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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2019 20:16:14 GMT
I heard wonders about this book. Is it good? YES! I couldn't put it down.
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Post by stephen on Nov 4, 2019 20:23:15 GMT
Started The Ghosts of Cannae today. Really been thinking about why we haven't gotten a proper adaptation of Hannibal Barca's story, and I've heard nothing but great things about this book.
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Post by jimmalone on Nov 5, 2019 17:52:07 GMT
Started The Ghosts of Cannae today. Really been thinking about why we haven't gotten a proper adaptation of Hannibal Barca's story, and I've heard nothing but great things about this book. This sounds interesting. I read one biography about Hannibal. A really interesting guy. Always wondering as well why nobody felt obliged to make a film out ot it. Same goes for his father Hamilkar.
I'm now at: Le Cabinet des Antiques by Honore de Balzac
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Post by MsMovieStar on Nov 6, 2019 17:47:11 GMT
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Post by jimmalone on Nov 9, 2019 9:31:58 GMT
John le Carré - A Murder of Quality
While it involves his most famous character George Smiley this is very atypical for the series. It's actually not a spy, but a crime novel and feels definitely more Sayers than Le Carré. But that's not a bad thing. He creates a very fine setting and case, which focuses quite much on psychology and human character. Great book.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 9, 2019 14:02:20 GMT
97,196 Words: Essays : Emmanuel Carrère
An essay collection spanning the French genius and his entire career (which is stellar and includes the best non-fiction crime book The Adversary ever and some great fiction). Very easy to read but not dumbed down at all, spans politics, writing, movies, his life.
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Post by bobbydpacino on Nov 9, 2019 18:13:13 GMT
They should really turn this into a movie with the right Director. I would describe as Scarface meets The Godfather... A Non-fiction fascinating, cinematic, multigenerational history of the Cuban mob in the US.
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Post by jimmalone on Nov 10, 2019 12:07:22 GMT
Graham Greene - Travels with my Aunt
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 11, 2019 19:57:36 GMT
Kazan on Directing (2009) So far very good. It's a collection of jotted writing he did around the productions of his directed plays/movies - so it's interesting to engage with that and his tips and worries and candid thoughts. One thing I didn't know was his animosity towards Orson Welles - who he says was "merely interested in showing off, in stunting, in shocking, surprising, and upsetting" and that he "has nothing more to say than the theatre he is revolting against." And more too. Didn't know there was such a rivalry btwn OW's Mercury and Group Theatre! btw - spiderwort has a really wonderful thread on Kazan in the Classics section.
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Post by TerryMontana on Nov 13, 2019 18:17:53 GMT
I just finished the Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Hands down one of the worst books I've ever read!!
200 pages where nothing really happens... A young boy walking through the woods, going for a drink and getting drunk, eating meals and dinners and talking to the phone with his brother...
Banks builds some tension telling you early on about some murders which he finally describes very briefly, you keep waiting to learn about this kid's past/ brother/ mother and all you get is a few pages for each one (at the most), you spend about 200 pages waiting for his brother's return and you get about 2-3 pages.... On the other hand you keep reading descriptions about this boy's long walks, dinners and a totally pointless "wasp factory" he has built.
And of course there is a twist at the end. A totally stupid (so called) twist which is there for no fucking reason at all.
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Post by DeepArcher on Nov 13, 2019 22:39:55 GMT
Been re-reading one of my favorite books of all-time, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, which at the very least I think is comfortably my favorite novel of the decade. It's just so creative and funny and haunting and beautiful and has so much to say about mortality and community and is everything that I could ever want in a piece of literature. Saunders is one of our greatest living writers, guys.
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Post by TerryMontana on Nov 14, 2019 17:18:00 GMT
Just started Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
I read it for the first time about 15 years ago and I don't usually read a book twice but that one I decided to do.
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Post by Martin Stett on Nov 14, 2019 20:41:30 GMT
Smiley's People. Off to a very involving start. I was worried after The Honourable Schoolboy got too cluttered for its own good, but this seems much more pared down and sharp. Still haven't read "Honourable Schoolboy", but "Smiley's People" is my favourite Le Carre novel (read about 10 or 12). Just finished Smiley's People. I have the suspicion that the entire book was written as an excuse for the final line. Great stuff, even better than Tinker Tailor I think.
