What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (3 Viewers)

[hugh]

HHhH by Laurent Binet. It's about the attempted assassination of one of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich, one of the key figures in the Holocaust. Interesting take on the historical novel. Binet intercuts the story of Heydrich's life and career with passages relating to the dilemma of inventing scenes featuring real life people.

Sounds good. Heydrich is a major character in those Philip Kerr books I was talking about earlier (which, by the way, take a major nosedive in quality after about number 4)

 

[hydromancer]

Had a skim over this last night language is a bit archaic or old fashioned as it is from a few centuries back. Buying stuff from the http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ lately they mail for free.
Picked up a copy of the "the sorrows of young werther" myself a few years back but never got the chance to read it sort of fell out of the habit of reading after being abroad for a year unfortunately.

 

[Lili Marlene]

yeah yeah but have you summoned any Demon Princes yet??

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I'm reading Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann. It's a load of shite so far, it was given to me as a gift though so I feel compelled to finish it

 

[Jim Daniels]

I'm reading Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann. It's a load of shite so far, it was given to me as a gift though so I feel compelled to finish it

Its gets way better. Way better.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Well it can hardly get worse. Not much worse anyway.

Ah no, it's nowhere near The Slap bad

 

[Jim Daniels]

The Slap was disappointingly atrocious

 

[Jill Hives]

I liked it apart from a dropped ball toward the end. I also didn't hate The Slap. :/

 

[rettucs]

The Slap was grand

 

[Jim Daniels]

Atrocious might be a bit harsh, but for me The Slap is such an ugly, unpleasant novel.
It was definitely disappointing.

Don DeLilo's White Noise is going great. I expect I'll read a whole heap more by him now.
There's a lovely soft-back edition of Americana in Chapters, but I'm conflicted - @Shaney only rates it a 4, while @Nate Champion gave it an 8. Hmmm, I'd be interested in hearing what @washingcattle would give it.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

You don't expect me to be precise and/or consistent with my ratings, I hope. To be honest I can't remember much about Americana now except that I wasn't mad about it.

 

[Jim Daniels]

You don't expect me to be precise and/or consistent with my ratings, I hope. To be honest I can't remember much about Americana now except that I wasn't mad about it.

Fair enough. I'm pretty much the same with most books I read these days.

 

[rettucs]

Atrocious might be a bit harsh, but for me The Slap is such an ugly, unpleasant novel.
It was definitely disappointing.

Don DeLilo's White Noise is going great. I expect I'll read a whole heap more by him now.
There's a lovely soft-back edition of Americana in Chapters, but I'm conflicted - @Shaney only rates it a 4, while @Nate Champion gave it an 8. Hmmm, I'd be interested in hearing what @washingcattle would give it.

Ray Davies new autobiography is also called Americana. You could read that instead.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I'm reading Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann. It's a load of shite so far, it was given to me as a gift though so I feel compelled to finish it

I finished Let The Great World Spin last night thank god. I was probably being a bit harsh on it but it wasn't really my cup of tea. The stuff about day yer man walked the wire and the times directly to do with the events of the day were ok, even if that was mainly only because that french lad gave him a great backdrop for his novel. Most of the enjoyment I did get from the book was from reminiscing about Man on Wire. I hated all the back story shite on the characters though, I started skipping most of that after a while.

I liked it apart from a dropped ball toward the end.

What bit was that? Nothing towards the end stood out for me as being that much worse than the rest except that

Spoiler

everything after the court case was pointless and it was all wrapped up a bit too neatly.

 

[Jill Hives]

What bit was that? Nothing towards the end stood out for me as being that much worse than the rest except that

Spoiler

everything after the court case was pointless and it was all wrapped up a bit too neatly.

Well, it was a few years ago but I vaguely remember...

Spoiler

That when girl visits Dublin something bugged me because the woman would have killed her mother and that was okay. Something was not plausible. Damn, now I don't remember. All I know is the end visit to Ireland bugged me. I'd have to go back and figure out why.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Well, it was a few years ago but I vaguely remember...

Spoiler

That when girl visits Dublin something bugged me because the woman would have killed her mother and that was okay. Something was not plausible. Damn, now I don't remember. All I know is the end visit to Ireland bugged me. I'd have to go back and figure out why.

Spoiler

Jaslyn (The visitor to ireland) didn't know that her mother Jazzlyn was killed (sorta) by Lara (i think her name was). Ciaran (Lara's husband who Jaslyn went to visit in dublin, a high-flying dot com hot shot) fell for lara just after Jazzlyn's funeral when he found out that she was in the car that caused Jazzlyn's death as well as the death of his brother, whose funeral was the next day

 

[washingcattle]

Atrocious might be a bit harsh, but for me The Slap is such an ugly, unpleasant novel.
It was definitely disappointing.

Don DeLilo's White Noise is going great. I expect I'll read a whole heap more by him now.
There's a lovely soft-back edition of Americana in Chapters, but I'm conflicted - @Shaney only rates it a 4, while @Nate Champion gave it an 8. Hmmm, I'd be interested in hearing what @washingcattle would give it.

I'm in the mood for some Don, I might give it a go next.

Having recently read 2666 by Roberto Ballano, Empire of the Sun, and Crash by JG Ballard and then the Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinsky, in short I needed a break from barbarism for a while so I read A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith which gave me back the will to live.

Some Don could be the perfect thing to ease me back onto he right track.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

the Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinsky.

I was going to read this during the summer but it fell out my bedroom window overnight and got soaked. Any good?

 

[washingcattle]

I was going to read this during the summer but it fell out my bedroom window overnight and got soaked. Any good?

I loved it, it's written similarly to a fable or folk tale but the story it's self is probably the most violent, bleak and upsetting thing I've ever read. It took me a while to consolidate the tone with the content but once I did it really got under my skin. I read it in very few sittings which is probably the best way of doing it because some of the images in it are not something you'll want to ponder over for too long.

 

[Jim Daniels]

I needed a break from barbarism for a while so I read A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith which gave me back the will to live.

That looks great. Its going on my list..

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tree-grows-in-brooklyn-betty-smith/1100536696?ean=9780060736262