I saw quite a bit of Jacqueline Susann (take that how you will) during the war. Jack and I had been rewarded by our respective agencies with a cushy temporary assignment keeping an eye or two on a rather dishy German agent who was trying (and failing) to seduce Truman Capote.
Now, failing at seducing Truman is quite an achievement, given that young Fritz (for that was the German’s name) was available, adorable and Aryan, and that Truman would bang a duck if you slapped some Bay Rum on it and stuck a bottle of poppers under its wing.
The failure was none of our doing, I must add. Our bosses didn’t particularly mind if Fritz rogered Truman blind and legless and then extracted everything that Truman knew during the post-coital guilt. If Hitler wanted to know about the divine boy that Truman had sucked off at the Y last night and how yellow was Truman’s favorite color and how war was so, so sad, it was none of our concern.
Nevertheless, due to a series of unfortunate circumstances (including a dodgy curry, a spurned Sicilian-American dancer with a flick knife, an amusing misunderstanding about the meaning of the English word “submissive”, and three separate bouts of herpes), Fritz never quite got into Truman’s pants. Jack and I spent most of the time drinking gimlets and spiking Truman’s drinks with Pervitin when he wasn’t looking.
None of which is the story I originally set out to tell you, by the way. And yes, I will get to the book thread. I’m old and my mind wanders. Fuck off if you don’t like it.
Jack and I lost track of each other in the fifties because I was spending so much time in Cuba. I didn’t hear from her until 1969 when she wrote to invite me to dinner at her DC apartment – just (as Jack put it) a small dinner with close friends, a dinner with some meaning to it, a dinner that would be a celebration of something. She was, apparently, trying to get over her abortive affair with Ethel Merman, and had embarked on a rather less public dalliance with Pat Nixon.
Pat, of course, had become a lesbian the year before, more I suspect as a reaction to Dick’s chronic flatulence than any real desire for the love of a good woman. Or indeed a bad one.
Bitsy Trump and I cadged a lift from Gloria. She always served spectacular champagne, so by the time we arrived we were all several under the pump. Truman came in a little later with a brasileiro rent boy called João, who immediately began flirting with Pat, which caused Truman to retreat in tears to the bathroom, so we spent the afternoon drinking gimlets, getting baked on a pan of particularly fine double-fudge rum-n-raisin brownies that Pat had whipped up, and lying around drawing monster eyebrows and a lazy eye on all the pictures of Sally Quinn in the society pages while listening to Brahms and the gentle sounds of Truman whimpering.
Gloria, Pat, João and I played a lengthy game of Twister, and at one point I came out of a quick nap for long enough to see Pat poking Truman with a broom handle while shouting “Cry it up, Streckfus!”, but most of the rest of the evening is a blur.
I do remember that one of Pat’s security detail brought burgers and fries and shakes, and Jack turned the news on so we could throw our pickles at Nixon. Just as Bitsy got Dicky fair in the gob with an onion ring, Jack looked across at me, raised her glass and declaimed “Nixon. Capote. I hate both those fucks. I hate their beady eyes and their stupid noses and their lying fucking mouths. Those fucks will ruin us all.”
At which Pat laughed like a drain and had to be heimliched after her olive went down the wrong way.
I have no idea what any of that means, but I’m scared to think what Jack would have said about Mr Romney or the Twilight books.
Now, it’s been a while since we had a book thread, so here you go.
My reading has been all over the place this month. I’m halfway through David Wong’s John dies at the end, an odd and disconcerting little story about small town kids, sex, drugs and the malevolent forces that live beyond the bounds of our universe and watch our world with hungry eyes. Wong is very funny and ably handles a plot in which the peace can be broken at any time by the abrupt appearance of a cloud of flying flesh eating worms or a golem made of slaughtered deer parts.
