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[Maklershed]

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[Maklershed]

Thread here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428811


A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction

One of the New York Times Book Review's Top 10 Books of 2010

One of the Best Books of the Year: Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, The Miami Herald, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Newsday, NPR's On Point, O, the Oprah Magazine, People, Publishers Weekly, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Slate, Time, The Washington Post, and Village Voice

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

____________________________


Past month threads:
April - The Afghan Campaign
March - Stranger in a Strange Land
February - Flashman
January - Child 44

 

[Salazar]

Deeply learned and humorous criticism. I wish I'd got him to sign it.

 

[aLaxLuthor]

The Vampire Lestat.

I didn't like 'Interview with the Vampire' but I'm liking this one more.

 

[Maklershed]

Still working on The Appeal


The Appeal by John Grisham

Additionally, I'm going to start reading the book club book today.

______

Redminder: if you're in need of a book but you don't know what to read check out the GAF Recommends section in the OP. I've compiled a list of threads where GAF members ask for and/or provide book recommendations.

 

[Blue Ninja]

Or at least, the Dutch translations. Really diggin' the series so far. I've unfortunately had certain plot points spoiled for me already, but I'm enjoying the journey towards them nonetheless.

 

[DanDeschain]

Finishing up the reread this month. Can't wait for July. Not sure what I'm gonna read between now and Dance.

 

[phisheep]

The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil

I'm reading it in the earlier translation by Wilkins & Kaiser, picked up cheap from a library sale.

It's tough going, very densely written like poetry and is full of an awful lot of stuff not happening. Nevertheless, taken in smallish chunks, it is an absolute delight - stunningly original metaphors, the second best (after Chesterton) description of a police arrest, probably the best ever emotional description of playing a piano duet, one of the most lovable comic characters ever in General Stumm and a delightful glimpse of the manners and morality - not so different from our own - of prewar Vienna.

Luckily the chapters, at least in the first two volumes, are fairly short.

Halfway through volume three now. I don't think I will ever have the energy to read it again, but I certainly won't regret reading it once and slowly. Needs to be taken at an easy pace because there are so many really wonderful individual sentences and insights and little character twists that if you blast though it you'll miss them. When Musil says "exactly as if" followed by what appears to be a wholly inappropriate technological/mathematical/social something-or-other you often have to stop and think a bit - but it turns out every time he is exactly right. Every character gains depth all the way through and you see their own doubts, turmoils, hesitations and hidden desires even in the course of a single short conversation.

Except for a few authorial allusions when talking about Clarisse, Musil doesn't refer to the looming Great War or its aftermath - the story asymptotically approaches the outbreak of war but never quite gets there. That's part of its charm and I'm rather glad that he didn't get around to finishing it.

EDIT: I should mention that it takes a while to get going. Rather like watching a cricket match it can sometimes be hard to work out what's going on until it is too late - so be prepared for a few hundred pages of wondering what the heck it is all about before you settle into it.

 

[Ratrat]

Game of Thrones.
Anna Karenina

If I ever manage to finish ^ I will finally be able to read Dune.

 

[justin.au]

A ridiculous number of non-fiction books and journals for the final research essays of the semester.

 

[DieH@rd]

Finishing up Hyperion.

 

[Kraftwerk]

 

[DeSo]

All the Ice and Fire hubbub has got me reading A Game of Thrones... and I love it! Avoiding the television series until I'm done reading all of them.

 

[V_Arnold]

What do you do when you have just finished reading "The Towers of Midnight", the 13th novel in the Wheel of Time?

Well, I reread EVERYTHING again.
I am currently already at The Dragon Reborn, and damn, Robert Jordan did foreshadow things 11-12 novels ahead. More names have additional meaning now, more places and events make more sense - this is like reading a whole new book now.

It is so awesome that I have no words.

 

[kinoki]

Phil Dick's Humpty Dumpty in Oakland has been keeping me company on the subway back and forth to work the last couple of days. It's brilliant fiction. I like Dick when he writes non-scifi.

 

[Chuck (Old)]

A Time to Kill by Grisham on my Nook. I'm also reading Science and Scientific American Mind magazines.

 

[Flek]

 

[DOBERMAN INC]

 

[DirtRiver]

Childhood's End by Arhut C. Clarke

and

The Know-it All by AJ Jacobs

 

[Empty]

i read the little prince this morning. it was charming, beautiful and wonderful and lots of other adjectives that i'll spare you from listing as it could get quite saccharine. i loved the drawings in there, they were instantly disarming and compliment the mood of the writing and story nicely, the big one of the baobabs is so cool. most importantly though, as the whole thing is really just a series of parables about the world and life stuffed together, the story was filled with many little, simply expressed, but interesting insights to ponder on; the one about the rose being important to him because he spent so much time tending to it was particularly resonant to me personally.

not sure what i'm going go onto next. hmm. after loving such a short book so much the unread novels on my shelf seem a bit intimidating, but i think i just need to get into their flow.

 

[angelkimne]

Just about 1200 of 1300 and something pages through. Makes most other 'long' books look like a cakewalk. Then again, I'm not complaining, the book is well written and for the most part it reads smoothly and quickly. It seems to get much better near the end as well.

Next up, Lies of Locke Lamora.

 

[Maklershed]

Question: Does anyone look at the past month threads section of the OP? Should I continue to include those links or is it a waste of space?

