What Books Are You Reading In 2024? Part 2

Thanks for starting a new thread, OP.

Thank you too, OP. I started the previous thread and as it filled I couldn’t post.

Flea of RHCP recently read and recommended There There and Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, The Great Gatsby, The Bluest Eye and The Age Of Innocence.

Shadow Men by James Polchin - it's about gay blackmail case in the 1920s that led to murder!

What is everyone’s favourite novel published this year/since Christmas? I want to use my Audible credit on something current.

I Have Seen It And It Is Large

Finished [italic]Au Reservoir[/italic] yesterday. Not a fan of the ending, didn't need the epilogue for sure!

The House of Doors. A bit simple-minded thus far.

Finished the audio of Griffin Dunne's Friday Afternoon Club. Loved. It's funny, intelligent, gossipy, and of course deeply moving in the sad account of his sister's murder. Not surprisingly, he reads it flawlessly.

r5, haven;t read JAMES, but I bet it'll receive a lot of votes.

I just finished reading Griffin Dunne's memoir as well, and I completely concurr with R9. It was the best memoir I've read in a while. I'd love to read more from him, especially focusing on his career.

Agree. He takes us up to the birth of his daughter with Carey Lowell. Since he divorced Lowell and she went on to be with Richard Gere, there has to be a story there!

Dickens' Sketches by Boz, the only DIckens I hadn't read before.

"And Their Children After Them" (Leurs enfants après eux).

I stopped reading 50 pages from the end, as I had gotten very invested and didn't want to read the inevitable depressing ending.

Finally reading [bold]The Vampire Lestat[/bold] by Anne Rice, now that I can picture him as Sam Reid instead of Tom Cruise.

R15 It's been years, but I thoroughly enjoyed that book.

I’m still wading through The Politics Of Resentment. The poor author. She tries monumentally to be unbiased but it all confirms what we already know.

After years of having The Memoirs of Hadrian on the shelves (starting it and finding it too dense, too stolid), I finally read it and suddenly it was very easy to read, Hadrian's voice very authentic... and his love for his young companion and his grief at his death is beautiful prose.

I’m starting The Fourth Wing; I think it’s a romance though.

I don’t get the appeal of Tom Lake.

I thought Tom Lake was sweet and smart, but not the classic some think it is. Many who love it probably listen to the audio version, which is excellent.

Just finished an 1879 book about the recollections of the Boston Police Department"by Daylight and Gaslight" - about to start Griffin Dunne's book.

R21 do you recommend Streep’s narration?

Another happy reader of Griffin Dunne's autobiography. I'm about halfway through. Griffin, his father, and his brother are all in New York, about to travel to Connecticut to get his brother the help he needs. It's the best book of any type I've read in a while. It's hard to imagine Griffin playing Milo Ventimiglia's sad sack brother in This Is Us.

Absolutely, r23. She elevates the material, which is pretty high already.

Tom Crewe’s THE NEW LIFE is the best book I’ve read in the past 2-3 years. It’s a historical novel set in the mid-1890s in London. It deals in a fictional way with real writers — John Eddington and Henry (Havelock) Ellis. Eddington is married to a woman and has children but is gay and tired of the closet and falls in love with a man. Ellis loves and is married to a woman but they don’t seem able or even willing to consummate their marriage.

Both men get together to write a serious treatise on male homosexuality and manage to get it published just as Oscar Wilde is going to trial for gross indecency, which blows up their book and their lives.

It’s a serious literary novel, gorgeously written and the gay sex scenes are really erotic and arousing. A terrific book, I’ve given it to three different friends already. Would make a great miniseries.

I loved Tom Lake, the novel. I did not listen to the audio book.

My favorite book of the last few years is The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.

The Dunne book makes me want to rewatch his doc on his aunt, Joan Didion. She's a bit of a shadowy figure in his account, although it's clear he was angry with her and her husband during his sister's trial.

Yes yes yes! to THE BEE STING. Another book with a great audio version. Four different actors reading the four narrators.

I read JAMES, I liked it but didn’t love, love, love it. You should have read and be able to remember HUCKLEBERRY FINN to get the most out of it.

I posted it on the Summer Reading thread, LOVED Colm Toibin's latest LONG ISLAND, which is a sequel to BROOKLYN. Absolutely loved it, want to read all the Toibin's I've missed over the years.

I'm the OP of the other thread but may I suggest we all just post and focus on this one?

R28, I agree, though I thought Joan came off a bit better than her husband John did during that time.

I was glad to read of the way John and Dominick made up before it was too late, and it was kind of cool how it happened by chance/fate.

Just started Unruly, David Mitchell's history of early English kings. It's something I know nothing about but I love his brand of humor.

r31, I can recommend The Master (Henry James) and especially The Testament of Mary, one of the lesser known, but floored me when I read it.

r31, my favorite Colm Toibin novel is Norah Webster.

I read The Master when it first came out but thinking of a reread (still haven't read much Henry James though, lol). Never read Norah Webster and will definitely give it a go. Thank you both!

Do I need to read Brooklyn before reading Long Island? I only saw the film, thought it was fine but didn’t get the hype.

You don't need to read Brooklyn but rewatching the film will only enhance your experience of reading Long Island. I was really surprised by how much I'd forgotten of Brooklyn. Eilis' hometown friends Jim and Nancy become major characters in the sequel as does Eilis' mother and brothers.

Anyone a fan of the audio narrator Julia Whelan? She recorded GONE GIRL.

I am fairly knowledgeable about the audiobook scene, she's a big name. The Gone Girl narrators were an excellent team, indeed.

R40, I’m a huge fan of hers. She’s recording “At Danceteria” co-narrating with the author. I know that book has been mentioned on these threads.

I’m really enjoying Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. He’s an excellent writer and the characters feel like real people.

Colm Toibin's "The Magician" after finishing Toibin's "The Master." Thomas Mann and Henry James, respectively.

I'm saving the Dunne book to read on vacation along with "Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs" about Reality Winner.

I’m going to listen to Griffin Dunne’s book on Audible.

I am reading, God help me, The Rape Of Nanking by Irish Chang. The descriptions of the atrocities are more chilling than I could have possibly imagined.

And I have to attend a funeral on Tuesday. Quick, someone recommend me something fun.

I'm reading "The Ministry of Time." I usually avoid time-travel books like the plague, but this one features a person from the Franklin Expedition, so I feel obliged it read it.

R44. Try “A Little Life”—it’s a laugh riot!

R46 I’ve read it you cheeky sod!

I'm about 3/4 of the way through and really enjoying a 2023 novel called SPARROW about a young orphan boy living in Cartagena, Hispania in the last years of the Roman Empire, who becomes a prostitute in a brothel.

Wonderfully imaginative and historically informed writing by James Hynes, who wrote 2 of my favorite novels THE LECTURER'S TALE, a hilarious parody about college academic competition, and NEXT!, a serio-comic novel about a shlumpy guy who travels out of town for a big job interview (that's really hard to talk about without spoilers). But his newest book is such a departure, so impressively different. A great immersive chunk of fiction for a summer read.

We’ve now entered the second half of 2024. I’m happy to say that I have read 8 books during the first half of 2024 - 7 of them new reads, 1 of them a re-read. They are:

1. The Maltese Falcon (1930) (Dashiell Hammett) 2. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1935) (Horace McCoy) 3. All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) (Erich Maria Remarque) (This year marked my third time reading it.) 4. Under the Skin (2000) (Michel Faber) 5. The Zone of Interest (2014) (Martin Amis) 6. Poor Things (1992) (Alasdair Gray) 7. The Hunger (1981) (Whitley Strieber) 8. The Reader (1995) (Bernhard Schlink)

I have started Watership Down.

I've been listening to Bruce Springsteen's autobiography [bold]Born to Run[/bold], narrated by the Boss himself.

It's terrific so far. Frequently, the "early days" sections of bios aren't the most interesting, but not in this case. Bruce is a wonderful storyteller and one helluva writer. He really paints vivid pictures of his family & his friends and of growing up in Jersey in the 50s-60s.

Do you only read novels that have been turned into well-known movies R49?

Yeah, pretty much! That’s what I have been doing recently. I try to read the occasional classic or two as well. For example, I read both “Les Miserables” and “Pride and Prejudice” last year.

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon. Two Irish blokes in 412 BC decide to put on a Euripides play using Athenian slaves as actors. Oddball concept that works like a dream (at least the 2/3 I've listened to.) Funny, touching, smart. And the audiobook (read by the author) is a treasure.

Sally Rooney has been recommended to me by as many people who seem to loathe her. work. Please share your opinions.

Joy may look better at 81 than Biden, but she isn't running the free world. Thank god.

R55, I read the first two books, and enjoyed them mildly. Didn’t bother with the third. I can’t understand the overwhelming acclaim.

Stephen McCauley's "You Only Call When You're in Trouble" is quite enjoyable. Not as rich as some of his others (IMHO) but he is a wonderful writer able to craft a good tale with memorable characters.

I'm sitting on a gold plated toilet in Mar-O-Lago reading the voluminous stolen binder containing the US top secret highly classified documents that I never returned.

[quote] Sally Rooney has been recommended to me by as many people who seem to loathe her. work. Please share your opinions.

I had been hearing the same things you had, and so I had put her off for a long time.

I started with Normal People last month and found it hard to put down because the characters were compelling and I wanted to find out what happened to them. The weird thing is that right after I finished the novel i watched the miniseries, which is very faithful to the book but which points out a lot of its flaws in drawing characters that are less apparent on the page: the two main characters are ridiculously self-absorbed and win every damned award and honor they try for, and never ever have bad sex with one another and who also have a deep and abiding intellectual and emotional connection, yet they keep breaking up for no clear reason after the first time they break up and get back together.

Then I tried Conversations with Friends, which is much funnier but also not as compelling. I never felt the adult couple the heroine and her best friend become emotionally and sexually involved with were very interesting.

I would definitely recommend either novel, but I see why some people don't like them. Rooney (like Elif Batuman, who is very funny) is obsessed with college-age gifted and beautiful young women who have lots and lots of sex and think almost entirely about themselves. It gets kind of airless after a while.

It also gets tedious with both writers being fascinated by masochism.

Just for my sanity, I'm re-reading Colm Toibin's brilliant fictional bio of Henry James, THE MASTER. Loving it all over again (and I'm not even a fan of Henry James).

"Dancer from the Dance" is $1.99 on Kindle right now.

Thanks, r62. I've been waiting for Dancer to come out on Kindle. And only $1.99!