Gareth Roberts’ novelisation of Douglas Adams’ Shada was particularly good, both as an evocation of the book that Adams might have written and of Tom Baker’s Doctor and Lalla Ward’s Romana. Getting those things right without veering into pastiche or, on the other hand, bland unrecognisability is hard – just ask Michael Moorcock. Roberts pokes happily at some Gallifrey Base obsessions, including the argued overuse of the sonic screwdriver, the gay agenda and this (which is just cruel):
As Skagra watched, he learnt of the Doctor’s early history, academic achievements, his family ties on Gallifrey and elsewhere, and the exact reasons for his first flight from his home world. But all of that was irrelevant.
There’s even a very fine Monty Python joke about halfway through.
I also read The Time Travellers by Simon Guerrier, which I thought was an exceptional book. The first Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara are stranded in London in a 2006 in which Great Britain is at endless war after being devastated by the evil computer WOTAN, who will later (or earlier, depending on your level of wibbliness) be defeated by the second Doctor in The War Machines. All four leads are beautifully drawn, and Guerrier’s description of a conversation between the Doctor and Barbara about changing history towards the end of the book is passionate and tender and quite masterful.
I love The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit. The book is divided up by flavours, with each flavour cross referenced against most of the others to see what memories or recipes or random thoughts the combination brings to Segnit’s mind – from bacon and chicken (the proper number of bread slices in a club sandwich), to bacon and clove (a recipe for barbecue baked beans), clove and vanilla (which meet, along with coconut, in wine stored in French oak) and vanilla and cherry (Cherries Jubilee!). Fascinating enough to read from cover to cover, and perfect for dipping into for ideas if you happen to have a surfeit of oranges or cucumbers that you need to use up.*
The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer made me laugh, and the divine Phryne Fisher mysteries (this month, Murder in the Dark) make me wish that I had been born 20 years earlier so I could have hung around in Melbourne between the wars – although I do suspect there wasn’t quite as much cocaine and shagging as Ms Greenwood describes.
Well, kiddies, that’s me. What have you been reading?
* I’ve been making pickled oranges and a French orange wine aperitif and bread-and-butter cucumbers all week. I smell like vinegar and booze which, frankly, isn’t unusual. Let me know if you want recipes.
Yutsano
Hi dear. I gave a report on my progress below. And you sound in desperate need of sour cherries. Or Kirschewasser. Though some would argue this is pretty much the same thing.
TheMightyTrowel
My reading the last 2 weeks has also been all over the place.
I.loved the booker nom the testament of Jessie lamb – a handmaid’s tale for the post aids generation.
I.m ambling through mantel’s bring up the bodies – sequel to wolf hall and, shockingly, it’s superior.
I ripped through Lynn flewelling’s new night runner novel casket of souls – excellent as always
And, for my sins, i am suffering through what feels like ten million mediocre student essays.
Omnes Omnibus
I just finished rereading Reed Browning’s The War of the Austrian Succession. It is interesting if you find that kind of thing interesting.
@TheMightyTrowel: I plan to grab Bring up the Bodies soon.
General Stuck
Well, hear ya go. Straight from the horses mouth, sorta. not really.
Sounds like high brow lawfare for the robed gawds of the universe.
TheMightyTrowel
@Omnes Omnibus: read it slowly. Her mastery of language deserves it.
Hypatia's Momma
Power, Sex, Suicide by Dr. Nick Lane, The Kai Lung Omnibus by Mr. Ernest Bramah, and various re-reads for when I’m sleepy.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I just started The Pale King.
Culture of Truth
420 Characters by Lou Beach.
Recommended.
MikeJ
SPT, thank gopod you’re back. It seems forever since you posted.
Valdivia
@General Stuck:
thanks for that link, even if it was Politico.
Am re-reading The Captive Mind by Milosz
As well as a collection of poetry by Louis MacNiece, most under-appreciated word conjurer of the 20th century.
Valdivia
Also, Miss Sarah you so rock. I’m a fangirl as you surely already know.
Omnes Omnibus
SPaT, was Fritz trying to get with Capote as part of his assignment or was that an extracurricular?