 

[Angst]

Question: Does anyone look at the past month threads section of the OP? Should I continue to include those links or is it a waste of space?

Maybe just link to the last month's thread and not all threads?

I'm currently reading Endymion. I read the Hyperion cantos last summer, it was pretty good, but I find Endymion to be much more accessible and enjoyable.

 

[PhoenixSFT]

Still one of my favorite book series, and an especially good read if you're an English major or a voracious reader.

 

[Nymerio]

Started this yesterday. Re-reading all the books to prepare for dance.

 

[Kerrinck]

Can anyone recommend me a good book for someone that loves mystery novels? Trying to get a book for a mother's day gift but all I ever see her reading are the Stieg Larsson novels so something similar would be great.

 

[T1tan]

Can anyone recommend me a good book for someone that loves mystery novels? Trying to get a book for a mother's day gift but all I ever see her reading are the Stieg Larsson novels so something similar would be great.

Why not purchase "the Classics" as it were in the genre? Anything Sherlock Holmes is wonderful and more importantly a terrific read. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : Crime Fiction :: J R R Tolkien : Fantasy. Has your mother read any Agatha Christie? If not, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd would be a good place to start. Sure other GAF can give you more modern recommendations.

 

[T1tan]

Just finished:

This Month:

 

[Pie Lord]

 

[SolKane]

Anyone else perpetually bothered by the misspelling in the Mr. T comic?

 

[Pie Lord]

Anyone else perpetually bothered by the misspelling in the Mr. T comic?

Do you mean it's rather than its? Or is there something else I'm missing?

 

[Tha Robbertster]

I'm currently reading Jane Eyre for school and it is so booooring. I love reading a good book but it just drags on with so little happening. Although I have to say, it's becoming a little bit more interisting now and I'm halfway trough.

 

[SolKane]

Do you mean it's rather than its? Or is there something else I'm missing?

yes, unless it's a joke I'm not getting

 

[British Monsoon]

Just got done reading these two;

Tau Zero was excellent, tells a good story with some well drawn characters and doesn't ever get too bogged down in the theoretical or philosophical. I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Inverted World on the other hand was an incredibly interesting premise, but something didn't click with me and I despised the abrupt ending. Still well worth a read though.

Now I'm reading Ink & Steel by Elizabeth Bear, and I wish I wasn't. It's a fanciful tale of magic and intrigue set in the realm of Elizabeth the 1st and with Shakespeare as the protagonist, but it's too full of itself for my liking and I'm having trouble getting through it.

Can anyone else recommend me some interesting sci-fi novels? It's a genre I traditionally have preferred to watch rather than read, but Tau Zero has given me a taste for it, so something similar would be welcome as I'll probably abandon Ink & Steel before the end.

 

[modulaire]

Just started with

Doctor Who meets Harry Potter meets CSI - or something like that.

 

[Femmeworth]

Huntress by Melinda Lo
Lesbian YA Fantasy

Then I will be likely hopping on the bandwagon and checking this out.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

 

[Adam Blade]

Just started with

Doctor Who meets Harry Potter meets CSI - or something like that.

Hey, someone else is reading this! I enjoyed the 1st book, but the sequel fell kinda flat to me.

 

[Trent Strong]

Gravity's Rainbow. (Just kidding.)

 

[Timber]

Three Musketeers. Make it stop.

 

[modulaire]

Hey, someone else is reading this! I enjoyed the 1st book, but the sequel fell kinda flat to me.

That sucks. I like the book so far, love the characters, the mood and the world he created.

 

[LQX]

Alas Babylon. Pretty good. Always heard about this book and thought it was about politics and it kind of is but its more about the aftermath of a nuclear war. Much better so far than One Second After, which borrows heavily from it.

 

[DOBERMAN INC]

Was wondering if anyone knew of a site for books similar to Jinni? Can't seem to find one and I don't feel goodreads or amazon make it easy to do detailed searches.

 

[Masta_Killah]

First read. Book 2 is less chaotic than the first one, seems to be more about setting up the pieces for the next book(maybe?). Loving it so far though. Taking my time and not rushing through, maybe reading a few chapters a week.

 

[thomaser]

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. I like what I have read by Mann earlier (The Magic Mountain and Doctor Faustus), but this seems different. Those were very philosophical, while this seems more like a normal family saga. But he got the Nobel prize for literature for this one, so I guess "normal" is not the right word for it.

Edit: phisheep, glad you're enjoying The Man Without Qualities. I read it a couple of years back, and have recommended it to several people, but nobody ever bothers to even try it. It is a rather daunting thing to start on, though.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Soooo good.

 

[purg3]

Then I will be likely hoping on the bandwagon and checking this out.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Same here, not too far in so far but really enjoying it. Won't lie though, the tv series is what made me want to read this. Not normally the type of book/genre I read. Picked up the first 4 books for kindle.

 

[Quake1028]

Just Finished

Now Reading

Starting my re-read of the series (well, I only ever got through the first 2 1/2 books before life intervened) in anticipation of July 12th.

 

[methos75]

I just bought River Monsters for my Nook Color, yeah sue me, but I love the show.

 

[Ashes]

Game of Thrones.
Anna Karenina

If I ever manage to finish ^ I will finally be able to read Dune.

This book ruined maybe up to five books that I followed it up with. One of the best books to be ever written.

 

[Weenerz]

Comes out Tuesday, Amazon says it'll be here by Wednesday.