I'm reading Tom Crewe's The New Life to be followed by the new bio of Thom Gunn, A Cool Queer Life.

In June: Anne Michael's Fugitive Pieces; D.H. Lawrence's St. Mawr and The Man Who Died; Justin Torres's Blackouts; Sarry Perry's Enlightenment

Happy Summer Reading!

“I’d Do It All Again”, Helen Lawson’s third memoir.

GLORIOUS EXPLOITS a joy throughout, especially effective on audio.. Hear it's being dramatized on BBC radio.

Let us know how you liked The New Life, R64! There are several of us on here who loved it, me included.

Just for my sanity I’m reading Night Clit again.

The New Life.... worst book I've ever read. Cynical manipulation.

On another matter - Dhalgren, Samuel Delany. I thought I'd seen it discussed on DL before but could not find it. 800 pages of hippie science fiction with a "all sexual orientations allowed" thread. I have a hard time with magical realism, though I've been a big fan of science fiction in the past. I am about 100 pages in... much of it is like a college student on acid in 1970 trying to write like James Joyce = it's a struggle.

Is it worth the effort to finish all 800 pages? (c.f. my frustration with The New Life).

In Memoriam by Alice Winn -- "worst book I've read" this year. "Cynical manipulation." (I won't say Fixed for it ya! because to each their own.)

Let’s us know how you like “The New Pussy”.

I liked both IN MEMORIAM and THE NEW LIFE, but I'm just a shallow gay who likes to read about British men having sex.

I just read Liz Moore’s THE UNSEEN WORLD. I keep thinking about it.

It seems the Comic Book Guy has cloned himself and is all over this thread.

"Worst. Book. Ever!"

I'm relishing LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, which will surely prove to be THE book of the summer. Hilarious and unput-downable. Kind of a Jonathan Franzen-like family saga but with a more wicked sense of humor.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is one of the most awkward monikers I've ever heard. And does anyone ever name a child Taffy?

R45 Did it turn out to be a good read? It sounded interesting but I was on the fence.

Just finished Tom Lake, which exceeded my low expectations. 🍒

Well, "The Ministry of Time," despite the big PR push praising it as an instant classic piece of literary sci-fi, was actually just expensive Tumblr-level self-insert fanfic. What a waste of potential. Cringe, as the kids say.

Now reading "All Our Yesterdays," a novel about the MacBeths. Pretty decent so far.

The Importance of Being Furnished: Four Bachelors at Home by R. Tripp Evans. Non-fiction. A fun read if you're into design, houses, and piss-elegant queens from the Edwardian era.

I just finished the new biography of Elaine May by Carrie Courogen, "Miss May Does Not Exist." Courogen clearly did a great deal of research and many interviews, but she did not talk to May herself, her daughter, stepdaughters. or, with one exception, her husbands or partners. She ends up speculating a lot about May's personal life and relationships, and I never felt a full picture of May emerged. Her career is covered in more depth, and I enjoyed the chapters on her early theatrical work in Chicago and St. Louis, and then her overnight success in New York as a comic performer with Mike Nichols, which is, for me, by far her most interesting (and funniest) work. To her credit, Courogen is not a fangirl, and she is bluntly critical about some of May's movies and plays, but her writing style and insights are fairly routine. Overall, this was a disappointment, and it's hard for me to understand the reviews that are saying it is "revelatory" and "utterly extraordinary."

You're not the target audience, r81. It was an excellent overview of May for neophytes, but it was disappointing that Courogen pandered to the Diane Sawyer types and sanitised Mike Nichols's backstory.

Also, I think you're a bit unfair to Courogen, who acknowledges May's trademark elusiveness , Courogen's careful attempts to get in May's orbit, and how it handicaps her as a biographer in the first few pages.

I agree with R60's analysis of Normal People, though I thought Connell's journey of being Small Town Big Deal to College Kid lost in the shuffle was very relatable. The Marianne Character was more inscrutable - what exactly is her problem? Why is she so fucked up? I guess it's not necessarily bad that the book didn't really explain all that - that's real life - but at the same time, Marianne is kind of cypher where you as a reader, you understand and can related to Connell's journey.

[quote][R31], I can recommend The Master (Henry James) and especially The Testament of Mary, one of the lesser known, but floored me when I read it.

Agreed, I loved these books, particularly ToM, in which Mary (as I recall) views her son as a zealot that surrounded himself with losers and had no business doing the things he did to call attention to himself. I like the Master & how that evolved, though I walked away with the impression of James as a sort of cold observer of life rather than an actual participant. Finally, I'm reading Long Island now. It's a good book, but kind of said - all the previously young characters full of hope are now grappling with their own sense of disappointments and hurt. Maybe that hits too close to home, but whatever the case, it's not the kind of book that you just can't put down like the other books mentioned on this thread.

I disagree about LONG ISLAND. I read it in 2 days, never wanting to put it down. I found it remarkable how Toibin keeps the tension up with such unadorned simple prose. But to each his own.

^I didn't think LI was bad - it just seems a bit more of a drudge. And while it was I suppose it was unusual for the times, the extent to which Eilis was bullied by her in-laws & her crazy mother was kind of depressing.

They tried to bully Eilis but she knew her own mind and went home in charge of herself.

I love Toibin but couldn’t end The Master. I loved The Magician, this is making me wanting to give it another go.

The NYT list of the Best Books of the 21st Century puts an Elana Ferrante novel as #1. Really? I've not rad her, but still find that hard to believe.

I hated Sub Rosa. The thought of Beverly Crusher shagging a ghost was just dumber than shit.

R90 needs to cut back on whatever he's using.

R79. It’s Macbeth not MacBeth—one of my pet peeves.

R89 It's a good list, I think. But also the "order" seemed pretty haphazard. Books in the last 50 were better (in my view) than several books in the top 20. I think it seemed to be a "balanced and inclusive" list... fiction and non-fiction, marginalized voices etc. Not a bad thing, but....

Also if Ferrante's is the best book of the century so far... a book written in Italian and translated into English... there were very few other books in translation. Really? In all the world's languages only Ferrante gets on the list?

That list is shit. Useless, IMHO.

Not many books by gay men.

R39

I too like Julia Whelan. I never saw Once And Again so I never saw her act as a teen actor. I tend to choose unknown books by narrator - and she is one of my go-to narrators l. He and Kirby Heybourne who read Gone Girl with her are like the reigning millennial generation superstar narrators.

A poor reading can kill my enjoyment of an audiobook. And there a bunch of quirks I can’t stand. There are British mystery series which I can’t listen to because the female narrators have a foghorn quality.

Moreover, R96, on occasion a talented narrator can be the wrong choice for the contracted book.

I am bewildered by the rap toward Tom Crewe’s THE NEW LIFE where someone above dismissed it as “cynical manipulation.”

It’s a fantastic book, beautifully written and imaginative. About queer people grappling with their lives, hoping for a better future, trying to live honeslty in a way that we are lucky enough to do.

Unless Republicans get in, of course, it which case it will be the 1890s for gay people all over again..

Wayward, by Dana Spiotta (a novel). She threads the plot around the 2016 election of Trump. (Hint: the character does not like Trump.)

Great so far. Spiotta is a first-rate writer.

Gavin Lambert’s “The Slide Area,” a collection of interrelated essays about Hollywood in the ‘50s and Guy Trebay’s “In the Place to Be,” a collection of his columns about New York, largely in the ‘80s.

As well as Tom Dardis’ “Some Time in the Sun” chronicling five novelist’s (Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Agee, West, and Huxley) work in Hollywood in the ‘30s and ‘40s and focusing on what they did to Hollywood as much as what Hollywood did to them.

My 'To Be Read' list grows exponentially every time I open this thread! Not a complaint, I love it!

Just finished Toíbín’s LONG ISLAND and loved it. It’s astonishing how such a quiet book can wreak so much emotional havoc.

I’m with the poster above who called it a page-turner. It is that, and during the last 100 pages when you are in the heads of three characters whose trajectories are going to crash into each other with catastrophic effect, you can only keep compulsively reading, hoping for the best and guessing what might happen..

Of course it depends on accepting (as an Irish thing) people whose fantasies of how their lives will go remain their own are not really shared with others, a reticence which can only lead to heartbreak. I was never sure how it would resolve, but more than that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen.

A much denser, more layered read than BROOKLYN, but read ( or reread) that lovely book first.

[quote] The NYT list of the Best Books of the 21st Century puts an Elana Ferrante novel as #1. Really? I've not rad her, but still find that hard to believe

Then read her you dumb cluck! She is rather good.

“Strange Sisters”

A lot of George Pelecanos and Donald E. Westlake.

"Rather good" is a lot different than the best of the century so far.

"Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed." Maureen Callahan.

Brief portraits of various women---daughters, wives, paramours, neighbors, others---who had the misfortune to be involved with the family of Joseph P. Kennedy, patriarch.

Chapter XIV: Jackie on Assistance

If the extent of my Henry James knowledge is reading Turn Of The Screw and The Golden Bowl in high school during the distant mists of the 1990s, and having watched The Heiress and Portrait Of A Lady, can I follow The Master? I recall zero biographical information about James.

Yes R109, you’ll be fine.

Edith Wharton drops tea about James in her autobiography, A BACKWARD GLANCE. It’s a very enjoyable read and Wharton is surprisingly funny throughout. The section where she recounts how utterly baffled she is by the success of a book on interior design she co-wrote is hysterical. A great wit and a wonderful writer.

I mostly agree with r109, but there are many allusions to Henry James' various novels and stories that are seemingly inspired by his daily activity in The Master. For example, a young girl who is left unchaperoned at a ball that Henry attends sems to become the inspiration for What Maisie Saw. His charismatic cousin Minny Temple seems to become the inspiration for Portrait of a Lady. Etc. etc.

Lots more, I think, but I'm not really that well-versed in James' oeuvre. You don't necessarily have to get those references, but your reading pleasure would certainly be improved by it.

Has anyone read or heard good things about 2 new well-reviewed thrillers THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore and ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK by Chris Whitaker? I think both deal with abducted children but apparently go beyond mere thriller genre.

I've also heard amazing things about ALL FOURS by Miranda July and am awaiting my Amazon delivery (my local indie bookstore was sold out!).

Just started reading “Cue the Sun!” by the New Yorker’s z Emily Nussbaum.

For one, I'm rereading "Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of trump."

Also "Hitler's First One Hundred Days."

I’m really enjoying The God of the Woods. I recommended the same author’s The Unseen World on the last thread.