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Post by jimmalone on Nov 14, 2019 21:06:23 GMT
Still haven't read "Honourable Schoolboy", but "Smiley's People" is my favourite Le Carre novel (read about 10 or 12). Just finished Smiley's People. I have the suspicion that the entire book was written as an excuse for the final line. Great stuff, even better than Tinker Tailor I think. Love them both, but yeah I think I also give the edge to Smiley's People.
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Post by cheesecake on Nov 16, 2019 20:18:34 GMT
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Post by jimmalone on Nov 17, 2019 9:53:41 GMT
Jean Giono - Batailles dans la Montagne
Excellent so far (have 370 of 510 pages behind me). This could make a great movie as well. For example I could have imagined Claude Berri making an adaption of this.
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on Nov 19, 2019 13:32:13 GMT
I finished The Institute by Stephen King and I was highly impressed. It might even by one of my 10 favourites from the 30+ I've read.
Just started The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintrye, which came recommended by someone who has recommended me a few good books so far. So I'll take a King break as my hopes are high.
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 19, 2019 22:47:09 GMT
Sweet Cheat (1959) by pseudonym Peter Duncan Bought this unknown pulp on a whim (that cover!) and liking it a lot so far. Set in a highly pious secretly depraved Southern-ish small town, a murder mystery told by the most prized member of the community, Buck who's a policeman, church deacon, athlete, all-around swell guy, it would seem......... Since there's no preview online, here are the first two paragraphs for a taste: “I guess some policemen can feel it in their bones when a day is going to bring murder with it, but I couldn’t, so, all unsuspecting, I got up at nine o’clock on what was to be the unholiest Sunday morning in Greenhill history and had breakfast with Mama. That was my first mistake.
She’s a big, godly, white-haired, river-raised woman and looks something like Robert E. Lee—without the beard, of course—but she goes at a question like a crawfish. A crawfish moves backward and that’s the way she asks questions. She gives you the answer, then she asks you the question.“
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Post by Pavan on Nov 20, 2019 6:22:19 GMT
Finished reading The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Fun, witty and inventive.
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Post by Martin Stett on Nov 20, 2019 20:49:24 GMT
I read The Killing Joke, asked myself why I read The Killing Joke, and decided to try another comic book to wash the bad taste out of my mouth. The comic book I chose is Torso. One chapter in and I quite like it... but I don't think this will wash the bad taste out of my mouth.
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Post by TerryMontana on Nov 20, 2019 20:53:42 GMT
I read The Killing Joke, asked myself why I read The Killing Joke, and decided to try another comic book to wash the bad taste out of my mouth. The comic book I chose is Torso. One chapter in and I quite like it... but I don't think this will wash the bad taste out of my mouth. You didn't like the Killing Joke? I mean, the graphic novel Killing Joke?
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Post by Martin Stett on Nov 20, 2019 20:58:18 GMT
I read The Killing Joke, asked myself why I read The Killing Joke, and decided to try another comic book to wash the bad taste out of my mouth. The comic book I chose is Torso. One chapter in and I quite like it... but I don't think this will wash the bad taste out of my mouth. You didn't like the Killing Joke? I mean, the graphic novel Killing Joke? Ugly, mean-spirited, pointless. What was the purpose of the whole thing? I don't get it.
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Post by DeepArcher on Nov 20, 2019 21:02:51 GMT
You didn't like the Killing Joke? I mean, the graphic novel Killing Joke? Ugly, mean-spirited, pointless. What was the purpose of the whole thing? I don't get it. In that case I would highly recommend the American motion picture Joker (2019, Todd Phillips).
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Post by TerryMontana on Nov 20, 2019 21:32:52 GMT
You didn't like the Killing Joke? I mean, the graphic novel Killing Joke? Ugly, mean-spirited, pointless. What was the purpose of the whole thing? I don't get it. It is supposed to be the best Joker origin story and some scenes (Barbara Gordon, the red hood etc) are considered classic.
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Post by Martin Stett on Nov 20, 2019 22:59:45 GMT
Ugly, mean-spirited, pointless. What was the purpose of the whole thing? I don't get it. It is supposed to be the best Joker origin story and some scenes (Barbara Gordon, the red hood etc) are considered classic. I just found them ugly. The Barbara stuff was sadistic, the red hood stuff was boring, and I don't understand what Joker was going for. The whole story was just an excuse to be gross.
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