Mnemosyne (iTouch)
It’s stupid, but I can’t read books that are too interesting right before bed, because I will stay up half the night to finish it. I’ve been rereading the Anne of Green Gables series and come to the conclusion that Anne has ADHD. It is a great comfort to me.
Hal
Finally gave in and read the Hunger Games, and really liked it. I know, it’s know Harry Potter (for some reason that’s always the comparison) but I find it so timely.
Cruel, totalitarian Government only concerned with the wealthy, while pitting the poor against each other. Dolling out vital necessities (food, healthcare, etc) on the basis of how much sycophantic adulation you can aim towards those in power, and of course; sacrificing your most vulnerable to the amusement of the wealthy.
I read a book called Cloud Atlas a few years ago, and it was basically all of these intertwining novellas woven together. My favorite was the one regarding Nea So Copros, a Korean super state where corporations rule. People watch Disney’s (movies), and advertisements are projected on the moon.
In my darkest hours, that’s what I think of a Mitt Romney Presidency. But I’m sure I’m just a crazy liberal.
Alison
Recent books I’ve read and enjoyed/recommend:
Non-fiction:There Is Power In a Union – by Philip Dray. Long but worth it – thorough history of the labor movement and unions, a nice reprieve from their demonization in the media these days…
The Swerve: How The World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt – Pulitzer and NBA winner, a quick and fun read on a surprisingly intriguing topic.
Fiction:
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – strongly written story set in the Nigerian-Biafran War in the late 60s. Well-drawn characters and the author manages to give you sort of a history lesson in the form of a novel, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I loved it.
MikeJ
Oh shit, current book reading. I’ve loaded Scalzi’s “Redshirts” onto my nook but haven’t started since I know I’ll devour it in one sitting. Also loaded an older book, “Coders at Work”, “Sun in a Bottle: the strange history of fusion” and “Prague Winter” by Albright, with whom I used to share an elevator when I worked in the same building. And now I realise the last clause sounds like something SPT would write, but with less cocaine. But not for lack of trying. Could not keep the woman away.
Hypatia's Momma
@Mnemosyne (iTouch):
This is why my re-read books are for when I’m sleepy. Also, graphic novels and comics and kids books.
asiangrrlMN
Oh, Miss Sarah, I love your stories so much. This one is a corker!
Lojasmo
Recently Stehpen king 11/22/63. Flying to PDX and reading the most recent dark tower book. /junkie
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Omnes Omnibus:
Truman had been spreading rumours that he had been felt up by FDR in the Macy’s changeroom – all a product of his fevered booze dreams, of course. Apparently Fritz was supposed to find out whether Franklin was a switch hitter, but the poor dear never got the chance.
I saw Fritz many many decades later reading out the German scores on the Eurovision broadcast. Which was nice.
ETA: Of course, Franklin WAS a switch hitter, but seeing as his thing was short, chunky and, above all, hung black men, poor Truman wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Valdivia
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
nice touch with the Eurovision score reading by Fritz.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@MikeJ:
I know, right? That woman is grabbier than Elton John at a buffet.
sfinny
Fiction: Secrets of the Fire Sea by Stephen Hunt. Very enjoyable. Will look for his prior novels at the library this weekend.
Non-fiction: Last week I read How to Break a Terrorist by Matthew Alexander and The Interrogator by Glenn Carle. Former was the better written but both were interesting.
Last note: read the Wiley Cash novel “a land more kind than home”. Wonderful book, can’t decide if it made me long to live in such a place or avoid it forever.
BGinCHI
Greatest Jacqui Suzanne reference is in the song “Adult Books” by X.
Great song.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: In retrospect, it is such an obvious explanation. I should have guessed.
@BGinCHI: Ooooh, early X. So cool.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@asiangrrlMN:
Hello there. How goes the you-know-whos at your you-know-what?
The prophet Nostradumbass
Would one of our Front Pagers like to perhaps take a look at the moderation queue?
Original Lee
I just started Code Name Verity. Only 10 pages in, so hard to tell how well I’ll like it after I finish.
I’m also re-reading Fortress in the Eye of Time. I go through phases where I will read a lot of a particular author, and I’m on a bit of a C.J. Cherryh kick at the moment.
I just got done reading Kiln People by David Brin. A little mystical toward the end, and I think too much cutting between characters in the chapter where I think the climax is supposed to be, but I really really love the first 2/3rds or so.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Done and done. A pleasure in the service of mocking mikey the goat boy.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@MikeJ:
@asiangrrlMN:
@Valdivia:
A pleasure.
Chris
@Hal:
The scene with the ridiculous woman who comes to pick the tributes, when Katniss volunteers and she’s like “Oh my! I’ll bet that was your sister, wasn’t it? Nothing like a little competitive spirit, it’s so awesome!” My mind went right to Mitt Romney’s gaffes-of-the-week. Either that or W. Bush congratulating the woman working three jobs because “that’s America.”
Yutsano
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Oh boy. Tetchy subject that. No wonder she’s been writing like mad.
Chris
Fiction/nonfiction, depending on how you look at it: “The Next Hundred Years” by George Friedman, the Stratfor CEO, purports to predict the rest of the century. If nothing else, it’s fun to put up all the predictions and watch how the real future matches up. (E.G. very badly, I suspect)
Nonfiction: End This Depression Now! by Krugman. Haven’t finished it yet, but good read so far. The only thing that’s maddening is that as he keeps saying on his blog, this isn’t rocket science. We already know all the solutions. We’re just choosing not to implement them because [insert obscenely stupid right-wing blathering here]
Fiction: the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, Star Wars Expanded Universe (yeah, yeah, I know, it’s got a lot of haters). About average as Star Wars EU books go, but I liked that it actually had Boba Fett act like the amoral bounty hunter we see in the movies – other books try to make him cool by giving him the cliched “code of honor.”
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Thank you, madam.
Librarian
Ummm….Was that a true story? Truman Capote was a teenager during WWII, and I highly doubt that the Nazis were interested in him, unless they wanted some tips on how to get a job at the New Yorker.
YellowJournalism
@Mnemosyne (iTouch): I’ve been doing the same for two years now. I included the two Chronicles of Avonlea books as part of it. (I moticed ahe repeated story elements many times an included some really shoddy pieces along with some very poignant or haunting ones.) I’ve slowed down on the project, though, after finishing Anne’s House of Dreams. I need to start up again because I have a copy of The Blythes Are Quoted that I have not cracked open at all since my husband gave it to me for Christmas in 2010.
I do that, though. I will buy or be given a brand new book, and it may sit on a shelf unopened for yeas sometimes until I give in and end up staying up all night finishing the damn thing. I did that recently with Water for Elephants, which I thought I would not like but now recommend for anyone who love the series Carnivale on HBO. Water has a very similar atmosphere without the supernatural elements of Carnivale. I’m also a sucker for Depression-era stories.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
Alan Furst is what I’ve been reading. And about to be rereading. Spy novels set in Europe between WWI and WWII. And Paris is a main character in all of them.
Helen
OT but all day today I have been getting a message from Norton that Ballon Juice is a “known fraudelent website” Is anyone else getting that?
ETA: Holy crap should have read the post first. AWESOME Sarah – so sorry for interrupting
kaylarudbek
Rereading Megan Whalen Turner’s Attolia series and desperately wishing for the next one to be out. Wondering just where she will take the series next.
Reading Ysabeau Wilce’s Califa/Flora Segunda series and desperately wishing for the next one to be out (and thinking that the Kirkus reviewer who said Flora’s Fury was a nice end to the trilogy is on some of SPT’s favorite substances; how the hell do you not recognize cliffhangers when they are staring you in the face? Particularly big honking cliffhangers from several major loose ends)
My brain is fried as it’s end-of-the-quarter at work already, so I’m into the YA right now.
PPOG Penguin
@sfinny: Hunt’s updating of pulp is generally entertaining reading, though he does veer into sadism on occasion. But jam-packed with striking scenes and ideas. Personal favourite is “The Kingdom Beneath the Waves” but that may just be because it’s the first of his I read.
Of my own recent reading, the book that stands out is Rosalind B Penfold’s “Dragonslippers: This is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like.” It’s utterly harrowing, a true story with a hopeful but awfully ambiguous ending, completely unlike what conventional wisdom says a ‘comic’ ought to be. Also “Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies,” a best-of collection by NZ/Aussie feminist sf writer Lucy Sussex, a few more Ruth Rendells to cement my misanthropy, and a couple of random ebooks from JMR Higgs, author of this hilarious Illuminatus!/Atlas Shrugged comparison: http://jmrhiggs.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/illuminatus-vs-atlas-shrugged.html
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Mnemosyne (iTouch):
I had to learn not to start an Elmore Leonard after 9:00 PM. The writing’s punchy, the chapters are short, and you can always read “oh, just another one.”
BTW, Get Shorty is one of the greatest slams on Hollywood by a writer. Who knew the skillset of a shylock was a perfect match for an executive producer?
J. Michael Neal
I’m working my way through Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative. If you’re into military history and World War II specifically, the last 20 years have been a treasure trove of works exploding the consensus view of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union held by western historians. The opening of the Soviet archives ought to have put paid to a lot more deeply held conventional wisdom about that war than it so far has. Revisionism of the best sort.
This book, by Valeriy Zamulin, does the same thing with the conventional wisdom built up among Soviet historians, which wasn’t really any more wrong than what those relying on German sources thought, but is certainly very different. This is a dense book, the weight of which is not helped by being printed on glossy paper (bad mistake, in my opinion). It’s not for the faint of heart, similar in style to a lot of David Glantz’s work. It’s not as dense as his book on Kursk, and the maps are better, but that’s an incredibly low bar to clear.
I’ve just made it to July 10th, the sixth day of the offensive and first of the actual battle of Prokhorovka. If you like detailed operational military histories, I recommend it.
J. Michael Neal
@Helen:
No, but I’m unimpressed. It doesn’t take sophisticated software to realize that everyone here is a complete fraud.
Trakker
Books? Screw the books. The story was just getting good. Steamy good. Another-glass-of-wine good.
Hunter Gathers
I’ve been trying to read Shada for the past two weeks, but my toddler won’t allow it. Well, that’s not exactly true. He keeps trying to destroy it, as if he’s channeling River Song (spoilers!), trying keep me from finding out my future. I should not have given him that sonic screwdriver.
Valdivia
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
This series set in Eastern Europe was pretty good.
Helen
What am I reading? Very complicated. Just got a Kindle. Went a bit crazy. Was looking for a good book and went to some of my favorite books in the past. Someone somewhere said “Read Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro “YAY I said ‘Remains of the Day’ is one of my favorites” So I downloaded it. At the same time I downloaded “The Handmaid’s Tale” cuz i loved it in college but it scared me.I thought I’ll wiz thru Ishiguro and move on to Handmaids. Um nope “Never Let Me Go?” Loved it but just as scary as HT.
Haven’t yet gotten to the 2nd reading of HT. WHY? Because another favorite bok of mine is Animal Farm and bizarrely Amazon is giving a kinda 2 for 1 deal; buy 1984 and get Animal Farm for $2. Yeah I am the only 49 yr old American who has not read 1984. Just finished AF just started 1984. I’m scared once again.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Original Lee: Oooh. C.J. Cherryh. I’ve reread Merchanter’s Luck so many times I’ve pretty much memorized it. Love all the books set in the Alliance-Union universe.
Steeplejack
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
Probably will pick up the new one this weekend. I liked the last one, Spies of the Balkans, but some of them are, uh, atmospheric to the exclusion of all else. (But, hey, the atmosphere is addictive.) Particularly frustrating was the two-volume story about the French film producer (The World at Night and Red Gold), which ended with a knock on a hotel room door in the middle of the night. WTF?
One that ended abruptly that I did like–there was at least some closure–was The Polish Officer, probably my favorite in the series.
Also, Mothra is female, I have belatedly learned. Did not see that coming.
J. Michael Neal
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I like a lot of them, but I’ve never found one I like as much as Downbelow Station, though the first few Chanur books come damned close.
Steeplejack
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
And the movie version was very good. My favorite Elmore Leonard film adaptation is Soderbergh’s Out of Sight. A perfect Clooney vehicle, good supporting actors–Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, etc.–and even Jennifer Lopez is good.
JGabriel
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
I just woke up and had to scan that sentence three times before realizing that “thing” meant fetish in this context, not p3nis.
I need some caffeine. Or more sleep.
.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
Interesting. I’m just finishing Steinhauer’s Milo Weaver trilogy–The Tourist, The Nearest Exit and An American Spy–and will probably move on to these.
Also just finishing The Man with the Baltic Stare, the fourth novel in James Church’s Inspector O series. Rambling and a bit underwhelming so far, but I’m hoping for a big finish.
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne (iTouch):
You are not the first to have that idea. Huck Finn, too also (and probably Huck’s creator, as well).
And on a less rarified plane — Chris Pines’ ADHD take on James T. Kirk finally made sense of Kirk’s mooted “leadership ability” to me. Even as an OG fangirl in the 1970s, I could never see Shatner’s scenery-chewing as something that otherwise competent people would respect, much less emulate. But Pines’ unmoderated (“I think I love you” “That’s weird”) pinballing from juvenile car theft to bar brawl to academic cheating to starship-command theft was, in the context of abberrant brain chemistry, logical. And people really do follow charismatic-crazy ADHDers… if only to see what they’re going to do next. I think that’s why we never got weeded out of the gene pool, frankly; every so often the tribe needs someone who is not only capable but compelled to speak the unspeakable and do the impossible, even if the cull rate during normal times is a horror….
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie: That reminds me: I need to get a copy of Samuel’s autobiography. Well two: one for my dad for the holidays as well.
Omnes Omnibus
@J. Michael Neal: I am only a partial fraud. I am, as I have said, about 5′ 10″.
handsmile
Some fine and impressive books offered up for delectation here!
Valdivia (#10) and Alison (#15), my greedy beady eyes are looking particularly at you.
Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve is a marvel, making 1st century BCE Lucretius into a best seller in contemporary America. It fully deserves all its praise and prizes.
Valdivia, earlier this week we exchanged high-fives over Milosz.
Two books recently finished (so many started, so few completed):
Revelations: Visions, Prophecy & Politics in the Book of Revelation, Elaine Pagels
The Untouchable, a fictional account of eminent British art historian and Soviet spy Anthony Blunt, John Banville
A couple of books that have a reasonably good chance of completion:
Masscult and Midcult: Essays Against the American Grain, Dwight MacDonald
And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris, Alan Riding
This year of Dickens now finds me imprisoned in the Marshalsea with Little Dorritt . And the pleasures of re-reading are deep and replenished in Borges’ Collected Fictions.
Steeplejack
@handsmile:
I love Borges. And something upthread reminded me that I want to reread G. Cabrera Infante’s Three Trapped Tigers.
J. Michael Neal
@Omnes Omnibus: Maybe, but you’re a cheesehead. To be a complete fraud, you’d have to have some credibility in the first place.
I also recommend Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife very, very highly. It’s one of those books in which nothing happens but the characters are utterly fascinating. And she stuck the ending, which I was a bit surprised by. I am looking forward to finding out if she has more than one good tale in her.
Valdivia
@handsmile:
On Borges: a must is the book about the correspondence/intellectual relationship with Boiy Caseres. It came out a couple of years ago. But maybe it was in Spanish only. Sorry I can’t remember.
And Little Dorrit I just adore. I love Dickens and re-read him every couple of years, Dorrit and Bleak House are favorites.
The books in Blunt and Paris sound great.
@Steeplejack:
Tres Tristes Tigres rocked my world.
J. Michael Neal
Good lord, check out Andy North’s tie on ESPN2 right now. That’s fabulous.