Reading Whitaker's We Begin at the End and enjoying it quite a bit. He's a fine writer.

Currently enjoying Mark Doty's "What is the Grass," as I'm a Walt fanboy myself.

Anyone read the very, very long [italic]Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell[/italic]? Interested in feedback before buying a copy - thanks!

Funny you mention that, r119. I went to charity book fair this weekend and JSAMN was on one of the tables. I didn’t buy it because I have a copy (also unread).

I thought of this thread when I left among others, with a copy of The Magician by Colm Toibin. Also of DL in general when I nabbed a vinyl of Barbara Streisand’s Guilty for $5.

British author and journalist Jon Savage is one of my favo(u)rite non-fiction writers (especially his histories of youth culture and The Sex Pistols), and he recently released "The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture." It's near the top of my summer reading list, and I will report back if it's good.

Anyone here read Michel Faber's "The Crimson Petal and the Red"?

R60: perfect summary of Rooney's novels.

I'm not a fan of hers but do like the essay she wrote before she published her famous books, about competing with her team in the World Universities Debating Championship, in India. The piece is available online:

The juicy new JFK, Jr. biography.

Is there a more phallic portait? ^^^

I just embarked on my lifelong goal to read War and Peace. It only took me 40 years!

Anna Karenina is my favorite novel, and I am interested to see how it compares.

Just finished Claire Kilroy's award-winning [italic]Soldier, Sailor [/italic], which was a good empathy and patience builder for struggling young mothers with post-partum issues in mental health. Not sure there's much interest around here for that, but I appreciated the widening of my perspective. It was a slog and frustrating at times, but the prose is top-notch and it was worth the bother and I'm better off having read it.

Started Paul Murray's The Bee Sting on a flight from Portland, OR, to SFO yesterday. Made me wish the flight went to Santiago, Chile. A deliciously funny airplane read.

What We Kept To Ourselves by Nancy Jooyoun Kim was awesome. I highly recommend it.

Just finished Long Island by Colm Toibin, which was similar to Brooklyn but even better. The sheer stubbornness of Irish women in sticking to big choices they make when confronted with complex ethical problems is a fascinating continuing theme of Toibin's.

r128, quite a large weight to read on an airplane. I'm glad i did the audio version.

I didn’t like Liz Moore’s God of the Woods nearly as much as Long Bright River, her first novel.

GOTW is entertaining though and now on the best seller list so good for her. Shows what a Barack Obama’s “best of the year” list can do for a writer.

LONG BRIGHT RIVER is not Liz Moore's first novel, it was written in 2020.

A NYer review of GOD OF THE WOODS piqued my interest in Moore, who I'd never heard of. But I didn't want to spend money on the hardcover, so I thought I'd check what my library had and came up with one of her first books HEFT. Didn't seem that intriguing but I still thought for free, I'd give it a try. Well, I LOVED it. One of the best, most emotional reads I've experienced this year. Why isn't this book more well-known? A seemingly simple story of two lonely people of different generations and backgrounds who are brought together by a third. And not maudlin or manipulative at all.

Anyway, I immediately ordered the paperback of LONG BRIGHT RIVER as soon as I finished it a couple of days ago. Can't wait! She is a young writer worth watching even if her newest might be disappointing.

[quote]I mostly agree with [R109], but there are many allusions to Henry James' various novels and stories that are seemingly inspired by his daily activity in The Master. For example, a young girl who is left unchaperoned at a ball that Henry attends sems to become the inspiration for What Maisie Saw. His charismatic cousin Minny Temple seems to become the inspiration for Portrait of a Lady. Etc. etc.

I thought his sister as a model for Flora in Turn of the Screw was quite interesting. I also liked the extended discussion of how he viewed horror/ghost stories as something for which there could be a logic explanation. I thought James pattern of befriending and later dropping these charismatic but troubled women was kind of interesting, as if he used them for material (like Cousin Minny) but then once he got what he needed, he was done with them.

So, I started Miranda July's much lauded ALL FOURS but I'm quickly finding it a bit mean-spirited without much humor. Admittedly, I may be too old for it.

Have you read her other work r135? I have assumed Miranda July is too hip for me.

Just finished [italic]A Month In The Country[/italic], which was a evocative, quick retrospective pastoral observation. It has a gay minor character that seems to be a signifier of a changing world, but I wonder if there was more to it.

A lovely boo,k and a terrific, faithful movie starring Colin Firth, with Kenneth Branagh as the gay man.

I great y enjoyed “The Crimson Petal andcthe White, “ until the ending, which I found in redibly disappointing.

And don’t watch the TV adaptation, Romola Garai is not my idea of the lead character AT ALL.

In the middle of SEEING THROUGH, Ricky Ian Gordon's memoir that just got a favorable review in The Times. Subtitled "Sex, Drugs, and Opera," it's a lotta lotta of all three. Listening to the audio version narrated by himself. What a life! What a family! (already chronicled in the nonfiction book HOME FIRES.) Gordon is sex-obsessed (can't get enough semen), self-loving, wildly pretentious, but nonetheless compelling and articulate. It must be exhausting to be his friend, but I can't stop listening. Anyone know him?

Wow, R140--"Home Fires"! I read that when it first came out (I was in my late teens) and it made a big impression on me. Have never forgotten it, and I even made my dad read it. Ricky was the standout 'character' in that book. It was clear early on that he was 1) extremely precocious 2) wildly talented and 3) unabashedly gay. I'll have to google the other family members to find out what became of them. Thanks for the memoir recommendation, and sorry that I have nothing else to offer on the man himself.

Another "Homes Fires" fan; I hadn't heard about Gordon's memoir and will read it for sure. A year after "Home Fires" was published, one of Ricky's sisters, the journalist Susan Gordon Lydon, published her memoir, "Take The Long Way Home: Memoirs Of A Survivor." She was a good writer, and it's a very honest and powerful account of her life and addiction. She was only 61 when she died of cancer, but, after reading the book, it's seems almost incredible that she made it to that age.

Having loved LONG ISLAND recently I wanted to read more Toibin that I'd missed in the past so went for NORA WEBSTER, which some call his masterpiece. But I'm finding it a bit hard to get into after 130 pages. Don't hate it, just find it a bit tedious.

Can someone who's read it and loved it please give me some encouragement to continue?

A friend of mine is a successful novelist and whose taste is impeccable told me Nora Webster is her favorites Toibin.

Does [italic]My Brilliant Friend[/italic] take some time to get going? I'm bored and nearing the end of the childhood section.

R112 I believe the title is What Maisie Knew.

Also tried to read My Brilliant Friend but gave up after about 100 pages. I don't get why it's so popular.

I'm finishing My Brilliant Friend right now. It's interesting (although it takes a while to get started--I really didn't care about the grades the narrator received on her elementary school tests, which is what the first 75 pages are about), but the hardest part of it is that Lila/Lina, the narrator's friend, is less interesting than the narrator thinks.

R153 — I finished ”Nora Webster” recently, and though I admired it, I thought it sort of ended in mid-air, making we wonder if he planned a sequel at some point. But I didn’t love it as much as I did “Brooklyn” and especially “Long Island,” which I thought was great.

Am reading “The Magician” now, about Thomas Mann, and I’m enjoying it but I’m not sure where he’s going with it yet.

Thanks to r149 and r144 on Nora Webster. For now, I'll continue to read it.......

I really enjoyed Nora Webster, although it is a quieter novel than many of Toibin's other books.

“Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts. How To Save Democracy By Beating Republicans At Their Own Game” by Rachel Bitecofer and Aaron Murphy.

When they go low, we should be kicking them in the balls. Repeatedly.

I liked Nora Webster, but it was quieter, slower than Brooklyn. But thematically, it's similar to LI in that you have this (now middle aged) irish woman that's sort of been shit by those around, finally taking some agency over her life and trying to connect with her (somewhat distant) children.

While I didn't hate My Brilliant Friend I was put off by the translation. Mind you, I do not speak Italian (other than some Opera Italian and a big handful of food words), but reading MBF was so clanky to me. Lots of using big words when smaller ones would do. (I borrowed and returned a copy from a friend and so cannot give a good example.) Of course, since I don't know Italian, the English translation could have been largely directly from Ferrante's Italian. But somehow it rubbed me wrong, and I was editing the English translation in my head to make it smoother (to me). Needless to say, I didn't read the other three books. But I *very* much enjoyed the HBO filmed version. All the actresses playing Lina and Lila were fantastic. Looking forward to final installment airing.

Has anyone heard of a new book called THE WINNER by Teddy Wayne? About a young broke tennis pro who's seduced by an older woman, only to fall in love with her precocious daughter? Shades of The Graduate but more of a thriller, I think. Some great reviews out there.

No, but I've heard good things about his earlier books.

I loved Teddy Wayne’s novel APARTMENT. It’s excellent. I didn’t know he had a new book out. Will definitely check it out.

[r113] I just finished All The Colors of the Dark and loved it. Loved the writing style, and it was emotional and suspenseful. Highly recommend

Getting close to the end of My Brilliant Friend. It got a little better, but I think think the TV version will more engaging. Also suspect the translation is what made the prose so beige.

I am reading a biography of John Singer Sargent called The Grand Affair by Paul Fisher. I’m enjoying it but it’s a bit of a slog because Sargent traveled across Europe for years and met many artists who are hard to keep track of. I’m only halfway through, but Fisher is also heavily focused in Sargent’s sexuality.

[italic]Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X [/italic] may be a good companion to this, r160. The author gets into Sargent's gay dalliances while and also goes into detail about the extremely sexy Dr. Pozzi. Take a look at [italic]The Man in The Red Coat[italic] for a fairly recent deep dive on him.

I have finally gotten around to reading 'Kathy Grffin's Celebrity Run-Ins'. I'm finding the details of some of these people very interesting and very different that what I always assumed.

Has anyone else seen their reading fall off a cliff this year? I feel like the iPhone has finally rendered me a total idiot. As voracious a book reader as I used to be, no book seems to compete with the idiotic, yet oh so seductive, apps that now demand my full attention. I’m depressed about this yet can’t seem to stop. Anyone else experiencing this?

Audiobooks help me transition out of times like that.

No, r163. I've been reading more than ever to avoid the real world. Though, I must say, Kamala is luring me back more and more to MSNBC.

R163, I'm finding it hard to concentrate these days, so books are taking longer. Also, I've tackled a few that have been on my TBR pile for a while that have proved a slog.

