Recent Purchases

[saliotthomas]

Some books suffers from to much exposition,Best sellers and cinema adaptation can be as strong a repelent for some as it attracting to others.

I hope the perfume will not be a victime of this for it is as you say an excellent book.The part of Grenouille isolation from all in a womb-cave reminded me strongly of Robinson from Michelle tournier.
Louis de Bernières is one who is unjustly considered as a "popular" writer because of the sucesse of Capitain Corelli.
Bird without wings and the nether parts.. are very good books.He is someone whom i closely follows.

I bought today Requiem for the East by Andrei Makine.A nice suprise in an usualy desertic bookshop.

[Heteronym]

Today I've purchased:

Casanova in Bolzano, by Sandor Marai: I've started it and I'm enjoying it very much so far.
Hieroglyphic Tales, by Horace Walpole
Small G, by Patricia Highsmith
A Plan for Escape, by Adolfo Bioy Casares

[Colette Jones]

I was in a charity shop in Oxford a few days ago and picked up the following, all near-pristine hardback:

• Jean Echenoz - Piano (translated from the French by Mark Palizzotti)

• Chico Buarque - Budapest (translated by Alison Entrikin)

• Enrique Vila-Mata - Bartleby & Co. (translated from the Spanish by Jonathan Dunne)

• Nella Bielski - The Year is '42 (tranlated from the French by John Berger and Lisa Appignanesi)

[ions]

The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian. My first book from Mcsweeny's and I'm impressed with the quality. If the first chapter is any indication I'm going to be even more impressed by the story.
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. The new trade edition. I loaned my copy out ages ago and never got it back. No big deal it was a beat up mass market I paid a buck for.
The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich. The same person that recommended Little, Big to me recommended this so...

[saliotthomas]

The tin Drum - ghunter Grass
Counry of men -Hisham Matar
Mark Helprin - City in Winter
Michael Chabon - Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by saliotthomas

Counry of men -Hisham Matar

I read In The Country Of Men two years back when it was longlisted - and then shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. If ever there was a book I didn't want to win, it was that. My main grumble was that it had an adult narrator recalling his childhood, but the narrative tone was that of a child's. There was nothing to suggest the adult had a child's mind. Therefore it just came along as wrong. That, and it wasn't all that interesting, like it was one of those books looking behind the curtain of a nation riding on the coat tails of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, itself an unexciting book.

Mark Helprin - City in Winter

This rings a bell. I think it may have been listed in the NY Times best fiction of the last twenty-five years. And, hurrying off to look it up, I see it was called Winter's Tale.

[saliotthomas]

Thank you for the advice about Country of men,I did not like the Kite runner at all,so i shall avoid this one,unless i'm really stuck for a read.

I am reading A soldier of the great war by Helprin and like it so far,the prose is beautifull ans simple.Quite a surprise.The only thing is it's a 30 hours audio and i was carving for a short pushy read(With the first Circle still in hand)

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by saliotthomas

Thank you for the advice about Country of men,I did not like the Kite runner at all,so i shall avoid this one,unless i'm really stuck for a read.

Oh, don't let my opinion rule it out. It read much better than The Kite Runner, and others must have thought it good for it to make the Booker shortlist. I just thought the author muddled.

[abecedarian]

Through the miracle of inter library loan:

Hunter Travel Guides: Virgin Islands-Lynne Sullivan

The Bountry- Derek Wolcott

I wanted to avoid another travel guide, but could not find the book I wanted by Jennie WheatleyPass it On: A Treasury of Virgin Island Tales)...the only other Virgin Island writer I could find didn't sound like my cuppa at all.

Silly me, I almost forgot: I ordered Menopause and the Mind by Claire Warga yesterday..I suppose I really need this book!

[ions]

The Book. A History of the Bible by Christopher De Hamel for the History of the Bible course I'm taking. It's pretty. Well made, several vibrant illuminations throughout. But, the intro has a line about making sure this book will be unbiased. Then he goes on to state that the Bible is one of the least changed books in history. He's either very stupid and shouldn't have written the book or biased. Either way, chapter one goes on to list many of the changes that have occurred, skimming over dozens mentioned in other works by Metzger and Ehrman, and has a few typographical errors. $40 later I'm not impressed. It is pretty though.

[A Common Reader]

I've just read Castorp by Pavel Huelle and enjoyed it greatly. Its the prequel to the Magic Mountain, and creates Hans Castorp's university years in Danzig. Very amusing, but with some depths there too.

[abecedarian]

These just in from the library:
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman

The Lost Ark of The Covenant:Solving the 2,500 Year Old Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark by Tudor Parfitt


Adventure Guide to the Cayman Islands by Paris Parmenter

[saliotthomas]

Originally Posted by abecedarian

Adventure Guide to the Cayman Islands by Paris Parmenter

Planing on opening a discret bank account ABC?

[abecedarian]

Originally Posted by saliotthomas

Planing on opening a discret bank account ABC?

How far do you think I'd get with just $20?

I couldn't find a national writer from Cayman, so I resorted to a travel guide..which is frustrating when I know I don't have a snowball's chance in Hades of getting there in person

[saliotthomas]

Oh i see,that's why you read the lonely planet about Oman,ect...I was wandering.Those are not very exiting reads if your not planing a holiday.

[abecedarian]

Originally Posted by saliotthomas

Oh i see,that's why you read the lonely planet about Oman,ect...I was wandering.Those are not very exiting reads if your not planing a holiday.

Yup..If I'd found a national writer, I might have been spared the travel guide.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by A Common Reader

I've just read Castorp by Pavel Huelle and enjoyed it greatly. Its the prequel to the Magic Mountain, and creates Hans Castorp's university years in Danzig. Very amusing, but with some depths there too.

I started it at one point but I was going through a phase of reading the first six pages and moving on to the next book. It seemed enjoyable, as you say, but a reading block, I find, is hard to overcome.

Anyway, I've come back after a couple of days away and now have the following books:

• The Belly Of The Atlantic, Fatou Dimoe
• This Earth Of Mankind, Pramoedya Ananta Toer
• Child Of All Nations, Pramoedya Ananta Toer
• Footsteps, Pramoedya Ananta Toer
• House Of Glass, Pramoedya Ananta Toer
• Metropole, Karinthy Ferenc
• Little Big, John Crowley
• Some Rain Must Fall, Michel Faber

[Stewart]

And another cheeky lunchtime purchase in Paul Verhaeghen's Omega Minor. That one, however, given its size, is going to take ages to read and will be earmarked for either a long journey or a very rainy day.

[ions]

Possession, A.S. Byatt
The Erotic Poems, Ovid

[abecedarian]

These just in from the library:
Double Play by Frank Martinus Arion

Snapshots of Belize ed, by Michael D. Phillips

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart