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Post by miles on Feb 5, 2016 20:45:51 GMT
I finished "I've Always Kept a Unicorn" by Mick Houghton. This is an excellent biography of Sandy Denny, one of the greatest vocalists to emerge from England, with ample contributions from her friends and family. Sympathetic and clear eyed, it details her career and evolution, and finally the professional and personal frustrations that led her into a downward spiral and early death. Many have been blamed, Joe Boyd for forcing her to break up her band, Fotheringay, and become a solo artist, her label (for pushing her in competing musical directions, delaying her album releases and then abandoning her altogether,) and mostly her husband Trevor Lucas. The author avoids simplistic answers and lets us enter into the 60s Folk Music scene with figures like Jackson Frank, Martin Carthy, Annie Briggs, Bert Janch, Richard Thompson and many others. The emotional power of her songs and voice have always had a deep effect on me, and this book brings you closer to understanding the daring and fragile person she was, as well her artistry.
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Post by Introvertigroo on Mar 16, 2016 1:29:24 GMT
I haven't two of my favorite novels in awhile, so I just made it through Alfred Bester's novel, "The Stars My Destination" (although I prefer the title "Tiger, Tiger," which apparently was used in England upon the initial release of the book), and I have moved on to the other great Bester novel "The Demolished Man."
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Post by anothersatellite on Apr 5, 2016 15:13:07 GMT
Am listening to all my XTC and Fuzzy Warbles in preparation for reading Complicated Game (also just for the hell of it). Also listening to compilations and live stuff I have, which leaves me wondering why I do not have Drums and Wirelessor Transistor Blast. Weird.
Reading The Lives of Tao, truly crap sci-fi, but not so bad that I won't finish it.
Prepping for Dhalgren with Robert Dunbar's Goodreads reading group, Literary Darkness, which I highly recommend. It's been 40 years, at least, since I read Dhalgren. It'll be a different book...
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Post by Introvertigroo on Apr 5, 2016 16:06:10 GMT
I'm reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I actually bought the book about a year ago but never read it (possibly daunted by the nearly 1200 pages in length).
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Post by miles on Apr 5, 2016 18:27:45 GMT
Inherent Vice by Pynchon. I have avoided the film so far, but look forward to comparing the versions.
Another Satellite, I have tried to read Dhalgren twice, and could not get through it. Delany is one of my favs, but it is a difficult book for me. I find it self-indulgent to the extreme, but it has some great scenes.
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Post by anothersatellite on Apr 6, 2016 14:32:16 GMT
Luckily, Dhalgren seems to have been voted down in favor of Nabokov's Despair. It's one of those I viewed rereading with trepidation, though it is one of the books, like McCarthy's Blood Meridian, that forced me to become a writer.
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Post by miles on Apr 6, 2016 19:06:54 GMT
Nabokov is a good suggestion, I've meant to read him for some time.
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Post by Introvertigroo on May 2, 2016 19:37:48 GMT
My old copy of "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub fell apart while I was arranging my bookshelf not long ago, so I got a replacement copy and figured I might as well read it again.
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Post by Suzi on May 2, 2016 19:42:44 GMT
My old copy of "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub fell apart while I was arranging my bookshelf not long ago, so I got a replacement copy and figured I might as well read it again. I'm patiently waiting for the release of 'End of Watch' by Stephen King. It's the last in his trilogy series. I managed to get through 'Mr. Mercedes' but just about started crying at one point in that book. It was one of the most mentally disturbing things I've ever read.
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Post by donavan on May 2, 2016 20:12:58 GMT
My old copy of "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub fell apart while I was arranging my bookshelf not long ago, so I got a replacement copy and figured I might as well read it again. When I've read a book once or twice, I give it away or leave it on the train for someone else to read. Today I only own the book I am currently reading.
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Post by Jeff Truzzi on May 2, 2016 20:57:49 GMT
I'm reading "Auschwitz" A New History" (2005) by Lawrence Rees. Just a little light reading. I borrowed it from a friend, mainly wanting to confirm something I'd read elsewhere: that The Final Solution was actually a reaction to the SS making regular German soldiers commit atrocities in the USSR. So many cases of 'battle fatigue' among professions soldiers forced to act sadistically and unprofessionally. But there were plenty who weren't bothered by it at all. As in all things, the truth is much messier. That was but one of the many reasons the Final Solution evolved. One of the more minor ones, actually. And it did evolve: far less a 'top down' order than a policy that was influenced by many forces from many different directions. The book varies from clinical examination of policy to firsthand personal interviews with both guards and prisoners. It is enlightening and edifying, but very gruesome. I may not finish it.
I haven't read fiction in years - other than a couple of books an old friend of mine had published.
"Crystal Falls" by Brad Walseth. It's really good.
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Post by peggs on May 2, 2016 21:10:29 GMT
I admire your practice of passing along books, donavan.
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Post by peggs on May 2, 2016 21:19:22 GMT
Jeff, I understand your reasoning should you not finish such a tragic tale. This is for both Suzi and Jeff - and anyone else that cares to respond: Have you found that the older you get the less you wish to be voluntarily exposed to the extreme cruelties of the human experience, whether real or imagined?
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Post by donavan on May 2, 2016 21:23:12 GMT
Thanks peggs, like Jeff I don't read fiction either. Although some factual books sometimes verge on fiction.
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Post by peggs on May 2, 2016 21:25:24 GMT
Simon Winchester is one of my favorite non-fiction authors and his latest book, 'Pacific' is proving to be a well told culture and history lesson on a subject as big as, well, the ocean. I highly recommend any of his titles.
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