A librarian told me once to read guilty pleasures when I was in reading droughts, and I read celeb memoirs between all the more serious pursuits for drought prevention.

R167- I wasn’t exactly reading Faulkner before my drought!

I'm curious about Craig Willse's "Providence"--it looks like a good gay thriller. Has anyone here read it?

R169 The "Screens" have turned my mind to mush. It's not pretty. 47% of my journal entries include, "I need to read more. I need to spend less time on social media."

"Smut" and "The Laying On of Hands," both by Alan Bennett.

"Jill," by Philip Larkin, the English poet, who only ever wrote two novels. A shy, withdrawn, insecure young man from a working-class family in the north of England who happens to have an excellent mind wins a scholarship to Oxford in 1940, at the start of WW2, thereby being exempt from the draft. To impress his non-studious, rich and privileged roommate, he invents a younger sister, "Jill." Fantasy and reality start to blue. Larkin was only 21 when he wrote the novel, as an Oxford undergraduate himself. Amazingly mature psychological insight.

*blur, sorry

Sounds interesting, r172. I believe Larkin was an enthusiastic proponent of Barbara Pym and was responsible for her rediscovery.

Toweors of Trebizond by Rose Macauley

I read OUTLINE by Rachel Cusk recently. Very interesting, sometimes beautiful and dark (and even odd) “novel.” I feel committed to reading the two other books in her trilogy now. There’s oftentimes no real plot, just a series of character sketches of people the main character encounters on an academic trip to Athens to teach a writing course, some with quite deep insight.

I got Booker-nominee [italic]The Safekeep[/italic] from the library yesterday. Am assuming it'll be a relatively quick read, as I'm planning to skip the lesbian sex scenes.

I couldn't stand that woman in the Cusk novel, so it was an uncomfortable read for me.

Cusk is a true Marmite writer. Love her or hate her, not many readers are indifferent.

R178, I agree with you about the main character (whose name is mentioned once and it’s “Faye” - I’ve seen several reviews refer to her as an “unnamed narrator” which I don’t believe is true unless I completely made that moment up in my head).

The fact that so much of the narrative description is about other people and not herself, somehow made it more readable to me. But she is not a likable vessel with whom to take this journey.

[quote]I'm planning to skip the lesbian sex scenes.

I'm a gay man but found her sex scenes genuinely erotic. You can appreciate the subtlety of her language even if you're not aroused. The build-up of psychological and sexual tension in her story is very well done. Alan Hollinghurst can write a passage describing a sexual encounter between two people with just a few well-chosen words and leave you in no doubt as to who did what to whom, without ever getting explicit. Van der Wouden has that same talent.

This is what The Guardian had to say in its review:

[quote]The middle chapters of the novel contain a series of intense and brilliantly written sex scenes, unafraid of the sneering faux-worldliness that often greets attempts to write about sex even now that the Literary Review’s Bad Sex award has been suspended.

Has anyone read Deborah Levy?

UK DL readers: How is Alan Bennett these days? (Not his books, essays and plays, but his health.)

I finished [italic]Brooklyn[/italic] last week and thought it very good. I'm 100 pages into [italic]Long Island[/bold] and agree that the simple prose is elegantly dense in its simplicity, but I have never seen a literary universe so plagued by people who suppress themselves in order to prevent scenes from being caused. Don't these people drink so they have an excuse to tell the truth?

Finished Paul Murray's The Bee Sting in four or five long sittings. Definitely the Best Book That Wasn't a ReRead in a long time for me. Hilarious and horrifying at the same time. I hope someone with taste and skill turns it into a limited series. Staying in Ireland/Dublin and reading Strumpet City by James Plunkett next.

That's impressive, r185. Those must have been long sittings indeed. I did the audio version on many dog walks. That version was terrific. So satisfying.

r185, thanks for the rec on Strumpet City. Looked it up and added it to my Wish List. Sounds great.

Thanks, R75. Taffy’s Long Island Compromise was a good read.

I just finished The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. There was no denouement so I’m not quite satisfied.

R189 I read it when it came out and found the whole thing pointless for this very reason. I didn’t even “enjoy the journey” of reading it.

Well,. fuck that ending to Long Island!

Lorna's Me and My Shadows is on sale on Kindle for $2.99.

[quote]I greatly enjoyed “The Crimson Petal and the White, “ until the ending, which I found incredibly disappointing.

I saw many reviews complain about the ending but I thought it was fine. I loved the book, I think it was the last one that made me cry.

[quote]Well,. fuck that ending to Long Island!

Fuck even calling it Long Island. She spent what, 20% of the book there, the rest in Ireland.

5

Well, Enniscorthy doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Well, you could interpret it as Long Island loomed throughout the story as the place she was missing and knew she belonged.

Currently reading THE ALTERNATIVES by Irish novelist Caoilinn Hughes, about 3 middle aged sisters who reunite to find their eldest 4th sister when she goes missing, apparently of her own free will. But it's also very much about climate change and the destruction of the earth's resources.

So damn smart and witty, but I constantly fear I'm not intelligent enough to be getting all of it. If you thought THE BEE STING was too hard...........

Though I'm not looking for it, I seem to be drawn to a lot of modern Irish lit these days.

See you in the book stalls.

Finished [italic]The Safekeep[/italic] this afternoon. Great writing, and no, the graphic lesbian scenes weren't as intense as I'd feared. Author wildly succeeded in bringing to light the post-war Dutch attitude toward the Holocaust. Definitely interested in more from this debut author!

R191, I know, right? Lots to talk about in book group about it. And I guess the third in the series must be in the planning stages.

Reading Erik Larson's latest, "Demon of Unrest." The US has always been 40% hardline sociopaths.

The Mad Sculptor by Harold Schechter. It's true crime, about some brutal 1930s murders. Really engrossing and well-researched

I'll always remember how we spent our Friday nights banging on the radiator and yelling "Fuck! Shit!"out the windows.

Enjoying Greta & Valdin, the New Zealand charmer about a gay man and his lesbian sister. Lots of references out of reach to those who don't live there, but not much of an impediment. Makes me smile.

I’m listening to the audiobook of The Thursday Murder Club and it’s not working for me.

I just finished that myself and loved it, but the references are very much my side of the Atlantic. I can see Americans not going well for Americans.

(r205) Because they replaced Lesley Manville with Fiona Shaw. Bad move. Manville's narration was sublime. Shaw's is very sterile and stiff

Ah, I listened to Manville.

R201 Then and now particularly concentrated in South Carolina.

About to start Before The Coffee Gets Cold, which seems to get universal praise. I'll report back.

r210 please do!!

"The Towers of Trebizond" by Rose Macauley.

Don't know if there are any Graham Swift fans here, I've loved most of this Brit writer's novels over the years (HERE WE ARE and MOTHERING SUNDAY are particular favorites) but I came across a used copy of an early book of his called OUT OF THIS WORLD (1988) and I'm really loving it right now.

Finished Before The Coffee Gets Cold yesterday, and it lived up to the repute. It's thought-provoking more than it is earth-shattering. Knowing Japanese culture a bit enriches the experience but is by no means required. Reminded me of The Midnight Library with its time travel, but more cozy and moving. It would make a great movie.

R213, I'll have to check it out. I loved Mothering Sunday

Unruly, by David Mitchell, was very good. Funny but not unserious. You learn a lot about England's rulers up to Elizabeth I.

In the afterword he mentioned being inspired by Germania by Simon Winder, so that's next for me, right after I read The Pairing by Casey McQuiston of Red White and Royal Blue fame.

I just read the new JFK, Jr. book by Rosemarie Terenzio and I have to say I was disappointed. Just everyone giving their opinions and one upmanship of who was closest to him and knew him best. Terenzio only worked with him for 5 years and she's making a career out of his death.

I'm halfway through Ed Zwick's Hits, Flops, And Other Illusions, and it's pretty good. Not as juicy as I would like it to be, but he does dish some dirt.

Also on my night stand is Griffin Dunne's The Friday Afternoon Club and Home And Alone by Daniel Stern, which I haven't gotten to yet.

I'm forced to read Hollywood biographies for good gossip since DL has been lacking in this area for quite some time.

I worked on a play with Daniel Stern about 2 dozen years ago and he was insane. Very unpleasant.

So, I'd be curious to read his bio.

Just started, but I'm feeling cheated by The Pairing, which seemed to be about two male exes, Theo and Kit, accidentally ending up on a European food and wine tour together and betting which could bed the hot Italian (male) tour guide first.

I'm not super far into it yet, but just as Theo gets to the tour bus (after helping change a keg in a London pub) we find out that Theo is Theodora. WTF?

Obviously still a gay/bi element if her ex Kit is also vying to bed the tour guide, but I feel let down, especially since I'd already been building my mental image of Theo.

Still going to read it, of course, and I'll probably like it.

Barack Obama's summer reading list:

I was looking for a novel matching my mood so I googled "books about loneliness." It recommended "Good Morning, Midnight" by Jean Rhys. It is a stream-of-conciousness novel about a semi-self-exiled English woman in Paris at the end of the 1930s. It brutally describes her mental state as she floats aimlessly from hotel room, to cafe, and to bar in a drunken state. it is highly unsentimental and at times humorous. It's a story about a woman's internal progression toward nothingness and death.

The miserable feeling and setting remind me of Jean Genet. You really get an impression of Paris at that moment; many of the well-know cafes and Paris locales are mentioned- even the 1937 Paris International Exposition.

Jean Rhys is wonderful, R221. I also recommend the recent biography of her by Miranda Seymour.

A male counterpart to "Good Morning, Midnight" is Coetzee's "Youth," a semi-autobiographical novel(la) (fictionalized memoir) about a shy, impoverished 18-year-old South African student living in 1960s London.

I read Rhys' "Wide Sargasso Sea" a couple of months ago. After a slow start, it becomes quite daring and dramatic. It's a prequel to "Jane Eyre," but in some ways reminded me more of my favorite Bronte novel, "Villette."

Just started our gay book club's choice, Robert Grattan's IN TONGUES, and loving it. Very dry, funny and sexy, about a young gay guy who's moved to NYC from Minneapolis in the late 1990s and becomes a dog walker to the rich and famous.

Only about 40 pages in so that could all change.

I loved Wide Sargasso Sea

I'm reading [italic]Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes,[/italic] a fascinating forgotten gay novel from 1966 by a Black author, Henry van Dyke, recently reissued by McNally Editions.