Omnes Omnibus
@J. Michael Neal: At work yesterday, we had a potluck for a couple of people who were leaving. I found myself in conversation with a young lady who was mocking the Wisconsin fear of spices. I asked her where she was from. She said Minnesota. I just laughed.
J. Michael Neal
@Omnes Omnibus: I know two Minnesotans who think ketchup is a spice.
I still think we need to catch up some time when I’m in Madison.
Omnes Omnibus
@handsmile: I plan on looking up the Alan Riding book. Thanks.
handsmile
@Steeplejack: , @Valdivia:
Three Trapped Tigers/Tres Tristes Tigres is completely unknown to me (or has vanished due to synaptic obliteration). Having good reason to trust in your tastes based on the exchanges here and on previous threads, I guess that’s one more to be added to the pile. Thanks, you bastids.
Alsotoo: I plugged “Three Trapped Tigers” into the Google machine, and the first dozen entries relate to a “instrumental noise-rock band from London, England.” Soundtrack to the book?
J. Michael Neal
And speaking of books from the other side, after a tough slog earlier this week, things seem to have opened up and I’m getting more output on mine the last couple of days.
Omnes Omnibus
@J. Michael Neal: Deal. Let me know when you are going to be in town.
Kristine
Just started Snuff, by Pterry.
After that, will probably try Gone Girl, the new novel by Gillian Flynn. I’ve read Sharp Objects, her first–she’s very good with broken, hard-to-like protagonists and nasty, twisty psych.
J. Michael Neal
@Omnes Omnibus: So far I know of two times. I’m driving through to get to Chicago next Saturday and back north on Sunday. And the Gophers will be in Madison the last weekend of next January. Looking forward to checking out your new arena.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
One of the ones that I read (laboriously) in Spanish, I liked it so much. Tres tristes tigres en un trigal.
And García Márquez’s Cien años de soledad and La hojarasca (is that right?—Leaf Storm).
I have also been looking for João Guimarães Rosa’s Grande Sertão: Veredas to reread. It was published as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands in the ’60s but seems to be out of print now (in English). Don’t think my almost nonexistent Portuguese would be up to that in the original.
Steeplejack
@handsmile:
Well, the book (from memory) is a sort of semi-Joycean experimental novel about a bunch of quirky, disaffected characters in Cuba in the ’60s. Published in Spanish in 1967, came out in English a few years later. The title is from a Spanish tongue-twister–literally “Three Sad Tigers,” although “Three Trapped Tigers” is a felicitous translation. (Tres tristes tigres en un trigal = three sad tigers in a trap.)
Omnes Omnibus
@J. Michael Neal: I’ll be up in central WI next weekend. Dad is out of town this weekend, so Father’s Day will be celebrated a week late. January is doable. If you come through sooner, let me know.
Janet Strange
Path to Power. I’ve resisted Caro’s LBJ books but finally gave in and started the first one. Totally, can’t put it down addicted. I’m sure one reason I’m so mesmerized is that the Texas part is set where I’ve lived all my life. And several generations of my ancestors. Similarly, my New Yorker nephew thinks The Power Broker is one of the greatest books of all time.
I mean, I took my dog for a walk and a block away from my house I’m looking over a field of wildflowers and limestone and all of these things I learned about the Hill Country from Caro, where my mother’s family settled before the Civil War, seems right before my eyes. One of the main streets in South Austin that I used to live a block from is Oltorf, and Caro mentions Frank Oltorf . . . Learning all this stuff about George and Herman Brown (Brown & Root) and Mansfield Dam. . . .
But even if you’re nowhere near Texas, pretty fascinating for any political junkie. Or history junkie.
JGabriel
Reminder: Speaking of books, don’t forget it’s Bloomsday today/tomorrow — depending on whether you’re currently up late or up early.
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Steeplejack
@JGabriel:
Thanks for the reminder. I will read some of Dubliners, my favorite Joyce.
“Araby”–a great short story.
