What are you reading now?

[Jay in SE WI]

I'm still stuck on Dark Back of Time, as having a wife on bed rest makes it hard to find time to read.

The previous Believer is what I'm making the most progress with right now. It's ok. The Yucca article was good, the Per Petterson didn't hold me. The writing style was too... sparse. Yet it wanted depth and weight, I think. I wasn't buying in after 2.5 pages, so I moved on.

In the cue is a UMASS-Amherst dissertation on Marias's postmodern praxis and the interplay of fiction and nonfiction by Berg, which has to be back to UWM by 7/8, so I better crack that soon.

Markos from Daily Kos has a new book coming this fall that is on the stack. Also, a new Arturo Perez-Reverte (Duke of Redonda) ARC is on the same small stack.

At the bookstore, I'm sitting on Warlock and something else that escapes me at the moment.

And John Zittrain's Future of the Internet seems like it could be great and fascinating and total crap. I may find out.

[Carl Hoffman]

Finished Disquiet by Julia Leigh. It's very good. The atmospheric qualities reminded me of the film The Others, although the book's plot is dissimilar to the film's. Tension mounts throughout the story. At 121 pages in galley form, you could read this in 1.5 - 2 hours.
http://schwartzbooks.booksense.com/NASApp/store/Product;jsessionid=...

[Carl Hoffman]

Just finished City of Refuge by Tom Piazza. Seems to me to be the first novel about Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the aftermath to hit the nail on the head. The story slowly adds layer upon layer of detail to the lives of the characters until they really get inside of you. I loved it. Also, in conjunction, reading The Oxford American magazine New Orleans/Gulf Coast issue: 3 Years After. As usual, outstanding journalism and stories.
Now reading The Irish Americans by Jay P. Dolan, scheduled for late October release. Interesting history written for the general reader. More to come.

[Carl Hoffman]

Started Taking On the System: Rules For Radical Change In a Digital Era by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (of dailykos.com) today. Thanks for passing it along, Jay. It has awakened me more in the first 40 pages than any other political/current events type book I've read in the last 5 years, with the possible exception of The Audacity of Hope.

[jordan gower]

oh my god, finally someone else sees the value of "the gone away world" - i keep trying to push it but unfortunately the extreme ugliness of the cover turns away most. it is awesomeness beyond expectation. i hope you really enjoy (enjoyed) it.

otherwise i'm nearly finished with "the exploits and adventures of brigadier gerard" by conan doyle - and i'm preparing an Inside Flap post for it.

Jenn Northington said:

is anyone else as obsessed with The Gone-Away World (Harkaway) as i am?

also, just finished Sing Them Home (Kallos), which was incredibly good, i now officially feel bad that i'd never read Broken For You, and In His Sights (Brennan), which was incredibly frightening.

[Jay in SE WI]

still not reading anything for "fun". did read Jane Eyre for class and am into Lady Audley's Secret for the same Vic Lit seminar.

on the pile: Trilling's Liberal Imagination, Crowdsourcing, Lessig's new Remix, Little Monsters (still).

also, an article on "hive" mind gaming. yummy....

[Heather Kemp]

Just finished The Line of Beauty and started Atonement last night. I've also got The Sparrow cooking for book club; I'm working on Aspects of the Novel, am trying to plow through both Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines before John Green's third book, Paper Towns, comes out (October 16); and am reading The Glass Castle for a class (this is probably the best memoir I've ever read).

[Carl Hoffman]

Carl Hoffman said:

OK, a galley of " The Way Through Doors" by Jesse Ball showed up at the store yesterday and I immediately grabbed it. Jesse Ball wrote "Samedi the Deafness", which was shortlisted for the 2007 The Believer Book Award and deserves more attention than it's received. I'm about a quarter of the way through " The Way Through Doors". (Can't tell exactly, 'cause the book is numbered by paragraphs instead of pages.) Ball's storytelling is amazing as usual. I really can't tell where this story is going yet, which is immense fun for me. Will report back soon, but I think this one's gonna be another sweet journey.

Also, very sad about James Liddy's recent death. He was a gifted poet and a good man.

[staciemichelle]

Started the controversial and multiple-award-winning translated novel The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell. It's a 900+ page fictional memoir of a homosexual SS officer who lusted after his sister, philosophizes over moral questions without much emotion, and was at some major points of WWII history. The first part of the book was intense.

I know I've got other things lined up, but nothing I'm going home to other than this tome.

[david-baptiste chirot]

staciemichelle said:

Started the controversial and multiple-award-winning translated novel The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell. It's a 900+ page fictional memoir of a homosexual SS officer who lusted after his sister, philosophizes over moral questions without much emotion, and was at some major points of WWII history. The first part of the book was intense.

Thanks Stacie--i recall reading when this book was being auctioned off madly in europe at the huge press fair--the undying fascianion with the figure of the gay Nazi officer--is in itself wrth a book!--i have been reading 2006 byroberto bolano awaiting a review copy--it's terrific--i like it much more than savage detectives--my favorites by him are by night in chile and distant star which i have written a lot about and am using the former again in two different stories-an essay that came out in a bengali journal had a lot abt distant star in re the poems from guantanamo book--i think the 9/11 of chile links with the 9/11 iin the usa in the kinds of chnages both introduced into their countries--so bolano works for me very much as a writer relevant in a very powerful way to the present in the us--it was through boplano i learend of two other terrific writers--cesar aira and edgardo villa-mattas--tonight is a service for James Liddy at St John's on Cathedral Square at 7--
i have a tribute with some fotos and etc at my blog--and have some notes and handwritten poems still to put up--he is already sorely missed! --i remember a reading with James --Stacie was there--an incredibly cold and stormy awful night--maybe four or five people made it--but a rollicking good time--at schwarz --part of the Irish writing festival that took place at a number of schwarz stores--i am glad i stumbled on this blog--!-i forward to friends around wisonsinc --the news from the bookstore--many thanks!
oh the blog is
http://davidbaptistechirot.blogspot.com
i shd send the exact address of the one for James to save time--
I know I've got other things lined up, but nothing I'm going home to other than this tome.