It centers around a young Black man the summer before he goes to Cornell, who has not yet figured out he's gay. He comes to stay with his Aunt Harriet, who is a housekeeper for a wealthy Jewish woman in a small town in Michigan. The Jewish woman constantly mourns for her dead son--and then suddenly a warlock appears who claims he can get in touch with her son's ghost.

It's very campy and funny.

Read that a few months ago, R226, and loved it. I also recommend the re-issue of "The Girls" by McNally Editions, by the gay author John Bowen.

I just finished Opposable Thumbs, about Siskel and Ebert. It was very entertaining, and quite touching at the end. God, it made me so nostalgic!

Apologies, it's Thomas Grattan (not Robert) who wrote IN TONGUES.

Also, I loved THE GIRLS by John Bowen, r227. I think I posted a rave here several months ago.

Reading "I'm Glad My Mom Died" by Jeanette McCurdy

‘We all read like hell!’ How Ireland became the world’s literary powerhouse

‘The Irish just chat about everything. We love telling tales and yarning. There’s no other country where you could talk for an hour about the weather,” says Aisling Cunningham, 57, the owner of Ulysses Rare Books on Duke Street in Dublin.

Sure enough, I have been here for 50 minutes and we have talked at length about everything from the biblical rains of Donegal to why more people who stop into her antiquarian bookshop end up leaving with a copy of James Joyce’s Dubliners than Ulysses itself. (Cunningham reckons it’s because the former is more accessible – although there is also the small matter of the Shakespeare and Company first edition of the latter costing just short of €30,000, about £25,500.)

I am in Dublin to find out why Ireland, a country that you can drive the length of in a few hours, punches so far above its weight when it comes to literature. It has contributed four Nobel literature laureates and six Booker prize winners; its capital was the fourth Unesco City of Literature in 2010; and it’s home to a booming network of magazines, publishers, bookshops, festivals and (whisper it) decently funded libraries. But Ireland’s outsize output of brilliant writing is less of a surprise to the people who live and work here than it is to those across the water who are trying to parse its overrepresentation on prize lists or the cultural dominance of Sally Rooney.

Just finished 'Tiepolo Blue' by James Cahill. Don't know if it has yet had any mentions on DL, it was published in '22. It's the sort of novel I imagine could provoke the same amount of discussion as did Tom Crewe's 'The New Life', which I enjoyed and admired greatly.

'Tiepolo Blue' (also a first novel) is set in 1990s Cambridge and London, exploring academia and the art world with acuity and scepticism. A gay sensibility pervades and deepens. For all its sharp recognisable realism, the story can slip often into the dreamlike.

I returned to the novel keenly, intrigued as to how Cahill's vividly evoked characters would fare. 'Tiepolo Blue' is a clever, fascinating, unsettling read.

Went to my independent bookstore today and took a chance on a new paperback edition of TWO SERIOUS WOMEN by Jane Bowles, with a blurb on the cover by Tennessee Williams calling it his favorite book and a new foreword by Claire Messud.

I'd never heard of it before. Anyone know it?

Murder City by Michael Lesy. It's about murders in Chicago in the 1920s

I loved "In Tongues". The ending is a heartbreaker.

Reading "The Devil at His Elbow" by Valerie Bauerlain about the Murdaugh true crime saga. It's really, really good, compulsively readable, and full of details that were new to me even though I followed the whole sordid mess closely as it was happening. Plus she devotes several chapters to the earlier generations of Murdaughs and the nefarious shit they got up to. Alex's behaviors were part of a 100 year old pattern.

Recently read Howard Norman's Come to the Window; he is one of my favorite writers. Have just finished Elizabeth Knox's first novel After Z-Hour (quite the ghost story). Knox wrote The Vintner's Luck in the late 1990s, which some of you may remember: Xas the angel and Sobran the Vinter. Got a kick out of Tim Mason's The Nightingale Affair.

Now I turn to Anne Michael's Held, which is on this year's Booker prize long list. And don't hate me for this one: Virtue Ethics edited by Crisp and Slote (Oxford Readings in Philosophy).

Middle brow to low brow to high brow; that's my reading life.

Hernan Diaz’s TRUST, which I’m loving.

r224 here, who posted upthread about IN TONGUES. I did indeed love it at first but rather quickly became disenchanted with the young gay narrator who seemed so aimless, artless and self-absorbed.

But it's a short-ish book so I kept reading, wanting to finish it, and lo and behold, the last 40 or so pages were just sort of breath-taking. It's our gay book club pick so I'll be very interested in hearing everyone else's opinions.

r235, I wonder if you had a similar experience?

"The Bee Sting" by Paul Murray - loving it!!

r223, I re-read TWO SERIOUS WOMEN this summer. It's very quirky but extremely charming.

Grover Dale's memoir A BOY LIKE THAT. Should have written it 20 years ago. It's frustratingly simplistic (and self-published it seems), without much insight into his private life. His great love seems to have been Anita Morris, but it was pretty much men before and after (including of course Tony Perkins and Larry Kert.) Still. his career was a lot more crowded with achievement than I realized and he has a lot of good stories about Jerome Robbins, whom he revered.

My god, if anyone has Broadway Gossip it's Grover Dale, even if it may be 40 or 50 years old. I wonder why he hasn't been more forthcoming at this point in his life? I imagine most of the stories would be of celebs long dead.

I'm looking forward to Alan Hollinghurst's new book, "Our Evenings," to be released in October.

**Sorry, I realize I sounded like a shill there, but I know Hollinghurst has his fans here on "Book DL."

Hollinhurst is gay, gay, gay, and then some more gay. (Silly gay in many ways.) But damn, the boy can write a sentence. I am looking forward to Our Evenings.

Has anyone here read the recent Candy Darling bio?

Hollinghurst is important because he is a superb novelist, one of the great stylists of our era. We're lucky that he's gay.

One of Grover's anecdotes has him and Perkins living cozily in La with their respective wives, when Tony—only once, mind you—suggests the two guys go off and do it, like in the old days. Grover declines, saying he doesn't believe in cheating. I rolled my eyes. Dale's sunny optimism throughout gets more than a little schmaltzy; Maybe he holds back on the hot stuff so as not to embarrass his son Badge.

R248. I agree.

I just finished "The Stories of John Cheever", the collection from the late 1970s. I was a fan before, but this time I was really struck by his use of language and what a pleasure it was to stop reading and look up the definition of some of his word choices. I am impressed by his sense of humor- is it kind of an American (New England) understatement?

Previously I was blown away by "The Swimmer", but this time rereading it and having seen the movie adaptation from the 1960s, I marveled at how, by adding characters not in the original story, it made something equally valid and new. I loved rereading the last story in the collection "The Jewels of the Cabots". There is a strong and wonderful sense he is able to conjure of the past, filtered through memories flinging back and forth in the brain.

R251. The short story is his true metier, but I think his Wapshot books and his late novel, “Falconer,” in which he actually does include gay material, are superbly written.

Just received the new Christopher Isherwood biography. Reviews are all over the place, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless.

[quote]Just received the new Christopher Isherwood biography.

There’s a new one? What’s left to be said? He left a mound of diaries.

Just around around to the classic THE LEOPARD by Lampadusa — fantastic book, I can’t put it down.

Coincidentally, I just read a memoir by an American woman who was Claudia Cardinale's assistant for a couple of years and she writes about being on the set of Visconti's film of "The Leopard." The book is "Chasing the Panther: Adventures and Misadventures in a Cinematic Life" by Carolyn Pfeiffer, and it's much better than its title (and cover) suggest. She's well into her 80s now, and published the book last year. She grew up in North Carolina and started college there, but dropped out in the late 1950s and moved to New York, where she worked for Helena Rubinstein and as an artist's model, and had a lot of fun. In 1960, after a couple of her New York friends moved to Europe, she followed and spent the next 16 years living and working in Rome, Paris, and London. She worked for Cardinale, Alain Delon, and Omar Sharif, and the Italian screenwriter Suso Checchi d'Amico became like a second mother to her (she was engaged to Suso's son for two years). She has an interesting perspective on celebrity, and (with her co-author) writes thoughtfully about her encounters with the famous, particularly Sharif, who was a genuinely lovely and loyal employer and friend, in spite of his addictions to gambling and womanizing. After she and a friend set up a successful public relations firm in Swinging London. there is too much name dropping, but I loved the chapters about growing up in a small town, exploring art and culture in Manhattan, and her love affairs (with the non-famous). When Sharif is filming "Genghis Khan" in Yugoslavia, she has an intense affair with a member of the crew in Belgrade, and then when "Doctor Zhivago" is being shot in Spain, she meets the married crew member who becomes an on-and-off addiction for the next 10 years; both of these relationships are recalled in a way I could relate to and found very moving. She also writes about a harrowing abortion in Italy performed by a sadistic doctor, and being brutally raped by one of Delon's sadistic bodyguards. In London, she faces another personal tragedy, but perseveres. Interesting life, good book.

I recall there being some fans of first-rate audio narrator Julia Whelan (The New Yorker called her “the Adele of Audiobooks”) on this or an earlier thread. She has created her own audiobooks app called Audiobrary and recently released Philip Dean Walker’s AT DANCETERIA which I know has some fans here as well. Julia is second to none in the industry and shines in her narrations here (loved her Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol voices). The author also narrates two of the stories including my favorite in the collection (“The Boy Who Lived Nect to the Boy Next Door”). Walker was one of Andrew Holleran’s mentees.

‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ sweeps Japan after a 50-year delay

The 1967 novel by Gabriel García Márquez has become the publishing phenomenon of the summer in Japan, largely due to the upcoming release of the Netflix series based on the book

John Meachem's bio of Lincoln, "And There Was Light".

Meticulously researched and so instructive on the evolution of AL's views.

I don't suppose Prof. Meacham delves into Abe's affair with Joshua Speed when they were both young'uns sharing a bed, r258?

Or does he?

Well, he doesn't call it an affair -- but he does mention that Speed offered to share his bed with Lincoln when he first arrived in Springfield -- and Lincoln accepted.

No omention of a bundling board either.

But it isn't "meticulously researched" if they don't mention his love letters to Speed.

Just re-read Philip Roth's American Pastoral trilogy -- masterful writing, characterizations of human beings, lots of stuff about New Jersey. Prescient in its political message. Yeah, he ruminates a LOT and he could have trimmed The Human Stain substantially, but .... I love the way he writes.

Loved The Human Stain, my favorite in the trilogy. Eventually, I want to re-read that one.