Xenos
@handsmile: I just re-read Little Dorrit after nearly 30 years. The Merdle character has gotten much more plausible after the last couple decades. It is a good starting point for a discussion of why we have bankruptcy law, too.
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
I’m impressed with your Spanish. De verdad! The two Garcia Marquez are exactly right.
For reading in Spanish I would recommend La Tia Julia y El Escribidor. A true delight of a story and joyful play with the language. Also Pantaleon y Las Visitadoras.
Also the Tres…. Description for @handsmile: Is perfect. Cabrera Infante wrote it when he was in exile in Spain after the Cuban Revolution. I want to say it was one of the first winners of the famous Seix Barral award which pretty much forged the boom of Lat Am literature in that era.
Valdivia
@Steeplejack: @handsmile:
In case you are interested I have to plug in the work by Bioy Caceres The invention of Morel. A great great work in the vein of Borges not as well known.
And this is the fantastic but huge book I referred to in the other post which is more an intellectual biography of Argentina written by Caceres via his partnership with Borges. Extraordinary book.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
I knew a little about Bioy Casares. Think I read Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi way back when. I will check out his book on Borges–or maybe not, now that I look at the prices on Amazon! I’ll keep it in mind, though.
And thanks for the other suggestions. I read Spanish–or used to–much better than I speak it. Never took that semester abroad that I should have. But I took it all through college–almost enough to minor in it.
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
If you can read it at this level speaking will take less than a semester!
The Caceres book on Borges might be available for cheaper from the Spanish r Argentinian book sellers online. Will fish a link for you.
NancyDarling
@Helen: @Valdivia: Helen, I just finished re-reading The Handmaid’s Tale and I can’t shake the funk. It wasn’t so scary when I read it in the 80’s. Someone in a thread of a few days ago said we should have had a rule against dystopic novels by leftists—the god-botherers seem to use them as a template for writing laws rather than take them as a warning.
Valdivia, Macniece is new to me. Is there any particular collection of his I should start with?
Phylllis
Working my way through The Architecture of the Ozarks. I can’t believe I never heard of this series before. It’s one of those books you can’t read in public places because there’s at least one laugh out loud moment every two pages.
Just picked up Along the Way, a sort of autobiography by Martin Sheen & Emilio Estevez, and Gilded Lives, Failed Voyage about the wealthy on the Titanic. Would love to find some works on the lives of the second and third class passengers as well.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Kristine: Just finished Sharp Objects and Gone Girl – both are great fun. Nasty, twisty, indeed. I’ll have to check out Snuff.
Kristine
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Snuff is by Terry Pratchett, in case you didn’t know–I know a number of folks here read him. About as far removed from Flynn as you can get, but written with the same sharp eye. British. Fantasy. Written as humor, but not always funny, and I mean that in a good way.
Valdivia
@NancyDarling:
I have the Collected Poems published in 2006. There may be individual books of his poetry out there but you can only probably get those in the UK.
For a taste of his wonderful way with words, go here.
I think he is best summed up by one of his stanzas:
That is from the poem Snow.
NancyDarling
@Valdivia: Thanks. And among American poets, do you love Theodore Roethke as as much as I do?
Among living American poets, I like Eleanor Rand Wilner. “The Girl with Bees in Her Hair” is my favorite collection.
Valdivia
@NancyDarling:
Love Roethke! Yay for elective affinities. But had not read or heard about Rand Wilner so I will check her out.
I also must confess to be having an ee cummings year. his poetry has been very alive for me lately for some reason. Even with the affected no capitals thing.
NancyDarling
@Valdivia: Start with “Found in the Free Library”, her contribution to Poets Against the War in 2003. You can read some of the poems and the end notes of “The Girl with Bees…” at Amazon.
And are you the commenter who shares my interest in Benito Juarez, or have I confused you with someone else?
Valdivia
@NancyDarling:
yes that is me! :) I love Benito.
And thanks I will start there.
Original Lee
@Kristine: I read Snuff right after it came out. I was very sad. It was like reading a Gainsborough Nero Wolfe book.