanism. Willing to kill to force the next step in Humanity through Science 6. Almost everyone in power or part of the government is evil or corrupt. CHECK. Every government official was either Corrupt or an Idiot that the Corrupt people placed and pulled the strings of, save for one former Sheriff. I think I'll start The Fletch series by Gregory Mcdonald...
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Post by theravenking on Jul 21, 2020 19:35:19 GMT
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Post by Zos on Jul 22, 2020 8:43:56 GMT
Quite depressing how the Christian hordes destroyed the art and history of the older religions.
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Post by Vassaggo on Jul 23, 2020 8:36:25 GMT
Reading The Fletch (series) by Gregory McDonald. They were a favorite of my Uncle. I got the first 5. I'll have to source the final 6.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Jul 23, 2020 15:07:22 GMT
Reading The Fletch (series) by Gregory McDonald. They were a favorite of my Uncle. I got the first 5. I'll have to source the final 6. Just curious, are the books comical like the movie?
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Post by Vassaggo on Jul 23, 2020 16:00:52 GMT
Reading The Fletch (series) by Gregory McDonald. They were a favorite of my Uncle. I got the first 5. I'll have to source the final 6. Just curious, are the books comical like the movie? I'm half way through the first book and yeah it has a dry wit to them. Not as slap sticky as the movies, I think that's more Chevy than anything, but the basis for the comedy is there. Think more 70's version of Noir with dry comedy.
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Post by jackspicer on Jul 23, 2020 22:31:33 GMT
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara This book was turned into the movie "Gettysburg" (1993). I've seen the movie several times, and I've visited the battlefield. This is my first American Civil War novel.
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Post by darknessfish on Jul 24, 2020 19:29:26 GMT
Only the second book I've read by the guy, and not as odd as the one where the main protagonist's parents are a washing machine and a mountain. The dialogue can get pretty annoying with its guesses at near-future hip/tech-speak, but it's working quite well so far.
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