There were parts of the other two that were spectacular, but a lot was a chore to get through, like medicine that good for you.

r263, have you ever read Roth's Letting Go, his first? A relatively light read and quite wonderful.

I'm not r263, but Letting Go was my favorite book for years. Only when good gay fiction began appearing was it knocked out of first place.

Recommended: Sidney Blumenthal’s books on Lincoln are very dense but the analysis of the politics of Lincoln’s time is very interesting. You get a real flavor and texture of the times, and realize there was never a time in Loncoln’t life when slavery was THE issie that divided Americans — that division was always there and the tension only grew throughout the 1840s and 1850s. And there is much on the origin of the Republican party of the time, and the dying out of the Whigs.

[quote]it isn't "meticulously researched" if they don't mention his love letters to Speed

That does not follow, logically. It could be a detail he chose to omit.

It'snot a detail R267, but you have internalized homophobia.

What would be a reason for omitting that detail, r267?

Meacham may not believe Lincoln was gay but there'd be no reason not to write in detail about his companion Josua Speed, include their letters to each other and allow the reader to make up their own mind about their relationship.

R269 You may the novel "Courting Mr. Lincoln," by Louis Bayard, about the Lincoln/Speed/Todd throuple.

I read it and loved it, r270. Eagerly awaiting Bayard's latest book, THE WILDES about Oscar Wilde, his wife Constance and their two sons. HIs historical novels are fabulous.

How to make a meal out of my husbands delicious ass

[quote]It'snot a detail [R267], but you have internalized homophobia.

Would you please post a link to said 'love letters'? All I can find are L's disquisitions about politics.

And this is all Wiki says about the relationship (no mention of 'love letters'):

[quote]Although bed-sharing between same sexes was a reasonably common practice in this period, it is unusual for it to have occurred over such a prolonged time. This has led to speculation regarding Lincoln's sexuality, although this evidence is circumstantial.

It would also be helpful it you could excerpt / highlight the passages clearly indicative of a sexual / romantic relationship.

Lover of Men, a documentary of Lincoln and his relationship with Speed (and also a bodyguard) will be released on Sept 6. Google it - a bunch of articles explaining the academics who are part of the film, the rationale, the "evidence"...

It's not something that will be resolved.... there are few "smoking guns" from the past that satisfies/proves what we who have lived in the past 100 years define as "gay identity or orientation"

Jeff Sharlett "The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War" He really understands Trumpists. He also understands other. I got hooked on the opening essay on Harry Belafonte because I experienced something similar. Anytime gay rights advanced in the 90s and early 00's, some Christian right nutter was sure to launch a personal attack on me.

Bed haring was common because sex was common. Human nature hasn't changed and if it has the burden of proof lies on those who would claim it, not on us.

I don't have a link to share on the Lincoln/Speed letters, but I do remember reading some that were published and to a modern ear, they come off as achingly passionate, if not exactly sexual. Of course, there will always be those scholars who insist: "Oh that's just the way everybody talked back then."

Jane Austen might disagree. Hell, even Mark Twain would disagree.

I just finished Requiem for A Dream. Dear God how depressing. I inordinately pick bad news books on kindle. I’m not sure why. I guess I think I will learn something. It was One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest depressing. I’m gonna try to find something more cheerful in my next bunch.

What about Mike Nichols past needs to be sanitized?

His cocksucking, for one, R280.

[quote]Bed haring was common because sex was common. Human nature hasn't changed and if it has the burden of proof lies on those who would claim it, not on us.

Melville in Moby Dick has Queequeg sharing a bed with Ishmael. Don't remember any sex in that scene. I read one of the 'passionate' Speed letters, and the 'affair' that AL refers to seems to be his nervous breakdown after the death of Ann Rutledge, whom he was going to marry. His friends thought him suicidal. He soon moved from New Salem to Springfield, where he met Speed. Rutledge's death was still very heavy on his mind.

The 'evidence' is indeed circumstantial. There is nothing proving a sexual relationship with Speed.

Take the Lincoln shit to another thread, toots. Y'all are rude.

He was not going to marry Rutledge. Hay made that one up.

I'm enjoying Curtis Sittenfeld's Romantic Comedy, some light fun reading for me, for a change. It's about a nerdy female comedy writer on a TV show (clearly based on SNL), who seems like she'll be having an affair with the guest rock star host. I'm about 60 pages in.

Chick lit but quite smart and funny, I think.

JFK Jr by his secretary compiled oral history by his closest friends.. After Mummy left the scence the clock was ticking for this himbo.

Another vote on how well Bayard maneuvered the Lincoln/Speed relationship i his book by using fact, imagination, and speculation to describe it. It's a strong attraction that may or may not be physical.

R286 Takeaway : John John enjoyed wrestling with his bros in the steamroom.

R280 Nichols was a voracious bisexual. JBKO and Carly Simon's dream man. He luved the D as in Dick and LSD. Bedded Jackie,Diane Sawyer and Richard Avedon. All this despite being totally hairless due to alopecia. "Jaks hand me my hair. Di are my eyebrows on? "Powder must have had schlong to die for.

Has anyone read a 2015 thrilled called DISCLAIMER by Renee Knight?

Hearing amazing things about it as it's the basis of a new Cate Blanchette/Alphonse Cuaron film. Fortunately, just found it in my library and will devour it next weekend. I'll report back if it's any good.

The year I fucked em all

[quote]Has anyone read a 2015 thrilled called DISCLAIMER by Renee Knight?

I read it back in 2017. According to my review on Goodreads, I enjoyed it -- I called it a "good, twisty, domestic noir" -- but I can't for the life of me remember anything about it today.

I just finished The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne. It was really good, but very sad. He's got some great stories but his sister's murder and trial were heartbreaking.

I'm now going to start Earth To Moon, by Moon Zappa. I'm not a fan of Frank but I'm sure she has some good stories.

Composer Ricky Ian Gordon’s memoir, “Seeing Through: A Chronicle of Sex, Drugs, and Opera,” is quite extraordinary.

^^^ Agree that it is very compelling and well-written, even when there is often TMI about nearly everything he writes about. But his passion is impressive and the book gave me a new appreciation of his nusical work, which has sometimes left me cold.

Has anyone managed to finish The Fourth Wing? I’m stalled at Chapter 9. The author’s husband is military, and you can tell. Look, I liked the Hunger Games, I like a good formulaic dystopia.

But this is like Divergent, but shitter. Does it get better?

See you in the book stalls.

I just wanted to thank the several people who recommended “The Covenant of Water.” It’s not the type of novel I’d ordinarily read, but I’m so glad I did.

I thought someone upthread recommended Howard Sherman's THE MUSEUM GUIDE, but a quick search as not led me to their post.

Anyway, started it last night and just loving it. Reminds me a bit of A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW and a couple of John Irving's best novels though I really have no idea where it's going. Which, for me, is a very good thing.

Finally started Demon Copperhead and, 100 pages in, I'm a little skeptical. As a big fan of David Copperfield, I keep comparing the two and being thrown back to Dickens and how Kingsolver echoes him. So in a sense I'm reading both books at once and not appreciating her work as I should be, Any thoughts from those who have read it?

I gave up on Demon Copperhead after about 50 pages. It all seemed like a pointless academic assignment to me. A gimmick.

I like cosmic horror so on a recommendation I’m reading The Fisherman, by John Langan. It’s set in upstate NY near the Ashokan reservoir, where I’ve spent some time in a previous life, and it’s been well received so I thought I’d try it. It’s about an older man who befriends a younger guy at work (IBM) because they’re both recent widowers, and they bond through a shared love of freshwater fishing. They fish the various creeks and streams in the Kingston/poughkeepsie area but have an horrific, Cthulhu-esque experience.

The book turned into an incredible slog for me.

It’s genre fiction, so is full of cringey homespun folksy writing. Every other sentence contains a metaphor, and Langan doesn’t seem to know how to convey thoughts and emotions without drubbing you over the head. For instance, at one point his narrator (the older widower) says “if this were a movie, this would be the part where something happens and the ominous music plays.” Gee, thanks John. I love being treated like I’m ten years old.

Langan is the kind of author who writes things like “He cut right through it, like a hot knife through soft butter.”

But I could hold my nose and swallow all that, if he didn’t completely derail his story after the first this has been told. The horrific encounter the two guys endure ultimately derives from the Esopus area, which was later flooded and turned into the Ashokan reservoir. Now, that’s an interesting idea for horror — areas that used to contain villages but later get flooded are always a bit creepy — but he dwells on this, not for thirty sentences, or thirty pages, but seemingly for THIRTY YEARS.

It’s excruciating. The flashback goes on for chapter after chapter after chapter. What we get of these late nineteenth century people is that a collection of trite stereotypes about immigrants with old timey names like “Lottie.”

The flashback is supposedly an account of the reservoirs dark history, told to our two protagonists at a diner by an old cook as a warning about fishing in a certain area. But we get ENDLESS and intricate descriptions of every single thing the characters are saying and doing — things the old cook at the diner could not possibly know because he wasn’t there. And even if he were, we don’t care.

I’m going to keep reading it because I’m a completist. But I’m into over a hundred pages of the flashback and I feel like it will never end.

Correction — it’s very early 20th century, not late nineteenth. Lagan doesn’t give dates. I just looked it up and the reservoir was created 1907-15.

Just started reading [italic]Bury Your Gays[/italic] by Chuck Tingle. I'm only a few chapters in but am liking it so far.

Listened to The Master which I thoroughly enjoyed, it’s been on my list for a while. Didn’t expect to see so many mentions of it here. I was absolutely fascinated by the character of Burgess Noakes and kept hoping with every mention of his name that the narrative would open out to include a Jamesian obsession with him. Didn’t happen but I still love the possibility of it.

Also, finally listened to The Great Believers which, being a former Chicagoan primarily during the 1980s, I did enjoy. Brought back a lot of memories of people, places, love and loss. Nobody really talks about the AIDS crisis - which, in the U.S. was at least 15 long years - so I always feel a sense of gratification and appreciation for these works. It feels like confirmation that it all really did happen. Could’ve done without the subplot about the daughter and the cult though.

Just finished listening to Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Strongmen: How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall, I am familiar with the subject matter. This is probably better in print as the female narrator was monotonous to the point of sounding like AI and the book apparently doesn’t have much in the way of transitions or even just signposting as it offers potted histories of Mussolini, Hitler, Pinochot, Gaddafi, Berlusconi, Bolsonaro, Putin, some other South American dictators and Trump. It ends up reading like an endless litany of their atrocities and crimes against humanity and at certain points, I questioned if the audience for this was actually sadists looking for validation and inspiration. There was little in the way of actual analysis. Given the author’s public speaking, I found it a bit of a disappointment though it is clear that EVERYTHING Trump does is right out of the authoritarian playbook including the allegedly staged assassination attempt. Listening to Anne Applebaum’s Autocracy Inc. now, which is well written and read by the author and does connect the dots in a compelling way; I did really like and recommend her book, Twilight of Democracy. As I enjoyed Kurt Anderson’s Fantasyland, I think I’m going to try his Evil Geniuses next.

Have actually been re-reading, in print, Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” quartet (Gilead, Home, Lila, Jack), which I love and has been in my nightstand stack for many years because I regularly cycle through them. I’m not a person of faith but I find her skill as a writer so impressive, and the ever present state of grace and humanity in her novels so compelling.

R305, have you read At Danceteria or Better Davis? Both books explore the early days of the AIDS epidemic through a lens of celebrity. The author is friends with Rebecca Makkai (The Great Believers).

I would also recommend Tim Murphy’s Christdora which covers similar ground as Makkai’s novel.

Books like Demon Copperhead and the erosion of brain and attention span that the digital miasma has created have made me start to give up on novels. Colin Whitehead as case in point... "his reputation" makes me read him, but it feels like work.

Demon Copperhead felt like work.

Is there an ISBN for Museum Guide, R299? I can't seem to find mention of it anywhere by searching.

I loved The Great Believers, and actually felt the missing daughter subplot and the old lady and her paintings subplot only added more to the entire epic story. I'm waiting a couple more years to reread it.

Also really enjoyed Makkai's follow-up I Have Some Questions for You and look forward to hearing about her next one.

Lick it

R300- I cut bait halfway through. It started off strong for me, but then it increasingly felt like a slog until I just couldn’t handle reading another page. It was annoying because it’s a big book and even reading half of it is a time suck.

Just 100 pages into TRUST, the Pulitzer prize winner from 2022. It’s okay except the characters feel two-dimensional and the situations exaggerated. I get a sort of John Irving vibe from the writing, and while I loved Irving 100 years ago, the whimsy here is kind of tedious.

Still, it’s an easy read, and I gather it doesn’t come together until Diaz starts retelling the narrative from other points of view, so I’ll stick with it for now..

As a palate-cleanser, I’m reading the recently re-issued SKINFLICK, an entry in Joseph Hansen’s hard-boiled detective series featuring gay insurance claims investigator Dave Brandstetter. They’re quite good if you like that sort of thing and I do.

"When the United States Spoke French" by Francois Furstenberg. Better than I thought it was going to be.

Recommended for ladies of eloquence.

R312. I loved the Dave Brandstetter novels when I was just coming. They were wonderful versions of the hard-boiled detective genre with an admirable, “everyday Joe” gay people.

I will never understand the praise and awards for TRUST. I figured out what the big revelation was in the last part half-way through reading the book. Frankly, there wasn't any other way it could end.

R300, I gave up after around 100 pages. Usually, 50 pages are my cutoff point, but because I had heard such rave reviews I thought I’d stick with the book a bit more and then regretted it.

All I can think is Demon Copperhead fans are people who never read David Copperfield.

Long Island Comprise by Taffy Broedeser-Ackner. One family’s rise and fall to and from being the richest family in a fictional Great Neck.

R319- I’m reading this too and LOVING it. She is a great writer. I find the entire novel so engrossing.

Yet r318, the reviews from major critics were largely positive. And I doubt if the Pulitzer judges were unaware of Copperfield.

Garth Greenwell’s new novel, Small Rain, was panned by the NYT.

I hated Small Clit

Garth is a very boring writer. Anyone read the review in WSJ? It's behind a paywall.

Booker shortlist: JAMES, ORBITAL, HELD, SAFE KEEP, CREATION LAKE, STONE COLD DEVOTIONAL. Anyone read any of these?

Reading the new Kate Atkinson book, Death at the Sign of the Rook, after having re-read the entire Jackson Bridge series this summer. Liking it so far!

Stupid spell check. Jackson Brodie.

Call me a prude, but it was the early scene in Cleanness, Greenwell’s last novel, when a trick pissed in his narrator's mouth that turned me off him for good.

I drink piss

^^^^ MARY!

I liked Demon Copperhead but agree that it is too long, specially the last part. The addition narrative goes on and on. I heard an interview with Kingsolver where she tell that she cut and cut and cut, that the original was much longer. Also, i was expecting that the story would movie beyond his teenager years, like David Copperfield.

Just read The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’farrell, based on an episode from Renaissance history (the marriage of Lucrezia di Medici with Alfonso Ii of Ferrara, which ends with her suspicious death at 16. It’s entertaining but has some very irritating inventions.

At Swim, Two Boys suddenly became available in Kindle Unlimited. I'm going to give it another shot, though I've tried twice without making it to thirty pages.

Moon Zappa's book is worth your time. Good observations on people having different experiences of parents, the consequences of bowing to so-called genius, how people heal from shitty parenting, and general zeitgeist name dropping fun.

Also zoomed through Conclave, so I could get that read before seeing the movie. I knew there was a good chance it was, but it was a Boomer airport paperback that didn't tell me anything I didn't know.

Good luck, r332. It's worth the effort. The language can be difficult, but if you just plow through you'll find it starts to clarify, even if you don't get every detail. I'm guessing an audible version would be helpful, but I'm not sure there is one.

R332 R334 Yep, I've tried a couple times - At Swim Two Birds is one of my favorite novels, and the story of the two kids is compelling, but I get in about 30 pages, see how long the book is and how SLOWLY I am making progress, my have this "life is too short to finish this" result.

Long books: it's curious to me how some long books, whether I like them a lot or not, I can finish (Like: War and Peace, Underworld, 2666. Dislike: A Little Life. Overwhelmed: Gravity's Rainbow, Ulysses) - but some I just can't stay with: The Recognitions, IQ84, Against the Day, In Search of Lost Time, Bleak House etc... all sitting on the shelf with bookmarks stuck in them.

Taste in fiction is extremely subjective and often not related to intelligence or one's education and upbringing or even patience. Reading any book is a commitment, it's not the same as sitting through a film or play. Some of my best and smartest friends have very different tastes in fiction than I do and I respect that.

So, I always say, don't be hard on yourself if you're not enjoying a book and want to just move on.

R336 reminds me of what might have been Martin Amis's last interview on camera. In that he said, with some animation, If a book isn't working for you, just toss it aside. This from one of the best-read men then alive, who had for a time been a Professor of literature. Probably he was acutely aware of time slipping away, and had no patience with the notion of dutiful reading.

I just discovered BookTube on YouTube, specifically Steve Donoghue, who I am binge watching. Many of the others come across as dull but Steve has such zest, he's very entertaining to watch and so well read.

I believe he is gay, does anyone know? He's always joking about shirtless skyping with other, younger booktubers, and about his 'surly houseboy' and how he used to be surrounded by a pack of teen to twenty something weightlifters, one of whom belonged to him. His friend David Murphy who visits periodically, is cute in a nerdy way.

He makes me want to fly to Boston and visit The Brattle Bookshop, that's for sure.

Steve is very entertaining and most certainly gay. But he is also narcissistic and a blowhard. Hard to believe he's read as much as he says he has. And that he is as much of a dig whisperer. He seems to be luring David Murphy out of the closet (if Murphy is indeed gay). Look out for Steve's Best and Worst Books of the year. It's quite a lot of fun.

I've read At Swim, Two Boys three times, if not four (and am often tempted to read it yet again). For me -- and those are the operative words -- it gets better every time I read it. I'll admit that the first time was a bit heavy going early on, but once your mental ear adjusts to the novel's innate Irishness you'll enjoy it more. Or maybe not -- perhaps it's Just Not For You, and there's nothing wrong with that. It also helps if you know even a little bit about early 20th-century Irish political history (that history is somehow clearer in the re-reads). Maybe it would help if you picture a teenage Colin Farrell as Doyler? It worked for me. (An audible version could be fantastic with the right actors. If I had more money than I knew what to do with I'd produce a limited series TV version.)

The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux.

Interesting look into India and into human nature by an American writer.

r339-- dig=dog

You migth enjoy Joseph Campbell's book on India R341

"A Very Irregular Head," a biography of Syd Barrett.

Finished the new Kate Atkinson novel in the Jackson Brodie series, Death at the Sign of the Rook. I really enjoyed it, sort of a deconstruction of a golden era country house mystery.

The Joseph Campbell book I was thinking of was "Baksheesh and Brahman;" Of course India only had about 400 million people back then.

I've been hearing very disparaging things about the new Atkinson Brodie book so it's good to read your rave, r345. Used to love her but I've been very disappointed in her last three efforts.

R344 Pink Floyd's song Wish You Were Here was written about/for him.

I’ve entered the hockey phase of my M/M romances and, honestly, it’s not bad.

I'm reading Call for the Dead (the earliest George SMiley book) and The Epic of Gilgamesh. How's that for variety?

r349 any suggestions?

[quote] I loved The Great Believers

On my list. I think I tried to read 15 or so pages (I usually give a book 50-100 before giving up) and hadn't quite got into the story yet and set it aside, so I need to pick it back up and give it another go.

I read "Unpopular Essays" by Bertrand Russell. Wonderful curmudgeon and writes very clearly for a philosopher.

Finally getting to Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. It's entertaining, but it's giving sibling to Dr. Who.

R351, listened to a few by Sarina Bowen and they were fun.

Thanks R346.

I just started "Shantaram", which is a project. I do love Joseph Campbell, tho, so I hope I get to that.

[R347], In the lead up to the new Jackson Brodie being released, I re-read the entire series. I read them as they originally came out, so it had been many years on the older ones. I remembered anew why I love Atkinson's writing so much. I discovered her before this series came along, when she'd only published her first three novels (which I now need to re-read).

While I do think the earliest books in the series are the best, I still enjoyed the entire series and didn't feel there had been any great decline in quality.

Overall, I still think Life After Life is my favorite thing she's written.

The only thing I haven't read is Shrines of Gaiety. I have a copy, but I just couldn't get into it when I tried to read it. I will try again one of these days.

I was also a huge fan of Atkinson going back to HUMAN CROQUET and BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM, I think her 2 earliest books. But she hit a wall with TRANSCRIPTION and hasn't recovered yet. SHRINES OF GAIETY has great period atmosphere and characters but no plot.

Prepare for disappointment with the second half of Shantaram.

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr Suess

Any Sally Rooney fans? I've been warned away from her, but her popularity intrigues me.

Therese Raquin. It was putrid filth.

"One hundred fifty years of Harper's Magazine" probably the best one volume survey of American literature out there.

I've started LIKE A LOVE STORY. What LGBTQ novels in the YA category do you recommend?

Looks like the new Hollinghurst is a winner.

Really looking forward to reading the new Hollinghurst, and seeing him in conversation at a book event. Autumn offers its pleasures.

Can't wait to read the new Hollinghurst, but I'm absolutely loving Louis Bayard's THE WILDES about Oscar Wilde, his wife and two sons. Utterly delicious writing, can't put it down and don't want it to end. Of course, Bosie and hid dad are also major characters.

Bayard is terrific.

Has anyone read Richard Osman's latest mystery WE SOLVE MURDERS featuring a new duo of detectives? The reviews have been stellar but friends who've read were somewhat disappointed.

The Murder Club books were so full of deep British references that I was surprised the series did so well.

R369: As a lover of the Thursday Murder Club books, I resisted We Solve Murders, and wasn’t grabbed after the first two or three short chapters, so I put in aside.

But a friend who loved it urged me to stick with it, and he was right. Once I broke the indifference wall I was hooked. Osman has developed a new eccentric merry band and manages to keep a shocking number of complicated balls spinning in the air, all of which by the end fall perfectly into place. It’s ingenious and thoroughly enjoyable.

But I can understand the disappointment of readers who hoped for another installment of the Thursday Murder Club by this time. There will be one next year. Also the miniseries, which wrapped in September and will be on Netflix.

I find the Thursday Murder books a bit slow going and I like cosy mysteries.

Just finished Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan. Debating which of the lesser Vonnegut works to start next

Just got Mr. Ballen's graphic novel. Whoopde doo.

We've been discussing the upcoming movie version of Queer by William S. Burroughs so I decided to check out the book. Only just started it but it's good so far!

Just finished The Bee Sting, which gave me Big Little Lies vibes. Great prose. I'm thinking it's a little overpraised, but I need to meditate on that for a bit.

I liked the Ballen book. Well done.

I meditated on it. Lack of denouement was lazy given the strong points-of-view throughout the 645 pages of prose.

Absence of denouement seemed to me on of Bee Sting's strengths. Loved the book.

No, it's a copout when you spend 645 pages with strong narrator opinions about every tiny little bit of my Noosa that these characters encounter, then has no opinion about how they end. Fuck off.

My Noosa = what my mobile thinks minutia is

I like the minutia Noosa’s. Blood orange was the best, but they dropped that flavor. Key lime is good, too as is the coconut.

They’re $1.09. The big ones are $2.00

A dissertation on the positives and negatives of piss

I just fired Ferdia Lennon's GLORIOUS EXPLOITS about halfway through. It was too gimmicky.

Finished Jamie O'Neill's At Swim, Two Boys for the fourth (maybe fifth?) time yesterday. I get more out of it every time, marvel at O'Neill's construction and research, and it can still "strike the heart of out you," as one character says.

I love At Swim, Two Boys

Just finished Richard Osman's latest book WE SOLVE MURDERS, which is the first in a new series and not a sequel to his THURSDAY MURDER CLUB mysteries. I went in with low expectations so quite enjoyed it though I found it shallower and less satisfying (and more than a little too frivolous) than the other books.

I imagine as we get to know the main characters more in the sequels, this series could improve, not unlike his earlier series.

“The Abortionist of Howard Street” imaginative - by necessity - biography of Josephine McCarthy, a female medical student in the 1850’s, perhaps a Confederate spy, certainly an abortionist, and mother of six.

I just finished reading volume 1 of Simon Schama’s “A History of Britain.” It’s sort of what I expected. There are some fun flourishes but it’s very surfacy and glossy.

Leave it to a gay historian to cover the Wars of the Roses in about a page (!!!) but to go on and on about the more gossipy melodramatic stuff like Becket vs. Henry II.

Likewise if you blink you’ll miss, well, the Hundred Years War. I can’t really recommend it as a serious history, but he does have a way with words and snark.

His Landscape and Memory got bogged down in conceptual stuff. He needcs to stay on the surface.

Schama lands for me as so pretentious and self-indulgent. I just can't.

Schama's book "Citizens" about the French Revolution irritated me to no end. The entire bloated length of it came across as smug and condescending towards his subject.

To link two big names hovering in this thread: Schama just gave Hollinghurst's 'Our Evenings' a lukewarm review in the FT.

Is Schama the guy who does the art shows?

He did ages ago. They’re pretty good actually.

He first became well known in the USA for his series about the history of Britain. I have to say once again it’s not bad, and fun to watch. He’s better on tv than in print.

JFK Junior: an Intimate Oral Biography

It’s been 25 years since his death. His friends talk about him. Written by his former PA @ George Magazine.

Mrs. Bessette did not like him.

Just finished Alan Hollinghurst's OUR EVENINGS, which is really excellent. My favorite of his novel's is probably SWIMMING POOL LIBRARY, anD EVENINGS surpasses that. It follows a young Brit (half-Burmese, half-English) from his time at public school through his career as an actor. Hollinghurst's depiction of "alternative theatre" is soooo right on. It's my field (academically) and he spot on. I still have PTSD from sitting through a performance of Arabal's THE ARCHITECT AND THE EMPEROR OF ASSYRIA, directed by Arabal himself in some truly dingey storefront theatre. It began with the actor playing the Emperor smashing a brain (an actual flesh and blood brain) with an ax. Actual gray matter (sheep? cow? who knows) spattered the first two row of the audience. And THAT was the highlight of the evening. Also sat through a performance of THE IK directed by Peter Brook which was completely performed in Ambo, or some other obscure African language. Ah....good times. I'll just go ahead and "Oh Mary" myself and own up to the fact that I'm older than the crust of the earth.

Anyway, back at the Hollinghurst. It's brilliantly structured in that several of the incidents in the book occur and then we are left yearning for finding out how they turned out. At first, I thought it frustrating, but it's really effective as a literary device because you keep plunging ahead, assuming you'll encounter some resolution. His prose is so...(as Strunk and White would say)....so muscular. A very compelling read, which I recommend highly.

[quote]Leave it to a gay historian to cover the Wars of the Roses in about a page (!!!) but to go on and on about the more gossipy melodramatic stuff like Becket vs. Henry II.

Do you know something about Simon Schama that is not publicly known...?

[quote] I hated Sub Rosa. The thought of Beverly Crusher shagging a ghost was just dumber than shit.

I could have you EJECTED into SPACE!

Is that CLEAR, Subcommander??

r397, I'm actually halfway through OUR EVENINGS now and yearning for more resolution to some of the incidents that didn't seem to go anywhere. And I so hope there'll be a return of Madame Pleynet!

So, I take your words as encouragement. I'm only at the beginning of the lead's theatrical career with the Oxford production of Volpone. I'm enjoying the book but wish it had a bit more edge, a bit more bite.

[400] I know what you mean about yearming for more resolution. Sitting exams at Oxford? The beginnings of the relationship between Mum and Esme? Yes...equally frustrating and intriguing. But then, isn't that a lot like the lives we lead? You see the beginnings of something and then spend days, weeks, months wondering ..."I wonder what ever happened with X?"

And yes....Volpone? Bajazet? The only reason I know Bajazet is because Adriana Lecouvreur is rehearsing a scene from it in Act One of the opera. And Thucydides is one of only seven plays extant by Sophocles. But the book is spot on in terms of theatres like the one David performs in. London in the 70s was rife with them--Shepherd's Bush, Almeida, Upstairs at the Royal Court--so it's entirely possible that David would have worked in them, and been able to piece together what passed for a living in London back then.

Are you from the UK, r401?

I've spent a lot of time in London in the last 20 years, working on projects there twice, as well as numerous vacations going back to the late 1990s.

Haven't gotten to Bajazet yet. Oy, at least I've heard of Volpone.

Also in the middle of OUR EVENINGS, when David meets Chris at the Blue Bridge. I agree that this is right up there with THE SWIMMING POOL LIBRARY and THE LINE OF BEAUTY. David seems to be more romantic than either Will in LIBRARY or Nick in LINE. Or at least he's not as ribald as those two.

Once again Hollinghurst subtly and deftly sends up the upper class, among others.

I read Hollinghurst's "The Stranger's Child" and "The Sparsholt Affair" back to back earlier this year (yes, extremely late to "the party," but that's me). I wanted so badly to like both and was looking forward to reading them, but was ultimately disappointed in both novels. "The Sparsholt Affair," in particular, tried my patience, though "The Stranger's Child" has a single scene of two people walking and talking around the grounds of an estate at a summer party that must cover around 35 pages. The writing is mostly sublime, of course, but not compelling enough for such meandering. The "skipping forward in time" (to the next generation) literary device is clever, but I tired of it after these two novels. "The Sparsholt Affair" has a chapter towards the end where the eldergay character (forgot his name, apologies) has discovered Grindr and semi-regularly hooks up with an American college student in London. Hollinghurst somewhat lazily incorporates so many U.S. Millennial (the book was published in 2017)/Gen Z clichés: the gnat-like attention span, the unerotic, pornified sex, the constant, vapid texting with other people while in bed with Eldergay; the flippancy, the lack of focus, the entitlement. You can tell Hollinghurst was having a chuckle writing those scenes.

I'm glad Hollinghurst is so admired as a stylist by some many (straight) writers and is considered a mainstream (rather than strictly a gay) author, and I will still give "My Evenings" a try, based on the reviews here and elsewhere.

*so many, sorry

[R401] here...No, not British but both Master's and PhD were on topics that gave me the opportunity to spend extended lengths of time in London for research. So I've spent some time there, and have seen A LOT of both good and bad theatre. Lucky enough to have seen Maggie Smith and Roger Stephens in PRIVATE LIVES and Claire Bloom in STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Both those performances were breathtaking and are seared into my memory.

Students could get rush tickets for next to nothing, so....without knowing what I was going to be seeing, I got a rush ticket for one of the first previews of AMADEUS. And for EQUUS. I wept when the RSC left the glorious old Aldwych and moved to the Barbican. It was like seeing theatre in a freaking bunker.

Anyway, back at the Hollinghurst. One of the things that left me gobsmacked is there is no actual sex in the book, yet I felt like we were always right on the verge of it. That was one of the things that kept me reading, reading, reading.